New KR Assassin patchnotes

[Ch4oskn1ght]

Hi fellow Assassins,

 

Here are the new KR patchnotes for our lovely class. As i have read the changes are tested on the testserver and not written in stone so some things could change when we get them. They release content so fast so we could get these changes in maybe 2 months?!?

 

Here the new Skill Shadow Rush which can only be used on grappeled enemys:

https://youtu.be/OAeajLwP1Hg

 

What do you thing? They changed the stealth mechanic and other things so we cant refresh stealth kicks and other skills cd. Maybe this will affect our pvp combos? I hope lightning Stride will get a really  mad dmg boost with 5 stacks if they double the cd.

 

Spiral Tap (LB)
– Other skills can be chained quickly to this skill
– remove effect of “reducing CD of Shadow Drain”
– base: remove effect of “stack 1 Poison on Stunned target”
–  Tier 1 Stage 1: add effect – Stack 1 Poison
– Tier 2 Stage 1: remove effect – penetrate Defense, Deflect; add effect – induce 2 x Stun
– Tier 2 Stage 1: CD is changed to 30 sec
– current Stage 2: effect is shifted to Stage 3
– Tier 2 Stage 2:  add effect – penetrate Defense, Deflect
– Tier 3 Stage 2: AoE of changed to a 3m circle around the caster
– Tier 2 Stage 3: CD is changed to 6 sec
– Tier 2 Stage 3: damage increase
– Tier 3 Stage 3: damage increase

Bombard (RB)
– Tier 3 Stage 2: damage increase
– Tier 4 Stage 2: the effect of “Next Bombard cost 2 less Focus on critical hit” is changed to “Generate 2 Focus on critical hit”
– Tier 5 Stage 2: the effect of “deal additional damage on enemies with 5 stacks of Poison” is changed to “deal additional damage on enemies with Poison”.

Lightning Stride (RB)
– will not dispel Poison status on hit
–  add effect: deal additional damage on enemies with 5 stacks of Poison
– add effect: refresh Poison status on enemies with 5 stacks of Poison
– CD is changed to 60 sec

Decoy (2)
– remove effect : reduce CD of Hook Kick (TAB) on Counter
– Tier 3 Stage 1: remove effect – create a 5% HP Barrier for 10sec when no attack is counter
– Tier 4 Stage 1: effect is shifted to Tier 3 Stage 1
– Tier 4 Stage 1: learn new skill, Protective Decoy
– other skills can be chained quickly to this skill on Counter
–  Stage 2: current effect removed

Shadow Dash (1)
– remove effect: reduce CD of Hook Kick (TAB) on entering Stealth
– Tier 3 Stage 1: effect is moved to Tier 2 Stage 1
– Tier 4 Stage 1: effect is moved to Tier 3 Stage 1
– Tier 4 Stage 1: removed

Side Winder (1)
– remove effect: reduce CD of Hook Kick (TAB) on entering Stealth
– Stage 2: shifted to Stage 3
– Stage 3: unable to apply Stun combo
– new Stage 2 skill path

Cyclone Sweep (1)
– base : CD is changed to 24 sec
– base: AoE is changed to 4m
– Tier 2 Stage 1: effect is moved to Tier 1 Stage 1
– Tier 2 Stage 1: add effect – induce Daze for 3 sec
– other skills can be chained quickly to this skill
– Tier 2 Stage 1: new skill – “Shadow Dive”

Shadow Drain (1)
– Tier 2 Stage 3: CD is changed to 12  sec
– Tier 2 Stage 3: add effect – Enter Stealth for 9 sec after hitting enemies with Poison status; Stack 1 Poison on enemies with Poison status

Time Bomb (2) 
– base : CD is changed to 45 sec
– Stage 1: unable to apply Daze, Knockdown combo

Slash Slash (3)
– Tier 3 Stage 3: CD is changed to 18 sec
– Tier 5 Stage 3: AoE is changed to 10m
– Stage 3: unable to apply Knockdown combo

