Making Assassins Threatening (and rewarding) Again

[Sintag]

Assassins, as they currently stand, are jokes.  Right?  I think we can all agree that, short of spawning in at very high levels, the assassins we currently have are pushovers to even halfway decent players, the RNG on loot is pretty bad, and they could use more unique loot.  Stalker in particular has the second problem the worst of the lot, since he drops three weapons before The Second Dream, has the spawn rate for two of those weapons cut in half post-TSD, and drops a fourth unique weapon after that quest, mandating more farming, but Zanuka and the Grustrag Three die way, way too quickly, to the point where their monologues last longer then they do.

This can be fixed, all of it.  But how?

 

I'm going to break this into four sections.  A section for each assassin that details new loot and what drops when, and a 'general' section that shows how every assassin evolves to remain a threat.

General:

Spoiler

First:  All assassin weapons and blueprints are tradeable.  This sounds like a no-brainer, but since we're talking assassin reworks here, we might as well add this to the table.

But for the major piece of this rework, we need to talk the Assassin Tier System.

All three assassins now have their pools broken into multiple 'tiers', and they escalate in tier as you complete more storyline quests.  By default, all assassins begin at tier one.

At Tier 1, assassins have halved drop-rates for all their unique stuff, but their death penalties (Grustrag Bolt, Instant Kill, Recovery Mission) don't apply.  Additionally, any cosmetic drops are disabled.  This is so the player has a chance of familiarizing themselves with the system without getting beaten over the head and saddled with a disadvantage early on in the game.  This Tier lasts until the player has either completed The New Strange, or until they kill Alad V, at which point all Assassins upgrade to Tier 2.

Tier 2 is the assassins as they currently stand, excluding Stalker (as he has yet to become Shadow Stalker).  This means their unique penalties apply, and the drop rates are normalized, except for cosmetic items, which still do not drop.  This Tier lasts until players beat The Second Dream.

Tier 3 lasts from post-TSD to post-Chains of Harrow.  At this tier, assassins get a bit more brutal.  Shadow Stalker begins spawning, for one, and for another, G3 and Zanuka gain a 20% damage mitigation (Shadow Stalker has Sentient Adaptation, which is still brutally effective at shutting down overspecialized builds).  Cosmetic drops (Ephemeras, Sigils, Armor Pieces) begin to enter the loot pool, but Shadow Stalker cannot drop Broken War or War blueprints just yet.

From post-Chains to whenever the player first gains an Anomaly Shard, all Assassins are at Tier 4.  The gloves really begin coming off here.  All assassins gain the sortie modifiers for shields and armor, and Shadow Stalker's adaptation becomes impossible to reset.  The damage mitigation is cut from 20% to 10% to compensate for this jump in durability.  Shadow Stalker can now drop the blueprints for Broken War and War.

After the player breaks the crystal in a Murex and gains an Anomaly Shard, all assassins jump to Tier 5.  At Tier 5, they instead have Steel Path resistances.  The damage mitigation is cut entirely here;  With how tough they've become, it just isn't needed any more.  All Assassins begin to drop new variants on their cosmetics, corresponding to the faction they represent.

Important Note:  All cosmetic drops will first drop at the lower tier-version if any player in the Cell lacks it.

Stalker:

Edit:  Will also drop Shadow Tokens that can be traded with Palladino at Tier 3 and above for blueprints for Stalker's weapons.  If the player has a blueprint/a copy of the item, the trade is locked.

Spoiler

Tier 1:  Can only drop Dread, Despair, and Hate as unique blueprints.  All drops occur at half their usual percentages.

Tier 2:  Still limited to the classic three weapons, with normal drop rates.

Tier 3:  Can drop his Sigil, Stalker Shoulder Plates (his helmet, with a visibly sparking bullet hole in the center, can be on either arm), and the Smoking Body Ephemera.  Hate and Despair are given a boost on the tables to 15% each, with Dread still dropping at the normal rate.

Tier 4:  Adds Broken War and War blueprints to the drop tables;  Also adds War Hilts and Blades to his loot pool (50% chance for one to drop).  Reverts the drop chance for Hate and Despair.

Tier 5:  Drops Stalker Prime Shoulder Plates and Stalker Prime Sigils (Stalker's cosmetic items, with added gold accents).  Adds the Sentient Adaptation Ephemera (The last damage type received orbits the player) to the loot pool.

Zanuka Hunter:

Spoiler

Tier 1:  Drops Detron parts at a 50% drop chance.

Tier 2:  Drop pools are normalized, will always roll for a Detron part.

Tier 3:  Begins dropping Zanuka Armor (His head, also with sparking bullet holes and slashes, as a chest piece, with the big metal pieces as shoulder plates, suffering visible damage), as well as the Zanuka Sigil.

Tier 4:  Drops the Zanuka Missile Pod as a weapon blueprint, an Arch-Gun that locks onto targets before unleashing a swarm of missiles.  Stats below:

Spoiler

Accuracy: 100

Trigger Type:  Duplex-Auto (hold to lock, release to fire, can lock on to up to 10 targets)

Fire Rate: 3.50

Magazine Size:  80

Max Ammo: 400

Reload Time: 2.5s

Critical Chance/Damage: 25%/2.5

Status Chance: 30%

Damage:  30 Impact / 420 Puncture / 30 Slash / 220 Blast (700 total)

 

Tier 5:  Drops Vandalized Zanuka Armor and Sigils (Zanuka Armor and Sigils, given the Vandal series' traditional light-blue metallic textures).

Grustrag Three:

Spoiler

Tier 1:  Drops Brakk parts at half the drop chance per member.

Tier 2:  Drop pools return to normal.

Tier 3:  Will always roll for a random Brakk part per member, begins to drop Grustrag Armor (each member's helmet, with smoking bullet holes and smashed in at certain points), as well as their Sigil.

Tier 4:  Drops an augment for the Hek that causes all rounds to explode in an electrical burst (mimicking Vem Tabook's Hek), an augment for the Marelok that makes all of it's rounds explode on a headshot (mimicking Shik Tal's Marelok), and the Grustrag Cage augment for all Sentinels that allows them to cage any downed enemies within 50m for up to 12s, extending their vulnerability to Finishers.

Tier 5:  Drops Grustrag Armor Wraith (Grustrag armor with the Wraith series' black-with-red-lines motif) and Grustrag Wraith Sigils.

Thanks for reading all this!  Let me know what you think!