Curse

lightblade · May 17, 2006, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Skill Set:
Leaping Mantis Sting
Jungle Strike
Horn of the Ox
Falling Spider
Death Blossom
Mobius Strike{E}
Critical Eyes
Signet of Capture/Signet of Ressurrection

1. Use Leaping Mantis Sting and Jungle Strike to start.
2. Depending on the situation, if enemy is alone, use horn of the ox followed by falling spider(use mobius instead if enemy drop below 50% health). If enemy is tightly packed together, use death blossom, wait till it less than half, then use mobius to recharge.
3. If your "alone" enemy is still alive after falling spider, continue with death blossom and mobius to recharge. After mobius if still alive, continue with horn of the ox and falling spider.

Attribute:
13+ critical strike (13 is a must, because using attack skills continuously cost a lot energy and need the 13 to recover)
12+ Dagger Mastery

Equipment:
Any green with energy on hit, or Zealous Dagger
Insuring energy is important here.

ADD:
As long you are smart and not the first one to aggro, defense is not much of a problem. Using teleports like Death's Charge and Aura of Displacement is not a good idea, because you have no idea where you'll end up in...(as in position)...a lot of time you end up teleporting to the middle of a group of enemies, get stuck, and get killed. Instead of teleporting, walking into enemy gives you a lot more control over this situation.

lord_shar · May 17, 2006, 07:59 PM // 19:59

Looks ok, but lacks defenses, healing, and/or any teleport or speed stances. Healing monks will not like it too much in its present state.

lightblade · May 17, 2006, 08:19 PM // 20:19

In a party of 8, you should always have a healing monk AND a protection monk. Protection can block out more than 75% of the damage. Passive protection is ez to play with but it only reduce damage by half, even so it's a lot better than heal. The reason to have both healing and protecting is because protecting can't help against degen and their healing cost a lot of energy. Remember, even bringing a protection henchmen is better than having 2 human healer.

sinican · May 17, 2006, 08:32 PM // 20:32

I have to agree with Lord Shar... plus I use a 4 hit chain with 3 enhancements and rarely have a target that is still standing... hard targets included... plus i have healing...

the rule should always be not to agro as an assassin that is a given...

but the problem i see with most of these builds with large chains or fast refresh chains is either they never do enough dmg vs the amount of attacks that are chained or the amount of energy they consume or that you constantly find yourself to low on energy to activate the skill when it is ready in the first place... which complicates timing...

I have found great use in medium refresh attacks that do high dmg or cause conditions that by the time they are refreshed i have the energy to use them or i have time between the attacks to refresh my defenses or clear out of agro....

dont get me wrong being able to chain attack after attack is nice but soon becomes a battle of who you can kill before you die yourself and as soon as you get even a single DP your whole build becomes useless...

lord_shar · May 18, 2006, 12:23 AM // 00:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightblade

In a party of 8, you should always have a healing monk AND a protection monk. Protection can block out more than 75% of the damage. Passive protection is ez to play with but it only reduce damage by half, even so it's a lot better than heal. The reason to have both healing and protecting is because protecting can't help against degen and their healing cost a lot of energy. Remember, even bringing a protection henchmen is better than having 2 human healer.

PUG's are rarely ever perfect. Either way, your assassin should never be completely dependent on monk protection and healing magics to stay alive. This mentality is what makes most PUG monks absolutely hate partying with any assassin.

My present assassin build uses shadow refuge for healing and critical defenses + wild blow to maintain nearly unlimited 65%-78% block. This leaves 5 skill slots for your other offense based skills. As a result, my assassin rarely ever dies, solo or otherwise.

Here's a good way to test your PvE assassin build: Head over to Maatu Keep, then walk east over to the assassin boss Xuekau (he always spawns solo). If your assassin can go toe-to-toe with this boss and take him out consistently, then your build is probably a good one. Otherwise, try choosing a different skill set.

Bloodied Blade · May 18, 2006, 10:37 AM // 10:37

1 boss is not a good measure of how good or bad a build is... Granted, you most definitely have a good build if you can solo an assassin boss, but Anet does not generally maximize their bosses DPS' whereas a simple AoD --> GPS/Horns/Spider/Fangs will deal heaping amounts of damage to almost anything.

I always pack shadow refuge and (until I get AoD) Death's Charge + Return (jury rig AoD with the 3 of them).

On a side note: How often do you find that Leaping Mantis Sting actually cripples a PvE creature? I think it's worked once or twice for me.

Trixz · May 18, 2006, 10:44 AM // 10:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bloodied Blade

On a side note: How often do you find that Leaping Mantis Sting actually cripples a PvE creature? I think it's worked once or twice for me.

Yea usually I find that only works its wonders in pvp, which is why I use golden locust strike for energy. <--AoD Sin

lord_shar · May 18, 2006, 02:37 PM // 14:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bloodied Blade

1 boss is not a good measure of how good or bad a build is... Granted, you most definitely have a good build if you can solo an assassin boss, but Anet does not generally maximize their bosses DPS' whereas a simple AoD --> GPS/Horns/Spider/Fangs will deal heaping amounts of damage to almost anything.

...<snip>...

Soloing the above mentioned boss with your assassin build does demonstrate two things:

1) your assassin has sufficient defense to tank a L24 melee mob without being dependent on monks

2) your assassin has sufficient DPS or interrupts to outdamage Xuekao's shadow refuge healing

Even if an assassin has the high damage per second output possible, he/she will still be a general PvE hindrance if it constantly taxes the party monks to stay alive. Assassin builds must find a good balance between damage output, defense, and healing.

If you haven't already tried soloing Xuekao, please give it a try. He isn't the most powerful assassin boss in the game, but he will most certainly give your assasssin character a run for his/her money, especially if your assassin doesn't use any defensive stances/enchantments.

fallot · May 18, 2006, 03:34 PM // 15:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by lord_shar

If you haven't already tried soloing Xuekao, please give it a try. He isn't the most powerful assassin boss in the game, but he will most certainly give your assasssin character a run for his/her money, especially if your assassin doesn't use any defensive stances/enchantments.

Are you kidding me ? I soloed him by accident

All you need to do is put -7 (bleeding + poison) degen on him and run around in circles. He is probably the easiest Assassin boss in the post Shing-Jea game. You could kill him with half a skillbar and some brains.

lord_shar · May 18, 2006, 11:57 PM // 23:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by fallot

Are you kidding me ? I soloed him by accident

All you need to do is put -7 (bleeding + poison) degen on him and run around in circles. He is probably the easiest Assassin boss in the post Shing-Jea game. You could kill him with half a skillbar and some brains.

That's perfectly fine, but kiting really doesn't test your assassin's melee survivability. Also, since he's a boss, conditions have reduced durations. BTW, how do you stop him from using shadow refuge, and how long does it take to kill him?

Bloodied Blade · May 19, 2006, 12:53 AM // 00:53

Ah, I didn't realize that you meant it that way... Still though, the FotM combo should take him down as long as you continue the combo and use Shadow Refuge.