CONFIRMED 1st New Class Information from Ch. 2: The Assassin

o.0 you can pay 200 dollars to get some one killed? damn.. what happened.. i rememebr the good ol days when you could get like 10-20k for doing a job like that

Predictions:

fully melee (obviously can use ranger or whatever skills, but all assassin skills will be along the lines of dual wield stuff).

combat claws, swords, nunchukas, sai's, daggers, batons (kinda T-shaped), im thinking a bit of oriental flavor in terms of variety.

dual wield - implemented as special offhand items requiring investment in the dual wield attribute of the assassin class (like say a pvp earth scroll now requires 9 earth). wont do more damage unless a special skill is being used, will mean that many skills are 'consecutive hit' dependent, ie. the next 3 hits cause conditions a b c and increase the duration of all conditions by 5 seconds.

stances - think mesmer - but geared towards reactive attacks/counters, eg.
Disarm:
if target attacks in the next xx seconds, you strike causing xx damage and all attack skills are disabled for xx seconds.

escalating conditions, it starts with weakness, but each successive attack causes the next condition in a list -> weakness - cripple - bleed - blind - deep wound.

poison will definitely be in there, assassins and poison just go together too well to not be used. maybe some kind of enhanced poison effect, extra pips of DoT each xx attrib points in whatever.

stealth will most likely be like blackout - use it and all skills are disabled for xx seconds. im thinking transparency will be the name of the game, but ofcourse thats not that useful if you can still be tab-targeted. so im guessing stealth will drop you from the tab list and let you be targeted only via direct clicking.
although shadow stepping and the description seem to allude to a teleport type mechanism - maybe nightcrawleresque? short range - equivalent to having 150% speed for a couple of seconds and moving in a straight line, although the pseudo-Z-axis makes this exploitable.

there will be something that lets you do shadow damage instead of normal damage, maybe a shortlived stance - Shadow Form, all your attacks (not spells) do shadow damage, all damage done to you is shadow damage.

im guessing there will be some skill like Misdirect - target and adjacent foes lose their current target, the next big antispike skill.

aoe daze was mentioned, and yeah that and aoe blind are 2 skills i see very likely.

and i guess 70 armor - 3 pips energy.

although im wondering what the energy management component will be??

rangers have expertise
elementalist have storage
necro have reaping
monk have bonus healing
warriors have adrenaline
mesmers have energysteals

im guessing something like 'Inner Peace' or somethign requiring inaction, no skill use, maybe even no movement. to tie in with the idea of stealthing, waiting/charging up, striking.

or maybe they will have to use zealous to be really effective, thereby prohibiting the vampiric (still a weapon switch away).

I don't see why people are saying it's unoriginal. Every class in Guild Wars is "unoriginal", but it's what people do with them professions that creates the diversity.

Rangers for example exist in just about every RPG/MMORPG, but within Guild Wars sub-classes have developed; Trapper, Interrupter, Spirit Spammer etc. I'll be interested in seeing what different original roles players develop for Assassins.

predictions? in engineering thats called a WAG (wild ass guess) it can cost lives in the military.

you read some fluff that says one possible skill and ALREADY you are posting 'predictions' on skills, attributes and style. others are ALREADY posting how this class is going to suck balls. they can't possibly work. overpowered.



uh huh. everyone just cool the beans here. we have a picture and a story. talk about the picture and the story. everything else has a place in Sardilac. 'predictions'? or my idea for a cool assassin.


one interesting thing is the fact that everyone and their mother will be playing assassins when ch2 is released. time for some SERIOUS henching.

oh yes and lg5000?

from that very page you quoted. so paid hitmen BECOME assassins due to the motives of their employers.

You're forgetting about the other new profession(s).

yes... however i'm hearing that there is only going to be 2 new professions? and if there are more what do you want to bet that one of them goes the way of rangers and are generally seen as 'crap' and 'useless' and 'retarded'

just a thought. (assassin could be that class but i can't see it because of the image that surrounds them. assassins are 'cool')

I will laugh if the other new charachter is a druid though.

Even if the Druid has cool powers? Like Shapeshift?

Charcoal Ann -

Where did you hear there will only be two new profs?

As for Ranger being crap, I think Rangers will be more popular now AoE has been fixed - they are good spikers.

Wouldn't be hard to shielding hands the attack or just remove the hex, assuming the class doesnt get something along that defensive idea, assuming you can target them of course. Their counter would end up being mass fear me spam, making it so that was your only opportunity to use that skill.

Double up the hits at a slower pace only feeds IAS skills more and more rapid attacks only feeds adrenalin more. Pretty much a lose/lose situation compared to what already exists.

Polearms and other 2h weaponry sound more like a different skill line for warriors, not a new profession.

From what is suggested so far, it sounds like the assasin is already going to be difficult to balance given the existing skills available.

I wouldnt call a weapon style a profession, but it certainly is a different idea. Acrobat, in other rpgs, was the "polite" way to refer to a agile theif who specialized in breaking into hard to reach places, like 2nd story building. See the asian gymnast in oceans 11 for a reference in a less "fantasy" setting.

QUOTE]

yea, think diablo 2.

