[Assassin/General] Poison in a Killer's Sketchbook

has anybody tested the effects of reload speed on lunge?

i was trying to test the distance and speed but cant figure out an accurate way to measure the results

My main point in saying that it's useless is that many more-useful endorsements can take the place of Reload+. Feel free to experiment though, and get back to me on that. If my statement can be disproven, I have no problem at all removing it and citing your work.

Also adding[added soon-ish] a new section, one I expect to be beefy and continually growing.

I like this.

I believe exposing players to other perspectives of play helps that player become better--as they'll be able to try out different types of methods and find what works for them.

If I may, I'd like to add your guide to my Assassin Almanac!

Over the course of 10 seconds (a usual juice duration) none of the usual damage enhancing endorsements will make much of a difference (the difference is really tiny) when it comes to the shuriken launcher.

Based on original research using a derivative of my DPS spreadsheet and defaultbalance.ini

Oi! Well what can I say... I WAS going to write a guide on the Assassin class. However, you pretty much hit the nail right on. This is a great guide for the assassin class and I actually learned some new strategies from it!

Thanks for writing this, kind sir/madam!

@Syd Sure, but be sure to include that it's a guide for Steam's MNC, and could be very different than XBL's.

@Grim I see..

@Cows You're welcome, and I would be a sir. That's exactly what this guide is about.

I don't aim to radicalize Assassin gameplay, just provide tips that make newbies less-terrible and vets who are interested in trying a few nudges in the right direction.

Addition finished, enjoy your beefy Commandment 13.

Cool, I put it in there. As with everyone I link to in my guide, I gave your name its own color!

Thanks for letting me add it!

I now feel like an accomplished panda.

Dunno if I'm going to play tonight. We'll see.

Sorry for the inactivity, been busy with other things.

I'll update further when I think about it, but..

I'm now taking questions about Assassins. If the question is important enough, I'll even attach it to my guide with your lovely name plastered on it, along with the answer of course.

ok, my worst class is easily sin, and i believe its due to one thing that i find i cant avoid

CONGESTION, with the maps being very small and what not, when things get congested and you feel like you can get around how do i overcome this?

i feel like at the beginning i can complete all my objectives, but as the game progresses i have a hard time getting around. i have read your guide and applied it to my sin, and like i said it works great early but i am strugglin with late game

Imo, late game is when you have to kinda sit back and Assist. You will definitely use the Shuriken a lot, and camp your friendly Gunner/Tank. Your job late-game is to still bot-clear, remove chokeholds, and harass the enemy Sniper. However, if/when that Moneyball's down, you drop everything else and keep that Moneyball down with your retardedly-accurate Shuriken Launcher. You don't have to pound at it [though certainly, feel free to if left alone], one or two shuriken are all you need to keep it down another 30s.

Will continue answering, but almost late, so gotta jet.

ADDENDUM:
Hello once again. PKing is still viable late-game, but you have to take advantage of the opposing team being distracted. Hence camping your Gunner/Tank. They're going to be so focused on removing that Tank that they won't notice an Assassin slipping by and behind, at which point you cruelly remind them you're around with four feet of steel in their spine. Not-cloaked, of course, because that ruins the entire purpose of sneaking around to be unseen, but being heard.

I don't see why the majority of Assassins aren't following these basic rules. Having not specialised in any classes yet, I've killed more Assassins than all other classes. I could say about a third had been cloaked when I killed them.

What you forgot to mention is that the Assassin is one of the best classes to be able to use the Annihilator and Ejectors. Your speed is your greatest asset with those.

Although rudimentary, you should include:
Press "R" with the Sword/Dagger equipped to Lunge a smallish distance.
Your jumps have an extra boost during the second after you smoke-bomb.

Lunging into a group of Bots is good, but doesn't award you as much juice however slashing them awards some juice at the risk of being seen by enemy Pros and Blackjack punches. A good tactic would be "Lunge in, Slash until the bots are wiped, Lunge/Smoke jump out"

You're also able to combine Lunges with Jump-pads. Basically, if you're travelling in the direction a Jump-Pad moves you, you can Lunge at the pad for (what I feel) is an extra boost.

An extra tip, if you're on Steel Peel and you're locked into your base, they may have forgotten your SIDE EXIT. This has happened a few times where the side was entirely empty and I was already upgraded as a Sin. I simply cloaked before exiting spawn, dashed for a bit out of the enemy's view and got into their base. From there, I just camped their bots (no-one was at their base) and destroyed their turrets.

It helps to understand the maps such that you can spawncamp enemy bots, enter their bases in multiple ways and understand the bouncy/reflective nature of your Shurikens. With that last bit, you can keep the Moneyball down without the full line of sight if you've got the right angling.

Edit: Also with bot pushing, if you can't afford to risk yourself, use your shurikens to destroy the enemy bots.

