Boards›Gameplay

I feel like Riot has done nothing but cater to assassins over the last few years...

Cloud273··11 votes·2,563 views

With all these things I'm about to mention, I can't remember exactly when all of them happened. Some of these changes happened this year, some last year, and others a few years ago. But it seems like overtime a lot of small changed have added up and are making assassins WAY too strong.

  1. Mana pots removed. You could argue that this also effected some assassins like Fizz and Talon, but honestly even when they were around I almost NEVER saw assassins buy them. You have so much burst in your kit that you never have mana problems anyways.
  2. Zhonyas nerfed. Zhonyas used to give 120 AP and 50 armor. Now the item is garbage.
  3. Stasis used to be something exclusive to mages. Now it's part of guardians (which also gives AD btw). So you gave assassins even more safety and AD on a DEFENSIVE item.
  4. Towers got nerfed. Towers are weaker and even easier to destroy, making diving even easier for assassins. And they also give even more gold, which lets assassins snowball even harder.
  5. Pink wards got removed, making assassins even safer.
  6. Duskblade got added, letting assassins one shot any ward on the map and giving them a ton of burst.
  7. Edge of night got added, giving even more safety
  8. Banshee's veil got reworked into an AP item, giving AP assassins even more safety and burst.
  9. Infernal drake, elder dragon, and baron all got MASSIVE buffs, letting assassins snowball even harder if they get them.
  10. Assassins got a TON of safety with their reworks. Akali can't even be targeted by the tower when she has her shroud (not a rework, but Fizz also can't be targeted by the tower with one of his abilities...just as cancer as Akali), Evelynn gets a ton of safety with her ult and free health regen, Rengar got a free qssm etc...
  11. Dark harvest got added, giving assassins yet another tool to snowball with.

I'm sure there's something I've missed, but I think I covered most of the big changes. My point is assassins have gotten WAY too many indirect buffs over the years and it's getting REALLY annoying. We need to revert all these changes, because NONE of them are healthy for this game.

15 Comments

The thigh guy7 votes

Because they have been. Idk why they want the class that’s litteraly only fun for the person playing them to be forced into the meta, but that’s the direction they have been going.

I don’t know about you, but I have never once said “I really hope my laner picks (Insert assassin here)”

3TWarrior2 votes

I remember once for mordekaiser when he was like a 1/100 or 1/1000 matchups, paraphrasing, "wow, this is awesome! let's see what you can do with him!"

I didn' say that of course, but I mean, seeing champions with almost no pick rates and fair abilities is a lot more exciting than "grey screen simulator"

Poske4 votes

As an assassin main JUST NO they arent. AD assassins are mostly fine tho + eve

Le blanc is trash tier and she has been god tier during her rework (even post distort nerf but none knew how to play her, well none but me does in general but even more so then), Just ask Faker, Pawn ** LITERALY any LCS player ** whats a Le blanc quadraproc none knows and it was abusable for ENTIRE YEAR)

Katarina is trash tier. Literaly 0 winning matchups in high elo, winrate inflated by smurfs, suffers from gunblade syndrome

Akali is IMO very good but her winrate says otherwise suffers from gunblade syndrome

Fizz has this gimmick proc the wahtever wierd dot shit which no fizz player likes. Or am I wrong here?

Diana is fine but a diver. (unhealthy champ tho)

Ahri is OP but a mage (only secondary assassin)

Zoe is trash tier just suffered 2 games with her. You literally cannot farm vs competent players with her

Zed is great

kha is good to great

Rengar is good to great quite adaptable

Talon is good to great

Evelynn is great Gut worthy infact

Ekko suffers from to much counterplay

Nidalee suffers from to thin Spears (specially with low and high league ground elevations) and is an incosistent gimmick champion

Twitch is good to great (but secondary assassin)

Vayne is good to great (but secondary assassin)

Syndra is currently bugged (secondary assassin)

Pyke is massive winrate enchancer typically played by bad players who undeservedly got high elo so now are tanking pyke winrate

In conclusion Ap assassins are underperforming, AD assassins are performing well but nothing is kha zix level of permastealth scarry

