The Assassin Class and where it stands

@ricklessabandon @Scarizard @RiotJag @FeralPony@RiotTimeWizard @SmashGizmo Yeah hi, I'm just wondering where the assassin class stands right now in your eyes and where you think it will end up going balance wise. I'm curious about this because the assassin update ruined Rengar, Leblanc and Shaco and Kat didn't get anything improved from her previous iteration besides more situational damage. Additionally there's another area of concern I have which deserves a paragraph of its own....

Ardent Censer Sooo.....you and your team disliked assassins because the community viewed them as unhealthy and yet here we are with a grossly overpowered item which is uninteractive for both teams besides the Janna or Lulu who are pressing their Es every ~10 seconds. Why are assassins unhealthy when an item like this exists? Moreover Kog'maw and Tristana are so dominant in their role that they invalidate most other ADCs besides possibly Caitlyn. But, I suppose you don't ever have nerfs planned for them do you....because ADC mains are a lil' bit sensitive to the nerf hammer while assassin mains like myself are more or less used to it.

Now, I will address the issues I have with each assassin rework:

Katarina She's my favourite champion and honestly I appreciate what you've done with her, however she will never feel as clean as her previous iteration, especially with her current Shunpo. I understand you removed ward hops because she's all about in-combat mobility but honestly junglers have been so dominant this season that it would have been a godsend for her. Plus, wardhops are a further mechanic for Kat mains to master, giving her some more depth.

Now, as for the dagger mechanic and how I feel about it after playing almost a full season with it.....it's decent, however I feel like it's not suitable for Kat, both balance wise and lore wise. Think about it, an assassin who fights with daggers throws the weapons on the ground.....Clearly you've been playing too much Killer Instinct because that's not what an assassin like Kat would do. From a balance perspective it's a nightmare since she now revolves around this single mechanic which makes her entire kit so finnicky. Old Kat you could just tweak a ratio or two and that was a good enough change, now you have to do that a lot more to get her to be in line. In saying that we can tell how that turned out since your team chain nerfed her following her release, which made very little sense since the whole point of the update was to make her laning phase stronger; right now it's pretty much the same as pre-rework's.

I might as well jot down some points as to how she plays right now and some issues I have with it: -Her daggers are far too slow vs typical mid laners (I understand you wanted counterplay, but this is absurd) -She has very little to deal with a jungler (or worse a jungler who camps her) -Her wave control is too mediocre to ever contest her opponent -Most other assassins do her job better than her -Her passive is just a bonus to her kit, it means very little to her overall -Her ultimate is still awful compared to her basic abilities -She cannot play from behind...like...at all. -She relies far too much on her team when she isn't ahead (this is a problem because of how solo queue works)

So, since I've said all this I do have two questions: Where do you think Kat stands or should stand in LoL's meta? Why does she never get buffs as opposed to nerfs?

Rengar My 2nd favourite champion up until his rework.

Ok, so I'm going to be blunt about this, you made him 10 times easier to play, he feels far too clunky to ever be rewarding and he now has a crit. on his ult which is his main form of oneshotting which basically spells out "I don't need my other abilities".

Pre-rework Rengar actually had tons of combos to do, you had the option to stack ferocity, he actually felt smooth to play and he was never really a nightmare in the meta. Sure, he beat ADCs who decided to be greedy with their farming, but let's be real, most champs who are 20/0 can do that.

I'm aware that you guys want him to be a hybrid assassin-fighter, but that will never work unless there's actually enough merit to play him, and as said he's far too clunky to ever be more rewarding than say....Fiora or Jayce.

My main question here is: Will you ever revert his rework? I ask this since I view his rework as an utter failure and an embarrassment to your entire team since you let this through the PBE onto the live servers. I am not trying to be offensive or aggressive here, I'm purely worried about your team's reputation.

Leblanc I might as well start this off by saying that I rarely play Leblanc, this is just my view as a spectator. Leblanc right now feels too slow to ever be a good pick as opposed to any other mage mid laner. Sure, she has a really good escape tool, but she sacrifices solid wave clear, consistent CC and burst damage for that.

Following her rework she was a 100% pick/ban champ in both competitive and solo queue, however I do think the amount of nerfs she has has received has been more than excessive. You could've stopped back when her W damage and CD got nerfed, but the nerfs still continue (especially to her waveclear).

My main question for LB is: What merits picking her over any other mid lane mage (apart from her escape ability)?

Talon Well....for the most part I can say that Talon's rework was the biggest success out of all of the champions who received an update.

Following the update he's now more straightforward to counterplay, is stronger in the laning phase and has far more out of combat mobility (just like you planned). However in saying that "he's now more straightforward to counterplay" I'm starting to realise that maybe that's more of an issue than a positive outcome. Annie isn't easy to outplay a lot of the time. Syndra isn't that easy to counterplay. Orianna isn't easy to counterplay. So why should Talon be easy to outplay?

I don't have much gripe with how Talon is right now so I'm not curious about anything relating to him besides the aforementioned "why should he be easy to outplay?"

Shaco Nice and short. He was nerfed to the ground purely because of inconsistent stats. and every previous benefit he had pre-rework was removed entirely.

Fizz A decent change overall, but the ultimate change felt a bit too excessive.

Akali Do you guys remember this champion? Yeah, I don't either. I guess that's because she never got that full rework that she was promised. Also the 1 sec CD on her ult is the main thing that makes her unviable besides other general assassin reasons.

Ekko Didn't change much, except he can't be played tank. Good I guess.

Kha'zix He's even more unhealthy than he previously was, the changes were not good.

Zed He's your poster child "healthy assassin" he'll never be bad.

So, what's the point of having an assassin class if burst mages, ADCs, bruisers and tanks all do a more consistent job at what assassins are supposed to do? Plus, supports are so oppressive for assassins nowadays that they're never warrant enough merit to ever be picked. What's the point of picking an assassin if the squishies you were previously destroying are now 0/10 monsters purely due to how easy it is for assassins to be peeled off by the support? Don't even get me started on Ardent Censer because that's recognised universally as an embarrassment for your entire company.

I really want to love this game, I really really do, but I dedicated time to learning the assassin class, specifically Katarina, and it feels like I'm not getting any love from you guys. What was the point of learning the class if it's borderline unviable? Sure, each "assassin" is fun, but it's not fun when you're easy to counterplay. My love for this game keeps dropping as each season pushes the assassin class further under the rug, while the mage and support classes reign supreme over everyone since they have the largest playerbase and influence over the community. The opinions of us assassin mains mean very little, you can tell that just by venturing to /r/RengarMains or /r/AkaliMains.