The numbers of assassins I've seen playing RO has dropped significantly. Those who tried to become Assassins, and complained about not being able to find a party have eventually quit at their attempts to create one. The Main Assassins have all switched to other classes due to being bored of auto attacking Crit Builds, and spamming Rolling Cutter/Cross Ripper Slasher. So in an attempt to convince all the innocent novices out there to become this world's dark heroes here I shall Introduce to you "The Hug Build". A heavily defensive build for survivability which focuses on Poisons, and Chained Attacks. (Not to mention its also Hella Fun to use =P)
This Build Focuses on Defense just as much as Offense. It requires an array of weapons and armors in Combination with beneficial poisons and making decisions using a better understanding of game mechanics and screen awareness. What does this mean? Simple.
1. Use the Proper Poisons to help you in a fight. Focus on making your opponent weaker then he currently is. For example use Oblivion Curse on Low Int Characters, use Pryxea on High Hit/Agi Characters, Use Death End on Healers, Venom Bleed on Taos, etc.
2. Best ways to apply a poison are Venom Pressure, and Poison Smoke. However against reflect opponents ( RG/CrescentSura/Shadowform/DeathBound/etc ) I Like to poke them with a status mailbreaker, or a divest katar coated in the proper poison.
When I'm focused on Melee offense. I focus on the skills Cross Impact as well as Venom Pressure. For this I use a combination of Swords/Daggers and a Shield. The Pros of this build are you wont lose your EDP status when switching back and forth between a shield when you need to. As well as High output damage with the chance of poisoning your opponent. The Cons would be alot of times its difficult to get close to an opponent due to lag or position bug. Make sure to keep moving, analyze your opponents build and come up with the best poison to use on them.
If it becomes difficult to melee an opponent then Smoke and CRS become quite useful. There are many ways to use this skill. You can Instant CRS, You can Build 10 Spins and backslide into your opponents, you could RC/Cloak Spam and let your opponent come to you. You could spin once sit/stand very quickly to get rid of your spin animation and CRS instantly afterwards. Whichever way you decide to use CRS just make sure your using the best element possible against your opponent. Frost Driver him once so he switches to an unfrozen armor, then you wont have to worry about him wearing a Ghostring. If he happens to freeze awesome now poison smoke him and use a wind element, or Use Venom Impression and let him see you Enchant Poison Yourself, then switch to fire element if you think hes switching to an Undead armor.. It's difficult to explain, however the more you play, the more second nature this way of thinking becomes.
Heavily prioritize defense. If you are dead, you can't poison your enemies, you cant support your friends. Thats why I have very high vit. This makes sense though, Assassin's have always had a very high HP pool. Probably one of the top 3 pools in the game. I like to max out my Weapon Block skill to assist me even more when it comes to defense, however when it triggers you are immobilized and using any skills becomes an annoyance. Thats why I maxed out Weapon Crush to balance that, Weapon Crush also made sense because a Cross Impact Dual Weapon build requires Dex to hit your opponent and Dex will also help with your divesting chances. Nothing like the feeling of an opponent who will avoid you because they know in the back of their heads its not a good idea.
Regardless this seems to have gone on long enough. I hope this inspires some new GX play in-game. Well no I take that back. I could care less about another male assassin in this game... FEMALE ASSASSINS PLEASE!!! T___T