Perfect assassins?

[Gandalf Parker]

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

[Jasper]

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?

[Graeme Dice]

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.

[NTJedi]

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.

[Taqwus]

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

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.

[Keir Maxwell]

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