Venom Slash (3)
– Tier 5 Stage 4: the effect of “inflict 1 stack of Poison” and “can be cast once more on critical hit” is changed to “inflict 2 stacks of Poison”

Bolt Strike (3)
– Tier 3 Stage 1: effect is removed
– Base, Stage 1: unable to apply Stun combo
– New Stage 2 skill path
– Bolt Strike can be used to cancel other skills
– It cannot be canceled before the damage is applied

Poison Breath (4)
– Tier 1 Stage 1: its effect is stacked faster
– Tier 3 Stage 1: increase damage

Choke Bomb (4)
– CD is changed to 45 sec

Plaguemist (4)
– removed

Poison Breath, Venom Swarm, Choke Bomb (4)
– can be used to cancel other skills

Lightning Rend (4)
– Base, Stage 1: Stun effect cannot be combo with other cc skills
– Stage 2: CD is changed to 12 sec

Landmine (Z)
– Base, Stage 1: unable to apply Knockdown, Daze combo

Swiftstep (F)
– Base: induce 2 x Daze
– Tier 1 Stage 1: induce 2 x Knockdown

Sneak Attack (X)
– can be learned at Throwing Dagger (X) Stage 1 Tier 1
– Tier 2 Stage 1: unable to apply Daze combo

Throwing Dagger (X): other skills can be chained quickly to this skill

Lotus Fury, Lotus Kick (C)
– can be used to cancel other skills
– other skills can be chained quickly to this skill

Fighting Spirit (V)
– Tier 5 Stage 4: the additional damage of Dark Strike (F), Lighting Pierce (F), Lightning Rend (4) is changed from 100% to 300% attack power.

Stomp ( F > TAB)
– the shortcut key is changed from F to TAB
– Tier 1 Stage 1: enter Stealth for 6 sec when hitting enemies with Poison status
– Tier 2 Stage 1: Generate 3 Focus when entering Stealth successfully

Flash Kick (TAB)
– Tier 2 Stage 2: increase damage
– Stage 3: Webbing skill path is removed (but the skill is still there)

 

Venom Pierce (RB)
– trigger condition is changed to successful Counter with Decoy (2) and on critical hit with Dark Strike (F)

Hook Kick (TAB)
– CD is changed to 9 sec
– add effect: inflict 1 stack of Poison on enemies with Poisoned status
– other skills can be chained quickly to this skill

Lightning Pierce (F)
– Tier 3 Stage 2: trigger condition is changed to “on hit with Heart Stab (RB)”
– Tier 3 Stage 2: cannot cast Lightning Crash (F) after learning
– Tier 3 Stage 2: remove Focus consumption
– Tier 3 Stage 2: inflict 1 stack of Poison
– Tier 3 Stage 2: the effect of “deal additional damage to Poisoned target” is changed to “deal additional damage to target with 5 stacks of Poison)

Awakened Dark Strike (F)
– trigger condition is changed to “on hit with Heart Stab (RB)”
– increase damage

Awakened Lighting Pierce (F)
– increase damage

Shadow Kick (TAB)
– other skills can be chained quickly to this skill
– can be used to cancel other skills

Guard Break (RB)
– unable to apply Stun combo

Highwire Act (X), Pull Highwire Cord (V)
– unable to aply Knock down, Dazecombo

[Minity SN]

sounds to me like a big nerf in our CC and increase in CDs.... they buffed our Chi uptime, but i never had problems with them and now i have infinite with HM rmb....

its definatly not a buff i would say, im not excited to have it implemented :( but i hope im wrong here. Only weird thing is 100% DMG increase to 300%, sounds like our V will do 4x dmg on our dark/light strike?? isnt that a little too much xD? 100-0 with a few hits? I hope the bombard DMG increase is alot, finaly we may AoE PvE :)

[Shiune]

A Nerf? 

 

For PvP it's mainly a buff because of reduced cooldowns, more aoe stuns and faster animation canceling with C, X shuriken, spinal tab etc. 

