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Assassin

2015-10-09T19:55:10Z

Silorme: Tricks with Tikki Tooki

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|ClassInfobox}}}
|Name=Assassin
|ShortHand=As
|Traits=
;POISONED BLADE: Starts with the APHEELSIK glyph, deals 40% bonus damage to poisoned enemies. Starts with -20% bonus damage.
;LIGHT FOOT: Exploring the area around a monster gives the player first strike
;SWIFT HAND: attacking a lower level monster always grants an instant kill. This will overwhelm every other status effect in the game.
|SuggestedRaces=
{{HuAs}},{{ElAs}},{{GoAs}}
|Unlock=
Level 3 [[Thief Den]]
|Group=Tier 3
}}</onlyinclude>

''Sinister, quiet and deadly. Assassins lack the charisma, social etiquette and basic regard for sentient life that the lower-tier sneaks possess, but they are no less cunning, stealthy or resourceful. Death may come quickly. Death may come slowly. Death may be silent, bloody, or fiery. But death will always come.''

== Class Features ==

*'''POISONED BLADE''': Starts with the APHEELSIK glyph, gains 40% bonus damage against poisoned monsters. Starts with -20% bonus damage.
*'''LIGHT FOOT''': Exploring the area around a monster gives the player first strike.
*'''SWIFT HAND''': attacking a lower level monster always grants an instant kill. This will overwhelm every other status effect in the game.

Note that spaces that fall off the edge of the board count as "revealed" for the purpose of light foot, so you can gain first strike against edge-hugging monsters in this manner. The swift hands ability ignores abilities such as first strike and death protection, meaning you face no risks when attacking monsters like gorgons or animated armors as a higher-level assassin. In rare scenarios where the boss is lower than level 10, it's entirely possible to kill him with swift hands.

== Races ==

=== Orc ===

With an emphasis on attack damage, the {{OrAs}} makes for a more combat-oriented assassin. He is great at [[regen-fighting]] monsters and has a strong early-game. The Orc Assassin benefits more from fighting poisoned enemies than a Human, but is less efficient in dealing with the undead. Against bosses this is a serious consideration, but for regular enemies, it is a more than fair trade-off for the orc, since he excels at taking down his chosen targets and can deal with the others later using Swift Hands. His highly efficient regen-fighting allows him to conserve black space for the late game while setting aside higher-level popcorn than most class/race combinations can manage. The Orc Assassin must strive to raise his attack bonus; if you are not bringing preparations that raise attack bonus then the Human is generally superior.

One problem melee assassins face is that their lack of resistances gets in the way of regen-fighting very high level monsters. This can be solved by worshiping {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}, one of the favorite deities of every Orc in general.

=== Human ===

{{HuAs}} is a strong alternative to the Orc who trades away some raw power and an easy leveling phase in exchange for being more reliable against bosses. Because his racial bonus cancels out the Assassin's natural attack bonus penalty he functions better than the Orc in situations where you cannot deliver poison (for instance, magic immune or undead foes). While orcs can achieve higher damage than the human with the poisoned blade attack bonus, they require preparations to increase their attack bonus to do so at higher levels. The Human Assassin requires no melee-oriented preparations to function effectively, freeing slots for caster-based items and bonuses to build a better hybrid or to play purist.

The Human Assassin provides a more reliable baseline than the Orc Assassin, and is better equipped to pursue a hybrid melee/spellcasting approach than any other race. The Orc Assassin deals more damage, but requires more extensive preparation and dedication to do so.

=== Elf ===

One of the most powerful spellcasting combinations in the game is the {{ElAs}}. With vastly expanded mana, the elf assassin makes a potent spellcaster. The biggest difficulty that dedicated spellcasters face is that they often neglect their attack damage and have difficulty fighting lower-level monsters that ''should'' be easy. Using '''swift hands''', this is not an issue for the assassin, allowing him to focus totally on spellcasting in a way that even the {{c|Wizard}} cannot. Other races can still make potent spellcaster assassins, but they won't be as good as the elf.

=== Goblin ===

The {{GoAs}} is the ultimate class/race combo for level-up catapults. By using swift hands to kill weaker monsters and converting items and glyphs for extra experience, a goblin can gain as many as five levels over the course of a boss battle, fully regenerating his health and mana each time. Very few bosses outside of vicious difficulty can survive this sort of persistent onslaught, and even those in vicious difficulty will often fall to it. Since you can begin the boss battle very early with this character it's likely you'll be able to use poison antics as well. The Goblin Assassin is one of the best ways to obtain badges in most dungeons, including the coveted vicious badge.

