Assassins overpowered?

They're far harder to kill and have far FAR higher dps than a warrior. They can pile five conditions on an enemy with one combo. They have a skill which lets attacks bypass stances and defences. They have good self-heal.
Basically an attacked caster is dead after one combo, and a warrior is bleeding, crippled, blind, deep-wound, and dazed, and there's not much one can do about it. Oh yeah, and add poison to that if it's an A/R.

I don't really see why anyone would use a warrior any more, except as a pure damage sponge, when an A/R is far more lethal and harder to kill.

Erm, yea they do pack a punch when all the linked skills hits you.
However, if a single linked skill misses, the rest of the skills does 0.

In that aspect, assasins are alittle underpowered.

Ways to get screwed. for a pure A (with the skills they provided)

You get blind on you, you're screwed.
Enemies uses dodge stance, the first linked skill hit misses the rest does 0.

I'm guessing that there will be an enchant for A, to buff up their accuracy, its is afterall not easy to link 4 skill hits onto a seasoned player.

You get blind on you, you remove it (they have condition removal).
Enemy uses a stance, you use the skill to bypass stances.

I've not seen this kind of one-man spiking since the Fragility build mesmers were the FOTM, and the mesmer skills had longer recharge times (and N/Mes can't tank worth a damn).

I disagree, I've encountered these A/R's with my W/A and because of Healing signet and a few of same skills they have along with warrior Wild Blow (faster regen than assassin WB) I out damage them in the long term and they end up hitting the run. I also carry a little swipe skill just to disrupt their troll urguent should they have it. Plus the warrior armor is just better in melee with them 100 vs their 85 (while attacking). When they move into that stance WB takes them out of it rather quickly plus does a critical "everytime" it hits. Balanced stance also works rather well against them since it nullifies any critical damage plus it stops that silly elemental spell whatever it is that knocks you down everytime you stand up.

I'm pretty happy with my W/A build so far. Testing out A/N build now, with Life Transfer and Barbed Signet, it's not too bad either, but, the W/A is really the better of the two because of the good defensive capabilities.

Wanted to edit something i've said but my wireless went dead heh.

From what i've gathered so far, assasin's effectiveness only shows when their linked skills hits you.

Thats like 4 (10+10+5+x) energy skill hits, a mesmer could drain A's energy rendering him pretty much useless.

Like i'd said, all it takes to render A's combo useless is for the first linked skill to miss, then you do 0 for the rest linked skill. Unless (i'm guessing) you only equip the first lead skill in ur skill bar lol.

i'm thinking skills like Riposte and Deadly Riposte could help out a lot here.

Enchantment removal, Wild Blow and other skills could help shut down an Assasin on the field.

I thought they were overpowered when I first got mauled by two of them as an Air Ele, but then brought Blinding Flash and fought one on one with one once the res of the team went down (I imagine he used his sig too). With blind on him and clearly no condition removal he couldn't do much, and when he did, Enervating Charge made sure that even when I was hit it wasn't for much. I think Hydromancers could do really well against these guys, Mist Form, Armour Of Mist, Blurred vision and a load of snares could effectively shut a few of them down provided you have a pretty good team.

What I'm really worrying about though is coming up against a team of 6 A/R with pets and Tigers Fury, with 2 Necro's using Tainted Flesh and the other using Orders...

Orders could be really, really effective with Assasins, worryingly so...

The way I would get around this is to have 2 lead attacks on the assassin's skillbar. If the first one misses (or interrupted or otherwise rendered useless), you can still use a second lead attack to start the lead-off-dual chain. That takes up 1/2 the bar, but still leaves 3 slots + rez sig.

Or go with 5 A/R, plus 2 necs and a fevered dream/fragility mesmer.

Of course they're overpowered. Ritualists have some pretty crazy skills too. That's no doubt one of the reasons they're shipping in a few months and not now - because they haven't finished balancing yet. It's extremely likely that part of the point of this event is for them to analyze skill usage and the combos people come up with that they and their testers may not have tried.

Also note that we didn't get to see the other 150 skills that the current professions are getting, which probably include at least a few direct counters to the new professions.

