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Kha'Zix, the Voidreaver
Disclaimer:+ Show Spoiler + I'm a 1500s-1600s player who loves to play Kha'zix but did pretty bad with him in S2 (~30% winrate!). My explanations and experiences come mostly from normals, and my majority of games with him were played in top lane.
As the major S3 changes have just come out, I have not added a detailed guide to items, runes, masteries, or summoners. I kindly ask for your patience while these are sorted out.
Kha'zix (referred to as KZ, or "the bug") is an assassin type champion with high mobility and great single target physical burst damage. He also does pretty good sustained damage due to a short cooldown on his primary attack skill. Playing the bug is a unique experience due to the changes to his playstyle which occur when you evolve his abilities (every time you rank up your ultimate you can evolve one ability), which allows playing KZ to be a fun, adaptable experience.
You also get to eviscerate your enemies mid-air and fly all over the map.
Abilities: + Show Spoiler +Passive: Unseen ThreatDescription: + Show Spoiler +When Kha'Zix is not visible to the enemy team, he gains Unseen Threat. Unseen Threat causes his next basic attack against an enemy champion or Evolved Void Spike to deal 15 / 20 / 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65 / 75 / 85 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140 / 155 / 170 / 185 / 200 / 220 (+ 50% AP) bonus magic damage and slow by 35% for 2 seconds.
Unseen Threat lasts until consumed and has no internal cooldown. Extra damage on auto attack + slow, resets on enemy losing vision of you. Damage is considerable even early, becomes 200+ damage at higher levels Suggested use: + Show Spoiler + Trading in-lane: auto into Q (or Q into auto) -> disengage is a very strong trade. If your opponent tries to stick to you as you leave the creep line, the fast cool down on your Q plus the isolation bonus (if they follow you into the bushes for example) gives a huge advantage. If they don't stick, you walk into bush to reset the passive and are ready to trade again almost immediately.
Fighting in or near bushes is a very good way to increase your overall damage. Since the passive damage buff comes back immediately if your opponent loses vision of you, if you step into a bush for even a split second you get some extra damage. There are several spots in the map where you can even duck into a bush while chasing your opponent down, allowing you to get an extra slow and burst damage onto him before he can get away.
Q: Taste Their FearDescription: + Show Spoiler + Range: 325 - 375 Cooldown: 3.5 Cost: 25 mana Passive: Kha'Zix marks enemies that are isolated from their allies. Active: Deal physical damage to a single target. Damage against isolated targets is significantly increased. Physical damage: 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190 (+ 160% bonus AD) Physical damage to Isolated Target: 100 / 145 / 190 / 235 / 280 (+ 240% bonus AD)
The bug's Q is his highest damage output skill. It is basically his signature skill. Very fast cd and very high scaling means proper use/abuse of this skill is the key to your success. There are other champions in the League who do more damage than KZ if you don't get the isolation bonus from this skill, so learn to live with this mechanic and make use of it as much as you can. Evolved Q: Evolved Enlarged ClawsDescription: + Show Spoiler + Increases damage to isolated targets by 12% of their missing health (max 200 vs monsters). Increases range of Taste Their Fear and Kha'Zix's Basic Attacks by 50. It does a bit more damage conditionally, and the range becomes a little longer. The usage of the skill does not significantly change after its evolution. W: Void Spike Description: + Show Spoiler + Range: 1000 Cooldown: 8 Cost: 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 mana Active: Kha'Zix fires spikes that explode on contact, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies. Kha'Zix is healed if he is within the explosion radius. Physical Damage: 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 (+ 90% bonus AD) Heal: 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+ 50% AP)
An odd skill for his kit. Most effective when used point blank (to benefit from the heal), also useful for last hitting when it is not safe to stand in lane. Raising the skill increases the mana cost, which can cause issues early mid-game if you max W first. The usage of his W becomes a completely different when evolved. Evolved W: Evolved Spike RacksDescription: + Show Spoiler + Causes Void Spike to fire three spikes in a cone. Void Spike will consume Unseen Threat to slow and damage all enemies struck. Awesome for clearing jungle camps quickly, and for clearing creep waves. Great for poking in mid/end game standoffs. Proper use to clear a creep wave is to either stand perpendicular to the wave so that the 3 prongs of your W shot hit different areas of the wave, or to weaken the melee line sufficiently (1 or 2 autos on each melee minion) and cast the W directly toward the bulk of the wave (the first missile will destroy the melee minions, the other 2 will go through to hit the casters in the back). Evolving W can also change your burst combo on an enemy champ standing in the middle of creeps (E Q W becomes E W Q). Using E to jump onto him and damage the melee minions, then W to hit him and the minion wave can sometimes successfully clear all creeps near the champion, so your Q gets the isolation bonus. E: Leap Description: + Show Spoiler + Range: 600 - 900 Cooldown: 22 / 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 Cost: 50 mana Active: Kha'Zix leaps to an area, dealing physical damage to enemies in the area. Physical Damage: 65 / 100 / 135 / 170 / 205 (+ 80% bonus AD)
A jump that does damage at the landing area. This skill is among the highest class of mobility spells, allowing movement to any location without vision. Allows for mobility only matched by Gragas's E, Kassadin's R, Sejuani's Q, Tristana's W, and Ezereal's E (plus a few others...). The E's flat mana cost (50) also allows you to use it as a farming/clearing spell in some cases (only do this if you are 100% sure you will not need it to catch/escape in the next ~20 seconds). Furthermore, just like Tristana's jump, you can cast spells while you are still in mid-air during the jump. You can jump past someone and hit them with your Q while still in mid-air, and land behind them. You can jump and shoot your W behind you, or at your targets in front of you, or whatever. This allows your primary combo of jumping and spamming your damage abilities to cause a huge sudden burst of damage. Note that you cannot cast your ultimate during the jump, unlike your other skills (so no invisible super gap closer ganks). The major drawback to KZ's E is the relatively long cooldown, which changes with... Evolved E: Evolved WingsDescription: + Show Spoiler + Increases Leap's range and causes kills and assists to refresh Leap's cooldown.
