First Thoughts on Ritualist and Assassin

I just tried the prebuilt Assassin. I like the aspect where the skills are chained. The shadow stepping attribute and skills will take a little longer top get used to. The assassin skills are good enough for damage output, and the conditions they can dish out - WOW!

I have to agree about the pallette, and I hope they change the emotes so it's not a dupe or the Ranger. Probably just because it's the teaser weekend.

I wish I would have played more PvP to get some faction to unlock skills, or maybe ArenaNet could have had the Training area more along the lines of PreSear - so we could have done some simple quests to unlock a few more skills for the arenas. I do understand that this a PvP weekend but give me a few skills to play around with since I have no factioon (had to use a new account - no free slots on my main one ).

Just spent 2 hours trying out the new classes in pvp. Assassin is a runner's delight. W/ their evade and running skills, a CA match will last forever if the Assassin player knows how to run. The complex attack chains will separate the dedicated melee'ers from the casual attacker. A condition inducing assassin and a fragility/epidemic mesmer grp is a scary thought, partcularly for the opposing monks.

But I'm more worried about ritualists. their ability to heal via restorative skills really give monks a run for their money. And a 5 second rez spell with no recharge time (flesh of my flesh)? Very troubling to me (if the secondary is Me you could throw in a mantra to prevent interruptions).

Also, I think the wording for the description of Weapon of Warding is a bit off. The second sentence should read, "The Weapon of Warding grants ally a 50% chance to block physical attacks and a +(insert number) health regeneration." Currently the second sentence reads, "The Weapon of Warding grants a 50% chance to block and you gain a +(insert number) health regeneration." Read literally, that sentence means the target gets 1/2 chance to block all attacks and the caster gets the health regen benefit. This doesn't seem to be the case from my playing experience. Hopefully someone from AN will read this post and make an adjustment to the skill description.

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And btw, I think the best way to stop ritualists is mesmer---interruptions (including Power Block) and edenials. In chap 2, I think that every pvp grp will eventually include a mesmer or 2 to powerblock ritualists.

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Disapointed that Rit spirits don't stack from the same caster (I have no idea if they'd stack with another Rit's spirits on the same team though).

Assassin has some interesting skills in it's lineup, but aside from looks, I don't really see the class comming into it's own (maybe not... looking through the skill list again, maybe I underestimated it). A chain-based sin is easily shutdown with just a simple stance or aegis or ward. One miss/block/evade and it looks like the entire chain is shutdown.

With their armor and energy regen, I see thumper bunnies being replaced by thumper assassins. Increased crits with the hammer = scary. Combined with the following skills, I can see some badass RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing KD/spike sins comming out:



Scorpion Wire
5 energy, 2 cast, 30 recharge
Hex Spell. For 8...18 seconds, the next time you and target foe are more than 100' apart, you teleport to that foe and that foe is knocked down. This spell has half the normal range.

Siphon Speed
5 energy, 1 cast, 5 recharge
Hex spell. For 5...13 seconds, target foe moves 15% slower and you move 15% faster.

Critical Eye
5 Energy, 30 recharge
Skill. For 10...30 seconds, you have an additional 1%...6% chance to land a critical hit when attacking. You gain 1 energy whenever you score a critical hit.

An assassin frag build would be downright horrendous in terms of pain factor. With attacks that are buffed if the enemy is suffering from ANYTHING, Sin could do what he/she should do, kill VERY fast and run like wuss into the night to kill again...

I looked at assasin skills before work, the chain seems a good idea, BUT any interupt will put it to a screaching halt.

I wasn't to impressed by the premade, but I may have to use it for a little while while I build up my faction points (my only PvP is snowball fights). The training was pretty fun I may have to try it out while I wait for to put together a titan group.

Speaking of which, I don't see the assasin holding up well against the titains or any high level Krytain monster, unless their teleport attacks ignore status disorder or conditions. But since chapter 2 won't be in Kryta it may not matter and the final boss in chapter 2 maybe weak against status disorders, just as the titans are weak against elemental attacks.

