Diablo 2 Fallen Classes: The Assassin

[Flix 5,184]

Here's a nice bonus coming for the Assassin in Beta 9. More jewelry slots!

 

 

Assassin gets +1 ring slot and +1 amulet slot. This idea comes courtesy of Caledor's Balance Mod.

[gogoblender 3,223]

Here's a nice bonus coming for the Assassin in Beta 9. More jewelry slots!

 

 

Assassin gets +1 ring slot and +1 amulet slot. This idea comes courtesy of Caledor's Balance Mod.

Very sensible. Love his more surreptitious way of being balanced

 

 

gogo

[Pesmontis 168]

> ".. More jewelry slots!.."

I'm very curious about this, is this also possible for other heroes?

[Flix 5,184]

> ".. More jewelry slots!.."

I'm very curious about this, is this also possible for other heroes?

Yes, up to whatever the max limit on jewelry slots is, if there is one. We know the max is at least 2 amulets and 4 rings.

 

The equip slots are added in the character's creatureinfo entry: EID_JEWELERY_AMULET_2 + EID_JEWELERY_RING_4. Testing would need to be done to see if there are valid equip slots above 2 amulets and 4 rings.

 

The slots also must be added to the GUI. Each character has their inventory xml file in skin-xml.zip/Windows. For example, Inventory_Templeguard.xml. Positioning has to be entered in manually.

[Flix 5,184]

Upcoming Assassin changes in D2F v10.

Assassin can now use shields and learn the Shield Lore skill.

Assassin can now use 2h Swords, 2h Magic Staves, 2h Energy Weapons, and all Pole Arms. He can now learn the Pole Arms skill.

 

These changes will significantly expand the build versatility of the Assassin class.  He can now choose a 1h + shield or 2h weapon setup.

[Dragon Brother 619]

That's a big change. Was it particularly difficult to implement? I'm thinking that animations or model file attachment points would have to have been modified, but I'm also probably wrong!

[Flix 5,184]

2 hours ago, Dragon Brother said:

That's a big change. Was it particularly difficult to implement? I'm thinking that animations or model file attachment points would have to have been modified, but I'm also probably wrong!

It was a three-parter for shields.  First, the game code had to be changed to include shields in his "weargroup" (thanks Dmitriy).  Then the TG's base model had to be edited and re-exported to include an attachment bone for the shield (thanks Pesmontis).  Finally, I had to edit the creatureinfo.txt script to give him the equip slot for shields.  Luckily no special animations are required for shield use.

Similar story for all the 2h weapons, minus having to edit the base model.  For the 2h animations, I simply edited animation.txt and told the game to use 1h animations for those weapons.

[Dragon Brother 619]

44 minutes ago, Flix said:

It was a three-parter for shields.  First, the game code had to be changed to include shields in his "weargroup" (thanks Dmitriy).  Then the TG's base model had to be edited and re-exported to include an attachment bone for the shield (thanks Pesmontis).  Finally, I had to edit the creatureinfo.txt script to give him the equip slot for shields.  Luckily no special animations are required for shield use.

Similar story for all the 2h weapons, minus having to edit the base model.  For the 2h animations, I simply edited animation.txt and told the game to use 1h animations for those weapons.

Sounds a like a team effort then, awesome work guys!

[Jampula 10]

Dragon Flights Momentum mod doesn't seem to work, only hits the initial target. And when you try to shortcut using ctrl+click sometimes you teleport to the enemy very far away (in any direction), propably due to super high range of the CA. Same thing happens with Paladins Smite.

Fist of Fires fire explosion always appears on the right side of the assassin, not in front like in wiki-video. Tested with different weapons too.

Also Claws of Thunder sound effect is a bit weird (the clonking sound at the end). Considering that the animation is so fast with burst of speed you hear that clonking when you are already running to the next group of mob, sounds like assassin is breaking apart in middle of running.  

[jordan0422 39]

Just noticed something:

Cloak of Shadows - Gold mod "Lurk" doesn't reduces cooldown by 20% like it said. It reduces the cooldown by 10 seconds (from 60 sec to 50 second), even though it should reduce the cooldown by 12 seconds.

Might be the same case with Burst of Speed "Inertia", but haven't test that yet.

[Flix 5,184]

Assassin changes in D2F v12

Of all 7 characters, the Assassin has been the one most fraught with difficulties during development.  It's no easy thing to try to recreate a dual-wielding female ninja using a robot dog man with one arm.  It took years but I finally got him to a good state.  He's recognizable as the character class he's meant to represent and has several viable builds.  v12 sees a few more CA tweaks and a completely rewritten personal quest.

•  Fists of Fire: VFX changed to more accurately depict its area of effect.  The old "fire smash" fx was nice but was way too big for the semi-circle area of effect. Now the Assassin's fists actually become fiery as he attacks enemies in a small semi-circle in front of him.

