[Assassin] Marmalade's Advanced Guide

Thanks for not taking it too seriously. Didn't mean to be a douche.
And appreciated.

Thought so, but wasn't sure so I followed Rule 30.

Long Post:

I really like this guide - read it thoroughly right after I bought the game, and I've been an assassin ever since. My level is currently in the mid-80's. Here's the first three things that came to mind that I'd like to stress:

1) Level 3 cloak is unnecessary. Level 2 cloak should be more than enough, and is, at times, more than enough. As an assassin, you should be constantly on the move, killing any and all bots on the map. The cloak recharges as you're lunging around and killing bots...and yeah - you should be killing a LOT of bots. I've never had isssues with running out of cloak at level two, and level three's $400 critical shurikans aren't necessary either (you should never be standing still with level 3 to recharge cloak. You should ALWAYS be on the prowl.)

Passive level 2 is useless as well, so don't bother upgrading that to level 2 until you have enough money to upgrade straight to level 3. The reason why you should wait is because if you bot-camp long enough to get $550, you can either go straight to the sword or surprise the enemies' base and take out both of their turrets with your dagger if you decide to buy juice super early in the game. Depends on situation. Better yet, save up $550 at the beginning of the game, get juice from bots, screw up enemy base with juice, and then buy juice at a billboard...and repeat. Which leads me to:

2) Pretty much the only thing you should buy is juice. I stress "pretty much" - but yeah - no turrets. Your primary job is to destroy, not create. And any $400 going toward level 3 skills is $400 away from your next purchased juice. When you juice, you ought to get back around $250-$350 after destroying all turrets, bots, and pros that get in your way. Use that money to buy more juice at one of the two despensers. You can occassionally get in a cycle where you have enough cash intake to stay continuously juiced for, like, 5-7 times. You don't need level three skills if you can win a game in five minutes with this strategy.

Once in a blue moon, I get smoke bomb 2 or dash 2, but it's quite rare. I'm starting to ease away from cloak 2 as well. If you play smart and keep away from pros properly, you shouldn't run out of cloak.

3) When the enemies' money ball inevitably goes down, don't be afraid to focus on enemy pros and turrets that are around their ball when you get juiced - more money for you, and it helps your team/bots move in. Bots do a lot more damage to the ball than most people realize. Just be sure to hit the ball at least once every thirty seconds.

And yeah, I agree with everything else in the guide. =D

Short Post:

You know, everyone got his/her own way on how to play the assassin.
You can't sum it up to unnecessary things like "cloak 3 is useless", "don't buy turrets" and stuff.
For example I bet some people would rage quite a bit, if they see how I play assassin.

The important thing about Cloak 3 is the critical bonus, since the 15% are useful for lunge (they turn into 30% when you lunge at an opponent from behind), it also helps dealing with opponents without using grapple faster.

Passive 2 reduces all falling damage by 0.5x, which is required to stay cloaked after smoke bomb jumps by landing on glass walls / high ledges. However, yes, getting sword is a priority.

You won't win a game against competent players with cycling juice, simply because they'll be able to counter your juice rushes at some point, however, it's a valid strategy for pubs.

Pretty much true.
Also, upgrading Dash is definately not a waste.

Made me curios. How exactly do you play it? I know I have a rather odd thing since I buy only the passive and juice but I want to know what's so ragequit-worthy.

Don't get why you should save up to 550$ when you have no disadvantage from buying passive 2 except 150$ which don't matter at the beginning anyway.

The fact that you can't hide from him and that he chooses when he kills you, I am not kidding this guy chooses who lives and who doesn't - with surgical precision.

LONG LAME POST:

Obviously, everyone has their own playstyle. However, it's my understanding that this board is geared primarily toward noobs and those who play public matches, and this is the crowd that ought to take into consideration simplistic rules...which yes, eventually become a complicated strategy. You have to start somewhere though, and in my experience, over-juicing-assassin is a excellent, yet simplistic strategy. And yes, I've made people rage quite a bit too =P. I'm accused of hacking every couple of games because of over-juicing. Within a minute or two of a game, I can have a turret down, one juice from bots in my pocket, and $500 for another one in the bank.

Yes, cloak 3 is useless though. Yeah, you get critical shurikans, but what's the point when one round of non-critical shurikans can more or less kill a deployed gunner? Admitedly, I wasn't aware that it made lunges critical, but regardless, lunge+back grapple kills pros in almost all instances, so I'm not willing to sacrifice a juice in order to make the upgrade.

I'd say that my opponent's money ball shield typically goes down, ergo...my team wins, within 3-4 minutes. No point in unleasing the full fury of the assassin's skills if you can do a quick juice-rush and finish the game in an instant. I have one other friend I met the other day who uses the over-juicing assassin strategy with me, and I believe we've never been defeated together online in the 30+ games we've played.

