One Woman Bloodstorm
A/R
12v12 Damage-Dealer
Critical Strikes 9 (13 w/mask + Superior)
Shadow Arts 9 (10 w/Minor)
Marksmanship 12
Barrage [E]
Favorable Winds
Critical Eye
Sharpen Daggers
Caltrops
Viper’s Defense
Dash
Shadow Refuge
Weapons: mix of Vampiric and Zealous recurve and short bows
Playstyle: This particular Assassin was designed for 12v12 matches and the colossal mutual ganks that occur in them. More importantly, it’s designed to slam the bejesus out of its enemies in said ganks and do it in style.
First thing one notes when browsing over the One Woman Bloodstorm is the lack of a ReSiggy or other means of resuscitation. As the character is ideally meant for 12v12, and as bringing a resurrect skill into such matches is entirely optional, I chose to forgo it in order to add more useful skills. Such as skills that keep the One Woman Bloodstorm alive.
Second thing one notes is likely something of a non sequitur – Sharpen Daggers on a bowman? Well guess what, young grasshopper – nowhere in the skill’s description does it say squat about the critical hits needing to come off of dagger attacks XD. Which means that Sharpen Daggers is more like Sharpen Arrows, since your Barrages will spread Bleeding like a maniac every time you critical. Which, thanks to 13 CS and Critical Eye, you should do quite frequently. And they said Barrage couldn’t work with preparations…ye just need preparation and not Preparations is all.
Filling in the skills list is Caltrops, which again takes advantage of the mutual ganks common in 12v12 and spreads Crippled like a loony, Viper’s Defense (which I just knew would take off XP), the excellent Dash to go with the VD, Shadow Refuge because Shadow Refuge rocks, and Favorable Winds, though FW can easily be subbed out for most anything else. Really, the core of the build is Barrage, Sharpen Daggers, Critical Eye – the rest is up to you. Could even swap out Shadow Arts for Deadly Arts, or Wilderness/Beast, if ye wanted and probably still make it work.
Anyways, there ye go. Fun little 12v12 murder machine, all ready to go. At least, once Factions hits it is.
One Woman Bloodstorm - A/R 12v12 Killer
LaserLight
SparhawkJC
LaserLight, that is some awesome out of the box thinking right there! *Bows down in reverence*
Sidra
that's a beautiful build. I never considered the assassin as a non-melee class due to its mainly combo attacks, but this makes it veeery different in both gameplay and effectiveness. You still utilize the assassin's "get in, kick ass, get out and keep yourself alive" ideals, but with a whole new twist. And if you have a good enough bow and enough crit hits, then that's some serious damage you're tweaking out with 14+ dmg per barrage per arrow. Great thinking!
LaserLight
Just got through combat-testing this sucker (though I had to swap Dark Escape for Dash) in a 12v12 match thanks to good ol' Balthazar and his still-glorious faction points. I could not, unfortunately, secure the Superior Critical Strikes rune the build would normally use, but hey, it worked well enough :-P
Holy Hell. Roughly two-thirds of my attacks, if not more, were critical hits, and the damage was nuts. 70 or so damage a hit with criticals and Bleeding bloody everywhere (XP). The build proved excellent for kicking Kurzicks out of control points, though it didn't end up making the best hunter for when said Kurzicks ran like mad. I was using a Zealous Shortbow of Defense for the most part and it did very well by me - took a Long with same mods for my backup option and that helped a bunch too.
I didn't tend to get attacked very much at all. In fact, this was the least-beaten-upon character I've run in these things yet. Assassins, it seems, don't draw much fire when they aren't all up in people's faces with knives. Of course, I was doing as much damage with my Barrages as I ever did with my knives, if not more, so I didn't exactly mind XD.
So yeah. In current testing, at least, thing works awesome. Even better than I'd dared hope. Not to mention Sharpen Daggers sounds mean as hell when ye activate it. Nuts man, just nuts...