Last time assassins were favored was during "reworked assassin era"

I got to challenger (top50) one shoting people from 1600 range with LE BLANC every 15 seconds abusing stuff which you dont wanna know about Katarina had way higher dmg + actual KILL POTENTIONAL. She had highest damage per game across all champions (She deserves it) Kha zix was perma stealthed Zed was slightly weaker Rengar was Swim bruiser scarry AF Zoe was strong Kayn used to be stronger

Then on top of that quinn was pretty much assassin during that era

And even during that Era Boneplating, stopwatch ETC were all stronger defensive options

Your Tower argument makes me want to poke my eyes out. Its extremly wrong

Cloud2731 votes

{quoted}

As an assassin main JUST NO they arent. AD assassins are mostly fine tho + eve

Le blanc is trash tier and she has been god tier during her rework (even post distort nerf but none knew how to play her, well none but me does in general but even more so then), Just ask Faker, Pawn ** LITERALY any LCS player ** whats a Le blanc quadraproc none knows and it was abusable for ENTIRE YEAR)

Katarina is trash tier. Literaly 0 winning matchups in high elo, winrate inflated by smurfs, suffers from gunblade syndrome

Akali is IMO very good but her winrate says otherwise suffers from gunblade syndrome

Fizz has this gimmick proc the wahtever wierd dot shit which no fizz player likes. Or am I wrong here?

Diana is fine but a diver. (unhealthy champ tho)

Ahri is OP but a mage (only secondary assassin)

Zoe is trash tier just suffered 2 games with her. You literally cannot farm vs competent players with her

Zed is great

kha is good to great

Rengar is good to great quite adaptable

Talon is good to great

Evelynn is great Gut worthy infact

Ekko suffers from to much counterplay

Nidalee suffers from to thin Spears (specially with low and high league ground elevations) and is an incosistent gimmick champion

Twitch is good to great (but secondary assassin)

Vayne is good to great (but secondary assassin)

Syndra is currently bugged (secondary assassin)

Pyke is massive winrate enchancer typically played by bad players who undeservedly got high elo so now are tanking pyke winrate

In conclusion Ap assassins are underperforming, AD assassins are performing well but nothing is kha zix level of permastealth scarry

Last time assassins were favored was during "reworked assassin era"

I got to challenger (top50) one shoting people from 1600 range with LE BLANC every 15 seconds abusing stuff which you dont wanna know about Katarina had way higher dmg + actual KILL POTENTIONAL. She had highest damage per game across all champions (She deserves it) Kha zix was perma stealthed Zed was slightly weaker Rengar was Swim bruiser scarry AF Zoe was strong Kayn used to be stronger

Then on top of that quinn was pretty much assassin during that era

And even during that Era Boneplating, stopwatch ETC were all stronger defensive options

Your Tower argument makes me want to poke my eyes out. Its extremly wrong

Logged in just to downvote this, because literally everything you said is wrong.

Poske1 votes

{quoted}

Logged in just to downvote this, because literally everything you said is wrong.

Sure a low elo player who plays against bots 50% of his games can MATCH AN OPINION OF MULTIPLE TIME CHALLENGER SEASON1 PLAYER WHO HAS 30 000 LEAGUE GAMES

You cant balanace a game around people not knowing how to play a game The more people disagree with me the worse players they generaly are.

Sometimes I am wrong but You shouldnt expect me to be more then 10% wrong ever when it comes to LoL

The thigh guy1 votes

{quoted}

As an assassin main JUST NO they arent. AD assassins are mostly fine tho + eve

Le blanc is trash tier and she has been god tier during her rework (even post distort nerf but none knew how to play her, well none but me does in general but even more so then), Just ask Faker, Pawn ** LITERALY any LCS player ** whats a Le blanc quadraproc none knows and it was abusable for ENTIRE YEAR)

Katarina is trash tier. Literaly 0 winning matchups in high elo, winrate inflated by smurfs, suffers from gunblade syndrome

Akali is IMO very good but her winrate says otherwise suffers from gunblade syndrome

Fizz has this gimmick proc the wahtever wierd dot shit which no fizz player likes. Or am I wrong here?

