#Assassins Guild Guide

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Assassins

The Assassins are a fan favorite faction within the game. With the recent release of Blade and Willow, they also experienced a rejuvenation of sorts and can easily take on some other meta teams. Furthermore, they are an important team in Raids and Cradle of Chaos, and they frequently don’t need to have as high of an equipment level as other factions to perform well. Unfortunately, maxing out their shards can be quite difficult and time consuming as they are not as widely available as some other factions, and some can only be farmed on difficult to reach Legendary campaign nodes.

Assassins Members

  • Blade - Boss
  • Claudia Toxic - Caster (with leadership ability)
  • Captain John - Healer, Healers of Darkness
  • Ash - Melee Damager
  • Willow - Rogue
  • Yuki - Tank
  • Demetria - Ranged Damager
  • Sharazar - Rogue
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Overall Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

  • The Hit List system
  • Significant damage reduction through passive abilities of various members
  • Claudia Toxic’s unique debuff ability Lunacy
  • Several abilities that automatically kill enemies based on percentage HP remaining, with some of those abilities banning revival

Weaknesses:

  • No permanent revival abilities unless through one of Captain John’s awakened abilities, and even that is conditional
  • No innate tank provocation/taunt abilities
  • If the tank (Yuki) dies, the rest of the entire team can become extremely vulnerable and killed easily
  • No shielding abilities
  • Not all characters have awakenings
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Class/Faction Marks

The Assassins do not have their own faction mark, however, they do have the Hit List system, which is incredibly unique and in a way acts as their version of a specialized faction mark. This is why this team is incredibly useful and very powerful, and can take down some of the toughest bosses in Raids.

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Skills and Awakenings

Generally speaking, all basic attacks (with the exception of Sharazar and Ash when he is in his transformed state) can cast Hit List on the target. When a target on the Hit List dies, the basic skills enter a cooldown specific to the hero. If Willow is on the team, Hit List cannot be re-cast or removed. If Blade is the leader, then three targets can have Hit List on them simultaneously.

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Blade

Basic - Shadow Blade

  • Decreases initiative of enemies on the Hit List and has higher attack damage depending on how many debuffs are on Blade
  • Awakened (Low Priority): Removed more initiative, has higher overall damage, higher increased damage per debuff

Special - Threats and Blackmail

  • Casts Hit List on up to 3 targets if Blade is the leader (1 if not the leader), limited to non-defenders unless there is no other option. Additionally reduces healing effectiveness on all enemies, casts a debuff that blocks debuff-removal, and casts the debuff Shock on Hit List enemies preventing support attacks with a chance of skipping a turn vs damage reduction.
  • Awakened (Medium Priority): Debuffs ignore fortitude, enemy healing is further reduced, more debuff-removal bans, and further reduction of damage output of the Hit List targets under the Shock debuff.

Special - Shadow of Death

  • Attacks all enemies and casts Delayed Death on all Hit List enemies, which causes them to have their buffs removed and instantly die if their HP drops below a certain percentage within that time frame. If they have less than 35% HP at the time of the attack, they die immediately.
  • Awakened (Medium priority): Increased damage, debuffs ignore fortitude
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Passive - Legendary Assassin

  • Blade can attack anyone, ignoring effects that limit enemy selection. If an allied assassin kills an enemy on the Hit List, that enemy cannot be revived (only triggers once every 6 turns). When a Hit List enemy dies, all other enemies on the Hit List receive 75% of Blade’s basic damage and Blade’s initiative increases by 33%. For every debuff on allied Assassins and Rogues, Blade’s critical damage and critical damage chance increases. If an allied Assassin or Rogue die, his ability cooldown is reduced by 2.
  • Awakened (Medium priority): When Blade dies, all Hit List enemies receive the Delayed Death debuff for 2 turns

