Assassin

While most classes charge in bold and daring, the Assassin is a stealthy sort that prefers to take things at their own pace. They can control the battlefield like no other, luring enemies into deadly traps before they even know what hit them.
The Assassin whittles away at their enemy’s strength with rapid fire attacks that cause bleeding and poison damage, which drain the life from their foes over time. While their razor-sharp Dagger is vital, they also employ explosives, poisons, smoke, and other potent utilities to hobble their enemies. On top of their ingenuity, they can also use strange martial arts that allow them to turn nearly invisible, teleport around the field, and even swap places with enemies in an instant.
In comparison to others, Assassins work best alone. However, their status-altering abilities and damage-over-time effects make them an important addition to any large-scale battle.

The Assassin class is a mobile class with decent burst damage, but is fragile. Assassins excel by moving in stealth, becoming a nearly invisible target.

In the first release of Blade & Soul Assasin is available only to the Jin. However, NCSoft made the Assasin available to the Lyn in the Assasin 3rd specialization update. While the Assassins' weapon is a Dagger, their abilities also use a multitude of explosives, traps, and Shuriken.
They are excellent at escapes and at surprise attacks, particularly in world PvP.

## Stances

Assassins have two "Stances", called the Decoy Stance, and Stealth Stance. These "Stances" simply reflect whether the assassin is in stealth or not. Certain abilities can only be used in one stance or the other.

**Stealth Stance**
There are a number of ways to get into stealth stance, each of which is situational. For example, Shadow Dash lets the Assassin enter stealth stance only if they are facing the enemy's back. Any damage done to the assassin while in stealth will switch their stance back to Decoy. As such, while in stealth stance, the assassin's dodge chance (evasion) will be increased by **50%** but will still be hit by area of effect and homing skills. (Example: pentaslash, lotus fury, etc.) In addition to the increased evasion, the assassin enjoys increased movement speed and can be surprisingly difficult to anticipate as a result.

Stealth stance can be exited by waiting for it to time-out (it lasts 6 seconds) or by using an ability that switches back to Decoy Stance. A frequently used option to exit stealth stance early is to use Shadow Kick since it doesn't require a target and doesn't move the assassin.

While in stealth, the assassin is *not* completely invisible and instead produces a slight shimmer which is especially visible in medium range (< 8 m). However, as previously mentioned, the increased evasion make it difficult to connect with most skills and could lead to being ambushed again if swinging blindly.

## Resource Mechanic

Assassin abilities use "Focus" much like every other class in Blade & Soul. Different abilities add or subtract different quantities of focus, for a maximum of 10. Assassin's focus is generally not an issue in **PvE** but must be *carefully* managed in PvP due to the normalization of equipment. Shadow Dash and Blink Step are the primary ways to regain focus, but are often followed up with high focus cost abilities. As such, most new assassin players find themselves having their combos cut short, or at the wrong time, and get punished severely as a result. Some talent tree options reduce focus costs and must be taken into consideration when choosing skills for PvP. While Moon Slash (3rd hit combo of Mist Slash) returns 2 focus, it's important to note that spamming LMB in PvP is a surefire way to minimize DPS and opens Assassin up for a counter attack. LMB (Mist Slash) is often exclusively used as part of the animation cancelling combo rather than being spammed.

##### Notable Focus Regain Skills

Skills that require positioning and/or have long cool-downs provide more focus, whereas those that have little to no cool-down, provide significantly less.

* Shadow Dash
* Blink Step
* Decoy
* Straw Doll
* Shadow Dance/Sidestep Left - *on resist* only
* Throwing Dagger
* Smoke Screen (F2)
* Lotus of Escape (F1)
* Shadow Kick
* Shadow Slip
* Shadow Drain (Cyclone Sweep F3 T2) - Not recommended for most arena PvP match ups since better players are able to knock you out of stealth consistently.

##### Notable High Focus Cost Skills

These are generally the heavier damage skills or higher utility. It's important to mix focus gain abilities in between usage of the following abilities.

