Assassin has a reputation for being kind of a potato in late-game content. The trickster and rogue both have much more rushing utility, and the assassin’s good damage rarely matters when the trickster and rogue both have a much easier time creating openings to deal damage safely.
The assassin’s poison just isn’t a great tool for endgame dungeons. Dealing 1200 damage per ability use sounds good until you realize it’s worth less than a second of dagger DPS, doesn’t scale with most buffs, is awkward to throw, and takes way too long to do meaningful damage. For most late-game bosses, it’s enough to pass soulbound thresholds but not enough to contribute meaningfully to a fight.
My proposed rework is to add a new component to the assassin’s ability: while the ability button is held, the assassin coats his dagger with poison, which increases his damage.
Reworked Baneserpent Poison:
Tier 6
MP Cost: 100
On Equip: +20 HP, +20 MP, +3 WIS
While Key Held:
- MP Cost: 30 MP/sec
- Poison-Coated on self
- Attacks deal 50 + (4 per WIS over 50) additional armor-piercing damage on hit
When Key Released:
- Impact Damage: 200
- Damage Over Time: 700 total
- Duration: 4.5 second(s)
- Radius: 5 tiles
The new ability works like a ninja star: it gives him a buff while the ability button is held, and can be released (or tapped) for a damaging attack. This mechanic also gives the assassin an interesting new way to pump up single-target damage. Wouldn’t it make sense for an assassin, of all classes, to be good at killing single targets?
The MP drain is very high compared to the Ninja’s standard stars, but the damage increase is huge: 90 extra damage per attack at maxed WIS! The assassin’s high DEX also allows him to apply this damage very quickly. This interaction also allows him to scale nicely in group dungeons like the Lost Halls and Shatters: he gets to apply his poison-coated daggers much more quickly with a berserk buff.
One of the most important skills for the current assassin is the ability to predict when the boss will become vulnerable and timing the poison accordingly. The high mana cost of this new ability allows the assassin’s poison to retain its identity as a high-cost, high-reward ability that plays around timing: unlike a perma-buffing class, players will need to know when they can hit bosses reliably or risk wasting their mana.