Leader - Guild Leader

  • Allows there to be 3 enemies on the Hit List simultaneously. The initiative of all allied Assassins (excluding Yuki) increases by 10% every time a Hit List enemy receives damage (not DoT effects). Hit List effects can stack, Hit List enemies receive higher damage from allied Rogues and Assassins, and allied Assassins and Rogues receive 40% less damage from enemies on the Hit List
  • Awakened (High priority): In Clan Battles, allied Rogues and Assassins receive a total of 70% damage reduction from Hit List enemies
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Claudia Toxic

Basic - Poison Shot

  • Has a chance to slow the target per allied Rogue or Dark Hero
  • Awakened (Low priority): Increases damage and speed reduction, and also reduces Hit List cooldown to 0

Special - Stinging Fog

  • Prevents allied Dark Mages, Archers, Healers from being attacked for 3 turns, casts DoT debuffs on everyone on the battlefield except herself, and deals damage to targets on the Hit List as well as giving them a healing block debuff
  • Awakened (Low priority): Increases number of DoT debuffs and damage to the Hit List target

Special - Intoxication

  • Casts Lunacy on the target for 3 turns, which bans additional and counter attacks, and redirects the enemy’s damage and debuffs to the Hit List target(s) (or a random enemy if there are no Hit List targets). Damage dealt by the enemy under the debuff is also increased, and the Hit List target receives additional damage based on the enemy’s basic damage.
  • Awakened (High priority): Increases damage dealt by the enemy under the Lunacy debuff, Lunacy ignores fortitude, and if it is cast on a Hit List target, it affects two other random enemies.
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Passive - Victim of Experiments

  • Reduces damage from all DoT effects, increases damage output based on number of debuffs on her, and increases her armor and magic resistance based on number of debuffs on allies.
  • Awakened (Medium priority): Does not receive damage from DoT effects, increases damage output per debuff, and further increases her armor and magic resistance

Leader - Personal Score

  • Automatically casts Hit List on a non-Defender at the beginning of a battle. Increases damage to Hit List targets from allied Rogues and Assassins, increases allied Rogue/Assassin damage based on team debuffs, and protects allied Assassins and Rogues from initiative reduction for the first 2 turns
  • Awakened (Low priority): Hit List is placed on a random non-Defender enemy at the beginning of her turn if there are no enemies already on it.
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Captain John

Basic - Cutlass

  • Has an increased chance to deal critical damage based on the enemy’s missing HP percentage. Also has increased critical damage output
  • Awakened (high priority): significantly increases overall damage, and guarantees a critical hit if the enemy is on the Hit List

Special - Priest Strike

  • Deals damage to a single target, heals himself and allies based on percentage of damage dealt, and casts 5 stacks of Bloody Offering on self if the enemy was on the Hit List. At the start of his turn, he heals himself for a small percentage per stack of Bloody Offering on him, after which these effects are removed. Healing beyond 100% is shared between his allies.
  • Awakened (high priority): significantly increases damage and restores more HP to self and allies
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Special - Sacrifice to the Sea

  • Deals damage to one enemy, casts 5 stacks of Bloody Offering on self (see above), and if the enemy has 30% or less HP at the time of the attack, the enemy dies and cannot be revived.
  • Awakened (high priority): significantly increases damage, revives an allied Rogue or Assassin if the enemy killed was on the Hit List, and increases the HP percentage threshold to auto-kill the enemy. This is the only way an Assassin can revive a hero.

Passive - Cursed Pirate

  • Heals all of his allies based on any damage received. If he dies, all allies recover 25% of their HP. * Any time an allied Rogue or Assassin receives damage, he casts 1 stack of Bloody Offering on himself. When he kills any enemy, all allies restore 40% of their max HP. Once per turn, if he is supposed to die, he will restore HP instead if he has at least one stack of Bloody Offering on himself.
  • Awakened (high priority): Heals allies and self more effectively, gains stacks of Bloody Offering when dealing critical damage, decreases turn limit on restoring HP instead of dying, and increases physical and magic dodge chance for allied Rogues and Assassins in Coc and Raids.
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Yuki

Basic - Hail

  • Basic damage is increased based on number of debuffs on allied Rogues and Assassins
  • Awakened (low priority): Damage is increased, and further increased damage based on number of allied debuffs

