First introduced in Build 104, the Assassin is a medium-range fighter who uses a dagger and leather armor and poisons groups of enemies, damaging them over time. He was widely thought of as one of the weakest classes and was fairly unpopular until the devs bumped his max Attack and Wisdom up to 60 (from 50) and his Wisdom gain per level to 1-2 (from 0-2) in Build 113. To unlock the Assassin you must reach level 20 with the Rogue and the Wizard. See his stat gains, caps, and averages here.
The Assassin uses daggers and wears leather armor, and is an offensive powerhouse whose 60 attack and 75 dexterity makes it the second most powerful of the three dagger classes. While the Assassin wishes its dagger could have a higher range, its medium range allows it to deal respectable damage at a respectable range. However, the Assassin does not rely on its dagger as much as its counterparts the Rogue and Trickster do, because its poison directly does high damage to a group of enemies, instead of cloaking the user or distracting enemies to get more dagger hits in.
The Agateclaw Dagger and Dagger of Foul Malevolence are standard daggers with good damage and medium range. The Assassin is able to turn this good damage into great damage due to its high Attack stat. Its medium range is enough for the Assassin to attack enemies at a safe distance as well, meaning the Assassin does not have to tank hits like the heavy armor classes do. Agateclaw can be found dropping from various dungeons throughout the realm, while Foul only drops in the Wine Cellar, The Shatters, and the Secluded Thicket. These daggers can however be traded between players.
The Dagger of Sinister Deeds and Dagger of Dire Hatred behave the same as the earlier tiers of daggers, but receive a notable increase in damage - Dire Hatred being one of the highest. Currently the only drop locations for these items are The Void for Sinister Deeds and Oryx’s Sanctuary for both. Additionally, Dire Hatred is soulbound.
The Bone Dagger obtainable in the Manor of the Immortals is a weaker dagger with a lower range, but its shots pierce through enemies. On a Rogue or Trickster, whose cloaking, decoy, and teleportation abilities allow them to somewhat safely get close to enemies, the lower range, at least, can be mitigated. The Assassin, however, can only use its ability to damage enemies, and so it’s considerably harder to get close enough to abuse the Bone Dagger’s piercing effect. On the positive side, when given an opportunity to safely use the Bone Dagger, the Assassin can wield it alongside (or in lieu of) his poison for highly efficient crowd control.
The Queen’s Stinger can be seen as a direct upgrade to the aforementioned Bone Dagger while being much rarer, dropping from the Killer Bee Queen. This dagger deals slightly more average damage and range than the Bone Dagger, while piercing both armor and enemies. This dagger is very good for any situation where the Assassin might want to hit more than one target with it’s dagger or if it’s target’s defense is very high.
The Dirk of Cronus dropping from the Cube God is a magnificent dagger that sacrifices a little range for a large bump in damage. But despite its power, its lower range means that the Assassin may lack a safe way to engage enemies. Of course, for more daring Assassins, this dagger can still be used successfully resulting in one of the strongest daggers in the game. Just keep in mind that it’s also extremely rare, so you may want to use it on a dagger class more suited for it.
The Etherite Dagger dropping in the Haunted Cemetery is a like the Dirk of Cronus’ little brother. Holding the second lowest range of all daggers with only 4 tiles this dagger is quite dangerous for the assassin to use, however it makes up for it by dealing very notable damage. While not the best dagger for every situation this dagger can be very valuable if used on safer enemies or when the assassin feels comfortable using it. Notably there is also a tradable legacy version of this dagger that deals slightly less damage however can still be a decent option to pick up.
The Corruption Cutter from the Cursed Library carries the unique trait among daggers of firing two shots. While appearing to have standard dagger range it’s strange shot pattern causes it to effectively lose about 25 percent of its total. This dagger is on the risker side to use reliably, but deals outstanding damage on the lower end of the defense spectrum potentially outclassing all other daggers in that range. When fighting higher defense enemies it is not recommended to use this dagger unless the enemy is armor broken.
