Skills I'm Focusing As A Stealth Player | Assassin's Creed Shadows

[@michael.waddell]

Definitely have the same idea on playstyle as I do. Appreciate this video man

[@LeoKRogue]

Hope it was entertaining / helpful.

[@michael.waddell]

Both as always🙏

[@arkadiusznagorny3111]

I think this is one of the titles that will make playing on harder difficulty more engaging especially with stealth and Naoe. If you screw up she won't be able to survive a big fight, so don't screw up ^^

[@LeoKRogue]

100% agree with that and it's why I recommend Expert for a more enjoyable experience, personally. I couldn't imagine playing this on Normal, the systems don't really shine that way.

[@arkadiusznagorny3111]

@LeoKRogue yeah that's my point, I'm definitely playing on Expert and it will be most likely be 90% as Naoe and funnily enough I also chose to main the tanto 😊

[@Falconwing66]

It’ll be interesting to see what people who try to force one character as much as possible come up with. Also greetings from Japan!

[@LeoKRogue]

Greetings. Yeah, I'd be curious about that too. Seems like a challenge-run or second-playthrough thing to me but I'm sure there will be lots of players who go in adamant to only be Naoe ever lol

[@joseortizreflects]

This game will be a treat for both stealth and soulsborne fans, it's really looking good.

[@LeoKRogue]

For Stealth players certainly. That second group has Khazan to look forward to a few days after this releases :D

[@protectbabysif]

I agree with most of what you're focusing on here. I think I will however deviate a little in that I will heavily restrict myself in terms of vigor and adrenaline gain as I want to punish myself harder in that combat will be a last resort for me in 1v1 boss fights. I really want to push myself to completely avoid any conflict whatsoever unless I am forced to contend with groups quickly in which case I think investing in Kusarigama and disruption tools will allow me to give myself something breathing room before I escape. Who knows though, this is all conceptual in my head, if I find that my execution is really struggling and I feel the lack of ability options is hurting me in crucial situations, then I'll pivot

[@LeoKRogue]

Could be an interesting way to go about it. It will be _quite_ hard, I can already say based on what I've played, but if you can do it, it could be pretty fun. And yeah, respec is available any time so there's no real loss if you want to switch things up. There's a pretty high chance I check out Kusarigama myself at some point if I need the CC as well.

[@consolescrub4031]

Well explained. I think personally the tanto and katana have a bit too much overlap for combat applications and the screen door assassination seems more niche than the other options so I would probably prefer to focus on the tanto (for similar reasons to what you stated) and the kusarigama. The intention is not to get in combat with Naoe but it seems unwise to discount it (not that you did) and from the quick look at the skills, the Kusarigama looks like it could be useful for controlling the area such as by staggering all enemies nearby with the big sweeping attacks or altering the positions of enemies with the throws. Sure, tools could likely serve a similar function to isolate and prevent enemies approaching but as you pointed out, smoke bombs already have a lot of utility and the starting capacity is low so another way to achieve the same effect allows me to be more liberal with the smoke bombs. The environmental destruction may also be useful for getting away or repositioning by being able to clear out any screen doors nearby for instance. I'm also absolutely not above pulling enemies off ledges if given the opportunity. Armour breaking aside, I can't really see the advantage of the teppo over the bow currently. Possibly it has more ammunition or does more damage but I don't think either of those are a huge restriction on Yasuke unless someone intended to use the teppo as their primary weapon. Regarding the melee weapons, I haven't seen the weapon switch combinations enough to convince me to run two melee weapons over the bow but I could possibly see it as a thing if many enemies need to be fought in duels such as the early access story boss. If was to only have one melee weapon, I would probably go for the katana for versatility unless I found myself really struggling with something. Damage reduction is nice but I think I'd still try avoid getting hit wherever possible (Valhalla had very generous parry windows for the most part) and I don't think I would have the same luxury to choose my engagements with Yasuke as I would with Naoe. Best case scenario, I imagine you could remove some ranged enemies with arrows and get the loud assassination on one guy to start the fight with adrenaline but at the end of the day, you're generally going to be fighting whatever is left, be it armoured samurai or a group of shinobi who likely won't sit still and wait for your club to land.

