Talk:Vel'Koz/@comment-10428734-20140306181712/@comment-24114706-20140307152715

Sounds like somebody had a tough Launch week with Vel'Koz.

I've been playing him pretty regularly in the mid lane when I get non-assassin matchups and I've been finding that I can win pretty consistently because of his kit balance. He DOES have substantial utility. His E lets you set up for all of your combos at a fair range (850, actually this is better than a lot of the other mid-range combo mages that he fits in with), and in case you forgot, his Q hits people for a 70% slow. Not to mention that you can hit up to three people with it if you aim it at the right angle. The fact that he has 2 spells with CC makes his W incredibly easy to land (also, since we're talking about it, W is largely for applying a passive stack on the first pass). If the W could actually line people up, that would put his teamfighting damage WAY off the charts compared to similar champs. He already has better base damage and higher total damage when you build him right. The trick with VK is to learn 3 things:

1: GEOMETRY. You can shoot Q around the entire minion line, you can shoot it through the minion line, and you can get angles on either side of the minion line regardless of where you're standing. Also don't forget that you can direct-shot people with Q to start a combo if you're still learning to land E.

2: Tribes:Ascend. Play some Tribes, blue plate people for a few days, then play Velkoz. You'll land every E as a combo initiator. The ideal VK combo for an E catch is EW(chill for a second, maybe AA that scrub) then Q so the target can't run out of the W explosion. You'll have the guy running, you can finish with ulti or you can chase to get a Geometry snipe.

3: Don't ult. think like a Lux (or maybe don't, becuase they usually KS and only snipe with ulti). Only put down an ult if 1: you're safe from CC and 2: you can hit more than 1 person. This is kind of a teamfight rule, since in lane you'll usually max-range somebody with your ulti to get kills. Definitely be careful of opening with the ult in lane, because mobile champs will juke it or cc you. (I won a lot of VK vs VK games because people would ult me and I could just stop with my E and do a full combo without any further retaliation.

I think he's pretty balanced for his character type (he's in that awkward set of mid-long range mages who aren't played very much in competitive scenes), and he definitely brings an absurd amount of damage to a team. The comparison to Lux doesn't really add up because really VK is kind of competing with the likes of Malzahar and new-Xerath with mid-long range burst and moderate cc while offering teams literally no support spells. Utility on any mage comes from skillful spell usage, not from a shield. They're called SKILLshots for a reason XD