Curse

A_Muppet · May 19, 2006, 12:50 PM // 12:50

In game someone was asking for advice about a warrior assassin.. what primary, what skills, that sort of thing. The idea's got me interested, I must admit, as I take my ranger as a sword weilder before now. Assuming I made my assassin as an A/W and could have any skills, what would you guys suggest for a build?

Rikimaru · May 19, 2006, 02:02 PM // 14:02

During the FPE I used the basic starter assassin pve build, and switched out the dagger skills for Dragon Slash, Sun and Moon Slice, and Silverwing Slash, and that shout that gives 50% extra adrenaline on hits.
It did a little less DPS with it's sword than an assassin can with daggers, but once I gained enouph adrenaline for Dragon Slash, I was able to literally spam one attack skill after another until the fight ended. The criticals also added aa decent amount to the damage, but since this uses adrenaline and a small amount of +crit%, I'm sure a warrior primary would've actually worked better.
It's not a very creative build, I'm sure someone can give a better sugestion.

Rahl of Truth · May 25, 2006, 04:04 PM // 16:04

I'm glad someone has started this thread as I believe for the time being, until people become Assassin friendly, that us students of the Ninjutsu arts adapt a bit and increase their longevity in a team

Here's an a/W version I have been playing with (PvE) which has paid dividends in various groups.

Please understand that this version is primarily to convinve other classes that Assassins can live a bit longer...and dare I say...even be useful.

Also, please don't flame me for it as I'm just trying to think a way around all of the dis-like at the moment.

Shadow Arts - 12 (9+3)
Tactics - 12
Swordsmanship - 10
Critical Strikes - 4 (3+1)

...and although it's probably not necessary, I put the rest on Deadly Arts.

The skills I use are :-

Aura of Displacement (Elite)
Shadow Refuge
Sever Artery
Gash
Thrill of Victory
Pure Strike
Watch Yourself
Resurrection Signet

You may be thinking, "..why not just be a warrior?..", which is a fair point, but I just love the assassin and want to give it a fair go and make it stronger.

The armour I have is :-

Shadowy Mask (Shadow Arts +1 and the superior too)
Shrouded guise (+superior vigor)
Nightstalker's Gloves
Shrouded Leggins (+2 - major critical strikes (rune))
Nightstalkers shoes

I use a Furious Vertebreaker of Fortitude - double adren. on hit (10%) and an Exalted Aegis (the 9 req. tactics version) -5 received dmg (20%) +30 health...

..which leaves my health at 465

As with most other assassin tactics, I wait for the aggro. to be made by the tank, then use AoD to jump in and start to chop, however, if I see a vulnerable target I will jump to them and try to take them down myself or at least start the initial onslaught.

The shield, "Watch Yourself" & shadow refuge I am able to stay in the fight a bit longer, often seeing it to the end, but if my health bar plummets I cancel the AoD and use shadow refuge out of harms way.

This was only meant to be a short(ish) article, but just wanted to show this version, I'm sure adjustments can be made and will be, I just hope I have given maybe an idea or two to people

Zoe Frest · May 25, 2006, 04:34 PM // 16:34

Having actually been in a party with Rahl's character I can say it does seem to take a lot more in the way of damage to create problems for him.

Having gone for the normal A/Mo route I'm now wondering if perhaps I should have tried the A/W one too.

Nickelocene · May 25, 2006, 04:36 PM // 16:36

I've been using A/W since the release and having a lot of fun. I don't want to compare with tanks, but I can do quite some damage and stay alive. I used a very straightforword build, mainly Assassin skills as I like to know what a real assassin can do (no offense to the warrior side of A/W, everyone has their own opinion).

Here is what I have (at work, so don't remember the exact point)

Dagger mastery: 16
Shadow: 10 (maybe 12?)
Critical: 11
and rest goes to Tactic (which is not necessary)

full nightstalker armor

Skills:
Leaping Mantis Sting/Unsuspecting Strike
Fox Fangs
Death Blossom
Flashing Blades (E)
Dark Escape/Viper's Defense
Shadow Refuge
Watch Yourself
Rez/Cap (depends on who I'm playing with)

I use a pair of gold dagger with no fancy mods, but max damage of course. But when I attack, 50, 60 even over 100 damage pops up all the time, like Xmas tree. Especially when I'm using Death Blossom, that is beautiful, reminding me the Griffin farming.

Of course, I'm not saying this build is perfect. I never tried/will try to make a kick-a** build. But I have a lot of fun with this build.

Edit: I keep Watch Yourself on all the time. You can do that even with 0 Tactic, which gives 5 seconds. That's enough.

lord_shar · May 25, 2006, 08:39 PM // 20:39

I started off with an assassin/monk, but soon it became obvious that shadow refuge alone wasn't going to allow sustained melee combat. Once my toon switched to warrior secondary, it started being able to solo bosses one-on-one without kiting nor sucking monk healers dry.

The assassin has considerably weaker armor than a warrior, but it does have other skills to compensate for the deficiency. By introducing a warrior secondary, certain skill synergies become possible:

1) Critical Defenses + Wildblow = 50% to 78% sustained/indefinite blocking. This goes well beyond Flashing Blade's 50% block effectiveness. Energy is also regained with each Wildblow, minimizing WB's cost from 5 energy to 2-4.

2) Healing Signet + Shadow Refuge = very fast self healing

3) Shove + Iron Palm + Falling Spider + Horns of the Ox or Twisting Fangs = sustaned knockdown attacks with poison + bleeding + deep wound. Inherent interrupts and movement/action disruption

4) Watch Yourself + assassin double strikes = constant +20 armor

Assassins tend to be very fragile yet over-aggressive, hence all the PvE monk hate. By taking advantage of certain assassin + warrior skill combinations/synergies to maximize survivability, the average assassin player can rise above the glass cannon majority.

Yamat · May 28, 2006, 05:45 PM // 17:45

With an A/W put Flurry in there and watch the criticals fly... also means you can permanently keep Watch Yourself up with only a few points in Tactics.