Well it's pretty well known that assassins need help.
They can't burst through the ADC's lifesteal and the shields that get thrown on them and Exhaust. Basically their only job is really hard.
So here's a crazy idea.
Give Assassins lethality items that inflict Grievous Wounds OR
Give Assassins lethality items that disable shields on their target.
Discuss. If these are both stupid ideas and you have a better idea then please suggest it.
Junkο17 votesThese items will just end up being abused by other roles. Assassins will always be shit until Riot realizes that they actually should be allowed to do their job. Why pick an assassin when you can build those items on an ADC or some fighters like Jayce so you either attack from safe range instead of diving into their entire enemy team or can build tanky to actually be able to survive.
TyrekGoldenspear2 votesHmm. Good point.
A rather brute force way of doing it would be to tie these items to a summoner spell like jungle items are.
Ralanr22 votesAssassins will always be shit if their job is revolved around killing players and offering nothing else if they can't do that.
A little push towards some better objective secure could work I think.
TyrekGoldenspear12 votesInb4 Zed starts ulting turrets and dragons and kills them with full conboes.
It's brilliant! I would like to see that tbh.
Ralanr8 votesI mean...I could see Zed ulting dragon or Baron.
TyrekGoldenspear8 votesIt would be pretty cool, and give him something to do besides endlessly splitpush.
Junkο11 votesI can see that breaking every other patch to give Zed % of dragon's or baron's AD tbh.
But cool idea otherwise.
Didn't Riot say that with the assassin update they were going to introduce an objective for assassins anyway?
Revali3 votesThat did happen before, 
'assassin' with utility, and look how people ended up building him
NiceTryVi3 votesThe main issue is ADCs. Liek you said, other roles abuse items not meant for them, and ADCs are the prime offender of this. Sterak's, frozen mallet, IBG, etc. The solution is to make these assassin items melee only, or make them useless to AD champions by giving them AP stats. This way both AD and AP assassins can get good items, without ADCs abusing them. On top of it, Sterak's IBG, and Mallet should be made melee only as well, andd Sterak's returned to it's pre-nerf stats would help a lot for tanks being able to survive being bursted, but not DPSed assassins and ADCs, while assassins can survive ADCs but not tanks. This way, everyone does their jobs properly.
Doctor Jarvis7 votesYeah, if Executioner's Calling built into something else more...assassin-y that would be cool. LDR is a great item against tanks, but the entire point of the Assassin class is the ability to move past the tanks to the squishies, who you are not getting bonus armor pen against. It doesn't even need to have lethality, just better stats.
Shadòw6 votesShield Penetration would actually be a needed stat.
Shields are just way too OP in this game.
Ralanr11 votesAs someone who loves Sion's shield, I'm not exactly a fan of "shield penetration" as a stat since it ruins the damage mitigation of tanks that rely on their shields.
TyrekGoldenspear5 votesYou should be fine tbh.
Assassins shouldn't be trying to assassinate Sion.
Ralanr2 votesA fed assassin will assassinate anyone.
TyrekGoldenspear2 votesBut if they aren't fed they can only kill their primary target, ie squishies.
Making the shield pen an actice would cause more descision making.
Besides, I think shield pen would help with CotC abusers, as they have little enough health to be easily killed when they try to cheese with it when the true tanks would have the resists and health to survive.
Penns4 votesI doubt an assassin will kill a Sion that has 2-3 armor items even when they can disable his shield tbh lol
Ralanr1 votesUsually when an assassin gets fed they start picking everyone else off before they can get more of their core items. At least in my experience.
Glory ln Death1 votesOn the bright side, they wouldn't be able to pop your shield! That 14% max health damage + its flat damage is niiiice.
Shadòw3 votesit would be an Assassin Item.
Being able to ignore (part of) Sions Shield would still not make it the best Idea for Assassins to attack a Sion.
it's just so you have a counter against shit like 
or 
as an Assassin.
and maybe Riot would actually come to the idea of making specific items melee only when they don't want them abused on ADCs when creating such an item.
Ralanr1 votesSadly Riot won't do more melee only items because it's against build diversity.
Shadòw2 votesthis has nothing to do with build diversity. build diversity is being able to adjust your build so you can get the stuff you need against your enemies for example, but still with items that should fit your class.
but when an item is designed in a way that ADCs aren't supposed to build it in the first place, in no situation, that's another thing.
Hydras are melee only too because they would be unbalanced on ADCs.
Ralanr1 votesI believe in Riot's mind that build diversity is the freedom to build any item you want regardless of how it impacts your character. Thus allowing stuff like full AP Malphite.
