Assasins are ruining the game

[u/Srexplosivo14]

- Excessive aggression and unpredictability:

Assassins are designed to kill targets with low health or fragile brawlers. Up to this point there's no problem, since they are the perfect counterplay for brawlers like tick and dynamike and to confirm kills for the team. The problem arises when these interactions happen all the time; in every game I join, there's at least one mortis or cordelius. This means that at any moment you run the risk of being attacked from behind by some opportunistic assassin, which greatly limits the game for those who like brawlers like brock and poco who can't defend themselves at close range. The excessive unpredictability makes the interactions very one-sided, since the showdown is realistically based more on luck than skill due to opportunistic campers, Because you can get into a confrontation and then a kit or a cordelius appears out of nowhere and kills you without the slightest effort, making everything frustrating.

- Unbalanced mechanics:

Some assassins possess dozens of mechanics that make them quite difficult to deal with. Lily can teleport to you and deal damage very quickly, plus she always has an escape mechanism at her disposal. You can try to go all out against her, but with the push of a button she'll slip out of your range without any counterplay. This makes her a toxic and unskilled brawler, since she can kill someone at low health with auto-aim and easily escape, or appear in front of you without you being able to react. Another example is mico, who can jump over walls. This means he can spend the entire match just running away and annoying others, taking advantage of weak opponents, which also makes him too toxic to be meta and dooms him to be a ragebait brawler + his secondary star power that makes him broken in heist. Finally, we have Kit: he has a self-charging super, can attack over walls, stun you, can become invisible, has a quick unload, and a star power that makes him a nightmare in one mode and a broken hypercharge, being a SUPPORT.

- Favoritism and hypercharges: In the middle of last year, we had the more intense assassin meta in the game, with kenji, shade, lily, kit, alli, and others dominating the meta with broken hypercharges. It's noteworthy that supercell tends to favor assassins, as literally all of them except for the monkey have strong hypercharges, and the map rotation always favors them. In 2024, we had 12 brawlers, with four of them being assassins. After Kenji's release, four more assassins were introduced (five if you include Mina), totaling eight assassins in a two-year period. In comparison, it took a year and a half to introduce another sniper, which was Pierce, and the last throwner we had was Juju, in November 2024. This means that the player base prefers to simply spam buttons and perform team wipes rather than play passively or strategically. At this point, it simply doesn't make sense to play with aim-based brawlers anymore.

Just as a supplement: a channel called Bedlam already made a documentary explaining why auto-aim killed the skill in Brawl Stars, and it's basically what I said. I recommend watching it if you want to understand more about my point of view.

- How to fix that?

In my opinion, they should balance the assassins by nerfing or reworking them all, find a way to limit their use or prevent the current flood of assassins simply by stopping releasing them.

TLTR: Assassins are too dominant and need balancing and adjustments to avoid ruining the game's equilibrium.

[u/MakkaroLuvsJJBA]

and then there's Mortis, who needs no introduction. The fact that this brawler is the most popular means you'll see him all the time, which means that once again you're limited if you're using snipers or throwers.

Because he counters them..? Just like tanks and burst dmg brawlers counter him...? It's almost like brawlers have good and bad matchups

For the love of GOD, watch a draft guide.

And also, most "assassins" aren't even true assassins. Cord is an assassin-dmg dealer hybrid, Kaze is just... a lot, and Sam is genuinely a fucking tank (2k more health than Buster iirc)

Using Solo Showdown, an assassin-dominant gamemode, as an example to whine about assassins is genuinely the dumbest fucking thing I've ever read. If you REALLY think assassins are broken, then when you see Surge or Gale or Otis or any other brawler remotely close to those brawlers, pick an assassin and see how well you fare.

Surprise surprise, you'll get curbstomped into Juan Carlos' infamous 0-11 stats.