Like his W, the usage of his E becomes completely different after it is evolved. It increases the range of the jump to be almost stupidly long, and also resets on kills or assists. This allows you to reposition very often in team fights that are going well, which is one of the keys to the bug's team fight strength. It also allows for crazy dives: as long as you get a kill you can jump right back out. R (ult): Void AssaultDescription: + Show Spoiler + Cooldown: 100 / 90 / 80 Cost: 100 mana Passive: Each rank of Void Assault allows Kha'Zix to evolve one of his abilities, granting it an additional effect. Active: Kha'Zix enters stealth for 1 second, gaining 40% bonus movement speed. Entering stealth grants Unseen Threat. Void Assault can be cast a second time within 10 seconds at no cost.
Active: Turns you invisible and gives you a speed boost for 1 second. Can be cast twice. Mainly good for getting extra damage from passive resets, and for minor jukes. Suggested use: part of your burst combo - keeps enemies disoriented and makes it harder for them to play correctly against your damage. Use right after an autoattack, reposition (walk in front of where they will go), then auto again. Other uses include escaping, going invisible then flashing, getting an extra second of movement towards a gank target without them seeing you… Passive: Allows you to evolve one of your four abilities. Note that selecting an evolve effectively stuns you for almost 3 seconds while the evolution takes place. Not suggested in the middle of a lvl 6 fight. Evolved R: Evolved Active CamouflageDescription: + Show Spoiler + Void Assault can be cast three times. Kha'Zix takes 40% reduced damage while in stealth. You get one more usage of the R active, along with a 40% damage reduction during the stealth duration. While it is nice, other evolves are more interesting in most cases, and this evolution is only recommended when you are constantly being focused by the enemy team (gogo tank Kha'zix!) or if you are having trouble with tons of incidental AE damage.
Skill order: + Show Spoiler + In jungle: Q|W -> Q|W -> W -> E (get E at lvl 2 or 3 for early gank if needed) In lane (standard): Q -> E|W -> E|W -> Q -> Q -> R (R>W>Q>E or R>Q>W|E if you don't evolve W) In lane (safe): W -> E -> Q -> Q -> Q -> R (R>W>Q>E or R>Q>W|E if you don't evolve W) In lane (paranoid): E first. It sometimes helps to get E first if you are strongly expecting a gank before you get level 2 (top lane versus lee sin jungle on red side…).
Which Evolutions to get in which order? + Show Spoiler + The respective evolves are discussed below each individual skill. My thoughts on which evolves to get are summarized here:
Each evolve makes the specified skill more useful, but the most dramatic changes are the ones to KZ's E and W. Next comes his R, and lastly his Q because its usability almost does not change at all (slight range increase) and it only gains damage.
So in terms of how *dramatic* a change each evolve makes to Kha'zix's gameplay, the evolves can be ranked: E | W >>> R > Q
Evolving E and W radically changes his playstyle and kit. Does this mean you should evolve E and W first every game?
Of course not. Each evolution offers a specific benefit which might or might not be needed in the game you are in right now. If you have the opportunity to farm huge creep waves or if you need the superior poke from the evolved W, then evolve the W. If you know some larger skirmishes or team fights are coming up, evolve the E. If you need tankyness or the additional juke, evolve R. And if you know the opponents are often isolated then evolve Q.
Each evolve also comes with a very steep opportunity cost which has to be considered. If you evolve the W to farm, you miss out on the ability to reposition multiple times in a lvl 9 team fight at dragon a few minutes later. If you evolve your Q and the opponents stay clumped up in every fight, you lose the benefit you could have gotten by evolving your W to punish them for grouping up.
