assassin insta-kill?

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:30 am

i recently relogged after a loong hiatus and i see lots of good new changes. thanks to the devs for continuing to update the game and keep it great.

however in my first pk in months i managed to get instantly slain from full hit points/fully buffed in one hit from an assassin, on multiple occasions. as far as i can tell whenever he attempted this attack on me he was successful in dropping my 693 high fort save toon in one hit without a crit.

a quick look at the change log doesnt show much about this ability or how to deal with it, can anyone explain how it works?

i'm guessing that detecting the assassin might be a counter, but so far my guy only has 49 listen, and our epic skill focus listeners weren't able to detect him either, and also got instantly slain.

mgrjebbo · Post by **mgrjebbo** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:17 am

first off your toon doesnt have a 693 fort save so that must be a miss print, secondly use freedom of movement, solves all your problems

Post by **Amoenotep** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:40 am

first off..assassins are doing some tests right now so yes, there are some things being looked into an assassin insta kill...no i won't go into details...no freedom won't help you.

mgrjebbo · Post by **mgrjebbo** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:46 am

intresting turn of events.....

plan b, assassin have no fort save so implode/wail them.

P. Fricebottle · Post by **P. Fricebottle** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:40 am

mgrjebbo wrote:intresting turn of events.....

plan b, assassin have no fort save so implode/wail them.

Shadowdancers aren't supposed to have fort save either, look how that worked out.

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:41 am

mgrjebbo wrote:first off your toon doesnt have a 693 fort save so that must be a miss print, secondly use freedom of movement, solves all your problems

yeah that was supposed to be "693 hit points and high fort save"

and im not talking about the 'stun for 20 minutes' assassin ability (my toon is a pale master with freedom up + full cleric suite of buffs), im talking about full hit points -> dead in one hit new power.

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:55 am

Amoenotep wrote:first off..assassins are doing some tests right now so yes, there are some things being looked into an assassin insta kill...no i won't go into details...no freedom won't help you.

ok that makes sense, judgement reserved.

let me know if you want feedback on what it's like to be on the other side of that.

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:22 am

well nevermind, i just took another look at the changelog and assassins are no longer "in testing."

34 base fort save == not enough, it doesnt matter if they're hidden or spotted, no immunities help, unlike death effect spells no spellcraft or protection from spells boosts help.

i'd recommend changing it from "instant slay" to dealing some significant percentage of the target's hit points in damage, that way it's still really dangerous and cool but less "wizkilly."

as it stands half our team simply logged off after a while, it didn't seem to be a challenge addressable by skill.

de_slider · Post by **de_slider** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:30 am

Amoenotep wrote:first off..assassins are doing some tests right now so yes, there are some things being looked into an assassin insta kill...no i won't go into details...no freedom won't help you.

I was unfortunate/fortunate to be one of the first to feel the new para effect and the instant death strike. At first I thought I was trying to DE when i saw a 6666 hp gone.

That was the only 3 times the assassin got me. After that, the secret to lowering the boom on them was recognized and I must say.. even a dev assassin is an easy target. It's all in how you move folks. Stop what your doing and dance the Irish Jig. Your amazing footwork will stump them, dazzel them and distract them. That's when you own them.

PS. Being a lvl 40 pc with blinding speed, extra attacks, high spot and at range helps a lot too.

mgrjebbo · Post by **mgrjebbo** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:26 am

yeah but "wizkilly" is the point m8 they are "assassins". assassin before now was a pretty useless prc. now it has some guns to back up its talk... fine by me.

i like it, it adds flavor and such. i look foward to being stabbed in the back soon!

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:02 pm

de_slider wrote:That was the only 3 times the assassin got me. After that, the secret to lowering the boom on them was recognized and I must say.. even a dev assassin is an easy target. It's all in how you move folks. Stop what your doing and dance the Irish Jig. Your amazing footwork will stump them, dazzel them and distract them. That's when you own them.

staying at range is probably what saved you. i also tried the 'irish jig', and it didn't work. i was chasing another enemy around (one of those runrurnrun in circles! kind of players) and I guess it went on long enough that i was no longer considered 'in combat' by the engine. during the chase i got nuked by the assassin while still in motion.

Celorn · Post by **Celorn** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:02 pm

My toons are spotting the assasins no problem, but their etherialness wins every time - they vanish totally and run away to rest. I haven't seen the insta-death happen yet tho, the toons attacked so far have well over 40 base fort.

The only counter seems to shapeshift into a dragon (or other bioware-TS form) to chase them until it wears off, then finish 'em off... but that's quite a pain. I guess NC's job token should work as well.

Blystos Re · Post by **Blystos Re** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:05 pm

I personally think this new change is the coolest most innovative change to the server thus far. It actually gets the adrenaline flowing just thinking about trying to raid Menzo now...we're gonna need some rangers.

The patience that it would have to take to get an assassin to 30 makes this class hard enough, I think the rewards here are appropriate.

Keep up the good work, Linux!

**Edit** However, if Leona's assassins get this I am not going to be happy.

Post by **Binkyuk** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:10 pm

Etherealness's duration has been slashed to 1 round now though (2 if you're exceptionally dedicated). You do have to chase them but really not very far.

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:12 pm

mgrjebbo wrote:yeah but "wizkilly" is the point m8 they are "assassins". assassin before now was a pretty useless prc. now it has some guns to back up its talk... fine by me.

i like it, it adds flavor and such. i look foward to being stabbed in the back soon!

ive got no problems with fixing assassins, i just think there's a lot of ways to make them really badass without getting into 'wizkill anybody who's not charisma based divine grace/blackguard.'

i've been on the wrong end of a lot of build mismatches and that doesn't really bother me, but in this case i had a constitution based character with a decently high base fort save (short of your divine gracey types) and it should have been a decent matchup.

instead it was kinda no-contest for me and the rest of my team whenver this poison was brought in. I will grant that the assassin played excellently and made great use of monk speed/assassin spells to get around lack of hips. however we played decently as well and had a good variety of builds; I would hope for a better back-and-forth challenge in that situation than what this power brought to the pk.