Strike: Attacks the target enemy. A hit deals damage to the target enemy and restores the Assassin's energy. Deals more damage from behind. Energy gain: 15 Damage: 90 (Physical)

The Assassin's M1 ability, Strike, is mainly used for your energy regeneration. Between casting the Assassin's other abilities, it may be useful to use Strike to keep the Assassin's energy filled up. Also, the melee radius is about 180 degrees in front of the Assassin.




Puncture: Attacks the target enemy. A hit inflicts a puncture and deals damage over time to the target enemy. Being punctured slows you. Energy cost: 15 Damage Over-Time: 20/sec (Physical) for 5sec

The optimal amount of Punctures is 3. Puncture is useful in many ways: keeping other assassins from resetting and slowing enemies. Think of punctures as your combo points, the more you have the more damage you'll do with your other abilities (if stated so).




Pantera's Kiss: Attacks the target enemy. A hit deals damage after 5 seconds to the target enemy based on the number of Punctures on the target enemy. Resets all punctures on the target enemy. Deals more damage from behind. Energy cost: 10 Cooldown Time: 10sec

So, lets look closer at this spell. There's a lot here. Remember what I said about Punture? Combo points. Based on the number of punctures (combo points) on the target increases the amount of damage done. More punctures, bigger reward. Another thing to consider is the damage increase from behind the target, try to get the Kiss off behind the target and you'll see a significant increase in the ending damage.




Shadow Leap: Teleports the Assassin behind target player. Cannot be used in the shadow realm. Energy cost: 10 Cooldown Time: 12sec

This ability has saved me from getting killed many times. You aren't restricted to just leaping to target enemies, you can also leap to team members as well. Keep in mind that you do not need line of sight to leap to a target; you have the ability to leap through walls as long as you see the target's health bar icon.




Disorienting Strike: Attacks the target enemy. A hit immobilizes and causes the target enemy's next attack to miss. This disorientation will time out after a short period. If used while in Stealth, the target enemy is also stunned. Energy cost: 20 Cooldown Time: 10s Damage: 40 (Physical)

There are two different effects this will have depending on if you are in stealth or not. If you are in stealth, Disorienting Strike will stun the target enemy and the target enemy's next attack will miss. If you are not in stealth, Disorienting Strike will snare the target enemy and the target enemy's next attack will miss. The ideal rotation would be while you are in stealth, so that you gain the stun. If the target enemy is in a pin he/she is still able to activate his/her abilities, be wary of the Pyromancers Molten Armor -- ouchies!




Shadow Shift: The Assassin and the target enemy are shifted into the shadow realm. The Assassin's speed is increased based on the number of punctures on the target enemy. The target enemy's speed is decreased. Assassin's attack as if they were in stealth in the shadow realm. Energy cost: 20 Cooldown Time: 15sec

There are multiple ways to use Shadow Shift. You can use it on an unsuspecting player to make a clean escape (using it as an extra stealth). You can also use it for burst damage. In the shadow realm you do increased damage. Also, remember that while in the shadow realm that your abilities act as if you were in stealth (i.e. Disorienting Strike will stun the enemy instead of snaring). The shadow realm is perfect to force the 1v1 combat you so desire. Your speed is increased on the amount of punctures on the target enemy so, to make sure you have the upper hand in the shadow realm, make sure you have punctures on the target enemy.




Stealth: Makes the Assassin difficult to see. Attacks from stealth deal bonus damage based on the number of punctures on the target enemy. Cannot be used in the shadow realm. Cooldown Time: 5sec

Remember, players can still see a slight glimmer while you're in Stealth. Players can also see your wall-jump partical cloud effects and any environmental alterations (i.e. water movement). Try to avoid damage over time (dot) abilities, they will make your reset take longer. If you do have a damage over time ability on you, make sure you wait until the spell's effects have worn off before you try to re-stealth because Stealth will go on cooldown.




Smoke Cloud: Drops a cloud of smoke at the Assassin's feet that blinds enemies while inside. Attacks that pass through the outside of the cloud will miss. Energy cost: 20 Cooldown Time: 10s

One of the best abilities you have. It's great from shielding team members from incoming fire, keeping attacks from hitting the Assassin, and confusing enemies that you are focusing. Remember only attacks that pass the outside of the cloud will miss, meaning that if a enemy runs inside the cloud with you they are still able to hit you with their abilities.

