assassin tier list?

[snuggleform]

How would you rank the 4 of them? Should you always be leveling 1 assassin? Should I get the dlc?

[Catnap]

On standard difficulty, Culexus is by far the strongest, IF you build your team properly for WP spam to keep her topped up. GREAT with Dreadnought missions since the dread regens WP and is a spam machine by definition, and defense missions, since there the lack of mobility is no issue.

If you equip a max level Culexus to maximize WP storage, you can charge up to ~20WP. Using her WP charge shot with that storage will two-shot anything except boss fights, and with the right equipment she's highly likely to recoup AP with each charged attack. A well positioned Culexus assassin can solo demolish up to 5 high HP/high threat targets in a single turn.

With the Ethereum skill, charged up Culexus will also be super tanky. With the tier 3 return fire helmet, you can just park one in a cover position in front of a shooty bunch of enemies and watch them melt. And she's got the super cheap melee AoE blast ability, so if she gets swarmed, its not really much of a problem at all, unless the enemies all get their attacks off as well.

Just got to be mindful with how you gear them. Max WP, max shooting range. WP bonus Incense is a must. Basically, forget about Culexus' secondary abilities. Culexus is there to melt face, reduce warp surge, and nothing much else.


With raw power, Callidus seems a second, with great mobility and utility. With caution and patience, one can definitely punch above its weight, and probably work well solo. Hit and runs, vanish into Polymorph... Armor piercing on all attacks is also pretty sweet for any target.


Vindicare are also good, but I mostly find them useful for boss fights because of the spymask; 50% crit vulnerability on a boss is a pretty excellent combo for crit spamming Interceptors and Purgators. The instant kill on organics is also great, but it doesn't do anything for demons or mechanicals. Overall I find that a well built and armed Purgator with a Psilencer will outrange and outdamage Vindicares 90% of the turns, with the instant kill ability swinging some turns the other way, and this is without using grenades.


Eversor have great damage potential against demons and organics, especially if you build a team to stack a lot of bleeding. Eversor and Apothecaries have an obvious very strong synergy. However even with all that, I find eversors are 1) weak against mechanicals, 2) too squishy for the amount of punishment they're likely to take if you miscalculate even a little bit. Yes, if you stack bleeds, you can delete the appropriate target types very efficiently. But also, late game you run into spawns of nothing but heavy mechanicals, and suddenly Mr. E is not having such a great time.


Haven't played them on higher difficulties yet. I do imagine higher HP pools would increase the value of the Callidus and Vindicare instant kill mechanics.

[snuggleform]

Do these assassins come from warhammer lore or something? They are very creatively named O_o

Btw I got a different warhammer game massively on sale a month ago called inquisitor martyr... is vakir related to the Inquisitor in that series?

[Morituri]

İlk olarak snuggleform tarafından gönderildi:

Do these assassins come from warhammer lore or something? They are very creatively named O_o

Btw I got a different warhammer game massively on sale a month ago called inquisitor martyr... is vakir related to the Inquisitor in that series?

Yes, each of the assassins come from the main temples of the Officio Assassinorium from Warhammer 40K

Yes, in the sense that Vakir is also an Inquisitor. Inquisitors vary but they hold exceptionally high positions in IOM.

[Morituri]

By ranking (keep in mind I got the DLC in the middle of my day 900+ legendary run)
1. Culexus - while seemingly underpowered (mid-range/no AP gain unless using WP), its T3 Gear is absolutely great. My current loadout for her gives her 19 Max WP, and paired with the T3 anima spec weapon, it can either:
A. 20+ damage and gain back 1AP twice per turn (warp charge ranged attack empowers attack with current WP, so base 5 damage + 19WP WP)
B. deal 20+ stun (same logic, but different tier 3 weapon changes boost from damage to stun) -- instantly turning chaos beasts / sub-bosses etc into knockdown state
C. If you can predict where the rifts open, you can close them
D. High WP means high armor - so theoretically 19+ armor
E. AOE reliable purge -- to deal with mutators

