Riot has been trying to come up with a new W for Fizz since the last League of Legends PBE patch cycle, when the design team tried out a new two-cast basic attack reset. That ability added a ton of burst damage to Fizz’s kit, but it didn’t ultimately make the cut, and Riot is back to the drawing board.
For this PBE cycle, he’s got another W. This one doesn’t promote bursting damage quite as much as sustained, on-hit damage, and that may be enough to incentivize Fizz players to build attack speed.
Just like the last W iteration, this one completely replaces the entire marking system from his old Seastone Trident. Unlike the last attempt, though, this one doesn’t remove the ability’s cooldown reset if it kills the target, so he should still be able to farm a little easier. With this new ability, if Fizz uses Seastone Trident on a target he doesn’t kill, he gains on-hit magic damage on that target for the next six seconds.
Now, you can still get away with running the normal Protobelt and Lich Bane, but to get the most out of any on-hit passive, you have to actually hit your target with as many basic attacks as possible. That means that Fizz can now gain an advantage from building a little bit of attack speed. The perfect item would be a Nashor’s Tooth, which would add some more on-hit damage, AP to help his scaling, and just enough attack speed to boost that new W.
Any big change to a champion is enough to cause some backlash from that champion’s biggest fans. If players would get angry about anything with this new W, it would be the fact that it essentially changes his playstyle. This new W is definitely more reliable than his current one, but promoting attack speed and a little more sustained DPS is definitely different from the pure burst damage that Fizz and his players are used to.
This new ability, if it makes it through the PBE this time, should arrive with Patch 8.14. This patch will take a little extra time, which means we’re looking at about three weeks until release.
Published: Jun 29, 2018 11:00 am