Suggestion: Isolation changes for khazix! In-depth.
Okay, so as we all know, kha'zix was nerfed/changed quite heavily last few patchs with the final change nerfing his Q damage greatly but increasing it much more if you evolved his Q and hit an isolated target with it. However these changes make it very difficult to assassinate a target even in prime conditions, and often hamper his teamfight ability incredibly!
Due to these changes he has fallen out of competitive play and is rarely played anymore in games at any elo (I have played no games against him since the last patch came out!)
The main things that cause him to be unviable is how his isolation works. In order for a target to be isolated it needs to be 550 units away from a ally (champion, minion, tower, pet). This is incredibly large area, and even when you have a champion get out of position, they often are no isolated! I have few suggestions that would balance his isolation, WITHOUT making him overpowered, and retaining large amounts of counterplay.
TL;DR- Khazix is largely unviable due to how random and hard it is to proc his isolation, if this was changed he would be viable without being overpowered.
Suggestion 1-
Roleback the isolation nerfs from previous patches
Right before khazix got his large rebalancing there were some large changes to how his isolation worked, the range was increased to 550 from 350 (which is massive, think aatroxx with his ultimite active auto attack range versus graves range (325-525))
Riot also changed it so that towers would count as allies for the purposes of isolation, and i personally really enjoy this change, so I think it should be kept, but in conjunction with the 350-550 range increase, it clips his wings a bit too much.
TL;DR- Rolling back the isolation range nerfs would retain the counterplay to khazix, while still making it possible to capitalize on misplays from enemies
Suggestion 2-
Create a way for khazix to decrease the range of isolation on a target.
This change would add a whole new mechanic to khazix's abilities.
The way it would work would that his passive damage, his W spikes damage, and his E leap damage would all reduce the isolation range of a target by a flat amount (60-80 seems balanced) for short duration (3 seconds?)
This change would make it important for khazix to land every spell before he would release his high damage Q. This change would also widen the gap between someone who simply is playing a champion for the easy damage and someone who knows the capabilities of their champion, because someone who could visualize what the isolation range on a target would look like after it was reduced would be able to decide when they could dive onto a target that was not yet isolated, creating a greater skill roof!
This also further reinforces his ability to target one opponent instead of just blowing up everyone on the team in one second!
Possible issue- would multiple procs of his passive further reduce a targets isolation or just refresh the timer, and would the resets on his leap do the same thing!
Also, this theoretically could just effect the isolation from non-champions, making minions much weaker in stopping isolation.
TL;DR- Adding a mechanic that allows khazix to reduce the isolation of a target instead of just changing the flat range of his isolation creates greater counterplay/skill requirement for khazix while still keeping him viable!
Suggestion 3- Isolation remains on a target for a few moments (1-2 seconds) after they were isolated, even if they become un-isolated
One of the most luck based things about playing khazix, is that when you see a target that is isolated and you activate stealth to get in range and leap, but without the target knowing it, they walk back into range of an ally, or a minion walks close, etc... and you have just blown all your escape moves to get really close to a target who now you cannot deal any damage to. Creating a mechanic where an enemy who becomes isolated remains isolated for 1.5 seconds regardless of where they are, just makes the assassination power of kha'zix more reliable and less luck based, and if a target keeps slipping in and out of 550 range, they will remain isolated.
There is actually a bit of math behind this too. If the isolation range is 550, and a target is standing 551 units away from an ally, they are isolated. However, with a average base movement speed of around 355-370 (or so) for a champion with tier two boots that means a target who is 900 units away from their tower (for example) could get out of isolation range in one second of walking. Where this ties in is when you look at the cast time/movement time on any jump/leap/dash/etc... Even if the time before his target starts walking and khazix lands is 1/2 a second, his effective isolation range is increased all the way up to 725 units. This is why this change is necessary if no other changes are made, especially at higher elos where peoples reaction times are much much faster.
TL;DR- Due to the leap time on his jump, many targets who are quite far away from allies can move out of isolation range before khazix even lands. And there are also many random aspects to isolation that would be removed if isolation lingered on a target for 1-2 seconds after they were originally isolated regardless of where they move
Suggestion 4/5-
These last two suggestions are a little bit stranger, and have less to do with isolation and more to how creater kit utility could make isolation move able to be controlled.
first, would be turning khazix's dash into a blink. This would still fit thematically into khazix's kit, and would give him much more strength as a assassin.
Whether or not this would be a wise idea due to the raw utility it brings would require lots of testing
second small tweak, would be to give one of his abilities a cleave directed towards minions. This would allow him to blitz away minion waves that were low in order to isolate his target, while improving lane khazix's viability. Once again, too powerful? Idk, testing would decide! (Glados!)
TL;DR-Adding back some utility to his kit that doesnt make him tanky (like his past utility did) but improves his unique assassin style would improve the viablity of khazix, although balancing these changes would be hard
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SO these are my thoughts on khazix changes. Im sorry for any typos D: but i guess they will remain! If you have any thoughts on this i would LOVE to hear what other people in the community think about his balancing. But please, if you are going to make a point, please be intelligent in your response, with charts and graphs and bank statements (just kidding).
(note: did move this from a different forum as it was in the wrong area i think :P )
Tl;dr- if isolation in khazix's kit was changed in some way, he would be viable, PLZ rito plz <3
Thanks for the reading!
EDIT: Since many seem to like #3 (although there are a few who dont!) , i have a further thought on it! What if it worked only to a certain point, so that if you got within 450 range of a champion ally, it would un-isolate you no matter what, so if your support flash+dashes to you (the adc/mage when they see a khazix, they can still counterplay it! (credit mainly to "thefifeman" for this idea!)
