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Why are there no support/assassins?

64539310_DEL·2/3/2015, 11:45:15 PM·1 votes·504 views

Before you start with the criticism, please let me explain. I am mainly curious about feedback in this matter and not whether or not it could happen. It's not like I'm suggesting a tank/assassin. Anyways this question seems a little ridiculous but I'm serious. Of course you can build an assassin to be sort of supportive, or tanky, or anything for that matter, but I'm talking about the champion being specifically designed to be an support assassin. It may be OP because they could support an ally and shut down difficult targets, but that's why the primary would be support. The champion would most likely have a decent amount of AD but the abilities would be more about contributing to an allies attacks instead of solely a method of attack. A good example of an ability like this would be one where the champion jumps feet first into target enemy, dealing damage and knocking the target back. The champion would then push off of the champion landing back where the spell was originally cast. This could not only be a good ability for an assassin but also help protect allies from chases or help to gank and push them into the ally. I would not like to see anything extreme like a tank/assassin, but I do think an assassin/support could end up going somewhere as long as it was carefully dealt with in its creation. Please tell me your opinions, likes, and dislikes!

5 Comments

It Hertz When IP2/3/2015, 11:50:52 PM1 votes

Because you can't have a champion who excels at dealing burst damage/crowd control AND supporting allies, there's no way to balance it.

Shut up, Thresh ...

ValyrianBlade2/4/2015, 12:31:02 AM1 votes

I'd argue there are 3 different types of support/assassins. I'll go from least to most assassin:

  1. Examples: brand, Vel'koz probably better classified as mage supports, these champions work by dealing out good base damage against the enemy adc to harass effectively and win trades. I would agree they aren't assassins though...

  2. Examples: LeBlanc, Syndra Not often seen as supports because they flourish as mid Lane assassins, these work like support mages but have a significant burst that adcs aren't necessarily experienced with and thus work by securing early kills and snowballing bot Lane.

  3. Examples: Shaco, teemo I've seen a lot of Shaco support lately and teemo is just... teemo. Anyways, they're really like assassins because of their stealth. Teemo defends his adc by using blinding Dart on the enemy adc when his ally is caught. Shaco has his fear boxes I guess. Both intend to deter the enemy from harassing by the fear of getting caught by the stealthed support. Both deal more damage than typical supports to favor early engages and try to develop an early lead for their adc.

Alas, the common element is the characters are all more optimally played in other roles. Which is probably the true reason for support assassins to not exist, they'd just make better assassins in mid Lane or the jungle likely.

Tilomentry2/4/2015, 12:46:53 AM1 votes

See the reason why this isn't a good idea is because the 2 play patterns cover an opposite spectrum of tactical power. To elaborate, the 2 classes generally boil down to the following functions.

Support: A champion who brings large amounts of utility to the team and is able to function off of a low gold budget

Assassin: A champion who waits for an opening wherein the enemy exposes a high priority target. When such an opportunity presents itself, the assassin then closes in on the target and eliminates him before he has the time to react.

The main thing to take away from this is that supports sets up his team to make plays while an assassin makes plays when an opportunity presents itself. A support/assassin would be able to setup his own kills and then feed on them. Because of this, the support/assassin would simply go to a single lane, get a large amount gold, then simply carry the game.

64539310_DEL2/4/2015, 1:02:35 AM1 votes

Hmmmm I never though about it that way. Both of you are right (Tilomentry and ValrianBlade). Thanks for the answer! Makes a lot of sense!