Endgame PvP: Is the Ranger an Assassin or Bruiser? How best to balance!

[Congeniality]

Hi all, and welcome back to another Walie rant.

These seem to be somewhat consistent as of late.... and I apologize for that. That being said, I feel as though I really just want to post this and see what people think.

Recently I have begun thinking, what is the true identity of the fox in PvP, and how should Spacetime go about balancing it in the best possible way? The video below is essentially asking between: True Assassin, or Bruiser.

For those of you not familiar with these terms:

An assassin kills its target within seconds,

whereas a bruiser is classified as a class that does decent damage, has a gap closer (dashes) but is also just moderately tanky. Not as tanky as a bear, but also not as damaging as a bird, it would be a direct mix of the two playstyles under the "Bruiser" archetype.

Watch the video if you are interested and comment your opinion below.



Please do read below:

In essence, to solidify the identity of the fox, I think the easiest options may be -

Bruiser - Nerf Volta Dagger; Give Fox an Unstun on Howl. This would allow the fox to stay on top of its opponents and do consistent medium damage. The dagger nerf would be essential because if only the unstun were introduced, assassin fox would be busted.

Assassin - Increase Hamstring Stun Chance. Essentially, this would allow fox to be able to stun its opponents more consistently and kill them more efficiently, as an assassin normally would.

Which side do I lean?

I tend to lean on the side of making fox a bruiser, and here is why.

Fox, in its current assassin state, can never truly be balanced. This is because of the inherent nature of an assassin and how it fits into pocket legends. An assassin is designed to kill its target within 1-2 seconds. However, within PL, there is no counterplay to said playstyle. Thus, the fox must do that in a lack luster fashion, doing it in a much slower time (essentially becoming a nerfed bird).

However, with the new approach of balancing fox around using a strength set and being a bruiser archetype, we now are able to open up a plethora of options for balancing fox. Most notably, this would include giving the fox an unstun, while also nerfing the volta dagger set so foxes don't abuse it.

Furthermore, I believe that fox as a bruiser class can be both more fun to play and more fun to play against. Rather than being half-nuked in a fight just to turn and swat a fly away off your shoulder, a fox can now be a strength-set-using diver whose objective is still to kill the backline, but now would do it in a way that is both fun to play and fun to play against.

This is because people aren't dieing instantly, and I am not sitting stunned for 10 seconds straight.

Let me know what you all think below!

Cheers,
Walie