User blog:Kagimizu/Kha'zix: Adapt and Balance (Kha'zix balance ideas)

So for those who aren't in the know, Kha'zix is a bit of a troublesome purple bug right now. Because of his burst and dueling power Kha'zix is a champion that, with the right build, can force and initiate fights like a bruiser yet quickly finish them as an assassin. Because of this and his high pick/ban rate, Kha has been the subject of a few changes and nerfs. And I can understand why; Riot wants to make everything balanced and fair, so that every champion has their chance to shine. The problem with Kha'zix is that he has too many toys and hogs the playground, forcing out other champions.

Now I know no-one likes seeing their favorite champion get hit with the nerf bat; I sure as hell don't. In fact, Kha'zix is my favorite, main, and FIRST champion in the entirety of League. And I don't like seeing him nerfed and made harder to play effectively. But the fact of the matter is, things can't stay as they are. Kha'zix needs to either be nerfed or undergo some changes to distribute his power more fairly. And I personally would prefer the latter, so here are my suggestions on that:


 * Ratios and Base Damage
 * Similar to the changes that Vi and Annie previously underwent, I feel that perhaps reducing the base damage and increasing the ratios on some of Kha's abilities would help improve his in-game health. With lower base damage and higher ratios, Kha'zix would have to either build full assassin to get the same level of power he gets now, or trade survivability for less raw damage. I admit, his Q would be VERY tricky to alter; perhaps make (at least a portion of) the % missing health bonus damage scale off of AD as well?


 * Rapid Fire Racks
 * Riot has mentioned that they want all of Kha'zix's evolutions to feel useful depending on the situation. I'll admit, Evolved Spike Racks doesn't really feel all that great. I mean sure it's helpful, but it's not really anything compared to the sheer power spike or utility his other evolutions grant.


 * So my idea with Evolved Spike Racks is that instead of a TF-styled spreadshot, why not make his W a Rumble-styled rapid fire, allowing it to be recast twice within a certain window of time, with an increased slow (perhaps that stacked with each successful shot?) but reduced damage/heal for each successful hit on the same target. This would make Evolved Spike Racks great for both chasing and kiting, as well as dueling and farming. Thus, it would have far greater utility than it does now. At the same time, it wouldn't be able to outright replace or overshadow every one of his other evolutions regardless of the situation.


 * Ultimate Alterations (Ultirations?)
 * From what Riot staff have said in previous posts, one of the bigger problems with Kha'zix is the damage reduction on his evolved ultimate. The reason for this is because it offers next to no counterplay; even if you find him he can still facetank with the damage reduction, or if you try and catch him he can just invis out and run. Because of that, I suggest that instead of a defensive buff for evolving his ultimate, you instead get an offensive buff.


 * My idea is as follows: Evolved Void Assault retains its current three-use bonus, but instead of damage reduction using evolved Void Assault empowers Kha's next basic attack/passive even further. This alteration means that not only does Kha'zix's ultimate have more counterplay (because like any good glass cannon he would only be able to fight or escape, not tank), but it could also (in my opinion) actually FEEL more powerful. I've found that when I'm in a teamfight or dueling an opponent, using my ultimate to weave in and out of the engagement and cutting them up with the bonus damage from Unseen Threat is VERY satisfying. With a change like this it would be even more so, allowing you to precisely tear up your opponent before going in for the final blow. It would also give the feeling "Oh crap he's turned red, now he's gonna hurt a lot more" instead of "Oh dammit he's turned red, now he's going to be more frustrating to kill".


 * Detracts
 * As much as I agree that Kha'zix does need to make more room for other champions, there are some aspects of the recent nerfs where I think Riot when a little too far/in the wrong direction.
 * 1) Isolation Range: I find this very frustrating now, because isolation was just nerfed TOO MUCH. 500 is outside the range of every melee champion in existence and a good few ranged characters as well. This makes it far too easy for enemies to abuse the new isolation range requirement; like a kid with nothing but his foot on a safe zone in tag. That's just not fun, ESPECIALLY for laning Kha'zix. I personally think that a range more long the lines of 400-450 would be more fair.
 * 2) Stealth cooldown: You CANNOT tell me this is not frustrating when playing as Kha'zix. Having an ultimate where the total cooldown between casts is equal to the time spent stealthed is just annoying, especially when fighting without an evolved ulti and you spend more time out of stealth than you do in stealth. IMO, a cooldown of 1.5 seconds between casts would be a much better balance.


 * Overall
 * As far as I can tell, Kha'zix is currently the ONLY "Pure Assassin" in the game, with no secondary playstyle like other Assassins. That means his primary job is his ONLY job; find a high value or weakened target, get in and kill them, get out before the enemy team can retaliate. His kit should be focused around that and his main identity, which can basically be summed up as the following four aspects:

His playstyle and his kit should reflect this while at the same time not being overbearing.
 * 1) Isolation mechanics
 * 2) Evolution flexibility
 * 3) High-mobility assassin
 * 4) Giantpurplynotthornyvoidmantis

I'm well aware that this wouldn't catch the eyes of Riot on this wiki, so I would like it if someone could point me in the right direction. But in the meantime, I would quite like some feedback on my ideas and commentary. Do you guys approve?