Let's not get ahead of ourselves

Whenever there's a change to any champion, people are bound to respond. But I think before people decide their favorite champion is ruined they should wait and see how the changes actually affect their champion, and how other changes the game is seeing affect.

And yes I'm talking about Kassadin and all the Kassadin threads because that's what's happening at the moment, but this applies to every change to any champion.

First of all lets look at the changes:

-Huge range nerf on ulti -Lowered mana cost on ulti

Kass being able to ult more frequently is actually a stronger buff than it looks, because the damage stacks with each successive ult. It's not really compensation for gutting his ult on it's own, but this isn't the only change for Kassadin this PBE patch has brought.

There are two new items perfect for a mobile mage with mana scaling. Luden's Echo we already kind of know the values of, 120 AP and 7% movement speed with a statikk shiv-like passive on it. This item would be immensely strong on Kassadin with his old range. Xypherous said that each spell cast int he first iteration of the item would give 20 stacks, and movement would give stacks slightly less than shiv's. With the damage doing 100 (+ 15%) AP, this item is a nice mini burst item.

Let's say Echo generates 4 stacks per 100 units moved which is 1 less than shiv. With a 700 range ult Kassadin would be able to generate what, 48 stacks? to trigger this shiv kass could start from 0 then ult and combo you and it'd be procced. That's a little ridiculous especially with the next new item...

"Mana Item". An item that grants AP, mana and CDR. This item screams kassadin since it's like a more offensive tear. With Kassadin being a mage who enjoys building mana and has mana scaling, as well as a new item that does damage based on spending mana this could be incredibly strong on him. Especially when he can combo an active that deals damage and gives him back mana with Echo's passive and his normal burstiness.

With these new items being potentially awesome additions to his build path it makes sense he'd receive some sort of nerfs. If anything all of these changes just mean he'll scale harder into lategame. I don't know if these items and his changes will be resulting buffs or nerfs. I just see it as being a slight change in how you play Kass, sacrificing a bit of early power for late game dominance.

But we don't know yet. So let's all take a deep breath and see how things play out.

ALSO PBE changes are POTENTIAL changes. They've pulled balance changes time and again - they haven't made their way onto live yet.