The road to Assassin Mastery is paved with blood. Thankfully, we’ve got Master Assassin Yusui to guide us on the path of improvement. Join us for tips and tricks on mastering the Assassin Class in League of Legends.
In every game that bases itself around class archetypes, there’s always a glass-cannon, high-damage, high-mobility class. These traits combine to often present tropes of Rogues, Thieves, Ninjas, Pirates, and Scouts. Well, League of Legends is no exception to this trope-ish design and they take these archetypal traits and shove them under the umbrella term Assassins.
The Assassin Class in League of Legends is actually a Subclass of an overarching Class known as Slayers. Champions that fit in the Slayer paradigm are typically designed to deal damage and aren’t really known for their high survivability, but instead come packaged with unique mobility tools to get them in range of their targets. How Assassins differ themselves from their counterpart Subclass of Skirmishers is that they focus on burst instead of sustained damage over time. Assassins jump into the fray, blow up a priority target, and jump out before anyone can scream for “Peel!” Their get in-get out mantra makes for a high risk-high reward pattern of play that many find addictive. So naturally, this is a very popular and distinctive approach to playing the game.
For our tips and tricks today, we’ll be focusing in from a Mid Laner’s perspective on playing Assassins, as the wonderful David “Yusui” Bloomquist from the Dignitas QNTMPAY League of Legends squad will be offering his insights along the way. But, don’t run off if you’re a Kha’Zix or Rengar main, there’s going to be plenty here for you Top or Jungle Assassin players to enjoy too.
Naturally, that’s a loaded question. League’s aesthetic Champion designs often speak to players before their gameplay loops do, so sometimes you might find someone that prefers playing Tanks or Support enjoying a particular Champion just because of how they look. But, when you consider how the class gets executed from a viewer perspective, you can sometimes glean into what ‘type’ of players will gravitate towards the class.
Yusui: “The Assassin class is definitely defined by those big playmaking, highlight reel, and carry-focused players. These are the guys that come into every game expecting to pop-off or outplay their opponent so they can go into the replay after game and create a clip montage of all their moments styling on randoms. That seems silly to say, but players with this mindset are often pushing themselves to understand the game on a very mechanical level, so you can expect them to be able to recognize and punish mistakes that their opponents make to set up their big plays.”
I subscribe to this thought process 100%, and honestly, players like this can make the role a bit intimidating to get into. Since Mid Lane is the heart-beat of Summoner’s Rift, you’re going to be constantly challenged for control over it. These mechanically minded, 1v1, outplaying kings are going to look to capitalize on you at every step. If you’re not able to keep up with a mechanically demanding and aggressive opponent like this, you really can begin to set your team behind if you can’t beat them at their own game.
Take time to get sharpened and practiced in Normal games, get comfortable with your primary Assassins and how the lane flows for them, and once you start seeing yourself out-playing some of your worst matchups, then you can start to progress yourself into the ranked environment for your true test.
We all know how frustrating it is to get demolished with poke from afar when we’re just trying to last hit our melees under turret. We all know how obnoxious it is to watch a Lux spam her laugh as she drops her E on a Cannon Minion denying our approach. Ranged versus Melee is a never ending affair of frustration for the Melee player, and when we consider our context of Assassins, more often than not, we’re operating from the position of a Melee Combatant. So, what can we do to help overcome this natural disadvantage that we possess against our “superior ranged overlords”.
The first thing to do when considering the Ranged versus Melee matchup is, is to think about our rune choices and see if we have any potential flexibility on our Assassin to opt for coverage that will help us during the lane phase. Why? Well, the lane phase is the best time for Assassins to find their advantages.
Here are some rune choices to think about when considering survival through a Melee vs. Ranged matchup:
Fleet Footwork offers an energized passive that restores a bit of health. This rune is perfect if you need that extra oomph of sustain against a bully matchup like Syndra.
As Melee Champions, Assassins can stack Conqueror and access its healing components quickly, allowing them to sustain against Champions that also want to look to take longer trades.
