Assassin back-grapple should be a guaranteed one-shot.

Allowing classes like the Tank and Gunner to survive after a grapple from behind basically leaves an Assassin with no means by which to kill them.

Otherwise, it's just "Grapple Gunner --> Gunner has a sliver of health and uses Slam --> Ring out" half the time. Sometimes you can sneak in a lunge and finish them off if it's a bad Gunner, but otherwise you're pretty much cooked.

Seeing as how the Assassin is a class which relies on its backstab-grapple since it can't take much heat in a firefight, it seems that they should at least be guaranteed a kill when they successfully pull it off (unless they die mid-grapple, of course).

Just a thought; sorry if somebody posted a thread to this effect already.

If it was a guaranteed one hit kill, there would be no reasonable counter against assassins.

Tanks would be pretty much useless then too.

What? There would be a million reasonable counters against Assassins. You just have to shoot them before they get right behind you; if the Assassin is able to sneak directly behind you without being caught, they deserve the kill. Isn't that the psychology behind the class in the first place?

They're incredibly fragile on the battlefield, so sinking a couple bullets in them finishes them off quickly.

Sneak up on people who already have a bit of damage on them, this way you can save your friends from having to duke it out with a heavy weight. Now you're a significant help to your teammates, unlike 80% of the assassins out there who are just in it to watch the kill animations (almost as bad as supports who don't heal).

Get in the habit of jumping after a failed assassination attempt. I do, and it works.
Besides, it's fine the way it is. If you have to, warm them up with some shurikens from a distance, run around a cornor and wait for them to chase you, while you flank them. Seriously, the classes are FINE!

Or just use the dash with RB ? that move is a killer and almost nobody expects it :|

Just do a bit of damage before the grapple when tackling the bigger classes.

Exactly. The first thing bad Assassins do is grapple. You need to hit a couple times because a lot of people are using Armor for an endorsement, usually Gold too.

You should use a couple shurikens while closing distance and then strike once or twice before a grapple, or do the dash attack. Like I said, the first thing bad Assassins do is grapple. Grappling first is asking to be killed.

You can't be Assassin if you don't know how to pick your fights and run away when the situation calls for it.

step 1: lunge
step 2: grapple
step 3: lunge
step 4: ???
step 5: profit

and avoiding slam with a jump is lol. i did it once on accident and was like omfgwin! gunners have been cake ever since.

while its a generally a good idea to avoid tanks like the plague. if i see them going for teammates I'll shadow him, grapple when he attacks, and between the nearby bots/turrets/pros and my grapple he will die.

assassins make good body guards, and its easier to assassinate when your target is focused on a teammate.

I get grappled a LOT by assassin's and I don't die (then again, I use a silver armour endorsement) and I generally charge 'em dead. especially with a lvl 3, i'll finish them off with *my* grapple. Incredibly satisfaction. Otherwise? kill. They always just die from a lvl2 dash.

I'm really tired of everyone suggesting their class should be able to beat every other class by themselves. You can't take out a Tank or Gunner in one hit. Either actually show you have skill and damage them first, wait for someone else to hit them, or attack someone your attack is designed to kill. Stop trying to fight against game mechanics and embrace your character's strengths.

I'm really tired of people pretending no one has a valid opinion because they think the game is fine the way it is. The assassin is the weakest character in the game for a reason and that reason isn't justified if you can't kill the people you sneak up on. This whole notion of shooting someone before you go in for a kill is absurd. The whole idea is for them to never know you are there in the first place.

I usually dash + grapple + jump/dash/hold down my swing button + jump.

Couple of reasons for the last. Most hard classes can either. A. grapple, B. some BS attack that bounces you off the map. C. charge you.

I usually change it up depending if I failed on them or not. If they grappled me before, I'll know it's instinctive to them to grapple right after I grapple them. If they do that, I jump and just swing since you can't grapple out of the air (not to my knowledge and experience). And I swing so fast, they do as I run around them.

I can dash forward, which should kill them right after if they are not already dead from dash+grapple.

Or I just jump out of the way because assault for some reason has his dash come out before mine EVERY TIME. Then I just dash once he wiffs.

Don't cry about assassin. Cry about you not being creative enough to figure out a counter solution.

I assume you're mostly referring to tanks here, I play a good bit of assassin and only remember one gunner ever surviving a back grapple. I assume they have to have gold armor to do it, so I guess that isn't a popular choice. I wouldn't really mind back grapples being a ohk all the time, it's already a ohk 95% of the time as it is. The main issue with it is the class that would suffer from the most from this change, the tank, is already the least popular class in the game by a good margin in my experience. If anything I believe the tank should be slightly buffed, not nerfed.

Wait, Gunners can survive a sword back grapple? I run a gunner with a gold armor endorsement and sword assassins always instant kill me if they get me from behind, even when I have 50% over heal.

Is my armor endorsement not working properly?