   

•  Mind Blast: Bronze mod "Amnesia" replaced with "Crushing Blow."  This is because penalizing enemy CA regeneration doesn't work, so I gave a much more appealing mod.
•  Burst of Speed: Tooltip no longer mentions breaking existing roots as this was non-functioning.
•  Shadow Master: No longer makes comments after kills.  This wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't after every single kill.  He's now a silent assassin.
•  Class quest "Rust" now drops Dura's Cell as reward instead of two lesser health potions.  This early standalone Assassin quest requires you to kill a pretty powerful elite Wendigo. It deserves a better reward than couple potions.
•  Class quest "Lock and Key" now drops Bartuc's Cuthroat as reward.  This reward is about the midway point of the new Assassin's chain quest.  Like the other characters, he now gets an appropriate reward at the midpoint.

More about the Assassin's chain quest:

Much like the Dragon Mage, the Temple Guardian's quest had to be completely rewritten, since it just made no sense when applied to the new D2F lore.  The Assassin's lore was a bit lacking in the game until now, because unlike the other 6 characters the Assassin doesn't have a patron deity, so there were no god statues, divine gifts, or "Lore of the Nephalem" books to flesh things out.  So I've used every opportunity to work the lore of the Viz-Jaq'taar, or the order of Mage Slayers, into the game.

Assassins were created to hunt down rogue sorcerers or anyone who tried demonic magic.  There will be plenty of investigations into suspicious mages and many battles.  Assassins were designed to use non-magical means as a way of avoiding corruption and countering spells.

The old quest material about the Dragon Wars and the magical serum weapon is all removed.  The Assassin will be hunting down rogue mages, receiving orders via hologram from his order, and investigating intrigue.

 

But that's not all.  The order of Assassins has split into two sects.  One group is aligned with the Light Path, and is trying to drain T-Energy from the world by shutting off the Great Machine.  They view T-Energy as being just as corrupting and dangerous as demonic magic.

The Shadow-aligned renegade sect of Assassins is the Khral-Harzhek, and they wish to harness T-Energy to become living weapons capable of eradicating all magic-users and controlling the world.

 

I took this opportunity to transform all the generic Temple Guardians left in the game into true Assassins who are named as such.  Some of the unique quest-related ones will have proper names now and unique appearances to make them stand out.

An Easter Egg bonus is that all the named Assassins are named after assassins from my favorite fantasy books and games.

[chattius 2,626]

Daughter reported that even having blacksmith at 5 it wasn't possible to choose bargaining for the assassin (french on a german base install)?

[Flix 5,184]

13 minutes ago, chattius said:

Daughter reported that even having blacksmith at 5 it wasn't possible to choose bargaining for the assassin (french on a german base install)?

We'll need some more information to identify the problem.  Has she spent 5 hard points in Blacksmith (no +Skills)?  Are all secondary General Skills unavailable or just Bargaining?  Finally, is the Bargaining skill available but greyed out, or is it missing from the interface entirely?

[chattius 2,626]

I couldn't repeat it on my machine. New level 5 Assassin - 1 armour lore, 5 blacksmith - could choose bargaining. Have to ask her when she is back from school.

[chattius 2,626]

It seems as if the Venom buff has a regeneratiom malus which isn't in effect? Could read as many runes as I wanted, the regeneration times weren't affected.

[Flix 5,184]

28 minutes ago, chattius said:

It seems as if the Venom buff has a regeneratiom malus which isn't in effect? Could read as many runes as I wanted, the regeneration times weren't affected.

Strange it has the penalty assigned in the script:

    cost_level = 250,
    cost_base = 300,

I can't say I ever noticed that it wasn't working.  I'll have to check tonight.

[Flix 5,184]

OK it definitely works it just seems the combat art display doesn't update until you switch CA's or execute one.  This is something I noticed a long time ago when I first started Sacred 2.

I used to think you could cast a buff using equipment that stacked the "Regeneration Penalty from Buffs" modifier, and then keep that lowered regeneration time even if you changed your equipment out.  It turns out I was misled because the CA tooltip wasn't updating regen times until I executed a CA or switched slots.

[chattius 2,626]

Thanks

Still a bit strange because other buffs show the difference without CA-switching.

[Flix 5,184]

Assassin changes in v13:

The latest release is centered all around balancing and fine-tuning the combat arts and modifications, particularly making sure that values scale reasonably, and that no modification choices are too lopsided.

