League of Legends Is Changing Fizz's Seastone Trident

One of Fizz's abilities, Seastone Trident, is undergoing some changes on the League of Legends PBE as Riot Games tests ways to make the spell more satisfying for Fizz players.

If you play as Fizz, you'll know that the Seastone Trident ability is Fizz's "W" that's used to help burst enemies and last-hit minions due to its mana and cooldown refunds. For those who play against Fizz, you'll probably know this as the ability that whittles down your health over time and becomes particularly dangerous with Ignite as your health ticks down while you wonder what happened. The ability has an extra effect that deals even more damage if Fizz can wait at least two seconds before using its active on an enemy after marking them with the ability's passive, but that's the part that Riot Games says isn't as intuitive for Fizz players.

As an assassin, it's Fizz's job to dash in, get the kill, and troll pole his way out of there. When you have to wait two seconds to deal triple the damage, it moves the champion further away from his assassin role. Naomi "Riot NeuroCat" McArthur, a League of Legends game designer working with the champions team, highlighted this Fizz frustration on the game's PBE boards as one of the reasons for the Seastone Trident changes.

"We're shipping some small Fizz changes to PBE for feedback. Since the Assassin Rework, we've heard a lot of dissatisfaction from Fizz players around his current W," Riot NeuroCat said. "The waiting game around the charging bleed mark is healthier (by increasing Fizz's burst window), but feels awkward to use and unintuitive to a lot of you. Our primary goal with these changes is to replace the mark charging mechanic and Fizz's current W with a more satisfying and intuitive version of W (while maintaining the delay on Fizz's full burst)."

With the removal of the triple damage effect and the cooldown reduction on a kill, Fizz is gaining a second cast for the ability that deals bonus damage. Riot NeuroCat listed everything that's changing with Fizz's W on the PBE, ratios and full details included.

• REMOVED - W passive marking targets for 6s (note: the 3s bleed DOT still exists!)
• REMOVED - W active dealing triple damage when hitting a mark-primed target
• NEW - W active now has second cast, similar to the first, but dealing more damage (especially against low health enemies)
  • Bonus Damage on Hit:
    • First W: 10/20/30/40/50 + 40% AP
    • Second W: 35/50/65/80/95 + 50% AP (+0-100% increased damage based on enemy % health missing)
  • 1s lockout on recasting W
    • Using W on a target slowed by Chum the Waters allows W to be recast instantly
  • Mana refund amount reduced 20/28/36/42/50 >>> 10/14/18/22/26
    • Mana refund applies to both casts individually
  • REMOVED - Cooldown reduction when killing any unit with W active

The one-second lockout means that Fizz can use the second cast of the ability sooner while also forcing him to stay engaged in combat and take some risks.

These changes will sit on the PBE for a while to allow for sufficient feedback from players with the Rioter stressing that these changes won't be included in Patch 8.13.