Boards›Gameplay

Champion Classes

Varnoc··5 votes·948 views

With the introduction of the Juggernauts, I've put a lot of thought towards the other "Classes" that exist within the game. The below is only my opinion, but I would be thrilled to hear your opinions on the subject, If you make a convincing argument for a particular champion to be moved, I may do so, as I do not play every champion enough to understand their characters sufficiently to place some of them accurately.

Please keep in mind however, not all champions are grouped based on what their kits are currently, but what they could be to further accentuate their themes in the most positive way for both their theme, and the game's health.

Guardians - Strong CC abilities, but low-moderate damage when alone. Creates opportunities for allies, but cannot capitalize on that opportunity themselves in most cases.

  • Alistar
  • Blitzcrank
  • Braum
  • Galio
  • Leona
  • Nautilus
  • Shen
  • Thresh
  • Zac

Wardens - Delayed area effects, good at zone control while retaining moderate damage characteristics and being fairly bulky characters. They often have debuffing abilities that allies can capitalize on. They make fantastic bodyguards because of these qualities.

  • Cho’Gath
  • Gnar
  • Gragas
  • Maokai
  • Nunu
  • Poppy
  • Singed
  • Sion
  • Tahm Kench
  • Taric

Juggernauts - Little to no CC and even less mobility, but can output extreme sustained damage while being incredibly bulky.

  • Darius
  • Garen
  • Illaoi
  • Mordekaiser
  • Nasus
  • Yorick

Duelist - Mobile with considerable damage, while having the tools to avoid or mitigate retaliation from opponents briefly, they rely on outhinking and outiming their opponents in general, but some simply overpower their targets in a short time period before they can react.

  • Fiora
  • Olaf
  • Riven
  • Trundle
  • Udyr

Warlord - Heavy area damage with low CC ability, while still being bulky enough to be in the middle of a fight, where they are their most effective. They have limited mobility and even less crowd control at their disposal in general.

  • Aatrox
  • Dr. Mundo
  • Gangplank
  • Hecarim
  • Jayce
  • Kayle
  • Pantheon
  • Renekton
  • Shyvana
  • Skarner

Hunter - Extremely mobile while able to track down enemies and finish them off after performing hit and run attacks, but reliant on landing high risk moves to safely execute their prey. They have the ability to regenerate health between attacks to give them the advantage, and can employ traps to create safe zones to fall back to.

  • Elise
  • Nidalee
  • Rek’Sai
  • Rengar
  • Teemo
  • Warwick

Initiators - Initiation specialists. Ranged dashes coupled with area CC make these combatants fairly dangerous in group settings, but they sacrifice their damage potential for the tankiness needed to survive such an action.

  • Amumu
  • Irelia
  • Jarvan IV
  • Lee Sin
  • Malphite
  • Nocturne
  • Rammus
  • Sejuani
  • Vi
  • Volibear
  • Wukong
  • Xin Zhao

One Man Army - Extreme sustained damage and mobility, but vulnerable to focused attacks coupled with hard crowd control effects, which have a greater effect on them than most other classes due to it's interruption of their damage cadence.

  • Azir
  • Jax
  • Master Yi
  • Tryndamere
  • Yasuo

Cloaks - Magical Damage assassins.

  • Akali
  • Diana
  • Ekko
  • Evelynn
  • Fizz
  • Kassadin
  • Katarina
  • LeBlanc

Daggers - Physical damage assassins.

  • Kha’Zix
  • Shaco
  • Talon
  • Zed

Battlemage - Short ranged magi, they possess strong localized AoE damage and CC, but cannot influence the battlefield much outside of their general area.

  • Karma
  • Karthus
  • Kennen
  • Rumble
  • Ryze
  • Swain
  • Viktor
  • Vladimir

Siegebreaker - Long ranged mages equipped with strong multi-target damaging spells, but lacking methods of escape when jumped. Low-Moderate CC ability is available.

  • Syndra
  • Urgot
  • Vel’Koz
  • Xerath
  • Ziggs

Control Mage - Disruption mage. Strong Area of Effect CC abilities and moderate damage on a consistent basis. Able to turn and unload everything they have onto a chasing opponent should their cooldowns be available.

