A/x First Build

I'm relatively new to assassins, I play a necro and a warrior, but I'm looking for something different.
Here's my build, comment please.

Assassin
Level: 20

weapons: zealous max daggers 15% while enchanted, ebon daggers against warriors, maybe vampiric daggers would be a nice asset too.
armor: mask of dagger mastery, full radiant armor with runes of major vigor, major dagger mastery and minor critical strikes.

Critical Strikes: 13 (12+1)
Dagger Mastery: 16 (12+4)
Deadly Arts: 4 (3+1)

- Expose Defenses (Deadly Arts)
- Aura of Displacement [Elite] (Assassin None)
- Black Mantis Thrust (Dagger Mastery)
- Black Lotus Strike (Critical Strikes)
- Horns of the Ox (Dagger Mastery)
- Falling Spider (Dagger Mastery)
- Blades of Steel (Dagger Mastery)
- Shadow Refuge (Shadow Arts)

Maybe the lack of res signet could be a problem in PvP.

I'd drop shadow refuge since you're not specced into it (could put a res sig there), also, drop the superior rune for dagger mastery, the damage buff isn't worth the health loss, especially on a class thats targetted fairly often. also, (this is just my opinion, bound to be disagreed upon by someone :P) if you have GWEN, i'd replace horns of the ox with trampling ox, since you're running black mantis thrust. other possibility is to drop black mantis, keep horns, use feigned neutrality.

(I should paragraph, but I'm too lazy)

your hex is too long of recharge, 25 secs. if you are going to rely on such a long recharge youd be much better off using shadow prison instead of aura of displacement

Thanks for your comments.

Unfortunately I don't have nightfall and GW:EN, I'll get them in two months or so.

I use AoD because it grants you both, shadow step in and out. I think it's vital to have a skill to get out of trouble fast.

I put shadow refuge for survability and counter health degen but anyway, without points in shadow arts it's not that useful. I'd use feigned neutrality instead of refuge but I don't have access to nighfall skills.
Is it really necessary to have a survability skill? perhaps a skill that blocks attacks like critical defenses or something could be better?

Just to make it clear are you after PvP or PvE opinions?

Try tapping into your secondary profession. As an A/R you have access to all the running skills, generic preparations, and traps of the Ranger profession. My Assassin is also an A/R and I've been playing around with with Apply Poison(all I need are poisonous daggers) in combination with condition causing attacks. You don't have to do conditions but they're helpful when dealing with alot of foes. What do you want your Assassin to specialize in? Sins do 3 things rather well: conditions, spiking, and interrupting.

You have energy management... don't you?
Look... a word of advice:

Drop the Radiant armour and replace it with Nightstalkers for the extra armour while attacking. Your energy should hold up fine, but you'll need all the extra defense you can get.


.... And if you're doing PvE then put Critical Agility in somewhere. No PvE Sin with more than 4 points in Criticals should be without it. Even in PvP you should probably go secondary Warrior or Ranger to take advantage of their IAS skills.

16 Dagger Mastery means that you must use a Superior Dagger Mastery rune. The only time you should ever be running a Superior, in my opinion, is to go 16 Shadow Arts for perma-Shadow Form.

The extended recharge on Expose Defenses has already been mentioned. Unless there are other people bringing hexes along, you're going to be auto-attacking (aka worthless) during ED's downtime.

Your build only works to full capacity on solo enemies; Horns of the Ox only works when your opponent is alone.

You've got Shadow Refuge, but no points in Shadow Arts. That makes it worthless.

You've got elements of quality in your build, but I can't point to one place where it could be used except as, perhaps, an AB ganking build, with the caveat that you're susceptible to all the typical stuff that melee builds are susceptible to.

Like I said, there's potential. It just needs tweaking.