Assassin Updates – Possible Katarina Direction

Introduction

Greetings boards visitors, I am Kindra Returns V, a Katarina one-trick with one of the highest number of Katarina games played this season.

With the Mage roster update on the way, the Assassin update is one that could be coming soon. Since Katarina (along with Talon and Akali) have been mentioned as possible candidates for major changes™, we as a community can discuss what we feel Katarina’s role in League should be before any designers decide on potentially strange directions that might change her identity in ways that will alienate current Katarina players.

I initially planned to do multiple smaller posts on different aspects of Katarina, but feedback convinced me to condense the discussion.   Even though we may not be representative of the League community as a whole, this is a step in the right direction, and Rioters who frequent this forum can pass on anything they find interesting to the right people. Now, without further ado…

Katarina’s “Fantasy”

When discussing champion reworks nowadays, Riot often uses “identity” and “gameplay fantasy” as foci. In the interest of clarity, I will do the same here.

The goal of an assassin is removing the enemy carries from the fight. Some (Kha’zix, Rengar) do this by killing the enemy out of position. Some (Zed, LeBlanc) throw themselves into the fray, focusing the enemy down with a rotation and backing out for a clean kill. Some (Twisted Fate, Ahri) are constantly zoning carries and applying pressure, forcing the enemy to avoid being picked off.

Katarina is an assassin that takes an entirely different approach. Lorewise, Katarina is a famed Noxian assassin whose passion for killing is in constant conflict with her sense of duty. Notably, she once chose to take out a passing Demacian general instead of her assigned target, earning her characteristic eye-scar when forced to fight “no matter the cost” to take out her now heavily-guarded original mark.

This should be reflected in her gameplay. Most assassins have the goal, and only goal, of dealing with the target that their team wants them to deal with. Katarinas should feel torn. Do they fulfill their responsibility to their team, and eliminate the carry right away? Or do they go for an opportunity to kill something else first, just because they can?

In game, this should translate to the Katarina player having to choose, every fight, whether to commit to diving into the fight and cut down the backline in a risky one-for-one trade, or to strive for the reset on a vulnerable enemy that allows them to clean up the rest. High risks, high rewards. A little greedy, a lot selfish. This is what Katarina should feel like.

Katarina’s Current State

Katarina currently is sitting in a bad place. This is not necessarily true from a balance perspective, since winrate or pickrate-wise there are certainly champions that are worse off.

From a gameplay perspective, however, Katarina is not delivering as well as she can, for a multitude of reasons. There are clarity issues, her gameplay is often binary and uninteractive, and is rewarding the right things in the wrong ways.

Most notably, her reset mechanic combined with instant AoE burst leads to game health issues (kill one, kill them all) unless a full rotation of abilities has low base damage and scaling. On the other hand, having a full rotation of abilities do little damage to enemies without a reset makes Katarina the assassin most embarrassingly terribly at 1v1s, even against isolated squishy supports.

Katarina is dangerous to entire teams when ahead, so snowballing is an important issue to consider. Making Katarina more item-dependent than level-dependent helps enemy teams fight her when behind, but making it too hard to push an advantage incentivizes Katarina players to be passive and KS their way to full build before anyone else.

Katarina’s dependency on resets also sometime motivates passive teamfighting, forcing players to just wait for an assist before they can even risk contributing, or wait until the 4v5 has lowered the enemy team’s health sufficiently for her to clean up. Alternatively, Katarinas may build tanky so that they can risk fighting for a reset, weakening their contribution another way by flattening out the high-risk, high-reward rest playstyle to low-risk, low-reward. Both are boring, unthematic playstyles that shoudn’t be rewarded or used as an “optimal way to play” Katarina.

• Things that should be improved:

• Clarity issues: Sword wielding assassin builds AP, daggers do magic damage

• Clarity issues: Lightly armored assassin sometimes builds resistances or health to survive long enough for a reset

• Game Health issues: AoE burst resets lead to a “kill one, kill all” chain that cannot be balanced without low damage on individual ability rotations

• Challenging to 1v1 enemies until mid-late, even when they have no cc or escapes, due to lack of single-target damage or “outplay potential”

• Ult damage sometimes feels unrewarding early game even with a full channel, the enemy should always be fighting to get out of the zone or interrupt the channel, rather than be willing to stand in the middle and autoattack Katarina to death

• Things that are working well:

• Ability-based damage rather than autoattack dependency for a flashy playstyle that screams to the enemy “Focus me first!”

