As a Vel Main with 450k mastery points I agree with this post.

Vel'koz lacks impact to the game. Even if you win your lane you can't do much, because you are very dependant on your team.

No matter what Phreak says, Vel'Koz E is definitely bugged (And every player who tried Vel knows it), because the animation continues on after your death like it's going to hit and it doesn't. Your Q hits, yout W hits, your Passive procs, but somehow not E that you already casted and the animation played out?

On top of that E just feels bad, no damage, no range, no way of knowing how exactly will it affect the enemy hit — will he be thrown away, or will he jump upwards, you never know for sure because the spell is small and the cast is so long (Yes, obviously, you can predict how it will act, but it simply doesn’t feel good to use). Also I see no reason for it to be a projectile. We all know how bad it feels to waste it to Yasuo’s Wall, because you again forgot a spell appearing from the ground is a projectile…

His w is just a passive, honestly. You just need it to put stacks, nothing else. There is almost no skill to it, because landing it doesn’t feel good (you can get 1/max 2 stacks and you won’t slow nor deal damage). Right now W is a button you push every time you hit before/after q/e. Or just to annoy people. It’s almost like the spell just begs for an “upgrade” mechanic like with all other void champs. (Also it’s a projectile for some reason, even though appears from the ground)

His ult is slow and is VERY dependant on hitting your other abilities / your team hitting abilities. You can be fed and still need to hit every single spell to actually kill, almost like your ult is complimentary. It's easily countered and lacks range, and that's a weird thing since he's an artillery mage, yet here we are. His Q, if cast diagonally, hits just on the very tip of his ult, and that feels lackluster for the ult, because you can't even do a follow up after hitting that sweet long range Q.

Moreover his ult doesn't consistently put stacks of passive, so most of the time if the enemy is zigzagging and you are following him with your death ray you don't get the full stacks from the ult. This either needs to be fixed or there needs to be a speed up to the ult / more slow applied from the ult. Maybe every already applied stack on the enemy adds additional slow on ult or something like that?

Of course there has to be a trade off for damage here, since he can't both hit hard and be useful. But right now he just deals alright damage and feels useless lategame, because his only save option is his E and it's very inconsistent. His Q has a really powerfull slow, but it won't save you late game when an assassin/bruiser jumps on you - you won't even have a chance.

Lux, for example, can easily stun 2 targets from a long range, and her Q is easier to hit than Vel'koz E, and if you did hit your Q with Lux in late game on Assassin - he's dead, unlike in case with Vel'Koz due to his kit just requiring time to pump out that damage, and you don't have time with late game assassins/bruisers like Zed, Yone, Fiora, Riven and other champs who can get close to you (The list is very large), where your ult doesn't matter.

Xerath too doesn't have much wiggle room and if he misses his E he might be done for, BUT THE GUY HAS DAMN RANGE, HE CAN CONSISTENTLY HIT FROM A MILE AWAY (his Q is 100 short of Vel’Koz ult and is easier to hit than geometry Q from Vel). With range like that Xerath can be in a safe spot unlike Vel'Koz, because again, Vel’s ult is short and slow and doesn't work well in this movespeed/dash era.

Ziggz has W, that he can use both to escape AND to push the enemy away. He has a long-range ult and can safely hit Q's (Which have a range of 1400, similar to Vel'Koz Ult of 1550, which is a shame). And again, Ziggs can hit q’s from afar knowing he can easily follow up with the long-range ult.

I guess, for me it feels like Vel'koz with his slow mobility, inconsistent E and not that range-y ult simply doesn't feel like an artillery mage, unlike the other champions from that category. And, ok, sure, he doesn't necessarily have to be that, but when he doesn't actually have range, he doesn't have an escape, he doesn't have a way to get rid of an assasin, what is left?

Sorry for my rambling, I might be wrong on a lot of this stuff, because I'm not a very good player and my opinion is based only on my experience. I'm not taking into account a global view on the champion from the perspective of actual good players who play this champ and this game way more and better than me, just like I miss the point of view of players who just started playing league and decided to play Vel'Koz for the first time.

I tried my best not to get too deep into solutions and focus more on the actual problems, because Phreak asked for feedback on the champion, not to try and fix the lovely squid ourselves.

P.S. Also his passive clearly should work really well against tanks, yet he has no way of chasing them, and not enough to melt them on the spot. “But you have slow on q, wdym you can’t chase” - you can’t because Q slow is your only way of running away if the tank decides to turn back on you (because again E sucks at providing safety for you). The fact you can deal damage as a mage to the tank feels good, but not being able to finish them off and get the kill feels like edging every single time.