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What does riot consider an assassin?

dontspinbutwin··2 votes·1,651 views

According to riot, "An Assassin is an agile champion that specializes in killing or disabling high value targets. Focused on infiltration, deception, and mobility, assassins are opportunistic hunters who find favorable moments within a fight before jumping into the fray." ....wouldn't that classify most champions as an assassin than? I'll take 2 strong examples of assassins: Zed and leblanc. Both are high burst, high mobility, and have a way to get in and get out. But that really isn't the case for all assassins, is it? We have assassins such as Talon and rengar, who while they can easily burst down a squishy, they really can't get out as easily (of course, if they have the ability to burst down a squishy, they usually can kill anyone else in the vicinity) If thats the case, what defines an assassin? How is Talon any different, from say, renekton? Renekton can go in at an instant, lock down someone, burst them down, and get out unscathed....as a bruiser. What about kled? He has a semi-global presence in an ult, 2 dashes on a single target, heavy burst with a w and q.... once again, as a bruiser. How about TF? He has semi global presence, heavy burst in a w and q, and if he has E on his next auto, its just more burst. Like talon, he can get in, heavy burst a single squishy target, yet can't really get out as well. Camille or Vi, or even Yasuo? All are heavy bursting units who have some of the greatest lockdown in the game, who can not only burst squishies, but tanks as well. Heck, why not vayne or kaisa? They have heavy burst, both have stealth, and since they're adcs, they have to be careful before going in, as they could get bursted down if they misstep. Fiora, riven, pantheon, rammus, hecarim, quinn, graves, xin zhao, ahri, alistar, I could list off nearly every champion who fits riot's description as an assassin. If a champion doesn't have mobility, then they have heavy burst: enter MF, illaoi, Darius, Varus, Veigar, Nasus, brand, etc. If a champion doesn't have mobility or burst? Perhaps they have enough CC to allow other champs to burst em down, like naut, thresh, blitz, nunu and willump, etc. What if a champion doesn't have mobility, burst, or hard CC? Then they aren't meta. Like Morde, Mundo, shyvanna, xerath (he technically fits into the bursty no mobility, but that's honestly a rarity in my games), rumble, etc. Now what happens when you have mobility, but thats it? You have Kat.

Point being, I just think that everyone has assassination potential, so what exactly are assassins supposed to accomplish? Why play Diana, go in and suicide bomb 1 for 1,when you could play someone like renekton, go in, kill 3 units, then exit the fight?

any thoughts?

8 Comments

Dracocrash2 votes

I think what makes assassins what they are is their sneakiness. Now every class has burst, it is no longer unique to assassins and mages. But assassins have multiple dashes/stealth/invulnerability in their kits to overcome obstacles like CC that might stop a regular old bruiser in its tracks. I can't think of a single assassin without having atleast 2 of the 3 (dash/stealth/invul) in some cases they have multiple dashes in conjunction with stealth/invul to outplay the enemy.

Although with recent releases, riot has been overloading kits with dashes/invul/stealth/ so there are some non assasin champions that break these rules. But assassin champions have all of these in ADDITION to an ult that gives them empowered burst. I can't seem to think of any non-assasin champion with the sneaky+ burst ult. I can't think of any assassin champions without sneakiness + an ult that helps them assassinate quickly. Another thing is how quickly they can get their skills off. A talon/zed/rengar doing their full combo will probably get it off in half the time a renekton would get off his full combo, for example.

And this part is an opinion but... assassins are kinda hard to play in ranked. Everyone plays really safe/well and I just can't find a good time to jump on their carries for a kill (probably cuz I suck at assasins, lol.) Why bother playing assasins, when as you said, renekton can also kill a carry, while being somewhat tanky?. So, it's not that assassins aren't unique as a class, but I see no reason to play them (unless for fun), so I do agree with you on that regard.

dontspinbutwin1 votes

I mean I get a bit of your side, but there are other champions that just downright follow what an assassin is supposed to be vs how riot announces them. Like for example, yi was released to be an assassin, yet he's best played as a 1 shotting bruiser, who does the same as AD yi, but survives.

