Assassin

General
The Assassin is a Ninja themed profession introduced with Guild Wars Factions.

Having to rely on luck and illusion, the patron deity of Assassins is Lyssa, though dealing in death they also have ties to Grenth.

"The Assassin moves through the shadows like a ghost, invisible to enemies until it's too late. The dagger is usually the Assassin's weapon of choice, and the critical hit is the tool Assassin's use to inflict massive damage over a very short period of time. The Assassin can use daggers to string together a chain of potent and painful attacks, often giving the enemy little time to react.

''Assassins favor lightweight armor that doesn't restrict movement. Magical skills include hexes that lower the targets defenses and spells that protect the Assassin from harm. Perhaps the Assassin's most notable ability is the Shadow Step--an innate talent that appears in many Assassin skills and allows instant teleportation to a distant target.''" ~The Official Factions Guidebook

Dagger Attack Chains
The Assassin wields a pair of daggers.

All Assassin dagger skills chain into a combo - certain attacks must follow other attacks.
 * 1) A Lead Attack can be made at anytime. If a lead attack is successful, a slash mark [[Image:LeadAttack.png]] will appear on your opponent's health bar.
 * 2) An Off-Hand Attack usually requires a Lead Attack mark on the target. If an off-hand attack is successful, a cross mark [[Image:OffHand.png]]will appear on your opponent's health bar.
 * 3) A Dual Attack usually requires an Off-hand Attack mark on the target. If a dual attack is successful, a starburst mark [[Image:DualAttack.png]] will appear on your opponent's health bar.

The next attack skill in the sequence must hit before the required mark fades. Each mark lasts about twenty seconds from when it is given. Normal attacks and/or other skills may be used in between without interrupting the attack sequence.

Some Off-hand and Dual attacks have exceptions to this chain, such as Falling Spider, which is an off-hand attack that must hit a knocked down foe, but does not need to follow a lead attack. Some non-attack skills and spells act as Lead or Off-hand attacks like Dancing Daggers. Other skills must follow lead attacks or off-hand attacks, such as Blinding Powder.

If a successful attack hits it will reset the sequence with it's position in the chain. That is, if a Lead Attack hits a target who is already marked by an Off-hand attack, it will reset the target's status back to Lead attack status.

If a Dagger Attack skill is used out of sequence, the skill consumes energy as normal, but the attack misses and recharges instantly. Since out of sequence attack skills always miss, they have no effect on the skill chain.

These skill chains are crucial to Assassin damage; since Daggers have the lowest damage of any weapon in the game (7-17 damage maximum), even their blazing attack speed due to double strikes and high Critical Hit rate thanks to Critical Strikes will result in little more than pinpricks of damage against any but the weakest foes. However, the Assassin shines in the armor-ignoring bonus damage granted by attack skills, most notably dual attacks (as any bonus damage they do is, assuming both attacks successfully hit, doubled). Many players who are new to the Assassin class focus more on their high Critical Hit rate (an understandable fixation, given how much critical hits hurt when used with, say, hammers), and thus overload their skill bars with defensive shadow steps or other trickery, relying solely on their critical hits and natural attack speed to deal damage. These players are misguided, however, since without their attack skills, an Assassin is bereft of the damage for which they are famed.

For more help on Dagger Chains see the Assassin attack chain quick reference.

The Downside to Assassins
To characterize Assassins as vulnerable to damage would be accurate. You should never charge into the middle of a fight but should look for key foes such as the Mesmer  who is shutting down your monk. Assassins focus on killing their enemies quickly before they have a chance to mount a counter-assault. If your foe does get to counter attack your job becomes much harder. Even more so if you attract the attention of their monk. While an Assassin should focus on causing damage some healing skills are required such as Way of Perfection or defensive skills such as Critical Defenses to stay alive. If things go bad getting away from battle by using protective buffs such as Shroud of Distress or Feigned Neutrality is advised.

Attributes

 * Critical Strikes (Primary Attribute): Increased chance for critical hits and gain energy in return.
 * Critical Strikes skills
 * Dagger Mastery: Increases the damage for Daggers and linked skills, and gives a 2% chance to hit twice for each point.
 * Dagger Mastery skills
 * Deadly Arts: Attack and hex skills
 * Deadly Arts skills
 * Shadow Arts: Defensive stealth and teleportation skills
 * Shadow Arts skills

Profession Combinations
see Secondary professions for an Assassin

Related Articles

 * Skills quick reference
 * Skills by category
 * Armor types
 * Armor crafting quick reference
 * Collector armors
 * Collector weapons
 * Unique items quick reference
 * Daggers
 * Effective assassin guide
 * Attack Chain Quick Reference
 * Assassin skill nomenclature
 * Assassin dance information
 * Assassin quick references (category)
 * Assassin elite skill locations