I’m going to be honest, I am personally not a big fan of the Dark Elf Assassin, purely because I very rarely find them particularly useful and in a team that very often struggles with keeping its TV down, its added bloat for not much value. It is, a rather fun piece to be far and outside of Star Players the only time you’ll be seeing Stab on the pitch, plus they’re not hindered by Secret Weapon (because they’re sneaky buggers!), so the ref won’t be throwing them out. They’re a good way to knock down low AV Dodge players early on (until your Blitzers start getting Tackle) and is a decent way of circumventing Block/Dodge too if you’re not tooled up with Wrestle. Failing stab also doesn’t cause Turnovers, so it makes them a surprisingly safe-to-use piece. Shadowing has its uses, but most of them time I find opponents just block the Assassin away, so it comes up less often than you’d hope.
Levelling them up can be tricky, however. Stab gives no SPP, even in BB2020, so outside of the odd MVP or Touchdown if you’re feeling generous, they can be very difficult to skill up. AV8+ with no defensive skills to start makes them pretty vulnerable and unlikely to see out the game. This ties into their usefulness, as without Block or Dodge, they’re going to be knocked down fairly regularly and probably have their armour broken. The thing is, you WANT to be next to players as well to use Stab, (you could Blitz but, your Witch Elves are way better at that!) so you’re going to need assists to prevent 2 dies against you, but most teams will easily get around that and just pummel these guys endlessly. 85k is a little more expensive than a Runner for only 1 skill more, which is decent, but 15k more than a lineman who, well has AV9+ and can do the marking job much better. Yes they have MV7 which is pretty sweet to have, but I rarely find Shadowing lasts more than 2 or 3 rolls.
They can be fun and serve a purpose for sure and the FW models are pretty damn good (you don’t get one in the plastic kit sadly), but I wouldn’t be in a rush to take one, at least from a competitive stand point.
Build List:
Randomised Skills:
To get the most out of the runner, you need to pick their skills. Starting with Block & Dodge is too important in my opinion and rolling what could be useless skills on an 85k piece, just ain’t worth it.
Stabby McStabbington | Dark Elf Assassin Build
Primaries: Block, Dodge, Side-Step, Jump Up, Defensive, Diving Tackle/Tackle
Secondaries: Multi-Block
Characteristics: ST/AG/MV
This is the way I’d make my Dark Elf Assassin. Grab Block and Dodge for defence, while also giving them some leeway into performing other duties should you need them to. This keeps them up on their feet for the most part, paired with Side Step means you can make sure you’re sticking to opposing players to follow up with a knife in the back… or face if you prefer. Jump Up rocks for these guys, if you do get knocked down then you can still make your Stab attempt, or reposition to track down any Blodge Runners that made it through your lines.
Defensive is a skill I want to see more of and, hear me out, I think works on them! You’re going to be marking players most of the time, so why not turn off your opponent’s Guard while you’re at it? It gives them something to do on defence that doesn’t require too much of an SPP commitment (which they’re going to struggle with anyway) and BlodgeStep means you’ll be able to worm your way into those Guarded areas, then Stab them after the fact!
Multi-Block, if you can afford it and you really should try to, doubles their attempts and really is one of the keys to unlocking this player’s potential. Double the number of stabs means double the chances of breaking armour and means their value comes somewhere near good! This really starts to shine vs AV8+ teams or lower and Stunty teams in particular will be pretty darn scared of them.
As for Characteristics, ST4 is good as it means they’re harder to knock down, but either AG or MV is good too. It’s a large amount of SPP however and I’d say using it for core skills and Multi-Block is much, much better value.
In the Shadows | Dark Elf Assassin Build
Primaries: Block/Dodge, Diving Tackle, Tackle, Side-Step, Jump Up
Secondaries: Multi-Block,
Characteristics: MV
If you want to lean more into the Shadowing aspect of the Assassin, or you’re up against a bunch of Woodies and Skaven, then you can grab Tackle and Diving Tackle (after Blodge of course), to make those Dodge’s even harder. Even Gutter Runners will be dodging away on a 4+ without the ReRoll, and you can save DT for the 2nd or 3rd attempt should Shadowing activate and the Team ReRoll already have been used. I’d say it’s up to you which out of Tackle and DT you take first. There are arguments for both, personally, I’d take Diving Tackle first as Shadowing could force the Dode or Team ReRoll to be used on the first or second attempt anyway, so better off making the rolls harder to begin with.
The reason I’d go for Blodge first, is otherwise you’re just going to get hit and the rest of the build will likely be ignored. At least this way you’ll have some utility outside the rest of the build, Block could keep you in place so your opponent still has to make the move, and Dodge will save you from an easy armour break and follows up if you grab Side-Step too.
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The Dark Elf Assassin is quite polarising. Some love them, some don’t and they can struggle at times to find a way into the team. If you’re in a league where you know you’re up against a lot of low AV, particularly if they have Block or Dodge, then the Assassin can be pretty useful. If you’re up against Dwarves or other high AV teams then they’re going to struggle and become a more expensive, lower AV Lineman. They’re hard to level up as well, so keep that in mind and try to throw them a few TD’s if you can, they have MV7 and the usual Elven AG2+, so doing so if the opportunity arises can be worthwhile
That’s it for the Dark Elf Assassin build! Check out our guides for the Blitzer, Witch Elf, Lineman and Runner.
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