Curse

Lambentviper · Oct 07, 2006, 07:55 PM // 19:55

If for any reason you cannot see the above picture, i've listed everything below
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Attributes: arranged by: attribute+mask+rune
Shadow Arts- 8+1
Dagger Mastery- 12+1+1
Critical Strikes- 10+3

Skills
Shadow Refuge
Leaping Mantis Sting
Temple Strike [elite]
Horns of the Ox
Falling Spider
Twisting Fangs (aka the twanger)
Shadow of Haste
Dash

Armor:
I'm wearing 1.5k female kurzick armor, but that doesnt make a difference. What does matter is that im using a full set of +15armor while attacking. You might want to go for extra health, because you WONT ALWAYS be attacking.

Runes:
Minor Shadow Arts
Minor Dagger Mastery
Superior Critical Strikes

Daggers:
Im using the 15^50, 1/-1 zealous, +30 health ceremonial daggers but i would recommend any pair of +5 energy, 1/-1 zealous daggers with handle of your choice.

Yes, its been a while since I've came out with an assassin build, but i think the wait has been well worth. Experimenting in the random arenas and team arenas for a couple of months has helped me learn to play an assassin correctly, pvp-wise. Hopefully this build will teach you as well.

Now we all should have realized that there is no ressurection signet in this build, which i would normally shun to the gutters and let rats chew until they died of its poisonous aura, but i believe that the twanger can easily make up for it**.
---If your still uncomfortable, swap out shadow refuge for the res sig

The big thing that makes this build great is that it has the versitility of a ranger.
--With Temple Strike it can disable a targeted caster, or anything that uses weapons to attack rather than spells.
--Shadow of Haste can be used at the start of a round to give +10% faster movement, capture the flag stand, be canceled with Dash, then bring a spare flag for when/if the other team caps.
--Shadow of Haste can be re-applied while still in the stance, allowing you +10%faster movement for as long as you want.
--The 4 conditions following the dazed from Temple Strike (blind, poison, bleeding, deep wound) work as a great cover so that only an RC Monk would be able to completely reverse the Damage over Time (DoT) effects of this combo.

My goal is to not exhaust you with useful links, long texts, and in-depth definitions and tactics. So I will let you learn to play this build as you see fit, but remember that a shadow-stepping assassin is a safe assassin.

---Lambentviper

**-What i mean by this is that i have been able to win various 3v1 and 4v1 battles being the only one left alive on my team. Patience, good pulling, and a bit of surprises make this tactic easy to accomplish. Just hope you have patient teammates, as well.

Draechvald · Oct 07, 2006, 08:05 PM // 20:05

Interesting build, the only main problem I have though is if Temple Strike fails to hit - leaves you stuck doing nowt for 20 seconds. Aside from that it seems interesting, I'll have to give it a try :-)

Lambentviper · Oct 07, 2006, 08:10 PM // 20:10

There have certainly been times where Temple Strike has failed to hit, which is techincally speaking, a problem. But if your feeling a little pissed at whoever blocked it (being a warrior with ripostes or something) just shadow of haste away and find a new target to at least apply pressure to.

The warrior will :

1)most likely follow you, thinking he can out-run a 10% movement buff
2)wait where you shadow of haste-ed, which you cna re-apply, leaving him standing still like afk leechers in fort aspenwood
3) find a new target

--either way, you have remained safe. Good uses of Dash and line-of-sight cover are great.

EDIT*** if you dont want the heal or the rez, replace that slot of wild strike for +alot of damage, and a chance to remove your targets stance. It also has a real nice recharge time.

Draechvald · Oct 07, 2006, 08:17 PM // 20:17

Very true, since the update the Shadow of Haste+Dash combo is proving very effective. You can also carry on crippling people with Leaping which can be usefull for your other team members if nothing else. Hmmm its given me an idea for a build lol

Lambentviper · Oct 08, 2006, 02:18 AM // 02:18

Any other thoughts or responses to this? Im trying to recognize as many flaws as i can and correct (to an extent) the ones which could improve the build the most without takeing away from its overall purpose.

Draechvald · Oct 08, 2006, 09:28 AM // 09:28

Me again(sorry

) I've been trying a variant of this build using the same Att spread but replacing HotO/FS with Wild Strike and Rez sig - not as damaging but it proves effective in PvE

Now, if I could fit Fragility in there somewhere....

Yanman.be · Oct 08, 2006, 12:52 PM // 12:52

Uncustomized daggers. Go die.

Evilsod · Oct 08, 2006, 01:48 PM // 13:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yanman.be

Uncustomized daggers. Go die.

QFT

Bringing 5 attack skills is usually a bit much... (you forgot to list Falling in the skill list). There seems to be way too many assassin builds that do whatever they can to work Horns/Falling/TF into it. Thats a spike combo, with cripple you don't need to knock the target down too. You may aswell bring Unsuspecting Strike if your gonna knock down your target with a constant IMS too.

Yanman.be · Oct 08, 2006, 01:52 PM // 13:52

I also see you don't have a superior vigor. /sigh

Lambentviper · Oct 08, 2006, 02:49 PM // 14:49

lol well put in a sup vig if ya want :P it wont kill ya

A few things to get at:
-Leaping mantis strike doesnt always cripple
-Unsuspecting strike costs 10nrg-->>Im already 5 energy away from doing an unpaused HotO-FS combo, so waiting that long between attack skills gives monks enough time to succesfully kite-off their daze condition
-^^thats why i bring the KD with HotO
-Thanks for the hint, i did miss FS in the skills list

And it does seem like every other sin build tries to fit HotO-FS-TF in their build as much as a warrior would bring mending to "only help the vamp degen". The only difference is that combo is plausable, and works very well. Until some of those pretty nightfall skills come out, ill stick to my guns.

X Cytherea X · Oct 09, 2006, 09:23 AM // 09:23

with only 25 energy, you don't pull off your entire combo in one go

you're like... lms, ts, wait for 5 energy or spider will come late and fail, hoto, fs, wait for 10 energy, tf

Scourgey · Oct 09, 2006, 11:55 AM // 11:55

I strongly recommend bringing another offhand attack with temple strike. 20 second to recharge your spike is too long to keep the pressure going.

Lambentviper · Oct 09, 2006, 07:35 PM // 19:35

X Cytherea X : I mentioned this, and with zealous daggers, high rate of critical hits, and the high rate of double striking, the MOST ive ever had to wait between attack skills is 1 normal attack.

Scourgey: I see your point, but realize that just because this is a sin build, its not soley meant to spike. The idea is to pressure the monk (with cripple and dazed) and to force heals from the heavy degen and lack of maximum health.
Spikes and pressure are different

l Artemis Entreri l · Oct 11, 2006, 12:22 AM // 00:22

OMG LOL I REMEMBER I FOUGHT U IN RANDOM THE OTHER DAY!!!L artemis entreri L) i was running a shove build and i killed u like once and u got me a few times w/ temp so i ran....small world lol ...

good build

keanpf · Oct 15, 2006, 10:32 AM // 10:32

might as well add a vig rune on there u have the room

Lambentviper · Oct 20, 2006, 05:59 PM // 17:59

yeah thats my pve character..havent bothered buying any vig rune so >.>

man, i feel bad for not remembering your character exactly, but they were so many different assassins i fought, let alone other people, in testing this build ¯\(°_0)/¯