A guide to assassins in League of Legends

In this guide, I’ll go over some assassins that recently regained popularity, and some that have always been popular. I’ll go over strengths, and weaknesses, and overall performance for each champion. At the World Championships group stage and quarterfinals, we saw a lot of these champions picked, and even more of them were banned, but why?
The most popular explanation, is that with negative changes to consistent champions like Ryze, assassins have a lot less counters, and they retook the throne.

Ahri

Ahri may just be the most popular assassin right now. It feels like she’s either picked or banned, and if picked, she can be very dangerous with someone like Faker behind the wheel. With 2 skillshots, and 2 "lock-on" spells, she’s not the type of champion where if you miss a few skillshots you will die, however if you don’t hit them, don’t expect to get any kills either. With her W and R both prioritizing champions, she was built to kill, and she does it well. In early laning phase, Ahri is very good at harassing, and she has good sustain with her passive. You should be starting either Flask and health potions, or Dorans Ring and two health potions, giving you good sustain in lane. Once you go back, you should start building towards a Deathfire Grasp, that can give you even more burst. If you’re having trouble in lane, or getting poked too much, Negatron is a good buy against magic damage, while Seekers Armguard is a good item against Physical Damage. Ahri’s abilities all bring something great to the table, and she has one of the best kits in the game. Her Q, Orb of Deception does massive amounts of damage in a line, and hits twice, doing true damage on the way back. Her W, Fox-Fire, releases 3 ‘fox fires’ that target nearby enemies, prioritizing champions. Her E, Charm, is a single target skillshot that charms the enemy hit, causing them to walk towards ahri at 50% speed. Finally her ultimate, Spirit Rush, allows her to dash 3 times, with each dash firing up to 3 bolts to nearby enemy champions. Her kit gives her amazing mobility, and great burst damage, making her one of the greatest assassins in the game.

Fizz

The Fizz vs. Ahri lane has become very popular recently, with a lot of people taking different sides to the issue. Some say, with his E, Fizz can easily dodge Ahri’s charms, reducing her effectiveness, and allowing him to win. Though most people say, with Ahri being a ranged champion and fizz being melee, the early laning phase is not good for him, and he can lose out on a lot of CS. Also, Ahri’s damage is more equally spread, so if Fizz uses his E to dodge one ability, ahri has 2 "lock-on" spells and a skillshot left to answer him. That’s not to say he still isn’t a great assassin, which is why I’m writing about him.

Fizz suffers early against most ranged champions, because he can easily be harassed when trying to farm. However, after laning phase, being melee becomes an asset, synchronizing his kit very well. Just like Ahri, you can start either Dorans Ring or Flask, and on your first back you should pick up some Ability Power. When rushing an item like Zhonya’s Hourglass or Lich Bane, Fizz is at his best. With his high mobility, Fizz can easily dive a tower and kill someone, and then he activates Zhonya’s to either get time to escape, or wait for his team to back him up. Or with Lich Bane, he makes his already deadly auto attacks even scarier. Again like Ahri, Fizz has a highly mobile kit, with a lot of burst damage.
His passive allows him to ignore unit collision, and take reduced damage from auto attacks. His Q, Urchin Strike, dashes to an enemy doing physical and magic damage, applying on hit effects. This ability syncs great with his W, Seastone Trident, which passively does damage based on enemies missing health, and when you activate it, it does more damage, applying grievous wounds. Maybe his most popular skill, his E, Playful/Trickster allows him to become untargetable for 0.75 seconds, and then do damage and slow nearby enemies in a small range of where he lands. He can cast it again while in mid air, so that he jumps to another location, and does damage in a smaller radius, and not applying a slow. His Ultimate, Churn the Waters, throws out a fish in a line, attaching to the first champion it hits, slowing them. After 1.5 seconds, the fish sprouts up and does damage, also knocking up and subsequently slowing the target. Because of his high mobility, and execute spell, he can easily dive to kill someone, and escape like nothing happened.

Zed

Zed has always been popular, and with a heavy but rewarding learning curve, he stands to be one of the best champions in the league, with his ability to kill almost any target with his ultimate. Despite being a melee champion, Zed can do fine in lane because he can farm at a range. With his resource being energy instead of mana, he can stay in lane for as long as he is alive. His passive is very forgiving when trying to last hit, as it does extra damage to targets under 50% health. On Zed, you can start a lot of different items depending on your matchup, but I like to start Long Sword and 2 health potions. On first back, he can buy another Long Sword, and combine them into a brutalizer, or he can start building Blade of the Ruined King, or even Bloodthirster. What really matters with Zed is his ability to instantly destroy squishy targets.
His passive, Contempt for the Weak, empowers his auto attacks on champions with less than 50% health, doing an extra 8% of their maximum health. His Q, Razor Shuriken, throws out a shuriken in a line, hitting all enemies in its path. Zed’s W, Living Shadow, creates a copy of himself within a small range of him. The shadow duplicates his spells, and he can jump to the shadow if he uses the ability again, however he cannot jump back. His E, Shadow Slash, does damage in an area around him, with the ability being on a low cooldown. His Shadow’s copy of Shadow Slash slows the target. Lastly, his Ultimate, Death Mark, allows him to dash to a nearby enemy, and create another shadow. After 3 seconds, the marked enemy will be dealt extra damage, based on the damage done by Zed in that 3 second window, plus his attack damage. At level 3, Zed’s ultimate does 50% of the dealt damage. So let’s say Zed ults someone and does 1,000 damage to them, then the mark will do 500 damage, plus Zed’s attack damage. Because of his ultimate, Zed is one of the most feared champions in the game, and if you learn to master him, it can take you a very long way.

If you haven’t seen a lot of these champions yet, then expect to see them soon. If you want to start dominating Summoner’s Rift, then I suggest you pick up at least one of these champions, and learn to become a real assassin.

Vinny Celesti