Then we have Camille, who riot announces as a duelist, yet she has 2 dashes in her e, true damage, auto resets, max%hp damage, and an onclick ult that prevents any escape, aka the best lockdown in the game. Also, seeing as her ult is 3 seconds long, it forces the camille to burst down her target before they can escape.

Theres J4, who can easily kill any adc with a EQ auto.

All these 3 champs follow your criteria of dashes, fast combos, and ult that secures burst (with yi's being a powerful buff), yet they aren't really known as assassins, but bruisers or duelists.

SwiftKitten881 votes

a this point idk, i have been bursted down by every single class in the game in under 2 seconds

traditionally assasin weher classes that were low hp champions that were generally mobile and had a way in and out, but no form surviabilty if they stayed in the fight

this was a "go in and go out" back and forth type of gameplay

simlarrly divers generally had the alsmosy the same but slightly less burst as assassins, but had no way to get back out of the fight after they went in, to compensate for this they are generally tanker and have a stronger form of CC and may have shielding

that what it used to be

however every class kinda loses its some of it distinction when game is as high as it is.

sure there still are differences. but much less so than their used to be, with the burst damage coming out of classes that have no right to do burst damage

boricCentaur11 votes

Bty LeBlanc is not a assassin riot considers her a burst mage and to your point a assassin is ability based so champions like vayne would be not be considered assassins since her kit is focused around auto attacking and assassins kits focus around damage and have low survivability kled and Renekton both have good survivability in there kits. A assassin like talon and zed can both easy get in and out of fights while doing damage but if they get cced they just die and they both have burst damage meaning once they done there combo they can not do much else.

SwiftKitten881 votes

{quoted}

Bty LeBlanc is not a assassin riot considers her a burst mage and to your point a assassin is ability based so champions like vayne would be not be considered assassins since her kit is focused around auto attacking and assassins kits focus around damage and have low survivability kled and Renekton both have good survivability in there kits. A assassin like talon and zed can both easy get in and out of fights while doing damage but if they get cced they just die and they both have burst damage meaning once they done there combo they can not do much else.

lb is an assasin, she was literally in the assasin rework

boricCentaur11 votes

They put her in burst mage after the rework it was in the updated subclass list.

dontspinbutwin1 votes

Yi was released by riot as an assassin, and his primary damage output is through his autos.

Rengar's Q is an auto enhancing reset, and his burst comes from how well he can reset his autos with his empowered Q and normal Q.

Yasuo's secondary role by riot is an assassin.

Quinn's primary burst comes from her enhanced auto from her passive/duskblade/stormraiser.

Note that there aren't many auto attacking reliant champions after a while. It's because you can't dodge auto attacks (aside from blinds and jax). Thats why riot decided to change things a bit, and make burst into skills, which is why zed was seen as such a good example of an assassin for the longest time.

Talon's main burst comes from his ult, q, w, and passive proc. only problem is once he's in, there isn't a designated escape skill, aside his E, which isn't the most dependable if the fight's occuring in the middle of the lane.

You are correct in the fact that if an assassin gets cced, they can be bursted down ...except thats usually the case for every champion in the game (aside from heavy sustain tanks, like mundo). That's why even the tanks are cautious before a teamfight breaks out, because one misstep and they could get bursted down. So the idea of "cc burst separates assassins from everyone else" really doesn't apply, as if I cc an adc, they usually die as well.

FéliXXX1 votes

thats not a problem with assassins that a problem with bruisers they do WAY more dmg than they should be doing meanwhile they are rly tanky, if they are ahead they can carry as hard as assassins but if they are behind they still do better than assasins (when they are behind) cos they have utility, either cc, windwall, they tank more they can still make pressure and their items are better just look at conqueror and items like item 3053 they have a lot of base dmg and as or base dmg and true dmg...

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