Special - Hoarfrost

  • Deals damage to a single target, casts debuffs on the target increasing damage received, and causes the target to skip 2 turns if the target was on the Hit List
  • Awakened (low priority): increases overall damage dealt, increases the damage received on the target via the debuff, and allows all debuffs cast on the Hit List target to ignore fortitude

Special - Parry

  • Gives Yuki the buff Parry, which causes any enemy that attacks her to receive 100% of the outgoing damage instead, and Yuki only receives 5% of the damage. It also restores her own HP by 35%, and if she attacks an enemy on the Hit List while under the Parry debuff, she deals additional damage.
  • Awakened (low priority): If Parry gets blocked or removed prematurely, she then gets 4 stacks of damage reduction buffs that ignore all blocking abilities when cast

Passive - Garden of Illusions

  • Reduces her damage received by 10% for each debuff on her up to a maximum of 50%. Reduces damage received by allied Rogues and Assassins by 70%. If an enemy on the Hit List attacks an allied Rogue or Assassin, the enemy receives damage equal to a percentage of the damage dealt. If an allied Rogue or Assassin is supposed to die, they will instead heal for 35% of their HP instead, but this triggers only once per 6 turns.
  • Awakened (medium priority): The Immortality buff also applies to Yuki, and also raises the her own damage reduction per debuff as well as the maximum amount.
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Ash (No Awakenings)

Basic - Ziva’s Whisper

  • Deals damage to a single target, and the damage is increased based on the amount of living enemies

Special - Ziva’s Yell

  • Deals damage to a single target, and the damage is increased based on the number of allied Rogues and Assassins. Ash attacks Hit List targets twice.

Special - Ziva’s Madness

  • Performs 3 attacks on a single target. If the target is on the Hit List, the attacks are critical, and the critical attack damage is increased per debuff on Ash

Passive - Ziva’s Judgment

  • If Ash is supposed to have his initiative or speed reduced, it increases instead. He cannot skip turns, cannot have skills blocked, or have his skill timers increased. If he loses 33% of max HP, he enters Ferocity for 3 turns, and increases his initiative to 100%. While in Ferocity, he cannot cast/recast Hit List, attacks the enemy that last dealt him damage (or a Hit List target if there is no one to target), all of his attacks have increased damage, and he receives significantly reduced damage
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Willow

Basic - Slashing Sickles

  • Attacks a single target, and the target receives additional damage if the target was on the Hit List
  • Awakened (medium priority): Increases overall damage, increased additional damage dealt, and removes all buffs from the target if on the Hit List

Special - Deadly Windmill

  • Attacks a single target, increases critical damage if the target was on the Hit List, and kills the target if Willow was hidden at the time of the attack and the target is below a certain HP threshold
  • Awakened (high priority): increases overall damage, further increases critical damage, raises the threshold to automatically kill the enemy, and bans revival if the target was killed with this attack
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Special - Plague Harvest

  • Attacks all enemies and has increased attack based on all effects on Willow and Hit List targets, and the attack ignores fortitude and defense if Willow was hidden at the time of the attack
  • Awakened (high priority): increases overall damage, further increases attack based on number of effects as mentioned above, and causes all other enemies to receive damage if enemies were killed with this attack

Passive - Power of the Outcast

  • Boosts allied Blade’s initiative to 100% at the beginning of a battle, bans re-casting and removal of Hit List while Willow is alive, guarantees that she deals critical damage to Hit List targets, gives her Target in Cover whenever a Hit List target receives critical damage, and deals a percentage of her damage to all other Hit List targets when she attacks a Hit List target
  • Awakened (high priority): While hidden, she receives reduced magical damage and increases her critical damage output. If she attacks a target while hidden, she has a 50% chance to extend all debuffs on the target by 1 turn, unless the damage dealt was critical, in which case it is a 100% chance.
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Demetria (No Awakenings)

Basic - Whip Strike

  • Damages a single target, and removes all buffs from the target only when placed on the Hit List