Only downside: Lightning stride to run away and buy time is pretty much useless. 

Upside on the new lighting stride: you will definitely want to use it in your animation canceling combo with 5 poison stacks because it is a damn strong combo ability now. 

For example (web - lighting rod - RB+LMB 1-2 times -  SS+Lighting stride - close shaved - and then continue with your normal animation canceling combo). 

 

As for PvE it's a huge dps buff for dark and lightning build because of several reasons:

1 hit CCs (daze/kd and stun), longer stealth (9 sec), even better and faster way to stack poison, lighting stride is amazing with its 5 poison resets (we have 3 resets now) and more damage with fighting spirit. 

 

Also no fighting spirit won't give us 100% or 300% more damage on dark strike etc.

Instead it gives us 100%/300% damage based on our attack power. 

Means if you have for example 600 AP and make 10k damage you will do 10,6k with 100% or 11,8k with 300% fighting spirit. 

 

 

Oh and I forgot the biggest downside:

PvE SINs will flood arena because of longer stealths and more damage without any downside... this actually makes me sad a bit.

[Shadovvv]

I'm pretty pleased that we can freely control Stealth Protection. We need to block stuff but we also need to protect the party too. And both just go off at the same time.

4 hours ago, Ch4oskn1ght said:

– Stage 3: Webbing skill path is removed (but the skill is still there)

Webbing was not removed, the 16 meter range that no one cared about was. It's just a mistranslation on Freedomplay's part.

1 hour ago, Minity SN said:

sounds to me like a big nerf in our CC and increase in CDs.... they buffed our Chi uptime, but i never had problems with them and now i have infinite with HM rmb....

its definatly not a buff i would say, im not excited to have it implemented :( but i hope im wrong here. Only weird thing is 100% DMG increase to 300%, sounds like our V will do 4x dmg on our dark/light strike?? isnt that a little too much xD? 100-0 with a few hits? I hope the bombard DMG increase is alot, finaly we may AoE PvE :)

It's not a true nerf given that Spinal Tap and Swiftstep now function as double CC, ease of usability. We can pretty much have no reason to take Sidewinder, Cyclone Sweep, Sneak Attack Daze, Lotus Kick, and so forth in PvE anymore unless its Tower of Infinity or Mushin's Tower.

 

Hongmoon Fighting Spirit says "Attack Power as Additional Damage," which translates to "Dark Strike/Lightning Pierce/Lightning Rod Damage + (AP # x 3)". For example you have 500 AP and you hit 10k with Dark Strike, only the AP listed gets added onto the damage; 10,000 + (500 x 3) = 11,500. If it were actually 3x our damage it'd be extremely overpowered; a single stun would instantly one shot in arena.

 

I sincerely doubt Bombard damage increase would be enough to compensate the loss of Dark Strike/Lightning Pierce.

[Ch4oskn1ght]

And we can use Venom Pierce on crit with RB. So the HM LB will be useless and we can take the left tree for more crits?

[Shiune]

14 minutes ago, Ch4oskn1ght said:

And we can use Venom Pierce on crit with RB. So the HM LB will be useless and we can take the left tree for more crits?

You have to crit with Dark Strike but yes basically you can use the left tree from there on. 

You'll miss a bit dmg on LMB then because you are missing the damage on poisoned enemys but a guaranteed RB crit after LB crit is better anyway. 

[Ch4oskn1ght]

Oh i missread it. I thought you have to crit with RB and not Dark Strike. But like you said. This will be better anyway since we can stay only 10 seconds with Fighting Spirits 100% critrate and so we have twice the chance to crit with RB.

[Ceralune]

So excited about this patch. Already seeing things that I can't wait to have. But I am confused about some things...

 

5 hours ago, Shadovvv said:

I'm pretty pleased that we can freely control Stealth Protection. We need to block stuff but we also need to protect the party too. And both just go off at the same time.

Webbing was not removed, the 16 meter range that no one cared about was. It's just a mistranslation on Freedomplay's part.

