Riot Games’ lead gameplay designer, Phroxzon, recently provided players with more transparency regarding the thought process behind balancing assassins in League of Legends. In a Reddit thread, Phroxzon explained the team’s criteria for balancing assassins and addressed criticism of Haste’s strength in the meta.
When balancing assassins, the team considers three main criteria. Firstly, they look at the assassin’s combos, focusing on patterns that are only possible when the champion is extremely ahead or the opponent is in lower MMR brackets. For example, Leblanc’s QRW combo.
The second criterion is the strength of standard combos. The team aims to incorporate moment-to-moment gameplay in these combos while ensuring that snowballing can be countered. They set the assassin’s power curve to the midgame to allow for easier counterplay against snowballing.
Addressing the controversy surrounding Haste’s strength on assassins, Phroxzon explained that Haste provides burst damage and potential carry potential for assassins. However, they also consider the need for counterplay. Non-damage stats on assassin items or a champion’s AR/HP/MR per level help balance their win rates without overpowering their burst damage.
Lastly, Phroxzon emphasized the importance of keeping base damage low on assassins’ items. This ensures that their early-game power remains limited while still allowing them to eliminate squishy champions when behind.
The community responded positively to Phroxzon’s transparency, praising their efforts to address complaints and engage with players. The upcoming Patch 13.20 will introduce further balance changes, including buffs for Jinx, on October 12th.
Source: DOTESPORTS