Some of the posts in this thread really have me baffled... But I won't get into that.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to creating a new assassin character when Chapter 2 comes out. My previous game addiction was Diablo 2, and the assassin was my favorite character in that game. I will not speculate as to what abilities the new assassin profession will have in Chapter 2, but I will make some suggestions as to what I think would be good features for new professions and for Chapter 2 in general. (I don't do PvP, so these are all PvE suggestions.)

1) In general, I think that if you introduce X new professions with the release of Chapter 2, you should also give us loyal players X new character slots to try out the new professions as a primary. I will be quite disappointed if I am forced to choose which of my 4 existing level 20, ascended, infused, fully loaded characters must go to make room for my new assassin. My preference would be that if you introduce 2 new professions in Chapter 2, that you give us 4 new character slots. This would allow players to create a primary character of every profession, and would make everyone happy I think.

2) I'd like to start out my new assassin at level 1 and work my way up to level 20. I know some people won't like this, but think about it. Working up a new character in levels teaches us how the profession works. It's only 20 levels, after all, and there is some satisfaction in working your way up to achieve the max level. I agree with some of the other posters in this thread, however, that we shouldn't have to start out in pre-searing Ascalon. In fact, my preference would be that no assassins appear in pre-Ascalon at all. There should be an entire new pre-Area for assassins and any other new professions introduced in Chapter 2. This will give us a new start for these characters and a new way of integrating them into the larger story of Tyria.

3) Expanding on my idea in 2) above, players who purchase Chapter 2 and create new characters (not necessarily assassins) should be given the option of where to start the game: Either in the old pre-Ascalon or the new pre-Area. If you want to create a new character with an assassin (or other new profession) primary or secondary, the new pre-Area would be your starting route, since there would be no mention of the assassin in pre-Ascalon. For existing characters, changing your secondary to assassin could be accomplished in the Crystal Desert, as it is now. Perhaps the entry point for assassins and other new professions into the remainder of the game could be Lion's Arch instead of post-Ascalon. (So this new pre-Area would need to be somewhat larger than the existing pre-Ascalon. Nothing should prevent assassins from backtracking, however, to reach the post-Ascalon areas.)

4) There has been some mention in this thread about picking locks on chests. I for one think this is a great idea, but there should be some limitations on how it works. Here is my suggestion. Introduce a new type of kit, like the Salvage and Identification kits. This kit would be a Lockpicking kit. It would have a certain number of uses, and would be fairly inexpensive like the current kits (as compared to the cost of keys). Allow everyone to attempt to pick a locked chest. Difficulty would scale by the type of chest being picked, with FoW and UW chests and being the most difficult and Ascalon chests being the easiest. Each attempt uses up one use of the Lockpicking kit. Assassins, however, could have as a benefit of their primary attribute an inherent bonus to picking locks. I'm not offering a formula, just a general idea. I think that introducing kits like this would make chests more fun. (Right now I don't particularly like the new locked chests, as I tend to get more money selling the keys for them than I do from the contents of the chests themselves.)

5) I think dual wielding weapons should be available to all characters, but that (like the current scheme) only assassins will have an attribute associated with dual-wield. Every character can use a Mursaat hammer right now, but only someone with the warrior (primary/secondary) profession can take full advantage of it. There seems to be no reason to introduce limitations to what weapons characters can wield. The attribute system already takes care of this nicely.

6) As far as another new profession, in addition to the assassin, I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of hand-to-hand type melee character option. I'm not too keen on a 'shapeshifter' profession, but currently there is no profession that fights solely with their hands and feet, and doesn't rely on weapons other than their own bodies. The 'monk' class would seem the right label for this profession, but monks have no such capabilities. Little Thom claims to be a 'Brawler' I believe, but he's just an axe warrior in reality. I'm trying to avoid using the term 'wrestler' since I'm not a big fan of wrestling, but it would be interesting to play a character whose skills revolved around keeping the enemy pinned down (literally) so that allies (such as an elementalist with an AoE spell) could then finish them off.

Well, that's my rant. Sorry it was so long. Now feel free to tear it apart.

your probably ognna start out in cantha or sumthing if u play as an assasin, or did u guys figure that out already?

and just beacause a game has assasins and druids doesnt mean its gonna be another diablo 2, loads of games have assasins and druids so meuh all you nay sayers

Im nay saying as i want something original, so meuh back at you :P

I WANT ROBOTS!!! LOADS AND LOADS AND LOADS OF ROBOTS!!! ROBOTS ARE AWESOME!!! I HOPE THERE ARE ROBOTS!!!

/sarcasm^_^

For the other class I'd like to see something akin to a D&D Bard. Totally support, the Bard can play an instrument that doubles as a weapon, and he has various "songs" (read: skills) that give bonuses to his party and/or negatives to nearby enemies.

You guys should check out the assassin post in the Sanitarium if your worried about overpowerment or skill balancing, alot of people are posting good ideas in there, and devs are looking at that post

Oh and I think they'll probably give us 4 character slots for chapter 2.. I mean, some people might just buy chapter 2 alone without playing chapter 1 (unless its needed), and to only have 2 slots would be nothing. Who knows, chapter two could come with 6 slots that could give us a max of 10 maybe *crosses fingers*

I hate Bards. I don't know why... even in Bard's Tale, I hated the Bard (maybe b/c the music was so cheesy?). But, so what, if they make a Bard I won't play it...

