Curse

bada223 · Jul 08, 2006, 07:45 AM // 07:45

Theres been some instances that my guild had to face 2 assasin splits right from the beginning.. Just having the blind elly or the crip ranger there or even any character there was basically useless because of Aura of Displacement/Distortion/Shadow Ref/Breeze. If we ignored them, our NPCs would get wiped out along with the flag runner.

What will be the best way to deal with this?

Patrograd · Jul 08, 2006, 08:52 AM // 08:52

IMO, sending a warrior back is the strongest defence against this, although i am surprised a crip shot ranger doesnt get success

Quote:

Elite Bow Attack. If Crippling Shot hits, your target becomes Crippled for x seconds. This attack cannot be blocked or evaded.

*shrug*

The Red Knight · Jul 08, 2006, 01:51 PM // 13:51

cripshot and blinding flash do well vs assassins

JR · Jul 08, 2006, 06:35 PM // 18:35

A Crip-Shot can take down an Assassin if they are decent at timing interrupts, and pretty swift at hitting Distortion.

A Blindbot is a bit trickier, with CoP or Plague Touch Assassins giving you big problems. Using Gale on the Assassin as soon as they are in casting range followed by Blinding Flash is a strong option. Follow up with another Gale and a Water hex snare if possible. Assuming you are defending NPCs it is probably better to rely on them to do the neccasary damage. Obvious limitation to this strategy is Exhaustion, so it is at best a temporary stall.

A Shock Axe Warrior with Healing Signet is also a fairly solid deterrent to an Assassin loitering around your base, giving a fairly even match up in 1 vs 1 plus the additional possibility of NPC pressure on the Assassin. This of course puts you down a lot of damage with your main team.

Anything with an enchant strip is obviously also pretty strong, removing Recalls or AoD's, but in general Mesmers aren't particularly great as 'squishies' without any real defense or offense to speak of other than possibly Distortion.

It wouldn't surprise me to start seeing more E/Mes Flashbot builds with Distortion and Drain Enchantment, if Assassins get increasingly popular.

Wasteland Squidget · Jul 08, 2006, 07:08 PM // 19:08

How you deal with these is based mostly on your build, and the build of the assassins in question. Naturally you'll want to do a 6-2 or even 5-3 split to defend your base, but exactly what to send off and what tactic to use will vary.

AoD assassins are the most common, and they're also fairly easy to stop. Blindbots and Cripshot rangers work great against them, and you'll either want to send two warrior hate characters or one warrior-hate and one warrior. The most important thing when dealing with this kind of gank force is that your split team needs to get kills on the assassins. It's relatively easy to drive them off, but they'll just be back almost immediately and you won't have gained any ground. Instead, strip one of their AoDs early if possible and snare/degen him until he dies. Once their assassins begin building up DP they won't be able to gank NPCs as effectively and your bodyguards won't be at any serious risk. Cripshot R/Mes with Drain Enchant are especially nice for stripping the AoD and messing with the assassin's ability to get away. You're almost certain to lose a couple perimeter archers, but if you can build up DP on their assassins it's not long before you'll be able to fight them 7v6 or 8v6 and probably push into their base.

Shadow form assassins are harder, and what you send back is pretty much entirely dependent on your build. Got a mesmer with Sig of Disruption? Send that back. Got a smiting monk? Send him back along with a warrior and force them out. Shadow Form assassins are pressed for space and often don't bring a self-heal or run buff. They're relying on the fact that you can't damage them, so prove them wrong and you'll usually scare them away. Interrupting a shadow form or Arcane Echo/Mimicry pretty much guarantees you a kill. Have a warrior who's good with Shock camping their face, if nothing else.

Note that with dual assassins, flagstand battles often turn into stalemates, since there isn't enough offense to get a lot of kills in 5v5 with two monks on each side. If you can get kills great, but if not don't be afraid to send another warrior back to help out with the assassins. Usually once you've got enough DP the assassins the rest of their team will crumble pretty quickly.

Francis Demeules · Jul 08, 2006, 07:16 PM // 19:16

^Prob with Shadow Form Sins? Signet of Disenchantment

glenn_rolfe · Jul 10, 2006, 11:31 AM // 11:31

A blind ass is a bad ass

Francis Demeules · Jul 10, 2006, 01:36 PM // 13:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by glenn_rolfe

A blind ass is a bad ass

except A/N

llsektorll · Jul 10, 2006, 01:45 PM // 13:45

best way to get rid of them is take a warrior and a monk with crip shot back... make the monk use drain enchant on their aura and its GG.

Farin · Jul 10, 2006, 08:58 PM // 20:58

It's not a great option unless you know your 1 monk will be fine against the left offense. I tried a 6-2 build last night using a CS ranger and an asassin as our split, while keeping an axe warrior, air ele, and dom mesmer with our main team. It proved to be quite effective if kept our communication going, we've the frozen isle so it's pretty fun I must say.

If a team sent a monk back our split team just played stalemate, while the main team spiked out the left monk which usually made them send the other monk back. Another thing we could do was just kill the monk that had split off, with a CS ranger, an assassin, and a shock axe warrior it's pretty easy to overcome the healing power of a boon prot.

The best way to deal with it is send 1 or 2 characters that can stall them long enough while you trap them or get them in a position where they're most likely to die, i.e have a water ele stall them while you send a warrior and/or something else to finish them off while snared.

Francis Demeules · Jul 12, 2006, 03:47 AM // 03:47

I see the Finals Game 2 between War Machine and The Last Pride. Both used the tactic to assassin splits with the team. I think the Idea if you encounter that is to make at least 2 of your team against them to pull back without your team suffer any problem with less members in the other side.

glenn_rolfe · Jul 14, 2006, 01:28 AM // 01:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Francis Demeules

except A/N

yeah but everyone only runs cookie cutter shock ass build