A skill-by-skill listing of Assassin skills that still need fixing

Blanket statement for this thread -- Because of the proposed decrease in recharge for shadowsteps, they should disable adrenaline skills (without emptying a character's adrenaline pool) for a few seconds as to not overpower the skills for Warriors. Teleporting melee spikes are simply something an Assassin should be totally superior at. They NEED to have that distinguishing ability.

CRITICAL STRIKES - Just a prenote, I think every single enchantment in this line NEEDS to be changed to simply a "skill" like Critical Eye or Ritual Lord. Mainly because they aren't very useful otherwise but also because it aesthetically makes sense (I'm getting RPG now) that these abilities are a fighting style the Assassin has learned. On with the show:

Assassin's Remedy - Change to a skill with automatic activation.

Why? - Because it's already not even garunteed condition removal when you need it.

Critical Defenses - Change to a skill with automatic activation that lasts for 8 seconds.

Why? - The slight duration increase makes it a bit more reliable to maintain and being able to activate it immediately means you'll actually have defense when you need it, as opposed to standing there trying to cast it and just dying from that Eviscerate + Executioners combo that is slashing your head off.

Critical Eye - Dramatically increase the duration (something like 5 seconds base plus and extra 10 seconds per rank in critical strikes) and increase critical % to 1 + your rank in crit strikes.

Why? - Because it's currently a waste of a skillslot. The bonus critical chance right now is crap and the +1 energy bonus per critical is lessened when you consider that 5 energy needs to be spent every 30 seconds to reapply the skill.

Dark Apostasy - Change to a skill with automatic activation and decrease to 5 energy.

Why? - Because standing there casting a spell for 2 seconds as an Assassin is way too obvious and if left as a removable enchantment that requires so much energy, there would be non-Elite methods of removing enchantments that would be preferrable.

Deadly Haste - Change to a skill with automatic activation.

Why? - Because you could make some great builds with this skill but at the moment it's too risky to really be worth it.

Fox's Promise - Change to a skill with automatic activation.

Why? - Because otherwise Expose Defenses really negates the purpose of spending your ELITE slot on this skill.

Locust's Fury - Decrease to 5 energy and change to a skill with automatic activation.

Why? - Because this is similar to a Instant-Attack-Speed ability (though not nearly as good because it doesn't help your attack chains) and I don't recall frenzy/flurry/tiger's stance being easily removable. It's also a waste of time to be casting this when you need to be attacking and 10 energy is too unwieldy for the effect that it gives.

Palm Strike - Decrease to 5 energy.

Why? - Because it's an Elite and deserves to be better than other Offhand attacks that are non-Elite.

Sleeping Wound - Decrease to 1/4 second cast and 5 second recharge.

Why? - Because the effect isn't that amazing for an Elite but if spammable the skill could actually become useful for condition pressure builds and as a cover hex.

Sharpen Daggers - Keep the 2 second activation but change to a skill, decrease recharge to 10 seconds, dramatically increase the duration (5 seconds base plus an extra 10 seconds per rank), and slightly increase the bleeding duration that is caused.

Why? - Because you shouldn't have to waste time constantly re-applying a skill with an effect that's this small and if interrupted you can at least go for it again in a shorter amount of time.

Unsuspecting Strike - Increase to 8 second recharge (how is something "Unsuspected" when it is being spammed?) but make it unblockable/unevadable.

Why? - Cause it's a leet sneak attack. They don't know it's coming (in RPG terms), so they shouldn't be able to block/evade and you shouldn't be able to spam it.

Way of the Assassin - Change to a skill with automatic activation, remove the "while enchanted" conditionality, and dramatically increase the duration (same as Critical Eye).

Why? - Because the effect is already barely worthy of being an ELITE, so it should always be working and you should have the option to use an IAS stance with it.

DAGGER MASTERY

Black Mantis Thrust - Decrease to 5 energy and 8 second recharge.

Why? - Because 10 energy is too much when other crippling options are available and 8 seconds makes it fit into attack chains better.

Blades of Steel - Increase damage bonus to 3 + rank in dagger mastery for each recharging dagger attack and increase damage cap to 60.

Why? - Because the huge amount of extra damage is very conditional.

Desperate Strike - 1/3 of the damage it currently causes should always be applied no matter what your health is at and the full bonus should come whenever you're under 80% health.

Why? - Because you can't waste a skill slot for an offensive attack that does nothing unless you're hurt a decent amount. It needs to do some damage always so that it can be worked into an attack chain.

Disrupting Stab - Change to simply a "Melee Attack" instead of a lead attack and have it disable all skills, not just spells.

