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Why do you guys bother having Assassins?

Shinjusuke·3/1/2014, 1:18:05 PM·5 votes·447 views

Every time an assassin champion starts seeing any kind of play, you guys dumpster it.

Every time.

Meanwhile, we have off-and-on phases of the game where a myriad of tanks are allowed to ignore entire teams (lookin' at you Nasus).

We have phases where ADCs are unstoppable dps machines.

Hell, we've even had a phase or two of supports winning lanes purely by deciding the bot lane on their own.

But every single time an Assassin is actually rewarded for doing their job as a role, it gets "fixed". Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that they shouldn't get nerfed when they're too strong, I'm not asking for nerf-reverts or anything. Just that Riot might stop hitting them so hard just because people don't like dying.

Think for a moment: If a tank can't tank a bunch of people at once, they still have CC, and can still soak damage, though not as much. If an ADC can't 1v5-level DPS, they can't win a teamfight on their own, but they still with proper positioning can drop a crapload of damage over the enemy team. If a support can't be a god-tier engage or insurmountable wall of peeling, they can still set up at least a decent engage, or peel for a few seconds.

If an assassin can't kill an enemy champion? They are useless. The overwhelming majority of assassins must get into the heat of the fight to do their job. They must take a risk to do anything. If, in that risk, they do not kill their target, they have brought nothing. Almost-killing the enemy ADC isn't good enough if the ADC has the same amount of DPS at 100hp as they do at full, and can lifesteal it back. Almost-killing the enemy mage isn't good enough when they can still drop their massive AOE burst on your team.

Every time an assassin chooses to engage into a fight, they know chances are that if they do not do it correctly, the most important people on the enemy team are going to get gold, your team will get none, and chances are you will lose the teamfight or be forced to retreat. Playing as assassin is by far the most risky role you can.

Which is fine, if the reward is equal to the risk. Killing a high-priority target is worth a lot of risk. But every single time an assassin can do so, Riot nerfs them. We shouldn't have to read patch notes and feel punished when we can do our damned job. Assassins are the only role that consistently sees nerfs across all it's champions for being fed. Riot punishes Assassins for being good at doing their job.

You don't see nerfs for ADCs who get fed because, hey, being able to solo baron as a squishy is okay if you have 10 kills. Being able to 1v3-5 is okay if you have 10 kills. Being able to push to nexus by yourself after an ace is okay if you have 10 kills.

You don't see nerfs for super tanks who get fed because, hey, being able to outright ignore all damage from everything is okay if you get 10 kills. Being able to be a massive wall of flesh and cc is okay if you get 10 kills. Being able to stall out the enemy team by yourself is okay if you get 10 kills.

And I'm not even touching fed "bruisers".

But being able to kill more than 2 people in a teamfight, as a role whose whole intent is to kill people? Being able to all-in and actually live against any coordinated team? Naw, we can't have that, that crap too OP bro.

I'm not talking about any particular nerf to any particular champion, but after seeing more assassin nerfs in 4.3, I just have to wonder.

Why do you guys make assassins at all? They all end up being "anti-fun" because you guys would rather protect people who get way out of position than reward people who capitalize on those mistakes. Yeah, dying isn't fun. So don't be an idiot. It's not like every assassin in the game is original Eve or current Rengar. Most of them have plenty of actual counterplay to look for.

But instead, people whine, and then they get dumpstered on. For some reason when an ADC is able to win a game because they got themselves fed, Riot treats it like it takes more work than the jungling assassin who gets fed and wins some teamfights, or can actually 1v1 someone with 2 major items less than them.

Why do assassins always seem to get hit as soon as they start feeling rewarding for doing well? You guys can't keep doing what you're doing or we're just going to have a bunch of coin-flip-feeling useless pseudomages.

Or whatever you guys call Eve now, cuz I don't know what you're doing with her.

OP-> nerf to hell-> joke-> rework-> OP-> nerf to hell-> barely viable if at all...?

EDIT: If you take the time to read, I really appreciate it, and if you agree I'd appreciate an upvote. Hoping to get a red from live balance in here to comment at least, I feel like this is a discussion long overdue.

14 Comments

K1rkmantor3/1/2014, 2:19:30 PM2 votes

OK I understand your point but you are giving no examples. A player will hear "Assassin" and think differently than you. Please provide examples for me, the bronze player, to understand your grief.

Knight Devout3/1/2014, 3:45:23 PM2 votes

Because death is the stronger cc of all? If you think about it, death is a 20-60 second stun , not cleansable, that grants the player who inflicted it gold. Kills are far far faaaaar over rewarded for assassins given how easy they achieve that. If you think that an assassin should be a champion able to easily kill his lane opponent, roam, take kills, and get back to lane to farm, then no, that design will never work. Unfortunately, that was the case for most of Riot's kit design for assassins, hence the nerfs? Akali? Impossible to deny farm, able to harass to death past 6 and a strong all in. MANALESS Katarina? At least it's possible to deny farm. Used to be so stinking OP that I saw people playing her with Rilay+Warmog (Yeah, why bothering taking bruisers when you can get an assassin and give her 1500 bonus health?) Zed? His kit's potential is a joke, just look at faker. Ahri? well, she has mana, but she's really hard to pin down.

MXXIV3/1/2014, 1:29:01 PM1 votes

I never play assasins, but I remember Evelin trying to asassinate me several times. But Veigar is really assasin of assasins when his ulti is up...

Sneak Dog3/1/2014, 11:42:41 PM1 votes

It's because often they have very little counterplay, they just kill you fast. The assassins have only one job that determines their viability, not multiple, like tanking/cc'ing/peeling/poke. They're usually just picked for their all-in burst in a teamfight. Give them a secondary job or counterplay in the burst pattern (Zed has this in theory, but Akali/Kassadin really don't) and you can tune them much better than their current binary state.

MoHiaz3/2/2014, 2:24:14 AM1 votes

It isn't about assassins being able to get kills, it's about how easy it was to get kills as them. The reason assassins were nerfed was because they had huge bursts of damage from early game that could take out squishies (which are 3/5 to 4/5 of the whole team)in one burst, then turn around and do it again with their insanely low cooldowns, leaving no counter play except cc them and hope you could get away in time.

The way I see it assassins should be hard to play champs that are highly rewarding for situationally bursting down enemy squishies only when an opening is made by your team. The way it was you go to a lane, roll your face on the keyboard, get a free kill, rotate lanes, rinse and repeat.

And by the way, we've been in the assassin cycle for quite a while, since before season 3 ended, which was several months ago, about the same amount of time as every nerf cycle, it's just the amount of time they need to balance.

Boswick3/3/2014, 2:04:28 PM1 votes

Agreed. The only champions that get the balance shaft harder than assassins are supports. (Yay you get to build items now! Good thing we nerved everything in your kit so hard it takes 500 ap for make up for it trololol) Every assassin in the game has been nerved like a billion times since i started playing in S1. Poor Shaco is a shell of his former self, if you pick him "The Jokes on YOU!"