I don't care what they call the Shapeshifter profession (hey, call it "Shapeshifter"), I would just like to see one.

And a Summoner would be cool, too.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that the information is correct about the Assassin being a new class in Chapter 2.

Summoner would need to be accented upon I think.. Like would it be a Diablo II type Druidic summoner, with animals? Or a Lineage II type, with spirits and phantoms.

**** IDEA! **** You were never able to summon the Phantoms like the Lich could, and the Lich is from Orr, which is near Cantha I think, so a summoner could work.. It IS possible that there were some survivors from the Orr disaster

u were never able to summon anything i do believe besides spirts so any kind of summoning would be freaking sweet.

Personally I don't much care for Bards either, be it in PnP games or videogames. I was just trying to think of a class that wouldn't so much overlap what other classes already offer.

Some skills/songs that would be neat IMO: reduce skill recharge time; give everyone 1 pip energy or health regen; make everyone attack 25% faster; double chances of critical hits; halve spell cast time; give enemies 25% miss chance; slow the enemies; make enemy spells cast half as fast; etc.

Make it so the song is active immediately but has a long cast time, so when you hit it the effects come on immediately but you are unable to play another song until you are done "casting" the one you are playing. Also, have it last a few seconds after you are done, so you can get some overlap in there.

well, i cant wait untill gw 2 reveals, new professions, lets dont take the magic away, and wait with pleasure!!, wait.. when does gw 2 arives? when.. huh... tell me.... dammn...

thats a good question when is it suppose to come out? i prolly was told but now ive forgotten or sumthin. idk. someone post when!!!

Gaile Gray has asked for our ideas and suggestions on this new assassin class. A thread has already been made in Sardelac - I say, everyone, get over there and give some input!

Really upset you? Wow. Here's some tissues.

And for you people whining about how it's not original or complaining about ninjas, maybe you need some creative thinking here. Assassins are not strictly ninjas. And who says that there can't be creative skills and creative roles for the assassin?

AND no skills or info have been released on the assassin and yet people are wildly assuming without any facts that they either be useless or overpowered. Get a grip and at least wait until information is released before you do your whining.

I'll laugh if A-Net nerfed this Assassin class and create something totally different since we're all hype on Assassin class!

i'm not opposed to this class. Might be fun to come up on an enemy that's focused on attacking some other PC and then do double crit damage or something...

Plus, for future expansions it would be cool to have areas that could only be accessed and traversed if you have an assasin in the group (lockpicking to open a certain door or whatever), though creating a skill that isn't combat focused seems unrealistic and useless in a format like GW. Still, just the idea has spurred me to have some cool spawn off ideas on how this class could be built into the game...

Acolyte Devathi

I wonder how they gonna design this Stealth skill. Interesting.

They could design it but like my previous post.. it list the possible problems for it. How would you kill enemies? Do you used cloak on you until your mana is out? How much damage can a assassin do?

But it should be interesting to see how they pull this off

lol as soon as this comes out, [if it is] iam going to study all the skills and try tomake another solo uw build maybe a fow one..., [if its possible i mean] or a crazy farm build, rack up some nice cash before it gets nerfed
heh
cuz u know theres gonna be some major nerfzoring maybe a few weeks after this char comes out

Im pretty stoked about the new "confirmed" class. Im wondering, unless its already been stated somewhere, about if the game engine is going to be updated at all. Shapeshifting and other skills would look rather cool with a nice revamp of the engine. this is my first mmorpg and I guess playing other rpg games I got kinda spoiled with all the different graphics for different weapons and environmental bumpmapping etc.

All in all though I am having a blast

Is the Assasin a playable profession?

"We've announced there will be new professions a few times already. As noted, the Assassin is the first to be officially named. You'll just have to wait and see on the rest "


Wow, more than 2 classes in the next expansion?

If you take the assassin that is already confirmed, and then read closely, he says "you'll have to wait and see on the rest."

Now normally you wouldn't say "wait and see on the rest" if that meant there wasn't at LEAST another 2 classes other than the assassin.


Or maybe it's all just a big trick.....

Yes, the Assassin is a confirmed new playable Profession to be included in Chapter 2.

It is unknown how many additional professions there will be, but many guess that there will at least be 3 new Professions.

As for a graphics revamp, I would doubt any major changes. The graphics are nice right now, and usually a new engine is reserved for a new game, not just an expansion.

as long as you cant town gaurd and spam lightning sentry, this might be a good class to play

I disagree with the graphics thing, this game wont be out till next year, it's going to be due for a graphics update. Even if its just some added support for certain effects and such....i'd like to see things look better. Not that its bad now, it'd just be nice..

I'm not making a assassin.. i won't follow the system!

The graphics looks great right now, especially if you have everything set to max.

Not if ur gfx card sux ass.. If there comes a graphics update I hope not lot of players wont be able to play the game anymore (sucky pc's etc)