I sincerely doubt Bombard damage increase would be enough to compensate the loss of Dark Strike/Lightning Pierce.

When I saw the phrasing "learn new skill, Protective Decoy," my first thought was that it sounds like a version of our current Decoy Party Protect... but what exactly is different about this one? How do we control it?

 

Really happy about the mistranslation on Webbing. I thought they meant it was removed entirely. Good to know it's only the useless range that got removed.

 

My gut tells me that Bombard will still be useless, but as I know nothing about Bombard I really don't know what to think about that one.

 

Also thank goodness Stomp is no longer on F. That Stealth time doesn't hurt either.

[Shadovvv]

I wonder what the new Sidewinder Tier 2, Shadow Dive, and Bolt Strike tree effects do...

 

Also why are they keeping Spinal Tap damage tree and Flash Kick? No one ever used them and they're still inferior to other effects.

33 minutes ago, Ceralune said:

When I saw the phrasing "learn new skill, Protective Decoy," my first thought was that it sounds like a version of our current Decoy Party Protect... but what exactly is different about this one? How do we control it?

Basically it's Enhanced Seed Shroud activated on 2 -> 2. Before it was attached on our normal Decoy so that meant it went off when we needed to block or proc Swiftstep, now we can activate the Stealth Protect at any time we want.

 

That said I don't know if they changed any of the effects.

[XianRen]

1 hour ago, Ceralune said:

So excited about this patch. Already seeing things that I can't wait to have. But I am confused about some things...

 

When I saw the phrasing "learn new skill, Protective Decoy," my first thought was that it sounds like a version of our current Decoy Party Protect... but what exactly is different about this one? How do we control it?

 

Really happy about the mistranslation on Webbing. I thought they meant it was removed entirely. Good to know it's only the useless range that got removed.

 

My gut tells me that Bombard will still be useless, but as I know nothing about Bombard I really don't know what to think about that one.

 

Also thank goodness Stomp is no longer on F. That Stealth time doesn't hurt either.

Bombard will still be useless because it doesn't actually work with either build:

 

Lightning Build - Bombard breaks stealth and it doesn't look like that was changed.  It also does no proc lightning pierce.

Dark Build - It doesn't proc Dark Strike

Without one of those two things changing, that skill will never see the light of day unless it is buffed into an insane level of brokenly OP damage output.

 

It's a shame too it would solve two problems for sin at once.  Namely poison stacking and lack of aoe. 

[Ceralune]

4 minutes ago, XianRen said:

Bombard will still be useless because it doesn't actually work with either build:

 

Lightning Build - Bombard breaks stealth and it doesn't look like that was changed.  It also does no proc lightning pierce.

Dark Build - It doesn't proc Dark Strike

Without one of those two things changing, that skill will never see the light of day unless it is buffed into an insane level of brokenly OP damage output.

 

It's a shame too it would solve two problems for sin at once.  Namely poison stacking and lack of aoe.

Haha, makes sense, it's just I feel like every time I see patch notes for sin they always involve a Bombard buff. Pity it never matters. xD

 

@Shadovvv Oh okay, that makes sense. So you press 2 twice to activate it? That does sound much more flexible than the current arrangement.

[XianRen]

25 minutes ago, Shadovvv said:

Also why are they keeping Spinal Tap damage tree and Flash Kick? No one ever used them and they're still inferior to other effects.

 

I use the spinal tap damage tree with my dark build when I don't need the stun.

 

I am more concerned with the huge CD nerf (333% increase?!?) on spinal tap.  I feel like that might ruin my preferred playstyle..

[Shadovvv]

42 minutes ago, XianRen said:

Bombard will still be useless because it doesn't actually work with either build:

Lightning Build - Bombard breaks stealth and it doesn't look like that was changed.  It also does no proc lightning pierce.
Dark Build - It doesn't proc Dark Strike

Without one of those two things changing, that skill will never see the light of day unless it is buffed into an insane level of brokenly OP damage output.

It's a shame too it would solve two problems for sin at once.  Namely poison stacking and lack of aoe. 