Keep in mind it takes a long time to get to lvl 6, then a long time between 6 and 11, and then between 11 and 16.
Therefore my advice on which evolutions to pick is twofold: 1) In the same manner that any item and skill build order should be adjusted on the fly based on the circumstances of the specific game you are in, keep yourself adaptable when it comes to your evolutions. 2) The evolutions you pick should match to your specific play style. If you want to poke people down, evolved W is a must. If you want to have extremely high mobility in team fights evolve E, if you want better burst on isolated targets evolve Q, and if you want more tankyness evolve R. Keep in mind that evolving W and E make the most dramatic changes to the bug's play style.
In my opinion a good basis to find the play style you want for Kha'zix is to play a few games evolving W first. Evolved W totally changes how you approach the jungle, creep waves, and fights. If you like the play style, integrate evolved W (and maxing the W skill earlier) into your play style. Otherwise, focus on E and Q evolves (one or the other at 6 and 11), and decide between W and R for endgame depending on what you need.
TLDR: Common consensus is that the best evolve order is: W --> E --> R. I highly suggest that you find the best evolve order to match your own play style.
Summoners: Ignite Flash, Smite Flash if jungling. Others have reported success with replacing flash with exhaust.
Items: + Show Spoiler + *to be updated after S3 changes are further explored*
As an AD caster / assassin, the following stats are highly valued:
Offence: Attack damage Armor Penetration Cooldown reduction
Defence / sustain: Lifesteal (spell vamp would be good too, but no spell vamp items exist for AD casters) HP Armor Magic Resist
On preliminary examination, the following s3 items should be pretty good on him:
Offence: Brutalizer Black cleaver Zeke's Herald (??) Bilgewater
Defence: Aegis Glacial Shroud Locket (??) Hexdrinker
Situational / possible: Tiamat Sword of the Divine (high efficiency of use from the active since Kha'zix does not normally build attack speed or Crit chance)
Masteries:
*to be updated after S3 changes are further explored*
Runes: + Show Spoiler + Just like in S2, flat AD runes are still superior to Armor Pen runes for early and early-mid game.
Therefore the following runes are recommended for lane and jungle: Quints: AD Reds: AD Yellows: Armor Blues: Magic resist or Magic resist per level
Lane selection:
What lanes work for Kha'zix? KZ can survive in top lane (badly vs some matchups), Jungle adequately (s3 jungle status unknown), and do well in mid lane (as long as your team has some other form of magic damage).
Top: + Show Spoiler + Just like Talon, sending an assassin top is a questionable tactic. A super strong burster who does pure physical damage can be dealt with by the many top lane bruisers who stack armor hard. Despite the dubious prospect of sending KZ top in general (and specifically versus certain champs), that is the role I have most reliably been able to play him in, so this section will have the most description.
Kha'zix can do well against some matchups who lose to his early all-in strength, but he can also lose hard if he gets even a little behind, and then it becomes very difficult for him to remain relevant in the rest of the game. Ganks from the jungle swing the lane majorly in either direction, and you run the risk of going against a laner who scales harder than you in late game team fights.
I therefore view sending KZ top as high risk with medium reward. You still get to play a bug who jumps around like crazy, so you can have fun, but I don't see him as a universally strong champ to send into every matchup no matter what. Furthermore KZ's low amount of CC and highly item dependent burst damage leaves much to be desired in many team comps.
I have had the most success with KZ top when duod with an allied jungler who brings a lot of CC (Jarman, Nautilus, Amumu…).
Jungle: + Show Spoiler + The big strength Kha'zix brings to the jungle is his evolved E's extreme gapcloser range, allowing for ganks from surprising angles and/or tower diving ability. He was mediocre at clearing the jungle in S2 and didn't really get better from the changes in S3.
Regarding killing jungle creeps, it is usually not worth it to focus down the small creeps first in order to get the isolation damage bonus on your Q. On the buff camps, it is possible to pull the melee buff monster far enough away from his ranged minions that you can get the isolation bonus, but I have not had consistent success doing this (you engage, step into bush, step back, attack, step back, attack, until eventually the melee buff monster is far enough away).
Mid: + Show Spoiler + Mid lane frequently provides KZ with preferred target: squishy, low hp/resist champions that often have too little mobility to survive in a longer lane. His strong gap closer and high burst damage allow him to do full engages which either send his opponent back to the fountain or net him kills. He can experience problems with engaging hard and dying to a jungler gank, but this can be ameliorated by careful warding.
Basically the difference between fighting targets who usually do not stack survivability (and especially armor) versus the more bruiserish fare from top lane makes mid a virtual smorgasbord of kills and farm.
Furthermore, much of KZ's kit's strength lies in his ability to fly into a lane unexpectedly for a gank. Starting in the jungle or being in mid lane is a far superior position to launch ganks, compared to the isolation of top lane.
