Assassin Changes

[driller]

Assassins now get 1d6 acid damage for every three levels they take for the class.

[Yelemis]

Is this in addition to the death attack?

[driller]

Yes, it is it's own separate thing.

[TedRo]

Does this damage apply to every attack or only attacks made from stealth/flanking?

[driller]

Every attack.

Does this damage apply to every attack or only attacks made from stealth/flanking?

[Kuehl]

What's the reasoning behind this change? I'm just wondering.

[driller]

It was requested to make the class more viable on BSK.

What's the reasoning behind this change? I'm just wondering.

[Cornflower]

Same thing with barbarian, which was a good thing!

[Yune]

I think the changes are too much. Right now Assassins are head and shoulders above everything else for DPS in high end runs, mainly because the acid damage ignores DI and DR. I suggest toning it down by making it respect DI and DR.

[Mask-inc]

Yeah, i'm with Yune on that one, maybe lower the damage to 1d4 or space the levels where you get the damage.

on a similar subject, what about adding good only to HA property to make it paladin only, good only. Same for the blackguard stuff, make it BG only and evil only? That would certainly cut on the cheese builds a tad or at least make the smite good from certain monsters useful once more.


Mask

[Yunim]

I wouldn't mind dropping the damage to d4, but if DI/DR applies to the bonus damage then assassins would be useless in high level PvM.

Assassins are currently the best DPS toons for 3/5 normal boss runs, with Figh12/WM25/Pal3 and Figh14/WM25/Monk1 being best for the other two. They do very well against low AC high DI mobs but they're outclassed by WMs when going against high AC bosses. If DI applied to the bonus damage then there would be no point in choosing an assassin build over a divine WM. The bosses where the assassins really shine have either 75% or 90% acid DI, so even with 10d6 acid damage that's an absolute maximum of 6 or 15 acid damage per hit, which isn't multiplied on critical hits. There is one boss in particular where there is no point in taking any DPS that doesn't do unresistable damage, if DI affected the bonus damage the only reasonable DPS choice would be a divine WM just like before the assassin changes.

As for adding alignment restrictions to HA/BG weapons I don't think it would make much of a difference considering how easy it is to change alignments. The only thing I'd have to change on my build is switch from Lia to Vor, which admittedly I'd be against since Lia is my favourite deity.

[Mask-inc]

There is the PvP part too to keep in mind in there.
All good with upgrading border line useless classes but if they become the only ultra OP ones which is use in every builds and such, make it un-fair elsewhere.
Personally, i think it need some adjutment, whatever it is.



Mask

[driller]

Please come to a consensus(you know, a solution that no one is happy about).

[Cornflower]

Please come to a consensus(you know, a solution that no one is happy about).

Love that! Brilliant!

Just to throw in my 2 cents: Since I'm not a powerbuilder (not more than I have to be to be able to level up to 40 and not be completely useless in a party), I don't really care about which build is the optimum right now. My opinion is that as soon as a new boss appears, or driller tweaks something, another build is considered the best and everybody rebuilds. I'm not sure that's a bad thing, it's just not for me. My point is, if all the builds are somewhat reasonably balanced, that's a good thing. Then the choice of which class(es) to use is more up to RP reasons, what's considered fun or what kind of uber-weapon you've happened to find.

The buffing of the Bladeweaver and Barbarian was very well balanced. I levelled both of those up to 40 and felt that they were more or less equal. The buffing of the Assassin was maybe a bit much, so I'm with Mask on this. Perhaps tone it down just a bit. How that's supposed to be done, I don't know.

[Yune]

If this was only a PvP issue, making it only active on sneak attacks would be fine, but doesn't change anything for PvM.