Curse

Mistical miss · Feb 04, 2007, 01:47 PM // 13:47

Welcome to my farming guide!

I've been tinkering over this build for a while, but before the update it wasn't very stable. Now, with the update its very stable

..

Well lets start with the build:

Quote:

Originally Posted by chessyang

here you go Mistical miss .. if you or anyone needs it

1)[skill]Way of the Assassin[/skill]2) [skill]Critical Defenses[/skill] 3)[skill]Critical Eye[/skill] 4)[skill]Way of Perfection[/skill] 5) [skill]Shadow Refuge[/skill] or [skill]Shroud of Distress[/skill]6) [skill]Unsuspecting Strike[/skill]7) [skill]Wild Strike[/skill] 8)[skill]Death Blossom[/skill]

1) Way of the Assassin (A stance that can be kept up indefinately, gives about 30% higher chance to critical)

2) Critical Defences (An enchantment that gives a 75% chance to block incoming attacks, it renews itself whenever u make a critical hit)

3) Critical Eye (An assassin skill that gives its user 1 extra energy back per critical hit and gives about 15% higher chance to critical)

4) Way of Perfection (An enchantment that grants health regain on each critical hit u make)

5) Shadow Refuge/Shroud of Distress* (Shadow Refuge is an enchantment that lasts short but gives a regeneration boost and a small heal, Shroud of Distress is an enchantment that blocks 75% of the attacks whenever the user is below 50% health)

6) Unsuspecting Strike (A lead attack that hits extra hard when hitting enemies at full health, short recharge time)

7) Wild Strike (An offhand attack with short recharge time and decent damage)

8) Death Blossom (A dual attack with AoE damage added, very short recharge time)

*Use Shadow Refuge whenever ur foes cause heavy degen or shortly blind you, it will keep u alive while u can't hit (so can't regain life with Way of Perfection). Use Shroud of Distress whenever u face evil attacks that need to be blocked or a LOT of foes.

Attribs:
14 critical strikes (mask + sup)
12 daggermastery (minor)
11 shadow arts (minor)

Weapons I used: just this: zealous daggers of enchanting (max), just enchanting mods will work as well, I do recommend getting zealous for the harder farms, so u can keep hitting hard (otherwise monks won't go down)

Ok now what will we farm?
What I have managed to kill so far:

Skree, make sure u bundle the enemies a bit so the monk has to heal his buddies as well!

Heket, kill the monks first, then necromancers (putrid explosion is highly annoying).

Kournans, don't try to take on monk + necro, nor necro + mesmer, monk + mesmer is really tough, kill the monk first, covering ur crucial enchantments.(Shroud of distress/Shadow refuge are the only non-crucial enchantments)
U can kill multiple monks, rangers last!

Spearthrowing monkeys, don't aggro too many of them, they can kill your way of the assassin stance so keep up shroud of distress!!

Mokele, these are easy with shroud of distress!

Corsairs in Moddock Crevice, u automatically aggro a lot of them, its not easy, u need to constantly have a target to attack or you will die!

Djinns, ONLY sapphires and diamonds!

Minotaurs in elona reach, wait for their wary stance to run off (few seconds) and do ur combo twice.

Dune Burrowers in elona reach

Mountain Trolls

Kirins and the things that go with em around maatu keep, u will want shadowrefuge!

Jade brotherhoods over there

Vermin

Wardens

Stardudes at napui quarter

Yeti, their blind doesnt last long enough to keep u from keeping up the critical defences

Extra note: keep up ur enchantments constantly!

When using this build, u will most likely die a couple of times because you aggro what u can't handle. (the wrong kournans for example) Don't give up on it, find something to either beat em or leave em be and rezone ^^

The A/E sliver armor build is most likely a quicker way of getting money, but this one isn't too shabby either.

This guide isn't fully finished yet, because I could really use your input in this! Try out slaying more foes with a build like this and I'll add them to the list of slain foes.

This build gets killed by enchantment removal,blindness, wildblow, non-attack interrupts when there are many of them, too heavy degeneration,too much healing, and SS sort of things.

Sethellington · Feb 04, 2007, 02:20 PM // 14:20

...wow.

Awesome guide mate, and a GREAT idea. So versatile. Nice one!

ahbuh · Feb 04, 2007, 02:40 PM // 14:40

Nice post mistical miss, for the djinns y not take one point of the shadow and drop it to 10 and then get dervish as secondary and put a few points in earth prayers and use mystic regeneration to battle the constant degen. IMO Mystic Regen > shadow refuge, be cuase of the duration.

Once again awesome build and thx for your advice.

Mistical miss · Feb 04, 2007, 03:47 PM // 15:47

Good idea Ahbuh!, I have another plan btw for those who like aggroing huuuuuge groups...

Use flashing blades + critical defenses + wildblow + shroud of distress ^^ thats like 75% +75% +75% chance to block when under 50% hp and attacking!

requires secondary warrior though.. u can do it with critical strike (dual attack in the critical strikes line) instead of wildblow perhaps..

chessyang · Feb 04, 2007, 09:14 PM // 21:14

here you go Mistical miss .. if you or anyone needs it

1)[skill]Way of the Assassin[/skill]2) [skill]Critical Defenses[/skill] 3)[skill]Critical Eye[/skill] 4)[skill]Way of Perfection[/skill] 5) [skill]Shadow Refuge[/skill] or [skill]Shroud of Distress[/skill]6) [skill]Unsuspecting Strike[/skill]7) [skill]Wild Strike[/skill] 8)[skill]Death Blossom[/skill]

Mistical miss · Feb 05, 2007, 06:33 AM // 06:33

thanks a lot chessyang!

Moa Bird Cultist · Feb 05, 2007, 12:07 PM // 12:07

Heheheh, nice build, mistical

Did you try it with a scythe yet? It's not quite as effective now because of the nerf to assassin's remedy, (now lasts 30 seconds and works on next 1...7 attack skills,) but a fairly obvious one would be:

[skill]Wearying Strike[/skill] > [skill]Chilling Victory[/skill]

So the bar would be something like...

[skill]Way Of The Assassin[/skill][skill]Critical Eye[/skill][skill]Critical Defenses[/skill][skill]Assassin's Remedy[/skill][skill]Wearying Strike[/skill][skill]Chilling Victory[/skill][skill]Vital Boon[/skill][skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill]

Attributes, maybe a bit like this:

Critical Strikes: 10+3+1
Scythe Mastery: 12
Earth Prayers: 8

That way, you get excellent healing and defensive power, and area of effect attack power is through the roof, but it's risky with no guaranteed critical. Shifting points from scythe onto critical will help, but it's still not a dead cert, (although, the chance of landing a crit with each attack is in excess of 70% when all factors are tallied, this combined with the multi-hit ability of the scythe means it's almost impossible to not land a critical in 5 swings, provided you hit multiple targets.)

Naturally, an enchanting Scythe would be a must tho

Aditionally, you can swap out the above attack skills for
[skill]Eremite's Attack[/skill] and [skill]Mystic Sweep[/skill]

If you do that, you could potentially swap AR for [skill]Sharpen Daggers[/skill] to add to your damage output, or you could sub back in [skill]Chilling Victory[/skill]

In conclusion: You have far more options if you don't want to go for the deep wound ^^

Edit: Just noticed this skill: [skill]Malicious Strike[/skill]
This would be ideal for keeping critical defenses up when chained with, oh, say
[skill]Crippling Sweep[/skill]

So you could have:

[skill]Way Of The Assassin[/skill][skill]Critical Eye[/skill][skill]Critical Defenses[/skill][skill]Crippling Sweep[/skill][skill]Malicious Strike[/skill][skill]Mystic Sweep[/skill]or[skill]Eremite's Attack[/skill]or[skill]Chilling Victory[/skill][skill]Vital Boon[/skill][skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill]

Mistical miss · Feb 05, 2007, 12:31 PM // 12:31

Hey thanks for feedback

Yeah I have thought of scythe

but wanted to make it A/x ^^ however, with scythe u kill clustered groups faster! (though the downed recharge of deathblossoms makes up a lot.. and a crit on a scythe is a lot more dmg!

Most important thing to go with if u are a scythe user though is to have something to up ur attack speed ^^ or the monks can manage the dmg spikes..

