Curse

sinican · May 24, 2006, 08:26 PM // 20:26

En-Enchant ex-hex

Has anyone experimented with a passive attacking assassin?

I have been trying a few combinations... it turns the assassin into a more stable build and levels their offence more in line with there defence... it even allows use of multiple sup runes

i chose A/R for my experimenting...

11+1+3 Dagger Mastery
0/1 Wilderness Sruvival (only affects 1 skill)
1/+1 Deadly Arts (again 1 skill)
10+1 Shadow Arts
10+3 Critical Strikes

Viper's Defense - Stance 5/0/10
For 30 seconds, the next time you are struck, you teleport to a random location nearby. The foe who struck you is poisoned for 5...17 seconds.

Sharpen Daggers - Enchantment Spell 5/2/30
For 10...30 seconds, all of your critical hits cause bleeding for 5...13 seconds

Way of Perfection - Enchantment Spell 5/1/30
For 10...30 seconds, when ever you successfully make a critical hit you gain 10...30 health.

Critical Eye - Skill 5/0/30
For 10...30 seconds, you have an additional 1%...6% chance to land a critical hit when attacking. You gain 1 energy whenever you score a critical hit.

Siphon Strength {Elite} - Hex Spell 15/1/15
For 5...10 seconds, target foe deals -15 damage with attacks and all of your attacks against that foe have an additional 33% chance of being a critical hit.

Critical Defenses - Enchantment Spell 10/1/30
For 6 seconds, you have a 25%...65% chance to "block". Critical Defenses refreshes everytime you land a critical hit.

Shadow Refuge - Enchantment Spell 5/1/8
For 4 seconds, you gain 5...9 Health regeneration. When Shadow Refuge ends, you gain 20...68 Health if you are attacking.

Apply Poison - Preparation 15/2/12
For 24 seconds, enemies struck by your physical attacks become poisoned for 3-13 seconds

ok first off... the build starts to look energy intensive... HOWEVER... it is very energy conservative... your most energy consumed is durring your preperation time to stack all your enchants...

apply poison - 15
way of perfection - 5
sharpen daggers -5

I wait for everything else... with an npc group i Ctrl+Shift+Space to get my npcs to agro... if with humans well thats what tanks are for...... I have also solos Xuekao and all surrounding baddies in his area with this build... and misc other areas...

then youre set for attack in route throw up Cridical Defence(10) and Critical Eye(5)

use siphon when you are stable of corse within the first 6 seconds after casting Crit Defence (the idea here is critical defence is a lot easier to maintain idefinately when you are not wasting time activating skills)

use vipers at your discretion... i usually dont use it often... (try to wait on using it for IF your crit defence runs out... basically oh crap crit defence ended or apply poison throw viper heal up wait for recharge and head back in)
now for most situations Vipers and Siphon can be swapped out for whatever... I use them because they are key to soloing in situations...

the gist is this... your assassin of corse will no longer be a spiker... but with at this point bleeding and poison being consistantly applied a 1.3 seconds or faster and with all of your attacks being passive (you can't get dbl strike while using attack skills) you are constantly getting dbl strikes and criticals from those strikes... using siphon str you increase that chance... with this build is completely reliable to keep critical defence rolling 90% of the time...

use any daggers you want... average dmg you'll be doing on hard targets a hit is 7-17 dmg(Xuekao's daggers are best for this build because the added chance for Armor Pentration, enchants lasting 20% longer and , +15dmg while enchanted)...

I have had 10 dbl stikes back to back with this build and let me telling you it is frigan awsome hearing your daggers rattle like a machine gun... and again constant flow of conditions to the target constant flow of energy and health to you...

Lambentviper · May 24, 2006, 10:05 PM // 22:05

not bad, i like the idea of keeping high DPS on multiple targets with poison and bleeding, and reducing thy effectiveness of the other team to further your damage.

ill try it out

sinican · May 24, 2006, 10:31 PM // 22:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lambentviper

not bad, i like the idea of keeping high DPS on multiple targets with poison and bleeding, and reducing thy effectiveness of the other team to further your damage.

ill try it out

what i started to realize after useing tried and true builds for the assassin... is that one of the coolest features of the assassin is their ability to not only to land critical strikes but also to dbl strike... potentially landing 2 crit strikes withing a single turn of attack... however the problem with current builds with the assassin is that while using chains to spike dmg you are not only eliminating the chance to land a dbl strike but it always seemed to be a constant battle with myself to get my entire chain (3-4 attacks) off before i myself was killed...

