I am not saying it is an unstoppable mechanic, I am not saying it is easy. This is not a complaint that it's too easy, and op, and needs removed. I am just saying it stifles character interaction. That's all.
One thing I never understood is monks, and blademasters, have the anatomy skill. I tried to play a monk not long ago, and training anatomies was a pain. Same with a blademaster. You spend literal days mastering everything about a body to be able to poison, or weaken, or blind them. But a ninja can study relatively quickly without any prior knowledge of your anatomy, and you being armed to the teeth in gear (that's what it's for right, circulating rares off of super decked unkillable folks?). It never really made sense that you must completely master the body of a giant to unlock strikes to call out plague, or stun your opponent, but in about a game day you can kill them. Maybe ninjas need anatomy, and they can only assassinate the races they choose expertise, and mastery in, and the rest would be used to determine study strike damage?
You don't study the anatomy of your victim. You study the behavior of your victim so that you can "predict" his actions and find a pattern where you can sneak on him and kill him with just one blow. It's just like, you learn that when he goes to bushes to leak some water, he stares at the sky. And then he is yours.
"anyone been assasinated in the last....3 months? "
How many of you stopped doing what you where doing and went do other stuff because the was a ninja online? That's the real question.
I don't think I have been assassinated in over a year. Although I have rarely seen (or known there to be) many ninja's around in that time either.
I think everyone should just play the game, see how it goes. Assassinate has already seen some significant changes to it and I am confident in the staff's ability to manage the balance of the game mechanics. They have made amazing strides in improving and toning the game to make the game more enjoyable for everyone. If something happens in game that seems broken/op/whatever, log it and take it to the staff and let them work out what is going on and offer an explanation.