  • Anivia
  • Heimerdinger
  • Lissandra
  • Lux
  • Malzahar
  • Morgana
  • Orianna
  • Zyra

Chaos Mage - Mid ranged damage oriented mages, often with strong Area Damage, but weak Crowd Control. Their damage is often front-loaded however, and they do significantly less after the initial burst.

  • Ahri
  • Annie
  • Brand
  • Cassiopeia
  • Fiddlesticks
  • Twisted Fate
  • Veigar

Order Mage - Defensive mage who's abilities are oriented around assisting allies and afflicting enemies with Crowd Control more than damage.

  • Bard
  • Janna
  • Lulu
  • Nami
  • Sona
  • Soraka
  • Zilean

Marksmen - Ranged attack based champions that deal consistent damage, but are fairly fragile and often immobile and cannot re-position quickly to respond to threats.

  • Caitlyn
  • Corki
  • Draven
  • Ezreal
  • Graves
  • Jinx
  • Kalista
  • Kindred
  • Kog’Maw
  • Lucian
  • Miss Fortune
  • Quinn
  • Sivir
  • Tristana
  • Twitch
  • Varus
  • Vayne

Let me know if you disagree on anything! I'm open to moving things around (and renaming a few, "Order Mage" In particular is cringworthy) if the argument is convincing.

TL:DR - It's really not that long of a read, just look for who you care for! (Ctrl+F then type in the champ's name should take you right to it!)

If I missed anyone please let me know! I'm fairly certain that I got everyone though.

Which group do you guys want to see worked on after the Assassins (Dagger Group!)?

21 Comments

VictoryDance961 votes

Amumu is certainly not just a guardian... he can deal massive amounts of damage when around the enemy team. he is also a strong initator and control mage...

Varnoc1 votes

He certainly isn't just a Guardian! Many champions fit into multiple roles for sure, but listing the same champion over and over in different categories would get extremely confusing.

I've faced many an Amumu that have kicked my butt into next year with AP builds, though that isn't the norm from what I remember. You are probably correct though, he is more of an Initiator than a Guardian, so I'll move him down there!

Order of Talon1 votes

Honestly I think Trundle should be either a duelist or a juggernaut.

Varnoc1 votes

The reason I put him as a Warden is because he has impressive zone control via his Pillar of Ice and can take tanks down a notch for his allies to have an easier time with.

I did consinder Juggernaut a little, however his damage isn't really on par with the likes of Illaoi, Darius, or any of the other Juggernauts to really have him compete for the spot with them.

The Duelist one makes more sense however, as his debuffs to directly help him kill fools, and it lines up more with his lore, so I'll move him there!

Ralanr1 votes

Some of your chaos mages have heavy CC built with their kit and are used for them.

Varnoc1 votes

The major distinction I made between Chaos mages and Control Mages when differentiating them is that the former has the CC to help them kill fools, while the latter is more often used (or intended) in a team setting to disrupt or control the movements of the enemy. Annie is a good example of the former, while Orianna is a good example of the latter. They can be somewhat interchangeable though, you are correct.

Ralanr1 votes

Ahh. I may have missed that.

Varnoc1 votes

I didn't make the distinction very clear in the descriptions, so that's entirely on me. Do you think that's something I should include in the descriptions I provided?

snibedi snab1 votes

While these are kind of cool and seem fairly logical they're kind of unnecessary. The current tags we have for champions cover all bases pretty effectively. Tank, Support, Marksman, Mage, Fighter and Assassin. Granted Fighters and Mages have their own sub-sets (Fighters have Divers, Juggernauts and Light Fighters and Mages have Burst, DoT, Poke and Utility) but they're fairly self explanatory and simple to understand. All fighters fight. Divers have kits that help them dive towers and get out. Juggernauts have kits that allow them to thrive in sustained AoE fights. Light Fighters sacrifice Juggernaut/Diver level toughness for more damage and mobility. All Mages mage. Burst mages do a lot of damage in a short time frame. DoT mages apply effects that deal consistent damage over a duration to whittle enemies down. Poke excels in long range harass to the same effect as DoT mages but from longer range and generally relying on skillshots. Utility mages use their abilities to aid the team in some way, be they buffs, debuffs, CC or otherwise.

