[Assassin] Is it me or...

[Cernunnos]

Does the assassin just suck?

I get beat down so hard in Epic on bosses (mostly just the bosses)...I'm in FULL assassin gear and have over 60% chance to dodge attacks, but yet, it doesn't seem to even be working..

I guess ARROWS aren't counted as "attacks" when dodging??? Seems liek they hit 100% of the time...which is pretty lame.

I'm dual weilding two symphalion Talons, and on weapon setup II i have a mindrazor and a Pagos.

1031 DPS, using poisons as well, and throwing knives (i'm level 42).

What am I doing wrong? should I just switch to the conquerer set and give up on assassin?

Is anyone else having trouble killing bosses as an assassin? I thought they were supposed to be most powerful against single mobs Like the description says for rogues...

Blah....

[Maktaka]

That's correct, arrows do not count for "+% Dodge Attacks". You'll need something that does "+% Dodge Projectiles" to avoid arrows. If arrows give you fits, either get poison gas bomb or charge them and blast them with maxed Flash Powder to take out roughly 2/3 of the crowd.

Bosses can be handled easier if you've got Nightshade maxed. There's no slow resistance in the game and Nightshade effects everything. Add something that does slower attacks to enemies to enhance the effect. Bosses have their speed limited to 50% though, so you can't send them slower than that. Mandrake helps too against bosses that use melee attacks, although they are immune to the confusion.

A lot of the bosses have attacks that can kill you in one hit unless you've got really fantastic resistances, even bosses that appeared in Normal as well. When they're slowed they telegraph their attacks from a mile away, so keep an eye for the beginnings of each attack that can one shot you and get out of there. Once their attack is done, resume the beatdown.

[Ascent]

Well, what worked for me is using mostly warrior armor and a few other pieces for variety.

For example, for my weapon set #1 (Main set for bosses; I go pretty much pure warrior gear-wise on normal mobs), I have some armor that goes with that setup. My first weapon set is a spear (Some +20% Piercing damage) combined with the Shield of the Korybantes (+15% Piercing damage, +15% Damage and ~+50% Piercing Resistance). What I use with those is a Tracker's Hood (~+110% Piercing Damage) and an Apollo's Will (~+110% Piercing Damage). All this, combined with my usual +attack speed and +damage gear makes for fairly impressive damage: about 8000 dps. This is enough to take down most bosses VERY quickly.

I guess what I am trying to say is, for the Assassin, piercing damage is what it's all about. At least for bosses. Just be careful and use your poisions all the time; most bosses will be greatly slowed and melee ones will be useless.

Also, since the Rogue does not have any real defenses against boss attacks, try looking at the Warfare tree for aid. Two good examples are the Battle Standard and the Ancestral Horn: you'll want to max those as soon as you can.

Furthermore, try getting your resistances higher: whenever you find a piece of armor that has a good +%resistance bonus, such as +40% Fire Resistance, keep it. Besides, once you have finished the game once, you should know what's coming up, try to prepare yourself for future battles as much as you can.