* Choke Bomb and Plague Mist (Poison Breath F3 + F4 T3) - 3 Focus
* Flash Kick (not an issue in PvP due to Web usage) - 3 Focus
* Landmine - 3 Focus; Set Landmine F4 T3 - 4 Focus.
* Lotus Fury - 3 Focus
* Spinal Tap (untalented) - 3 Focus
* Pull Highwire - 3 Focus
* Lightning Rend (untalented) - 3 Focus
* Thunderstruck - 3 focus

## Poison

Assassins are masters of applying poison that has a few effects such as damage over time, snare, and most importantly, skill interaction. The Assassin's poison can stack up to five times and is shared as a de-buff between assassins in the party. It is important when there is more than one assassin in the party to observe carefully that the stacks are maintained or isn't being wasted by adding to the stack beyond the capacity.

##### Poison Inflicting Skills

While the most straightforward way to inflict poison is with 4 (Poison Breath and variants), it's important to be aware of all the skills that inflict poison

* Poison Breath (and variants)
* Venom Pierce (Heart Stab F1 T3+) - on decoy counter within 0.5 sec
* Throwing Dagger
* Acrid Star - triggers on resist; virtually safe to use whenever available
* Spinal Tap - on stun only
* Thunderstruck
* Shadow Slash (F3 T5) - on knockdown
* Venom Slash (Shadow Slash F4 T5)

##### Notable Poison Interactions

The poison debuff is especially important in PvP due to the interaction with several key skills. Listed are skills that change in function, rather than just increased damage ie: Lightning Rend (F3 T2)

* Heart Stab (F1 T2+): Allows animation cancelling on targets with 5 stacks of poison
* Landmine (F1 T2+): Dazes poisoned enemies for 3 seconds
* Hook Kick: Switches the assassin to stealth stance upon hitting a poisoned target
* Lotus Kick - Stuns poisoned target
* Lotus of Poison (Lotus of Escape F3 T4) - Pulls and dazes poisoned enemies in an 8m radius towards the center, then disables Offense and Defense skills for 6 seconds.
* Stomp - Spreads poison to nearby enemies (limited use in 1v1 arena PvP)
* Shadow Drain (Cyclone Sweep F3 T2) - Extends stealth by 6 seconds on hitting poisoned enemies
* Lightning Stride **(Special Mention) -** Devastating damage when used at 5 stacks. May be a useful finisher when an opponent is around 10 % (4.5k) HP and is often unexpected can take many opponents by surprise

## Playstyle

As mentioned in the class summary, the Assassin excels at escapes and surprise attacks. The core strength; being hit, run tactics, and generally waiting stealth. In-depth knowledge of the game's mechanics, intimate knowledge of the Assassin's capabilities, as well as the other classes, are mandatory to do as well as an Assassin. Each attack must be anticipated since being caught without Stealth (Tab escape) can often mean death even from full health. The increased mobility while in stealth is not just limited to the movement speed. It also allows the assassin to teleport directly to their opponent in one of two ways: Shadowless Step which is more straightforward, and Throwing dagger, which then activates Sneak Attack.
 **Damage: 3/5**
The damage output is around the middle tier, since Assassin's do not have an infinite stun combo such as Kung Fu Masters or Destroyers, nor huge burst damage like Blade Dancers and Blade Masters. A good Assassin has to string together many variations of skills to do consistent damage to their opponent, primarily making use of multiple stuns, dazes, knockdowns, knock-ups, webbing, and stealth. More about these specific variations can be found in the Combo Theory section.
Due to the non-responsive nature of most enemy monsters, assassins are free to unleash their devastating permastealth combo which involves: Heartstab, Lightning Crash/Pierce, Lightning Rend, Shadowless Strike, and Shadow Drain. When forced out of stealth, the basic animation cancel can often draw aggro away from the tank, which assassins need to be aware of in the deadlier group dungeons.
Note that while the single target damage can potentially be very high, this is not the case in practice. Bosses that are in motion or otherwise forcefully moved requires the assassin to constantly re-position. This is true in many MMOs where the ranged classes have an inherent advantage since they can focus on their rotations, whereas the melee classes have to maintain their positioning. There's the inherent danger of being in melee range as well.
 **Durability: 2/5**
The assassin is very fragile and has less health pool than the other melee classes. This is especially an issue when facing against opponents that are able to stunlock the assassin or otherwise hit with impunity from a distance. However, the escape and counter-play abilities available should mitigate most, if not all of this weakness.
 **Defense: 3/5**
The defensive options available to the assassin require precise timing and are often easily punished when executed incorrectly. This is especially true against spinning aoe classes that can knock the assassin right out of stealth with a simple spin. The defensive options are also inferior in comparison to the kungfu masters and blademasters. Shadow Dance provides a short iframe, while Lotus Fury provides a longer invulnerability duration. The ultimate defense of an assassin however is being in stealth stance where they can pick and choose their engagements.
 **Escape: 4/5**
The escape capabilities of an assassin is often the primary complaint of those who has to face such a shadowy opponent. While Lotus of Escape (V) and Stealth (Tab) are the default escape mechanics, the other skills can be used in ways to facilitate a retreat to the shadows. Landmine, Icemine, Lightning stride, Choke bomb, are some of the few offensive skills that can be used defensively to buy the assassin time and a chance to turn the tides.
Functions more or less like the PvP variant except it's easier to pull off. Most experienced assassins can get out of harms way with little to no problem.
 **Stunlock: 3/5**
While crowd control options are many, improper usage can lead to a quick counter and ultimately quite sudden death. Web allows the assassin to have ample time to set up additional ambushes but must be executed properly for optimal effect. Other classes can stunlock with less effort and often less cooldown issues. It's very important for an assassin to keep track of their cc cooldowns due to the lengthy nature of some of them (ideally by instinct alone rather than indicators).
Assassins have mulitple crowd control abilities that can be triggered one after the other to penetrate the CC shield of bosses. However, care must be taken to ensure that cc abilities aren't wasted and used on something that's already under control. The best usage of an assassin's CC cooldowns is to open up the boss to a destroyer grab or blade dancer phantom grip which opens up the boss to animation cancelling for the duration.