[@LeoKRogue]

Yup, that's why I included Kusarigama as a "not for me, but other players may find this good." A lot of crowd-control, a lot of area-damage, a lot of ways to apply Knockdown/Daze. Players who are choosing to lean a little harder on group combat with Naoe will probably get good use out of this weapon type. DR on Yasuke is just recognizing that you're probably not going to be perfect, it's statistically unlikely you get hit zero times as him over the course of a playthrough and it's more synergy with all the ways he has to heal himself. You could put those points into something more aggressive if you prefer.

[@consolescrub4031]

@@LeoKRogue Good justifications, thanks. I don't think I'd call it leaning into group combat but then I'll be the first to admit I haven't experienced the difference between katana and tanto combat so I can't actually say if it's as redundant as it feels to me. (Even with previous games experience, the armour breaking may be difficult to use safely with one of them for instance which would be good incentive to use both.) Fair enough if the safety net appeals more to your playstyle. I'm definitely in the camp of preventative healing first where enemies can't hurt you if they're dead or otherwise controlled but any final judgement will have to come after some experimentation personally and I'll still look into increasing health where possible. It's just probably not going to be worth it if I resist 1/10 of every hit but take an extra hit every fight because I can't follow up on a parry with an armour break before the next attack hits. That's why customisation is in the game though so everyone can find what they like. There's probably going to be someone who prefers the naginata and teppo to keep enemies from coming into range in the first place.

[@FarazIFM]

This is a really useful video and I’ll keep this stuff in mind when I get my hands on the game

[@LeoKRogue]

Feel free to spin this off or tweak it into stuff that feels good for you, as well. This is just my approach but no one has to use it.

[@FarazIFM]

@ yah I’m still debating whether I should play with or without guaranteed assassinate

[@Juicexlx]

Yep, definitely a more build oriented AC. Good stuff. Thanks.

[@slashdef]

Looking forward to this. I've recently started replaying syndicate. It's good practice for stealth (evie) and open combat (Jacob). I know it's not as simple as that but you get the general idea. Nice video mate.

[@LeoKRogue]

Thanks for watching.

[@rocklight1304]

Dang this game really doesn't want me to play as Yasuke. Great video LeoK

[@LeoKRogue]

If you're a stealth-focused player like me, he's definitely not your ideal main. :P You would deploy him to resolve mandatory combat-scenarios. Like I mentioned, the game is _generally_ pretty clear about when you should expect one of those. There may also be some targets in environments that are really open and trying to force a Naoe clear in those situations would just be a tactically poor move, even if you could somehow win with her, you would waste so much time and be so inefficient that you would rather just go in with the big guy. Yasuke is a good swap to play into those as well.

[@thedevconnor]

First, also great video as always

[@LeoKRogue]

Thank you.

[@genericgamer2836]

Great video. I would love to see something similar, but with the gear perks that are available, tho idk how much you saw when you played.

[@LeoKRogue]

I wish I could do that too, the difference is that Skills are easily-referenced because they're all available in one tab in-game I could browse through even without all of them unlocked. Gear Perks are something I can't even really speculate on, I've seen like two or three at the most. There could be hundreds of them and which ones we end up getting will probably be different for every player, so it's going to have to be an at-launch thing, I think.

[@berice4390]

It seems like the strategy of taking out squishy enemies in stealth so we can keep adrenaline is a lesson from odyssey one can apply here for Naoe But with how dynamic enemy behavior can be I’m sure there’ll be more factors to consider. Tanto is a no brainer for me as double assassinate is tied to that. The kurisama has a unique assassinate ability but I wonder if it’ll be more reliable to just use a ranged option to kill at mid range. Katana I may just go for the cool factor I just love the animations they won me over with that alone

[@LeoKRogue]

I love the way she holds her Katana lol, it's so rule-of-cool.

