A/W's?

Ashe.

Ashe.

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2007

Tales Of Glory[ePiC]

Rt/

Ok so I recently deleted my A/Mo which I am greatly regretting right now and am planning on remaking my assassin tonight...I was run by an A/W and used one with an Axe in PvP.

If I made one I would probably use daggers but has anyone ever used one and could tell me how they are?

Shuuda

Shuuda

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

Guildless

Me/

where did you see thid build been run? If it was RA or AB, the chance are the build was rubbish, or he was just messing around for fun, however A/W axe can be good in PvE Via maxing critical strikes and combining Sharpen daggers + Critical defences with Cyclone axe + Triple chop.

jesh

jesh

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

San Diego, CA

Penguin Village

Mo/

I've seen people use Cyclone Axe combined with Critical Defenses and whatnot before, but the main reason that people use A/W is for IAS skills. Frenzy, Flurry, Flail, and of course, Burst of Aggression are some examples. Assassins already spike hard and fast, but with an IAS skill, they can be faster.
Doing so limits your choice of shadow step skills, though. Shadow of Haste and other nice skills become off limits to you. A/W is a good choice, and so is A/Mo for a hard res or ganking abilities. (Mending Touch)

Shuuda

Shuuda

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

Guildless

Me/

Personally I find the whole A/W Shadow prison stuff to be overrated, it really isn't that good.

Yanman.be

Yanman.be

Banned

Join Date: Dec 2005

Belgium

[ROSE]

A/

You do know you can change your secondary without deleting your character right? Just making sure.

Diddy bow

Diddy bow

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2006

Jawsome!!!!!!!!!!!

looking for one :p

A/D

A/W is my favorite and is great to try out as BOA ,flail etc can work good in just about any build

AuraofMana

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

Georgia, US

Quote:
Personally I find the whole A/W Shadow prison stuff to be overrated, it really isn't that good. Agreed. It requires you to split points into Deadly Arts as well, and the Dagger + CS should take up most of your points (I max both because I love it).

Dutch Masterr

Dutch Masterr

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

Long Island, NY

Elite Knights [SWAT]

W/

what sucks about shadow prison is if your first attack gets blocked, your screwed. also, if you dont kill your target in however long shadow prison lasts youre screwed again.

jesh

jesh

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

San Diego, CA

Penguin Village

Mo/

Who said anything about Shadow Prison? The OP is asking what A/Ws are like, and I don't see how the last few posts have helped him at all.
All that I meant in my post is that an IAS helps. Guess what? It helps even if you don't use Shadow Prison.

Ashe.

Ashe.

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2007

Tales Of Glory[ePiC]

Rt/

I know I can change profession but I wasn't really liking my assassin PERIOD and decided to delete her before I could change my profession.
i made the A/W and am really liking her so far, certain skills make it easier to tank the few seconds im in the fray lol.

Shuuda

Shuuda

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

Guildless

Me/

Feigned Neutrality is a nice skill when you need to, well.... not die.

Poise

Poise

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Oct 2006

Shuuda - I disagree about the Shadow Prison spike builds. Although counters are becoming more common for it, it is a very effective build. It does precisely what an Assassin is commonly trying to do; lots of unexpected damage in a short time period.
AuraofMana - Deadly Arts only needs to be at level 2 (3 attr points spent) for Shadow Prison to last 5 seconds. That is more than enough time to get off your chain. If you bring Wild Blow, it is also enough time to do half the chain, see them put up a stance, Wild Blow the stance off, and then finish your chain.
Dutch - This is only true if you're using Falling. If you use the BLS>Hoto>BSS>TF chain (or BLS>TF>BSS>BoS), you can still do pretty good damage and degen, even if BLS is blocked.

As to the OP - The most common reason for using /W as a secondary is for attack speed buffs. Also the ability to carry Wild Blow is useful at times. I don't PvE myself, but I imagine PvE'rs might also use /W for defensive stances.

Utaku

Utaku

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2006

Paris, France

We eat pancakes [Yumy]

Me/

I play a A/W for wild blow.
Ranger stances are a nuisance, strip them.

IAS is usefull too, and with flurry and Burst of Aggression you get the benefits with almost no drawback.

bg_solidsnake

bg_solidsnake

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2006

Bulgaria

W/

Im very pleased with my A/W!I personaly use some tactic stances like "bonetti's defence".Its great!Yes i regain energy via the primary attribute wich i have set to 10 coz i you get 1.4% crit chance by using dagger mastery(14),but with 2 tactics u have 6 seconds of 75% block chanse and 5 energy for every strike blocked.I dont see why you dont like the A/W

Shuuda

Shuuda

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

Guildless

Me/

Poise- Shadow prison is easily countered by monks with hex breaker.

at OP - I forgot to mention that dark escape is good for running.

Yanman.be

Yanman.be

Banned

Join Date: Dec 2005

Belgium

[ROSE]

A/

Shuuda, you could also just spike the targets you know are vulnerable. This is also one of the requirements of being a good sin: picking your targets.

Sqube

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Dec 2006

Behind you...

A/

I'm with Yanman on this one. It's really easy to just run at somebody and run your combo. It's a lot more difficult to decide who should be the unfortunate recipient of the aforementioned combo.

If you've got a halfway-decent group with you, I always like to go after monks and/or mesmers (for obvious reasons). Then mop up whatever other casters there might be, then knock out the melee guys. Makes things a lot easier when the guy you're fighting isn't constantly getting healed while your monks get interrupted.

Saphatorael

Saphatorael

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Dec 2005

Belgium

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yanman.be
Shuuda, you could also just spike the targets you know are vulnerable. This is also one of the requirements of being a good sin: picking your targets. QFT.
I love it when I spike someone down and not even 2 monks in the team can't save his puny buttocks. (Their hp's were low anyways so they focussed on healing eachother, go go team pressure in RA)

Also, don't forget 'timing', of course.

Shuuda

Shuuda

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2006

Guildless

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yanman.be
Shuuda, you could also just spike the targets you know are vulnerable. This is also one of the requirements of being a good sin: picking your targets. That maybe true, but I still stand by my ideas, I've been using hidden caltrops lately and have been finding nice nicer, the recharge time, longer snare are lasting for 20 seconds makes it nicer than shadow prison. Personally I try not to go for monks as they counter assassins far to easily, I prefer to go for other soft target that will cause problems for my party (like SF ele's and anti caster mesmers) Thumpers and mesmers are better for handling the monks.

In the end any "good" monk could counter an assassin spike.