The Ideal Rotation:

Start in stealth > Disorienting Strike > 3 punctures > Shadow Shift > Pantera's Kiss (from behind) > After Shadow Shift ends, drop Smoke Cloud > Stealth and rinse and repeat.

A focus is something that alters the base ability's effects. The focuses you choose are depending on your play style and what job you want your class to do.

Now that we covered what a focus is we should now go over each of the Focuses and explain what they do:



Pantera's Kiss: Attacks the target enemy. A hit deals damage after 5 seconds to the target enemy based on the number of Punctures on the target enemy. Resets all punctures on the target enemy. Deals more damage from behind. Energy cost: 10 Cooldown Time: 10sec

Focuses:

Pantera's Kiss Focus - A: Attack the target enemy. A hit deals no initial damage, and after 5 seconds deals damage based on the number of punctures on the target enemy. Bonus damage is dealt to the target enemy after kiss. Resets all punctures on the target enemy.

So, as we can see with this focus the target enemy is dealt extra damage while Pantera's Kiss is on the target enemy. This can be helpful for racking up extra damage and good for burst situations. Puncture > Pantera's Kiss > M1 Strike and reap the benefits.

Pantera's Kiss Focus - B: Attacks the target enemy. A hit deals initial damage, and after 5 seconds sends the target enemy into the shadow realm for a duration based on the number of punctures on the target. Deals more damage from behind.

This focus is great for that extra crowd control. It is extremely effective for taking a target enemy player out of a team fight situation. It is ideal to have three stacks of punctures on the target enemy before using Pantera's Kiss while using this focus. The best player to use this against is one that is playing a Shaman, keeping a Shaman out of a team fight situation can turn a match around.




Shadow Leap: Teleports the Assassin behind target player. Cannot be used in the shadow realm. Energy cost: 10 Cooldown Time: 12sec

Focuses:

Shadow Leap Focus - A: Both the ability cooldown and the target range are reduced.

This one is self explanatory, if you want to be able to leap more often at the cost of a shorter range this is for you.

Shadow Leap Focus - B: Teleports the Assassin behind the target player and reduces incoming damage for a duration. Cannot be used in the shadow realm.

Again, says exactly what it does: For a duration after you leap, the incoming damage after leap is reduced. This is probably the most preferred, because you still have the range and cooldown time, just with an extra perk. The inability to leap in shadow realm remains the same as default ability.




Disorienting Strike: Attacks the target enemy. A hit immobilizes and causes the target enemy's next attack to miss. This disorientation will time out after a short period. If used while in Stealth, the target enemy is also stunned. Energy cost: 20 Cooldown Time: 10s Damage: 40 (Physical)

Focuses:

Disorienting Strike Focus - A: Attacks the target enemy. A hit knocks back, immobilizes, and causes the target's next attack to miss. This disorientation will time out after a short period. If used while in stealth, the target enemy is also stunned.

If you plan on fighting up high this is very useful for knocking enemies off a ledge to disengage them from the fight. This is also used for a technique within the community called, "Troll Pitting." This technique makes use of certain areas of maps that grant a kill by knocking a player out of the map.

Disorienting Strike Focus - B: The stun or pin (snare) is broken up over a longer period.

This can be very powerful against unsuspecting players. Most veterans faced against this stun focus will activate their abilities between the short breaks in the stun or pin (snare). If you want to make the target enemy less effective this spell is very good.




Shadow Shift: The Assassin and the target enemy are shifted into the shadow realm. The Assassin's speed is increased based on the number of punctures on the target enemy. The target enemy's speed is decreased. Assassin's attack as if they were in stealth in the shadow realm. Energy cost: 20 Cooldown Time: 15sec

Focuses:

Shadow Shift Focus - A: The Assassin, the target enemy, and all nearby players are shifted into the shadow realm. The Assassin's speed increases based on the number of punctures on the target enemy. All other player's speed is decreased. Assassins attack as if they are in stealth in the shadow realm.

This is a difficult focus to use effectively. You can use this focus to pull nearby allies and target enemy into an unfair 2 or 3 verses 1. The only problem with this focus is if there are any enemies within the ability's range they will get shifted as well. Another possible use would be to shift a chunk of 2 or three enemy players out of a fight while your teams takes advantage of the reduced amount of players on the enemy team.