[@ikraikgaming]

Personally will go for Kusarigama for rush assassinate instead of Katana but might change later. If I have a load out system which I can change mid combat that is. On stealth I wanna go full Tanto and Kusarigama just for reaper runs. Mid combat, Tanto and Katana for eviseration style. I didn’t want the Katana since I feel it is waay too situational compared to the other loadout. But let’s see once the game is out.

[@ryann4365]

I’m planning on using tanto and katana simply because they look cool on naoe’s back :P

[@ikraikgaming]

@ that’s a valid reason. I’m just going on for functionality. For me looks is waay lower on the list unless I’m doing some choreography vids.

[@chasestein6984]

Something I think would be interesting is to go fully Stealth as Yasuke and go full combat as Naoe.

[@LeoKRogue]

It does seem interesting as a _concept_ or a matter of "stubbornness" on the part of the player, but I don't think the game would make that too fun to actually play, in the end. ^_^ I _could_ snipe an enemy in a shooter over and over with a Shotgun and _eventually_ kill it from really far away, but it would be a tedious and drawn-out experience, I'm not playing into the strengths of that archetype. I envision this as kind of similar to that.

[@newidpending1109]

Cant wait to play ha

[@LeoKRogue]

Well, not long now.

[@DayBlueberry-F]

So in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the last game made by the team making Shadows, when I had my 2 weapons I remember I embedded 1 with the power to breathe underwater and I could do it all the time, didn't matter if I had that weapon or my other one in my equipped slot. So I'd like to say in Shadows it will work the same and you'll be able to use the Melee Expert and Momentum Builder passive combo If it turns out they changed that for this game then I'm sorry about that, it was a really good combo

[@LeoKRogue]

That makes a lot of sense, I would probably assume similarly then.

[@arcainex]

flex em rpg muscles rogue!!!!!!!!!

[@LeoKRogue]

I'm trying! Luckily Shadows is really basic and simple as far as this stuff goes so it's an easy one to practice on haha

[@simonarques5201]

i really hope there will be much more skill available to even further this kind of choice. As much as i dislike valhalla in many regards, one thing i liked is the amount of actual moves (Skills and basics) you can learn. Rope dart like executions, flurry of shurikn all around to stun multiple ennemies and flee. I actually woul like a double kill like AC 3 that can be triggered by a high cost ability or something like that.

[@LeoKRogue]

There are of course a lot of skills I didn't even talk about in this video so there might already be some that cover the ideas you bring up. I know the Kusarigama has ways to move people around very actively for example, that's kind of an analogue to the Harpoon in ACV. On the note of double kills, do you mean in combat specifically? That would be pretty flashy if they found a way to incorporate it. Double Assassinations with the Hidden Blade + Tanto already exist from stealth, which I've missed for a while. Happy about those, and I could see something similar for combat eventually.

[@simonarques5201]

@@LeoKRogue Good to know the kusarigama has this kind of use ! Wonder if we'll be able to use it in stealth like the rope dart. Yeah for double kills i was refering to those double counter kills connor does in combat, this could be like a special double execution as a skill, since we see some of these skills can chain attack ennemies already.

[@drfop112]

Just a little over a month...I'm shaking in my seat I just wanna get my hands on this game and slay out man

[@LeoKRogue]

I almost dread it, lol. It's gonna be so much work... 😭

[@drfop112]

@@LeoKRogue When you're finished you'll have Khazan to look forward to 😸

[@LeoKRogue]

Oh, I'll be on Khazan whether I'm finished or not >_>

[@riannon8925]

Now that I think of it, Shadows doesn't have any kind of rope dart like weapon right? To hang enemies or choke them to death. Since I saw Naoe using the kusarigama to get close to an enemy and then kill him, I wish we can use it even to get the enemies closer to us, like AC3, or hang them and then release since it's not a tool but a weapon, but even in AC3 you can choke them on the trees and then release them. Since Naoe has the blade from Connor, It would've been cool to use one of the concept of Connor's balde which was the chain blade, which was the blade that is connected with the blade, and the kusarogama has a chain.