The Symbiotic Ripper from The Crawling Depths is an interesting dagger. This dagger shares it’s range with the tiered daggers while having a lower average damage and higher fire rate. The drawback to this dagger is that it’s shots move very slowly, this acts as a double edged sword as it becomes incredibly hard to hit fast moving targets. However, it can also be used against an enemy that chases you or one with a set path as you can lead it into your shots effectively increasing your range even further. This dagger can be seen as an alternative to the Dagger of Foul Malevolence based on personal preference.
The Spirit Dagger found in Davy Jone’s Locker is a powerful midgame dagger. While it has slightly lower range than tiered dagger, the Spirit Dagger deals more damage than Foul and has a slightly “wavy” pattern to its shots, which some may find makes hitting enemies slightly easier. This weapons damage range is very wide which may make individual shot damage a bit inconsistent but the overall dps should average out.
The Carved Golem Remains is the safest option for any dagger user and can be found in the Lost Halls. This dagger boasts a large range of 6.3 tiles in return for sacrificing some of it’s damage. While on the weaker end this dagger can still get the job done and the assassin may benefit heavily from the ability to stay back farther while tossing poisons.
Toxin Tooth appropriately dropping in the Toxic Sewers is more akin to a sword than a dagger. This dagger carries incredibly high damage at the cost of a significant amount of it’s fire rate, additionally this dagger has 3.5 range the same as standard swords. This makes using this dagger rather risky however it can be a very strong option in the right hands.
The Bounty Hunter’s Dagger is only obtainable form certain events by stacking Shards of the Mad God. Another rather unique dagger firing 3 shots, however unlike many multishot weapons this daggers shots have a true range reaching all of its 5.3 tiles of range. This dagger deals notable damage being better than the Dagger of Sinister Deeds until relatively high defense. Additionally this dagger has the unique trait of ignoring obstacles allowing you to safely hit enemies from the other side of cover in some scenarios.
Avarice from Oryx’s Sanctuary is considered by many to be the strongest dagger in the game. This dagger boasts very high damage and a range increase over tiered, the only downside to this dagger is it’s firing pattern that spreads its shots out meaning you must position rather accurately to land all shots. If you can get used to this dagger it will be an incredibly powerful tool.
The Soulcursed Scythe is possibly the most unique weapon in the entire game. Obtainable in the Manor of the Immortals this weapon deals high damage with a slow fire rate, however it is generally nothing notable unless you are invisible. While invisible this weapon also fires out a piercing chain scythe that can deal very high damage. This however is not usually usable on assassin as he has no natural way to go invisible. The item can be built around with items like Turncoat Cape or Crystallised Mist but for the standard assassin it is not recommended.
When you use his special ability, the Assassin lobs a vial of poison at the location of your cursor which takes ~0.8 seconds to land, and poisons all enemies in its radius, dealing damage over time. Poison has two primary uses: take out groups of enemies, or take out enemies with high HP (gods, quest bosses, etc.) through hit and run tactics.
One method of dealing with groups is to quickly run forward and catch a lot of enemies’ attention, then run back the way you came. The enemies will clump up as they chase you, so lob your poison with your cursor roughly in front of you and don’t stop running. The monsters should run straight into your poison and you can sit back and watch them die. Depending on your speed stat vs the monsters’ running speed, you may need to adjust where you throw the poison. Play around with it until you’ve got the timing down.
If you aren’t quite a good enough judge of where to aim the poison while running, or if you prefer to play off-center (set a hotkey to switch between center and off-center in the options), and don’t have much space on the screen to aim in front of yourself while running, then you can aim the poison right at your character and stop moving for just a second, then resume running. You might take a hit here or there, but you’ll have better control over the enemies’ movement and should be able to hit more of them with your poison.
Another method, especially useful when fighting gods, is to drag your enemies over to some form of cover (rocks in godlands, or trees in lower level areas) and poison them safely from there. This works especially well when you have a whole wall to protect you (i.e. graveyards, ghost king castles, and cyclops castles) although make sure you’re reasonably close to the wall so the monsters will run up to it in a nice clump.
