Finally! Deadly arts came in useful! A/N build

Expose Defenses
For 3...9 seconds, target foe cannot "block" or "evade" your attacks.

NICE! now i can kill a ranger with "Whirling Defense" or a warrior with "Gladiator's Defense" in less than 7 seconds d

- Expose Defenses
For 3...9 seconds, target foe cannot "block" or "evade" your attacks.

- Aura of Displacement
When you cast Aura of Displacement, Shadow Step to target foe. When you stop maintaining Aura of Displacement, you return to your original location.

- Black Lotus Strike
Must strike a Hexed foe. If it hits, Black Lotus Strike strikes for +10...27 damage and you gain 5...17 Energy.

- Horns of the Ox
Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Horns of the Ox strikes for +15...27 damage. If struck foe is not adjacent to any allies, that foe is knocked down.

- Falling Spider
Must strike a knocked-down foe. If it hits, Falling Spider strikes for +15...31 damage and target foe is Poisoned for 5...17 seconds.

- Twisting fangs
Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Twisting Fangs strikes for +10...18 damage and struck foe suffers from Bleeding and Deep Wound for 5...17 seconds.

- Plague touch
Transfer a negative Condition and its remaining duration from yourself to target touched foe

- Shadow Refuge
For 4 seconds, you gain 5...9 Health Regeneration. When Shadow Refuge ends, you gain 20...68 Health if you are attacking.

Now, this build is very offensive. It is meant to kill ANY proffesions under 8 seconds! You're only defenses are Aura of Displacement, Plague touch and Shadow Refuge.

Attributes:
Dagger master - 15
Deadly Arts - 12
Critical strike - 8-9
Rest are in shadow arts

Any armor is fine.
You need this dagger:
7-17, Req 7-13
15-20% Vs Hexed Foes
Health +30 or Enchantment's last 20% Longer
Zelous energy +1 gain on it (MUST HAVE)

How to work:

If theres a warrior in Alliace battles and he uses, Riposte, deadly riposte, Aucious Parry etc something that blocks attacks or evade attacks. First, cast Expose Defense, AoE in him and you have 10 Energy Left! Now, Black Lotus strike is you're main source of Energy! With 9 attribute critical mastery you gain +14 Energy if it hits!( YUM! ). Now use Horns of Ox + Falling Spider then use Twisting fangs. If you have any condition on you just use Plague touch then quickly deactivate AoE. If the warrior isnt dead then the -7 energy degeneration will surely kill him (If he doesnt have a skill that removes conditions... )


This build is designed for AvA/AB or maybe GvG! With 9 seconds of Expose Defense, it will be enough to let you're combo do the rollin d

Any suggestions is fine. Feel free to post something yo!

erm. While i understand your enthusiasm about expose defences, its really not all that great. Pretty much its only use is against d-rip/rip warriors, even so you still take the dmg from the rip and d-rip.

Its much more effective to just use wild blow (warrior no attrib skill), which cannot be blocked or evaded, results in a critical hit, and removes a stance. The skill by itself only costs 5 but factoring in the crit hit it only costs 3(depending on ur lvl in crit). And signet of malice is a really good skill, its a sig, low recharge, and low cast. Yes I know plague gives them whatever condition is on you, but think about it. What condition is a warrior or ranger going to give you that he wont already have from your attack? So unless you have somthing especially against riposte warriors, its more efficient to just drop expose.

Also since expose is your only DA skill, you could also just switch over to way of the fox which, with 12 in shadow arts (considering you switched them from DA to shadow), should give you around 5 hits which are unblockable.
Just my 2 cents.

as a big fan of expose i msut say its not true that its only use is on wars, ever try to gank a monk only to have him throw a guardian at you? or maybe you go for that mesmer and oh no distortion....

(logic)
((IF GvG
Then import Ressurection Signet.
)
)

In an Alliance Battle, won't there be a mesmer and or monk wondering around? If so, conditions are removed, hexes are shattered/inspired.

Touch Rangers may still have the advantage (I know you mainly point out on Warriors, but you also said any profession). Throw Dirt (or elementalist's blinding flash) can hurt you. You use plague touch (Touch Rangers will too). Warriors can KD you as well (for longer period of time).

Your build sounds good in theory though.

While I won't dismiss the fact that mesmers and monks do strip hexes in AB, if you pick your targets carefully, it rarely, if ever, happens. And if hexes got removed so frequently in AB, then mesmers wouldn't be there to begin with. I use Mark of Instability several times in AB and the most it gets stripped is once or twice per round. Really not so bad at all.

Throw Dirt and Blinding Flash are only an inconvenience if you've already unloaded 2 of your attacks and get blinded halfway through. If you're planning to go up against a ranger or air elementalist, it's almost always a given anyway that they'll be packing those skills, and if you're unsure, stay out of the action and observe what they're doing so you can take the best course of action. If they are using said skills, all you'd really have to do is start hitting on them without doing the combo, let them blind you, Plague Touch it off, then use your combo. Simple.

Touch Rangers that use stances you can't bypass will have an advantage. Without their stances, they're nothing. If you complete a full combo on a touchy, and both of you have Plague Touch, it can go back and forth as many times as desired, with no clear winner. Taking into account that with this build, the touchy has no defenses (Expose Defenses) AND gets knocked down while heal spamming, I would say it gives the sin definite leverage.

I would much rather just take out casters instead of wasting time with warriors. Good warriors have too many ways to screw over a sin, Exposes Defenses or not.

I just use Way of the Fox. Not a powerful, but cheaper, and no points in deadly arts just for 1 skill.

A/W With wild blow and forget about the hexes.

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