@Riot: A History of Kha'Zix Balance Changes (What happened?)

Few champions have been reworked so often and to such a degree as Kha'Zix. As for the ones that are? They're all front page news. Before any change goes live, they've been subject to sometimes over a month of feedback and discussion. So why, for nearly six years, has Kha'Zix been reworked so casually? To add to that, why have these changes been so drastic, and why have changes intended to be band-aid fixes while larger scale reworks were created been allowed to stay in place for three or more years in some cases?

When the news about Akali was let out, beyond all the "mobility creep" controversy, one thing stood out; she looks incredibly fluid to play. So, now's as good a time as any to talk about a champion that isn't so fluid and really should be. I'd like us to take a look back at Kha'Zix's balance history while we try and figure out just what in God's name has been done to this champion and why he now, regardless of potential strength, feels so atrocious to play.

Allow me to preface this by saying that I'm not claiming to be some Challenger Kha'Zix player. I'm not here to argue over whether Kha'Zix is too weak and needs buffs or any of that. I am, however, one of the most experienced and devoted Kha'Zix players in the world, having played him religiously since release and never taken a break. Pretentiousness aside, I do believe that my six years with the champion at least entitle me to an opinion.

What is that opinion?

Kha'Zix feels like trash to play and his patch history is just depressing.

Sure, not everyone is going to agree with that. However, I struggle to believe that anyone could have played Kha'Zix through all of his numerous, playstyle changing reworks, take a look at current Kha'Zix and say "Yes. This captures the spirit of the champion and feels amazing to play."

Throughout this breakdown, I'm going to be referencing changes listed on the League of Legends Wikia. If you'd like to follow along with that or just skip my explanation and get right to the point (honestly, the change log speaks for itself), here it is: Patch History

Now then, time for a history lesson.

Kha'Zix was released on September 27th, 2012 right around the end of Season 2. At face value, Kha'Zix's abilities would seem to have been more or less what they are today at their core. This is where a lot of the confusion comes from. While 2012's version of the champion had the same five abilities, they couldn't have been more different. For the simplicity's sake, we'll refer to this Kha'Zix as Kha'Zix (2012).

Kha'Zix (2012)

Passive: Largely the same. The slow was 10% heavier but it scaled with AP.

Q: Taste Their Fear was slightly weaker with isolation but significantly more powerful without it than the live version. However, when Taste Their Fear was evolved, instead of cooldown reduction, it gained a 12% missing health execute (capped at 200 against monsters), making it far more powerful than the live iteration. The mana cost was higher (by 5) and the cooldown was a set 2.5 seconds.

W: Lower damage, lower AD scale, higher mana cost. However, the original Evolved Void Spike procced Unseen Threat, making it a far more effective ability for harassing. Additionally, Void Spike could be fire during Leap.

E: Original unevolved Leap had a slightly lower range but an 80% bonus AD scale. Evolved Leap had its current range.

R: Slightly shorter duration per cast (1 second as opposed to the current 1.25) but only had a 1 second limiter between casts. Evolved Void Assault could be cast three times, like live, however, it granted 40% damage reduction in stealth.

Newer players have a hard time imagining Kha'Zix as a mid laner, but that's where he shined during this season and until his first rework. Kha'Zix would bully other mid laners by maxing his Void Spike, rushing Manamune, and using it to proc his passive on them over and over. Once he was ahead, he would roam the map, leaping and casting Void Spike in the air to run down enemies and assassinate them. This, in my opinion, is the strongest Kha'Zix ever was. For the time, it was oppressive. In response, Riot made one of their first big pushes for clarity and removed the ability to cast Void Spike during Leap, because the projectile being fired off of the ground combined with the game's 2D/3D style meant that it could be difficult to judge where exactly you needed to move to dodge the spikes.

This was also Kha'Zix's first major fluidity nerf. Yes, it was the logical response, as there was no other clear solution at the time. However, the game and its visuals have progressed far beyond this point in 2018. There is absolutely no reason that Kha'Zix shouldn't be able to fire his W in the air, as there is absolutely no reason a proper visual can't be created with today's tech. Kha'Zix being able to cast everything during Leap (even Leap) except Void Spike just feels terrible and unnecessary at this point. To add to this, sure, W proccing Unseen Threat was too oppressive at the time, but damage creep is absolutely real. Brand, Taliyah, Karma, Lux, Zed, and countless others have just as obscene lane harass and that's just the standard now. Maybe this is too far gone to bring back, but it wouldn't be out of place in the current game. Maybe it's too old, obsolete, and unbalanced, but then, Fiddlesticks' fear and Morgana's bind still exist.