And weakness HURTS so assassins remedy is a good pick !

With way of perfection, mystic regen would only be needed versus heavy degen I think...

I'm not a dervish player, so do they have attack speed boosts? (sometimes ur recasting all ur enchants and u want a crit rightaway after u casted)..

wtb: zealous scythe snat ^^

ACreator · Feb 05, 2007, 01:46 PM // 13:46

still, anything with casters and hexes would probably......

Mistical miss · Feb 05, 2007, 01:57 PM // 13:57

dpends on the amount of em ACreator

Moa Bird Cultist · Feb 05, 2007, 03:45 PM // 15:45

Yeah, this is primarily melee, of course. Although, in terms of skill selection, you could still go for A/D and run daggers, but replace shadow arts with earth prayers:
[skill]Way Of Perfection[/skill][skill]Shadow Refuge[/skill][skill]Shroud of Distress[/skill]
Changed For:
[skill]Vital Boon[/skill][skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill][skill]Mirage Cloak[/skill]

Although MC isn't cheap, it only serves as a backup in case CD goes down, so it shouldn't be needed that often, although it goes BOOM when it ends, which is nice

. On the other hand, Vital Boon/Mystic Regeneration is far more energy efficient than WOP/SR. Another thing I forgot, is that you only need 8 points in earth to get the best out of it, as opposed to 11 (10) Shadow Arts. If I recall correctly, that means a good 24 attribute points you can invest elsewhere - either in weapon mastery or critical strikes, depending, of course, on your weapon of choice.

I actually have a Triple Chop assassin on my 3rd account which is along the same lines. That's fun too ^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by ACreator

still, anything with casters and hexes would probably......

own you, yeah. Actually, no, the only thing that would own any variant which has that much regen would be enchantment removal or ele bosses. Your average mob can be handled easily.

If, perchance, we do encounter a high DPS boss, A/Mo or A/D would be best, but running it with this kind of build would be difficult, if not impossible. That sort of boss is the reason Assassins have...

[skill]Shadow Form[/skill]

ACreator · Feb 05, 2007, 04:39 PM // 16:39

yep. but with SF the idea to stay permanently alive goes down.

although for mellees the build is great

Mistical miss · Feb 05, 2007, 04:51 PM // 16:51

hey hey, not just melee

rangers/paragons/monks usually too go down without too much trouble as well ^^ (hate whirling defences though)

And about the WoP healing: it heals a LOT ! regen caps at 15 regen right? With a scythe u strike like once per 2 seconds (if u attack really slow) u hit 3, 2 of them crit =60 health divide by two (two seconds) = 30 health per seconds = the same as 15 regen

Another + of shadow arts line, is that u can use a rune for it ^^

If I was to go secondary dervish I'd do it for the scythe...daggers are just a bit better to kill monks with ^^...

I got my scythe now, so I will test it out this eve..
Mystic regen outright owns shadowrefuge though ^^..

Don't underestimate it :P

Another thing: Shroud of Distress isn't incase CD goes down, it is to avoid more attacks (which has to be done sometimes).. And the 15 energy requirement of Mirage cloack shouldn't be much of a problem really.. crits give u 4 energy back and an extra +1 if u use a zealous thingy..

Moa Bird Cultist · Feb 05, 2007, 05:50 PM // 17:50

Thing about WoP is it is infinitely more powerful used with daggers, due to the ultra high attack rate. On a scythe, which, for the record, swings once every 1.75 seconds, it doesnt have as much in it's favour, hence my sugestion to drop shadow arts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ACreator

yep. but with SF the idea to stay permanently alive goes down.

Very true, but you can always compensate for that by bringing a skill that does dazed. (Most are elite though, so it would require a bit of a reworking of the initial build. But both Temple Strike and Beguiling Haze are options there.)

Oh, thats right, a little bit of mechanic to clear a few things up.

Regen is capped at 10, as is degen. Anything above that will have no effect, but degen and regen over 10 will still effect one another.

For Example, a Dervish casts Mystic Regeneration on itself. They already have 4 enchants running, so they have a regen of 15, which is capped at 10. Now a SF ele puts Burning on them for -7 degen. This is where the extra regen would come into play, as 15-7=8 health regeneration.

