(copy pasted from reddit)
inb4 what existing assassin playerbase?
While the new assassin buff definitely 100% helps those who normally wouldn’t play the class, it hurts those who are already hardcore assassin players such as myself.
Let my preface this by saying the mana reduction and the DPS increase are perfectly swell and dandy, it’s the throw time that shoots existing assassins in the knee.
Point 1: Assassin is about intuition and knowing > reaction
Assassin has always been class that has thrived off of knowing enemy patterns, keeping a close eye on a bosses tells to know when a venom will hit and when it won’t. This is contrary to most classes who thrive off of reacting to what an enemy does as it does it. By decreasing the throw time the line between reaction and intuition is blurred making the class less unique and more in suit to class like wizard and necromancer.
This blurring of the lines will promote less skilled play and more random throwing and hoping your venom hits. Which I feel is not okay.
Point 2: The old assassin throw time is hardwired into our brains
For most assassin mains like myself, when we should throw a venom is mostly an unconscious decision. When we should throw a venom based on an enemies tells is something that we have hardwired into our brains over the years. This change will screw with existing assassin players ability to get DPS as they will prove to consistently throw too early missing their windows.
Point 3: Relearning the timings is not as simple as you’d think
Well why can’t assassins simply learn the class again, they somehow managed to figure out how to make it work once? Well I’ll tell you why. Unconscious decision making is something that ha been beaten into our brains over the years. It becomes essentially habit of when to hit the space bar. Any assassin main can tell you their brain ticks every time they see an enemy opening in a RotMG video, we can’t help it.
For example say you always put your keys on your mantle when you return home but want to start putting them somewhere safer like in a drawer. You probably won’t remember to put them in a drawer until after you put them on the mantle, and when you look for them later you’ll likely forget where you put them since they aren’t in their usual place. During testing I would often throw my venom much too early, go ‘Oh yeah’, throw a second venom too late, and end up missing two venoms, wasting my mana, and missing my opportunity to get venom DPS in since enemies would die too fast. I slowly got the hang of it but would still default back to the old timings during each new fight.
Point 4: What existing assassins can already do pre-buff
People consistently insist assassin is bad, for they fear what they do not understand. However assassin has always excelled at what other classes couldn’t. Get damage in on an enemy while it is invincible.
Of course you’ll get the argument that 1000 damage instantly is better than 900 over 7 seconds. But this fails to realize something that not even most assassins realize. The venom hangs around a bit after hitting the ground. This allows us to do some amazing things other classes couldn’t even dream of. Hit test chests and others enemies that spawn invincible and get a head start on DPS. That is correct, a good assassin can land a venom on a test chest before anyone can even hit it.1 /But it’s not just test chests, it’s enemies like Skuld before she does the paralyze wave. By changing the timing existing assassins lose this edge until they can re-learn the class. Such a short window of opportunity you can’t actively and efficiently practice will be a nightmare to get the hang of.
(note you can hit test chests as they spawn with a weapon, but you can’t spellbomb it or hit it with a quiver, you can hit it with a huntress trap though. I just wanted to sound fancy).
Recap and Ending thoughts
I am very much against the timing change on assassin venoms. It promotes less skill based gameplay, while this will certainly attract new players to the class it will hurt those who already know and love assassin.
Is there any way I can improve my argument? Are there any arguments I can add to help cement my ideas? Do you have an valid counter arguments? Please, let me know!
This argument is a little redundant and incohesive but I am very passionate about assassin and wanted to get this out there before the update goes live in the chance someone from DECA sees it and and realizes maybe the throw time reduction isn’t such a good idea.
link to reddit post
The reddit version is the one I will be updating, as it’s better to post replies on than constantly make edits on realmeye, while versa is true for reddit.