Age of Conan: Assassin Leveling Journal

Tips, tricks, theory, and my experience as I level an Assassin in the brutal world of Hyboria

Author: fazor3d

I haven't posted in a week; and I'm not sure if anyone really follows these anyway, but thought I'd check in and note that I haven't played AoC at all since my last post. The 'ol ball'n'chain's been off work everynight this week, except last night, so I haven't spent a lot of time online. Last night I went over to my brother's to play some guitar...real, not push-button video game guitar. But I will continue on my journey to 80 eventually.

I'll try to play some this weekend...should be exciting, since I'm halfway thorugh leveling and finally at a point where I can invest in the fun talents rather than the PvP survivability-oriented general tree.

We'll see how it goes.

Well, we didn't end up going to the ball game tonight; there were scattered showers and about 3000% humidity. So I watched the Tribe from home instead.

Since they were winning handily I hopped on AoC to do some playing. I wanted to record various videos of random PvP encounters between different classes. But it looks like the free verson of Fraps only records about 30 seconds at a time. And the in-game video takes me down to about 3 seconds per frame.

But in my quest to find equa-level opponents, I ended up out in the Fields of the Dead. First time there...seems like kinda a pain in the arse area... but mostly because I get about 8 FPS there compaired to almost 30 in Wildlands.

Anyway, the good news was it didn't take me long at all to ding 40. Half way! Plus, earlier in the night I ran Sanctum and got the lvl 40 ninja mask. Also I've had the cape (now my ass doesn't show when I'm in hide!...for those who haven't played, for some reason your cloths become more transparent than your toon when you enter stealth). And lastly, I had a new chest peice to equip. Nothing super exciting, just a green that was better than my current green...but it looks a lot better.

I put my two feat points in Unholy Strength. But I only played for about 3 min after dinging so I don't know exactly how much that's improved Swift Strikes.

Now I just gotta figure out how in the world you ever get three gold so you can buy a mount...   ...not that rogues really need one...   ...they're just cool. :-P

My inventory was full of green and blues (random greed wins in Sanct). Cleared out execpt for 4 slots (pots and food) and It didn't even make 10 silver. How the hell do you get 3 gold??? Oh well.

That's all for tonight.

Well, I went from 36 to 39 tonight...approaching the lvl 40 milestone. I should'a hopped off sooner to avoid g/f agro, but I had run Sanct a few times and had a matching set of the Daggers, and I just had to hit 39 so I could use them.

I finally filled out the feats I intend to use in the "General" tree. If you don't remember (Or didn't see) the other post, that just means I finished filling out Swift Shadows (3/3). I might have to finish filling out Agile Mind (only 1/3 at the moment), but it's unclear if more points makes it more effective, or how often it can fail with only 1, or if it has to do with levels or what. I'm not real concerned about it... I've only had one person try to fear me PvP (which is what I'm building for), and it did indeed resist it.

Anyway, I also took all my points out of climbing and half my points out of endurance and put them in run speed. There's a post about movement buffs and their effects on hide speed on the AoC forums, but long story short for every 100pts in Run Speed, it will increase your hide movement speed by about 1%. Every 100 pts in skulk is about 2%. 3/3 Swift Shadows is +15(percent? points? god only knows...but I can say it's a noticeable difference).

Anyway, with skulk maxed at around 390, run speed at about 260, and 3/3 Swift Shad., I move pretty good while hidden. Some people (expecially equal-level) are a slight bit faster, some are about equal, and some are a little slower. I'm guessing it has to do with if they've put points in run speed, or if they have any movement buff items. But, for the time being, it seems to accomplish what I was hoping for: It's much easier to chase someone down stealthily now.

The down side is my Endurance is low, and if I need to climb for a quest I'll have to spend money to re-talent for it.

Next step is to fill out Unholy Strength. 2/5 right now. I think you get 2 feat points when you ding 40 (I seem to have gotten two at lvls 10, 20, and 30... or I've forgotten to spend them at levels 9, 19, and 29 :)

Alas, I'm going to watch a Baseball game tomorrow (Local AAA team), so won't have much time to work towards 40. Guess it'll be a weekend thing.

Anyway, that's my update for the night. Thanks and happy hunting.

I'm not going to list "The perfect PvP Build!" and the "Ideal PvE Grinding Build!"

What I will do is talk about what my build goals are, and what I've noticed about the few talents I have so far (and the ones I add as I go).