To deal with quest bosses, one of the Assassin’s strengths, run just far enough into the lair (graveyard, grove, castle, etc.) that you can throw your poison at the boss and then run out. This is the safest way to kill quest bosses at lower levels when you don’t have the equipment or stats to survive the attacks of the boss and his minions. Just make sure you stick around close enough to get the experience when he finally goes down.
As the Assassin’s poison ability moves up the tiers, the range, total damage, and MP efficiency improve, but the damage is spread out over a longer time period. Poison damage is not reduced by monster defense. Since some enemies have much lower health than the total damage dealt by the higher tier poisons, you may want to use up an inventory slot carrying a lower tier poison to save mp when killing groups of enemies (but always use your best poison when the enemy can’t be killed in one use, e.g. gods).
The Nightwing Poison/Baneserpent Poison/Necrofish Poison are mainstream all-around poisons for the assassin. Tiered poisons carry both solid damage and radius making them very good options for clearing groups of enemies or just for dealing extra damage to bosses when a more boss specific poison is not usable. Additionally Baneserpent and necrofish have passive bonuses to the player’s hp and mp which can be quite useful.
The Plague Poison is a potent UT poison from the third and last bosses of the Haunted Cemetery, boasting the widest range of any Poison. This poison deals 800 damage over 10 seconds costing 90 MP and has a range of 9 squares, nearly double the range of both Nightwing Poison and Baneserpent Poison. This poison takes ~1.5 seconds to land as opposed to the standard ~0.8 seconds. While very slow this potion is about as mana efficient as Nightwing making it a useful alternative when speed may be less valuable than poison range.
Plague Poison is very effective against large clusters of enmies, since you can lob it almost anywhere and infect a large swath of enemies. It is highly useful in Godlands, especially when fighting multiple gods at once. Its large range also allows effective and safe clearing of dungeons, sometimes reaching enemies in entirely seperate rooms.
Another good use of Plague Poison is in public Tombs, which tend to become FFA (Free-for-All; disorganized and chaotic) when all three bosses are activated at once. With Plague Poison, you can easily infect and secure SB damage all of three them with one usage.
The Mighty Stein is an item found from Beer Gods, it is effectively a weaker plague poison but has an added effect of buffing your defense by 5 on use as well as inflicting drunk on yourself.
The Murky Toxin is a potent ability found in the Toxic Sewers, which does high damage but requires good aim. There are 2 simultaneous detonations for the total cost of 120MP: the first one does 900 damage but has a small radius of 2, while the second one does 300 damage while having a larger radius of 4. Furthermore, it gives the user 3 ATT and 3 DEX, meaning the dagger also becomes more poweful while wearing this. The poison time is rather short meaning it is more likely to get all of its damage off even in situations where enemies die very fast.
Virulent Venom also found in the Toxic Sewers is an interesting poison. This poison deals no damage over time instead dealing 650 damage on impact within 3 tiles. Additionally when you get hit while wearing this poison a poison will automatically be thrown at your attacker for no mp cost, this effect has a 6 second cooldown. This poison is an effective choice for anyone who would rather not wait out a poisons damage time.
The Parasitic Concoction is the poison belonging to the Flesh Collector ST set and is dropped by the Nightmare Colony. With a cost of 120 MP and only 495 damage, this poison may seem very lackluster however this is offset by its ability to curse. When playing solo or in a group that lacks a mystic, the 25% dps boost to your weapon or other players can be far more valuable than the damage from a more deadly poison. This poisons status effect can be inflicted even on invulnerable targets which can make timing it more forgiving.
The Bottled Medusozoan is a very unique “poison” obtained from the Royal Cnidarian. Unlike other poisons this item throws out a stationary Cnidarian that will pulse out damage in an area around it over time. The poison costs 120 MP and deals a total of 1800 damage over 3 seconds, unlike all other poisons however this damage does not ignore defense and can be lowered. This tends to be a very situational but strong item as it is less effective against enemies that go invulnerable, have high def, or move very erratically, but it can easily melt through groups of lesser enemies and provide solid damage to stationary bosses. Additionally, you can only have one out at a time so while it’s single use dps is the highest it can be beaten by stacking multiple other poisons. It is important to note that this poisons comes with 4 DEX and 2 DEF making it a good passive option when you are not focused on your poison.
The Crystallised Fang’s Venom is a rare but powerful poison, dropping from the Crystal Worm Father of the Dwarf Miner Event. This poison is very weak on the damage side costing 100 mana and dealing a small 500 damage over 4 seconds, additionally this poison has an equally long throw time to plague of ~1.5 seconds and only has a range of 4 tiles. The upside to this is landing this poison will armor break it’s victim for 4 seconds causing a massive increase in dps for your group especially against high defense targets. Much like the Parasitic Concoction this poison can be a much better choice against bosses than any other poison provided there is no other source of Armor break in your group. Additionally this poison boasts a large 4 Dex and 4 ATT bonus outclassing Murky Toxin in passive damage boosts. Like the Parasitic Concotion this poisons status effect can be inflicted even on invulnerable targets which can make timing it more forgiving.
The Tyrant’s Toxin can only be obtained through events by stacking Shards of the Intern and is incredibly powerful. Costing an incredible 150 mp this item throws out a poison with a throw time of 1.2 seconds that deals 750 damage, after landing an additional cluster of 3 bombs spawns from the impact and land again after another 1.2 seconds. These bombs deal 550 damage each for a total damage of 2400 damage assuming you can land all 4 bombs on one target. Additionally this poison has a 33% chance to restore 50 mana whenever you use it effectively reducing its cost. This poison is very hard to use on a moving target but incredibly powerful, many people choose to only use it on stationary enemies however.
The Polarity Poison is a rare drop from the Twilight Archmage. This poison outdamages every single other poison in the game barring debuffs. The orange primary bomb not only does massive damage over time, but the blue secondary bombs are also great for damage in addition to providing utility with their 3 second slows. This poison is a must have for both utility and damage, with its only downside being that it is a rare drop from The Shatters, a very difficult endgame dungeon.
The Hydra Skin Armor, Wyrmhide Armor, and Leviathan Armor are the best tiered leather armors. They provide decent bonuses to DEX and DEF, increasing the Assassin’s DPS and survivability. The Hydra Skin and Wyrmhide are the best tradeable leather armors, with Hydra Skin dropping mainly from Oryx the Mad God 2 and Wyrmhide dropping from various endgame dungeons such as the Void. Finally, the Leviathan Armor is THE best tiered leather armor. However, it drops from two very difficult endgame bosses, The Forgotten King and Oryx the Mad God 3, along with also being soulbound.
These armors greatly increase the Assassin’s rushing capabilities.
The three Beehemoth Armors dropping from the three Beehemoths are leather armors that prioritize mobility. They sacrifice DEF for SPD, specifically giving +5 SPD. This can allow the Assassin mobility along with some rushing capability. Meanwhile, the Turncoat Cape from Treasurer Gemsbok is a complete upgrade to the aforementioned Beehemoth Armors. The Turncoat Cape not only gives more def and double the SPD, but it also has a proc that turns the wearer invisible when taking 30+ damage. This armor much greatly enhances the Assassin’s rushing capabilites, with the only problem other than its DEF and DEX decrease being its difficulty in obtaining it, as it drops from an endgame miniboss.
These leather armors are great for boosting general survivability.
The Armor of Nil is arguably the best defensive leather armor in the game. A rare drop from the Void Entity, the Armor of Nil gives a whopping +26 DEF, similar to that of the Dominion Armor. The downside is the loss of DEX, which this armor doesn’t give, unlike tiered leather armors, and the -3 SPD. However, the both losses can be negligeble, as the Asassin already has a high DEX cap and high SPD cap. Also, the Assassin’s poison already does a fair amount of damage, meaning that loss of DEX does not make a large difference. On the other hand is the Luminous Armor, an ST leather armor from the Crystal Cavern. Instead of DEF, it entirely lacks any DEF bonus in exchange for a whopping +200 HP (which is more than the Ring of Decades)+5 SPD, and +5 VIT. The Luminous Armor is similar to the Breastplate of New Life in that it sacrifices DEF for HP, albeit much more drastically. While HP is generally better for survivability than DEF, the huge loss of DEF can hurt the Assassin as the class has naturally low DEF. However, most shots in endgame content already do lots of damage or armor pierce, so HP can still be useful on the Assassin.
