Assassin/Elementalist scheming

Mostly an idea of trying to capitalize on the Elementalist's conjurings, although without that being the only elemental skill. That, and using Temple Strike as the elite...

Plan 1 (Lightning scheme):
--Golden Lotus Strike
--*Temple Strike
--Golden Phoenix Strike
--Death Blossom
--Sadist's Signet/Signet of Deadly Corruption/Signet of Malice
--Conjure Lightning
--Enervating Charge

Golden Phoenix Strike is there to make sure there's still an off-hand ready while Temple Strike is recharging. The various Signet options are there to take advantage of all the conditions (although that makes me wonder if I should try to shove a source of Bleeding, Poison, or Crippled in there...Mantis Touch, maybe?). Enervating Charge adds another condition with some at-least-somewhat respectable damage (the sources of Burning don't let it last very long, while the Weakness from EC lasts for a good long while, a nice failsafe for the Signet if no spike imaginable will fell a goon before the Burning would expire). Some viable alternatives are probably among the options I'm trying to choose among in Plan 2 (especially since, when I was charting these, I forgot that Deep Wound also reduces the enemy's maximum health; I only remembered the healing reduction, albeit as healing INTERDICTION...).

Plan 2 (Frost scheme):
--Black Lotus Strike/Golden Lotus Strike
--*Temple Strike
--Golden Phoenix Strike/Black Spider Strike/Golden Fang Strike/Mantis Touch
--Death Blossom/Twisting Fangs (AoE, or spike-by-conditions?)
--Signet of Shadows/Signet of Deadly Corruption/Augury of Death/Scorpion Wire/Shadow Fang/Heart of Shadow/Viper's Defense (...Can you tell I'm feeling rather indecisive about the non-combo skill for this scheme?)
--Conjure Frost
--Frozen Burst

BLS is obviously meant to capitalize on Frozen Burst, as well as any of the slot 5 options that are hexes. I'm just worried whether GLS would work better anyway (BLS can potentially have a better net Energy return, but GLS doesn't need that much Energy to start off with). At least Black Spider Strike isn't quite so iffy (just a matter of Poison vs. AoE vs. Deep Wound vs. Cripple). Mantis Touch doesn't look quite so good with Frozen Burst in there, even if it works at range (so why *did* I include it...? {confused}).

The fifth option is where I get antsy. The Signets capitalize on at least blindness, if not more conditions, while everything else is my wondering about whether Shadow Stepping has a place (not to mention whether the Shadow Stepping should be offensive or defensive in nature).

I will own that I'm mostly thinking in PvE terms with this. PvP just has no appeal for me...

1. You completely focus on being enchanted, if you lose conjure, some of your skills lock, unless you're enchanted with another spell. Beware of any ench-removal.
2. You completely focus on foe being hexed, but since Frozen Burst has 8s recharge and it's AoE this should not be problem, but beware of heavy hex-removal areas.

Those builds might work in some areas, but for me conjures work best with WotA. WotA providea enough crits for some extra damage and energy, conjure damage and storm djinn's haste if you have skills focused on ench or have blessed armor and it provides long durating speed boost. WotA generates horrible amount of energy, so you don't have to taky any e-management skill.

You might want to try Jagged, Fox Fangs, Deathblossom, Critstrike (to offset steep temple strike), Temple strike, Crit agility, Ascan, Conjure.

It should be a bit more effective, while still keeping the core of your build. I guess you can change Critstrike for criteye, for more steady emanate, but less on demand energy.

I think you would be better off using the Critical Strikes attribute and PvE skills ("Dodge This!" etc.) for increasing your damage. Shouts have less counters in PvE and don't have activation times slowing you down. Use cripple skills in assassin attributes for snares.

Signet of Deadly Corruption could work on an Ebon assassin spam build with Assassin's Promise, Arcane Echo, Finish Him, and YMLaD.

There is really nothing at all worthwhile that you can take from ele other than a conjure. Anything with a cast time directly detracts from your ability to spam Death Blossom. I dunno, maybe Glimmering Mark to quickly throw on a lone warrior while you focus on a group of casters? Fairly marginal but the best I can come up with.

I'm expected to spam...? When did THIS start?! And Death Blossom isn't the centerpiece to begin with (that's Temple Strike with its cripple-goons'-ability-to-fight-whether-magic-or-physical quality); it and Twisting Fangs were just the only particularly interesting-looking duals I could find that had cooldowns that weren't worse than the Lotus Strikes. (Does Death Blossom even do that much damage per application? Remember that the non-elite off-hands don't have THAT short a cooldown...)

Although, where would your point apply for Assassin builds that don't bother with Death Blossom (q.v. my considering Twisting Fangs as an alternate)?

I know it might seem a bit strange for an Assassin, but I'm looking for a condition|hex/spike mix, not pure spike. Cripple them, THEN go in for the kill (I know better than to rely on pure damage in any situation, in any game...). Of course, this is coming from someone who once played with the idea of a hammer Warrior/Ritualist (I definitely remember Earthbind was one of the two Ritualist skills, but I can't remember the other one...). I am still somewhat uncertain about what class formation I want to go to; I'm considering taking a look at what Dervish/Elementalist is capable of (even if all I have at the moment is Factions; I try to plan as far in advance as possible).

Melee is just about dmg in pve, sorry to tell you. With fox fangs you can use DB for 80 aoe dmg+dagger&conjures in single target every 3 seconds. Temple strike isnt worth it as stuff should drop in less than ten seconds, especially in NM.

If you wish to stay with temple strike I point you back to my earlier post, where you mostly save it for healers and bosses.