General overall strategy:
As mentioned, KZ's kit and strengths vary depending on what skills you have evolved. In my opinion the biggest strength he brings to a team is his extreme mobility and burst, allowing engages and ganks or support for ganks in unexpected places, which is tied to his E evolution. If you plan to capitalize on this strength, evolving E and roaming/ganking is mandatory regardless of which lane you started out in.
None of his evolutions or skills lend themselves to lane dominance (without being fed a few kills), so I find that even if I pull ahead of a strong bruiser at top, I will eventually be outscaled if I just stay in the same lane and farm the whole time.
Getting the most of the small skirmishes, fights over the naturally isolated map objectives (Dragon and Baron), engaging or ganking unsuspecting solo champions in the jungle or lane, and leveraging KZ's strong midgame scaling are all keys to victory for Kha'zix.
Specific Techniques:
Lvl 1 Cheese: + Show Spoiler +As the bug is not a super popular champion (as of yet), there are many players out there who do not know his full capabilities or are not used to the matchup. This allows a 1 lvl cheese abuse case to work fairly frequently:
Position yourself somewhere in the jungle where you think there is a good chance a solo enemy champ will walk. The most likely spots are ones where a solo lane will help his jungler then go on a straight path to his lane (to not miss minion exp). Try to determine which buff camp their jungler will start at and position yourself accordingly.
Classic spots are: top lane tribush or bushes next to the top lane, bushes next to their wraith camp, lane bushes near their blue buff (to ambush their mid after he helps with blue...).
The cheese combo: Stand in a bush until they are right next to you. Ignite first (for the extra AD and AP from improved ignite mastery) and Q -> autoattack. Stick to them hard and flash after them immediately if they flash. Land a second Q and you have a very good chance of getting first blood from KZ's ridiculous lvl 1 damage on an isolated target.
Optionally, start with a Doran's blade for extra lulz burst damage for this cheese opening. The slow from your passive is enough to prevent someone from escaping by walking away before you can land your second Q, even if they have boots and you don't.
This same combo can work at lvl 1 in the middle of the creep wave if the enemy champ lets you walk into melee range without retreating.
Kha'zix's lvl 1 all-in can beat: ... most champs who do not stack huge amounts of armor
Kha'zix's lvl 1 all-in can NOT beat: Xin Zhao Riven (she hops away too fast) Darius …
Other specific techniques: Please contribute!
Change Log: + Show Spoiler + 05-Dec-2012 - v1 of the guide created
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I will use this post to compile raw information which may eventually be added to the main guide.
Season 3 runes: Armor Pen vs Attack Damage + Show Spoiler +Season 3 changed the order in which penetration calculations are performed (armor pen % calculated before flat pen), and also adjusted the strength of armor penetration runes (the values are lower than in S2). The question is, does the changed calculation order justify running Armor Pen Marks or Quints over the equivalent Attack Damage runes? The short answer is: no. You should run full AD Marks and Quints. Math below: + Show Spoiler +I ran a calculation of expected damage for 3 sets of runes. Masteries and starting item were calculated the same for each set of runes (doran's blade, offencive masteries including 8% ArP, 6 flat ArP, 3 flat AD). The rune sets used were: a) Full AD Marks/Quints (+15.3 AD) b) 3 AD marks, 6 ArP Marks, 3 AD quints (+9.6 AD, +7.68 ArP) c) Full ArP Marks/Quints (+19.2 ArP) 1st calculation round: + Show Spoiler + level 1 autoattack damage, level 1 Q damage (no isolation), level 1 Q damage (with isolation) Damage was calculated versus target armor values of 30, 60, and 90
lvl 1 Autoattack damage: Armor __ 30.0 ¤ 60.0 ¤ 90.0 Full ArP ¤ 64.6 ¤ 50.8 ¤ 41.9 mixed _ ¤ 66.5 ¤ 53.5 ¤ 44.8 Full AD- ¤ 66.9 ¤ 54.6 ¤ 46.0
lvl 1 Q damage (no isolation): Armor __ 30.0 ¤ 60.0 ¤ 90.0 Full ArP ¤ 88.7 ¤ 69.8 ¤ 57.6 mixed _ ¤ 93.2 ¤ 75.0 ¤ 62.8 Full AD- ¤ 94.8 ¤ 77.3 ¤ 65.2
lvl 1 Q damage (with isolation): Armor __ 30.0 ¤ 60.0 ¤ 90.0 Full ArP ¤ 128.1 ¤ 100.9 ¤ 83.2 mixed _ ¤ 135.4 ¤ 109.0 ¤ 91.2 Full AD- ¤ 138.1 ¤ 112.5 ¤ 95.0
2nd calculation round: + Show Spoiler +level 12 autoattack damage, level 12 Q damage (no isolation), level 12 Q damage (with isolation) Gear was updated to include: 100 total bonus AD, 40% Armor Pen, 15 flat Armor Pen) Damage was calculated versus target armor values of 75, 150, and 225 The mixed AD/ArP rune page was not tested, as it is obvious that flat ArP becomes better in late game. This example is meant to show how much better flat ArP is over AD.
