This is an exceptionally powerful build I made (though I do not claim to be the first to do so). Its power lies in the surprise and survivability of shadow steps, the damage of MBlossom, and the knockdown-lockdown of MHorns. It's designed for RA/TA, which is my favorite PvP area (I'm in a 1-man guild, so HA/GvG is out of my reach), but it could be adapted for AB, or possibly GvG.
Equipment:
Zealous Daggers are required for energy-management. Also, it's suggested to pack a pair of +5e daggers for DP buildup or if you need a little extra time to finish off your target.
Attributes:
13 (12+1) Dagger Mastery
13 (10+2+1) Critical Strikes
9 (8+1) Shadow Arts
[skill]Golden Phoenix Strike[/skill][skill]Death Blossom[/skill][skill]Moebius Strike[/skill][skill]Horns of the Ox[/skill][skill]Shadow Refuge[/skill][skill]Dash[/skill][skill]Shadow Walk[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
Your target decides much of how you'll go about. If your target's a monk, mesmer, ele, etc., you'll want to use SR, and then Shadow Walk to them, attack, and when you're being threatened or have killed the foe, use Dash to cancel SW. On the other hand, if a warrior's rushing your mid/back-line, just skip Shadow Walk and enchant yourself with SR and attack. Also, once the target's under 50%, you've got another choice: First, you can start the Horns-lock if you need to shutdown the target; this is recommended for monks, eles, and other high-priority targets (especially if you have a teammate helping you out with damage). Second, you can continue with MS-DB spam, which is advised for foes that have little to no defenses, like mesmers, other assassins (though a KD to disrupt their chain is useful), and such.
Then, after your pseudo-spike, while SW is recharging (which won't take as long as you might think), you can attack players on the enemy frontline, such as dervishes, warriors, and other 'Sins. Also during this time, you can freely use Dash (would normally cancel SW; end of assault) and Shadow Refuge (can't use spells in SW), which allows better for anti-kiting and self-healing. This is actually my favorite mode of play, as you can use it like a linebacker to spike down the overextending warriors (you just gotta love those Mending+Healing Breeze tanks!). In this mode, you're more flexible to the environments, though you're not going to be able to safely penetrate the frontline.
Now, The real advantage of this build over instagib 'Sins is the survivability of the build. At first glance, the build looks like just another squishie 'Sin, but the survivability coming in with SR, being able to hop in and out at will (as long as the recharge allows), and finishing with another SR, is absolutely godly. It just has so much better defense than the old-and-new SP, AoD, Shove (not as much), Flourish, etc. builds out there. Not only does it have a self-heal (which not many instagibs have), it also has a shadow-step in as well as out, and you'd be surprised by how many times a shadow-step out of the fray can save you. In fact, the shadow-step in helps with survivability as well, since they don't have all that time of you running towards them to react. You really just have to try the build it to understand its appeal.
Also, I'd like to quickly note the importance of observation in terrain. Before shadow-stepping, find the best place possible in terms of defense (bridges, boulders, easy escape routes, etc.). This way, once SW runs out or is canceled, you're put back in a relatively safe area away from the combat so you can heal up again.
Please, before you make comments, carefully look through the skills and make sure you understand everything. I'd like to keep this as constructive as possible.
My PvP Moebius Build
Jaigoda
bathazard
nice build, i have a very similar build that uses vital boon and pois sig for ab( no res or refuge). and that is very effective... though intresting use of SR and GPS...
Jaigoda
I thought up SR for an enchant on my Beastly Moebius build (a crappy BeastMaster MBlossom build I made for ranger), since I needed some bar-compression, so I used the idea for this one. I'm pretty sure it's been done before; the build's concept isn't very new, but from what I've seen on Wiki, there isn't one that's quite the same.
EDIT: going to bed now, see you people in the morning.
EDIT: going to bed now, see you people in the morning.
Angel Puriel
The only thing with this build is, you have very little room for error due to SR's duration and GPS' recharge.
The build is very similar to one of my PvE builds. Except I don't use Res and Critical Agility is in the bar.
The build is very similar to one of my PvE builds. Except I don't use Res and Critical Agility is in the bar.
BlackSephir
So you need SR to actually do something?
No, thx.
No, thx.
Bobby2
A+ for bar compression. Though your spike doesn't strike me as powerful at all. Of course if you had some help keeping an enemy under 50%HP, things would be different. 
Kyrein
you want an exceptionally powerful build for a pvp assassin?
look me up ingame,ill send you a couple
if i find them on wiki youre dead
look me up ingame,ill send you a couple
if i find them on wiki youre dead
moko
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyrein
you want an exceptionally powerful build for a pvp assassin?
look me up ingame,ill send you a couple
if i find them on wiki youre dead haha, you're so funny, must be critical beastmasters!!!!!!!!!1
to the build; it obviously is an old concept.
i personally prefer a proper snare over dash and shadow walk for arenas (it just has so many uses!) and do a chain with sipho-bls wild strike and stuff.
while your surviveability seems to be better, in practise you won't be that succesful at all with it. but if you like getting owned by the enchant once in a while, sure :P
look me up ingame,ill send you a couple
if i find them on wiki youre dead haha, you're so funny, must be critical beastmasters!!!!!!!!!1
to the build; it obviously is an old concept.
i personally prefer a proper snare over dash and shadow walk for arenas (it just has so many uses!) and do a chain with sipho-bls wild strike and stuff.
while your surviveability seems to be better, in practise you won't be that succesful at all with it. but if you like getting owned by the enchant once in a while, sure :P
Tyla
Not much different to what i use.