Overall, the assassin can't stunlock as well as a kungfu master or a blade dancer; aren't as durable as a destroyer, kungfu master, and blade master; nor does it have devastating damage like the blade dancer or summoner. However, what it lacks is compensated for by the mobility and freedom to engage when the advantage is at its peak, especially through proper use of the stealth mechanic. Playing overly aggressive can be easily punished by more savvy players, especially if the assassin is prone to panicking and hitting tab at the first sign of trouble. Careful observation with knowledge of the opponent's available skills are key to victory. Versatility and fluid combat style is also a very strong suite of the assassins.

**Addendum**

While other classes can have an easier time executing certain objectives and play styles, an adept assassin can perform a flawless stunlock, avoid being hit altogether, and can arguably dish out the most damage when played properly. This is however contingent on the assassin's hongmoon levels as well as unlocked hongmoon skills.

## Combo Theory

There are a handful of combos that every assassin must know before they can move on to more advanced techniques. Note that the game itself has some tutorials and the official webpages has quite a few listed as well.

The following are some basic combos to give you an idea of the structure of what's available since you would rarely be able to execute one flawlessly because otherwise, it'll be a 100-0 combo. It'll be a basic sequence and then an explanation of the situation will follow. **Most combos require that the opponent's tab escape is down**. It's imperative that you learn each classes' tab escape animation because you can get counter played very easily otherwise.

