Assassin

“

While most classes charge in bold and daring, the Assassin is a stealthy sort that prefers to take things at their own pace. They can control the battlefield like no other, luring enemies into deadly traps before they even know what hit them.

The Assassin whittles away at their enemy’s strength with rapid fire attacks that cause bleeding and poison damage, which drain the life from their foes over time. While their razor-sharp Dagger is vital, they also employ explosives, poisons, smoke, and other potent utilities to hobble their enemies. On top of their ingenuity, they can also use strange martial arts that allow them to turn nearly invisible, teleport around the field, and even swap places with enemies in an instant.

In comparison to others, Assassins work best alone. However, their status-altering abilities and damage-over-time effects make them an important addition to any large-scale battle.

„

~ Official Class Description

Assassin

Difficulty	4/5, Hard
Race(s)	Jin, Lyn
Weapon	Daggers
Abbreviation	SIN

The Assassin class is a mobile class with decent burst damage, but is fragile. Assassins excel by moving in stealth, becoming a nearly invisible target.

In the first release of Blade & Soul Assasin is available only to the Jin. However, NCSoft made the Assasin available to the Lyn in the Assasin 3rd specialization update. While the Assassins' weapon is a Dagger, their abilities also use a multitude of explosives, traps, and Shuriken. They are excellent at escapes and at surprise attacks, particularly in world PvP.

Stances[]

Assassins have two "Stances", called the Decoy Stance, and Stealth Stance. These "Stances" simply reflect whether the assassin is in stealth or not. Certain abilities can only be used in one stance or the other.

Stealth Stance

There are a number of ways to get into stealth stance, each of which is situational. For example, Shadow Dash lets the Assassin enter stealth stance only if they are facing the enemy's back. Any damage done to the assassin while in stealth will switch their stance back to Decoy. As such, while in stealth stance, the assassin's dodge chance (evasion) will be increased by 50% but will still be hit by area of effect and homing skills. (Example: pentaslash, lotus fury, etc.) In addition to the increased evasion, the assassin enjoys increased movement speed and can be surprisingly difficult to anticipate as a result.

Stealth stance can be exited by waiting for it to time-out (it lasts 6 seconds) or by using an ability that switches back to Decoy Stance. A frequently used option to exit stealth stance early is to use Shadow Kick since it doesn't require a target and doesn't move the assassin.

While in stealth, the assassin is not completely invisible and instead produces a slight shimmer which is especially visible in medium range (< 8 m). However, as previously mentioned, the increased evasion make it difficult to connect with most skills and could lead to being ambushed again if swinging blindly.

Resource Mechanic[]

Chi points are represented by blue orbs.

Assassin abilities use "Focus" much like every other class in Blade & Soul. Different abilities add or subtract different quantities of focus, for a maximum of 10. Assassin's focus is generally not an issue in PvE but must be carefully managed in PvP due to the normalization of equipment. Shadow Dash and Blink Step are the primary ways to regain focus, but are often followed up with high focus cost abilities. As such, most new assassin players find themselves having their combos cut short, or at the wrong time, and get punished severely as a result. Some talent tree options reduce focus costs and must be taken into consideration when choosing skills for PvP. While Moon Slash (3rd hit combo of Mist Slash) returns 2 focus, it's important to note that spamming LMB in PvP is a surefire way to minimize DPS and opens Assassin up for a counter attack. LMB (Mist Slash) is often exclusively used as part of the animation cancelling combo rather than being spammed.

Notable Focus Regain Skills[]

Skills that require positioning and/or have long cool-downs provide more focus, whereas those that have little to no cool-down, provide significantly less.

Shadow Dash
Blink Step
Decoy
Straw Doll
Shadow Dance/Sidestep Left - on resist only
Throwing Dagger
Smoke Screen (F2)
Lotus of Escape (F1)
Shadow Kick
Shadow Slip
Shadow Drain (Cyclone Sweep F3 T2) - Not recommended for most arena PvP match ups since better players are able to knock you out of stealth consistently.

Notable High Focus Cost Skills[]

These are generally the heavier damage skills or higher utility. It's important to mix focus gain abilities in between usage of the following abilities.

Choke Bomb and Plague Mist (Poison Breath F3 + F4 T3) - 3 Focus
Flash Kick (not an issue in PvP due to Web usage) - 3 Focus
Landmine - 3 Focus; Set Landmine F4 T3 - 4 Focus.
Lotus Fury - 3 Focus
Spinal Tap (untalented) - 3 Focus
Pull Highwire - 3 Focus
Lightning Rend (untalented) - 3 Focus
Thunderstruck - 3 focus

Poison[]

Assassins are masters of applying poison that has a few effects such as damage over time, snare, and most importantly, skill interaction. The Assassin's poison can stack up to five times and is shared as a de-buff between assassins in the party. It is important when there is more than one assassin in the party to observe carefully that the stacks are maintained or isn't being wasted by adding to the stack beyond the capacity.

Poison Inflicting Skills[]

While the most straightforward way to inflict poison is with 4 (Poison Breath and variants), it's important to be aware of all the skills that inflict poison

Poison Breath (and variants)
Venom Pierce (Heart Stab F1 T3+) - on decoy counter within 0.5 sec
Throwing Dagger
Acrid Star - triggers on resist; virtually safe to use whenever available
Spinal Tap - on stun only
Thunderstruck
Shadow Slash (F3 T5) - on knockdown
Venom Slash (Shadow Slash F4 T5)

Notable Poison Interactions[]

The poison debuff is especially important in PvP due to the interaction with several key skills. Listed are skills that change in function, rather than just increased damage ie: Lightning Rend (F3 T2)