Why? - Because it makes little sense to use this as a Lead attack when you need to save it to interrupt something and it should be able to disable signets and such just as the Warrior equivilent Disrupting Chop does.

Flashing Blades - Decrease to 5 energy and increase blocking rate to 75%.

Why? - Because it sucks right now. Assassins are about offense; if you're going to be using your Elite slot for something that doesn't help you kill, then it better be worth it.

Golden Fox Strike - Increase the damage dealt to 10 + (Atrribute Rank multiplied by 3).

Why? - Lead attacks need to be worth using and the current damage isn't convincing.

Golden Skull Strike - Reduce to 5 energy.

Why? - To balance out with Temple Strike.

Golden Lotus Strike - Decrease recharge to 8 seconds.

Why? - Because the benefit here is the energy gain and with its current recharge there are better skills available.

Golden Phoenix Strike - Reduce to 5 energy.

Why? - Because 10 energy is a lot for something that's conditional and doesn't even do a ton of extra damage. Obviously it's very useful for being able to immediately follow with a dual attack for AoD builds but the current energy requirement requires you to have max energy to do an entire chain and I feel that hampers the Assassin's ability to use this consistently. Using a spammable hex with Black Spider Strike and Black Lotus Strike is almost always going to be better if this remains at 10 energy.

Jagged Strike - Add a small damage bonus (base of 5 + your rank in dagger mastery) in addition to the bleeding it causes.

Why? - Because this is a skill you want to put into a spammable attack chain and it doesn't have a spammable benefit that makes it worth taking.

Jungle Strike - Decrease to 4 second recharge.

Why? - Because if left at an 8 second recharge you might as well take Fox Fangs.

Leaping Mantis Sting - Decrease to 4 second recharge.

Why? - Becuase lead attacks need to be worth taking, otherwise Offhand + Dual + Offhand + Dual will almost always be the favored attack chain. The effect here is conditional on factors outside of what you can do (ie. being enchanted or hexing the foe), so it deserves to be spammed.

Repeating Strike - Should be able to follow any Lead or Offhand melee attack.

Why? - Because there isn't much use for it right now. It should be able to be used as the offhand attack in a normal attack chain.

Temple Strike - Decrease to 10 energy.

Why? - Because no Assassin skill should cost more than 10 energy. 15 energy is a big investment for an ELITE with such a long recharge.

DEADLY ARTS - This is currently without a doubt the weakest skill line of any class.

Assassin's Promise - Reduce to a 20 second recharge and a 1/4 second cast and slightly increase the duration (equal to the energy gain of the spell).

Why? - Because it's currently only playble in SBRi group builds and maybe now an actual Assassin can give the spell a use.

Dark Prison - Reduce to a 30 second recharge.

Why? - Because every 45 seconds is silly. Assassin DPS is already unreliable; they at least need to have strong spikes.

Enduring Toxin - Decrease to a 5 second recharge.

Why? - Because it's sub-par unless it can be kept up at all times.

Entangling Asp - Should be able to follow any dagger attack or melee Assassin skill.

Why? - Because it's currently way too limited to be playable. This needs to be available at any time you've engaged your opponent.

Expunge Enchantments - Decrease to a 20 second recharge.

Why? - Because 30 seconds is too long of a time to make it worth taking.

Lift Enchantment - Reduce to 5 energy and a 1/4 second cast.

Why? - It's conditional and therefore needs to be quick and efficient when it can actually be used.

Impale - Change to a half-range spell and increase the base damage dealt.

Why? - 16 in Deadly Arts is just not going to happen, so the base damage needs to be high enough to allow the spell to do excellent damage with about 11 in the attribute. It should be half-range to work well with Deadly Haste and for flavor (doesn't make sense to impale somebody with a dagger from so far away).

Iron Palm - Reduce to 5 energy.

Why? - Because 10 energy is too much for something that's conditional and does barely any damage.

Mantis Touch - Should be able to follow any melee dagger attack or melee assassin skill.

Why? - Because it's too conditional right now to merit use over Caltrops.

Mark of Death - Increase the duration (5 + rank in attribute).

Why? - Because now it might be useful outside of SBRi to add pressure.

Scorpion Wire - Reduce to a 20 second recharge.

Why? - 30 seconds is too long when there are other knockdowns that recharge in 20.

Shadow Prison - Decrease recharge to 15 seconds.

Why? - Gotta make it worth taking as an ELITE. It would fit perfectly into a Black Strike/Twisting Fangs chain as a 15 second recharge.