lvl 12 Autoattack damage: Armor __ 75.0 ¤ 150.0 ¤ 225.0 Full ArP 187.9 ¤ 133.4 ¤ 103.4 Full AD- 170.7 ¤ 127.0 ¤ 101.1
lvl 12 Q damage (no isolation): Armor __ 75.0 ¤ 150.0 ¤ 225.0 Full ArP 232.0 ¤ 164.7 ¤ 127.6 Full AD- 215.3 ¤ 160.2 ¤ 127.6
lvl 12 Q damage (with isolation): Armor __ 75.0 ¤ 150.0 ¤ 225.0 Full ArP 343.1 ¤ 243.5 ¤ 188.7 Full AD- 318.9 ¤ 237.3 ¤ 188.9
The results of the 1st calculation run show that Flat AD runes add up to 10 damage with your Q on an isolated target. This difference is very significant considering the low health totals of a level 1 champion. From this we can conclude that Armor Pen runes gives a slight edge of damage starting around mid or late-midgame, and can be considered superior in late game (especially post Last Whisper). Due to the current nature of the game where early lane agression is so important, and where 5 or 10 damage per skill use can make the difference between a won lane and a lost lane, I do not feel that the minor lategame advantage Armor Pen runes gives is worth the early and midgame damage you lose.
Lane Matchups: + Show Spoiler +I will add my thoughts about various matchups here as I have them. Since its a new season, I won't talk about older matchups I've experienced until I see it again under the new season. Riven + Show Spoiler + Riven's early and mid game damage equal yours, so this can be a very skill based matchup. Instead of one huge gapcloser she has 4 shorter ones, which unfortunately gives her an advantage in any kind of short skirmish. If you fight her you want to go all-in, and as her all-in is about as strong as yours this can be a very risky prospect.
Again unfortunately, since you want to avoid skirmishes, she can farm the creep line and harass you hard if you go for last hits.
None of Riven's skills directly target you, so there are a lot of opportunities to get advantages in a fight via jukes/stealth from ult/flash.
In the end, whoever gets a slight advantage and becomes noticably stronger at full engages will be able to push the other completely out of the lane.
Swain (midlane) + Show Spoiler + Swain is one of the only midlane mages who feels like a strong counter to Kha'zix. He has good ranged harass, plus a contingency CC (his root) which flat out stops your agression if you jump on him.
Your main window of opportunity against him is around lvl 3-5, since he does not yet have his ult. Unfortunately this is also around the same time period when junglers will consider ganking midlane, so it is not really safe to commit to killing him unless you have vision of at least one side of the jungle around you.
After level 6, it becomes nearly impossible to fight him unless you are massivly ahead. As he builds tanky, it is difficult to burst him down with your combo, while he has no problems killing you if you engage. His continued harassment stops you from being able to farm as well.
My advice for this lane matchup is to farm passivly as well as you can, punish him hard if he makes a large mistake (his flash is down, he wastes his W, AND you have good vision). Farm under the tower and take advantage of the short lane by going back every time you are below 70% hp. Once you are level 6 start roaming for ganks.
Teemo + Show Spoiler + As usual, Teemo is super annoying to lane against, and super satisfying to squash like a... yordle. Unless he is very stupid, you have no chance to fight him until you at least have your Q and E, so you should play passive until level 2, or skill your W at level 1 to get a few last hits and play passive until level 3.
Once you have your Q and E the lane swings the other way, as Teemo's range is too short to zone/harass you without being in danger of your jump. As you have huge burst and he has good damage over time, you should win any engage or trade which starts with you landing your jump on him.
This means that you will win the lane hard in the mid levels as long as you engage properly and don't let him harass you down. But this changes again once he gets some defencive gear and level 6...
If you aren't beating him by a large margin, once he has more levels and some armor/gear he can stand in the creep wave, place a mushroom at his feet, and straight up fight you. You lose 2 seconds of autoattacks due to his blind, and as long as he doesn't get isolated he has the chance to kill you before you can kill him.
Because of all this, laning versus Teemo is actually pretty skill-intensive, where you have to keep good track of your own power curve versus his to know who will win the lane at any given time.
Alternate playstyles: + Show Spoiler +
Bruiser/Initiator Kha'zix: People naturally seem to love to focus on KZ in teamfights, possibly because that is usually the best way to handle assassins who go in too early. The huge range on his gap closer also seems to lend itself to starting fights. This leads to the idea that KZ could be built and played like a tank/initiator. In the interest of Science I tried this out.
