User:Kalas Silvern/Assassin Balance ideas

Alright, I've finally figured out how to make this page.

I'll start things off with an idea for a non-assassin skill that might alleviate a number of complaints

Ele skill

 * Ward Against Foes
 * Ward Spell- for 8...18...20 seconds, . You create a Ward Against Foes at your current location. For 8...18...20 seconds, non-Spirit foes in this area move 50% slower. Foes cannot shadowstep into or out of this ward
 * This serves a dual purpose: First, it prevents the shadowstep spikes that so many people hate. Second, it can be used to prevent splits by placing it in areas where the assassins would shadowstep to.  Lastly, it can be used to trap an assassin using something like Aura of Displacement, preventing them from escaping.  Since people didn't like the smiting prayers idea, I have changed it to an additional effect on an old ward skill.  Hopefully, this skill would prove useful, since it helps to slow down melee, allowing your team's players to kite, while also preventing shadowsteps.

Daggers in General
Wands and Staves do more damage than daggers. I think I'll start with that. In addition to the changes below (or whichever ones sound good), I propose that dagger damage be increased. Hitting for a max of 22 on 60al (That's a critical folks) is sad. However, there are ways to increase dagger damage to keep them interesting, while preventing other classes from exploiting their damage.
 * Suggestion- Increase dagger base damage to 10-20. This alone does not solve the problem, but at least it brings them up to wand/staff damage.  Second, make the critical damage multiplier (sqrt(2)) increase with higher Critical strikes, up to a maximum multiplier of 1.8 at 15 critical strikes.  Of course, this increase should ONLY apply to daggers.  It would bring dagger critical damage up to something acceptable, which would make damage nerfs far less painful, since we would gain pressure and retain some of the damage, just in a different form.

Now on to assassin skills. (Starting with spike potential changes)

Black offhands
Black Lotus Strike
 * We all know that this led to broken combos that generally had the potential to instakill just about anyone. It was changed to a lead attack, which has led to a severe drop in the number of combo strings assassins can use effectively.  I propose reverting to an offhand attack, but lowering damage to scale similar to Black Spider Strike, which causes far less damage.  I also propose that energy gain is lowered to a max of 5, so that it doesn't quite cover itself.  Finally, I'd also lower the recharge to 8 or 10, since the damage is much lower.

Black Spider Strike
 * Yes, I'm getting the req offhands out of the way first. I recommend a change back to 5 energy, while changing it to have less + damage (+10 at 13 or 14 dagger mastery).  In addition to this, I would lower the recharge to 8 or 10 for the purpose of allowing some utility in the spread of conditions.

Alright, now for a comment on the black offhands- my changes are aimed at leaving them viable, but making it so that the spikes aren't nearly as powerful. Lowering the recharge enables assassins to pressure a bit more, since they cannot pressure via autoattacks. If people are still worried about offhand-->dual x2, they could also remove a hex when they hit.

Golden series
Golden Phoenix Strike
 * Honestly, I think this is fine.

Golden Lotus Strike
 * Change to offhand. It already has low damage.  Energy gain would be lowered to 5, recharge would be lowered to 8.

Golden Fox Strike
 * Ouch. This may be slightly overpowered right now...  Unblockable when enchanted, good damage.  Despite that, I'd say leave as is, at least for now, since it has a hoop that you need to jump through (ench req), and good lead attacks are needed in order to promote Lead-Offhand-Dual.

Golden Fang Strike
 * Make it do +5 damage. Doesn't need a big change.  Keep as offhand.

Golden Skull Strike
 * Elite... 15 second recharge... 4...9...10 second daze if enchanted... slight buff is in order. Give it +15 or +20 damage if enchanted (would scale, not sure how to scale it) and make daze unconditional- this is elite after all.Keep as an offhand.  Possible other changes: Lower recharge to 12 (there'll be a 12 second recharge lead later).

Ok. My aim with the Golden skill series is to a) open up new combos (Lotus) and b) give assassins some nice offhands that must follow leads (Skull and Fang). Golden Fox may need a slight nerf, if anyone has numbers, please post them and we'll work it out.

Other lead attacks
First, a comment. Most lead attacks are terrible. These changes will be aimed at avoiding giving assassins too much spiking power, while improving L-O-D for pressure play.

Jagged Strike
 * Terrible as of now. I propose three changes: first, +5 damage.  Second, make it inflict cracked armor.  Third, add a clause "if target foe has cracked armor, target foe loses one enchant".  Finally, increase recharge to 8 seconds.
 * Notes: This is aimed at creating more ways to trigger cracked armor (as far as I know, assassins are the only class without a skill relating to cracked armor). It also gives an interesting enchant removal- it can't be done too often, and occurs AFTER the attack, so that your combo gets blocked, but they lose an enchant.

Unsuspecting Strike
 * raise recharge to 4 seconds. Make it so that % where you get extra damage scales from 90%...80% to justify that.

Black Mantis Strike
 * Leave as is

Disrupting stab
 * 1/2 second activation, since it is an interrupt. Recharge down to 6 seconds, so it can serve as a real interrupt.  If it seems overpowered, perhaps add a condition that the target must be under a condition.