[@LeoKRogue]

Yeah, it's used as a gap-closer but no pulling. She also uses her Grappling Hook to grab people by coiling it around their neck, it looks like.

[@Kimkong2]

For me I don’t want anything that feels like hacks for stealth. So first I’m disabling enemy markers and detection gauges. Eagle vision and being invisible in the dark is already too op imo. For detection gauges, there’s already audio cues not just from the enemy but also a whooshing sound while they are detecting you. I’m also playing in max stealth difficulty to make enemies way more alert and perceptive as well as have a vertical vision cone. I think I heard they will also pursue you for longer and not just forget they just spotted you. Besides stuff like reducing enemy detection speed and guaranteed assassinations , I’ll use the same skills as you. Can’t wait for fully immersive, challenging and rewarding stealth ! I intend to strictly play Yasuke during the day and Naoe at night. For combat in general, I want to be able to create some kind of lethal mode where both me and my enemy die in fewer hits. Especially for Yasuke, it feels like I’m holding a huge stick when I hit an enemy 5-10 times before they go down. Especially for some of the skills that have you literally stabing through their necks then slashing their torso and they just brush it off.

[@LeoKRogue]

I've heard a few players so far hoping Custom Difficulty sliders/tuning would be in the game so they could create that kind of experience, where both player and enemy hit hard but nothing has too much health. Hopefully someone's recognized the demand for that and is working on getting it in as close to launch as possible. I definitely recommend Expert for stealth difficulty, yeah. Much more interesting and tense that way but it never feels unfair, and you still feel pretty powerful if you respect enemy perception.

[@globx1225]

I am the kind who likes to restrict himself with fewer - and maybe OP - options, since I usually play sekiro without kuro's charm and with the demon bell on. I will of course get the +1 on items, but some other stuff I might just skip and at some point when I feel that the game is on the sweet spot for me in terms of difficulty I will simply stop getting new skills The tanto is a no-brainer for a lot of reasons, but I don't know whether I choose the katana or the kusarigami - I mean when I get in fights it would create distance between the enemy and me -, so how do you compare the kusarigami to the katana? (Also great vid!!)

[@LeoKRogue]

I admire that. I do think Sekiro and Assassin's Creed are worlds apart in terms of overall game polish, tightening and quality, so I would personally be wary of adding too much burden on myself when it comes to my first playthrough of one of these until I know if the game is actually fun that way. 😅 Even Sekiro doesn't actually let you do Charmless until you finish the game at least once, and Demon Bell is something you have to first learn about and reach during a run. Though, a good point is that Sekiro is also a shorter game, as opposed to Shadows where replaying it is probably a huge commitment. So not getting skills, or Unspeccing the ones you realize you don't like / are "too much" is a pretty smart way to tune the level of pressure for yourself midway through a playthrough. Kusarigama is definitely better vs Katana for crowd-control, stunning, knocking down, applying Daze, stuff like that. It's Naoe's most defensive weapon by a wide margin. Tanto is her most aggressive and Katana feels balanced, somewhere in between. If making space and keeping enemies controlled is something you value, you would probably get good use out of the Kusarigama.

[@globx1225]

@LeoKRogue yeah you said it exactly what I think of, the best thing about being a human, is I follow MY own rules for MY own size - even in studying -, so I would probably spend a lot of time tuning it till it feels the best it can get for ME.

[@AllFatherMedia]

I'm wondering how fast you can pull off hidden hand after a stealth assassination. In theory you could kill 3 guards in a group with a double assassination straight into hidden hand if you're fast enough.