I'm corruption spec. Sorta. More accurately, I started down the corruption tree for 5 levels, then realized how badly I needed the general talents, and now am spreading my points between the two (though I nearly have General filled out as far as I will take it, then I can happily continue down the Corruption tree).

Things that the general tree has to offer:

There are some very, very good PvP oriented talents in the General tree. To be honest, if I was on a PvE server, or actively tried to avoid PvP while I level, I would probably ignore this tree. But I seek out PvP, and I like some survivability when I get jumped.

Excellent Balance - This talent gives you a means to avoid those nasty knockbacks that Barbs and soldier classes have...and casters...and priests...okay, so just about everyone except Sins. This isn't a catch-all...it doesn't work 100% of the time (But works more often than not), but only lasts so long. So you have to try to guess when they're going to attempt the knockback, which is easy...they try to do it ASAP. Problem is, once you use it, you better kill them before their cooldown's up, because theirs will be up before yours.

Escape Artist - The biggest reason I invested feat points in the tree. Also the reason why I ignore the whiney "I always get rooted! QQ" threads in the 'Sin forums. I have it maxed out, and though it may change at a higher level, 9 times out of 10 (taking into account that 90% of stats are made up on the spot) it works. And as I mentioned in my PvP entry, it usually suprises the hell out of whoever's trying to root you.

Agile Mind - I've only invested 1 point so far, because at this level, I think someone's only tried to fear me once...and that was last night. (And, because of agile mind, it didn't work. Take that you already underpowered necro!)

I have three points invested in the evade ability (Can't think of the name off the top of my head). I figure, +3% evade can't be bad.

Lastly, I have a point in Swift Shadows, and plan to invest my next two in that aswell. I assumed it would be kinda a BS talent, but after talking about it on the forums, I decided it sounded worthwhile. Let me tell you, it was. Even with just 1 point, and skulk maxed for my level (roughly 360 IIRC), I can move in stealth *nearly* as fast as someone running regularly (not sprinting). This helps emmensly when I'm trying to track someone down and kill them.

* * * *

As for my corruption talents, obviously the first 5 go in corrupting blades. No choice there. Next I went with Corrupting strikes-for the cost of a Soul Frag, increases your offhand  hit chance. I don't use this ability often, and wonder if Foul Corruption would have been better--though from what I've heard, the later is almost worthless.

I started putting points in Unholy Strength (okay, so only 1 so far). And will max that out. Then plan on moving to Dark Weapon for teir 4. Then you get into the leeches, and I'm undecided at the moment. I'll update that more when I get there.

And now the section you've all been waiting for. How to p0wn face in PvP!  Lets jump right into it, shall we?

Tip 1: Don't listen to a lvl 36 'Sin with a K:D ratio of nearly 1:2.

Yes, I'm referring to myself. And no, I don't really want you to ignore me. I'm just pointing out that no, I'm not the most experienced PvP'er, and I don't claim to be able to "p0wn" at will. Though I will also point out that, while my K:D ratio is awfull, that's largely due to the fact that one of the things I do to learn how to fight other classes is seek out classes that are notoriously difficult for 'Sins (read: Guardians) or classes I'm really bad at fighting (read: Just about anyone else, with the exception of other Sins, Necros, and Demos). Additionally, I tend to only fight players that are 7+ levels higher than me, as I feel I learn more. There's no PvP penatly at the moment, so who cares if you lose?

Real Tip 1: Suprise! [insert line that only I find wity here]

Stealth works much better in PvP than it does in PvE (but make sure you max it out each time you level). We're a class that dies in about three hits--do you really expect to be sucessfull if you announce yourself first? "Hey, you. Barbarian with all the stuns and CC. Yeah you. I'm squishy, and you can pound me in a few good shots. So get that 2H'er ready, here I come!"  Not the most effective (or Assassin'esque) technique. You don't *have* to jump everyone when they're at half health, or fighting mobs. And I'm certianly not saying attack while they're talking to an NPC--thats something I can't stand. But attacking when they least expect it is key to sucess.

Tip 2: He who's losing and runs away, Lives to kill while the other person is busy calling you names in OCC chat.

Okay so that saying's not as catchy as the classic. The point is, don't be above running away! Particularly if you're not the one that initiated (i.e., someone jumps you while you're questing). I take it personally, so I never run far. But get around an object and out of LoS (Line of Sight). You break combat fairly quickly in AoC, and if you can get behind something you can often restealth even if you were just in combat a second ago. Plus getting out of LoS helps prevent them from using a bow or ranged weapon to slow you down.

