The new Kha'Zix in the competitive scene part 1

In my two previous articles I discussed Gambit Gaming's new teamcomp in the last week of EU LCS regular season and highlighting Diamond's Kha'Zix. I promised a part three where I would further analyze this unusual split in the summer split. However the popularity of our favorite bug has exploded in the past week in the competitive scene, seeing both play in the EU playoffs, but also in the OGN Summer final and with different ways to play him to boot. So instead of analyzing Diamond's Kha'Zix, I have decided to instead concentrate on the very recent appearances of the void reaver.

Why the sudden surge in popularity?

In the recent 4.13 patch, Riot has nerfed the three most powerful jungle champions in the competitive scene, namely Lee Sin, Elise and Evelynn. This "trinity" of junglers almost completely dominated the competitive scene due to their high early game damage, aggressiveness and dueling potential. They represent all that currently makes a good jungler and apart from a few rare exceptions (Rengar comes to mind) were almost always exclusively picked or banned over other champions. The 4.13 patch changed this a bit, reducing Evelynn's early game damage, Lee Sin's and Elise's utility, enabling new champions to rise up to the task. Despite the heavy nerfs to Kha'Zix, he still had much of what made him so popular previously: good damage, good early ganks and good objective control. He just wasn't as good as the three mentioned previously.

However Diamond from Gambit Gaming already considered him to be a strong pick, being the only jungler to pick him in the Summer split and to great effect in the last week of LCS. The nerfs to the tier 1 champions have propelled him to a highly favored pick among European junglers and KaKao of the KT Arrows in Korea. Kha'Zix has now been picked 13 times out of  23 (57%) in the EU playoffs and has won 8 times (62%). One thing has changed however compared to the pre-nerf Kha'Zix: two evolution paths are been used, with small variants.

One order of abilities common to all junglers

First of all, all the junglers that will be discussed in the following article max W first instead of Q. Why is this?

Early game: more burst, but less overall damage

One of the nerfs to Kha'Zix was making his isolation bonus harder to obtain. Pro players must now feel that isolation is not something to count on in early ganks, therefore making W maxed first more appealing.

Early game, by maxing W you  greatly enhance your burst damage. At level you gain about 20 damage in one rotation of abilities. However, if you max Q first over W,  by just using one more Q you will gain 50 damage (therefore a net gain of 30 damage) . Pros must therefore feel that the added burst is much more important and crucial to properly ganking in the early game or that W evolve is that more interesting. 

Mid game: more burst, more damage

This trend of having more burst damage by maxing W continues in the mid game. At level 11, you gain about 30 damage in one rotation of abilities. By using Q one more time, you have a loss of 20 damage, so a net gain of 10 damage. This means that you would need three Q's for one W to have more damage, which is impossible due to cooldown of these abilities, therefore in the mid game you actually gain damage by maxing W first. On top of this you must take into account the fact that Q is melee whilst W is ranged, which makes it more useful during poke wars at dragon for instance.

Better farm

One of the things that can make or break a jungler is his clear speed. By maxing W you gain better clear speed during the early game due to the bonus damage to monsters, allowing you to gain more quickly that crucial level 6 and first items. 

Lets now look at the first major evolution path.

Evolved spike racks (Diamond, Jankos and Svenskeren)

If you have read my two previous articles, you would know that Diamond has been playing a "new" Kha'Zix, one which evolves the W first then E and finally Q. Svenskeren of SK Gaming and Jankos of Roccat both have adopted  the same playstyle. Let's break it down why W is their first evolution of choice.

Poke

W evolve first offer less burst and overall damage then Q first, however it does come with it's perks. First of all it not only provides good poke, it also aids others in poking. In the current meta where Kog'Maw is the best AD carry, Morgana is one of the best supports, top Lulu is common and Ziggs and Xerath are often seen, poke is almost always present in teamcomps under one form or the other. Evolved W has a 50% slow and reveals enemy champions, therefore making it much easier for allies to land their poke as well, making it very valuable. The only game where Kha'Zix was picked and no other champion had any poke was game 4 of Roccat vs Fnatic, but this brings  me to my next section.

Initiation and disengage

In this game, Roccat runs primarily a pick comp with Kassadin, Kha'Zix and Irelia, Tristana and Nami. They are facing a highly teamfight oriented teamcomp by Fnatic running Jarvan IV, Syndra, Vayne, Shen and Lulu. Notice the very low initiation potential that Roccat has: there only form of initiation is Nami's ultimate. Evolving W enables Kha'Zix to slow up to three ennemies by 50%, making initiating much easier. Additionally, since they are running a pick composition, they need good disengage to counter the high engage by Fnatic. This is provided by Nami's R, Tristana's R and of course Kha'Zix's evolved W.

Waveclear

Finally there is probably the most obvious benefit of evolving W: waveclear. You can farm more, push faster and, with the poke, siege better. Need I say more?

In part 2, I will discuss the other main option: E evolved first.