Fizz too strong now?
Hi, first things first this isn't a rant I'm here just to ask for your knowledge and opinion on Fizz
after the latest patch (6.22).
From my own personal experience, before patch 6.22, I rarely saw Fizz being played in most Blind/Draft pick games but I did notice a lot of players had him in their roster to use in ARAM hence why I saw him there more often. In ARAM he's a solid champion to use much like other champions who finally get some of the spotlight in that gamemode. After the patch which saw him get a little buff/rework I'm seeing him more often (though I wouldn't say EVERY game of course) but I noticed some kind of spike in his performance. Being an assassin he's apparently a 'burst' champion, able to do a lot of damage with a good combo in very little time on his target, much like other champions, which I can understand but what I'm saying here is that whenever now I see Fizz players getting positive K/D ratios as high as 22/4/13 for example in almost every game I play against them then the first thing that comes to my mind is that something might be wrong...
The patch notes can be seen here on Riot's official website --> http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-622-notes#patch-assassin-updates
I won't copy/paste the whole thing here because it will make the thread too big but here are a few extracts from his patch notes which I find a bit suspicious.
'Passively, Fizz’s basic attacks cause his enemies to bleed for magic damage. When activated, Fizz’s next basic attack deals magic damage, increased by 300% if the target has bled for at least 2 seconds.'
Err... 300%? That looks like a very big number even for a basic attack...
'In addition to basic attacks, Seastone Trident’s passive is also applied onto enemies Fizz dashes through during Urchin Strike and any enemies affected by Chum the Waters'
You mean the 300% damage bonus can be applied on many enemies at once? Combined with the already strong damage of 'Chum the Waters' you're telling me he has a chance to get a pentakill in one combo? (Don't get me wrong, I highly doubt that he can do that with ease but it does sound like a LOT of damage on many champions at once, correct me if I'm wrong)
'If Seastone Trident’s active kills a unit, 20/28/36/42/50 mana is refunded and its cooldown is set to 1 second'
So he can use this high damage ability I've described before again almost immediately if he gets a kill on a champion or a minion.
Looking at what the patch notes write about his ultimate I get the following impression: Chum the Waters is a high damage ultimate ability which can mow down a champion to almost if not less than half of his health, knocking him over, slowing him and essentially making him near defenseless in the face of the rest of his attacks to follow. Most ultimate high damage abilities I'm aware of deal high damage but are mostly meant to be finishing abilities like Darius's
Noxian Guillotine. This ability though, can be used with comfort to take down a full health champion (provided that Fizz is able to perform the rest of the combo and provided that the enemy champion dodges it which isn't really the easiest thing to do since it's mostly used in close range).
To sum it all up looking at the patch notes I mostly notice damage increases, mana cost reductions and cooldown reductions on all of his abilities (though on some parts there have been a few nerfs, hence this being a 'rework' apparently). Weighing up the whole thing my judgement tells me this was mostly a big buff on the champion which might explain why he's being used more often but looking at the numbers and the nature of the abilities I'm feeling intimidated. It all sounds way too strong and my experiences with (at least skillful) Fizz players seem to reflect this.
Of course he's not invincible and there are definitely reliable counters to him and it could just be that it happened that I ran onto some Fizz mains in those games but my overall thoughts are that his buffs were too strong. I can understand that he might be a hard champion to play as but I'm not sure he's balanced in his current state.
What do you think about Fizz after the patch? Do you think his buffs were too strong? Care to enlighten me where I'm wrong. I'm here to learn :)
ultimate. Chum the Waters shouldn't be a high damage ability which can provide you with a very strong burst to just absolutely overpower your lane opponent. I think I might ask Riot about this matter (not that it would amount to anything but at least I'll get an idea of what mentality these guys work with in tweaking/rebalancing champions).