Stealth, get back to full HP, and attack on your terms.

Tip 3: Jousting

A lot of people are going to be movers. They know that you can't land your combo if they move out of the way. It's the same for them. But with daggers, we have the smallest arc, so it doesn't take a whole lot to get out of the way. Remedy? You can "load" your combos by starting them, and going through each move except the last one. Then, wait for them to dance in range, and unleash the last attack. This takes practice, but really isn't *that* difficult. The other thing you can do against melee classes, is for YOU to retreat, and load your combo. It's human nature for the agressor to run straight at you--they want to get there as soon as possible. That means you'll have an opportunity to unleash the combo and then you can move again.

Obviously you don't want to try against a ranged class.

Tip 4: Learn when a Win is a win

Okay, so sometimes we will be "melting face" and the person will flee. I bound my xbow to a simple single-key (C) so that I can quickly swap and try to snare. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. (For those who aren't aware, a xbow hit to the back gives a chance to slow the target). But sometimes just chasing someone off is a win in and of itself. I know, I'd rather get the kill...and if they scamper, chances are they'll come back. Be waiting for them. But, personally, when I fight a guardian that's 3 levels or more higher than me, and he's forced to run away, I still feel great about it.

...lastly, I'll talk about this more in my Feat/Talent entry, but the General Tree is your friend. I know, it sucks having to invest your first 20+ points into the generic tree...that's not fun or sexy. And you don't *have* to do it. But a lot of the complaints assassins have can be fixed by the general tree (Ex. "Rangers and casters just root and nuke! It's BS!"...well, escape artitst works most of the time, and then completely throws off their game plan, often giving you a little advantage.)  Again, I'm not going to tell you you have to build your toon this way or that, 'else your a nubcake! But as dissapointing as it is to have to wait to put points in Lotus or Corruption, General Tree does help quite a bit.

I'll start this off with another disclaimer; I am only level 36, and cannot pretend to have faced every situation that Hyboria has to throw at me. I can, however, give new commers to the class some tips that have helped me thus far.

I'm going to stay away from builds and feats at the moment, as that's a different discussion entirely.

"Assassins are weak! We can't even take 2 mobs at the same time! I WANT MY MOMMY!"

Okay, say what you will about the 'Sin class, but we are definately not weak in the PvE arena. As much as I'd love to say, "If you can't take on two mobs, you fail. L2P or GTFO, noob!" I won't...because that'd just be mean. And hey, there was a time when I couldn't take on two mobs at once...though I eventually found out it was an...um...opperator error.

And occasionally I'll get mowed down by two mobs still...usually as a result of an unlucky chain of crits against me, or my royally messing up my combos. It's weird, but we have very little room for error. Either you execute perfectly and mow through the mobs like they were...something that gets easily mowed...or we miss-execute and die a horrible, embarassing death.

Tip one: Stance--it's not just to attract the chicks (Or dudes, if that's what you're into).

Above I mentioned that there was a point when I was mad because if there was more than one mob, I'd never get the second one killed before I died. Well, I was more than mad. I was ready to quit the class. Quit the game! Screw you Funcom! BALANCE!! ....then, as I was looking through my abilities book for something I gained upon leveling, I noticed "Poison stance" and "Unholy stance". What the hell? These aren't on my hotbars. Where'd they come from?

Well, to this day I can't tell you at what point you get the stances, or if you start with them. I was level 12ish when I discovered them (So I'm a bit slow, I can't help it). Well, I popped unholy stance 'caus, well, it's unholy...how cool is that? (Tired of Assassin = poison, too cliche for me). And guess what? My damage more than doubled.

Moral of the story--without a stance, you're basically a squishy weakling duel-weilding what might as well be plastic sporks from the school cafeteria (they do still use sporks in schools, right?). I don't care what stance you use--I prefer unholy, but the majority said poison is better. Now I think the community is split about 50/50. Again, I'm not going to talk about feats and builds, but keep in mind that just because you go corruption spec doesn't mean you always have to use unholy stance, and vise-versa. Certian talents won't work if you're not in the stance, but that doesn't mean you can't do it.