Your ideas sound a lot more interesting but are a more awkward way of explaining what they do.

Varnoc1 votes

The list was mostly in response to Riot's recent updates of a large groups of characters in a single pass, such as the Juggernauts and the Marksmen updates.

The major point of these updates is to differentiate how the Champions go about doing their jobs so that everyone has their own unique thing to bring to the table, even if they accomplish the same goal.

With the attention the AD assassins are getting now I was curious as to how champions were grouped, but no such thing has been released, so I've created my own for the sake of it.

Unnecessary? Entirely. I highly doubt Rioters will see this and take anything from it, I've been around too long to think otherwise, but it's fun to speculate and understand more about how people view their champions, and that's something I enjoy, even if I don't strictly enjoy playing the game as much as I once did.

Shroom Junkie1 votes

I feel like Gragas should be a Warden... bit of damage, lots of CC though all are slightly delayed.

Varnoc1 votes

That makes sense, I'll move him over!

ModWulf Helhammer1 votes

I feel like marksmen should be broken up a bit more

Varnoc1 votes

their group is rather large, do you have any suggestions? It's honestly such a wide set of champions it would be difficult to differentiate them, you have your tank busters, your snipers, your roamers, burst, kite. It's hard to generalize them into groups, but I'm open to suggestions!

The Deckowner1 votes

why is irrlia not a duelist but a initiater? she is single target cc focused with not vert long range and good at 1v1. she should be considered a duelist.

Varnoc1 votes

The reason I put her into the Initiator category, as opposed to the Duelist, is due to her passive, and her ultimate. Her passive is most effective in cases where 3+ enemies are present, which does not classify as a duel in my opinion, and her ultimate grants healing based on each target hit, with increased healing for each champion hit, prompting the best use case to be a team-fight, not a duel, even though it is still effective there.

While she is completely able to duel, it's not her ideal scenario. Conversely, her kit allows her to initiate very well while shrugging off both the crowd control, and the damage that comes with the position fairly effectively and frequently while still being threatening enough with her other abilities to warrant attention.

Many champions can fit into multiple roles fairly easily, but I hope you see why I placed her into the Initiator group as opposed to the Duelist group.

CHOPSTICKUHH1 votes

Cool idea but way to many classes/ champions to be a reality maybe there would be a couple classes:

juggernauts (dmg tanks), hunters (assassins), witches & warlocks (mages)

None of those classes have more than like 5 champions. Those classes are meant for elite few ex : juggarnauts and the 6 marksmen update

Varnoc1 votes

The narrowness of each class is intentional. The classes proposed here aren't meant to replace the current system we have currently, but to further differentiate them.

It's intended for each group to be small because the goals of each group are similar, and when Riot goes to update champions in batches to ensure uniqueness with each champion, they can't take on more than a handful of champions at a time, and when they're grouped like this it's easier to differentiate them than if they were done in random patches.

That's not to say that Riot will use these lists, but I'm mimicking what they're doing to give my ideas relevance to their goals.

DeathBurst1 votes

This is a very interesting post.

I have a few comments that could be useful.

  • Try to re-use Riot semi-official terminology when available, e.g. Divers for Irelia/Jax/Renekton/etc. or Enchanters for Sona/Lulu/Nami/Bard/etc.

  • Instead of a flat list, you should use a hierarchical taxonomy, with a small number of high-level broad categories (mostly the current 5 or 6 roles) that represents the main focus of a champ, then sub-divided into smaller classes depending on how they achieve this focus. It would help having a more coherent view of the different classes and their relations to each other. Something like "ok, all Tanks are durable, but then you have the peelers (Wardens, reactive) versus the initiators (Initiators, pro-active)". Or like "ok, all mages deal damage with their spells, but you have burst versus poke versus zoning".

