Assassin
A hidden prestige class promoted out of Thief, which currently plays as a Thief with its own guild identity rather than a distinct skill set.
The Assassin is the deepest point of the rogue branch and the hardest class in the game to reach. It is a shadow-and-poison killer in concept, built for ambushing from concealment, working toxins into a target over time and executing single foes rather than winning drawn out fights. It is also, at present, honest to describe as a title rather than a build. An Assassin inherits the entire Thief catalogue in full and has no abilities of its own, so what changes when you promote is your guild, your channel, your ranks and your standing, not your rotation.
Getting there is a long road. Assassin is a hidden class, which means it does not appear in the remort listing at all. You need to have taken a Rogue to level 100, promoted to Thief, taken that Thief to level 100 as well, and you must still be a Thief at the moment you join. Even then the guild takes no walk-ins, so a guildmaster has to grant you admittance or induct you directly. Guild ranks run Initiate, Stalker, Shadowblade, Nightreaper and Guildmaster.
There is one more gate that catches people out. Assassin requires five remort points on your account, and reaching level 100 in a class is what awards them: Rogue is worth one and Thief is worth two. Walking the direct path leaves you two short. Points are earned per account rather than per character and are checked rather than spent, so the shortfall is made up by any other class any of your characters has finished, and once you clear five you keep them. If you are aiming at Assassin, plan on having taken at least one other class to 100 somewhere along the way.
Resources#
Assassins spend SP, exactly as Thieves do, and use the same pouch of trade tools and poison vials. Check it with supplies and restock at a Rogue Supplies counter. There is no separate assassin resource, no unique currency and no conversion of any kind, because there is no separate assassin skill set to spend anything on.
Armour access is leather, in line with the rest of the rogue branch. Plate, mail and cloth are closed to you, and gear with no category on it is open to everybody.
Two things are worth knowing before you commit. Joining any guild resets you to level 1 with no experience, so a level 100 Thief who promotes starts the climb again from the bottom. And the level 60 subclass mastery system does not cover Assassin: your Thief mastery is cleared on the change and there is no assassin equivalent to replace it with.
Talent Trees#
Nine tree names are registered for the class. Four of them describe an assassin-specific kit that has not been built; the other five are the branches your Thief skills already sit in, and they are the ones you will actually see filled in when you look at your abilities.
Shadow#
The concealment branch. In practice this is served by the Thief stealth line you already have, which covers Sneak, Shadow, Skulk, Footpad, Shadowstep and Ambush.
Blades#
Declared as a branch but with nothing assigned to it. Thief melee sits under Skirmish instead.
Venom#
Declared but empty. Poison work is currently tagged under Subterfuge in the Thief catalogue.
Execution#
Declared but empty. The nearest thing you have is Assassinate at Thief level 99, which finishes targets below a quarter health.
Stealth#
A live branch inherited from Thief, holding the silent movement and concealment skills that gate every opener.
Subterfuge#
A live branch and by far the largest, covering locks, pockets, traps, poisons, disguise, bribery and theft.
Skirmish#
A live branch holding the melee kit: Backstab, Blindside, Shiv, Shank, Garrote and Quietus Strike, plus Dagger Mastery.
Poisons#
Declared as a branch, but no Thief skill is tagged to it. Poison application is under Subterfuge.
Traps#
Declared as a branch, but no Thief skill is tagged to it either. Set Trap and Tripwire are under Subterfuge.
Skills#
The Assassin has no skill catalogue of its own. Joining the class grants you the full Thief list, with the same names, levels, costs and cooldowns, so the tables on the Thief page are the complete and accurate reference for what an Assassin can do.
Playing an Assassin#
Play it as a Thief, because mechanically that is what you are. The rotation does not change: open from Sneak or Shadow, land Backstab or Ambush, follow with Blindside and Shiv, Hobble anything that tries to leave, and finish with Quietus Strike or Assassinate when the target is low enough. Poison the blade before anything that will take more than a few rounds. Slip and Quick Escape remain your outs and you should still be using them early.
The real reason to take the promotion is what surrounds the skills rather than the skills themselves. You get the assassin guild and its channel, a separate rank ladder, and a character who has demonstrably completed two full hundred-level classes to get there. If you are playing for the roleplay and the standing, that is the point. If you are chasing new abilities, be clear-eyed about it: promoting from Thief to Assassin will not give you anything you did not already have, and it will cost you the option of a level 60 subclass mastery unless you took one on the way through.
The practical advice, then, is to finish your Thief properly first, and to be sure you are done with it. Learn the full Subterfuge branch rather than just the combat line, use the subclass mastery you took at 60, and reach 100 with the utility half of the class actually in play. When you do promote you drop back to level 1 with the whole Thief list to earn again, so treat the decision as starting a new character in an old body rather than as an upgrade.