Energy Management Options for Assassin

Obviously, energy management will be the key for an assassin to be able to maintain his/her attack chains and to not be disabled from combat for any significant part of time. This, of course, is assuming that the critical strikes attribute won't supply enough energy to keep an Assassin going for very long. This has me thinking about the possible assassin class combos that could be worth exploring...

Ranger/Assassin - Expertise is an obvious boon to an assassin's skill energy cost.

Elementalist/Assassin - A higher energy pool coupled with other energy management skills could be a nice combo.

Assassin/Mesmer - A high inspiration line could be an intriguing combo as E-Denial/Stealing and Assassin combo/condition attacks could completely devastate an opponent. Interesting.

Necro/Assassin - Soul reaping is nice, but seems like it won't help the Assassin enough to warrant the Necro as a primary.

Warrior and Monk seem to be the two classes that don't help an Assassin's inherent energy problems.

I'd love to hear some ideas on the combos above and other options in energy management (e.g. Zealous weapons, etal).

Quote:

Quote:

Energy Management Options for Assassin , IMO is to max the energy capacity.

Assassin in plain armor got 25 energy only, even 1 energy surge or energy burn will break Assassin's skill combo.

Energy management options for Assassins are kinda slim. One could, of course, rely on Critical Strikes' Energy boosters and would likely be pleasantly surprised at their effectiveness, but it's always good to have controlled energy management ready.

Hmm...Offering of Blood is right out. Dudes are fragile enough without tossing off twenty percent of their Health whenever they need a boost. Most other conventional energy management strategies aren't gonna work either. There is that Assassin's Promise [E] skill in Deadly Arts, but that's almost as situational as CS's default management. Energy Drain seems the best solution to me, but that requires an Elite slot and heavy spec in Inspiration. Not optimal, especially since the best way for Assassins to deal with people Distorting/Whirling Defense-ing their Dagger streams is Wild Blow out the Warrior line *is embarrassed at taking so long to realize such*, and thus it'd be difficult to run Energy Drain as well.

I think that, in the end, it'll end up that Assassins are a fairly Energy-poor class with sub-par strategies for management. This kinda bites, but then there's always the hopeful advantage of having people believe all Assassins suck, so that us skilled headhunters can smack them upside the head right proper XD.

"Victory is Mine" is a very cool skill for Ass' energy management, IMO
since many ass's attack skills can give enemies many conditions

Channeling, and there's a skill in CS where it says whenever you hit a critical strike, you get X energy.

Note: skill-induced guaranteed criticals, such as those from Wild Blow and the dual skill Critical Strike, will activate Critical Strikes' Energy bonus. That, combined with stuff like Way of the Lotus and/or Black Lotus Strike, can keep you going fine.

During testing, I could run through my Jagged Strike-> Fox Fangs -> Critical Strike -> Moebius Strike [E] stream a good three, four times without any problems. Could also pop off an additional Critical Strike after the Moebius, circumstances willing, and often took down tougher enemies like Kappa simply by alternating Critical and Moebius Strikes.

So yeah, Critical Strikes' energy management works just fine. With even the slightest bit of help, it could work excellently.

Best e-mangement for assasin: zealous daggers. Nothing else.

The innate energy regen from critical strikes isnt enough, but i assume stacked with critical eye and zealous daggers the income would be reasonable enough.

Im currently off the camp that assassins are poor. But thats probably the people playing them, not just the class itself.

Critical eye 10 crit = money

Critical eye+critical strike 10 crit=money. I would be doing around 100 damage easy with critical strike, and then getting 6 energy at the end of my combo to start it again. The new final thrust except better?

This is the build i was running, no energy problems at all.

(All skills 5 energy unless otherwise stated)

Way of the Lotus (+15 energy on dual strikes)
Way of Perfection (Heals on crits)
Golden Lotus Strike(lead)
Black Lotus Strike(Second, offhand) (costs 10 energy)
Crit Strike (Third, Dual)(costs 10 energy)
Moebuis Strike(Elite offhand)
Twisting Fangs(10 energy)/Fox Fangs/Wild Strike(use this one on rangers )

Optional Slot:
Res Sig
Crit Eye(love this one)
Some attack that follows a lead, any offhand attack will do. Fox fangs is a favourite of mine to slip in, just in case a hex remover is used before your second attack.

Just cast Way of perfection on yourself, Way of lotus on your target, crit eye and go wild.

Golden Lotus will give you +8 energy back to fuel your combo, black lotus strike gives another +16, if you are getting edenial'd this fixes that problem.
Crit Strike will give you another 2-8 energy back which fuels moebuis strike. Then since this hits farily hard on squishies they should be below 50% hp. Follow with the last offhand you brought. Crit strike and Twisting Fangs can be interchanged depending on if you need the energy or not. I like to do it after so that you know the target will have very low health. Then if the squishy still stands, do it again.

As far as the numbers go...
Crit Strike -11
Daggers - 10
Shadow Arts -10

Energy regain:
Golden Lotus Strike - +8
Black Lotus Strike - +16( make sure you dont switch targets before using it)
On crits in general - +3(with crit eye, +2 w/o)
Dual Strikes - +15 energy
Critical Strike(the skill) - +21(+6 from dual criticals /w crit eye, +15 from Way of the Lotus on hexed target)
One Round (assuming no criticals other than Critical Strike) +45 energy
Costs:
Every 30 seconds - 15 energy for refreshing WotL, WoP, and Crit eye.
Attack Chain - 40 (35 if not using Twisting Fangs)

The Damage Bonuses are:
+15(golden lotus)
+25(black lotus)
+25 and critical hit*2(crit strike)
+27 Moebius Strike
+16/17(depends on what you choose for last attack)

A paltry 108/109 bonus damage you say, but you overlook the sustainabilty of this build, wop will also heal +27 on crits, very nice. You are also guaranteed 2 critical hits per round, so +54 hp per round all without breaking from your attack chain.

Have fun with it, update it and improve if you can.

Quote: