Howdy children. Gather round to grandpas campfire to hear the story of what playing Vel’Koz was like long ago. Vel’koz was released in February of 2014. Wow! Almost 10 years ago. At that time it was clearly known that distance mages were countered by high mobility champions. Let me list the ones you had to watch out for.
Kassadin, Nocturne, Riven, Fizz, Ahri, Zed, Zac, Vi, Lee Sin.
That’s it. Those were your high mobility champions.
- Kassadin could be countered early with good lane play.
- Nocturne had to ult you directly.
- Riven was almost never mid.
- Fizz was a nightmare as well as Ahri and Zed
- Zac, vi, and lee you just ward against.
Welcome back to 2023. Riot has decided that super high mobility assassin brusiers are pretty cool. Isn’t it super fun that you can come through jungle terrain and off-paths. Kayn sure is exciting. The counter play for Vel includes… uhhh… gotta sit further back. They reworked Sion and added Kled so that you could get insta run down. Added Ornn and changed Mao ult so that it could knife you from long range with hard CC. Sylas came around and does whatever he does to you. Aurelion Sol can dive you from across your screen. Ekko? Best of luck, sir. Lillia now has 550 ms while dodging your slow skill shots. Akshan dives at you. Vex hits you with a nearly global ult. Naafiri? Ha. Good luck, man.
The problem fundamentally is not Vel’Koz. It’s riot’s obsession with absurd mobility and spell kits that can hit you across your screen. Big CC wave coming right at you? Didn’t exist back then. Assassin divebombing you from across the screen? That was Zed or Kassadin only. Jungler crossing your screen in a second? Didn’t exist. If it did, it was Lee Sin and you had to hit multiple difficult skill shots to do it.
You guys just don’t remember that immobile mages used to have a place. They do not have a place in modern League. It’s frustrating and it’s bad balancing.
I’ve been saying it since I came back at the beginning of the year.
Riot has had an obsession with creating and remaking champions into champs that do not have drawbacks unlike what they did back in the old days. Champions were meant to be skilled at a few things but then have major drawbacks else where.
Example would be like Yone, dude has great mobility, safe poke, multiple AoE knock ups. A shield, and a double damage ability. This champ would not have been created 5 years ago because it’s overloaded.
Another example is Ksante. Again, multiple knock ups in a skirmish, works as an AoE knock up in short burst. True damage (why) on passive, two abilities that function as dashes, an ult that displaces him and the enemy to create a 1v1 situation and converts his tanks stats to offensive stats.
Again another overloaded kit.
Briar, stun + auto reset, built in Tiamat plus execute damage modifier, AOE displacement with 40% damage reduction and a heal per .25 seconds. Near global ultimate that fears enemies and dishing a lot of damage on landing while gaining additional tank stats. Her W also works as a dash over obstacles so insane mobility and clear speed in the jungle.
Champions from 5-10 years ago, did not get this benefit. Today’s champions are designed to pull more users into the game. Champions designed before were designed for the health of the game. Champs like velkoz would not be complained about much if riot continued to give a damn about the health of the game.