Diana is fine but a diver. (unhealthy champ tho)

Ahri is OP but a mage (only secondary assassin)

Zoe is trash tier just suffered 2 games with her. You literally cannot farm vs competent players with her

Zed is great

kha is good to great

Rengar is good to great quite adaptable

Talon is good to great

Evelynn is great Gut worthy infact

Ekko suffers from to much counterplay

Nidalee suffers from to thin Spears (specially with low and high league ground elevations) and is an incosistent gimmick champion

Twitch is good to great (but secondary assassin)

Vayne is good to great (but secondary assassin)

Syndra is currently bugged (secondary assassin)

Pyke is massive winrate enchancer typically played by bad players who undeservedly got high elo so now are tanking pyke winrate

In conclusion Ap assassins are underperforming, AD assassins are performing well but nothing is kha zix level of permastealth scarry

Last time assassins were favored was during "reworked assassin era"

I got to challenger (top50) one shoting people from 1600 range with LE BLANC every 15 seconds abusing stuff which you dont wanna know about Katarina had way higher dmg + actual KILL POTENTIONAL. She had highest damage per game across all champions (She deserves it) Kha zix was perma stealthed Zed was slightly weaker Rengar was Swim bruiser scarry AF Zoe was strong Kayn used to be stronger

Then on top of that quinn was pretty much assassin during that era

And even during that Era Boneplating, stopwatch ETC were all stronger defensive options

Your Tower argument makes me want to poke my eyes out. Its extremly wrong

Ekko is just a failure of a champion. Should never have been made.

And I think kayn is in a fine spot tbh.

Rock MD3 votes

{quoted}

With all these things I'm about to mention, I can't remember exactly when all of them happened. Some of these changes happened this year, some last year, and others a few years ago. But it seems like overtime a lot of small changed have added up and are making assassins WAY too strong.

  1. Mana pots removed. You could argue that this also effected some assassins like Fizz and Talon, but honestly even when they were around I almost NEVER saw assassins buy them. You have so much burst in your kit that you never have mana problems anyways.

They were archaic and literally only used by people who wanted to afk sustain until late-game. It's understandable why this was removed.

  1. Zhonyas nerfed. Zhonyas used to give 120 AP and 50 armor. Now the item is garbage.

Stopwatch is in the buildpath now Seeker's is cheaper AP assassins use the item too, so technically they got nerfed.

  1. Stasis used to be something exclusive to mages. Now it's part of guardians (which also gives AD btw). So you gave assassins even more safety and AD on a DEFENSIVE item.

The item is good for late-game, where assassins are utterly lacking. I think it's fair to give them more tools to succeed as they're usually high risk since if you don't get anything done on the map you just get hard outscaled.

Also, out of all users assassins get the least bang for their buck with this item. ADs and divers have much better success with GA.

  1. Towers got nerfed. Towers are weaker and even easier to destroy, making diving even easier for assassins. And they also give even more gold, which lets assassins snowball even harder.

Are we even playing the same game? Towers do significantly MORE damage right now. There's no reason for an assassin (sans Fizz) to dive you levels 6-7 unless you fuck up REALLY badly.

  1. Pink wards got removed, making assassins even safer.

I think you mean green wards, but sure let's say this is a buff for assassins.

  1. Duskblade got added, letting assassins one shot any ward on the map and giving them a ton of burst.

The item has been nerfed a number of times already, and do you not think that the blackout passive is fair? It gives them utility so they're not restricted to ONLY damage. Idk why people are insistent on this board that assassins need both to have only damage AND have their damage not be strong. What do you want the class to do then?

  1. Edge of night got added, giving even more safety

Sure.

  1. Banshee's veil got reworked into an AP item, giving AP assassins even more safety and burst.

This is a problem as you ignore all things that nerf AP assassins (Zhonya's), and turn all the things that buff AP mages into doing well in those matchups into "but the AP assassins."

This item works a lot better on mages than assassins. Assassins want more damage and this doesn't give them the levels of damage they'd want.

