Some Assassin Ability Rework Ideas

Formatting kinda sucks and there are a lot of inconsistencies but here's a text wall dump aaaah

Shadestepper

Silent Killer > Swift Strike: After leaving vanish, successfully landing a Multihit or Main Attack within 1s will increase your walk speed by 100% for 1s.

Note: Shadestepper’s main issues regard the archetype’s lack of ability to disengage from combat. In scenarios that lack minions, Shadestepper usually either has to choose between attempting to 1-shot their target or risk taking a lot of damage when exiting vanish, which leads to very 1-sided combat situations. Silent Killer doesn’t really help Shadestepper disengage properly from more challenging opponents. Swift Strike fixes this issue by allowing Shadestepper to disengage after a successful hit, rewarding accuracy and patience.

Marked > Marked: Smoke Bomb will add +1 Mark to enemies it hits. (Max 8, 0.4s Cooldown)

Marked enemies will take +4% damage from your attacks for each mark they have.

Note: The main issue I have with Shadestepper is the archetype’s lack of interaction with Marks, besides applying them of course. My changes reflect this by allowing Shadestepper to interact with marks in more interesting ways. However, first I think that Marks should get the Winded treatment. Functionality remains the same, but other abilities that interact with marks will benefit from this.

Death Magnet > Haze of Death: After leaving vanish, unleash a deathly haze that deals damage and adds 1 Mark to enemies.

Total Damage: 60% (of your DPS)
Neutral: 40%
Air: 20%
Range: 8 Blocks
Shadestepper Archetype
Ability Points: 2
Required Ability: Marked

Note: Death Magnet is often seen as a downgrade, and given Shadestepper’s lack of ways to disengage from difficult situations, pulling enemies towards you can be quite punishing. Haze of Death will instead allow for slightly better engagement with enemies via a small amount of damage and one mark.

Harvester > Harvester: If an enemy has at least 3 Marks, gain +4 Mana upon hitting it for each mark it has and remove 3 Marks. (8s Cooldown, per enemy)

Note: In many scenarios, it’s difficult to make use of this ability since you lack enemies to kill. Allowing Harvester to directly interact with marks aims to encourage repeat stacking of marks while providing a reward that doesn’t rely on killable enemies.

More Marks > More Marks: Add +4 extra max Marks.

Satsujin > Satsujin: If an enemy has at least 6 Marks, your next Multihit or Main Attack will consume all marks and deal 20% more damage per mark. (24s Cooldown, per enemy)

Devour > Devour: Harvester will give +2 Mana.

Better Marked > Better Marked: Increases Marked’s damage bonus by 2%.



Trickster

Mirror Image > Mirror Image: Summons 3 orbital Clones after reappearing from Vanish that will mimic your spells and abilities. Deal -60% of your normal damage while they are active. (15s Cooldown)

When hit, get a chance to take 10% less damage and lose 1 Clone. (2s Cooldown)

Note: As of now, Mirror Image is a very boring and weak first ability. Its original concept is too similar and much weaker than Paladin’s Mantle of the Bovemist, since the damage reduction cannot be controlled and timed accordingly. I think it would be a better idea to merge the functionalities of Mirror Image and Echo, and have upgrades to Mirror Image later in the tree.

Last Laugh > Laughing Gas: When losing a clone, it will cast smoke bomb on itself before dying.

Note: Smoke bomb is much better than casting spin attack, and has more synergy with other abilities later in the tree. Name change is mostly due to it having too much in common with Last Surprise (see later).

Sandbagging > Shadow Clones: Summon +1 Additional Clone and increase your damage while clones are active. (+3s Cooldown)

+10% damage while Clones are active
Req Ability: Mirror Image

Delirious Gas > Firecrackers: Upon casting smoke bomb give yourself lure for 3s. Increase the damage of smoke bomb. Smoke Bomb will slow down enemies while in the smoke.

