Plenty of other champions have way more burst than she does. Bird didn't even see any pro play. The mid champions played at worlds remain untouched. Why?
Edit: Guys, I just wanna know why she was the only one changed. I'm not complaining about her lack of counterplay and her role as a mid laner.
Requiemsfire3 votesThing is Anivia already has a fairly weak laning phase pre-6. she can't waveclear and her last hitting is fairly difficult for anyone unfamiliar with the champion. But the thing is, even post 6 she can't kill you with a single rotation, she's immobile and really slow, her cooldowns are fairly high on everything except her ult. But despite all that she doesn't have the kill pressure other mages like Viktor or Cassiopeia have where as they can kill you if they land all their abilities.
After this she's definitely going to need some sort of buff or quality of life change to improve her laning phase because she gets bullied really hard pre-6 as it is.
Sightless661 votesPre-6 is kind of helped by this change though. The wall is on a lower cooldown, the E is on a lower cooldown, and the only thing that actually got nerfed was the ult and the E's interaction with the ult. Pre-6 Anivia is strictly better after this patch.
Requiemsfire1 votesEither way pre-6 anivia is still really weak compared to other mages because most of her power/waveclear came after level 6, her mana costs are still fairly high. Her early burst was more tied to her Q cooldown than her E anyways.
Abyssphere2 votesRiot have always had a vendetta against Anivia's burst combo, you can see that from the mini-rework she got mid-year as well. It was only a matter of time before it left, as Riot have always wanted her to focus on the more controlly aspects of her kit. For Riot, a successful Anivia fight should involve melting people with ult, zoning people with W and doing lots of damage to people she's managed to properly crowd control etc. They don't want her one-shotting people she just managed to come across cos that's not supposed to be her "thing".
It's clearly not intended to be a big nerf overall because there's buffs alongside the nerfs, so it's not unfair or anything in relation to other champions deserving nerfs first. They wanted to make Anivia healthier, not weaker.
P0IS0N IVY2 votesHealthier and weaker tend to go hand in hand when it comes to Riot.
The compensation buffs given are there to make these changes work. Her ER was previously difficult to play against, but I am still confused as to why she was the only one changed.
Abyssphere1 votes"The compensation buffs given are there to make these changes work."
R growing quicker is good for her RE but it's also good for the R as an independent spell. It's more threatening on its own now, which is a natural exchange for its nerfed interaction with E. W is obviously independent of E and just a nice buff to her zone control on the whole.
She's the only one changed because she's the only mage not playing how Riot wants her to. Syndra, for example, is overpowered, but all they need to do is lower her numbers and then she'll go back to being standard Syndra. Who else has a play pattern that Riot has already said they don't like?
P0IS0N IVY1 votesShe's the only one changed because she's the only mage not playing how Riot wants her to.
That was the answer I was looking for, thank you. I thought Riot wanted her as a burst mage alongside everyone else.
Anìvìa1 votesJust recently I actualy heard what riot wanted her to be, and that was in fact. A non bursting control mage. ( The fact that i never did that already means that they failed in that aspect, but now, after 6 years, they want to force it for some reason)
If this is expected of her, though. I think giving her ult the effect that you can not dash/blink ( all in all, move out of it by any other means than walking) out effect is necessary to do this in a viable way for her. This would put her into the role they want her to be. Sadly, that would be just as unhealty as they claim the burst of her e r to be.
Otherwise, most champions nowadays have some sort of mobility ( or something that will stop you from following/atacking them) implemented in their kit.
The fact that a big amount of champions simply can work around her control abilities ( talon jumping her w now is making this even worse) is making her intended role quite weak in most set ups. You simply do not benefit from it as much as you dit with bursting away your enemy. For zoning you have tanks. For damage you have the adc, mage and bruiser. A mage who is only good in zoning is lacking the ability of the mages who can both zone and deal burst damage.
This whole anivia change looks to me like anivia got the full assasin treatment.
I saw posts naming anivia an assasin with her burst. (completly ignoring that most mages do just that. Veigar dealing 1800 dmg with his r literally oneshot me once. I guess that is okay though, since he does not have any crowdcontrol .... stunned)
She is not an assasin. Not with riots definition. She does not have the mobility of that group of champions. She was the only one I believe who got treated like one, though.
P0IS0N IVY1 votesNot sure why Riot decided to treat her as an assassin. She was my favorite champ to play before and the first one I ever picked up. I can't find a reason to pick her anymore mid and that saddens me.
ViiLLAiN1 votes
A Doorknob1 votesif you're going to complain, at least take the time to explain what you're complaining about cause I don't understand what you're crying about. They didn't buff her but they didn't nerf her either...
P0IS0N IVY4 votesJust have to check the patch notes. They nerfed her burst damage while her other mid competitors remain untouched.
Treeofwar1 votesJust have to check the patch notes. They nerfed her burst damage while her other mid competitors remain untouched.
you dont really play anivia and you dont have enough experience with her to give any input on this matter and they didnt touch her burst damage they just made it a bit harder to get out.
P0IS0N IVY2 votesAre you sure I don't play Anivia? Why would I make this thread if I didn't play her?
And yes, that basically means they touched her burst.