  1. Infernal drake, elder dragon, and baron all got MASSIVE buffs, letting assassins snowball even harder if they get them.

...

EVERYONE scales better with these, and some of these, especially Elder, are particularly more dangerous on champions with long ranged poke tools.

  1. Assassins got a TON of safety with their reworks. Akali can't even be targeted by the tower when she has her shroud (not a rework, but Fizz also can't be targeted by the tower with one of his abilities...just as cancer as Akali), Evelynn gets a ton of safety with her ult and free health regen, Rengar got a free qssm etc...

You act like the reworks suddenly gave Fizz and Evelynn tools they've had forever. Evelynn is now less safe than she used to be. Fizz has literally had this kit, or something very close to that, since his release.

Also, as a whole these champions got their burst times increased if you play around their spells better.

  1. Dark harvest got added, giving assassins yet another tool to snowball with.

Karthus uses Dark Harvest. There's literally no other champion that uses that rune.

I'm sure there's something I've missed, but I think I covered most of the big changes. My point is assassins have gotten WAY too many indirect buffs over the years and it's getting REALLY annoying. We need to revert all these changes, because NONE of them are healthy for this game.

A lot of champions have gotten direct and indirect buffs over the years. Mages can hit a minion, proc Luden's on you, and follow that up with comet. ADCs got massive dps increases with Lethal Tempo. Sterak's Triforce Conqueror is disgusting. There's a lot of dumb shit but by intentionally ignoring the dumb shit you like and focusing on the dumb shit you don't like you give absolutely zero credence to what you're saying.

3TWarrior3 votes

for that last bit, runes reforged kinda broke everything. You can get 2.0 attack speed with a single attack speed item now because of it, which works wonders for marksmen

conquerer is free true damage, which should not be a thing

kleptomancy turns any auto attack into a potential 5 to 120 gold or even free items

it's all broken

mack91122 votes
  1. There is so much mana sustain through runes these days why does this matter

2.You forget to mention when it got those nerfs it also got its cost reduced by 600 . This item is 96.9% gold efficient without the passive and is above efficient if it prevents just one kill.

  1. Guardian angel is the safety item for squishy ad champions as it should be.

  2. Towers deal more damage this season and plating prevents early tower losses unless you throw your lane.

  3. Pink wards exist they are called control wards.

  4. Has been nerfed to a balance state.

  5. Has been nerfed to a balance state

  6. Banshees veil is the safety item for artillery mages that need to avoid an engage tool but is not very efficient for assasins who are generally poked.

  7. The changes to the objectives don’t just make one class better it benefits all players

  8. They literally changed Akali like 3 patches ago what are you talking about and fizz has an insane CD on that ability .

  9. No assasin should ever go dark harvest over electrocute

... And I’m out

3TWarrior1 votes

guardian angel was a safety item for everyone previously, why is it only AD now?

plating may prevent an early tower loss, but what it does do is give 160 gold per plate, essentially, if you're left alone for a few seconds, you get a free kill's worth of gold

banshee's veil is rarely applied at all. even a stray luden's echo proc triggers it, let alone any other instance of spell damage (like if say comet or another rune with delayed effect hits just after it finishes recharging, or worse, a damage over time effect

GodlyBane2 votes

did i just hear "zhonyas" and "garbage" in the same sentence? yea no it doesnt work like that. The item that fucking lets you go immortal god fuck tier mode that makes all assasins piles of trash upon use? yea terrible item. oh what about that one item that does burst damage, but get this- scales with your AP. Oh yea, and THAT one item that makes your AP overloaded as hell.. Hmm.. it had cap in the name.

Mages need to stop complaining. They are better assasins that can kill with no counterplay from fog of war, they have more dmg, more range, better utility, and arent fucking melee. Mages are broken and assasins are trash. There are only 2 that are viable rn and thats zed and eve. Nobody else. Oh what, you gonna say kat and leblanc? Yea well they dont follow the assasin playstyle. Just because they are labled as assasins doesnt mean they are ones. Same can be said for Zoe, Jax, Vayne etc. They are all mislabled

GigglesO1 votes

You’re right. Buff tank items.

hrooza dota 1 votes

{quoted}

  1. Mana pots removed. You could argue that this also effected some assassins like Fizz and Talon, but honestly even when they were around I almost NEVER saw assassins buy them. You have so much burst in your kit that you never have mana problems anyways.

mana flow rune exist and if we got mana pots then that should be removed completely (or just make it flat mana increase with higher cap.

