Talk:Kassadin/@comment-4372473-20140422044443/@comment-1330314-20140422210739

@Neyrokrai:

You're right. Kassadin's burst is relatively weak compared to the burst of a lot of other assassins. On the other hand, he has more defensive capabilities in the form of his shield and passive, and is by far the most mobile champion in the game, even when taking into account the increasing mana cost on his R. Unlike most other assassins, some of whom have no disengage potential at all, he has an extremely strong escape every 3 seconds, which allows him to exit a fight and reenter it at will. This obviously requires tradeoffs: the problem with pre-rework Kassadin was that his damage, defense and mobility were structured in a way that allowed him to lay down massive burst without even having to get too close to his target, despite being a melee assassin. His burst is actually the same as his previous damage, only it's now split more uniformly and therefore requires him to get into melee range to deal maximum damage. You're also wrong: hit and run is not the same as poking. A poke ability has the caster stay from a safe distance, meaning their opponent's mode of countering said poke comes from dodging the abilities thrown at them. Hit and run involves the assassin getting up close, which means there's a window where their opponent can retaliate with crowd control, burst of their own and even autoattacks. It has a lot more interactivity to it, and this is the playstyle Kassadin should've had from the start.

You bring up and  as counter-examples, but even Riot brings them up as examples of champions who require more counterplay to be added to their kit. They and Kass V1.0 are part of a generation of assassins who are designed to burst down single targets and escape as quickly and safely as possible, and it's now apparent that their play patterns don't involve much input from their opponents.

@Porkmunkyforlife:
 * 1) Sure, you could pre-emptively stack Riftwalk damage to set up a kill, but that's like igniting your opponent as you both enter the lane for a bit of extra damage. Sure, it's an option, and with extreme luck it may even snag you a kill, but it's an insanely stupid option. Waiting for the right moment to initiate damage stacks, however, and refilling your mana with your W as you stick to your target is a much better option, one that requires more enemy input and that ultimately produces greater returns. Again, you using your abilities wrong when there is a clear success case (e.g. Kassadin initiating with a and getting mana back with  while sticking to his target) is your own fault, not the champion's.
 * 2) Had you read my post properly, you would have noticed that I was referring to old Kassadin, who had a silence. You also missed my point: the reason his ult scales off of mana is so that you don't build to scale with it. If Kassadin could have his ult's damage scale in a significant manner, he'd return to the pre-rework days where he'd be able to output a lot of burst before his opponent could react properly. Even in his current iteration, Kass has a lot of protection against magic damage dealers, and having a lot of burst that doesn't require him to get up to his opponent's face would just diminish the latter's input when fighting against him.