Special - Double the Pain

  • Attacks a single target with increased damage per debuff on self, and has further increased damage if the target was on the Hit List and the enemy’s HP is below 35% during this attack

Special - Garden of Thrones

  • Damages all enemies and deals damage to all allied Rogues/Assassins and uses this to deal additional damage to all enemies. If an ally dies from this skill, then the damage from this attack ignores armor, is critical, and is guaranteed to hit. If a target was on the Hit List, then they receive the Retribution debuff, which causes the enemy to lose 25% of max HP when using a special ability

Passive - Path of Renunciation

  • While hidden, she will perform a support attack on any target that attacks allied Rogues/Assassins. This damage is increased per debuff on Demetria. Will put a copy of herself in place of a killed ally based on how many allied Rogues or Assassins there are (triggers once per 8 turns). Any of her attacks can remove a damage-limiting buff, and the buff is removed prior to her attack. If an ally receives a debuff, she recovers some initiative.
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Sharazar (No Awakenings)

Basic - Soaring Blade

  • Damages a single target

Special - Raven Eyes

  • Damages all enemies and increases their damage received for 2 turns

Special - Two Blades

  • Damages a single enemy

Special - Changeling Will

  • Transforms into the selected enemy and increases his own fortitude for up to 2 turns
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Team Construction

There are two leader options, Claudia and Blade. Prior to Blade’s release, Claudia was the obvious choice. However, with Blade as leader, there is more versatility. Ultimately, however, if you are running with a full Assassins team, Blade should be leader due to his ability to have 3 targets on the Hit List simultaneously. Furthermore, part of his leadership ability to increase initiative to allies only works with Assassins. Claudia, on the other hand, would be a good choice if you do not have Blade, or if you are running a team of rogues, as all of her leadership abilities complement Rogues in addition to Assassins.

Other than choosing the leader, there are a couple of general must-haves. Yuki should always be run with your Assassins squad due to her significant damage reduction benefits from her passive ability for other Assassins. This is so impactful that if she were to die, the rest of your Assassins squad may be easily wiped out. Captain John is the only mass healer, and he is probably one of the best healers in the game due to his relatively high damage output, ability to heal while receiving damage, heal when killing enemies, restore HP to self regularly, restore HP in place of dying, and heal allies using one of his special skills. These two together are a must-have for an all Assassins team.

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After that, the rest of the team composition can vary based on context. Sharazar should almost never be used if other Assassins are available - he is just too weak and lacks the skill complexity the others have. Though admittedly his special skill Changeling Will is incredibly unique and very helpful. Ash is the highest damage output character in the faction, despite his lack of awakenings and can make a significant impact on clearing waves of enemies. Willow is the newest faction member, and pairs very well with Blade and also has a relatively high damage output. She can also increase duration of debuffs on Hit List enemies, which is unique. Claudia Toxic’s main benefit is her unique Intoxication debuff, which is amazing to use - especially if awakened - against high damage output enemies and bosses, as it basically makes them hurt/kill themselves or other members of their own team. Demetria has largely been replaced with the introduction of Blade and Willow, but can apply the Retribution debuff on Hit List enemies which can put on a good amount of damage. She may not be a main character in your Assassins squad, but may be more useful in smaller/different squad make-ups like in Clan Battles.

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Mixing/Matching with other Factions

The Assassins work fantastically well with each other due to their very unique Hit List system. Because no other faction can apply Hit List to enemies, it can be difficult to find good pairings; that being said, Rogues can be an appropriate substitute due to both Claudia Toxic’s and Blade’s leadership abilities as well as Yuki’s passive that allow for synergy with them.

As mentioned previously, Captain John is a fantastic overall healer. Though he may lose some of his potential when paired without other Assassins or Rogues, he is still a powerful healer that significantly contributes to any team. He can be virtually paired with any other faction or group of heroes.