But anyway, the original build has enough healing to take the sustained fire of a group of djinns. The scythe variant does not, but is a much quicker killer when it comes to groups, especially at 15 critical strikes, as that is enough to increase critical hit rate to just over 80% - which for the uninitiated, means that your hits will do an average of 47.1 damage over 80% of the time, before bonus damage from skills

Mistical miss · Feb 05, 2007, 06:30 PM // 18:30

thats some sweet calculation u got there

However about the dagger faster striking/gaining from WoP, scythe hits more enemies which it can crit on ^^, so whereas a sin might hit 2/3 times per 2 sec, so does the scythe, only it hits all at the same time... well I think it works like that :P gna test it now ^^

Edit: ok tested it on trolls, minos, vermin and mokele...
On everything but the vermin I used these skills:

WotA,CD,CE,Mystic regen,Staggering Force (elemental dmg hits harder on warriors),Chilling victory,Mystic Sweep,Mirage Cloak

On the vermin I replaced staggering force with eremites attack.

It seems to be a bit quicker at the groups, though they shatter earlier now (one running away to heal up..)

drakun01 · Feb 05, 2007, 11:10 PM // 23:10

Alright, this seals it, I am making a sin. FoW, UW, almost every single boss in the game? I was considering making one before this, but I mean, come on...This is crazy!

chessyang · Feb 06, 2007, 05:05 AM // 05:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mistical miss

thanks

no problem. also you can remove the quote part of me. just saying thanks is enought. Also add to it or move stuff form it! it's your build so change up the skills or reorder them! just wanted to help/add to the cool build you have. so keep up the good work!

i would suggest thumbs nails of those spots. because loading this pages each time takes a while or pre visit.. but just a suggestion no need. the world doens't stop.

well this build is annying in AB games!! lol can't kill an Asin that uses this build!!

hahhahaha

Mistical miss · Feb 06, 2007, 07:02 AM // 07:02

Haha chessyang, there will most likely be more quotes in the opening post later...

Point about the pictures: if they are posted as links, I don't think ppl will watch em

and I want them to be watched. And I don't know if its able to make tumbnails from photobucket...

As for ur AB games: kite around until their CD wears off :P or just use a massive enchantment removal spell (so not just their cover goes off)

Moa Bird Cultist · Feb 06, 2007, 04:54 PM // 16:54

A little extra math for everyone: At 16 dagger mastery, daggers have a 33% chance of double striking. This can literally be taken as a 33%* increase in attack speed upon the standard value of 1.33. The mean average value for attack speed in that case would be 0.89 seconds. If this is applied to daggers wielded at 12 dagger mastery, double strike rate is 25%*, ergo the mean attack speed becomes almost exactly 1 second.

Now, where am I going with this? Well it all boils down to making a mathematical comparison of way of perfection being used with both dagger and scythe. Scythes, as previously mentioned, have a 1.75 second attack speed, therefore, in 7 seconds, a scythe will swing 4 times, but daggers will strike 7 times. Now let us, for the sake of simplicity say that all of the attacks have been criticals. If this is the case, over a seven second period, the health gain will be as follows at 11 shadow arts:

Daggers: 224-224 (daggers strike 1-1 targets.) or 32 health per second
Scythe: 128-384 (scythes strike 1-3 targets.) or 18-55 health per second
Scythe Average: 256 (2 hits per attack) or 36.5 health per second
So in the end, it's apples and pears as to which is superior. If you can guarantee to hit at least two targets with a scythe every time, then a scythe is superior, however, if you are going for the single target kill, daggers are a superior option to work with this skill.

*Double strike rate considers that there is a 2% chance of double strike per rank of dagger mastery, as well as a natural 1% chance at 0 dagger mastery.

Oh, by the way, at 15 crit and 12 scythe, malicious strike deals an unconditional 72 damage, provided you've conditioned your foe. Not bad, eh?

Mistical miss · Feb 06, 2007, 05:10 PM // 17:10

Yeah I have spotted the skill as well... it has only one but... 2 sec more cd ^^

Nice calculations again!