Leaping Mantis Sting
 * Switch damage and cripple- unconditional cripple, +damage if target foe is moving. 12 second recharge, 1/2 activation (Similar to protectors strike, with a longer recharge and cripple)

Desperate Strike
 * Thanks to Nuclear and Lann for help on this one- see the conversation here Skill Feedback- Talk:Desperate Strike
 * Now on to the idea. Make it a lead that must follow a dual.  Other idea- lead that must follow an offhand.  Also, to make it more desperate, change the condition to "target under x% health"- you're desperate to land another blow/combo.
 * If that seems overpowered, make it a dagger attack (not lead, offhand, or dual) that must follow a dual, and does + damage if foe is under x%.

Offhands
Falling skills
 * Leave as is. Lower energy gain on Lotus to 1...6...8 energy in order to make sins require intelligent use of energy.

Fox Fangs
 * 4 recharge, remove 1/2 second activation. Change to +15 damage unconditional, +30 if target would have blocked the attack

Jungle Strike
 * Remove 1/2 second activation. Recharge up to 12 seconds- the same as leaping mantis.

Lotus Strike
 * Lower energy gain to a max of 15. Getting 10 or more energy from an attack is insane.  Lower damage to a max (attribute of 15) of +20

Moebius Strike
 * Leave as is. I'd like to make this reward skill somehow other than "use at end of combo lols".

Repeating Strike
 * Make able to follow lead or offhand. Also, change to guaranteed critical with +10 damage.  This puts it at autoattack range for warriors, and with critical eye, would allow it to almost completely replace autoattacking (this gives nice pressure, while leaving the sin versatile enough to change what it's doing, since it's part of a combo.)

Temple Strike
 * Reduce recharge to 15. Either add damage or guarantee a critical.  Make it apply daze unconditionally, and blind if the target is attacking.

Wild Strike
 * Damage needs to be lowered. +33 at 15 dagger is insane.  Reduce to around +18.  Fox Fangs needs something over this, and this change would do just that.  Also, 6 second recharge- SA sins won't be able to break defenses quite as fast.

Dual Attacks
Shattering Assault
 * Make it do +10 damage per hit (instead of scythe like base damage).
 * Make it do no bonus damage unless an enchant is removed (probably too weak)
 * Make it do +10, with an extra +30 if an enchant is removed.
 * Leave as is, but lower damage so the base at high dagger mastery lines up with either hammers or axes, and remove only one enchant.
 * Make it blockable, but remove one enchant after attack whether it hits or not. Does not remove on hit now, so it would remove a max of one enchant.
 * Applied to all of these- recharge of 6 seconds, at least
 * 1 of these suggestions, not all. This skill needs a nerf, but as Izzy said on it's Dev page, it makes for an interesting defense breaking skill.

Nine Tail Strike
 * pvp only version
 * +20 damage per hit at high dagger mastery (more than twisting fangs, but less than most). If this attack would be blocked, +40 damage.  Finally, lower recharge to 4 seconds.
 * PvE- lower recharge to 4 seconds
 * Alright, this is one of my main changes. This, Fox Fangs, and Golden fox strike ends up as 3 skills doing +79 damage total if the target is not blocking.  However, the combo punishes unintelligent use of blocking by doing +139 damage if the person just throws up a block stance.

Horns of the Ox
 * This skill has caused serious issues in the past. It created numerous issues with the Shadow Prison Combo, AoD gankers, and more.
 * My first instinct is to restore it's damage. However, that'd just cause new issues.  My suggestion is to make it do it's current + damage, with additional damage if the target is dazed, has cracked armor, or is deep wounded.  Before you call me crazy, this would do a number of things.  First, it prevents the easy spiking of the SP combo.  You need to apply a condition- most of which are on mildly weak skills (Golden Skull Strike, Temple Strike, My version of Jagged Strike), which means you break even damage wise.  Beguiling Haze would become a better shadowstep with this, but would still be limited by the energy cost
 * So, to recap, current damage, knockdown as it is now, but a bonus condition that provides another +8 damage or so.

Trampling Ox
 * Another knockdown that caused issues. This one, imo, was overnerfed.
 * Raise damage so it's in the +25-+30 range at high dagger mastery. The grenth's grasp assassin was a creative use of a previously underused skill.  The combo was a little too strong, so with this getting a slight damage decrease along with my nerf to energy gain on Falling Lotus Strike would go a long way towards balancing that spike.  The other thing that could be done is, once again, add the damage back as a bonus for fulfilling a condition, such as target under _____ condition.  With the nerfs to impale though, I can't really see this being overly powerful, even if it was brought back to +25 or +30 damage at high dagger mastery.

I'll get around to other duals and non-dagger skills eventually.

Outdated Rant
... Or not. I'm kinda done with GW. It's just not worth the frustration of the developers paying no attention to most of the game and seeing anything that doesn't conform to the War-War-Ele-Mes-Ranger(or para... sometimes)-Monk-Monk-(Insert Runner here) meta get nerfed to hell. Also, they seem unable to nerf things that are problems- they just destroy everything else that uses it. If someone wants to take any of these ideas and expand/finish them, be my guest. Thanks for all the feedback.