--- i play assassins and i save up my money from start 2 get passive 3 and cloak 2. after that, i start spending my money on bots/ejectors/turret upgrades and race for the anihilator whenever it's up. --- when i have juice, i just go into their base and try to destroy as many rockits as possible (depending on how far away they are from each other, i usually get 2 rockits and a longshot for one juice run; you can tell i'm new). --- however most of these games usually end up in overtime; in fact, most of my wins are in overtime but losses are like in 10 minute games. --- i did try to escort the bots into the base but took a more passive approach after realizing how easily killed the assassin is. i mostly spam cloak+shuriken and try to make them go back and heal (then i push my lane and hopefully kill them) or i just switch the lanes. --- when i see a sniper trail, i go take them out so they don't cause a trouble to my team's players but then the lane i was in gets pushed back in that 30s. --- i avoid facing tanks and assaults coz i know i'm not good at dealing with them and they can kill me faster than i kill them, i try to shoot as many clips of shurikens as possible then retreat. if we're already losing and being pressed in our base i sometimes grab them and hopefully our (remaining) rockits could do something during that time. also, i read from another thread and a red (Eka i think) replied saying if a minimap is added it would turn into a game of looking at the map so i'm not asking for a minimap. i can't really see what's going on unless i go to the upper level and do a smoke bomb jump, which i don't wanna waste just for checking the map. so... pro players, i need advice. 1) am i doing something wrong or am i just new and need to play more? 2) wat's the most effective way for assassin to take out firebases? or is it not my job? 3) how do you develop a sense of "map awareness"? 4) is there a way to know enemy endorsements without dying to them once? ADDED: gold armor, silver CDR, bronze aspd
The best way for an assassin to take out firebases I can answer, at least. If if you can, spam shurikens at it; it'll go down in a couple clips if it's not being healed actively. If it's too well placed to do that, stun it with a smoke bomb out of cloak and sword it to death. Keep in mind these both depend on the support not being there to deal with you. The entire point is only having to deal with one at a time. If you have to deal with both, leave it to a gunner or support to get rid of it, whether it be with mortar or an air strike. If the support is stupid and places it wrong, you can kill a firebase no matter how healed it is with an ejector.
1) Assassin takes awhile to get used to. They require a lot of thought and knowledge of how every class plays and counters you. 2) Shurikens from range if you can, alternatively you can smoke bomb the firebase and back grapple the support if hes camping it (An unhacked lvl 3 firebase won't kill you) 3) Map awareness is just looking at where enemies are grouped up and who to avoid. 4) Nope, assume everyone has gold armor and widdle down their health before you try and kill them. My average pub score for Assassin is 30-5 if I'm against people who don't know what they're doing and 20-6 if I'm against rank 80+ teams. If you need any more advice just message me and we could play some games together.
I'm not a "Pro" player but i mostly play Assassin, so here's my humble input. 1- My mantra when playing an Assassin is: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink". Basically you can do your job as an Assassin, but if the rest of the team can't push at your pace and stay camping when they should be out there with you, then it will be all for nothing, or at least it'll make things more difficult for you. Regardless of how good of a K/D ratio one might get in a game, every support class (And i mean Assassins, Snipers and of course Supports) can have a harder time carrying a team to victory by themselves than other Combat-Type classes if the opponent team is any good and/or working as a team, so in that situation there is nothing much more to do except than asking for help, or hope that someone on your team catches on. This is a class based team oriented game after all, so it makes sense that some classes can't beat another classes in certain conditions, so don't try to overplay your role as an Assassin. Or at least not against good opponents. Skill upgrading depends on how the match is going on and playing style, but i usually try to go first for passive 3 and then cloak 3, but sometimes i also raise Dash up to 2 before raising Cloak to its max. The order on which one gets upgraded first depends on how much i'm using the Shurikens or how much the other team is making me run on that particular match. 2- About Firebases, I'm a believer that it's everyone's job to take them down. As an Assassin you can smoke them and Shuriken it very quickly if they are left unchecked, but anyone who has a weapon and its in within firing/attacking range should be helping in taking down a Firebase, specially if its set in front of your base. 3- Playtime experience. Once you learn the routes and if you suck up the info of every mistake and every successful attack you do, you can train yourself to predict some situations and common reaction patterns of some average players before they even happen. Other than that you just have to be aware of what's happening around you. No science there, just straight up scouting. 4- Not that i know of. I think many people will have a different opinion on what a good Assassin is, but IMO if you are pushing your lanes while protecting your bots and you are not getting killed much, then you are doing a good job. You don't even need to have 20+ kills per game, or even 10+ for that matter, as long as you clean and protect lanes and as long as you make your presence felt and force the other team into doing some adjustments while not dying a lot doing so, you'll be doing fine.
