Thread of compiled ideas for Mage update (WIP)

Disclaimer: I do not main any of the target champions for the mage update. Nor do I even play mages regularly. I am a support main who has played against the target champions often, especially Brand as of late.

I am not going to try and say that some champions should be touched and others should not, for that would simply create an argument which would lead nowhere good. Instead, I will give some suggestions or ideas based on where Riot have stated their focuses are on.

First up: This guy already has many threads on the boards since he was announced to be in the scope of Riot's rework list for immobile mages. However, most if not all of the threads so far simply state how the fan base doesn't want Vel'Koz to be touched due to his current health and balance within the game. What these people seem to not realize is that there is little or no difference in strategic diversity between champions like Vel'Koz, Xerath, and Lux, from both the side of allies and enemies. Seeing a Vel'Koz on an ally or enemy team does not change what my playstyle will be in comparison to if the champion was a Xerath/Lux. As an enemy, I still say "Flank from more than one side, and wait to go in for when the main CC ability is used." As an ally, it's "Use my CC to allow them to chain and use their burst combo." In essence, all three of these champions are combo burst mages with linear abilities that become lack luster if not used together, with the only noticeable variation is the mana sustain and range.

My idea for Vel'Koz to make him unique is this: Make him someone to pick in a high magic damage comp. As of right now, his abilities have a decently high cooldown and are meant for just dealing damage. The main changes I would like to see lie in his passive and his current W.

For the passive, change the damage type to %HP (missing, current, or max) magic damage and have it shred %MR for a period of time. This would make Vel'Koz an excellent pick strategically against a team of tanks which would stack MR, and with a team that has plenty of magic damage dealers, since it would aid with allies damage output. This would also fit the theme decently (the more he learns of his enemy, the easier it would be to ignore their defenses).

For the W, it would be changing from the charge system, to something similar to Ezreal's Q. Get rid of the charge system, lower the cooldown (compared to the charge cooldown) and have it where the cooldown is lowered by a flat amount when any other abilities deals damage to an enemy. Could have something like double reduction against enemy champions, etc. This would seperate the good and bad Vel'Koz players, since the more enemies you are able to hit with your other abilities will lower the cooldown of your W even more.

Next up: By far there are three pieces to Malzahar which are Iconic: His passive, his E (space aids), and his ultimate. These should be kept as close as possible to their current form, maybe some number tweaks or make the Voidlings controllable pets. But there is one part of Malzahar's kit which is extremely lack luster and highly unsatisfying, his W.

Now, I don't have a good idea on what could be changed or replace his W to make it better, I just know that it should be one of the main focuses on his kit to change. If anyone comes up with a good idea I'll add it in and give the creator credit.

When it comes to Riot's main concern of counterplay with Malzahar when in a one against one scenario, perhaps something like E damage is increased for X seconds when target has taken damage from a Voidling or other ability, so it isn't just a really strong point and click harass, as well as creating larger windows of opportunity to the enemy.

For : His main problem, which Riot has stated many times, is that if he ever gets even the smallest bit strong in the meta, it will be overbearing. From his kit, the problem child ability seems to be his passive, rather than his Q or W (like most people would complain about). It's a passive that gives him free defensive and offensive stats when the opposite is built, which most people who have played the game a decent amount should know the issue free stats creates on a character. Typically forces them to have an extremely weak early game, very heavy snowball potential, and high enough stats that ability scalings are usually low just to keep the late game stable.

Same with Malzahar, I'm not sure on what could replace the passive to add counterplay or more depth, so I'm just stopping at the passive needs to change.

: This guy has been a menace in SoloQ for a few months now. His base damages, kit, and mana sustain are high enough that he can dominate mid and bottom lane. Brand is frequently known as the support who will more than likely have the highest damage to champions on his team. This is in part of a few things:

1. He has high base damage on his abilities and a %HP which is applied when any ability lands, so he synergizes really well with Magic Pen.
2. Magic penetration items are generally cheaper than their high AP counterparts, so he doesn't need farm to purchase these items.
3. His abilities are fairly easy to land (hard to miss W before the enemy gets T2 boots, and then you can buy Rylais)
4. The conditional stun on his Q starts at 2 seconds, which early and late game will typically result in a kill.
5. High mana pool with not so high of mana costs

However, Brand does also have weaknesses:

1. He is squishy
2. Immobile
3. Very vulnerable if his combo is dodged.
4. After bug fix, his ultimate is somewhat unreliable when there are a lot of minions.

The main changes I would like to see be made to Brand are these:

1. Move his passive to his E, as in make the active E be the only thing which applies Blaze, but keep the interactions with other abilities.
2. Have the stun increase in duration as the ability ranks up.
3. Increase scaling or base damage a little bit to compensate for the E change if needed.
4. Slightly increase the delay on W.
5. New passive - Ability damage is increased by X% based on the distance between the ability and brand at the time the damage is applied. Damage increases as the distance lowers, which would help against melee opponents and add obvious areas of counterplay. Fits the idea of Brand being able to use his own body to amplify abilities.

: Her zone control is massive and when in the right hands can be a monster which is hard to control. Some known issues with her are:

1. Passive is potentially useless and lack luster.
2. Abilities are weak alone, only good when turned into plants.
3. Ultimate knock-up mechanic is very unreliable to land.
4. Plants are awkward to control/use.

Possible ideas (saying now these are bad):

1. Fix how the plants prioritize enemies, or add some way to control them.
2. Increase scaling on non-plant abilities.
3. Add a mechanic where the attack speed of plants greatly decrease when Zyra is X units away from them (makes it so that if she is forced away the enemy won't still be harassed by plants).
4. Remove the added CDR passive on W, to allow something more unique to be added.
5. Make the seed recharge time shorter, but unaffected by CDR.
6. New passive idea - If an ability hits against a brush, one plant will spawn in the central location of contact. In addition, when Zyra is near one of her plants, she gets increased health regen.

Finally : I know most of the Cass mains out there will hate me for my ideas. She was meant to be a poison mage - turned fang machine gunner, and it would be nice to see her return to her roots as a poison mage. Obviously, one set to help will be to adjust her passive or ability scalings to make her truly a late game hyper carry, rather than be required to reach max stacks or be weak. Now, for the ideas behind potential changes:

1. Increase the damage to her Twin Fangs and remove the added damage to poisons. Instead, have it reset the timer on ALL poison abilities on who it hits.
2. Increase her Q and W AP ratios.
3. To the idea of debilitation, test if having her Miasma decrease attack speed on top of the already movement speed slow would be too much.
4. Add a function to her Q where the longer the poison lasts, the less damage a champion will deal (similar to how Exhaust has a percentage damage reduction). But remove her sustain on Twin Fangs to compensate. The theme behind ideas 3 and 4 are similar to how most people when poisoned will feel heavy (making them move slower) and will become weaker (less damage dealt). Emphasizing for Cass specifically, the ideas for her are not meant to be altogether, but rather ideas that could happen separately.

For all of the champions mentioned, don't put all of the changes on at once when thinking of them, they could be in any combination and are just ideas. If anyone has anything good to add, I'll edit the OP and give the person credit for the idea. This thread is meant to give some idas to Riot to let them know what the community wants to see.

Have a wonderful day!

• Madcast Fenris