**Common Aerial (PvP) (Requires Web)**

* Turning Leaf (Tab) -> Shadow Dash (1) -> Spinal Tap (1) -> Animation Cancel (RMB+LMB) x 3 - > Sweeping Gale (Tab) -> Volley (1) -or- Venom Swarm (4) -> Webbing (Tab)\* -> Set up mine, lotus of escape, and possibly smoke - walk behind the opponent -> Shadow Dash (1) -> Different stun/CC
	1. This is the most basic opener that has to be iFramed to be avoided which is quite difficult for many players. It's fairly reliable unless used when the opponent is immune to status effects ie: Detroyer's Typhoon AKA Red Spin
	2. Basic Shadow dash to get into stealth, with mobs, you can do a quick RMB+F combo before using Spinal Tap but it's not recommended against players unless you have very low latency. You will want a real stun on them immediately because while Turning Leaf has a minor CC effect, it's not a real stun and can be SS out of in a few moments.
	3. Animation cancelling - While you can potentially pull off three animation cancels in one Spinal Tap stun, it requires very low latency and cycling the anicancel twice is a safer option. Unless you know for a fact that you have low latency, settle for the safe option.
	4. Sweeping Gale knocks them up where they can't react with a Volley follow up for damage. You can use Venom Swarm before or after the volley. You can end the combo here afterwards with Thunderstruck but if you have the Focus and cooldowns, why not do more?
	5. Instead of ending an aerial status with Thunderstruck, you want to hit them with Webbing. It has to be timed so that it's before they hit the ground so that the game thinks they're in the air yet are on the ground. Confusing? Essentially, you're denying your opponent the ability to Retreat (F) when they hit the ground while at the same time, allowing yourself to use your ground based combos. Out of all the skills that the assassin has, there are two that can hit in the air at this range and you just used them. Webbing someone in the air limits your options.
	6. Once the opponent is webbed, you have a brief moment (4 seconds to be exact), to position yourself behind them, which is the number one priority, drop a lotus of escape if you didn't do so before, drop a smoke screen to replenish Focus, drop a mine under them so you can continue your combo.
	7. Shadow Dash
	8. ???
	9. Profit For a detailed breakdown of what's possible, refer to Supa Hot Vile's Infinite combo loop in his *Vile's Assassin PvP Guide for Beginners* also linked below. Memorized combos aren't as mandatory in PvE due to the enemy AI being quite static and non-reactionary which generally allows for a more free-form combat style. However, they're useful for practising PvP combos on as far as mechanics go but should not be trusted as a good representation of a human's reaction to a combo attack.

#### Common Stunlock (PvP)

* Start in stealth -> Spinal Tap -> Animation Cancel x2 -> Choke Bomb -> Close Shave -> Throw Dagger -> Lightning Rend (Stun) -> Animation Cancel x3 -> Close Shave -> Hook Kick -> Time Bomb -> Cyclone Sweep -> Backstep -> Turning Leaf -> Shadow Dash -> repeat
	1. This is just an example of a stun string, that then changes to a knockdown setup to allow you to re-position for a stealth re-entry, letting you start the cycle over again.
	2. There is a chance that people will be able to escape with Tab or some other escape move, which you can then follow with a "tech chase", where you follow their escape and cc them again.
	3. There are multiple different stuns that you can use to replace any of the stuns in the list or to extend the combo further. (Lotus Fury, Sidewinder, Bolt Strike) Manage your cooldowns accordingly.

## PvP Foundation Skills

**Opening**

There are various ways to open as an assassin and each one depends on the opponent's class. Using Blink Step (Dash/glide+RMB) towards a spinning class will often end in tears. Plan accordingly and it's best to watch other class guides on how to open versus assassins since it allows you to predict your opponent's actions.

**Animation Cancelling**

This is possible with Heart Stab (F1 T2+). Try hitting a mob with Mist Slash only and notice how long it takes in between attacks. Try hitting it with Heart Stab and Mist Slash without the 5 poison stacks or the stun and notice how long each attack takes. When the opponent has 5 stacks of poison or is stunned, dazed, or phantom gripped, Heart Stab will cast instantly. When a skill is cast instantly, it cancels the animation of the skill that was used before hand. In the right conditions, your animation cancel cycle should always start with a Mist Slash then Heart Stab (LMB+RMB) so that you gain some Focus back at the start of the cycle. As mentioned before, the most you can hope for with average latency is two cycles before they can potentially counter.

Note that Swiftstep dazes for 3 seconds and may allow you more cycles.

**Lotus of Escape (F1 T3)**

This is a very important skill that allows you to have an escape option but only when you're standing. You can't use this ability while in the air, phantom gripped, grabbed, or knocked down (can be used for the last 3 if you have F1 T5, which isn't in the current patch). **ALWAYS HAVE THIS SKILL PRIMED AND READY.**

**Webbing** (copied and pasted from the combo section)

Instead of ending an aerial status with Thunderstruck, you want to hit them with Webbing. It has to be timed so that it's before they hit the ground so that the game thinks they're in the air yet are on the ground. Confusing? Essentially, you're denying your opponent the ability to Retreat (F) when they hit the ground while at the same time, allowing yourself to use your ground based combos. Out of all the skills that the assassin has, there are two (unspecced) that can hit in the air at this range and you just used one of them. Webbing someone in the air limits your options.