Heart Stab (F1 T2+): Allows animation cancelling on targets with 5 stacks of poison
Landmine (F1 T2+): Dazes poisoned enemies for 3 seconds
Hook Kick: Switches the assassin to stealth stance upon hitting a poisoned target
Lotus Kick - Stuns poisoned target
Lotus of Poison (Lotus of Escape F3 T4) - Pulls and dazes poisoned enemies in an 8m radius towards the center, then disables Offense and Defense skills for 6 seconds.
Stomp - Spreads poison to nearby enemies (limited use in 1v1 arena PvP)
Shadow Drain (Cyclone Sweep F3 T2) - Extends stealth by 6 seconds on hitting poisoned enemies
Lightning Stride (Special Mention) - Devastating damage when used at 5 stacks. May be a useful finisher when an opponent is around 10 % (4.5k) HP and is often unexpected can take many opponents by surprise

Playstyle[]

PvP	PvE
Mobility: 5/5 As mentioned in the class summary, the Assassin excels at escapes and surprise attacks. The core strength; being hit, run tactics, and generally waiting stealth. In-depth knowledge of the game's mechanics, intimate knowledge of the Assassin's capabilities, as well as the other classes, are mandatory to do as well as an Assassin. Each attack must be anticipated since being caught without Stealth (Tab escape) can often mean death even from full health. The increased mobility while in stealth is not just limited to the movement speed. It also allows the assassin to teleport directly to their opponent in one of two ways: Shadowless Step which is more straightforward, and Throwing dagger, which then activates Sneak Attack.	Mobility: 5/5 Not much changes in PvE in terms of mobility, except perhaps the fact that assassins are able to be permanently in stealth through a combination of skills that refreshes cooldowns and takes advantage of npc AI. Assassins have very little trouble navigating dungeons safely with most mobs outright ignoring them for early-to-mid game content. Later on dungeons will have mobs that use true sight to see you through stealth.
Damage: 3/5 The damage output is around the middle tier, since Assassin's do not have an infinite stun combo such as Kung Fu Masters or Destroyers, nor huge burst damage like Blade Dancers and Blade Masters. A good Assassin has to string together many variations of skills to do consistent damage to their opponent, primarily making use of multiple stuns, dazes, knockdowns, knock-ups, webbing, and stealth. More about these specific variations can be found in the Combo Theory section.	Damage: 4.5/5 Due to the non-responsive nature of most enemy monsters, assassins are free to unleash their devastating permastealth combo which involves: Heartstab, Lightning Crash/Pierce, Lightning Rend, Shadowless Strike, and Shadow Drain. When forced out of stealth, the basic animation cancel can often draw aggro away from the tank, which assassins need to be aware of in the deadlier group dungeons. Note that while the single target damage can potentially be very high, this is not the case in practice. Bosses that are in motion or otherwise forcefully moved requires the assassin to constantly re-position. This is true in many MMOs where the ranged classes have an inherent advantage since they can focus on their rotations, whereas the melee classes have to maintain their positioning. There's the inherent danger of being in melee range as well. That being said, all things such as equipment being equal, assassins are near the top in terms of single target dps on a static non-reactive target, such as dummies.
Durability: 2/5 The assassin is very fragile and has less health pool than the other melee classes. This is especially an issue when facing against opponents that are able to stunlock the assassin or otherwise hit with impunity from a distance. However, the escape and counter-play abilities available should mitigate most, if not all of this weakness.	Durability: 3/5 As with the PvP, the assassins are very fragile. This is potentially moot since most mobs in the overworld will die before they can react. However, in deadlier dungeon encounters, the assassin can be killed within a few shots by the harder bosses ie: red aoe by Blackram supply chain bosses or later. The use of Health Soul Shields help mitigate this problem, so depending how much you invest in HP for shields will determine your durability in the long run.
Defense: 3/5 The defensive options available to the assassin require precise timing and are often easily punished when executed incorrectly. This is especially true against spinning aoe classes that can knock the assassin right out of stealth with a simple spin. The defensive options are also inferior in comparison to the kungfu masters and blademasters. Shadow Dance provides a short iframe, while Lotus Fury provides a longer invulnerability duration. The ultimate defense of an assassin however is being in stealth stance where they can pick and choose their engagements.	Defense: 3/5 Like in PvP, there's several options available for assassins and they function similarly the same. One thing to note is that the iFrames should be reserved for lethal boss attacks rather than the generic area of effect attacks. Most mobs are also unable to hit the assassin while its stealthed. This however gets remedied as later bosses come with true sight.
Escape: 4/5 The escape capabilities of an assassin is often the primary complaint of those who has to face such a shadowy opponent. While Lotus of Escape (V) and Stealth (Tab) are the default escape mechanics, the other skills can be used in ways to facilitate a retreat to the shadows. Landmine, Icemine, Lightning stride, Choke bomb, are some of the few offensive skills that can be used defensively to buy the assassin time and a chance to turn the tides.	Escape: 5/5 Functions more or less like the PvP variant except it's easier to pull off. Most experienced assassins can get out of harms way with little to no problem. Special care must be taken however in confined spaces in regards to escape mechanics that displaces the assassin backwards. A lack of situational awareness can quickly lead to a wipe or at least the assassin dying outright to the boss lockout fire.
Stunlock: 3/5 While crowd control options are many, improper usage can lead to a quick counter and ultimately quite sudden death. Web allows the assassin to have ample time to set up additional ambushes but must be executed properly for optimal effect. Other classes can stunlock with less effort and often less cooldown issues. It's very important for an assassin to keep track of their cc cooldowns due to the lengthy nature of some of them (ideally by instinct alone rather than indicators).	Stunlock: 3/5 Assassins have mulitple crowd control abilities that can be triggered one after the other to penetrate the CC shield of bosses. However, care must be taken to ensure that cc abilities aren't wasted and used on something that's already under control. The best usage of an assassin's CC cooldowns is to open up the boss to a destroyer grab or blade dancer phantom grip which opens up the boss to animation cancelling for the duration.

Overall, the assassin can't stunlock as well as a kungfu master or a blade dancer; aren't as durable as a destroyer, kungfu master, and blade master; nor does it have devastating damage like the blade dancer or summoner. However, what it lacks is compensated for by the mobility and freedom to engage when the advantage is at its peak, especially through proper use of the stealth mechanic. Playing overly aggressive can be easily punished by more savvy players, especially if the assassin is prone to panicking and hitting tab at the first sign of trouble. Careful observation with knowledge of the opponent's available skills are key to victory. Versatility and fluid combat style is also a very strong suite of the assassins.