Shadow Shift Focus - B: The target enemy or ally are shifted into the shadow realm. The assassin's speed increases based on the number of punctures on the target enemy.

This focus can be used most effectively two ways: You can shift a team member that is being focused and is almost dead to allow him/her to escape safely or you can use it to again, remove a player from a team fight situation. If you're using it for crowd control, make sure you have punctures up on the target.




Stealth: Makes the Assassin difficult to see. Attacks from stealth deal bonus damage based on the number of punctures on the target enemy. Cannot be used in the shadow realm. Cooldown Time: 5sec

Focuses:

Stealth Focus - A: Makes the Assassin difficult to see and increases the Assassin's speed for a duration. Attacks from stealth deal bonus damage based on the number of punctures on the target enemy. Cannot be used in the shadow realm.

This stealth only lasts for a duration, your speed is increased while using Stealth. This focus is up to you. It can be useful for a faster stealth escape.

Stealth Focus - B: Takes more to bring the Assassin out of stealth but shadow leap cannot be used.

Players attacking the Assassin while in stealth have a harder time bringing the Assassin out. This can be useful while being shot at while in Stealth at the cost of not being able to Shadow Leap. It can be more difficult to escape and makes Shadow Leap only usable while out of stealth.




Smoke Cloud: Drops a cloud of smoke at the Assassin's feet that blinds enemies while inside. Attacks that pass through the outside of the cloud will miss. Energy cost: 20 Cooldown Time: 10s

Focuses:

Smoke Cloud Focus - A: Summons a cloud of smoke at the target players feet that blinds enemies while inside. Attacks that pass through the outside of the cloud will miss.

In my opinion, this focus is best. You can summon this at attacking players to reduce the incoming damage to allies. You can also use this focus to summon it at the feet of an ally shaman at low health to keep him/her from dying.

Smoke Cloud Focus - B: Drops a cloud that follows the Assassin. Attacks that pass through the outside of the cloud will miss.

If you need to reduce damage coming in, this focus can be good. The only issue with this focus is that if you stealth while cloud is out it's still visible.

Base armour Resistances:

Physical: 375

Nature: 325

Spiritual: 200

Magic: 375

As you can see Assassins are the most squishy and take the most damage across all damage types. You can use armour points and customization points to customize the armour values as you like:

To customize your class, you must access the 'Level Up' option in the main menu.

Total Customization points at level 99: 14

Total Armour points at level 99: 45

A/S/E (Armour/Speed/Energy):
(This is the build I use for Assassin, and you will find your personal balance)

Take 4 points away from speed until -6% add those points to energy.

Energy should have 4 points from speed into it, so it should be at +20 energy.

Use your customization points to take armour away from spiritual and disperse them as evenly as possible between Nature, Magic and Physical armours.

Armour Points:

You obtain 45 total Armour Points throughout levelling. Armour points are useful for further customization of the armour point values. Each Armour point is worth 3 total armour value for a specific resistance. For example: If I use a point to take away Spiritual to put into Nature that point will decrease the Spiritual Armour value down by three and add 3 points of resistance to Nature. All points granted to a player are only able to be used by taking points away from one resistance and adding it to another. The amount (45) identifies that you are only able to move points from one to another 45 times.

I find it important to mention and further elaborate that both Armour points and Customization points (A/S/E) are only able to be used only after removing a point from one thing and putting it into another.

Everyone is looking to increase the performance of their game and help their chances to increase their potential. Here I will go over non-class specifics that can help you with any class you are going to play.

Visual Graphics and overall game performance:

Now, first things first, if you are looking to increase the frames you'll get reduce all extra effects including: Bloom, Light Shafts, Dynamic Lighting/Shadows, Motion Blur, etc. This applies to everyone, no matter what specs your computer has, this is going to help keep frames at a maximum level. You will also need to turn your graphics down to low or lowest.

Inputs (Keybinds):

Next lets bind a few keys. You'll want to make sure you have your VOIP or "Push to Talk" button enabled. You will also need to get the call for help button bound as well. The help button will let allies know if you need help, it will show a green explanation point above your head on your health bar icon.

Both of these are equally important, so bind them.

On to the next setting in Input > Game > Other, make sure you put the Queueing period at .35sec. You will also want to increase your FOV (Field of View) to the maximum of 110. In the game menu (Input) you can change the order of your abilities by moving them around.