Shopping for the Assassin! Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The entire point to being an Assassin is setting yourself up to be extremely bursty; assassins often have limited windows to strike, and they are extremely frail and in a bad position if they get caught in a neutral situation, so they want to do as much damage as possible. Assassin items differentiate from Carry items, which also want to do damage, in two meaningful ways; Assassin items are loaded with Physical Penetration, and they are also Ability-focused, as opposed to Carry items which do have Ability-focused selections, but are predominantly Basic Attack-focused and scarcely offer any Physical Penetration.

Alternator is the Assassin's scaling item. It enhances the power of the user's Alternate Ability. On purchase, it can be evolved into Alternata if the user lands their Alternate Ability against enemy players twenty times. Since Kallari and Yurei, the game's two assassins, can use their Alternate Abilities more than once at a time, this item fits them like a glove.

Deathstalker is interesting, as it is technically Basic Attack-focused. It enhances the user's Attack Speed by an amount operating on a 1:1 ratio with whatever their Physical Penetration stat is; if you have 10 Phys Pen and you purchase Deathstalker, you will receive 10% extra Attack Speed. Purchasing Deathstalker and then later purchasing more Phys Pen items will predictably enhance the effect.

Demon Edge is the assassin's anti-shield item. With it, the user deals 45% extra damage specifically to targets who have a shield. On striking shielded enemies, the buyer will also gain a stackable several seconds boost to their movement speed as well.

Dread is unique for being the only Assassin item to actually give the user Armor. It supplies Magical Armor, to otherwise go with conventional Assassin stats. It then has a passive which massively reduces incoming Magic damage if the source is about to deal more than 150 total damage. This is the perfect item of choice if the user wants to mainly invade the Midlane, as that is where heavy ranged magic damage is seen on a game to game basis.

Echelon Cloak is, (un)fortunately, the "meme" item, not of the Assassin class specifically, but of the entire game as a whole. With it, the buyer will turn completely invisible if they stand perfectly still for eight seconds. They will see a small circle surrounding them where, when they are invisible, they are allowed to move while retaining invisibility. Simply put, this item is a joke because there is not a single instance in which anyone of any role should ever stand completely still for eight seconds, then remain confined to a tiny circle for an extended period of time. This is an extremely time sensitive game.

Envy provides interesting utility to Assassins. On casting an Ability, even if it misses and does no damage, the buyer can Basic Attack an enemy, and if they do it within five seconds of the Ability cast, they will inflict Silence on the target for one full second. While the one second duration might seem pitiful, the main utility is on the mere application of Silence; doing this interrupts ongoing Abilities, up to and including enemy Ultimates. A player with Envy in hand could enter a fight, intentionally hold off on casting an Ability until they see an enemy amidst the cast of something nasty, then the Envy user could use an Ability and quickly Basic the enemy to cut them off.

Infernum is an interesting Assassin item, as it rewards the user for continually landing hits against a single target. Each hit against an enemy applies 'Kindling', which remains in place for two and a half seconds. At four Kindling stacks, Kindling turns into Ignite, and the target will take added burst damage based on the buyer's Phys Penetration stat. Landing successive Kindling will refresh the total; if you get one Kindling, two seconds pass, then you get a second Kindling, you will have two Kindling on that target for the full 2.5 seconds.

Malady is excellent for Assassins seeking to prioritize wave-clearing hordes of minions. On killing anything at all, including minions, the dead enemy explodes and damages other nearby enemies for a damage amount based on the buyer's Phys Penetration stat. As well, damaging an enemy players under 40% of their health will deal extra damage also based on the buyer's Phys Pen stat.

Manta Scythe is the second of two scaling items for Assassins. This one increases the buyer's damage towards all minions permanently, rewards them with 1 permanent Physical Penetration point any time they kill a Camp Leader, and it increases their damage output against an enemy player, if that player does not have any allied players within a generous range. This item is fantastic for invading solo laners, namely the Mid and Offlane. It is less useful against the Carry and Support, given that they tend to naturally operate in close proximity to each other.

Mesmer is the Assassin equivalent of the Mage item Spellbreaker; it gives the buyer a Spellshield, which will completely block the next incoming Ability, operating on a twenty second cooldown. While the shield holds and has not been consumed by an enemy Ability, the buyer gains a bonus to their outgoing damage output.

Mindrazor is strictly for melee characters, with its effects explicitly being nerfed if being purchased by a ranged character, such as Sparrow or Twinblast. It grants the Cleave status effect to the buyer's Basic Attacks, making them deal minor amounts of splash AoE damage on striking an enemy. The Cleave AoE damage is specifically nerfed for the aforementioned ranged characters. In addition, it simply boosts the buyer's general damage output by 2% at all times, a figure which is unchanged between melee and ranged characters.

Nightfall is as Ability-focused as it gets, supplying typical Assassin stats alongside an effect which heals the buyer for a minor amount of all Ability damage, including the Ultimate, that they do. Kallari in particular can use her Guillotine Ultimate to, typically, go from being on the verge of death straight to full health or close to it thanks to this item.

Omen is a duel-focused Assassin item. The item must first be charged, which is done either by landing Basic Attacks against enemy players, or by moving. One step gets one stack, whereas landing Basics against enemy players gets 50 stacks each. At 100 stacks, the next Basic Attack the user connects with will deal added damage and shave 1/4th the cooldown off of all of their non-Ultimate Abilities.

Painweaver is another very much Abiliy focused pick. On casting an Ability, even if it misses or is not a damaging Ability, the user gains a tiny bonus to their movement speed and Phys Pen stats for a few seconds. This both stacks and refreshes infinitely, meaning that a player who can spam their Abilities will rapidly become a major threat with the buffs this item offers.

Penumbra is, unfortunately, largely one dimensional. It is completely useless at trying to invade or fight a solo enemy by oneself. It is meant to be used for team fight performance. On killing or recording an assist, Penumbra will immediately clear the cooldowns on all of the user's Abilities. This would let them then turn to a second target with their kit fully enabled and ready to go.

Spear of Desolation is an Ultimate-focused item which reduces the cooldown on their Ultimate and both enhances the power of the Ultimate, then provides a damage bonus for several seconds after the Ultimate has been cast. This is inarguably the most well known Assassin item, as it is not Assassins who are as well known for building it as Carry characters do. In fact, Carries building Spear of Desolation became so common that Omeda created the Necrosis item, which became the Carry's Ultimate-focused item, then proceeded to nerf the bejesus out of Spear of Desolation, but thankfully only in a way that impacted Carries and not the Assassins the item was intended for.

Syonic Echo is a great all purpose Assassin item. On casting an Ability, the next three Basic Attacks used gain a massive Attack Speed bonus. This has no cooldown, allowing the buyer to continually take advantage.

Tainted Trident is the Assassin category's iteration of a Tainted family member. This is easily the least used Tainted item out of the entire catalogue, simply because Assassins do damage in gargantuan bursts, and often don't care if the target has the means to heal themselves. Fundamentally, Assassins should never buy this item. Yet, it remains should the player want to support their team in some way with it.

The Perforator is somewhat redundant, but can have its moments against extremely tanky teams. Assassin items already provide lots of Physical Penetration to ignore Physical Armor with, but The Perforator takes this a step further and ignores 30% of the target's Bonus Armor entirely. Bonus Armor refers to Armors received from items, and specifically excludes the target's base stats.

Aegis of Agawar, Gaia Greaves, Mutilator, Rapture and Tainted Blade are Fighter items. While they are offensively geared, they simply come up well short in that regard for Assassins. Assassins need to simply deal as much burst damage as is humanly possible, and rarely care about sustained conflict. Fighter items are geared at offering lengthy, sustained conflict, and because Assassins are typically extremely frail, they are poorly suited for this style of play.

Ashbringer, Cursed Ring, Demolisher, Nuclear Rounds and Resolution are Carry items. These items offer burst potential, so they are to an extent niche selections for an Assassin. However, assassins are Ability-focused and Carry items are Basic Attack-focused. As such, while they may dip a little into the Carry category, Assassins should never base a majority of their build off of this category.

Claw of Hermes, Combustion, Entropy, Gaussian Greaves, Oathkeeper, Orb of Enlightenment, Prophecy and Spellbreaker are Mage items. Kallari and Yurei are both strictly Physical characters, so they will not bother even glancing at this category. Countess is a highly malleable character who can certainly handle the Assassin play style, and since she is Magical, she will invest in these items. However, Countess is also the only character in the entire game recommended for three separate roles, so she breaks the game's 'rules' in more ways than one.

Crystalline Cuirass and Unbroken Will are Tank items. They offer zero damage and only seek to enhance the user's ability to take hits. Clearly, these are poor choices for an aspiring Assassin.

Dawnstar, Galaxy Greaves and Marshal are Support items. Similar idea to the Tank items, if you choose an Assassin, you want to be the one doing the damage, not helping someone else do it.