Kassadin and his problems, new kit concepts

So i had these thought in my mind for a while and finally decided to write them down and share them.As a lot of you know Kassadin is rather weak at the moment. Which is the result of several nerfs over different patch cycles.Currently he is sitting at the lowest low. In my opinion his kit current kit is not balanceable whatsoever.It's either too strong because of the q poke but then his ulti is really unsatisfying to use or his base damages are cut back then you can rift all around. Also it feels to me his kit does not do what an anti-mage should do.

A.What do AP champions have,what do they do so Kassadin can punish them in some way?

1. AP champions damage output is mostly magic damage
2. AP champs have relatively low base ms(which is not true on some)
3. AP champs favor building AP to deal magic dmg
4. AP champs have long range spells to deal dmg from safety or strong utility to defend themself/support their team
5. AP champs use a lot of mana to cast their spells so they run out of mana if spamming spells(which is not true on some)

B.What does Kassadin't current kit provide that counters some of these?

1. First his Void Stone(passive) reduces incoming magic damage by 15% and allows him to go through units. This is pretty cool but rather dull.It's just there reducing the incoming dmg.No decision making whatsoever. Though it does its job against AP champs.
2. Null Sphere(Q) grants Kassadin a shield that absorbs only magic damage for 1.5 seconds after the orb deals dmg to a target. This allows Kassadin to mitigate harrass when trying to CS or just when the Kassadin player tries to harrass.The shield amount is rather strong lvl1,2 when the enemy champs doesn't have access to all 3 basic spells but becomes weaker compared to the enemy dmg output.Also the 1.5 sec timeframe feels rather short.
3. Nether Blade(W) doesn't do anything that counters AP champs.Rather is grants Kassadin more mana if used on a champ.This could be a way to counter AP champs by not running out of mana though it's a rather indirect way.
4. Forse Push(E) needs 6 spell casts near him to be ready to use.It slows by a nice amount but only for 1 second...This counters somewhat AP champs because it slows them down making it harder them to retaliate.
5. His ulti lets him to reposition which counters skillshots rather nicely but it's a moot point since sidestepping does the same thing...So it does not do anything to counter AP champs.

All in all Kassadin's passive and Q is the only thing that makes him anti-mage.I think this is a problem with his current kit.Now of course putting more things on his spells would make his kit better it would probably reduce counterplay in the process. Something we don't want.Therefore i suggest a mini-rework for him. As he may not need to counter mages directly but rather he needs a functioning kit that really works and fun to play with and against.

Here are some concepts:

1st kit: It's very simple: Riftwalk becomes his W ability with increased cooldown,scaling base dmg,some AP ratio,maybe mana ratio. While his ultimate becomes Nether Blade.

Void Stone(passive): Kassadin takes 15% reduced magic damage and ignores unit collision. No change here. Kassadin's basic attacks deal 20 (+0.1 AP) bonus magic damage on-hit.

This is the passive part of Nether's Blade that is put now on his passive.

Riftwalk(W): This will allow Kassadin to keep the mobility but greatly reduces his roaming potential.

Details: COST: 30/40/50/60/70 mana 70/100/130/160/190 + (0.4 AP). However will deal dmg to enemy units within a 300 range upon arrival instead the current 150.(This is for the synergy with Nether Blade's new range.) Cooldown is 12/11/10/9/8 sec. Cooldown is fully reseted on KILLS and reduced by x% on assissts. Mana restore is 4/5/6/7/8% of his missing mana if it hits an enemy unit and 20/25/30/35/40% if it hits an enemy champion(the same amount as the old nether blade).It's not additive so the percents won't add up.Prioritizes champions.So if you hit a minion and and an enemy champion with lvl1 it will restore only 20% of the missing mana.Hitting more champions won't restore more mana either. The dmg is kept low because of the main purpose of this ability is utility and not dmg!

The purpose of the ability is utility based with a little dmg.Numbers are just there.Could add mana ratio.

New ultimate is Nether Blade(R): Upon activating the ability Kassadin's next basic attack will gain increased magic dmg and range.

