Assassins. One of the most equally desired and despised classes in League of Legends, the assassin class brings players a variety of champions who rely on quick damage and mobility to maneuver around the map and apply pressure in the early and mid game. Assassins are the purest form of snowballing champions, taking early leads and shaping them into higher and higher power spikes that help them to stay ahead and take out important targets for their team, but any good assassin has one flaw in how they are utilized that they are now facing in excess. Assassins are reliant on their items to help supplement their abilities, usually requiring quick burst and penetrative power to tear into priority targets and carries, but what if their core items were suddenly effective on a larger number of champions with more desirable sustain or safer early game power. What if other classes started building the assassins core items and they, without warning, suddenly became obsolete. This is a very real problem that the class is currently facing and, unfortunately, there is a good reason why.

The power an assassin brought to your team

Assassins brought something to most team comps that, in the right hands, was welcomed and much needed in the early game and even, sometimes, in the end game during the crucial team and objective fights. Assassins brought a quick, reliable source of damage to pick off and separate high damage or squishy priority targets, like the enemy carry or support, allowing their team to follow up for a quick ace in most situations. With items that gave them armor and magic penetration or, recently, lethality allowing them to shred through defences, assassin champions found a niche in roaming and applying pressure where they were needed.

Recently, however, with changes to items like Ghostblade or the infamous Duskblade of Drakthar, assassins are quickly losing their role as anything from mages to tanks and even some support players (I kid you not) have been building the items that made an assassin what they were. We have all seen the Youtube videos and the posts on Reddit. Things like "One shot on any champion" or "Duskblade on X champion is broken!", and the rise in popularity of the nuclear one-shot build with Duskblade at its core. These things have created a shift in the balance of League in favor of quick burst damage and lethality on some champions it was not quite intended for such as, in the later half of Patch 7.14, full lethality Attack Damage Carries in the mid lane like Sivir and Caitlyn. So with the sudden rise in champions building lethality to a reasonable degree of success, what role do assassins have in a team composition in the current meta? If everyone can build like an assassin, what makes them special or unique in a match?

While the assassins core identity is being shifted towards other roles, they do retain one aspect of their playstyle that keeps them relevant in the current meta. Lethality, though an essential part of what helps the class to thrive, is slowly shifting towards a more versatile pick the champions who make up the assassin roster all have a central theme that helps them in the long run of a game on Summoner's Rift: Mobility. While we have been primarily focusing on the AD assassins, with lethality as a central focus, we haven't forgotten our AP burst assassins and, yes, they have this theme in common as well, so let's discuss this in a little more detail and cover why these mobile menaces can still cause a stir in most games.

Mobility is important in most games as it allows champions to hone in on targets or escape from sticky situations and avoid falling behind in the late game. While a small number of champions have abilities that prevent movement (looking at you Cassiopeia), a vast majority of the available characters in League have some form movement to help them in the long run. Assassins have the best selection in this instance with kits focused around maneuvering around an enemy and setting themselves up for a quick burst of raw damage. With prime examples being Talon jumping over terrain, Fizz with his signature Playful/Trickster, or even our new champion Kayn with his ability to walk through walls, assassins are able to roam and apply the pressure needed to help other lanes get ahead and push through objectives, helping to win a game for their team.

From assassin meta to assassin meta?

With nearly every champion in the game being able to effectively build lethality in some way (and yes, I mean every champion. Try lethality Soraka or Sona some time), assassins now rely heavily on their roaming potential to give them an identity. This isn't strictly the case, as a good player can utilize their early advantages to snowball into a powerful lead, but with recent item changes and balances we are seeing AD assassins being traded out in a large number of games for their AP counterparts.

This could be a temporary change, or a shift entirely towards the mage-centric state of the game from seasons ago, but in either case it is a fresh take on the "Anti-Tank" ideology. With AP assassins being a threat tanks may find themselves focused on building magic resistance, leaving themselves open to a raw burst from a jungler or the team's carry or vice versa. While this is all well and good, it does not solve the major issue regarding the potential loss of the assassin's primary role in League and shifting into the ability power assassins will not solve the issue in the long run, as after some time the game will balance around them once again and potentially place their attack damage counterparts in power.

It seems the game is constantly shifting around which of these two forms of the class it wants in power, and each time Riot shifts from one to the other, it throws League into a hectic state of confusion for a short period before, inevitably, everyone begins to find the flaws and loopholes presented to them and the balance shifts once again. Is there a solution to this problem? Well, while writing this article, I have spoken to several friends in the League of legends community, ranging from low elo players to even some friends in Challenger and pro play, as well as players who play only for the fun and love of the game and there seemed to be a general consensus among a large number of people. So what is this risky potential solution?

To quote one of these people directly: "Well, why not something like Smite?"

Surge, as it was back in season 2 before being removed in the Season 3 update

Not Smite to be exact, but something along the lines. Junglers have access to an handful of items exclusive to their role in the game locked away behind their signature spell Smite, and other roles or champions who want to utilize their power must give up something as a sacrifice to use the Smite spell. With the risk and reward in play, the items become available but the player loses potentially an important summoner spell in the process (ex: When Kog'Maw players used to trade Heal for Smite to take to Devourer/Bloodrazor jungle enchantment for the bonus damage). If we are able to lock items behind a spell for restricted use, then why not hypothetically give the assassin class a spell that, in effect, would allow them the same benefit of risk and reward? Back in the earliest seasons of the game a summoner spell existed by the name of Surge, which granted the user bonus ability power and attack speed for a short time.

If a new item was created for assassins, but was locked behind something like Surge, it would give players incentive to risk losing a spell like Ignite/Barrier/Ghost in favor of damage and potential presence in the mid to late game with items exclusive to them. Yes, this is by no means a wise idea or a solution, but that is the magic of a hypothetical situation as opening dialogue for ideas like this help both players and developers generate new discussion and think up interesting new ways to evolve and improve League as a whole. Maybe, with time, we may actually see the rebirth of a spell like Surge or the creation of a class exclusive item, but for right now getting to witness the shift in dynamic of almost an entire class and a roster of champions and that, in my opinion, is already something worth seeing.

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