Evolved E + Randuin's omen + Evolved W's AE slow could be seen almost like a mini-malphite ult, and evolved R's 40% damage reduction seems to be strong enough to survive some focus fire and allow you to get out or reposition after initiating.
In my (s2) experiments with this build I built some damage (brutalizer, or last whisper if I could afford it), then Warmogs and/or Randuin's Omen.
The results were... poor. Despite having a stealth on your R, you cannot actually use it until after you land from your jump, so you often eat 1 or 2 CCs before being able to activate it. This prevents you from really using your 40% damage reduction to mitigate the strong burst you take for initiating.
Even after you pop your stealth, it is extremely difficult to reposition sufficiently to contribute to the fight. 1 second after the teamfight is started (by you) is still too early in the fight for the enemies to have split up enough that you can get your isolation bonus. No isolation bonus combined with very little bonus AD from your items means that your damage is pretty insignifcant.
Regarding your initiation itself (either E into W for AE slow, or E into W into Randuins), it is lacking the 1-2 seconds of hard CC that the really great initiation champions have (Amumu Q R or Malphite R). This means that your team does not have the luxury of approaching champions who cannot reposition with skills or flash, so your initiation does not allow your team's AE spells to wreck the enemy team.
Overall I do not think this playstyle is suitable for serious use. Even when it worked well it never matched the sheer terror a glass cannon Kha'zix can do once he starts snowballing. I would be very interested to hear if anyone else has any success at building/playing KZ this way.
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always evovle q/w first w more often then e at 11 and ult at 16
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If I understand you right, you are suggesting to evolve Q|W , then either W or E at 11, then finally R at 16?
Of the 4 sets of evolves you could have at lvl 16, I find having no E evolved to be the weakest. As an assassin, you should not be the first into the fight, which means you should be surviving long enough that someone on the enemy team dies before you do. This means that if you play correctly, the reset to your E should happen at least once...
I find the evolved E to be the most essential evolve for Kha'zix, but this is due to how I play him. When I go top I evolve E at lvl 11 at the latest, when I go mid or jungle I get E first 90% of the time because of its strength in enabling ganks.
I would be very interested to hear how you play him if you skip evolving E all together.
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Honestly, W should be evolved first. In almost no situations would I evolve anything else first. The only one I would even consider evolving over W is E. The W evolution gives you a ranged aoe ability, which is extremely useful. Not only that, but since it applies your passive, it also applies a significant slow AND it increases it's damage by about 33%. An evolved W lets you chase or escape from stuff very well. It also gives you a lot more teamfight presence with the aoe.
Evolving E is a no brainer - I think W>E for first evolution since the E evolution's reset is really only useful after you either A. have the damage to assassinate things or B. are teamfighting. As top lane Kha'zix, you fulfill both criteria usually only after levels ~10+. However, the E evolution can come in handy if you're in a bad lane matchup or the other team has a scary jungler camping you and you need the extra range to escape.
Q and R are the least useful, but imo R>Q in most situations. Q's evolution gives 50 extra range which is almost neglible. Its bonus damage is amazing, but it only works on isolated targets. Unless you're giving the opportunity to hunt down and assassinate individual targets (unlikely post-lvl 16), the Q bonus really isn't all that great. R gives you an extra passive activation in fights and lets you juke stuff with the damage reduction. You really can't underestimate the damage Kha'zix's passive puts out.
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I am 99% sure that you need to evolve W first, followed by E then R. The slow from W is pretty broken =\
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I agree that the W evolve is very very strong, but I am still not 100% convinced it is the best and only option.
Think of it this way: evolving W does not allow Kha'zix to do the main thing that Kha'zix does any better. You do not pick him to be an AE slowing, poking teamfighter. You pick him because he is a highly mobile assassin with immense burst damage.
It's almost like evolving W turns KZ into a different champion with different team utility and usage. This is why I see the biggest decision path for playing KZ to be whether you like the expanded playstyle with an evolved W or not.
In terms of pure power, the Q evolve is different but comparable to the W. As long as you are able to find exposed/isolated targets, evolved Q will allow you to burst them down better and faster than if you had evolved your W (W evolve adds exactly 0 damage to your single target burst combo).
In my experience, you almost never get an isolated target during the posturing that takes place before teamfights, but during the mid-fight and especially late fight time period, many targets are far enough apart that it is realistic to get your isolation bonus.
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I never played this champion myself but I have definitely played against him plenty of times. Evolved W is deadly because it allows him to slow a target from a decent range instead from melee autos. Without evolved W, if you want to engage a target you need to make sure you can E into auto range to proc your passive; with evolved W you just need to E semi-close to the target, press W (you can't even miss it when you are reasonably close), then auto/Q/R/whatever else. It seems a lot more effective, particularly when jungling.
