Assassin - I don't get it

[Incompetent]

This is probably because I'm a beginner at this, but I don't understand why I'd pick an Assassin over the other classes.

Poison: nice idea but doesn't seem to give a huge advantage in practice against monsters high enough in level to be worthy prey. It's not like the Assassin gets super-fast healing from exploration. I suppose if APHEELSIK literally halted regeneration, then when paired with CYDSTEPP or BURNDAYRAZ it would lead to cheese.

First Strike if you explore around: very handy, but just feels like playing a less extreme version of the Rogue.

Swift Hands: Great, now I can butcher everything below me in level for no HP/mana/bad status... except I can do that to a large extent anyway with melee-oriented characters (or at least well enough that the few monsters who can't be slaughtered don't really bother me). Bosses are usually level 10 anyway. I suppose it is interesting though if you make your Assassin magic-focused to the point of gimping his melee damage, or if Dracul can somehow turn your level up to 11 Maybe there are also special dungeons with dangerous low-level monsters that I haven't got to yet.

So, how do you play an Assassin and make him awesome?

[TigerKnee]

[232]

Pretty much what TigerKnee said. Poison used to completely stop all regeneration, but APHEELSIK and the Venom Sword both got nerfed (mainly because of the Venom Sword). APHEELSIK also got reduced from 8 to 5 mana, but still it's practically useless. I personally think that either APHEELSIK shouldn't have been nerfed, or have a special exception for the Assassin to stop all regeneration, similar to the Warlord and CYDSTEPP.

[The Avatar]

When I use the assassin I don't use his glyph till lev 5 at least because before then it is almost useless.

It can be powerful against the boss if you are lev 9 because you will be regening 8 more than him. which is the same as a monk.

[Darvin]

The problem was that classes like the Paladin, Monk, and Berserker were abusing venom sword. These classes have superb regen games and with the ability to halt regeneration just with their base attack they were totally broken on any dungeon without nasty status ailments or a heavy undead component. The APHEELSIK glyph by comparison was fairly tame, and when the nerf came down on the venom sword it was overnerfed (venom sword, IMO, got overnerfed as well. This is an item most useful for low-level characters that now requires you to be a high level to get a good effect... that's a problem). Classes with bad regen games, which unfortunately include the assassin, now convert APHEELSIK on sight. It got a mana cost decrease, but the fact remains that this is a glyph that works best for high-level characters and is a waste of inventory space for low-level characters.

If the assassin could leave the glyph lying on the floor, like in the alpha, then I might leave it around for later. However, squatting on an inventory slot (especially when you're packing a lot of preparations to begin with) is a pretty big tax so when I play assassin I usually just convert the thing.

[Incompetent]

[dislekcia]

Are you guys literally only ever trying to poison high level enemies or something? I continuously use poison to fight monsters 2-3 levels above whatever level I happen to be...

[Darvin]

[DalaranJ]