An interestiong concept. A boss that has high armor, massive attacks but a long load time, fountains when bleeding, pratical moves at a standstill when crippled, can't overcome poison, and recover from dazing.

I wasn't able to judge, but I don't see how the assasin skills will work as a secondary.

I am scared of some skills - I mean there are like - dissable casting spells for 9 secconds (poor monks) OR target foe cannot be targete by enchantments for 8 seconds (poor protector).
...scary...

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Consider this Ritualist skill if you would...

Wailing Weapon - 10 en, 1 cast, 30 recharge
Weapon Spell. For 5-10 seconds, target ally has a Wailing Weapon. Whenever the Wailing Weapon strikes an attacking foe, that foe is interrupted.

Then think of a Barrage ranger with a Ritualist friend...

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Unless Barrage is changed to also disable weapon skills (like preparations), then I'm changing my Rangers secondary when Factions is released.

Man, think about what this could to do an IWaY team, for example, if two barragers with wailing are pouring into them!

I'm tingly.

Since I got home from school today, I've mainly been assassing around...oh wait, assassinating. Personally I like the R/A template, though I'm starting to unlock skills so I can customise. I briefly tried the ritualist with all those spirits, but figured I'd leave it till a bit later, after I've finished assassing...assasinating.

The assasin doesn't have a dance emote loaded in, they do have nice underwear, alot like the necro tat (a tleast the females).

I always have my assasin run with her secondary weapon, how could any human run like that.

I have not been able to play yet, but just looking at the skills it seems that the Assassin is the perfect Monk killer. I mean, with skills that remove enchantments, punish kiters, and make you be able to bypass body blocks it seems like they will be on a PvP to do exactly what their job is, assassinate a specified target.

About them being interrupted and getting their chains messed up... that is why that have so many skills that "evade" or "block." Yes, a single Rigor Mortis screws this up, but then again every build has its counter. I like to think of an assassin who puts up the ability making them immune to damage from spells or attacks, kills the enemy monk, and teleports back to his/her own monk for a heal.

Assassins also are great against those runners that make some Arena matches so annoying.

As far as Ritualist is concerned... I see new potential for n MF (minion factory) build. Flesh of My Flesh to rez (5 seconds to cast, faster than other rezzes, even faster with Mesmer primary and fast casting), be near the Monk for a heal area to recover lost health. The enemy brings EoE? Bring your own, along with Consume Soul. Now you just replace their EoE with your own, you consume it, and give the party a nice heal. They can't lay down EoE again for a while, and when/if they do, you fast cast your own, consume it, and heal your party again.

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Typically, I'm not this superficial (so you know where this is going so turn back now!), but something has to be said.

/rant on

I don't think there should be a choice between looking good and being well protected, I think you should be both. When I pictured a Necromancer, I thought the females would end up looking more like gurl from "Underworld". I thought their armor should be sexy and functional. IMHO, Necro armor doesn't look good until you have to spend a fistful of money on it. Same with the Elementalist I started this week. I got her the good armor when I took her Post-Searing, and she looks like she's in a really bad denim mini-skirt outfit from the mid 80s. But if you want to be not so protected, you can get the lesser, "cuter" armor.

I hoped that the female Assassin and Ritualist would look better... MOVE better, but they don't. Depending on the current combo you choose, the Assassin can end up looking like another child of the 80s, in Spandex biker shorts or suited up to her eyeballs (literally!). Same with the Ritualist.

Their movements are ridiculous. The Assassin runs in combat like she's got a club foot, and the Ritualist moves as if she just stepped out the brush. If she suddenly sat down, and began beating on a drum during a spell I wouldn't be a bit surprised. And why do both have to stand with their legs 3 feet apart? Very unladylike! *lol*

I sincerely hope that there is a major armor update not only to the new classes that are being introduced, but to the current ones as well. GW has a lot of players - there's not only someone out there that looks just like your character, but there's thousands of 'em! We need more choices. And really, when designing these female characters, can someone please try to remember the FEMALE part first?

/rant off *lol*