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You get W first also because blowing E to gapclose is kinda like blowing Tristana's W to gapclose. Kha'zix has no innate tankiness and tends to build rather squishy. You really want to save your E cooldown for cleaning up or escaping. You really should never be using E offensively unless you know you can get out safely. Also, having a big aoe ranged nuke/slow is really damn good; after evolving W you can basically never miss that skillshot if they're in range. The utility and damage potential of having your passive be ranged really can't be understated.
iirc, every kha'zix play at IPL5 evolved W first then E. Q/R were situational altho I believe it was usually R but I could be wrong about that.
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iirc, every kha'zix play at IPL5 evolved W first then E. Q/R were situational altho I believe it was usually R but I could be wrong about that.
Am I remembering wrong or was Fanatic the only team to run KZ? Just seeing how one player uses KZ will give you the same results each time.
I strongly hold the opinion that you should evolve your skills based on various factors: -your own team comp -your opponent's team comp -what role you want to have in team fights -the types of targets that you want to kill are present in the enemy lineup -the way the various lanes have been going (can you get strong jungle support or are you on your own? do you need to poke your opponents down or can you afford to just have a stronger all-in and kill them?) -your own preference/playstyle
From what I've seen of professional games, the tight knit movement of teams and the way they posture for minutes at a time certainly lends itself more towards evolving W over Q. On the other hand, in lower skilled games you often see the entire game go by without a 5v5 teamfight, and instead have many chaotic skirmishes all over the lanes and jungle.
If you are playing mid or late game and your opponent lets you use W to slow and gap close, its pretty much the same as if they let you just walk up and autoattack as a gap closer... it's not like it's a secret what skill you evolved since KZ's model changes.
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AoE slow is too good to pass up from 6-11, evolve W first because you're mainly going to be teamfighting anyway.
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So what advantage does evolving anything else over W give you?
getting him an aoe is amazing. not only for teamfights, but also for poking in lane and clearing waves in general. If you're behind it lets you keep even on farm and poke pretty safely. If you're ahead it lets you push and roam. The utility it brings is too strong, especially since most of the time you need to level W first to trade efficiently and sustain effectively.
E is obviously good when teamfights or larger skirmishes start becoming frequent. Then you can actually make an argument for Q vs R as the final evolution. Though in most cases the survivability from R will be more useful.
One more thing, evolved W lets you actually isolate them more often because E>W will blow up all the creeps around him, letting your Q actually hit for extra damage
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Roffles
Pitcairn19291 Posts
The damage reduction and the extra usage of R is way too good to pass up for upgraded Q. Having E is pretty much essentially, as well as W. AOE's just too good to pass up, plus his clearing power is absolutely insane. Having evolved Q is ehhh. Prefer going W, E, R for AOE, big gap closers, and damage reduction/extra proc of R.
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I basically agree that W, E, and R are the best evolves. If I think I can farm most of the way to 11, I evolve W first, then E at 11. If it seems like all the lanes are roaming around and/or skirmishing early, I sometimes grab E and then W.
I find it a little disappointing that a champ who can evolve his skills to suit particular circumstances has such a seemingly cookie cutter build order for his evolves. Recently I have been trying to find any reason to evolve Q, usually instead of W, but the results are unsatisfactory.
The only thing I can think of why Q would be better than W, is that the Q evolve makes Kha'zix better at what he already does- bursting down squishy targets who are isolated. If the reason you are picking Kha'zix in the first place is for his ability to quickly destroy a target (say, if you have Blitzcrank in your lineup), then perhaps optimizing for this type of damage can be seen as superior to getting massive wave clear and poke potential.
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United States37500 Posts
W max first because it's AoE slow, helps with you farm during lane phase/ability to push the lane hard. E max second because the jump reset by level 11 team fights is too important. Any kill = you can reposition yourself easily to snipe any remaining squishies or low health champs.
After that, it's really up to preference. WE evolve is not up for discussion tbh.
R gives more utility in the form of an extra stealth proc and small window for damage reduction. Q gives more slightly more burst.
I prefer R evolve at 16 because Khazix is all about mobility and repositioning. His kit already has ridiculous ratios. You gain more in team fights with WER evolves.
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What do you think of tear on Kha Zix ? I usually open tear first since it's only 700g now, then transform it to Muramana after BT, Bruta, and GA.
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Personally I'm not a fan of tear:
(note that I haven't actually tried it on KZ, but the extra mana should work similar to a rushed sheen/glacial, both of which I have experience with)
1) Tear ---> Manamune ---> Muramana looks very good and cost effective on paper. A fully charged Manamune will add ~60 AD for a cost of 2100 gold, making it a cost efficient AD item even if you completely ignore the +mana.
2) Unfortunately, even though KZ's skills don't cost all that much mana, they still not quite spammable enough to really quickly charge tear.
3) Muramana's active toggle works on autoattacks and single target abilities: KZ benefits only from his autos (not too great since he doesn't itemize for AS, and his AS growth is slow), and from his Q spell (3.5 second CD).