== Strategy ==

The Assassin is one of the game's most potent classes, and is well-suited to a wide variety of approaches. At low levels, he has a strong and reliable opener with the {{s|APHEELSIK}} glyph, and at high levels he can cleave through strong monsters to gain a few extra levels that can make the difference. His greatest weakness is that he has very few class features to improve his combat abilities, and capitalizing on his situational {{t|First strike}} is very important. Because he has no bonus to regeneration or resistances and his initial attack bonus against poisoned monsters is only 20% (net), the Assassin actually makes a sub-par regen-fighter without additional items or boons. The assassin is most similar to the {{c|Fighter}} in this respect, and he can build towards almost any type of character by using the right combination of bonuses.

Although at first glance it may not be apparent, the Assassin is actually a very strong class for spellcaster strategies. One of the biggest problems dedicated spellcasters face is that they neglect their attack damage, and may be easily worn down by low-level monsters. An assassin will never face this problem, even on vicious-difficulty levels, and can therefor focus all his attention on the boss.

Because the assassin can easily 1-hit-kill monsters that are lower-level than him, he should ''never'' fight a monster that is equal-level to him unless he has no other choice. There is no bonus XP given for defeating a monster of equal level to yourself, and once you gain a level you can kill him effortless. Always focus your efforts on fighting stronger monsters to earn bonus XP.

Assassins can leverage an early Amulet of Yendor to great effect. The 50 bonus experience is enough to reach level 5, which puts most of the dungeon monsters at lower level (and thus subject to Swift Hands). This frees up the player to select a race other than Goblin and still be able to reach Level 10 only having to fight a handful of monsters to do so. The drawback is that after using up the prepped Amulet, you will need to reclaim it for an additional 50 Gold cost if you want to use it again.

== Gods ==

The Assassin works well with a broad range of [[Gods|deities]] due to his personal flexibility. A couple deserve warnings, though: {{g|Glowing Guardian}} severely limits the ability to use poison until you can convert out. {{g|Taurog}} dislikes all glyphs, but with moderation, it is very easy to go positive on piety for part-time or even full-time worship.

{{g|Tikki Tooki}} can be high-maintenance during the leveling phase, since he doesn't like it when you take damage, but he likes poison. It is particularly easy to earn a late-game piety spike by converting in, using Swift Hands and Learning to reap massive XP benefits with piety left over for Reflexes. Full-time worshipers just need more caution and discretion when choosing to accept piety penalties, and can rely on fireballs and first strike a bit more to make it work. However if you have the {{i|Amulet of Yendor}} lockered you can earn a lot of piety on the initial low level characters. Quickly getting Tiki's Edge along with a way to slow these low level monsters before killing them becomes an XP and piety building machine. You almost never have to kill a creature at your level or above to reach level 10+ and can usually have dodge, poison, two levels of edge, and a couple reflexes. Using {{s|WONAFYT}} to bring everyone to you (see the {{s|WONAFYT}} page) and you can have all of this and the boss standing in front of you with less than half the black used up.

With {{g|Dracul}}, an assassin is hilariously inept at keeping blood cows alive for lifesteal, but he can effortlessly create the maximum number of blood pools for Sanguine refills or for {{g|The Earthmother}}'s Plantation boon.

Casters and hybrids will find that {{g|Mystera Annur}} and {{g|Jehora Jeheyu}} have a lot to offer, while your standard regen-fighter will get good help from {{g|Binlor Ironshield}}.

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WONAFYT

2015-10-05T12:50:06Z

Silorme: Advanced strategy for WONAFYT

<onlyinclude>{{
{{{tpl|GlyphInfobox}}}
|Name=WONAFYT
|ManaCost=5
|Effects=
* Teleports a random monster of the player's level (or lower, if unavailable) to a empty tile next to the player and slows it.
* Monsters are teleported to a random tile horizontally or vertically adjacent to the player. If all such tiles are filled, glyph targets a random diagonally adjacent tile.
* Fails if no same-level or lower-level monster exists. Chance to fail if targets magic resistant monster.
* Afflicts the target monster with {{t|Slowed}} (+1XP when killed, temporarily loses {{t|First strike}}, {{t|Retaliate: Fireball}}, {{t|Cowardly}}).
|Hotkey= S
}}</onlyinclude>

The monster summoning [[glyph]] is a '''utility''' glyph that can seem less powerful in comparison to other glyphs because it has have very few '''immediate''' benefits. However, using this glyph correctly has many long-term benefits, notably the creation of slowed [[popcorn]] that is easy to harvest for strategic leveling.

