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Mages and Balance

Shirotaki·2/2/2020, 12:10:17 AM·4 votes·1,103 views

Since the early days, Riot has changed League of Legends much. So much so that there isn't much of a reason to balance mages by cooldowns and mana costs alone anymore.

In the past, cooldowns and mana costs ensured that the entire class of mages, who then had a lot of reliable point-and-click damage, wouldn't be overpowered compared to the rest of the champion pool.

Now mages are balanced because most of their abilities are extremely dodgeable. Today, many mages are slightly weak in the early game against high DPS champions. Well-played marksmen can push most any champion out of lane, and mages are no exception. Tankier targets who can survive a mage's initial burst also present problems.

In no special order whatsoever, here are mages I believe could use some buffs which would not make them overpowered by any means.

Anivia - R width, R leash range. -Makes Anivia a better Area of Denial mage.

Malzahar - W reliability, R damage. -W is extremely useless. R base damage is very low for a channeled ability.

Azir - Q cooldown. -Soldiers are too immobile.

Lux - E width, R width. -Abilities are too easy to dodge for their mana and cooldown cost.

Brand - Passive scaling. -Not enough scaling with deathcap.

Karthus - R damage. -Iconic ultimate has barely any damage.

Kennen - W damage. -Kennen's waveclear is low compared to other mages.

Morgana - R 2nd activation scaling. -For an ultimate that places Morgana into grave danger there isn't a high enough reward mid and lategame.

Nidalee - Q width. -To bring back old Nidalee poke-siege comps. Even Faker misses this.

Veigar - E activation delay. -Delay is extremely long.

Vel'Koz - E activation delay. -Delay is long.

Xerath - Q width. -Q is too easy to dodge.

Zyra - Q base damage. -Q base damage is too low.

None of these buffs would make the mages overpowered, but they would be much more satisfying to play.

21 Comments

HideSide2/2/2020, 12:32:09 AM3 votes

No pls, no buffs for mages like Ahri Anivia Azir Cassiopeia Diana Heimerdinger Karthus Kennen LeblancLux Malzahar Morgana Orianna Ryze Sylas Veigar Velkoz Viktor Ziggs

General Esdeath 2/2/2020, 1:16:02 AM3 votes

half of these literally would remove the counterplay of said champ

General Esdeath 2/2/2020, 1:23:24 AM3 votes

{quoted}

Anivia - R width, R leash range. -Makes Anivia a better Area of Denial mage.

Her R is fine

Malzahar - W reliability, R damage. -W is extremely useless. R base damage is very low for a channeled ability.

Buff voidlings by making them take reduced damage from AoE sources (Like Yorick ghouls do)

Azir - Q cooldown. -Soldiers are too immobile.

As they should be, once he sets up a soldier that's a no-no zone for most mid laners

Lux - E width, R width. -Abilities are too easy to dodge for their mana and cooldown cost.

Her E and R are fine. The only thing I'd want for Lux E is the ability to detonate it faster

Brand - Passive scaling. -Not enough scaling with deathcap.

It shouldn't scale, the point is that it does % max HP burst in a huge circle, along with having a liandry's on top of the one you build.

Karthus - R damage. -Iconic ultimate has barely any damage.

Harvest, use it to kill people that escape with no HP. Late game it's 500 (+ 75% AP), and by 16 you should have at least 400 AP, meaning your ult alone deals 800 magic damage to everyone.

Kennen - W damage. -Kennen's waveclear is low compared to other mages.

Because he uses energy and has great 1v1 potential plus teamfighting.

Morgana - R 2nd activation scaling. -For an ultimate that places Morgana into grave danger there isn't a high enough reward mid and lategame.

You literally slow everyone and force them to retreat or snare. Build item 3157

Nidalee - Q width. -To bring back old Nidalee poke-siege comps. Even Faker misses this.

Yeah how about we DON'T do that.

Veigar - E activation delay. -Delay is extremely long.

Do you not remember the instant E days? This was a healthy change

Vel'Koz - E activation delay. -Delay is long.

Yes, because he has a slow to help him land it

Xerath - Q width. -Q is too easy to dodge.

It's a spammable ability that can clear an entire wave, it should be easy to dodge

Zyra - Q base damage. -Q base damage is too low.

Isn't the point of her Q to activate the seeds?

Highwiseene2/2/2020, 12:54:59 AM3 votes

Most of these buffs remove the counterplay from the mages in question. Let's not.

King Lego2/2/2020, 1:39:41 AM2 votes

As a Vel'Koz main, he doesn't need a change of any sort. He's already a well balanced champion to begin with. His E may be easy to dodge, but its cc isn't that impactful since it's just a tiny knock up, and his Q has a slow which helps to land the E easier. That's why the combo tends to begin with Q and the only exception where you can cast a guaranteed E with little to no chance of being dodged is when the enemy is slowed or doesn't suspect it or even just too close to react.

HP Crookshanks2/2/2020, 12:21:21 AM2 votes

I think Karma Lissandra Viktor Ziggs deserve buffs more than these mages.

vgamedude2/2/2020, 12:22:31 AM2 votes

The problem is more so marksmen and ranged autos in general in my opinion and less so the mages needing to be changed. When you watch the pro 1v1 tournaments and many of the best picks are marksmen to the point that faker gets beaten on an ASSASSIN to a tristana, or recently how lucian is one of the strongest solo laners who also scales. There is a clear problem.

However this problem I don't feel will ever be looked at by riot. They are deadset on this games stale meta that has existed for near on a decade or so.

SweedishGunner2/2/2020, 12:41:38 AM2 votes

Half of these things you say should be buffed are core balance and counterplay elements.

Some things as well; All of Malz's damage comes from W, the problem is they die too fast. not they do no damage. Brand does the most damage regularly with support income, he doesn't need a passive buff. Veigar E delay is to balance how strong it is. Karthus R does plenty of damage. Anivia's R is huge at full growth, you want it to be bigger?

Honestly as a mage main I don't agree at all with basically every point you've put forward.

Tin Obliterates2/2/2020, 12:56:34 AM2 votes

Lux - E width, R width. -Abilities are too easy to dodge for their mana and cooldown cost.

Isnt Lux's R cooldown really low though? Last I checked it's 80 seconds at rank 1.

thefatlazycat2/2/2020, 3:10:36 AM1 votes

Mages are already overpowered, how bad do you need to be to think the strongest class needs buffs?