Just look at SoS, I can link 5 attacks and then SoS a monk and he's dead in 4 man teams.. :]

You really think they're overpowered? I honestly don't think i saw one effective assassin all day..that said it's obvious they have massive potential.

Huh, My Ritualist useing the Soulspinner premade had almost no problem at all with assasins. I was forming the opinion that they were underpowered.

I'd just sit next to my spirits, throw weapon of warding on myself, and use the time that the assasin was attacking me as a chance to regen some energy. I've been seriously underwhelmed by what I've seen from assasins thus far.

If a %block spell is what it takes... isn't either Aegis or Guardian on most monks skill bars?

Don't base your judgment on the A/W prebuild, that's pretty weak. They can be a heck of a lot scarier than that.

They are not overpowered. I think they're suprisingly balanced for a new class. And they can't take ALL of those skills you mentioned, just because they're available doesnt mean they have them. You might as well say Elementalists are overpowered because they can cast earth armor, kinetic armor, obsidian flesh, meteor shower, fireball, mist armor, blurred vision, and phoenix.

I don't think assassins are overpowered at all, except as a runner in arena matches (A/W). Circles and circles...and when you catch 'em, they've Shadow Stepped elsewhere. Just not fun, even when you cripple 'em it doesn't do much at all. Overall though, I think they'll make a great secondary and merely decent primary.

Ritualists are closer to overpowered, if anything. However, it's still very early and proper counters aren't all planned and well known yet. I would like to see some more means of dealing with them though, spread across other classes.

Anyhow, it's all theory at the moment, nowhere near enough ingame time to form a concrete opinion. I'm eagerly awaiting for this to go live though.

Something about shadow step, hehe this happened to me like once or twice.
I was about to xxxx from a "blastard" ranger to tackle on a monk. Nothing special eh ?

Some how the monk has charge on him and in the bid to get to him, i shadow step away, manage to kill him anyhow but guess what ?
When i tele back to the original position, i got hit by traps. Lol, barb, spike, dust,flame, you name it ;/
Dam that ranger ;p

It's amazing... We've had the classes for less then a day and already people want to bring out the nerf stick. *Sigh*

Assassins take skill to use properly. As has been previously stated, if you miss the first attack, the rest of the skill set is useless. The smart thing, however, is to NOT attempt to use it till the lead recharges...Or bring a second, just in case. Like every other class in Guild Wars, they have pros, and cons. The people at Anet are pretty good about evening out classes, everything has it's proper place. The Assassin can (emphasis on can) do an incredible amount of damage in a short time only if the oppurtunity presents itself. If it doesn't, they're stuck with regular attacks (Which are nothing to sneeze at, even given low damage ratings) or other skills. Which they do seem to have a lot of interesting ones, and I can't wait to try them. So no. If you think the assassin is overpowered, try thinking first and blocking it rather then complaining about it.

How are thay "far harder to kill"? Warriors are a lot more tougher, trust me. If you invest some points into tactics, you will get good returns.


This simply IS NOT true.

So can Warriors. The differance is, if an Assassin misses an attack, he usually has to start the combo all over again.

So do Warriors.

Again, not true. Never seen a caster die from one Assassin combo. Assassins mabey good at adding conditions if anything, but that's what we have monks for, right? To turn those conditions into health reserves.

Except for the fact that Warriors do more damage overall and are arguably harder to kill?

lol i've owned so many A...wars live much longer

It is FAR, FAR too early to be jumping on the OMGNERFPLZ bandwagon.

Come on guys this just got out and ALREADY you'll calling for a nerf. Remember we don't know all the counters I don't think assassin's are good at self-healing.

I notice Assassins can kill warriors very easily however every time I get a nerco on me that keeps hiting me with deg and direct damage attacks I get my @ss handed to me >.<.

Why not give an example of a few of these comboes before shouting "NERF NERF NERF"?

