Curse

Rezy · Jun 13, 2007, 08:59 AM // 08:59

Very new here and wanted to get some advice with the build of assassin iv been playing around with in pvp. (Ok well semi pvp just playing around in Aspenwood.)
My noob build goes like this.

Leaping Mantis Sting (Lead Snare)
Exhausting Assault (Just love the interrupt)
Moebius Strike (Elite)
Critical Strike (For when i need energy)
Horns of the Ox (Gota Love Knockdown)
Critical Eye (Ok its the useless skill of the set, Have no clue what to do with it)
Feigned Neutrality (Yay for small self heal.)
Dash (Love the teleporting skills but due to they take so long to recharge i fell into using Dash instead)

Needless to say this build has no Rez so iv thought about swaping that out with Critical Eye, Have also thought to put in Mending Touch. But then i came up with a better plan to ask the pro's around here for some advice. I do utterly love the Moebius-->Horns-->Moebius-->Ect.. combo, just works nice and keeps the enemy down.

Attributes i run with.
Dagger Mastery- 13
Shadow Arts- 7
Critical Strikes- 13
5 leftover points.
Run with pure Survivor armor with no major or sup runes. I tend to love HP.

Any advice i can get on the build would be wonderful.
Thanks.

PS. Im a noob to please flame and kick away =) Its what we are here for.

chaoskirina · Jun 13, 2007, 09:15 AM // 09:15

hmm. you have QUITE a few dual attacks and not enough to lead into them, even with moebius strike. if you want to use exausting assault then carry it with its brother disrupting strike. and for leaping mantis sting I say that its off-hand should be jungle strike to compliment it for crippling enemies. then use horns with falling spider and then critical strike to make up energy. and to get to your opponent quickly I suggest swap out moebius and use Aura of Displacement. if you insist on adding mebius then use it right after critical strike and then use death blossom and spam those. I doubt anyone is alive at that point but you never know. if not then you have room for other skills. this is what I mean:

[skill]leaping mantis sting[/skill][skill]jungle strike[/skill][skill]horns of the ox[/skill][skill]falling spider[/skill][skill]critical strike[/skill][skill]aura of displacement[/skill][skill]disrupting stab[/skill][skill]exhausting assault[/skill]

Full offensive combo with an interrupt or three, instant means of getting there, not to mention a death combo should your opponent flee. you won't survive much but at least in FA you can terrorize people. if you want a pve version then I suggest:

[skill]leaping mantis sting[/skill][skill]jungle strike[/skill][skill]horns of the ox[/skill][skill]falling spider[/skill][skill]critical strike[/skill][skill]aura of displacement[/skill][skill]feigned neutrality[/skill][skill]resurrection signet[/skill]

EDIT: oh, and by the way learn to love major and superior runes. that is where people get a lot of their power from and can be complimented by buying vigor runes to offset the health reduction. a suprior with minors always works and so does two majors. if you want both a major AND superior on you then bring a fortitude mod or go all survivor and keep your mod. if you go with the fortitude mod then putting on all radiant and one attunement rune will give you an additional +10 energy and with an "I have the power!" mod you get 5 more energy. doesn't seem like much but it does make a difference, a HUGE one since that means you can unleash combos more often.

Since you like daggers, criticals and shadow then I suggest Superior Dagger, Major Critical with Crit.mask on, and minor shadow as well as the best vigor rune you can buy and any additional health.

Rezy · Jun 13, 2007, 09:34 AM // 09:34

Thanks alot Chaos, Ill have to give that one a serious try, looks like a ton of fun. And thanks for the advice on the runes, Ill have to get a new armor in gear to try that out.

RotteN · Jun 13, 2007, 11:22 AM // 11:22

too bad the advice on runes is completely wrong. assassins work very well with all minor runes, and getting around 600HP on an assassin is a MUST, specially in PvP. Assassins are by far the weakest melee characters in GW (in terms of armor level), which will result in them being a very popular target. If you honestly think sacrifising 75HP for that superior rune and 35HP for another major is a good idea, think again ... losing 110HP for some extra damage is something that will quickly result in a lot of DP, and DP cripples you a lot more than those lower attribute lines ...

a very nice, and funny build, is the following :

leaping mantis sting-exhausting assault-Death Blossom-Moebius Strike-Impale-Freigned neutrality-dash-resurrection signet

dagger mastery : 10+1
critical strikes : 11+1+1
shadow arts : 5
deadly arts : 7+1

code : OwBk0te3XNuz/751wOYJw08EUAA

very nice, straight forward DPS build, can easely be used in both low-end PvP (RA for example) and PvE. the main thing is both death blossom and moebius strike have a very low recharge, so you can chain them till your target dies, and then move on to the next. the AoE-damage from death blossom is a very nice add-on against bunched up foes.

