Listen dude, all these people are right, I am a level 37 assassin with
shadow in for the invisibility (which btw doesnt work, as long as your
targeted, but thats for another post). It comes down to the fact that
you HAVE to use the sneak moves like punt and topsy turvy (very good
move, more to come on that) otherwise you will get pwned, as you said a
spy is rubbish in close combat and rightly so because a spy can sneak
around and deal high damage, but in order to stand a chance of killing
someone with the assassin tree you have to use what is given to you as
has been said over and over again in this thread

if you didnt use
punt you would be stuffed in CC.
Anyway I thort I'd just give you a good strategy that I'm positive I'm
not the first to use but I still find useful...1st off put on
disguise/sneak/invis whatever.
Then you need to find someone in pvp who has had their evade shield
broken or cross fingers and hope for the best lol. Execute Topsyturvy
on them and if it is succesful they will be pacified, pull out of CC
STRAIGHT AWAY.
Again go into sneak mode and hit them with sumthing like a punt, or one
that is fairly quick and hasnt been mentioned AND makes you hard to
target is diving frankensteiner when you hit lvl 36, that deals 1,300
dmge if my memory serves me right.
And continue this cycle. also dont be afraid of trying to sneak someone
a little higher than you because most people focus on damage resistance
and viral deflection so much that they dont raise their sneak attack
detection and/or whatever stops them from being sneak attacked (I have
been told that sneak attack detection is actually for the 1st attack in
CC and determines whether you block/shoot them or whether they DO hit
you).
As an example I am a level 37 assassin as I said and I have found that
i can sneak attack a lot, dare i say, most level 50's that i try to
attack, and if you use topsy turvey you can get another sneak move in,
or another topsy turvey
Anyway hope this has helped, and if i have anything wrong please, anyone, feel free to correct me.