They should have just made Bombard an AoE build by reducing Landmine and Poison Breath cooldown on hit or crit hit, along with not kicking us out of stealth.

 

We've got new ways to reset poison and add poison, so we shouldn't ever run out of poisons stacks, so that's out of the window for Bombard.

21 minutes ago, XianRen said:

I use the spinal tap damage tree with my dark build when I don't need the stun.

I am more concerned with the huge CD nerf (333% increase?!?) on spinal tap.  I feel like that might ruin my preferred playstyle..

But Dark Strike/Lightning Pierce do more damage and even more on CC'd targets, and Hongmoon Heart Stab instantly procs the two. I still don't see where Spinal Tap damage is useful.

 

I think the middle tree functions exactly like our current Spinal Tap with 9 second cooldown. It has an AoE too, so it's useful in the Summoner/3v3 matchup.

[XianRen]

7 hours ago, Shadovvv said:

 

But Dark Strike/Lightning Pierce do more damage and even more on CC'd targets, and Hongmoon Heart Stab instantly procs the two. I still don't see where Spinal Tap damage is useful.

 

I think the middle tree functions exactly like our current Spinal Tap with 9 second cooldown. It has an AoE too, so it's useful in the Summoner/3v3 matchup.

It's more a matter of, if you don't NEED the stun, why not have twice the damage on the skill you use to bail from stealth for dark build?  At least that is why i run it occasionally.

 

I sure hope you are right about the middle tree.  If they just smacked the shit outta the cd on the stun and left it I would feel kinda shoehorned into the permastealth type build, which I really hate.

[Ch4oskn1ght]

Spiral Tab will now have a pve and pvp tree and will be semi buffed.

Now you get 1 poison stack even if you dont stun the enemy. This should be applied on every tier too.

 

Stage 1 tree will be for pve cause it doesnt take you out of stealth (fully skilled) and has 30 sec cd because of the double stun i think.

Stage 2 tree will be for pvp. defence penetration, more aoe and 9 seconds cd.

Stage 3 will be pve. just dmg and low cd. no stun.

[Minity SN]

if its 300% AP dmg increase on our V HM skill, then it sounds to me that I dont need it ? I was saving money for the HM item to get it.. and for PvP HM skills are not used (?) since we only need to put 1 point in the tree

[Shadovvv]

38 minutes ago, Minity SN said:

if its 300% AP dmg increase on our V HM skill, then it sounds to me that I dont need it ? I was saving money for the HM item to get it.. and for PvP HM skills are not used (?) since we only need to put 1 point in the tree

I currently sit at 631 AP, multiply that by three means every hit of Dark Strike, Lightning Pierce, and Lightning Rod deals an additional 1,893 damage.

• My Dark rotation fits at least one Dark Strike per second and one Lightning Rod in total, or 11 damage procs. 1,893 x 11 = 20,823 additional damage.
• My Lightning rotation likewise at least fits a Lightning Pierce and Rod every second, or 20 damage procs. 1,893 x 20 = 37,860 additional damage.

These numbers add up to significant amounts. An additional 21k/38k damage every 80 seconds would definitely be worth getting.

[Moistz]

what does it mean by double stun?

[Ch4oskn1ght]

13 minutes ago, Moistz said:

what does it mean by double stun?

You dont have to stun bosses like yeti two times to actually stun them like it was till now. Just 1 Spiral Tab will do the job.

[Minity SN]

then why not simply remove these double stun mechanic...

[XianRen]

22 minutes ago, Minity SN said:

then why not simply remove these double stun mechanic...

Some classes have access to more stuns than others (and in the case of Sin, all ours are conditional), this was probably taking that into consideration.

