Talk:Kassadin/@comment-168.8.249.173-20130320185534/@comment-88.186.19.90-20130323144834

1. Mana+ Blue buff: You technically DO have the mana to sustain your E if you last-hit properly. 3AA=1Q, E has a negligible mana cost; that means that in 9 CS you almost covered the mana cost for charging the pulse. It's not easy but completely feasible. Blue buff reduces your CDs and gives you mana, but it doesn't remove the fact that you still have to cast 6 frigging spells in total with 7  second cooldown (taking into account the 20%CDR). reducing=/=removing, blue buff facilitates pulse charging but it doesn't render it obsolete.

3. Damage distribution: You underestimate the increase in damage from pulse. In this game, increasing or decreasing the damage of an ability by 30 points (or even less sometimes) can  make or break a champion. Removing pulse damage from Kassa's rotation hurts his damage greatly.

4. Counter: You seem to overestimate Kassa's mobility. Riftwalk can be used either as an engage OR a disengage move during a burst, but not both. Everybody in the roster with decent MS can dodge skillshot-based champions, it's not exclusive to Kassadin; and even if the enemy has skillshots, he can still retaliate if he is still in range once the silence wears off.

A Kass that engages with R needs E to be able to retreat safely. A Kass that keeps R to retreat has to walk to his opponent, meaning the opponent can retreat, cast a spell defensively or pre-emptively, etc...

On a sidenote, allow me to inform you that Lux is NOT considered by most players as an easy matchup for Kassadin; to the point where people think it's a soft-ish counter.

5. Unaltered 3 spell burst: At level 6 (just like level 12), Kassa's QER and Arhi's QWE both deal 320 base damage. The difference is, Arhi has a 12 CD spell, while Kassa's are all ~7 seconds. Factor in the fact that Kassa's damage cannot be retaliated to with E up (unlike Arhi who can get counter-burst), that it's not skillshot based (so when Kassa chooses to do damage, he deals it 100% of the time) and you have a severe strength imbalance in the lane. Heck, even if Kassa doesn't R ON the Arhi he still wins the trade because she cannot damage Kassadin back.

THAT is why you need a stacking mechanic on E. To slow down his average damage output a little.

Push vs depush: You are starting to loose credibility here; Kassadin is a tremendous roamer and E is a perfect way of keeping his roaming in check with tradeoffs. TF, Arhi, Kata etc... are strong gankers, but they need their ultimate if they want to gank optimally and/or deal their maximum damage, and they have more than 60 sec CD. Kassa also needs his ult to gank optimally, but it has a 7 second CD. Nether Blade is actually usable during ganks because fighting 1v2 is suicide, so Kassadin's damage output is roughly (roughly, it's slightly lower but then...7 second blink) the same as most mages with their ult. Basically, Kassa can gank just as hard as most mages with their ult up ALL THE TIME, ANYWHERE ON THE MAP, with a HUGE BLINK to get in range. If you allowed Kassa to push his lane on-demand at level 6 like TF or Kata, you would have a very very unhappy playerbase on your hands (and very happy Kassa players).

Good gankers need counterplay. If those good gankers are also strong duelist (like Kassadin or Leblanc), you need to have the possibility of pinning them down on the lane without fighting them; and that is usually pushing. Kassa is vulnerable to counter ganks (unlike LB) because of his squishyness and requirement to stay in melee range, so it is not necessary to stop him from clearing waves, but he must not be able to push the lane without risk. The stack mechanic on E allows the enemy to choose wether Kassadin clears rapidly and pressure other lanes or wether Kassadin doesn't push but has more opportunities to get a kill in lane/zone. Sometimes top and bot are pushed and you kow Kassadin won't be able to gank, so you push very fast in order to avoid his harass, and sometimes bot and top are not pushed, so you tank his burst but you freeze the wave to force Kassadin to stay mid.

Choices: "How does the E save you from an invading enemy at level 1?" You take Q at level 1. And Q doesn't save you from an invading enemy at level 1 either. Nothing saves you from an invading enemy at level 1 barring towers. Kassadin is the worst champion in the game until he reaches level 6 anyway. Wether you take Q, E or W won't make any major difference. Maxing E =/= taking E at level 1.

"E unreliable during a gank and doesn't guarantee a kill" It actually is, because R+E allows you to land Nether Blade procs, and to catch people unawares in the middle of the lane. If you level E more, you have a stronger slow and hence, a longer timeframe to AA. Also, since there are 2 other people in the lane you are ganking, there is a high chance your pulse will be charged again before the 6 second CD finishes, effectively giving you another round of damage should you need to.

"No lane presence" You don't need lane presence if you push your lane. You kill the minions and then go somewhere else, leaving your opponent to deal with the mess. If you are facing a Fizz for example, maxing E changes your life, because if you fight you will die. So you push the lane, farm up, and then either stalk the Fizz to prevent him from ganking or gank. Now you won't be able to push as hard as Morgana and obviously you do not harass as strongly as if you maxed Q (there has to be some kind of cost for maxing E), but combined with Nether Blade you still have non-negligible pushing power and more opportunities to gank.

Potential damage output: I was talking about large scale all-in burst opportunities, maybe I should have elaborated more. A Kassadin that goes all-in uses Nether Blade procs, which you didn't factor in.

Arhi's full burst at 6 is indeed 575+2.86. Kassadin's full burst is 410+3.1AP with 3 AAs,     (470+3.7AP with 5 AAs and not counting base AD damage, but that's unreasonable IMO)

Arhis total burst is indeed stronger by 165 damage, that's less than a Null Sphere (that can be landed easily and safely).

In other words, at level 6, Kassadin can assassinate as hard as Arhi after harassing with 1 Q. If it fails in the sense that he doesn't manage to kill because the opponent managed to flash/run/jungler arrived/whatever, Kassa just has to wait for 6 seconds and try again. If he DOES manage to kill his opponent, Kassa can still gank effortlessly in the next two minutes. If Arhi tries that, she uses her ultimate and therefore she won't be able to try again or gank easily in the next 110 seconds.

A charge mechanism on E reduces the timeframes available to Kassadin for all-in assassinations, on top of reducing how often he can soften up his targets with QER.