I honestly assumed that blinding movement-speed + stupid jumps = all over the place = keep an eye on these things as common-sense. I'm rather sure I mentioned the Annihilator, but I'll double-check to make sure. Also, with my playing style, I do Passive 3 Cloak 3 only, letting me longrange-sneak into bases when I'm Juiced, and giving me all that extra money to play around with [spawning bots, denying enemy Juice-buying, Annihilator, etc. etc.].

Also, when you lunge off a ledge, you keep that movement rate until you hit the ground/ring yourself out. Remember that one map [names are failing me] with the Annihilator in an island in the center? Try lunging off the lower level to one of the 'arms' where the jump-pads are. You'll make it. Then you're not wasting a smoke-bomb or $100 to get to/from that island early-game.

Also, you almost-always attack bot waves from behind [them]. 1.25x damage from behind with Dagger and 1.5x damage from behind with a Sword [clean up these numbers if I'm wrong?]; one lunge with sword can nearly destroy a grouping, which is helpful when you're un-landlocking your base.

Your Shuriken are godsends, and it infuriates me when I see Assassins Dag/Swording the entire match. Not only can you reflect your shuriken off walls, you can deny certain passageways for a few seconds at least with them. People will back off and try to find the Assassin. You're essentially a distraction, without the you-dying part of being a meat-shield. Then you can continue to bounce shuriken off walls, making players wary of going into passageways and still harming bots.

One or two Shuriken keeps the moneyball down, as well as does more damage to it iirc. So you don't have to juice-rambo into the opposing base with your sword; you can stick back, halfway across the map, and bounce shuriken into the Moneyball if done correctly. All gain, no risk. You can jump onto the glass walls above the enemy spawning point, go back into a corner, and throw shuriken in the ball for approximately ten seconds without being pinpointed [in pubs]. I've gone so far as to live for about 45s, constantly shooting Shuriken, and soloing Moneyballs. Multiple times. With Assaults and Supports standing on the upper level of the spawn-ring.

Assassins have a shocking number of roles to fill in this team game. They can't PK 24/7, not to say they aren't able to or should completely shun PKing, but that they shouldn't focus on it because they have about ten other more-helpful things they can do.

Ah yes, I forgot about the Grenade 3 Annihilator island. While yes, you can save the jump-pad to it, there's the ejector and getting off said island. I like to (when the Annihilator is almost ready) hit the ejector such that all the ones that trip off the middle island aren't active, lunge onto the middle platform, hit the annihilator (and taunt right after, just in case you get a kill or two) then jump-pad right off (unsure if the Smoke jump can cover the horizontal distance.) This would still cost you the $50 for the Ejector, the $250 for the Annihilator and the extra $50 to get off the island in the worst case scenario.
For Ammo Mule's Annihilator, you could smoke into the open roof to get the literal drop on it, almost the same with Spunky Cola. With Spunky Cola, you'll need to make sure your teammates (or bots) are taking the enemy fire/distraction. I tend to dislike using Sin on LaseRazor because i'm usually stuck to one track and the Annihilator can get very campy.

In the most recent games for me, I've got the Shuriken Launcher out for longer than the Sword/Dagger. In the first 10 seconds, when the enemy bots are nowhere near the middle, and I feel it's just a suicide run to get into their base just to destroy their bots that early on. Usually, I just unload a clip or two of shurikens to weaken them then try hit the other lane with what I can.

While sometimes i've been able to get into their base, smoke bomb at a turret and destroy it during the first minute, it's kind of passed my mind. I don't recall my attempts being all that successful either.

Also, I'm wondering what distance/arch do you usually take when you would lunge at bots from behind? I usually don't bother with the behind-striking since I know I have enough time to get out of there, but once the regional skill picks up a bit more, I expect it to be crucial for points of attack.

I'm having a hard time understanding this question. What distance/arch do I usually take? It shouldn't matter all that much, if I'm understanding this correctly; you can come in directly west, lunge, and quickly swipe your mouse around to aim at their backs. Cruddy ASCII time.

[^^wave facing this way^^]
+[----------]====
[you]--------[bots]

[space fdsj] ====
-----------------^

Lunge and twist so you're now 'facing' ^, before the slash kicks in, and you'll get back damage, and follow up with a few slashes. I've read whispers of being able to face-backstab [as funny as it sounds], and will be investigating the matter.

Please clear up the question if I understood it wrong. D;

a face back-stab can happen. Although I have to test it to see if it's true. Anyway, I've seen it done like this:

-lunge
-turn 180 upon hit
-grapple

I'm not sure if it even works, but some sin players told me it does...

I dunno, it almost seems that I have to lunge past or something, or be attempting this against a Tank [oh hell no] or Gunner because of the larger grapple-boxes.

Well, the only time it happened to me was because I got lunged and grappled. It was by marmalade, so you might wanna chat with her to see if it still works.

Ah, alright. I have yet to talk to Hoang, Marmalade, and Syd among others about how they play anyway, so we'll see. :3

You don't have to turn 180 IIRC. About 100 should be enough.

Anyway, these "face back-stabs" are, while very good, most of the time to risky because there is still the possibility of getting it wrong.