Odd changes that might save several crippled champions

The Ecdysiast··2 votes·299 views

I have some suggestions that aren't just straight damage-to-champions buffs.

Azir 134th Kassadin 132nd Nidalee 133rd Ryze 139th (last)

Azir Give back his damage to turrets. He had a lot of his strengths removed concurrently, and then the somewhat recent changes. It's obvious that giving back his Q damage or AS doubling would simply be a damage buff, but returning his soldier damage to turrets still leaves every one of his intended weaknesses.

Kassadin Change his magic shield to a regular one. Aside from the obvious implication that this would allow him some defense against AD and ignite, it simply makes sense for his theme. When he was released, all Void champions were magic. And now it's about 50/50. How do you expect him to stop the Void if they can just use Kha'zix?

Nidalee Make her spear throw's damage the same along its entire path, increase its speed. Having to rely on her Q to both deal most of her damage and allow her to reach the enemy is difficult considering how slow the projectile moves. By making it a little easier to land a well-aimed spear, her opportunities would increase without increasing her damage.

Ryze Rework him again. (lol, sorry, I had to make the joke). No, instead of that, halve the radius of his ultimate, require someone be standing in it at the start of the ability to be allowed passage with him, and give back some damage. This is the only one I think should get a damage increase, but at the cost of a nerf to his biggest strength.

Instead of just plain damage buffs, which would simply make these champions too powerful (see current Nunu for a horrible example of a champion simply getting damage buffs), I hope these suggestions are reasonable enough to consider as options.

9 Comments

Geargrinder3 votes

Azir and Ryze crippled? LOLOLOL. I like your proposed change for Kassadin's shield. I don't like your Nidalee change, but got no rational arguments for that.

The Ecdysiast1 votes

Well, yeah. Because the pros abused him, Ryze was nerfed to the point he's currently in the bottom 10. You may feel that he's strong as a lane bully at top, but that's only because he's ranged.

Azir's in the same boat. He may be fine against those assassins who are not champions until level 6, but most others can handle him, leading to a decrease in performance.

SB Arneeman1 votes

These champions are not struggling.

The Ecdysiast1 votes

Azir 134th Kassadin 132nd Nidalee 133rd Ryze 139th

Not sure what personal vendetta you have against them, but they are indeed struggling.

SB Arneeman1 votes

Winrate is not a perfect indicator for champion strength. Azir is powerful and pretty much 100% pick/ban in pro play. Ryze is also strong in pro play even though his ult is difficult to utilize in soloq making his winrate a lot lower. Kassadin is also strong, he's seen as a top tier pick in high elo. Nidalee may be a bit weak, I don't play jungle so I don't really know about that one. Overall I don't think your changes will do good for balance at all. Azir already deals solid damage to turrets with attack speed+nashors. Kassadin is supposed to be an anti-mage, not counter everyone. The change to Nidalee is especially bad, you remove her counterplay and allow her to just oneshot from melee. To balance Ryze for both pro play and soloq they would have to completely rework his R.

The Ecdysiast1 votes

Pro play is not an indicator for champion strength either. It doesn't mean jack shit what the top 0.0001% can do when the champions aren't performing for anyone below master.

Ryze is only strong in pro play because it's pro play. Like Shen and Twisted Fate, his ultimate is especially easy to abuse for them, but for no one else.

What you said about Kass is... just incorrect. Not sure what source you're using.

Nidalee, I didn't suggest giving her more melee damage at all. I don't know how you took a change to her spear as a buff to her melee. She'd still have to land the spear. And since you don't know, she's been struggling for several years because she was strong in 3 different rolls for the better have of one season.

As for Azir, his damage to turrets is even weak compared to other mages, since he buys less AP. I don't know if you played when he was released, but they switched his E from being able to activate on turrets to sacrifice a soldier and deal an amount of damage, to almost the exact opposite of drastically reducing their duration near a turret.

SB Arneeman1 votes

Pro play is the champions played at the highest possible level. If a champions is played in pro games and not just for their utility skills, that just means they're strong.

Kass probably got hit by the recent minion aggro change, but the shield change would make him too strong. One of the ways to counterplay is to auto harass instead of using skill when he Qs.

Hitting spear is obviously a lot easier in close range, so this would increase her burst strength a lot without hitting a spear first. She could go into melee, then spear your face and burst. It's fine that she's rewarded for hitting max range and it's smarter to buff her somewhere else.

Please don't try to discuss Azir, I main him and truly know how this works. All mage autos deal 50% AP dmg to turrets passively. Azir gets pretty much double the attack speed of other midlaners with 50% from Nashors and +120% from 3 solder W. So he deals quite a bit higher dmg even with slightly lower AP. They should rather nerf his E cooldown to make him easier to punish.

The Ecdysiast1 votes

and not just for their utility skills

Ryze is abused in professional play solely for his utility skill, same as Twisted Fate and Shen.

Kass did get hit by that, but that's not why he's struggling. He was hit back when he was 98%, and shoved so far into the ground that he wasn't even allowed in either the mage or assassin rework.

The change for Nidalee would only do as you're saying if her leap had the range it does when you land a Q, without landing it. But the situation wherein she changes her playstyle to just walking up to enemies she has no way of locking down is unrealistic.

Did you main Azir when he was strong? I can only assume not, since you have no complaint about how much he was nerfed. And as a result of those nerfs, the performance of some of the top Azir mains is very poor relative to other champions that are high skillcap.

SB Arneeman1 votes

I've said that Ryze needs a change to be balanced for both competitive and soloq.

Kassadin is honestly fine right now. Presence of mind allows him to spam ults and he has a better laning phase than most melees.

I'm just saying that this change would reduce Nidalees skill expression and make melees unable to duel her when she's ahead which is not really a good way to balance.

Azir deserved some nerfs tbh, he was too strong after the rework in late season 7. Latest nerf is probably too much, but turret damage won't help his soloq winrate much. I didn't play him pre-rework since I mained Viktor, the other dominant mid, at his strongest point and later Azir was overnerfed so it was no reason to pick him up. I started to main him after the rework and now have almost 200k mastery.

Some champions are more complex than others and this will lead to lower winrate overall since inexperienced players will fail. I agree that these champions need changes to be balanced for both soloq and pro play but I don't agree that the changes you've mentioned will do it.

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