Revert Assassin Changes

The 1.19 update has been great so far with loads of new features that make the game better, however there is one change that really killed a class and its viability and that class is Assassin. As someone who mains assassin I gave it a shot post update with the vanish spin combo which rarely does more damage than the old spin and even then has a fraction of the dps, stunlocking was rarely as over powered as people make it out to be and in fact I don't believe most people can solo LI or Qira (which are the two examples I'll be using because wars don't count, although it was never op for full defenses there either) with just stunlocking because it is usually unreliable.

Furthermore spin was assassin's main attack spell and best source of dps, multi hit is a bad spell that does damage over time and while it can stay in place now, I think it worked better as a utility spell that could do damage to enemies while creating distance between the assassin and their opponent. Vanish I also believe would need to be changed back because the 5 second max vanish time is really annoying if you're trying to get somewhere fast and I just don't see why it was needed, the new damage buff also should be changed back too because the new vanish spin combo is just horrid with assassin.

Assassin's lore says it's the deadliest class and this update, but it was totally killed with the spin nerf and is far from the deadliest class anymore. I bring this up in conversation a lot when talking to people about the new update and they all agree that the assassin change was terrible and gives absolutely no reason to play the class over any other ones, assassin was always high risk high reward with stun locking, although you needed to be close to the enemy and it didn't always work. I urge people to sign this petition to get assassin changed back to the way it was before so it can be a viable class again. Everything at which assassin used to excel is done so much better by the other classes now.

 

+1 make assassin great again

 

I am an assassin main and I approve of this message.

 

Well you were an assassin main before it was butchered lol

 

I dont even know why these changes were needed, or why any other classes (Especially this one!) needed to be nerfed while Shaman is clowning on em all and it'll only make more people want to play and stick with Shaman or Archer.

I'm not really the most knowledgeable on assassin gameplay and have spent the least time on it, but i still know and have played enough to understand the player frustration here. The 5 second max vanish time either needs to be reverted or extended as well.

 

100% support for this. I loved Assassin pre-update and now it's terrible. Furthermore, Shaman has the statistics (and actual damage ingame) that Assassin should have. Extremely high damage with literally no defence? Seems like a stealth-reliant Assassin to me.

Assassin was literally fine as it was, and I would gladly take it's old spellset over a 1-mana vanish (because it already cost that at max grade).

 

I do not main assasin, however I’m gonna sign this anyway as all your points are valid and you’re 100% right!

 

+1 coming from a Warrior Main hehe

 

> Shaman
> Extremely high damage

lol

 

Assassin damage is still good to be honest.

It really depends on what you are fighting. Spin Attack attacks mobs in a circle around you making you able to hit many targets at once. Assassin is not the best class for dealing damage on a single target. Arrowstorm Archer does the job for that.

I think they wanted to balance Assassins spells a bit. You should start making some combos with Smoke Bomb, Multihit and Spin Attack on top. (The vanish changes seem kind of meh to me. It is pretty useless when you play spellspam what almost every Assassin should do.)

I think Assassins Damage is still quite good despite having the second highest defense in the game.

I think they should change the lore of the Assassin a bit though. It really is not what it is supposed to be.

 

There was no reason to do this to assassin at all, maybe a small spin nerf because that was a little too powerful.

 

Thoughts on multihit? Multihit is meant to be the main damage option for assassin so rather than return spin to being all the damage, utility and stun of the class which all of its power comes from, more use should be made out of multihit. If you guys can help outline the issues with more than just spin, maybe we can tune to class to be just better overall.

 

time for heavy melee vanish 160k quake cursed uh oh nerfs time to switch build

 

I think the simpler option is to switch Multihit and Spin - make Spin 3rd spell and Multihit 1st spell. Spin already functions well as a primary offensive spell (without blind) whereas Multihit with blindness would give it a good use as a secondary offensive. Of course, it's possible to just go like Archer and increase Multihit damage the way Arrow Storm does, and put the blind on Smoke Bomb. Trying to make Multihit a primary offensive spell seems futile, just as trying to make spin secondary would just end in it becoming useless.

 

I mean in theory that seems like a thematically fitting decision but in praxis a few issues that come to my mind are that

1. while multihit is technically AoE it's nothing compared to the spells other classes have at their disposal.
I am aware you're not designing for guilds but in wars especially this makes the class subpar. I'd imagine it affects PvM grinding to some extent as well.

2. Multihit displaces the target which is an annoyance in all scenarios save PvP, since you'll have to run after your enemies and if you are fighting alongside others they'll love you for forcing them to do the same.

3. The mana cost is still too high to justify using this as a primary spell. Multihit always had its uses but it's just not as spammable, both in theory and gameplay feel.

 

I like Multihit, but it has a few flaws that make it hard to use. The problem with I have with it mainly right now is two things:

1. From what I've heard and from a bit of testing myself, the Damage Bonus from Vanish doesn't apply for all of the Multihit, just the first hit. You can ofc Multihit, then Vanish, but I'd much rather prefer the 80% to be applied to all of the hits. The same situtation also applies to Smoke Bomb.
2. I don't like it how Multihit displaces the enemy. Probably the best change you can make so it doesn't is that if you're shifting when you cast Multihit, enemies affected by it don't get knocked around. This would make it so you can keep them in one place and keep damaging them down with Smoke Bomb and Spin Attack.

I do know that Spin + Multihit does sort of keep the mob in place, but it still preforms the knockup which I'm not a fan of. If Multihit didn't apply any knockback if you shifted, it would be a very good DPS skill and a good skill for displacing enemies.

 

Swapping the two spells has some bad effects on early game for a few reasons, at least how I see it.
1. Spin attack is an instant cast with an instant effect which is more useful for newer, less experienced players
2. Multihit is too expensive as a first spell for the majority of players to utilize early on
3. Multihit without its upgrades don't feel too worth for the mana cost compared to spin attack

Multihit isn't necessarily AoE, but it has the ability to be. Assassin's area control is very much spin and smoke. Multihit's AoE already extends slightly to the left and right of it's little animation. I'm not sure what else would be done to change that outside out outright reworking Assassin's third spell completely.

The knockback of multihit (same with uppercut) seems to be the cause of the issue with both of these spells. At least according to the community it is.

Yep, strength as a potion effect just multiplies the damage you're currently dealing. Wynncraft has no mechanics associated with (potion) damage boost that works off of entire spells. It's something worth changing, IMO, but I can't really guarantee anything as usual. It's just a bit impractical with how it currently functions.

And yeah, again, feedback about multihit seems to be very consistent that the knockback surrounding it is the main issue with it as a spell. Am I right in saying that? Say the knockback got tuned down similar to lower grades of the spell, would that be alright? An extra thing I've noticed is how extreme the knockback from the fatality hit is. Also, thoughts on making the spell as a whole resolve significantly faster?

For reference, here are some clips of the spell at each of its grades:
Base multihit, no force, no fatality
Multihit, with fatality, no force
Multihit, with fatality, with force

 

I feel like the knockback can add an element of strategy but usually isn't much appreciated, so @Novalescent's sneak-no-knockback suggestion would be my favourite.

 

As for the multi hit things yeah if it's supposed to be the main spell it really doesn't hold a candle to bomb arrow or meteor because they have all their damage packed into one hit and multi hit displaces mobs and does a good amountCV of damage over time, not to mention I'd say the only other main attack spell that's got worse dps than multi hit is uppercut
I personally don't see a way to make people want to, or consider to use assassin again aside from a 1.18 assassin change back
Tbh I like Drusers suggestion
I especially really agree with this "Trying to make Multihit a primary offensive spell seems futile, just as trying to make spin secondary would just end in it becoming useless."
The biggest thing for me here is everyone's pretending assassin was OP before and it just wasn't, it wasn't for LI , it wasn't for CoW or Hive or anything, it struggled just as much as other classes did on almost every scenario that was built for difficulty except wars where it excelled, but wars aren't considered often if at all, assassin was in archer's shadow despite trying to be the highest damage class and this change was a step in the wrong direction for the class
It did do better than warrior, but warrior isn't a spell class and I dont think it should be
I wish the classes matched their lore in the class selection screen