Assassin the new runner?

Ok, I was just looking at the Assassin skill list on guildwikis, and although I don't know what the final balancing will be (thus, this is premature and will possibly be completely wrong) I've already kinda made my decision.

As of now, you have four main runners. R/Mo, W/Mo, R/W, and W/R, with W/Mo and R/Mo being the two strongest, with W/R and R/W behind them. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but W/Mo and R/Mo have the added benefit of health over time (if you opt to use Mending) or quicker/better healing spells, and W/R and R/W have access to a wider variety of running skills. I, personally, use R/Mo and find it to be a fine runner, although I know W/Mo are better runners in certain places (Drok's run comes to mind...).

So, what is the Assassin going to do to this? In my opinion, not much as a solo runner. Looking through their skill list, I came up with these skills as being at all useful (some more or less) for running:

Dash - Stance. For 3 seconds, you run 50% faster. (No Attribute)
Cost: 5, Cast: 0, Recharge: 15
Shroud of Distress - Enchantment Spell. for 30 seconds, if you are below 50% Health, you have a 15...63% chance to evade attacks. (Shadow Arts)
Cost: 10, Cast: 1, Recharge: 45
Shadow Step - Stance. For 5...17 seconds you move 25% faster than normal. When Shadow Step ends, you return to the location where you activated Shadow Step. (Shadow Arts)
Cost: 10, Cast: 0, Recharge: 30
Shadow Refuge - Enchantment Spell. For 4 seconds, you have a 50% chance to "evade" attacks. When Shadow Refuge ends, you are healed for 30...102. (Shadow Arts)
Cost: 5, Cast: 1, Recharge: 8
Shadow Form - Elite Enchantment Spell. For 5...17 seconds, all hostile Spells that target you fail and all attacks against you miss. When Shadow form ends, lose all but 5...41 Health. (Shadow Arts)
Cost: 5, Cast: 1, Recharge: 60
Death's Charge - Spell. Shadow Step to target foe. If that foe has more Health than you, you are healed for 40...112. (Shadow Arts)
Cost: 5, Cast: 1, Recharge: 45
Dark Prison - Hex Spell. Shadow Step to target foe. For 1...6 second, that foe moves 33% slower. (Deadly Arts)
Cost: 10, Cast: 1, Recharge: 60
Critical Defenses - Enchantment Spell. For 4 seconds you have a 25...45% chance to "block". Critical Defenses refreshes every time you land a critical hit. (Critical Strikes)
Cost: 10, Cast: 1, Recharge: 30

That gives us all of what.... 2 stances (1 of which, I haven't seen any real difference between except for pulling maybe), and a majority of enchantments/spells? Also, a majority of these things last for ~4-6 seconds each... which wouldn't be exactly useful for running, either as a secondary or primary runner. I could see Shadow Form being a very useful enchantment for running, especially in the hex-heavy South Shiverpeaks... however, there is also Spellbreaker for Monks which lasts for 5 seconds less at 12 points in each attribute, but doesn't drop your health to ~41 health at the end. This COULD be useful if you only had a short sprint to get through, and you knew you could heal afterwards... but it would be mostly useless compared to Spellbreaker, which also has a 15 second shorter recharge. Other than those, the other ones that I have really seen as being useful are the different teleport skills... although there aren't many of them, they could be quite useful.

Another great skill I've found (for team running only) is...

Recall - Enchantment Spell. While you maintain Recall on target ally, nothing happens. When Recall ends, you Shadow Step to that ally's location. (No Attribute)
Upkeep: 1, Cost: 15, Cast: 2, Recharge: 10

If you can figure out why this is useful, you could have the runner with the Assassin be a distraction, while the other character runs past and once they are past the majority of harm just teleport (or "Shadow Step") to the other runner. Other than that, there is no real use for this skill as a runner.

I DO believe that Assassin's will be viable runners, but I think they will join the ranks of R/W and W/R (or below) in the viability of the combinations, with W/Mo and R/Mo pulling out on top, maybe with A/Mo being behind (slightly in front of the other 4 groups).

If you would like to look through the current list of Assassin skills we have, you can look here and make your own decisions. I'll be awaiting some feedback, and I thank you for reading all of this...

*puts up flame shield just incase*

Could be w/ all the evasion and dodging. It does have a lower AL though... 70 was max at PvP weekend.

Is that including the bonuses, not just the base?

