Kassadin Rework Brainstorm

2 March 2015

There's been a lot of commotion in the League of Legends community recently about the supposed gutting of Kassadin. That's never an easy topic to bring up, of course, as he always seems to walk a razor's edge between being OP GG NEEDS NERF and being useless. Because of this, I was wondering how to make him more engaging to play while keeping his trademark identity and without turning him into an overpowered beast. My conclusion was that focusing on the supposed qualities of a mage opponent - that they cast spells, have Ability Power ratios, expend mana, and deal magic damage - would clarify Kass' strengths in a healthy way while making his weaknesses (lack of crowd control and being kited by AD carries, for example) more apparent. Here's the list of my proposed changes to rebalance Kassadin while preserving his identity as an anti-mage carry-type champion.

CONTEXT
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Kass
>This is where I found the base stat values etc. to do the number-crunching on Kass' various aspects. I wanted him to be balanced numerically as well as thematically.

STATS
-Mana at Lv1: 375 from 347.6 (changed to fourth highest)
-Mana at Lv18: 1480 from 1537.6 (changed to third highest)
>Kassadin's mana is a huge part of his kit, even without mana-based damage ratios.
-Mana Regeneration per 5 Seconds at Level 1: 6
>This is the same mana regeneration rate as current Kassadin's, or just (same) as I'm labeling it here.
-Mana Regen per 5 at Level 18: 19.6 (same)
>These are also the same regen rates as those of many magic damage carries such as LeBlanc.
-Armor at Lv1: 19 from 23.376 (changed to fourth lowest)
-Armor at Lv18: 67.45 from 77.8 (changed to third lowest)
>The most mobile champion should also be among the squishiest.
-Magic Resistance ("MR") at Lv1: 30 (same as all champions)
-MR at Lv18: 30 (same as all ranged champions)
>Because Void Stone gives more than enough resistance to magic damage. Most melee champions, such as Katarina, do have inherent scaling magic resist, so already there's an interesting and balanced trade of power for Kass.
-Movement Speed: 330 from 340
>This is lower than it is for many mages because Kassadin should not have a mobility advantage pre-6 unless he specifically builds items/runes/masteries for it.

INNATE (Void Stone)
-Kassadin takes 15% reduced magic damage and avoids unit collision. Kassadin's abilities interrupt channeling spells on-hit. This interrupt can be blocked by spell shields.
>As it stands on the live servers, only Kass' Q has this pseudo-silence affect. This change could possibly cut down on opponents' available counterplay, but I think it would work very well in general. Imagine how great it would feel to Riftwalk into a channeling Fiddlesticks who thought himself stealthed, weaving through his peel and defenses, and cancelling his ult at the last split-second!

Q (Null Sphere)
-Range: 700 from 650
-Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 from 70/75/80/85/90
-Cooldown: 9 (same)
-Projectile Speed: 1400 (same)
>A max-range Q will take half of a second to reach its target after a quarter-second cast time. For reference, the average reaction time of a human is between one and two tenths of a second. This gives enough time for someone like a Morgana to Black Shield the sphere, or for a LeBlanc to phase out of its range with Distortion.
-Shield duration: 1.5 seconds (same)
-Shield strength: 50/85/120/155/190 (+30% AP) from 40/70/100/130/160 (+30% AP)
>This shield is no Void Stone, but it still offers yet more magic damage resistance in respectable quantities. Maxing it early in a rough lane lets him shield incoming poke and transition smoothly from the end of the laning phase into the beginning of the mid-game.
-Magic damage: 75/90/110/135/165 (+60% AP) from 70/95/120/145/170 (+70% AP)
I wanted to nerf the damage on Q and buff the early shield to make it more of a trading tool than an assassin component. The result is that Kassadins having a rough time in lane, perhaps against an Ahri or LeBlanc, would want to max Q at level 9, while the ones lucky enough to find themselves against a Ryze or Ziggs would instead max...