Yanman.be · Jun 13, 2007, 11:31 AM // 11:31

Yeah don't use sups or major, especially as a beginner.

Rezy · Jun 13, 2007, 11:32 AM // 11:32

Id been thinking for awhile on getting deep wound into by build at some point. Impale looks like a nice one for that considering twisting fangs costs just to much energy.

Thanks alot Rotten for the advice. 600+ hp is just way to nice to let go of, its kinda nice having a change to live through a spike.

Just_ A_Nightmare · Jun 13, 2007, 01:08 PM // 13:08

just an idea, but if u keep getting mashed up u could take crit defenses?

Yanman.be · Jun 13, 2007, 03:03 PM // 15:03

Take the 5 first skills of this build.

You can fill in the rest, and replace the lead and 2nd dual attack if you want.

elektra_lucia · Jun 13, 2007, 03:15 PM // 15:15

Yanman what the hell xD. You use mouse pointer to click skills and tab to change target? o.O. That's weird.

Anyway, onto topic:

For Alliance Battles you can use like:

leaping, jungle, horns of the ox, falling spider, twisting fangs.

Sometimes I add disrupt dagger and exhaust assault (I use that in HA but exhaust isn't needed in AB)
skull crack is very nice for any type of PVP imo.
wild blow is needed in AB I would say.

You might get away with flail and rush, I know flail slows you up but people are bad at kiting, and with the knock-down+ cripple it will be possible to use.

You won't need energy, just run zealous daggers if energy goes low.

You can use superior runes on an assassin but don't use superior AND a major.

Remember to bring +armour vs x shields too. When running from fire eles and what not, this will be useful.

Rezy · Jun 13, 2007, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Thanks much for the advice. Tried out the different builds and they really work well. Need to get my hands on some Zealous Daggers, heh im using shiro's blades atm. (Yep shoot me now) But what can i say, i love the look =).

I use Flail on and off in PVE and it works really well, i tend to mix it with dash to cancel it out if i need to get moving.

I also just tried to swap in critical defence and it workes like a charm. Thanks alot nightmare for the suggestion.

chaoskirina · Jun 13, 2007, 11:28 PM // 23:28

more health on a sin doesn't mean shit. you are not a tank, you're a sin. basically a physical brother of the mesmer and mesmers don't last long under fire as well. I find that putting a superior on in the right place makes me outlive any other opponent that tries to do me in but then again i also have tactics. but yes, superior and major runes are not something for beginners to mess with until they learn how to use them and that is what i was offering. an example of how to use them with a build. one of my prime builds has both a superior AND major rune on and still has 500 health not to mention any armor I might add, meaning I did not add on all survivor insignias. just sup. vigor and a max fortitude mod and i'm good to go. to me, how much health you have doesn't mean anything. give yourself an additional 20% chance out of 50%, and that is including sup. vigor a fortitude and survivor mod with vitae runes. may mean a lot to others but not to me since health does oyu no good if you can't back it up with some firepower.

not to mention in FA/JQ/AB DP has no hold on you since it is never there.

Rezy · Jun 14, 2007, 04:13 AM // 04:13

Thanks Chaos again, running with multi armor's at the moment. Still dont have a sup vigor rune but aww well i can live without for the moment. Just testing to see the right balance of skills.

Yanman.be · Jun 14, 2007, 07:50 AM // 07:50

I run 600 hp. That 100 hp IS worth the loss of some damage %. You're gonna get spiked in PvP. More health = more buffer so your monks can heal you. You don't want to become a DP RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO eh?

Oh, and who said FA/JQ/AB was PvP?

chaoskirina · Jun 14, 2007, 11:21 PM // 23:21

you have never been to FA or AB have you? it is pvp and if you have been there then what does that suggest about you eh? besides that, people target sins ANYWAY for 2 reasons.

1: low armor. an easy target for anyone really, no matter how much health you have. if you want high amounts of health then go protection monk for vital blessing or earth dervish for vital boon.