Addendum

While other classes can have an easier time executing certain objectives and play styles, an adept assassin can perform a flawless stunlock, avoid being hit altogether, and can arguably dish out the most damage when played properly. This is however contingent on the assassin's hongmoon levels as well as unlocked hongmoon skills.

Combo Theory[]

There are a handful of combos that every assassin must know before they can move on to more advanced techniques. Note that the game itself has some tutorials and the official webpages has quite a few listed as well.

The following are some basic combos to give you an idea of the structure of what's available since you would rarely be able to execute one flawlessly because otherwise, it'll be a 100-0 combo. It'll be a basic sequence and then an explanation of the situation will follow. Most combos require that the opponent's tab escape is down. It's imperative that you learn each classes' tab escape animation because you can get counter played very easily otherwise.

Common Aerial (PvP) (Requires Web)

Turning Leaf (Tab) -> Shadow Dash (1) -> Spinal Tap (1) -> Animation Cancel (RMB+LMB) x 3 - > Sweeping Gale (Tab) -> Volley (1) -or- Venom Swarm (4) -> Webbing (Tab)* -> Set up mine, lotus of escape, and possibly smoke - walk behind the opponent -> Shadow Dash (1) -> Different stun/CC
1. This is the most basic opener that has to be iFramed to be avoided which is quite difficult for many players. It's fairly reliable unless used when the opponent is immune to status effects ie: Detroyer's Typhoon AKA Red Spin
2. Basic Shadow dash to get into stealth, with mobs, you can do a quick RMB+F combo before using Spinal Tap but it's not recommended against players unless you have very low latency. You will want a real stun on them immediately because while Turning Leaf has a minor CC effect, it's not a real stun and can be SS out of in a few moments.
3. Animation cancelling - While you can potentially pull off three animation cancels in one Spinal Tap stun, it requires very low latency and cycling the anicancel twice is a safer option. Unless you know for a fact that you have low latency, settle for the safe option.
4. Sweeping Gale knocks them up where they can't react with a Volley follow up for damage. You can use Venom Swarm before or after the volley. You can end the combo here afterwards with Thunderstruck but if you have the Focus and cooldowns, why not do more?
5. Instead of ending an aerial status with Thunderstruck, you want to hit them with Webbing. It has to be timed so that it's before they hit the ground so that the game thinks they're in the air yet are on the ground. Confusing? Essentially, you're denying your opponent the ability to Retreat (F) when they hit the ground while at the same time, allowing yourself to use your ground based combos. Out of all the skills that the assassin has, there are two that can hit in the air at this range and you just used them. Webbing someone in the air limits your options.
6. Once the opponent is webbed, you have a brief moment (4 seconds to be exact), to position yourself behind them, which is the number one priority, drop a lotus of escape if you didn't do so before, drop a smoke screen to replenish Focus, drop a mine under them so you can continue your combo.
7. Shadow Dash
8. ???
9. Profit For a detailed breakdown of what's possible, refer to Supa Hot Vile's Infinite combo loop in his Vile's Assassin PvP Guide for Beginners also linked below. Memorized combos aren't as mandatory in PvE due to the enemy AI being quite static and non-reactionary which generally allows for a more free-form combat style. However, they're useful for practising PvP combos on as far as mechanics go but should not be trusted as a good representation of a human's reaction to a combo attack.

Common Stunlock (PvP)[]

Start in stealth -> Spinal Tap -> Animation Cancel x2 -> Choke Bomb -> Close Shave -> Throw Dagger -> Lightning Rend (Stun) -> Animation Cancel x3 -> Close Shave -> Hook Kick -> Time Bomb -> Cyclone Sweep -> Backstep -> Turning Leaf -> Shadow Dash -> repeat
1. This is just an example of a stun string, that then changes to a knockdown setup to allow you to re-position for a stealth re-entry, letting you start the cycle over again.
2. There is a chance that people will be able to escape with Tab or some other escape move, which you can then follow with a "tech chase", where you follow their escape and cc them again.
3. There are multiple different stuns that you can use to replace any of the stuns in the list or to extend the combo further. (Lotus Fury, Sidewinder, Bolt Strike) Manage your cooldowns accordingly.

PvP Foundation Skills[]

Opening

There are various ways to open as an assassin and each one depends on the opponent's class. Using Blink Step (Dash/glide+RMB) towards a spinning class will often end in tears. Plan accordingly and it's best to watch other class guides on how to open versus assassins since it allows you to predict your opponent's actions.

Animation Cancelling

This is possible with Heart Stab (F1 T2+). Try hitting a mob with Mist Slash only and notice how long it takes in between attacks. Try hitting it with Heart Stab and Mist Slash without the 5 poison stacks or the stun and notice how long each attack takes. When the opponent has 5 stacks of poison or is stunned, dazed, or phantom gripped, Heart Stab will cast instantly. When a skill is cast instantly, it cancels the animation of the skill that was used before hand. In the right conditions, your animation cancel cycle should always start with a Mist Slash then Heart Stab (LMB+RMB) so that you gain some Focus back at the start of the cycle. As mentioned before, the most you can hope for with average latency is two cycles before they can potentially counter.

Note that Swiftstep dazes for 3 seconds and may allow you more cycles.

Lotus of Escape (F1 T3)

This is a very important skill that allows you to have an escape option but only when you're standing. You can't use this ability while in the air, phantom gripped, grabbed, or knocked down (can be used for the last 3 if you have F1 T5, which isn't in the current patch). ALWAYS HAVE THIS SKILL PRIMED AND READY.