Shameful Fear - Reduce to 1/4 second cast and do not cause the spell to increase your target's movement speed.

Why? - Because if your opponent is running away it doesn't do too much good to stand there casting this for 2 seconds, especially when this just makes them get away faster. The spell needs to quickly force your opponent into a predicament...they either stand there and get hit by your melee or they run away and take damage.

Shroud of Silence - Reduce to a 20 second recharge.

Why? - Because 30 seconds is too long for an ELITE with such a short duration...there's other shutdown that is more constant.

Siphon Strength - Reduce the bonus critical chance to 25% but allow it to affect all attacks, not just the ones made on the hexed target. Also decrease to 10 energy and set as a half-range spell.

Why? - Because no Assassin skill should cost more than 10 energy and because it's usefulness is lessened when you are forced to attack the physical damage dealers you're trying to debuff. It's currently like the equivilent of a Mesmer whose Spirit of Failure energy bonus would only take effect if they were actively attacking or casting on that target.

Way of the Empty Palm - Decrease to a 15 second recharge.

Why? - Because it's already of limited usage and for the builds you'd want to use it with the spell need to be kept up more consistently.

SHADOW ARTS

Beguiling Haze - Reduce to a 10 second recharge.

Why? - Because it's a risky spell to use. Unlike a Mesmer who interrupts from afar, an Assassin will often already be in an attack while the target is casting a key spell, so this should be a bit more spammable.

Blinding Powder - Should be able to follow any melee dagger attack or melee Assassin skill. Also change this to a touch skill.

Why? - Well first of all it makes no sense why this isn't a touch skill (pretty damn hard to throw powder and make it go very far) and secondly it needs to be reliable. Being required to make a successful offhand attack seriously hampers its usefulness currently, especially since it is pretty much THE only Assassin ability that makes Unseen Fury worth using.

Death's Charge - Reduce to 30 second recharge.

Why? - Because 45 seconds for shadowsteps is too long. These quick mobility abilities actually need to be constant enough for an Assassin to pressure with them.

Death's Retreat - Reduce to a 15 second recharge.

Why? - Because otherwise Return is almost always going to be superior.

Heart of Shadow - Decrease to 8 second recharge.

Why? - Because it's not constant enough healing right now to worth being used.

Mirrored Stance - Reduce to a 2 second recharge.

Why? - Because at the very least this should be an extremely spammable cover hex...the effect it has is SO conditional.

Shadow Shroud - Decrease to 10 second recharge.

Why? - Because without being able to constanly deny your opponent of enchantments, there are better options available for shutting people down.

Shadowy Burden - Reduce to 1 second cast, increase to 33% speed debuff, and remove the "while foe has no other hexes" condition for the armor debuff.

Why? - Because now it's actually useful. For 10 energy it currently takes too long to cast and doesn't allow you to put a cover hex, or ANY other hex, on your target.

Shroud of Distress - Reduce to 5 energy and a 1/4 second cast.

Why? - Because 10 energy is too much for the effect and it needs to be a fast cast to really be useful in a pinch.

Unseen Fury - Reduce to a 20 second recharge.

Why? - Because if this kind of build is going to be useful, the skill needs to be up constantly and not rob you of switching into another stance.

Viper's Defense - Remove the teleportation component, increase to a 15 second recharge, and cause it to knock down and poison the next person who damages you with a melee attack (50% failure on the knockdown component with Shadow Arts under 5).

Why? - Because it's horrible right now; it doesn't give you much defense at all. With this change it would definitely give you concrete protection while still adding a bit of pressure from the poison as well.

Way of Perfection - Reduce to 1/4 second cast and 10 second recharge.

Why? - Because it needs to be reliable if you're going to depend on it for healing.

Way of the Fox - Decrease to a 30 second recharge.

Why? - Needs to be available more often to be really useful as a spiking aid. Plus, Dervish get a skill that does the exact same thing with a 30 second recharge.

Way of the Lotus - Reduce to a 10 second recharge.

Why? - Too inconsistent at the moment to be used for energy management.

NO ATTRIBUTE

Aura of Displacement - Decrease recharge to 15 seconds and energy cost to 5.

Why? - The spell uses up a lot of energy when compared to Shadow Walk or Shadow Prison; the recharge and cost need to be low enough to justify using your Elite slot on it.

Recall - Decrease to 10 energy.

Why? - Keeping in line with the "no Assassin ability should cost more than 10 energy" mantra.

Shadow Meld - Decrease to 5 energy and a 15 second recharge.

Why? - Because at 10 energy and a 20 second recharge, there's really not much point in spending your Elite slot on it.

