Epic stories, big epeens - ep.3 blast from the past

As 1.6 draws near I often think about the old days and how aoc has progressed and how it will do so in the near future. Here are some random snipets of Assassin and Age of Conan past that were quite memorable for me.

#5 purple candy

Did you know that aoc used to have world drops? Yep, you could be grinding on 80lvl mobs and boom - a rare purple item drops which would sell for good coin. The world drops were removed after the infamous incident with Potain's demons. Basically those demons (very easy to kill) were dropipng blues and epic at alarming rate. I mean it: epic drop every 2-3 demons! People got their pockets stuffed with epics and great stuff was selling on trader for 2-3g gold (right now: 150-200g). I personally have given away atleast 2 epic items and got both 2 x scorpion's pray and 2 x widow's pain daggers. If you see those on trader now you can be 100% sure that those are being sold by a returning player who got them off those demons. I wish, OH I WISH I have had the foresight to keep those epic items and let them accumulate value. Me = sux. See the article on this "event" on massively.com

#4 THIS GUY!

#3 http://www.aocassassin.com

Aocassassin.com was a forum dedicated soley to assassin class and believe it or not it was quite active. There was a lot of "insider" information being posted on that site and it was "a place to be" for all assassin fans. Sadly the creator of the forums got very angry with FC (man, I have been there..) and closed down the site with this statement: "THANK YOU FAILCOM". Well, it was fun ride while it lasted..

#2 ZOMG! You look like ninja!

In the very first couple of months people were wondering what the end game is like. Back then assassins were wearing RAGS straight from 1 to 80 lvl so our outfits had very little to do with ninjas. Then came the Sniff with his screenshot that showed his 80lvl assassin geared up with midnight set (without the hood). This screen was passed around like there was no tomorrow, everyone wanted to look like this. In order to get this set you had to kill camp bosses in epic Kesh instance. The bosses were a little bugged so you could pull the boss without the adds. Right now no one wears this set because it has very crappy stats and it is a pain to get. I still keep it in my bank thou..

#1 Gem era

Not only the AOC did not reward pvp in any way (no pvp xp or gear) but you also had to suffer through THIS bullshit. I think the most players in aoc history left because of this exploit. Also - it took forever for FC to fix it and what they did was nerfing the gems to the point that there was no reason to use them no more.

As we prepare to embrace it

I would like to share a little story about a games I have had recently. The post will cover few things about Assassin in group pvp scenarios.

First of all the map was Blood Ravine (CTF) with probably random vs random teams. There were still 4 assassins in the game so I would say it was fairly balanced and close to what we will be seeing on live (at least for several weeks after 1.6 goes live)

I was sporting hybrid build with full pvp set. Most people in game were wearing t2 or mixed t2 and pvp gear.

Here was I have noticed:

From the Darkness

with new FTD assassins are very mobile. I was able to do "the superman" throughout the whole game. This has greatly limited the effectiveness of rangers which used to really heavily on their ability to kill us before we could "close the deal" so to speak.

Multi-cc

Instead of having "survival" feats I have found great comfort in being able to dish about multiple CC on several targets. You are in the shit when both Barb and HoX got you rooted and smacking around. Kick the barb to send him flying and 1 s later tab to select Hox and fear him up with Gaze. As you are "legging it" a little smash on the skull with Opportunistic Strike so Ranger won't molest you. It felt great to be able to survive such nasty scenario.

Accelerated

I simply love it. Not only the speed buff makes you feel like ninja, it also negates most snares. It doesn't really mater if you are snared for -30% if you are buffed for +45% at the same time. It also allowed me to cross the map in few seconds and join the fight much faster than I should be able when re spawning on res pad. It got me out of sticky situation to "live to fight another day" a couple times already.

Flag running while speed buffed? Hell yeah!

Avatar of Death + Dull Pain + Cats Paw

This was probably my best combat experience in AOC so far. I got trapped on the bridge between spell weaving Demo and HoX. Of Course I should melt instantly under that kind of damage and jumping down would probably make things worst (crippled debug, still within reach of demo). So I went  AOD>Lotus Extract>Dull Pain>Cats Paw and closed with the hox. It was like 10s of god mode with not a single hit doing jack-shit against me. Needless to say I have plowed through both hox and the demo.

The showdown

 I have ended up loosing that game on kills with 15/10 which gave me 1st place. The other 5 first places were taken all by opposing team members and the rest was my team. This is something that was unattainable in 1.5 when your performance was directly connected with how well your team was performing. It other words: you did great in great games and got slaughtered when the game was going down the shitter.

If your team had the upper hand you could get "kill-steals" with your partner "tanking" the damage and you unloading biggest guns. Right now people die fast enough to actually allow you a time frame for a quick escape. You can sprint/FTD the marauders. As you can see from the shot there were two other assassins on my team which shows that assassin performance is mainly player related and secondly - class related. It is very easy to get a lot of kills when your team is whooping the opponents (even more easy for current assassin with such an amazing dps) and what is not easy is getting those kills even as your team is vastly out-gunned on the field. That I like.

Speed is of the essence

I have learned the hard way that active debugging (lethargy upg., atrophy) should be left to pve side of things. In PVP it is all about the damage output and CCs. When trying the builds I would rather go for damage synergy(one feat affecting the other one) than for stuff that will make you survive more. This creates this unique "the best defence is an offence" mentality where assassin stays hyper aggressive, but  yet still very tactical about his choices.

The glass canon complaint

I must admit that I was amongst those who felt that our "glassiness" is taken one step too far. What I wasn't aware of that there was a need to stay alive. I was just assuming that there is no death penalty and thus you should just kamikaze yourself into every other player, hoping for the best (meaning for each of your deaths you kill at least 1).

After a while I have noticed that death comes with a hefty price: all your shards are restarted and back to 0.

So with staying alive there is in fact this obvious payback of returning to fight with full set of shards. The shard regeneration feats should be used in a way that is complementary to the natural regeneration, not as THE source of shards (die fast, re spawn, pop crystallized lotus, get back into fray, die again). It seems like shard management is executed through skillful survival rather than depending solely on cool downs. And last but not least: there is a lot more crazy shit you can pull off with 5/5 shards and both regenerators ready for use

Overall this patch takes you from "established pvper" to "noobie" - there is A LOT to learn and yet to discover. I would dare to say that the only thing 1.5 assassin has in common with 1.6 beast is that they both have short range daggers and can be easily killed - the rest has changed beyond belief.

edit: the shard mechanic was changed as I was typing this article. The shards will now stay though the death! Check it here .

Assassin's hideout podcast - ep. 11

show notes:

- assassin changes on TL
- 1.6 going live soon
- server mergers

title of the post is a link to the podcast.

Do we see a trend here?

Few days ago the live servers were down for considerable amount of time so I have had an unique opportunity to run several minigames games with few different speccs. With new CC changes and assassins being "old news" already people were back on those classes that they are playing on live so minigames were not just assassin-fuck-fest. The games were mostly random vs random with decent mix of classes:

The survivability

The survivability is that of an doughnut in a police station: none. You die, die, die and die some more. Everything will get you killed and there is nothing you can really do anything about. It is to the point that NOT speccing anything in general tree made zero difference. None. If you get hit with any CC the chances are you will be dead even if you break it so why bother with anti cc at all?

People will say: so you die a lot, but get to kill a lot too, that's classic glass canon

Since your soul shards are not staying through death, avoiding dieing a lot could save you quite a lot of shards. Other than that I see no harm in death in minigames. And I honestly don't know how to feel about it: is it OK to die so many times? It can get pretty frustrating when you are NOT getting the kills, but still get downed tons for times.

The damage

The DPS output is unparalleled. Stuff dies fast around you. It would be cool if not for a fact that most of that dieing comes from simple GC+soul strike = explode with a hint of SDS mixed in.Poor old Swift Strikes became absolute and it is used pretty much when both GC and SDS are on the cool down. The reason? Oh-not-so-great damage coupled with long combo animation. Perhaps adding some base toxin to SS would make it more interesting? I think the combo rotation is still fine, but I would like to see some benefit to SS in order to make it more of an alternative to GC/SDS spanking.

Best of all: you don't need to be picky about your targets anymore - you can down pretty much everything and fast. Its like a DPSer dream coming true.

De-buffing

With 1.6 assassin have gained another great role: we are outstanding debuffers. Just look at this list:

impede life + upgrade (stam/mana)
lethargy + upgrade (20% fizzle)
antrophy (with 2/2 its affordable)
soulstrike miasma (unholy debuff)
GC
GC + lotus dart (silence)
burden to bear (armor debuff)

and best of all: its very much do-able to have most of said debuffs in regular and viable build. Nice!

[PvP Video: Assassin] "Killing Spree"

Pumpkins, who may or may not be a PVE carebear, released quite entertaining 1.5 assassin pvp video with good music and editing (althou its more about the fights that video gimmicks).

Worth checking out:

source: [PvP Video: Assassin] "Killing Spree"

and yes, I know that those videos are screwing blog's layout but I do not care ;p

Where is pvp 6 gear?

As first batch of 1.6 goodness is closer to going live (little hint, eh eh?) I am asking myself: where is new pvp gear?

You want to know in what state AOC is in right now? Log onto TL server and you will see people wearing ONLY tier2 gear. PVE crap.

So in a environment where players are given unlimited access to all the gear (and it is what TL does) overwhelming majority of population will gear up with tier 2 FOR PVP DUELS! Now how sick is that?

What is even more confusing is that next tier pvp gear is already in game:

Those screenies doesn't ring a bell? Well check this out:

That's righ! We have seen this concept art in one of the articles by FC published back in the day...2008! I might sound like a broken record over here, but I have gladly joined AOC for it's distinction: PVE gear for PVE and PVP gear for PVP (its a complex concept, but I think we can manage that). With new tier 3 coming live whatever "pure pvpers" can scrape together (meaning: full pvp set which is a BITCH to get) will be horribly outclassed by ...PVE gear. That means that in order to stay competitive (and lets face it: that is exacly what PVP is - competition) people would have to join raids to grind PVE stuff so they can enjoy PVP later.

This is totally not what I have signed up for - gimme my next tier and make it so awesome that PVErs will cry. Please?

The only explanation I can think of for not going live with lvl 6 pvp gear is the fact that grinding lvl6 in old school and fair way would take shit load + d20 ammount of time. A lot.

To sum it up: I can bet that whenever pvp gear is coming (more than 15 weeks after tier 3 goes live? probably) people will be using it for several months already before hardest of the hardcore gain their next tier pvp gear. There will be something to cry about for sure :D

Assassin's hideout podcast - ep.10

show notes:

- random stuff on assassin revamp testing
- my ideas for some improvements
- 10th show!

title of the post is a link to the podcast.

1.6 report part 3 (assassin revamp)

ah the long awaited revamp...what say you, Moses?

I would say that the revamp had addressed all of our issues, or at the very least - most of them.

Lets get down to the nitty, gritty details:

Assassin on the TL
It is very hard to test any pvp performance on TL because most of the testers are either other assassins, noobs at their class (people who log on on TL to decide on next alt they are going to roll) or interested only in duels. Duels are the worst testing environment you can imagine. If you are dueling then just spec in hybrid to go A FTD->Opportunistic Strike->Death's Gaze->Snap Kick->Avatar with some DPS thrown in and you can haz victory. 1.6 hybrid is even more "cc lock" oriented than the dreaded 1.4 build.

Let me be brutally honest about this - if you bring that shit into group pvp scenario like a minigame and you will get your ass handed to you.In minigames you won't have you avatar and dull pain on all the time and what is more important: even if you did you will now get focused ... a lot. Simple root means death for assassin without anti cc because we have even less melee survivability than before. Its hard to say how viable will non general tree hybrid be on live but you can imagine what will happen when you get snared and then root with barbarian on your back. You must deliver a devastating attack without getting hit yourself. The new assassin mentality is glass canon all the way: with much glass and much canon - at last.

Do we have FUNdations?
Revamped assassin, unlike 1.5 crap fest we have now,  is fun for several reasons. First of all we have our unique set of feats: toxins, base poisons, miasmas. I can only wonder how expansion will add another layer on  top of that and how it is going to expand what we already have. Another meaningful thing is that we have soooo many build options - you can sit on your ass all day and you will come up with something new every minute. Because no tree is clearly superior than other (unholy armor + avatar gave corruption an edge over lotus in 1.4 when it came to hybrid specs). In 1.6 you can build your hybrid around different concepts since both trees have "avatar" now (lotus overdose has some very neat anti ccs too) and both lotus's anti caster tools and corruption "melee closing" tools (ftd, accelerated) are early tiers that can be feated without sacrifices. Oh, did I mention that you can almost do no wrong when it comes to feats? All of them (with sad sad exception for lethargy upgrade) are viable, usable, and worthy of your points. How freaking cool is that? Remember this? We also have first stealth mechanic evar! Stealth attack now also applies face stab which doesn't take up shards and....can be upgraded with added crit and damage.

Lotus keept it's theme

Lotus is still lotus - not much change here. Surprisingly Lotus's ani magic tool set got upgraded with new toy called "dull pain" which BASICLLY means bubble against casters for few seconds..90% mitigation? Seriously, that is bubble. You will be pleased to know that Lotus got upgraded CCs: snap kick downs rangers and BS now (fucking sweet) and opportunistic strike is what we have always needed: stun. Our crappy crappy heal is gone, but 2m cat's paw somewhat makes up for that...barely.

Since there were no revolutionary changes to Lotus tree I would call it Lotus 2.0 and give it thumbs up. I will play it.

Corruption lost it's focus
Since FC's doesn't want to make each of the trees focusing on different aspects (why the hell then Lotus is soooo anti caster?) corruption lost unholy armor and +10% evade from prediction...and 2 leeches. Corruption's survivability comes from easy, every fight stun (miasma), 2/2 atrophy (that is rather fucking nice) phenomenal avatar with life leech and above all: ability to close in fast with FTD and accelerated (which makes you move like superman on roids). What I don't like is that apparently both lotus and corruption will melt under melee damage (as any glass canon should), but only corruption will also melt under casters - if anything Lotus is now caster grinding machine. I would love to see accelerated and dull pain swapped so Lotus has access to some kind of "chasing" feat and corruption can enjoy added survivability vs casters. Doesn't look like its going to happen though :/ Personally I have never liked corruption for its unholy theme and revamped corruption did not change my mind - it is ok, just not appealing...to me.


Shard management

Ah the soul shards... I have never seen this coming. I mean: shards for both trees? Not only this makes assassins even more unique, but also prevents this class from being simplistic "cc and spank" class. With cc going for 1-2 shards and last tier ultimates like avatar and overdoes consuming whooping 4 shards you will have to pay close attention to what is going on. If you run out of those unholy gems you will be caught with your pants down: you might have every single feat ready for use, but its no good without shards. People on TL complain that assassins can easily CC chain to death (can't argue with that - they can!), but in group pvp assassin could not go even through half of his cc before he would either get killed off or cced himself, not to mention that after burning his shards for chain he would be down to vanilla combos for a while.

No fireworks
Current build reuses all old graphic and animations. You won't find any eye candy in assassin revamp: there is either old stuff or none: like opportunistic strike giving....instant stun without any strike. Face stab? You can use it in the middle of other combo...without animation. Lotus dart? Nothing gets thrown. Grave blossom? Well say hello to sabotage armor icon and animation. Very disappointing .

I am sure this will be fleshed out by FC in the future. BTW things like Dull Pain should REALLY give visual indication to the casters that this buff is up... FC is aware of that and that is why avatar has so nice graphics (don't use ccs when assassin's skin is pale and hands are burning with sinister black fire...m'kay?)

What is the verdict?

Pros:

- revamp!

- we have stuns!

- majority of issues are addressed

- a lot more DPS

- shards management

- toxins and miasmas

- speed buff

- a lot of possible builds

- all feats are viable and working


CONS:

- no new eye candy (icons, animations etc)

- corruption doesn't have any means of dealing with casters (survival)

- lotus doesn't have any means of closing with enemy (charge/speed buff)

- lethargy is crappy as always

New Lotus and Corruption feats

Lotus/General and Hybrid in action:

Assassin Revamp Preview!

source: http://forums-tl.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=482776

Since we're close to wrapping up the Assassin revamp, we wanted to get a bit of a preview out to players so you guys can read it over and familiarize yourselves with the up-coming changes to testlive.

Overview

When we sat down and looked at the Assassin and went through the community feedback, we felt there were a number of improvements we could make to the class in several different areas. We have generally taken a somewhat different approach to the class revamps which have occurred since the 1.05 patch, and this was applied to the Assassin during the course of its revamp. Among other things, it involves giving a revamped class some unique set of mechanics that encourage meaningful tactical choice on the battlefield. But also a distinct identity in how the class feels and plays to the player, as well as opponents facing the class and also how the class is viewed by group members. Another goal is working towards feat trees are capable of supporting a sufficient number of viable specs, and cross-specs, as this further increases both battlefield strategy and character identity.

Specifically to the Assassin, one area where we got a lot of feedback was the existing orientation of the trees to being somewhat explicitly “vs. caster,” or explicitly “vs. melee.” For the revamp, we decided to tone down this explicit split, as we felt as either tree should be capable of doing either job, but in different ways. Obviously there will always be an implicit division, as one tree or another will be simply be deemed more optimal for some activity or another, and this is just due to the fact different feats do different things. In general, we felt the most favorable situation was one where the differences between the trees can be measured in terms of how the players like to play the class, instead of what goal does the player want to achieve.

Another area where we've had a lot of feedback was the Soul Fragment mechanic. We decided to keep the general concept of Soul Fragments, but greatly improve how they work, what they do, and how players interact with that system. We also extended Soul Fragments so they are relevant to both trees, and deeply tied to a certain category of abilities.

Also, it should be noted that the concept of stances have been completely removed from the Assassin in order to better support dual tree specs. The character power that was granted by these stances has been distributed to other feats.

In addition to the Soul Fragments, we decided to add a mechanic we are calling “Toxins,” and this is described in the next section. There are also a large number of general improvements to feats which include new feats as well as changes to existing feats, and I'll explain these in the next post.

Mechanic - Toxins

The Toxin Mechanic consists of the Assassin applying a Base Poison (an effect over time) to a target, and then successfully striking the target with one of three Miasma abilities before that Base Poison expires. When applied to a target, the Miasma abilities convert any Base Poisons into their more powerful Toxin forms. A player may only convert the Base Poisons that he has applied, and his Miasmas do not affect the Base Poisons of other players.

Base Poisons

There are two Base Poisons available to the Assassin – Grim Weakness, which is applied by the Grim Corruption combo; and Dread Venom which is applied by the Slow Death Strike Combo. The number of combo steps have been made identical.

• Grim Weakness – A substantial snare effect, that diminishes with each tick.
• Dread Venom – An unholy Damage over Time effect.

Miasmas

A Miasma is an ability which deals physical damage , poison, or unholy damage. If applied to a target who is also affected by a Base Poison, the Miasma will have an additional effect.

• Miasma: Face Stab – A close combat ability that does physical damage. This is a core ability.
• Miasma: Lotus Coated Dart – A ranged ability that does poison damage over time, feated in the Lotus Tree
• Miasma: Soul Strike – A close combat ability that does unholy damage and applies a Spirtual Torment. It is feated in the Corruption Tree.

Toxins

Lotus Toxins are triggered by Miasma: Lotus Coated Dart, while the Soul Toxins are triggered by Miasma: Soul Strike.

• Lotus Toxin: Grim Essence – A Toxin which silences the target. The Base Poison for this Toxin is Grim Weakness.
• Lotus Toxin: Deadly Venom – A Toxin which deals a large amount of poison damage over time. The Base Poison for this Toxin is Dread Venom
• Soul Toxin: Essence Detonation – A Toxin which causes the target to take a massive amount of unholy damage after a few seconds. This Toxin also has a weaker AoE component which is centered on the target. The Base Poison for this Toxin is Grim Weakness.
• Soul Toxin: Venom Spike – A Toxin which stuns the target. The Base Poison for this Toxin is Dread Venom

Miasma Abilities

Miasma: Face Stab

Miasma: Face Stab is a core Assassin close combat ability that does physical damage which is multiplied by the number of Base Poisons applied to the target at the time of its use.

The damage of Miasma: Face Stab is either applied x1, x2, or x3. When performed on a target with no Base Poisons, the damage is x1. When performed on a target with either of the Base Poisons running, the damage is x2 (in this case the Base Poison is removed from the target). When performed on a target with both of the Base Poisons running, the damage is x3 (in this case both Base Poisons are removed from the target).

Note that while Miasma: Face Stab removes Base Poisons from the target, it does not apply a Toxin, and instead applies a simple damage effect. This is to reflect the fact it is a core ability.

Miasma: Lotus Coated Dart

Miasma: Lotus Coated Dart is an ability feated in the Lotus Tree, which does a small amount of damage over time. This ability may be used from a maximum range of 20m.

When used on a target which has the Grim Weakness effect, the effect is removed and replaced with Lotus Toxin: Grim Essence. When used on a target which has the Dread Venom effect, is removed and replaced with Lotus Toxin: Deadly Venom.

Note that if both Base Poisons (Grim Weakness and Dread Venom) are running on the target, Miasma: Lotus Coated Dart will cause both of them to be replaced by their corresponding Toxin.

Miasma: Soul Strike

Miasma: Soul Strike is an ability feated in the Corruption Tree. This ability does a small amount of unholy damage and applies a Spiritual Torment.

When used on a target which has the Grim Weakness effect, the effect is removed and replaced with Soul Toxin: Essence Detonation. When used on a target which has the Dread Venom effect, is removed and replaced with Soul Toxin: Venom Spike.

Note that if both Base Poisons (Grim Weakness and Dread Venom) are running on the target, Miasma: Soul Strike will cause both of them to be replaced by their corresponding Toxin.

Mechanic – Soul Fragments

The Soul Fragment system has been changed as part of the Assassin changes. Assassins will regenerate Soul Fragments at a rate of 1 every 8 seconds.

Players may also feat to increase their regeneration rate passively. Additionally, there is a feat which grants a clickable which gives the Assassin 3 fragments instantly, and a feat which grants a clickable that gives the Assassin four fragments over 16 seconds

Each tree has a number of feats which grant abilities that require and consume Soul Fragments. Most abilities simply consume a number of Soul Fragments equivalent to the amount they require. A small number abilities consume all Soul Fragments a player has, and their effects scale based on the number of Soul Fragments that were consumed.

Soul Fragment Abilities

Core Abilities

Miasma: Face Stab

This ability requires & consumes 1 Soul Fragment

Lotus Tree

Miasma: Lotus Coated Dart (Row 3)

This ability requires & consumes 1 Soul Fragment

Dull Pain (Row 4)

This ability reduces the amount of damage taken from Fire, Cold, Unholy, Poison, and Electrical sources by 30%/60%/90% for a short time. This ability requires & consumes 2 Soul Fragments.

Snap Kick (Row 5)

This is a combo that does a knock-back on the target. It works on targets of medium armor and lower. This combo consumes 1 Soul Fragment.

Opportunistic Strike (Row 6)

This ability stuns the target. This ability requires & consumes 2 Soul Fragments.

Grave's Blossom (Row 7)

This combo deals poison damage. The combo consumes all Soul Fragments and the damage of Grave's Blossom scales with the amount of Soul Fragments consumed.

Lotus Overdose (Row 9)

This ability provides immunity to fear, stun and root effects for a short time. It also significantly increases the Assassin's damage, and the Assassin recovers a large amount of Stamina over time. This ability requires & consumes 4 Soul Fragments.

Curse of the Lotus (Row 9)

This ability is a targeted area of effect which causes a fear in all opponents caught in the area. It is checked against charm immunity. This ability requires & consumes 2 Soul Fragments.

Corruption Tree

Miasma: Soul Strike (Row 3)

This ability requires & consumes 1 Soul Fragment

Accelerated (Row 4)

This ability increases the assassin's movement speed for a short time. It requires & consumes 2 Soul Fragments.

From the Darkness (Row 5)

This ability causes the assassin to charge his target, additionally causing damage and rooting the target. It requires & consumes 1 Soul Fragment.

Death's Gaze (Row 6)

This ability applies a fear effect to the target, and also slows the target's movement. This ability requires & consumes 2 Soul Fragments

Death Whirlwind (Row 7)

This combo deals unholy damage to all nearby enemies. The combo consumes all Soul Fragments and the damage of Death Whirlwind scales with the amount of Soul Fragments consumed.

Avatar of Death (Row 9)

This ability provides immunity to charm, root, knock-back, and snare for a short time. It also increases damage, and grants a 30% increase to all stamina and health taps. This ability requires & consumes 4 Soul Fragments

Vampyric Nature (Row 9)

This ability causes a stun to all targets in a 180 degree frontal cone. It is checked against charm immunity. This ability requires & consumes 2 Soul Fragments.

Other Feats

These are the changes to other assassin feats, not mentioned above.

