How Jungle Kha'Zix fits in the current meta

"Change is good."

Not in every case though, as we've seen with our friend Kha'Zix.

Kha'Zix is a champion that has seen so many different buffs and nerfs resulting in many different playstyles in the past two seasons. However lately, he's fallen from grace and isn't quite as commonplace as he used to be. As of now, Kha'Zix has a very low pick rate (2.44%) and one of the lowest win rates (45.3%)*. That being said, Kha'Zix still dishes out a significant amount of damage and can snowball incredibly hard. There are multiple high elo players who've taken advantage of this fact. Plus, he's also potentially receiving a buff in the upcoming patch 5.8. On the PBE, there's currently a buff to his W which increases it's damage and healing**. Despite all that, Kha'Zix still suffers from a very unhealthy early clear and is an assassin in a very tank centric meta. 

In this post, we'll be discussing the pros of Kha'Zix as well as his cons. We'll also be discussing different build paths that have seen success as well as where he stands in comparison to other champions.

 

First off, lets discuss the pros and cons of Kha'Zix.

Pros 

- Kha'Zix snowballs INCREDIBLY hard.
- Kha'Zix deals very high single target damage.
- Kha'Zix has resets with evolved E, making him a very powerful teamfighter.
- Kha'Zix can poke effectively with evolved W.
- Kha'Zix has a stealth mechanic which re-applies his passive AND can allow him to disengage and re-engage in fights.
- Powerful 1v1 skirmishing. 

Kha'Zix is an assassin and thus is a very snowball reliant champion. He needs a lot of gold to be able to get going but, if he gets going, it's difficult to stop him. His core build in the jungle involves Warrior, Ravenous Hydra, Last Whisper, and potentially more damage. His evolved Q does an absurd amount of damage, especially if the target is isolated. In teamfights, he's able to get resets on his evolved leap, making him a relatively powerful teamfighting asssassin. His evolved W allows him to poke very effectively, slow targets by 50%, AND grants vision of targets for 2 seconds. His ultimate allows him to pick and choose where he fights. Not only that, his stealth mechanic also allows him to gain a stack of his passive which grants bonus damage on his auto attacks. In addition, his evolved ultimate allows him to have an additional charge on his stealth as well as having another second of stealth. Skirmishing is something that Kha'Zix is the king of. If you're 1v1 against another champion and they're isolated, you can easily kill them.

Cons

- Assassin in tank meta.
- Horrible first clear.
- Rough early game. Reliant on level 6.
- Item reliant. Needs lots of gold.
- Very squishy.

While Kha'Zix may have sounded amazing while discussing his pros, he has his fair share of problems in the Season 5 jungle. First off, the current meta is focused very much on Cinderhulk junglers. This means, for the most part, fairly weak early game junglers who scale well into the mid game. If picking Kha'Zix, you need to snowball relatively hard in the early game to make sure you do enough damage to shred through the tanks.

Kha'Zix also has an incredibly rough time with his first clear. I generally find myself at sub 40% health while clearing if I want to avoid using a health potion. This makes you incredibly susceptible to early invades by the enemy jungler, especially if they're someone who's incredibly aggressive such as a Nidalee. In addition, due to Kha'Zix being a little bit weaker early game from nerfs in previous patches, Kha'Zix is now a more level 6 focused jungler when he evolves his Q. This results in a massive powerspike where he can dish out a significant amount of damage but it also means that Kha'Zix is perceived as more of a level 6 jungler than he used to be in the past. Kha'Zix has high ratios and is very item reliant as well. He needs a lot of gold. Finally, Kha'Zix is a very squishy bug. You'll have to play around the fact that you can get one-shot just as easily as you can one-shot other targets if you're not careful.

 

Next, let's look at some of the more popular builds on Kha'Zix. This data is taken from na.op.gg and champion.gg.

1) Bruiser build: This is the most popular core build according to champion.gg. It gives you the damage from Hydra and the penetration from the Last Whisper. It also gives you some mild tankiness in the form of Randuin's and Banshee's Veil for some survivability. The mobility boots are useful for early pressure as well. Stalker's Blade helps you catch up to targets. 

2) Assassin build: This build is slightly different but still interesting. In this build, you forego the Stalker's Blade for a Ranger's Trailblazer for better sustain (personally, I prefer the trailblazer anyways). Instead, you go for a Youmuu's Ghostblade to better catch up to targets and then go a Guardian Angel. Otherwise, the build remains the same. In some cases, you may go for a different defensive item (e.g. Banshee's Veil). It's all dependent on the situation.

 

 3) Full damage build: The full damage build is something that some high elo players like to use. An example is "Diamond 1 Khazix", a Challenger Kha'Zix player who tends to go for a lot of damage in his builds. This build is incredibly risky due to lack of defenses other than Mercurial. In some cases, you may not get Mercurial (e.g. if there's nothing to QSS). In these cases, it's likely you'll go for another high AD item like Bloodthirster. 

All these builds have one thing in common. The goal is to do an insane amount of damage and quickly remove targets out of a fight. The problem is, in the current meta, it's very hard to get going on Kha'Zix mainly due to the punishing early clears and the early susceptibility to invades. That being said, if he gets ahead, he snowballs hard and can carry games incredibly effectively. But if we're comparing him to other champions in the current meta, he's definitely lack luster. If you're looking for a carry jungler, Lee Sin, Rek'Sai, and Nidalee all have better survivability and early presence in comparison to Kha'Zix. While playable, he definitely needs some love to get back some of his former glory. Fortunately, Riot has some plans for Kha'Zix in 5.8, namely buffs to his W which should help his early clear and sustain. Right now, Kha'Zix is an okay pick at best but definitely not worth picking over many other champions.

* Data taken from http://champion.gg/champion/Khazix
** PBE notes http://www.surrenderat20.net/p/current-pbe-balance-changes.html#bal1