It's not dead :O

Been seeing this a lot in AB. yes so have i. but...against my MB sin the SP sin now fails against me 1 on 1.

HotO is what made this spike so strong.

actually, no, it's ideal to have it in that slot since a deep wound by itself cannot kill you, it will leave you with at least 1 hp. Twisting Fangs is a dual attack, meaning it hits twice. So it triggers the DW by its self.

assassin is a 1234567 class...thats just how theyre designed. LOL no. ANET is trying to drill this into the heads of all those 12345 'sins, hence why they're trying to stop those builds. They're trying to prove that 'sins are a class that requires some form of mediocre intelligence to play, thus obliterating the whole assassin gank thing.

People think the class is build around hitting 12345 because they see all these movies about assassins or play other games that hinge around the 'sin hiding in the darkness and taking someone down when they least suspect it. To an extent, yes, this is true - but the whole 1 hit K.O thing doesn't work in GW, hence why Anet is thinking of an alternative view of the assassin.

In conclusion children, the media can create false ideologies inside that head of yours. Try to think why Anet does things instead of going to the easy answer - "OMG THEY'RE NERFIN BCOZ WE ROX THEIR S0X!!1".

HotO is what made this spike so strong. its was actually impale and the IAS that made the spike so strong...

its was actually impale and the IAS that made the spike so strong... Hi thar, guildmate.

Imo, it was actually the fact that an SP bar was:

1. A short dagger chain: 4 Skills (sometimes Impale is added, but with a 1/4 cast it doesn't really matter THAT much). This was because of the double hex-requiring direct off-hands, perfectly synergizing with Shadow Prison
2. Because of that short chain, you could put in an IAS, further shortening the duration of the actual spike.
3. High Damage, even though it's only 4 skills.

The combination of these 3 properties of the spike, made it so strong. Izzy went on a rampage, just like when he murdered Divine Boon by going for Mantra of Recall as well.
He got rid of the hex-based 4 skill-chain, and lowered the damage a bit.
This AFTER trying to not get rid of the hex-based chain, but going for the skills an sich, e.g. Black Spider Strike becoming 10e cost.

IMO, he hit the SP sin bar a bit too hard. The nerf to Impale just screwed over any dagger-wielding Assassins, which is the main reason why RA is so full with assacasters instead of SP sins.
I wouldn't mind seeing reverts to Impale (back to 1/4 cast), Black Spider Strike (back to 5e if not lower the damage slightly, it's pointless to leave it at 10e; It's as crappy as Golden Phoenix Strike when that was 10e), and Horns of the Ox. Well, HotO isn't really that important to me, I hardly notice the lower damage when using it; a kd is fine enough already anyways.

Twisting Fangs is a dual attack, meaning it hits twice. So it triggers the DW by its self. Well the way the mechanics work is that on the first hit it applies bleeding AFTER the hit, and on the second hit it applies DW AFTER the hit. So no it doesn't trigger itself. But, what the guy said above about Twisting Fangs and bleeding does help, degen can trigger it.


oh thanks for agreeing with me fireflyry lol even if i was so fired up and a little mean last night. im glad someone else can see the fact that the strongest spike chains have at least 2 dual attacks and in order to do that you are going to have some sequentialness.

Well the way the mechanics work is that on the first hit it applies bleeding AFTER the hit, and on the second hit it applies DW AFTER the hit. So no it doesn't trigger itself. But, what the guy said above about Twisting Fangs and bleeding does help, degen can trigger it. It applies bleeding AND deep wound on both hits.