I started to notice that i was landing more critical hits when i wasn't using attack skills because i was dbl striking... and i also found the EXTREME use of critical defence to be lacking in all other situations other than this...

you loose valuable time while Critical Defence is up when using attack skills to hope to land a crit within the 6 second timer... again the biggest thing here is that you are dbl criting...

with the stat setup this build will be landing....

dbl strikes 30%
crits 40% (73% with siphon)
Armor Pentetration 20% (Daggers of Xuekao)

Way of Perfection, Critical Eye, Sharpen Daggers can be held up indefinately... they only cost 15 energy in total and with you not wasting all your energy on attack chains youll have plenty plus dont forget all this time you are leaching 4 energy 40-73% of the time and 28 health....

with you not wasting caluable time using skills youll be able to keep critical defence up which is blocking 65% of that attacks that are coming at you...

this build is extremely solid...

when testing times on killing I was killing Xuekao solo in the same amount of time with this build or faster than the popular ox/spider/twisting build...

the key difference is that my health never dropped below 50% and i didnt have to break combat

LaserLight · May 24, 2006, 11:36 PM // 23:36

Hm hm...save that a Phoenix/Ox/Spider/Twisting build isn't demolished by enchant removal. You've got a great buffer build here, but any kind of enchant busting and you're fried.

Also, your diatribe against attack chains disabling Double Striking is somewhat erroneous. Taking your numbers, we see that you get a Double Strike once every three attacks - not bad at all. However, the Phoenix/Ox/Spider/Twisting combo, using as it does two special Off-hands and two Dual Attacks, actually lands a double strike 50% of the time it's in effect. Four skills, six hits; the main reason why said combo is so powerful.

sinican · May 25, 2006, 12:11 AM // 00:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaserLight

Hm hm...save that a Phoenix/Ox/Spider/Twisting build isn't demolished by enchant removal. You've got a great buffer build here, but any kind of enchant busting and you're fried.

Also, your diatribe against attack chains disabling Double Striking is somewhat erroneous. Taking your numbers, we see that you get a Double Strike once every three attacks - not bad at all. However, the Phoenix/Ox/Spider/Twisting combo, using as it does two special Off-hands and two Dual Attacks, actually lands a double strike 50% of the time it's in effect. Four skills, six hits; the main reason why said combo is so powerful.

you are correct in calculation...

though there are other variables which i overlooked before trying this build...

all current builds with the variations of twisitng fangs and knockdowns lack what this build provided... and the offset itself counterbalances...

the whole problem i have about the assassin class in general is that though they can have extreme damage output it is all conditional...

pheonix requires an enchantent or it completely nerfs your entire attack chain in such the case that someone busts your enchant whereas loosing a few enchants on this build is only a minor inconvenience and does not screw with your attacks

ox will only knockdown if there are no surrounding baddies (such a pain using this on ritualists or crowds.. another area where this build is still efficient

falling spider relies on a knockdown...enough said..

fangs is a nice skill but if your ox is busted youll never get fangs off..

this build is not intended to do more dmg than any other build or to beatout knockdowns...

simly put this build is STABLE and reliable... provides excelet dmg whilst providing excelent protection... im still dishing more dmg than a war getting more attacks off and healing better than any other assassins i have more energy for thise needed refuges i can get out when i need to i dont get hit alot and i dont need healed alot....

all around this build is very party friendly

and still your not looking at the overall effectiveness... all your attacks are energy intensive... when your energy is low what do you do??/ you can no longer dish your awsoime dmg... you cant break my attack chain because i dont have one.. im constantly poisoning you and constantly bleedinging you you can hardly ever hit me outside of spells and touches and even when you do im sucking it back faster than you can dish it

the ox/spider chain is flawed it required energy management and timing with all conditions needing to be met... which in a heay fight can get really sloppy and you have to wait for those missmatched recharges...

I just have to stand there and re enchant myself every 36 seconds (20% bonus from Xukao) im still doing dmg the whole time,,,

youll just have to try it...

Lambentviper · May 25, 2006, 04:02 PM // 16:02

assassin builds are quickly being propagated to make people think that only 1 combo works, pretty much the same thing thats happening with Monks. ALL HAIL THE BOON/PROT!!

But anyways, that is very wrong. Assassin builds are not static, and anything works as well as the person playing that build.

sinican · May 25, 2006, 08:50 PM // 20:50

so true that statement is...

im looking for some people to try this build in different areas and in other situations...

one thing im working on with this build is seeing the effects Daggers Mastery adn Critical strikes has on how successfull this build is...

sadly though a lost of the healing abilities of the Assassin are based on shadow arts where all the attacking ability of the assassin lies in Dagger Mastery which poses a problem limiting the functionability of the assassin class entirely...

a high dmg assassin wont be able to be a hearty assassin and a hearty assassin wont be able to be a high dmg assassin... and currently there is no middle ground...

