Sun Feb 15 21:35:37 2009

At 7 o'clock PM, Day of Freedom, 32nd of the Month of the Dark Shades
on the Theran calendar Ardanien perished, never to return.

That's a lot of xp in not a lot of hours.

Just didn't like assassins, or what?

Yeah he managed to hook up with a few battle and get power ranked
at Calandaryl. I found even he was able to block very little, even
while keeping his weight down, and wasnt to impressed with the stalk-assassinate.

Assassins are more fragile than people typically realize, at least before getting martial trance. Trance is where it's at. Sanc on a stick, plus the benefits from the Buki edges, plus any extra benefits from stalking.

You didn't like stalking? It's sort of boring, but I like the "submarine" aspect of it (i.e. you're vulnerable if discovered, but uniquely able to take out the enemies heavy ships).

Well it was my first assassin for CarrionFields, but i had alot of experience in the past with assassins on another mud.

I like the roleplay aspect of stalk in this version being used to "understand" the target, making it more easier to assassinate, however i dont like the idea of having to be with them in the room etc etc. Stalking to me is more like tracking. Finding signs of their passing etc. For example being able to sit in marketsquare alone and use stalk to find their tracks, for example it eventually leading to the past. but only at one step at a time, but it gives you an idea of where they are headed. I dont like it determining your success at assassination. That should depend solely only your percentage of success rate based on practice and mastering it. I also wasnt to impressed that you couldnt use it on mobs.
I also felt like there was alot of skills that were thrown in as filler. For example pierce. What use does an assassin have with a spear attack? If it was made available to be used with daggers, it would be worth it, but as it stands, it takes to much time to switch weapons, risk giving up defense in the mean time, then the lag of the attack itself, then switching over to other weapons you can use.

It wasnt the kind of character i enjoy playing. The skillset that is available doesnt give room for a lot of creativity and i think in its current state it is a rather hollow shell that could be drastically improved on.

>however i dont like the idea of having to be with
>them in the room etc etc.

fyi, You don't have to be in the same room with someone to stalk them. They just have to not be able to see you. So you could potentially stalk someone while invisible who can't detect invis. Etc.

>Stalking to me is more like
>tracking. Finding signs of their passing etc.

There are some other skills that work like this. I forget the names, but I think some Tribunals get one, and possibly certain rangers.

>I dont like it determining your success
>at assassination. That should depend solely only your
>percentage of success rate based on practice and mastering it.

This would be a nightmare from a game-play perspective. An assassin could just walk up to you and assassinate, with no preparation whatsoever. Sort of like an anti-paladin with cleave. So if this were ever implemented, the success rate would have to go WAY down. Having assassinate success depend on stalk adds an element of "skill" that's lacking w/ skills like cleave.


>I also wasnt to impressed that you couldnt use it on mobs.

Again, game-play issues. You want a class that gets a semi-reliable "slay" on mobs?

>I also felt like there was alot of skills that were thrown in
>as filler. For example pierce. What use does an assassin have
>with a spear attack?

That's one of the skills I usually don't bother to practice. Along with brawling skills, panhandle, sometimes pen, etc. It might be more useful if you were playing a felar assassin, but even then I still wouldn't practice it. Too many other good options.

>It wasnt the kind of character i enjoy playing. The skillset
>that is available doesnt give room for a lot of creativity and
>i think in its current state it is a rather hollow shell that
>could be drastically improved on.

Huh. I dunno, I think assassins have a decent amount of versatility. You have lag moves, you have maledicts, you can go offensive (two weapons + hit/dam gear) or defensive (sword + shield + hp/saves gear). After stalking, you can choose between assassinate or trance + regular melee.

They don't have as many options as, say, most warriors. I'll give you that. But compared to, say, a shield paladin...they're more interesting. At least IMO.

'I want to be overpowered' is not something you can just explain away, neither is the subtle game balance here, nor is the fact that ranking quickly generally means you very quickly narrow down your options for safely practicing several skills. Top that all off with ####ty area knowledge and stalk quickly becomes limited in it's use.

Give him a year or two under his belt here and he'll see assassins in a different light.


Bard Repertoire Clarifications:
http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=6&topic_id=23735&mesg_id=23735&page=