I think it will be less a question of "can I" and more a question of "how hard will it be". Based on my admittedly limited understanding, you are free to not join anything but would still be subject to the laws of whatever realm you are in. I think an assassin with no support network might run into some problems.

It would be near impossible. Not so much because you are solo but you would be spreading your training too thin.

Alchemy

Combat skills needed as an assassin

Deviant skill line needed to be "unknown to the public"

Survival skills needed so you can travel to your mark.

You can learn all these skills but wouldn't be really high in mastery. To be truly able to hide your identity you would need to go fairly deep in the deviant skill line for fake ids and disguises. Everyone who travels will need some level of survival and since you would need to take contracts outside of your home town (otherwise people who see you on a daily basis as an alchemist would see through your disguise) you would need them as well.

In short you can be a solo assassin but short of using poisons to kill those who visit your shop you might find it less fun and more annoying.

This is of course my opinion but it is based on comments made about skill mastery from SBS

Posted By Malais at 4:51 PM - Fri Jan 20 2017

It would be near impossible. Not so much because you are solo but you would be spreading your training too thin.

Alchemy

Combat skills needed as an assassin

Deviant skill line needed to be "unknown to the public"

Survival skills needed so you can travel to your mark.

You can learn all these skills but wouldn't be really high in mastery. To be truly able to hide your identity you would need to go fairly deep in the deviant skill line for fake ids and disguises. Everyone who travels will need some level of survival and since you would need to take contracts outside of your home town (otherwise people who see you on a daily basis as an alchemist would see through your disguise) you would need them as well.

In short you can be a solo assassin but short of using poisons to kill those who visit your shop you might find it less fun and more annoying.

This is of course my opinion but it is based on comments made about skill mastery from SBS

If that's true, assasins would be worthless. The network needed to assasinate a single person would be almost equal to the efford of gainin g a CB and waging a war.

I am exaggerating of course but you get my point ^^

Posted By Malais at 09:51 AM - Fri Jan 20 2017

It would be near impossible. Not so much because you are solo but you would be spreading your training too thin.

Alchemy

Combat skills needed as an assassin

Deviant skill line needed to be "unknown to the public"

Survival skills needed so you can travel to your mark.

You can learn all these skills but wouldn't be really high in mastery. To be truly able to hide your identity you would need to go fairly deep in the deviant skill line for fake ids and disguises. Everyone who travels will need some level of survival and since you would need to take contracts outside of your home town (otherwise people who see you on a daily basis as an alchemist would see through your disguise) you would need them as well.

In short you can be a solo assassin but short of using poisons to kill those who visit your shop you might find it less fun and more annoying.

This is the rub right here to any solo play style. You need access to the fruits of labor from many skill sets to really thrive. But any one character will only be good at a couple things and really good at one thing while being marginal or poor at the rest even if you play 24/7. You can be a great theif, or a great fighter, or a great alchemist, or a great gatherer of alchemical materials but not all four.

I have a feeling that if you want to play more solo this game is one of the least suitable for this.

You will need the skills of others for every advanced task (like assassination) simply because your skill-level is also dependant on time and since your character dies at some point it begs the question whether you will have skills high enough to even pull off assassinations without getting caught.

Being an assassin is also something that most likely needs an organisation.

I mean, if you have no one to arrange your assassination contracts for you, you will have to meet with a person and at a certain point it will be hard to keep your identity hidden.

I don't see survival skills as necessary. Especially if the reason is to travel to your mark. Your an assassin, your supposed to be anon. This means you should be able to use the road like any other person to travel. No need to go thru the wilds.

Also combat skills shouldn't be a focus as well. Assassins don't fight people. If your sitting there fighting someone for an extended amount of time your bad at assassinating. Minimal combat on a blade based weapon should be needed.

Not to mention if your in alchemy you don't need as much combat ANYWAY because you will have the potion and poison advantage on them. You will having potions increasing your potential while your poisons are decreasing theirs. They also hinted at CDG poisons that while dangerous to craft would result in a CDG if untreated. So in theory if you worked on JUST Alchemy and deviance and discovered such a poison you could easily cut someone a few times and flee while the poison kills them.

Another possible assassination can come from poisoning consumables and just showing up after for the final blow.

In total you should only need these training for what you described (NOTE: These are the minimal needs, while other skills may be helpful you should be good with these):

• Alchemy

• Sneaking

• Lock picking (Not even this is needed but will save you time from waiting for people to leave a locked location).

• Combat (some minor blade training)

Everything else is extra stuff that may or may not help. Sneaking and Lock Picking will get you to your target, bladed combat will apply your poison, your poison will kill your target, your sneaking will get you back out.

Posted By DaSteamGeek at 10:07 AM - Fri Jan 20 2017

Posted By Malais at 09:51 AM - Fri Jan 20 2017

It would be near impossible. Not so much because you are solo but you would be spreading your training too thin.

Alchemy

Combat skills needed as an assassin

Deviant skill line needed to be "unknown to the public"

Survival skills needed so you can travel to your mark.

You can learn all these skills but wouldn't be really high in mastery. To be truly able to hide your identity you would need to go fairly deep in the deviant skill line for fake ids and disguises. Everyone who travels will need some level of survival and since you would need to take contracts outside of your home town (otherwise people who see you on a daily basis as an alchemist would see through your disguise) you would need them as well.

In short you can be a solo assassin but short of using poisons to kill those who visit your shop you might find it less fun and more annoying.

This is of course my opinion but it is based on comments made about skill mastery from SBS

Well, of course, I'd have to train a lot, obviously, as you've stated, the deviant skill line is a must, though I would almost always be away from home, as I'd probably hire an NPC to run the shop until I return. I don't think I'd accept any contracts, rather, do any business apart from alchemy from my hometown. I do understand though, a network is almost always required, which kinda sucks, since my friends aren't interested into games like CoE, but I don't really want to join some stranger's guild.

Two words ... State Sponsorship.

There are so many levels of interaction within COE beyond the traditional MMO guilds. Most kingdoms and I would assume most duchies and likely a lot of counties would need someone with your skills. I can already see where it would be easier to deal with a troublesome count by simply having him die outside of the law.

So you could be an independent contractor and possibly have the law look the other way to a degree for state sponsored actions.

Just change your handle to Bond and you're good.

Joking aside as has been said elsewhere COE isn't for solo folks. It is possible to survive but at what level were not sure yet. To me it would just make sense to visit with some folks and feel out what might be needed and where you might fit. Wouldn't have to join their house or play house just work as a team with those you need to.

@wicked

Keep in my me survival also has the healing skill line. An assassin even a world class one is going to get cut up from time to time. In addition hitting a target in town is likely to not be the best time to strike. Town guards, castle defenses. Which to me means hitting the mark while on the road. So you may very well need to setup overnight.

Either way everyone except those who plan to never leave town will need at least basic survival skills regardless of play style.

@Atogrim

It should take a network for an assassin to be effective. This isn't WoW every action requires planning and thinking.

Assassins aren't going to just take a job pop over run into a room, drop their mark and vanish. They will need to get passed guards, traps, and pets. That is assuming they know where their target actually is and WHAT they look like.

No name plates and such will mean an assassin will have to do recon to find their mark and identify them. Let alone actually drop them.

The lone wolf gunman I don't think is what SBS is going for when they designed the system. I could be wrong but doesn't fit with their team play game style.

Well, if you are really into the idea, there is nothing to stop you from trying it. Two possible results:

1. Success, the benefit being ...... well ..... success.

2. Failure. We often learn a lot from failure. Having tried it on your own and failed, you might have a greater insight into what you want from a group if you go that route.

Posted By Wicked FlamezZ at 10:36 AM - Fri Jan 20 2017

I don't see survival skills as necessary. Especially if the reason is to travel to your mark. Your an assassin, your supposed to be anon. This means you should be able to use the road like any other person to travel. No need to go thru the wilds.

Also combat skills shouldn't be a focus as well. Assassins don't fight people. If your sitting there fighting someone for an extended amount of time your bad at assassinating. Minimal combat on a blade based weapon should be needed.

Not to mention if your in alchemy you don't need as much combat ANYWAY because you will have the potion and poison advantage on them. You will having potions increasing your potential while your poisons are decreasing theirs. They also hinted at CDG poisons that while dangerous to craft would result in a CDG if untreated. So in theory if you worked on JUST Alchemy and deviance and discovered such a poison you could easily cut someone a few times and flee while the poison kills them.

Another possible assassination can come from poisoning consumables and just showing up after for the final blow.

In total you should only need these training for what you described (NOTE: These are the minimal needs, while other skills may be helpful you should be good with these):

• Alchemy

• Sneaking

• Lock picking (Not even this is needed but will save you time from waiting for people to leave a locked location).

• Combat (some minor blade training)

Everything else is extra stuff that may or may not help. Sneaking and Lock Picking will get you to your target, bladed combat will apply your poison, your poison will kill your target, your sneaking will get you back out.

Where is the practice for the deviant skills needed to cover your tracks? Sure you could poison someone with that setup but you'd be caught with all the evidence you leave behind. In order to build those skills you'll need to drop one from the list above I would guess. If you drop alchemy you'll need to buy poison which leaves you vulnerable. If you drop sneak it's harder to get to the target or physically hide after. Trade-offs...Always trade offs....Which I like. Makes for a richer more tightly bound society.

Not really an MMORPG without the MM I say.

Kind of off topic but not really, but if you made an effort to avoid ties with other players and were mysteriously absent from your alchemist shop for long amounts of time, well...

I'm no detective but you would be pretty high on my list of suspects if bodies started surfacing.

Posted By DaSteamGeek at 11:16 AM - Fri Jan 20 2017

Posted By Apaukolypse at 11:13 AM - Fri Jan 20 2017

Not really an MMORPG without the MMO I say.

Kind of off topic but not really, but if you made an effort to avoid ties with other players and were mysteriously absent from your alchemist shop for long amounts of time, well...

I'm no detective but you would be pretty high on my list of suspects if bodies started surfacing.

That's very true, that's why I said earlier, I could either A). Get a friend to run the shop while being unidentified for as long as he/she can. or B). Have an NPC run the shop for quite some time, and try to let people think, "Oh hey, the owner must not usually run the shop", I haven't really figured it out yet, I will eventually though.

Don't be an alchemist. Be a venture capitalist who happens to have bought an alchemy shop. Gives you an excuse to stop in on your investments from time to time but not be there constantly.