Riot Statikk recently posted a comprehensive blog post on Riot’s ‘Dev Corner’ blog detailing the direction of the upcoming assassin rework set to hit Summoner’s Rift in the near future.
The Difference Between Invisibility and Camouflage
Invisibility was the first point touched on by Statikk. Invisibility is major feature of many assassin’s kits within League of Legends. Akali, Rengar, Talon… these are just a few of the assassins who rely on invisibility to either get in (close the gap on their target), or get out after a successful kill.
Going forward, longer-term pre-combat Stealths that can be detected through proximity (think Evelynn’s Shadow Walk) will be deemed as “Camouflage“. Meanwhile, shorter-term in-combat Stealths that make champions completely unseen (think Kha’Zix ultimate) will still be called invisibility.
According to the blog post, “This is part of an overall effort for us to make the game’s mechanics clearer, more flexible, and more consistent using such Keywords.”
Expect more of this in the upcoming pre-season.
It appears that life may be a little easier for these select assassins. Riot claims many details still need to be worked out in terms of appropriate detection for these abilities, but they are sure on one thing: Pink wards will no longer detect invisibility in the upcoming pre-season.
Here’s Statikk with the justification behind these changes:
Simply put, Invisibility being trivially countered by the use of a relatively cheap single consumable item rendered several champions non-functional especially at high levels of play. This will allow us to better balance these champions since they will now be able to more readily utilize their Invisibilities in fights such that they no longer have to solely rely on instantly bursting their target or dying to enemy focus fire.
The Problem with Flat Armor Penetration
The blog post also touches on the misleading nature of armor penetration. Although it does indeed penetrate armor, the stat isn’t available in a large enough quantity (outside of Last Whisper recipe items) to make a significant dent on armor-stacking tanks. However, it is very effective at shredding squishy target’s base armor. That’s right – armor penetration is arguably most effective against the champions who do not build armor.
Riot goes on to suggest flat armor penetration will see some tweaks, and we can expect some shiny new items geared specifically towards assassins this pre-season.
Entire Assassin Class To See Changes
While Talon, Rengar, Katarina, and LeBlanc will see major reworks, Riot also reveals that the entire assassin class will see adjustments across the board. The names Akali, Ekko, Fizz, Kha’Zix, Shaco, and Zed were all mentioned as targets for small scale reworks.
You can find a few words about the direction Riot plans to take with each of these champions by visiting the source article here.