To: 98% of assassins in this game.

There is an issue on with this game's community right now. There are FAR to many stupid assassins. I know, you can cloak! But you're just screwing over your team while you try to run around and go for kills. AND YOU'RE SO COOL BECAUSE YOU'RE A NINJA! BELIEVE IT!

You shouldn't go for kills as assassin. Your main goal should be downing turrets and minions. I see so many assassins ONLY going for kills dashing around with their sword and being worthless. They usually end up with 15 kills and 20+ deaths.

Don't get me wrong though! I'm not saying you should never get kills! Just don't let that be your main focus. Only go for kills when you know for a fact you will get the kill and live.

Most assassins don't use their smoke properly. While its nice to be able to jump up to the second level of the map, that's not the ONLY use for smoke. You can temporarily disable turrets, stun minions and blind enemies. Smoke is VERY useful! So please stupid assassins, start using it for more than just escaping!

Another underused item of the assassin is the shuriken! They have limitless range (as far as I can tell) and can down turrets in no time! Also in tight tunnels and spaces they bounce around all over the place harassing anything inside. Shuriken should be your main item of choice throughout the game. Juice + Shuriken = Downed turret(s). Seriously, you should try it.

The sword, the overused assassin weapon. Great for grapple kills. Here are some grappling tips:

1. Don't grapple from the front! Unless your victim is below half health, in most cases, ITS NOT GOING TO KILL THEM! I play support. When a fail-assassin grapples me from the front, as soon as the animation is over, I blast them in the face with a shotgun. They die. That makes you worthless.

2. Don't cloak, sprint in from the front and expect to kill them. When you sprint while cloak, the enemy can see your outline PRETTY DAMN EASILY! So if you're going to sprint in to get a grapple, do it from the backside! The won't see you and you'll get a for sure kill.

3. If your victim is within range of a turret, especially a firebase, KILL THE TURRET FIRST! Or wait until stalk your victim until they move to a more grapple friendly location. Chances are, grappling near a turret will lead to your death and dying for a kill 90% of the time is not worth it.

4. USE MORE THAN GRAPPLE! Believe it or not, assassins have other skills! You can do more than just grapple! I know, what a concept.

These are just a few observations I've had about assassins. My main class is support, but I have played assassins quite a bit as well. Are my tips useful? Do you agree/disagree? I'm just trying to help, because I'm tired of getting useless people on my team.

And 98% of what you suggest is either unlikely to happen, or would waste far too much time. (exaggerating of course)

Also, I grapple from the front practically all the time. Wanna know why? Because I don't have a ******* choice. 70% of my grapples are caused by being hit by AoE, or spotted by players using their mouse to maximise their environmental awareness by simply turning around, and they do often. Most of the time it doesn't kill them, but whether or not I grapple, I'm guranteed to be killed.

I think the "can see cloak when near" feature should actually be nerfed, at least to the point where it's nowhere near as visible with a big brightly team coloured outline, just a clear outline would do, because with the hyper sensitivity and accuracy of gaming mice, they'll be able to deny assassin's back grapples almost all the time because it won't cost them 3 seconds to look away from the front line unlike with a gamepad, only a splitsecond to see the giant lit-up-like-a-*******-christmass-tree approaching assassin.

Also, wanna talk about useless team members? Try anyone who picks a class that's already on your team when they join in, and sure as hell don't make up for it with skill. I don't want to see three assaults because either it proves they're cheap or you all wanna be the black guy, instead of playing any of the other equally important and fun to play roles.

Assassins should be going for kills. They should be supporting the classes that bring the beats against lanes and turrets.

First off, assassins are completely balanced. They are squishy and hell and can get one hit kills. The "being able to be seen when close" is perfect because YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO KILL FROM BEHIND! And you obviously come from the xbox version. This is NOT xbox, this is PC bro. I hate to break it to you but Xbox is pretty damn bad. I own the xbox version, I've played it. Completely different game. And as far as people checking their own back and seeing an assassin dashing at them, that not an example of the game being imbalanced. You're just further proving my point. You shouldn't be going for kills. And if you do go for kills, don't be so stupid.

