BlueZebra's Assassin Guide

This guide will provide information about the assassin class including some of my opinions.

If you wish to contribute, feel free to post. Also if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Each day I will add three-four things to the guide if possible.

Summary - Provided by Uber Entertainment

Deadly, quiet, invisible. The Assassin has become one of the most popular combatants on MNC due to her acrobatic kills and cool cloaking ability.

While unable (or unwilling) to speak (MNC scientists dont know for sure) the Assassin carries out her duties with dignity and grace, killing quickly and seldom showboating like some of her teammates. Though a menacing and mysterious figure she appears at times protective of her teammates, but never at the expense of a win. Though she seems to have a thorough sense of justice make no mistake, she is not a woman to be crossed, even by a teammate. Most of her fellow athletes keep their distance when off the field, save for the occasional awkward approach by the Heavy Weapons Specialist or Tank.

In recent years there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding the Assassin. Some scientists in MNC have reported an unusually high number of instances involving insubordination, with some Assassins even taking unauthorized leaves of absence from the team. Some have begun to worry that the Assassin clones are getting more difficult to control. Top management at MNC have downplayed the concerns, reasoning that her popularity with the fans is worth any such inconvenience.

When the Assassin dreams she dreams of a society that throws off its self-imposed shackles, unafraid to live as free men and women without the comfort and safety of a predictable existence. Silent by choice, she keeps mute so that her works will not betray her feelings towards the ruling overclass. Most of all she dreams of living as an Outlander, of raising children with a likeminded male warrior who rather die a free man than be consumerist slave.

The Pros and Cons

Pros
+Shes the glass cannon of the team, kills her target as quickly as possible
+Her main weapon doesnt reload so she can constantly put fire on the enemy
+The only playable character with stealth
+Can back grapple targets for OHKOs (tank is the only exception, or anyone with a gold/silver armor endorsement)
+Has a ranged weapon still, capable of tearing down turrets and killing pros.

Cons
-Shes the glass cannon of the team, targets kill her as quickly as possible
-Her secondary is very slow unlike bullets, so the ability to lead your shuriken is heavily required
-Shes a popular class and everyone plays herwhich means youll see many teams with 2+ assassins and negative k/d with very little contribution from any of them
-Capable of being a very beneficial class but is looked down upon thanks to her popularity
-Pit girl doesnt like her.


Abilities

X Dash
Provides a speed boost the assassin, allowing her to sprint across the map quicker than any class. This will allow you to enter combat and leave it whenever you choose. Its your hunting and escape tool. As you level it, it takes less time to recharge and will drain slower.

Y-Cloak
The assassins bread and butter, allows you to choose your encounters and leave them by making her invisible. Keep in mind youre not fully invisible for the opposing team can still hear your cloak and if youre close enough, they can see your invisible pixels. Level two allows it to drain slower while level three allows you recharge your cloak while invisible but only while youre standing

B- Smoke Bombs
A personal favorite of mine and also the most underrated amongst the assassins abilities. With this you can blind not only pros, but turrets as well, allowing you to go in for the kill much more efficiently. Perfect escape tool as well, especially at level 2 where it will blind your opponent.

P Dagger/Sword
Last but not least, your weapon of choice. Theres many ways to take out the opponent with these weapons, which will be provided later on, but keep in mind youll have more shuriken to throw if you level it up, and Level 3 gives you her katana, a much more powerful weapon that can help you finish the job.

Endorsements - For more reference, click here.

Keep in mind these are suggestions and opinions, some may find certain endorsements better for them than others, that's the fun of the game.

Fire Rate increases the rate of your sword and your shuriken. Very good for taking down turrents and tanks.

Armor A very lovely health bonus for the assassin that could mean life or death. Can help you live through grapples and counter attack.

Accuracy Improves your shuriken's accuracy. You'll be in close quarters more often though as the assassin.

Speed Whether youre dashing or not, this will keep you actively moving throughout the game. Youre better off with skill recovery quite honestly. You could also use this and recovery but the assassin moves fast enough as it is.

Skill Recovery Keeps your abilities ready whenever you need them. Very helpful.

Juice Gives you a set amount of juice when you spawn. Also gives you more juice for killing turrents and bots. Due to her high kill rate against both, the extra juice isn't very necessary.

Ammo You already increase the amount of shuriken you have with level 2 passive. Leave this endorsement to other classes who need it.

Health Recovery Will recover your health much more quickly and frequently. Can throw you right back into the game.

Reload Speed Helps the shuriken reload, thats about it.

When NOT to be an assassin

Do you see another assassin on the team? If the answer is yes, pick another class. The team does not need more assassins. Does the team need support? How about a sniper? You get the point. Youre doing the team a favor playing a different role instead, regardless of how bad the first assassin is.

