[2022] There's not a single AD assassin below 49.5% win rate

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I recently read a tweet from the lol dev feed talking about how assassins are weak right now so they need to buff lethality items. I'm just sitting here thinking they've lost their minds. Assassins aren't weak you just can't run it down and auto win anymore, which never should have been a thing to begin with.

I really don't think buffing assassins when they're actually fairly well balanced for once is a good idea. In fact a few outliers like Khazix, Rengar and Kayn should be getting nerfed. Assassin players now need to actually use their brains and not just go in mindlessly. We shouldn't bring back league of oneshots tons of people have mentioned how much better than game is every since that was removed.

Assassins don't need to be 53-55% win rate terrors in solo queue. 50ish% is fine some might even call it balanced. Now yes assassins are less popular but let's talk about why that is. Meta wh*res have dropped them, mage enjoyers who were previously oppressed now play mages again, fighters can now stand up against them so bruiser players play more bruisers, Yasuo and Yone now do better into bad game design like Zed so they're played more. So yes assassins are played less because everything else now has a fair chance to compete.

https://u.gg/lol/tier-list

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over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

You have to use the data somewhat responsibly at least:

Mid: https://lolalytics.com/lol/tierlist/?lane=middle&tier=all

The very first AD assassin (if you count him) is pyke at 49 flat. All the rest of them are below.

Jungle: https://lolalytics.com/lol/tierlist/?lane=jungle&tier=all

The very first AD assassin is Nocturne at 50.7 (if you count him), Kayn (if you count him) at 50.4, with everyone else below 50.

This doesn't mean they are TRAGIC by any means, but does not imply they are powerful. And to other player's points, buffing lethality items is because they are disproportionately hurt compared to other items by the durability patch, and if we want assassins to still choose them over fighter items, they should remain competitive. The other struggling system is spellpen, but since there's less of that in the system a different solution is likely needed.

over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Originally posted by Mazrim_reddit

Their pick rates are very high though still - implying they are still being picked into games they should not be as a strategic choice.

If left for a few months people might stop blinding ad assassins every game and only pick them when a team comp supports it, increasing their win rates.

There is nothing that currently proves pickrate and win-rate are correlated/negatively correlated outside of immediately following reworks/reshapes. By this same logic, Zed (8% pickrate and 48% winrate) is MUCH MUCH worse than Veigar (8% pickrate and 53% winrate) in the same meta.

over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Originally posted by TealandCyan

Can you just undo the Zed R nerf to 0.65% ratio that happened couple months ago?

If we take a swing at buffing Zed, it would likely be in a higher counterplay area than R (non-amp) damage.

over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Originally posted by alexnedea

Hmm I see the point but buffing assasin items and nerfing bruiser (maw, dd) items wont create the opposute effect? Fighters picking assasin items? Just wondering but i would REALLY hate to see Irelias become invisible or have an extra dash on their target.

Fighters in particular are pretty bound to their items. Deaths dance, maw, steraks, etc are all designed to give fighters the ability to teamfight, which is what they need. Assassin items (on average) don't do this, so it's unlikely they swap over in the majority of cases.

over 2 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Originally posted by kirbyfreek33

Using the same site and looking at platinum+ and diamond+ seems to show some significant variance in the data, though. I'll ignore Kayn and Nocturne so we can go from the all-rank <50 winrate for each.

Mid Plat+: https://lolalytics.com/lol/tierlist/?lane=middle

Qiyana at 51.22, Talon's at 50.58, Zed at 50.41, and Pyke's at 50.36.

Mid Dia+: https://lolalytics.com/lol/tierlist/?lane=middle&tier=diamond_plus

Qiyana's at 53.32, Talon at 52.58, Zed at 51.03, and Pyke at 50.99.

Jng Plat+: https://lolalytics.com/lol/tierlist/?lane=jungle

Rengar's at 52.78, Kha'zix at 52.09, Qiyana at 50.90, Talon at 50.51, and Zed at 48.45.

Jng Dia+: https://lolalytics.com/lol/tierlist/?lane=jungle&tier=diamond_plus

Rengar's at 54.34, Qiyana at 52.77, Kha'zix at 52.58, Talon at 50.73, and Zed at 49.65.

With the exception of Zed and to an extent Talon, there's a clear increase in these AD assassin winrates as ranks climb up. Are there any concerns as to the effects on these higher levels, given they seem to still buy lethality mythics? (This is excepting Talon mid, as his highest win build Plat+ on Lolalytics uses Goredrinker)

Clearly this echelon won't affect me as I'm simply low gold, but I'm mostly curious since assassins have been notoriously hard to balance well due to the skill required to play them effectively. "Mostly" is because I'll freely admit I have very much enjoyed 12.10 moreso than I have probably enjoyed any patch since before 2015, and seeing damage numbers creep upwards so soon just leaves me with worries that we'll see continuous buffs over time until the durability update is just a memory.

Assassins have higher win-rates at higher ranks yup. That's a much smaller portion of the player base, but it's still valid.

It's not really realistic for us to ignore the vast majority of the playerbase when balancing however, so while it's definitely useful to look at plat+ (and elite) to figure out if some champs are too powerful in those brackets, ignoring everything below that is disingenuous as well.

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