Curse

avilia · Jun 14, 2009, 10:50 PM // 22:50

Hey all,

I've been using an assassin hero build for awhile now and I'd like to know if it really is decent or if I'm just kidding myself. Any suggestions are welcome.

Assassin / Paragon
Critical Strikes: 11+1+1
Spear Mastery: 12
Shadow Arts: 6
[Spear of Lightning]
[Spear of Redemption]
[Blazing Spear]
["It's just a Flesh Wound!"]
[Shadow Refuge]
[Assassin's Remedy]
[Way of the Master]
[Critical Eye]

Basically, she can throw spears with a high critical chance, which also serves as energy management for superior condition removal for your party.

sonofthort · Jun 14, 2009, 11:21 PM // 23:21

I would say it looks like a pretty good idea. You would be doing decent damage with your spear, cause degen, and have great e-management, and like you said remove coniditions like crazy. I would say get rid of shadow refuge, you already have condition removal for yourself, do more pressure or damage and let your monk heal you. Maybe Disrupting Throw or Wild Throw instead.

AtomicMew · Jun 15, 2009, 12:08 AM // 00:08

No IAS = poor damage. I don't think using your elite for condition removal is such a good idea to begin with, but there is also Song of Purification, which is probably superior at any rate.
Basically, inferior to a paragon.

aoeclald · Jun 15, 2009, 03:12 AM // 03:12

Assassins are hard to place in PvE due to the fact the hero AI is not very capable of pulling out a chain nearly as quick or smart as a human. I honor the fact that you are trying to give it a use and I actually like the idea that you are trying to find some useful niches for an assassin hero.

When trying to make hybrid builds, you want to make sure that you choose the professions you want wisely. Why would having critical strikes be better than leadership? Does the 4 energy regeneration that an assassin possess give it an advantage to the paragon's limited 2 regeneration?

Looking at these, I would highly suggest using high energy, yet powerful spear attacks that paras could otherwise not use due to their limited energy from solely spears. Right now, having it devoted to condition removal is okay, but when we look at it from this standpoint, a paragon can run this as good as a paragon, and even better with leadership to get an IAS as mentioned before allowing for a quick build-up of damage just from regular attacks.

Right now, as it stands, I can't see a huge use for a cheerleading assassin, but try working on the spear mastery aspect. Considering that in general PvE that most mobs do not ball up enough to make use of Barrage, you can find a very useful alternative to crit barrage that kills solo targets pretty quickly, for example using Vicious Attack to gain criticals without coupling it with the shout that increases critical chance.