The assassins guild specializes in the usage of light combat, stealth, and poisons. Relying primarily on light armor and evasive tactics, assassins deal damage through melee and damaging skills, as well as applying status effects. Roles- Assassins are viable in both front and middle row combat, able to hit with melee weapons from out of the range of their enemies using the maneuver defense mode(See: help defense), as well as being able to use their stab and backstab skills from the front and middle of parties. Assassins in light armor are also effective at avoiding damage in the front as well as being having the ability to increase their own health through the skill killing focus. Assassin ranks- By killing members of a humanoid race you gain what are called assassin list. Typing assassin list will give you a list of those you have, and a description of how high it is on a scale of ineffective to deadly. As your ranks improve you gain in melee, ranged, and skill damage as well as skill effects. Many people will stay at lower levels gaining ranks in newbie areas, as this is often the quickest way to gain them. Below I will list several areas and the races available in them for a given level range, as well as some useful skills to train during these levels. See help killing skill levels --------Level 1-10---------- Areas- Perdow - Newbie Village: Humans, goblins. Asylum: Plenty of various races, may take a while to max them. Only easy source of the Lich rank. Sosel - Native Village: Human *All areas listed here lock at level 10, making them inaccessible once you level past 10* Useful Skills- 1. Attack- This skill improves your ability to land hits, very important as you will be using melee attacks from both the front and back rows. Dagger- This skill improves your ability to deal damage with a dagger in melee. Very important, as you have to wield a dagger to use many of your skills for added damage. Daggers are very prone to criticals, but deal lower base damage than many other weapon types. 2. Thin blade- Improves your ability to deal damage with a thin blade, many of your skills can be used with a thin blade as well as a dagger. Thin blades are prone to criticals, and deal more base damage than daggers. Bludgeon- Improves your ability to deal damage with bludgeon weapons. Many skills cannot be used with bludgeons, but still worth training in the event you decide to wield an bludgeon. Bludgeons have low critical and low base damage, but are prone to stunning. Axe- Improves your ability to deal damage with axes. Many skills cannot be used with axes, but still worth training in the event you decide to wield an axe. Axes have the best base damage of weapons available to you, and have average stunning and critical chances. 3. Hide- This skill allows you to become unseen while standing still. Can be used with sneak to remain hidden while moving. Can be useful to get past some dangerous or even blocking enemies when used with sneak. 4. Apply Poison- Allows you to add poison to bladed weapons. Poisoned weapons apply damage over time to enemies hit with them. Poison is avoided in many situations, as use of it can cause enemies to die while you are not in the room with them, making this skill not as important as others listed. 5. Grisly Trophy- Using this skill cuts the head off of an enemies corpse, allowing you to get assassin dues. Training this skill is important as, in most cases, dues are required for leveling up in the guild. 6. Conceal Dagger- This skill allows you to avoid angering otherwise passive mobs you are in the room with while wielding, can save your life if you forget to unwield inside of a city. 8. Anatomy- This skill gives you a bonus to the skills hamstring and nerve strike. Which will be mentioned later. Hear noises-This skill allows you to listen to adjacent rooms and detect enemies in them. Can be useful if you have enhanced hearing as a racial advantage wouldn't suggest without this though. Observatioin- This skill helps you avoid having NPC's steal from you. This can be a problem if you spend much time in cities. 9. Infighting- This is one of the first attack skills you get, useful for dealing damage in lower and later levels. Also improved by your assassination ranks, and assassination skill. Hamstring- This skill strikes at the lower leg of an enemy, knocking them down and lower their agility. Can be useful for interrupting spells and skills of some enemies, as well as reducing an enemies ability to avoid your blows. Effects are cumulative. Ambidexterity- This skill allows you to get attacks with both your right and left hand. One of the most important skills, nearly doubling your melee damage. Conceal draw- This skill allows you to wield a weapon while in the room with an enemy and not have them become aggressive. Useful if you enter a room with a non aggressive enemy and want to get ready to open combat. 10. Assess- Allows you to determine status effects on an enemy, as well as duration of some of them including stun and paralysis. Remedy- Very useful heal skill, allowing you to use endurance points to regenerate health out of combat, and in combat with the use of material components. --------Level 11-15--------- Areas- Perdow - Monastary: Human, anakim Scarrowfell Mausoleum: Wight Wysoom - Gromkin warrens: Gremlins. Also not too bad for getting gold. Trimer Caves: Slaad Pirate ship: Various races, including human, selkie, and kuroa Welstar - Seraph Temple - Mummy, few other races. Village of Chaplin - Human, skeleton, spirit Necromancer camp - Random *Areas listed here lock at 15* Useful Skills- 11. Fade to black- Turns you invisible and allows you to move around. Similar to using hide and sneak, but will work on some enemies that would otherwise see through hide. Fearlessness- Useful skill to prevent fear inducing effects from forcing you to flee combat, limited in its applications but important to have in them. Intimidation- Improves your cha score, which increases the price you can sell loot at, as well as lowering the cost for purchasing items as well as training. Very useful to use when training, and will pay for the gold cost of itself if used in future training sessions. 