Anyways, enjoy. Hope she helps you figure out not only how to slaughter people in 12v12 matches, but also to unlock the true potential of the Assassin.
Holy Hell. Roughly two-thirds of my attacks, if not more, were critical hits, and the damage was nuts. 70 or so damage a hit with criticals and Bleeding bloody everywhere (XP). The build proved excellent for kicking Kurzicks out of control points, though it didn't end up making the best hunter for when said Kurzicks ran like mad. I was using a Zealous Shortbow of Defense for the most part and it did very well by me - took a Long with same mods for my backup option and that helped a bunch too.
I didn't tend to get attacked very much at all. In fact, this was the least-beaten-upon character I've run in these things yet. Assassins, it seems, don't draw much fire when they aren't all up in people's faces with knives. Of course, I was doing as much damage with my Barrages as I ever did with my knives, if not more, so I didn't exactly mind XD.
So yeah. In current testing, at least, thing works awesome. Even better than I'd dared hope. Not to mention Sharpen Daggers sounds mean as hell when ye activate it. Nuts man, just nuts...
Anyways, enjoy. Hope she helps you figure out not only how to slaughter people in 12v12 matches, but also to unlock the true potential of the Assassin.
Effigy
Nice build, I may have to give it a shot sometime down the road. I'm glad they didn't make Sharpen Dagger dagger-specific, as this opens up more options for primary Assassins.
Kevlar
This is a beautiful build. I was just thinking about how an A/R would work!
Myodato
A little off-topic, but sharpen daggers seems to work on anything, even wands and staves. (I tested because I was interested in a build very similar to the original).
Unfortunately, I never got around to testing an Assassin-bowman using Deadly Arts, with Siphon Strength as Elite (lots more criticals) covered by Expose Defences (cannot block or evade). Favourable Winds, Critical Eye and Sharpen Daggers would of course still feature, then just add a nice bow attack or two (especially interrupts. Mmmm, critical Savage Shot).
Unfortunately, I never got around to testing an Assassin-bowman using Deadly Arts, with Siphon Strength as Elite (lots more criticals) covered by Expose Defences (cannot block or evade). Favourable Winds, Critical Eye and Sharpen Daggers would of course still feature, then just add a nice bow attack or two (especially interrupts. Mmmm, critical Savage Shot).
disposable-hero
you just know the tombs barrage build is gunna change big time. looks like the making of a very good build will definatly have to try it out when factions is released
Cirian
Great idea 
Can't wait to try it out 
Can't wait to try it out
XaiXo
Ok, I know this is a late post, but is anyone else thinking a GvG build with this, like 3 of these, maybe orders too?
That would be scary stuff, that.
That would be scary stuff, that.
Vahn Roi
yes, extremely.
I love this builds, hands down it is (as it has been said) a very beautiful build.
/tearsofjoy
I love this builds, hands down it is (as it has been said) a very beautiful build.
/tearsofjoy
Sidra
Hehe. I can't wait to try it. One of my favorite points is that it doesn't rely on the all-encumbering "death by super condition FTW necro omg touch skill" things that I keep having to read >.< and relies on good old bleeding and barrage. I think I'll lean towards less gambling things like this and away from hoping that you can degen enough by the time you get killed
lightblade
bah, the brutal bombier premade is just as good, nothing to applaud about...
Lady Lorwinia
It's intresting...
Assassins energy pool isn't that big.
So you expect to keep spamming all these spells while spamming barrage?
Why can't you do R/A instead. Critical strikes aren't that great.
Plus you'd have expertise on everything. Would make a lot more sense to me.
Otherwise gj.
Assassins energy pool isn't that big.
So you expect to keep spamming all these spells while spamming barrage?
Why can't you do R/A instead. Critical strikes aren't that great.
Plus you'd have expertise on everything. Would make a lot more sense to me.
Otherwise gj.
