Assassin Rework

#1

Hello everybody,
I know most people already know that the Assassin requires a buff and this is one of many requests in the forum.
Back in the days 2010 they added the Assassin and through the decade nothing much changed with the Assassin out of more poisons for it to wield.
The problem is, that Assassin can not compete with any other classes really as other classes got a bigger variety, damage output or basically are more fun to play.

  • Old Times

At the golden years of the Assassin they were described as the King of Wine Cellars, because it could throw a poison and be happy about almost every time guaranteed loot for not doing much. Yet in the modern days a Soulbound threshold exists and basically every class doing enough damage will have the same chance for loot like everyone else does. Meaning that there is no reason to take an Assassin to an WC, because someone like a Priest will anchieve the same loot aswell.
Compared to the Rogue and Trickster it was ment to be the best dagger dps class, but after the years the Assassin really did not receive the same treatment as them.

  • Dagger Classes

While Rogue got cloaks increasing damage or monocle increasing damage by 15 ATT when invisible and Trickster with its decoys manipulating their enemies as they wish, able to attack them while they are distracted by the decoy, there aswell are Prisms that can cause an good ammount of damage. Yet Assassin only got poisons that cost expensive and do not deal as much damage, the only reason you would really take an Assassin is, when you would have a pogmur to armor break enemies from distance.

  • Issues with buffing poison

The problem that Assassin did not receive any buffs with poison or insane damage is, because poison can damage the targed even after invurnability. Meaning when the poison would do too much damage alot of people could play Assassin and just all together throw alot of poisons, which could cause bosses to skip phases or to insta kill them. It is the reason the Void Katana got nerfed as an big ammount of players wielding a Void Katana could basically stack together to cause an incredible large damage caused to the boss which would aswell skip phases or even insta kill.

  • How to buff Assassin

The best way to buff Assassin would be to increase the damage and lower the mp cost as the Assassin is very Mana hungry for a dagger class and for that make the poison not damage after the enemy or boss goes invurnable. Not able to insta kill them or skip phases it would prevent the class to do so.
Aswell as rework some poisons as the majority of them are similar and have no speciality out of the pogmur.
For example to make a poison inflict weakness against the enemy as there are in real life poisons that attack the nerf system to make you not able to defend yourself.

We do all hope that Assassin will receive as early as possible a buff, because the original purpose of the class does not fit in the modern day of RotMG.

If anyone got suggestions your freely can comment to this.

#2

just stopping by to point out a common fallacy related to the poison’s ability to damage through invulnerability:

this does not make the assassin able to deal any more damage than other classes, nor is the ability for the damage ticking to keep dealing damage actually useful. imagine for example what would be changed if poisons did all their damage up front:

up front damage:
phase 1 (vulnerable) boss goes from 1000 hp to 100 hp instantly due to the poison
phase 2 (invulnerable) boss stays at 100 because he’s invulnerable
phase 3 (vulnerable) boss starts this phase at 100 hp

damage over time:
phase 1 (vulnerable) boss loses some hp due to the poison, but not all of it
phase 2 (invulnerable) boss continue bleeding until he reaches 100 hp as the poison finishes
phase 3 (vulnerable) boss starts this phase at 100 hp

the results are the same. if the poison had the ability to kill the boss, it would do so before going invulnerable in the first place. as a result, other sources of instant damage (spellbombs, devastation, etc.) are more effective than poisons since they would remove him without messing around with invulnerability at all.

the reason why poisons were used for instakills in the old days is because they did far more damage than traps, but could actually hit unlike spells (spells cannot be perfect unless the boss is in the center of a tile or you have hacks, your own accuracy isn’t actually much of a factor). these days there are more reliable safeguards against instakilling so increasing the damage of poisons isn’t as hugely dangerous. the “damage over time” thing is actually a drawback to the assassin, and is a major reason why he isn’t useful with all of these fast-paced dps-druggies around. so what I would do is increase the damage of poisons to rival perfect spellbombs, keep the damage over time thing to keep it in check (maybe even draw it out a bit more if 2K damage is super scary for balance reasons), and not bother fixing the whole invulnerability thing since it doesn’t matter.

#3

Or maybe because Oryx 2 was virtually unapproachable without a Knight stunning, a decoy drawing aggro (which virtually no one did anyway as far as I’m aware, just sticking with prisms as a pure teleport tooll), or a very brave player going in for a circle. Hence, being able to sit back and not worry about eating a 1k damage shotgun while still dealing damage allowed Assassin to be regarded as “good” at doing Wine Cellars.

I honestly wouldn’t know for sure how to truly bring Assassin into its own. At its core, it’s a low/mid-range class with mediocre bulk and a crowd control ability, in a game that is generally more focused on single-target damage.