Webbing (copied and pasted from the combo section)

Instead of ending an aerial status with Thunderstruck, you want to hit them with Webbing. It has to be timed so that it's before they hit the ground so that the game thinks they're in the air yet are on the ground. Confusing? Essentially, you're denying your opponent the ability to Retreat (F) when they hit the ground while at the same time, allowing yourself to use your ground based combos. Out of all the skills that the assassin has, there are two (unspecced) that can hit in the air at this range and you just used one of them. Webbing someone in the air limits your options.

Why bother with webbing? It's a useful tool that allows you to maintain control of the fight as well as buys you some time for your cooldowns to recover. Done properly and under the right conditions, any combo can turn into a kill combo because of proper web usage. In fact, it's so useful (except vs summoners) that virtually all assassins use it in pvp.

Important Note: Web can be escaped out of with the Tab Escape. This is something to be aware of, and possibly take advantage of. Not many players will tab escape simple stuns but quite a few are willing to blow one while webbed, provided they're on the ground.

Escape

It's important to use your Stealth (Tab) escape at the optimal times. Tab escaping when all your skills are on cooldown is generally wasteful and tab escaping a relatively harmless CC is doubly so. A destroyer grabbing you isn't as dangerous as their stun that leads to an animation cancel (which is arguably the most damaging out of all the classes). Here's some dangerous attacks that must be tab escaped immediately:

Blade Dancer's Soul Stab - While phantom gripped, a blade will fly out from the BD and heads towards the back of your head. You can counter this with Slipping Lotus but it may be safer to tab escape because as soon as you're tagged with Soul Stab, they'll activate this skill called Blade Storm which would have a dozen or so blades fly around you and deal heavy damage over time (10k+), which coincidentally will also knock you out of stealth.
Summoner's Cat's Power Pounce - While the cat is relatively harmless, you must watch out when you're knocked down because they can spec so that you're locked out from your Defense skills, including tab escape. This may or may not be a bug, but the result is an eternity of the cat clawing your face while the summoner unleashes their high damage projectiles.

For other classes, it varies with their talent trees and need to be observed accordingly. Avoid blowing your tab escape at the first thing that hits you unless you're sure it's something dangerous.

Stealth in Arena

As previously mentioned in the Stealth Section, the assassin is not completely invisible and produces a shimmer. It's important to learn in arena pvp to take advantage of enemy blind spots. While at a distance greater than 8 m, it becomes difficult, though not impossible, to accurately observe the assassin's location. However, when the stealthed assassin is behind the victim, the shimmer becomes irrelevant and you will not be noticed unless you attack in melee range. The ideal positioning while in stealth is behind a target, and slightly at a diagonal angle (about 30° - 60°) to their left or right, whichever you prefer or better yet, the opposite of what the opponent prefers if they get wise to you and have a tendency to swing one side. Most players, when they're attacked from behind will do a 180° and fire off a non-targetted attack which generally knocks you out of stealth. Being at an angle prevents this with most classes with the exception of the spinner classes since they don't need to aim to knock you out of stealth. Nonetheless, it's a good habit to be at this blind spot even when staying outside of melee range. Note that despite this being the ideal positioning in stealth, it's not priority one and should not supersede other actions such as attacking since it can fall under the "easier said than done" category.

Class/Game Knowledge

While important for all classes, it's mandatory for an assassin to do well in arena pvp. Being able to identify the subtleties between animations of each skill is essential to avoid using skills against an opponent that's immune. Some assassins complain that their tab escape gets resisted by a force master all the time or a summoner knocks them out of stealth very easily but fail to observe the sometimes subtle aoe buff spells they just used (Divine Veil and Petal Storm respectively). Here's a short list of things to watch out for:

Blade Dancer - A sword spinning around them means they're immune to CC and damage for 5 seconds
Destroyer - Blue glow means they're immune to CC and damage for 5 seconds
Force Master & Kung Fu Master - Blue circle/snowball above their head means they'll trigger a self freeze that makes them immune
Assassins - Smoke around their feet means they're immune to all projectiles
Summoners - Very subtle petals falling in an area means you have 0% evade in stealth or decoy stance (the former being more important).
- Cat Bonus! - The cat glowing green and curled up in a ball will either have 90% reduced damage or heal while being hit.

Notable Builds[]

Permanent Stealth (PvE Build)[]

This is a simple build that allows the assassin to essentially safely traverse a dungeon without having to engage every enemy mob. This is mandatory when it comes to soloing dungeon content. While it's very effective for taking out bosses, note that later bosses start getting true sight. It's not a permanent effect but whenever it's on, they can and will attack you while you're in stealth. Remember that there's a flat 50% bonus to evasion which, if your evasion attribute is high enough, can translate to virtually 100% evasion rate while in stealth. For best results, you need high evasion and crit rate attributes.

Key Ability Talents:

Shadow Drain (Cyclone Sweep F3 T2) - Allows the assassin to reset their stealth to six seconds when hitting a poisoned enemy. This means you need to use this ability at the last possible moment to maximize its effect. Hitting earlier wastes a lot of seconds that could have been used to remain in stealth but you need to be wary of the latency since you could possibly hit it too late and get unstealthed.
Shadow Dash (F1 T3+) - Need the shorter cooldown (down to 6 from 9 seconds). Take T4 if you find yourself running low on focus frequently or have nowhere else to put a skill point in.
Smoke Screen (F3 T3) - Restealth without any fuss. Not mandatory in of itself but is useful as an emergency escape if you can't use the other methods for getting back into stealth. Care should be taken since an assassin is unable to enter stealth using Smoke Screen if the Conspicuous debuff is active. You can receive this debuff from party members in the form of Enhanced Seed Shroud (Summoner party saver), Decoy (F2 T3+, Assassin party saver), and if you are within 3 meters of another assassin using Smoke Screen (F2 T2+, F3 T3).
Shadowless Step (F1 T2) - Another skill that allows you to prolong your stealth duration. Investing 3 points isn't as important in PvE since blinding/deafening the target makes very little difference.
Lightning Rend (F3 T3) - Lowers cooldown to 6 seconds and generates 3 focus. Mandatory because you'll run out of focus otherwise.
Lightning Pierce (Dark Strike F3 T2) - Activates on critical hits with Heart Stab while in stealth. Decent damage and lowers cooldown of Lightning Rend by 3 seconds, 5 seconds vs targets with 5 stacks of poison.

