Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Assassin

Here are general tips for playing the Chaos Champaign in Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, on HARD Difficulty. A list of all our Warhammer: Mark of Chaos articles can be found here.

Assassin Skills

• You get every skill at rank 0 as long as you fulfill the prerequisites.
• Any skill with no skill prerequisite deserves special attention because you can bank your points and get 5 ranks of it immediately when you reach the necessary level, instead of spending your points on low-level skills you may not want.
• Look for passive skills that require no mana, because one or two really good skills on a hero will monopolize use of the mana pool anyway.
• When attached to a ranged combat unit, the Assassin gets a ranged attack. When alone, it uses melee only. Its attacks do not inflict poison.

Combat Skills

Implacable Heart (Level 0)

• The hero gains +3% stamina per level.

Implacable Heart > Swift of Foot (Level 5)

• Increases move speed by 2% per level.

Implacable Heart > Swift of Foot > First Strike (Level 15)

• Increases the hero's chance to hit while charging by 10% per level.

Shadowfoot (Level 0)

• Increases the hero's attack speed by 30% at the cost of 50% armour and 50% magic resistance. Lasts for 15 seconds +3 seconds per rank. During the spell the hero suffers no penalty for running. -5% armor and magic resistance penalty per rank.
• At 5/5 ranks, this is +30% attack speed, -25% armor, -25% magic resistance, for 30 seconds.
• Best used if the enemy is already engaged and won't likely redirect their attention to you -- such as if you are in a ranged attack regiment and the enemy is blocked by front line hand-to-hand regiments.

Shadowfoot > Tangling Darkness (Level 25)

• The hero throws a net on target enemy unit, immobilizing it for 3 seconds + 0.5 seconds per rank.
• At the basic 3 seconds, by the time you switch to take another action it will probably have expired before you can click a skill or regiment and target it. Ideally, then, you are waiting for the target ahead of time and have missile troops already waiting to hit them when they are in range (or already shooting at them), therefore buying them an addition 3 seconds of fire before they reach melee range.

(no prerequisite) > Blademaster (Level 5)

• Increases chance to hit by 3% per level.

Blademaster > Blade of Terror (Level 15)

• The hero's attacks decreases the target's morale by 10% faster per level.

Duel Skills

These skills are only available during a duel. All other skills that need to be activated are disabled. Therefore, any points put here may be unavailable most of the time, and specializes your hero into an anti-hero build. Even so, it is hard to say whether you will get enough mileage out of a duelist hero because after a bout, he may have low health and no be able to handle a second bout. Damage is typically done by attrition unless you have invested a lot of points.

Whispering Blade (Level 0)

• The hero inflicts 1 damage with 50% chance (+10% per rank) to hit and causes high morale loss.

Whispering Blade > Soultheft (Level 5)

• Every successful attack will have a 50% chance (+10% per rank) to heal the hero by 1. Lasts 10 seconds.

Whispering Blade > Nerve Blow (Level 15)

• Interrupts the opponent casting and stuns him for 2 seconds +0.5 seconds per rank.

Whispering Blade > Nerve Blow > Death Frenzy (Level 25)

• 8 second cast.
• The hero works himself into a death frenzy, empowering attacks to do 2 HP damage. The frenzy also increases attack speed by 100% and decreases armor by 100% for the duration. Lasts 10 seconds. +15% chance per rank for each attack to deliver 2 extra damage.
• Based on the description, at 5/5 the assassin has a 75% chance of doing 4 damage on a hit.
• Since the assassin has zero Armor during this time, it's probably a good idea to combine this with Soultheft.

Deadly Strike (Level 0)

• Gives 5% chance to do 1 extra damage with melee attacks per level.

(no prerequisites) > Shadowmerge (Level 5)

• After leaving the duel, the hero gains invisibility for 5 seconds per rank.
• From the description, this sounds like it works even if you flee a duel, which could be very useful. For example, if you tied up the enemy hero by duelling even though you know you will lose, you could have your regiments destroy his, then flee the duel and have your regiments kill the hero.

Duel Leave Stealth > Lord of Battle (Level 15)

• When entering the duel, the hero gains 1 HP per rank.

Command Skills

Command skills work on the hero if they are not attached to a regiment.

The Gnawing Death (Level 0)

• Increases the chance to hit by 10% (+2% per rank) for the hero and the attached regiment. These attacks also ignore 50% (+10% per rank) of the target's armour.
• At 5/5, all targets have 0% armor, which can let regiments kill heavily armored units such as knights and heroes.

The Gnawing Death > Darkwalker (Level 25)

• The hero and the attached regiment become invisible for 30 seconds (+5 seconds per rank). Running or charging will break this invisibility before the duration ends.
• Almost 1 minute of invisibility at 5/5. Allows you to close in on artillery safely.

Pathfinder (Level 0)

• The hero and the attached regiment suffer 15% less penalty per level when moving on hard terrain.

Pathfinder > Battle Senses (Level 5)

• Attached regiment defence against behind attacks is increased by 10% per level.

Pathfinder > Battle Senses > Divine Inspiration (Level 15)

• The hero and the attached regiment gets +5% bonus to experience points from each kill.

(no prerequisites) > Backstabber (Level 5)

• The hero's and the attached regiment's chance to hit from the behind is increased by 5% per level.
• Text actually reads "... to hit from the behind...". To hit with their ass?
• Hard to say whether it first requires the regiment to be attacking the enemy from the rear to receive this bonus.

Backstabber > Swift Command (Level 15)

• The hero's and the attached regiment's attack speed increases by 3% per level.