Well, we are brainstorming here, so we can unleash our imagination. I've seen in other games, many strange combos, and I can't lie that some of them where pretty fun to play.
Hi, I have been in the role of assassin since I met mmos and it is classic to see these 3 branches always:
1. shadow spells and burst damage.
2. venom or bleeding (dot damage).
3. meele and multiple target combat.
>Esp:
El asesino no deberÃa pelear, me refiero a que ese rol no es para "ir derecho al enemigo y batallar por la victoria", para eso están las otras clases guerreras. Asà que, su rol en una party es más silenciosa; desde ser un explorador con sigilo y alertar del enemigo, apoyar en las batallas con DoT, habilidades de huida para los compañeros en problemas o hacer daño crÃtico y preciso pero con mucho cooldown. Pero siempre manteniendo su distancia del frente y teniendo un ojo en toda el área, vigilante.
*En mi mente imagino una party haciendo una dungeon donde un grupo espera en un lugar seguro al asesino, que fue a explorar las siguientes "habitaciones" dando un informe sobre el número de enemigos, jefes, etc. Y asÃ, puedan hacer un plan de acción.*
>Eng: (whit google translate)
The assassin should not fight, I mean that role is not to "go straight to the enemy and fight for victory", that's what the other warrior classes are for. So, his role in a party is quieter; from being an explorer with stealth and alerting the enemy, supporting battles with DoT, escape skills for teammates in trouble or doing critical and precise damage but with a lot of cooldown. But always keeping his distance from the front and keeping an eye on the whole area, vigilant.
*In my mind I imagine a party making a dungeon where a group waits in a safe place for the assassin, who went to explore the following "rooms" giving a report on the number of enemies, bosses, etc. And so, they can make a plan of action.*
"So, his role in a party is quieter; from being an explorer with stealth and alerting the enemy, supporting battles with DoT, escape skills for teammates in trouble or doing critical and precise damage but with a lot of cooldown. But always keeping his distance from the front and keeping an eye on the whole area, vigilant."
That sounds like a ranger imho
It's not possible to answer which specializations the assassin should have without knowing what the role for the assassin class is. If the assassin is supposed to be for example a kamikaze melee nuker, then it's poiintless for me to suggest specialization for being ranged or a tank or DoT. So what is the role of the assassin class? Is there any other class with the same role? Which class is better at the role then?
But I'll say this at least because I saw someone say that assasssin is supposed to kill healers in the enemy back line. But that's not realistic. First of all, it's not easy to kill someone 1v1. If assassin can quickly kill anyone 1v1 then that's OP. But for that kind of role they havee to be OP because they don't have time to start a 5 minute duel chasing someone in the enemy back line because there will be 10-30 enemies attacking the assassin very fast who is all alone in the enemy back line trying to kill a healer. So that's a fantasy role, not realistic.
I think it's better to delete assassin class and make the ranger have an assassin specialization instead. But I guess it's too late for that kind of suggestion. So I think what you need to do to make assassin viable is to think about assassin when you design the map. For example if there is a big battle to capture maybe a castle, then the assassin can sneak to secondary smaller objectives that aren't guarded by so many enemies. Assassin is not good in the main big battle because assasssin is too squishy, its a melee glass canon class typically, there are too many enemies. Assassin just isn't able to be as effective as a warrior/paladin or ranger/mage/priest etc in a large battle. So there needs to be smaller objectives they can go do which would be a waste for other more important classes to go do.