[@LeoKRogue]

If the last guard is weak enough you probably don't even have to be that fast. Or you could pre-Smoke them all before going in to do that, after the double the Smoke should still linger on-field and you can Hidden Onslaught from stealth for the +1.

[@ThisChannelIsAbandoned300]

You gonna do a seperate video for combat?

[@LeoKRogue]

I'm not a combat player, but the Yasuke portion of this video covers that very well, I feel.

[@caravaneerkhed]

Dude I’m gonna be so stealthy the game won’t even ever see me play it.

[@LeoKRogue]

Epic.

[@agbang2832]

If only they focused on one character… then maybe, just maybe we could have had more ways to assassinate. I mean, I want an assassin that can use traps other than other weapons or “ninja tools.”

[@LeoKRogue]

I don't really know what to say man, I mean obviously this was never going to be the game for that. Ghost of Yotei might do some cool stuff.

[@Ninasbixtch]

the only assassin to do stuff like this was basim and connor but only for animals. Yasuke is. A great character considering the game is set in a dynasty where the samurai are about to fall.i

[@timothygoodwin3287]

On something a bit unrelated, do you know if there will be unarmed combat? For example, if you unequip one of your weapons, will that slot be using fists?

[@LeoKRogue]

I haven't seen or heard anything about it, unfortunately.

[@tomichin3328]

So Hidden Hand work like Hero Strike in odyssey? An assasssination skill you use in combat?

[@LeoKRogue]

It seems to be exactly that, based on the description. With the added benefit of also doing more segment-damage if cast from stealth with its upgrade, so it's kind of like Hero Strike and Crit Assassinate rolled into one skill.

[@Sampras8491]

Man the second character was so unnecessary. Naoe only would negate most of the hate

[@LeoKRogue]

He's cool TBH. I enjoy using them both to solve different situations. Also most of the people hating are babies who'll just move on to bashing whatever next game their cringe grifter influencers target them at so I don't care xDD Also if Ghost of Yotei is anything to consider, Naoe would still get hate because she's a girl. You can't please these people. You can just ignore them, tell them to fuck off and wait until they stop crying fr fr

[@BoniMayne]

I’ve only heard bad things from most people and I’m inclined to believe them also it was a weird pr move that threw alot of people off so that’s probably another reason people don’t like him

[@LeoKRogue]

Well, you're hearing good things from me, who has been playing the series since 2007 and who's an actual fan that engages with the games honestly, so whose opinion matters more? "Most" of those people you're referring to are probably tourists who hop on whatever game is 'popular' and don't give a damn about Assassin's Creed. Once Shadows has come and gone, do you think they're going to be making content about AC games? No, obviously not. They'll move onto whatever is the hot topic of the day. I will be, though, because I love this series and I've loved it for eighteen years. (Longer if you count Prince of Persia!) That's the difference between getting your opinions from a tourist and getting them from a veteran.

[@Sampras8491]

@@LeoKRogue I'd be playing shadows on day one because despite me not liking the addition of the second character the game looks sick and I don't think they force you to play Yasuke for more than a couple of story missions.

[@BoniMayne]

@ ah you see leo I thought you were fine but you sound kinda pretentious and uhhhh crazy goodbye and enjoy your game 💀

[@sir_justinius]

I would rather focus on not buying this game.

[@akaviral5476]

Edgy!

[@LeoKRogue]

Play Khazan instead. It's releasing just a few days after and I'm immediately dropping Shadows for that when it hits lmao. It's my most anticipated this year. (Except Lies of P's DLC.)

[@sir_justinius]

@ OK, Ubicuck.

[@LeoKRogue]

Dude this Justinius guy has a GHOST RECON video on his channel LMAOAOAOAO. The call is coming from inside the house. I'm fuckin crying holy

[@sir_justinius]

@@LeoKRogue Yeah, how dare I like a game that you dont. Asshole.