Boards›Gameplay

Why are Assassins the most likely to get Pentakills?

DrCyanide·Dec 30, 2014·1 votes·798 views

Statistics & Charts & PKA - League of Legends - LOLDB

On this site, PKA = PentaKill Ability. How likely a champion is to get a pentakill.

The thing that stood out to me was the labels tied to these top pentakilling champions: 1 = - Assassin/Mage 2 = - Assassin/Fighter 3 = - Assassin 4 = - Marksman 5 = - Marksman 6 = - Marksman/Assassin 7 = - Fighter/Assassin 8 = - Fighter/Assassin 9 = - Marksman 10 = - Fighter/Assassin 11 = - Marksman 12 = - Marksman/Assassin 13 = - Marksman/Assassin

This pattern continues down the list for quite a while, with more Marksmen tend to follow the Assassins at the top of the charts.

There are very few exceptions: 21 = - Fighter/Mage 23 = - Mage 30 = - Mage 35 = - Fighter/Tank. He marks the start of a significant group of non-assassin/non-marksman pentakillers.

I get why Marksmen are up there. Teams tend to focus on getting the ADC's fed, and will try and set up that kill for them. Love it, hate it, don't care, that's what happens in a lot of games.

But why are Assassins up there? Why is this class, which everyone states specializes in getting in, killing a squishy target, and getting out (getting out optional), getting more pentakills than every other class? If it's a "High Risk, High Reward" argument, why are these risks only available to the Assassins?

It should also be noted that not every Assassin is super high on that list: 64 = 68 = 75 = 88 =

TL;DR: What I'm looking for is either a reason for why Assassins have such a high potential to score pentakills or a better definition of "Assassin" than the one I see flung around the boards.

10 Comments

Leaf of the lakeDec 30, 20144 votes

tl;dr: remove resets, buff the rest of their kits, assassins stop being a one-man army and now actually specialize in killing a single target rather than whole teams.

DurzakaDec 30, 20143 votes

Because labels dont mean shit.

Riven isnt an assassin.

None of those ADCs are assassins, although an argument can be made for Twitch.

Fiora is definitely not an assassin, but an argument can be made for Yasuo.

As for why the list is like it is, is pretty simple:

1.) Resets.

kat, Yi, Akali, Tristana. All have resets.

2.) Marksmen.

Not much else needs to be said. High damage from range, if anyone is going to get a Penta, it is very likely the ADC dealing most of the sustained damage in a fight.

3.) AoE damage.

Kat, Fiora, Twitch, Jinx, (Yi to a lesser extent) Tons of very high AoE damage makes it pretty simple to get the killing blow on multiple people.

SmokingPuffinDec 30, 20143 votes

Well, obviously damage-oriented champions are most likely to make pentas. Tanks, supports, and most fighters need not apply.

Actually, assassins mostly suck at making pentas. The top 3 champions on the list are all champions with reset on kill. Obviously good for making pentas.

The rest of the list aren't assassins. They're something else, with some assassiny characteristics. Fiora, for example, has the assassin quality of killing something really really fast, but isn't much for being slippery. In general, the rest of that top 10 is champions with obnoxious amounts of AoE damage and very little in the way of getting out again.

DrCyanideDec 30, 20141 votes

obnoxious amounts of AoE damage and very little in the way of getting out again.

This makes me all the more curious about the following: 61 = Ziggs 65 = Xerath 74 = 84 = Velkoz

All mages with good amounts of burst AoE (you could argue Ziggs is more sustained), but they are far, far from the top.

Lord DusteonDec 30, 20141 votes

{quoted}

This makes me all the more curious about the following: 61 = 65 = 74 = 84 =

All mages with good amounts of burst AoE (you could argue Ziggs is more sustained), but they are far, far from the top.

Because they use all their AoE at the start of the fight, not using resets and huge sustained dps for AoE. Kat uses AoE by jumping in, nuking people, and using resets to repeat. Mages use AoE by spamming all their abilities at the start and then sitting back, tossing their spells whenever they get off cooldown but generally losing most damage. Unless a mage is literally 100-0ing your entire team it's unlikely for them to get pentas.

DurzakaDec 30, 20141 votes

{quoted}

This makes me all the more curious about the following: 61 = 65 = 74 = 84 =

All mages with good amounts of burst AoE (you could argue Ziggs is more sustained), but they are far, far from the top.

Because their AoE comes at the start of a fight.

And because once they blow their load, they are done. And the odds of them getting 5 killing blows with 4-6 skills is incredibly small.

All of the ones at the top deal consistent/sustained damage or have resets.

SmokingPuffinDec 30, 20141 votes

{quoted}

This makes me all the more curious about the following: 61 = 65 = 74 = 84 =

All mages with good amounts of burst AoE (you could argue Ziggs is more sustained), but they are far, far from the top.

I'm not that curious about any of those.

Brand has a good chance to make a triple, but he runs out of steam before everyone is dead. In general, I suspect mages don't do so well in making pentas because they tend to be pretty bad at the cleanup part.

Vel'Koz seems like the guy with the best chance to kill them all with a giant laser, but that's way harder than say MF or Graves. Also, Vel tends to be played as a support these days, which is the absolutely no pentas role.

Aurelius MaximusDec 30, 20142 votes

The correct answer is resets

Joe DreddDec 30, 20141 votes

First 3 because resets

Kowe The EwokDec 31, 20141 votes

Because Riot decided that taking out a core target and getting out wasn't assassinish enough.

They watched a few animane and came to the conclusion that assassins's usually take out a whole clan - and then teleport out.

You have a wrong idea if you think assassins are actually stealthy spot-on killers. They are simply DPS machines who can also 100-0 targets in a second every now end then when their ult is up. Fizz Akali Zed

I wished I was sarcastic... It's too close to the truth to be sarcastic though.

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.

GameplayJul 18, 2015764 comments

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.

GameplaySep 1, 2015156 comments

GameplayApr 1, 2016606 comments

GameplayDec 21, 2014456 comments

3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.

GameplaySep 17, 2015114 comments

When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?

GameplayNov 30, 2014634 comments

More by DrCyanide

The joke that is the "Clarity" design value

GameplayJan 2, 2015162 comments

@Riot: After you've fixed the Xerath exploit, could you do one more thing?

GameplayApr 13, 201736 comments

So Skarner gets a rock...

GameplayAug 4, 2015135 comments

Why are AP Mages being turned into the only class that needs to recall late game?

GameplayApr 8, 2016238 comments

Wow! That jungle mob took 95% of my junglers health! Wait...

Report a BugNov 22, 201441 comments

FINALLY!!! Yasuo rework confirmed!

GameplayApr 1, 201774 comments