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Maybe Riot should just outright remove the Assassin class

SpecterVonBaren·3/4/2018, 9:13:16 AM·8 votes·736 views

Now hold up with your pitch forks and your tar and feathers and let me explain.

First, when I say remove the Assassin class, I don't mean remove the champs, rather, I mean that the champs within the class should be redefined and renamed.

I don't think Riot can continue to have a class in the game that's sole purpose is to kill people for many reasons.

  1. It means that in order to not have them be the most frustrating things ever, they had to introduce delayed damage on many Assassins, which Assassin players hated.

  2. It leads to either the class being useless when behind, or, if they have catch up mechanics, it makes it so you have no way to stop them from killing an important ally.

  3. Mages, Marksmen, Bruisers, Juggernauts, some tanks, and some supports, all of them ALSO ultimately want to kill things really good. Assassins, as they are currently defined, have no niche that can't be fulfilled by other classes who also have additional benefits.

  4. You can only do so much with a class defined by "I kill people really good". Sure you can create different gimmicks to how an Assassin kills someone but they're still just killing someone and adding something like utility or tankiness leads to problems like release Ekko.

So, what do I think should be done? I think we should look at Dota 2 for an idea. In Dota 2 they have a class called Escape.

https://d1u5p3l4wpay3k.cloudfront.net/dota2_gamepedia/thumb/d/d3/Pip_tank.png/32px-Pip_tank.png?version=166148de1486c90d4a1506851950dd1a

Escape heroes are heroes equipped with one or more escape mechanisms which allow them (or sometimes their allies) to avoid damage and abilities while retreating or repositioning themselves during a teamfight or gank. Escape heroes are particularly suited to soloing the "suicide lane" or short lane, as they can turn situations where death is inevitable into a temporary delay in farm. Escape mechanisms include movement speed buffs, invisibility, teleportation (such as Blinking), and evasion. Many carry heroes also have escape mechanisms to give them the survivability they need to continue farming and killing.

I think the mobility of Assassins should be their new designated niche. They should be turned into a class perhaps called, Escape Artists. The Escape Artists will be really good at moving around the battle field, really good at staying alive and getting away from people.

This doesn't mean I think Assassins should be wet paper bags that can't kill anything in exchange for not being able to be killed, what I mean is, that by redefining the major characteristic of the class, you can have them be able to go into their own niche's.

As an example, Leblanc could be given more ways to confuse people she would still kill people, she would just do it through moving around, making clones, and other tricks while dealing damage rather than just bursting someone as fast as possible.

And no, I don't think things should just be left there. Even as a support main, I think a lot of our champions need more ways to express skill at our ways of saving and enabling allies that isn't just a point and click shield or heal, I also think ADC's need readjusting so they don't have so much burst damage and are instead defined as the greatest DPS champions again. And I know that if my idea here were to be implemented that it would require changes to other classes since we're currently looking at an arms race of extreme damage and extreme rescue abilities and just changing Assassins in a vacuum would could and likely would lead to the champions feeling terrible.

I don't mean this post as a hate post, if you don't agree with this idea, and this thread is purely an idea for a possible route Riot can go, then please, pleeeease just explain why it's a bad idea in a smart way, tear down my arguments and ideas but please actually attack my points and not just downvote and leave a one liner. I want to have an actual discussion about the Assassin class and what can be done to make them work better.

13 Comments

Devilreaper XIII3/4/2018, 6:20:43 PM3 votes

truth is, assassins have no place in a ARENA in the first place, however a better solution to this would be, to make assassins trapmasters, turning tides of battles and punishing low health champions instead of 100-0 in 0,00000000001 seconds. think about, kennen shock traps, zed shadow traps, talon spike traps, katarina toxic traps etc

vgamedude3/4/2018, 9:15:41 AM1 votes

Every other class already has loads of mobility though.

ZephyrDrake3/4/2018, 9:21:21 AM1 votes

so what you want is to give a gigantic middle finger to every single assassin player out there... ok how about no?

Tegash3/4/2018, 4:05:25 PM1 votes

Unfortunately, Assassin class types are a core part of MOBA design as a whole, not just League.

You can break down champions/heroes/shapers etc. etc. into a handful of roles:

  1. Damage Sinks/Protectors (Tanks, High health and defenses, crowd control)
  2. Frontline Carries/Duelists (Bruisers, Fighters & Juggernauts, high mana or lifesteal sustain usually, health & AD, or lots of damage mitigation, or a mix of all three)
  3. Backline Carries/Objective Takers (ADC and sustain mages, consistent damage at range)
  4. Utility/Healing (Classical Supports, damage mitigation and teamwide buffing/debuffing)
  5. Burst (All-in Mages and Assassins, high damage with little else)

If you take away the Burst category, that leaves Frontline Damage, Damage Sinks, Objective Takers, and Utility.

And this is where the problem arises.

When Assassins are bad or nonexistent, Sustained Damage and Healing meta are good. Since there's no burst damage that healers can't deal with, they can simply undo the poke or sustain that all the other classes deal, leading to either a deadlock or an unmitigable snowball.

Imagine for example, this matchup.

Nautilus DrMundo Ahri Jinx Lulu VS Maokai Poppy AurelionSol Ashe Nami

For the purposes of the argument, there are no funky builds like, say, full AP Naut. All of them build traditionally. There is minimal, if any, burst on either team. So who ends up winning?

The team with more utility, more cc, more health, and more damage mitigation.

Healing tanks, or Tanks combined with Healers, become literally unstoppable (if not unstoppable then at least the best option). And since there's no Burst to get rid of the sustaining backline, they can pressure as they please and act like poke doesn't affect them.

Because it doesn't.

Assassins ARE an unhealthy aspect of League and MOBAs as a whole. But they're a necessary evil. And that's because they prevent games from stagnating. They act as a counterbalancing force to defensive playstyles.