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PvP (Player vs Player [e.g. Arena, Tournament, Clan Battles]) and PvE (Player vs Environment [e.g. Raids, Cradle of Chaos])

Though the Assassins may not dominate the arena when compared to, say, the Chaos Spawn, they are massively helpful in tournament and Clan Battles. They work well against many other factions and can certainly take out various teams in tournament. In Clan Battles, Blade’s awakened Leader ability further increases the amount of damage reduction to allied Rogues and Assassins, which can very much change the tide of a battle and allow you to take a structure. Similarly, high level Assassins in Clan Battles can be quite a challenge to defeat. One of their unique set-ups for Clan Battles is in the 3 vs 3 setting (battles for Crystals). Ultimately, the combination comes down to Blade, Willow, and then either Yuki or Claudia Toxic. When Blade is the Leader and Willow is on the team, Blade can immediately cast Hit List on all enemy targets which immediately changes the tide of the battle in your favor. Yuki offers heavy damage reduction and her Parry effect. Claudia does not offer damage reduction or have a Parry effect, however, if you have her Intoxication ability awakened, her first move could be to cast Lunacy all ALL enemies, and for the next three turns, they will only be dealing damage to themselves.

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Assassins are also incredibly useful in Raids and Cradle of Chaos. For Raids, they are one of the required teams in Fire Gates, and you don’t need them at an incredibly high level to be successful with them. Similarly, they can help you make your way through nodes on higher difficulty Portal Raids, with an eq13 team able to clear the majority of D5 nodes, including some bosses. For Cradle of Chaos, they are very important and take down many if not all bosses. As mentioned previously in the guide, Yuki can offer significant longevity and damage reflection to enemies and bosses, and Claudia Toxic can apply her Lunacy debuff on a boss (or multiple if awakened), which makes them essentially kill themselves. The only drawback is that they receive heavy debuffs in the highest difficulty regions, limiting their utility in that area.

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Battle Tips

Always keep in mind the Hit List system. Blade can apply Hit List to 3 targets at once using Threats and Blackmail, but it’s random. It may sometimes be more strategic to apply Hit List to an individual enemy one at a time so that you can debuff/target certain enemies over others. When enemies are on the Hit List, try not to attack enemies that are not on the Hit List, as you will not typically get as much benefit, and the damage output is likely to be much lower. Just one example would be Willow, where when she attacks a Hit List target, the damage is guaranteed to be critical and all other Hit List targets receive a portion of the damage. But if she attacks a target not on the Hit List, none of these effects apply.

Also always keep in mind which of your heroes have ready-to-use skills that can automatically kill an enemy depending on their current HP percentage. Try to save these attacks for use when you know the enemy is guaranteed to be killed, especially if you are strategically using Captain John’s awakened skill Sacrifice to the Sea in an attempt to revive an ally.

Prioritize keeping Yuki and Captain John alive. They provide the best longevity to the team, and without them, your team will fall easily. Yuki’s special Parry is vital to her own survival as she heals from it and reflects almost all damage, but if this buff gets removed by the enemy, this protection goes away and she can become vulnerable.

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If using Blade as leader, consider placing Willow on the team to allow Blade to automatically go first.

If battling a team of high damage output characters, or a boss (or multiple), Assassins can be a strategic choice. Hit List will significantly reduce the damage they cause you and your team. Claudia Toxic can apply the Lunacy debuff on characters that make them hurt themselves or their teammates, including most bosses (though not major ones). If awakened, this debuff can land on 3 enemies. When paired with Willow with an awakened passive, she can extend the duration of these debuffs.

The Assassins can also be a good counter to the Vans, as even the Vans cannot absorb or block the Hit List. This then makes it easy to single out pesky Rei’mund or Ulfren and defeat them first. Similarly, because Blade can target any enemy regardless of buffs/debuffs, he can be advantageous to use against a team reliant on a hero that is normally difficult to target.

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Recommendations on Skill Order

Generally speaking, always be cognizant of the enemy team that you are facing when deciding when to use your skills. As mentioned above, always be aware of when your kill attacks can be used, and whether or not the enemy HP will meet criteria for the effect to use. Similarly, be aware of which enemies have the Hit List effect so that you can target your attacks appropriately and optimize debuffs that wouldn’t otherwise affect an enemy. In terms of specific skills to use in combination or in a certain order, it honestly depends on the situation.

