Jack's Black Book of Rogues: The Assassin

Gentlemen, and lovely ladies. 

Feel free to wave down one of the girls in the purple corsets, they're just grapes off the vine here to serve everyone some drinks. For those open to suggestion, our five hundred and second batch has just matured into fruition and ready for consumption by the public. So try it, ask them for the 502 and tell us of what you think, because we think you'll enjoy it very much.

And now, with business out of the way... gather 'round.

First, some apologies on the awful tardiness. I hope working 10am-6pm treats me much better than working 8:30am-4:30pm. All the same, waking up at 6:30am is ridiculously unsatisfying when you're a night owl... I could use the extra hour and a half to catch up on the night prior... or at least just have some free time when I'm not in a mood of "can't be assed" because work is a boring necessity of life right now... that just manages to chew gaping holes into my days. Boo hoo, here a rose for your violin playing. 

Anyway, apologies are over. 

First, we can marvel at this pretty thing for a while...

Psst... click it.

Alright.

Now we talk.



Stealth (Root: Level 4 - 30s dur, 10s cd)
Incapacitates: 1 (Root: Level 6 - 30s dur, out of combat only, breaks on damage, doesn't break stealth)
Snares: 1 (Root: Level 12 - 70%, 8s dur, no cd)
Stuns: 2 (Root: Level 16 - 4s, stealth req
Branch: 21 pts - 4s, 30s cd)
Damage Shield: 1 ( Root: Level 18 - 13 dmg reflected, 15s dur, 2m cd)
Confuse: 1
Blind: 1 (Branch: 11 pts - 10s, 1m cd)
Improved Stealth Maneouvers: 2 (Root: Level 10 - greatly reduces chance of being detected while stealthing for 5s, 15s cd
Root: Level 51 - any damage taken while stealthed will break stealth in 15s, 1m cd
Branch: 11 pts - +15% move speed, +15% harder to detect
Branch: 21 pts - Stealth has no duration
Branch: 31 pts - Vanish ability, immune to damage for 3s, also removes snares and roots.)


What a wonderfully devilish bag of tricks.

I say that in reference even to things that I did not list above. While those listed are indeed rather neat, compare it to the fact that Assassins in Rift generally play like a Rogue in World of Warcraft - now, mind you, you don't just have one direct damage finisher, a dot finisher and a stun finisher (which you do, by the way)... you also have finishers that buff you, as well as debuffing your opponent. One of your poisons increases your chance to crit against the target by 5%. But there is a lot of familliarity with the openers as well, since they're just like your finishers; Ambush, Garrote, Cheapshot.

Personally, Rogues in WoW were a very fluid class to play. When Trion decides to fix the energy issue currently plaguing the Rogue calling, I'm glad they've chosen the WoW Rogue style to somewhat personify one of their souls. I also love the way stealth is done in this game to those who don't see you, or just barely get a glimpse with a sound very similar to that of a Rogue passby in WoW.

A very welcome familliarity.

All of that reminiscing about stabbing people while wearing a robe and wizard hat is to say, that Assassins are a very solid soul, that many people will probably instantly be familliar with, that will prove to become nastier and nastier as the great ones start distinguishing themselves.

If you enjoyed Tarren Mill vs Southshore fights as a Rogue, or better yet, stalking the alleys of Stormwind and the tight corners of Ironforge, then you'll enjoy Assassins quite a bit.


While I promise nothing seeing as how I'm about to go get Cutesie to 27 and Warfront my heart out for the weekend, but I still intend to go over the other Rogue souls as well. They don't take that long to do, it's just a matter of finding the time, and keeping myself awake until an hour that doesn't make me feel like an elderly old man.

Night owls do not take well to being woken up at 6:30 am on a regular basis.

Anyway, Bards and Riftstalkers will be next (I originally wanted to do two of these pages from the Black Book of Rogues at a time). Unless another really catches my fancy or impresses me over the weekend, then I'll go with that.

Till then, ladies, gents... enjoy yourselves and enjoy testing out new content.

Cheers,
Jack