One of the reasons the many (at the time valid) reasons aside from straight balance that was given for these nerfs was that this playstyle wasn't in the spirit of Kha'Zix. As a champion, Kha'Zix was supposed to use his stealth to close in for the kill on an isolated target and destroy them as opposed to staying far away and beating them down with oppressive skillshots. As such, Kha'Zix received some buffs to the standard assassin playstyle in response.

Kha'Zix (2013)

Passive: Same as 2012 but with the live slow value. This change was actually enacted prior to the rest in a small patch.

Q: Reworked. Isolation now increased damage by 45%. Evolved Claws added an additional 8% missing health damage, but this was further increased by isolation.

W: Reworked. Unevolved W now applied a 20% slow. Mana cost reduced to live values and bonus AD ratio raised. As Evolved Void Spikes no longer procced passive, they now only applied the base 20% slow.

E: Nothing changed.

R: Evolved damage reduction increased to 50% from 40%.

This Kha'Zix that we see in 2013 is more recognizable, but was a more standard assassin due to his execute on Q and the addition of his Leap damage. The changed pushed most Kha'Zix players out of mid lane and into the jungle. A small amount would move into top lane to take advantage of the missing health damage against tankier opponents while a smaller still fraction of the most diehard mid laners would stay the course, often abusing (the frequently abused) Spirit of the Elder Lizard to lay down a consistent true damage burn over a wide area. At some point during this iteration of Kha'Zix's lifespan, Ravenous Hydra would catch on and most Kha'Zix players would move into the jungle to take advantage of its powerful clear capabilities. Items like Black Cleaver also complimented Void Assault well, as health is a powerful ally of damage reduction in place of standard defensive stats. This Kha'Zix was a fair top laner and a powerful jungler. Over all, just a solid, if somewhat too powerful, assassin.

Between 2013 Kha'Zix and the next rework there is a Dominion (RIP) specific isolation nerf and a buff to Evolved Void Spikes that increased the slow by 10% (as there wasn't much of a reason to evolve it anymore for most players). Enter 2014 Kha'Zix.

Kha'Zix ( February 2014)

Passive: Nothing changed.

Q: Taste Their Fear's percent missing HP damage was nerfed by 2%. The maximum damage to monsters was also dropped to 100.

W: Nothing changed.

E: Bonus AD ratio dropped from 80% to the current 20%.

R: Stealth increased by one second per cast for Evolved Void Assault.

In the wake of Kha'Zix's 2013 success, the strange decision was made to shift power off of his Q and onto his R. This effectively doubled his time in damage reduction (remember, 50%) from 3 seconds to 6. As stated earlier, HP is damage reduction's best friend. Predictably, players took advantage of this and the mainstream Kha'Zix saw a shift from assassin builds to bruiser builds (which had started to gain a following in 2013), as his high AD scaling and percent missing health damage allowed him to sacrifice AD for the HP that would make him unkillable will combined with Evolved Void Assault. This was the first great hit to Kha'Zix's identity as a champion, as he was less about one shotting like a true assassin by taking advantage of Isolation (his core, unique feature) and more about laying down a large amount of damage while staying alive with damage reduction, similar to current Warwick in some ways. Some of the Kha'Zix builds that originated from 2014 could be seen as spiritual successors to the later introduced concept or Juggernauts as a defined class.

The change to Leap seemed negligible at the time, but in retrospect, the reason that "Kha'Zix already had enough burst and Leap is already useful enough" is almost insulting, as there have been a dozen champions since that could have entire functions removed from their kits and replaced with nothing and still be viable in the current climate. Yasuo could survive without his crit chance passive. Kai'Sa would still see play without her shield. Azir's HP scale on his dash didn't even work but was still there for God knows how long before it got taken away (finally). These extra functions are all over the place and, quite frankly, burst on an assassin (who, mind you, would be voiding a massive amount of escape mobility to deal damage before evolving E) isn't out of place or unnecessary.

Surprise surprise, giving a champion meant to be an assassin 6 seconds of damage reduction isn't a great idea. Before the next rework, Kha'Zix's Evolved R will lose its damage reduction to towers and he'll gain 4 base armour as compensation. Flash will also no longer break stealth (an issue that wasn't prevalent before as stealth only lasted one second).

Just two patched before the next rework, Kha'Zix would be hit with another great nerf to his fluidity. Now, Void Assault could only be recast every two seconds, up from one. This was a band-aid fix created out of the urgent need for a response to bruiser/Juggernaut Kha'Zix and his 6 seconds of 50% damage reduction. Now, that's not an issue. It as a different time and hotfixes weren't as common, so this slipping into a regular patch while major Kha'Zix changed were in the works was pretty normal. Especially as it was supposed to be a temporary fix.