A Doorknob1 votesI looked. They reduced her R dmg from .25 to .125 but increased the Empowered dmg from 150% to 300% while decreasing the time it takes to fully form while only allowing her deal double dmg on her E if her R is fully formed but Q remains the same to comboing with her E but as well decreasing E CD by 1. Have you done you're math to actually proved that they reduced her burst or did they simply increase her difficulty to play in some aspects of her while also improving her team play due to reduced CD of her wall as well?
P0IS0N IVY1 votesLemme reword that. They greatly reduced her realistic damage due to the 1.5 sec wait.
Anìvìa1 votesSo, increasing the time artificialy by 1.5 seconds to deal the full dmg, forcing you to wait 1.5 seconds in which your ult will deal dmg, is not touching her burst dmg, which is by definition, the dmg dealt in a very short timewindow? Genuine question. It makes me question my definition of "burst".
Requiemsfire1 votesI play or use to play a fair bit of Anivia and I can tell you very easily that she has become very unreliable.
Treeofwar1 votesI understand the nerf completely and i think you are being a bit harsh on riot for this. Think about it there is nothing you can do as a mid laner if i E then R you its too quick for you to not get hit by a huge chunk of your hp which can be brutal in a fight. So they changed it but its fine because if you look at all the changes there are more buffs then nerfs the W cd is lower, the R gets bigger 2x as quick so clearing waves and getting cs is much faster the ap ratio went down a tiny bit but thats fine. This will now separate the good anivias from the bad because you cant just R E or E R anymore and act like you did something there is not prep and or skill involved in getting the burst off. Take it from me a level 7 anivia guy.
P0IS0N IVY2 votesI play Anivia too.
I'm not complaining about her lack of damage or counterplay.
I'm asking why she was targeted when there are other problematic champs 
that exist.
Additionally, you will rarely get to use E to its full potential now. A good player will not sit in your ult for 1.5 sec. Nor will they tend to get hit by the slowest skillshot in the game.
Treeofwar1 votesI play Anivia too.
I'm not complaining about her lack of damage or counterplay.
I'm asking why she was targeted when there are other problematic champs
Additionally, you will rarely get to use E to its full potential now. A good player will not sit in your ult for 1.5 sec. Nor will they tend to get hit by the slowest skillshot in the game.
you have 6k mastery on her that means you dont play her that much. Also froggen does not have a hard time hitting his Qs meaning that if he can hit them on high level players its not impossible just means you have to get good at it. They nerfed anivia because the burst was to easy to get out on a constant basis like walk up press E then R right under them like WTF no counter play at all just running away is not counter play. You cant dodge the E and if they place the R right under you unless you QSS you are taking the huge damage.
P0IS0N IVY2 votesThe mastery system came out way after league came out....
I dunno if you should use Froggen as comparison to every other player. That's like comparing every mid laner to faker and saying that he hits everything very easily.
I never disagreed over the fact that the ER was unhealthy, but there are other ways to fix it.
Again, I wanted to know why she was changed instead of alongside the rest of the burst champs that have been played more lately.
Big Lincoln1 votesher burst is just delayed now, as it should be because RE was terrible for all parties involved. idk why you're crying; now that anivia isn't a cheese pick, they can set to buffing other things about her kit.
now we just have to get 's spells put on delays and we're all set
Anìvìa1 votesA burstmage with set in delays is no longer, by definition, a burst mage. Is he? Looks to me like they would become assasins without mobility. (Why would you pick the burst mage now, if the assasin is doing the same with mobility?)
Big Lincoln1 votesgiven that riot wants to push her as a control mage, it seems plenty justifiable that her burst is conditional
Why would you pick the burst mage now, if the assasin is doing the same with mobility?
because burst mages have utility on top of their burst and assassins don't. they've traditionally been much stronger picks than any assassin. for an example.
Anìvìa1 votesIndeed, those champions have this utility packed with the burst, but lack mobility. Anivia probably no longer has this burst available to her in the timeframe necessary to actualy make it count as burst.
Assasins had mobility + high dmg output. Burst Mages have utility plus burstdmg. Anivia had burst dmg and utility.
Now she has utility with very conditional burst. (Good placed ult, with well used wall, with well placed q, enemy did not flash/dash/jump/dodged it in the time of 1.5 seconds, target still chilled/stunned when e hits, not too early used e)
The 8 sec cd decrease on her wall is not giving more utility. it is giving it to her more frequent.
Or simply put, why would you pick her over another mage, who is capable to do the equal zoning and farming/pushing while having less conditions(making it easier to do so) to deal the same damage?
Also, if assasins would have such a huge disadvantage to mages, why did they get picked so often? Right now at least 3 bans are used for the reworked assasins. Prior to the changes they had less bans, but they have been banned and picked just as often.
Makharya1 votesShe is not wanted as a burst mage unlike other.
Anìvìa1 votesRiot did not want her to be a burstmage, while most of her mains did play her as one as far as I can tell. They left her be for 6 Years, why change her now?
It's not like she suddenly became one after being a control mage most of her existence.
She has always been this way. I think she was designed this way tbh. To me it looks like new rioters are now leading the team and got their own idea of her. That would be my explanation to the "why now" at least.
WalkingInACircle1 votesSome Rioter got owned in lane, clearly.
Calabok1 votesBird Brain is supposed to be a control mage not a burst mage so they're making it so.
Treeofwar1 votesi take back what i said anivia is not really bad like anyone with mobility beats her so much harder now. so unfair with the new assassin rework