Game Mechanics Shadestepper needs Salvation

Shadestepper… my Favorite archetype is one of the weakest of all the archetypes, and despite buffs given, it’s still kinda weak and suffers from major issues. Those issues being

-Horrid, and or terrible Crowd control abilities
-low overall DPS
-Terrible in raids
-too risky for low reward
-way too punishing for low reward
-Heavy Reliance on 1 shotting Enemies, which quickly becomes a pipe dream in later levels, or in raids, or just any boss

how to address this
Honestly looking at the tree, many abilities feel like filler, or are just straight up bad
Black hole
Violence vortex
Stronger vortex
Death magnet

These abilities are just straight up bad, I do have some changes that I don’t expect to be added, but can at least address some of these issues

Crowd Control
Both Vortexs are on the right track but need some value tweaking to be good, and or worth it

Violent Vortex, base should deal 50% damage over a larger range
Stronger Vortex should still be 70% but increase the range even further

Remove/Replace Filler

Remove black hole and death magnet, they fit thematically but gameplay wise is somewhat bad
Black Hole —-> Shade Rewind (bad with names)

Shade-Rewind, while in vanish, landing a backstab while crouching, will send you back to where you originally Vanished.
This has a range of 40 blocks as to not cause bugs with switching locations, I.E dungeon boss doors.
The crouching requirement is so that it can be an optional, while being easy to activate

Death Magnet —-> Rewind Providence
Landing A Shade-Rewind, Provides you with a small amount of Hp based on damage dealt. Every 10k Damage granting 0.5% Max Health healed.

This is to give sustain To ShadeStepper while rewarding landing backstabs, was originally also going to give mana, but that will be addressed in…

The One Shot issue

The main issue is Vanish, almost all of Shades abilities rely on vanish and landing a one shot kill, which is why I propose some changes, which reduce values but gives more consistency

Harvester
5 mana —> 2 mana Gained Per Mark

Devourer
5 Mana —> 2 Mana Gained per mark

rather than Activating on kill, it would rather activate on Backstab

Silent Killer
Still refreshes On kill
But also reduces Vanish Cooldown by 2.5 Seconds on successful backstab

was originally going to make to second effect a white node but I couldn’t find anything to replace without disrupting marks, or other vanish add-ons, ideally I would make the second effect on a white node, I don’t know which one to replace

DPS
The main issue is that due to dealing damage in bursts and somewhat relying on satsujin, it can be difficult with its cooldown which is why I promote a slight tweak to it

Satsujin
Requires 5 marks to activate
Consumes all marks on hit (Harvester will take priority, and you will still gain Mana)
No cooldown

Conclusion
I understand this might not address all of shade steppers issues, even if you think my solution or ideas, aren’t good/unbalanced the fact still remains, Shadestepper Needs rebalancing and tweaking to make it fun, rewarding, and good.

 

I came up with a fairly long winded Shadestepper idea on discord a while ago and was planning on making a post about it, so I suppose I'm a little biased here. Here's what the suggestion was:


But I think that the biggest problem with Shadestepper right now is the fact that it really isn't fun to use, which you didn't mention in your list of problems. It completely fails deliver any of the positive aspects of 1.20 assassin, as it slows down the combat to the point where it isn't really fun, and the archetype is ineffective enough that it feels boring. Being able to spam vanish as part of your combos was an integral part of what made 1.20 assassin fun. The new system forces you to spend a solid 5 seconds or so at a time being completely innactive in boss fights if the boss you are fighting doesn't have minions, and in between those 5 minutes you can do like 1 interesting attack combo that'll only last under a second, meaning the vast majority of your time is spent doing nothing.

Now, I will concede it's plausible that I don't really get the fun value of shadestepper because I haven't used it enough, although I have used it quite extensively just in the level 80-95 range and not at lvl 100 as my assassin hasn't gotten there yet. It is the case that many archetypes really suck at low levels and only become any fun around lvl 100 (which does mean about 90% of the game is now pretty bad for most players, which is a pretty massive problem but that's beside the point). It is probably my second most used archetype in 2.0 after Battle Monk.
Even if that is the case, I still think it's a problem that there isn't really a class that has the fun aspects of 1.20 assassin.

 

Shadestepper’s issue is that it is inconsistent. In TNA, by the time you’ve prepared your spells and are ready to backstab, the boss is already half-dead and your backstab does a little sliver of damage. Not mention it… isn’t very fun. I feel like the only way to save Shadestepper is by removing Backstab and giving it a complete revamp, making it similar to 1.20 assassin. The shade-rewind (shadow step?) would be really interesting along with a playstyle almost like Acrobat; except with invisibility instead of mobility.

 

I really did try to address consistency with moving away from One shot requirements, and more onto successful backstabs to reward backstabs, which allows for more consistency, however there comes a point where it won’t get more consistent, and as much as I love shadestepper, I really think it needs a ground up rework
Nighcloak Knife is interesting, and I honestly feel like an Arsenal based Assassin class, which involves summoning different types of weapons, would make for a more fun, interesting, and overall better class.

out of the three archetypes, ShadeStepper is the closest to 1.20 Assassin which is kinda sad, as it’s kinda feels less of a unique archetype and more of a husk of former glory.

 

“Husk of former glory” is a perfect description. It’s still okay, and unique, but most definitely not what it used to be.

 

The main complaint in 1.20 was that "assassin was broken" back then
Imo rn 1.20 would be at the same level of other classes
Honestly they should just remove backstab and vanish cooldown with an upgrade later down the tree as Shade rn feels super slow to play

 

I feel like shadestepper would be so much better if there was no backstab, and surprise strike was like a 2 second damage boost to spells. It would take out all the annoyances and, with a few extra changes, might become viable