Curse

Trixz · May 31, 2006, 11:37 AM // 11:37

Due to the fact that assassin's only use about two combos right now, I have started a thread to submit new combo ideas.
Please don't spam this thread, simply fill it with constructive comments. Please quote the combo you are comenting on.
To start:

Impale-Black Lotus Strike-Critical Strike-Dancing Daggers-Mantis Touch-Twisted Fangs

I'm trying to use only deadly arts and Criticals in this combo and Shadow for defense. This is just a very rough idea so please don't flame.
Comments are encouraged and welcome

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Claymore · May 31, 2006, 11:59 AM // 11:59

Little heavy on the offense, 6 attacks, leaves only 2 spots for defense/shadow arts, and 1 of these should be res sig if pvping. But keep up the good work, need people to think outside the box on this char. Take criticism with a grain of salt, as someone has said before, assassins are very flexable if the combo works for you go with it.

Trixz · May 31, 2006, 12:22 PM // 12:22

I have another idea, since BLS has such a long recharge time and all of these skills will cost you a fair amount of energy, you swap AoD with Assassin's Promise. This would also recharge your skills. This would be very very hard for me because I'm so used to AoD, and doing Dark Prison would feel hard. But since they are buffing heart of shadow perhaps what they intended all along: for us to be constantly teleporting to dodge? Any ideas on this? Thanks for the comment btw clay.

Valerius · May 31, 2006, 05:03 PM // 17:03

Mark of Instability --> Black Lotus Strike --> Twisting Fangs --> Falling Spider --> Horns of the Ox ... is one of my fav. combo's right now

Symir · May 31, 2006, 05:29 PM // 17:29

From my post on using Assassin's Promise in a build:

Mark of Instability
Dark Prison/Death's Charge (DP to prevent kiting, DC to save 5 energy)
Black Lotus Strike
Assassin's Promise
Twisting Fangs
Falling Spider
Death Blossom (or any other dual attack, such as Horns of the Ox)
Return

The time in the combo that you cast AP largely depends on how much health/armor your target has. Ideally, you should cast it just before the target dies so as to reduce the risk of it being removed by a mesmer or monk, or having it run out of time. The whole idea of my build is that it's okay to use long recharge time skills like BLS and Dark Prison/Death's Charge since Assassin's Promise will recharge them all (and itself!) anyways.

Trixz · May 31, 2006, 06:38 PM // 18:38

Good ideas, I've seen both of your builds in this forum(i mess around on this site at school) and i thought both to be good. and with the nerf on GPS there may actually be a reason to use BLS. my major concern is mainly missing the benifit from AoD or does Assassin's promise make up for it.
Also how are ur stats spread out. Does anyone think that heart of shadow has real potential for healing and defense?

Symir · May 31, 2006, 06:55 PM // 18:55

I currently use 14 crit strikes, 12 dagger mastery and 11 deadly arts. You can fiddle with the stats, but I like having 13+ crit strikes for the extra energy and more energy from BLS. Assassin's Promise more than makes up for the loss of benefit from AoD, since your shadowstep skills will recharge once the enemy dies.

vash · Jun 02, 2006, 04:18 AM // 04:18

well I have been using this build for some time:

siphon speed (for the hex)
iron palm
falling spider
twisting fangs
black lotus
horns
plague touch
shadow ref

usually have lil or no energy probs and keeps enemies down..
usually able to combo in falling spider twice..

Lord Oranos · Jun 02, 2006, 06:26 PM // 18:26

My personal favorite combo at the moment is:
MoI(Mark of Instability)
Bls(Black Lotus Strike)
Cs(Critical Strikes)
PS(Palm strike)
TF(Twisting Fangs)

Ensured knockdown and damage comparable to the all-mighty AoD spiker.

Bloodied Blade · Jun 02, 2006, 06:54 PM // 18:54

/e genuflect

Hail the all-mighty AoD spiker

(no, seriously I love that spike...)

ogami_ito · Jun 03, 2006, 05:03 AM // 05:03

I have been experimenting with this for PVE. The same principle works in PVP too I guess:

Palm Strike 10e/10c
Twisting Fangs 10e/12c
Jagged Strike 5e/4c (or Leaping Mantis Sting in pvp 5e/8c
Wild Strike 5e/4c
Critical Strike 10e/6c
Way of the Lotus 5e/20c

The goal with this is to get a good balance between fast attacks (low cool downs), and the best energy management. Its actually not what the assassin is about, as usually the goal should be to spike, and get out of town. Since my timeing is not very good with shadow-step attacks now, I wanted to create a build that will give me 10 seconds of combat before a shadowstep out.

Cycle A
Start with Way of the Lotus>Palm Strike > Twisting Fangs. You burned through 25e right there. But with regen, a possible critical, and around 14e from WoL, you are close to full energy. The target is bleeding, has deep wounds, and probably took around 100 hits in the first 2 seconds.

