Pre Patch 4.9, Kha'Zix was considered as the
best jungler in the game thanks to his damage, high mobility and his natural
tankiness with his evolved ultimate. However patch 4.9 changed this with the
nerfs to his Q damage and the removal of the damage reduction on his ult.
Despite this, Gambit Gaming's Diamonprox has played him six times over the
course of the split, notably twice in the last superweek of the LCS and in
their tie breaker versus the Copenhagen Wolves to great effect (they won each
of those matches). Over the course of a several part series, I will analyse
this teamcomp and the current role of Kha'Zix within the jungle and other ways
of playing him.
Part 1: The Teamcomp
In the superweek,
Diamond has always picked Kha'Zix to complement teamcomps heavily geared
towards three things: poking, teamfighting and waveclear. Let's break
down the champions selected for this particular team comp.
Bot
The common denominator
to all the games with this teamcomp is of course kog'Maw, Genja's preferred ADC
as of late. Kog'Maw excels at long range poking thanks to his ultimate which
enables him to chunk opponents before a teamfight, yet still brings a lot of
damage and tank-melting to the table, making him the perfect ADC for this comp.
He can also make use of his E as partial waveclearing tool and a zoning tool. An
overall perfect pick for this comp. His only major downfall is his lack of
mobility, which needs to be taken into consideration.
Other options: another
ADC that comes to mind is Jinx: her damage isn't as high but the added
waveclear with her Q is welcomed. Her poke isn't as strong, but her E is still
decent and her ulti is a global execute. Her W is also a good zoning tool, which is something that comes back a lot in this comp. Tristana with her similar damage, long
range and high mobility/self peel is also an excellent, albeit slightly
different, option. Ezreal, if he wasn't so "out of meta", could be also considered due to his strong poke.
Support
The support doesn't seem
to be as defined as Edward picked three different supports in the three games
were Kha'Zix was used. However Nami seems to be particularly noteworthy thanks
to her very high cc and her very useful ultimate that can serve both as an
engage and disengage tool in teamfights.
The other notable pick
is Gragas, but it seems that the champion is useful in himself, regardless of
position (see Top section for a more detailed analysis).
Other option: any
support that fits well within a poke comp is a good option. Janna comes to
mind, but she is cruelly under-played and has many other weaknesses. Zyra is
probably one of the better options as her poke is above average for a support
and her large zoning ultimate fits well in the context of this team. Thresh is
always a good pick thanks to his versatility and Morgana is another option
thanks to her long range binding.
Mid
In mid, you want a very
poke heavy champion. Ziggs was picked in two games by NiQ and banned in
another. With his strong poke, good waveclear and strong AoE ultimate is the
other champion with Kog'Maw that seems perfectly suited for this comp. He can
siege and push waves like no other midlaner can and in teamfights his low
cooldwon spells are of great use, especially if combined with his AoE ultimate
(if it has not been used to clear waves). His W and E are also an extremely
good zoning tool in teamfights.
In the game where Ziggs
was banned, NiQ opted for a Syndra pick; this provides less poke, but more
burst damage. The stun provided by her E is also a noteworthy utility.However
the loss in poke is such that I believe the only scenario where Syndra would be
better is if you really needed the added hard cc or if the enemy comp had one
important target (a hypercarry for instance, such as a Vayne) that needed to be
taken out fast in order to win a teamfight. My guess is that NiQ felt more
comfortable on Syndra than on other options such as Xerath or he wanted to
counterpick the Orianna of the Copenhagen Wolves.
Other options: I
feel as though Xerath would be one of the better picks in such a scenario as he
brings excellent poke which is central to the comp and exceptional long ranger
snipe potential with the kog'Maw. With the nerfs to Ziggs' ultimate Xerath
might become the go-to champion in poke comps, but I feel that the added zoning
and wave control brought by Ziggs still make the latter a valuable option.
This is where the
Kha'Zix pick comes into play. The evolution of his W, as opposed to a Q
evolution which brings more burst and overall all-in damage, presents multiple
critical benefits that are of special interest in this comp:
-It enhances his poke.
The whole teamcomp is based around poking before teamfighting.
-It enhances the slow it
provides. As mentioned earlier, the carries are very vulnerable and any peel
the team can offer is highly valuable. On top of this the added slow can be
used as a semi initiation, chasing tool and disengage.
-It provides vision: the
concept of artificial vision is very important here and we will discuss this
later on.
Other options: I feel as
though no other option fits as well in this teamcomp as Kha'Zix does. However,
Lee Sin also provides artificial vision with his Q and is considered as top
tier jungler so he may be the only other option. With the emphasis on vision
and vision this comp provides, the stealth of an Evelynn can be used quite
well, however she provides no poke whatsoever.
Top
Kubon's preferred choice
has been Maokai, but this largely due to the recent buffs he has received. He
does still fit well within the comp however. On top of his good initiate and
high base damage for which he is usually picked for, his disruptive power and
his damage reduction ultimate are his primary assets as it allows him to both
protect his almost immobile carries and and cause mayhem within the other team.
His saplings are also okay poke (there are especially useful for popping Banshees and slowing opponents), but more importantly provide artificial vision
and scouting tools (they basically can act as 35 second wards).
Gragas was also picked
when Maokai was banned. He was also picked as a support. This champion fits
particularly well within this teamcomp thanks to his Q: it is both a good
source of waveclear and poke but also another provider of the "artificial
vision" mentioned earlier. Of course his peel, disruption and damage are
still strong assets, especially since they enable to protect the carries of
Gambit.
Other options: Nidalee
comes to mind as she has good poke with her spear and provides vision at the
same time on top of good split pushing potential. Her main downfall is her lack
of cc, but she does provide a nice heal and boost in attack speed for the adc,
which is of special interest when sieging. Mundo can also be considered
as his cleaver spam is pretty effective in terms of spam, but also in terms of
peeling for his carries.
The goal
With these picks, Gambit
has a very teamfight oriented team composition. It's an overall high damage
composition, there are generally at least three to four damage threats, that excels at both teamfighting and poking beforehand. On top of a strong teamfigth
potential, Gambit has also exceptional waveclear which can be used to pressure
objectives and siege towers. This composition does suffer however from two masjor weaknesses: a reliance on a few
spells to initiate teamfights and overall very vulnerable carries which need to
be protected. In part 2, I will analyse how Gambit has used this teamcomp
effectively and how they use the tools at their disposal in order to reduce
it's weaknesses.
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