Playing other classes often helps learn assassin, I hear. Assassins can pretty easily kill most unsuspecting opponents. Stay out of range of being heard, and lunge into a grapple at them. Mess up, and you might be able to escape with a smokebomb or dash-away. Assassins can attack firebases with shurikens, and shurikens out of cloak critical. They may not kill the firebase, so ask for someone to help shoot it. Assassins can keep an overhead view of bot lanes without having to stand with them. Assassins can't babysit their own bots, they can only worry about hit-and-run attacking on the enemy bots. Go to the enemy bot lane, lunge out into a wave and finish them off quickly, and quickly escape so you can head for another bot lane. Babysitting your own bots is for your team to do, mainly your tank because he has the armor to literally sit in your wave of bots. Generally, if you do pass a pro that is headed to kill your bots, and you are facing behind him, you can go ahead and try to kill him. You can kill enemy turrets without juice, if there are no enemies paying attention to them. Shuriken them from out of range (or their upper spawn ring) or smokebomb and katana. With juice, you make it easier. A full clip of cloaked shuriken usually pushes a sniper back (or kills him). Same with assault grenades. Try to keep him off the bot lanes, as explosive rounds make your job hard. Also, if his explosive rounds are giving you some trouble, you can shuriken bots instead. I did this yesterday for juice, wrecked the enemy base, and then pushed one bot wave on one side to win a game. As far as map awareness, stand on something kind of tall and look at the bot lanes and concentration of pros. The best map awareness is everyone on your team communicating positions of enemies, which is great. You could do that too when you see enemies, firebases, snipers, or large close bot waves.
That's good advice. @ OP The keyword there is 'patterns', you will start to spot patterns in others playstyle but try to avoid them yourself, mix up your play, swap lanes, do whatever you need to try and stay unpredictable. Map awareness will come with more playtime but swapping lanes is something I do and it does three things that help my play: 1. Gives me an idea if a push is possible in that lane and also what defences the opposing team has. 2. Gives me an overview (albeit ever changing) of the current game and allows me to see how my team are positioned which could leave weak spots in areas that could be exploited by the opposing team. 3. It keeps me aware of what's happening around me. It's good from time to time to get steamrolled too as this can give you an idea how to improve your own game and maybe take advantage next time a team tries the same tactic, I don't enjoy being steamrolled but if I can learn something from it hopefully it will make me a better player, the keyword there is hopefully :lol:
Something else to keep in mind is your map and player awareness MUST change with every match and shifts depending on the class makeup of the opposing team and the skill of the players using those classes. For example, a Sniper watching over a lane obviously changes how players advance through that lane by requiring them to use cover so they don't make themselves an easy headshot. But more than that, what is that Sniper's preferred camping spot to watch that lane, as this changes what cover you can use? Is that camping spot vulnerable to the bot type you summon? Does it have a blind flank approach? How good is he at scoring headshots? Can you afford to jump out and dash for cover because he'll only get bodyshots? Is he even covering a bot lane, or is he just hunting pros? How does he place his traps? Is he aggressive about using Flak? You can't know the answers to these questions until you've tangled with him a couple times, so pay attention to his behavior and learn what you can pull off against him. And every time a new Sniper shows up, you have to learn all this against him as well. When learning these behaviors, be extra cautious; you can't learn a player's style when you're dead. If you're struggling to find a good approach to a player, switch lanes and just try to avoid them for a bit. There's nothing more counterproductive in a game than getting frustrated, because you'll stop thinking about how to defeat their style and just want to get the kill, and that'll make you lose every time. Your smart opponents will do this learning too, so shift up your own behavior if you start having more trouble during a match and use as many tools at your disposal as possible to keep yourself from being predictable. Assault's have a huge bag of tricks available to them and are certainly best at that mixup, but even switching to focus on your alternate weapon and playing to its style dramatically changes how players must react to your presence. Change how you approach enemy bot lanes (and knowing the map will let you learn all the possible routes), play more offensively/defensively than usual, or just switch lanes. A good player is one that you have a hard time beating. A smart player is one that keeps you from beating him twice.
i believe in a more hands on approach... jk. i'll use other classes if we have 2 other sins already when they're unaware, it IS easy. so is it true that i should avoid direct combat? yea i learnt the cloak+shuriken trick from this forum but it still does like pitiful damage. it's always a gunner sees my attempt and decides to help lol. i was trying to ask if my katana would do more but i was afraid to die while trying so i'd rather ask here. thx. so i was doing it wrong lol i usually do that except tanks seem too dangerous and all the assaults i encounter are so alert =/ i'll try do that guess that won't happen in pubs lol