Assassin reworks: Thoughts and suggestions moving foward

Frightning·11/11/2016, 9:03:37 PM·1 votes·226 views

So I got around to trying out most of the new assassins (all that I own anyways). Here are my thoughts on them:

Akali: Overall, I'm liking the changes, her new passive is interesting (though it might be better to swap the heal and damage ordering), the new short dash on her W opens all kinds of doors for cheeky plays, especially since it can hop thin walls, ult damage nerf isn't welcome, but at least it's understandable (and thank you for the instant 3 charges on first rank). My biggest concern for her is the loss of her actual spell vamp passive: while the new heal will serve just fine in lane, I fear that her dueling potential has taken a pretty major hit between that and ult dmg nerf, but I'm not sure if she's actually in a good spot overall atm or not (hard to tell with current imbalances elsewhere in the mid lane champ pool).

Fizz: New active on his W is really strong if you have the patience to wait 2 seconds for the triple damage, new shark is interesting, at max range it's bloody huge and does fucktons of damage, but at least that means it's harder to land too (good risk/reward model). He could probably use some numbers tweaks but mechanically I think it's fine (the 1 sec cd on kill is handy for last hitting, and can be clutch when cleaning up a fight while low on hp).

Kha'Zix: New evolved Q only seems good if you're fed, and imo isolation is still bit harder to get than I'd like (minions isolation denial radius might be just a hair too big?), no slow on W with evolve is going to make the evolve more valuable, new R evolve seems cool, but I suspect many people will take it last (at level 16). Longer Q cd is ok price to pay for better scaling on it (especially w/ how new evolved Q works, it's much strong against isolated targets). Passive having AD ratio is most welcome, especially given ult interaction (invis automatically gives you passive again).

LeBlanc: She feels awful now, but...I think her kit is mostly good actually, the problem that needs addressing imo is that the new passive has a 5 second lockout after you apply it once to a target. This does two things: #1 means she doesn't get more than 4 spells+1 passive in an all-in that isn't an extended fight, #2: She has no reasons not to dump the rest of her spells as soon as she's gotten the sigil proc. Both of these could be addressed by removing the 5 second lockout, but keeping the 1.5 activation delay (maybe even make subsequence spells before that time reset the 1.5 secs?). This would reward LeBlanc players with the patience and foresight to stagger their spells to get multiple passive procs. If my suggestion were implemented, her damage numbers would need some adjustments. As it stands, imo her Q's base damage is much too low now that it only hits once (it looks like her damage numbers were literally unchanged, which seems odd given how significant the mechanical changes were, did you guys just not know what to do w/ her numbers w/ the new mechanics?)

Rengar: His new Q does a lot of damage for how low its CD is and the fact that you can drop Q+Emp Q back to back (and E too), the fact that it's AoE just makes old Rengar's burst problem even worse when he jumps multiple people (at least he no longer gets free AS from it). W feels really nerfed (old heal was better, but new one will be very effective against burst champs), the CC removal on Emp W is amazing. Overall I think w/ some dmg adjustments he will settle into a good spot.

Talon: Ohh boy, wonderful new mobility E is great, problem? His damage is way too high atm, mainly basic abilities and passive damage. His mechanics seem fine, so all that's really needed is some nontrivial damage nerfs and he should stop being broken (he's pretty absurd atm).

Zed: Small changes here, he seems not much different, loss of % AD steroid hurts him some, but new ult mechanic can partially compensate (also makes him slightly anti-enemy AD Assassin, as they are the best target to ult-kill; most AD), better energy return on W might mean maxing it last is viable, will have to see.

Edit: Forgot Katarina

Katarina: Very happy with her new mechanics, definitely going to reward smart play, as well as introduce more counterplay, however, her ult is basically unchanged and her basic abilities stand really well on their own now, so I think that her ult could use a slightly longer CD (think 100/80/60 type CD). Overall she doesn't seem way outta wack, but her damage on passive seems a bit high given that its AoE and you can proc it twice in short succession+2 more times per reset if you play it right.

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