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PSA: Assassins aren't supposed to be able to kill an adc next to their support if they aren't fed

The Sword Saint·4/24/2018, 2:40:34 PM·10 votes·2,479 views

I feel like people in modern seasons have forgotten what an assassin is.

Hint: they aren't champions that jump into a teamfight and try to oneshot a carry, that's what a diver is - which is a class if fighter.

An assassin's job is to clear wards and lie in wait to catch a carry OUT OF POSITION so that they can punish them for it. Sometime's by splitpushing to force a carry to come clear the wave, sometimes by camping by a blue or red buff or some other sneaky strategy.

If the enemy support is there to protect the adc, then guess what they ARE NOT OUT OF POSITION and you would be foolish to try and jump on them and FORCE the issue. Unless you are mega fed there is just no way it would be reasonable for you to expect to be able to 1v2 reliably unless your plan is to instakill the support first and then turn on the adc if you have enough cooldowns. It seems that a lot of assassin players here though don't even want to take that concession of getting the support for free and backing off so that their team can push with a numbers advantage, they'd rather go for the LCS BIG HERO PLAY of taking out the carry directly while ignoring that their champion is simply not designed to be able to brute force that kind of play.

If the adc or mid is alone pushing a side line or they linger out of position during a rotation then THAT is when you are supposed to be able to PUNISH them as an assassin. Note that the phrase is PUNISH because you are NOT ENTITLED to instantly kill them any other time then when they are making a mistake.

If you want more reliable ways to force an engagement on an enemy that don't rely so heavily on them being out of position, thats what mages are for - they can fish for kills with long range cc and if they can tag a squishy target your team is able to follow up and finish them off. The more committed version would be an initiation tank like malphite who can see a couple enemies grouped up and ult them to start a favorable fight.

That's not your job as an assassin. Your job as an assassin is to play mind games with the enemy, and catch someone out using superior vision control and positioning. If you cannot find a way to make a pick like this then you should wait until halfway through teamfights to go in on a low enemy and finish them before they are able to be protected by their teammates, but this is NOT the MAIN PLAN OF AN ASSASSIN, and if you are falling back to this then you have already failed in your main job of your class and should consider playing a different type of champion if this is how you want to play.

26 Comments

Malix Farwin4/24/2018, 2:44:22 PM8 votes

They cant even do it when fed though right now, the peels are really insane.

Also the problem with what you believe an assassin's job is, the current meta is ball up and force objectives after laning. So if an assassin cannot take out a carry when not fed they may never be able to bcz even if they split up if they are not fed they cannot ever catch them. Hince why mages are so popular and Assassins are not.

Veraska4/24/2018, 2:52:59 PM7 votes

I love how my champion has no utility or defensive ability/waveclear to justify their kill pressure and its totally invalidated because the autofilled janna knows to stand next to the marksman

BobaFlautist4/24/2018, 2:57:49 PM4 votes

Then when are adcs supposed to die?

webstar11084/24/2018, 2:51:55 PM3 votes

as·sas·sin noun a murderer of an important person in a surprise attack Assassins should be able to one shot an ADC if both are even. It is the support's job usually to keep the ADC alive. Even if the Zed is 10-0 the support with the right build MIGHT be able to keep the ADC alive. Instant CC, summoner spells, shields, items, etc.

rebelprincess014/24/2018, 2:44:53 PM3 votes

:PogChamp: assassins shouldn't be played in high elo then that's what ur saying

Malak4/24/2018, 3:03:30 PM3 votes

Nah, Assassins should be able to insta kill adcs if the adc builds pure damage like they always build right now.

Adcs should be forced to build 1 defensive item relatively early to prevent that, thus lowering the adc's damage significantly.

Right now ADCS give zero shits and just build pure damage no matter.

Mages, for example, usually need to build zhonya's versus Zed. Imagine how easy mages would be to kill if they went straight for rabadons + spellbinder

MorganFreemanBot4/24/2018, 3:28:10 PM3 votes

I see this counter argument pop up a lot, and I don't ever see it thought through successfully or with a realistic nod to how assassins have traditionally functioned.

For starters, adcs are supposed to be vulnerable. If a damage source such as an assassin, skirmisher, duelist, or 'fighter' makes it into range of an adc without already being heavily wounded, they're supposed to be totally capable of killing said adc (outside of maybe late game) most of the time. This is basically the adc counter balance; they're super dangerous if you give them space and a little time, but if you get ontop of them they're vulnerable and it's easy to make them stop existing.

Supports are supposed to counter this by, primarily, making it difficult to get to said ADC. Their balance point is that they're supposed to prevent targets from getting to the adc by either being a physical barrier (Braum, Alistar, Leona) which is difficult to pass, or else having tools which allow them to let the ADC escape and / or make it very hard to close on them (Janna, Lulu, Nami).

They are supposed to, at best, take the edge off damage wise, but they're supposed to prevent the adc from blowing up on contact by ensuring contact doesn't happen; or that enemies are VERY low when it does occur.

The problem is that, right now, they don't do that. Supports - enchanters specifically - don't have to give a shit about preventing enemies from making contact, because when they're near the ADC they just turn the adc into a tank. A ranged, massive damage, massive durability death ball which takes hits to the face and out-murders anything which gets close.

This is not how the support-adc dynamic is supposed to work. While 2v1ing an ADC and their support is supposed to difficult, it should be so for the right reasons. Those reasons being that the support is going to make every effort to let the adc escape / lock you down for the adc to kill. Not because they threw a heal / shield onto the ADC and turned them into a ranged Alistar with 700 damage auto attacks.

hhaavviikk4/24/2018, 3:23:04 PM2 votes

maybe the problem stems from the support not being a team support but being an ADC support, they used to support the entire team, never knew who to shield, should I shield the APC? should I shield the ADC? what about the assassin? now with ADC's beign the strongest class there is no choice, it's ADC, you always protect the ADC no matter what, got a 9/0/9 APC and a 2/7/3 ADC? protect the ADC, that's how strong they are.