Here I'll take the up the aspect of : How does a mage/assassin has his/her/it damage spread out? It is very important to know what champion would more properly fit into certain compositions.
OMG MY FACE[]
This are champions who are experts at making the opponent die in the blink of an eye, if not less time. This champions skills have no particular channel time or have to "prepare" before hand to make someone explode. They just need everything off cooldown.They also have high mobility. Offering very little reaction time as their full blast of damage happens in less than 1 second, fragile team members should keep their distance.
Kassadin, he can blow a 2.1 (+Lich Bane) AP burst instantly, delivers an OH-KO to any glass cannon champion by late game or mid game if fed. He is particularly problematic as his burst explosions just have to wait for about 6 seconds to blow again. Very good for clean up and good to kill an important enemy if he has his team to back him up.
Lissandra, in the instant you see the claw passing through you she will be right in your face and BOOM 2.4 AP burst.If you survived you will be CC locked for a while, but this is not the case if you are a marksmen, a mage or an assassin caught out of position as you are likely already dead. She can dive all alone if the enemy team makes the mistake of wandering too close and remove their marksmen, as long as her team is right behind. Her invulnerability is a blessing for this
Talon do I really need to explain it? He can safely get away if no one has oracle anyways. Somewhat easy to shut down early but his ability to simply kill what he wants to is hellish if just a little fed.
Kha'Zix, same as guy above but is more versatile, has higher presence after blowing a full combo, not always runs away of the fight after killing someone. Much superior pre-teamfight presence also and better clean up. Oh and not over-defendant on ultimate.- LeBlanc, her skills flow incredibly well and she can deliver OH-KO by mid game, she severely falls off if she doesn't get kills however. Extremely high skill cap anyways, mastering her dashes and return blinks is complicated
Just Wait aaaaaand Dead[]
Mages who have a particular skill that sets up all of his/her/its damaging tricks. Due to the "set up" time they don't make people instantly disappear, but the offenly have higher overall burst than the guys at OMG MY FACE. They offer much higher response from the victim, but if the "set up" completes it is unlikely to survive.They also benefit from much longer ranged abilities and higher safeness than the assassins above. By no means they are slow anyways, their full damage comes packed in about 1.5-2.5 seconds. Most of mages fit here so I can't list them all, I decided to put some characteristic examples of a set up followed by a grim looking situation - for the victim.
- Syndra: Orb, stun, or throw it, get another Orb and throw them all, get more orbs if you want to kill a fighter. Offers about x2 or 2.5 overall damage than the guys above (both in base and ratio damage). She however takes a while as Orbs have a summoning delay, and throwing them around or as bullets has a travel time.
- Xerath. Locus, Chains, Meteor, Lazer, Meteor, Meteor. That kills almost everyone, offering a bit less damage and much less CC than Syndra, but much faster and is more reliable. His delays come while firing the second shot that will proc the Chains stun,( that as a travel time of its own) eigher is the Laezr or the Meteor there is a delay, and throwing all Meteors takes a while.
- Ahri land Charm and Orb and Fires are 100% to hit. Add the Crazy dashes and the enemy is not gonna make it. Offers much less damage than Xer and Syn (more around the total assassins blow) but has insane mobility.Due to dependance on skill shots has a high skill cap and a lot of room to outplay the enemies. Charm CC is also pretty dawn good.
- Zed. yep, Zed, I couldn't fit him in in the above category as he just doesn't make you disappear, he takes a while, but, I've seen heavily armored Malphites getting ripped apart by him. Once you hear the laugh and the shadows close in you will be taking immense damage, and if you survive the Mark is devastating too.Shadows give him good mobility and skill shot resistance.
Fight and Fight and Fight and Dead[]
This boys work a bit different, they are suited for long battles and their damage ramps up and becomes unmanageable as they fights continue. Unlike the guys above they are well equipped and can perfectly fight tanks and fighters, as their damage is well sustained.They are infamous for "drain tanking" and really like and benefit from spell vamp. Assassins can never fit here as fighting for a long time is exactly what they don't wanna do.
- Vladimir Once his E stacks up his damage becomes insane, as well as being very hard to kill. His HP bar dances wildly during a fight but often ends up at 100% if the fight was good. Later on he becomes impossible to burst down ( soo tanky D: ) and impossible to "set up" ( troll pool) by a single champion. His damage while very sustained becomes brutish and marksmen don't last much if he has DeathFire Grasp. Very defendant on CDR and mediocre early game.Short ranged
- Swain Dear god some much DoT! While his Nevermore skills is more of a "set up" ability he is not defendant on it at all to duel you or to last in a fight; it is mainly for chasing or escaping purposes. Much like Vlad he leaves fights with very high health thanks too his ultimate.Flashing at critical health from him is utterly useless as Torment + Ignite is lethal. Short ranged, extremely mana intensive
Note[]
- Please do not yell about missing champions in each sections, particularly the second one, these are just examples.
- Forgive my poor writing, I'm no natural English speaker. (Ask or say anything in Spanish if you want to, you will be making my life easier)
- Champions present on this article were build to fit into this. I'm not saying you can't build Zed or Talon as fighters, sure you can and I'm not calling your build bad, but if you do they won't be able to perform what I have indicated they can do here.