Assassin Hate... Why?
Samurai-JM
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Originally Posted by Silk Weaver
Ultility (CAN tank, I've already done it in many areas of hard mode, can shut down, can spike, can DPS, can spread condtions, can even cast from afar)
Calling (who can't do this? Any character, melee or ranged, tanker or caster, can call targets. I do this often since I usually take the lead role in PUGs when I enter them)
Positioning (I'll admit warriors are better for positioning, meaning standing in an area while the others shoot from afar, but Sins can still do that, plus shadow stepping. although many argue that this ruins positioning, I say it helps very much to jump around in a crowd and get in/out of the fight)
Constant DPS (I'm not going to say Moebius/DB, although it does work very effectively, there are still many better ways to hold DPS. Nearly all assassin attacks spawn in 8 seconds or less, not including the ones commonly used in spikes which take up to 12 or 15 seconds. A great DPS build with high survivability is simply AoD -> Unsuspecting Strike -> Wild Strike -> Death Blossom. It's spammable, easily maintained with zealous daggers and critical strikes, and other e-management skills can be added if thats a problem. Most assassin attacks do much more pressure than they are given credit for.)
About the 20 second spikes, that is not so in my own case. I Always use the Assassin's Promise version of that build in PvE, and I am very effective with it. Very, VERY rarely do I miss with the hex, and if I'm worried about Hex Breaker, just cast Dark Prison first. I would love to see a warrior go in alone and wipe out an entire FoW mob in under 10 seconds.
Quote: Originally Posted by Silk Weaver Aside from spiking, what else can a sin do? Obviously, you can decide to put horns in instead of blades, and other stuff, but in the end it's the same thing, isn't it? Aren't we discussing about personal skill here? Not Build Wars?
Note: I don't mind Moebius + DB, but whatever. Already posted many examples above, Spiking, Tanking, DPS with shadowstep/run skills, Shutdown, Even Crit Barrager(although I don't really count it as a Sin build, it works.) What do warriors do? Swing a sword, axe, or hammer around and wear high armor. Ok they can do positioning, but what is that? Standing in a spot so the bad guys don't hit you? Anyone can do that, including an assassin.
Quote: Originally Posted by Silk Weaver Sorry, an ele can drop two, three, four, five, a warrior can do what a sin can, at twice the speed or more, and then the trapper can own face. Let's just compare it to an SF team. Thats like comparing Searing Flames and Energy Surge. A fire ele is made to nuke, I doubt anyone will argue that. A warrior kill twice as fast as a sin? I'd love to see that. I've never seen any warrior come even close to killing as fast as any assassin. Whether it be Eviscerate->Executioners or Sever->Gash->Final, nothing a warrior can do in killing speed compares to a good assassin.
Quote: Originally Posted by Silk Weaver Sins do not promote teamwork as much as warriors, mesmers, and pretty much every other class. Perhaps true in some cases, spiker sins are made to go out ahead of the group and take out enemies, but a good assassin knows to wait until the group has aggro and the heavier armored characters are up in the battle before rushing in. By doing this an assassin can pick off the enemies giving monks or tanks trouble without getting into much trouble of his own. Many other variants of assassins are used in team spike builds, some shutdown the enemy, some spike, and some tank. MOST assassins sadly don't understand this concept, but trust me assassins are very much a part of the team.
Quote: Originally Posted by Silk Weaver Are you sure? Please back up this statement. Afaik I was henchwaying THK as well last night in hard mode. Then it got boring. Let's not compare "LOLO I HAVE X AMOUNT OF FAME/EXP/GLADPOINTS", and back it up with evidence. Not sure what you mean, but I henched... Everything in elona with my sin. Masters on every mission that didn't require more than one person with them, then pugged the remaining 1 or 2. Then proceded to hench masters across cantha, and I'm nearly done with tyria. I also happen to be the only frontline character in the entire team of henches/heros. Me, a monk, a shutdown nec/mes, an ele, then random assortments of support heros depending on the area. My AP build wipes out areas just fine with a little backup and defense in the backline. The ability to be spiking enemies 100% with exactly 0 seconds of downtime is pretty amazing.
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It's okay, we know what "spiking" means, but thanks for the effort, professor.
Said it many, many times, assassins do more than spike. The community just happens to not know any better. In HM I currently use either an A/Rt with Vital Weapon + Wielders boon, or an A/D with crit defenses and mystic regen. Both successfully tank/surive/kill pretty much anything HM throws at me.
