Assassin Improvements

I'll try to rely on my instinct and set those in a priority order. I set it this way, since some people might think that making all those come true would make the assassin be a bit too overpowered.

From 1 to 5, from the most important , from the least important( but of course, still important:P)

1) Deadly arts skills mostly unuseful, those needed to be improved

1) Assasins should have an easier life in pve. Almost anything can help.

2) More useful or better(just if Anet won't be able to come out with anything new) mods on armors, so that Assasin armor will be better or equal to Rangers(70 + 30 vs elemental), but of course still worse than Warriors. ( Let's say Sentinels here, 100 + 16 from shields + absorb)

2) Daggers should be swinged slightly faster than swords. We do know about double strikes, but that's simply not enough. Just slightly faster.

2) Improve several skills of the assassins so that healers (monks, or rits, or whatever) won't have to heal the assasins so much and be able to concentrate for doing something else (like healing other party members, not only assasin(s))

3) Critical strikes and double strikes are meant to have the same chance vs a 20 lvl foe, and vs higher than 20 lvl foe.

3) Bit higher shadowstepping radius, long bow range should be enough.

4) Make several combo skills of assasin to chain with each other better, to remove the opinion that 1 combo is better than another, or that there is one best combo to beat 'em all.
(for example, phoenix->horns of the ox->spider->twisting fangs)

5) Shadow refuge, remove the "healed when attacked" to "heals you for" or/and bring back "take half damage". Since, come on, its only mare 4 seconds, that can save assasins life.

5) Critical defences either take up the duration to 10 seconds, or the recharge to 15 seconds.


I just rely'd on my instinct, so dont' flame me for putting it in the wrong order:P. Oh yeah, all the ideas here i credit to those that were able to speak honestly about Assassins problems, and how to solve them. Link:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3043557



Hope ya agree with me

Agreed.

How do you suggest this?

Disagree. They have teleport skills for a reason. They deal significantly more damage than rangers, they should have weaker armor.

They do. Dagger's attack speed depends on your attribute points in Dagger Mastery.

Teleportation is there for a reason, use it wisely. Know when to strike and when to backdown.

Is that a fact?

I disagree, teleportation is powerful enough as is.

I agree there should be more viable combos, but there will always be a "best", just like Eviscerate+Executioner's.

I agree, they should revert back to the old Shadow Refuge.

BigTRU, let me tell you something.


About armor, the assassins need some mods as they're backline fighters, and rangers are ranged, and can attack even outside the aggro bubble(with a long bow), even though rangers deal less damage. That's why i think it should be rather equal.


About shadowstepping, i don't ask for a lot. It's only a 1-3 feet more, so that assasins can attack rangers with longbows, or others that have such range, without getting striked first.

Only 2 things I agree on.

1) Yes, deadly arts are pretty useless, but there are some good ones.

2) Shadow refuge. They need to update it somehow.

Personally, I think assassin is fine as it is. It can swing its daggers once per second at I think 16DM, which is fastest in game.

Well i did not say we need them all. It would be fine if at least 1 of those would be done. Deadly arts and shadow refuge is imo some of the most wanted stuff from the assassin. What about the priority order? I did it with the way to how much work is it, and what scale it takes.

3 things i'd like the most are the 2 i mentioned above, and to make assassins PvE life easier as so far everything in pve seems to be against assassins. The damage they take, they cannot farm, etc. That's what i personally would like.

Spoony

Lemme compare shadow refuge with the other healing skills in the game:

I can only show the healing skills of the Warrior, Ritualist, Mesmer, Ranger and Assassin, because they have one 'distinct' healing skill. Elementalists have a distinct healing skill, but I can't effectively compare it to the other five professions, so they have been disincluded. Necromancers and Monks have more than one 'distinct' healing skill so they have been disincluded. All skills assume level 12 ranks.

The first evaluation ranks the healing effectiveness of skills. They show only the 'max' amount of healing you can be healed for.

Ritualist - Generous Was Tsungrai - 244
Ranger - Troll Unugent - 180
Assassin - Shadow Refuge - 140
Warrior - Healing Sig - 130
Mesmer - Ether Feast - 123
_______

The next evaluation ranks the MAX amount of healing you gain if you cast them continuously for 30 seconds (including recharge and casting times).

