There is something wrong with every assassin

Zenthon Prime··13 votes·1,813 views

But it's a lot of different things. There isn't one singular thing that makes assassins unhealthy. A lot the stuff in their kits can work. But every single one is screwed up in some way, and the sheer amount of missed opportunities to finally make one that's healthy is really starting to piss me off. Akali: Binary; either stomps or sucks Diana: Ends up as a bruiser Ekko: Doesn't pay enough for how much safety and utility he has Elise: See Diana Fizz: Trollpole, while balanced, is infuriating as hell Kassadin: Infinite mobility means he's either broken or fairly weak Katarina: Good at taking out several targets (more than one or two, consistently) Khazix: Isolation means he either does little or deletes you Leblanc: Way too safe Nidalee: Also has one of the best poke spells in the game and the best targeted heal Rengar: Zero-counterplay deletion Shaco: BS stealth-jump (note: still probably the best assassin design IMO) Talon: Either instantly kills a single person or is worthless Zed: Infinite poke/waveclear to match many mages and a passive that puts you in EZmode for CSing the entire game

Probably missed one or two.

But yeah, the amount of missed opportunities infuriates me to no end. The good part is that many of them could be fixed to not be infuriating to play against every time they're picked. For example, Zed's actual assassination tools have good counterplay, it's the other crap he gets that pushes him over the edge.

47 Comments

YumaS2Astral5 votes

I disagree with Fizz. His trollpole is not balanced, and will forever be the reason why Fizz is so frustrating to deal with, until Riot actually makes a chance on that.

Also, Rengar HAS counterplay. item 2043

Irelia Bot2 votes

{quoted}

I disagree with Fizz. His trollpole is not balanced, and will forever be the reason why Fizz is so frustrating to deal with, until Riot actually makes a chance on that.

Also, Rengar HAS counterplay. item 2043

Right because you always can put out 3 vision wards at a time and know when he is going to ult in on you or a squishy and literally kill you in under a second and always gets boots of mobility making warding for him coming basically pointless. He is worse then Leblanc who you can at least use stealth wards to deal with and is not the jungler who just appears out of nowhere (MIA or map awareness can do wonders against Leblanc).

Rengar is basically what akali was in her prime as far as having to deal with goes. Really sticky really high burst. But at least akali usually has to use her ult twice and elixer would cut her down to size. Rengar jumps on you hydras Q E W and you are either dead or almost dead unless full tank. The ! doesn't do anything but tell you that you are about to die in a second.

Rengar is basically everything that Leblanc with DFG was minus the escape which if you kill the target who is just a slight distance away from their team is enough for him to use the ghostblade active to get away.

I would rather have to deal with LeBlanc even when DFG was in the game then rengar any day since she at least has realistic counter play assuming you know how to use it.

disregardable1 votes

To either Rengar and Akali, you CAN always get the upgraded red trinket and use it for every fight. It'll wear off if you chase, but it works great when he's sitting in a bush or she's hiding in a shroud.

Irelia Bot1 votes

[{quoted}](name=The AFK Farmer,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=8aVJmLKd,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2015-06-12T09:44:02.973+0000)

To either Rengar and Akali, you CAN always get the upgraded red trinket and use it for every fight. It'll wear off if you chase, but it works great when he's sitting in a bush or she's hiding in a shroud.

That upgraded red triket works against akali but rengar kills you too fast for it to be of any real use.

SEKAI2 votes

These guys are also meant to be assassins, at least to some degrees. MasterYi Nocturne Pantheon Twitch

Honestly they are pretty cool.

No one seems to remember Evelynn, though, I can't blame them.

Vistha Kai1 votes

Evelynn? Does he or she throws axes at people?

BetaDude401 votes

No, I think she's the one that throws bubbles. You're thinking of Ahri

Vistha Kai1 votes

Ahri doesn't throw axes at people, m8. And if you'd bother to check, Nami's actually pretty high pick rate amongst supports :P.

Aych Pii1 votes

Yi is a melee carry, since he's more based on sustained damage than burst. Pantheon is a fighter/assassin but primarily a fighter.