  1. Zhonyas nerfed. Zhonyas used to give 120 AP and 50 armor. Now the item is garbage.

garbage? the item is insane, and the stats you say that was on the item is freaking busted if anything , this is coming from someone who mostly play mages mid (if i go mid in the first place of course)

also used by ap assassins...

  1. Stasis used to be something exclusive to mages. Now it's part of guardians (which also gives AD btw). So you gave assassins even more safety and AD on a DEFENSIVE item.

a broken exclusive thing for mages, sharing is caring.

  1. Towers got nerfed. Towers are weaker and even easier to destroy, making diving even easier for assassins. And they also give even more gold, which lets assassins snowball even harder.

mages can also kill ppl undertower if done right and the bonus gold from plating harm assassins more,because now if they roam (a thing they normally do a lot) they will suffer a lot more if they dont get a good roam compared to before, meanwhile mages can just perma wave clear if needed.

  1. Pink wards got removed, making assassins even safer.

i heard invis assassins back then were way stronger because of pink ward nulling them

  1. Duskblade got added, letting assassins one shot any ward on the map and giving them a ton of burst.

overrated item, item 3142 imo is better to get first

  1. Edge of night got added, giving even more safety

by the time they get this you should already be strong enough to deal with it tbh

8. Banshee's veil got reworked into an AP item, giving AP assassins even more safety and burst.

its not like mages now get this as will and its exclusive to them.

  1. Infernal drake, elder dragon, and baron all got MASSIVE buffs, letting assassins snowball even harder if they get them.

you pretty much name anything global as (assassin buffs reeee) at this point tbh.

  1. Assassins got a TON of safety with their reworks. Akali can't even be targeted by the tower when she has her shroud (not a rework, but Fizz also can't be targeted by the tower with one of his abilities...just as cancer as Akali), Evelynn gets a ton of safety with her ult and free health regen, Rengar got a free qssm etc...

akali lost the assassin trait tbh, she look like a bruiser now, also she is now not invis under tower if you read patch notes.

  1. Dark harvest got added, giving assassins yet another tool to snowball with.

did not know Karthus MissFortune are assassins (heck mages uses it way better then assassins atm)

I'm sure there's something I've missed, but I think I covered most of the big changes. My point is assassins have gotten WAY too many indirect buffs over the years and it's getting REALLY annoying. We need to revert all these changes, because NONE of them are healthy for this game.

you seem to not read patch notes if you think akali is unseen under tower and dark harvest is assassin rune tbh

5050BS1 votes

Flashy is what they cater to.

IAmTheLego1 votes

My opinion Is I don't even know what is true or not. Actually it's impossible to know what and how riot is working. I say riot is just clueless and doing so many oopsies.

1 season we had a tank meta, 1 season we had bot lane meta, 1 season an assassin meta.

1 can say that riot is catering on assassin class for the sake of flashy plays, which if you ask me, is a very toxic design philosophy.

If you ask me, the assassin bullshit may be a problem (look at zed...miss half combo and you get the kill anyway) but doesn't mean you can't adapt to it.

I'm a Vel'Koz main, and due to all this, I'm working on perfecting my tanky Vel'Koz build.

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 Cloud273

Tank Fiora is officially dead this patch
Gameplay104 comments
188
votes
Jhin actually gets a huge power spike early game
Memes & Games76 comments
178
votes
Are we ever going to address creep block?
Gameplay168 comments
158
votes
Get rid of Kalista's slow
Gameplay36 comments
94
votes
Why doesn't Shen's 'w' block Fiora's passive?
Gameplay57 comments
94
votes
"Jax enters a defensive stance"
Gameplay103 comments
73
votes