Just saw this thread, and figured I would throw in my two cents. I think this is a good discussion to have overall, and many of you have brought up great points.
Man, there is a lot of misunderstanding here though. So first off, those players that are calling for assassins to be nerfed in damage, the answer is no. We already had our damage nerfed. A lot. The cap perf here as far as I can tell is around 550. That would be 50+21 crit, using a 4.2 Blade on hib anyway against a slash weak target. The max perf on live was near 1k right? It could be less, but not 550. So enjoy the fact that our openers are nowhere near as strong as they could be. This is of course taking resists into account. I assume all targets have a template. I think the damage has remained the same, which is ok, especially since the WS/Con poison now applies before damage.
Second, those calling for poisons to be changed, or immunities granted after purging, the answer is also no. Our poisons can already be resisted, purged, affected by Empty Mind, AoM, etc. Also our Weaponskill and Con debuff was changed, down to 100 from 118. Our Lifebane also only ticks every five seconds, and they made the good change I think, that re applying doesn't instantly re start the tick.
This leads into people asking for bag weapons and swapping to be nerfed, again no. The whole reason we have to carry around 10-15 weapons is because we have to watch for resists, purges, then if we get a kill and move onto the adders, got to swap. Really you're going to try and force us to only poison the weapons equipped? Come on....I would even be ok with this as a change, but then the poison applied to the weapons equipped doesnt consume the charge, and is always applied and to zero resist rate or something. Thats bonkers to me though.
Finally I feel like there is a general failure to understand Roles in this game. For those people saying an assassin should always lose to X, or a certain class is to be favored. The assassins main role is to kill. Now some targets may be more difficult than others due to rank and class, but any assassin should be able to kill their target at least 50% of the time.
There is already a Rock Paper Scissors method built into the game, at least for melee. Two hand gets a bonus to parry over dual wielders. Shield gets a bonus to block against two handers, and Dual Wielders decrease the chance to block, though this was decreased from 50% down to 25%, again a nerf in my view.
So are assassins over tuned? No. Do they need a nerf? No. Is there room for more changes? Certainly. I loved the changes they made to Scouts for example, giving them the 99% snare.
As far as the stealth game goes I feel like Phoenix is actually in a good place. Our poisons are not too over powered, you all have access to Stealth Lore potions, and there are lots of soloers, small mans, and even full groups of stealthers from time to time.
If we are talking about making any changes, the ones I would personally like to see:
1) Access to Celt Nightshades on Hib. I think that's fair, and it would open up specs that Luri and Elf cannot go. I tried going 50 Celtic Dual, and the damage was terrible due to such low str stat. I tried with pierce too, but our styles just dont warrant using the spec line the way ShadowBlades and Infs can in their Left Axe and Dual Wield respectively
2) Minstrels need a quick look. I think its crap that they can SoS away but their pet can still do damage and not break their speed. If a hunter uses his speed, and his pet does damage, the speed breaks...
3) Access to Dodger again. I think the HP buff to everyone and stagnant damage for assassins should allow us to have at least one method of increasing our defense. Every other class that has a shield or the ability to parry can augment it. Why not us?
4) Along that same line, if we dont get dodger, maybe give us Ignore pain? Just a thought
Hope this helps further the conversation. I look forward to being thoroughly eviscerated on this forum, as you guys are much more knowledgeable than I. Lets keep this server alive. I love DaoC!
Cheers
-Exo