After several days of testing, running, dying, and reworking, here's a build that's steady and practically devastating vs. high defense types [ones that whole parties have trouble killing, but works wonders in solo...
3 reasons why this build will probably work best solo.
Involves running, lots and lots of it, if your foes aren't running after someone, then you're not killing them correctly...
Teammates usually don't know wtf is going on unless you outline your strategy which is tedious...
If monsters keep chasing you and only you, you don't have to worry about them not moving, hence why only you makes the best A/N farmer...
Using the most underrated attack stat, Deadly Arts, I've formulated this:
16 Deadly Arts
9 Critical Strike
10 Curses
Dancing Daggers [elemental damage, better vs. high AL types than normal dmg. unblockable]
Entangling Asp [better than falling spider vs. foes who block/won't fall]
Black Lotus Strike
Twisting Fangs
Assassin's Promise {E}
Siphon Speed
Enduring Toxin
Soul Barbs
The emphasis on 'don't get hit' becomes clear when you notice, NO SELF-HEALING!!! I've never come across a foe in PvE yet that can kill me in one hit so if you get hit once, you're ok... If you get hit more than that, well... You don't know how to play asssassin ^_^
This build kills the way a hunter does, one at a time, methodically, carefully, and if your foe is alone [aka a boss or just wandering around], this build suddenly becomes a 1 hit instant kill.
In PvE, your majority of skills vs. mobs will depend upon running room, mob number, and mob snare capabilities.
Ideally, you pick your target [almost any will do since you ignore armor] and cast Soul Barbs then Enduring Toxin in that order. By the time you're done with ET, you'll be close enough to cast Siphon Speed, then start running in circles around your hapless foe(s).
Small melee mobs work best, if you're ballzy, you can try mobs of 5+ but the more varied the mob, the tougher to kill...
You can also do the boomerang run, where you keep running till your victim decides to turn around and walk the other way, [still triggering the deadly Soul Toxin combo], where you pull out your long bow, shoot him in the back, and keep him running like a stupid man/girl...
Against humans, this will rarely work unless you're fighting stupid warriors who just want to keep chasing you lol... but this is a farming build and you can't farm anything but faction in pvp...
What about the rest?
Well, the first 4 skills are your insta-kill... After landing your hexes, back up a bit and chuck the first 4 skills in succession, first 2 being practically, unblockable, and the last 2 being the killing blow...
If you run away after that [like the cowardly bastard you are ^_^], your foe will die in 3-5 seconds flat, I don't care what armor level or character level he is, if he's alone, it makes this build more efficient [no need to worry bout backup]
Don't worry if you're fighting a lone monk character either, there's no way in hell any pve char in the game can combat 10+ pips of degen applied in a machine gun fashion and well, that's that!
Thoughts? Ideas? Ways to get Shadow Refuge in there?
[can run 16 deadly, 9 shadow, 9 crit, 8 curses if needed]
Weaknesses: foes with crazy snare hexes and extreme damage scenarios, no snare killer and no healing makes this build somewhat limited in areas with long lasting degen [Sorrow's Furnace, or other degen hex areas come to mind]
A/N solo farming? Slow, but steady...
Yukito Kunisaki