But it lacks snare tbh...:/
But it lacks snare tbh...:/
Jaigoda
Quote:
Originally Posted by Angel Puriel
Quote: Originally Posted by BlackSephir So you need SR to actually do something?
No, thx. I asked noobs like you to read carefully, so this kind of thing wouldn't happen. Look at the build. You'll notice Golden Phoenix Strike (your chain starter) requires your enchantment to hit. Now, to help compress the bar's size, I've combined the self-heal and the enchantment requirement skill into one. So again, read before you post.
Quote: Originally Posted by Bobby2 A+ for bar compression. Though your spike doesn't strike me as powerful at all. Of course if you had some help keeping an enemy under 50%HP, things would be different. I just called it a spike because of the surprise factor. It's really not a spike, and it can take 10-15 seconds to take someone like a monk down. Your advantage is the repeatability of the assault.
Quote:
SR easily keeps you up at least 10 seconds even if you're being targetted by 1-2 foes. No, it won't keep you at max health, but see, unlike yours which has to run at the first sign of significant danger or risk death, my build can step out exactly when it wants, and has 3 seconds to Dash out of the casters' ranges. This gives you an extra ~5 seconds before your health will drop to critical levels, even if your being hit hard.|
Originally Posted by Mokone
to the build; it obviously is an old concept. Ya. RA is heaven and hell for Sins. My preference is to ensure to the greatest possible extent my spike will succeed. SR fills a nice niche in your build, but don't think it will help against serious degen. I, for one, tend not to bother with a self-heal, even in RA. Though I've stopped doing that a while ago - too many 'tards.i personally prefer a proper snare over dash and shadow walk for arenas (it just has so many uses!) and do a chain with sipho-bls wild strike and stuff. I would prefer Siphon over Dash as well, but I'd have to give up something in the build, i.e. losing the extremely important in-and-out shadow-step, losing self-heal and having energy problems from BSS (I'm not going to use a L-O-D starter chain, sorry - too slow), etc. You'd be surprised by how much the shadow-step helps in terms of survivability and power (by power I mean the fact that they have so much less time to prepare against your attack). You won't understand the advantage of the shadow-steps until you actually try them. And anyway, a snare is often unneeded when you've got lots of KD's, and even then, most of the time people are afraid of running from an assassin in fear of crits (remember that this is RA, and people aren't too incredibly smart). Quote:
The only problem is, it's just stupid to not bring a self-heal on an RA 'Sin. You're being targetted so much, that if you don't have a self heal, and even with damage-mitigation skills, you'll go down like a sack of potatoes. In TA, you might get away with not having one if you've got a good monk (which is hard to come by in a PuG). Just personal preference, I guess.
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Shadow Walk gets you there so fast, they have only about 1 second (smaller than you might think considering people often have ever-so-slight lag) to hit that block stance before GPS gets in. After that, your skills recharge fast enough so that it's not much of a problem. Quote:
Quote: Originally Posted by Mokone SR would keep you up for 5 seconds more. worth it? not at all. |
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Quote: Originally Posted by Mokone the point of a blocking stance is the "oshi-!" reaction. you're about to die or on the ground? you pop a stance, get up, use guardian. THEN the sin recharges won't help anyways. now, if you do the same thing with a stance remover, their oshi button is screwed and they will most likely die. also, lots of RA monks run Frenzied Defense (which should be good for you as long as you have stance removal) which has a low recharge. But in this scenario, even with your stance-removal, you're not going to do sh-t either. While you might not be in as bad a position (though with Shadow Walk, you're never in a bad position), you've still got Guardian to get through, which will quite effectively neuter your DPS. Then, you've got the problem of getting out, which again, comes so SS. While it might also provide a snare, Dash is just about as effective at getting away as SS (especially if it pops you an aggro bubble away to start).
Quote: Originally Posted by Mokone shadowsteps are really only good if they snare, shadow walk is a pve/ab/npc gank skill, nothing more. The only problems I run into are monks, and an occasional ranger. But with monks, if he's stupid (and in RA, that's the most common kind), he'll run in a straight line away from you, but also from his allies. Thus, your team can just pick off the others while the monk runs a marathon. If he's smart, he'll run in a circle. But this allows you to get a hit every few seconds, at which point HotO puts em on the ground long enough to get a Moebius and another dual off (and if they're under 50%, Horns Lock). And while this may not be as effective as SS, it's still enough to cause very good pressure, especially since if the monk's kiting, he's not healing, and if he's not healing, the party's dying.
Quote: Originally Posted by Mokone you can debate about the selfheal, but i'll say it again. Go ahead, I don't mind repeating myself.
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Originally Posted by Mokone
RA stomps you selfheal doesn't help vs stomp selfheal is useless Don't knock it till you try it. Quote:
yes, cause i can cast guardian when i'm knocked down, too. re-read maybe, it's meant to be a finisher, not pressuring someone with guardian.
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