• “Selfish” kit that doesn’t contribute CC or other utility for team is in character, she brings only damage but brings a lot of it

• Squishy melee with no sustain results in challenging laning phase that enemy can exploit before Katarina scales into mid-late game killing machine

• Manaless nature is thematically correct (always ready to fight) and gameplay appropriate (players do not have to be scared of going OOM because of a reset)

• Gameplay focuses on predictive decision making, identifying opportunities, and timing for outplay potential rather than pure mechanical ability (“Shunpo to dodge Charm” vs “Use ult to cancel the skillshot bouncing blades animation and reset AA”)

• Ward-jumping and Shunpo-ing for survivability, for damage, or to reposition is a decision that should be important to make

• Enemy teams that have a lot of cc/health/sustain/survival abilities are clear counters to Katarina, while teams ignoring Kat when at low health will be punished

• What should come out of an update:

• Better strategic identity / Reason to choose Katarina over other similar assassins (e.g. Katarina for resets and cleanup, Akali for single-target damage and stealth outplay, Talon for AoE burst and objective pressure)

• More emphasis on importance of choice and timing for reset decision-making, rather than mindlessly moving on after every reset to the next low enemy

• Encourage aggressive risk-reward gameplay, rather than passively waiting for resets

• Remove instant AoE basic ability, so that resets can be better balanced

• Focus more power in Shunpo and Death Lotus since they are defining abilities (Make enemies feel more rewarded for interrupting DL / make Katarina feel rewarded for channeling DL longer)

Suggestions

Following are ideas for a suggested rework, with explanations underneath.

• Voracity

• Only affects basic abilities

• Bouncing Blades

• Bounce damage once again is reduced for subsequent targets

• Bounce damage does physical damage and scales very well with Bonus AD, no AP scaling

• Mark damage remains magic damage, and scales off AP

• After it hits the first target, Katarina can reactivate Q while it is in flight to blink to the blade, do magic damage in a small AoE, and stop further bounces

• The blink damage scales off AP and increases for every bounce that has occurred, reaching maximum after having bounced on 4 targets

• Death Lotus

• Now a basic ability with very high cooldown (~50 sec at rank 1)

• Voluntarily ending it early or fully channeling reduces cooldown by 60%, enemy interrupts set it to full cooldown

• Shorter max channel time, low base damage, but high AP and Bonus AD scaling that increases per rank in W

• Throws a maximum of 30 daggers per channel, 10 at each of three targets. Rate at which daggers are thrown accelerates over the channel (~4 per second at beginning up to ~8 per second at the end)

• Prioritizes enemies with lower percent health remaining

• Applies grievous wounds and does physical damage

• Shunpo

• Blinks to target unit, and disjoints any targeted projectiles currently targeted at Katarina

• If target is enemy champion, does magic damage with base and scaling as well as a portion of the damage (scaling off AP) Katarina would have taken from disjointed projectiles

• If target is not enemy champion, reduces Shunpo CD by 60% and does no damage

• Killer Instincts

• New Ultimate: For a short time after activation, Katarina’s autoattacks and spells do up to an additional (X) true damage to champions, based on the target’s missing health. Takedowns refresh this duration.

• X has very low base, high scaling on both AP and Bonus AD

Explanations

Voracity

The Voracity change is slight, since resets are a core part of Katarina’s identity. It refreshes both Bouncing Blades and Shunpo, reduces Death Lotus’ CD noticeably, but does not affect Katarina’s new ult. That will be discussed later.

Bouncing Blades

For Bouncing Blades, the bounce damage falloff encourages AD Katarina to once again get in range of her lane opponent to poke them directly, rather than sit back and farm from a distance. Meanwhile, AP Katarina is rewarded with strong burst for strategically hitting her target with a later bounce, at the risk of putting herself in danger. The blink is meant to be the aggressive, less reliable version of Shunpo, with the additional kit mobility balanced by the inability to directly choose a destination.

Also important are the scaling changes. By changing the initial damage to scale off AD, Katarina now has to make a conscious decision whether to build AD to focus on poking, or AP to focus on all-ins. This is reflected in the damage type. If Katarina is building AD, build armor to reduce both her melee autos and ranged dagger poke. If she is building AP, the magical mark and teleport will be doing magic damage, so build magic resistance.

Death Lotus

This is a noticeable difference, with her signature move changed to a basic ability. This was done for a few reasons. First, it still allows Voracity to reduce Death Lotus’ cooldown. Second, Katarina’s signature ability is now a strength to play around even from the start, like Blitzcrank’s grab or Garen’s spin. Katarina’s opponents now have to be careful not to waste CC and overextend, or an early Death Lotus could force them to back. Finally, this opens up options for Katarina to play more aggressively and strategically early, deciding whether to try to snowball mid, wait for the enemy jungler in a bush, or early gank other lanes for even more risk-reward.

At the same time, this provides new weaknesses. Without Sinister Steel, Katarina has little waveclear to push or cs, no MS buff to dodge skillshots, and cannot even proc Blade marks on minions without using autoattacks. This will make her laning a weak point that the enemy can exploit, especially if she risks an early roam away and fails. Later on, resets also no longer have instant AoE burst, especially with only a partial reset on her abilities, making them more balanceable.

