On the difference between a Skirmisher and a Diver, and where Kled fits

Since Riot introduced their class/subclass structure for defining and discussing champions, there has been a lot of confusion among the community when it comes to certain classes. The two subclasses that I see get mixed up the most are Divers and Skirmishers. This has a lot to do with history - these two used to be under the same "fighter" umbrella term, and a lot of the older champions in these two classes have more in common with each other than with the newer other champions in their class. But Kled, Riot's latest attempt at a Skirmisher champion, has had a lot of people confused about what the differences between these two classes are and where Kled fits in them. So I'm here as someone intimately familiar with his kit and playstyle to explain.

First off let me clarify that most of what I talk about doesn't apply as strongly to older champions. There are many champions, such as Warwick, who are classified as Divers mainly because they don't fit anywhere else and who don't have the hallmarks of a modern Diver. Similarly, the older Skirmishers (Jax, Yi, and Trynd) aren't particularly good examples of what Skirmishers are or should be.

Another thing I want to get off right away is that generally, ultimates don't matter that much when classifying a champion. Ultimates often give champions access to tools from outside their class' normal strengths, and these are used to give players a unique reason to play them. A good example here is Kindred - despite their ultimate, Kindred are not supports. There are of course exceptions, mainly champions who have ultimates on a basic ability cooldown, like Kassadin.

Now that I've got that out of the way, lets dig right in: There are only two main differences between a Skirmisher and a Diver, and neither of them is just how they build. These two differences are in the mobility of the two classes and in their defensive capabilities.

Divers have powerful, cooldown gated mobility spells that either have huge reach, like Vi's Q or Camille's E, or are targetted, like Pantheon's W or Diana's R. These spells are designed to get Divers onto the backline. Skirmishers, on the other hand, don't have such strong gapclosing power on basic abilities. Instead they have more persistent mobility, often in the form of a low cooldown dash, like Yasuo's E or Fiora's Q. Skirmisher mobility spells are designed to allow them to keep repositioning around targets, staying constantly mobile and being hard to lock down.

For defensive tools, the relationship is the opposite. Here it is the Skirmishers who have the more powerful, windowed effects. These often have high cooldowns (26 second Wind Wall CD), they are often expressions of skill (Fiora's R), and they often scale with offensive stats (Riven's E). Divers don't have nearly as powerful defensive effects, if any at all. The defensive tools they do have are either persistent (Aatrox W, Xin Zhao W) or are simple active shield/heal spells (Hecarim W, J4 W) with much greater uptime than Skirmisher active defenses.

With these two distinctions established, where does Kled fit? His mobility (E) is a short-ranged, fixed-distance dash on an effective 3 second cooldown lategame (2 casts every 6 seconds). Its not a reliable way to get to the enemy's backline, but it is a way to stay constantly mobile in a fight. As for defensive tools, Kled's remount is incredibly indicative of a Skirmisher. Its super powerful, but on a long cooldown. Getting it is an expression of skill that requires risky play. In addition to the remount, Kled also has his ultimate shield, which scales off of AD. When you put all this together, it becomes clear that Kled is a Skirmisher and not a Diver.

You might argue that Kled's build somehow forbids him from being a Skirmisher, but that would be misguided. While many Kled players do choose to build Cleaver into Titanic into tank, many don't, myself included. And if classes were defined solely by build, you'd end up with Mordekaiser not being considered a Juggernaut because he builds AP, or Divers being divided into two smaller classes based on which use autoattack-focused builds and which use ability-focused builds. Playstyle trumps all, and Kled's playstyle is that of a Skirmisher.

If you actually read that wall of text, hey, thanks. I hope I managed to convince you.