Gremlins and You

At times I really wouldnt say theyre worth buying considering theyre $100 and you have a
TON of other options such as turrets, saving up for juice, your own skills. But I gotta say, they are a nice harasser, considering turrets ignore them and go straight for players. If you have the spare money, fine with juice, and your turrets are set, then by all means.

Using your Shuriken Properly

They can take out turrets from distances, harass big guys, and at close ranges could kill off low health enemies. Theyre useful but slow compared to bullets. You need to learn to predict where the enemies go and how to properly ricochet them off walls to use them to their full potential.

Match-Ups
Assault I would like to say this match-up is actually pretty balanced. Assault can catch you off guard with a grenade and finish you, you could backstab them or even front stab then follow it with RB. Stay invisible while approaching him, his gun can easily take you out unless you have gold armor endorsements. Aim for the back and keep the battle quick and clean, you do not want to stay in a fight with them too long, they do have a strong potential of finishing the job. Of course they have hardly any escaping abilities unlike you, so its easier to chase than to be chased by them. Watch out mainly for grapples, it can and will kill you, to avoid it I would recommend a jumping diagonally back, gives you space to move back while also strafing, afterwards cloak and go for the kill. Shuriken isnt that amazing on them but is a nice approach so you have a stronger chance of just getting the melee finish. I dont consider them a threat unless a specific one is doing well in the match.

Assassin Personally, I go out of my way to get assassins a majority of the time. They have low health, can be taken down from the front and back very easily, even with armor endorsements its easy to finish them. Its all about who gets the strike first. Always pay close attention to your teammates and listen for the cloaking sound. I sometimes like to escape if I just got grappled by throwing down a smoke bomb and jumping away. Taking out assassins will keep your teammates alive, keep that in mind.

Gunner I love this match up. Why? Their back has a huge hit box for grappling. If they notice you, keep caution and wait for them to body slam, then go in for the approach. Avoid the front and youll be fine. Also while theyre in turret mode, dont smack their back or anything, gunners with common sense can use their jet pack to cover their back. Use shuriken instead and maybe one or two melee for the finish. Other than that theyre typically an easy target and help your team push.

Sniper Now this is tricky. It all depends on if its a good sniper or not. Good ones use ice traps, upgrade their grapple and listen for you. They pay full attention. To counter them, either shuriken from a distance to catch them off guard, force them to move, and quickly RB dash for the finisher. Just be aware of the surroundings, if you see anything fishy (aka traps) then find a better spot to approach. If youre trapped in ice, smoke bomb and shuriken are your last resort, other than that, hope you dont grappled/shot in the head. Theyre a big threat only if they know what theyre doing, otherwise just kill them for quick money and give your team one less thing to worry about.

Support This one annoys me personally. Why? Firebase. They can detect you while youre invisibile and close enough if theyre hacked apparently (if anyone knows this in more detail, please mention). Bullshit, I know. Right away take these guys out, kill their firebase before it even starts working. Their drain gun doesnt work on you while invisible, so set up for the back stab while they freak out. If they pull out their shotgun, right away either run and wait for a better moment or if you think youre ballsy enough RB, Grapple, RB. I honestly rarely single out support players unless I have a teammate helping. This player has a lot of potential to wall off your team from pushing any further so you need to take him out and his firebase if possible. Smoke it if need be, but keep in mind the firebase(if its fully upgraded with hax) will survive a hack and slash smoke combo. Shuriken it from a distance if possible, or let a teammate deal with it, like a sniper. Just keep the support busy so your team can have less trouble destroying it.

Tank Good tanks. Are. Jerks. Just by spinning, youre fucked. No more cloak, smoke bomb has its limits, and dashing out alone wont always save you. Early game I RB dash and grapple them if possible, late game I tend to avoid them unless Im juiced. If necessary to fight them, I bait them with shuriken, keep them chasing me until a teammate can help finish him. Keep in mind theyre slow so its easy to run away from them, and do not stay close to them for too long, otherwise you will get fucked over.

All Classes Everyone can hear you if theyre paying attention. This is why you need to act as quickly as possible and catch them off guard to get the kill. Never repeat a routine either, mix it up whenever possible, and let your teammates get the kill if you cant, but if you have the grapple on them and you know itll kill them, just make sure your teammate has a crosshair on them just in case.
And last thing: A good player can win a 1v1, a better one avoids them.

Re: The Assassin Glossary

My Playstyle

What I Think About Assassins

How could a class be so popular yet so underrated? Oh, right, if a majority of XBL kids think being an assassin is cool and not help the team, giving the class a really bad name.