2. Callidus - from all the reasons provided above -- overperforms with organic targets because of the morph + assassin skill
A. Polymorph > run up to enemy groups without triggering > use immobilize gun > your other knights run in and deal AOE damage without enemy group dispersing from their formation, so purifier can 2-grenade kill an entire group (even if 10+ plague marines etc)
B. Polymorph > run around the map and execute key targets
C. Polymorph > run into middle of group > disable all ranged attacks

3. Eversor - insanely high damage potentiality, but why ranked low? There are a lot of bleed resistant enemies, rendering bleed build (which eversor is primarily leaning into) not reliable

4. Vindicare - too low damage + bugged ranged and bugged skill. Theoretically can match an default purgator with psilencer, however:
A. Purgators (I have 3 on my roster) can reach 15 - 17 damage (5 or 7 base damage + 9/10 crit damage at 70% crit chance) with anywhere from 5 to 7 ammo, and anywhere from 14 - 20 range, -- Vindicares can barely reach 12 damage (with crit) and a much shorter range, and low ammo capacity (tier 3 is either 2 or 4)
B. Purgators have 50% reload and 50% AP on crit -- vindicares dont.
C. Vindicare pistol skill (AP+1 upon kill -- 2 per turn) is currently bugged. Severely hampering it's strength

HOWEVER - HOWEVER : keep in mind, assassins (like the dreadnought)
1. do not gain AP from your knights doing executions
2. do not gain boons from the chaplain
3. do not benefit form gate of infinity (as stratagem or as librarian skill)

So I usually bring an apothecary (with unlimited range servo skull buff) to buff them with warpspeed/endurance biomancy

[ZexxCrine]

İlk olarak Morituri tarafından gönderildi:

A. Theoretically can match an default purgator with psilencer, but does not have the purgator's ignore partial cover

did you mean to type this? the vindicare does ignore partial cover and does so from level 1

[Morituri]

İlk olarak ZexxCrine tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Morituri tarafından gönderildi:

A. Theoretically can match an default purgator with psilencer, but does not have the purgator's ignore partial cover

did you mean to type this? the vindicare does ignore partial cover and does so from level 1

my bad, probably misremembered/misunderstood max range circle failing to target and thought it was on account of no partial cover break. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Dukenukem117]

Vindicare does not need to roll a bunch of awesome loot to reach peak power. I'm about day 300 into my legendary campaign and my level 7 vindicare has a T3 sniper and armor. Its pretty good. Even if a purgator is stronger with the best loot in the game, you still need to collect it all. I haven't bought a single piece of purgator gear thus far cause nothing has been worth it. Assassins can buy their best gear as soon as you unlock it. Thats huge.

Eversor on the other hand... not a huge fan. I guess if your team is really good at stacking bleed, but Culexus melting face with a WP team and having ethereum to tank requires way less setup. Plus bleed does nothing against all the damn bloomspawn and objectives. I'd say Eversor is also the most gear dependent since its usually in the front, which adds to the expense of fielding one. It feels way easier to just use interceptor crit builds.

Overall I'd say that all the other assassins has a place to shine, sometimes comically so. Eversor is my meme guy.

[ZexxCrine]

I genuinely don’t understand everyone who is claiming you have to build a bleed team to make the eversore work. I feel like there are many people who read his kit and don’t even try him out. It’s the only thing that make sense honestly. yeah theoretically if you could build a giant bleed and blow it up with him, that would be a lot of damage. But unlike culexes where impowed attack is their whole kit, eversore has a big ol toolbox that people seem to just ignore and I don’t get it. I’m not saying he’s crazy good op or anything, but everyone always brings up bleed meanwhile on legendary here I am just slapping him in any team composition because I think he is a well rounded unit that can work in any team composition.

[Texman]

I would easily say eversor is the best of the assassins.
-He has some of the best movement in the game, with one of the longest teleport abilities.
-he can generates 2 free AP almost every single round, and can also generate AP on melee crit with the right armour.
-he deals high melee damage and versus humans, marines and demons he can add high bleed damage to them as well which is like 90% of the enemies
-He is pretty much unkillable since he can generate absurd amounts of armour and heal on melee kill
I tend to just send him off alone since he is a one man wrecking crew that can deal with anything the game throws at you. and because of his absurd movement and AP generation he can keep up with the chaplains teleport ability which is a nice bonus for the late game where the other assassins tend to fall behind

[Parallaxe]

Hello.

My 2 cents.

I will not decied which of the assassins is best but I feel people do not get the Eversor.
For me it is the most fun assa by a long mile. He can deal with single and multi target has great reach, defense (depends on setup) and reliable self heal.
He can go crazy from turn one and if you have the heal strategem you can heal him to full even if you have lost a lot of health.

To be effective with Eversor takes a bit of brain and planing but once you get him right he can get you out of a lot of bad situations.

I set mine up with 30+ health, auto parry, auto first strike and extra heal. He aint gonna die and with 5 AP per turn he will deliver.

Also... Vindicare.
Currently far weaker because of stupid bugs but with the right setup and team becomes very strong and as mentioned before a good support for boss missions. AND a very nice combo with Mr. Eversore.

[Dukenukem117]

I personally find the first 300 days of a legendary campaign to be more unpredictable than the latter half. I would rather an assassin bring a lot to the table with minimal gear and leveling during the first half than reach peak superman with all the right gear in the latter half. Vindicare reaches peak power pretty early once you get deadshot, visor, and T3 sniper. He doesnt benefit tremendously from armor or even a pistol upgrade, those are mostly 'nice-to-haves'. Culexes only really needs T3 helmet and ethereum for that part of the game. Eversor benefits a lot from every upgrade to his kit, so its just an expensive unit if you want to make the most of it. Its level scaling is also pretty consistent.

By the way, whats the point of the 'executioner' perk? Is it the stun execution or is there a different execution for assassins?

[Morituri]

İlk olarak Dukenukem117 tarafından gönderildi:

I personally find the first 300 days of a legendary campaign to be more unpredictable than the latter half. I would rather an assassin bring a lot to the table with minimal gear and leveling during the first half than reach peak superman with all the right gear in the latter half. Vindicare reaches peak power pretty early once you get deadshot, visor, and T3 sniper. He doesnt benefit tremendously from armor or even a pistol upgrade, those are mostly 'nice-to-haves'. Culexes only really needs T3 helmet and ethereum for that part of the game. Eversor benefits a lot from every upgrade to his kit, so its just an expensive unit if you want to make the most of it. Its level scaling is also pretty consistent.

By the way, whats the point of the 'executioner' perk? Is it the stun execution or is there a different execution for assassins?

You gain 2AP instead of 1AP. There's 2 other gear which has the same perk so I assumed it's the same for assassins. I also presume it's stun execution since it didn't trigger using other instant kill skills

[Dukenukem117]

But assassins dont get AP when GK do executions right? So do they give GK AP when they do the execution?

Also, Callidus and Culexus makes the three sanctify missions with Dominus comically easy. Apply mass vulnerable (often behind a wall so the fight isnt even started), then just shoot them over and over with callidus and the entire pod is probably dead. Culexus closes any RNF rifts and mops up.

[Morituri]

İlk olarak Dukenukem117 tarafından gönderildi:

But assassins dont get AP when GK do executions right? So do they give GK AP when they do the execution?

They don't gain 1AP if other Knights execute. They gain 1AP if they themselves execute, if with the executioner perk, they gain 2AP if they execute.

I'm not sure, the last execution I did was the last mob remaining so I couldn't say. However going with the same logic the game treats GK vs Dread, GK vs Assassins, I think the GK won't gain any AP. The perk, such as it is, is to give the assassin the much needed AP

[ZexxCrine]

İlk olarak Dukenukem117 tarafından gönderildi:

But assassins dont get AP when GK do executions right? So do they give GK AP when they do the execution?

Also, Callidus and Culexus makes the three sanctify missions with Dominus comically easy. Apply mass vulnerable (often behind a wall so the fight isnt even started), then just shoot them over and over with callidus and the entire pod is probably dead. Culexus closes any RNF rifts and mops up.

The knights do get ap if an assassin gets an execute