The Red Templar archer dies, a precise dagger in the darkness aimed no higher than her target’s throat. No sound is made by either party. Argent’s presence appears behind her next victim. One by one the corrupted Templar fall on the stockade. The Orlesian lady-human has never worked for an organization like the Inquisition, this is a first.
Dragon Age Inquisition’s multiplayer offers the Assassin as one of the unlockable playable rogue classes. This duel-wield dagger operative excels in rapid massive single target damage. Due to her leather wearing and melee range, the Argent is also quite squishy. Her abilities give her a slew of deceptive, evasive, and stealth get always though. If you have aggro on you, the Assassin has ways of dropping it in a flash while moving onto the next target.
With that said, let’s look at these abilities.
Assassination:
Tier 1:
Twin Fangs – 2 hits, 200% damage per hit, 200% bonus, 8 secs cooldown, 50 sta
- -Ripping Bonus – sunders and does 100% more damage if flanking
Tier 2:
Hidden Blades – 3 hits, 300% damage, 32 secs cooldown, 65 sta
- -Overkill – -4 secs cooldown, 3 more hits
First Blood – 15% damage bonus over 80% health, +3 Dex
Shadow Strike – 400% damage after not being damaged for 5 secs, 200% stealth bonus, 16 secs cooldown, 50 sta
- -Quick Blade – -10 sta, -4 secs cooldown
Tier 3:
Cull the Herd – Do 50% damage to isolated targets, +3 Cun
Mercy Killing – Auto crit on sleeping and panicked foes, +3 Cun
Deadly – +5 Dex, +4 Cun
Tier 4:
Cripple – 50% speed reduction when attacking from behind, 3 secs duration, +3 Dex
Cheap Shot – Your crits sunder armor for 6 secs, +3 Cun
Looked Like it Hurt – crits regen sta, +3 Cun
Tier 5:
Throatcutter – 2% more damage on foe per 10% missing HP, +3 Dex
Unforgiving Chain – each hit increases crit rate by 1% until you crit, +3 Dex
Bloodied Prey – 10% more damage to foes with less HP than you, +3 Cun
Tier 6:
Spinning Blades – 5 hits, 75% damage, 16 secs cooldown, 65 sta
- -Neverending Spin – 4 more hits
Sneak Attack – flanking improves crit chance by 1-%, +3 Cun
Deathblow – 200% damage, 3% damage per 1% missing under 50%, 8 secs cooldown, 50 sta
- -Thrill of Victory – 100% damage and if kill, no cooldown
Stalker:
Tier 1:
Stealth – invisible, damage bonus 50%, last 30 secs, 24 cooldown, 20 sta
- -Lost in the Shadows – no activation time on stealth
Tier 2:
Hook and Tackle – pull self towards enemy you, 12 secs cooldown, 20 sta
- It Beats Walking -costs no sta and has no cooldown time
Ambush – attacks penetrate 50% armor for 6 seconds after stealth, +3 Dex
Evade – leap away, 2 secs cooldown, 20 sta
- -Hidden Step – leave damaging clone, 3 secs cooldown, 300% damage
Tier 3:
Bloodthirst – move 50% faster when within 10 meters of enemies under 35% HP, 10% crit bonus, +3 Con
Easy to Miss – 25% threat reduction, 100% when flanking, +3 Cun
Evasion – 5% dodge chance, +3 Dex
Tier 4:
Knife in the Shadows – Always crti out of stealth, +3 Dex
Flank Attack – puts you behind target, 2 hits for 200% damage, 8 secs cooldown, 35 sta
- -Skirmisher – become stealth at end of attack
Dance of Death – kills grant 50 sta, +3 con
Poisoned Weapons – apply poison for 10 secs, 25% weapon damage per sec, last 8 secs, 24 secs cooldown, 20 sta
- Infected Wounds – -25% more poison damage
Explosive Toxin – kills explode in a toxic cloud for 8 secs, 3 meters, 50% weapon damage per sec, +3 Dex
Tier 5:
I was Never Here – refresh Stealth cooldown after any kill, +3 Dex
Fallback Plan – tether that ports you back to it, 15 secs duration, 32 secs cooldown, 35 sta
- -Bait and Switch – 5 more secs duration
Fighting Dirty – Sunder and poison effects last 25% longer, +3 Dex
Much like the Archer, the Assassin excels in wickedly awesome passive abilities that make her skills even deadlier. From the Assassination tree, these skills stand out: First blood, Cull the Herd, Cheap Shot, Looked Like it Hurt, Throat Cutter, Bloodied Prey, and Sneak Attack. Then from Stalker, you can rock: Ambush, Easy to Miss, Knife in the Shadows, and I Was Never Here. These passives mixed with Stealth’s ‘Lost in the Shadows,’ opens up deadly combos and murder (I’ll get to that). These skills allow the Assassin to deal tons of damage then slip back into the shadows unnoticed.
For abilities, I go Stealth, Shadow Strike, Flank Attack, and Deathblow. There are plenty of other good set ups, but this one appeals to me. The huge downside to this is that you have to go to the bottom of both trees which makes you miss some of those key Assassin passive abilities. The passives I go for are the abilities that buff you right after stealth. With the Stealth and I was Never Here combo you can target weaker targets, stealth, murder the next weak target, rise and repeat. You do SO much damage out of stealth with these passives that you become a murder machine. Looked like it Hurt keeps your stamina and First Blood up this DPS. Shadow Strike and Deathblow allow you to finish targets quickly to re-stealth and Shadow Strike gives you a free stealth when no other option is over. You should NEVER have aggro.
I’ve seen Assassin’s played in all sorts of ways. If you dedicate yourself to Twin Fangs and ditch Deathblow, you can grab a few more passives that your forced to pass on otherwise – Deathblow is just too delicious in my eyes. Combine Deathblow with Throatcutter and you’ll have no trouble finishing off the larger, harder, and massive HP opponents in the game. It may not instant kill bosses but it will chuck them under 50%. On top of all this, the stealth gameplay is just fun to me. It’s a bit more technical than say just auto-attacking as the archer – but that keeps me more interested in the long run.
Best of luck in the shadows.
