Ideas for the New Assassin Profession

That's a skill in Ragnarok Online for the rogue class already. A lot of people were smart and simply switched weapons. They ended up changing the skill so that it locks out weapon switching as well. For this game however, I would definitely brand it with the elite stamp.

Would be interesting if it was possible to "disarm" another player or monster as well - let's say you're doing PVP and come up against a warrior wielding a hammer - with a disarm skill, you could send the weapon flying out of his hands a % distance away - where the warrior, unless he had another weapon equiped in one of his weapon slots, he'd have to go run and get it to rearm himself.

Don't know how that would work in game as far as the weapon being visible to other players laying on the ground (I wouldn't think so) or picked up by others - or what if the player had a disconnect issue before he could pick it up, etc. But it would be pretty neat, I think.

However, 5% can be noticably different in moving around a battle.
A 50% increase would make running exremely easy.
10% would be quite overpowering, however possibly tollerable.

Please take this for face value. Perhaps for an assassin adrenaline gain could be different, or it could be called differently. I still think, however; it should run off of the same principles.
It would be based off of the same idea, perhaps called a different name. Call it cunning or something.

So you can use your skills to the max and with Cunning, you mean?

sure.
An assassin is still a fundamental melee class.
They deserve a hit system for the use of skills. Call it cunning or preparation, gained every time you hit, or are hit. They can use these skills upon thier opponents or to keep themselves alive.

They can also use thier energy skills to keep alive or aid in some amounts of damage.

I agree with your ideas but I don't think that those should be stackable

Jesh, ok, I can kind of see your point, but it's the theory you were replying to that's flawed.

The bubble around us is the monsters vision/hearing range. ASide from those monsters that patroll large areas and can always find you no matter what you do to avoid, that's a different topic someone else addressed.

A shout increases the size of the bubble, from what I've read, I haven't personally had any skill like that yet. To follow that logic, making less noise and using any stealth techniques, would decrease the range at which a monster will see or hear you.

Calling it the assassins(or whatever character) aggro bubble is the fault of that logic.
What is desplayed on our screen is the monsters aggro bubble
Our aggro bubbles would be max distance at which you can see or hear, and are pretty much nonexistant as far as I can see. Why would any given player need an aggro bubble? Unless you work it into a bot.

Henchmen's I won't fight untill I'm told or it's hitting me AI logic is a different matter for things all together.

Programming would be similar to this(as it currently is):
Monster X: If it comes within X distance of me attack it.
Given, there is additional "bring all my friends" coding also, but the fact that a monster can come from any direction is why it's a bubble.

Programming possibility to use smaller bubble, Y being variable for reduced visibility for specific skills. X equals normal "as is" distance:

MonsterX:
If it is within X distance Querry PlayerX conditions.
If conditions include ST*** (say for example, the code for every stealth skill ST[then number, xxx in this case, * is a variable])
Querry ST***
ST*** = STXXX
Result: replace X with Y From STXXX, Each skill could have a differenty Y or other added feature, such as always critical or whatnot

Else(back to un-stealth character) attack playerX.


That's pretty simplified but gets acrost the point of how Line of sight/sound could be implimented, if it's not already for the difference between Shouts, and normal. Yeah I left out how it gets Y from STXXX, but bleh, it got old before I even started typing. But since some were mistaken about "aggro bubbles" I felt the need to clarify, and include an example.

The only programming I ever did was Pascal, in 9th grade(forever ago, when computers were still just Black screens and green characters), but the same basic "If Then Else" statements work. It can be coded several different ways, all with the same result.


_________
ok, for the other part.
The warrior clone reply is out of context but I get the point. But, poisons can vary. The way poison works now is life degen. But a skilled assassin could be an alchemist/biologist as a hobby(or know someone who is), IE using halucongenic herbs, itchy powders, all sorts of things with different results, maybe I should have specified that I wasn't using the word poison as it now applies to GW.
So, I'll try to use the word Powders or Drugs instead.
Powders could cause all sorts of effects, monsters to run, or to not aggro, or to super aggro. It would be neat if each different monster types reactions to each powder would be different.

Say, Deranged clerics(something like that, i can't remember) would have a natural immunity to Hallucogens. Or something with scaled skin wouldn't be succeptible to Itching Powder.(I'm not talking poison ivy on the ankle, I'm talking uncontrollable itching.) Or an acid powder that comes in contact with flesh and burns, minimal damage, but quite effective in battle.
That added to creatures that have an inherent weakness to certain things, as Ice golems and fire don't get alone.

PvP you could assign
Monks immune to hallucinations(drug inspired, not monk)
Warriors immune to Sedatives
Rangers immune to itching
Ele's immune to acid.
Can't think of another for Necro, or the new classes.

So on and so forth. I think that would greatly enrich battles, PvE and PvP.

I think a Powders attribute would be excellent.
In it you could also cover several of the good smoke screens people have been discussing, group or individual effects.

Stun Powder
Type: Preparation
Attribute: umm....Weapon mastery
Cost: 10 energy
When attack hits, you deal +1-10 more damage and target is crippled for 5-10 seconds.

Pressure Point
Type: Attack Skill
Attribute: Weapon mastery
Cost: 4 Hits of Adenaline
If attack hits, target is crippled for 4-10 seconds and is dazed for 1-3 seconds.

Here's an idea ...

If one of our ideas is fertile enough to inspire game content in C2, perhaps the developers could consider naming a skill or an NPC after the poster's game character (presuming their name is tasteful to begin with, of course). I realize many of the ideas are similar, but it's up to the developers on whom to reward.

Thoughts?

Might have a problem with skills but NPC would be a great idea but getting back to creating skills.

Jump Over
Energy: 5-10

You jump over target and land on the other side of him/her. Must be within Melee Range of him.

Might be useful for attacks that you need your oppenent to face away from you.

If you want to put an NPC in the game which is named after me name it Jack The Guardian

Ok, those are too fast, but for short durations, with real long re-cast times, I think they would be ideal.
I think part of how they deal with speed in the game currently is a little odd, IE -66% speed de-buffs. They don't seem to be that drastically affected, but I'm also used to a different pace of character movement from a different mmorpg.
I don't see 50% as that much different than a 66% slow down.
Does a 25% longer duration, applicable to you and allies(recast is next to nothing, but is required for each individual) and and a real short 50% with high recharge sound possible?
_______
I can see a use of adrenaline, but the former is called that because it was for warriors who really get into it, and in the heat of the moment can use it to cause extreme damage. So by definition, and by warrior nature it is fitting to such lore.

I just don't see a cold methodical killer, who's already a little overpowered yet frail, having another damage booster.

The hard part is making it plausible, according to mostly agreeable ideals of what an assassin is and isn't. I've tried reasoning something out that an assassin could use, but cannot. The mechanics of building up adrenaline being what they are, do not fit the stereotypical Persona of an assassin, in so far as an assassin, if anything would lose moral as time goes on and battle drags out.

I think making them overpowered to begin with, and quickly high power skills become less powerful or inoperable as hits connect but a foe does not fall. He's used to killing for hire, and doing so in one stab from a shadow, or one carefully planned birthday cake with finely ground glass in the icing(5 points to the fanboy who knows where that comes from). An assassin's motto is generally something akin to "strike swiftly, then get the hell out"
When an assassin gets the killing blow, his spirits are raised and his "skill like adrenaline" goes back up.

But that's not so much different from energy, especially when compared to a necro's.

So, the only thing that I can think of have this set of skills that are based on concentration. Make them have a high mana cost, and can ONLY be used when energy is completely full. Or make it so that that skill line will effectively drain all mana and HP, or lower armor class temporarily. Devs option could be to have 5 mana left (say a 2 second burst of XX% speed, something like that.) to run away with and let henchies/ teamates deal with the shocked adversary. It might equalize some PvP power with an easy kill.

I'm sure a Pirate would have plenty of adrenaline based skills, and could even use the term adrenaline, because pirates are thrill seekers at heart.
But I don't think the mechanics of current adrenaline, nor the definition of the word fit what most except an assassin to be, a lightning fast one hit killer that's there to get the job done.

He's paid by the job. Not by the hour. Faster he gets it done, sooner he can go spend his gold, or just count it/ roll around in it.

nah ... not a problem naming skills after some characters (not all of them) - e.g. Xue's Defense, Xue's Nerve Strike (kinda has a nice ring to it, actually)

Hi, I am new here.. first time poster... hello all.

I will paste my old Assassin Concept Class that I had before here as well...

---------------------------------------------------------------
Class name: Assassin
Favored Weapons: Daggers that is faster than sword, but weaker in damage. Throwing Weapons with comparable stat range to that of bow (see more detail in the Notes)
Energy: 25 with basic armors; 3 Regen pips.
Armor: The max AL should be around 60-70 range.
Premise: Assassin does what assassin do, which is to assassinate their prime targets. While weaker in normal attack and armor, they are able to use their skills to dump massive spike attack to a foe, however doing so will often leave them defensiveness. Also have some skills for sneaking and dodging. With throwing weapons, they are able to cover a wider range, and have several other skills that can be combo with other. However, they also have to be played with a bit of luck.
Look: Assassin’s outfit range from one of an Arabian style look, to tight leather jerkin and pants look, to a cloth more eastern style ninja armor. Often sports a mask or hood.
Attributes:
Shadow Art (primary):
Increase the efficiency of Shadow Art Skills. Also can hide equipped weapon until attacking.
Dagger Mastery:
Increase the efficiency of Dagger Skills and use of a Dagger Weapon.
Precisions Strike:
Increase the efficiency of Precision Strike skills.
Throwing Mastery:
Increase the efficiency of Dagger Skills and use of a Dagger Weapon.
Duel Wield (Possible replacing attribute):
Increase the efficiency of Duel Wield Skills and use wielding duel weapons.
(Duel Wield "could" be included with Assassin, but don't have to be. It can be added to another class such as Samurai or Fencer. I did wrote a more extended description on how it might work, but won't post it here)

Notes:

Stalk Chance: Stalk chance is an additional game mechanic to make Assassin play differently, and also as a drawback. Stalk refers to the action where the Assassin is observing his foe’s movement and look for the weak spot in their defense, waiting for the right opportunity to strike in. This means a skill that has stalk chance will usually shown in dark color, where if you use it in that state, you will have (50%-33%) chance of failur. You will have to wait for the chance where it will become enable. Per every second while engaged, there will be a chance (estimated to be around 33%) that that skill will become bright color (will stat that way for 1 or 2 second, before it goes to chance roll again). At this time, that skill will not fail to use (unless you miss or got block or they evade). This make it so that the player will have to pay full attention to their skill bar, waiting for its skill to come in use, and the thrill that comes with it.

Throwing Weapon: A new weapon type. You don’t lost them or need to pick them up when thrown. Beside the usual damage stats, there are two more number that goes with it, “pack” and “reloading time” Pack is how many you can throw before it run out, reloading is how long till it return to your hand. So say you have a Throwing knife with pack of 4 and reloading of 6 seconds, and attack speed of 1 per throw. You would throw 4 of them in 4 seconds before running out, and you would need to wait 2 more seconds before the first one returns to you so that you can attack again. Thus a throwing weapon that has more pack and less reloading is better. Also have the attack range of that of a short bow.

Skill Examples:

-Shadow Art- Skills that lure and confuse you foe. Also have basic stealth type for sneaking around those who are not looking.

Shadow Clone:
For the next 8+ seconds, two clones appear next to you. The clones look exactly like you, copy your movement, can be targeted by opponents, cannot use skill or attack, and have health of one point.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge time: 30 seconds.
Casting time: 2 second.
Linked Attribute: Shadow Art.

Duplicate Clone:
For the next 5+ seconds, one clone appears next to you. The clones look darker, copy your movement and attack at your target, has half of your attack power, can be targeted by opponents, and have health of one.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge time: 30 seconds.
Casting time: 2 second.
Linked Attribute: Shadow Technique.

Shadow Melt:
For the next 8+ seconds, you will become dark puddle of shadow on the ground. While in this mode, you can move at half of your normal movement speed, become less visible and thus harder to be target by opponent, cannot be damage by physical attack. You cannot attack while in this mode. This skill end when you use a skill and easily interrupted when casting.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge time: 60 seconds.
Casting time: 3 second.

Shadow Slip:
For the next 8+ seconds, you become a standing shadow. Your name can be selected by foe, but cannot be target by their attack of spell. This skill end when you move, use a skill, or attack.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge time: 60 seconds.
Casting time: 3 second.


Shadow Walk:
For the next 8+ seconds, you become a half transparent shadow. In this mode you become less visible and increase 50%+ dodge rate. You can still be targeted and damage by attacks. This skill end when you use a skill or receive any damage.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge time: 40 seconds.
Casting time: 2 second.

Smoke Bomb:
Covers the area around you with smoke for the duration of 4+ seconds. Anyone inside this area will decrease in accuracy and increase in dodge by 50%. Also the smoke can visually block opponent from seeing what action you are taking inside the smoke.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 30 seconds.
Casting time: 1 second.

Shadow Jump:
Within a mid range, you are teleported next to your target for 5+ seconds. After the duration you are teleported back to your original place.
Energy Cost: 20
Recharge time: 60 seconds.
Casting time: 2 second.

Wood Displacement Technique:
For the next 3+ seconds, any attack or skill use against you will be missed and hits a log dummy instead. It will also send you few steps back. This skill ends if you attack or use a skill.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 30 seconds.
Casting time: Next attack.

-Dagger Mastery- Skills that enhance your use of daggers, allowing you to deal more damage or conditions to your target foe. Most of Dagger skills also involve the Stalking system.

Backstab:
This attack will deal 10+ extra damage if attack from the back.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 6 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Cloaked Dagger:
This attack cannot be dodge, block, parry, or counter and deals 10+ extra damages.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: 2 Seconds. (Stalk)


Throat Slash:
If this attack hit, will cause 4+ extra damage and Bleed for 4+ seconds
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Eyeball Stab:
If this attack hit, will cause 4+ extra damages and Blindness for 3+ seconds
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Triple Stab:
Will attack in quick succession with a dagger for 3 times.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 15 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Flying Dagger:
Attack the target from range, dealing 25%+ armor penetration. For the next 5 seconds, you cannot use your equipped dagger.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Knife Slip:
If this attack hit, will have 50%+ armor penetration.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Poison Dagger:
If this attack hit, will cause Poison on foe for 5+ seconds.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Acid Dagger:
If this attack hit, will reduce target’s armor rating for 20%+ for 5+ seconds.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Cursed Strike:
If this attack hit, will reduce target’s energy regen by 3 arrow, as a Hex.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Spell Seeker:
Deals no damage. If target is casting a spell, it will disrupt that spell and made target unable to use any spell skill for 3 seconds.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack. (Stalk)

Quick Strike:
For the next 8+ seconds, increase the attack speed. This skill end when use another skill.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 45 seconds.
Casting time: 2 Seconds.


-Precision Strike- Skills that allow you to have more accurate strikes against your foe, dealing more damage and kill them quickly. Also have several stance that help enhance stalk chance. Can work with all physical weapons (melee, bow, or throwing)

Read Moves:
For the next 8+ seconds, increase % accuracy of stalk chance.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 30 seconds.
Casting time: 2 Seconds.

Perfect Stalk:
Will have 100% stalk chance accuracy on the next attack skills.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 20 seconds.
Casting time: 2 Seconds.

Weak Point:
For the next 8+ seconds, your attack has 10%+ armor penetration.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge time: 45 seconds.
Casting time: 2 Seconds.

Head Strike:
Attack head, dealing 4+extra damage. 25% of causing daze.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 15 seconds. (stalk)
Casting time: Next Attack.
(work even better when you have some other ways of lowering their armor on the head, like thief’s Steal Helmet Skill)

Body Strike:
Attack head, dealing 4+extra damage. 25% of causing deep wound.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 15 seconds. (stalk)
Casting time: Next Attack.

Death Strike:
Deal 1-32 more damage. This damage is double if you target is above 50% health.
Energy Cost: 20 (exhaustion)
Recharge time: 30 seconds. (stalk)
Casting time: Next Attack.

Defenseless Strike:
Deal 1-48 more damage. Your AL is decrease by 10-10 for the next 5 second.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge time: 10 seconds. (stalk)
Casting time: Next Attack.

Open Wound:
If hit a target with deep wound, will remove that condition but deals a damage equal to 25% of their health.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 10 seconds. (stalk)
Casting time: Next Attack.

-Throwing Weapon Master- Skills that enhance your use of Throwing type weapons.

Triple Throw:
Throw 3 of your equipped throwing weapon at your foe at once.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack.

Exploding Rune:
Your next throwing weapon attack will deal 10+ more fire damage to all near by foe.
Energy Cost: 5
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack.

Hidden Blade:
For the next 8+ seconds, your throwing weapon will become invisible and deal 1+ more damage. Your opponent will not able to see it.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 20 seconds.
Casting time: 1 second.

Power Throw:
Your next throwing weapon attack will deal 15+ more damage.
Energy Cost: 10
Recharge time: 10 seconds.
Casting time: Next Attack.