The only reason I think hydra is melee only and runaans is ranged only is how much of a headache it'd be to not only code them for melee and ranged, but also how'd they'd interact with each other.
Automated Riven2 votesIm not gonna lie I want hydra runnaans jinx in this game.
Just once tho
Malicious Metal9 votesThey bloody should though.
Abuse cases inhibit melees from getting crazy new items.
TyrekGoldenspear3 votes... You know with your presence I just realized that my suggestion of shield pen items would dumpster Morde.
That was completely unintended.
Malicious Metal4 votesSimple; make it not bypass PASSIVE shields.
Automated Riven15 votesbut then we have the problem of it not dumpstering yasuo :(
Sahn Uzal3 votesWhy not just ally shielding?
Ralanr1 votesIt does and it sucks. Riot is still tackling the issue on how to make an item for a class that other class don't go, "oh that's nice. I'll take that and do even better with it".
Malicious Metal1 votesMake it like Viktor's Hexcore :' )
Ralanr2 votesI have no idea how that would work. Even as a joke.
Malicious Metal5 votesSpecific items only specific champs can buy.
Ralanr1 votesBut that would still hurt build diversity.
It'd be easier to balance. I won't lie. But it would cost Riot their precious "diversity in choices"
This is something I feel heroes has over league. Usually the problems are in a character or their ability and nerfing them doesn't negatively impact others.
Kharn Skyshatter2 votesAnd their excuse is a crock of shit really. Just feels like if it doesn't benefit ADC's they don't care. If the hydra items weren't melee only we'd see marksman building them too.
Automated Riven1 votesThat would be interesting. If there were specific items that only a specific class could buy. such as assassins have assassin items or any role or class for that matter. I would at least be on board with exploring the possibility .
Ralanr4 votesThey could probably test it out in an alternative game mode.
Glory ln Death1 votesWhy not add negative effects to an item if it's getting abused by a specific class?
Take Sterak's, for example. It was getting abused by ADCs, so it got nerfed in a way that also hurt its intended users. Instead, they could have added an additional effect that would only really affect ADCs.
Something like "-20% bonus attack speed" or "-15% crit chance". Most of the intended users of Sterak's don't buy bonus attack speed, and even fewer get crit chance, so those wouldn't affect most of them. But ADCs really like attack speed and crit chance, so purchasing Sterak's would become a bad option unless they really needed it for some reason.
Any intended users who were hit by the debuffs could receive some compensation.
Other items could get similar changes if they were abused - tailored to the class abusing them with little impact on the intended users.
That would leave the items open for off-meta or situational builds on some champions without them being overpowered on unintended users.
WalkingInACircle4 votesCan't burst through lifesteal? I'm not sure you know how burst works. And oh God, how dare supports have agency.
TyrekGoldenspear5 votesIt's more delayed burst tbh coming from the reworked assassons unless fed.
Also I play support quite often and I'm loving the new items.
Its just that it shouldn't be this hard for assassins to do their job, that's all.
WalkingInACircle8 votesAssassins need more depth, not to be unstoppable killing machines.
Scary Door3 votesBoards 2016:
"Damage is way out of hand in this game"
"Hey Riot, give us more ways to damage opponents and shred through mitigation faster!"
MissingKayo2 votesGood fallacy but Riot took both things to extreme. And different people said those.
Vekkna3 votesIt's funny that the second AD assassins get countered by shields, the forums go apeshit. But AP assassins have had to deal with 
for over a year now with all the ADs defending it to their dying breath.
At least 
and CoC require actual keystrokes and timing instead of passively proccing the second it looks like the AD might possibly lose a fight.
Because what the game totally needs is more lethality items than 
Because the game is totally flush with mpen items that an assassin would ever build 
But yes....more niche lethality items, please, because ADs don't have anything to choose from to deal with a shield. Give me a break.
Smitty Manjensen2 votesMaking it bypass shields would make them broken, Assassin is a role that is destined to be toxic and miserable to play against or to be useless, the whole class is shit. Nobody wants to get removed from the game in 0.5 seconds, which is what Assassins are supposed to do.
dolphinosplash241 votesAP assasins can just buy morellos
Junkο10 votes
[zombie-brand-mindblown]
Evewynn2 votesI dunno, 100 AP and 20% cdr along with grievous wounds seems kinda worth it even without the mana and regeneration. Only thing is Kat already has GW on her ult.
dolphinosplash241 votes
Junkο1 votesMorello is completely impractical on Eve and Diana (can't afford it cause building jungle items already delays their build) and Kass needs RoA+Archangel for his ult and building another mana item is pointless on him after that.
dolphinosplash241 votes??? diana doesnt have to be a jungler