Patch 6.9 will bring with it a massive mid-season re-work to some of the outdated mages. While a few of them are receiving some minor tweaks to their skills, 6 of these champions have gone through complete overhauls: Brand, Zyra, Cassiopeia, Vladimir, Vel’Koz, and Malzahar. Each of these mage identities has been accentuated incredibly to reduce homogeneity. Let’s get you prepped and ready on what’s to come.
1. Brand
Brand’s area of affect style has been exaggerated even further in this his mage makeover. Though his skills are actually all still the same, his passive ability has been changed to a stacking burn, which will eventually explode into a massive circle of fire around the target, dealing % health damage to nearby enemy champions. Since he retains virtually the exact same abilities, don’t expect to see him played with any frequency after the first couple of weeks following the patch. If you didn’t play him before, chances are you won’t really want to play him after anyway.
2. Zyra
The ‘Rise of the Thorns’ mostly had changes to her plants. While her seeds will no longer grant vision of anything, and leveling up her Rampant Growth (W) will not give cooldown reduction, seeds now passively spawn around Zyra. Further, plant life scales with levels.
More interestingly. her Deadly Spines (Q) now fires in a rectangular shape, as opposed to its previous circle, covering far more ground. While the shape change might not seem like a big deal up front, it contributes significantly to her ability to zone enemy champions. In combination with the increased number of active plants, this ability will really make Zyra a thorn in your side. Already a mage with one of the best defensive skill sets, this re-made Zyra will be even better at controlling space, while sacrificing a little bit of upfront damage.
3. Cassiopeia
If you want a late game carry, look no further. Cassiopeia is poised to become the strongest 6-item carry in the game. Firstly, she can no longer buy boots (which totally makes sense if you think about it…). Countering this, she gains 4 Movement Speed per level, amassing a total of 400 base movement speed at level 18, nothing to laugh at.
Her Miasma (W) saw the most significant change, similarly to Zyra’s Deadly Spines (Q). Instead of being a small circle on the ground, Miasma (W) now fires a gigantic arc that stops at the first terrain hit. It’s as if her previous skill’s area was multiplied by 10. Even scarier, enemies cannot use any movement abilities while inside the cloud; if this includes flash, it might be a little bit too over-tuned.
The first professional team to have a skilled Cassiopeia player is going to really cause some problems. A 6-item (no boots), area of effect, DPS mage in the late game is probably the most frightening combination I can think of. At worst, she’s a ticking time-bomb that will detonate past 30 minutes. Her new W eliminates movement options for the other team, and might be the best zoning skill in the entire game. Of all the mage re-works, this one is definitely the most drastic, while also perhaps being the riskiest.
4. Vladimir
Vladimir is going to see a re-work of his Tides of Blood (E). It can now be charged up, and has a slightly shorter range, but can slow enemies when it has been fully charged. It also looks way, way cooler. His Transfusion (Q) has a Crimson Rush component to it, where on the third cast Vladimir gains a slight Movement Speed boost, and the ability deals 100% increased damage while having additional healing based on his missing health.
Vladimir also gained HP scaling on his Tides of Blood (E), and his passive now has a greater incentive for building Health rather than Ability Power. Look for these changes to shift Vlad into a more tank role, emphasizing items like Rylai’s Crystal Sceptre, Spirit Visage, and maybe even Sunfire Cape.
5. Vel’Koz
This tentacle monster retained all of the same skills, but his Life Form Disintegration Ray no longer applies his passive. Instead, enemies that have recently been afflicted by 3 stacks of his passive will take True Damage from his ultimate. This is going to be huge for shredding through tanks.
Since he’s already a pocket counter-pick for certain champions like Azir, Vel’koz might also find a general increase in popularity as people rediscover his sleeper strength against compositions without heavy dive.
6. Malzahar
All of Malzahar’s abilities received slight tweaks, except for his W which became Void Swarm (W). He summons voidlings that fight nearby enemies, multiplying when they hit an enemy champion, large monster, or helps in killing a unit; basically, they spawn off of each other for 12 seconds, and you can get a whole bunch of them looking like a Zergling rush. His passive was also retooled to give him a shield when Malzahar as avoided combat for a short period of time. It gives 90% damage reduction and crowd control immunity for 1 second after taking any damage or being hit by a crowd control effect. Also, his Nether Grasp (R) has the previous Null Zone attached to the skill, so you don’t need to worry about combo-ing that anymore.
It’s tough to say where Malzahar is going to fit in. He might be a legitimate top laner if the tank meta sticks around, or perhaps as a cheesy jungler. He doesn’t fit the general mage archetype right now, lacking in long-range wave clear. He still does a nasty job in taking down Baron; in fact, he can solo it with 3 items at 20 minutes, so perhaps he’ll find a new permanent home in the jungle!