A few more specific comments about some of your categories:

  • One-man-army doesn't seem right to me. It should be re-dispatched to other damage-dealing classes, I think.

  • Hunter seems like a strange mix of Duelists with skillshots and Assassins. But more importantly, it feels more thematic than game-play oriented. Rengar, Teemo and Warwick in the same category is probably not right.

  • Duelist is a quality a champion can have, but it shouldn't be a class. Aatrox is a great duelist for the same reason as Warwick, and you didn't put him in this group. Jax, Nocturne or Irelia too are very good in 1v1 situation, but were not included. And on the flip side, the champions you did include have very little in common. You have hyper mobile Riven with 4 dashes + 1 stun next to Udyr or Trundle with good move speed but no gap closer and very little CC. This class is not consistent.

  • Warlord defined as "fighters with AoE" is an interesting class, but most fighters have at least some elements of AoE in their kit. E.g. Riven, Volibear, Garen, Illaoi, Morde have heavy AoE and are not Warlords.

  • About Fighters in general: Riot said that internally they used Juggernaut/Diver/"Light Fighter" (~ Melee Carry) as sub-groups, by order of durability. It's probably better to stick to that, but I think there should be also a "Bruiser" class between Juggernauts and Divers, with the like of Trundle/Volibear/Udyr/Mundo/...

  • Guardian looks like a middle-ground between Wardens (peelers) and Initiators. I'm not sure you need 3 different classes here, maybe 2 (pro-active vs reactive) is enough. Also, Initiator is too big, with mostly Tanks but also some Fighters like Vi or Nocturne that don't feel right in the same group. Riot talked about a "Diver" class for the like of Jax/Irelia/Vi/Nocturne/etc., and Initiators should be reserved for Tanks.

  • About Assassins: There was an entire post about what sub-categories could there be a few weeks ago, I'll try to find it back. But I'm not sure they should be divided by AD vs AP. By the way, Fighters could/should include some AP champs too. Cho'gath, Rumble are probably more Fighters than Mages, and Morde is officially a Juggernaut while being mostly AP.

  • About Mages: I don't see the logic behind your 5 groups, and I'm not sure I see the difference between Battle mage vs Chaos mage. I think mages should be separated according to their effective range (or by burst vs sustained damage) and their balance between utility and damage. Maybe 5 classes with longrange/poke - midrange/sustained - shortrange/burst - control - utility (Riot so called Enchanters). Why did you put Swain/Ryze/Karthus in one group and Cassiopeia/Twisted Fate in another, for instance? They are all sustained damage threats effective at mid range, with moderate amount of CC.

Varnoc1 votes

I appreciate the time you took to type this up for me (and others that happen to come across it). I'm in the process of revising the list as I type this.

I find both Assassins are all fairly similar, and thus difficult to sub-catagorize through Hierarchical Taxonomy, that thread would be good to take a look at for sure, if you can remember the name of it I can go and look for it as well.

For Marksmen, classify them first by how reliant they are on their spells to deal damage directly (Ezreal/Corki/Lucian), while those more focused on steroids/positioning are in another (Graves/Vayne/Quinn).

Then sub-catagorize by how much range they have?

DeathBurst1 votes

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/YLE9VTG5-what-do-you-think-the-assassin-sub-classes-would-be-if-any In that thread I was saying, there are more niches than classes exactly.

For adc, 3 levels deep is maybe too much. Try something like: Skills vs Crits vs On-hits, maybe? But I'm not sure there is anyone more than Kog'maw in the On-hit family, since even Vayne and Twitch build Crits since the pre-season rework...

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by Varnoc

Revision: Karthus
Gameplay29 comments
20
votes
I'd like to take a moment to discuss Quinn and Valor
Story, Art, & Sound14 comments
11
votes
Concerning the Sun
Story, Art, & Sound7 comments
7
votes
What if Flash were removed as a Summoner Spell in the Pre-season?
Gameplay23 comments
6
votes
Revision: Mordekaiser
Gameplay23 comments
6
votes
Nocturne's Shadow Tail
[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous4 comments
6
votes