The basic premise is to get into stealth, however you can Blink Step, Shadow Dash, etc; then Heartstab (RMB) + Lightning Pierce/Crash (F) mash and adding lightning rend after a cycle and then whenever the cooldown is up to maintain focus. Use Throwing Dagger (X) and then Shadow Drain (1) when the stealth duration is getting low (around 1 second, depending on your latency). RMB+F mash again, with the usual Lightning Rend addition, then use Shadowless Step (3) as the stealth duration is getting low, as before. Repeat the mash and towards the end, (around 2 seconds) jump away from the enemy (most likely a boss), turn around mid-air, and use Shadow Dash (1) as you get out of stealth. Mashing 1 is not recommended because Shadow Drain will usually end cooldown around this time but not before your stealth ends.

Rinse and Repeat.

When things go wrong, there are a variety of ways to restealth so don't panic.

Make sure to poison the enemy, then use Hook Kick.
Shadow Dance an attack
Decoy an attack
Shadow Dash another mob that's facing away from you, or one that can be hit with the regular Turning Leaf (Tab) and then Shadow Dash
When all else fails, there's the trusty Smoke Screen (F3 T3) that requires only that you don't use it inside an aoe attack or unavoidable attack.

This build is viable in most situations, even in group play. For soloing dungeons, you need up to date and upgraded equipment or run the risk of getting knocked out of stealth by projectile attacks. The end-game dungeons, especially the four blue dungeons, are soloable with this build provided that you have the patience and equipment. The sole exception are bosses with enrage timers.

Skills[]

Assassins hold a numerous amount of skills at their disposal to dictate the flow of any battle. Primary skills include ones to alter the location of both the assassin and their opponent, inflict various types of crowd control (CC) or area of effect (AoE) skills, and highly damaging single-target skills.

Skill Tree[]