About tanking... sorry, I refer merely to PvP. For PvE, Shadow Form is indeed a viable option for both running, farming, and mission play (the latter is a bit pointless though, as Obsidian Flesh is more popular for a reason). For PvP though... well, let's just say critical defense only works on noobs.
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Calling
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Not very well. Its most efficienct utility, recall and disrupting dagger, for example, are arguably as effective on a sin as they are on warriors and other classes. Some of the assassin skills I think are really nifty, but the class itself...
Originally Posted by Silk Weaver
As opposed to harder? Also-- let's attack the same target while they are under mark of protection or healing hands!
If an enemy puts up one of those, just don't attack it for 10 seconds. No big deal. Even on spikers when the enchantment wears off most of their combo will be recharged so they can go at it again. If the entire party starts attacking a monk under MoP, it's not the assassin's fault that it isn't dying. Teamwork is a key part of the game though, and against a mob, having a few eles take that top 15-20% off the health bar, or having a mesmer/necro rip apart enchantments and lay down hexes before you spike is a very nice addition, and simply ensures the kill. Quote:
I've actually endangered what little respect I deserved by saying that these tactical choices should take precedence over personal skills and therefore sins aren't as skillless as sometimes portrayed, blah blah. See me as a moderate. You're not convincing me though.
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About tanking... sorry, I refer merely to PvP. For PvE, Shadow Form is indeed a viable option for both running, farming, and mission play (the latter is a bit pointless though, as Obsidian Flesh is more popular for a reason). For PvP though... well, let's just say critical defense only works on noobs.
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Quote: Constant DPS I've already said in another thread that the need to change targets very quickly (read:very very quickly) for it to be efficienct. How ironic, too, that I was the first one who wrote an Unsus > Wild > DB chain on Guild Wiki. At least I think so, hm, could be my memory. But yes, that chain was pretty neat damage, but if it was worth it, you'd think we'd be using it now, right?
We're -not- using it now, just to clarify. You don't understand warrior DPS if you think its much stronger than Dragonslash, Cripslash > Gash > Final, or even a Thumper.
Quote: Assassin's Promise Again, PvE
Quote: Spiking, Tanking, DPS with shadowstep/run skills, Shutdown, Even Crit Barrager Spiking, as mentioned, takes less skill and versatility as a warrior, dervish, and paragon. Tanking, this is not PvE plx. DPS, also dealth with before, shutdown... what, you mean KD? What about Backbreaker? Earthshaker? Bull's Strike? Crit Barrager, against, PvE.
Quote: What do warriors do? Swing a sword, axe, or hammer around and wear high armor. Firstly, you do not understand the role of a warrior.
Quote: Ok they can do positioning, but what is that? Secondly you do not understand positioning and tactics.
Please stop bastardizing the class. Yes, it is a stereotypical view, big burly men smashing people to bits. This essentially is what it is but, the tactics involved have to do with the threat of being smashed to bits, various counters to that, and various ways to over-coming that counter, which essentially still leads to smashing them to bits, but isn't that what we're all trying to do?
Think rugby (right right, football) tactics, where they draw on the blackboard. What are the players? Big men capable of crushing you with their weight. What do they do when they reach you? Take the ball away from you and stop you, in a way similar to a warrior trying to get you killed. Yes, I don't play the sport, but I hope this analogy is correct, but are you suggesting that since all a player does when they reach an opposing one is tackle him it makes the game purely physical with little to do with tactics?
Guildwars becomes a even more complicated than that with the introduction of two things. Firstly, everyone is as strong as each other, just as fast, so less emphasis on that, secondly, skills (frenzy) and classes (mezmar) makes the decision of who to attack, how to coordinate an attack, how to fool the enemy and waste their resources (pressure), and other things more dynamic.
Through threats (If you've PvEed in old ascalon with 3 monk grawls and 2 backbreakers, plus other fun stuff, you know what I mean), pressure warrior does a lot more than attack someone. A warrior standing next to you is a gun, loaded or not depends, but it may very well be. Backbreaker on monk, eviserate and final thrust on frenzy war a second later while said monk is being healed. Done.
An ASSASSIN on the other hand, does very little besides, at least as far as the metagame is concerned. Shadow Prisoning the flagger works, and spiking off targets, but that's it. I give them a lot more credit while on splits, but I'm assuming that we're not discussing splits.
I'm not exactly an expereinced PvPer as top tier GvG goes, but this is my understanding, and I think it's close enough, someone correct me.
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nothing a warrior can do in killing speed compares to a good assassin
Not true. Time for some evidence. Quote:
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