Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

[Rias]

Nightblades can now learn the Assassin's Mark ability! Hopefully this helps take their silent-but-violent game to the next level.

[Acarin]

Well this is exciting... time to test. Thanks for all the very cool updates, Rias!

[Acarin]

I'm loving this ability so far from the limited testing I've done (It's always amusing when the message pops up and even more so when you miss your opportunity and have to keep stalking), but had a question about something in the description that I can't quite figure out.

The description states that it "attempts to automatically strike the target's most vulnerable vital hit location."

How is this location determined or what exactly does this mean? Is this the location with highest chance of killing (most severe wound or lowest damage req for a mortal wound)? Or the hit location that is least armored?

The reason I ask is because it seems to target hands and arms a lot (tested on vagrants and laborers) which are locations that I probably would not go for if I wanted a vital strike. I'm rarely going after head/neck/eyes which I assume are easier to get a kill shot on. Also, I don't seem to be going after already wounded locations... just wondering about this. It may just be that my melee is too low to hit the location that was targeted though...

[Rias]

Glad you're enjoying it!

It will check for any hit locations on the target, considering whether they are vital and their armor levels. There's still an aiming skill check based on your Melee skill, so it's not a guarantee you'll hit one of these locations. For all the vital hit locations you pass the skill check on, it will pick the one with the lowest armor level. I do think I forgot to put in a bonus for the aim skill check though, so I'll let you know when I throw that in and we'll see if you get fewer hits to non-vital hit locations.

I do like the idea of targeting already-damaged vital hit locations, hmmm ... I'll have to see if I can come up with a good way for it to prioritize that vs armor level.

Thanks for the feedback. If you or anyone else has any other thoughts, let me know so we can tweak this ability to the point it feels just the right level of effective.

[Rias]

Okay, there we go. It now has a bonus to successfully aiming at a vital hit location, which will be more noticeable at lower skill levels.

[Karjus]

Maybe a way to set it, instead of defaulting to picking by itself?

[Acarin]

Thanks Rias. I do like how it picks a location for you...it's really fun to see where it lands so wouldnt make the player aim it.

The 4 factors I could see coming into play are how vital the area is (meaning whether a mortal blow can occur at that location... preference would be to target an area where you can get the fastest kill), the armor level, how hard that location would actually be to target (meaning head might be picked over eyes if minimal chance of actually hitting an eye) and pre-existing damage to a body part.

It would be cool to have multiple factors in play so that the part you target may change depending on the situation, not just the enemy type.

[Maina]

I'm not sure if it's better to make a new post or necro this one, but I opted to avoid cluttering the forum with repetitive topics.

I'm glad to see already-damaged locations should be prioritized; it hasn't felt like it, I admit, and I was going to suggest just that.

I also have another suggestion?

Nightblades can feel particularly rewarding fighting solo and less useful in a group, where the setup to stalk -> mark often results in the enemy dying before you get a strike in, so you ignore this ability you spent points on when fighting in a group.

Sometimes, people will ICly say something like 'jump in when I knock it over' or the like. Which you can certainly do without Makr, but...

Perhaps Mark could have a chance to proc early if a group member staggers or knocks over or otherwise provides an opening? Maybe a minimum time it needs to be active first (since you still have to check for weaknesses) and only a chance to happen (though I'd hope it would be a fairly high one?) in case the opportunity isn't a good one, but this would make it feel more rewarding to be a nightblade in a group, I think.

[Gorth]

Perhaps Mark could have a chance to proc early if a group member staggers or knocks over or otherwise provides an opening? Maybe a minimum time it needs to be active first (since you still have to check for weaknesses) and only a chance to happen (though I'd hope it would be a fairly high one?) in case the opportunity isn't a good one, but this would make it feel more rewarding to be a nightblade in a group, I think.

Yes, yes, a thousand percent yes. Playing a Nightblade for a little bit now, I've determined that Assassin's Mark's startup is way long. I haven't played the character in every area, and I'm not even sure offhand if mobs move at different speeds (I know it's random but I'm unsure if it's weighted differently for different mobs or not) but in the areas I've been in, I almost never, ever get to mark. It's awesome when I do, but, I never even try anymore because I end up wasting so much time.

I've seen it PROC after stalking to another room a few times, but I've also waited like fifty seconds after stalking a move and not gotten it, so I'm a little confused. I assume it rolls a check every tick to see if it should PROC, but I'm unsure what it rolls because there is nothing listed on the BBS. My suggestion would be to generally lower the time/likelyhood of Mark, and or allow other factors to increase it. Problem is, my assumption of how assassinations would work (I've never assassinated someone in real life, at least with a blade) is that it might struggle when there are group fights going on, ala a lot of moving bodies, so I'm unsure what factors those might be.