This glyph is likely to spawn very close to the player, making it ideal for use during early exploration as a means of using mana that would otherwise be wasted. It is also an excellent way to clear low-level chokepoints and reduce the chance of having your hand forced by an unlucky monster placement.

== Understanding WONAFYT ==
New players may be misled by this glyph into attempting to kill same-level monsters over higher or lower level monsters. This is generally accepted to be an inefficient choice: they grant no bonus experience, but are strong enough to deplete your health and mana. In terms of how much experience reward you get for how much effort you expend, this is a ''horrible'' deal and you should constantly be striving to avoid fighting these monsters, either fighting weaker monsters that you can kill effortlessly or stronger monsters that are worth bonus experience.

New players may be further confused by the inclusion of the slow effect on monsters. Most equal-level monsters are too strong to kill in a single blow, and slow will expire as soon as you strike them. This means that you usually cannot capitalize on the +1 experience bonus immediately after the monster is summoned unless you are strong enough to kill it in a single attack. Any character strong enough to do this should be capable of defeating considerably more powerful monsters and earning large amounts of bonus experience for doing so. The slow effect is only venerable in the long term, when you have grown strong enough to dispatch the monster in a single blow.

The only exception to these general rules is in case a player has the {{i|Balanced Dagger}} item, in which case summoning equal level monsters to fight becomes a strong strategy if executed correctly.

== Strategy ==
To use this glyph to its full potential, go to an explored and largely empty part of the dungeon to summon monsters, then leave them there without attacking. This will corral weaker monsters that might otherwise be blocking hallways and place them out of your way, forming what is known as a [[popcorn]] bowl. Since slow never expires unless you attack the slowed monster itself, you can continue exploring and leveling up and return much later to kill them in a single strike and gain the +1 XP bonus, allowing you to strategically level up at the most opportune time. In many ways, WONAFYT functions as a less expensive but much less controllable and practical version of {{s|WEYTWUT}}.

WONAFYT appears to be random, however teleportation follows certain rules:

1) Monsters will always be teleported to empty tiles '''directly adjacent''' to the player first.

2) Monsters will always be teleported to '''non-diagonal tiles if possible'''.

3) The teleport prioritizes monsters in this order:

* Monsters that are not slowed.
* Monsters of an equal level.
* Monsters of a lower level.
* Monsters with the least magic resistance.

This means that if there are no non-slowed monsters of equal or lower level, priority reverts to ''equal-leveled'' monsters, preferring monsters with lower resistance. Note that WONAFYT ignores monsters that are immune to Magic.

If used correctly WONAFYT is as effective as {{s|WEYTWUT}} for a fraction of the cost, needs no targeting, and pulls monsters out of unexplored territory saving exploration.

The more monsters you teleport and slow, the smaller the pool of potential candidates for teleportation. By slowing all but one same-level monster on a map you can predict which monster will be teleported with high levels of accuracy.

When WONAFYT is near your starting position it is possible to destroy all enemies on most maps with only having explored about half the map. Before you kill any creatures on a map, search around for WONAFYT. Immediately use all of your mana to cast it multiple times. Explore, and cast again until one of the creature you have already summoned and slowed is moved again. This means you have all creature your level and lower next to you. Make sure you have enough mana to cast again, then attack a creature until it is one hit away from death. Cast WONAFYT again. Since the attacked creature is the only one at your level or less that is not slowed, it will move and be slowed. Finish it off. Do this until you level up. Repeat this process until you have summoned all level 2 creatures. Then kill off the level one creatures that are one hit kills (this trick is awesome with assassin). Often I make to level three without killing any level two creatures and almost to level four feeding off level two creatures. Repeat for all levels until you finally summon the boss. In this way you get one bonus experience for every creature on the map, you do no unnecessary exploring, and will almost always reach level 10 if you have the balanced dagger.

This glyph is generally only useful during early exploration; hence the tendency to spawn close to the player. During later exploration its mana cost is rarely worthwhile, and as a higher-level character it's unlikely that you will ever be able to slay the monsters it summons in a single blow in order to take advantage of its slow effect (unless you are an {{c|Assassin}}). As a result, if you've already explored more than half the dungeon you should ignore this glyph completely in favour of glyphs with more immediate effects.

For characters who have the {{i|Balanced Dagger}} there is an additional strategy: With the Dagger one gets the same XP for a same-level monster as for a monster one level above the character level, in that sense fighting same-level monsters is not a complete waste of ressources. After the first attack the slow effect will expire. But since WONAFYT first targets not slowed same-level monsters, one can use the glyph to slow the monster for the final blow (in such a case WONAFYT is superior to WEYTWUT because of the lower mana cost).

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