Talk:Kha'Zix/@comment-10198490-20140904104935

Having recently got Kha'Zix and having thoroughly enjoyed getting acquainted with him, I feel like I should share my insights into the bug, since I'm usually a good judge of champions and their kits. The people that say Kha'Zix is weak are wrong...he's still played in the LCS for a reason, moreover, the complaints people that claim he's weak tend to make mostly compare how he was to how he is now (let us not forget that he had the #1 win rate in Diamond solo que on NA servers for quite some time, at around 58% when I check it too), so they're basically complaining that he's no longer OP whether or not they recognize it. A lot of people seem to think you should max R>W>Q>E and evolve E>W>Q>R, this doesn't seem to matchup with my experiences in game nor does it seem to make much sense on closer observation, at least in typical scenarios. So here are my thoughts on leveling priority:

Q: I've actually been maxing this first so far, but have experimented with maxing W. I think in many cases this is the better ability to max first, why? While base damage gain is quite a bit less than W, its CD is shorter, its mana cost is much lower. Basically ask yourself this: Are you mostly going to be using Q or W in lane/while jungling for damage output? If your answer is Q, you should max it first for the reasons I gave above. In lane, this works best against opponents that are melee and thus have to get close to trade, against ranged opponents, you may find it hard to actually win trades with Q because of the short range.

W: Most people think you should max this first, I think that's only sometimes the right call. most obvious situation is being against a ranged opponent as this will help you sustain better as well as be able poke them back from time to time. Keep in mind the significant mana cost and that it increases with additional ranks though. Another reason would be if you expect to mostly be farming jungle rather than ganking much as the additional monster damage and healing will help your clear greatly. Lastly, if you know your comp will be sieging early on, maxing W in conjunction with evolving W first can greatly help with this strategy.

E: This is pretty obviously a 1 point wonder ability due to mediocre scaling (by necessity in light of its evoled form) and usage. Max it last.

R: Always take a point in your ultimate when you can. This is especially important because leveling your ult gives you an evolution point, so don't delay! (capt. obvious I know)

Evolutions: This is where things get especially interesting imo.

Q: Evolved Q can be great, but it can also not actually end up helping you very often because isolation can be hard to get sometimes. It's generally most useful when you will be skirmishing or splitpushing as these are the times where champions tend to get isolated the most and thus making its evolution most effective. I would say that you evolve this first only in splitpush/dueling comps that will do a lot of skrimishing or if fed early and your team is warding well (so you can get invade happy and try to get picks on isolated enemies), evolving 2nd can make a lot of sense in these situations if there are strong reasons to take a different evolution first and is also useful in games where you didn't skirmish much, but will be splitpushing later on (maybe even as 3rd evolution in this case). I would generally avoid evolving this at all in comps focused on teamfighting (which is actually fairly common in solo que, btw) mainly because you won't get much out of it.

W: This is imo, a less powerful evolution than many people think. While the cone of 3 spikes versus 1 and slow % increase are significant improvements, W is mainly a poke/ranged slow tool, and is fairly mana hungry. This means it's not exactly the most generally useful of evolutions. It's good when your going to be spamming W alot. It's worth evolving first if your going to be mostly farming jungle or laning against a ranged opponent and chose to max W first (and ideally anticipate a longer laning phase rather than shorter). Maxing it 2nd makes sense in siege comps (if not already taken, ofc), and in games where full 5v5 teamfighting (as associated pre-fight poking) starts to happen sooner than usual. It's a good 3rd evolution in games where evolving Q doesn't make much of sense (e.g. teamfight comp that did some early skirmishing but not enough to warrant lvl 6 or 11 Q evolution, or in teamfight comp that is needing to lay siege in late game).

E: This is often considered to be the best 1st evolution, and it's certainly worth getting eventually in just about any game, but it's not necessarily universally the best first evolution, in fact, I dare say it makes more sense to evole this 2nd most of the time. In games where your jungling, W first is often fairly attractive first evolution (and so is R for reasons stated in it's section), and in lane, if you don't anticipate getting out of lane too much pre-level 11 (e.g. expecting a longer laning phase), than evolving E first won't generally do squat for you during levels 6-10, where evolving R, W, or perhaps even Q first will actually benefit you more. In most games where it is not your first evolution, it will likely become your 2nd, unless your doing a lot of splitpushing and/or rather scattered skirmishing, where the CD reset is less likely to actually help you out, in those cases it might be your 3rd evolution or possibly not get evolved at all (rare).

R: Most people seem to consider this evolution to be the weakest. I think they're vastly undervaluing it when they do so. Kha'Zix's ultimate does more than you might think for him, and is vastly improved by its evolution. It allows you to get additional uses out of Unseen Threat mid-fight, it stealths you for a brief moment, which can stall long enough for your Q/other CDs to come back up allowing you to turn a losing situation into a good play not to mention facilitate juking and escapes or even chases (and it gives MS too to help you do all those things too). The evolution doubles the stealth duration (which means w/ decent CDR that your Q will be back up once you destealth, and means you can restealth almost immediately since the CD and subsequent casts is (a static?) 2 seconds), lets you cast it a third time and the MS bonus also lasts twice as long because it's tied to the stealth duration. That's a lot of nice things packed into one evolution, very useful to help win duels and in skirmishes or even teamfights (stealth is more likely to get countered later on in the game though, whether by pink wards or by improved sweeper lens and this is more likely if you are being effective that game and your opponents are smart about counter itemizing you). Generally this makes a solid first evolution if you chose not to evolve E first, as it's very useful in 1-on-1 situations and small skirmishes. If not evolved first, it's a good 2nd evolution if you expect a mix of teamfights and skirmishes or if W and Q both seem only modestly useful at best in your current game. It's a good 3rd evolution if you have one of Q/W along with E and the other of Q/W doesn't appear that it will be very useful or in rare games where evolving E isn't going to be that useful.