I think the Assassin is a very important role, they should be focused on taking out targets giving your team a hard time, take down bots/turrents simply because they do it so amazingly well, and give a heavy focus on the moneyball when possible. The assassin is full of surprises and can easily help your team get the push they need.

My Endorsements

Training Wheels:
Gold - Armor (Assassins need health)
Silver - Skill Recovery (Instead of speed, having dash as often as possible is nice, and it benefits all the other abilities)
Bronze - Fire Rate (For the sword and shuriken speed :]) or Speed (simply to keep your assassin active through the game)

This endorsement build was all about survivability and learning how to play the assassin properly.

My current build:
Gold - Speed(Have you ever seen an assassin with gold speed endorsements and lots of speed boosts? Speeding bullets are easier? Thought so ;])
Silver - Skill Recovery (Dash+Speed is amazing for approach as well as keeping cloak and smoke bomb active)
Bronze - Armor(Better than none if you ask me. You'll be glad you picked it whenever you hit low health and survive)

Skill Build

Passive + Smoke Bomb
Smoke Bomb jumping is my favorite option in escape and accessing areas as quickly as possible.

Afterwards I upgrade Dash/Cloak, no particular order, just if I feel I need more sprint/cloak at the time.

Finish it with Passive Level 3, Smoke Bomb, then Dash/Cloak

Play Style/My Role

I will tell you right now I do not go for just kills. My main objective is to stay alive and active as long as possible while contributing to the team. At the very start of the game I pick off kills as quickly as possible then smoke out. I always go for bots whenever it's safe, and I pay close attention to what my team is saying. Not necessarily call outs but more what they complain about. "oh this sniper is such a bitch" "this gunner is keeping me pinned" etc. and I respond with that by turning them into my target. I make sure to go for all the important kills while letting my team push. Whenever the opposing team isn't paying attention to their turrents, I use my shuriken to take them down and build my juice. Once juiced I mainly destroy any remaining turrents and clean up any kills I can.

Update: Not so much about survivability...well just no gold armor anymore. I focus on quick kills. Taking out those targets and keeping them out of the game as much as possible. I play the anti-lead, keeping them from streaks whenever possible so they won't get gold faster than us. Along with that I take out bots(especially jackbots) whenever the moment occurs. Saves your bots health for the next wave and keeps your money ball healthy.

Getting the Assassination

To get those assassinations and make it out to tell the story, I play as aggressively as possible. I either pick off single targets when their guard is down, or I harrass them by using my secondary or attacking a big target, quickly smoke up, and I come down I go for the kill. Sometimes I even RB dash at the opponent and catch them totally off guard, saving my grapple for any following targets. I only grapple against targets I know can take me out and need to be down their guard in order to finish, or against anyone trying to defend my original target. Whenever I start taking damage, I either rush for the kill or I get out as quickly as possible. Sure this sounds like you would die a lot, but I manage to go 20-1 with this method. The difference between me and the typical assassin is I know when to pull out. You need to when to back off, get your health back and wait for your next time to strike. I usually either smoke out and cloak quickly after to keep myself from turning the game into duck hunt, or I sprint out, cloak and take routes that some classes can't go through as quickly. I only cloak when necessary, rarely use it for approaching(unless I'm confident they're not listening for my cloak).

will add more later...>.>

Re: The Assassin Glossary

Tips From Other Players

Re: The Assassin Glossary

Q&A

Q: Any idea how to get more consistent grapples in a less than ideal network environment?
A: My personal approach is either to predict where they'll go based on the last few frames and grapple the spot(surprisingly works) or I don't even grapple and just got for melee sweeps. That only works if they're experiencing just as much lag though. The next best thing I do is go for bots and build juice, then swing like a blind man with nun chucks.

Re: The Assassin Glossary

Useful Links

Shuriken Launcher Tips - By Askari BluD

Stab Stab, Poof, and Gone - By L3G1T

Amazing endorsement analysis on the assassin as well as other classes - By tlbww

Assassination For Dummies - By Zamzoph

Re: BlueZebra's Assassin Strategy Thread

Updated some stuff so feel free to put your own imput on being an assassin or even ask questions about how I play the class.

Any idea how to get more consistent grapples in a less than ideal network environment?

Very good question. My personal approach is either to predict where they'll go based on the last few frames and grapple the spot(surprisingly works) or I don't even grapple and just got for melee sweeps. That only works if they're experiencing just as much lag though. The next best thing I do is go for bots and build juice, then swing like a blind man with nun chucks.

Honestly, I'd rather just not play games with 10 frame rates a minute if possible and find a better connection.