Me or Sticky? As of now, what we know for Assassin's Armor (I got this from Guild Wiki)... the base armor is 70 AL. They have a Druid's type armor called Zodiac Shroud Armor for more energy. Another one of their armor, the Infiltrator's Armor, which gives 15 AL While Attacking. The last armor (that we know of right now) is the Saboteur's Armor, which gives 15 AL vs Slashing Attacks, as well as reduces Deep Wound and Bleeding duration on you by 20%. There are most likely going to be some more types of armor (I'd guess one or two), but those are the ones that were released as of the PvP weekend and Guild Wiki has on there.

If you were talking to me, no I haven't looked into the higher levels of the skills, but they shouldn't be going any higher than 14 points (helm and minor rune) while you're running, otherwise you'll lose too much health for your runs. If anyone wants to look it up and send it to me, I'll edit it into my first post or link to a post you make.

All those skills are not for running. They are for quick attack sequences.

As you can see dash is only 3 seconds.

Shadow step skills usually teleport you to the foe and have a recharge of around 30-45 seconds. It is meant to be for jumping around to avoid being hit while also doing quick burst damage.

You should remember that any skill that says "Shadow Step" in the skill description means it will have the same side effects of the actual skill "Shadow Step." In that, you will move faster or teleport for a certain period of time, and then at the end of that time, you will be back to where you were when you started the skill.

I still can't see how this will be useful for runners, but if anyone figures out a way, feel free to list it.

Apparently I need to learn to type faster too, becuase LifeInfusion beat me to it.

Yea, thats the way I see them as being used to... but I suppose they could be used for running to skip some sections of runs (I.E. bridges that can get you stuck, or chasms that you have to run around)... and I mostly only made this thread because my friend was insisting that "R/A was gonna be the new runner" and I seriously doubted that since I thought Assassins were supposed to be more "hit and run" type fighters, as opposed to the tanks that Warriors are, but he got me looking at the skill list and I could see how they could be useful a bit... especially combined with one of the other two running builds. We'll have to see how it pans out though.

Are you sure that they ALL teleport you back to where you started? If thats the case, then yea... other than pulling enemies to teleport past them this would make them even more useless than I already view them now...

Are you sure that shadow step just isnt the guild wars version of teleport? You know how they like to change the names of things to make them sound unique or new when its really just normal been done stuff.

Instead of making a "Full time runner", I prefer making a "full time runner killer". That way, you don't even have to run the flag if their runner die someowhere when solo'ed by our "assassin". You also would gain an extra man in the main front.

Scorpion wire is going to give hell to those runners.

16 exp w/ 13 wilderness on a ranger can chain escape and dodge with storm chaser being used for 1-2 seconds. This creates the fastest running build currently, with the highest rate of attack evasion. [This is in terms of pure running speed, not of slow down removal / etc]

A 16 exp ranger can drop storm chaser for dash, and use it between escape and dodge... R/A for me for anything besides southern shiverpeak runs. Not sure aboutlandscape of tyria, but I'll have fun mixing around with running builds.

[post created with impression that you were referring to pve running]

In PvE, Assassins functioning as runners? Eh.

PvP, Assassin flag runners? I think so.

Yeah, I don't PvP so yea...

Hmm, I didn't really think about that... but it still seems like a waste of having the monk secondary (which has Mending for constant healing as well as Breeze/Shielding for quick fixes) to get 3 seconds of insanely fast speed. It may come in handy for faster runs, but it kinda seems (to me) that it will just cause more failures without the healing. Granted, I know you can get stripped pretty easily which would negate any of your Mending healing, but while you have it on you still get the regen.

Oh well, we'll just have to see what the final outcome is, as well as what Cantha looks like. This should be interesting

LOL you might want to leave shadow step out of your running build

"shheeez that was tough but I made it passed them *transported back to where you started* "

Nah, I was thinking of more of a slingshot type effect. Case in point, the troll cave during the Drok's Run at Snake Chute.. I believe. You usually have to pull them back, and then try to run around them. With this you could just get right up into their face, fire shadow step, and back up... once it runs out you teleport past them.

Yes, Shadow Step is more like a temporary teleportation. You'll run or teleport to the target and then after so many seconds you'll be back where you started. Its the Assassins way to rush into combat and then be able to pop out before they take too much damage.

I seen your thing about luring the trolls out of the cave in a droks run, but I'm going to ask you, is going W/A for a droks run better than going W/Mo? Would you want to lose the added healing from the /Mo just so you can use Shadow Step in a couple of places?

For the most part, I'm still not convinced an Assassin could be much of a runner, unless they just ran using Warrior or Ranger skills. I guess we'll see eventually if its true or not, but I'm skeptical.