Cycle B
Jagged strike>wilde strike>critical strike is the plan for the next 3 seconds. I use them because they have low cool-downs, and low energy. Again, you will be close to full energy after that second round. The target is still bleeding, and you did around 100-120 damage, Plus, he has bled for an additional 30 points.

Do Cycle A. Cycle B. Cycle B again (but with extra 1 second waiting for critical strike to recharge), and then Cycle A is ready. (although I think good assassins should not go through more than 3 cycles unless fighting a boss...2 actually should be max)

Jagged Strike is not great because the target is already bleeding from twisting fangs. I guess you can subsitute Unsuspecting strike (10e/6c) for Jagged Cycle B would cost more energy and be slower, but you would do about +26 more damage. If you only want to do Cycle A > Cycle B > sprint/shadowstep out combo, Leaping Mantis Sting (5e/8c) will do +18 more than Jagged and will cripple the target.

There are actually a lot of variations. The point is to have low cool-downs and quickly get dual-attacks in in order to quickly recharge energy while doing some decent damage.

Kyle · Jun 03, 2006, 05:36 AM // 05:36

since nobody posted it. ill post the obvious even though it kinda got nerfed it is still useable.

Golden pheonix strike
Horns of the ox
Falling Spider
Death Blossom/Twisting Fangs
Dfense
Dfense
Heal
Sig

the cookie cutter build

LaserLight · Jun 03, 2006, 05:52 AM // 05:52

Palm Strike [E]
Horns of the Ox
Falling Spider
Twisting Fangs

I know, real original, but this combo offers the same nasty punch as the GPD spike, without needing the Enchantment part. Somewhat more stable, and really takes off with the new Major rune updates. Rune a Major each in CS and Dagger to get the best unblockable damage from Palm and most punch from Fangs. Works great, though Energy can get tight in a long battle.

Kyle · Jun 04, 2006, 03:23 AM // 03:23

Major Rune Update?? sorry

Infinite Minds · Jun 04, 2006, 04:27 AM // 04:27

i dont really think that update is really going to change much, i know it hasnt bothered me, im still using AoD+Gps

Valerius · Jun 04, 2006, 01:56 PM // 13:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyle

Major Rune Update?? sorry

Quote:

Decreased the Health penalty on attribute-boosting major runes from 50 to 35. Existing runes are unaffected.

yeah

What if... · Jun 18, 2006, 07:36 PM // 19:36

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but one I've been considering is...

Weaken Knees -> Black Mantis Thrust -> Falling Spider -> Twisting Fangs/Dual Attack of choice

The Weaken Knees should make the falling spider connection completely unconditional because Black Mantis Thrust should trigger Weaken Knees, and at the same time the Weaken Knees triggers BMT. The opponent should be crippled and KD so the rest of the combo works. I haven't tested this yet though, just thought about it.

ogami_ito · Jun 20, 2006, 03:38 AM // 03:38

I’m currently running a very basic build for PvE:
Dancing Dagger>Fox Fangs>[optional Blinding Powder]>Twisting Fangs > Assassin’s Promise > run a way.

I like it because a) since I have points in Deadly arts to use Assassin’s Promise, so it makes sense to use Dancing Daggers, and b) since Dancing daggers lets you damage and start-off the set from range, so you can abort the full set if it looks too crazy. And only recharge of 5/5 e means that if it misses (or Fox Fangs misses for that matter), you are not screwed. You will be at near full energy and twisting fangs will be up for the next attack (due to Assassin’s promise).

( I also like to add in Blinding Powder, Heart of Shadow, or course Shadow Refuge, and res sig or cap sig here)

A variant I like is:
Iron Palm >[Optional Entangling Asp]> Fox Fangs > Twisting Fangs > Assassin’s Promise.

You will be screwed if the target does not die, but you are more likely to hit overall. Note in both of these, I’m fine with a critical strike skill of just 8. Twisting Fangs will do around 160 damage over 10 seconds to 500 hp mob (assuming it dies while deep wounds is till on)…and you are not sticking around to get crits to get energy up…that’s the job of Assassin’s Promise.

Shred Dread · Jun 20, 2006, 04:18 AM // 04:18

This may or may not be one that people know. It does an excellent amount of damage, and allows you to seamlessly go from enemy from enemy, if performed correctly. I only wish there was space on the skillbar to add more defensive/healing skills.

Assassin's Promise--> Mark of Instability--> Black Lotus Strike-->Twisting Fangs--> Falling Spider--> Death Blossom

If you want to bring a rez, then there's really only one space left for healing/defensive, which I will usually fill with either Shadow Refuge or Vigorous Spirit. You don't necesarily need to use Assassin's Promise at the beginning. Use it when you know the enemy will die soon, or this build becomes almost useless.

ogami_ito · Jun 20, 2006, 06:02 AM // 06:02

^^^
Not sure what I think about that. Why not the standard Hex (Assassin's Promise)> Horns > Falling Spider > Twisting Fangs?

Also, something I don't really get is why people seem to put a high priority on KDs. It delays action by, what...2 seconds or so? I understand that this could be good against spell casters though.