User blog comment:NightbladeX/Kassadin Rework: Thoughts/@comment-19287469-20140326131921/@comment-24036535-20140327183952

That's also true of a lot of other assassins out there, take Talon or LB, if either gets behind they'll be pretty much useless until late game when they finally get the items to kill the enemy carry. Most traditional assassins are very snowbally since they rely on winning lane (ie countering lane opponent) or roaming to get ahead of the enemies. Ever seen what happens when a Zed falls behind? He doesn't so anything useful until late game. Ever seen a Zed get ahead? He 1v3s. Kass is now more of a traditional assassin instead of doing a ton of damage even if he lost lane. This unfortunatly has also left his pick rate unchanged, but now its not because he was banned in 97% of games.

He's kinda turned into what I understand happened to Talon, used to be banned a lot, nerfed, not much play anymore.