W (Nether Blade)
-New: Spell shields will now block ALL of Nether Blade’s effects AND damage.
>I want to increase the value of spell shields against Kassadin in order to empower and enable a very clear path of counterplay. Playing against him would feel much less impossible in the late game if you're willing to invest your gold into a Banshee's Veil. And as crazy as it might sound, a mid lane Sivir would have all the resources necessary to wipe this Kassadin off the floor.
-Old passive: Attacks deal 20 (+10% AP) bonus magic damage on-hit.
>This makes no sense. Kassadin's damage should be conditional and come in bursts. This passive basically just turns his Nether Blade into a Void version of Fizz's trident.
>New passive: Kassadin's attacks and spell casts on champions restore 20 (+20 x Kassadin’s level) mana and drain the same amount from target on-hit. Attacks on minions or monsters restore a quarter the amount (three quarters if used on a Blue Sentinel). Manaless champions take an extra 20 (+10% opponent's AP) magic damage instead. Cannot happen more than once every 3 seconds on the same target. Does not work when Nether Blade is activated or on cooldown.
>This makes Kass able to use mana sustain to whittle down mages and tear into AP assassins like Akali and Katarina who don't utilize the same resources as everyone else. As an aside, this ability would encourage a Lich Bane build for maximum synergy, but that item wouldn't be required.
-Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 from 9 at all ranks
-Will go on cooldown after 1.5 seconds or 1 empowered attack, whichever comes first.
-Bonus attack range: 0 from 50
>There is nothing to be gained from having 200 attack range that having 150 range can't accomplish.
-Magic damage: 75/100/125/150/175 (+65% AP) from 40/65/90/115/140 (+60% AP)
>The buffed damage comes with the drawback of limiting Kassadin's potential mana sustain if he chooses to use it for harassing the enemy laner. It creates a strategic incentive around properly managing the newly expanded Nether Blade cooldown.
-Mana restore on active: 3/4/5/6/7% max mana from 4/5/6/7/8% missing mana
-Mana restore on active on champions: 12/16/20/24/28% max mana from 20/25/30/35/40% missing mana
>Given how strategically based the nature of the new ability is, I chose to opt for a relatively smaller amount of mana sustain on the old active. Now that it restores for maximum mana, while the passive restores for a flat amount that is often more efficient, there is constantly a choice between "to use or not to use." Also, the active's quadrupling against champions and the passive's quartering against minions is a numerical motif of sorts.

E (Force Pulse)
-Conic Area of Effect: 60 degrees from 80
>Inspired by Cho'Gath's Feral Scream, this range change puts more of a focus on Kassadin's single-target burst, which is usually targeted against the opposing mage in his solo lane. His Riftwalk offers enough AoE as it is, and he doesn't need an 80-degree cone of effect to supplement that.
-Range: 700 (same)
>By the way, all of Kassadin's abilities have 700 or fewer units of range. This is the same range limit as Abyssal Scepter, meaning that that item synergizes very well with him.
-Cost: 80/90/100/110/120 mana from 80 at all ranks
-Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 from 6 at all ranks
-Length of slow: 1.5 seconds from 1 second
-Damage: 100/125/155/190/230 (+70% AP) from 80/105/130/155/180 (70% AP)
-Slow: 50/60/70/80/90% (same)
>Making this ability more situational and heftier in cost means that it should necessarily be more powerful when used properly.
-Number of charges required: 5, not including Kassadin’s own spells; from 6, including his own spells
>This ability, it would seem, becomes more potent later in the game, when champs are moreso wont to throw their spells left and right. In the early game, however, it leaves the tempo of Kassadin's laning experience up to the enemy laner. Do you want to risk a trade or a gank, even if it means giving Kassadin precious charges toward this very strong ability? Then again, if you don't cast anything, Kass can use his Q, W, AND his mana-draining attacks to push you out of your lane! Strategy abound...
>Any ability that counts towards the old Force Pulse would count towards this one. Even abilities from a manaless AD champ like Zed or Yasuo count.

