How to handle assassins. (Not a rant)

No this isn't a rant about a Silver wanna-be pro who mains Zed and Fizz and Akali who is crying about how they are balanced. This is a Silver wanna-be pro giving you some tips on how to handle them, instead of encouraging more ranting about it. Let's be honest, and i'm willing to take a bullet for this, but Riot is too busy to instantly nerf the assassin class right now and since a direct number change wont be a very productive nerf, it will be a while before the reworks are done. So i'm giving a little guide for the newbies on tips of how to fight these guys! Take this as you will. Please note this is NOT at all suggesting they are Overpowered. This is simply a mini-guide/tips for mages who have trouble with their counter-class. Please put some constructive thoughts in this instead of saying i'm an idiot. I'm here for myself as well since i'm not the best at the game. I want to hear if you guys have any other tips and how to handle assassins! :) It took alot of courage for me to post this and I had to step outside of my box, please keep an open mind!

IMPORTANT NOTE: I love assassins, it's my favorite class by far as I am a Kha'Zix main. I love the idea of sneaking around and killing the enemy damage dealers, and then getting out or dying. High-risk high reward is my favorite type of playstyle. Unfortunately, some assassins with higher skill ceilings like Zed and Fizz have very safe bursts once mastered, and even relatively safe bursts after only playing them for a short while, so we need to learn how to counter these if we want to be relevant as a mage mid/late game. Again, I am in no way saying that Assassins are OP, this is simply a guide for mages on how to survive against their counter-class.

**Zed: Everyone here seems to know his strengths so lets focus on his weaknesses and how to exploit them. **

Right now, it's very very hard to lane against Zed. If you have a champion who's kit simply offers no room for outplay, the best you can do is get jungle pressure so you can farm and possibly get kills. However if you are someone with some heavy CC and burst ie: Lissandra, Syndra, then you can outplay him.

With the CC combo: Wait for him to burn his shadow (W), Then stun/harass him.

After he ults: Use your CC and counter-burst him, by the time he gets back up you will be gone and his burst will do maybe 300 health.

Zed can be a major problem for low range mage champions who need to get close to get damage in, as Zed has a nearly infinite source of poke damage if utilized correctly, so what you need to do for this is to wait for his Q to be burnt out, hopefully dodging it, then get close and burst him down a bit within reason. It's the best you can do at this point. If that isn't working then just don't feed him and call your MIA's. Zed needs kills in order to be relevant late game.

Fizz: This little fish thing is actually ALOT easier to deal with than Zed, if you know how to handle him.

Many noobie mid-laners complain about his invulnerability and his early game damage. His E has quite a large cooldown and takes ALOT of mana early game. Here is how you handle fizz.

Poke poke poke poke. Stay away from him and poke. If he uses his E then you are in the clear to burst him down. If he stays in lane then just repeat the process. NOTE: Even if he doesn't get hit by your poke, he will have to use E ALOT to negate it, and his mana will be drained to the point where he wont be able to use it anymore, so he will recall, or be harassed. When his mana is no longer a problem, around mid game, then you have probably equal farm and maybe some kills from roaming. If you called your MIAs and your lanes listend (Very situational I know but this is all you can do) then Fizz will be underfed and you should be able to handle him 1v1 or shut him down in team fights.

How to counter his burst?

This is a bit harder, i'd recommend a banshee veil to negate half of the burst from his ULT. Another thing is to stay the hell away from him when his ult is up beacuse the closer he is, the easier it is to land it. If the fish is smart and knows how to take out ur veil right away before bursting and always lands his ults, get a Zhonya or a QSS. Both will negate his ult damage and his DoT.

**Akali: Now since i'm lazy, i wont write another painstaking paragraph. **

• Buy pink wards to negate W
• Banshee's veil is very good if she is out-bursting you.
• Do not, not, not, not, not, forget your MIA pings.
• Just don't feed her in lane as a last resort. Don't try to beat her if you can't, if she is underfed then her damage/spell vamp will be meaningless.
• Play super super super super passive if she lands her Q. In fact if you see that thing flying to you just run.

End Note:

A couple things to keep in mind before screaming that they have no counter-play/burst down mages too quickly.

I will agree on some respects to the no real counter play, however it is an assassin's job to assassinate the carries. You are a carry.

I'm not joking when I say dont feed them in lane, Assassins are inherently stronger in 1v1 duels than mages, underfeeding them is key to making them useless.