Signet of Twilight - Reduce activation time to 1 second.

Why? - Conditional abilities need to be usable quickly during the window of opportunity.

Spirit Walk - Reduce to a 4 second recharge.

Why? - Because it's already very specific but at least now you can use it with Consume Soul on the same recharge timer for hunting down spirits in HA.

-----------------------

Discuss!

Whoa... an Assassin skill fix thread with NO mention of Shadow Refuge??? I about fell outta my seat.

Besides giving that skill a boost (i.e. make it 6s regen instead of 4s), I'd make Flashing Blades do 75% blocking and give Seeping Wound some impact damage when it is activated (i.e. -50 damage).

Your Critical Defenses suggestion is good, but don't hold your breath for GPS to return to 5E. Also, the Temple Strike suggestion means that the new Golden Jaw Strike would have no purpose. If Impale were changed as you suggest, it'd be the second most popular damage skill after Twisting Fangs.

One other general change I'd make is that the skills Heart of Shadow and Viper's Defense should shadow step you randomly in the area, not just nearby... and break the auto-attack lock on you as well.

This belongs in the suggestion forum. Also, Shadow Refuge is the best self-heal in the game, and the most efficient based on cast time and energy cost.

Shadow Refuge has 1 second cast time, 5 energy

compared with a warrior's healing signet...

-40 Armor, 2 second cast time, and its a signet. Very easy to interrupt

I believe with the added bonus of shadow refuge when attacking, you gain about the same (I need to do the math)

RE: Temple Strike vs. Golden Jaw Strike - You'll notice in the end of my post that I think both of them should go down by 5 energy (Golden Jaw is referenced as an Elite Nightfall skill).

RE: Impale - Whoa, I really don't think so at all. It would just become playable instead of nearly worthless like it is right now. Even with a boost to the damage it does (and the ability to spam it), you have to remember that Deadly Arts is totally a secondary attribute. Nobody is going to be pumping their Deadly to 16 just to have a high damage Impale.

Re: Heart/Viper's - I thought about that as well but it might actually make Heart overpowered. For Viper's I sorta re-envisioned the skill and don't want it to teleport you.

Temple strike is fine as it is, imo. It has a use in a few niche builds, especially since they made Shadow of Hast so hot. But really, none of those skill changes make the assassin any differant, and many still won't find there way onto any bars.

No Assassin skill should cost more than 10 energy. The skill changes aren't about making the Assassin entirely different, it is about allowing more builds to become viable. Every single skill I listed should be able to find it's way onto a PvP bar for some kind of build if they were changed as such. The only exception is Mirrored Stance, which is way too conditional to be of much use for PvP...but at least the change I suggested would make it useful sometimes, especially in HA if you're building against the metagame (against some teams you could have permanent Whirling Defense on), instead of almost never because of how slow it currently is.

A build that would be excellent for HA (perhaps GvG too) and broaden the Assassin's role in the group:

Deadly Haste
Disrupting Dagger
Siphon Strength [Elite]
Siphon Speed
Black Spider Strike
Twisting Fangs
Black Lotus Strike
Rez Signet

With Deadly Haste and Disrupting Dagger the Assassin could perma-interrupt the Ghostly Hero in the same fashion as PD Mesmers and seeking arrow Rangers currently do. Siphon Strength seriously reduces the DPS of opposing physical damage dealers and powers the Assassin's own attacks and energy management, while Siphon Speed acts as a cover hex AND allows the Assassin to easily chase down targets and use his attack chain.

It would never work with Deadly Haste and Siphon Strength in their current forms, though. The build crumbles without Deadly Haste activated and you can't rely on that single easily-removable skill to make your entire skillbar work properly.

I agree with most of the suggestions. However, here's what I'd recommend:

Golden Phoenix Strike: If this attack costs 10e, it should either land an auto-critical or be unblockable/un-evadable.

Flashing Blades: Not elite-caliber in its present form. Flashing Blades should either grant 50% unconditional block, or 75% block while attacking , or some other percentage based on dagger mastery. 50% block rate falls well below most other non-elite block stance rates, and the while-attacking requirement makes it close to useless. Yes, its duration is good, but very much incompatible with the assassin's hit/run design prototype.

Shadow Refuge: If assassins are designed for hit/run tactics due to their sub-par melee armor, why is their self healing regen-based instead of being a hard heal spell? The +life bonus at SR's expiration should come while not attacking, as opposed to its current form. This simple change would make SR more functional with the class as a whole.


