Talk:Kassadin/@comment-14066630-20140313031244/@comment-7967732-20140316180222

Of course Kass is still a strong pick, but not the "OP as fuck, no way to deal with" mage anymore. His scaling is great, the total ratio is not the highest among all mages, but he has both burst (which can easily repeat for several rounds) and sustain damage.

However, his base damage is low now. With his early items being tear & catalyst (at least 1, often both), his early - mid output relies mostly on base number (and the nerfs did hit that quite significantly). If you max Q 1st for better lane harass & longer silence, the damage at lvl 6 to 13 is seriously lower than almost any mage (except the supports turn APC like Janna, Lulu), and mostly single target. You will also have shitty farm. If you max E (the more favored choice in 4.3), your gank can still be as good (though anyone with dash/flash escape easier) and you do have decent waveclear, but lane opponent have a much easier time trading back (and they actually outdamage Kass at this stage).

4.2 Kass " I'm gonna get to 6 and rape you all"

4.3 Kass " I'm gonna get to 6 and try to catch up, then I can rape you all (much) later"