Oh heck. Assassins. (Mesmer thread.)

One of my best friends plays a nasty Mesmer, and he used a great many of the counters listed in this thread and defeated not only single Assassins, but entire groups of Warriors in the FPE 12v12 fights. I've been working on methods of countering his tactics ever since, and you wouldn't believe how many cool tricks Assassins have for doing so... For everyone paying attention, that'd be me.

For everyone paying attention, that'd be me. Ego buff go!

I rarely take on packs of melee'rs (1 at most, usually) becase I prefer to... bravely run away. As I've mentioned, all my tactics for killing assassins are mainly with my anticaster build, although considering their damage output, I've often been able to kill them with 20 damage overloads (those are the premade newbies, though).

I've often been able to kill them with 20 damage overloads (those are the premade newbies, though). I don't see anything else other than newbies in Random matches. So, your point is justified.

Yes but still when a mesmer shut him down hes useless, due to energy denial or evasion. So a mesmer will have no problem with taking on a assassin. And if u get dazed or other conditions that might hurt be sure to let the monk bring condition removal.

in RA tis isnt a option so u could become monk secondary prof. and take some hex + condition removal. This will full up ure skillbar but its better then taking along only distortion. Or plague touch If you're Me/N

I'm convinced most mesmers carrying any form of anti-melee hexes will have no problem shutting down one assassin, that may be because 90% of the assassin builds we saw were premades which are typically bad to begin with, but as players began to use the many availiable accuracy improvement skills this situation will quickly change. Even then it will be easy to disable a single assassin with an empathy, spirit shackles, or ineptitude, those solutions will probably never dissapear; the problem appears when you're dealing with groups of 3 or more. Distortion will only block so much, and is at best annoying defense instead of an offensive counter. Recharge on the above skills is such that you can't place a copy of each on an aggressor, and it's silly to carry all three. Furthermore when you're actively dealing with them, chances are, you're not dealing with only one else. Of course they do Hexes (Shatter/Inspired/Drain Hex, Interrupt, Shame)
Of course they do Melee (Empathy, Spirit shackle, Mind Wrack, Signet of Midnight+Plague touche/Epidemic, Clumsiness+Ineptitude, Distortion and Interrupt)
Of course they do Enchantments (Shatter/Inspired/Drain enchantment Interrupts, Guilt)
Of course they have Energy (E-Denial)

Mix some skills and you have an anti-assassins

Of course they do Hexes (Shatter/Inspired/Drain Hex, Interrupt, Shame)
Of course they do Melee (Empathy, Spirit shackle, Mind Wrack, Signet of Midnight+Plague touche/Epidemic, Clumsiness+Ineptitude, Distortion and Interrupt)
Of course they do Enchantments (Shatter/Inspired/Drain enchantment Interrupts, Guilt)
Of course they have Energy (E-Denial)

Mix some skills and you have an anti-assassins The distinction I made in my last post was dealing with three or more assassins as opposed to just one assassin. Unless a build is made with solely assassin/warrior torture in mind I'm doubtful it can carry any more than one of the above skills to counter melee classes. SoM might shut down multiple melee threats but, it causes a condition which is easily removed or even ignored by assassins using accuracy buffs, and its also an elite. Recharge keeps stellar skills like Ineptitude and Empathy from being placed on threats before they can attack. Outside of Distortion and kiting I see no lasting, reliable escape from melee pressure; and Distortion's cost practically requires the user to somewhat specialize in illusion magic just to make the cost bearable not to mention is ignored by enchantments like "Way of the Fox" and similar accuracy buffs.

If you're left alone with 3+ Assassins, KITEKITEKITE into your group. With Distortion. lol as always.

Oh sure there is. Signet of Midnight + Epidemic (as crap as this skill is, when they're close a single Epidemic can hit all of them), then kill each of them slowly with Empathy and other skills like Price of Failure, Clumisiness. Sure, if they don't attack nothing happens, but then they're not attacking and it's problem solved. Just hope one thing that doesn't happen: CoP.