• Tiger Strike: Weapon damage +% scales better. Chance opponents cannot evade from "Confident" now scales with level.
• Claws of Thunder: Swapped places of "Charge" (bronze) and "Electrocute" (silver) mods. Damage from "Charge" now scales with level. "Shock," "Electrocute, and "Flay" scale more slowly.
• Venom: Chance for poisoning decreased and scales more slowly (including "Taint"). Regeneration penalty per level slightly increased.
• Psychic Hammer: Slowing effect significantly decreased. "Weaken" effect slightly decreased. Bronze mod "Bedaze" changed to "Gash" which adds Physical DOT.
• Mind Blast: Chance to stun lowered from 80% to 60%, but effect now scales with level.
• Cloak of Shadows: "Creep" and "Stealth" replaced with "Ephemeral" (Block Spells) and "Endurance" (DOT Reduction). Gold mod "Fade" replaced with "Insubstantial" which further increases Damage Mitigation. "Sure Hit" mod now functions as intended.
• Fire Blast: Chance for burn scales more slowly (including "Combust"). Chance for area damage from "Splash" scales more slowly. Critical chance from "Intensity" scales more slowly but base chance is increased to 25%.
• Wake of Inferno: Duration no longer increases with level. Gold mod "Conservation" replaced with "Sea of Flames" which expands the radius as the spell levels up. Gold mod "Sustain" duration boost reduced (duration will now catch up to Cooldown at level 100).
• Shock Web: Chance for weaken scales more slowly (including "Spark"). Base range decreased but range from "Voltage" increased. Deadly Strike from "Kilowatt" now triggers at 25% health.
• Blade Fury: Damage scales more slowly (including "Singe" and "Toxin"). Critical chance from "Grievous" scales more slowly.
• Blade Shield: Chance for open wounds decreased and scales more slowly.

[Flix 5,184]

@dimitrius154 I haven't brought this up before because it doesn't have any bearing on any mod except D2F.  But this is the last lingering bug in D2F that I have not addressed and I could use some advice.

Cloak of Shadows (Shadow Veil) doesn't properly deactivate when the Assassin (TG) uses weapon-based CA's with melee weapons.  It properly deactivates every time with left click melee, and also obeys the "chance to deactivate" for spell-based CA's and all ranged weapon attacks.  But the Assassin can use melee CA's with total impunity.

I have ruled out the following as the cause:

1) spellClass.  Spell classes are identical to the Shadow Warrior's ("cSpellSMove",)

2) spellcontroltype. Again identical ("eCAtype_a_weapon_attack",)

3) spelllogictype and magictype. I tried matching these lines as well but IIRC you said these parameters don't even do anything.

4) eiStateName.  I tried matching these to the Shadow Warrior's CA's, just to test, for example "cSMSKHardHit".  No luck.

The only thing left I can conclude is that it's the spell names themselves, that the code is looking for the specific SW CA's like "sk_hc_harterschlag", and deactivating them if they're used with melee weapons.  Can you tell if this is the case?

[dimitrius154 614]

16 minutes ago, Flix said:

Can you tell if this is the case?

'cSpellSkGeistform' checks for eiStateNames. I see no specific spell name checks. If the Barbarian uses the CA, does it work the expected way for melee? 

[Flix 5,184]

5 hours ago, dimitrius154 said:

'cSpellSkGeistform' checks for eiStateNames.

Thanks for info.  I can double check.  Though, I just realized that even if it works, changing the eiStateName sort of ruins the CA's (which are based on Dedicated Blow, Battle Extension etc.) because I'm almost certain his special combat arms are tied to eiStateName.  He loses them (and the passive bonuses tied to the arms) if I use Barbarian eiStateNames.  I think the code check would have to be changed to look for the Assassin's eiStateNames to retain all functionality.  

[Flix 5,184]

Assassin Changes in v15

Cloak of Shadows: Chance to stay cloaked when using magic or ranged attacks starts lower and scales more slowly. Chance to avoid detection by enemies with Enhanced Perception scales better.  It's nigh-impossible to balance this CA but this is the best result so far.

Claws of Thunder: "Double Attack" mod now adds extra projectiles when used with ranged weapons.

Assassin CA tooltips no longer mention the passive "chance opponents cannot evade" because this modifier was non-functioning. Since the arms are equipped via spells the bonuses on them don't work.

Helmets no longer include the Assassin's head as part of the model. As with the other characters, body parts are removed from armor.

Assassin classquest opponents/allies can now use special moves and buffs.  I added these characters back in v12 but the behaviors set in quest.txt were preventing anything but dumb melee attacks.

     

 

Assassin classquest final phase is now a battle with a T-Energy-powered Assassin boss rather than a message from a hologram.

  

Azoth appears as a hologram giving you instructions throughout much of the quest, whether Light or Shadow.  Naturally he was using you to clear the way to the Great Machine for his own ends.

He's got a lot of Temple Guardian-related abilities.  The plasma saw weapon in the right hand is Dmitriy's design.