Assassinate is such a crap skill. And I'm not saying this cause I have been assassinated recently. I'm saying this cause it is stupid. It is a skill of patience, which isn't a skill really. Anyone with some weed can smoke enough to be patient. Or pass out, either way. Why not change ninjas a little so they are a fighting class for once?
Honestly, Ninjas are fully capable of being a fighting class. They would still have to be rogue like thieves need to be. Not like ninjas with slight changes and loss of assassinate would be a skinny warrior, or a crappy immediate bash him to death class.
Suggested changes:
Lose assassinate and Study. bye bye, screw that boring crappy 1 skill crap that every ninja relies on.
Add 2 new ninjitsu skills, maybe sidestep where you can use it 2 times a round and have a chance to sidestep your enemy and stab/bash with your staff your enemy. A second could be a change of nerve, increased to do strength and dexterity loss.
Still shadow arts, Lotus scourge and Doublesheath would be priceless.
The other change, to help them so you can't say they are just a, "hey it's a ninja bash them to death" class, is give them two handed, which gives them the chance to deal with a powerful melee class without just being bashed to hell. I mean really, ninjas can use staffs better than just pugil use...
This makes ninjas more useful and fun to play. Also eliminates crying from people about being assassinated, and takes away the 1, barely, 2 dimensions of ninjas. Honestly when I think of a ninja, I don't think of assassinate. I think of god damn this guy is kicking my *** and is sneaky as ****.
What do you guys that do not play assassination ninjas think?
I think that we must smoke more weed and doesn't give a **** about assassinate 
At least don't smoke when you post 
I played Grawrer, a Gladiator feral ninja. I lost study and all my spells, still had a blast and was a viable melee threat. Ninjas are already more than assassinating machines, depending on the lore you pick.
That being said I would like to see them revamped with more lores, perhaps have some distinct paths. Ninjas can vary from silent killers to skilled fighters, so it should be better represented in game I think. Even as it stands though, underestimating a ninja in combat could get you killed fast.
I agree with you 100%, Ninjas can be very viable melee threats. But at the same time, an equally equiped giant warrior/zerker or some others played correctly will eat a ninja in melee unless the ninja does it exactly the way the ninja needs to do it. I watched Zalozen repeatedly eat people melee wise. Seems Feral ninjas are the ones that normally are able to get it done as well. Anyhow, yeah just think they need to be spruced up a bit, leaning more towards getting away from the typical assassin or omg this guy rips me apart, step back, study, assassinate, hah I win anyways kinda stuff.
I don't know. I hate Kaylia, but to be honest, the game wouldn't be the same without her.
I played Grawrer, a Gladiator feral ninja. I lost study and all my spells, still had a blast and was a viable melee threat. Ninjas are already more than assassinating machines, depending on the lore you pick.
That being said I would like to see them revamped with more lores, perhaps have some distinct paths. Ninjas can vary from silent killers to skilled fighters, so it should be better represented in game I think. Even as it stands though, underestimating a ninja in combat could get you killed fast.
I attribute alot of your ninjas success with the abuse of sleep arrows pre-change. I fought you and 90% of the fight was push and sleepy arrows.
assassinate is the ninja trade mark, I don't like the game without it.
Of course that's true, the the way ninjas are supposed to be played is like that. But they are nearly never played that way cause there is an easy button on ninjas. And still, I reiterate, if you think assassination is hard you need to try a ninja and have this thing called patience. It is not hard. I am not the best player in the world, especially not with ninjas and yet I can assassinate people np.
Some people state it's easy to roll a ninja and assassinate people. Every time I call shenanigans. It's only easy to assassinate silly people. This is an age long argument, and I'm still on the other side. 
Roll one and prove it's overpowered, it's not gonna happen. It's not an easy button, it's one of many styles of pk.
**
ASSASSINATE IS PART OF THE GAME TO KEEP PK POWERHOUSE GEAR SETS IN CIRCULATION.**
Rofl. Won't even comment on that
When your rouge gets assissinated by a ninja that doesn't even bother to use sanc and poison against you, then I will see if you feel the same way
**
ASSASSINATE IS PART OF THE GAME TO KEEP PK POWERHOUSE GEAR SETS IN CIRCULATION.**
He used the red marker... HE USED THE RED MARKER!
He used the red marker... HE USED THE RED MARKER!
that's right i did it! lol foxx i will always and forever be completely ticked off when i get assassinated, but its part of the game and its avoidable.
I haven't been assassinated in about 2 years of playing this game, I like the skill. I just haaaaaaaaate when a cabal'd ninja will just sit either inside, or around his cabal while you attempt to take his standard while he just racks up the study on you.
Assassinate is fine. Especially when It's Lamah that's getting assassinated... or Imseik..
This would be an issue, if assassinate ever worked. I have yet to successfully do it, with full study, strangled and blinded.
Don't change stuff. It's good the way it is.
Lose assassinate? That would not be good.
I do like the idea of ninja having a path to chose, because I do not believe that every single character would desire or force themselves to learn to kill another with a single blow. Actually when I consider some religion/allignment/ethos combinations that can certainly be played by a ninja, I am utterly convinced that such a character would have no use for the skill. Such as a neutral good tranquility ninja.
If we gave them three paths, One of which remains EXACTLY as it is now, we could taylor one to be more melee oriented omitting assassinate, the other could be more caster oriented. Oh hell, I have to go play with this in my head....
Well? Stop hiding it and start dividing it? Grim, better pass that over here.
http://forum.theforsakenlands.org/showthread.php?t=18255&highlight=assassinate
http://forum.theforsakenlands.org/showthread.php?t=15340&page=3&highlight=assassinate
http://forum.theforsakenlands.org/showthread.php?t=7121&highlight=assassinate
The only thing that is stupid is rehashing this topic, AGAIN. Assassinate has been whined over, tweaked, and whined over some more so many times it's not even funny. And it's frankly a waste of bandwidth to go over it for the umpteenth time.