MapleStory Lv200Shadower TotalEditMovie

Assassinate- the forsaken skill

[header][b]Overview[/b][/header]
Assassinate has always been a somewhat controversial skill. Maple has undergone a multitude of changes since when fourth job was first released. Assassinate was always a great 1vs1 attack move, but its usage has been diminishing over time;

-when BS still had it\'s massive delay, Assassinate was the way to go for bosses- 4th hit or not
-when Nexon removed the dark sight delay in hopes to raise Assassinate\'s usefulness, the results weren\'t all that apparent
-when the charge time got reduced, people saw it reach its potential in less time, particularly at bosses like Papulatus
-when they introduced the ability to pot in dark sight, a lot of the issues concerning the risks from using the skill were eliminated
-the inclusion of shadow partner in our skillbooks have brought along tremendous charging capabilities, with players hitting well into the millions

In spite of all these changes and the effort that Wizet/Nexon has been putting into raising the skill\'s usefulness and providing remedies to its extensive list of flaws, to the point where the issues when it was first introduced are now non-existant, Assassinate continues to be an underwhelming skill. Due to the slow execution of Assassinate and the lack of any invincibility frames (unlike a DB\'s Chains of Hell), many argue that they would rather use other alternatives in 1vs1 situations. This is most certainly true, as our other moves have beneficial aspects to them (BS has invincibility frames, Assaulter ignores defence). In bossing situations (with the sole exception of Pap and the first charged attack), I have almost never used Assassinate- Boomerang Step and Savage Blow have always been my skills of choice; I\'m sure most Shadowers will agree with me.

[header][b]Then came Big Bang.[/b][/header]

What exactly is assassinate good for? The most overused examples are;
-walking towards monsters in large maps,
-starting up a boss fight,
-[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mwViRFkP1g#t=2m37s]waiting for pap to come out of his body + platforming[/url] (Basil messes up the link. Just skip to 2:37)

The first example is pretty much redundant now, as you don\'t need to walk towards monsters since you have flash jump. With the release of LHC, distance is a non-issue as the amount of time spent travelling from mob-to-mob is insignificant as compared to training at ToT or Skeles.

The second example is a fair argument, with the only problem being that the start of the boss fight is only one attack. Is it really worth it to max a skill just for that one big chunk of damage you\'re going to be doing only once every boss?

Pap is the only example which has been holding its ground for all these years. But that\'s it. It\'s the only place where Assassinate a main attacking skill. For most of us, papulatus is no more than a 10 minute job post-BB, and that\'s already being extremely generous with the time. You get to use Assassinate for a whopping 10 minutes every day- 20 min if you enter twice.

[header][b]We reach our top DPS in third job. Hurray![/b][/header]
Technically we don\'t since we need Meso Mastery, but you get the point, right? Numerous skills have been changed over the course of the many Maple reforms, such as the reduction of BS\'s delay to needing only one savage blow as a filler. None have been quite as damaging as the restructuring of ME. Combining the 12-hit capability of savage blow when partnered with shadow partner, pickpocket, and meso mastery, ME has become quite the bossing contender. Our powerful -but nowhere close to being overpowered- third job skill which was severely limited by the need to drop 1k bags (or 50k, if you\'re filthy rich) essentially becomes our primary DPS and training skill (at LHC) upon acquisition in post-BB skill builds. With SP making PP twice as effective, producing ammo has never been easier. Combine it with ME\'s massive KB potential (evident in LHC mob pinning), there really is no contender for both training or bossing.

Sure, our other skills still have their uses;
-BS: for invincibility frames and coin gathering
-SB: for coin gathering on small mobs
-BoT: for coin gathering on larger mobs
-Assaulter: for ignoring PDRate on certain bosses and mobility
-Assassinate: [b]?[/b]

It is evident that Assassinate is a worthless skill. Outperformed in all aspects by our other attacks, yet still costing a hefty 30 skillpoints, there really is no reason why anyone would max it until later levels. Now, I might seem like an Assassinate-hater, but in actuality, I had maxed Assassinate pre-BB, and still did so post-BB. I like the attack because it has a swift animation and a very unique form of execution that requires Dark Sight (not so unique after CoH got introduced, but that\'s not the point).

It pains me to see Assassinate being turned into merely a novelty skill. I have yet to know of any other job having their 4th job "primary 1vs1 DPS skill" outdamaged by just about every other skill in their skillset.