Why bother with webbing? It's a useful tool that allows you to maintain control of the fight as well as buys you some time for your cooldowns to recover. Done properly and under the right conditions, any combo can turn into a kill combo because of proper web usage. In fact, it's so useful (except vs summoners) that virtually all assassins use it in pvp.

**Important Note:** Web can be escaped out of with the Tab Escape. This is something to be aware of, and possibly take advantage of. Not many players will tab escape simple stuns but quite a few are willing to blow one while webbed, provided they're on the ground.

**Escape**

It's important to use your Stealth (Tab) escape at the optimal times. Tab escaping when all your skills are on cooldown is generally wasteful and tab escaping a relatively harmless CC is doubly so. A destroyer grabbing you isn't as dangerous as their stun that leads to an animation cancel (which is arguably the most damaging out of all the classes). Here's some dangerous attacks that must be tab escaped immediately:

* Blade Dancer's **Soul Stab** - While phantom gripped, a blade will fly out from the BD and heads towards the back of your head. You can counter this with Slipping Lotus but it may be safer to tab escape because as soon as you're tagged with Soul Stab, they'll activate this skill called Blade Storm which would have a dozen or so blades fly around you and deal heavy damage over time (10k+), which coincidentally will also knock you out of stealth.
* Summoner's Cat's **Power Pounce** - While the cat is relatively harmless, you must watch out when you're knocked down because they can spec so that you're locked out from your Defense skills, *including* tab escape. This may or may not be a bug, but the result is an eternity of the cat clawing your face while the summoner unleashes their high damage projectiles.

For other classes, it varies with their talent trees and need to be observed accordingly. Avoid blowing your tab escape at the first thing that hits you unless you're sure it's something dangerous.

**Stealth in Arena**

As previously mentioned in the Stealth Section, the assassin is **not** completely invisible and produces a shimmer. It's important to learn in arena pvp to take advantage of enemy blind spots. While at a distance greater than 8 m, it becomes difficult, though *not impossible*, to accurately observe the assassin's location. However, when the stealthed assassin is behind the victim, the shimmer becomes irrelevant and you will not be noticed unless you attack in melee range. The ideal positioning while in stealth is behind a target, and slightly at a diagonal angle (about 30° - 60°) to their left or right, whichever you prefer or better yet, the opposite of what the opponent prefers if they get wise to you and have a tendency to swing one side. Most players, when they're attacked from behind will do a 180° and fire off a non-targetted attack which generally knocks you out of stealth. Being at an angle prevents this with most classes with the exception of the spinner classes since they don't need to aim to knock you out of stealth. Nonetheless, it's a good habit to be at this blind spot even when staying outside of melee range. Note that despite this being the ideal positioning in stealth, it's not priority one and should not supersede other actions such as attacking since it can fall under the "easier said than done" category.

**Class/Game Knowledge**

While important for all classes, it's mandatory for an assassin to do well in arena pvp. Being able to identify the subtleties between animations of each skill is essential to avoid using skills against an opponent that's immune. Some assassins complain that their tab escape gets resisted by a force master all the time or a summoner knocks them out of stealth very easily but fail to observe the sometimes subtle aoe buff spells they just used (Divine Veil and Petal Storm respectively). Here's a short list of things to watch out for:

* Blade Dancer - A sword spinning around them means they're immune to CC and damage for 5 seconds
* Destroyer - Blue glow means they're immune to CC and damage for 5 seconds
* Force Master & Kung Fu Master - Blue circle/snowball above their head means they'll trigger a self freeze that makes them immune
* Assassins - Smoke around their feet means they're immune to all projectiles
* Summoners - Very subtle petals falling in an area means you have 0% evade in stealth or decoy stance (the former being more important).
	+ Cat Bonus! - The cat glowing green and curled up in a ball will either have 90% reduced damage or heal while being hit.

## Notable Builds

### Permanent Stealth (PvE Build)

This is a simple build that allows the assassin to essentially safely traverse a dungeon without having to engage every enemy mob. This is mandatory when it comes to soloing dungeon content. While it's very effective for taking out bosses, note that later bosses start getting true sight. It's not a permanent effect but whenever it's on, they can and will attack you while you're in stealth. Remember that there's a flat 50% bonus to evasion which, if your evasion attribute is high enough, can translate to virtually 100% evasion rate while in stealth. For best results, you need high evasion and crit rate attributes.

