Removing Assassin Grapple

Assassin loses ability to grapple. Gains more bonus backstab damage to where they can kill most classes in around 3 slashes.

Cons:
No more OHKO

Pros:
Assassin is no longer a free kill while stuck in grappling animation
Can kill unsuspecting player faster than before
Can do enough burst damage to finish them off after with lunge or shurikens
Raises skill ceiling

I think this is a good buff to most assassins and lessens the frustrations for most of their victims.

That's like removing the Jet Gun from the Tank.
Or removing your foot from your leg.

An outrageously stupid thing to do that was only a good idea for the first few seconds.

No, and more No.
That's like saying Ryu should stop having a Fireball because he can spam it. It's one thing to say 'assassins OHKO is good', but another to vote the complete removal of it.

Honestly I think they already got allot of cons trying to go for it:

-Cloak sound is EXTREMELY loud when nearing to grab. Letting everyone know right away to keep one's eyes peeled for that trademark orange or blue glow.
-They can't pull it off unless you are close, and on the ground, jumping around makes them miss the grab and have a short cool down before they can try again.
Gunners slam, Snipers trap, Tanks jet and tackle, Assaults dash, and support's shotgun can all pretty much lead to killing the assassin back when that close to trying to grapple.
-Tank with Gold Armor can still live the attack, and unless the assassins REALLY quick ( and packing gold armor herself ), will chances are die from the trade.

Also she can already DESTROY with her lunging slash, but not many people think about using the sword like that when say you got GRAPPLE, and this is more of a player to player flaw, then a flaw outright in the class.

Bad assassins are becoming a meme for MNC.

They've been one for ages on console. People who actively main assassin and never show any forward progress with the class are still very reluctant to play any other class.

That's why removing grapple and buffing backstabs will encourage bad assassins to improve. What do bad assassins do? They charge straight at someone and facestabs them only to be instagibbed by opposing team.

Grapple is useless versus a good team anyways. Every time you try it, you will die. You're stuck moving from lane to lane pushing bots, farm juice, then go in base and take out turrets. High backstab damage will make hit and runs much easier. I think most people agree that staying still results in death.

So you think the Assassin should be:

- Excellent at bot pushes
- Excellent at juice farming
- Lethal at juiced-based-turreting
AND
nigh untouchable with hit and run tactics?

"Balance 101" and its professor would like to speak with you.

The class may not be entirely well-designed for its name and most key effectivenesses, but that doesn't change the need to retain balance. The assassin is an awesome pusher who punishes solos. She doesn't need to be stronger at yet another area.

Or a far better solution to the assassin grapple is learn to be aware of your surroundings, and know how to spot them. No assassin is 100% invisible when within a certain range. There are plenty of visual and audible clues.

Sorry, but these posts just seem silly lately. If we remove assassin grapple, let us remove all the other one hit kills as well. I'm sure snipers wouldn't miss headshots, etc. Don't forget to remove all other grapples for classes as well. I mean, they can cause a ring out, which is the equivalent of a one hit kill correct?

Sorry, makes no sense unless you change the entire game and alter all classes.

This is just ridiculous, yes this would make an assassin much stronger but it would most certainly NOT increase the skill ceiling. Part of what the Sin is good for is picking off singled out pros. She does her job perfectly, lets not fix what isn't broken.

Removing grapple is just dumb. Assassins will suck because if their attack isn't a one hit kill then they can be outplayed almost every time.

Why would Uber remove a key feature from one of their classes? :shock:

Even if grapple did/does needs tweaks, that doesn't mean it needs to be removed.

Yeah it's a pretty radical suggestion - what's the point of being a super sexy Ninja and not having flashy grapples?

I don't think they're sexy enough... I wouldn't mind being backstabbed so much if she gave us a little more fanservice. :mrgreen: *Get's slapped by an invisible hand* :shock: :cry:

Something like 'from behind jumping on top of your head, burrowing her crotch into your face before she snaps your neck with her legs and stabs your head in with her blade JUST to ensure your dead' fan service?

But yes, Honestly I think the assassin's rather balanced as is, it's indeed the players that need to learn good habits with her as it IS a bit easy to rush and try to just grapple all day, but I think the current batch of players are decent enough to punish that poor paying style rather well, including that every class has SOMETHING to do agent her when she screws up.

...And if a player gets beaten doing a poor strait over and over, I think that's a bigger wake up call far more then complete removal of a skill...

Grapples are a unique and key feature to Monday Night Combat. They're not going anywhere.

We did at one point have much stronger melee attacks on the assassin (stronger than even the early XBLA dagger bug). Essentially it meant the assassin was just whirling death. If an assassin showed up near you, you died. Because they're so much faster than other players it wasn't too difficult for them to run circles around another player.

Grapple forces the assassin to stop moving and to show themselves (when uncloaking works properly).

Personally, the way I hunt most players is I run past them cloaked, uncloak out of range of them hearing me, and then charge them. Another great tactic is stand still and let them come to you.

The problem isn't that Assassins need to be buffed, it's that bad assassins are hopelessly locked in a cycle of ONE GRAPPLE->GET WRECKED. It's certainly frustrating for the poor noobs who play Assassin thinking they're cool, but it's also frustrating for the rest of us too. I once again do not see why having this conversation is so bad--you're all reacting like bringing the topic up is a crime. The fact is, if you haven't been annoyed by this trend, you must be an Assassin player.

To say that we would leave it the way it is simply because this idea is bad isn't any better (I'm not even saying that this idea is that bad, either.) What I think the OP meant was that rather than getting all their kills by grapples (and SOLELY grapples in most cases), Assassins' grapples could be adjusted to be much quicker and non-OHKO and their regular melee attacks made stronger to accommodate, so that even a bad Assassin has to use other tactics to get kills.

That sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Why? Grapple has such a long cooldown. If i do rush in to get a kill, it's cause it is vital for me to kill this or that person for the team. If that person dies from my grapple, then perhaps they aren't paying enough attention to surrounding.

Don't fix something if it aint broke. It has a nice balance, and bad players playing assassins will realize it isn't a bad class if they play right. I learned that myself. :lol:

Nah, just disable grapple for dumb assassins who attempt to take you head on.

what's wrong with taking people in the face? I sometimes don't have time to grab from the back, and all I need is a face grab to kill a lot of times. When I have my teammates damaging him at the same time, a grapple is all you need to finish the job and make it so they cant escape of course :twisted: