"however this was not enough to revive assassin builds which revolve around 2 or 3 ways as their primary damage source"
How many assassins used ways? Not many.
"so the survability and damage are not in a great place for a build which requires such expensive items as well"
So where are the survivability and damage buffs? The pierce is nice but still not convinced ways are worthwhile for so many points. Absolutely nothing for survivabilty, nothing for noctule, nothing for melee sin in general. Why even make a point about it in the preview when all you did was lower the mana cost of twin fang.