It’s common during times of war or political unrest for those looking to unceremoniously seize power to look for a hired hand. Mercenaries are often the go-to for this cause, but they often lack the appropriate finesse to quickly topple an opposing empire. Assassins, as they were once more commonly known, studied in the ways of the Shadow itself, being able to manipulate it as a puppet or completely vanish within this plane. While the role they play has slightly changed over the centuries, the Slayers choose to keep to their roots, studying and embracing the comfort of the darkness. - Asterius’s Encyclopedia

Today, we’re excited to discuss the Slayer, Aelion’s devious assassins! Quietly lingering in the shadows waiting to spring a deadly trap, the Slayer navigates towards their target in secrecy.

Slayers are called upon to go deep within the enemy’s ranks with the assignment of quickly dispatching the highest valuable targets when no one else can. Wielding their deadly twin blades, shurikens, and a variety of other gadgets hidden up their sleeves, few enemies know what to expect when facing these mysterious foes.

While a Slayer’s primarily role has always been that of an assassin, very few lords or unpleasant diplomats need disposing of in this day and age. These are replaced with high ranking members of Aelion’s Invaders that may be starting to become a little too comfortable within the walls of their makeshift fortresses. None the less, the Slayer still can be found alongside other allies on the battlefield, rapidly moving between foes, dodging strikes, and inflicting fatal blows. When necessary, they are capable of disappearing into the realm of shadows, rendering themselves invisible, granting a valuable opening of attack or escape.

The Slayer is an interesting class which utilizes a mixture of both melee and ranged combat, with each variation suiting different situations & playstyles. Due to this, hit-and-run tactics are often utilized by a variety of experienced slayers, as they are capable of high damaging attacks before slinking into the shadows, temporarily disorienting their target, or both. For example, Blood Harvest inflicts damage over time to enemies for a brief period, and if they happen to fall below 50% health before the effect is removed or runs out, it will be renewed and continue to do damage.

This allows the Slayer to keep the heat on the target while they make an escape or prep for the coup de grace. On the other end, proper use of Swinging Chains provides a massive amount of direct damage that can easily decimate an opponent while, at the same time, opening them up for increased Backstab damage. How a Slayer is played is heavily situational, but easily manageable to those that understand when to flee or stand their ground.

Basic Abilities

Shady Strike (LMB): First strike in the basic combo which inflicts damage

Shuriken Attack (RMB): Ranged ability with two charge levels:

• Dance of Blades: Pressing RMB throws two small shurikens that inflict damage along their path.
• Steel Star: Holding RMB throws a singular larger shuriken that does increased damage along its path.

Slayer’s Tip: The Deadly Accuracy and Pain Spot Expert talents greatly improve your ranged capabilities by increasing both charge-levels damage and other effects such as critical chance & immobilization.

These basic attacks are used in the following combos:

Double Strike: (LMB + LMB + LMB): Third attack in the basic combo. Along with inflicting damage, this strike increases the damage from Backflip and slows down the enemy for a few seconds.

Blade Vortex: (LMB + RMB): The Slayer swirls his blades, inflicting damage to nearby enemies.

Backflip: (LMB + LMB + RMB): Inflicts damage to the enemy.
Slayer’s Tip: For those that seek to maximize their Backflip usage, the Cutthroat Fervor talent is a must due to its increase to Backflip damage from 40% to 300%.

Other Abilities

Backstab: The Slayer sneaks behind the target and inflicts high damage. Additionally, the target is stunned very briefly and their abilities will be interrupted. Within the Slayer’s Atlas, Backstab will be upgraded to inflict increased damage and the first backstab of combat will inflict more damage.

Minefield: The Slayer disperses a ring of mines around them which explode, inflicting damage to enemies within their radius.

Complete Cloaking: The Slayer becomes completely invisible, protected from all incoming damage, and unlocks access to unique abilities for a short duration. Additionally, if the Slayer’s health drops to zero they will automatically shift into the Shadow Cloaking state, removing all negative effects. Can only be used once every minute.

Shadow Cloaking: The Slayer becomes completely invisible, protected from all incoming damage, and unlocks access to unique abilities for a duration slightly longer than Complete Cloaking.
Slayer’s Tip: You will commonly find that Complete Cloaking is much more effective in a PvP environment where a quick last-minute getaway may prove to be more beneficial for some Slayer’s over a longer invisibility period.

Smoke Grenade: A smoke grenade is thrown at the target – Within the radius Dexterity regenerates faster and the Slayer becomes immune to attacks from greater than 5 yards.
Slayer’s tip: If using Smoke Grenade, be sure to look into Choking Smoke as it will disorient those within Smoke Grenade’s radius for a few seconds.

We have listed only a few of the Slayer’s abilities. A full detailed list can be found within the Classes tab on the Aelinet.

Undertaking the path of the Slayer may prove daunting at first, but proper understanding of how to play this class can make it a significantly deadly force to be reckoned with. Their arsenal includes pulls and gap-closers, immunities, stuns, cloaks, and various tricks & traps. Bundle all of this together with abilities that, upon proper setup, can cause massive pain within a short period, the Slayer makes its mark as one of Skyforge’s most effective killing machines. Mastering the ways of the Slayer will by no means be easy – but the payoff can far out way the challenges faced getting there.

Play Skyforge for free now and master control over shadows themselves as the Slayer!