Total Damage: +10% (of your DPS)
Fire: +15%
Effect: 40% Slowness to Enemies
Duration: 1s

Note: Most people end up taking Delirious Gas because of the massive 40% multiplicative damage, and while I think that the concept is cool I don’t think it really fits the theme of “luring” mobs. This change redirects the power from the multiplicative bonus back into smoke bomb, and merges with Choke Bomb.

Echo > Diversion (New): Upon taking damage have a chance to spawn a stationary clone. It is destroyed after taking damage or after 2s, and can take aggro from enemies. (8s Cooldown)

Note: The point of this change is to allow Trickster to divert attention when caught in sticky situations. Does not replicate spells but counts as a Clone, so benefits from other abilities that trigger when a clone is lost.

Hoodwink > Opportunistic: Upon losing a clone, give all players within its range a damage bonus. (6s Cooldown)

Effect: +40% Damage Bonus to Allies
Duration: 3s
Trickster Archetype
Ability Points: 2
Min Trickster Archetype:

Note: In most applicable scenarios, Hoodwink is pretty unusable. Even with its ability to transfer aggro onto enemies, there aren’t really any enemies in the game worth transferring aggro to. The replacement ability offers Trickster a remedy to losing clones that benefits the group.

Choke Bomb > Aerodynamics: Smoke Bomb will be unaffected by gravity and increase its damage.

Total Damage: +10% (of your DPS)
Air: +10%
No Archetype

Forbidden Art > Forbidden Art: Summon +2 additional Clones. And increase your damage while Clones are active. (+5s Cooldown)
Req Ability: Shadow Clones
+10% damage while Clones are active

Diversion > Last Surprise: Instead of casting smoke bomb, losing a clone will cause it to detonate into a powerful explosion.

Increase the cooldown of Mirror Image by 5s. Increase the cooldown between losing clones by 1s.

Total Damage: 250% (of your DPS, per Clone)
Neutral Damage: 200%
Fire Damage: 50%
Area of Effect: 6 Blocks (Circle-Shaped)
Trickster Archetype
Ability Points: 2
Req Ability: Laughing Gas
Min Trickster Archetype: 10

Note: Diversion, while a cool concept, is way too situational and too conditional in order to be effective in most situations. Since I’m removing Hoodwink as an ability, I think that this change better fits a “final impactful ability” and provides a much better remediation for losing clones, at the cost of slightly increasing the cooldown of Mirror Image. (The explosion damage is affected by the damage reduction while Clones are active)

Stronger Clones (New Ability): Improves your damage by 10% while your Clones are active.

+10% damage while Clones are active

Trickster Archetype
Ability Points: 2

Note: Ability added after Last Surprise.


Acrobat

Dancing Blade > Caltrops: After using dash, leave a trail of caltrops on the floor while midair. It damages enemies that step on them every 0.3s. (3s Cooldown)

Total Damage: 20% of your DPS
Neutral Damage: 15%
Thunder Damage: 5%
Duration: 3s
Area of Effect: 2 Blocks (Circle-Shaped)

Note: Dancing Blade is really bad. By design, it encourages you to throw yourself headfirst into enemies, and while Lacerate does this to an extent, Lacerate at least provides additional momentum after casting to allow Acrobats to escape danger. Changing this ability to deal damage under yourself while dashing in midair will accomplish a similar passive damage effect as Dancing Blade while keeping Acrobat’s ranged playstyle.

Shurikens > Shurikens

Total Damage: 120% (of your DPS, per shuriken)
Neutral Damage: 100%
Air Damage: 20%

Note: Shurikens, while a strong ability on paper, are extremely difficult to hit and effectively have a cooldown due to the cast time. A small buff to the effectiveness of shurikens will make it more rewarding to hit, and will slightly increase the power of hybrid builds. Also, changing the elemental damage from fire to air makes more sense.

