Reddit Inspired Kha'Zix rework!
I was inspired by this post on Reddit saying that Kha'Zix was in a rough spot right now That I'd try my hand to address some of those issues listed and how I'd change them.
Contents:
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My Full Rework
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Explanation's of Synergy, Improvements
The Full Rework:
One of the major ideas I toyed with was removing mana from his Kit, making him completely resourceless. While this was an idea, I figured I would leave that to Rengar and other assassins; for this matter, I increased some of his mana costs but would then also increase his base mana pool, while not effecting his scaling. The higher costs are to compensate for new, stronger abilities, while the increased mana pool is to ensure he's actually able to cast those abilities level's 1-5.
Next major quality of life change, improving his cast times. With this the hope is that abilities like Q or W could be an auto reset (more so, a better auto reset) by making the cast times more fluid and faster. The auto attack from his passive could definitely be faster, and overall he deserves some polish to cast times and animations.
Passive: Eye of a Hunter
Kha'zix maintains sight on all his prey waiting in wing to strike; If an enemy champion leaves this sight range, Kha'zix will retain vision of them for a short amount of time. It lasts 2 seconds, or until they:
- Enter brush.
- Enter stealth.
- Leave 1800 units of his vision (E.G. Recalling, teleporting, or certain dashes)
The duration of this vision is doubled if the target leaving sight range is Isolated.
Isolation: Kha'Zix also marks all visible enemies who aren't accompanied by any of their allies nearby as Isolated. Kha'Zix's abilities deal 30% more damage to isolated targets. (Isolation radius remains unchanged.)
Q: Taste Their Fear 25 Mana, 3.5 second CD
Passive: Kha'Zix's first Basic attack against an enemy champion deals an additional 10/ 15/ 20/ 25/ 30(+65% AP) magic damage, slows for 20% for 1.5 seconds, and shreds a % of their armor. The slow speed, as well as duration of the slow and armor shred are doubled if the target is isolated. (This has an internal cooldown to each champion hit, such as Nautilus's passive or Udyr's Stun.)
Active: Kha'zix cleaves in a cone in the direction of target enemy. (Remains practically unchanged, other than the damage is no longer single target; acts similar to Lucian Q but rather than a straight line it deals damage in a short cone.)
Evolve: Claws: (Remains the same.)
W: Void Spikes 75 Mana at all Ranks, 14 second CD
ACTIVE: Kha'Zix fires a cluster of spikes in a line that detonates upon hitting an enemy, slowing all enemies in a small area 20% for 2 seconds and dealing them physical damage, increased by 20% against monsters. (Base damage remains the same, change +100% Bonus AD scaling to +60% Total AD scaling. Decrease the missile Width, quicken the cast time so it could be used as an auto reset or at least between movements.)
Kha'Zix heals himself and refunds 40% of the CD if he is within the detonation radius. (heal remains the same.)
Evolve: Spikes: Void Spikes new reveals enemies hit for 0.5 seconds (proc'ing his passive vision of them if within range) can be recast up to 3 additional times for free for four seconds after the initial cast; Kha'zix can be healed multiple times if he is within the detonation radius but enemies take 25% damage with successive hits and the CD will only be refunded once.
E: Leap 90 Mana, 20/ 18/ 16/ 14/ 12 second CD
Kha'Zix leaps to the target location, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies upon landing. Kills and assists resets the cooldown of Leap. (Damage remains the same)
Evolve: Leap: Range increased to 900, and kills and assists resets the cooldown of all abilities.
R: Void Assault 100 Mana, 90 second CD
PASSIVE: Each rank in Void Assault allows Kha'Zix to evolve one of his abilities, granting it additional effects.
ACTIVE: Kha'Zix enters stealth for 3.5 second, gaining 50% bonus movement speed and ghosting while stealthed. All enemies' Isolation Radius slowly beings to shrink by half over 3 seconds. Casting Leap does not break stealth for 0.25 seconds.
Evolve: Void Assault: Upon activation Kha'zix becomes immune to slows and gains a spell shield for the duration of the stealth.
And that's all she wrote! the complete changes. Now to go into each ability and explain how it's effected his playstyle and kit.
Explanation's of Synergy, Improvements
Looking at each ability, I was trying to make something both thematic and dynamic. The passive, a small homage to Kha'zix cutting out Regnar's eye, is a very strong vision ability that combines the previous evolved effect of his W with a new way of maintaining vision on enemies both in lane and in the jungle, stalking predators and prey alike. Note the wording, that it's interaction with Isolation isn't that "If they become isolated while outside his vision range, the duration will increase" but rather "If they were isolated upon exiting, the duration is increased." so there is no way to keep perpetual eyes on someone or is there a way to loose out on sight for them stepping near an ally.
For his Q, I wanted it to be able to both be single-target and hit more than one enemy, so with the "Lucian Q" effect I found a happy medium. Now with the AoE of the cone he can clear camps with more abilities than his W, as while he's targeting one minion it will generally hit the whole camp.
Then into his Q's new passive, more so what was his original passive. I moved it to the Q with the idea that his combo would go E> Auto (Q passive)> Q > Auto> W> Auto, etc. If he built sheen he could get many situations where he could proc the effect more than once, or if he built black cleaver he could quickly shred lots of armor. My original idea was "Upon casting you Q you shred a % of their armor," but that seemed a bit disjointed as the Q is his bread and butter damage, and using that to shred it leaves you an opponent with open defenses but you're without a way to capitalize.
Looking at his W, it felt too much like a simple "Evolve this to gain a wall of skillshots" turning you from an assassin to a shotgun. In making this ability I wanted to regain his "glass cannon-y" feel while also giving him a meaningful ability that worked with the rest of his skills or combo, rather than just a blanket AoE for making picks. So, with the change you are missing out on the "wall of skillshots" but gaining a new essential part to your combo that provides much improved healing and damage.
With his E, I wanted to give him resets before level 11, plain and simple. Giving him the ability to reset everything was a big leap (zing!) but due to his mana costs I felt wasn't that unreasonable: His Q has a reasonably short cooldown anyway, his W now has a cooldown return, and his E already resets; the biggest reset he could get would be his ultimate.
On the note of his ult, this is where the major changes come into play. In the past he was required to work some kind of combo with his E and his R in order to sneak into and out of their team; now he is entirely reliant on not missing or messing up once, and getting a kill in order to reactivate stealth. This is with the added benefit that the evolution upgrade is very much worth it, as now rather than three weak stealth he has 1 extremely powerful stealth which gives him the tools to both escape and enter.
That is in essence the entire feel I was hoping to achieve with this rework, increasing the quality of the spell rather than the quantity. All of the spells have had either their cost or cooldown increased in some way, among other things, at the exchange of a net stronger ability that requires and rewards skill.
So, what are your thoughts? On both the Kha'Zix issue and on this concept? While it's all speculation I'd like to hear it Everyone else's food for thought.
