Damage Comparison: Assassin vs. Warrior

Heh...actually, it was more like people paying lip service to "there will be a spot for them...somewhere...I think" while all the while espousing Warriors and trying to convince people that Assassins may as well not have weapons for all the damage they do.

And as far as damage goes, let me ask this. A Warrior has higher base DPS due to Strength and a generall heavier-hitting weapon...right? Maybe, maybe not. Let's examine.

First of all, Double Strike. Double Strike offers a higher attack rate than any other weapon class, partially eliminating the need for Frenzy. Which, since we're comparting base DPS without skills right now, is out anyways. Now, let's look at Strength and Critical Strikes. Strength's focus is on armor penetration, while Critical Strikes induces a much higher critical rate. Strength works on every blow, while CS works only on criticals. Seems an easy choice, right? I don't quite think so, Energy aside. Armor penetration works great for chopping of some of a Warrior's higher base AL, but as base AL gets lower, so do the returns on armor penetration, if I remember my AP numbers right. If not, ah well. Critical Strikes, on the other hand, increases the damage dealt by an attack by increasing the damage dealt by an attack, not by sheering off enemy armor. Thus, CS's damage boosting, while intermittent, is less variable than Strength and better suited to taking down casters and other soft targets, which is supposedly what we're after. And let's face it - whether it's a Warrior or a Assassin, either class is going to pound the stuffing out of softies, unless the softy is carrying melee hate. In which case the Warrior is just as boned as the Assassin is. So let's say, for the sake of argument, that the damage bonuses from Strength and Critical Strikes largely cancel out in the end.

Now, let's try an experiment and toss some skills back into the mix. Warriors get back their Evis/Exe spike and Frenzy, which is, I believe, considered the core of Warrior DPS. On the Assassins, let's assume a basic Leaping Mantis->Fox Fangs->Twisting Fangs stream and...oh, since we're shooting for DPS, Locust's Fury. Looking at the two, we see a startling amount of equality in damage. Yeah, one needs four slots while the other needs three, but being realistic, no Warrior worth his salt is going without a stance cancel for Frenzy, so skill slot investment is equal.

With Evis/Exe, Frenzy, Frenzy Cancel, we get a nasty adrenal spike which charges while the Warrior is beating on things and a massive DPS boost through the fast attack rate. Not bad, considering the Warrior's already nasty base damage. At the same time, however, that Warrior will be getting rid of Frenzy the moment someone starts abusing him, which robs him of the extended DPS and brings it back to base levels plus Evis/Exe spike. Giving the Warriors their due, this is quite often enough to get the job done, but Warriors who don't cancel out of Frenzy are dead Warriors.

Assassins using a standard three-hit skill stream and Locust's Fury to boost Double Strike percentage suffer from similar problems. Most would say that having to use Energy instead of Adrenaline for their attacks is stupid. I disagree - the frontloading damage allows an Assassin to begin his beatdown the moment he hits the battle-line, whereas even a "For Great Justice!" and Frenzy-ing Warrior will need to wait for at least a short time before getting to the meat of his skillbar. That Assassin also has more Conditions at his disposal than the Warrior, and while Conditions are seen by many as useless, it is still my belief that forcing an enemy to expend resources getting rid of them makes them worth carrying. At the same time, the Assassin's autoattacks are carrying close to fifty percent rates for both critical hits and double strikes, which carries a twenty-five percent chance for a critical double strike, which is a brutal thing. While both percentages means autoattacking and sitting on a target with the Assassin, make no mistake - an Assassin against a squishy and the Assassin's armor and huge damage bonus make it nearly invincible. Now, in fairness, the Locust's Fury will likely be stripped early on, robbing the Assassin of much of its Double Strike percentage. But here's the kicker - the rest of that percentage is innate. Assassins using Daggers, which are the focus of the debate here, not only get a primary-attribute DPS booster in the form of Critical Strikes, they get a weapon-specific DPS booster in the form of Double Strike, which cannot be stripped away. The increased hit ratio of a Double Striking Assassin also triggers the infamous Vampiric mod more often, adding that extra damage to the Assassin's DPS. And while most people dislike the random nature of both Critical Strikes and Double Strikes, I find that this chaotic damage pattern makes things interesting. While I don't see the situation arising often, I could see a Monk, watching his teammate's health going down in the usual, predictable, Warrior-like pattern, suddenly twitch in shock as a double critical strike deals well over twice the damage the Assassin had been doing and drops the man just before the healing hits. Not often, and not often enough to rely on - but virtually impossible with Warriors.

And let's not forget the Assassin's increased mobility. Teleports make kiting a tricky business. Players used to dealing with Sprinting Warriors will have no way of dealing with teleports, nor will they have skillbar room to do so because they must keep dealing with those Sprinting Warriors. An Assassin materializing from thin air next to someone and catching them with a crippling Leaping Mantis Sting almost before they know what's going on before unloading a Jungle Strike and Twisting Fangs, or something similar, is doing something a Warrior can't completely mimic. Oh, a W/A can certainly take teleports along, but then they're giving up their Shocks and Gales and other Elementalist knockdown attacks, requiring either a standoff Necromancer casting Weaken Knees, use of the otherwise fairly crappy Bull's Strike, or the use of an Elite other than Eviscerate. Not to mention maintaining a heavy teleport battery (Death's Charge/Return/Viper's Defense) on a Warrior's almost nonexistant Energy pool would be difficult unless the Warrior were foregoing some of its standby Energy skills.

So. Let's consider all of this now, please Warrior players? Alongside what I'd stated in my earlier post, I would hope I've covered the Assassin's right to exist.

I'm not arguing that Assassins will replace Warriors as primary killers. What I'm trying to get across is that Assassins are not meant to be primary killers. Like Shafted said, and as many others have either directly stated or indirectly intimated, Assassins are a highly disruptive, chaos-inducing class excellently suited to keeping enemies off-balance. Mesmers do this already, but while Mesmers work with denial and subjugation of the enemy's battle potential, Assassins do it through almost terroristic tactics. Both classes have the same general goal, and both require exceptional battelfield awareness, but a properly speced and played Assassin is a totally different beast than a Mesmer. Mesmers toss around disruption and spelljamming like mad things and are one of the most powerful classes on the battlefield, but a Mesmer does not (typically) actively kill things. Not only that, but a Mesmer is just as susceptible to anti-caster tactics as are Monks and Necromancers, and will go squish just as easily when caught by a Warrior.

Assassins, however, cause chaos and disruption through mass Condition stacking and through chaotic, unpredictable, unstoppable movement. Though I very much sincerely doubt we have them yet, I fully expect to see master Assassin players in the future who can put an entire eight-man team on edge, watching their backs, waiting for the next teleport, the next assassination. Let's get one thing straight right now: you can't stop teleportation. Even knockdowns - even the infamous Backbreaker - aren't a guarantee of the Assassin staying put. An Assassin on his butt can still activate Viper's Defense and flash away from a spike, Poisoning his opponent and buying a precious second or two. An Assassin can activate Viper's Defense mid-cast, get struck, Poison and flash away and still finish his spell. I know, I've done it.

Proper utilization of teleportation, and proper integration of teleportation into team tactics, are both well into the future. But they'll get here, and then people won't want to play GvG without an Assassin. Because a character with that level of positional control and the undeniable ability to drop squishes as readily as any Warrior is a frightening thing.