Perfect assassins?
 

This is what I've been using.
Give your assassin an Etheral Crossbow(999 damage, armor negating + underwater usable), an Eye Of Aiming and a Robe of Invulnerability. In his orders tell him to cast Aim(Level 1 Alteration, 1 Air path required) then Fire and flee.

Any sugestion, comments or own "recipes"?

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

You might add that skull talisman (skeletons) or the blood contract (imps). The extra distraction can increase your kills tremendously. The spirit helm will give an extra shot. The trident or stone bird that fight for you can be nice also.

Personally I like to go with 2-blood mage units so they can try to convert the commander. He then fights the units left in that province

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

The Ethereal crossbow is slow and allows a Magic Resistance save. It's of little use against the primary assasination target -- mages.

Being able to retreat during assasination is a bug, and likely to be fixed to be ignored. Even now, retreating just means automatic death.

A Robe of Invulnerability on an assasin is a waste of _80_ Earth Gems.

Also, which assasin were you thinking of that has Air Magic?

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

The "perfect" assasin would likely be something like:
Lord of the Night with a black heart.
Boots of the Behemoth
Robe of Invulnerability
Spirit Helmet
Lifelong Protection/Ring of Regen/Other Misc.
Some kind of useful shield and weapon combo.
It can trample anything that isn't size 6, which means most commanders will be killed fairly easily.

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

no one has mentioned that death item which explodes when the wearer dies thus greatly increasing the chance of killing your target... even if the assassin dies.

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

Nothing's perfect.
If you can find the magical site that lets you hire Ethereal Stalkers, however, rejoice.

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

The perfect assassin is the one that kills his target and accomplishes what you need him to. Survivability isn't really a concern unless you invest more in the assassin than his potential effect on the enemy.

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

My favourite Assasins.

Abyssian prophet assasin based on your starting assasin. You get to use it everytime and early. Spreads dominion, captures provinces - Yay!

C'tis assasin utilising summon skeletons. Skeletons are great. Perhaps the best assasin.

Macahaka assasins - they are tough enough to be used without items. Not certain on this one but its worth a good look.

Other assasins using a skull amulet. Because they are cheap.

I used to love Contracts of Life Long Protection but I'm still unsure about them in Dom2 with the changed costs.

In general a cheap assasin is a good one. You can spend an incredible amount on items for an assasin who may seldom get to kill anyone. I would rather be building super combatents than super assasins as SC's get to do alot more damage.

As a random plot aside my favourite SC('s) in dom (1&2) are Ice Devils. Wraith sword, boots of flying, ethereal cloak, luck, Anti magic if needed, cast quickness and slaughter. The best thing about them is having 3-5 pouncing on a poor unsuspecting army - their maneuverability is incredible. I know its not that flashy but they are so practical - and they get a supply of water gems for doing the big freeze. They were also my first.

Cheers

Keir

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

my favorite moments of assassination:

when i got 10 Messages of r'lyeh trying to assassin all my C'tis mages in my home provinces

My lvl 5 priest killed the assassin with smite.

Some mages used summon skeletons while others were scripted to cast Eagle Eyes and Shadow Bolt. Every one of my commanders survived.

HAHA JAYTOU!!

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

My favorite assassinations have been silly people showing up to kill my "sage" pretender ... who changes into his natural dragon form, and enjoys a light and crispy snack.

PvK

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

A Vampire pretender assassin should be quite cool too : Blood magic, ethereal, a good bunch of immunities, and immortal ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">yes can be a good idea, but dont forget that assassins very often have to goes outside your realm. So you wont benefit from immortality, and with a negative dominion your hp will be crappy.

I like to tease you anyway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">but ID are not stealthy, so cant be assassins. Except if they became stealthy in dom2, but I dont think so. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">but ID are not stealthy, so cant be assassins. Except if they became stealthy in dom2, but I dont think so. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Tut tut Pocus - not very accurate quoting there. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif "My favourite Assasins" referred to the part about "My favourite Assasins" while the "random plot aside" was actually that - a random plot that has nothing to do with assasins. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

cheers

Keir

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

aaah, thats must be my bad english. I cant be wrong otherwise http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Damn thats a good excuse! Is this then the hidden pleasure of spending time abroad in a country with another language?

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Keir

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Bah, Keir M was OT, and he warned only with an "aside" ...Your English ain't that bad ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
Back on topic : I'll try my idea of Vampire assassin as an Abysian pretender. It'll sure be bloody ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

I think one very cost-effective assasin would be Caelian scout with Bottle of Living Water and either a bow or a spell-enabling item. He will keep shooting/ incinerating/ animating dead, and the elemental goes to drown the unfortunate victim... Not quite Earth Attack, but close. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

Black hearts are pricy ;/ No non-standard assassin is going to be 'cheap' per say.

Re: Perfect assassins?
 

Hmm, they might be more expensive in Dom-2 environment. In fact, I never tested those assasins. They couldn't reanimate skeletons during an assasination attempt, because you would need corpses and because he already has the black heart and the bottled elemental.

Anyway, I always thought Black Heart was quite cheap; 10 blood slaves are, in general, more commonly available than 10 gems of any other type. 'Normal' assasins are the only cheap ones, yes, but any scout killing an Arch Theurg, any commander empowered or even a rainbow pretender is *very* cost-effective.