The Assassin is a offense-oriented class centered around critical strikes and power charges for spells and attacks. His tree also has options for damage over time and chaos damage.
Passive skills
Minor skills
This class has the following minor passive skills:
20% chance to gain a Power Charge on Non-Critical Strike 10% chance to gain a Power Charge on Critical Strike +1 to Maximum Power Charges [1]
Unstable Infusion is a Notable Ascendancy passive skill for the Assassin that grants a chance to generate a Power Charge on hit, with a higher chance on non-critical strikes, and increased maximum power charges.
Ruthless mode
Unstable Infusion (Ruthless)
Ascendancy Notable Passive Skill
20% chance to gain a Power Charge on Non-Critical Strike 10% chance to gain a Power Charge on Critical Strike
Unstable Infusion in Ruthless mode does not grant an additional power charge; this was moved to Deadly Infusion.
Lua error in Module:Item2/core at line 808: Duplicate metadata id "Metadata/Items/Gems/SkillGemAmbush" on page "Ambush".Ambush is a movement spell that causes the player to teleport to an enemy, blinding them and causing your next one-handed melee attack to be exerted, gaining a large boost to critical strike chance and multiplier.
Skill functions and interactions
Ambush can be used regardless of the weapon equipped, as long as there is a nearby enemy.
Only melee attacks with one-handed weapons are able to be exerted, providing a large amount of critical strike chance and critical strike multiplier for the exerted attack.
Gem level progression
Lua error in Module:Skill at line 257: bad argument #3 to 'format' (string expected, got nil).
Lua error in Module:Item_acquisition at line 423: Item search result unexpectedly has no name.
Note that helmet enchantments are no longer obtainable since version 3.23.0 and can only be obtained in permanent leagues as already enchanted items from before this patch.
Ambush no longer has “Exerted Attacks have 200-276% increased Critical Strike Chance”. Instead, it now has “Exerted Attacks have +25% to Critical Strike Chance”.
Quality on the Divergent Ambush Skill now grants “Exerted Attacks have +0-5% to Critical Strike Chance” (previously “Exerted Attacks have 0-40% increased Critical Strike Chance”).
[Ruthless-specific This patch note only applies to Ruthless mode and does not affect the main game mode.] No longer provides "+1 to Maximum Power Charges" in Ruthless.
+5% to Critical Strike Multiplier per Power Charge +1.5% Critical Strike Chance while at maximum Power Charges [1]
Deadly Infusion is a Notable Ascendancy passive skill for the Assassin that grants added critical strike multiplier per power charge, and additional base critical strike chance at max power charges.
Ruthless mode
Deadly Infusion (Ruthless)
Ascendancy Notable Passive Skill
+2% Critical Strike Chance while at maximum Power Charges +1 to Maximum Power Charges
Deadly Infusion in Ruthless mode does not crit multi per power charge. Instead, it grants an additional maximum power charge. It also grants higher additional crit chance at maximum power charges.
[Ruthless-specific This patch note only applies to Ruthless mode and does not affect the main game mode.] The Assassin's Deadly Infusion Ascendancy Passive Skill now grants +2% Critical Strike Chance while at maximum Power Charges (previously +1%).
[Ruthless-specific This patch note only applies to Ruthless mode and does not affect the main game mode.] Deadly Infusion: No longer provides "+5% to Critical Strike Multiplier per Power Charge" in Ruthless. It now provides "+1% Critical Strike Chance while at maximum Power Charges" (+1.5% in non-Ruthless), and "+1 to Maximum Power Charges."
Unstable Infusion
Critical Strike Chance, Power Charge Duration
Toxic Delivery
Ascendancy Notable Passive Skill
Poison you inflict with Critical Strikes deals 25% more Damage +0.5% to Critical Strike Chance per Poison affecting Enemy, up to +2.0% [1]
Toxic Delivery is a notable Ascendancy passive skill for the Assassin. It grants more poison damage to poison that was applied with a critical strike, and additional critical strike chance per poison on an enemy. As an offensive property, it applies to hits from your skills even when used by proxies.[1]
Ruthless mode
Toxic Delivery (Ruthless)
Ascendancy Notable Passive Skill
Poison you inflict with Critical Strikes deals 10% more Damage All Damage with Hits can Poison
Toxic Delivery in Ruthless mode does not grant additional crit chance per poison affecting the enemy. Instead, it causes all damage types to contribute to poison (e.g. non-physical/chaos damage will scale poison). Note that the chance to poison is unaffected. It also grants a lower damage bonus for crit poisons.
[Ruthless-specific This patch note only applies to Ruthless mode and does not affect the main game mode.] The Assassin's Toxic Delivery Ascendancy Passive Skill now causes Poison you inflict with Critical Strikes to deal 10% more Damage (previously 25%), and now grants "All Damage with Hits can Poison".
[Ruthless-specific This patch note only applies to Ruthless mode and does not affect the main game mode.] Toxic Delivery: No longer provides "+0.5% to Critical Strike Chance per Poison affecting Enemy, up to +2.0%" in Ruthless.
No longer causes you to recover 0.5% of your maximum Life per poison affecting enemies you kill. Now grants you +0.4% to critical strike chance per poison affecting the enemy, up to +2%. Now causes poisons you inflict with critical strikes to deal 50% more damage (from 30%).
The Assassin's Toxic Delivery skill has been reduced to 30% more damage with Bleeding and Poison from Bleeding and Poison inflicted by Critical Strikes (down from 100%).
5% increased Poison Duration for each Poison you have inflicted Recently, up to a maximum of 100% Recover 0.5% of Life per Poison affecting Enemies you Kill 40% chance to Poison on Hit [1]
Noxious Strike is a notable Ascendancy passive skill for the Assassin. It grants added chance to poison. It also grants increased poison duration for each stack of poison applied recently up to a maximum of 100% and grants life recovery whenever a poisoned enemy dies, based on the number of poison stacks it had.
Ruthless mode
Noxious Strike (Ruthless)
Ascendancy Notable Passive Skill
10% increased Poison Duration for each Poison you have inflicted Recently, up to a maximum of 100%
Noxious Strike in Ruthless mode does not grant chance to poison or life recovery on killing poisoned enemies. It grants a higher amount of poison duration for each poison inflicted recently.
[Ruthless-specific This patch note only applies to Ruthless mode and does not affect the main game mode.] The Assassin's Noxious Strikes Ascendancy Passive Skill now grants 10% increased Poison Duration for each Poison you have inflicted Recently, up to a maximum of 100% (previously 5%).
[Ruthless-specific This patch note only applies to Ruthless mode and does not affect the main game mode.] Noxious Strike: No longer provides "Recover 0.5% of Life per Poison affecting Enemies you Kill" or "40% chance to Poison on Hit" in Ruthless.
No longer grants +0.1% to critical strike chance per poison affecting the enemy. Now causes you to recover 0.5% of your maximum Life per poison affecting enemies you kill. Also grants +25% to Damage over Time Multiplier for poison and 50% increased Damage with poison.
No longer grants a chance to maim against poisoned enemies. [Undocumented This change was not documented by any official sources. It was discovered through player testing or datamining.]