@Meddler: Tanky Assassins and Game Balance

EfficientDynamo·3/31/2016, 2:12:26 AM·6 votes·384 views

I was wondering what Riot's current philosophy on balancing build flexibility and role flexibility. For example, recently there has been a surge in the use of tanky assassins that abuse low CD's, high base damage, and utility while building full tank/bruiser. Ekko and Akali seem to be the most popular, but I am sure this strategy is viable with other assassins.

Does Riot consider this to be a good thing? It seems to go against the previously stated design philosophy goals for certain roles, e.g. assassins have high risks and high rewards. It seems odd that Riot would allow these build options to be viable even at the conception of a champion, much less the balancing. Especially since there have been repeated nerfs for other assassins that were deemed too safe or had too much power outside of exploding carries (looking at you, ).

4 Comments

SouL1ess3/31/2016, 4:41:58 AM2 votes

allow these build options to be viable even at the conception of a champion, much less the balancing

What do you mean? Everyone can build what they want. It's not an MMORPG where class dictate what items can they use and what not.

Of course Riot never intends to release assassins that build tanky. But when you have assassins that can't rely on OTK combos, the assassins favours a tanky build moreso than a damage build because they can't kill people in one rotation anyways, and their item philosophy turns into "being alive = more damage dealt". And since there are many items that gives both defense and offense stacked in one item (read: extremely slot efficient), of course the non-OTK assassins want to buy those, because it gives them the best chance at winning.

Do those assassins have low CDs? Yeah, because they are designed around multi-rotation (Ekko, Kha'zix, Akali). And a tanky build makes the best value out of that, not a half-assed damage build that doesn't get you to where you need (killing a target before being killed) and is just as expensive.

Edge of Daybreak3/31/2016, 4:42:46 AM1 votes

Well when Riot nerfs their damage and survivability what else are they gonna do? In these times if you build squishy on the **nerfed **assassins you either nuke the opponent quickly or you melt. The issue is the latter is the norm. Poor akali. She didn't deserve this at all and neither did most of the latter. The issue is they nerfed them until they were reasonable then riot kept going mostly to appease the masses who let's be honest weren't even trying to outplay their opponent. God I remember my first ekko triple was a bard/ fiora/ and akali literally following my clone. For no reason so of course I ulted and hit them with everything and they died. Ekko has the most unreliable damage setup of any assassin and the next thing I see. "Ekko is broken." Most of the league community is just bad at league and when riot nerfs things to compensate for that we get a balance disaster.

Riot can nerf the items and the champions all they want but until you give them a real incentive to want to build straight damage again it wont happen. Worse these damage + defensive items are just ridiculous. AP's and AD's get way too many defensive stats while building damage. I remember when someone like Talon only had damage and some lifesteal maybe. Now he can get damage with Magic resist and health + a CC cleanse. Like wtf is that? Why would I ever build pure damage items? Then looking at ekko's most common build. 4 of his 6 items give some form of damage + tankiness. Why would he build pure damage when he can just build this andtill nuke you but now not melt into a puddle when you sneeze on him?