The Vest of Abandoned Shadows is a more peculiar leather armor. Dropping from various minions within The Shatters, it acts as a defensive armor, giving the 
Armored effect when the wearer is in-combat. This armor also has a high +15 VIT and moderate +50 HP, which increases the Assassin’s survivability a little more as HP generally boosts survivability more than DEF. It can be seen as more situational due to the proc activating only when in combat. However, it is great for use when you are fighting and taking a lot of damage. This fits with the melee nature of the Assassin, although because he can also throw poisons from afar, range isn’t as much of an issue. Still, this leather armor is good for when you need to get in close to enemies for dealing damage.
The Harlequin Armor dropping from The Puppet Master is a great leather armor for the Assassin. It sacrifices survivability for utility, providing less DEF for more MP. This synergizes well with the Assassin, as his poison ability requires high amounts of MP usage.
Health Rings are great for improving overall survivability. The Ring of Unbound Health and Ring of Decades provide very large increases to HP, +180 and +190 HP respectively. They can be good for improving the Assassin’s survivability in general.
While less used, the Ring of Defense can still be beneficial on an Assassin. As the class has 25 DEF, and has shorter range requiring it to get closer to enemies for damage, a DEF boost is more beneficial to the class than other, more high DEF classes.
Since the Assassin’s poison consumes a high amount of MP, some players may seek more MP focused rings, such as the Ring of Unbound Magic, Sourcestone, The Twilight Gemstone, and Ring of the Sphinx. MP can also act as a psuedo DPS booster, as the poison can deal heavy damage given enough time. The Ring of Unbound Magic provides roughly 1-2 more poison throws with its high MP boost. Meanwhile, the Sourcestone from the Void Entity is more balanced, giving both HP and MP, meaning it should be used for when you want a balance between survivability and utility on your Assassin. The Twilight Gemstone not only provides +110 MP, giving one more poison throw, but it also reduces your MP cost, along with a few bonuses to mobility and defense. Finally, the Ring of the Sphinx gives a simple +100 MP along with +4 to both ATT and DEX, making it useful for people who want balance between DPS and utility.
These rings provide a more balanced playstyle. The Omnipotence Ring (Omni) gives a balanced spread of small bonuses to all stats, which can be good for people who want a well rounded Assassin. Meanwhile, the Bracer of the Guardian (Bracer) focuses more on HP, MP, DEX, and DEF. Finally, the Divine Coronation (Coro) is considered more offensive than the Bracer, giving more HP, less MP, more ATT than DEX, and a little less DEF. Bracer may be preferred over Omni since the loss of WIS, VIT, and SPD may seem negligeble as very small losses. Coro could also be preferred for its higher DPS stat bonus, and willing to accept the loss in MP.
Both The Forgotten Crown (Crown) and Magical Lodestone provide excellent stats for general DPS increase. While Crown may offer HP, which is generally considered better than DEF, DEF is still beneficial on the Assassin due to the class’s low DEF cap. Also, the SPD increase is nice for increasing the Assassin’s mobility.
The Exalted God’s Horn from Oryx the Mad God 3 is a more focused DPS increasing item, having more HP than The Forgotten Crown while still having a decent DPS boost. It works well on the Assassin due to the range of his poison, allowing him to do damage from afar while gaining even more survivability.
The main strengths that lie within the Assassin is his high damage output, compared to the other dagger classes, along with the poison ability to do even higher damage to groups of enemies. His higher Wisdom stat of 60, like the Trickster, compared to the Rogue also helps him regenerate his MP for sooner poison uses. With your high speed and damage output, you can often succeed by darting in, quickly damaging a target, and darting out. Even without a Priest backup, an Assassin can solo many events this way.
