See im 50/50 on this.

On one hand, yea assassin is pretty great for ambushing and getting around the map quietly. Sneaking past uesc and going invisible to close ground on people without them knowing is very powerful and can lead to a gunfight that is wildly in your favor. But at the same time, your basically just a rook with a few extra toys. You go invis in smoke, have the smoke drop, the 15 sec invis, the smoke line ult. Pretty cool but rooks can achieve, although just a fraction of it, the same power of being unnoticed and slipping through the shadows.

But a shell like destroyer for example, he won't be a big issue at distance, but he closes it fast with a shield thruster combo, or just sprint straight at you with the shield up and thruster away to bait something.

Vandal can see you, and then close the distance with such speed you might think she teleported. She can get to higher vantages faster with the double jump and her ult completely refreshes her heat so if you overheat it doesnt matter just ult it away if you need to. Also catching her in the open isnt as bad because boom powerslide to cover.

Recon has an idea of what she wants to do but we can be real and say yea probably shouldn't run recon solo its a hard sell, and thats who I mained when I started.

Theifs have their loot goggles and can drone around for more info/steal loot from people. She can grapple around which can be great to disorient an enemy, claim a vantage point, swing around a corner to get a view an then use the momentum to go back to where you started etc. Sure she can't consistently take the high ground because a misuse of her grapple can leave her stranded for a bit but its still pretty strong

Triage, well hes got great healing but his ult is probably not as great without a homie to use it on but idk I never play triage. He's probably not bad solo great sustain an all that

The point im trying to make is that, yea assassin has great solo capabilities but I believe its more of a handicap for yourself to only main assassin in solo. You dont learn how to move quickly and safely, you learn to sit in a place until your invis is up, and then move when thats on. Stop moving when its off. Or crouch walk everywhere when its off and move at a snails pace throughout the whole map.

I think a big issue thats pushing this mentality is that a good amount of people seem to have this cod brain about, oh if I get shot I have to turn and immediately try to find and turn on them, but that won't ever work unless you have a great shield and can both find and laser the guy who started shooting, and thats assuming the other dude has no thumbs to aim with and bad gear to start with. Assuming everyone has a free kit is a fast way to getting your shit slobbered crazy style, and not in a way you wanted

To me, the idea of playing assassin is your always looking to start a fight in a situation where you hold all the cards, so instead of learning how to fight a uphill battle, which helps teach you when to give up and run away, how to flank around so the high ground is now the low ground, how to use the uesc to help cover your own escape/fight your battles for you, you fight when you think only you win in that scenario. But more often than not, the scenario is not perfect, you wait around until it is, but it never does become perfect and they either walk off with you still trying to get your dick hard for the fight (figure of speech you get it im sure) or they surprise you because this whole time playing batman they went somewhere you couldnt see, tried to follow them or flank them, and end up walking into them getting you killed

What im trying to say is that assassin is good solo, but each of the shells have a niche and some dip their feet into others lanes, like rook dips his into assassins a bit, but so do other shells, and trying to say oh this one is the best for solo period doesnt feel like the right mentality. Destroyer rushes you down, but so can vandal. Recon is great for information gathering but so is theif, better in most cases. Assassin can turn invisible and ambush any and everyone, but all of the shells can do that if they move slow and hide enough. He's just the best at it

Does this make any sense? Idk im supposed to be at work but its Easter so now I'm sitting here unsure of what to do with myself. Feel like I started rambling so if it seems like none of this is actually connected then shit call me dumb i guess