Assassin skills are loaded with many inconsistencies and incompatibilities which really hinder class efficiency. I almost feel like Q/A testing was skipped and the class product rushed into production.

I agree that Shadow Refuge has problems, there are actually 3 problems. First, wile it may yeild a great deal of healing, your talking about the flimsyest class in the game, a melee class with nearly caster armor and no shield, even paragon has better armor and he is ranged. Second, conditional healing that requires that you continue attacking doesn't help you if your really taking damage, and obviously your taking damage if you need to heal. And most importantly, it isn't spamable, if it was, it would be a better heal, but since it only works 4 out of 9 seconds (4 seconds between finish to recast and 1 second to cast), it leaves this rather flimsy class unattended for a period of time.

Shadow Refuge should probably trigger healing wile running instead of attacking, or have a shorter recast.

And the real remedy to Assassins lack of defense is lower recast on Deaths Charge and Dark Prison, allowing them to teleport into battle often, coupled with another skill to escape quickly. Using an Elite to teleport to your target breaks teleports for all other elite builds. Dash works better now, but improving the lesser attraction doesn't cut it, teleporting is the coolest thing about Assassin, and it provides more suprise than running at any speed.

My suggestion is 20 second recast on Deaths Charge and Dark Prison, as well as some new teleport skills. It would have been nice if recast times were affected by attribute points. But with AoD at 20 recast and no-attribute, it really doesn't matter.

The other thing I would like to note is that, ever how unusual it is for a combat class to use enchantments, Assassin is a combination of magic and combat (a poor one IMO), and some of his halmark moves, GPS, depend on enchantments. I think the best remedy for this is to just keep the cast times low, and the recast lower, so they can be reapplied if it is stripped.

Critical Defense definetly needs to last longer, I think it should be a stance, and it should be at least 7 seconds, as Critical Strike has a 6 second recharge and attack speed adds another 1.33 seconds to the activation. And with such a high maintenance (making criticals every few seconds, can be very occupying), the max evasion should be higher, like 75-80%, expecially if it stays at 6 second refresh.

Shroud of Distress should also have higher evasion or higher health trigger, 50-60% chance to block when your half dead isn't much of a life saver, if the enemy is focusing on you, those spells are still going to blow you away, this should be much higher or have a secondary protection against spell damage. Personally, I would just replace the skill altogether with one that slows down all attacks and spells casting on you so it takes twice as long.

And Way of Perfection is a shadow of effectiveness compared to Vigorous Spirit. Aside from the fact that it is really only good on a high critical Assassin, and it can't be applied to others for support, the recast makes it hard to maintain, and weak to enchantment stripping. This class is already a melee class without the defense to take on front line damage, the last thing it needs is a weakness to enchantment stripping, pretty much all of the 30 second duration enchantments Assassin has should have a 10s recast. Enchantment stripping is bad on Elementist, it is just plain broken against Assassin.

The damage this class puts out is reasonable, making it higher may make Dagger Mastery too strong, but it still doesn't compensate for Assassins lack of defense. Dagger attacks themselves compensate their high frequency and high damage yeild with a combo dependant offset. The defensive capabilities and alternatives are what Assassins has always been lacking, it doesn't matter if the class can level any one player by itself in seconds, because any one player can level an Assassin just as easily because of their low defense.

Aside from the Advancing teleports, Heart of Shadow could also help with Assassins Defense Alternatives. Increasing the Range of the teleport is really just a gimmic, it is still just as likely to teleport you into trouble as it is to teleport you away from it. As a skill by itself, it doesn't provide enough healing to counteract any significant amount of damage, it wouldn't replace a healing skill, so your basicly adding some unreliable utility to your skill bar if you use this. The best option would be to reduce the recast under 5-8 seconds, and reduce the duration to 10 or 15 seconds. The defensive ability of this skill is still far weaker than Vampiric Weapon or Reversal of Fortune, aside from the factor that it is self use only and not a supportive skill to be used on whichever allie is in need. The least this should be is a frequent skill so it can counter damage frequently instead of sporaticly, with anything more than 8 second recast, it just doesn't qualify for a skill slot.

There are alot of minor adjustments which can be made to make every skill fair and acceptable, but I only care about the ones that are neccessary to make Assassin a functional class. No matter how effective you pan a class, death is the ultimate penalty, and lack of defense makes the class a hazard and liability to any party. Very significant skill changes need to be made to make Assassin functional. And even more important than that, improvements like frequent teleports are what Assassin need to be enjoyable, those are what truely set Assassin apart, not a parade of the same effects available to other classes achieved in different ways, but the attractive abilities which Assassin nearly has a Monopoly on.