Phase Rush is all about avoidance. Though it takes a little finesse to execute with, if you get the drop on your opponent in a duel, Phase Rush’s activation can speed you up and allow you to weave in and around abilities, allowing you to avoid damage from skillshot-reliant opponents.
Triumph naturally restores a chunk of Health to you after you successfully participate in a kill. Though it’s far more aggressive in design and less sustain focused, factoring in its activation when you know you can kill your opponent can let you walk away from dangerous situations ahead of the curve.
Taste of Blood/Ravenous Hunter are getting lumped together since they’re basically redundant sustain effects on top of each other. While one improves as you gain kills throughout the game, the other is just a static effect that gives you a little extra regen for interacting with the wave.
Nullifying Orb is one that you don’t hear about a lot, but in matchups where you’re against a high burst opponent, like Syndra or Annie, this effect can be valuable. Especially considering how awful most Lifeline items are for Assassins.
Nimbus Cloak, like Phase Rush, is another option that can help you get the drop on your opponents. Thankfully not needing the conditional activation of damage and only needing a Summoner Spell activation, you can Flash/Ignite, and then weave through waves and abilities with your newly Ghosted Champion as you dodge skillshots left and right.
Take the time to play around with these Runes in your Normals/Practice games. Get familiar with the benefits they offer or the limits that they let you press. Having these extra bits of utility and survivability in your pocket will only push you toward playing your Assassins to the best of their ability.
So, tip number two is: Don’t limit yourself to cookie-cutter rune choices, experiment with runes and learn to work with different sets to increase your odds of survival!
Naturally, League has a game of resource management that is interwoven into the moment-to-moment gameplay. Everything from managing waves, to watching your mana or energy bar, to moving vision, or funneling gold can all be factored into a bit of resource management theme. But, when considering Assassin gameplay, Yusui has this to say about an Assassin’s most important resource:
Yusui: “I think the most important thing for anyone learning or playing Assassins regularly is: you’re not always going to have a CS-advantage. CS is important, of course. But what is more important for Assassins through the laning phase is keeping your health up.”
Throughout the early phases before the first few items have been bought, Assassin players that maintain their HP versus their ranged opponents are almost always going to have the threat of all-in potential. Assassins typically focus around their level spikes during the laning phase, instead of item spikes. Of course, items help your damage potential, but Assassins thrive off of making plays around their ability power spikes. Assassins like Zed see this spike come with their ultimate at Level 6, while Katarina, Qiyana, and Akali all have devastating Level 3 all-ins. So, with these power spikes in mind, players of these Champions know that it’s not a huge issue to concede CS to maintain their health in lane. They know that once they reach their spike-point, that they can look to make a big trade to chunk out or pressure down their opponent to create a way for them to climb back into the CS game.
If you’re coming to Mid Lane from another role, it might take you some time to learn the nuances of playing a teamfight from the perspective of a Mid Laner. Top Laners are typically front liners or divers, same for Junglers and Supports. Marksmen like to sit along the back of the fight and DPS from safety. But many Mid Laners, Assassins in particular, approach fights differently.
Assassin Mids typically have a shifting priority on who they need to focus down. A default priority looks something like this:
Number 1, on our above list, is the defensively weakest laner in the game. An ADC’s squishy nature makes them the natural targets for Assassins to get on top of in fights. If they go down or are forced out of range, the enemy team loses a ton of damage output in turn. The enemy Mid is often the second priority for the same reason. However, their damage often comes out as burst or poke, rather than DPS. The enemy Support follows the paradigm of being weak defensively, so after a primary carry has been knocked back, it’s not uncommon to shift your focus to them. Afterwards, any frontliners that remain can be chipped down alongside your team.
Yusui:“Naturally, ADCs are the squishiest, so getting on them is a pretty common goal. But, it’s important to keep your target priority shifting. If the enemy Mid starts catching a lead off of a few unlucky kills, then you might need to take them down first if they become the enemy’s biggest threat player. Same could be said for any of the other positions, too. Evaluate who is the biggest threat on the enemy team, and use your burst as an Assassin to help take them out of a fight before they can carry.”
