Boards›Gameplay

Velkoz's place in the League @RiotRepertoir

captainkaiger·2/15/2016, 1:17:50 AM·1 votes·356 views

So, I've literally just played my first game of the day (at the time when I first had the thought, it is now hours later), and I was playing everybody's favorite tentacle monster (got rekt hard but that's irrelevant), and after the game I got a quick survey about whether or not I feel he is unique. I answered that I agree, but it's not as simple an answer as that.

Velkoz's kit has a couple very unique elements, namely his q, his ult, and his true damage passive. His knock-up while it is technically unique is comparable to other mages with an aoe cc ability, first one coming to mind is Viktor's stun-field. More importantly though, Velkoz's W, while it is good and serves it's purpose, doesn't do anything different than again, something Viktor's kit does (besides applying the passive and being a little more beginner friendly). As far as I am concerned, the E can stay or go, I like it as it is since it provides decent CC and works well, but I am mostly indifferent to it, while the W needs to be changed.

As far as anything needing extra emphasis, definitely the passive in conjunction with the ult. The ult feels great and looks unique, but the passive application is very underwhelming. It doesn't apply as fast as you think it should, and when the passive does start applying, it doesn't feel very impactful at the later stages of the game which is probably the ultimate issue with Vel.

His passive is a great idea in concept, and certainly in the earlier levels up to maybe level 9 it feels useful. But after that point, concept fails to deliver unto practice for anyone other than Marksmen, squishy supports, and other types who don't buy much in the way of health and resistance. I love the idea that over time you deal true damage to a target, but it just doesn't play well in most later stages of the game. At that point it's mostly the items that you have built that are enabling the damage from the passive (ie Rylai's/liandry).

My only possible thought while typing this (as far as improving the passive goes) is to have a system similar to Kindred. You select the target, and over time as you deal damage to this target, you start to learn the weaknesses, scaling up to maybe 15% true damage when his passive procs on the target. It wouldn't carry over to other targets, it shouldn't have (IMO) lingering effects from switching. But as it stands, the concept can be improved.

I love Velkoz how he is, but to love something means that you accept the flaws for what they are and work around them.

3 Comments

SeargentAnus2/15/2016, 1:25:50 AM1 votes

As long as Riot still lets me get twice as much damage as the second top dmg in the game I'll be happy with the rework.

Lost R2/15/2016, 1:35:38 AM1 votes

As a Vel'Koz player, I think he's in a very good, healthy spot right now for being an artillery mage. Unlike what the assassin meta will have taught you, he's not meant to focus one person, but rather a whole group of people. ALL of his spells hit multiple targets with no damage falloff like most other multi-target champions. He's born to be in team fights. On top of that, his passive has no cooldown to it once you complete a stack, so you could potentially keep stacking on stacks and dishing out pain for as long as the enemy is stupid enough to remain in your line of fire and your mana and CDR will allow it.

The passive isn't meant to chunk the enemy's health for everything they have. It's to punish them for remaining near you and reward you for continuing to lay on the pain. On top of that, it's TRUE damage, so it isn't being mitigated by magic resist. Your average Vel'Koz could easily outdamage the rest of the team while keeping a safe distance from the scrum.