From the scant literature and "amazingly indepth" (puke) tool-tips, Unholy stance seems to be aimed at higher-armored targets (Part of the damage is delt as unholy damage, wich is not mitigated by armor, but by resistances), and poison stance is more for caster-classes (poison is, I believe, suppose to slow down their casting time). I haven't used poison, so have not compaired the two side-by side. That's the theory between the two, but in practice I don't know how the numbers add up.

Tip-Two: Combo's and shields (and bears, oh my!)

Obviously you want to use combos. For those new to the class, you can almost completely ignore the combo descriptions. They're awfull. For the first part of your leveling experience, Cunning Strike is going to be your big-damage dealer. The tip reads as if it's just a threat-mitigation move for when you're in groups, but it's by far your best combo. Swift strikes is also up there. But both of those are "Center combos"...in other words, both attack to the center shield zone. So if all three shields are moved to guard center (most mobs do this after your first cunning strike), then they become your worst combos.

So you'll need the other combos for when you can't attack center. My rule of thumb is, I do not attack any zone that has two or more sheilds, and I attack any zone first that doesn't have any shields (pending availability of the combo, of course). Think about it; a combo that does (for the sake of ease) 100% of 100 damage is better than a combo that does 10% of 300 damage. Aim for the unguarded spots!

I'll list the ablities that I use for each zone--though it's probably fairly similar for everyone as we don't get that many to chose from anyway:  

Left side-Grim Corruption and Lethargy - at lower levels I was using GC under the idea that it lowers their unholy resistance, so subsequent attacks will do more damage. Which is true, but we kill mobs in two or three combos max regardless, so is not a deal maker. For a while I switched to lethargy, because (without close examination) it seemed to do more damage. I don't know if it does or doesn't, but now I'm back to using GC as my primary left-side attack because it's a single-button combo. Lethargy is still used as my secondary left-side attack, if needed (or against bosses).

Center- Cunning Strikes and Swift Strikes - Cunning strikes is my primary attack, but swift strikes is catching up to it (Cunning strike hasn't been upgraded since like level 20, Swift strikes gets upgraded circa level 32). Both do *almost* the same damage for me, with CS edging SS out by a small margin. Also (Important!) different ranks of the same combo are on seperate timers. So I can keep my next-highest rank of CS and SS as alternatives, for when the first two are both on CD.

Right side- Slow Death Strike and (Some ability I rarely use that gives a small bleed effect. Heh, sorry). The second is a back-up, incase I absolutely need to attack the right side and SDS is on CD. SDS does nice damage and then tics more damage for 3 seconds. Not a long DOT, but enough to make a difference, particularly on targets with low health.

* * *

Since I mention "Sheilds" in the tip name, I'll briefly talk about your own dynamic shields. LEAVE THEM ALONE. :) If you're fighting something 1v1, and you have the ability to (I don't, I'm a little slow, remember?) you can adjust your shields to the zone he is hitting. If there's more than 1 enemy, which is normal for PvE, I suggest leaving them alone. If you adjust your sheilds for one, you are leaving one zone completely ungarded for the other to hit. Slightly mitigating one damage to greatly increase another is not worth it.

PvP can be a different story, but I'll talk about that in the PvP section.

Tip Three: Auto target

Okay, a lot of people say to turn auto targeting off. My response was "I'm an uncoordinated clod, I can't do all that by myself!". I was particularly worried about the PvP ramifications, but in short, it didn't hurt my PvP preformance at all. Recently, against my personal doubts, I turned auto targeting off, and tried aiming my attacks to land between two (or more) mobs. And guess what? It actually works. Because I can only see the sheilds of the Mob I have selected, and because I base my attack sequence on those sheilds, I usually don't kill both mobs at the same time. But if I'm hitting both, the second will be at least 50% dead at the time of killing the first. Which speeds up finishing the second. And if there's a third, then I typically have decent health left to take him out even if he's still at full health. Then the adds come along, and you take them out. Then you unleash a primal scream as you gut soldier after solder ftw! AAAAAAARGH!  ...okay so it's not that dramatic, but it does substancially increase your odds on 1v2+ fights.

Tip Four: xBow 360, live(tm)   ...don't worry, this is the last tip...For now >:)

I mentioned it in the stealth tips entry, but don't be afraid to use your xbow to pull in crowded situations. A lot of us get this "I'm a rogue (wrong you're an assassin) I need to kill from the shadows! (wrong, you need do kill with any means necessary). Don't let your predefined notions of an Assassin class gimp your play...it may not be exactly what you were expecting, but be flexible. I garuntee mowing down mobs with your daggers and slashing their throats feels very assassiny, regardless of how you gained agro.