As mentioned, there’s a shifting priority that you need to establish based on whatever game state you’re currently experiencing. But, Assassins typically get into teamfights the same way every time. This is typically off the back of a flank, from the side, or coming in a fight a beat or two behind their team.
Yusui:“Most of the time, you’re going to want to come into a fight late. So, you should be coming in from the side your team isn’t on, or you’re looking to TP behind the enemy team, that’s step number one. Step number two is waiting for important cooldowns to drop. So, something like a Nautilus ultimate can really screw you over if you go in and he hasn’t used it on someone else. That ult makes you extremely vulnerable. So, you want to wait and enter into fights when those types of abilities are on CD.”
Good Assassins are patient. They wait for the precise moment to strike, and often that comes down to watching and waiting for big defensive CDs to get used. If the enemy Support or another defender utilizes their big cooldowns on another teammate, or they whiff them entirely, then you’ve got an angle to get in undisturbed on a carry. Lockdown is an Assassin’s worst enemy, since Assassins trade off their defensive stats for high-burst damage.
We mentioned earlier that Assassins can sometimes struggle in the lane phase against their ranged counterparts. Oftentimes, these counterparts are Mages that like to sit and play defensively in lane. If your opponent is hugging a turret and not allowing you to crash and or manipulate the wave then you can shift to an Assassin’s next best skill-set, Roaming.
Yusui: “Regardless of whatever Assassin you’re playing, or who you’re matched against, abuse vision. Vision is the most important part of playing an Assassin. If you can approach your enemy unseen, you’re more than likely going to net a favorable play from it. But, if the enemy can see you approaching them, they’re going to make adjustments that make you waste your time, causing you to lose resources in the process.”
Playing around vision is pretty simple. Once you reach your power-spike where you feel your Champion is effective on roams, switch your trinket to a Sweeper. Moving from a Yellow Ward to a Sweeper is going to allow you to clear the vision that the enemy lays down to see you move away from lane, but it’s also going to let you disable the enemy’s vision should you be coming in as a counter-gank or catching them at a perfect angle.
As the game unfolds, this trinket also becomes useful in setting up bush cheeses that Assassins excel at, and it’ll help in your movements to pick off isolated lakers that answer any split-pushing that you might undertake.
Assassins, especially AD ones, have a ton of really great items to build into now. Duskblade, Yomuu’s, Eclipse, Immortal Shieldbow, etc.. There are a ton of options that Assasins can pull from other lanes and roles into Mid Lane to adapt to whatever they’re presented. But, even beyond these big build staples there are some key items to keep in mind.
Yusui: “I’d say Serpent’s Fang, Umbral Glaive, and Edge of Night are some of the biggest options to think about. Serpent’s Fang is naturally great against shields, Umbral Glaive just helps you clear vision to set up your roams, and Edge of Night is that spellshield that helps you get through that first bit of CC so you can reach your target. All of these are big options and should be considered based on who you’re up against.”
When it comes to another important effect, Grievous Wounds, there’s less of an emphasis on it for Assassins. Assassins are typically able to burst an opponent down before healing can be a factor. So, sinking the 800g for the Grievous Component is often a waste of valuable stats that could be invested into something like Lethality or raw AP. However, should you be one of the few ways to apply the effect safely against multiple Champions that heal, opting for the early Executioner’s/Oblivion Orb and then finishing it as your last item is a decent take
There you have it folks. Some excellent tips and things to think about to improve your Assassin gameplay! Typically, I like to suggest powerful picks to play with these kinds of pieces, but all Assassins have a high level of skill expression and take time to perfect.
Yusui:“But, if I’m recommending any Champion for you to master right now, I’d say it's LeBlanc. Her Solo-Queue stats have improved immensely, and she’s picked blind in almost every competitive region just due to how good she is right now. And, she isn’t that hard. So, veterans and noobies alike should play her.”
Well, said. Thanks again for Yusui sitting down with us and helping craft out this guide. You can find him at these links if you wanna follow more of the legend himself:
