"Last minute" Assassin rework for 3,27

Specifics are difficult but assassin needs a rework badly. It's essentially unplayable outside of a meme.

"

Relationship#0359 wrote:

Specifics are difficult but assassin needs a rework badly. It's essentially unplayable outside of a meme.

It's not at all that its unplayable....its just that it has no unique identity: what it aims to be, other ascendancies do much better.

It's also that Trickster is just so uber powerful and needs balancing downward.

"

cowmoo275#3095 wrote:

"

Relationship#0359 wrote:

Specifics are difficult but assassin needs a rework badly. It's essentially unplayable outside of a meme.

It's not at all that its unplayable....its just that it has no unique identity: what it aims to be, other ascendancies do much better.

Yeah the issue overall is, the ascendency does not feel impactful at all. I agree thats a better way to word it, anything it does is just worse than every other ascendency which is weird.

I STRONGLY oppose 'Stealth' as a mechanic

it is stupid strong when stacked, strong to the point of enemy AI (including end-end-endgame bosses) turning off and doing nothing

if you include your 'Stealth' node into the game two things will happen - the Stealth chest will cost 100d+ AND it will be 'fixed' 1 week into the league. it flew under the radar in Phrecia but Stealth is a broken mechanic, not fit for POE MECHANICALY. the game simply does not handle it correctly


this is absolute no-go


then, the ailments and stuff

as long as Pathfinder has prolif and Assassin - doesnt, you can buff assassin trough the roof, there wont be many takers. Prolif is simply SO FEELS GOOD that you either play it, or play a skill/mechanic that does not require it (like Scourge/Toxic Rain)

Sure, your variety can get prolif for ignites and stick to non-prolif poisons (bleed sucks in so many ways in comparison that it is out of the question) but.. why? sure, you can scale via clusters and stuff but.. you need to reduce enemies fire and chaos resistance, stack poison/ignite chance OR go crit (but you only ignite with crits, not poison)

i understand your idea, it might even work, but at first glance - it is asking people to do LOTS of busy work while still feeling worse than Pathfinder (prolif, flasks)

Pathfinder's prolif is the culprit here, poison prolif is limited to TWO sources - Pathfinder and a T0 dagger people destroy for 2.3m dust. you assassin would not compete


oh and that 20% life gained on kill. as a sustain - it is pretty bad and the value hardly matters. 1% of life gained on block when dual wielding.. or something similar. this might do the trick. i like the dual wield theme - 1% life when DW the same weapons, 1% es when dual wielding different weapons or something.

anyway - Stealth is completely, utterly broken mechanic and should be fixed first, made more available second

I didn't make build with Stealth above 100%, so cant say much.
GGG may also change the Stealth mechanic itself - at 90%+ enemy health, Stealth works, reducing their agro radius, but upon receiving further damage, Stealth stops working.

"

Vaqic#7503 wrote:

Idea is:
[...]

With new Mistwalker (100% Elusive at all times) have 15% chance to avoid damage and 30% inc. MOVESPEED.

[...][/b]

There is no such thing as "100% Elusive at all times", as Elusive will not be refreshed until it is depleted, no matter how often you trigger a source of the buff. With this in mind, increased effect of Elusive may even act as a nerf rather than a buff, as the rate of decay of the Elusive effect is flat, and having more effect increases the duration of Elusive, and thus the amount of time you spend "in between" max and min effect, in turn reducing the total amount of time you have max Elusive effect.

It could play well with the Vivid Cat Bloodline, forcing Elusive to be re-applied to the character, but this whole conditional aspect of Assassin was the pain point when I attempted to play it, and it seems to be the same, or worse, now.

I'm really trying to find a way to play it but so far the re-work in itself doesn't appear particularly appealing, seems like it will still die too often and deal damage below other mechanics. I'd love to be proven wrong.

the actual rework is.. like a overcooked rice, edible but anything is tastier

I honestly dont like it, it is a perfect donor class, so many interesting FF options. but they just dont click together - even the 'obvious' crit perfect agony doesnt really look that good: making a poison build without poison prolif is just bad decision making

there are some skills with wide coverage but these are either bows (no support whatsoever) or spells (support exists but the question remains - why)


it is better than the old version but the only node that caught my eye is the Sandstorm Visage and that is not enough to deal with not playing Trickster


it really boils down to two options overshadowing anything else:
- Pathfinder's poison prolif
- Trickster's Action speed protection

seems to be a short list but these two actually make Assassin a non-starter

"

Wessek#1850 wrote:

There is no such thing as "100% Elusive at all times", as Elusive will not be refreshed until it is depleted, no matter how often you trigger a source of the buff.

You are wrong.....this has happened numerous times in the past with things that USUALLY work exactly how Elusive does. Most notably, we had a few mods of this type during Synthesis league. A few uniques have functions like this still on them.

If you simply get the mod "You are xyz", it overwrites any normal behavior of that mod. So if there was a mod that says "You are elusive"....you will always have the 100% elusive buff.

This is a similar effect to being able to "add" a duration tag to skills that otherwise don't have one....except in the opposite direction.

"

sidtherat#1310 wrote:

it really boils down to two options overshadowing anything else:
- Pathfinder's poison prolif
- Trickster's Action speed protection

seems to be a short list but these two actually make Assassin a non-starter

no way man......Assassin rework gave it a HELLUVA lot more damage potential. It's going to be the class that pushes those damage numbers way up. And as we PoE players know.....sometimes its just as simple as out-damaging things and clearing screens.

Poison...yea, not great without a prolif effect. But maybe (and perhaps especially) the new league will offer prolif effects elsewhere, we already see a bit of a poison focus on some uniques and some of those new ascendancy things.

That damaging ailment immunity though is gonna be a popular Flesh/Flame combo that might end up making Trickster.....more powerful than before even with the nerfs lol.

nobody gives a slightest f.. about damaging ailments on Trickster. you have CI, 15k+ ES + overleech, you dont give a slightest f about some ailments, no Trickster ever will get that FF. yeah, Golden Rule and stuff - thats poor man's toys


gimmicky and stylish use of that particular node is build that takes fire as phys (Rat's Cage) + eliminate cold/lightning via damage shifts (greatwolf amulet, sublimes etc). all that to get 40% life recoup.. one cluster on a passive tree gives you like 30% so be a judge. having played with Stasis Prison - even 100% is not THAT great to warrant otherwise bad armour slot

yeah, you can get damage, you can get damage right now - the nodes are not really much better. what Assassin misses is all else - and it still kinda doesnt have that. and it doesnt have any thematic build other than 'COCS' or 'Perfect Agony poison'

first one is interesting and i most probably will try it out (wand plus one of the new AOE trigger skills), the second NEEDs prolif. ive tried poison non-prolif build ONCE and never again. it improves clear and consistency like no other mechanic in the game


most importantly - Trickster's action speed reduction protection makes T17 SO MUCH EASIER to run that it is not even a competition