However, like the other dagger classes, he lacks the long range of staff/bow users and the defense of sword users. Furthermore, the Assassin does not have the invisibility of the Rogue, or the decoys of the Trickster, so survival is heavily reliant on the player’s skill in dodging all projectiles that come your way. Moreover, he lacks a healing ability, so you should always carry healing items and be patient enough to back off from fights for a minute to recover some HP. Otherwise, you will find your Assassin dead much sooner than expected.
A fresh Assassin’s stats are just like a fresh Rogue’s stats, with excellent Speed and Dexterity stats, but has a much better Attack and Wisdom stat than the Rogue does. Even with all these good stats, a fresh Assassin cannot function as effectively as other fresh classes. This is because the Assassin relies on dodging skills in order to survive, and fighting at medium range does not help him, either. The Assassin can still function with a hit-and-run tactic, but is still difficult to pull off at events without any Speed invested.
An Assassin’s capped stats are great for its purposes. His 75 Speed allows him to quickly run in, toss poison, and escape without spending much time taking fire. He also has a great 60 Attack, along with 75 Dexterity, which gives him decent damage output for a dagger class. A great 60 Wisdom allows him to get back on his feet if he misses a lob of poison.
When fighting alongside allies in the godlands, the Assassin usually doesn’t need to use his poison since the enemy is often killed before the poison can take much effect. Instead he can focus on hit and run tactics, using his high Speed and Dexterity to quickly dispatch enemies and then retreat to the safety of the priests or other long-range fighters.
However, if the group approaches a tough god (Medusa, Sprite God, Red Demon, or Leviathan) with lots of health, then feel free to throw some poison at it to bring its health down much faster. Or, if someone (accidentally, I’m sure) drags a group of gods towards the party, move to the side and take aim, because your poison could be the thing that allows you to eliminate them quickly and continue adventuring, rather than having the whole party being forced to retreat to the nexus.
Assassins are also useful to the party in taking out groups of gods from the safety of castle walls. They can also be of help by dealing significant poison damage to tough event bosses surrounded by large groups of minions, such as Cube Gods, Skull Shrines, and even Oryx.
Since Build 119, the popularity of Assassins has skyrocketed due to the simplicity of getting soulbound damage in an Event. Usually 2-3 Nightwing lobs are enough to get an easy stat potion at a Skull or Cube. It is difficult for an Assassin to get soulbound damage if there is no cover (trees, rocks, etc.) around. If there is, quickly run towards the boss, using the cover, and get off a poison before quickly retreating to safety. Using this hit-and-run tactic, the Assassin can easily land plenty of damage without much to lose, and without much effort. Large groups with you can easily speed up the process.
As for dungeon bosses, the Assassin needs to time his poison effectively, because the poison will not affect the dungeon boss if they are under a period of invulnerability. A mistimed poison can completely waste his MP when another opportunity opens up. This is why it is much harder for an Assassin to get soulbound damage on a dungeon boss than an event boss.
Assassin is famous for being the WC character. It has great speed to rush, and the poison gets easy soulbound qualification on Oryx 2.
Notes: Since it cannot cloak, or teleport like the trickster or rogue, it is important to remember dodging is a must when rushing the WC. Just because you throw poisons, this does not mean you are certain to get soulbound. It is possible to throw 10+ poisons and not get a drop. Throwing poison just means you qualify for soulbound.
Whether solo or adventuring with friends, the Assassin has a fun play-style and an ability that takes only a little bit of practice to master. The Assassin can deal high damage to several groups of enemies, without much effort needed, and can get himself easy soulbound damage. Recommended for those who want a challenge that can still yield rewards. Also recommending to play as PPE (Pet Player Experience where you max yourself from nothing but a pet without trading). As mentioned above, you can just throw 2 lobs of poison at Oryx 2 and easily qualify for soulbound.
