Riot, what have you been bouncing around for Veigar?
I 100% realize that answers could range from "completely changed every aspect of his kit" to "changed nothing", but I'm curious what's been tried, what looks promising and what didn't work out.
My personal brainstorming of what might be cooking stems from what Veigar used DFG for:
- Early/Mid game, he used it to kill enemies with ~20% less AP than would otherwise be needed.
- Late game it basically served to turn his Q into a second ultimate.
While Veigar's Late game won't be hurt as much by DFG's removal, Early/Mid game he's short a considerable amount of AP. The quick fix seems to be make it easier for Veigar to farm with his Q, either by lowering the cooldown, reducing the mana cost, or giving it some sort of refund on killing a unit.
But, seeing as the Quick Fix hasn't been seen outside of Riot's office, there's something more at play.
Taking another look at Veigar's kit, "counterplay" really isn't it's strongest feature. A good Veigar will always land his stun on you, then kill you with his choice of spells. While there are options if Veigar misses the stun, or if he's used it already in the teamfight, there aren't too many options for a 1v1. I suspect that if any one part of his kit required a rework for the sake of counterplay, it would be his E.
This has cascading issues, since being able to land the stun every time was the skills that a good Veigar needed to have. Changing the "you land this odd shaped skill on an enemy, you get to combo them" aspect is going to feel like a bad change for all those who had mastered it, in a similar way that changing Alistar's Headbutt+Pulverize combo would feel bad to all who have mastered that. Additionally, the only way for Veigar to land his W is if his target is stunned, as every other situation where it hits is more about his opponents not dodging.
His ultimate also has its signature "I kill you with your own AP" aspect, which can really hurt some champions (What do you mean you don't want to play AD LeBlanc? It'll be fun!). Targeted nukes are usually only fun for the person casting them.
So... yeah. Curious what some of the changes you've bounced around have been.