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What Are Some Tips For Facing Assassins

SongsToBreakUpTo·Aug 11, 2016·1 votes·571 views

I consider myself a decent player. Most things don’t really give me trouble in LoL, but I have a really hard time facing off vs highly mobile assassins that can close the gap easily in addition to easy ways out. I’m talking about to name a few. Generally, I can deal with these champs if they are junglers and assuming no one feeds them 4+ kills before 8 minutes in. I ward well and I pay attention to the map as well as being decent at last hitting and not overextending. The problem for me is facing off in mid-lane vs these champs. It’s so hard to get kills on them because of all their zoning and escapes so I just try to farm safely and always call mia, but because I’m generally playing safe and pushed closer to my tower, I don’t always know where they went to roam if they take off. So, I ping and try to follow, but sooner or later they will get kills and once they get kills it just snowballs out of control so fast.

Does anyone have some tips for facing these champs?? Especially in the early laning period.

I don’t mean this negatively. I appreciate all suggestions and tips, but I should say that I’m not looking for the following things, which I have already tried and/or don’t work in an actual game:

Telling me to build tanky: while I may rush things like or when appropriate, you can’t really rely on this as a long-term option when you are playing apc or adc.
Use CC to lock them down: I think this is pretty much a given, but it’s crazy how often you’ll hear this suggestion. I know CC will help, but not every champ has CC and if I’ve locked in with a mage with not a ton of CC or escape how do I go about fighting these characters in lane?
Ask teammates for help or wait for jungle gank: Solo queue. Enough said.

So, ignoring those suggestions that I’ve already considered, can anyone help me?

7 Comments

AstôlfoAug 11, 20161 votes

Can you list a few specific champs that you play in mid frequently? Then I could offer some better advice.

SongsToBreakUpToAug 11, 20161 votes

Sure!

Some of my favorites are:

Taliyah Ziggs Karthus Kennen Velkoz Veigar Lux Morgana

Tend to do best with Lux and Morg vs them. It’s not too hard to zone them with those while still farming well. Taliyah is middle ground. I sometimes even get first blood off of them easily enough with her, but we also trade more kills in general. Characters like Karth, Ziggs, Veigar, Velkoz with no strong escape and a very dodge able CC have the most trouble with. I stick on my tower.

Sometimes game changes completely at lvl 6 tho... Zed Akali Diana

TehNACHOAug 11, 20161 votes

Mostly long range damage mages

Yeesh is your work cut out for you. Assassins are the natural counters to your champion pool. I would say try to pick up bulkier mid range or short ranged mages like Annie or Lissandra, but if you really want to work with what you've got:

If it isn't obvious enough, Barrier or Exhaust are godsend.
Count cooldowns. Any good Assassin player is probably abusing this against you, in fact. Every time they blow a big ability on the minion wave, that's a safe time to walk up and do whatever you want, be it free farm, harass, or even hard engage. Every time you blow a big ability on the minion wave, back the fuck up, or be absolutely ready for a fight.
Watch your wave clear. Once again, this goes both ways in fact. Some Mages just destroy waves better than any Assassin can dream, and you need to be fully aware of the consequences when you do that. Generally speaking, be conservative until you see an opportunity. Maybe you're against an Akali that can't do much early game and now it becomes an opportunity for you to poke/shove the lane early game to screw her over. Maybe the Zed you're fighting is spamming his W to wave clear, back up and let him shove while telling the Jungler Zed never has his W up. Maybe you just want to roam and you have enough AP to just blast the wave away. Never wave clear just to wave clear, do it with a goal in mind.
Don't play to an Assassin's strengths, force them to play by yours. One weird thing I notice about threads like these is that Mage mains are always looking for ways to outfight an Assassin. Why. Assassins are literally designed around outfighting and killing you head to head; I would think that finding ways to fight them is literally backwards thinking. Early game you gotta abuse cooldowns. Mid game you should favor siege situations than straight up fights. Late game focus more on being a big zoning tool for the team rather than a threat to the enemy carry. You're no longer struggling against what the Assassin is naturally capable of, the Assassin is instead now struggling to play around you.

AstôlfoAug 11, 20162 votes

Most assassins are utter shit in laning phase and can't really do anything until Level 6 by themselves (read: no ganks and or you just making a mistake). Most mages are a lot better at farming and can push the wave quickly up to the enemy laner's tower, where the assassin will struggle to farm.

If you know you're going against one, I'd take Exhaust. It completely shuts down their combo as long as you use it right.

Assassins want to punish you for overextending, but since you're a lot better at the CSing game than they are, I'd just farm near your turret and get the gold and experience you need for later. Assassins are still a threat, but without kills, they can't snowball anywhere as fast as they want to.

tseiheiAug 11, 20161 votes

veigar and karthus will always struggle with assassins.

One tip when dealing with them as mages: Gap closers in this game are very consistent with where it places people when they reach you. Zed for example will always have his ult place him behind the target. You can use this to your advantage and blow him up by simply timing your CC at the spot they will show up.

as a mage, you will just have to keep calm and focus and you should be able to counter play them pretty easy granted they aren't fed and you haven't messed up with your positioning.

MunchCrunchLunchAug 11, 20161 votes

group and push mid. even as a 25 kill rengar i can't do anything late game when the enemy groups unless they fuck up its quite impossible to me to kill an adc. especially ones like lucian that have a dash. pretty much impossible to do unless i have someone like malphite going in putting some cc and doing some damage too

SongsToBreakUpToAug 12, 20161 votes

I feel you and while I agree with what you said, solo queue just doesn’t work out like this. I’m unfortunately looking for ways without relying on teammates. If teammates help, yes it’s not an issue, but this happens very infrequently.

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