...
/long lame post

I haven't drawn this card in a while but if that is indeed the case you need opponents who are capable of breathing, soon.

Sure, and now try it on somebody who is not terrible.

I usually end up with Dash 2, Smoke 1 or 2, Cloak 3 and Passive 3. It seems to be the most cost-effective approach in trading money for power and utility.

With Cloak 3 you can cloak between clips to guarantee every shuriken you fire is a crit. That bonus damage has come in handy many a time for me and i can't imagine not having crits on demand. It's too powerful to pass up - even in favor of maybe blowing up $300 worth of turrets early game. For $500 of juice. Yeah, let's go with that.

People treating Cloak 3 like the Cloak n Dagger from TF2 however, are not doing it right. I made that mistake when i first started playing. Part of learning the game. Now i'd be lucky if i sit still for more than a second.

I don't know why all of you are getting so defensive when someone puts a lot of thought into a new idea. It's simple math - if you buy a juice for $500 and destroy merely two level two rocket turrets, you did $900 worth of damage and got back at the very least $60 from those destructions. Take into account killing at least two pros, which yeilds at least $100 dollars for those kills. If you add everything up, you destroyed $900 from the enemy for the price of $340, and you forced two enemy pros to wait to respawn. That's a net gain of $540 for your team. But hey, whoever doesn't use their heads and actually think about legitimate strategy, that's your fault folks.

Well, in the very, very early game, you can take out a level 1 turret on you own if you smoke bomb it and slice it from the backside, so juicing in that instance isn't necessary unless enemy pros are around. I don't believe dash 2 is very useful - if you have level one, you can tap dash + jump, and continuing doing that whenever you land for extra little speed boosts. It kinda feels like an exploit though - I'm tempted to report it.

I understand the potential usefulness of having critical shurikans, but I'm fundimentally opposed to killing enemy pros without being either juiced or without backstabs. The only instance where I'd like critical shurikans is against level 3.3 firebases, so if I feel it's necessary, I'll take the Cloak 3 if I'm against a tough support, but otherwise, I'll stay put at level 1 or 2.

Point 1: Sorry for the misspeak on the gender Marmalade, I actually knew, but I was really god damn high when I made that post.

Point 2: Saving up 500 and buying juice right away seems... odd... and yet I feel the need to try it...

Point 3: Cloak 3 has a few good uses. If it's a map where you can camp bot spawns, having that "hide" ability is... it's not GREAT, but it'll pay for itself. Also, and by far the MOST important aspect of this entire GAME when it comes to cloak...

You can smoke jump on top of the glass walls, cloak, and eat a sandwich.

Yeah. It's amusing how easy it is to actually destroy basic turrets if you have a few seconds uninterrupted. I tend to have no problems obtaining my first juice fairly easy... unless the lane i pick offers some stiff resistance... i only end up buying juice late game. My ejector and annihilator use is the only reason i don't do it earlier.

Never tried that with the dash - are you sure it doesn't gimp your speed? It DOES sound a bit like pushing the envelope between clever tactic and exploit. I rarely find $150 to be a big loss in any case, it's almost always the last skill i upgrade. I'll have to give it a try and see if i can tolerate doing it.

As for killing pros - i use the shurikens for three things. Turrets, the money ball and area denial. Nobody is going to walk into a wall of purple shurikens unless they have a support strapped to them or they have rocks for brains. If i'm forced to back away from a group of bots with an escort or anyone else i need to hassle, i will send a ton of them into the fray as i go. It's always part of a tactical retreat or stalling mechanisim, never as a primary means of attack. But.. well, different people have different styles. It doesn't work for you, it works for me. The important part is, it works.

Though if anyone can give me a good reason to ever upgrade the smoke bombs, i'd like to hear it.

I don't see a new idea.

But you know what, do me a favor. Do the same thing I did yesterday: Play against Marmalade and Zanarias. Have fun.

< Forever destined to have his name misspelled, specifically because everyone forgets there's a third A.

Consider yourself lucky. My name was constantly misspelled for six years.

The "new idea" is rarely upgrading to Cloak 2 and 3, and only upgrading to Katana if the situation calls for it.

Maybe I'll take them up on the challenge when I get the time. I played against a level ~160 assassin named Joker or something yesterday. I believe I finished with 1500 points more than him. 200 bot kills to his 50. I think I know what I'm doing. He mentioned Marm, so I'm assuming he's from around here and familiar with how to play...

That, is in no way a new idea. I've been doing that for about a month now.

Joker rings a bell somewhere, can't remember him though so probably not that good.

basically agree. maybe not smoke though.

If you need juice to kill level 1 rockit turrets you are doing it wrong.

Yeah, standing still = get sniped.
Though maybe that is because half my steam friends list is good snipers.