Curse

Yukito Kunisaki · Mar 27, 2006, 05:41 AM // 05:41

I'm looking at both skill lines and I'm wondering [at Faction's Opening CG Movie among other things]

Would a Deadly Arts assassin kill just as effectively but with less risk than a Dagger assassin?

The dagger types have the damage down, that's for sure, however, Deadly Arts hurts a lot! [Impale really ripped me a new one in 12v12]

I also did other looks into it and the Deadly Arts seem to be downright cheap. [as in you can't back if at all...]

Now, do you think DA needs some tweaking? Or is every sin doomed to the "You're 16 weapon or your'e a noob" motif?

Yukito Kunisaki · Mar 27, 2006, 05:49 AM // 05:49

hmph...

Nvm, Deadly Arts assassins will never come to being since they don't crit with Deadly Arts spells...

/cry

The New Guy · Mar 27, 2006, 07:29 PM // 19:29

yea Deadly Arts woulda been really good!

Yukito Kunisaki · Mar 27, 2006, 08:43 PM // 20:43

It would be nice to have a 2nd 'weapon' line like katar or kama or something, daggers only and the like makes it kinda 1-dimensional and then worse, since deadly arts can have some really strong effects, [impale = PAIN], i just wonder if it is possible to make a 16 deadly arts 12 dagger build feasible...

[like the 14exp 12 marks or what not, 14str 12 weapon = unfortunate warrior...]

gah, so narrow this game can be!!!

Myodato · Mar 27, 2006, 10:50 PM // 22:50

Like many attributes in this game, Daggers are at their best when maxed out. I think there are some very nice skills in the Deadly Arts line, but nothing that can compete with the sustained pressure of a maxed-daggers build. You also have to remember that critical hits are vital to the energy management of an Assassin, and that higher a weapon attribute increases your base chance of a critical hit (anybody feel clever enough to do a comparison on increase of Crit Strikes vs Dagger Mastery ?). Without good consistent dagger attacks, you won't have enough energy management to sustain your Deadly Art skills, even if it were worth doing so.

It's a pity, but I can't see Deadly Arts being much more than a support attribute for primary Assassins. It may well take of for X/A's though, perhaps for fast cast Mesmers....

LaserLight · Mar 27, 2006, 11:31 PM // 23:31

Unfortunately, a primary Assassin is going to be either a 16 Dagger Master or a character like the One Woman Bloodstorm or Weedwhacker, using Critical Strikes to augment a secondary weapon mastery. Critical Strikes is designed pretty much exclusively to work with weapon damage, especially given that an Assassin's energy management depends on landing critical weapon hits.

Deadly Arts has some nasty tricks in it, this I admit, but much like Warrior primaries, most Assassin primaries are going to be stretching it to fit three attribute lines. Their weapon mastery has to eat a lot of points, as does Critical Strikes. Possibly in the future Deadly Arts will replace Shadow as the prefered tertiary line, but right now Shadow holds almost all of the Assassin's self-healing and defense skills. Deadly is an almost purely offensive line, which is cool...except that Critical Strikes and Dagger Mastery are even more so. Running three offensive lines like that leaves little room for defensive flexibility and makes the Assassin even more fragile than it already is.

What I think we might see later on, though, is FC/Deadly Mesmers using their DA skills to augment the attacks of a partnered Assassin. An Assassin running 16 Dagger and 10 Critical hitting someone cursed with a 12 Impale and Mark of Instability and such would be a nightmare. Don't get me wrong, Deadly Arts is an awesome line for boosting dagger attacks, but a primary Assassin just doesn't have the room either on her skillbar or in her attribute layout to cram it in the way it ought to be done.

Yukito Kunisaki · Mar 28, 2006, 06:09 AM // 06:09

Well, my w/n uses Axe, Str, Tactics as his primary stats with Curses his secondary [for Rend Enchantments ^_^]

A/N doesn't need the necro secondary skills aside from Plague since he can already pierce [to a degree] enemy defenses using all primary skills, that's good for rune hoarders like me ^_^

12+1+3 Dagger Mastery
7+1 Critical Strikes
8+1 Deadly Arts
8+1 Shadow Arts

Blam, full on assassin with +2e. per crit and lots of strong options. All ya need is Plague touch!