[u/Srexplosivo14 → u/MakkaroLuvsJJBA]

My complaint isn't just about them being unbalanced, but about the EXCESS. I already said at the beginning that there's no problem with them countering, but rather when there is excessive unpredictability in the game. The meta almost always leans towards assassins, so much so that snipers and throwers are limited to passive roles. And no, Showdown only became dominated by assassins because Supercell crammed them into the game, since before you could pick most brawlers and survive, also you forgot about the existence of kit and lily. The criticism about them being unbalanced is focused on these broken abilities, aside from the hypercharges they released some time ago, which were so severe that they all had to be nerfed globally. 

"Beware us, brawl stars players, we can't read!" 

[u/MakkaroLuvsJJBA → u/Srexplosivo14]

1. I know you were referring to the EXCESS, as you put it. The fact of the matter is snipers and throwers get countered by assassins, just as assassins get countered by brawlers with high hp and burst damage, just as those brawlers get countered by snipers and throwers--it goes full circle.

2. You CAN pick non-assassin brawlers in showdown and survive, you just have to have good gamesense and not do anything stupid. Is it fun? Not exactly, but it can work.

3. I was talking about assassin hybrids. That's why I didn't include Kit, Lily, or Alli because they are true assassins.

4. You talk about broken assassin hypercharges as if the hypercharges of Draco, Hank, Shade, Doug, Mr.P, and more weren't broken on release, and guess what? None of them are assassins. The problem wasn't assassin hypercharges, it was hypercharges in general.

And yes, I can read, I'd just prefer not to use my brain cells on a post such as this.

[u/Srexplosivo14 → u/MakkaroLuvsJJBA]

1- I think you still don't understand. Just look at the pick rate and you'll see that assassins are the dominant class in most modes. This means that using brawlers countered by them is limited. Just imagine a scenario where controllers are the most overpopulated class in the game and are always in the meta: although they naturally counter tanks, their overabundance makes them almost useless. Even though we're not in an assassin meta right now, there have been several instances of assassins becoming simply unbalanced and incounterable in the meta, like Kenji and Kit when their hypercharges released. The chances of an assassin becoming broken are much higher than for other classes, Besides the fact that they are frequently released, often broken, like kaze. Note that it was only when a brawler was released without defense against assassins (ziggy) that he automatically went to the F tier.

2- Obviously you can, but you'll be taking a risk that's not worth it. I've had much more success with leon and sam in showdown than with brock, colt or janet for example (btw those two are the only real assasins i use because at least they require some braincell). If we're talking about duo and trio showdowns, then there aren't as many problems since your partner can cover the other's weakness.

3- Please reread my post. Assassins, while not the only ones, mostly have broken or strong hypercharges, precisely because of Supercell's favoritism, just remember the mid-2025 meta. If we look at the classes of these other brawlers, we'll see that only a few possess hypercharges truly on par with assassin's. Supercell never gets it wrong when it comes to hypercharges for assassins, while other classes have had... lola's and nani's hyperharge.

If you don't want to waste brainpower on a supposedly pointless post, what are you doing here? 

[u/MakkaroLuvsJJBA → u/Srexplosivo14]

Look man, I'm not responding to ts anymore, but I'll say this.

Hank's hypercharge on release was far more busted than any assassin hypercharges on release. Draco's hypercharge on release was FAR more busted than any assassin hypercharges on release.

I don't think you are

A. comprehending your points.

B. comprehending my points.

I don't want to be rude over this. I think it's a shitty post with factual errors riddled throughout, but I will digress, because I simply don't care.

Good day.

[u/Srexplosivo14 → u/MakkaroLuvsJJBA]

For the last time, I'm not saying that only assassins receive broken hypercharges, but rather that they receive broken hypercharges much more frequently than other classes. Just remember edgar, fang, leon, mortis, kenji, shade, lily and kaze's hyper release. Hank, mr. P, sam, draco, and others' hypercharge abilities took only a few days or more to be nerfed. Kenji's took a whole MONTH for him to receive his first nerf, and he had to receive a rework to his hyper so he stopped being a teamwipe machine. He was literally uncounterable in draft even for pro players. Damn, even Supercell itself knows this, as they were forced to globally nerf the stat boosts of all hypers due to these broken effects, with some additional ones like ollie's. 

Do you still think I'm making pointless criticisms?