Just hope one thing that doesn't happen: CoP. That can't mean Contemplation of Purity in this case can it? What? Argh!

I don't think alot of assassins would carry COP. No but, we not fight only assassins at the same time. If there is a Boon monk nearby, Signet of Midnight+Epidemic/Plague touch will be almost useless.

I don't think alot of assassins would carry COP. An annoying number of warriors seem to have it, and assassins are the new w/mo.

An annoying number of warriors seem to have it, and assassins are the new w/mo. Using Shadow Refuge and CoP to remove 1 condition,1 hex and heal at the same time.

An annoying number of warriors seem to have it, and assassins are the new w/mo. I see. I never imagined I'd have to start casting diversion on warriors (and assassins for that matter).

I see. I never imagined I'd have to start casting diversion on warriors (and assassins for that matter). Meh, Disable skills.

I see. I never imagined I'd have to start casting diversion on warriors (and assassins for that matter). Its a Brave New World, factions..

Using Shadow Refuge and CoP to remove 1 condition,1 hex and heal at the same time. Wow, yeah you're right. For a second I thought you meant the CoP heal (which is like... 6 with 0 Divine Favor?), but no it's ending Shadow Refuge early, making the heal from that a lot more instant. Elegant. Assassins also have a maintained shadow step enchantment that CoP would work well with for a combined getout + hex/condition removal move.

Wow, yeah you're right. For a second I thought you meant the CoP heal (which is like... 6 with 0 Divine Favor?), but no it's ending Shadow Refuge early, making the heal from that a lot more instant. Elegant. Assassins also have a maintained shadow step enchantment that CoP would work well with for a combined getout + hex/condition removal move. If I remember correctly, Shadow refuge Heal 102 when it ends at lvl 10. Its easy to spam (and fast recharge) and others enchantments which use Shadow Steps to work with it.

Using Shadow Refuge and CoP to remove 1 condition,1 hex and heal at the same time. Wow Francis, you've done your homework.

Wow Francis, you've done your homework. /sarcasm, I think

But they still in melee anyway with some hexes spell and enchantments.

/sarcasm, I think

But they still in melee anyway with some hexes spell and enchantments. No, not sarcasm, I was impressed.

No, not sarcasm, I was impressed. Never seen this expression before, anyway. Back to: How to kill assassins with mesmers

The people creating builds for Assassins now, no matter if they believe it's a killer build or not, are the people who will be leading the way when it comes to Assassin build development. They're looking to hit the ground running. And with any luck, they'll be ahead of 95% of the gaming populace.

Same thing applies with any new class, regardless of whether they're a year old (Mesmers), a month old (Assassins), or haven't even been born yet, as it were. These posts were in no way meant to derail any experiments/theories on the assassin side of things. This IS the mesmer forum, and mesmer's are geared to impede Primaries from doing what they do best....So it's only natural, that with the coming of new classes, discussions will arise as to how to counter them. Due to the popularity of the Assassin as compared to the Ritualist, it's only natural that they are the topic of those discussions more than the Ritualist. You're right, the people who are pioneering the use of the new professions now will be heads and tails above those that don't...but in planning, and preparing to face these classes, We're holding the community to a higher standard. People will not be able to transfer their 'warrior' playstyle over to the Assassin... It's going to take failure after failure before people start playing the new classes like they were meant to be played. We've been posting counters...If I had any intrest in playing one of the new classes, I'd start by looking at how other classes will play against them, and center my ideas on how to overcome them. That way, I'll be a step ahead when a mesmer drops Ineptitude on me...Or I'll be ready when an Ele AoE's my spirits. The beauty of this game is the ability to look at it from different perspectives. People are excited about playing Assassin...and many mesmer's are excited about playing against them.

But you are right...that's not any reason to stereotype the people that ARE excited about playing the new classes. Every class has people that don't know what they're doing, Assassins don't hold the monopoly on stupidity.