The only time i'm able to jump in, kill a caster, then teleport out is when i use shadow step, rush past everyone to the caster in the back (with **60** defense) unload my chain on him while he was completely un-prepared and barely buffed because the fight had just started and he was still hiding, then hack away with auto attack and half-chains. By the time shadow step runs out and sends me away from the zerg that had ensued i'm left with roughly half health and the caster is NEARLY dead, and killed a few seconds later by the degen.
This is only possible at all if you do it at the very start of the match or have 1-2 other assassins come with you.
Also, this doesnt work later on in the fight because a giant melee has usually occured, and all you can do is fight normally.

The biggest difference between an assasin and warrior in terms of damage are their timing.

Assasin can do a rush down almost no warrior can do as good (there are still a few, but not like assasin which is all about early rush down).
When warrior is full charged with andrenline, I don not believe anyone can hit as hard as them.

One is early game beat down, another is closing game finish up.

I am willing to bet, an 8vs8... more warrior is still better than more assasin. However, as we all know, that can not be always true.

ZOMG SWORD WAR FTW! XD

I'm getting really curious about these guys. Do they apply hexes with their attacks, or is it all status effects? 'Cause, if it's hexes, Smite Hex could be funny.

The point of the assassin is to take down early targets quickly, and they are most effective (obviously) against those with poor armour - like casters. Once they have used their initial chain, they are near useless till skills and energy recharge. Over-powered? No.

They do get to cast hex's on target's as well as having attack skills which benefit from the target having a hex on them (just look at the A/W pre-made).

Course this doesn't mean the assassin needs to bring any hex's themselves.. just bring along a friendly mesmer or necro who drops hex's on the enemies...

And as for status effect's.. some are just caused by being a follow up attack, some are caused by the target having hex's on them (again, see the pre-made A/W).

Most A/*'s I've seen don't rely on the hex then attack chain of spells. I have to admit I've used the hex-attack chain a lot.. it's great vs those annoying running boogars.. since your 1st attack after the hex cripples them (assuming you hit them of course..). Most of the A/* I've come across use a high damage output chain , not so much condition's.. although giving the right timing they can't chain me (hehe gotta love evade/block skills.. hehe)

Assassin's aren't over-powered as there are way too many ways to counter them.. Blinding, blocking, evasion... an Assassin vs anything other than a warrior or a stance using ranger will be deadly if they can get their full chain off and the target isn't being supported.. it's even more deadly if the Assassin has backup... but once that chain is done they have to wait for the skills to recharge - only exception is if they manage to kill with mobius strike (I think thats the skill).. then all skills are recharged and ready to use.. Energy denial would work too.. since no energy = no atatck's... and if you deny them in the middle of their chain.. they are stuck then having to re-start the chain...

Alright, let's get this thing settled.

First off, THEY'VE ONLY BEEN OUT FOR A DAY! Given that, people have next to no idea what they're capable of and next to no idea how to counter them. As well as very little idea how to play them. I only really saw one competent Assassin all day - the others were simply using the new-ness of the class to hammer things. The most effective teams, in fact, where the teams that are usually effective. Personally, I was a whole lot more annoyed by the Rt/Mo guys running around everywhere than by A/W. There's gonna be a lot more siege-style battles with those dudes around...

And putting just a teensy bit of logical thought into it, you get what has basically been said. An Assassin can hit someone harder than just about any class in the game, and certainly for less effort. Sure, an Echo/Obsidian Flame El can hit for about equivalent damage, but that's 20 Exhaustion. However, let's dissect this, shall we?

First Point - skill stream. Yes, when an Assassin delivers its full skill stream, foes are sent reeling. However, if you truly think this to be such a simple, everyday occurance, go take a Fang of Melandru into the arenas and see how many times you can land the whole bloody thing. Out of roughly ten fights I fought with a Fang, I landed the entire combo, perhaps, four times. That's four times against forty foes, plus resurrects. People just don't stick around and let you wail on them, ye know. Even Warriors will bolt when an Assassin starts unloading.

Second Point - conditions. Ahem: OMG TEH AZAZNZ CN UZ CONDISHUNS. Dude, just no. Rangers, and Virulence characters of all stripes, have been doing the same crap since the game started. Besides, in order to land all those conditions, the entire skill stream has to connect, which has been proven to be nucking hard.