Parry > Parry: After dodging damage, gain a temporary damage bonus. (3s Cooldown)

Effect: 50% damage bonus
Duration: 1.5s

Note: Since Acrobat already has extremely good mana sustain and already wants to build intelligence for a ranged spellspam playstyle, Parry isn’t a very good ability, and often you’ll only save 10 or so mana every time you dodge, which isn’t a lot. Just turning parry into a damage bonus that boosts your next bit of damage after dodging would make it a lot more impactful.

Ricochets > Ricochets: Your Shurikens will bounce between enemies upon impact. Increase the damage of your Shurikens.

Total Damage: +10% (of your DPS)
Neutral Damage: +5%
Air Damage: +5%
Acrobat Archetype
Required Ability: Shurikens

Note: A small damage buff will make Ricochets more impactful in scenarios without many minions.

Jasmine Bloom > Jasmine Bloom: After spending 40 Mana while airborne, release a bloom that deals damage the next time you touch the ground.

For every 20 mana spent while airborne, increase the bloom’s range by 2 blocks and repeat its damage an extra time. (Max 140 mana)

Total Damage: 200%
Neutral Damage: 120%
Water: 40%
Earth: 40%
Area of Effect: +2 Blocks (per 20 mana spent)

Note: As of now, Jasmine Bloom is an extremely powerful ability, but the current Acrobat metagame encourages players to constantly spam spells and to fly above enemies while Jasmine Bloom along with Weightless provide enough sustain for infinite flight. This completely gets rid of Lacerate’s use as damage, and I think that this playstyle is generally boring and unhealthy. I think that changing Jasmine Bloom to be a strong burst payoff for maintaining height will provide a more interesting game dynamic, requiring Acrobats to occasionally reset their flight and also lowering the ability's effectiveness with Weightless.
(Creates a bar similar to the Mask Mana System that tracks how much mana you’ve spent while airborne, up to 140)


Better Ricochets > Better Ricochets: Add +1 Max Bounce to Ricochets. Increase the damage of your Shurikens.

Total Damage: +10% (of your DPS)
Neutral Damage: +5%
Air Damage: +5%
Acrobat Archetype
Required Ability: Ricochets

Note: Same idea as Ricochets.

 

I can only really personally speak for Shadestepper, but the heavier focus on marks + decreased reliance on trash mob murder made me warm up to it, and then you hit me with Satsujin on a cooldown! Brilliant.

 

shruikens are rly unused in acrobat. i also think wall jump should just bounce u straight up rather than away.

 

I like these suggestion for shadestepper focusing more on the burst dps, another suggestion i have seen for acrobat (i am sorry i forgot who made the suggestion) was whenever you parry'd an attack you threw a shuriken at whatever attacked, making use of shurkiens and giving the dmg acrobat needs(still, i am not knowlodege able in coding or game blanacing so it may not be as simple as that)

 

first of all, acrobat's lacerate can be spammed downwards and you can still gain height
second of all, i think marked should increase total damage dealt

 

Okay now cata major id

 

I feel like this should be in general suggestions

 

I suggested it in Discord, but there have already been loads of suggestions ranging from complete ability reworks for Shadestepper and Trickster like in the OP to simply upping damage numbers for Acrobat.

Haven't seen any of the major issues addressed in over a month/across three hotfixes and a complete lack of communication about Assassin in general. Would love to be proven wrong, but it's comically demoralizing to keep having discussions in the void that don't impact literally anything.

vOv I've resigned to playing a class that's significantly underpowered because it's a playstyle I prefer, and if I get tired of that I'll just play a different class. <- redacted, I stand corrected https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/2-0-hotfix-5.303925/

 

i cant be the only one that thought the shuriken's were going to be a fan of 3 like a shotgun rather than a straight repeat of three it feels so out of place in acrobat imo

 

I don't really care how they fix assassin as long as they're willing to revisit the design philosophies for the three archetypes and make it so assassin can feel fun to play again I'd be happy

 

I'm still baffled there have been no changes to Trickster since its release in beta

 

Cata major id makes backstab proc from the front too

 

Really like the Acrobat changes, are you going to put this on the general suggestion page?

 

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