Also, next time you're in a game, start going for turret kills and farming minions. Assassins do SO MUCH damage to turrets and minions alike. And again, I'm not saying you should never get kills as an assassin. I'm saying you shouldn't let that be your main focus. I see far to many assassins with 20+ kills, but at least double that in deaths. Each time you die, you give the team money. 20 deaths is $500+ for the other team (depending on how you were killed.) Don't feed the other team!

I'm just making observations. I always dread having assassins on my team. Sure, they get a lot of kills, but this game isn't about kills. This game is about taking out the enemies base. If you want a game about kills, go play Call of Duty or Halo.

You're wrong, I've corrected you, and yet you still continue to be wrong.


Stop it.

Owned.

Without being an *** like Gturtle, I must say that I also disagree. Assassins should be bouncing between lanes clearing bots and taking out turrets when they have the chance. IMO the sniper is the ONLY class that should be focused on pro kills.

Assassins don't have to take down turrets. Gunners, tanks and assaults take down turrets really easily. The assassin should be bouncing between lanes because it assists the lane pushers advance.

Polynomial, just stop. You don't even know what you're talking about.

Lol, **** no. Been PC gamer since 1997, and never stopped gaming since. Never owned MS brand anything bar copies of Windows and a 360 controller I use for non-FPS/RTS games. Besides, you've completely ignored my point: I HAVE to attack the front almost all the time because you're forced into a situation where you can only hope a team mate or friendly bot comes over to help finish your opponent on after your desparation attack. Attack from behind? Sorry, have you played TF2? It counts the side and back as a backstab, with no animations, just instant touch of death. Here, it's not so liberal, both because of a third person view denying side-on attacks, leaving a dodgy relatively tiny valid zone of attack. Which is made even more smaller by having a higher sensitivity aiming movement that also improves accuracy; any moving target draws the gap even tighter. Asides from those who are distracted or fall into a safe sense of security, it's almost a miracle anyone can land it on the more mobile units.

I've tried taking on minions and turrets but there's only a few maps where that's more an available option than getting kills; Most maps can be cramped, or the lanes take bots far too close to turrets, meaning you'd have as much risk doing your job than you would taking a pro out, except killing a pro has more short term reward than some bots. Every dead man is one of yours given more time to do HIS job. This is why I say the "lit up like a human torch" feature needs to have it's presence reduced, because it's hard enough trying to stay away from pros moving through lane chokepoints without losing cloak time commuting through the enemy bots to use your sword, a far more effective weapon against turrets and bots.

While the shuriken are effective against light bots and perhaps the firebase, it's no more effective than any other weapon against a group of blackjacks and any base turrets, with the tank, gunner, assault and support having far more viable means for taking them down. Crits hardly seem to improve the case. It's great as supporting fire with only the assault rifle and maybe the sniper's SMG to compare with but I'd never try to use it beyond no-man's land because it leaves me visible for long periods of time when there's five fantastical ways for me to be wasted in less than a second in enemy territory.

You bring up some good points, but really, we also need to remember this is a beta. The game has only been up for what, 4-5 days, some of which there was downtime due to server issues. People are still learning, and I imagine others are just now joining beta.

Can't expect people to be playing like professionals in less than a week's time, especially with six different classes to explore.

Granted I do not have the 360 version and thus am not a long term player, I have been playing Assassin since the PC beta started and I would have to disagree. Going for some kills is all fine and dandy, but it should be very low on the priority list. I generally only go for kills when I know it is a sure thing, and even then, it is pretty situational.

When I play, my focus is clearing lanes, turrets, and monitoring the annihilator button. monitor snipers from time to time as well. I've managed pretty well with that. Of course, this is not to say that I don't do silly things from time to time. That can be entertaining/fun too in moderation. For example, knowing where my friend is on the other team, I'll occasionally suicide rush in just to take him down with me and harass him, etc.

That's fine. What I've been saying the entire time is assassins are a class that are constantly moving rather than dedicating themselves to a lanes. It way less dangerous to kill a turret as a tank, gunner, assault or even sniper than it is as an assassin.

This is exactly what a sin should be doing. I would also throw in spawning gremlins as those things are nothing short of REALLY ANNOYING. The main excursions a sin should make are for a hard lane push to the money ball and occasionally killing a sniper if buzzer spawns can't do it.

I'll tell you what, you continue playing assassin your way and you will continue to fail.

