Deathstalker
Deathstalker Season 3 Tier Set BonusesImplementation & GameplayThe Deathstalker set bonus is on the more boring side, but it has very clear synergy and strengths. Increasing the effectiveness of
all Deathstalker damage effects is quite a potent effect. Not only does this affect obvious talents like
Hunt Them Down or
, but it also increases the crit modifiers on
Momentum of Despair, the increased
Envenom damage on
Darkest Night, and even the effect of
Singular Focus. It truly turbo-charges
Shiv windows by a significant amount. While it most likely won't change the rotation much, the 2 second increased duration is a neat touch to add just enough to feel a difference, and consuming an application of your active
Deathstalker's Mark will add a bit of a pacing boost during burst windows. Take note that the 2 second increase would also apply through
Arterial Precision.
Strength & ContentThe 2pc seems like the big winner here, even though it is completely passive and not noticeable. The 4pc on the other hand is the bonus that adds something players will actually
feel, while building on the foundational bonus from the 2pc. Especially potent is how the 2pc stacks up the hero talent in AoE.
Singular Focus here will be the star, and every talent will end up playing its own role,
Momentum of Despair giving more critical effects,
doing even more damage,
Lingering Darkness creating even more
Caustic Spatter damage when lined up with
Darkest Night for the big "dry shiv"
Envenom. It seems boring and simple on first glance, but all the bonuses work together to create big burst windows while
Shiv is active.
Numerically, the bonus is relatively weak currently, but it's hard to tell what the goal is when some specs have tier bonuses upwards of 30-40%. I assume by the end of PTR the numbers themselves will be brought in line, and there are easily tweaked variables on each of the sets, so I'm not concerned.
FeedbackOverall, I'm quite pleased with the Deathstalker set bonus. It's a simple set bonus for a complicated hero talent, and while it doesn't rock the boat it gets the job done and provides a high-impact moment in the rotation. It might be slightly weak but there's so many interactions and nuances that will determine how good the bonus is, so it's hard to tell at this point.
That being said there is one pain point of the tier, and it has to do with the eternal problem of Deathstalker, the mark. Juggling
Deathstalker's Mark has been notoriously hated and difficult, with
Darkest Night being the only reliable way to move the mark around. The 4pc bonus adds another layer of jank on top of this already annoying mini-game. Specifically the "consumes an application of your active Deathstalker's Mark when activated." part of the tier becomes very awkward when you realize that you can press
Shiv during a
Darkest Night and simply not trigger the effect at all. It feels almost like we're forced to babysit an annoying debuff, rather than having an exciting hero talent. Pick your target carefully, because you can't move the mark once you applied it. Every 3rd finisher you have to generate maximum combo points for
Darkest Night or you'll lose out on the effects of the hero talent, and it has to be an
Envenom. But if you have
Darkest Night you also now cannot press
Shiv or you'll lose the effect of your tier set bonus. It's beginning to feel more and more like a mine field. While you could blame the tier set for making the problem worse, the real issue is, and always has been, the bad implementation of Deathstalker itself. I personally can't blame a well designed tier set on the failings of its Hero Talent, but it does leave a sour taste.
Fatebound
Fatebound Season 3 Tier Set Bonuses- Rogue Fatebound 11.2 Class Set 2pc - Kingsbane deals 10% increased damage and has 4 sec increased duration. Edge Case now flips an additional Fatebound Coin and activating Kingsbane triggers its effect.
- Rogue Fatebound 11.2 Class Set 4pc - Having a lucky Fatebound Coin reduces the cooldown of Deathmark by 30.0 sec and Kingsbane by 15.0 sec.
Implementation & GameplayThis Tier Set Bonus is by far the best thing that could've happened to Fatebound. Not only does it remove the randomness around
by guaranteeing its effect in the opener, but it also gives Fatebound a solid niche over Deathstalker by creating a 1:30min cooldown cadence instead of a 2:00min cooldown cadence. Having the ability to switch between the two timings is an exciting shift for Assassination, which has never had the opportunity to truly be a 1:30min spec. It also breathes new life into the Fatebound rotation, which is notoriously unimpactful and bland. What little nuance there is on Fatebound is mostly macro'd away or lines up naturally to begin with, so having something tangibly different to play around is definitely a welcome change.
The opener randomness has always been a huge problem on Fatebound, but with the guaranteed double edge-flips on
Deathmark and
Kingsbane when combined with
Inevitable End makes for a 100% consistent trigger of
, every pull. This alleviates a
massive headache for Fatebound, and feels great to test with on the PTR.
This bonus will impact every cooldown timing on the spec, as
Shiv and
Vanish are unaffected by the 4pc bonus. While this doesn't turn Fatebound into a "true" 1:30min cooldown spec, there are ways to move cooldowns around and make it work so everything still lines up generally.
Strength & ContentThe Strength of this tier set is very dependent on how the new timings match up with the content being run. The increased uptime on
Kingsbane is impactful in all aspects through the use of
Caustic Spatter and provides for a clearly defined window to burst from, but if cooldowns can't be used on cooldown, or the 45/90sec timers don't fit the fight due to downtime or intermissions, Fatebound as a whole will suffer immensely. The focus on coin flips and the burst window with
Kingsbane does help Fatebound a lot in AoE situations, where it has been notoriously bad. While that is great news...
FeedbackThe Tier Set is great, but it doesn't matter how good a Tier Set is when Fatebound as a whole remains unplayable.
nerfs the core damage source of the Hero Talent when adds are present,
Inevitable End forces taking
Cold Blooded Killer in a very competitive class tree, the randomness behind flips and
Deal Fate often leads to frustration and missed opportunities.
doesn't hit the main target with multiple enemies active, causing a loss in
Caustic Spatter. No matter where you look, Fatebound is losing out on AoE and self-nerfing itself with multiple targets active, while barely keeping up in single-target.
Compare that to Deathstalker, boasting full AoE talents such as
Singular Focus,
Momentum of Despair,
, and having
Caustic Spatter interactions through
Hunt Them Down,
, and
Darkest Night. How is there supposed to be a choice in Hero Talents if the balance is so lopsided that one of them becomes unplayable with any adds up.
Fatebound on the surface is great, and the tier set is frankly fantastic, but like with the Deathstalker bonuses, we're once again stuck building a beautiful marble sculpture on top of a foundation of quicksand.
Inevitable End is the most prominent grating example, which will cause some headaches with the Tier, as
Kingsbane and
Cold Blooded Killer supposedly line up every 45 seconds. Except that
Cold Blooded Killer's cooldown only starts after both stacks have been consumed, and in order to match the
Edge Case flips, those finishers need to come after
Kingsbane. Because of that,
Cold Blooded Killer won't start its cooldown until 5-6 seconds later. Slowly but surely, the 45/90sec cooldown cadence turns into a 50/100sec cadence, and it will drift further and further from the intended timings, and it's most likely better to simply hold cooldowns until 2min again in order to line up with
Vanish and
Shiv. The cooldown reduction is meaningless in that regard. This is insanely frustrating, but once again, not really the problem of the tier set. The tier set did nothing wrong here; it's just the Hero Talent having such awkward friction that it's nearly impossible to avoid, making the Tier Set look like rubbish.
There are ways to fix this, but Fatebound
NEEDS attention. The path we're set down on currently would lead to Fatebound being completely dead on the arrival of the patch, having ended the expansion with
zero playrate. If we end the expansion without having played Fatebound in any content, it would be one of the most significant failings of Hero Talents, and leave a massive stain on the legacy of Rogues in The War Within.
Deathstalker vs. Fatebound
Many people would like to see Fatebound succeed and come out the winner for once, but as it stands, it's not enough to compete with Deathstalker in any meaningful way. Fatebound forever lives in the shadows of its sibling, and instead of being excited to play it, the community at large has to play devil's advocate with it in every discussion. You'll often hear things like "It's slightly better in single target", or "If you high-roll the flips it could be better". For the entirety of the expansion now, Fatebound has been a hero talent that needs to constantly be justified and hypotheticals drawn up where it
might possibly perhaps sometimes be playable. In not a single situation has Fatebound been the hero talent of choice this expansion, and the tier set bonus most likely can't change that without larger changes and tweaks to the base hero talent.
Deathstalker continues to need considerable quality of life in order to feel good playing it, and Fatebound will forever struggle to keep up numerically. It's a shame to be so negative in a season where I really truly enjoy the tier sets themselves, but as a whole package, Assassination's Hero Talents continue to be disappointing and lacking in polish. Over a full year later, neither tree has received tangible changes to their biggest issues, and the tier sets simply cannot carry the insane weight being put on their shoulders.
