Can we please talk about Veigar? He has so much potential, but it's being cut short!
Today I'm going to talk to you about Veigar. Now, as a heads up, the full post is going to be rather long, as I'll be not only comparing Veigar to other similar mages in his position (namely Syndra) but I will also be doing a thematic overview and making recommendations for changes to his kit since the removal of DFG, and responding to Meddler's comments on what Riot is looking at for potential changes to his kit. Here is a link to a google.doc I made containing the full post for any who care to read it: See link above I can understand many of you will not care to read this, so I have also included my proposed changes to Veigar's kit, and the reasoning behind them below. I only ask that you don't read it, don't downvote it to oblivion because you are afraid of text. Additionally, if you like any of the changes I have made, feel free to comment and add to the discussion. Lastly, if you want more background as to why certain things got changed and more in-depth analysis on Veigar as a champion, how his kit works together both functionally and thematically, I would like to direct you to the google docs link. Thanks!
*EDIT: Important to note some values here are slightly different than the Google.doc; these values would be the more accurate ones, however the google.doc has the more in-depth analysis and descriptions of changes etc...
Re-Balancing Veigar in a post-DFG Valoran As far as things which I would 100% want to see in a re-balancing would be lower mana cost on Ultimate (so it isn't 225 at rank 3) and get rid of his equilibrium passive. For Veigar's kit and theme, %increased mana regen based on missing mana A) doesn't make sense, and B) proves to be basically insignificant. When you have enough mana to do a full combo or harass in lane with spells, the mana regen amounts to basically nothing. When you're nearly oom, you'll end up getting enough to have 1 spell every 30 seconds maybe (calculating only the mana gained from his passive, not his base). In contrast, Xerath/Lissandra both get free spells far more frequently. I'd much rather see his Q passive to gain AP reworked as his main passive, or a mana regen passive which is actually useful.
Passive: Equilibrium removed. New Passive - Torment: Killing minions and monsters permanently stacks .5 AP. This bonus is doubled against large minions and monsters. Champion kills and assists permanently stack 10 and 5 AP, respectively. While this may seem like a lot of AP which can be gained, it is actually less than live if you were to merely stick to farming with Q's. A total of 6 AP (8 for cannon waves) can be secured with live veigar and proper CD's etc... but this would require perfect CS to get half of that (3, or 4 for cannon). This is to discourage an AFK farm-to-win style where massive AP can be gained from simply last hitting with Q. In return, AP value for champion kills is doubled and assists are now included in the stacking minigame because there are many players who choose to play Veigar in the support role and they should be rewarded for assisting with the kills.
Q: Baleful Strike - Passive Removed Range: 650 Cost changed to 40/50/60/70/80 from 60/65/70/75/80 mana Cooldown: 4 Seconds Active: Magic Damage changed to 80/110/140/170/200 + 75% AP from 80/125/170/215/260 + 60% AP
Q is Veigar's main form of farming and trading in lane, yet when compared to other mages this ability had a fairly long CD early for very high mana costs. Given that its old function was also what allowed for AP scaling, that is understandable. However, now that farming with Q won't give you AP more than farming any other way will, I have reduced its early game mana costs (they will scale up to the same as live at rank 5) and cooldown and adjusted base damage down and AP scaling up to compensate. For comparison, Syndra's Q and Annie's Q at rank 5 have the same CD and Mana cost as Veigar's Q. Annie's Q has 220 Base damage and 80% AP Scaling, Syndra (against champions) has 264.5 base with 69% AP Scaling, and as AoE can hit multiple targets.
W: Dark Matter - Range: 900 Radius: 125 units Delay: 1.25 sec Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 Magic Damage: 100/150/200/250/300 + 100% AP.
This changed very little from live; for reducing the base damage by 20 at all ranks I have reduced the mana cost by 10 at all ranks and slightly increased the AoE radius from 112.5 to 125. This overall is increasing the area by 10%, or 78.5 total Units. I wanted to keep the same feel of a powerful AoE nuke, and adjusted it's cooldown to be higher early to balance out Q's lower early CD and to emphasize a weakness of being shoved, but I opted not to decrease the delay as that would require power to be adjusted in other areas.
E: Event Horizon - Iteration 1: Same as live, reduced stun time to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 There's not much I can do to this ability that won't make it either useless or completely OP. As a Veigar player, I'd love it if the center of the cage had additional CC effects (like Soraka's Silence or some form of Slow) but then the stun duration would almost certainly need to be reduced, which could make hitting the combo impossible depending on how short it became. The ult is where I got most creative and as a result I have a few iterations of it:
Event Horizon Iteration 2: This is not my idea, it comes from a reddit post I made and I must give credit to "Greenxephos2330". He/She suggests making the following changes to Veigar's stun: " Imagine that Veigar throws a ball of dark energy to a target location, and then it explodes into a stun cage that we know now but a bit smaller (like the concept of a Lux Singularity but without the explosion dealing damage). This could contain the delay (the travel time for the ball) and as you level it you could get increased range or size of stun cage." In my opinion this would be a better change than just a signaled delay because while it gives a solid delay in the cast animation, it doesn't telegraph exactly where the stun will be, thus making it still viable for offensive use. He/She also suggested a stun duration of ~1-1.5 seconds.
R: Primordial Burst - Cost 100 mana at all ranks (down from 125/175/225) NOW A SKILL SHOT Cooldown: 130/110/90 Magic Damage: 250/375/500 + 120% AP New function: Marks the target with a singularity for 5 seconds. The when active singularity stores 30%/40%/50% of the magic damage dealt by Veigar. After 5 seconds or upon second activation the singularity will explode, dealing the stored damage to all units in a 400-unit radius from the afflicted champion and slowing enemies for 30%/40%/50%.
Before you shout MORE BROKEN THAN RIVEN'S SWORD, unlike Zed's deathmark, this would not deal bonus damage in addition to the damage dealt. Rather, a target marked by Veigar's ult would actually take reduced damage from him during that time they are marked, only to have it explode up to 5 seconds later (or upon re-activation) in an AoE, which can damage the entire enemy team. This gives Veigar a lot of strategic diversity on how his ult will be used; Veigar can use it to catch high priority targets, like say a 18-2 vayne, and try to 1-shot her. Or, it can also be saved for teamfights, where you mark someone who will now deal massive damage to their allies if they try to help (Don't click the lanturn, I'll die!). Marking someone will essentially force their team to separate from them or risk taking significant damage. While you still retain the power to nuke squishies, it wouldn't be quite as strong as before. So if your ult slows, do you Stun(E)+W+Ult+Q, or do you try to just Ult+Q and then catch up to them with the slow to land the stun and E+W+Q for maximum damage? Will you get caught out trying to maximize your damage potential this way?
Alternative Ult Ideas (these will not be as detailed as above):
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Cost 100 at all ranks (Seriously that needs to happen) Same CD/Base Damage as live, 150% AP Scaling, No scaling off of enemy AP, ult is a line skill shot.
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Cost 100 at all ranks. CD same as live. Base Damage: 350/450/550, 100% AP Scaling, Ult is a slow skill shot with AoE Burst (Think Corki's Phosphorus Bomb, but not quite as big an area, yet larger than W, maybe 200 unit Radius)
Please Rito, take the time to read this, as currently Veigar's changes just make him a weaker version of things we already have in the game. There's no more unqiueness, we already have poke/zone control mages who excel at it more than he does in this state. I'll even link my original reddit post in case the comments are found to be helpful (Some had really good ideas, but I couldn't include all due to space limits here) http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2v3zq8/a_treatise_on_veigar/