I wasn't even talking about slideshow games, just the games where things work mostly ok, just sometimes not quite. There are some games where everything looks normal, but I can be physically touching a player who stopped moving to upgrade or buy a turret or something and have my grapple miss. Worse when players are moving. It's frustrating to no end.

I usually just quit being offensive against enemy players and only take the gamble of trying to grapple the players who are really hurting my team.

I wasn't either for the first paragraph, what I meant was that if the game is so bad it's like a slideshow, it's not even worth playing.

Something I need to try is to run one direction while trying to escape, then altering course after cloaked. I imagine if worked well you can fake out players and get away without getting too far from where you want to be. I'd imagine with Cloak 3 this would work extremely well.

And right you are. Another fun escape is to smoke bomb up to a bullet-proof shield, stay cloaked and smoke bomb jump again.

I'm not a great assassin but I have a few tricks:

If you see a gunner at close range, put a mag of shurikens into him and then dash up for a back grapple. If you see a gunner at long range just spam him with shurikens, it's so big that hitting it wont be too hard.

The lunge (reload button) tears through bots like butter.

During overtime, buy some juice and sneak into the base, use the juice and smash the money ball.

Occasionally smoke bomb glitches and you get no cooldown for it. That's the only time this will work, but it does work well.

legit you should make a sin guide your a beast at maneuvering.

I appreciate that you mentioned 'sins needing to know when to leave the area. Too often I get worked up against an opponent and chase them down, only to find myself laying face down at their feet. It's just not effective.

Snipers: You can jump over their little ice traps so take a minute and check before you rush in blindly.

Quick Question
Can one switch the endorsements to such as
3 Armor
2 Rate of Fire (RoF)
1 Skill Regen

but, otherwise this is a very helpful guide. Kudos!

You can do whatever you want, I'm not here to tell you how to play the game, but tell you how I play the game.

Thank you, I plan on adding more very soon. =)

That's great that you're continuing your work but one suggestion that you probably already have in mind... Anti-Class Strategies

Well, this is my first post, but I've played nothing but the assassin since I got the game.. And I've actually started to get pretty good, haha.. K/D ratios have gone from near even to 30-<10 without much effort.

I have a few opinions of my own.. You've covered most of the key stuff.

Smoke Bomb 3 is usually my first level 3 skill, for a few reasons:

- Lunging and swinging at a target that is not expecting you will do enough damage for you to be able to grapple kill them, regardless of class, health, and sometimes position. Therefore, a sword should not be your first concern. That being said, Passive is always my second level 3 skill

- Dash recharges quickly enough with silver skill recovery, though late game Dash 3 becomes insanely nice (I usually buy it after I have everything else and my base is totally filled with level 3 turrets).

- Cloak 2 works for basically everything, you just need to time your cloaking correctly and give it ample opportunity to recharge.

At the start of each game, I NEVER buy skills. I pick two free turret positions and build two level 3 Lazer turrets. These get me a multitude of free kills during the game and keep the base well defended early on. This tip can apply pretty much to any class.

As you said, focusing on killing turrets and bots gives you a lot of money, a lot of juice, and helps your team win the game. Kills come on their own, especially if you invest your money in building your OWN turrets and bots. And remember to use the ejector, it's a wonderful tool.

Learn where and when is the best time to smoke jump. For instance, on Grenade III arena (that's the one with the floating island in the center with the annihilator, correct?), if a sniper is on their overlook (the area in their spawn that allows them to view most of the arena, but can only be accessed by two paths on their walkway which can be trapped), you can stand on one of his flanks and smoke jump OVER the structures on either side of him. You'll end up on top of him, past his traps, with plenty of time to not only kill him but taunt after. It's literally my favorite moment of EVERY Grenade III game

Remember, if you're up against a class that can slam or grapple you and you DON'T instantly kill them, anticipate their skill use. Gunners have a very obvious belly flop before their giant deadly AOE, which can give you time to jump. You can also smoke bomb directly after grapple. During the smoke bomb animation, you can't be dazed OR knocked back.

The last thing I can think of at the moment, and I'm sure I'll post in this thread later as I learn more, is to remember EVERYTHING the assassin can bring to bear. Lunging is something I barely ever see Assassins do, but a lunge and a single melee swing can kill a unarmored sniper. It's a wonderful tactic to take the enemy by surprise and avoid that embarrassing moment when you're close to them cloaked and they react faster than you expect.

In conclusion: Your shuriken gun. Use it. It's more powerful than you'd expect, and it gives you cool looking ProTags. A single upgraded clip can kill an unarmored sniper. I've actually outsniped players with a slow reaction time using it.

Enjoy the game guys