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The long-awaited rework of the Assassin Ascendancy is finally here in Path of Exile 3.27: Keepers of the Flame. As one of the Shadow's core Ascendancy options, Assassin has been largely untouched since 2019. Once known for its glass-cannon playstyle and high critical strike scaling, the subclass slowly fell out of favor as newer Ascendancies like Trickster and Saboteur received modernized tools and defensive mechanics.

However, patch 3.27 is changing everything. The developers have completely redesigned the Assassin's passive tree, introducing brand-new Notables and rebalancing old favorites. This rework aims to make the Assassin a high-risk, high-reward powerhouse again - offering both deadly critical strike damage and unexpected survivability.

1. A New Era for the Assassin Ascendancy

The new Assassin rework fundamentally alters how players build and scale their characters. While the class will retain its focus on Critical Strikes and Poison, the rework introduces new ways to enhance damage consistency and survivability.

·Knife in the Back: Focuses on boosting damage against enemies, not on Low Life with massive Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier bonuses.

·For the Jugular: Offers the same bonuses but reversed - excelling against enemies on Low Life, perfect for execution-style play.

Both versions include Culling Strike, ensuring any foe under 10% life gets instantly finished off, giving the Assassin a more satisfying and lethal combat identity.

2. Revamped and Removed Notables

Some of the most iconic passives, like Deadly Infusion, Ambush and Assassinate, and Noxious Strike, have been removed entirely. The new passives now focus on increasing consistency, damage uptime, and defense.

·Mistwalker now grants 100% increased Elusive Effect (previously 50%), doubling the potency of one of Assassin's strongest defensive layers.

·Unstable Infusion has been reworked to offer a 30% chance to gain a Power Charge on Non-Critical Strikes and 15% chance on Critical Strikes, smoothing Power Charge generation during both single-target and mapping scenarios.

·Toxic Delivery has shifted toward sustained Poison gameplay. Poisons now gain 5% increased Duration per Poison inflicted recently (up to 100%), and killing poisoned enemies restores 0.5% of Life per Poison affecting them.

In short, these changes make the class better suited for long boss fights and dangerous encounters, where survivability and consistent damage over time are essential.

3. Brand-New Passives for Modern Combat

Patch 3.27 introduces several completely new passives that redefine how Assassin interacts with its core mechanics:

·Infused Toxins: Grants "All Damage from Hits can Poison," ensuring all your damage types - Physical, Elemental, or Chaos - contribute to your poison scaling. This broadens the build diversity and opens up hybrid or conversion builds.

·Deathmarked: Automatically triggers a high-level Assassin's Mark on Critical Strike against Rare or Unique enemies, with no mana cost. This ensures near-constant uptime of Mark effects during boss fights.

·Mystical Infusion: Transfers the Base Critical Strike Chance of your main-hand weapon to your spells - a massive boon for hybrid spell-and-weapon setups.

·Shadowed Blood: One of the most surprising new defensive tools, it allows 40% of Physical Damage taken to be recouped as Life and makes you Unaffected by Damaging Ailments. This effectively removes threats like Ignite or Bleed and gives the Assassin much-needed sustain.

·Opportunistic: Now provides 35% less Damage taken when two or more Rare or Unique enemies are nearby, further bolstering survivability in hectic fights such as Uber Elder or Pinnacle bosses.

Together, these passives make the Assassin feel more dynamic and well-rounded than ever before. Instead of being purely offensive, it now offers multiple ways to mitigate damage, sustain life, and maintain offensive uptime.

Impact on Builds and Meta

With the Assassin overhaul, Poison and Crit builds are poised to make a huge comeback. Focus on Path of Exile Items, players should start investing early - many of these reworked nodes heavily reward investment in Critical Strike gear, Chaos multipliers, and Elusive modifiers.

The new flexibility also means that non-traditional Assassin archetypes, like Spell Crit builds, Hybrid Attack + Spell setups, or even Dual Claw Lifesteal builds, could thrive in the new meta. The inclusion of Mystical Infusion alone may enable entirely new playstyles centered around self-poisoning spells or hybrid DoT/crit scaling.

Given that Trickster is receiving nerfs in the same patch, many players predict that Assassin could rise to top-tier DPS status once again - a return to glory after years in the shadows.

The Future of the Shadow

The Assassin rework in Path of Exile 3.27: Keepers of the Flame represents more than just a balance pass - it's a complete redesign that modernizes the Ascendancy to fit the evolving gameplay of Path of Exile.

Whether you're a veteran looking to revisit your favorite Crit Dagger build or a new player seeking a deadly and agile playstyle, this update ensures the Assassin once again lives up to its name. Expect to see it dominating endgame content, mapping efficiently, and taking its rightful place among the game's most powerful Ascendancies.

With ten new Bloodline Ascendancies also releasing in 3.27, synergy options for the Assassin will only expand further. For players ready to buy POE currency and push their builds to the limit, now is the perfect time to prepare - because the shadows are rising again.