  • When Yuki gets her first turn, it can be advantageous to use her Parry skill up front to immediately reflect damage back to opponents, but keep in mind this ability also heals her, so if used too early, may rob her of healing.
  • Willow’s attacks do more damage if she is hidden, which theoretically can be almost always if played correctly. Her second special gains a significant amount of extra damage depending on the number of effects of allies and Hit List targets, so may be beneficial to wait to use this attack until there are three Hit List targets on the second or third round to maximize damage. Since Hit List targets all receive damage when she attacks someone, if there is a Hit List target very close to dying and another Hit List target with more HP, you can attack the one with more HP which can simultaneously kill the weaker enemy, too.
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  • If Willow and Blade are in the squad, then Blade will go first. The decision to apply Hit List to a single target with his basic, or 3 random targets depends on the scenario. If you do not really care which 3 targets are placed on it, start with Threats and Blackmail. If the outcome of the battle is contingent on you taking out a particular character first and quickly, then use his Basic attack first, since it can target any enemy regardless of effects and is guaranteed to apply Hit List. When using his second special, you should either use it when at least one Hit List enemy is below the threshold to be killed, or if you can guarantee that you can get those enemies below the threshold on the next couple of attacks (e.g. Ash is up next and can deal lots of damage).
  • During Captain John’s turn, don’t waste his special ability Sacrifice to the Seas. This is a powerful ability that should be timed appropriately, as it can instantly kill enemies and heal allies. Using this at the wrong moment takes away these effects, making this attack relatively meaningless.
  • Claudia Toxic’s Intoxication skill is a very powerful skill due to its Lunacy debuff, and it is even more powerful if awakened as it can apply the debuff to more enemies. Save this skill until you have an enemy on the Hit List that can deal lots of damage, and then use it on them.
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Enemies to Avoid Battling

With the introduction of Blade and Willow, the Assassins have certainly experienced a new revival that makes them relevant once again, especially in Clan Battles. That being said, when facing off against an equivalent team of say Chaos Spawn or Cloud Wanderers, they could easily still lose, especially in Arena/Tournament if paired against Chaos Spawn. The CS have the most innate buffs in these game modes compared to any other faction which can make them difficult to beat. Furthermore, Goul’s abilities can allow him to periodically single out any character and cause massive damage to them, which can be dangerous.

The Cloud Wanderers can be a challenge due to their ability to significantly slow teams down, and massively buff themselves in a very short period of time. If a CW team goes first, they can cause huge difficulty in getting ahead for the Assassins.

As a general caution, enemies that have bonuses against dark heroes may be a bit more challenging to battle, like a strong Knights of the Council team.

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Be wary of the Teona/Flame combo, or any Witches team with these two (or even Firestorm). They can build up static charges incredibly quickly, which when detonated can cause insane amounts of damage. Even with all the damage reduction effects of the Assassins, if Hit List is not on Teona, she will apply her full damage with these debuffs. Even worse, because of Teona, healing from Captain John will be significantly reduced and he will no longer be anywhere near as effective as he normally is. When detonated, the damage caused from these static charges can easily overcome the healing that Captain John offers when he receives damage.

(Dark) Druids may be another challenging team, largely due to their ability to detonate DoTs on enemies with Rhiannon and make them cause damage to themselves with Flora on the team. Their DoTs may not be as problematic compared to Teona as no one else in that faction can reduce healing, but they can still accumulate an absurd number of them.

Be wary of teams with characters that can easily single out individual heroes to attack. A full Assassins team primarily relies on Yuki and Captain John for longevity. Goul, for example, when at max hunger can single out enemies regardless of any buffs or debuffs on the field. This would allow him to potentially kill Yuki or Captain John very early in a battle, making it much more difficult to win. An enemy Assassins team could prove challenging since the enemy Blade can immediately place Hit List on whatever character he wants, taking them out first.