User blog comment:JAlbor/Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Q&A Opportunity/@comment-28600204-20130810095034/@comment-4564231-20130810135804

Ash Ismail said during some gameplay that they're removing the Assassin recruits because Ed's a pirate trained by Assassins and not someone training or recruiting them - and because it'd help open up more stealth opportunities since you can't just nuke all of the guards with an arrow storm or something.