Balance is important, but it is a failure if you balance fun out of the equation. If they are concerned about something as simple as Warrior/Assassins shadowstepping frequently and knocking enemies down (as if the same can't be done with one normal skill at full range with Gale), than they just need to make all Shadowstep skills lose all adrenaline, or disable all attacks but Dagger attacks for 10 seconds, you can scream up and down about balance but the remedy is very simple. Frequent ShadowStepping is a neccessity for Assassin. Another option would be to add a 5% recast reduction to all Shadowstep skills for each point in Critical Strikes.

And on a final note, Shadowsteping should not be blocked by barriers, if you can necrotic traversal, Consume Corpse or Rebirth to a location, than you should be able to Shadowstep to it. Stacking so many weaknesses onto Assassin and their skills is what has disfigured the class, they need to lift some of these penalties if they want to to really fit along side other party options.

Shadowstepping isn't a teleport, it's normal movement at extreme speed, which is why they don't (and shouldn't) work the same way as Consume Corpse.
I think it's perfectly fine as it is; get to your target, spike, get out. Being able to go through walls at will would be easily abusable, I suspect.

I like the suggestions, go for it, assassins desperately need buffed.

basically a mass buff to sins?

More of a rebalance to make assassins on-par with the prophecies core classes.

I am not assassin pro, but, is not this a very big buff?

Update - Thursday September 14
SKILL UPDATES
Assassin
Black Lotus Strike: reduced recharge time to 20 seconds.
Blades of Steel: reduced recharge time to 8 seconds.
Blinding Powder: Blindness now affects target and all adjacent foes.
Crippling Dagger: increased damage to 15..60.
Critical Strike: decreased Energy cost to 5.
Dark Prison: decreased recharge time to 45 seconds.
Dash: decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
Death Blossom: increased damage to 20..45
Desperate Strike: increased damage to 15..60.
Fox Fangs: increased damage to 5..30.
Golden Lotus Strike: increased Energy gained to 5..12
Jungle Strike: increased damage to 10..25
Locust's Fury: increased chance to double strike to 33%.
Nine Tail Strike: decreased recharge time to 8 seconds.
Repeating Strike: increased damage to 10..30.
Scorpion Wire: decreased cast time to 1 second.
Shadow of Haste: decreased Energy cost to 5, increased the duration to 30..60, and decreased the movement speed by 15%.
Shadowy Burden: increased duration to 3..15 seconds.
Shroud of Distress: decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
Signet of Malice: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds, decreased casting time to .25 seconds.
Siphon Speed: increased movement speed reduction to 33%, and this spell now has half range.
Siphon Strength: increased duration to 5..20 seconds.
Temple Strike: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds, and increased duration to 1..10 seconds.
Unsuspecting Strike: increased conditional damage to 15..75.
Way of Perfection: increased Health gained from critical hit to 10..40.
Wild Strike: increased damage to 10..35.

Or, you know, you could stick to discussing the OP's post...

Assassins are kind of fine as they are. If the skills are too weak for you, then try a more powerful build, or perhaps use your second prof's skills instead.

*bang head*, *bang Head*, *bang head*

Yes, we know that some of the skills were buffed. Some of them were properly fixed but many were not. Since you are a self-confessed noob about this it's probably best to stay quiet.

Almost all of the skills I listed never see play in serious PvP. A true "buff" would be taking something the Assassin does well already and making it even stronger. A couple of my suggestions are for skills that do see a certain amount of usage right now (GPS and Deaths Charge) but the overall goal here is to give Assassins more options with their builds so that they are actually useful outside of being AoD gankers and Air of Enchantment lawnmowers.

A big "HUH?" to that first part.

I personally think that forced ignorance is pretty stupid. I have no trouble in making a good build as an Assassin, the problem is there aren't very many good builds. ANET needs to completely remove half of the Assassin skills from the game and just tell us to forget they ever existed if left in their current forms. If something is in the game that just makes me think that it should have a purpose. Currently, the intended purpose of many Assassin skills are not being properly realized. Which is why this thread exists.

These upgrades were an improvement but didn't really address the assassin class's functionality issues. The assassin's weaker melee armor forces hit/run spike tactics, yet their healing skills don't match this play style. SR only provides gradual regen with an attacking conditional hard heal. It was fine in FPE, but ANET's DEV team chose to make SR a self-defeating paradox. Skills like Dark Apostasy and Critical Defenses should not be strippable enchantments if they are being used by a melee class. Enchantments are the realm of arcane spell casters, not hand-to-hand combat specialist. Like the OP, I'd simply like to see these irregularities corrected so that the class's mortality rate doesn't always top the GW obituaries. Class balancing is only worthwhile if done correctly.

