Revisiting the League of Legends Assassin Reworks in Season 13

Many might argue, but League of Legends has never been perfect. With so many champions exhibiting unfun and toxic gameplay patterns in the earlier days, changes had to be made. Back then Riot Games designed champions of the same class, in a similar mold. The issues stemming from this ‌were then addressed and removed progressively through class updates. This approach of balancing an entire class with one big update brought mixed results, so that’s why we haven’t seen them ever since. 

League of Legends champion design evolution

These days we get developer updates every 2 weeks. Apart from the patch notes, the Dev team has also tried to get more involved with the community. Some might argue League of Legends is lacking in content. But truthfully, keeping up with their pace was never a sustainable option. In the early days, League would sometimes release up to three champions in a span of three months. 

And then when some of them would get outdated and in need of a rework, they would be grouped up and done together. That was the case with ‌class updates of tanks, mages, marksmen, and lastly, assassins. Nowadays, those most in need of attention receive a VGU (Visual and Gameplay Update). Others do just fine with an ASU and a mini-rework. In order to remember this forgotten method of champion balancing, let’s take a look back at the assassins’ rework in preseason 7 of League of Legends.

Class updates in League of Legends

The core reason for these reworks was to address the patterns that the class exhibited which were considered “unhealthy” gameplay. Here developers would include abilities that were frustrating to play against and something to play as. A clear example of this was the fact that nearly all assassins had a silence. This ability crowd controls enemies by not allowing them to use spells for a certain time. This meant players had little to no counterplay as the assassins unloaded their entire combo on them. Nearly all instances resembling this game design were removed, with Kassadin’s Q ability remaining as the only one. It no longer is a silence, but serves a similar purpose by interrupting channels. 

If a champion did one thing too well but struggled with others, it would also fall under this category. And this wasn’t exclusive to the assassin’s rework either. In the same preseason, on patch 6.22, Riot also made changes to the stealth mechanic. Back then everyone hated playing against champions that could go invisible, become camouflaged, or be stealthed. The only counter to those champions were vision wards that gave full vision of their surroundings. But most players weren’t aware of this, so every Evelynn and Twitch in lower elo’s would get 30 kills.  On the other hand in higher ranks, the best players would make those champions useless with a single consumable item worth 75 gold.  

Season 7 Assassin rework changes

To achieve this, for some champions, all they had to do was add some new mechanics into the game. Meanwhile, for others, it meant completely changing their playstyle. That way Fizz’s Ultimate ability just got more damage the farther it went. They also added a mechanic where Ekko’s Ultimate ability could instantly trigger his W spell. Also, when Ekko activated his passive, it wouldn’t slow anymore. These changes were small but effective and are still in the game today.

Akali and Shaco changes in preseason 7

Akali’s W ability got a small dash that left her original spell the shroud behind. But since Akali got a full VGU that turned out to be a whole different headache, that probably deserves another article on its own. We won’t dwell on it for too long. Shaco’s update had the purpose of giving him more diversity in the playstyle and build path, adding ability power scalings to his spells and slight changes to them. Shaco also got another rework later on, but most of the features added with this update remained. Most notably, when the clone that was his Ultimate ability would die, it would spawn three instances of his W ability.

On the other hand, champions like Rengar, Kha’zix and Zed got more changes than the ones already mentioned, but almost all were removed or reverted. For instance, both of Zed’s changes to his W and Ultimate failed to do what they intended and even backfired. Zed’s W would give him more damage when using it, which he would later lose, and his ultimate gave him a percentage of his target’s maximum damage as a permanent bonus. This turned out to be a horrible decision, as it contradicted their philosophy. It made Zed really good against some champions and really bad against others. Rengar and Kha’zix both got some ridiculous features that were soon removed or toned down because they overperformed or completely failed to do the intended.

Rengar and Kha’zix assassin changes

Rengar’s new passive gave him a lot more damage and his new Q gave him a lot more waveclear. Meanwhile his empowered W gave him a cleanse. That is the ability to remove the effect of the enemy’s spells that limited his movement. All of these changes made Rengar into a bruiser tank-type of champion, which was not what they imagined when they created him as an assassin.

He was really good and was a constant pick in pro play, but the entire community was dissatisfied because his new Q didn’t fit his previous playstyle and felt like a completely new champion. So Rengar’s Q-ability was eventually reverted and his numbers lowered, but he mostly stayed the same. As for Kha’zix, his newly evolved R made him invisible every time he went into a bush, causing havoc to the uncoordinated nature of Solo Q, and that feature was also later removed. 

Talon and Katarina reworked abilities

This update was probably most impactful for champions like Talon, Katarina, and LeBlanc, who all got massive changes to all their spells. Talon’s old passive that gave more damage against immobilized enemies was removed. It was replaced with his Q ability, which gave damage over time in the form of bleeding and could be stacked up to three times by hitting your abilities. His new Q ability was his old E ability. This way he dashes to a target and does double damage if the target is in melee range. Talon’s E got the biggest change, making it a trademark spell only to him, with his ability to jump over walls, which would mark them for the next 300 seconds in which he can’t do it again.

Katarina received changes that made her more fun to play and to play against. But they also gave her more playmaking potential. Previously all of her her spells were targeted and if you were in range she could cast them. Her new Q gave her more waveclear if she picked up her dagger. The W ability gave her more mobility as opposed to before when she had to hit an enemy champion to get a burst of movement speed. Her E ability could now dash to allies, minions, and neutrals where before she could only use it on enemies unlucky to be in her range.