[0.915] Champion Traits Assessment: The Assassin
Elemental Forums
This post is a continuation of the Assessment found here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/425698
The current Champion setup is a great on in concept. We have five strong archetypes that we get to use to craft our heroes as we see fit; the strong Warrior, the skilled Assassin, the noble Defender, the wise Governor, and the powerful Mage. The issue I see is not with the framing of the system, but the implementation of the skills. Too many of them are in strange places or across specializations, which cause the identities of the archetypes to be watered down, and actually serves to make most of them less appealing in general. I feel it is a problem of cleaning up identities more than anything, and my overall assessment is being done with that in mind.
I begin with my assessment of:
The Fallen Enchantress Assassin.
Assassins are warriors whose hallmark is stealth, skill, precision, and lethality. Conceptually, there should be at least two ways to build an Assassin; Sniper (ranged) and Silent Blade (melee). Let’s take a look at what we get with Assassins in Fallen Enchantress.
| Trait | MinLevel | Trait Bonus | Gross Bonus | |
| Path of the Assassin | 4 | +1 Crit/Level, +50% Crit Damage | +1 Crit/Level, +50% Crit Damage | |
| Dodge 1 | 5 | +5 Dodge | +5 Dodge | |
| Dodge 2 | 6 | +7 Dodge | +12 Dodge | |
| Dodge 3 | 7 | +9 Dodge | +21 Dodge | |
| Marksman 1 | 5 | +10% Pierce Attack | +10% Pierce Attack | |
| Marksman 2 | 6 | +15% Pierce Attack, +5 Accuracy | +25% Pierce, +5 Acc | |
| Marksman 3 | 7 | +20% Pierce Attack, +10 Accuracy | +45% Pierce, +15 Acc | |
| Precision 1 | 5 | +5 Accuracy | +5 Accuracy | |
| Precision 2 | 6 | +10 Accuracy | +15 Accuracy | |
| Precision 3 | 7 | +15 Accuracy | +30 Accuracy | |
| Vital Strike 1 | 5 | +1 Crit Hit, +20% Crit Damage | +6 Crit (min), +70% Crit Damage | |
| Vital Strike 2 | 6 | +2 Crit Hit, +30% Crit Damage | +8 Crit (min), +100% Crit Damage | |
| Vital Strike 3 | 7 | +3 Crit Hit, +40% Crit Damage | +11 Crit (Min), +140% Crit Damage | |
| Impulsive | 5 | Unit Goes First | ||
| Deflect Missiles | 6 | + 20 Dodge v. Missiles | Dodge 1 Prereq | |
| Double Strike | 5 | Attack twice for -30 Accuracy | ||
| Sweep | 6 | Attack all adjacent for 50% damage | Double Strike Prereq | |
| Charge | 5 | +3 Moves and +3 Initiative on first turn | ||
| Gambler's Strike | 5 | 50/50 double damage or miss | ||
| Acrobat | 8 | +1 Dodge/ Level | +29 Dodge (Minimum), Dodge 3 Prereq | |
| True Strike | 5 | Never Misses, does 75% Damage | ||
The Good Stuff:
- Dodge: This attribute is very hard to come by in the game, and makes a very good trait for representing what an Assassin is, as does the type and placement of secondary abilities (Deflect Missiles, and Acrobat) with Dodge for representing both the Sniper and Silent Blade Assassin builds.
- Double Strike: This makes sense. In case an Assassin isn’t certain that one hit will do it, two are needed. Their advanced access to Accuracy makes this a great pick for melee Assassins, but does it work with ranged attacks?
- Impulsive: Fantastic ability, and it fits both builds very well.
- Vital Strike: Again, very characterful for Assassins. I am not entirely certain HOW critical hits are calculated, but it appears as though a level 10 Assassin with a few levels of Vital Strike has a nearly 15% chance to critical and a massive boost to damage when they do. Very good.
Ill Fit Abilities:
- Marksman: This is a great ability for Sniper-type Assassins, and would probably be taken every time, but given that it also affects spears, why is this restricted to Assassins?
- Sweep: Precision. Skill. Assassin. An ability which flails wildly for low damage around a Champion is a poor fit for a Precision Champion. This belongs on the Warrior Path.
- Charge: Get there fast and first, sure. Not sure that “Charge” is necessarily what I think of when I think of Assassins. This particular skill belongs with Path of the Warrior. See “From the Shadows” below for an example of what would fit wonderfully with Assassins.
- True Strike: This belongs with any other class. By the time an Assassin has a chance to pick it, they have an 83% chance to hit, with access to abilities that bump that percentage dramatically for every hit. Couple that with reducing the damage output and I see a trait that no one will be choosing any time soon. This trait belongs either in the General pool or with Defenders, who have no access to Accuracy enhancers.
- Gambler’s Strike: Not exactly an ill fit, but I’m not really seeing a big benefit. Assassins have easy access to double damage crits (with a crit rating of 8) as early as Level 6 on every hit with any kind of weapon, with a very high chance of hitting normally. Why trade that for a melee-only strike with a 50/50 shot of dealing this type of damage? This trait is good in spirit, but compared to what Assassins are capable of on a per-hit basis, it comes off as a non-starter.
Recommendations:
Assassins don’t have any real support for their Sniper variant in terms of active skills. Their passive skills are good and make sense, but they get no love otherwise.
- Bow-Assassins need some fun abilities. Things like a No-Crit tradeoff for Knockdown ability with a decent timer on it.
- Melee Assassins need something that better indicates their skill. An ability called something like “From the Shadows” where they teleport and strike sorta like that Air spell would be more fitting for them than Charge.
- In general, Assassins need some abilities that really illustrate their ability to capitalize on the weaknesses of their enemies.
- 2x Damage on enemy weaknesses
- Attack that totally ignores armor
- Riposte, an ability that has a % chance to block an attack and counter once per turn.
Finally, I think starting at level 15 each and every Path needs to start getting access to some pretty over-the-top abilities. All Paths start running out of really interesting things to pick around level 12 leading to the appearance of diminishing rewards. The sky is the limit here, and I’m not going to take the time to really illustrate all of them, but if you can get a champion to Level 15, you deserve some crazy stuff for your effort, and not "I guess I'll make them a Governor now".