1) Warrior: 6 seconds to gain 130 health. Total heal - 650
2) Assassin: 9 seconds to gain 140 health. Total heal - 466.7
3) Ritualist: @ max 400 health. 16 Seconds to gain 244 - 40 health (214). Total heal - 457.5 - 40 (417.5) (Im not sure how to incorporate the max health situation... assistance would help)
4) Ranger: 13 seconds to gain 180 health. Total heal - 415.4
5) Mesmer: 9 seconds to gain 123 health. Total heal - 410
___

Now I'm going to use the stats above to calculate the average amount of healing per second, the ranks will effectively remain the same.

Warrior - 21.7
Assassin - 15.56
Ritualist - 417.5/30= 13.9
Ranger - 13.8
Mesmer - 13.7

Compared to the max amount of healing per second while the skill is in activation, or being activated. This is to show how much average health you will gain while you cast it, or while its in effect. This is also to show it's anti-spiking ability, when you need lots of health immediately.

Unranked. Rit - 214 (over 1 second. Doesn't include time taken to 'drop' the item)
1) Mesmer - 123 (over 1 second)
2) Warrior - 65 (over 2 seconds)
3) Assassin - 35 (over 4 seconds)
4) Ranger - 18 (over 10 seconds)

___

Now I'll list their most significant benefits.

1) Warrior - No energy req. Shortest recharge
2) Ranger - 10 duration = 10 recharge
3) Ritualist - Grants +122 health which effectively heals additionally if you are already at max health, or if you are healed to max health after you use this skill.
4) Assassin - Instantaneous heal for 68 health after 4 seconds
5) Mesmer - Drains 3 energy.

Lastly, I'm going to list their conditions. In some cases, this will be over 30 seconds. Unranked.

Warrior: -40 armour for 10 of the 30 seconds.
Ranger: Has the longest activation time and 'regenerates health'
Assassin: Requires Target foe & must be attacking for additional 68 Health. Also 'regenerates health'
Ritualist: Must hold an item. Longest recharge time.
Mesmer: Requires Target foe that has at least 3 energy.

The things I agree on.

Armor: For god sake, Assassins are one of the most mobile classes in the game. Generally when they are not attacking they are moving.

There should be two mods as follows:

+15 Armor while Moving
and
+15 Armor if attacked from behind.

Shadow Refuge: It needs help. Remove the "if attacking" condition. Just heal me damn it.

Shadowsteps: Ok look, I have played about a hundred if not hundreds of hours as an Assassin. Anyone who plays an Assassin long enough will tell you that shadowsteps are not close to as good as they need to be.

-The range is to short. They should be random "in th area" not "nearby". If I'm "escaping," people shouldn't be able to chase me down in 2 friggin seconds.

-They have a very high propencity for putting you in a WORSE situation. I.e. if you telepost near lava, you end up IN the lava. If you teleport near the edge of a fray, you're suddenly IN the fray.

-They have "blocking issues." If you teleport next to a wall, chances are you won't move at all. You teleport against the wall, instead of , oh say, up on top of the cliff, where you should end up. The same can be said if you're surrounded. The only Shadowstep that doesn't suffer from this is Viper's Defense.

Anyone who says "well you have shadowsteps" as if that matters much, has:

A.) Never played an Assassin.
B.) Has not played an Assassin very long.
C.) Is in denial.

Aura of Displacement btw, didn't need to be changed from what it was. The only difference between the (Point of Cast) Version and (Point of Attack) Version is that the latter is a pain in the ass and only worthy of the Elite slot because it's the only Shadowstep that effectively removes you from combat.

That is of course, assuming the enemy isn't where you last cast it.

Edit: The assessment of the mesmer healing skill is a bit off.
-The Mesmer skill in my expereince has never required energy to actually be there. Since you can have "less" then 0 energy.
-Ether Feast cast time can be reduced to a second or less with fast casting.

The Mesmer's skill requires energy to heal. And the only way you can have less than 0 energy is if you switch focuses, or carry an item. Having less energy is irrelevant to the skill. If the target has 0 energy (0 energy is displayed if you are in negative) then you will drain 0 health. It's that simple. "You are healed for 41 health for 'each point of energy' drained"

Ether feast, with fast casting, changes the stats rather insignificantly (and EFeast is already 1 sec in duration:
Mesmer: 9 seconds to gain 123 health. Total heal - 410
With FC: 8.57 seconds to gain 123 health. Total heal - 430.6

Mesmer: 123 health (over 0.57 seconds)

Alright, then i got lucky with Ether Feast. good job recalculating for Fast cast though ^_^