Itemization overhaul series: AD assassin item rebalance idea's

So i was thinking about this for a bit too, already posted my 2 ct on ap items

But assassin itemization isn't fine either right now

There are abuse cases going in all directions with their items and the assassins abusing items meant for other classes there is also a giant missed opportunity

Edge of night could give stealth, i stole this idea, here is the thread i saw it https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/UsUWja4J-edge-of-night-should-give-stealth-instead-of-a-shield

Not very refined as an idea, still a good one tho, but i had a solution

Stealth is too good and camouflage might be better, make it 6 seconds with 0,5s channel for synergy with youmous as well as with duskblade

There will be abuse cases too without further adjustments stealth train incoming stealth crater of doom

But canceling the stealth on ability cast or when attacking would prevent most abuse cases so there is a solution, at the same time this would give enemies a chance to react as you engage because you would reveal yourself

Ok the actual rebalance

Let's start with the elephant(s) in the room

1. Pen stacking
2. Cleaver

I feel that this is something which needs to be addressed

First of all the stacking should not be a thing, i know it's funny dealing true damage to everyone, but invalidating defensive items is just a design flaw imho.

The first thing which should be changed is cleaver, i already have different idea's for the last whisper items which ill post in my adc/crit item update thread Though for now the solutions would be to simply apply flatpen before % pen or make the greater value apply only

Needs a change, it's being abused too much by everyone it shouldn't be abused by The solution in my eyes is simple

The item was meant for juggernauts, fighters and the oddball ad tank would sometimes build it too It was meant to provide meaningful utility with its shred to help allies do better too

So in order to make this item a lot less abused the stats need some changing

Simply remove the AD it gets from combining so now 400 hp 20% cdr and 15 AD Still has shred passive

Now i do not want to gut the item so it will get something in return for the lost AD

+1% of hp physical damage on your abilities

Should be a very neutral change for all the originally intended users Less AD to power your abilties and attacks however it's made up for with hp scaling resulting in slightly lower earlygame damage spike from the item but stronger late game damage on your abilities

This should be enough to deal with most of the abuse cases with no real negative side effects to the intended users

There might be a few select champions who could potentially suffer from this change negatively, Riven comes to mind, and they might need a compensation buff somewhere if needed.

Lethality rebalance

lethality right now is pretty strong, even so it doesn't seem equally beneficial to every champion and many ranged champions seem to be grabbing it for quick power without sacrificing much later on in the game.

With pen stacking trashed meaningful decisions have to be made again there

This alone should somewhat lower the value of lethality so as compensation all of the items get +2 but now starting at 50% value again now all get 20 total starting at 10 flatpen at level 1and scaling up

Edge of night will be changed to grant camouflage as described at the beginning of this thread

Moar Assassin items

With the abuse handled and the 3 current assassin items scaling a tad better with increased synergy we can introduce a few new ones suited towards Assassins

Let's start with the pure damage option, because i already made one up that i think would suit assassins perfectly i would like to add some more items later more geared towards utility but as of now i have not yet come up with any great idea's for that, but i do think such items are necessary to address the feast/famine nature of assassins

Blade of a thousand death's

100 AD 10% cdr Unique Passive - a thousand death's: After hitting/landing 3 abilities on an enemy champion within 3 seconds deal 100% of your total AD as bonus damage Special Requirement: Enemy champion needs to have less remaining health than you before damage is applied 75 second cooldown

This item grants nothing but damage and is high risk/reward oriented go in get them lower hp then you are withing 3 ability hits and be rewarded with additional burst.

Also very suitable for executing lower health targets

This would be an expensive item to buy as the passive is quite powerful

Conclusion so far

With all these changes assassins should be a bit better at sneaking up on people and dealing with weakened enemies and executing them. With less abuse both ways a small late game buff to lethality should help them out later in the game as well. And better synergy between all the available assassin items to make them a bit more rewarding. Just need a few more utility options for famine situations to make them less awkward when falling behind or being counter picked in drafts

I hope you like some of my idea's if you got any better suggestions please tell. Perhaps some of you have some good idea's for a utility oriented AD assassin item

Edit

I have some utility idea's

A really obvious one when you think about it

We all know how penetration affects towers, what if it no longer did, at least not by default. but rather there was an item which boosts lethality to grant it additional benefits

This will accomplish 2 additional benefits beyond granting some utility towards assassins which ill get into in the item description

The first one is an indirect buff to towers. The second one is that it makes lethality less abuse able by other classes

Ok now that we got that out of the way let's discuss the item

Blade of woe

+ + 825 gold = 2500 gold

30 AD 10% CDR 200 HP Unique: 20 out of combat movement Unique passive: Lethality affects structures Unique passive: Deal bonus damage to monsters & minions on your abilities equal to 100% of your lethality

An item to help out rotate and assassinate objectives rather then champions Should help with wave clear and roaming and taking down towers, dragons, herald, baron or scuttle crabs for vision and can help with stealing enemy buffs etc It provides a fall back option for assassins to make them more useful when they get out drafted or fall behind

Ethereal dagger

+ + 825 gold = 2500 gold 30 AD 10% CDR 200 HP Unique passive: When hitting an enemy with a spell it damages their mana equal to 75% of your lethality. Unique Active: Your next damaging basic attack Shreds an enemies resistances equal to 150% of your lethality for 5 seconds as well as grounding them, using this active disables your lethality, 75 second cool down.

This item will let you sap enemy resources to render them helpless. You can opt to sacrifice your lethality to severely weaken a target for a short period. This can be usefull when making a pick or in a fight to pin down an enemy and make them vastly more vulnerable. However you do disable your lethality so while this can be useful you do this at the cost of losing out on damage vs other targets during the team fight and for a long time after vs everyone.

This has 2 benefits for the assassin, it provides a comeback option for 1v1 scenario's when finding an isolated target. And it grants some team fight utility.

The low AD and lethality scaling should make the items less desirable for many other classes. With all the before mentioned changes there is 90 lethality available, you can start the game with 30 and have access to dirk for an extra early 10, after which these items already become fairly use able. While the 30-50 lethality makes these items decent in the early to midgame utility wise it might be beneficial to get a bit more lethality later to keep them going strong. At maximum lethality the utilities become really powerful giving assassins other strong points besides just killing enemy champions by themselves