The state of Veigar
This isn't an organized post but just some expanding while I was tweeting.
If you play League of Legends, many of you probably have complaints about the recent patch, Patch 5.4. Now, I don't mean to say that if we have complaints it's automatically bad. By nature most of us won't like change, and many times we've complained about a balance change or such that ended up being just fine. I've been guilty of that too.
Veigar's a huge topic though (along with the jungle, I know, but that's why I'm staying away from re-learning jungle yet this season.) Veigar has always had his identity in being an anti-mage assassin. He is also one of the few infinite scaling champions (like Sion's health), in that he can farm his Baleful Strike(Q)s as long as the game continues. He's a yordle, he hates short jokes, and he basically had a Deathcap built into his skillset. Which was awesome. You were so squishy so you never played him much, but it felt so darn good when you just 100-0 anyone you wanted...especially that pesky Leblanc or Ahri. Or that Swain, cause you know, his AP is your AP.
Recently, however, Veigar gained a lot of attention as a support. As someone who loves trying champions in unconventional roles, I wasn't surprised to see this at all. His Event Horizon (E) is a great zoning ability AND an amazing stun if you can hit it. Your ult still does good damage against most other supports and mids, and even top laners these days with Rumble and Lissandra. You have wave-clear. You sacrifice a little utility compared to standard supports for more damage. Like Annie.
This brought attention to his powerful stun. Up to 2.5 seconds is a long time for a stun in League of Legends (I know it seems puny to you DOTA fans.) For reference, Ashe's Ult stuns for a max of 3.5 seconds if you covered enough distance, and that's an ultimate. If you've been hit by an arrow, you know that it feels like eternity. Event Horizon is similar.
If you've never played Veigar, let me brief you very quickly. Event horizon is a circular skillshot, It isn't exactly the easiest thing to land. It used to be instant cast, so if you hit it, you got it, but you would really need to have played Veigar quite a bit because your mouse is where the center of that circle is...where as the stun is the edge of that circle.
If you don't use smarcast, you'll get the indicator, but it's still no simple task to hit moving targets in a teamfight. Bottom line: it's different. It's not your line skillshot, and it's not your AOE. Even then, an instant-cast 14sec cooldown (at the highest level) 2.5sec stun seemed too strong to Riot. And I can agree with that. It IS super strong! Just because it's hard to hit doesn't mean it should stay untouched forever either given the game changes all the time, and also people will learn tricks and champions as they go etc. etc.
This recent change though, I don't agree this was the way to go. A lot of people have mentioned their reasons, and I think I pretty much agree but I wanted to sum it up in one go:
Event Horizon was Veigar's only defensive characteristic.
The theory here is that Event Horizon was too strong when used offensively. Locked in for 2.5 seconds spells instant death for almost any champion, especially in a teamfight. It could hit multiple targets too. This is all good and fair, but then putting a 0.75 second delay on the walls going up? If you're on the edge, you can walk out, if not you can use an escape skill (which so many champions have these days) to get out without any further consequence. In the old version, you could still jump out of the circle, but you'd get stunned at least at the end of your jump. Now there's infinitely more ways to avoid this.
Now let me expand on "only defensive characteristic." The first is obvious. Veigar has no escapes. He has no dash, blink, jump, knockback, untargetable etc. Vlad has his pool, Ahri has her ult, Zed has his shadow, even Ryze has his ult's movespeed (he also has a targeted snare so that's that). Veigar has nothing. You just turn around and go, or hope you kill them before they kill you.
Second, you only have one utility spell...well the Event Horizon. Which is iffy now. Annie has no escapes, but at worst has Molten Shield (and can have a targeted spell with her passive + Disintegrate). Xerath has a stun and a slow. Anivia has a wall + a stun + a slow with her ult. Morgana has black shield. Swain has a slow and a snare and a sustain ult.
Lastly, Veigar doesn't have a long range. Xerath is a very well known gank-susceptible champion, but how does he survive laning phase? By having superior poke OR farming from way behind if he's falling behind in the laning phase. Veigar can't do that. His changed Q is just your average length, and in fact feels super short once you fall behind. I know this is technically covered by the fact that it can surpass one extra target, but it's in fact a little too wide that it often just hits two in the front row.
What does all this mean?
If you're attacked by...anyone. You're done. Enemy assassin jumps on you? Good bye. Ganked? You get one flash, that's it, good bye. Want to trade? Better be willing to die for it. But WAIT! You have that stun! Which...only goes up after 0.75 seconds. Here's the thing. Yes, you can lead them a bit and stun them, but what matters here is that the extra 0.75 seconds is 0.75 seconds you're taking damage. Basically, you have no way to get back in the game once the enemy shows aggression unless you kill them first...which technically got harder after DFG got removed and now his ult got nerfed.
I say this...after having a successful game with Veigar. His stun can still serve a great zoning purpose, and if you have the element of surprise, you can still catch them pretty decently. But after just a few games, what I'm feeling is that the new Event Horizon has actually taken counterplay options for Veigar himself. Again, champions like Xerath can farm from behind. Ryze can sustain off of his ult. You can always roam as any champion, but without a targeted CC, your roaming depends on your teammates.
Personally, if it's the absurd support potential Veigar showed that is the problem, then I suggest simply shortening the stun duration of Event Horizon. Some people are suggesting this stun duration exists to make his Dark Matter (W) smoother, which is probably true, but if the stun is instant you can queue Dark Matter first. In fact, even in the former version of Event Horizon, rank 1 didn't give you enough time for stun + Dark Matter, especially if they were stunned on the far end. Basically, try to think about how you played him when you only had that first rank in Event Horizon. If you have full mana, you can stun at the far end, harass with Q, and back out until you can burst them with your ult. If they come in, you can stun on the close end. Or, if they are melee, you can stun on the close end and get a full rotation of damage in. It gives you more options, and forces you to make choices, but leaves those choices intact. Now it seems that there's only 2 obvious ways to use Event Horizon which is a.) zoning, b.) catching people from fog of war. The current edition doesn't feel like a cage, because 0.75 seconds is a long time in League for reactions. I really think a shorter stun duration would make him less appealing as a bully support but still allow him to feel somewhat safe in lane and make picks late game.
I was going to write a lot more on my suggested change, but I'd like to hear your thoughts first. What are some other suggestions you can think of?