Button	Icon	Skill Name	Skill Description	Stance
LMB		Mist Slash	The standard attack skill for assassins. Clicking the LMB up to 3 times to inflict damage while recovering focus, this attack helps string combos while maintaining focus and dealing damage in the process. Depending on which branch you take in the tree, added effects include additional damage to stunned and dazed or poisoned enemies, additional focus recovery, and changing how the RMB Heart Stab works. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level.	Normal
LMB		Spinal Tap	This replaces the standard attack while in stealth, and changes from a standard attack to a crowd control attack, stunning the enemy on hit for 2 seconds and exiting stealth. Depending on which branch you take in the tree, added effects include removing the stun effect for additional damage and generating focus, or being able to stay in stealth while stunning the opponent.	Stealth
LMB		Highwire	This replaces the standard attack while a set distance away from the opponent while they are stunned or dazed. This binds them in place, and unlocks alternate skills for X, C, and V keys. Useful for manipulating your opponents position and stalling for time to let other skills come off cooldowns.	Stealth
X		Highwire Act	This replaces the standard X skill while holding onto your opponent with the Highwire. Activating this will cause your opponent to be swept off their feet and knocked down for 3 seconds while inflicting damage.	Normal
C		High Voltage	This replaces the standard C skill while holding onto your opponent with the Highwire. Activating this will send a surge of electricity down the wire to your victim, causing them to suffer significant damage.	Normal
V		Pull Highwire Cord	This replaces the standard v skill while holding onto your opponent with the Highwire. Activating this will pull the enemy to your location and leaving them dazed for 2 seconds, allowing you to manipulate positioning to your advantage and giving an opening to start a combo sequence. Especially useful if your opponent is playing the game of "Hug the wall".	Normal
LMB		Volley	This replaces the standard attack while the opponent is in the air. Clicking the LMB will cause your character to give chase into the air and deal damage while prolonging their landing. Chains into Thunderstruck after use, or after another character has used an aerial attack, which slams the opponent down to the ground, inflicting knockdown for 2 seconds.	Normal
RMB		Heart Stab	The secondary attack skill for assassins. Clicking the RMB will cost focus, but deal significantly more damage to the opponent. This skill can be used in both normal and stealth stances, while adding points allows the user to maintain in stealth mode after casting. Going down the left branch of the skill tree includes unlocking Venom Pierce which inflicts poison on hit, removing animations for casting the skill on stunned, dazed, or targets with 5 stacks of poison on them, and dealing additional damage while increasing attack speed. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level.	Both
RMB		Bombard	The other version of the secondary attack skill for assassins. Going down the right branch of the skill tree changes the skill to this one. This one rarely sees action from any assassin player, due to many believing it lacks any real use or purpose for existence. This changes your stab attack to a point blank range attack, dealing fire element damage and stacking poison per hit while bypassing defense and deflect skills. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level.	Normal
RMB		Guard Break	This replaces your secondary attack while close to your opponent during their guard stance. As the skill name suggests, you will break their guard stance and stun them for 2 seconds, allowing you an opening to attack them or start a combo.	Normal
RMB		Blink Step	This skill replaces your secondary attack while sprinting and locked onto a target. Activating this will teleport you behind your opponent, go into stealth, and recover significant amounts of focus.	Normal
RMB		Lightning Stride	This will replace your secondary attack while using decoy or after performing a backstep. Alternatively, this skill can also become available if Q has enough points applied. You dash forward several meters while generating electricity, damaging opponents in front of and around you. This skill can be altered to include a knockdown effect with a soul badge.	Normal
Tab		Flash Kick	This replaces your standard tab when the opponent is knocked down. This will launch yourself into the air and land down on them with a painful kick, dealing electric damage and bypassing guard stance while being resistant to damage and statuses during the attack. This is the left branch of the skill tree, and additional points include more damage dealt to poisoned enemies and recovered focus.	Normal
Tab		Shadow Web	This replaces your standard tab when the opponent is knocked down or airborn, and you put points into the right branches of the skill tree. You ensnare your opponent in a web of shadow silk that leaves them in place for 4 seconds while you set up your next move. Useful for "stringing" combos more efficiently.	Normal
Tab		Sweeping Gale	This replaces your standard tab when the opponent is stunned or dazed, knocking them up into the air and dealing damage. Used to set up aerial combos and stalling for time by prolonging their ability to use skills.	Normal
Tab		Hook Kick	This is your standard tab skill when close to your opponent and out of stealth. Using this will deal damage to your opponent and if they have poison stacks on them or are grabbed by someone else, you'll enter stealth.	Normal
Tab		Shadow Kick	This is your standard tab skill when in stealth. Using this will make you come out of stealth, and can be used even if no one is directly in front of you. If you hit an enemy, it'll deal electric damage and recover focus.	Stealth
Tab		Turning Leaf	This is your standard tab skill when there is distance between you and your target. Using this skill will swap your positions with each other, having their back facing towards you, and leaving them stuck for 1.5 seconds, giving you enough time to close the gap in behind them for attacking, or time to stall for focus recovery or cooldowns.	Normal
Tab		Stealth	This replaces your standard tab skill when rendered unconscious or knocked down. You will jump back a few meters and be put into stealth stance while leaving a flash bang that blinds and deafens the enemy, allowing you to back off from your opponent and attempt to regain an advantageous position. Points put into this skill allow you to escape more types of crowd control and regenerating 5% health back. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level once the patch implements it.	Normal
F		Shadow Slip	This pop up action allows you to re-position yourself behind your opponent. Can become available after using Stealth or Backstep, or alternatively after resisting damage by using Sidestep Left or Right.	Normal
F		Sidestep	This pop up action will cause you to jump your opponent and do an aerial cyclone kick, dazing them in place for 3 seconds. Alternatively, putting a point into this skill will change it to a knockdown.	Normal
F		Retreat	This pop up action will let you roll back a small distance while ignoring damage for a short time during the animation. Useful for timing if Straw Doll is on cooldown and the opponent is about to deal significant damage or setup a combo to ignore it. Pair this up with Backstep to ensure you create distance from your opponent and allow you to reset the positional advantage.	Normal
F		Dark Strike	This pop up action comes from landing a critical hit with Heart Stab, allowing you to deal extra damage during combos and healing yourself for 5% of the damage dealt. Additional points will allow you to recover focus on critical hit and inflict bleed along with additional damage to enemies with full stacks of poison on them.	Normal
F		Close Shave	This pop up action comes from being near an opponent that is stunned if you take the middle branch on the skill Dark Strike. You preform an acrobatic style attack, slicing into your opponents neck while spinning around in the air, leaving them unable to move for 1.5 seconds after to recover. This is used to chain together multiple combinations of attacks in sequence while also healing you for 10% of the damage done.	Both
F		Lightning Pierce	This pop up action comes from landing a critical hit with Heart Stab while in stealth, allowing you to deal extra damage during combos if you take the right branch of Dark Strike. This replaces Lightning Crash, and heals you for 5% of the damage dealt and applies a stack of bleed, while also reducing the cooldown of Lightning Rend.	Stealth
1		Shadow Dash	This is the standard skill for 1, only usable while there's distance between you and your opponent. This closes the gap between the two, allowing you to be in range for attacks or, if used when behind the opponent, going into stealth. You recover focus from this, and later stages allow you to charge in faster, generate more focus, increase your evade significantly, and lower cooldown time. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level once the patch implements it.	Normal
1		Sidewinder	This is the alternate skill for 1, if you go down the right branch. Using this skill will stun your opponent for 2 seconds while closing the distance between the two and dealing damage. If used behind an enemy, or on an enemy that you swapped places with using Turning Leaf, you go into stealth after stunning them. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level once the patch implements it.	Normal
1		Cyclone Sweep	This is the standard skill for 1 while in stealth. You preform a sweeping kick to the opponents ankles, knocking them unconscious for some time to allow you to re-position yourself or stall for cooldowns. Putting points into the left or middle branch will change the skill to inflict knockdown or daze instead, while also decreasing the cooldown time significantly.	Stealth
1		Shadow Drain	This is the alternate skill for 1 if you take the right branch in Cyclone Sweep. This is used to refresh your stealth timer back to 6 seconds when used on a poisoned enemy, as well as recovering 15 focus over the period of 5 seconds. Used in PermaStealth builds to maximize stealth time, and thus maximizing potential DPS.	Stealth
