Teach me - how do I play assassin?

“Play as assassin” is probably my least favorite quest, because I have around 30% win rate with assassin heroes, and I don’t know how to get better.

I do pretty well with tanks, bruisers, and healers, and have about 50-60% win rate.

My go-to assassin is Raynor, and I think he’s simple enough to play well. I’m usually first or second highest hero damage dealer in my team with about team-average number of deaths, so I’d like to think that I’m pulling my weight. I just can’t seem to win matches.

What are some tips for a struggling assassin player, specifically Raynor?

Thanks!

I can teach you how to kill people as Erik.

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Sorry can’t really help you i have the bad tendency to step forward too agressively.
You may want to try agressive style assassins like fenix calaming or orphea.

Smash the keys and don’t face check the team.

I can recommend you to play Sylvana, she’s good at this moment. Deals a lot of target damage in seconds.

Sami/Hellobg/Harbinger may give you some tips. I played with them and they know how to play her good.

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That’s a bad recommendation for someone who has 30% win rate, why let them play something that is single handedly have a high skill entry point?

The best way to play assassins and to get to know how to play them better

Are to play the Basic Roles of the Assassins like Raynor and Jaina.

As for Raynor, stutter-stepping is key and using your Q when the enemy Heroes are getting near your face, that should be the basics.

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What does stop him to improve? Even I, someone who sucks as Assassin, had some success as Sylvana (in brawl).
She has low-decent level of difficulty but she has unlimited way of improving.

low decent level of difficulty is not sylvanas.

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It’s on you to name her level of difficulty, it was only my guess.

You can’t play this game aggressively at all, you’ll just get destroyed over and over again. That helped me to play assassin a lot better, at least ranged ones. I’m still a total potato at melee though and probably always will be.

press Q W E R and look at minimap

Anyways, I will try my best but the important elements for assassins is knowing the basics which are as simple as “stutter stepping” for auto attackers.

The harder parts are timing, it’s quite similar to tanks/healers timing their cooldowns correctly to be the most effective, but instead the assassin tries to follow up with burst or attacking that such target that was locked in place, those are simple but tend to be effective as assassins are the best at follow ups, if they of course follow up in the first place…

Being the priority of the DPS in the team you have to learn to keep some cooldowns on check, it really depends on what you are playing, e.g Raynor can use Q in both ways, to finish off the target or create a gap between you and them, Tracer not using Blinks or Recall poorly and instead abuse her ability position constantly, Valeera playing a game of patience, chaining her CC on a target or applying just legitimate pressure on someone, the list goes on. ← This also depends on what you are facing.

Raynor, is quite simple but also can be complex even though people call him braindead easy, it is true that he’s pretty simple but his ceiling is pretty medium to high levels.

I should just point out the most of things to use but for starters:

(I have no idea the names of the abilities so bare with me)

Q Ability

A straightforward knockback shot with damage on top of it, it actually goes both ways, on one side it is good for an extra layer of burst and procing talents like Ace in the Hole on the other hand it behaves as an anti dive response ability creating gap between you and a target, talents like “Paint them Red” makes this talent more effective in both roles mentioned here.

W Ability

This can be frequently spammed if anything, its pretty much his main damage increase when it comes to sustain, there’s barely much to speak of this, it basically increases your attack speed which also requires you to learn to stutter step (attack → move during the delay → attack again) to keep your position safe or keeping yourself in your target range.

E Ability

Healing, also straightforward but depends on when it is the right time to use it, for example meaninglessly using while healers around you and not being pressured (at the moment) would be meaningless to spend it, otherwise its good to counter anti burst especially with certain talents that makes it grant armor to counter inevitably death, talents like Fight or Flight makes this talent better against Burst damage with the armor layer on top while being on much lower cooldown.

Hyperion

A zoning and pushing power, I always go for this during objective pushes and try casting this to get more pushing power involved while still pushing the enemy away.

Raynor’s Raiders

A pet heroic allowing you to control a banshee on the battlefield, very good in checking bushes or adding an extra layer of damage, if you play rexxar you probably find this quite similar, just make sure you keep up with it and don’t let it die carelessly, that’s bad.

For more info over some the talents you can always give the ice veins guide a shot, which in a much broader detail over raynor and his talents, the list is also quite accurate with the current meta he is in:

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  1. Take as little damage as possible
  2. Dish out as much damage as possible

In THAT order. Too many people reverse those. Get in and out. Poke. Stay back. Don’t just let tanks and brawlers go first, also minions and mercs should be taking damage for you. So don’t be afraid to clear enemy minions so YOUR minions are more ahead of you.

If you’re used to playing tanks and bruisers. More than likely you’re being too agressive as assassin and dying a lot.

With mages, you need to respect the front line, and stay behind your tank unless the enemy has nothing that can threaten you, and only move in when you have abilities off cooldown and someone to engage for you. AA assassins want to mostly poke the front line, and follow up on the tank’s CC. Tanks and bruisers have sustain, and ways to save themselves. But you can’t push your luck as much with assassins.

I remember instantly getting batter at assassins when I learned not to push my luck.

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Ill write what I know
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/568926994864013333/751514002823184487/4de61e.png

Raynor has both a Q build and a AA build, both are good. What you need to do is provide continuous pressure trough AA’s . Just hit every hero you can, especially when its the tank. A tank who is hurt is more afraid to engage.

Best jimmy combo is AA W AA Q AA
Use banshee or Q to spot bushes rather then facechecking it.

I always go paint them red on 16 , you can duel most heroes and if you hit multiple you get a burst heal


If you are good , practice or try to match your Q with a ETC / Diablo stun. Or the cassia fend
But sometimes its better to wait till the channel happens before you interrupt like with mosh, better interrupt the moment he moshes then disrupting him and giving him a 10s cd

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And Olaf is a good melee assassin. I heared he can one-shot Stitches.

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I think players have their innate playstyle that fits them. Mine is ranged assassin. Worst role that’s opposite to the ranged assassin is the tank. The tank is usually melee, and even if they aren’t melee, have to be near the enemies and not behind their teammates.

It’s gonna take a lot of effort to overcome your opposite playstyle role but other than saying watch high elo tank to range assassin mains who switched, I got nothing

What is the use of Q build?

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Assassins usually are made to do one or two things during the match. Just practice what are you suppose to do and then do it. Some assassins kill the back lane, others the fron lane, some assassins are made to engage, others need to wait for the tank. So assassines barelly meet enemy heroes and are made for small and quick ambush while others are made for prolonged fights. All assassins do something different.