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So Riot is considering Assassins for the next class update...

Kuroi86·4/16/2016, 8:54:58 AM·21 votes·13,909 views

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So I thought I'd go ahead and start a discussion on who everyone might consider a possible candidate for the gameplay update that five or so champs would be getting with this update.

And please don't just point at a champion and say to nerf them. Give a reasonable explanation for an issue you see in their kit and if you have on an idea on how you think Riot could fix said champion.

Also note I'm talking about primary assassin champions, not those with assassin as their secondary. So for those that may want to hijack the thread to complain about , sorry, but he's a fighter lol.

Personally my top pick would have to be Evelynn.

I've always felt that her stealth warps her kit and forces Riot to keep other aspects of her weak just so they can preserve that super-stealth. I think if Riot could make her stealth more situational and less about just voiding wards, they could afford to put more actual burst in her kit and actually let her assassinate people again.

150 Comments

FantasySniper4/16/2016, 9:00:07 AM20 votes

Fizz Zed Rengar Akali Evelynn Should be their main priorities. Their kits are just plain frustrating to fight against.

Katarina Khazix Nocturne Talon Ekko Should be seeing some smaller-scope changes. Lots of little things that make their kits lopsided or inferior.

Tengrichan4/16/2016, 9:41:05 AM12 votes

Major level: -Akali,katarina,talon,kassadin,possibly rengar,shaco and evelynn

Smaller levels: everyone else

Reasoning:

Akali's kit is just bad.Her shroud is too easy to counter,her whole playstyle is binary.Nowadays her tankier buildsare more successful than the AP ones which supposed to work better.Just shows that she has many problems.

Katarina:Her kit is binary too.The good ol' CC her ulti and she is useless argument comes to mind.Her passive just takes away too much power from the budget.It needs to go in my opinion or change it so much that it allows for tweaking the rest of her kit. Shunpo should remain in her kit with some mixture of her current passive.The rest of her kit could go for all i care.

Rengar:Well we saw what rengar can do when his kit actually works and has the right items and opportunities.And we saw what he can't do when he doesn't have access to these.He simply won't work at all. The latest bola change was rather bad too...

Talon:Same as Rengar.You die in 0.000001 sec and you can't do anything about it.

Kassadin:He can break the game singlehandedly given the rght circumstances but otherwise he is considered a "not so viable" pick.Ther are a lot of possiblites for an actually working new kit that brings something that other assassins don't do.

Bonus candidates: Shaco SoloQ pick.Relies on heavy snowball.Too easy to counter when not fed.All around a bad pick for competetive.

Evelynn:Riot can redeem themself by deciding finally what to do with her by giving her a clear role with actual synergy between her spells.

Forbidden Siren4/16/2016, 12:13:10 PM9 votes

Personally, I feel they should focus on the support class next. It's a class that is unsatisfying at the moment and they could potentially make it more desirable for people to play by adjusting some of the champs and items.

That said, I do hope they focus on Evelynn if they do consider the assassin class next.

Randomonium4/16/2016, 1:43:58 PM9 votes

I think the first step is really defining what a "healthy assassin" is.

Some thoughts:

High damage
Kit should have no CC or very limited forms of CC in it
Kit should have some form of mobility for engage/escape
Skill based abilities (i.e. skill shots versus point and click)
Low base stats, more power concentrated in abilities (cooldown dependence which gives counterplay in lane)
Kit should be designed around high risk, high reward play
Low base ability damage but high scaling (to prevent tank assassins)

A Liberal4/16/2016, 4:42:48 PM6 votes

I would have to say that the assassins I would like to see "big" reworked are: Evelynn Akali Kassadin Katarina and Khazix

Some "medium" reworks should probably be: Shaco Talon Nocturne Leblanc

I really hope they don't rework Zed Fizz Rengar or Ekko too much. Maybe some number changes but all-in all these champions are fine. Ekko needs some number tweaks for sure, but not really any real changes.

If they put off Eve changes for a full VGU later (See Syndra, Swain, Urgot) than I would probably bump shaco or talon up to a big rework and bump fizz up to a medium one.

I think overall there should be a stealth rework, and some nice AP/AD assassin oriented items.

Akali is SO HOT4/16/2016, 5:35:28 PM5 votes

You should've guessed that the thread would be hijacked by "Zed is Cancer" instead of Yasuo OP

LatetotheRace4/17/2016, 1:37:48 AM4 votes

here's a concept for assassins that should be considered. Assassins should have great engage and exceptional single target damage. On the flipside though, they should have incredibly limited escape options and non-existent AOE damage.

Assassins should kill the squishy carries in a 1v1 or teamfight, do a bit more and either leave or die. In a 1v1 if they win, they obviously leave. But in a team fight if they get caught out, they're dead. No more handicap "Dur hur I didn't get him.... Welp time to herp da derp out!" If you fail to kill your target, you should have to pay with your life.

Also if they could like not build tank, that'd be great.