Have you ever hit the money ball or a turret when you have juice? It does FAR MORE damage than any other class. Assassins should be sneaky and hardly involve themselves in team fights. Perhaps run in and get a quick kill toward the end of a team fight? But you shouldn't expect to save your team mates and should rarely find yourself in the situation where you have to grapple from the front.

And the only time you're lit up like a human torch is when you're dashing while cloaking. Have you ever tried just walking normal? You can BARELY be seen if you just run. You realize that you have a dash attack when you press reload with your sword? Dashing isn't designed to "get you in to get the kill" its designed to "get you the hell out."

I've officially decided it is impossible to argue with morons. I've stated my case. Maybe I was clear enough? Maybe I worded some things poorly? Maybe you literally just can't understand basic strategy? Who knows? But I'm done with arguing. Sure, you're leading in kills, awesome! But this game isn't about kills, its strategy and team work.

Hmmmm. Try a juiced deployed gunner and get back to me.

Whaaaaa!!! This isn't MW2? I can't insta-spawn kill you with my strategy-be-damned-uber-face-stab-dash-attack over and over? Last time I checked there is a "me" in "team"

Wrong: I see any assassin light up if they approach within 10 feet of me. It's borderline ludicrous, particularly if you just happen to have a jet gun in your hands.

So quite raqewhining, read for once, and listen, instead of bashing your point and then leaving in a big dramatic huff when someone isn't taking your word as gospel.

PS. Nobody once mentioned juice. Juice is extremely powerful for a assassin. But only any other class can pull off juice without getting killed so easily if they use AoE to counter you or have SOME kind of defence (which is why OT is BS, they can defend all they want, or attack all they want, it makes no ******* difference when it comes down to who can juice the most). An assault, gunner and a tank can all do almost as much devastation but last on average twice as long.

Also lol:

'cept you attack at the end, stopping you dead after a (usually, based on map design or situation) short distance, leaving whoever it is gunning for you to kill you anyway. Plus said attack is the only way to break open a non-overhealed gold armor pro for a back grapple OHKO, so it is sort of "get in for the kill". The trick is avoiding lag or misfortune biting you in the ***.

Assassins are for killing turrets and minions. Point and case.

This debate is facinating for many an experienced 360 player.

General consensus based on console metagame (might vary on the PC):

-Assassins should always be clearing bots (read: GAINING JUICE/Money)

-Assassins should always have ejector control (since they can transition to this role quicker than any other class AND not be seen while doing so).

-Assassins should always be sitting on an extra 250 and hit the annihilator each and every time it is up (and be camping it before hand)

-Against any decently skilled player, the Assassin should only go for kills of opportunity or necessity (unless she has juice).

-Assassins should routinely spam the S-Launcher against fleeing enemy pros to prevent health regeneration (which translates to long term area denial).

-A good assassin player will destroy enemy turrets routinely to prevent a nest being built up. The assassin's strength in this is she can usually do this independent of map control as opposed to a gunner or tank.

-Assassins should never (or rarely) buy juice unless she is doing it to deny the enemy team juice. She has the fastest natural juice rate in the game, leave the juice stand cooldowns open for allied tanks, gunners, or assault players.

Efficiency in transitioning between these rolls is what makes or breaks an assassin player. PVP is IMO the LEAST important aspect to good assassin game play, as gunners, assaults, and snipers are all far more consistently deadly in solo AND group PVP (this does not mean you can't post undefeated games or out kill your entire team).

There might be some deviation from this general overview, but this is pretty much a break down of mid-high level assassin gameplay from my (console) perspective.

I really have to disagree here. Landing backstabs are not a difficult task so long as you are patient and willing to work your way behind, even with moving targets. The only time I have ever been forced to facestab is simply being caught off guard, or retaliating a grapple against another assassin that may have snuck up on me.

Third person view or not, they should never see you coming at all. If you work your way around while cloaked, then dash at the enemy registering the first hit, and instantly grappling them after, they have absolutely no time to respond. This will also kill most classes except the heavy HP ones, which there are other ways to deal with.

Do not move directly through lanes. I almost never do this. There are side paths in every map, including some additional ones that few people really know to take. For example, on one map you can run onto a bridge, then hop on top of the walls and run on top of those, where almost nobody sees you...ever. There are lot of ninja ways to get around really.