Curse

DoogieHauser · Jun 10, 2006, 10:08 AM // 10:08

Profession: Assassin/Elementalist

Name: Slow 'n Spike

Type: PvE, maybe viable in PvP

Category: High-Damage Continuous Attacker (14 second spike, in a sense)

Attributes:
7 Earth Magic
8 Air Magic
8+1 Critical Strikes
10+3+1 Dagger Mastery
8+1 Deadly Arts
0+1 Shadow Arts
All 200 attribute points spent

Equipment:

::Shrouded Armor for energy
::Shocking Daggers of whatever (Fortitude or Defense recommended), enchanted damage mods will shine on this build. Shocking is required by the use of Iron Mist, allowing immunity to all damage but Lightning to the hexed foe.
::Vigor runes are highly recommended.
::If health is causing problems, a reduction to a Major or even a Minor rune for Dagger Mastery (if requisite permits) is plausible, as the Superior rune was initiated solely for maximum damage.

Skill Set:

1) Recall: Cast on an ally before Death's Charging, preferably a monk. Remove when Repeating Strike misses (recharges), when health gets low or if WotEP is stripped. Maintained Enchantment.

2) Conjure Lightning: +9 damage on Shocking Daggers for 60 seconds with 8 Air Magic.

3) Iron Mist: -90% speed on enemy, immune to all but Lightning damage for 11 seconds at 7 Earth Magic.

4) Death's Charge: Shadow Step to enemy, gain 46 health if enemy's health > yours (negligible for this).

5) Way of the Empty Palm (e): Allows Repeating Strike spam like crazy for 14 seconds.

6) Critical Defenses: For 6 seconds, +55% chance to block attacks, covers WotEP as an enchantment, renews as you critical hit.
Armor of Earth: For 30 seconds, +41 armor (+43 is you drop Air Magic to 7 and put Earth Magic to 8), covers WotEP, doesn't need to renew. Slows you down 33% (31% with 8 Earth Magic), but your target is slowed down 90% from Iron Mist.

7) Golden Phoenix Strike: Under Recall, so this will hit for +29 damage and meets Off-hand Attack requirement for Repeating Strike and is free under Way of the Empty Palm.

8) Repeating Strike: +19 damage, no recharge time, free under Way of the Empty Palm.

Summary: Basic idea is to put Recall on a caster, preferably a Monk, for later, and then use Conjure Lightning sometime soon before the encounter. At this point, you can let your energy regen for a until maxed (25 seconds with the 3 energy regen (~1 energy per second) with Recall being maintained, which is within the beginning timeline before a PvP match, IIRC). Alternately, you could just cast Conjure Lightning before Recall for higher regeneration rate, but you sacrifice some Conjure Lightning time. Next, you Iron Mist your unwitting foe, Death's Charge to them, turn on Way of the Empty Palm and Critical Defenses/Armor of Earth and execute your Golden Phoenix Strike->Repeated Strike combo, reusing Repeated Strike until it misses and recharges. This is the point at which you end your maintaining of Recall and return to safety with your foe either vastly weakened or (hopefully) dead. The energy cost of GPS and Repeated Strike are 0 with Way of the Empty Palm, which holds perfect synergy with Repeated Strike's 0 recast time. This is viable in PvE and PvP (though Enchantment hate is common, the only time an enchantment will be on you is when you're actually attacking post-Death's Charge, also you have a cover-enchantment, so you would have to either be Rended or double-enchant stripped. If stripped of WotEP, simply use your combo until energy runs out and end Recall. Also, if you come under heavy fire, Recall is always there to pull you out of a messy situation.

I haven't been able to actually use this build, as my Assassin is only level 13 and is still stationed at the newbie island, so I would be grateful if someone could validate the viability of this build and tell me so I may tweak it as need be. As I stated earlier, this build is vulnerable to enchantment hate, but the inclusion of Critical Defenses or Armor of Earth as cover enchants would make this more viable (but still vulnerable to Rend Enchantments or Gaze of Contempt). Energy could be a concern if energy is not allowed to regenerate after Conjure Lightning and Recall are cast. After the Iron Mist->Death's Charge->Way of the Empty Palm->Critical Defenses/Armor of Earth combo, you are left with 2 energy not including energy regeneration if full Shrouded Armor is equiped, and free spam of Repeated Strike after a free use of Golden Phoenix Strike. Also, this build isn't fully repeatable until energy has recovered and Recall and Conjure Lightning are successfully replaced.

Thanks in advance for your input. I may not be able to promptly respond to replies, but I will check this thread as often as I can.

Thanks to NatalieD for giving me space for Critical Defenses/Armor of Earth.

NatalieD · Jun 10, 2006, 12:29 PM // 12:29

Golden Phoenix Strike doesn't require a lead attack. That's the whole point of it.