Curse

Kunder · Mar 01, 2012, 11:35 PM // 23:35

Your #3 has to do with hero positioning, not hero targets. Its nigh-impossible to get heroes to properly block in 3+ enemies at once all on their own.

Sins still have the problem of being a 70 AL character on the frontlines when enemies can put out 200-300 damage attacks. Needing to micro prots on assassin heroes is a huge PITA.

Its definitely a start though. Assassins are the only physical class that can put out pretty good damage without buffs, I'll throw them into a few builds for non-HM areas.

DiogoSilva · Mar 01, 2012, 11:44 PM // 23:44

Quote from Zack Nickerson, at the GW Support Forum:
We’ve shortened the distance at which heroes will aggro onto enemies when set to Guard. They should now only attack things if the enemy is within aggro radius of them. Flagging them outside of enemy aggro range should actually keep them there now.

Melee Heroes on Guard shouldn't aggro much now, at least at the start of battles, as they'll strike the foes in their aggro range.

EDIT: And dervishes should be able to do good nearby AoE with a lof of their skills.

SValiant · Mar 01, 2012, 11:56 PM // 23:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kunder

Sins still have the problem of being a 70 AL character on the frontlines when enemies can put out 200-300 damage attacks. Needing to micro prots on assassin heroes is a huge PITA.

ST rit solves that issue, well for me anyway, I rarely run an MM now.

Hopefully some decent builds will come out, wouldn't mind something that used all three sin heroes xD

DiogoSilva · Mar 02, 2012, 12:13 AM // 00:13

^Triple Melee, ST Rit for Shelter, N/ Rit Typical Resto, Dom Mesmer with Panic or Gust, a resto rit with Stone Sheath (for the melee heroes) instead of SoS, plus a generic Fire Ele with Double Dragon if there's still space in the team for extra damage. One of the melee be a sin with Shockwave for massive damage + cracked armor + massive protection. Would that work?

SValiant · Mar 02, 2012, 12:18 AM // 00:18

Why so much side speccing for the dual cast spells? Personally I'd go with triple melee, ST rit, N/Rit resto, Something with OoV or something running orders, depends on my and heros builds, if adren isnt needed then OoV would probably be better. Then I'd probably go with an SoS utility seeing as i usually run panic mes. I'll make some builds up tomorrow and test them out, it's way too late right now >.<

Cursed Cobain · Mar 02, 2012, 05:07 AM // 05:07

I tried shockwave on anton but he starts having energy problems, I think the crit you lose on investing into earth and not having fear me or go for the eyes hurts sins to much. But yea i am already noticing a big dps increase on my assassins(10+dps on Master.O.D. I haven't ran them on the underworld yet but i think i can finally drop 2 of my mesmers now an run the last one as psychic instability.

Edit- Nice even mobius strike is working properly but i am losing like 5 dps on the master.o.d. Does anyone know why that is becuase i've heard ppl say they've gone 70dps on master but my sins only do 55-60

KotCR · Mar 08, 2012, 07:54 AM // 07:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Aphotic_

You can't maintain Bladeturn Refrain is just.... eww... it negates very little damage, and any time spent casting it is time that could be spent charging SY.

Bladeturn is better than alot of people give it credit for. Granted, the numbers could still do with being higher (simply for reliability's sake), but at 15 Command (20% block chance), it's not so bad, when you remember that
A: ) It can be kept up indefinetly on the entire team.
B: ) It's unstrippable.
So it's still one in every five hits being blocked. Now if that was on just one person, compared to the competition it would be pretty terrible, but as it's on everyone it's actually not so bad.

Of course, due to how there's no UI elements for Echos (whereas there is for Weapon Spells and Enchantments, despite the three all having similiar functionality in the grand scheme of things), it's best left to heroes (who will know when an ally has it and doesn't have it and can cast as appropriate, something a human player could not quite so easily do).

It's true, Aegis does the same thing, but Aegis is
A: ) Strippable
B: ) Only up 1/3rd of the time. So you'd need 3 copies of it to benefit from it round the clock, and as effective as it is, that's alot of commitment from your team set-up.
C: ) Downtime; Continuing on from above. Once up on everyone (which can be done out of battle if you want), one copy of Bladeturn Refrain prevents about as many physical attacks over a 30 second period as two copies of Aegis would (if attack rate and damage of mobs was consistant over that 30 second period of course) as a result of this.
Plus, on a more minor point, having Aegis interrupted, making your entire team fully vulnerable is alot more likely than having Bladeturn Refrain interrupted eight times, and infact, after it's up on everyone, the chance of Bladeturn Refrain's benefit being lost due to interruption is basically zero, since once it's on, it'll stay on, for the entire zone (well, assuming if you are using a Paragon you've got the standard things a Paragon has, a spammable shout and an maintenace chant/shout, which you'll probably have somewhere anyway for Aggressive Refrain).

I know from personal experience that Bladeturn Refrain does make a difference, as several years ago when I was getting back into the game again after a break, and alot of my hero set-up where rusty and I was struggling with some Dervish melee mobs in one HM area. All I did was add Bladeturn Refrain to my Para hero's bar and all of a sudden the mob became much easier to handle. Of course, chances are the team build overall was inefficient and I don't use it now, but the point is, that the skill did make a (very large) difference.

[TL;DR Begin Here:]
Though at the end of the day, despite the pros to Bladeturn Refrain making it roughly equivalent to two copies of Aegis, if permanent Blocking is what you want, your best option is quite simply a Ritualist using Soul Twisting/Ritual Lord & Displacement anyway, which is better than either Bladeturn Refrain or Aegis could ever hope to be.