"Hide is broken!" "Everyone can hide, so what's the point of Assassins?!"

How often have you seen those two complaints? I'll start by addressing the first: "Hide is broken". Well, yes and no. There's some bugs with hide. Namely, sometimes after you kill a Mob, they continue to "Observe" you, preventing you from going back in stealth. Try to run around a corner, out of LOS (Line of Sight), and you should be fine. Also, if you are in a group and your group is in combat, you are also considered to be in combat and cannot stealth--even if you are miles away from them. The later might have been intentional, but is frustraiting.

Lastly there is a third bug which I've expereinced once, and sadly forget what seemed to cause it (It had to do with zoning) where I couldn't stealth at all for about 6 minutes. Others have reported more freqent experience with this, though I personally have only seen it the one time.

I know what you're thinking... "But my stealth breaks every time I try to attack a Mob!". In Age of Conan, it is extreemely difficult to stealth attack in broad daylight. Is that broken? No, I think that's what they intended. Certian types of Mobs seem better at breaking stealth--namely animals. Again, I think this was probably intended. Even if you're visually hidden, animals have increased sense of hearing and smell.

Disclaimer! Supposedly people have been reporting that stealth has been "slightly nerfed" in the 6/09/2008 patch! That was less than 24 hours ago, so I've had a total of about 30 min playtime since the patch. I didn't notice much difference, except perhaps an increased sucess rate when closing in from behind. It's hard to say if anything was really chanced, or if it's the "placebo" effect.

Anyway, now for the tips:

-In instances and anywhere that's "dark", use your light meter. It's the little diamond below your mini-map: the brighter it is, the more light you're in. It's not perfect, but it'll give you an idea. Daytime, you're almost always shown to be in full or near-full light.

-During the day: Try to avoid direct Line of Sight with any mobs. As of the last time I played, even "gray" non-hostile mobs would still spot you and bring you out of stealth (something I personally find highly annoying, but hard to classify as a bug, as it may have been intended). If you can use cover (houses, boulders, hills, whatever) to keep inbetween you and your target Mob, then do so.

-During the day: Don't be afraid to unstealth and use your crossbow to pull mobs one or two at a time if you have to. People cry about not getting the SA (Stealth attack) off, but honestly that's just one hit; you can do the same damage with your combos.

-Use stealth to scout the area: Even when you can't use stealth to get those opening attacks against Mobs, don't ignore it completely. Assuming you're on a PvP server (which you should be, dagnabbit!), you're always at risk from other players. Use stealth when moving around the map. When you get to your quest area, take a minute to see if anyone else is in the area aswell. Look for loot-bags or other signs that someone was recently there. Try to listen for other footsteps, if someone's in stealth. You'll never be 100% safe (isn't that the point of a barbaric, bloodthirsty world?), but it reduces the frustraition.

The rest is just "play and feel"...if you're patient and you keep at it, you will get a feel for when stealth is going to work, and when it won't. And you'll learn to use it as an advantage. Hey, if I can get it, anyway can.

...lastly I should address that second complaint that I mentioned in the opening. "Everyone gets stealth!" ... well, sort of. Keep in mind that non-rogue classes *can* hide, but move extreemely slow and it uses stamina to move in hide. A griefer can hide and stand still next to an NPC or whatever and wait for hapless victims to come along. Not much you can do about that. But it's pretty obvious that it's not very effective for them to stay stealthed all the time. Other classes don't get the Stealth Attack bonus (not to the extent that we do), and if they try to stealth up to you for PvP, they'd be left with depleted stamina. Why do you think that you see so many people running around unstealthed even though we all can hide?

Granted rangers and barbarians can hide the same as us. But, like it or not, they are rogues too.

This is basically a re-hash of my post in the AoC Assassin forums. I by no means attempt to claim that I have all the answers. Though I'm working towards reaching level 80, I am not a "Crash leveler", and am in no great hurry to do so.

My toon is Thadias, on the Doomsayer FFA-PvP server. At this point, I am level 36 (I got to hear the new level-ding sound effect last night...the one that was added by "Popular Demand". Pretty sweet.... [/sarcasm]).

This post is mostly Assassin theory. It is not a step-by-step how-to guide to Hyborian PvE and PvP, but more some things to keep in mind along your journey.

