How to flesh out Zenmai?

I've never played an assassin, and have no particular desire to. So I have next to no Assassin skills at this time.

What would be some good ways to flesh out Zenmai's skill bar for the minimum investment? I have a few Balthazar faction points I can spare, and I could always get more if I had to ...

I'm generally a fan of sticking with only two attributes, but I'm not an extremist about that.

She starts with:

* Dash
* Death Blossom
* Jungle Strike
* Resurrection Signet
* Return
* Shadow Refuge
* Unsuspecting Strike

I do have some basic warrior skills unlocked -- the basic prophecies skill trainer/Ascalon ones, basically.

I don't mind going out and capping random elites; that's about the only title I'd be proud to display at a low level. I haven't gotten all the way through Factions yet, however (basically just to the point where you have to start building up Kurzick or Luxon faction).

That skillset isn't bad. I would switch out Unsuspecting for Leaping Mantis Sting though. Perhaps give the Assassin Wild Blow somewhere. An Elite is not necessary.

Quote: Originally Posted by Phoenix Arrows

Quote: Why wild blow when they can use Wild Strike? 1. Wild Strike still has the chance to miss (block,evade)
2. Wild Strike needs to have a prerequisite lead attack, and if the target used a stance before you started your chain, you once again have a chance to miss.
3. Wild Blow, on the other hand, can't ever be blocked or evaded. It also results in a critical hit which can be useful in keeping up Critical Defenses for an assasin's longevity in a fight. You can use it before you use your attack chain to make sure each attack hits.

--Back on topic though, I agree with Pheonix. You don't really have to change anything out of her skillbar. I would probably take out Dash because, well, it's not really necessary for PvE. If you are going to make her Warrior secondary you can maybe put in "Watch Yourself!" instead. If you want her to pack some extra punch on a single target, put Twisting Fangs instead of Death Blossom. Oh, and Wild Blow can be infinitely useful in Elona. There are so many monsters who like to use evasion stances (Kournans come into mind). Just helps you mow them down faster

Barrage.

Thanks for the ideas, guys!

I haven't actually done the "Sunspears in ... " quests yet. I was thinking of doing Kryta with at least one character. For that, having her available seems like a good idea -- assuming she's not bugged there too! Obviously, for Sunspears in Cantha I could just use henchies ...

Good idea on Wild Blow! If you don't need the adrenaline anyway, there's not much of a drawback.

I don't think the hero/hench really manage ShadowStep that well. So I personally do one of the following with Zenmai:

-make her a crit barrage
-make her an A/D with crit and a weapon skill and use dervish defenses from earth prayers, use dagger or scythe your call
-go for a crit defenses build with Way of Assassin as elite, many variations on this I like to back it up with Dervish mystic regen (6-10 regen perpetualy is nice) for extra staying power. Various other crit based things bleeds, condition removal, heal on crit etc. Again daggers or scythes your choice. sharpen dagger + scythe can give aoe bleed which is nice.

Main idea is since shadowstep can be problematic either keep her away as a ranger crit barrage, use crit defenses, or use the very nice Dervish defense/offense enchantments. Always get Critical Strikes nice and high for extra energy and it can work rather nice.

All in all Dervish is a very nice secondary unless you really need something from somewhere else. And crit scythe hits hard. But the main thing is to give her some way to stay alive decently if you don't go crit barrage. Assassin itself is fairly limited without shadowstep for that so I do one of the above usually.

Use A/R

Way of the Assassin
Critical Eye
Sharpen Daggers
Disrupting Arrows

Keen Arrow
Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Rez Sig

I hope you know what critical percentage that is...

Quote: Originally Posted by Silk Weaver

You're really going to need to experiment with Zenmai. I've tried all sorts of my builds with her, and she just doesn't get them. She rarely ever uses the hexes I give her, even with full energy, however she spams the hell out of Epidemic.

Next I'm giving her Temple Strike & Epidemic & let her have fun with that.

I like the Crit/Barrage idea. For one thing, my wife used to play that build before she deleted her assassin. For another, Barrage is an easy cap in Factions.

Thanks!

Myself and a guldie run Zenami as a crit barrage/interrupt and she does a wonderful job of it. You can get a 15% while enchanted recurve for 5 heket tongues and mod to suit.

Skill bar usually is:
Barrage
Savage Shot
Distracting Shot
Sharpen Daggers
Critical Eye
Rez

She manages quite well with it. Also, I sometimes give her burning arrow instead of barrage. The low fire rate makes up for the energy use.

IMO, she's just too squishy to use a dagger bar without being a strain on the monks.

The thing is that with A/R she interrupts, and not just deal damage. An Assassin with a bow won't be dealing a lot of damage, even if it crits half the time. Go For the Eyes for the sole purpose of buffing one character is useless, and I don't trust zenmai to spam it either. Way of the Assassin means most hits will interrupt, no more healing yay.

I gave mine a pretty standard build. Seems she can't understand the meaning of using a lead attack before a Off-hand etc.

I like the Crit/Barrage idea even more, now that I discovered an unused Graygore's (Zealous) bow in inventory. I may have a spare Zealous string or two as well, actually; I haven't thoroughly checked my ranger mule for a while.