Lotus Tree

Lotus Blades (Row 1) – Passively grants Weapon Damage %

Swift Ending (Row 2) – Passively increases the damage from the Grim Corruption and Slow Death Strike Combos

Flurry of Blows (Row 2) – No change from Live, other than moved

Cat's Paw (Row 3) – No change from Live, other than the cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes

Deft Blades (Row 3) – No change from Live

Necrosis (Row 4) – Passively Increases damage of Miasma: Face Stab by 5%/10%15% per rank

Flesh Rot (Row 4) – No Change from Live, other than moved

Lotus Tainted Blood (Row 5) – No Change from Live, other than added passive poison invulnerability.

Ability – Crystallized Lotus Extract (Row 5) – This ability grants the Assassin 3 Soul Fragments

Poisoned Blades (Row 5) – Passively improves Lethargy combo to cause target to have increased Fizzle Chance on spells.

Lotus Overload (Row 6) – No change from Live

Impede Essence (Row 6) – Passively improves Impede Life combo to cause the target to lose Stamina and Mana over time.

Lotus Weapon (Row 6) – No change from Live, other than moved and now linked from Flesh Rot.

Corrupted Body (Row 7) – No Change from Live

Steeped Lotus Extract (Row 7) – Passively increases Critical Chance and Damage of Lotus Toxin: Deadly Venom

Arcane Backlash (Row 8) – No change from Live

Baneful Venom (Row 8) – Applies an additional damage over time effect when using Slow Death Strikes. This is not affected by consuming the Dread Venom Base Poison which is also applied by Slow Death Strikes.

Crippling Weakness (Row 8) – Passively improves the snare effect of the Grim Weakness Base Poison.

Corruption Tree

Corrupted Blades (Row 1) – Passively grants Unholy Combat Rating

Sense Weakness (Row 2) – Passive grants Critical Rating

Corrupting Strikes (Row 2) – Passive grants Critical Bonus Damage Percent

Combo – Atrophy (Row 3) – This combo lowers the target's damage for a short time

Unholy Strength (Row 3) – No change from Live

Spirit of Nightfall (Row 3) – Passively reduces hate, and grants an ability which moves the assassin down one step on the hate list for all foes within 5m.

Dark Weapon (Row 4) – No change from Live, other than procc rate has been increased

Precise Strikes (Row 4) – Passively grants Armor Penetration and Spell Penetration

Relish in Death (Row 5) – Passively increases Fatality Chance by 15%

Ability – Necrotic Empowerment (Row 5) – This ability grants the Assassin 4 Soul Fragments over 16 seconds

Unholy Stabs (Row 5) – Passively Increases Critical Chance of Miasma: Face Stab by 5%/10%/15% per rank

Dread Weapon (Row 6) – No change from Live, other than procc rate has been increased.

Combo – Blindside (Row 6) – No change from Live, other than moved

Bewilder (Row 6) – Adds an additional effect to Blindside where mana and stamina is removed from the target in a single hit.

Soul Destruction (Row 7) – Passively increases the Critical Chance, Critical Damage, and damage amount to Soul Toxin: Essence Detonation

Burden to Bear (Row 7) – Grants the Assassin's attacks a chance to procc a Physical Torment (-900 Armor).

Soul Corruption (Row 8) – Passively increases rate of Soul Fragment generation.

Corrupting Toxin (Row 8) – Passively increases duration of each stage of Grim Weakness (the Base Poison snare effect from Grim Corruption)

Vile Corruption (Row 8) – Causes the Assassin's target to take additional unholy damage when the Dread Venom Base Poison is consumed by any of the three Miasmas.

-------------

What's real is real. Expect fully detailed report when this bad boy goes on TL!

1.6 report part 2

Time for some more 1.6 goodies from TL server

Get your guild known through this guy

ahhh....money well spent

new social items...get hooked on gambling

more stuff to create

lets plant some stuff...boooooring!

letters that will make or break your reputation (I can't believe Conan would read this crap) 

lets build some stuff

you better hope you got someone in guild that has some sense of taste

seriously

otherwise your city will drown

in a sea of crap

so much stuff ...

I would drink that ridingn to battle

You can now see your feat points distribution

New guild widow

more guild renown. Please notice the FUNKY FUNK progression bar

changes to building managment widow

more on guild renown rankings

new and oh-no-so-secret entrance for rogue armor vendors

 

cosy

here you can spend your hard earned tokens for paint job on t2 gear :D

And last but not least.....a video featuring 1.6 stuff:

Special thanks to Wood from Exalted guild for granting me access to the guild city on TL