How to deal with assassins?

DJtron·May 21, 2018·3 votes·1,884 views

I've recently been playing the game a lot more and found I really enjoy high damage zoning mages such as lux, zyra, syndra, and orianna. I can win lane in a lot of matchups except for 2 kinds. Assassins such as fizz, talon, and leblanc as well as bruisers that build tanky but still one-shot squishies (warwick, yasuo, darius, etc.). I've decided since they're so prevalent I'm going to stop blaming it on the opponent being op and try to improve against them. I can usually win lane against these characters about half the time, but even when i beat them they usually snowball off the other lanes. Since i can't always be where they are, I will usually try to either follow them and countergank or ping missing and pressure the tower. when it comes to laning agaist them, I always find it hard to play safe enough that I don't die but am still able to farm. So, any tips you guys have would be great.

4 Comments

Jesus Is My KingMay 21, 20181 votes

have you played against a veigar full tank (not one single AP item to his name)? that is busted.

Slythrin UmbreonMay 21, 20181 votes

Ban Fizz, since he's probably the most unfair of them.

Assassins tend to go through bursts of popularity and then fall off, so I really recomend you pick up midlaners that are strong vs assassins to play during those periods. ESPECIALLY while you're still learning. Examples: Anivia Annie Galio Lissandra Malzahar Sion Vladimir To a lesser extent, Orianna but she's not really a counter so much as she is a skill matchup.

As for ingame: The first thing you need to understand about playing against Assassins is that it's this really boring not very fun game of "Make sure they don't get fed." Most Assassins are meant to dominate the early game, and then fall off hard. So you can set yourself back as much as you want, as long as they don't get enough kills, a Zed building the right items is weaker then an Orianna with item 3110 . That being said: Not all assassins are like that. Fizz, Kassadin, and Yasuo are meant to be strong in the mid-late game, and a lot of this won't work too well against them. To a lesser extent: Ahri's meant to be more of a mid game threat, but I still think most of this will work against her.

Take teleport, leave lane often and don't let yourself get low enough for them to assassinate. Consider taking resolve as your second rune tree.

Against AD assassins, build Doran's ring > Cloth armor > then another doran's ring. After that, your next item depends on how well things are going, how comfortable you feel, and what kind of jungler you're against. If the enemy team has a second assassin in the jungle, Zhonya's might not be enough. Especially if the mid lane assassin has a kill. Mages with good CC and teamfighting potential also have the option to build warden's mail and then finish it latter into a frozen heart. Damage Centric mages should probably NEVER do that though. Except maybe Karthus. Karthus is weird. to wrap this up: Either A) item 3157 into item 3802 into whatever your normal build would be. or B) item 3110 as your mana item into a health/AP item item 3151 / item 3165 / item 3116 Note that this REQUIRES Manaflow band. But you should probably have that vs assassins in most matchups anyway.

Against Leblanc, doran's ring > item 1028 > Doran's Ring > item 3211 . Leblanc is, again, 100% built around dominating you in lane. But as long as you stay out of her distortion range, she has to rely on either Jungle ganks or poking you down by distorting into range to cast her other abilities until you're low enough to kill. The MR and health regen from Specter's Cowl does a lot to mitigate that. Even more if you take Resolve as your second rune tree. After that, item 3802 , normal build or focus on Health/AP items depending on how you feel.

This is a lot harder vs Ahri, but it does still slow her kill potential tremendously. Just watch out for her after level 6.

Aside from that, try to keep the bushes around river warded and ping "enemy missing" TWICE when the assassin leaves lane: Once mid, and a second time do it near your ally who the assassin is heading towards.

Yasuo is way more matchup specific. my best advice is to just pick anti assassin characters, play scared and far away from him, and just try to learn. Also, build item 3047 early to help dodge tornados. Just ban Fizz. Kassadin doesn't need much specific info. Just bully him before he hits level 6 and respect him when he hits 6.

Hope this helps o/

DJtronMay 29, 20181 votes

Thank you. There's a lot of good info here that I'll start using in the future. One of the problems with assassins is that I just started playing with friends who are new. Because they dont have much experience they don't know what they're doing or how to play safe. Should I try to gank constantly to get them ahead or try not to rely on them too much and snowball myself instead?

Slythrin UmbreonMay 29, 20181 votes

Ah. If you're grouping with them, make sure you stress to them that these pings are probably the most important thing in the game. I know you're probably already telling them, but not too much else to say. I guess with new players, since their main problem is probably lack of awareness try to aim your pings at what they're focusing on: like getting it in the minion wave or near their lane opponent. This is just a guess, but maybe putting it next to what they're tunnel visioning on will help.

Ganking is pretty dependent on what champ you're playing. A lot of the time, mages can't follow assassins at all because the assassin can just wait in a bush and jump on them. And if the enemy jungler is also an assassin you can end up getting cornered between them. Something specific like AurelionSol or TwistedFate might be able to do it, but they're fairly difficult to play. Your best bet is usualy just to manage the wave, be passive, ward the midbrushes over the wall when you can and ping their ganks. Oh yeah, and if you're grouping with a jungler, tell them to try and ward those lonely bushes in the middle of the river on one side. Then you can ward the other side but usually just the bush close to lane. Keeps total vision of mid lane in the early-mid game without completely using up either of your trinkets.