Naafiri has been called one of the simplest champions to be added to League of Legends in the past few years, and rightfully so. The developers, however, believe she teaches players to be better assassins and helps them to get better at countering them too.
RiotRaptorr explained on League’s subreddit on June 26 how she actually teaches players the fundamentals of being an assassin and how to counter the role with smart macro plays.
Basically, RiotRaptorr explained Naafiri’s kit teaches players to answer three fundamental assassin questions when thinking of engaging in the fight—who should they target, when should they go in, and from which angle.
Answering all three of them allows assassin players to have a better understanding of assassins’ gameplay and should improve their results. Failing to get one of them right, however, will often lead to failure.
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Despite being simple, Naafiri’s kit is quite powerful, and once a player gets all three answers to these questions right, they should find success in getting the kill. They should also safely get out due to the reset on her ultimate. “By boiling things down to just those three questions, […] we can hone in on teaching those core skills,” RiotRaptorr wrote.
On the other hand, the developer touched on the sentiment of lack of mechanic counterplay against assassins, Naafiri included. RiotRaptorr agrees to some extent, explaining the proper counter versus assassins shouldn’t be exclusive to some mechanics but to a wise macro play.
“Playing against assassins means sticking with your team, tracking threats and playing safe when they’re not visible, warding your flanks, and holding CC until they come in. This means assassins are primarily countered through macro play, rather than mechanics,” the dev pointed out.
In his final thoughts, the dev underlined Naafiri still has a high skill ceiling despite being “probably the simplest assassin to pilot.” Additionally, the devs “tried to straddle the line between easy to pick up and maintaining room for depth and mastery.”
Related: Here are the early LoL Patch 13.13 patch notes
Naafiri is expected to go live in League with Patch 13.14, which is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, July 19, according to the current schedule.
Published: Jun 27, 2023 08:01 am