Curse

swordfisher · Apr 08, 2006, 05:12 AM // 05:12

This Assassin plugs into a build using Order of Pain, and goes 100% berserk under the effects of Dark Fury. It uses Locust's Fury* to increase its automatic double-attack rate to 50%, with flurry to push it over the edge to warp speed. I'm not quite sure how the math works on this, but a normal assassin attacks every 1.33 seconds. Using Flurry for 33% IAS, that's down to 1 second per attack, and if there's a second attack 50% of the time, that's effectively .66 seconds per attack, double base attack speed. That's a lot of hits, and no other class can do what the assassin can, because straight IAS is capped at 133% (due to IWAY+Tigers abuse).
Anyway, on to the skills.

Critical Strikes: 9+1
Dagger Mastery: 11+3+1
Shadow Arts: 8+1
Tactics: 8

Locusts' Fury, 10e 2 30s elite*
Enchantment Spell. For 10...30 seconds, you have an additional 20% chance to double strike.
Way of Perfection, 5e 1 30s
Enchantment Spell. For 10...30 seconds, when ever you successfully make a critical hit you gain 10...30 Health.
Caltrops, 10e 1/4 20
Spell. Target foe and all foes adjacent to your target are Crippled for 5...13 seconds. Caltrops has half the normal range.
Fear Me! 4a
Shout. Foes in the area lose 1...3 energy.
Flurry, 5e - 5s
Stance. For 5 seconds you attack 33% faster but do 25% less attack damage.
Mantis Sting, 5e - 8s
Lead Attack. If Mantis Sting hits, target foe takes +5...17 damage. If this attack strikes a fleeing foe, that foe is Crippled for 3...13 seconds.
Fox Fangs, 5e - 10s
Off-Hand Attack. Must follow a lead attack. Fox Fangs cannot be "blocked" or "evaded" and strikes for +5...17 damage if it hits.
Twisting Fangs, 10e - 12s
Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Twisting Fangs strikes for +3...9 damage and struck foe suffers from Bleeding and Deep Wound for 5...17 seconds.

I'd like to give a shout out to my defense-breaker assassin, here. Both rely on (relatively) slow recharging enchantments to work, though this build will still function adequately without Locusts Fury.

The next issue is the cover enchant. I'm not really sure which way to go here, but I'll list the best choices I've come up with: sharpen daggers, shroud of distress, and way of perfection. Sharpen daggers is the most reliable of the bunch here, with the shortest recharge, but it won't benefit from the many repeated hits this build throws out. Shroud of distress will make it difficult for warriors and rangers to spike me down, though there's a 15 second gap between the end of its duration and the recharge. Way of Perfection is incidental unfocused healing (bad), and will last 25 seconds and return 25 health/crit with a 30 second recharge (not bad). I haven't specced very high into critical strikes, though a 15 in DM should help, and the veritable whirlwind of attacks should cause it to trigger frequently enough to make it worthwhile.

Next- caltrops or blinding power? My offhand, fox fangs, cannot be blocked or evaded so the 'must follow an offhand attack' on blinding power isn't so scary. Both cost the same and recharge in the same, it's just a matter of whether I'd like to blind one foe or cripple several. My lead attack applies a cripple if it hits a moving foe, so it may not be necessary to include two cripples. However, with no runspeed boost I do like the idea of crippling foes without having to strike them in melee first.

Why flurry? Well, first of all, I'm just plain scared of asking for double damage on a 70 AL character. Secondly, it means I don't need to keep a slot for a cancel stance. Thirdly, it only reduces base attack damage- the 7-17 on your daggers. I'm willing to lose 1-4 points of damage per hit for an attack rate that cannot be beat.

This attack rate translates directly to Fear Me! spam. At 8 tactics, Fear Me! takes 3 energy from all foes in the area. Between Flurry, Locusts Fury and 15 Dagger Mastery the Assassin should be getting an attack off every .66 seconds. Four hits to a Fear Me! means it charges roughly every 2.5 seconds. This is better than three pips of energy degen (3e/2.5s = 3.6 pips) being recieived in small packets, over a wide area. Toss a Dark Fury up now and then and it just gets silly.

Speaking of party-wide necro enchants, Order of Pain is a natural choice to maximize the hurt from this Assassin. It basically pays off the loss of damage from flurry, while still keeping the boosted adrenal gain.

In summary, this is not a stand alone build. It is meant to plug into a 8v8 or 12v12 with an Orders Necro and some focused Energy Denial. Tell me what you think.

edit: fixed my pip numbers, thanks to NatalieD.

Spoony · Apr 08, 2006, 09:45 AM // 09:45

Id say... if ur going with a few more assasins, i would give one or two of them the skill "watch urself", since its low adernaline cost, too.

Not bad build in total, just that something keeps me wondering about this build, somethings not too right, dunno what yet.

NatalieD · Apr 08, 2006, 10:00 AM // 10:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by swordfisher

This is slightly better than a pip of energy degen (3e/2.5s = 1.2 pips) being recieived in small packets, over a wide area. Toss a Dark Fury up now and then and it just gets silly.

It's actually well over 3 pips of degen, using your adrenaline calculations. One pip = 1 energy/3 seconds, not 1 energy/second.

Spoony · Apr 08, 2006, 10:34 AM // 10:34

Ph33r m3! ftw

Yukito Kunisaki · Apr 10, 2006, 04:45 PM // 16:45

Fear Me! is definitely an option an A/W shouldn't forget about...