With such a high cooldown, Katarina makes a gamble whenever she uses it. Successful trades and kills will result in the cooldown being reduced substantially, encouraging aggressive play. Failing to use it well will be punished heavily, especially if the enemy successfully interrupts it. It is her main damage source, and without it, she is left with only 2 abilities for a long window. The acceleration rewards enemies who shut it down earlier, potentially only getting hit with a dagger or two instead of 10.

Making it physical damage once again increases clarity (daggers are physical), and keeping grievous wounds as one of Katarina’s few utility contributions enforces Katarina’s niche better. If enemies want to live at low heath against Katarina, they can’t just heal, they need to stop her with cc or have a support shield them.

Shunpo

This is similar to the current Shunpo, but has more power loaded into it with the removal of Sinister Steel. If Katarina wants to use it to dodge damage or chase, it will stay on a low cooldown. But if she wants to use it in a trade, she will be forced to commit to the fight.

This is especially important since it is now a single-target magic damage nuke. It is a large part of AP Katarina’s damage, and using it right will help start a chain of single-target resets. Use it wrong, and Katarina has no escape and no damage.

The disjoint power re-emphasizes how Shunpo has both offensive and defensive uses. It no longer provides damage reduction, but negating targeted projectiles like autoattacks or certain abilities can potentially win you a fight if used well, and would distinguish Katarina’s mobility from other blinks like Talon’s and wardjumps like Lee’s.

When this defensive disjoint is timed at the same time as an aggressive engage, Katarina can turn the enemy’s strength against them. This encourages both building AP to do more return damage, and building less tanky, so that the damage Katarina would have received is higher. Like many other characteristic spells in recent reworks (Poppy dashblock, Taric AoE invincibility), this new Shunpo is very strong, but only in certain situations.

Killer Instincts

This is a new ability that is meant to reinforce Katarina’s role as the cleanup assassin. After activation, Katarina will do little to no extra damage when fighting healthy enemies, while doing tons of damage to finish off weaker enemies. This has a particular synergy with a fully channeled Death Lotus: it can be applied over 30 times in mere seconds, making it even more important for enemies to shut down Katarina’s channel.

The choice of true damage emphasizes that Katarina will kill you when you are at low health, no matter your resistances. Note that this does not scale off %health directly, but increases to a flat amount based on missing health. Enemies are always rewarded for building straight health or shielding off damage to survive. The flat damage prevents tanks from being punished for building tanky, and keeps squishies on their toes instead of encouraging them to build resistance/damage items.

The power of this ability is meant to be an important, and small, window where Katarina’s cleanup and reset power are massively heightened. By choosing not to have this ability reduced by Voracity, enemies are able to always know how long until Katarina hits full power again, rather than trying to guess how many resets she received. This also allows the cooldown of this ability to be balanced independently of the rest of Katarina’s resetting kit, limiting her dominance when ahead and keeping her relevant when behind.

The Product

This rework improves both the clarity and gameplay health of Katarina, while reinforcing her identity as a mobile cleanup champion.

Katarinas that build AD will have better poke and sustained damage, and can be built against with armor. Katarinas that build AP will have better all-ins and burst, and enemies can build against her with magic resistance. Enemies can always build health or shield items (Steraks, FotM, Locket) to protect themselves.

Katarina herself is discouraged from building tanky, CDR, or mana items, limiting itemization as both a strength (allows for a focus on straight AD and AP that reinforces role of damage-dealer) and a weakness (some item paths are inaccessible or undesirable).

Low health enemies are guaranteed to die to Katarina unless their tanks and supports can intervene quickly with CC and shields. Shunpo and Death Lotus are reinforced as Katarina’s unique strengths, encouraging aggressive play when enemies are successfully baited and outsmarted.

Moreover, due to Bouncing Blades and Shunpo, Katarina’s strategic niche is reinforced as a very mobile melee assassin that has to commit and lock herself in one spot to do the majority of her damage.

At the same time, there are clear weaknesses and counterplay options. Katarina’s abilities are ineffective against minions, monsters, and towers, making her objective control weak. Teams with AoE cc like Amumu, Skarner, or Gnar do well against her, as Katarina has few options to react. Tanky enemies, teams who can stay healthy, and teams that can keep Katarina at a range they like are also strong against her.

Summary

• Make resets more manageable to balance by reducing instant burst and adding delays in Katarina’s combo without just adding cast times
• Add blink onto Q to reinforce identity as very mobile assassin
• Reduce Q spam poke power by having bounces scale off AD instead of AP
• Remove Sinister Steel, replace it with modified Death Lotus
• Shunpo disjoints projectiles
• Ultimate adds flat true damage to Katarina’s abilities and AAs when activated, hurting low health enemies more, CD not reduced by passive cooldown reset

These are not meant to be “leaks,” or planned abilities, simply examples of possible ability changes that could be used in the Assassin update. Please provide feedback below, if anything seems interesting this could be our chance to influence Riot’s Champion Update team with potential ideas to preserve Katarina’s identity before it is too late and they cement themselves in a certain direction. And thanks for reading!