Judging Assasins

After playing a rather high level assassin (level 12) a few weeks back, I'd agree. I was kind of underwhelmed. Rain of arrows was pretty sweet, but the sheer low DPS really made the hero ho-hum. Seems like a bit more buffing of existing bows and/or new bows would fix that. Instead, if I had specialized as a Mage, I would have been totally destroying my opponents with Fireballs and other dangerous stuff. I had to settle for small amounts of damage (with a bit of luck thrown in). A group of archers/mages could have been just has good/helpful.

yeah i agree, they feel a bit like a weaker version of the warrior. i guess one of the reasons for this is that they have to pick up accuracy tratis before they even get to the real dps traits. maybe excess accuracy should add something to make it valuable beyond the "hit cap". 

i'm specifically thinking of a mechanic that moves the damage variation (the range from min-max damage) closer to the predicted max damage if accuracy is higher than required. say you have 120 accuracy - you don't really need more than 100 to hit a target with no dodge, so the excess 20 accuracy could shift the min damage of the attack roll from 50% of max damage to 70% of max damage.

example:  you hit something with a bow; predicted damage is "10-20"; if you have 20 excess accuracy, it's now 14-20 instead.

Assassins need Lethal, or a trait/skill that allows them to sacrifice accuracy for crits.

That would be great! Now that champions have a buff to accuracy right from the beginning from the .90 patch:

Increased base champion accuracy from 75 to 80

it's not as beneficial to keep getting a boost when it's already high. If the accuracy bonus were to happen, though, it would have to be specific to assassins or trying to predict damage values for regular units would be very difficult.

Or, just cut out one of the accuracy traits and/or move them to their own line.

Cut all the accuracy traits. They are boring and no one wants to pick them. Possible exception is the warriors accuracy + spell resist per level.

Yes, assassins are horrible. They are functionally the same as warriors, but less predictable, weaker in every way (baring great luck) and with traits that are incredibly anti-synergistic.  

i used to make one of my custom soverigns - Jarlaxle - an assassin and steal the lightning bow and spider mount from one of the fallen champions after recruiting them. Then solo the entire game including all of the wildlands bosses basically ignoring the other players until i wanted to end the game. usually finished at level 40 or so and had dodge of ~75% crit ~25% and initiative 30+. i loved playing this game without ever building a city in my own hardcore mode on ridiculous. last time i can remember having a real legendary hero;)

yeah that lightning longbow is sick, but it's also the only really superpowered bow in the game. an assassin with one of the lesser weapons won't be even close to that level power.

Thanks for the input. Good to know its not just me.

Some great suggestions about accuracy, criticals and damage range. Any of these systems seems like an improvement.

An interesting fix to accuracy, would be too make accuracy (the stat, not the trait) increase critical chance as well. Would make accuracy better and get rid of boring traits for assassins. You'd have to scale back unit bonuses to accuracy but that needs to be done anyway.

Anyone ever just find the lightning bow? Or do you need to steal it from a champion.

Maybe there is a need for more (champions only) weapons that have fixed damage + per level damage (not only magical but mundane also)? Or a respective champion skill (only for combat oriented heroes) that give attack bonus per level instead of fixed value.

I learned from getting powned by an AI bowman that Warrior is now the best class for bowman despite Rain of Arrows etc under the Assassin skill tree.  Take a bow with 8 attack + 3 attack (warrior) + 12 attack (lethal 1/2/3) and you have a bowman with 23+ attack.

so I agree the assassin tree needs work. I like the idea of dmg/lvl type skills or more specialized attacks like hit and run, stun, double strike, bleed, traps, etc.

My assassin in my scenario game uses rain of arrows to AoE crit dudes for like 50+... but he has a point in shadow strike for ignoring armor and all the vital strike skills. Plus I found a bow with 22 Attack they are out there, I promise: http://screencast.com/t/0vcoEPPE0zit

I'm not saying they couldn't use any tweaks or anything, but they are viable

also, yea Tarth make the best Assassins cause of double strike

toby you just proved my point. tarth heroes are the only ones worth making assassins.

maybe thats a clue how to fix it... All assassins should get double strike.

i'm pretty sure double strike was an assassin skill in FE (IIRC, you had to pick true strike first as a prerequisite)

So that's one of the primary issues- it's really dependent on getting a good bow.

Would it be possible to have more/better bows for purchase? That would reduce the dependency on random drops.

Even if each Assassin got a special skill right off like Evicerate, that would make them more competitive (or double-strike).

Double strike is better if you go warrior though.