LoL Developer Describes Naafiri as Simplest Assassin

Raptorr, a developer for League of Legends, took to Reddit to explain Naafiri's assassin gameplay. He identifies her as the most straightforward assassin champion, but with a unique style. Timing and target selection are crucial for her success.

Her kit gives her everything she needs to get in and get rewarded with a juicy kill. If not, she’s likely to die quickly as her kit does not have as many escape options as other assassins. <...> There is a fourth key question: "How do I get out afterwards?" But Naafiri’s kit makes that easy because her first kill reset gives her the tools to get out after the kill. She just needs to make sure she’s gonna get the kill. -Raptorr, Riot Games

Securing kills is essential for Naafiri. For vulnerable champions, the strategy to counter her involves staying in groups and being alert to potential attacks. In terms of usability, she's deemed "likely the simplest assassin to maneuver," unlike Zed or Yasuo, while retaining sufficient complexity to remain enjoyable.

While Naafiri is probably the simplest assassin to pilot, that does not mean she is as simple as someone like Garen or Annie, and that’s because assassins are fundamentally a more difficult role to pick up and understand. Learning how to hold back when you want to go in, having patience for the right moment, using your mobility at the right time, and knowing your damage outputs at any stage of the game can take time, and Naafiri still needs to do all of those to succeed. We’ve really tried to straddle the line between easy to pick up and maintaining room for depth and mastery. She won’t have the learning curve of a Zed or Yasuo, but we think there’s plenty of fun to be had for many many games on Naafiri and plenty of ways to flaunt your Naafy know-how. And if you discover you like the assassin playstyle that Naaf teaches, but prefer more executionally complex champs and want to move onto them, that’s a great outcome too. -Raptorr, Riot Games

Riot Games has officially scheduled her debut for Patch 13.14. Players can test Naafiri on June 28th when she arrives on the PBE, with her official launch set for July 19th.