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Class Types

Angry Monster·4/13/2014, 11:20:48 PM·11 votes·1,494 views

This is long post but i hope done clearly and easily on the eyes. Please up vote to get visibility. @Morello @Lyte @Jag @Xelnath @Red

So Riot has a issue withing league of legends. This problem keeps people from having meaningful conversations about champs. The problem is the classification system. While riot has changed names for some classes they did it in areas that were not needed and have missed the area of contention.

There are 3 terms that people do not agree on, Fighter Tank and Bruiser. Some champs can be called all 3 terms and it would be hard to argue that they are wrongShyvana Olaf Hecarim as examples . As you can see without clear terms what does each term really mean.

Then we run into the problem of light fighters. While fighter and light fighter can mean 2 different things they also tend to confuse people that are not thinking all the way through. If you were to poll people they would hear fighter and assume that the 2 are similar or try to accomplish the same thing. Also the light fighter can beef up messing up the issue even more.

While people may not agree with my terms, this is an example of how riot can clean up the naming and some confusion of purpose. This will also remove the dual naming.

Tanks Nautilus Sejuani Maokai - Health Based CC walls. Late game purpose to hold the front line not killing the back.

Bruiser (was fighter/ heavy fighter) OlafShyvana Hecarim - Durable mulit-purpose damage dealers. They can do it all but not the best of everything.

Fighters (was light fighter) MasterYiAatrox Nocturne - High DPS champs. Great at taking on ADC(marksman) but does not do well going in first of team fights. Bad at front line fights.

Again these terms are what i personally would use and starts getting rid of the double classification. Naming helps defining strengths and weaknesses. And allows for clear conversations.

How would u classifiy? Did i miss a group?

26 Comments

Remlap12234/14/2014, 10:03:30 PM2 votes

Tanks: DrMundo Galio JarvanIV Leona Malphite Maokai Nautilus Sejuani Shen Sion Alistar Singed Skarner Taric Yorick Udyr Garen Amumu Chogath

Basically self defined. Meant to be big, scary, and really hard to ignore. Either have lots of cc, or have sustain and damage over time. Not really huge focus needed on them, unless they get fed.

Bruisers: Aatrox Blitzcrank Gangplank Gragas Hecarim Jax Nasus Olaf Renekton Riven Trundle Tryndamere Udyr Vi Volibear Warwick MonkeyKing Darius Poppy Rammus

Pretty much self defined as well. Burly champs that hit hard. Don't have as much sustain or defense as a full tank, but have great dueling potential. Will put you in a very bad spot if you make extended trades.

Fighters: Evelynn Fiora Irelia Khazix LeeSin MasterYi Pantheon Rengar Diana Jayce

These guys are the all in champions. Get the kill or die trying. Have much higher burst potential than bruisers, but are much squishier. These guys blur the lines between assassins and bruisers.

Finally, Assassins: Leblanc Akali Fizz Kassadin Katarina Nidalee Nocturne Quinn Shaco Talon Yasuo Zed

These guys are the squishies that will take your health bar from 500 to zero in very little time. All quick burst damage, or high poke damage with mobility to back it up, these guys will take down everyone except the tankiest of opponents if you're out of position.

Neofederalist4/14/2014, 4:18:07 PM2 votes

The issue with the term "tank" is that it has a variety of different definitions depending on the context.

"Shen is a tank." "Lee Sin is building tanky." "Jax tanked 3 people and secured a kill on their ADC."

None of these terms are wrong, but we'd probably agree that neither Lee Sin or Jax are tanks even though the word is applying to them. Interestingly, we don't have similar multiple meanings for fighters or bruisers.

I would define the difference between bruisers and fighters based on their reliance on auto attacks. Renekton LeeSin Rengar are bruisers. XinZhao Irelia Aatrox are fighters.

The relatively new term "light fighter" applies to an auto-attack reliant fighter who has higher mobility and less innate durability/cc. MasterYi and Yasuo fit the definition the best.

If we're categorizing champions, the best way is probably to look at the types of items they like to buy. If they don't generally build a single damage item, they are a tank. A bruiser will build 1-2 damage items, and generally not for the attack speed item 3074. A figher will buy 1-2 offensive items and will almost always have AS as a component (item 3078 and item 3153 ) Light fighters get even more AS (item 3087)

Maeethor4/14/2014, 12:33:47 AM2 votes

Agreed, but its not like riot ever cared too much about their classification system, although they should.

Dantilq4/14/2014, 6:33:10 PM1 votes

Yea to divide the three classes of melees into something better than tank and fighters is kinda good.

I totally agree with calling the middle-class bruisers, it's already kinda established. Tanks is too.

I am not so sure about fighter though, a figher is a guy that does fighting, sure, but often this is the tanky melee class in games, and currently bruiser and fighter is used interexchangably. I think instead you should pick another name for the class.

Dancer was a better name IMO, because in conveys they squishiness, but it doesn't say what they do in the fight.

Skirmisher would be an even better name I think. Skirmisher is a light fighter that is not in the middle of the brawl, but stays mobile at the edge. It's what light fighters excell at, skirmishes.

ArtoriusIV4/15/2014, 12:38:44 AM1 votes

The problem is tank can be split as well into a tank(build magic resist and Armour and health) and sustain tank (builds HP, lifsteal and AD/HP AP and spell vamp) this distinction is pretty big, in a similar fashion to a light fighter and bruiser are.

Best Slayer NA4/14/2014, 12:02:03 AM1 votes

Think you hit the nail on the head on this one.

r4zEn4/15/2014, 4:56:30 AM1 votes

This is something that could help newer players a lot, I think. I've been playing for a couple years and it doesn't matter to me how you classify Irelia , I just know she'd better get nerfed soon. But as a new player I remember being absolutely befuddled when looking at champs. Other than the ones whose role is fairly 'hard' defined and obvious (no one ever builds a tanky adc in serious play, you don't see double item 3027 on Ahri , etc), I just built item 3078 on everything because, ya know, tons of damage. Anyway, call something a fighter and I immediately think, gapcloser who auto attacks. Is this the case with all of the defined fighters? No. So, I think a reclass is in order. For the newbs.

As for someone who mentioned the continuum, I absolutely agree. Build matters a lot more than anything else for all of the current fighters. What would the OP do about that? I can take a Nocturne and make him a bruiser by building really tanky (item 3207 item 3143 item 3102 item 3065 item 3153), or a terrifying fighter (using OP's classification)by building glassier (item 3160 item 3153 item 3035)

OP: Since very many of the bruisers/fighters dont neatly fit a definition, how do you classify?

Juuni desu4/14/2014, 12:10:41 AM1 votes

As someone that always plays support or mage, I guess I don't pay attention too much to how to call the others (other than stuff like Top or Jungler), but good points anyway. If a character has too many labels, it just leads to confusion and will make someone take a champ into a spot where they are just going to have a bad time or have their teammates have an unrealistic expectation of what's going to happen.

Sir ArmaMalum4/14/2014, 1:09:56 AM1 votes

I use 'Bruiser' in my teamspeak normally already, but I'm weird when I call the light fighters 'dancers'. Not the best name for it and fighter works better, but that's just how I call them myself, because that's how I normally find them playing moving back and forth looking for the most opportune time to go in, but only after 'the music's started'.