Kassadin rework proposal
So today is day 7 of me posting rework proposals. Like I have said before I will keep going until I run out of ideas, or champions I feel need reworks.
I am hoping to generate some feedback of course, and my end goal remains to work at Riot or just as a concept creator in the industry.
With each one of these I make I can already see my style growing and shaping.
Here are my other reworks from past days -
Kassadin - The Void Walker
Kassadin is a champion in an odd place I feel. He is sort of an assassin, but requires alot of mana and some tanky stats to remain effective in the late game unless he gets feed early on. Now assassins should snowball somewhat but he is a bad case of feast or famine still.
My Kit allows Kassadin to fill 3 differnt roles maybe even 4, which alot of the other assassins seem to do.
In top lane he will have the tools to survive, and if built tanky outlast opponents much like most other top laners. Mid lane he will have clear advantages against mages, while still being vulnerable to other all in champions. Jungle may be opened up to him now, which I feel fits him as a very mobile champion that wants to roam. And bot lane he can function as an anti ADC of sorts with the right support working with him.
He remains most effective roaming and killing however, which is his main identity.
Skills -
Passive - Void Stone - Kassadin is empowered by void energy by storing power within his Void Stone. Whenever Kassadin takes damage or is healed or shielded he will absord some of the power and store it within the stone to empower his basic abilities. Kassadin takes 10% reduced damage from all sources and gains 10% bonus healing and shields from allies. This power is stored until it is equal to 25% of his max health, then his next ability cast is empowered.
This is a buff to his overall survivability, however he no longer is as effective against magic users. But the rest of his kit will help offset that to keep him as an anti mage.
Q - Null Sphere - Kassadin fires a nullifing void sphere at target enemy dealing damage and silencing them for .5 seconds, in addition it nullifies 1 beneficial spell on the target.
Empowered - Deals bonus damage and removes all beneficial spells as well as shields. (Damage is dealt after the shield is removed.) (Does not remove Kayle's Ultimate.)
The total removal of his silence was very odd to me. It was claimed that silence doesnt add to the game at all because of its lack of counterplay, but that should be true of all hard crowd control. Silence is not fun to deal with, so it should be kept short. But there are long silences in the game still, like Cho' Gath and Garen's.
As for the other effect of removing buffs, that is a thematic change. It also gives Kassadin something no one else currently does. Empowering his Q to remove shields will be a choice, and a hard decision as he could possibly gain more damage from empowering his new W instead.
And it cant remove Kayle's Ultimate because well, that would be insanely anti fun for Kayle players. And her ultimate is not a true shield but an invulnerability. (Although it is a buff, but it stilll would be anti fun.)
W - Nether Blade - Kassadin passively absorbs 10% of all damage he does into his Void Stone. Kassadin also marks his targets with energy from the void, he may activate Nether Blade to teleport behind a marked target and deal bonus magic damage to it.
Empowered - Grants Kassadin 25% spell penetration for 6 seconds after activating.
His old W is mostly gone, replaced by something to give him both utility and bonus damage, while granting him more of a benefit to attacking by allowing him to stack his own passive.
Previously pre 6 he had no way of entering melee and thus no reason to need his old W.
E - Force Pulse - Kassadin sends out a wave of energy in target direction dealing reduced damage as the wave spreads out.
Empowered - The damage is not reduced and enemies hit are stunned for 1 second.
A couple changes here first he can cast this whenever he likes. Having his old E situational only meant Kassadin was very predictable, oh he is fully charged? then he will come at me slow me and attempt to get in.
The slow removal is to instead buff the empowered version, which can stun. Additionally the range of the ability will be much further than before, but when not empowered only enemies close to him will take full damage. This allows him some safer poke and farm, but lessens his all in potential except when empowered.
R - Rift Walk - Kassadin telports to a nearby location dealing damage upon re entry. Using Rift Walk multiple times in a row will cause Kassadin's Void Stone to become unstable releasing all of its stored power at once dealing bonus damage. Three Rift Walks in a row will cause the third to release all the stored energy he has.
The change here is to help with his mana costs, but by limiting when he gets bonus damage on his ultimate. Also since it removes his stored energy, he will take longer to empower his next skill if he ends up using his ultimate 3 times in a row quickly. This presents a clear window of when to attack Kassadin rather than constantly being uncertain other than to wait for him to be low mana to all in him.