A Monk's view on Assassins

My primary is a Healer Monk- I'm always needed, and usually appreciated... And as I continue to support my fellow Canthans in this Asian wonderland I have found that there is a new, popular, and ever dieing victem for me to heal. The Assassin.

I find that if there are Assassins in the party (Gods forbid if their are more than one) they die quick. Like 2 hits quick. Like here comes the mobs and oops, I got that heal off on you didn't I, guess not your dead, quick. Oh, NO, Mr. Bill quick.

This leads me to believe that there are a lot of people out there that are playing Assassins wrong. Assassins aren't tanks, they don't have tankish armor, they don't have tankish health, and they don't even look like tanks. They look like casters to me- or at most, rangers. And I don't see rangers running out front trying to get the first melee hit on mobs.

So as a Monk, I have started requesting that parties don't carry more than one Assassin. I just can't seem to keep them up! And if I try to keep an Assassin healthy the rest of the party suffers... Maybe we will begin to see Assassins learn to stay healthier on their own, but for now, I see lots of dead...... Assassins.

Meh. AL 70, which is higher than caster armor in most circumstances. Playing with half a brain keeps an assassin alive, even with a healer henchie.

Edit: Nice touch with the Mr. Bill reference.

give it some time, people learn to play 'sins soon.

the wammo mentality is hard to shake, and of course there has been a large influx of new players who thought... hmm assassin... ninja.... invincible.... zOMG REZZ ME!

The other problems is an enemy AI upgrade I felt, they are so much more spikey than before. I might actually have to carry infuse health on my PvE healer =O

If only hench AI had a similar upgrade... or heck even upgraded to the old monster intelligence.

Oh my, oh my, you are doing it all wrong ! Just send a nice "kick all assassins or I leave" to your leader when joining. Guess who would he rather have on his party...

Having played through the game, I think I've mastered how to play an assasin without annoying any monks out there, and doing a fine job of not dieing!

I am NOT a tank, my skill set is such that I go for as much damage from a distance, so the enemy is weakened. Then I get in there with my close contact skills to finish them off. This is working great and no monk has ever complained... even the henchies dont have a problem! I must be doing something right!

Just because there are 'sins that dont know how to play, doesn't mean we all need to be tainted with the same brush!

Well assassins are great its just that most people don't have a clue how to run one properly.

Just that most assassins are wammos that have tried the new melee class.

So guys what should we call these idiot assassins that are just like wammos?

@Nominal Fee: With that kind of attitude, personally I'd kick you from my group.

EDIT: reply to

Although having said that, I think 'Sin is a very in-efficient class. Too much down time meaning that your DPS falls. Whereas a good warrior can draw agro away from casters and still provide decent DPS. However If I have a spare slot, I'd bring them along. If they keep dying, just don't concentrate your healing on them, been doing that for ages not for that kind of Wammo.

Assins? idk

http://www.crithitcomics.com/healmain.htm

I think that sums it up quite nicely.

There's nothing wrong with wammos.

The term you're looking for is newb or newcomer. If the guy is stupid, then it's noob or idiot.

Us warriors are getting tired of the constant looking down on the wammos. Wammos, WarEles, WarNecros, etc... We're just people too. So what if I decide that enchantments are useless in this mission and that I'll probably be better off with all warriorskills and a res sig... I'd rather bring rebirth.

Assassins are something else. Assassins are like little kids who run up to a monster and slap it really fast in the hopes that it will get hurt and die.
The monster usually laughs and stomps on the kid while the warrior tries to prevent the poor kid from getting killed.

Assassins take away our aggro because they keep running in and out. Most of the time, they only run in and go berzerk.

I noticed that a lot of these assassins claim to be experienced, pro or ninja.
I'd rather have a hench.

Yes we monks all feel your pain. There is a thread about this called "Assassins the Love is Brewing!"

And here I was thinking that this was a thread on how much easier it is to kill a monk with a ssin

me too

i agree.... wanted my 55hp to get further in the game so i did a few missons as a healing monk and i'm so thankfull I had 1 assassin per misson. every time they ran in w/ the warriors/tanks he was the first to drop below 50% life in what? 2 seconds.... but thing will be better as everyone learns how to play that class better.

Pardon me for noticing the obvious, but on one hand you complain about the brash generalisation on the Wammo type, then you make the exact same generalisation about assassins.

Anyway 'wammo' afaik is a derogotory name. W/mo is great for hex and condition removal, which tends to cripple wars. Its just that many players still think, they have 3 pips of health regen they are invulnerable... less so now with all the enchant strips and descrates out there. Sorry going O/T

Having said that, w/mo's are still more efficient than the current 'sin model.

As for Assassins killing monks... Slap guardian and oh he's missed a combo... DPS goes DOWN. Put it this way, I'd kite away from a warrior, I'd be side-stepping like mad vs Ranger and Eles. Spamming Ctrl-Space on the mesmer. So far 'sins... just tank them, they'll bugger off soon when they run out of energy or they get picked up for targeting the party's monk, and they bugger off soon with DP =D

Infuse Health and Healing Seed are the Canthan monk's best friend as well as Inspired Hex and Revealed Hex for energy. Most assassins do have the wammo mentality right now - especially the ones who use Mending and Healing Hands. At the same time though, I've come across a few good assassins that make effective use of Shadow Arts to keep themselves safe.

Assmos? Yeah, assmos.

I can't say much about assassins that hasn't been said before.. I like playing as one, but it's true that there are a ton of them and most suck. However, the other day I was in a pug with one other assassin, 3 rits and a healer henchie. Two of the rits ragequit when things began to look bad, but the third rit and the other assassin stayed with me to the bitter end. We kind of failed the mission, though.

I have tried a few Assassin combos but still can't seem to like them... And as a W/Mo "Whammo" player myself at times (I stay vulnerable to enchantment removal with the Mending/Breeze 9 pips of regen going) I was hopeing for something comparable with big dps and high manuerverability. This is what I came up with over the weekend:

A/Mo- again I was hopeful for making something more along the lines of my WMo, with staying power with self healing, but quickly found that if you use your energy for healing you aren't doing the damage you should.

A/Ele, A/R- Mixing distance with the close in Assassin skills seem counter-productive.

A/W- Can't really mix daggers with Hammer/Sword/Axe, so didn't really work, might work better as a W/A- haven't tried that yet.

A/Mes- Might work with Energy stealing to keep the dps up, but really don't want to hang around to pound on one mob to long because they start to pound on you...

But over and over I found myself thinking of this Assassin as a "Paper Tank". A melee warrior that is going to get in and make his hits and try to pop away. The problem with this is you draw aggro away from the Warrior (real tank) and die waaay to quick. And I always found that I was missing my energy replenishment that seemed so easy with my WMo with Balthazar's defense, etc.

We will begin to see some successful Assassins come through the ranks, as they begin to get the whole move in, dps, move out before they get whacked idea. And it will take a while until they master it, and I'm sure once they start to master it we will see some truly awesome Assassins. But as a healer, I have yet to see any... It's like they forget to move away and get stuck in a slug match...

Assmos does not work real well. Besides I see just as many bad Assme or Assnec's as I do Assmo's. How about Assex?