YumaS2Astral1 votes

When build full damage with crits, Yi can actually potentially two-shot squishies, just like an assassin.

3TWarrior1 votes

can pantheon's Q crit on normal procs or just when E's passive is up? also, full damage pantheon can wipe out a whole team at once like katarina, but he doesn't have nearly the range she does and relies on his ult to do so but lol

TheI3igDaddy1 votes

His Q's a skill, so it can't crit like an auto-attack can. It only gets bonus damage to low-health targets.

Vistha Kai1 votes

Actually it is more like "Pantheon gains 100% crit chance aganist low health targets".

Vistha Kai1 votes

Panth only get Q crits once he levels E(or W, don't remember) and those only work for low HP targets. Crit damage however works well with Q.

LegitBacon662 votes

Keyword for assassins: "Overloaded"

Aych Pii2 votes

Read Akali's kit and try to tell me she does too much.

Arsames2 votes

Diana IS A FIGHTER Elise IS A MAGE

http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Zenthon127

SILVER LOW ELO? CHECK! DJ SONA NOOB ICON? CHECK!

ASSASSINS ARE BALANCED AND SECOND WEAKEST ROLE IN PRO-PLAY, YOU ARE CLUELESS, GG.

P4ppino1 votes

{quoted}

Diana IS A FIGHTER Elise IS A MAGE

http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Zenthon127

SILVER LOW ELO? CHECK! DJ SONA NOOB ICON? CHECK!

ASSASSINS ARE BALANCED AND SECOND WEAKEST ROLE IN PRO-PLAY, YOU ARE CLUELESS, GG.

N1 bro, this one made my day. :DDDD

KazaLyn Shao2 votes

Reset assassins like Katarina will never be balanced. Resetting is a STUPID mechanic. Assassins should have the ability to delete ONE person at most, then it's either GTFO, which should be slow not instant leap or teleport, or linger in the fight being marginally useful. If they can't kill someone they die. Katarina can take out your entire team if she gets a kill, which is just retarded. She's also extremely mobile. At least Master Yi has to waddle out of a fight if he has to leave, and he even has mana. Katarina, none of the above. Kassadin is a broken concept. Infinite jumps means infinite problems. Khazix is too similar to Katarina, only he can leap walls and stealth, which is actually worse. Shaco is extremely infuriating to play against. "SURPRISE! You die in 2 hits." But at least he's balanced. Talon is the only healthy assassin. His stealth jump won't leap walls. He has no easy exit to the fight if he intends to maximize his damage. There's a huge risk using your ultimate to enter battle. Leblanc is straight bullshit. She was designed to fall off late game, not dominate and do whatever she pleases for the entire duration of the game. Rengar is similar to Talon. Easy to get in and get a kill, hard to get back out. That's the way it should be, IMO.

ModWulf Helhammer1 votes

She will kill your entire team if you are all low and grouped, and you have used everything that can stop her prior. Katarina is a clean up champion, and excels at it very well.

3TWarrior1 votes

not entirely, her ult at max damage does 1k damage a second, so she can kill the adc/apc instantly and if she kills both, gets another ult for free

ModWulf Helhammer1 votes

Ok, first: that's her max damage, meaning after you have it fully channeled. And let's be honest: how many times does that happen?

And second: when does two kills (using your ultimate no less) mean you have another ultimate up? Her ult at min cooldown (rank 3) is still 45 seconds, and her passive only reduces it by 15. So that's 15 seconds still unaccounted for. And I don't know what kind of Kat build you're using, but I don't think I have ever had that much CDR in my kit to reduce my ult by a third of the cooldown. In order to get 30%, you would be losing an insane amount of damage from your items

3TWarrior1 votes

don't play her much XD it just seems funny that in most teamfights she'll get her ult up again though XD and actually, with runes you only need one cooldown item, such as morellonomicon, to keep the sustain champs squishier

Stellafreyja1 votes

Diana & Elise aren't Assassins though. Although, I feel like Elise should be reclassified as Mage/Assassin, seeing as her Spider Form's kit focuses on finishing off enemies. At least if they made Elise an Assassin they could make her damage ridiculous and it would be somewhat acceptable since she'd be an Assassin.