12. Dagger repair- Repairs a dagger to extremely good condition, very useful if you are not using indestructable weapons. Enhanced peer- Allows you to see enemies in an adjacent room, great for traveling areas with dangerous wandering enemies, or areas you haven't been before. Pick Locks- Allows you to open locked doors/boxes, with a set of lock picks. Useful, but many guilds have similar skills not requiring a component. 13. Sneak- This allows you to enter rooms without being seen, as well as staying hidden while moving. As our guild is on Perdow many hostile enemies may attack or stop you while traveling the planet. Sneaking while moving about here will keep you safe from these bandits. Blind- Status effect skill, blinds your target making it harder for them to hit you, as well as lowering their perception decreasing the ability to land critical hits. 14. Stab- This will become your main damage skill, as it is quicker and cheaper to use than backstab. Train this skill as soon as you can. Alertness- Similar to observation, prevents you from being backstabbed or charmed by NPCs, again useful if spending time in cities. Ill repute- Allows you to sell loot for higher prices, as well as purchase items from shops at lower prices. Additionally allows you to avoid paying taxes when entering cities, which increase in cost as you level up, making this skill useful later on as well. 15. Perfect timing- This skill lets you see when your skills will be going off, not incredibly important but can be useful for timing strategies in combat, and preparing to use another skill once one goes off. Maneuver- One of the most useful skills you'll gain from your primary, training maneuver not only helps you avoid damage when in melee combat but also allows you to get melee attacks from the middle row while partying. Tumbling attack- while maneuver may make it easier for you to avoid attacks, tumbling attack assists you in striking through an enemies successful dodges, helping you land your hits more often. --------Level 15-20--------- Areas- Crypt- Ballach: Random Crypt monsters like Yaag-nesh and vampire. Locks at 16 Wumpus - Dwarf Haelis' Manor - Ghoul, Zombie, Skeleton, (rest only have one foe for each of them) Vargoulle, Vampire, Frankenstein, Callicantzari, Lich, Grim Reaper Moloc's Cathedral - Random Crypt Races Utopia - Humans Boelir Camp - Boelir Kobold Caverns - Kobold Raji- Quarry - Random Nomadic Encampment - Human Perdow- Chessboard-Varied races, good place to get gems Flynd Pass- Flynd Danowyr Outpost - Human, demon(Only easy source of demon rank, worth focusing on) Bandit camp: Various Perdow races like trolls and werewolves. Sosel- A small house - Human The Mound - Non-humanoid ants A deep valley - Arakun, others Kanku tree: Kanku. Locks at 16 Welstar - Orel - Tywimn Barrow Downs - Muridan, Titan (only one), Undead (need confirmation on type) Grand Hotel of Keystone - Random Olgahoffen's Farm - Human, other Azalin's Hunting Lodge - Vulpin, Giant, Leprechaun, Kreen, Hephestian, Shadow Militiade's Hostel - Arakun, Catfolk, Human, Papua Wysoom- Pennitentiary-Titan, various Croshmok - Ettin Corridor in front of Casino - Random (Wysoom) A balmy beach - Human, Jinn, Selkie *Areas without given levellock lock at level 20* Useful Skills- 16. Cure poison- While our own poisons may not be the most effective against all enemies you will find yourself in situations which poison from other sources, or even from yourself, may potentially kill you. This skill allows you to remove the damage being inflicted by poison, and restores your ability to regen. Stun- By learning to stun your enemies, you prevent them from both avoiding your hits as well as hitting you back and interrupting many of their skills and spells. Train this as soon as you can. 17. Nerve strike- This skill allows you to paralyze an enemy, and is one of the most useful status skills we have. Paralysis works like stun, and with proper training this skill can give you 5+ rounds of paralysis with each successful use. Many higher level enemies are immune, however it is still worth having for the majority of fighting you'll be doing. Instant stand- As with your hamstring skill, many other skills and abilities may knock you down. This skill helps you avoid being knocked down and unable to move. Enhance criticals- This skill improves damage inflicted on critical hits, which are fairly common when using daggers and thin blades. Very useful for increasing your melee damage output. 18. Arterial slash- This skill inflicts damage over time bleeding to your target. There is a weapon called the silver scalpel which has a very similar special attack to this skill, which may be worth picking up and using before training this, but isn't necessarily the best weapon for you to use later on due to high physical damage percentage as well and lack of a stab rating. Balance dagger- This skill improves the stab rating of a dagger, up to superb. Stab rating on daggers improves the damage and effects of your skills, making this skill very useful. Laniard making- While not imperative, this skill is incredibly useful. By laniarding a weapon you will always keep it in your inventory, instead of in some cases dropping it to the ground and damaging it. When you would otherwise drop a weapon it instead goes to your inventory, and must be wielded again. 