2: very OFFENSIVE character. unlike a tank who is very hard ot kill due to high defenses and dervish who stand balanced between them an assassins main strength is to kill or be killed. think of it as defense, balanced, and offense. tanks can pretty much do their job with little difficulty unless something truly has gone wrong or he has some serious problems. dervish takes a little more skill due to enchantment juggling but, if played correctly, can be quite noticeable. The assassins main job is offense on the enemys defense, hence its easy shadow stepping and high damage spikes. an unprepared monk falls to an assassin that has specialised in killing casters which further proves evidence for its relationship with mesmers. if you notice a lot of assassin skills CAN be defensive but it doesn't do any good if you have no power to back them up. i'm not saying go out and equip every superior and major rune but make sure to have one at least to give yourself a little more power. even just one major rune can make a difference with very little to no cost. a minor vigor easily repairs the damage in a major rune to being quite minimal. its even better if you combine the major with your mask, such as having 12 dagger mastery, the bladed mask and a major dagger mastery. this combo makes you an offensive powerhouse on criticals and you can maintain flashing blades indefinately.

I'm not saying an assassin can do nothing with just minors on since I used to be like that as well. but I don't see the point in having over 600 hp just to save yourself from a spike. if the team is going to focus on you then you will die anyway from focused fire so take out and damage as much as you can before you go out. if being spiked is what you fear then stay back and play as a critical barrager or a mesmer to stay out of harms way for gods sake. OR you can be offensive and use skills that reward you for higher HP such as thrill of victory and victorious sweep and be either secondary warrior or dervish.

In all a minor runes only assassin can do very much damage but having over 600 hp is just plain useless. why not just play a tank to take advantage of such high health then and stop playing an assassin.

Yanman.be · Jun 15, 2007, 05:44 AM // 05:44

600hp is not a tank. 600hp allows me to be as offensive as I want to be without putting my life at danger. It provides big enough of a buffer for my monks to catch up, or my teammates to protect me.

chaoskirina · Jun 15, 2007, 10:48 PM // 22:48

how can having 600 hp give you offense? unless you have a derv or warrior secondary having 600 hp does little to boost your offense. you may hit for a few seconds longer, waiting for energy to recharge with a zealous mod but by that time the person you killed is ressed or, if they weren't killed which is likely, they will recover. I would take 525-550 hp at most and not a point higher so that I can back my daggers up with some offense and not just hit 3-7 while I wait to recharge. or spam my attacks and lose lots of energy very fast. Having high HP can indeed have your monk try and save you but if you are under focused fire and have high hp then a ZB monk will have to wait a second longer for you to fall below 50% hp for ZB to be fully effective or spam dismiss condition, taking his energy while you die off. and if a ritualist concentrates on preventing a spike on you a warrior or enemy assassin can distract him/her by attacking them and thereby either save you and die or leave you on your own to prevent the team from dying. if you look at it if you are often under focused fire that bad to the point you need 600 hp then you need to think of some different tactics.

although no one build can truly be universally effective either on that matter so either way you look at it its a matter of choice, not on what is best for any profession period.

Laenavesse · Jun 16, 2007, 08:33 AM // 08:33

*meekly raises her hand* I use a sup dagger and sup vigor and the rest are minor with radiant armor D: *went for energy over health* And i have like.. uhm...485 health D:

But that's for my PvE sin. I've had my PvP sin have more health, but then I didn't do as much damage as I'd like and though I lived a longer, I still got spiked down in the end. Sooo I opted for more damage over more health and kept fiddling with runes. But I never had a major rune or more than one superior rune (cept vigor of course :3) and always went for energy. My daggers always have the Fortitude mod though.

Eh, for me, I have accepted the fact I'm going to die. Very fast. But I'm not gonna die alone >O If I have to die I'm taking someone down with me dammit!

But what chaos says is right, it's really a kind of preference. My dervish has 600 hp but..meh. She dies faster than my sin >_> Which could mean I just generally suck at playing a dervish (which I don't mind..don't like 'em that much anyway) or it could mean it doesn't matter >_>;; Probably the former but meh.

As I find myself saying a lot nowadays, if it works for you and you can use it well, use it. S'up to the player really. A n00b player could have the most dangerous build and still suck >_>

Yanman.be · Jun 16, 2007, 08:38 AM // 08:38

Because it allows me to overextend longer before I die, applying more damage. When you would've been dead, I still have 100HP, and my target would be dead.

Laenavesse · Jun 16, 2007, 08:47 AM // 08:47

If you're not being spiked by more than one person :O

If it's one to one, you'll probably live longer. Maybe even two to one. But if you have a whole team spiking you, then I don't think it matters how much health you have o.o I mean, even the 2 ele npcs in AB can spike a tank within 2 hits or so. 3 of them is overkill.

I think that's how I'm looking at it >_o; There's nothing wrong with more health. I just opt for my damage done in one shot. Or at least more deadish o_o

Yanman.be · Jun 16, 2007, 09:00 AM // 09:00

Let's just say it's foolish to run low health in PvP?