At lvl 18, a KZ with muramana will have 1980 mana. The active toggle will therefore add ~120 damage of magic damage per hit. Adding 120 damage to KZ's Q is the equivalent of having 50 more AD, and 120 damage on his autos is worth around... 120 AD.
4) The big failing here is that the Muramana's extra damage is magic, whereas Kha'zix never itemizes for magic pen. This severely reduces the effectiveness of Muramana's extra damage.
5) Buying tear first delays your major damage items in exchange for extra farming power from mana/manareg. KZ rarely has mana issues unless you spam all your spells to farm, so a mana or mana reg item is not part of his usual core.
Basically by buying an early tear you are giving up early game power growth for a relatively good power spike mid/late mid game. In certain circumstances, like when you are in a tough or un-winnable lane, I can see this working. But the added focus on farming by spamming your spells, giving up early game power for late game power, and the lack of synergy with KZ's other growth stats (armor pen and cooldown reduction) make this seem like a bad deal to me.
Instead of grabbing a tear I would prefer to take an extra doran's, or two longswords, or a sightstone. Instead of farming up the tear mid-game I would prefer to jungle invade, or lane gank.
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On December 11 2012 04:32 mr_tolkien wrote: What do you think of tear on Kha Zix ? I usually open tear first since it's only 700g now, then transform it to Muramana after BT, Bruta, and GA.
I used to hate the mana problems on Kha'Zix that come with W max until I watched Reapered play him on stream one day and he rushed chalice. Been doing it ever since, gives you all the mana you need, it's cheap and gives good bruiser stats as you get later into the game (especially now that it has a non ap upgrade)
I can see where manamune would give similar results so idk.
On December 13 2012 03:58 Garraf wrote:Basically by buying an early tear you are giving up early game power growth for a relatively good power spike mid/late mid game. In certain circumstances, like when you are in a tough or un-winnable lane, I can see this working. But the added focus on farming by spamming your spells, giving up early game power for late game power, and the lack of synergy with KZ's other growth stats (armor pen and cooldown reduction) make this seem like a bad deal to me..
being able to walk in and out of top brush and spam w as harass and farm and is very hard for the vast majority of top laners to trade evenly with, going for some early mana to sustain a w max outdamages early dorans by far in pretty much any other situation than receiving a gank, or all inning, it gives you lane dominance vs most melee.
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How do you guys feel trying to build Kha'Zix as a Tank? He has all the componets for a tank. Initation/ CC aoe slow. His ult can get him outta trouble also and will still do good damage with his Q? Can it be viable up to a certain level?
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Tank Kha'zix was a big contributor to my 30% winrate with KZ in season 2 ranked.
From my second post: Alternate playstyles (tank Kha'zix): + Show Spoiler +
Bruiser/Initiator Kha'zix: People naturally seem to love to focus on KZ in teamfights, possibly because that is usually the best way to handle assassins who go in too early. The huge range on his gap closer also seems to lend itself to starting fights. This leads to the idea that KZ could be built and played like a tank/initiator. In the interest of Science I tried this out.
Evolved E + Randuin's omen + Evolved W's AE slow could be seen almost like a mini-malphite ult, and evolved R's 40% damage reduction seems to be strong enough to survive some focus fire and allow you to get out or reposition after initiating.
In my (s2) experiments with this build I built some damage (brutalizer, or last whisper if I could afford it), then Warmogs and/or Randuin's Omen.
The results were... poor. Despite having a stealth on your R, you cannot actually use it until after you land from your jump, so you often eat 1 or 2 CCs before being able to activate it. This prevents you from really using your 40% damage reduction to mitigate the strong burst you take for initiating.
Even after you pop your stealth, it is extremely difficult to reposition sufficiently to contribute to the fight. 1 second after the teamfight is started (by you) is still too early in the fight for the enemies to have split up enough that you can get your isolation bonus. No isolation bonus combined with very little bonus AD from your items means that your damage is pretty insignifcant.
Regarding your initiation itself (either E into W for AE slow, or E into W into Randuins), it is lacking the 1-2 seconds of hard CC that the really great initiation champions have (Amumu Q R or Malphite R). This means that your team does not have the luxury of approaching champions who cannot reposition with skills or flash, so your initiation does not allow your team's AE spells to wreck the enemy team.
Overall I do not think this playstyle is suitable for serious use. Even when it worked well it never matched the sheer terror a glass cannon Kha'zix can do once he starts snowballing. I would be very interested to hear if anyone else has any success at building/playing KZ this way.
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Because you can't use your main mitigating skill (evolved R) until after you land from your jump, and because his one spammable damage spell has sick scaling but only OK base damage, I don't think tank KZ is very good.
I don't see anything tank KZ can do that, say, Malphite can't do better.
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