Details: COST: 300/500/700 mana. Kassadin's next basic attack in the next 3 seconds will deal an additional 150/250/350 (+0.2.AP) (+2% maximum mana)magic dmg and will have increased range.(150 -> 300 range) Cooldown is 100/90/80 sec.

Nothing too fancy here.This is his new single target assassination tool.While the spell is active Kassadin's blade increases in range so it's more clear visually.

Why so much mana cost on ulti? To restrict his combo rotation somewhat.So the combo would start with R then quick followup with Q,W,E in a combination.So you can gain back a nice amount of mana.Else even if you reset the cd on W you may run out of mana because you started the combo with W and not R. High reward high cost. Of course when you have large mana pool this becomes a less problem.

These changes shift his power into more single target dmg while trying to keep his mobility what defines Kassadin. However the Kassadin player has 3 second only to use his ultimate else his dmg output greatly reduces also he might end up dead because of the badly used riftwalk. So the enemy has a lot of chance to punish but Kassadin has the potential to quickly erase the high priority target and get out alive. Also he doesn't falls flat in laning phase either if played correctly.

While this kit does not add more things that counters AP champs it adds more balance levers and makes it more balancable.Be it mana costs,cooldowns,range on W,etc. The numbers are for illustration.

2nd kit: Kassadin's W becomes riftwalk as in the 1st kit however it now has an added utility: Mana burn Kassadin upon dealing dmg with riftwalk on an enemy champion will burn their x% mana.

His ulti becomes Nether Blade however with changed mechanic: Kassadin draws energy from the void empowering his next basit attack. Activating the spell then holding down the button will gradually increase the damage/mana cost/cooldown of the spell. It would have minimum/max dmg intervals. This spell would allow to last hit,could be used as a harrassing tool and as a finisher.Not using it in the next x seconds the energy slowly dissipates from the sword.So if the Kassadin player screws up he gets punished by losing mana and putting the spell on cooldown.

Other version of this kit would be giving him a completely new ultimate.Enigma's Black hole anybody?... Maybe an ulti which absorbs magic dmg that Kassadin receives in the next seconds then the energy could be released around him in an AoE dealing dmg and doing something. I don't know...

This kit again adds more balance levers but also gives a new utility against AP champs which is mana burn.It can be added on ritwalk because it's kassadin's reposition tool. So the player can decide to use it to harras the enemy champ leaving him suspectible to an incoming gank or use it to escape.

**3rd kit: ** This kit is more about giving more synergy through spell combos aka we unreal tournament now.

Null Sphere(Q): Becomes a skillshot(I know...). Kassadin fires an orb of energy that travels in a line dealing dmg to everything in its path.Maybe deals 50% less dmg to minions. Not sure about the utiltiy here.He may receive a magic shield upon casting.So it doesn't matter if it hits an enemy or not.Maybe silence could be added back if it hits an enemy champion being a skillshot??

Riftwalk(W): As seen in the 1st kit. HOWEVER using Riftwalk on the orb fired by Q spell blows up the orb dealing more damage in a bigger area. Like in UT shooting shock rifle's energy orb then shooting it with the energy beam causing a big explosion.

Force Push(E): Using Force Push on the orb causing it to speed up and travel much faster.Maybe it could travel farther too however it would not give the orb more dmg.

Nether Blade(R): Kassadin draws energy from the void increasing the range on his sword.Doing a one time slash in a cone ahead of him.This slash would either deal dmg to enemy champions burning their mana or it would empower the orb granting it more dmg and some CC if hits an enemy champ.

Again this is just one idea for the ultimate.It could anything new.The base spells are the important changes here. As you can see this kit does not add anything new to counter AP champs(though his ulti could be one) but rather gives both the Kassadin player and the opponent more opportunity to outplay or avoid dmg.Also it would be a fun kit to play with imo. BUT PLEASE RIOT DO NOT GIVE A NEW CHAMP THIS 3rd kit or any iteration of it.It would work the best on Kassadin imo.

These are my kit concepts.The most important are the 3 basic spells in every kit.The ultimate could be anything from above or something completely new.Also the kits could be mixed together however they work the best. Would like to see some of them on PBE and not just on intertal testings.

What are your thoughts?Any idea for a new cool ulti?Add a comment.Whether you dislike or like the concepts doesn't matter.