I stand by position to upgrade Shadow Refuge's healing to 6s of regen instead of 4s, but I forgot to add that it needs a .25s cast instead of 1s. THEN it would be a solid skill considering the Assassin's naturally poor defense. Of all the changes mentioned here, an improvement to Shadow Refuge is #1 on my list. I'd take it over any other skill upgrade.

That would make it completely overpowered. Shadow Refuge is just fine.

Serpent's Quickness + Shadow Refuge.

Assassin isn't just fine, and that is why a just fine healing skill isn't good enough. A just fine healing skill is for Warriors whos armor is so high that even with -40 armor, they still have the same armor spell casters do excluding the shield (this is with the 100 armor, or 80+20 vs physical). A just fine skill is for a just fine class. A finesse class needs perfectly tuned skills, not just fine skill.

They did buff Assassin skills because they are too weak, thus the obvious truth, Assassins are gimped. What they didn't do is fix the right skills. It isn't enough that the damage output of Dagger attacks and a few other improvements are panned out to balanced Assassins difficulty in combo attack chains and 2 handed weapon cost (or more specifically, they use a 2 handed weapon to wield those skills), they didn't remedy the real issue, which is that Assassins survival skills and defense alternative skills are not strong enough to compensate for this classes lower armor value.

The right skills need to be fixed in order to make Assassin a reasonable class to play, it doesn't matter how much damage the class does, or how fast it can do it, if the class sucks at staying alive it will never be an effective member choice for any party, survival is a neccessity for success in the majority of situations and objectives, and if you can't stay alive than your not worth bringing.

Shadowsteping, ever how you classify it, is a teleport of a different flavor. There are very, very few walls in GW, most of the time it is a chasm or cliff that your blocking your path. If you can reach an area by one means than you may as well reach it by another, you need a target to shadowstep, and if a necromancer can get there with a dead character, than an Assassin may as well with a live one. Last time I checked, it was pretty easy to jump massive cliffs and over walls with "super speed", it is certainly easier to walk up a wall than it is to magically teleport, and make no mistake, Assassin is a magic casting class as well as a physical combatant, there is no reason to restrict this, it just needs to be improved.

And though the trailers are never what we really get in the game, Visu teleported up the side of the entire Harvest Temple, Shadowsteping really isn't ment to be blocked by walls.

It is the simple things like Shadowstepping frequency which make Assassin much harder to keep up with and fun to play. It acts as a defensive measure because normal players will have more difficulty negotiating a Shadowstepping target rather than a running one, and being able to escape with other shadowstep skills allows them to advance, combo, and retreat without a fraction of the time taken to reach their target or escape.

Personally, I would rather they improve the Shadowsteps and leave Shadow Refuge the way it is, fixing Shadowsteps enhances the classes unique ability and allows for an original tactic. Improving Shadow Refuge just makes it easier to survive wile remaining simple and boring.

Here, here!

Of all the changes I'd like to see, this would be it.

Shadow Refuge
5e 1/4s cast 6s recharge
For 4 seconds, you gain 5...9 Health Regeneration. When Shadow Refuge ends, you gain 20...68 Health if you are not attacking.

or


Shadow Refuge
5e 1/4s cast 8s recharge
For 6 seconds, you gain 5...9 Health Regeneration. When Shadow Refuge ends, you gain 20...68 Health if you are not attacking.

I believe that the assassin's shadowstepping is fine as it is for now, and the the assassin's defensive abilities are what need to be changed.

I'm sorry but all of this "buff Shadow Refuge!" talk sounds like Random Arena rage from people who are mad that they can't do more damage than a warrior, have better movement abilities than a warrior, AND survive just as good as a warrior. The first two should hold true but certainly not the last...

These changes you suggest would make the spell the best non-elite self heal in the game. That's just not what the assassin is about. Go play a Dervish if you want to be a melee character with awesome self-preservation abilities.

its not to out kill a war, its to be able to survive. the shadow step skills cost to much and the recharge sucks. Healing is minimal. even a freaking ele last longer. they get armor bonuses. they should drop deadly arts (which are weak) and add dexterity which adds to the abilty to dodge/evade. a assassin (ninja) isnt a tank but he or she knows how to get the hell out of the way. with a 25 or so energy none of the sins skills should be over 10 and i would say even lower (5) for most as you have to rely on skills as opposed to armor/shield like a war. as far as the dervish.....did you miss the point? this is about making the assassin more playable. not making someone play another proff.

