Balancing all assasssins across all MMR

Disclaimer: that post was made by an ADC main

Assassins are so bad in high elo (except Akali) it's not even funny anymore. At this point of the game it's been 2 years since Zed saw competitive plays, the champion that people loved to watch Faker playing. But at the same time, they've been impossible to balance in low elo.

And Riot is not helping that either, Kassadin was buffed so much to the point where now opgg and lolalytics state a 52% win rate and 10% pick rate. Yet he's still not picked in pro =?

The reason is quite simple, those champions tend to have inexistent lane pressure until level 6 while at the same time having no answer to pressure. Lane pressure is actually the most important thing in high elo, it allows you to make the enemy laner unable to answer to your roaming which is important mid because of how the lane is located at the center of the map. That is the reason why Akali is played, her sustain and manaless ranged Q makes her able to counter the pressure of midlaners until lvl 6 where she can all in them. If you take Zed for instance, this champion is melee and has 22 seconds cooldown on W. Zed has no sustain unlike Akali so he has to pressure back, but his "good" poke has 22 seconds cd, how is going to counter the pressure every 22 seconds? and at the same time his W is what makes him escaping ganks, the moment he uses him midlaners will be like "hey hey junglers come, 22 seconds to get a free kill!!!!". Or sometimes it's the way around, junglers are in the bush and the midlaner just walk to zed to force him to W to poke and counter the pressure then the jungler all ins for a free kill. And when he gets pressured, he's going to get denied, or pushed, unable to answer to roaming, and his waveclear is not good until mid game.

All of those things do not matter in low mmr because here, people won't abuse the 22 seconds cd W, or often die in a single all in from zed.

So knowing that logic, what things can we do to improve the situation?

First of all, remove nightstalker damage reasoning: it's terrible, even LL stylish doesn't build it anymore https://i.gyazo.com/13ed61a3c54065e34096adf2b42585f1.png

Duskblade's passive damage is almost non existent now, the +3 lethality improved the damage of assassins by nearly 2% Upfront damage does not help to balance the class across all mmr as low elo often reacts slower than high elo. Riot should try to seek other ideas instead Improving the utility it gives can help a lot in high elo, as those assassins will be useful while behind.

Second: Lethality---->reverted to armor penetration (while decreasing numbers)

I do not understand why AP bruisers and AP burst champions can deal true damage after 2600 gold, but we make AD burst champions more feast or famin with a level dependant armor penetration mechanic, it also had less value (was like 10 armor pen by items unlike morello and mr pen boots) while champions have x2 more base armor than base mr. ?

18 lethality--->10 armor pen 18 lethality--->10 armor pen 21 lethality--->15 armor pen nightstalker----> no longer deals damage (still slows) Blackout----> cooldown rescaled from 90 seconds to 60-40 seconds depending on levels

Reducing his W cooldown might bring back problems that pre-nerf zed had when his W had 18 seconds cd, I assume so or Riot would already have reverted the nerf, same with Lucian's E cooldown nerf. Instead, make zed able to lane without using his W to keep it from ganks. At the same time, reduce his all in to keep him from being overpowered in low mmr.

Base range: 125---->175 Contempt for the weak: Damage rescaled from 6/8/10% max health to 4/6/8/10/12% max health depending on levels Shuriken razor: cost rescaled from 75/70/65/60/55 to 55 at all ranks Cooldown reduced from 6 seconds to 5 seconds damage penality from multiple shuriken: 0%----->40 New: At rank 5 damage penality is removed

Death mark needs a buff honnestly, Zed's ult is so bad in high mmr not because of things like which already hard counters him, but because of the high delay he has before he appears behind a target. It makes it so easy to stun lock him once he appears with any spell in the game If you're Ahri, Orianna or whatever it is cc'ing zed once he appears behind you is way too easy and leads to Zed's ult being totally uneffective.

Death mark: Zed vanishes for 0.75 second-----> 0.5 second

Doesn't need changes tbh, unlike Zed he's played by midlane mains in high elo that aren't Talon hardcore otps. Also sees plays because he's safer in early game with more base MR , some flat hp sustain and decent lane pressure.

win rate states that she isn't a problem in low mmr. Definitly a problem in high mmr, this champion deals just way too much damage. It's not the mobility that got reduced or micro-stun or whatever the fuck the boards make it sound like. Unlike other assassins Akali has top tier DPS that can match a champion like Azir due to her passive having no cooldown+ Q cooldown. The W duration also makes her hard countering some champions, the increased duration is a good mechanic to force Akali to reveal herself often (which makes oppenents able to deal damage) but the base duration itself is an issue

Assassin's mark: has now 2 seconds cd Five point strike: Cost rescaled from 100/95/90/85/80 to 100 Twilight Shroud: Base duration reduced from 5/5.5/6/6.5/7 to 4 seconds Max duration reduced from 8/8.5/9/9.5/10 to 8 seconds

I have no idea on how to fix this champ. In low mmr his problem is enemies not knowing what the fuck is this champ's cooldown and getting killed in one all in (before lvl 6). In high mmr his problem is mana problem during the lane, and the same shit than Zed. No ability to pressure back without exposing himself for a long time. I guess what Riot can do is, nerfing some early damage somewhere, and then reduce his E cooldown while keeping the high mana cost to keep it in check. But the problem is that if you kill that champ's early all in then there is no point in taking him anymore since he can't lane with that kit if he doesn't bully the enemy laner. Guess he needs a rework

Pretty simple, too much power into late game and ESPECIALLY lvl 16. Joke of a champion before 2 items or even 3, no lane pressure (though while trading A LOT OF damage he's able to get a lot of sustain from runes). All of that doesn't matter in lower mmr as lane pressuring is less mastered (meaning that abusing kassadin's lack of waveclear to roam is also less done) and games last a long time for him to scale.

Solution: increase his ult cd to 5 sec at all ranks, make his pre 2 items better (increase base damage, reduce a bit the scaling). Possibly reduce Q range from 650 to 575 as in the past everytime it had good base damage, kassadin forced everyone out of lane.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

the end