**Key Ability Talents:**

* **Shadow Drain (Cyclone Sweep F3 T2)** - Allows the assassin to reset their stealth to six seconds when hitting a poisoned enemy. This means you need to use this ability at the last possible moment to maximize its effect. Hitting earlier wastes a lot of seconds that could have been used to remain in stealth but you need to be wary of the latency since you could possibly hit it too late and get unstealthed.
* **Shadow Dash (F1 T3+)** - Need the shorter cooldown (down to 6 from 9 seconds). Take T4 if you find yourself running low on focus frequently or have nowhere else to put a skill point in.
* **Smoke Screen (F3 T3)** - Restealth without any fuss. Not mandatory in of itself but is useful as an emergency escape if you can't use the other methods for getting back into stealth. Care should be taken since an assassin is unable to enter stealth using Smoke Screen if the Conspicuous debuff is active. You can receive this debuff from party members in the form of Enhanced Seed Shroud (Summoner party saver), Decoy (F2 T3+, Assassin party saver), and if you are within 3 meters of another assassin using Smoke Screen (F2 T2+, F3 T3).
* **Shadowless Step (F1 T2)** - Another skill that allows you to prolong your stealth duration. Investing 3 points isn't as important in PvE since blinding/deafening the target makes very little difference.
* **Lightning Rend (F3 T3)** - Lowers cooldown to 6 seconds and generates 3 focus. Mandatory because you'll run out of focus otherwise.
* **Lightning Pierce (Dark Strike F3 T2)** - Activates on critical hits with Heart Stab while in stealth. Decent damage and lowers cooldown of **Lightning Rend** by 3 seconds, 5 seconds vs targets with 5 stacks of poison.

The basic premise is to get into stealth, however you can Blink Step, Shadow Dash, etc; then Heartstab (RMB) + Lightning Pierce/Crash (F) mash and adding lightning rend after a cycle and then whenever the cooldown is up to maintain focus. Use Throwing Dagger (X) and then Shadow Drain (1) when the stealth duration is getting low (around 1 second, depending on your latency). RMB+F mash again, with the usual Lightning Rend addition, then use **Shadowless Step (3)** as the stealth duration is getting low, as before. Repeat the mash and towards the end, (around 2 seconds) jump away from the enemy (most likely a boss), turn around mid-air, and use Shadow Dash (1) as you get out of stealth. Mashing 1 is **not recommended** because Shadow Drain will usually end cooldown around this time but not before your stealth ends.

*Rinse and Repeat.*

When things go wrong, there are a variety of ways to restealth so don't panic.

* Make sure to poison the enemy, then use Hook Kick.
* Shadow Dance an attack
* Decoy an attack
* Shadow Dash another mob that's facing away from you, or one that can be hit with the regular Turning Leaf (Tab) and then Shadow Dash
* When all else fails, there's the trusty **Smoke Screen (F3 T3)** that requires only that you don't use it inside an aoe attack or unavoidable attack.

This build is viable in most situations, even in group play. For soloing dungeons, you need up to date and upgraded equipment or run the risk of getting knocked out of stealth by projectile attacks. The end-game dungeons, especially the four blue dungeons, are soloable with this build provided that you have the patience and equipment. The sole exception are bosses with enrage timers.

## Skills

Assassins hold a numerous amount of skills at their disposal to dictate the flow of any battle. Primary skills include ones to alter the location of both the assassin and their opponent, inflict various types of crowd control (CC) or area of effect (AoE) skills, and highly damaging single-target skills.

### Hongmoon Level Skills

Various skills require "Hongmoon training" to unlock the final stage of a skill. These range from completing a quest from a skill book, to earning it from unlocking a specific achievement.

