Aion 2 · Guides
Aion 2 Assassin guide: playstyle, build and boards
NCSOFT / AION 2 official Steam screenshots
TL;DR
- Assassin is the melee damage class of Aion 2. It fights with daggers, deals its damage in short burst windows and wants to hit bosses from behind.
- Creators rate its damage ceiling among the highest in the game. The cost is positioning, low survivability and a reliance on cooldown reduction.
- The burst comes from Illusive Clone, a stigma that removes the cooldown of Heart Gore. Pair it with Swift Contract for 20% Combat Speed.
- Your four main damage skills are Quick Slice, Savage Roar, Heart Gore and Insignia Explosion.
- Anders and Society Of Gaming both warn against Assassin if you play on a high ping.
Is Assassin right for you?
Pick Assassin if you like melee combat and want to line up a big damage window, then spend it well. Your damage spikes while your self buffs are up and drops when they expire.
Creator tip
The Assassin is all about setting up short burst windows and then dealing as much damage as possible before that window ends.
Several skills reward attacking from behind, which makes bosses that turn or move harder for you than for a ranged class:
Skills that reward hitting from behind
| Concern | What creators say |
|---|---|
| Solo fights | "An absolute pain", and Assassin is the squishiest melee class (Kanon) |
| Difficulty | Only two harder parts: timing self buffs and staying behind the boss. Still deals a lot of damage played imperfectly (Grobs) |
| Early game | Needs gear, attack speed, buffs and stigma ranks before it pulls ahead of easier damage classes (SywoGG) |
| Connection | Needs a better connection than other classes (Anders) |
| PvP | Strong one-on-one and in small fights, thanks to mobility, crowd control and stealth (Grobs, SywoGG, Anders). Less to do in large-scale fights (Grobs, FRESHY) |
Creator tip
Now is the class a little harder to play? Yes. But I think if you like assassin and melee gameplay, you should go for it.
Creator tip
If you're on very high ping to the servers, I don't recommend assassin.
How Assassin plays
Your damage rotates around Insignia stacks and Critical Hits:
| Skill | What it does |
|---|---|
| Quick Slice | Basic attack. No MP cost, restores 100 MP |
| Savage Roar | Costs 120 MP, engraves an Insignia on each hit |
| Insignia Explosion | More damage per Insignia stack on the target, up to five |
| Heart Gore | Usable only after you land a Critical Hit. Restores 100 MP |
| Shadowstrike, Infiltrate | Move you behind the target |
| Flash Slice | Moves you to the target's opposite side |
The passive Exploit Weakness has a chance to summon up to five clones when you land a Critical Hit, and each clone inflicts Insignia. Grobs says this passive alone keeps enough Insignia on a boss for Insignia Explosion.
Your burst window opens with Illusive Clone. It removes Heart Gore's cooldown and adds 20% of your damage as extra damage, so for its duration you can use Heart Gore after every Critical Hit. Swift Contract adds 20% Combat Speed on top. Grobs and Madsin both stress that every bit of cooldown reduction brings Illusive Clone back sooner.
The build in one panel
These are the skills Grobs's guide builds around. The ranks, specialties, stigma order and rotation are in the Assassin PvE build.
Core Assassin skills and stigmas
Heart GoreRank 16 first: cooldown reset on Critical Hit
Quick SliceRank 16: lands as a Critical Hit
Insignia ExplosionRank 16: -3s cooldown
Savage RoarRank 8: Skill Speed
ShadowstrikeRank 8: Critical Damage Boost on hit
InfiltrateRank 8: +10m range
Illusive CloneStigma, rank 20 after Triniel's Dagger
Swift ContractStigma, opens the burst with Illusive Clone
Triniel's DaggerStigma, rank 10 first
Savage FangStigma, opener that engraves 5 Insignias
Exploit WeaknessFirst passive to level
Rear SmiteSecond passive to level
Daevanion boards
Assassin has five boards. Each of the first four has one node for each of Assassin's twelve base active skills, so the boards add up to four ranks to every one of them.
| Board | Unlocks at | Crystals |
|---|---|---|
| Nezekan | Level 12 | Daevanion |
| Zikel | Level 20 | Daevanion |
| Vaizel | Level 30 | Daevanion |
| Triniel | Level 40 | Daevanion |
| Azphel | Level 45 | Battle |
Skill points only take an active skill to rank 10. Grobs says to get your actives to rank 12 as quickly as possible while leveling, and that a short route through the first three boards is enough to do it.
Assassin guides
- Assassin PvE build: skill ranks, specialties, stigmas, passives, macro and rotation.
- Daevanion planner: plan your boards and check the stat totals.
- Assassin skills: every Assassin skill with its specialties and stigma tiers.
- Beginner guide: the first hours on any class.
- Gear score guide: each item level gate and how to reach it.
- Daily and weekly checklist: what to run every day and week.
- Which class should you play?: Assassin next to the other seven classes.
- Class finder: answer a few questions to find a class.
Explore the encyclopedia
Sources
- Grobs: The only Assassin PvE guide you need
- Grobs: AION 2 classes explained, PvE and PvP gameplay
- Kanon: AION 2 ultimate class guide (breakdown and rankings)
- Anders: Which AION 2 class is right for you?
- SywoGG: AION 2 class guide, don't pick a main until you watch this
- Society Of Gaming: AION 2 all classes explained
- FRESHY: Watch this if you still haven't picked your main class in AION 2
- Madsin: AION 2 complete PvE character building overview
- aLuckyRO: AION 2 Assassin PvE build for skills and stigmas
- Corpus: Aion 2 Assassin skills
Related articles
- Aion 2 Assassin PvE build: skills, stigmas and macro
An Aion 2 Assassin PvE build from Grobs and aLuckyRO: which skills to rank first, the specialties to pick, four stigmas, passive order, and the macro and rotation.
- Aion 2 skills and Stigma: ranks, specialties and what to slot
How Aion 2 skill ranks, specialty slots and Stigma skills work, where the ranks past 10 come from, and how creators choose specialties and Stigmas.
- Which Aion 2 class should you play?
All eight Aion 2 classes compared by role, weapon and difficulty, with what established creators recommend for new, casual, PvP and high-ping players.