Buff Veigar? - The state of Veigar Patch 5.17

Hello League forums! This post is long, if you'd rather listen to me rambling about the same topic, there should be one linked. With that out of the way, let's begin.

So Veigar is getting buffed next patch, but I don't think he necessarely needs any buffs. I personally think Veigar is in a pretty decent spot at the moment, and I've had good success with him since the last few changes. Most people I've spoken to also agree that he is pretty healthy at the moment, perhaps with the exclusion of his stun delay.

Riot is once again adding some power to Veigar, and while the patch has not yet been released so I cannot evaluate what I personally think of the buffs, I do think they will help Veigar in doing what he's currently good at even more. Veigar's power has shifted more towards poking, zoning and then bursting people you catch as more of an afterthought, rather than being the core focus. He has gotten nerfs to his overall singletarget burst; (DFG removal, Ult scaling nerf), but he has recieved more power in dealing with several opponents at once; (Q hitting two champions, E having longer range.) To burst someone 1v1 has become harder, but to deal damage to several enemies in a teamfight has become easier. (Well in terms of damaging abilities anyway, his stun is far more difficult to use than before.)

The Q passive change granting AP on assists should reward Veigar more for stunning several champions, even if he does not claim the kills himself. He will also be rewarded for simply grazing enemies with his Q or W, even if he lacks the damage to finish them off. The W change should make it easier to combo enemies whom you catch, especially mobile enemies, and will most likely bring back a little power into Veigar's 1v1 potential.

Now as I previously stated, I don't think Veigar really needs any buffs at the moment, but if he actually does I believe there are other interesting topics to be discussed.

One fellow Veigar main suggested removing the "Enemy AP Scaling" from Veigar's ult in favour of buffing up his own AP Scaling on that same ability. While this would overall make Veigar a stronger champion in most circumstances and give him a more even footing against some of his main counters like Zed and Talon, I personally disagree with the idea. To me, Veigar has always been an Anti-mage and a Burst-mage, not either or, but both combined. While he may not be as much of an anti-mage as he once was back when his passive stole AP from enemies, he has still retained some of that identity in his ulti passive and I think it is something unique to be valued. Removing it to make him stronger against his counters isn't the right way of doing things to me. I love the way it let's you come back from a lost lane, and potentially turn a whole game around. I also believe that AD champions, and AD assassins especially should be core counters to Veigar. The mere fact that Veigar's ult lets him burst mages so hard tends to mean that people will counterpick with an AD midlaner if they see Veigar picked. This can also be used for mindgames in champion select as you can pick Veigar to force the enemy into getting an AD mid, and if they were already lacking magic damage to begin with you forced them down a path that lacks lategame strength. You could also trick the enemy by picking Veigar and then going some other role than mid, Veigar top works pretty well against melee tanks actually. So without going too insane on the rambling, I value counterpicks, mindgames and the idea that every game is unique and every matchup should feel different, therefore I dissagree with this suggested change.

Instead, I have my own suggestion. Veigar's rework and subsequent buffs came as an answer to their previous actions. They changed Veigar, to compensate him, after the removal of DFG (An item that they themselves, for the most part at least, seem to have considered core on Veigar since they wanted to buff him after removing it.)

So I ask you this, if Veigar really needs a buff, and if what people truly want is for him to burst harder again... why not bring back Deathfire Grasp?

My suggestion is that Riot could try reworking Veigar's passive, which is something they have changed on him previously, into something more interactive, fun and fitting of the burstiest of burst mages. Instead of a passive that makes it easier to passively Q farm and build up your strength so that you can later burst people, I think it would be a lot more interesting if Veigar was given that additional power through different means. I would like to see Veigar's passive turned into something similar to Viktor's passive, only instead of Viktor's unique item, Veigar would get exclusive rights to purchase DFG.

I mean, if Riot wanted to compensate Veigar for removing DFG, this must mean that they did not dissaprove of Veigar using it. The reason they removed it must have been because of other champions who could abuse the item to toxic levels, champions who it wasn't necessarely designed for in the first place.

But it is a perfect fit for Veigar, and many would argue that it was a core item on him. It let him burst just that extra bit harder while also providing the cooldown reduction to Q farm some more. It provided more decision making and interesting scenarios. If you stunned 3 people, you could either focus all your burst on one enemy and make sure they died, or spread your burst out and hope that you'd get them all. Now that his Q can hit multiple targets and DFG is no longer a thing, this isn't really a thing anymore, the only thing you need to decide is who to ulti. But in bringing back DFG as Veigar's new passive, there would be more incentive in asking yourself "How do I want to use my abilities, who do I want to burst the hardest and why?"

I think Riot should still be careful in bringing back DFG, if they would, in this form. My idea would be to change the active, doom, to only amplify Veigar's own magic damage instead of your entire team's. This sort of makes sense if it is his own unique item, it should only give him more burst, not his whole team's. I also think they could have different stages of the DFG like Viktor's item and more recently the GP ult. You could start out with a DFG that only has the active and a bit of AP, but you can upgrade it two or three times. Each upgrade adds a bit of AP and something else, like the first upgrade could give CDR, the second upgrade Mana Regen and the third upgrade Magic Penetration. (Just suggestions, nothing set in stone)

If you read all this, please tell me what you think and even if you didn't feel free to leave your own suggestions and ideas. Would bringing back DFG be a good thing? Does Veigar need any changes to begin with? Go wild, I want to hear what you think!

Tldr: Veigar is getting buffs next patch, but does he really need buffs? Atm I don't think he really does. If he truly needed buffs, what would require buffing? I personally think the stun delay is the biggest hinderance for most players. Another suggestion has been to buff Veigar's AP scaling on his ult, but reduce the enemy AP scaling. I think this would help Veigar become a stronger champion overall, but make him less unique and take away from his comeback ability. Finally, I have a suggestion to perhaps replace Veigar's passive again and in such a way bring back Deathfire grasp. This would give Veigar more burst potential, in a much more fun, interactive and fitting passive for the definitive burst mage. Veigar's passive would work the same way Viktor's passive does, but instead give him exclusive access to DFG with an active that only buffs Veigar's damage to the target. It could also have different upgrades adding stats like CDR, Mana reg, Magic pen etc. What do you think?