Effects of Critical Strike

Hi guys.


My question to you all is - is 16 critical strikes noticably better than 13 for chance to inflict a crit, with critical eye on. If it isn't, I'll definitely go with a DM mask. Yes, this will be for pve.



I just started an assassin, and I wanted the opinion of people who've played the latter parts of factions.

I'm buying my mask right now, and don't know if I should go for dagger mastery or critical strikes. My assassin is currently level 14, and an a/w. I plan to use flurry along with flourish (already capped it) until I get another elite. What interests me most is being able to use dual attacks regularly. The elites I'm looking at so far are Mobius Strike, Flourish, and Assassin's promise.

Basically, I'd planned to take the easy way out and use Critical Defense, possibly with Critical Strike or something. That way I wouldn't have to mess with shadow arts.


Also - how would the damage compare if I lowered dagger mastery to 12 or so, and took deadly arts for Impale? This skill has always interested me, I just don't know if it can be put to any use.

Any input on this would be great.


::EDIT:: Yanman, yes I know, take TF if I want to kill. I've lurked enough here to know that. =p

I would rather have a DM mask, being a warrior it's always feels better to have a high weapon mastery since just straight hitting is almost half your damage in engagements.

Oh and a huge no for Impale.

Plus double striking is a lot cooler than crits

That's what my natural inclination was too.. but really, isn't the principle behind flurry on an assassin saying just the opposite? I have no clue what I'm talking about, I just know I don't want to run out of energy, and maybe higher CS will help. XD

If we're talking PvE, i wouldnt go any higher then 13 Crit. Remember, each level in your Weapon Attrib also gives you a +1% chance to crit. So the +3 additional you get for 16 CS is not that big a deal. Also, youd want to have your Dagger to have a higher chance to Double strike as well, so you could have more chances to crit.

Hmm.. now that you say it that way, it makes sense.
Should I take a sup. DM rune for 16/13, or use 2 majors, (CS and DM), and spread the leftover to something else? Is Mark of Instability worth it?

Also what should my other dual attack be besides TF? Critical Strike? I could take wild blow instead of that.. I think? *still clueless*

I don't think you'd need 16 critical strikes. In my opinion the highest you really need to go with critical strikes is 13, and that's for the maxium energy management. At 13 critical strikes you get 3 energy with each critical hit, combine that with zealous daggers and critical eye and that's 5 energy per critical hit. It is true what every else is saying, that dagger mastery also helps your critical chances, and also increases your chances of double striking, which further increases your chances to critical hit because of the faster hits. :P

Basically with my assassin I have a dagger mastery hat, with a dagger mastery superior rune so I can max out my dagger mastery. I usually keep critical strikes at 13, and then the rest will go in shadow mastery or whatever. If I want to free up more attributes for another attribute line I'll take some from dagger master and drop it down to 13 or 14 or something.

The way I look at it is that energy is an assassins best friend because it allows them to use their chains, heal, use their stances, and use their shadowsteping or speed skills, etc. 13 critical strikes ensures you get maximum energy management, so going above that to me doesn't make as much difference as maxing your dagger mastery.

put 13 on criticle hit, and rest on other attribute. get a zealous dagger too

13 is the breakpoint [along with 8] on CS. that's enough to max the damage and other bonuses of the CS-related skills. you might want to invest your other points in other attribs like tactics, since you're an a/w.

actually, its the other way around...

weapon masteries give more percentage chances to crit (1.44% per rank) than critical strikes (1%)
you'll have more chances to crit with 15dm/13cs than 15cs/13dm

for pve, i personally recommend not going beyond cs13 also. (breakpoint for the +3en).
as you progress late in the game, even 15dm 13cs + critical eye gives out only rare criticals because of the higher monster level penalty. if you wish to use constant critical hits as an energy management of sorts/critical defense/WoP, bring sure-criticals in high-end pve like crit strikes or wild blow.

In the higher game, crits drop so badly versus high level monsters you can usually get away with dropping crit to 8, if you have zealous daggers.

I find the only real reason to use high Critical Strikes(as in over 13) is if you are running a Palm Strike build - then having CS at around 14-15 is actually usefull for the extra armour ignoring damage. Fair enough its not much extra damage but still...:-)

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