For me, playing an Assassin (Sin) in AoC required a complete change in how I viewed online MMO/PvP play. I don't pretend to be an MMO vet, who's beta'd every game ever made. I started with Guildwars...which I barely consider to be an MMO (I call it a single player game with other players in it). Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, but (at least when I played, pre-Nightfall expansion) all the zones were instanced, so it was only you and your party in them. Other players only came in to play in the cities, with juvenile chat messages and people trying to rip everyone off in trade chat. And of course the beloved LFG messages.

I played some trial periods for a handfull of MMO's, and finally settled for WoW. Okay, before you chime in with the "WoW kiddiez R nubs! L2P! Blah blah blah", I only mention WoW because that's where I'm coming from. AoC and WoW do not compair. But my theory and playstyle was evolved first in WoW, where I did play on a PvP server.

In the WoW PvP environment, I typically left enemy players alone unless a) they showed hostile intent towards me, b) were griefing other players, or c) were in the way of me completing quests. I never  rarely attacked "lowbies" (2+ levels below me) but be honest, sometimes you just can't help but one-shot that guy for no other reason than to do it. The only time I'd attack someone who was engaged in a mob, or already low on health was if they had done something to earn my wrath.

Then comes AoC. Right off the bat, you knew things would be different. FFA PvP? No rules? No factions? Kill anyone, almost anywhere? Bloody! (yay!).

But because of the nature of FFA-PvP (or even the RP-PvP), you have to be extreemely aware of ... well ... everything. And knowing your class becomes even more important. There is no "ez-mode"...and I don't care what you read about who's OP'd or who's Gimped...a bad player of any class can and will be beatable by someone who knows their class.

And the most important thing to know about your class is your weakness. Aside from any lingering bugs or other aspects that some people argue are weaknesses, lets consider our main two:

1) Armor. More specifically, lack thereof. We wear cloth/silk, and we have low HP. That means we do not want to be hit. And no, our evade rating is not markedly higher than anyone else. That means we want to avoid "Toe to Toe" fights as much as possible. Trading blows typically equals a loss. I'll get to the Strategies for countering this in another post. What you need to focus on is staying stealthed. Learn the stealth system--it's really not as "broken" as a lot of people say it is. Infact, it's quite predictable once you get to know it. It sucks traveling everywhere in stealth, but because of our defensive disadvantage, it is imparative that you know what's arround you, and that other's don't know that you're there.

2) Damage. Okay, I'm not saying our damage in and of itself is a disadvantage. We have awsome damage. But it's burst damage, and it only lasts for aslong as we stay alive--which often is not long, ulness you can quickly take out your target. That means that you cannot expect to sneak up on a heavy-armored guardian in defensive stance, who is at full health and stamina, and expect to two shot him before he can pound on you. Wait for an opportunity.

My *new* PvP theology:

"I'm an Assassin. I'm a cold, calculated killer, who uses every advantage I can get to take out my target."

What I consided griefing and cheap-kills in WoW had to be thrown out the window for AoC. But that doesn't mean I have completely trashed my PvP "Morals". When PK'ing (Player killing) someone who is either agressive towards other players, "griefing", taking my quest mobs, or anything else that draws my PvP attention, I'm not above waiting for them to be at a health disadvantage, or attacking when they're busy with something else. Am I just justifing why it's okay to play like a jerk? Sure. But I'm not saying it's wrong for other classes to do so aswell.

Do I kill random "lowbies" or everyone that I ever pass who's not at full health? No. There's a few reasons I don't. Personally, I feel like a jerk taking "easy kills" for no other reason than to be, well, a jerk. Also, being a FFA-PvP world, to more you "grief", the more attention you draw to yourself, and the more you'll have to deal with "payback" while you're trying to quest. And as I mentioned above, I am *not* level 80, so yes I do quest.

You're an Assassin. You attack from stealth. You're going to get a lot of ... to put it nicely ... "trash talk" from the people you kill, regardless of whether or not it was a "fair" fight (people who lose always come up with some BS excuse as to why you're a jerk and why it wasn't fair that you killed them).

Which brings me to my number one rule, and thw whole point of the rambling first entry;

Always be ready; always expect to be attacked. Watch your surroundings. Remain hidden as much as possible. If they don't know you're there, they can't plan the attack.

And if we have to take such care as to always be ready, then why should we feel bad when they died on our blades because they did not do the same?