Thoughts on older champions and spell casting times
I've been playing for many years now and love many of the older champions. One thing that I've never fully understood is why some champions are given wonderfully smooth/fluid skill animations and casting times (e.g. Vladimir, Fizz, Yasuo) while others are given spellcasts that feel intentionally clunky (this is rarely found in newer champs).
In my experience, I went from playing Fizz almost exclusively a few seasons back (before Mastery was introduced, even), to now playing a TROUBLESOME amount of Heimerdinger.
Heimerdinger stops moving when he places a turret or casts his R-empowered spells. He also has relatively broad windows while dropping a turret where he cannot cast another spell (or queue it up). This can result in being frustrated that the champion didn't "do what you wanted them to" in the heat of the moment. A great example is trying to R+W an enemy that Heimer is chasing that is just on the edge of range. Heimer stops moving for a moment to cast the spell, which really stands out in this context.
Fizz, by contrast, has his passive which helps his gamefeel tremendously, but moreso than that a Fizz player is never punished with a lockout for casting their own spells. All of his spells go off while he is moving without impeding him, and his Q+W can be cast simultaneously.
I recognize that good players account for such casting times and animations, or learn how to animation cancel where appropriate. This thread is not a 'buff Heimerdinger' complaint thread, but an attempt to get insight into why such mechanics are used. I LOVE seeing quality of life updates for older champions that introduce mechanics that are expected of newer champs. Good examples of this are Mundo and Malphite getting an aa reset on their E and W respectively.
So why do so many older champs, often but not always mages, have long spell cast-times, lockouts, animations, etc, while newer champs don't have these and, accordingly, feel more responsive? Isn't there a cleaner way to balance around spell abilities than locking someone down for a moment? I think this also affects the sense of mobility creep, because not only does a champ like Lux not have dashes, but she also has to stop moving to use her Q.