Revisiting Champion Subclasses

This post is meant to explore the various subclasses of League of Legends champions. Since Riot has recently been focusing on single champion updates and reworks, and more or less left larger class updates alone, I figure it might be time to shed more light on the subject of subclasses. I feel that these could be useful in discussing the larger meta for a couple of reasons.

If lane role (top, mid, etc.) is where a champ goes, and champion role (tank, support, mage) is a brief description of their playstyle, then, to me at least, a subclass should provide insight to two things:

1. A more in-depth archetype for the kit a champion has.
2. The goals that a champion has within a game, and the tools they have to achieve these goals.

For the purposes of this, I have defined a subclass as a combination of two pure classes, exhibiting most, if not all of their traits.

Pure classes: Fighter- Close range, characterized by self-sustain and self-buffs, as well as debuffs on the enemy in the form of damage reduction and slows. Tank- Close-to-medium range, characterized by high health, resistances, and a variety of hard crowd-control. Assassin- Varied range, characterized by burst damage, mobility, and target access that may include mild crowd control or circumventing traditional team-fighting tactics by relying on invisibility mechanics. Marksman- Medium-to-long range, characterized by high sustained basic attack damage and the utilization of abilities solely to increase their own DPS. Mage/Caster- Medium-to-long range, characterized by a reliance on magic damage, and targeted or Area of Effect abilities that may include area denial or crowd control. Support- Varied range, characterized by healing and shields, as well as buff for allies and debuffs for enemies that may include crowd control.

Now, into subclasses. Every combination of two pure classes is present, but that does not mean there are practical examples of it at the time of this writing. There are also a couple of caveats about these ideas at the end of this list.

Artilleryman- Marksman Tank The artilleryman is a rare class that utilizes a combination of high health, range and crowd control to alternate between the fringe of the fight and the front line. Playstyle relies heavily on team composition, given the unusual combination of attributes this class possesses. Ex: Urgot

Brawler-Assassin Fighter A lighter-weight variant of the classic “fighter” archetype, these close-range champions rely on gap-closers and damage deflection as opposed to damage mitigation. Reliance on auto-attacks is common. Ex: Lee Sin, Jax, Fiora, Camille, Wukong

Bruiser-Fighter Tank Bruisers are a pretty common class that allows for flexibility in build and playstyle. Most bruisers have ways to dictate fights, whether it’s a diving ability, a targetable debuff, or a huge self-buff. Their damage and survivability are both balanced by their moderate cooldowns and slower movement speeds. Ex: Vi, Dr. Mundo, Volibear, Skarner, Shen

Bushman- Fighter Support A rare class that focuses on skirmishing and distraction as a means to aid their teammates. Ex: No examples

Enchanter- Caster Support Enchanters are the “classic” supports that have some ranged crowd control, but rely much more heavily on shields, heals, and buffs to complement their team. Ex: Janna, Morgana, Karma

Guardians- Tank Support Guardians assist their allies by soaking up damage and locking down priority targets. They often boast crowd control and re-positioning tools to offset their extreme slowness. Ex: Nautilus, Alistar, Braum, Leona

Gunspell- Caster Marksman Gunspells are a subset of ranged champions who rely heavily on highly interactive abilities and interspersed autoattacks for combo potential. They have varying degrees of mobility, but lower mobility champions have compensating with larger ranges and detection mechanisms like traps. Ex: Jhin, Lucian, Xayah, Ezreal, Varus

Harbinger- Assassin Tank Harbingers are a rare class that rely on their high health pools and moderate CC to help them live through starting a fight just to burst a priority target. This class very rarely boasts any single high damage ability, and instead blows most of their kit at once to secure a kill before tanking out the rest of a fight. Ex: Hecarim, Jarvin IV, Reksai

Hunter- Assassin Marksman Hunters are champions that excel at catching enemies by surprise and dueling. They are usually basic attack reliant and may have some burst damage, but their primary focus is to melt enemies through fast basic attacks. Ex: Jinx, Vayne, Caitlyn, Sivir

Highwayman- Fighter Marksman The highwayman is a niche class with a unique fighting style: they are comfortable at almost any range. They utilize abilities that hit multiple targets, and have the short-range mobility to secure a kill or stall out a fight. Ex: Graves, Quinn

Mancer- Assassin Caster Mancers have one job: eliminate the highest priority enemy and then leave. They are ability reliant with high burst damage, but are not likely to survive an extended team fight as they are just too squishy. A mancer may be long or short ranged, with short ranges focusing on close range assassination and quick combos and long ranges utilizing high damage skill shots and AoE to keep enemies at bay. Ex: Diana, Talon, Le Blanc, Xerath, Ziggs, Vel’koz

Paladin- Caster Tanks Paladins are high-health threats with a fair amount of magic damage that usually manifests as Area of Effect abilities that have lockdown potential. Ex: Gragas, Maokai

Ranger- Assassin Support A very rare class that supports team-mates by bursting down a target and then falling back, leaving the kill itself for a priority member of their team. Ex: No examples

Scout- Marksman Support A niche class of ranged champions whose abilities do not focus on direct damage, and instead on damage over time, vision and area denial, or mild crowd control. Ex: Twitch, Twisted Fate

Spellsword- Caster Fighter Spellswords are close-to-mid range mages with higher than average durability. They are ability reliant, and must be careful to keep their abilities in rotation for if they are caught on cooldown they are toast. Ex: Lissandra, Ryze, Karthas

A quick note: similarly to how Riot’s description of subclasses (https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/gameplay/taking-another-look-subclasses) does not address all champions, mine has its short comings. For example, are Xerath and Ziggs classified as Gunspells because they are combo-based ranged damage, or Mancers because they excel at killing squishies? I would argue that they are just ranged Mancers, as their objectives are the same as melee champions that fulfill that role: kill squishies and get some extra damage in onto the rest of the enemy team. However, some may argue that not every champion needs to be in a subclass, and as such Xerath and Ziggs would be best classified as a pure Mage/Caster.

Similarly, I’ve never seen a Ranger (Assassin Support) as a champion design. Sure, you can play Zed or Talon or Yasuo as a support and just augment your ADC, but that doesn’t mean you’re getting the most out of your champion’s kit. And just because a champion like TF is defined as a “Marksman Support” based on what I think of his kit does not mean he can’t be utilized differently. I love TF, but I hate playing him mid because his early game damage is lackluster, and he lacks the combo potential some other mid-laners have.

Thank you for reading, I look forward to hearing the thoughts the community has on this.