Sherogarth1 votes

Imo there is only one "balanced" assasin, but he is forgotten and lost in DARKNESSSSSSSSSSSS Nocturne .

Irelia Bot7 votes

{quoted}

Imo there is only one "balanced" assasin, but he is forgotten and lost in DARKNESSSSSSSSSSSS Nocturne .

He feels more like a fighter in most cases.

grLKQ9ma0o1 votes

Because his kit is based completely on consecutively autoattacking someone to get his passive off while on his shadow carpet. Other champions whose main source of damage is autoattacking: Jax Tryndamere also known as fighters.

LankPants1 votes

See Diana

OJ1911 votes

I don't think it's even possible to balance resets and isolation type mechanics in league with riots current balance philosophy whereby it has to at least be possible to "not lose" every matchup.

TSA unityinstall1 votes

You missed Ahri who is a healthy assasin. You missed Yasuo who is like talon

Vistha Kai1 votes

Yasuo is like Diana, except the fact OP doesn't know she was designed to be a bruiser and ended up being played as an assassin.

Keevalroy2 votes

Ahri isn't an assassin anymore, and Yasuo isn't a champion.

Vistha Kai1 votes

So I'm not the only one who thinks the same about Yasuo. I thought I went crazy at some point, but I'm more sane than expected.

Vistha Kai1 votes

OP, you got it wrong.

Diana was designed to be a fighter/jungler, but was played as an assassin/mage later on (which led to her nerfs in Season 2/3). She's still mostly an assassin. She isn't restricted to that playstyle, though.

Zenthon Prime1 votes

This is interesting. I had assumed she was designed as a jungle assassin. Meh, point remains the same.

Vistha Kai1 votes

Not the same. The opposite. Your OP assumes an assassin is played as a bruiser, but it's a bruiser played as an assassin.

3TWarrior1 votes

sort of like pantheon? XD

Vistha Kai1 votes

Don't let a champion "role" fool you.

He isn't any more of an assassin than Syndra is a support.

DanofDemacia1 votes

One thing is wrong with your post. Fizz isnr balanced get gud

3TWarrior1 votes

hard to comment...if he gets any sort of lead, he will delete you and your entire team for the rest of the game...if he doesn't, he still has a 3 second cooldown 1/2 second untargetable state XD with 2 dash mechanics and one is target-less

Budupops1 votes

Riven

ModWulf Helhammer1 votes

Well, it's kinda the point of an assassin to either snowball or suck. That's the price you pay for paying that kind of champion. You go into the game with the intention that you are going to kill your lane opponent early, and then build off of that kill, roaming, etc. You don't come with much utility or peeling potential.

In that regard, Talon and Akali (at least hwo you have identified them) excel. The will either do what they are supposed to (kill squishies) or they will fail

Singing Lark1 votes
  1. Diana has stupid high burst when built glass cannon. She's very good at countering assassins and burst mages, but she has no escape.

  2. Riot originally wanted Diana to be a bruiser. It just so happens that she's better when played as an AP assassin.

Meep Man1 votes

Assassins pray on unorganized teams, which is basically what Solo Que is. Play with a team of friends over Skype or Curse Chat. As long as they know how the game works, you will do a lot better and Asssassins will become much less powerful since now your ADC can instantly tell you "ZEDS COMING IN!"

The Queen Viper1 votes

Assassins = Cancer

Assassins should never be in this game to begin with... they are the very definition of "feast or famine" type of champions. Either they don't do much and are useless, or they stomp hard and offer almost zero counter play.

TheI3igDaddy1 votes

I agree that they're very hard to balance, but the assassin archetype has been around forever, so keeping them out of the game for the sake of balance will drive players away.

Plus, assassins complete the Balance ...Triangle(?) of archetypes: Tank beats Burst, Burst beats Sustain, Sustain beats Tank. And assassins are obviously in the Burst category along with some mages.

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