DrNova4/16/2016, 5:09:18 PM3 votes

I dont think you can "fix" assassins. Not how the board envisions them.

Let's be honest. An assassin is made to delete squishies quickly. Its the definition. But the boards imagine this fanciful world where they can do that AND you can stop them from doing that.

To counter assassins you don't feed them early and use good teamwork late. That's it.

Sure some kits can be tweaked but you can't have an assassin function correctly how these boards want them to be.

warpenguin5554/16/2016, 8:10:26 PM3 votes

i wanna see more counterplay to fed assassins personally. Both with items and parts of their kits BIG 6: Akali Fizz because these 2 are horrid to play against. 2 of the worst things in the game to play against Talon Katarina not standing out 1 little bit. 1 of these 2 for sure needs a big 6 place Leblanc is the deceiver and Shaco does a better job at it. Ekko to end tank ekko for good

aaaand if Talon and Kat both cant get in for what ever reason, which ever one misses out shoud be replaced with Zed for just being pure annoyance in lane.

Eve wont get in the big 6 though. Riot sees her like Swain Urgot Morde and Skarner, they regretted giving morde and skarner big changes because those 2 had too many problems that 1 class update couldnt fix. Swain is getting minor stuff like what urgot had, but both are getting redone just like Eve so i wouldnt hold my breath.

Lovely Pants4/16/2016, 3:56:21 PM3 votes

It's always felt like a foreign concept to me that Evelynn is described by people as an assassin for the past....what is it? 4 seasons? She's kind of just a roaming fighter with stealth and occasional assassin patterns in her current incarnation. She doesn't really reliably have those quick windows to dispatch isolated solo targets, she doesn't have much of a reliable method of getting in and out of the enemy's backlines, she just kind of shows up in a lane and beats you by outnumbering you. With vision changes she feels even more antiquated in her ability to fill a niche.

I think she really needs a full workover if you want her to be a full-blown assassin, which wouldn't fit the scope of these projects, but she could certainly benefit from some tuning around her assassin patterns.

Jungle Lux God4/16/2016, 3:52:40 PM3 votes

I think Akali and Talon would easily be the biggest candidates for a gameplay update due to their severe lack of counterplay. If you get in range of either of these champions you are just dead if they are fed or they don't do anything if they aren't, and that really isn't fair for either party.

Rengar and Leblanc are also somewhat lacking in counterplay as well, although they aren't nearly as bad as Talon and Akali.

Shaco I could also see getting some changes mostly just to modernize his kit while removing his permaslow. He's already got a really cool theme and a pretty decent amount of counterplay already, but he would probably appreciate some adjustments.

Khazix would probably get some changes geared around having better choices between which of his abilities he evolves. I don't play Kha'zix but last time I heard there wasn't a whole lot of choice in which abilities to evolve.

Evelynn I think could really use the work since she's pretty bland to play outside of her stealth pattern, but I could see her not getting more than really minor adjustments since she really does need a visual upgrade badly.

l Helios l4/16/2016, 9:25:00 PM1 votes

I believe Evelynn is getting a full VGU next year so I doubt she will be worked on during this update. If she isn't getting the VGU, she will almost cetainly be tweaked.

Personally, I think the big ones would be Katarina, Talon, Akali, Eve, Rengar, and Kassadin. All of these have either really old kits or kits that are too binary to offer interactive gameplay. If they want to include an assassin like Diana, who is more of a fighter by designation, then I think she is a strong contender as well.

Half of the problem with assassins like Zed is just the itemization issue. Base damages are high and ratios are high, so not that much in terms of items is necessary to instagib people. I don't consider Zed's kit to be unhealthy, I think it's just an itemization and numbers issue. That goes for Fizz too. Fizz needs no AP to actually one-shot, and that's not exactly OK. I don't care if he has all the mobility in the world as long as he has lower base damages and altered ratios.

PlsNoTaric6/27/2016, 3:22:36 PM1 votes

Kassadin, Eve, and Yi can use a lot of love. Kass and Eve have teeter-totter between being "stupidly overpowered" and "unplaayble". Espcially Kassadin. The man has been nerfed so many times now it brings a item 3070 to my eye. Yi's kit is way too linear and faceroll. He needs some kind major changes to his kit and playstyle. Rengo and fizz also could use some changes. Fizz's W is a horrendous abiltit-bleed damge on all autos that scales off a good chunk of AP, and missing health, AND has no significant indicator of whats actually killng you? oh and he can double that damage for a couple seconds too. Rito needs to do something about that. Rengar definetly has that "feast or famine" thing going on, so there's that. Honestly as much as I hate fighting Zed, he's not that bad. He has some signifcant counterplay to his kit as long as play it right. Zhonya's right before his ult detonates, and he's kinda fucked. Avoided his shadow clones and keep trac of where they are in case he swaps with one. Also, ask your jungler to help you kindly stomp on his day. There are ways against him.