Third Point - Armor. Must I note that both of the other physical classes have a default 30-point advantage over the Assassin? The dudes are fairly fragile, which isn't good considering that they're a dedicated melee class. Also, looking at the available armor types for Assassin, I really don't think they'll be getting any massively armored suits. And those that do will likely be like the Mesmer's Rogue armor, and hurt the Assassin's energy.

Fourth Point - Running. Okay, yeah, chasing down an Assassin is a stone...female dog. However, I would like to point out two things. First of all, Assassins are as blatantly biased towards hit and run tactics as a class can get. Saying Assassins are overpowered because they're hard to catch is like saying Rangers are overpowered because they can attack from range. And secondly...THEY'RE ASSASSINS!! Think, just a smidge, about the background of the actual, real-life guys these dudes were patterned after, and then tell me why on Earth they're supposed to be no big deal to run down? Personally, I have a lot of fun on both ends - doing the running and chasing the runner. I like mobile battles, they make a guy think a bit more than usual. And really, in the end, don't you always manage to catch him anyways?


In summary, Assassins are fairly blatantly glass cannons - guys that can do a buttload of damage to a single target in a short period of time and pay for it with minimal defenses. They're quick and agile (which is typically a given when you're working with NINJAS), and have a lot of interesting stuff, but the pretty severe limits on their attacks (need to stream) and their lack of heavy, consistent defenses means that they need every drop of that agility to survive on the battlefield.

Me, I'm more worried about Ritualists. Watching my brother Rupture three Spirits one after another and vaporize an entire 4-man team really makes me wonder if the blind dudes aren't going to end up as the superior class when Factions releases and more concrete, viable opinions can be formed.

I agree, the ritualist does seem a little (even perhaps a lot) overpowered. I would think that perhaps new skills for the core professions will come into play.

I had little trouble controlling Assassin damage on my Boon/Bond monk. Played for about 6 hours and found very few that could even threaten my health 2-on-1. They don't tend to have huge single hits, so Shielding Hands works well against them. And they hit so frequently that Balth Spirit gives loads of energy.

It was more the Eles using Shadowsteps to pbAoE that were a problem.

Bolded for truth. In the 4v4s ive fought, ive never died to a single assasin as any caster class. Sad thing is wars do exactly the same thing in a shorter time frame and are harder to kill, while possesing options like gale to render longer periods of time where the target is unable to respond. The nastiest things the assasin gets is the eliete temple strike and the one that inflicts dazed if the target has any exhaustion. The rest of the skills are kinda meh, except for the ones geared towards relic and flag runs. Those run skills can easily be in any secondary profession however.

What i do find funny is when assasins try to do this rush that the quoted person described and just fold under the attention they gain while trying to do so. Most of them die before they teleport away, while others die from degen afterwards. Sometimes they escape alive, but spend the rest of the game avoiding the target(s) they charged initially.

Lol fear the teleporting shock/AS eles.

I pwned Ass Warriors all day. The trick with them is managing conditions. No, they don't need a nerf. Yet.

What's funny are the Ass Warriors (yes, I do like that) who try to run at the end like they are Rangers, but you notice on the map where they intitiate their Shadow move and camp it. Then bomb them. :P

Of course, when players have been using the new classes for more than a day, those Shadow Step campers are gonna end up on the recieving end of a whole bunch of nastiness. Thirteen seconds can be plenty long enough to recharge enough energy and skills for a skill stream on whoever's decided to get cheeky with them. So don't get too confident, eh Old Man Bourbuns? :-P

Yes, sir.

o.O

Better remind all the Ass Warrior campers not to recharge all their crap, too, though. :P

have you tried assasin knockdowns? with conditions, it's definately a monks worst enemy, worse than hammer worrior with gale

Assassins have too many running skills. I had to quit arenas because one kept running etc.

Well i have been playing with my R/A for day now (character age is 14hours)
I use stances that no melee can hit me and yes warriors cant do anything to me BUT i can't do anything vs mesmers and elementalist.

Eles and mesmers can easily kill Assasin and if im opposing a A/W he usually can't do nothing against R/A whos using stances.

IMO Assasins are underpowered.

I've killed loads of assains so far in pvp. Much more then any other type probabley. They're suckers for empathy.