The Real issue with Assassins Compared to the State of the Game

This post isn't about ragging on assassins, it's about discussing their role in the game.

I've been playing league for years now, and I've always hated assassins. I find them obnoxious to lane against, and they are a pain later on in the game for hopping on me and killing me seemingly without any ability for me to deal with it, so I was pretty happy when the rework was announced and Riot said they'd be extending the burst window of assassins. However, now that the rework is past, a lot of assassin players are complaining that assassins are unplayable now, because of how easy it is to peel them off of carries, and because they can sometimes be burst down by adcs before they can do the same. First of all, I feel like you guys need to stop with this mentality that you should be able to go in and get a kill whenever you feel like it. If I see an important target, surrounded by 4 bodyguards, if I run in and try to kill that guy, of course the bodyguards are gonna beat the shit out of me and stop me from killing the target. I feel like what riot really wants assassins to do is move along the edge of a fight, and allow your team to engage and force the enemy to divert there attention, at which point you can jump in and kill that important target; in other words, you waited for the enemy to divert there attention, so you could kill the target, like an assassin.

If you're still reading, here's the part where I discuss the real issue; the excessive amount of instant burst present in the game. Not just burst damage, but burst healing, burst shielding, burst cc... League of legends doesn't have very many "delayed" abilities. Almost everything can be done whenever you want to do it, assuming you're in range and can land your abilities. This means that generally, the most important thing in a fight between non-binary characters is often reaction time. If a assassin jumps on the adc, the support has to react fast enough to shield the adc, or the tanks have to react fast enough to cc the assassin. Before the rework, when assassins mostly had instant burst, it was very difficult to react in time, and the adc would usually die with no one being able to do anything about it. However, in recent years, Riot has been attempting to move towards more proactive gameplay, where both players have time to respond to the actions of there opponent. Take the juggernaut rework for example. Most of the juggernauts make it clear well in advance what they are doing, whether it be Darius's heal spin, Garen's villain marker, Skarner's rocks, or Mordekasier's mace nuke; the opponent has plenty of time to react to what's happening. The assassin rework aimed to do the same, by adding delay's to there damage to give both players time to take action and have at least some agency in the fight. This is overall a good thing for everyone, by making fights come down to more than who can react the fastest, but to who reacts correctly. However, while assassins and juggernauts now have delayed burst, all of the other classes still do their things instantly, meaning both juggernauts and assassins are outclassed. Supports can instantly throw up massive shields and heals, mages and tanks can throw out cc nigh instantly, and adcs do so much damage so quickly when fed that they can out dps an assassin during the burst delay.

Over time, as Riot continues to rework entire classes, you'll see them work delays and time gates into the kits of the other classes. CC will not come out instantly, like Nautilus ult or Viktor w, shields and protective abilities will either be delayed or overtime like Taric ult, and adcs will lose the ability to do burst per second to squishies, instead focusing on what they should be doing, tank busting and objective killing. Riot seems to want Assassins to take kills of opportunity, but at the moment, the game contains so much instant everything that you can't wait to take advantage of those opportunities. As far as defending against assassins, I think all heals should become over time heals rather than burst heals, so assassins can kill through the healing, and delayed shields(requiring some level of anticipation) should be the preferred defense against assassins. Things will get better for assassins as Riot changes the rest of the game to match them and juggernauts.

TL;DR: Assassins are now meant to wait for opportunities to get kills, rather than just going in. Everything in league is too instant; while this issue has been fixed for assassins and juggernauts, it hasn't for everyone else, making assassins and juggernauts feel inadequate in comparison. However, in the future, I believe Riot is moving towards fixing this for everyone, and assassins will start to feel better.