19. Grace under fire- By improving your agility, you improve both your ability to avoid taking hits as well as dealing damage with many of your skills which use agility as an affecting stat, such as stab. Killing focus- This skill will increase your total health by up to 400hp, very useful in situations where other unpains are unavailable, especially useful if your race cannot be unpained by biomancers. 20. Backstab- Similar to stab, backstab takes longer to use and deals more damage. Both have their useful situations, trying each out may help you determine which you like to use and when. Strong Poison- The most powerful poison you will be able to create. Again, poison is not useful in all situations but this skill is worth training just if such an event should occur. Assassination- Incredibly useful skill which improves the damage and effects of all of your aggressive skills, as well as improving the bonus to ranged and melee damage you gain from your assassin ranks. Opportunity- This skill allows you to make attacks of opportunity against an opponent when you successfully maneuver away from one of their attacks. Can in some cases greatly improve the damage you deal in a round from front row. Other Skills- 1. Diagnostics- This allows you to use the scan command, giving a more accurate view of an enemies health than can be seen through look(help damage descriptions). Consider humanoid- Allows you to get an estimate of an enemies strength and armor compared to you, not an overly accurate or useful skill. Not worth worrying about. First aid- This skill heals slight ammounts of damage, as well as being capable of reviving an unconcious individual and save them from dying. Useful skill, worth training yet not a top priority. 3. Critical aim- This skill, when used, gives a high chance of getting a critical hit on the target with your next assassin skill. Does not necessarily give a critical, and takes time and ep to use. You may find yourself not using this skill often Targetting- This skill allows you to select a target for ranged combat. As assassins are able to melee from middle row, and many of our skills require daggers or thin blades, I suggest skipping our ranged combat skills. However if you are interested in doing something different, our assassination skill and ranks do help with ranged combat making it potentially viable if you take pathing which gives a ranged weapon other than small throwing. 4. Small throwing- Determines your damage with small throwing weapons. These do little damage, and no real viable ones exist. Do not bother with this skill. Throwing- Determines your ability to hit with throwing weapons, as above do not bother. 5. Knee- Does some damage, will not be used later on. As you most likely are capable of reaching level 10 and getting infighting, do not bother with this skill. 6. Infamy-This skill lets you know if the target will give you a slayer if killed enough. See help slayer. Has its uses, not overly important Packing- Increases the amount you can carry. Nice skill, worth training. 7. Discerning eye-When using this skill you can detect objects in the room that are capable of being further inspected. Useful for exploring new areas, very helpful in some situations but not a necessary skill to have as most of what it will show you can be seen by reading a rooms description. Detect traps-Detecting traps, while seemingly useful, does not have an abundance of useful situations. Might be more worth training later on, but currently this skill should be viewe d as mostly flavor. Power leap-Short duration flight, has its uses early on but with the availability of flight gear it can be easily outgrown. 8. Nightvision- Allows you to see in dark conditions. As with power leap there are many pieces of gear that are easily obtained which outdo this skill, as well as many races which already see in the dark. 9. Weak poison- Creates a weak poison. Will be outdated by the later skill strong poison, and requires a material component(theriac) which will be used up by the skill. Can become expensive to try and use repeatedly, and again poison may not be the most useful thing for many situations. 10. Disarm trap- After detecting a trap this skill allows you to disarm it, making it worth having in all situations detect trap would be useful. But again situations in which this will be used are few and far between. 13. Deadeye-This improves your ability to gain critical hits with ranged combat. As with other skills we have the impact ranged combat, it is not particularly useful unless you intend to try something different and take pathing which gives something other than small throwing. 14. Enhhance targetting- Improves damage from critical hits in ranged combat. As with other ranged combat skills, only train if planning to take pathing which gives a ranged weapon other than small throwing and plan to use it. Disguise- Allows you to appear as a generic member of another race. Not particularly benificial, mostly used for entertainment. 16. Wariness- When reentering a room with a hostile enemy this will help you get the first hit. Not a particularly powerful skill, you may find it worthwhile to train. Train eventually. 19. Blindfighting- Helps you score hits and avoid them when you are unable to see. While these situations may not be common, it is worth training before leveling past 20. Notes- Many pieces of area information came from the hand starting out page from the retrowiki(retrowiki.wikidot.com), as well as from the eq db. Credit goes to the writers of that document as well as those who update and maintain the eq database at spheral.com/retromud. | |