1		Shuriken Flurry	This is the standard skill for 1 while knocked down. Using this makes you get up while spinning around, throwing shuriken in all directions. Enemies hit with it will be slowed down for 8 seconds. If the get-up attack is interrupted, the user falls back down on the ground for 1 second before getting up. On successful get-up, the user becomes immune to crowd control for 1 second.	Normal
2		Decoy	This is the standard skill for 2, which channels for 1.5 seconds while letting you move around. If attacked during the channel, you'll enter stealth right behind your opponent and take no damage from the attack while recovering focus. Putting points into this skill will recover more focus. The left branch creates a shield on uninterrupted channel, or heals and resists damage for 2 seconds on successful counter. The middle branch give party protection, allowing them to resist damage and crowd control for 1 second on successful counter. The right branch deals focus damage to the opponent on successful counter, as well as dazing and blinding them for 2 seconds on quick counters. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level.	Normal
2		Straw Doll	This is the standard skill for 2 while knocked down. Using this will act the same as decoy, while also stunning the attacker for 2 seconds on successful counter.	Normal
2		Time Bomb	This is the standard skill for 2 during stealth. This plants a bomb on the back of the opponent that will go off after 7 seconds, dealing damage and causing any poison stacks active during detonation to have their timer refreshed. The detonation can be activated manually by using Landmine. Later stages of the skill remove the poison refresh and instead daze or knockdown the opponent instead.	Stealth
3		Shadow Slash	This is the standard skill for 3, which deals shadow damage. This skill has multiple branches with all varying effects. Branch 1 inflicts additional damage, a guaranteed critical hit, and a stack of poison, all on stunned, dazed, or grabbed enemies. Can be cast a second time on hitting the first cast. Branch 2 inflicts additional damage on knocked down enemies, and can cast once more on critical hit. If it lands the killing blow on an enemy, the cooldown is reset and you recover all your focus. Branch 3 inflicts knockdown for 3 seconds and disables the opponents charge skills for 6 seconds. The opponent becomes slow for 6 seconds as well, and generates a stack of poison on knockdown. Branch 4 deals damage with a 3 second cooldown, allowing it to be implemented into a combo rotation for increased DPS. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level.	Normal
3		Venom Slash	This is branch 4 of Shadow Slash at the Hongmoon level. This inflicts one stack of poison on hit, and can be cast a second time on critical hit. This skill become available when hitting a critical strike with Heart Stab or resisting damage with one of your skills such as Shunpo or Sidestep Right.	Normal
3		Bolt Strike	This is the standard skill for 3 during stealth. You close the gap between you and your opponent by appearing in the air above and slightly behind them, striking down with an electric charged blade before vaulting backwards, stunning them for 2 seconds and disabling their charge skills and slowing them for 9 seconds. Later levels of this skill allow you to re-enter stealth right after vaulting and blinding your opponent for 5 seconds.	Stealth
4		Poison Breath	This is the standard skill for 4, emitting a cloud of poison in front of you in a cone shape, hitting the opponent up to two times and stacking a poison every hit. Later stages increase the hits from 2 to 5, healing the user for half the damage dealt, as well as opening other branches. Branch 2 is Venom Swarm, causing a swarm of poison carrying locust to spread poison among multiple enemies, disabling their defensive skills for 8 seconds with a short cooldown. Branch 3 is Choke Bomb, applying full stacks of poison on any enemy in range once the bomb goes off, slowing them down for 8 seconds and healing you for half the total damage dealt and a long cooldown. Branch 4 is Plaguemist, which works similar to Choke Bomb, except the cloud lingers longer, poisoning new enemies that walk into the cloud.	Normal
4		Lightning Rend	This is the standard skill for 4 during stealth, dealing electric damage and stunning the opponent for 2 seconds on hit in a sweeping motion in front of you. The left branch lowers the cooldown and generates one extra focus per enemy hit. The middle branch removes the stun, but significantly increases damage dealt. The right branch removes the stun and leaves you in stealth while dealing damage, used for the PermaStealth build.	Stealth
Q		Shadow Dance	This is your only skill for this button, which moves you behind your opponent. If you successfully resist an attack during the skill cast, you'll be put into stealth while recovering focus. The left branch increased focus recovered and guarantees the next Heart Stab to be critical. The left branch changes the skill to Sidestep Left, letting you use it a bit further away and closing in on the opponent directly while stepping to the left, recovering focus and letting you use Shadow Slip if it's off cooldown on successful resist. Sets up for throwing your opponent off guard if they can't keep up with all the different places you're moving around to.	Normal
E		Shunpo	This is your only skill for this button, which teleports you a short distance forward. Adding points down the left branch lets you get a movement speed buff, as well as resisting damage and statuses, removing any charge debuffs you might have suffered before, and allowing Lightning Stride to be cast if it's off cooldown. The middle and right branch unlock Sidestep Right, which needs a target to allow you to use and works similar to Sidestep Left.	Normal
S		Backstep	This is the only skill for this button, tapping it twice will activate the skill. You jump back a small distance and resist damage and status effects during the animation.	Normal
Z		Landmine	This is the standard skill for Z, setting a landmine down on the ground that can be detonated by pressing the key again, knocking the opponent down if they're in the blast radius. Later stages cause the opponent to become slow for 8 seconds, dazes poisoned enemies, or makes enemies airborn if they are stunned or dazed.	Normal
Z		Ice Bomb	This replaces Landmine if you take the middle branch. You plant the landmine on the ground and detonate it with the Z key to entrap anyone in the blast radius in a prison of ice for 8 seconds.	Normal
Z		Set Landmine	This replaces Landmine if you take the right branch. You toss a landmine at your opponent, exploding on impact and stacking poison or dealing additional fire damage.	Normal
X		Shuriken	This is the standard skill for X, tossing a shuriken at the opponent from a distance to deal small damage while recovering focus. Later stages increase damage and ready Shadow Slip on critical hit.	Normal
X		Smoke Screen	This replaces Shuriken if you take the middle or right branches. The middle branch recovers focus while resisting ranged attacks, while the right side puts you and your party in stealth for 10 seconds.	Normal
X		Throwing Dagger	This is the standard skill for X during stealth, you throw a dagger at the opponent with a charm on it, dealing damage and a stack of poison. Stays attached for 15 seconds, and changes your X key to Sneak Attack.	Stealth
X		Sneak Attack	This replaces any skill set to X while the opponent is marked with Throwing Dagger. Teleports you behind the opponent and renders them unable to move for a moment, allowing you to setup combos.	Normal
X		Acrid Star	This replaces any skill set to X when successfully resisting damage. Stacks poison and deals damage to the opponent.	Normal
C		Lotus Fury	This skill is the only one for this button, aside from the High Voltage skill. Charges into the enemy, dealing a flurry of 5 electrical hits. The left branch makes the user resistant to damage and status effects during the attack, heals the used for a portion of the damage dealt as well as a small portion of damage resisted. The right branch changes the skill from a charge skill to a close range stun, either on the opponents back or if they're poisoned. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level once the patch implements it.	Normal
V		Lotus of Escape	This is the standard skill for V, planting a black rose into the ground that can be used later to teleport to. During use, you recover a tiny portion of health while resisting damage and status effects on the way there. Putting one point into this skill will let you use it during dazed, stunned, or grabbed. Putting two or more points will change the skill to a party skill, used to pull near death, dead, or recovering party members to the lotus circle. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level.	Normal
V		Lotus of Poison	This is the standard skill if you go down the 2nd branch, changing the lotus to pull poisoned enemies to the flower location, dazing them for 3 seconds and disabling their defensive skills, as well as inflicting max poison stacks on transported enemies. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level.	Normal
V		Lotus of Rescue	This is the standard skill if you go down the 3rd branch, putting you into stealth for 15 seconds after planting the lotus circle. Upon recasting the skill, pulls all party members within the circle to you, in stealth for 3 seconds, and doubles everyone's movement speed for 6 seconds. Cannot be transported again for 3 minutes after successful transport. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level.	Normal
V		Fighting Spirit	This is the standard skill if you go down the 4th branch, putting you into stealth for 15 seconds and buffing you and your party members for 10 seconds while recovering focus for everyone to 100%. Increases your critical hit chance by 40% and critical damage by 50%, recovers health equal to 70% of attack power, your F skills Dark Strike and Lightning Pierce, and Lightning Rend all deal 100% of AP as additional damage, and refresh cooldown for your 4 skill Poison Breath. This skill can be further advanced to Hongmoon level.	Normal