~the shadow stepping rat~

This is the top #1 thing that is annoying about Guild Wars.. The ammount of useless skills.. There are always going to be some "weaker" skills, but 90% of the skills shouldn't be worthless.


/signed - and signed for all the other weak skills also. Especially worthless elites.

What do you not understand...if an Assassin could survive really well then it would be imbalanced. They have better front-loaded damage, more options in their ability to disable opponents (in theory), and better mobility. A Warrior has better armor and more reliable DPS. Giving Assassins the best non-Monk self-heal in the game would simply not be fair, unless you lessened them in other areas (which should absolutely not be the goal...we want diversity and more playing styles and tactics).

Dervishes?

About assassins, the only reason I don't play that class is for the combos; Combos are really powerful, too much indeed, but with all that evasion/blocking (I play Monk a lot) is frustrating (at least for me) trying to make a 3 skill combo; You need team play for make that combos all the time or a build that really reduce assassin power, and with pugs that is horrible, maybe with the Nightfall heroes things will be different; i.e. using a necro hero spamming OoA.

I will do individual threads for each other class eventually.

Zuranthium is right, Assassins trademark is not defending and healing skills, that is Dervishes specialty. Assassin is ment to navigate the battle and place "critical" attacks on the enemy wile avoiding prolonged exposure to agresion.

Shadow Refuge isn't enough to save Assassin, and it really shouldn't be, changing the trigger to Running instead of Attacking would be a good change, but making Assassin tankworthy isn't proper.

Quick Damage and Quick movement are Assassins halmarks, his attacks are fair enough, but without reliable shadowstepping, they just can't get in and out of combat safely. Improved use of shadowstepping is what will define and strengthen the role of Assassin.

correct, the assassin shouldnt be able to tank dmg like a warrior, WHILE doing dmg. thats just it. they should be in more danger while attacking, while running and doin somethin else they should gain armor or better healing from shadow refuge.

I like the idea of making shadowstepping making your lose all adred, and walls shouldnt block shadowstepping... why is shadowstepping blocked by a wall? it shouldnt work like a instantly run up to target...stop gimpin the assassin.
one of the issues i think is, its not a core class like rit and paragon, derv will be. thus, not respected to the point of being completely balanced. thats the problem.

gw should BUILD off the new classes, make them completely balanced with all others, the only stand-alone features there should be is, yes the FIRST 6 classes are given to all chapters. but it would give you more incentive to care about other chapters, being able to play a completely new class,thats continously supported. you cant help the fact of needing other chapters to be on the same grounds of other players, you cant gimp new classes to make them just gimick options to the core 6....

I would change shadow refuge to have it's healing as an automatic thing when the enchanement ends, attacking or not. But I wouldn't make the healing conditional on running. There are times when you take some damage but don't need to run. Anyways the best retreat abilities for a sassi is recall and that other teleport one so that means he'd have to run away first to get the benefit and then teleport. Then you have the problem of the spell ending in the middle of a combo and maybe you don't want to run.

BTW, sometimes I put up shadow refuge before a fight starts and keep using it when I think I'm not taking enough damage to justify retreating.

And don't forget guys that sassis are "gimped" because they aren't tanks. If you want to tank just bring watch yourself and bonetti's defense.


Anyways, a sassi probably shouldn't be the first person charging into a battle in the first place. That's the tank's job. Once the tank has agro, then you come in.

The suggestion on SR is an excellent one. Bonus health while moving still prevents outright tanking while making the class more combat-survivable. The problem with the "while attack" health bonus at SR's termination is that if forces agression when the assassin needs it least. This makes SR's conditional heal component pretty much non-functional (like asking a man with broken legs to run to the hospital for treatment).

I would think that a sassi would need healing more in the thick of battle than running or teleporting away.

Signet of Obfuscation
Casting Time - 1/4 second
Recharge - 1 second

Shadowstep to a random location in the area. If this signet is activated more than 4 times in any 10 second period, it is disabled for 10 seconds.

I don't really like that idea, at all.

I could see the bonus health for SR being non-conditional but the actual amount would also have to be decreased or it would become overpowered.

Personally I would be happy If Flashing Blades would just stay the same but change to a standard skill not an elite, but I am pretty sure that would never happen. So I would live with it if it was changed to 75%

SR's bonus health used to be unconditional in FPE. It was nerfed with the conditional health boost prior to the official Factions launch. The bonus health while-moving or while not attacking would be the best compromise suggested so far.