@Riot - Serious Concern About Buffing AP Assassin Numbers

Riot we need to talk.

It's no surprise that AP Assassins are having a bit of trouble following the class rework. You've buffed Akali's numbers already in Patch 6.23 and you've put some numbers buffs for Katarina on the PBE for 6.24. Leblanc seems to be a bit lower than average (pretty much like before) but still much better than Kat and Akali. I'm really worried that raw number buffs are going to explode in a really bad way.

I believe there was a recent Red post either here or on Reddit that said the balance team would be able to really crank up some assassin numbers now that their damage had more counterplay. On the surface that seems great. But I think you and I were thinking of different numbers. I was thinking that since you now had windows of burst that enemies could see coming that you might be able to tune those windows a bit so they could land a little more reliably so we could keep assassin damage in check. You seemed to be thinking that you could just increase assassin damage if they were under-performing.

The problem I see is that assassins like Kat and Akali are only under-performing because they are not landing their damage. The damage itself seems to alternate between "negligable" to "fine" to "dear god where did their health go?" based on how much of their kit they land. I have melted people with reworked Akali, Kat, and Leblanc. They have the damage to do so already. The only reason I don't kill every squishy in sight is because I don't actually get to apply that damage - either because the enemy avoided it, backed off so I couldn't follow up, or killed me before I could land the rest.

Akali's numbers admittedly do seem a bit on the weaker side, but even so on 6.22 I utterly demolished people at times so I know the damage was there. The issue was mostly just that there was too much downtime between "mini bursts" and there wasn't really much I could do to keep up my threat in those parts in between. The 2 second cooldown on Akali's ult just feels like complete garbage later in the game. Kat's daggers can be avoided pretty easily so I never really am afraid of laning against her. Leblanc's passive cooldown means I either land my chain and kill them, or I just back off after missing it since trying to dive in with the rest of her kit is completely telegraphed.

But when the stars align and I hit everything without retaliation, all 3 can delete a carry right off the map. So I am really concerned that buffing their damage will just create trouble down the line.

The issue does not seem to be that there is a lack of damage in their kits - on the contrary, Kat's daggers and Lablanc's new passive have insane amounts of damage and if Akali lines up her 2nd passive AA to proc her Q Mark with Thunderlord's it's a massive burst. The real issue seems to be that this damage just isn't landing. Damage numbers mean nothing if the damage is never applied, but if a skill is so unreliable then it can only be counter-balanced by being extremely good since you are unlikely to land it. Otherwise it would never be worth the risk. But if all you do is boost the resulting damage, then win-rates go up only because the damage becomes so high that you auto-win if it hits rather than the kit actually being healthy and balanced.

Allow me to use an example from Pokemon since I'm pretty sure we've all played that:

• Thunderbolt: Base Power - 95, Accuracy - 100%, 15 uses
• Thunder: Base Power - 120, Accuracy - 70%, 10 uses
• Fissure: Base Power - One-Hit KO, Accuracy - 30%, 5 uses

Just going by raw numbers, it looks like Fissure is the best move since it can completely 100-0 the enemy and Thunder is better than Thunderbolt by a good amount of damage. But if any of you have played Pokemon before, you would know that Thunderbolt is the best of the 3 by far. This is because Thunderbolt will always land for a good amount of damage, even if it takes 2 hits to KO the enemy and has more uses on top of that since each hit is weaker. Thunder may do enough damage to KO a target but - since Pokemon stats are as wonky as Fire Emblem or Civilization III stats - it will very rarely hit and has fewer uses on top of that. Fissure will almost never hit and you get very few attempts so it is basically worthless.

I feel like Assassins, especially the AP Assassins, could end up the same way. High Risk/High Reward can only go so far before no amount of reward is worth it. I think it's fine for Assassins to be the "unreliable" class and to make it a bit more of a gamble to select them. But if you buff damage enough and it doesn't work as well as you want, then when you do get around to buffing their reliability a little it will make them completely bonkers. And if you never buff reliability, they will always feel weak until their numbers are so high that they auto-win if their damage does finally hit.

Most players want something that is safe and reliable, something they know will work. I think it would be much healthier for the game as a whole to err on the side of making Assassins a bit more reliable while keeping their numbers in check instead of just letting their damage numbers get insanely high since they are unlikely to land said damage. An unreliable certain-kill feels terrible to play as since it almost always misses and terrible to play against because those few times it hits it feels like pure BS.