[Shadovvv]

June 15 Test Update

Quote

Bolt Strike (3)
– Stage 2: skill path removed

Shadow Drain (1)
– remove effect: inflict 1 stack of Poison
– the Stealth duration after hitting poisoned target is reduced from 9 sec to 6 sec

Hook Kick (TAB)
– CD is changed to 12 sec
– revert the skill chaining time (which was updated on 10th June)

Sidewinder (1)
– Stage 2: CD is changed to 12 sec

Lightning Stride (RB)
– the new effect (updated on 10th June) is moved to Tier 1 Stage 1
– Tier 1 Stage 1: CD cannot be refreshed

Lightning Pierce (F)
– remove effect: Inflict 1 stack of Poison
– remove effect: deal additional damage on target with 5 stacks of Poison
– increase base damage
– Focus consumption is changed to 1
– remove effect: deal additional damage on grabbed, phantom gripped target

Dark Strike (F)
– remove effect: deal additional damage on grabbed, phantom gripped target

Venom Pierce (RB)
– add trigger requirement: when Lightning Pierce (F) crit

Plaguemist (4)
– restore the skill path

Spinal Tap (LB)
– revert the skill chaining time (which was updated on 10th June)

Lotus Fury, Lotus Kick (C)
– revert the skill chaining time (which was updated on 10th June)

Cyclone Sweep (1)
– unable to apply Knockdown, Daze combo

Landmine (Z)
– Base, Stage 1: able to apply Knockdown, Daze combo

Heart Stab (RB)
– Tier 2 Stage 1: the effect of “instantly cast on Stunned, Dazed, Grabbed, Phantom Gripped target” is changed to “instantly cast on Stunned, Dazed target”

Mist Slash (LB)
– Tier 5 Stage 1: the effect of “next Heart Stab (RB) has guaranteed critical hit on crit” is changed to “can cast Dark Strike (F) on crit”

Shadow Dance (Q)
– Tier 2 Stage 1: the effect of “next Heart Stab (RB) has guaranteed critical hit on resist” is changed to “increase 30% movement speed for 6 sec on resist”

Stealth (TAB)
– Tier 3 Stage 1: Escape from Frost Prison

Stomp (TAB)
– CD is changed to 30 sec

A whole bunch of reversions, encouragement of the new skill, and some nerfs here and there.

[Ceralune]

Hmm, looks like we kept the important changes though... imo just the fact that we keep new Lightning Strike and Venom Slash, and our new double ccs, are enough for me haha. Keeping the cooldown reductions on Shadow Drain and Hook Kick (in comparison to how they are now) are nice too.

 

Not sure how I feel about that Mist Slash change. Opinions?

 

Aaaaand back to not caring about Lightning Pierce.

 

Also, somewhat offtopic question - How many changes do these sorts of things usually go through before we actually get them, if anyone knows? Never really scrutinized a game's test server changes before.

[XianRen]

I was really hoping the poison stacking on lightning pierce would make it through. 

 

The change to S1T5 Mist Slash kinda...makes me sad.  Heart Stab crit already gave us access to dark strike, so this change works as a small nerf as now we may not get the crit on hear stab.

[Shadovvv]

then why not simply remove these double stun mechanic...

In future dungeons there are bosses with more than 2 CC bars. As XianRen said all our CCs have conditions tacked onto them so it can be very hard for us to CC at times.

10 hours ago, XianRen said:

I was really hoping the poison stacking on lightning pierce would make it through. 

The change to S1T5 Mist Slash kinda...makes me sad.  Heart Stab crit already gave us access to dark strike, so this change works as a small nerf as now we may not get the crit on hear stab.

Lightning Pierce poison stacking is still there. It just procs Venom Pierce so it's once every 8 seconds as opposed to every single hit. I do think poison stacking on every single hit and 9 second Shadow Drain stealth was pretty extreme.

 

With both Dark Strike and Lightning Pierce, as well as the entire duration of Decoy, procing Venom Pierce, the Stage 2 Tier 5 Mist Slash that procs Venom Pierce has been obsoleted.

The effect change to Stage 1 is a gigantic nerf as Heart Stab crit already proc'd Dark Strike and the loss of more crits severely affects our damage output. Especially in arena where our main damage is LB-RB and we take Close Shave over Dark Strike there.