I just want to find the assassin that can do fairly decent dmg whilst being able to hold his/her own when in a group...im entirely annoyed with the "no assassins" mentality of groups...

anyhow... im going to try 3 sup runes so i can take my skills to...

12+1+3 Dagger Mastery
3+1 Deadly Arts
8+3 Shadow Arts
12+3 critical strikes
1 Wilderness Survival

390hp (Valk Armor +30hp mod on daggers +50 sup rune)

then we have

32% dbl strike
77% criticals (38% Base, 6% Critical Eye, 33% Siphon Str)
20% Armor penetration from Daggers of Xuekao

im still working on the timing trigger needed to keep the build controlled and stable...

but with 3 sup runes this char can turn into a quite expensive one.....

and for the build wtih 3 sup runes a set of vamp daggers may be usefull but im experimenting with what impact that is having on total dmg output... because id have to sacrifice the 20% armor pentration which is a pretty big one because of dbl strikes on an assassin...

also im testing removing apply poison because of its energy requirement and the fact that its not an entant and only last 24 seconds while the rest of my enchants are lasting 30+

also thinking of swapping siphon out for something else and using flashing blades along with critical defence

as a note though i was soloing 4 of them lvl 23 corupted kirin things last night with my origional build... and I have no doubt that if i can get the assissin up to the best of his ability soloing that he will be awsome in a group using the fighters as meat shields freeing up need to have flashing blades/critical defence up continuousely loosening up the timing demand and also allowing for the swap of a direct dmg attack or another hex and of corse allowing vipers to be more effective possibly swapping out for return

cheapweed · May 25, 2006, 10:10 PM // 22:10

Quote:

...a set of vamp daggers may be usefull but im experimenting with what impact that is having on total dmg output... because id have to sacrifice the 20% armor pentration which is a pretty big one because of dbl strikes on an assassin...

Vamp dagger mods offer a greater increase in DPS than a sundering mod. Basically your negating 20% of an opponents armour 20% of the time (duh) which translate to approx a 17%(I may be wrong about this, been along time since i've looked up the actual value) increase in damage dealt (Against an oppenent with 100 armour, damage increase percentage is less vs opponents with less armour)

This translates to an extra ~1-3 damage for a regular attack and ~4-6 for a critical. by comparison vamp mods offer a constant 3 damage per hit. Basically a sundering mod will add about ~6% to your dps, while a vamp mod will add ~12% (again, been awhile since i've looked up these numbers so may be wrong) although taking into account your high crit rate with this build the sundering mod probably approaches a 10-12% increase in dps.

sinican · May 26, 2006, 05:07 PM // 17:07

that is actually good to know... I was under the assumption that you were leaching 3 health off of the base dmg the weapon was doing not that the weapon was actually doing 3 more dmg for that leach.

and for an update i have been eperimenting with dropping Apply poison and throwing in "Mirrored Stance"(For 10...30 seconds, whenever target foe enters a stance, you enter the same stance.) dumped critical defence(quite frankly critical striked are hard to get reliably on creatures above lvl 20, and 6 seconds seems to be to short to jump from target to target) and replaced it with flashing blades...

flashing blades is spoken for easy enough use it against heavy melee groups and boom you are hearty...

mirrored stance works excelent against ritualists monks and archers and well other spell casters plain and simple are easy to land criticals on to recharge health..

there is a very nice skill that a lot of people have completely overlooked and is great for an assassin in a human or npc party... especially combined with flashing blades or critical defence

Shroud of Distress - Enchantment Spell
For 30 seconds, if you are below 50% health you have a 15...63% chance to evade attacks

it is an enchantment which means that you can have this up indefinately alone with flashing blades... of corse giving you dbl the protection when ur health is below 50%...

you cannot have flashing blades, vipers, Critical Defence, or mirrored stance up simultaniousely you cant stack stances... this is why shroud of distress works great...

oh and how comes it is so hard to find good human healers... i mean i know the AI sucks on the NPC but at least they continually heal the entire party... and for the most part tons better than human healers have been...

Ive been with great protector monks and great healing monks and apparently they are scarce in Cantha... ive been having way less frustration completeing missions with an npc group than with half these fools...

i need to find a decent guild to hang with i guess