Shadow Throwing Weapon Double:
For the next 8+ seconds, the pack of your throwing weapon will increase double.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge time: 30 seconds.
Casting time: 1 second.

Returning Throw:
Return all the thrown throwing weapon back to you.
Energy Cost: 15
Recharge time: 30 seconds.
Casting time: 1 second.

Balancing Issues: With Stalk, Assassin will be played differently from that of Warrior. They should have more damage output, but also with a higher risk since they have lower armor and their stalk skills are chance based. However, a War/Assi and visa versa is also a good combinations, depend on your build. Also this was work with other light armor/melee concept class in mind, such as Martial Artist, Thief, and Rogue. While they seem similar, there are still a good differences between them.

Skills, not NPC's.

Maybe if there are going to be Inns, or something of the sort, name that after me if not the skill. Or some landmark. A whole city, to the person with the most unique ideas that get used.

I smell official contest, top ten get prizes. Naming rights, not necessarily character name though, of course, all subject to denial from GW, sticky somewhere in forum.


A+
For doing more work than most.

F
For not going with what I've posted.

Seriously.

If anyone wanted my real opinion, they'd have read the whole thread by the time this is posted, or will do so now.

Oh, add another backstab to the list.

Well we are repeating a bit,... Remember to Look though and make sure your idea isn't already said.

Anyways

Assassin's Excape{E}
Energy 15
Recharge: 45-60

Cloak For the next 5-12 seconds you move 25% faster and are invisible to ememys and can't be viewed on the radar. Assassin's Excape Ends if you take damage, Attack, use a Skill, or Touch a Ememy.

Easily counter by any Anti-Cloak spells I meantioned so all Anet needs to do is put in Anti-Cloak Guys in areas they don't want running in. Basically like Excape only for an assassin

The devs can feel free to name an assassin npc after the assassin name i've used since d2lod came out::

Xianjia Fujima



and if any of you reading this played d2lod, and have heard of lld101, yes. its me.

she is a fox...

Think about it this way. The aggro bubble is the monsters aggro range, agreed, but think about it like this. If your bubble is reduced by even 95%, it won't make a difference for one reason. If you run through a monsters bubble, (which is still the same!), then you'll still get aggro, regardless of how small it appears on your screen. The only way to implement this would be to reduce EVERYTHING'S aggro range, which seems like a pain in the @ss.

There's no aggro "bubble" - it's a "circle" or "cylinder." The vertical distance doesn't count since you can still aggro an enemy when you're on a bridge or cliff high above them.

That is similar to the honorable mentions to the monster name contest for sorrows furnace. I think it would be nice, but un-neccacary. The person would no doubt notice the skill in play and that would probably be more than enough i think. But, i dunno everyone is different and i was just trying to build an idea through a dual purpose theme and tried to have it make sense and not seem too breakable, while having a couple options in there for people who used it as a secondary (even though after the fact a couple things did occur to me that could be on the strong side, but meh whatever ). Wars didn't have much to gain from it though overal and my list might have been light for total number, but i was trying to be as different as possible, while still working near existing mechanics or things produced by the dev team so far.

In principle i agree with your line of thought. I refrained from it for a few different reasons. First off, in theory the best killers and assasins could kill efortlessly and without a trace of conflict, which would lead to other instant death style blows or poison techniques. One thing that came to mind would be, would it be fun to play and would it be fun to play against. I personally never really liked one shot or extreeme damage kills in faster paced games like first person shooters, because there was no fight in it. In a slower game like this, it could easily kill game balance even if it wasnt easily repeatable. Another problem with basing it off of energy, even unusually high energy costs like say 40-60 or more, is that rangers and elementalists would just abuse it more often than it was intended for with the original class. Currently damage up front via elementalists is not universally accepted and warrior or ranger spiking seems to be prefered. Creating a physical attack specialist that exceedes the norm with damage up front, would make the existing classes obscelete almost instantly, due to the lowish hp counts the game has compared to others.

The existing mechanic for non-repeatable skills in the energy based environment is called exhaustion. Getting exhaustion and being tapped out with it, is no fun at all. If the class was completely balanced around that idea of up front damage, failing it would cause the player to feel rather impotent over time. Going with something slightly outside the box seems more appropriate, but going over the top with it usually never fits. With what i proposed i may have suceeded, or i may have failed, but i dont think ill ever really know unless gaile or alex comes in here and states otherwise. All we can do is just make suggestions and hope for the best.