R (Riftwalk)
-Cast time: 0.25 seconds
>I have no idea what the current cast time on Riftwalk is, if there even is one. This would enable a small window of vulnerability, similar to Kalista's wind-ups between attacks.
-New Passive: Riftwalk's cooldown and mana stack reset are decreased by 1 second for every enemy source of magic damage that connects within 600 range of Kassadin.
>A "source of magic damage" includes things like the Hextech Gunblade's active and the passive magic damage on Jax's auto-attacks. An ability with an AP ratio cast by someone with 0 AP (Tryndamere anyone?) will not count. This passive only procs once the magic damage actually hits a source, meaning Amumu whiffing a Bandage Toss won't help as much as you might like. It also means that if you try to burst down Kass on Lissandra by throwing your face at the keyboard, all you're going to do is open up a window of opportunity for him to escape through. This is where an auto-attack-based carry like Tristana would be able to put up a convincing fight against Kassadin, since the only spell she needs is her 900-range Rocket Jump to close a gap before murdering him. However, this also means that Kass excels in late-game teamfights where spells are consistently flying through the air.
-Blink range: 600 from 450
>Riftwalk is undoubtedly the strongest part of this Kassadin's kit and the thing that gives him power against a team that isn't five mages. That said, it should be better than Ezreal's Arcane Shift, which it isn't... at least, not on the live servers.
-AoE: 150 (same)
-Mana Cost: 65/130/260/520/1040 from 60/120/240/480/960
>Add up the mana on the 65-cost stacks and see how much it costs to cast it five times. Go on, I'll wait.
-Static Cooldown: 6/5/4 from 7/5/3
>Right now, someone can Riftwalk into a 5v5 teamfight on a level 16 Kassadin, then immediately Zhonya's and instantly Riftwalk away to avoid getting banged up after he does his AoE damage. That really isn't acceptable if you want to allow any kind of counterplay against him. The fourth second is where that counterplay is allowed to happen. The trick is locking him down.
-Reset on mana stacks: 18/15/12 from 20 at all ranks
>This opens up Kass' long-term warping opportunities in the late game while still forcing him to effectively manage his mana between levels 6 and 16. It also asks of him to manage the damage levels he wants to produce - a first-stack Riftwalk doesn't pack much of a punch, after all.
-Magic damage on 1st cast: 75/100/125 (+4% AP) (+8% AP of each enemy hit) from 80/100/120 (+2% of max mana)
>Ignoring the enemy-based ratio, this first-cast Riftwalk doesn't outscale the old ability unless Kassadin has several hundred AP, incentivizing some players to build specifically and solely into Ability Power (Double Morello's -> Hourglass -> Void Staff -> Double Deathcap or something like that). However, the mana from the many items that build out of Sapphire Crystals (such as Archangel's Staff or Rod of Ages) are a necessary component of allowing Kassadin's ultimate to stack onto itself and deal serious damage without the player running out of mana.
-Bonus magic damage per extra stack: 40/50/60 (+4% AP) (+8% AP of each enemy hit) from 40/50/60 (+1% of max mana)
-Max magic damage: 235/300/365 (+20% AP) (+40% AP of each enemy hit) from 240/300/360 (+6% of max mana)
>Suddenly, so much of the strength of Kassadin's Riftwalk is shifted onto the enemy. It's like you're using their own power against them, you might say.


Here's a theoretical full build, balancing magic damage and sustainability, that this Kassadin would utilize:
-Seraph's Embrace
-Rod of Ages
-Zhonya's Hourglass
-Abyssal Scepter (More often, when flat MR) or Void Staff (less often, if they're stacking Banshees)
-Lich Bane
-Sorcerer's Shoes (Alacrity would often be good here)
-Greater Stealth Totem (usually for top lane Kass) or Oracle's Lens (for when you're in mid)
Total Cost: ~13500g

This build results in 3380 mana and nearly 500 AP for Kassadin. His damage potential in this situation is not enough to 100-0 most targets, with a full R-E-Q-W combo (after charging up Riftwalk) costing 2235 mana and dealing less than 2000 damage. However, after replacing either Rod of Ages or Lich Bane with a Rabadon's Deathcap, and factoring in rune/mastery loadouts, he would just barely have the capacity to burst down a target with no inherent or itemized magic resist. Also, a Nether Blade landed on a champion after this combo would grant 946 mana, restoring enough power for him to continue his onslaught.

I hope you guys found this theoretical essay of mine to be interesting, at the very least. Hopefully Kass gets the treatment he deserves one of these days, but until then, I can always hope that this catches the eye of someone at Riot Games.

Thanks so much.

Love and Peace,
Summoner YoManDudeP