Whenever We Get to the Diving Fighter Update...

With the Assassin Update coming today, I just wanted to throw out some thoughts concerning another update to come: diving fighters.

This group was the other one that was discussed as being the potential preseason update, but assassins were chosen to be updated instead, WHICH IS FINE. THIS IS NOT A QQ THREAD. THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT ABOUT ASSASSINS BEING CHOSEN OVER DIVING FIGHTERS FOR THE UPDATE.

This thread's purpose is to gauge board opinion on the update that will eventually come when the diving fighters are updated.

It's probably helpful to first identify the champions who most accurately fit into this category. Those being the following:

QUICK NOTE: this list is quite generous when discussing who all fits into this category. I figured it would be rather wise to be broad in discussion, at least for the purpose of addressing all possible champions who could even be remotely affected by this. This is reflective of how Riot addressed in discussion of the assassin update.

WHAT DO EACH OF THESE CHAMPIONS POSSESS?

Each has:

1. Some method of getting to the backline relatively easily, some more reliable than others. has Ragnarok, has Paranoia, has E+Q + Cataclysm. has Sonic Wave/Resonating Strike and Safeguard.
2. Decent damage output, including the possibility of bordering on assassin-level burst when built in the appropriate manner.
3. As far as the most frequent builds go, most (with the exception of and , which both tend to build more assassin-type builds) tend to build high defensive stats after 1 or 2, sometimes 3 in the case of and especially, offensive items.

WHAT DIFFERENTIATES THIS GROUP OF CHAMPIONS FROM OTHERS?

All of these champions lack the following:

1. The higher mobility and damage output of most assassins, the latter is negated when these champions build full damage.
2. The amount of CC offered by most tanks, along with the higher longevity of most tanks in prolonged fights.
3. The higher mobility of skirmishers, typically individuals like ,. These champions also tend to be much more damage focused.

I hesitate to add because these champions are more (in my opinion) more skirmishers than anything else and should be lumped in with and .

Now, to the actual discussion. There has typically been a group of champions in the most dire need of work in these types of updates. For the MYMU, it was . For the Asassin Update, it's .

Big question is who will be the big ones in this. It's unsure as to how many will be there as the big ones, but there are certain things that I feel will almost certainly be hit on. Those would be the following:

Diana has been addressed multiple times by Riot and has been as explained as having suppose to have been a fighter who instead became an instakilling assassin. Not only that, but Diana is also one who is said to have no real distinct identity as a fighter. Diana will almost certainly be a high contender for a big rework in the update.

Behold the elephant in the game. Aatrox is frequently referred to as the champion Riot forgot about, and threads from Aatrox mains show this feeling is fairly well cemented within the Aatrox mains, if not in the community's mind as a whole. Aatrox lacks very much identity as a fighter beyond having a lot of lifesteal off of his W. Aatrox is probably the biggest champion who stands to gain from this update when it occurs. There's a lot of potential to make Aatrox into this war god who cuts down the enemy team with a living weapon. There could be some fun things to explore with his weapon being more involved in his kit, and this could lead to extrapolation of his lore.

Other elephant in the game. Lee Sin is quite possibly the most frequent champion I see discussed on the boards other than . Lee Sin is sitting at around a 29% play rate, something that has been maintained for quite a while. This can clearly indicate at least one thing: Lee Sin is perceived as being strong. Whether that is true or not is up for discussion. However, my personal thoughts are that Lee is one of the best junglers when mastered. Now, it doesn't take much to be "good" at Lee Sin, but it takes more work to actually be a great Lee Sin, and I think that Lee is one who is probably too good at too many things, which contributes to the fact that he is almost universally a good pick. It's sort of similar to how is argued to be for assassins before this current assassin rework. Sure other assassins exist, but Zed is a notch above all the others, so why would you play anyone but Zed? When this is compounded on the fact that Zed is incredibly potent when mastered, and we have quite an issue. I think that this is Riot's opportunity to nail down what Lee is good at and give Lee more obvious weaknesses, beyond being less of a damage threat late game.

Nocturne is one who kind of suffers from the disconnect between being a fighter who functions better as an assassin. He was notably passed over in the assassin update, with the reasoning being that he is suppose to be more of a diving fighter than an assassin. Meddler said this in response to this exact question:

> We feel Nocturne's a diving fighter, rather than an assassin. Those two groups have some strong similarities, with both aiming to get onto and explode a valuable squishy target. Assassins are burstier, with primarily ability based damage, generally a lack of CC and usually some need to flank to get onto the target they want. Divers have slower damage, a bit of tankiness, generally rely a lot on their auto attacks, bring a moderate amount of CC and can often go straight into a team fight. Nocturne's got a theme that's pretty assassin like, his gameplay puts him solidly into the diver category though.

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/t1aPWlyT-why-is-nocturne-not-included-in-the-upcoming-assassin-rework?comment=0000

So this leaves us with an issue: is there a disconnect with Nocturne's thematic and gameplay? It would seem so, but I'm neither a main nor an expert on thematics. There's a lot of potential for Nocturne in both categories, as a horror-based assassin and as a fear-inducing fighter. It's also possible to leave Nocturne as he is, and just make him more of an pick-focused fighter, which he already sort of is with Paranoia and his fear. It is certainly possible we will see Nocturne at least mentioned in the update, but I personally would like to see Nocturne made more of an assassin than a fighter, just because it seems to fit his theme much better than being a fighter. I'm not sure what that means for the champion as a whole, since he is viewed more as a fighter, but this update would likely carry some update to his thematics to make him more focused.

Pantheon is one who is scheduled for a full VGU due to him not exactly capturing the "war god" theme and playing much more like a typical Spartan. I'm not certain that he will appear in this update beyond number tweaks, but did receive significant cosmetic changes in addition to the updates to his kit, so it is possible. I would enjoy seeing his VGU sooner rather than later. Pantheon would be a champion that I would feel would either be one who empowers his allies, maybe a flat damage buff, or a champion who is less mobile but higher damage than most other fighters.

She's pretty much in the same boat as ; scheduled for a full VGU, but has the potential to see decent work in the class update. She arguably has a much stronger disconnect between thematic and gameplay than Pantheon and Nocturne though, but not nearly to the degree that Aatrox has. I would personally like to see her more as one of the more mobile diving fighters with a little less damage but more mobility.

This is one that I personally want to see, but he may be skipped over in favor of other big updates. My only quip about Olaf is this: Olaf, if he gets ahead early, is very difficult to stop from simply mowing down your carries and letting his carries clean everyone else up. This is accented by the fact that Ragnarok gives him complete CC immunity, which means no amount of peel matters. In addition, he has a rather hefty slow on Undertow that he can refresh rather easily if you run near the axe. This leaves the carries being dove to either or try to kill him before he kills you. Even if you succeed and he gets killed, he's likely already succeeded in doing his job just by getting you low enough to get swept by the rest of his team. This may not necessarily need to be a big update, but it's at least a balance tweak I'd like to see.

That;s about it for what I want to see. Let me know what you guys think! Hope you enjoyed reading this and hope you're looking forward to the update to come.