Unlike players who love “bloodthirsty” champions that engage in fights with opponents, many prefer to play sturdy, “beefy” champions that are hard to take down and can act as shields for their teammates. Especially, these champions can effectively counter assassins in the mid lane. Before the assassin Yone is released, practicing with these champions is the best choice.
Here is a list of champions that hard counter assassins in the mid lane:
Malphite
As one of the champions with the highest armor in League of Legends, Malphite is a hard counter to physical damage assassins.
In the early game, Malphite might find it a bit “hard to breathe” while laning due to slow wave clear and low damage when building tank. However, once he has a few defensive items, Malphite can clear waves much faster because his W+E skill combo increases damage based on his armor percentage. Particularly, when he becomes tanky, Malphite is not afraid to trade abilities with opponents, ready to punch them “without missing a hit” to activate his super runes.
From the mid-game onwards, Malphite will become a super dangerous “mountain” with his ultimate ability, Unstoppable Force. Just a bit of negligence from the opponent, Malphite can teleport behind and dive the tower with his teammates to secure both kills and turret at the same time. Since Malphite is very tanky when built as a tank, the enemy assassins might choose to roam instead of “throwing eggs against stones.” Taking advantage of this, Malphite can also teleport to counter-gank very effectively.
In the late game, Malphite can push deep into lanes with great difficulty to be taken down due to his tankiness. In team fights, although Malphite does not build damage, he remains the number one danger in the eyes of the enemy team’s carries because the target can completely die during the knock-up from Malphite, before even touching the ground, his teammates already “picked up the money.”
Lissandra
A champion that can effectively counter several assassins in the mid lane, especially capable of dominating melee assassins from very early on. In the early game, Lissandra can push waves very quickly, has a certain level of tankiness with her rune page, and possesses both escape and engage options with her Glacial Path.
By level 6, Lissandra’s ability to counter mobile assassins is maximized with her ultimate ability, Frozen Tomb, directly targeting an enemy, combined with her Ice Shard (W) to immobilize the target for about 2-3 seconds depending on how Lissandra and her teammates follow up. In case she is engaged by an enemy assassin, Lissandra can simply use her ultimate on herself, safely avoiding all enemy abilities for 2.5 seconds. At this moment, Lissandra has a very strong roaming potential, as with one full skill combo, most targets she chooses will end up in the death count, greatly benefiting her teammates in the top and bottom lanes.
In the late game, Lissandra can engage in team fights very effectively with her ultimate ability targeting five enemies, and can also protect her carries with two high-quality crowd controls. “Easy to play, easy to reward” perfectly describes Lissandra’s playstyle.
Fiddlesticks
After his rework, Fiddlesticks is not used much in the jungle but has been brought straight to the top lane or mid lane with an extremely annoying full tank playstyle.
In the laning phase, Fiddlesticks can comfortably “take hits from opponents” while using his Harvest (W) to heal, poke, and push waves. Moreover, many assassins lack hard crowd control, making it very difficult to prevent Fiddlesticks from healing. As he will build his first item as either Spirit Visage or Frozen Heart, enemies, whether physical or magic damage assassins, will find it “tiresome” when attacking Fiddlesticks.
Upon reaching level 6, Fiddlesticks can gank with massive damage from his ultimate ability, Crowstorm, combined with fear and silence from his skillset, making his chosen prey often die without being able to react. In the late game, Fiddlesticks will build damage and become the most dangerous factor in initiating fights on the map. As long as Fiddlesticks remains hidden, the enemy team will undoubtedly hesitate to engage. If Fiddlesticks pulls off a stunning ultimate, it’s extremely easy to wipe the enemy team or secure major objectives.
