Curse

Renegade26 · Dec 09, 2006, 07:54 PM // 19:54

This is an assassin build designed to interupt and kill the ghostly hero in HA battles.
It is also effective at killing other squishy targets, expecially those that enchant themselves.

== Attributes and Skills ==
Attributes | Assassin | Monk
| Dagger Mastery | 12 + 1 + 2
| Critical Strikes | 12 + 1
| Deadly Arts | 3 + 1

Skill Bar:
Unsuspecting Strike|Wild Strike|Shattering Assault|Optional|Optional|Disrupting Dagger|Deadly Haste|Resurrection Signet

Variants
*The optional slots are easily filled:
**Holy Veil and Mending Touch can be used as coniditon and hex removal for the optional slots.
**Either of these can be swapped out for [[Twisting Fangs]] for more damage.
**[[Assassin's Remedy]] can be used as a riskier but simpler method of condition removal but will be hard to remove [[Blind]] with this method.
**Energy could be a problem even with Zealous daggers, so [[Critical Eye]] could be used for more energy.
**[[Crippling Dagger]] can be used as a snare for running targets and will combine well with Deadly Haste. This might require a stronger input into Deadly Arts however.
**[[Siphon Speed]] could also achieve a snare and work well with Deadly Haste, but require an investment into Deadly Arts again.
**[[Impale]] could supply a large armount of damage with a larger investment into Deadly Arts, but Twisting Fangs would usually be a better option.
**Mending Touch could be replaced with [[Contemplation of Purity]], to combine with Holy Veil to remove one condition and two hexes from yourself. This is a longer method and is less safe though.
**[[Exhausting Assault]] can be used to interupt actions again, causing exhaustion to spell casting targets.
*Unsuspecting Strike can be replaced.
**[[Jagged Strike]] can be used as a cheaper Lead Attack if energy becomes a problem for you.
**[[Disrupting Stab]] can be a good choice for a lead attack as it is low energy cost as well as an interrupt, in case you fail to achieve interruption from Disrupting Dagger.
**[[Desperate Strike]] can be used as a fast recharging damage lead attack with an 80% health requirement for its conditional damage. At 15 Dagger Mastery it deals +60 damage while under 80% health.

Equipment

* Any kind of armor will do, but [[Nightstalker's Armor]] would be good, because you are intended to be in the middle of battle at the altar preventing capture.
* Zealous Daggers with 15^50 bonus and of enchanting can increase Deadly Haste's length. Otherwise of defence would be better.

Usage

The aim of this build is to be killing targets that are important like Monks and the Ghostly Hero. The use of Disrupting Dagger with Deadly Haste allows casting it every 5 or 6 seconds, which is enough to interupt the Hero each time and serves as a good interrupt to other targets.
The use of the fast recharging combination of Unsuspecting Strike -> Wild Strike -> Shattering Assault allows you to strip enchantments from the Ghostly Hero and kill it with the help of teammates.

Elementalists with attunements will take huge pain from this, and once their attunement is removed you can change target quickly and easily. Smiters using Air of Enchantment and Zealot's Fire will also see a reduction in damage with no Zealot's Fire. Any Monks using Divine Boon are also good targets.

Counters

With hex and condition removal this build will suffer most from direct damage and Diversion.

The orginal GuildWiki Article I wrote is here, which has a list of variants that you can run.

Please read, maybe test, and tell me what you think. Discuss this build here as well please. Be nice and constructive.

Yanman.be · Dec 10, 2006, 11:05 AM // 11:05

Don't they use Spellbreaker in HA anymore?

I think Twisting Fangs is better than Shattering Assault, and I don't really get the point of taking hex and cond removal if you don't have self-healing at first.

Renegade26 · Dec 10, 2006, 01:19 PM // 13:19

The point of Shattering Assault is to remove Spellbreakers and Protective spirits while dealing damage and interupts. The point of cond. and hex removal is because its easy to do without putting points into anything. Heal requires attribute points into shadow or healing, which reduces effectiveness of the build. It's also unnecesary with the two monks that you get usually.

Yanman.be · Dec 10, 2006, 02:32 PM // 14:32

True about the hex/cond removal. But I'd prefer to replace it with more damage.
For instance: how about Twisting Fangs instead of Shattering Assault, and take assault enchantments as extra?

Renegade26 · Dec 10, 2006, 02:33 PM // 14:33

I've listed loads of variants like that on the wiki entry, see the "here" which is underlined near the bottom of my post.

Yanman.be · Dec 10, 2006, 02:52 PM // 14:52

Yeah I've seen them, list them, because many of them are better than the variant you've posted here.