Klmpee
impressive :P
master_ranger_matt
I saw someone using a build similar to this in the beta event, and it was fairly good. I'll have to try it next week.
chrislee149
I was running a sword assassin during FPE, and had noticed that Sharpen Daggers was odd being in Critical Strikes rather than Dagger Mastery. Didn't get to use it, however. And never thought of using a bow with it; only an axe. Sounds good, though I bet ANet will nerf Sharpen Daggers like Dwarven Battle Stance.
Sidra
It's in critical strikes because its a skill that causes bleeding every time you cause a critical hit
romeo_longsword
I love it!
Critical Strike,a nd Critical Eye combo on a bow really impresses me, almost putting my Ranger out of work, so Zealot bow it must be since the lack of Experitise.
Critical Strike,a nd Critical Eye combo on a bow really impresses me, almost putting my Ranger out of work, so Zealot bow it must be since the lack of Experitise.
disposable-hero
i was having a look through the assasin skills and thought the 47% block from Critical Defenses would be nice addition and since your spamming crital hits it should las indefinatly aslong as your barraging.
My question is did anyone try this skill out in the FPE and do you think it'll be worth swapping this in for one of the 'spare' skills
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Lorwinia
My question is did anyone try this skill out in the FPE and do you think it'll be worth swapping this in for one of the 'spare' skills
Quote:
It's intresting...
Assassins energy pool isn't that big.
So you expect to keep spamming all these spells while spamming barrage?
Why can't you do R/A instead. Critical strikes aren't that great.
Plus you'd have expertise on everything. Would make a lot more sense to me.
Otherwise gj. The zealous bow + 1 energy from each critical hit of barrage should counteract the degen of using said skills.
say shooting
5 foes = *zealos barrage* (1 x 5) + *2/3 critical hits* (1 x 3) = 8 energy - 5 energy *cost of barrage* = +3 energy more than you started with
7 foes = 7 + 4 = 11 - 5 = +6 energy
10 foes = 10 + 6 = 16 - 5 = +11 energy
and i dont know about you but i was hitting about 10+ people in a 12 v 12 match at any one time and even more if a mm was present
Assassins energy pool isn't that big.
So you expect to keep spamming all these spells while spamming barrage?
Why can't you do R/A instead. Critical strikes aren't that great.
Plus you'd have expertise on everything. Would make a lot more sense to me.
Otherwise gj. The zealous bow + 1 energy from each critical hit of barrage should counteract the degen of using said skills.
say shooting
5 foes = *zealos barrage* (1 x 5) + *2/3 critical hits* (1 x 3) = 8 energy - 5 energy *cost of barrage* = +3 energy more than you started with
7 foes = 7 + 4 = 11 - 5 = +6 energy
10 foes = 10 + 6 = 16 - 5 = +11 energy
and i dont know about you but i was hitting about 10+ people in a 12 v 12 match at any one time and even more if a mm was present
Patccmoi
Very interesting. Sounds wicked with orders
You could consider Way of Perfection for self-healing. If you score 2-3 crits in a volley, that's around 50-60 health gained. Could counter lots of damage.
I'd be tempted to throw Distracting Shot in there (i'm sure if there's MM fighting over corpse, your MM will be very happy if you can distract theirs), but it depends what you want to do with the build overall.
This is a pretty original way to spread Bleeding anyway
You could consider Way of Perfection for self-healing. If you score 2-3 crits in a volley, that's around 50-60 health gained. Could counter lots of damage.
I'd be tempted to throw Distracting Shot in there (i'm sure if there's MM fighting over corpse, your MM will be very happy if you can distract theirs), but it depends what you want to do with the build overall.
This is a pretty original way to spread Bleeding anyway
Nevin
Asssassins have an awesome bow firing animation too
Ajoo
Quote:
Originally Posted by disposable-hero
i was having a look through the assasin skills and thought the 47% block from Critical Defenses would be nice addition and since your spamming crital hits it should las indefinatly aslong as your barraging.