#4

Assassin used to be one of my favourite classes, but I play it a lot less now for a simple reason. It came out worst, of all classes, from Vital Combat.

The basic reason is 'Sin has the worst VIT in the game, and no way to mitigate it. Most short range classes have high DEF (melee) or good VIT (melee, katana). Dagger classes share the same DEF and VIT, but the other two have ways to avoid damage, Rogue cloaking and Trix using a decoy to draw shots.

An Assassin that wants to use their damage is going to get hit, get put In Combat. They can’t use their ability to avoid this as it acts over time – not unless they want to use a poison then wait several seconds for it to act before going in, really slowing the game down. And In Combat is worse for 'Sin due to their high ability cost, low MP total, it basically shuts down poison production.

For example I find myself hanging back on O2 with 'SIn, even when I could get some damage in. as it’s not worth doing a few hundred damage, if it means I miss throwing 2 or 3 poisons.

The first thing I’d do therefore is boost their VIT to say 60. Still not as high as some classes but a more reasonable middle ground. more WIS and MP would help, but they were OK before IC so should be OK after.

Add Wismod to poison. Easy and could be easily balanced. There’s not much WIS boosting gear for Assassin but it would make some items more interesting for the class, as well as boosts like Nildrops.

Add enemy nerfs to poisons. Maybe not tiered but it should be much more common with UT/ST, and it makes sense lore-wise where poisons in real life often do more than just kill people.

And make poison damage more variable, like Priest tome healing. Against single enemies it does more damage (50% more say) but against many more enemies it does less (50% less maybe). It might go from 150% damage against one enemy, 100% (so unchanged) against 5, 50% against 9 or more (12.5% drop for each enemy). This would make it more valuable against single enemies so bosses in endgame situations, but not too OP against groups, and generally more stategic and so interesting.

#5

'Ssin has always been a very mana dependent class, and was made to be the DPS dagger class, but unfortunately, falls short because he is so dependent on mana regeneration.

When you compare an assassin to a rogue, it’s already difficult to compare the two classes because an assassin wasn’t built for rushing like the rogue. And the trickster completely destroys the assassin in total DPS stats, and even has the same base wis of 60, making the trickster do more damage overall… and she isn’t dependent on mana at all to deal damage (nobody really uses dire or ghostly).

Assassin’s dependence on mana really shows when you factor in the pet’s Mheal. For testing purposes, both the trickster and assassin will wear avarice, tenne, and coro. The trickster will use GAMBA and the assassin will use murky, the most damaging poison that is obtainable. The assassin will only start to outdamage the trickster at around 80 mheal, and only after 80 mheal will he beat her in DPS, but that is not to factor in the fact that you can’t always hit both grenades with murky… so I tested this with the necrofish poison, and the result is… very pathetic. The assassin will outdamage the trickster at 100 mheal… which isn’t something that every player has access to. Sure, you can stack the poisons, but the overall dps will even out because if you press spacebar three times to eject three grenades, you won’t be able to press spacebar for while, which means you have a period of high dps and a period of low dps and that evens out… vs the trickster’s consistent stream of damage because she does not rely on her pet to deal damage. Rogue will never deal as much damage as either classes even with an optimal 4/4 dps build (unless you wear the cube cloak with 100mheal).

Your proposed rework, isn’t a rework; it’s a straight up buff, which is uninspired and honestly quite boring.

Something I’ve always wondered about is why the assassin throws the poison. Some of the ability items are venoms, which can only be harmful to the victim if injected into the body. Sure, poisons make sense, but venoms won’t really do shit if it’s just splashed on something… which is extremely stupid because the crystallized fang venom causes armor broken, to which the explanation is that the venom is highly corrosive… which begs me to ask the question as to what the biology of the creature that produces this venom is like. The corrosive power of this venom can armor break so many things, some of which have divine might. The pH of this venom must be three or even four digits into the negatives… which means that the glass material of the container must be something that is extremely magical.

Anyways, that’s enough of the technical shit. I think the assassin’s poison should be a temporary buff that allows them to inflict poison on their normal hits, and the poison stacks. So yeah that’s basically it.

#6

I would still take Assassin when raiding O2. Chug down those poison safely (when you are leeching in certain phases) and you secured your SB.

This is possibly due to balance out of dealing damage risk-free (in terms of ability use) most of the time.

For example, Miasma/Disintegrate phase when you can’t dodge well on dagger range. Throw couple poisons to Dammah (rinse 'n repeat) and you focus on dodging.

That rebalance was totally needed…

That is more of rebalancing Assassin. Buffing the ability efficiency but strip off dealing damage when invulnerable.

I would rework Assassin to be a Wis-mod class just like Warrior. For each Wis beyond 50 Wisdom, decrease the MP cost by 2. The more Wis, the less costly to toss a poison.

This… could work as Weakness can make a huge difference.

#7

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