* Mist Slash - Both branches are unlocked upon consuming the following items; Ocean Life Force, Deep Sea Kelp, Golden Honey, Fog Mushroom, Evil Spirit Root, and Hongmoon Pellet. They can be found off of several mobs just outside of Grand Harvest Square or around Soulstone plains. They can also be bought off the daily challenge store, achievement vendor as well as the PvP vendor. The Hongmoon Pellet can also be crafted through your Clan Workshop.
* Shadowslash - (3) T5 F2 is unlocked via PvP by buying the Royal Zen Bean. Branches 1, 3, and 4 are unlocked via a quest started from the Skill book: Shadow Slash which can be aqcuired from the Achievement Merchant or from a lucky drop at Bloodshade Harbor. The book required at the end of the quest line to finish the skill quest is unlocked by hitting 3 different bosses with the Shadow Slash skill 10 times; Steel Giant at Talus Dungeon, Angler Yeti at Avalanche Den, and Heavenpiercer at Sundered Nexus.
* Decoy - T5 F1 and T5 F2 can be learned by using the book Reclaimed HongMoon Skill Book 2 which is combined from Lost HongMoon Book Part 1, a rare drop from 4-man Avalanche Den final boss, and Lost HongMoon Book Part 2, which is a rare drop from 4-man Awakened Necropolis. T5 F3 is much harder to acquire and must be bought off the Achievement Merchant for 300 Reclaimed Pages.
* Heart Stab (RB) T5 F1 is acquired from consuming a Chilling Flame Elixir which is combined from an Asura Ember, a rare drop from 4-man Sogun's Lament Final boss, and Frozen Snow Jade which can be acquired from the Achievement Merchant and from the Cold Storage vendor for 120 Frozen Orb.
* Bombard (RB) T5 F2 is acquired from using the skill book Reclaimed Hongmoon Skill Book 3.

### Soul Badges

There are currently two skills that can be further enhanced by the use of soul badges, gained from trading in tokens earned through the Tower of Infinity. It costs 90 for normal players through the NPC in Mushin's Tower, or 70 for premium members through the dragon express shop.

* Lightning Stride - RMB will add the knockdown status for 3 seconds on hit.
* Shadow Dance - Q will add 5% health regeneration and 1 second of damage immunity on resist.

## Known Bugs/Issues

Like every game, there's a possibility of bugs and other issues. Here's a list of known bugs that affect the assassin class:

* **Turning Leaf (Tab) + Shadow Dash (1) Bugs**
	+ Perhaps the most well-known bug which is somewhat related to latency and positioning. It's commonly encountered when you tab switch an opponent in the arenas while they're still in the air. The game would then think they're still in mid air, which means they're not targettable by shadow dash which would then be the only skill that's unavailable. In fact, any lock-on skill that requires a target lock is disabled during this moment. This also happens occasionally while both characters are on the ground and the assassin would inexplicably be unable to use Shadow Dash. Note that while many classes, including the assassin, has **charge skill seal,** it's different from the bug itself.
	+ The other bug is likely more of a latency issue. If the assassin uses Turning Leaf and Shadow Dash in a rapid sequence, the assassin will dash towards the target but will fail to stealth. The game essentially thinks that the victim is still facing the other direction and will not activate stealth. As such, it's a good habit to wait brief moment before shadow dashing towards the target. This affects both players and mobs alike.

## Media

### Screenshots

The following screenshots were taken from the character creation screen at NA launch in 2016.

* Jin Assassin Female
* Jin Assassin Male

The following screenshots were taken from Blade & Soul's G-Star 2010 trailer.

* Female Jin Assassin
* Male Jin Assassin fighting an unknown creature
* Male Jin Assassin fighting a Gon Male Destroyer
* An Assassin raining down shurikens on his enemy.

### Videos

The Assassin class is shown at approximately 1 minute and 57 seconds into the following video.

* The Blast skill is shown being cast at approximately 2 minutes 18 seconds into the following video (the explosion, not the invisible affect).

## Trivia

* The Dodge skill shares similar qualities (both visually and in use) as a Displacement use moved in the Japanese Manga/Anime, **Naruto** (They get away with it because this ability is commonly associated with ninjas, but the animation is too similar to ignore).
* Assassin and Blade Master share a few skills that are similar.
* The word assassin comes from *hashishin* which was originally used to refer to a secret order who conducted politically motivated murder.

## Guides and Resources

* **Supa Hot Vile's Assassin PvP Guide for beginners** - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meoZasc84O8 - In-depth video guide with explanation on what works and what doesn't as well as video examples
* **Yuketsu's PvP Guide -** https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FQPf1drgC-aacGBitT6QAFqAQpPZo\_b6sQQEd1iugj0/ - In-depth google doc guide that has a breakdown of each skill as well as some very useful tips for each match up. Make sure to make a copy of the file since it's usually busy and being read by many users.

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