[ginganinja]

Throwing in my POV here. (Ill refer the Assassin by saying rogue, it just feels easier for me even tho we named changed)

Firstly, I love the rogue, I have played with it twice, done o.k with it, and in both PSW games the rogue showed that it offload vast amounts of damage within a few rounds. Its also a very fun class to play. The first thing I have to bear in mind whenever I use the rogue, is that its traditionally focused towards the first 3 rounds of a right, get in, cripple something, finish it off, bail. In longer encounters, the Rogue just becomes a sub par fighter, unless it can continue to unleash its sneak attack throughout the fight, like AG did in PSW 2. With the new mechanics to the Rogue in the PSW type games, the Rogue is really focused on those first initial hits, since in a pitched battle, waiting 3 rounds to unleash some damage is just WAY too long. I found this out when I ran into AG during the playtest, and it was just me stalling until Assassinate was ready, and then AG used invisibility and all that work was undone.

With this out of the way, ill chat about mana.

Firstly, I didn't really have too many problems with Mana, I had enough throughout the game, and while I occasionally wished that I had more, it wasn't too bad. It made me watch my abilities tho, since I couldn't just spam them without cost. If you are forcing changes to taking part in fights, you I feel that you do handicap the rogue somewhat, and give the Berserker a massive advantage.

With Rage, the Berserker can change into battle, not give a shit, get the mana boost, fuck shit up and leave. We all know how powerful jumpluff was with the Rage feature and it gives the Berserker a better chance at getting a mana advantage over certain other classes. In comparison, the Rogue waits for a chance to initiate combat at a favourable time. For example, when LW and AG teamed up on the last day to fight me, I had no chance at attacking them, since basically once I broke my stealth and attacked, if I failed to one shot someone, I was dead. Instead, my plan was to wait for them to fight each other, and then assassinate the winner. This, I don't think, is a problem the rogue had. Mostly, when I ran away from an encounter, it was because I was in an unfavourable position which isn't really the fault of the class. I guess my point is that Rogues are going to see slightly less combat that other classes. They are going to be very strong later in the game when they can burst (?) down someone easily when order spells are gone but they don't seek to initiate combat like, say, the Berserker does, which I guess can lead to mana problems.

On Escape Buttons

I actually an rather upset at a rogue losing an escape button. The Rogue is designed to go in, hit, take an order spell in 2 rounds, bail and an escape button lets you do this. Without an escape button, lets face it, Lightwolf would have caught me and killed me day 1 during the playtest, costing me an order spell for an order spell which is hardly an effective trade. A Rogue sucks the longer the battles goes on (AG being the exception in PSW 2) and its hard for a rogue to get away if it lacks an escape button. I actually rather like LW's casual remark about fusing rider with rogue, since both are hit and run classes, and it gives the rogue a built in escape button which helps its playstyle.

Other Shit

I think Assassinate needs to be buffed, not sure how strong since numbers are strong but it needs to hit high enough damage to basically cripple a champion. For example, I feel that Robin Hoods Mana Boosted Manyshot approached the levels of a proper attack, (maybe its a little on the strong side since it took off a order spell, idk), if its too weak, then its a waste of time lol and your killing the rogue class as a whole which relies on unloading a fuckload of damage in a very short space of time. I don't like the idea of adding more innates to the Rogue so its better overall in combat tho, I think that sneak attacking and hitting hard and fast are what the rogue should focus towards, and adding innates to make it better in combat make it more fighter focused and I don't really like that at all.

And yea, ban Dastardly Finish. I felt so guilty taking it (I even asked pluff and Raikage if they wanted to ban it before the playtest (when I was creating my character) once I brought it to their attention and I felt sorry for LW when I basically OHKOed him and bailed (tho I did feel that this was the rogue working as it was supposed too)

Lastly, could we increase the range of Assassinate if you are a ranged rogue. Maybe that makes you too similar to an Archer, idk, but I kinda like how the Rogue can sit on a rooftop, observe an enemy (while still being safely out of harms way), snipe the bastard, and run away (which would be easier to evade since you can attack at greater range giving you more space to move). Running into Melee means that once you assassinate (and in PSW games you have order spells so you don't actually "kill them") its harder to get away which means its a lot easier for enemy classes to rip away order spells making it a 1 for 1 trade, hardly a victory. Just look at the AG + Agape vs LW and myself fight where we took 2(?) order spells very quickly, but the battle went on and we lost 2 order spells (or something) which evened up the score. So yea, could we get a ranged option for the Assassin :)