Another questionable nerf that came in response to Kha'Zix's wonderful 6 seconds of damage reduction was that done to Isolation during the same patch as the fluidity nerf. The radius around an enemy that had to be devoid of allies for them to be considered "isolated" went up from 350 to 500 units. This was because bruiser Kha'Zix employed rush down tactics, using his damage reduction to blitz teamfights and capitalize on brief occurrences of isolation in the chaos. With these silly, clunky nerfs coming left and right and Kha'Zix players building tankier and tankier, the rework couldn't come fast enough.

Just before the rework, a Leap cooldown bug was fixed and Leap's cooldown was lowered by two seconds at all levels as well.

Kha'Zix (June 2014)

Passive: Unchanged.

Q: Base damage with and without isolation for unevolved Q destroyed. Evolved Q reworked substantially. Now dealt 10-180 bonus damage based on level plus an additional 104% bonus AD when evolved. It's important to note that the level scale was tied to the Evolution and totally independent of the base damage.

W: Now dealt 20% bonus damage to monsters (removed a few patches ago relative to live). Evolved slow up to 50% and grants vision of tagged enemies for 2 seconds.

E: Nothing.

R: Damage reduction removed.

Perhaps with the exception of the loss of his execute, this was the closest thing to the "spirit" of Kha'Zix that Riot first referenced when destroying his mid lane harass playstyle. He was entirely reliant on his getting his Q off in isolation, and when he did, the target died. That's tough for the person on the receiving end, but here's the thing...

Assassins assassinate. Riot often talks about how they balance around high levels of play, because those players are the best indicators of the actual state of champions. Fair enough, but if that's the case, why was Kha'Zix's Q nerfed atter this point? Isolation, especially after the mid 2014 nerf was entirely the fault of the target. Why was Kha'Zix balanced later on based on low levels of play? We don't see Yasuo beaten into the ground because Riot realizes that he tends to do worse in higher tiers of play. Why didn't Kha'Zix receive that same luxury? One can't help but think it has something to do with deleting someone who misplayed in one second not being as flashy as dashing around 400 times and cutting down an entire team because they misplayed. Just like more skilled players realized that Lee Sin falls off late game, skilled players realized that Kha'Zix does absolutely no damage outside of isolation (thanks to those lovely base Q and E nerfs combined with the now ancient W nerf).

So what did he get in response to being too strong when people didn't play against him properly? A bruiser rework. Let's not screw around here, because that's what it was. The idea that cooldown reduction should even be relevant to the power of an assassin who relies on capitalizing on poor enemy positioning is completely foolish, especially nowadays when everyone has 20 shield and gap closers.

Kha'Zix went from using the enemies' poor choices against them (something entirely in enemy hands) and assassinating them to having to catch them in an isolated Q to refund cooldown time, then wait out the rest in stealth and hope they're still isolated to finish the job. Now that is not in the spirit of the champion. Isolation and cooldown reduction don't mix. Isolation and damage do.

I skipped a ton of smaller changes between 2015 and the present day since more people are going to be familiar with them and they weren't as major, anyway. I also skipped a disgusting fad from 2015 created from an overloaded W buff that doesn't even deserve to be mentioned (ganking just to hit someone with a 90% slow and watch your laner knock their head off isn't Kha'Zix, that's just the Janna of the Jungle).

Really this just comes back to playstyle, fluidity, and obsolete band-aid fixes. We can slim this down to a few points.

1.) Current tech would allow for appropriate Leap + Void Spike visuals and there's no reason for Void Spike to be locked out of Leap cast anymore.

2.) Void Spike proccing passive was oppressive, but wouldn't be that far from the norm in the current day.

3.) Leap's damage being gutted didn't make a terrible amount of sense to begin with and probably would be fine today.

4.) The two second delay between R casts was a band-aid fix never intended to be permanent. Why it's still in the game with Kha'Zix's damage reduction long gone is beyond me.

5.) The nerf to isolation radius was in response to abusive bruiser/tank builds and damage reduction (and later kept because Taste Their Fear had incredible high damage). Totally unnecessary in today's game.

6.) Executes are apparently fine on high burst assassins in 2018 seeing as Akali is being released with one. Is it that out of left field to ask for it back on Kha'Zix?

7.) All of these issues combined make Kha'Zix feel like a clunky piece of trash to play. If you didn't get to play the original, then you really missed out. At the very least, Kha'Zix needs to feel as smooth to play as he used to. At most, he could benefit from having a few old ability mechanics dusted off and worked back into his kit.

Thanks for getting through all of this, if you managed to. It's a lot to go over, for sure. So what are your opinions? What would you like to see changed, if anything at all? I'd like to hear some other points of view on this, as well.