Hongmoon Level Skills[]

Various skills require "Hongmoon training" to unlock the final stage of a skill. These range from completing a quest from a skill book, to earning it from unlocking a specific achievement.

Mist Slash - Both branches are unlocked upon consuming the following items; Ocean Life Force, Deep Sea Kelp, Golden Honey, Fog Mushroom, Evil Spirit Root, and Hongmoon Pellet. They can be found off of several mobs just outside of Grand Harvest Square or around Soulstone plains. They can also be bought off the daily challenge store, achievement vendor as well as the PvP vendor. The Hongmoon Pellet can also be crafted through your Clan Workshop.
Shadowslash - (3) T5 F2 is unlocked via PvP by buying the Royal Zen Bean. Branches 1, 3, and 4 are unlocked via a quest started from the Skill book: Shadow Slash which can be aqcuired from the Achievement Merchant or from a lucky drop at Bloodshade Harbor. The book required at the end of the quest line to finish the skill quest is unlocked by hitting 3 different bosses with the Shadow Slash skill 10 times; Steel Giant at Talus Dungeon, Angler Yeti at Avalanche Den, and Heavenpiercer at Sundered Nexus.
Decoy - T5 F1 and T5 F2 can be learned by using the book Reclaimed HongMoon Skill Book 2 which is combined from Lost HongMoon Book Part 1, a rare drop from 4-man Avalanche Den final boss, and Lost HongMoon Book Part 2, which is a rare drop from 4-man Awakened Necropolis. T5 F3 is much harder to acquire and must be bought off the Achievement Merchant for 300 Reclaimed Pages.
Heart Stab (RB) T5 F1 is acquired from consuming a Chilling Flame Elixir which is combined from an Asura Ember, a rare drop from 4-man Sogun's Lament Final boss, and Frozen Snow Jade which can be acquired from the Achievement Merchant and from the Cold Storage vendor for 120 Frozen Orb.
Bombard (RB) T5 F2 is acquired from using the skill book Reclaimed Hongmoon Skill Book 3.

Soul Badges[]

There are currently two skills that can be further enhanced by the use of soul badges, gained from trading in tokens earned through the Tower of Infinity. It costs 90 for normal players through the NPC in Mushin's Tower, or 70 for premium members through the dragon express shop.

Lightning Stride - RMB will add the knockdown status for 3 seconds on hit.
Shadow Dance - Q will add 5% health regeneration and 1 second of damage immunity on resist.

Known Bugs/Issues[]

Like every game, there's a possibility of bugs and other issues. Here's a list of known bugs that affect the assassin class:

Turning Leaf (Tab) + Shadow Dash (1) Bugs
- Perhaps the most well-known bug which is somewhat related to latency and positioning. It's commonly encountered when you tab switch an opponent in the arenas while they're still in the air. The game would then think they're still in mid air, which means they're not targettable by shadow dash which would then be the only skill that's unavailable. In fact, any lock-on skill that requires a target lock is disabled during this moment. This also happens occasionally while both characters are on the ground and the assassin would inexplicably be unable to use Shadow Dash. Note that while many classes, including the assassin, has charge skill seal, it's different from the bug itself.
- The other bug is likely more of a latency issue. If the assassin uses Turning Leaf and Shadow Dash in a rapid sequence, the assassin will dash towards the target but will fail to stealth. The game essentially thinks that the victim is still facing the other direction and will not activate stealth. As such, it's a good habit to wait brief moment before shadow dashing towards the target. This affects both players and mobs alike.

Media[]

Screenshots[]

The following screenshots were taken from the character creation screen at NA launch in 2016.

Jin Assassin Female
Jin Assassin Male

The following screenshots were taken from Blade & Soul's G-Star 2010 trailer.

Female Jin Assassin
Male Jin Assassin fighting an unknown creature
Male Jin Assassin fighting a Gon Male Destroyer
An Assassin raining down shurikens on his enemy.

Videos[]

The Assassin class is shown at approximately 1 minute and 57 seconds into the following video.

The Blast skill is shown being cast at approximately 2 minutes 18 seconds into the following video (the explosion, not the invisible affect).

G-Star 2010 Trailer	Assassin Gameplay and Piledriving

Trivia[]

The Dodge skill shares similar qualities (both visually and in use) as a Displacement use moved in the Japanese Manga/Anime, Naruto (They get away with it because this ability is commonly associated with ninjas, but the animation is too similar to ignore).
Assassin and Blade Master share a few skills that are similar.
The word assassin comes from hashishin which was originally used to refer to a secret order who conducted politically motivated murder.

Guides and Resources[]

Supa Hot Vile's Assassin PvP Guide for beginners - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meoZasc84O8 - In-depth video guide with explanation on what works and what doesn't as well as video examples
Yuketsu's PvP Guide - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FQPf1drgC-aacGBitT6QAFqAQpPZo_b6sQQEd1iugj0/ - In-depth google doc guide that has a breakdown of each skill as well as some very useful tips for each match up. Make sure to make a copy of the file since it's usually busy and being read by many users.

Classes