My question is did anyone try this skill out in the FPE and do you think it'll be worth swapping this in for one of the 'spare' skills
The zealous bow + 1 energy from each critical hit of barrage should counteract the degen of using said skills.
say shooting
5 foes = *zealos barrage* (1 x 5) + *2/3 critical hits* (1 x 3) = 8 energy - 5 energy *cost of barrage* = +3 energy more than you started with
7 foes = 7 + 4 = 11 - 5 = +6 energy
10 foes = 10 + 6 = 16 - 5 = +11 energy
and i dont know about you but i was hitting about 10+ people in a 12 v 12 match at any one time and even more if a mm was present Well, as far as i remember u can only hit a maximum of 6 enemies per barrage.
Also, They have to be somewhat close to each other, so unless they're balled up together u'll be hitting a max of 3 foes.
However, each time u crit u get 3 energy and not 1 (2 from the crytical itself and 1 from critical eye).
I also run a dagger assassin in the fpe but i don't remember having that high crit rate. And i had high crytical strikes and crytical eye too.
My question is did anyone try this skill out in the FPE and do you think it'll be worth swapping this in for one of the 'spare' skills
The zealous bow + 1 energy from each critical hit of barrage should counteract the degen of using said skills.
say shooting
5 foes = *zealos barrage* (1 x 5) + *2/3 critical hits* (1 x 3) = 8 energy - 5 energy *cost of barrage* = +3 energy more than you started with
7 foes = 7 + 4 = 11 - 5 = +6 energy
10 foes = 10 + 6 = 16 - 5 = +11 energy
and i dont know about you but i was hitting about 10+ people in a 12 v 12 match at any one time and even more if a mm was present Well, as far as i remember u can only hit a maximum of 6 enemies per barrage.
Also, They have to be somewhat close to each other, so unless they're balled up together u'll be hitting a max of 3 foes.
However, each time u crit u get 3 energy and not 1 (2 from the crytical itself and 1 from critical eye).
I also run a dagger assassin in the fpe but i don't remember having that high crit rate. And i had high crytical strikes and crytical eye too.
LamerFlamer
Actually, you will be getting 4 energy per critical. 13 Critical strikes = 3 energy on crit. Critical Eye adds an additional energy. Zealous bow adds an aditional energy, thats 5 energy a crit. If you hit 2 people with a barrage, both crit, then you gain double the cost of barrage back.
disposable-hero
thanks i though i was way off on the math but since yuo've backed the point up it really dosnt matter.
Mustache Mayhem
wow this puts melandru's arrows in the garbage with otyugh's cry.. nice build
The Fox
Quote:
Originally Posted by disposable-hero
i was having a look through the assasin skills and thought the 47% block from Critical Defenses would be nice addition and since your spamming crital hits it should las indefinatly aslong as your barraging.
My question is did anyone try this skill out in the FPE and do you think it'll be worth swapping this in for one of the 'spare' skills
Yes, I tried critical defenses with barrage/critical eye/ect. and it worked rather well when facing the premade Iway team. However, when comparing to my Barrage ranger, I was not happy with the energy management. Sure the Assassin has an extra pip of energy regen and extra energy from critical, but it just didn't seem to compare to expertise.
EDITED: oh that was with way of perfection too...
One more volley of arrows and I would have had them.
My question is did anyone try this skill out in the FPE and do you think it'll be worth swapping this in for one of the 'spare' skills
Yes, I tried critical defenses with barrage/critical eye/ect. and it worked rather well when facing the premade Iway team. However, when comparing to my Barrage ranger, I was not happy with the energy management. Sure the Assassin has an extra pip of energy regen and extra energy from critical, but it just didn't seem to compare to expertise.
EDITED: oh that was with way of perfection too...
One more volley of arrows and I would have had them.
LaserLight
Wow, look at all the lovely comments on my old buddy. Awesomeness, need to check into the forums more often.
Critical Defenses could make a good addition, but I was finding that while I had enough Energy to run everything I had, it was -barely- enough. Budget was stretched tight, though I admit I was scoring les Energy per crit than I was supposed to be. Also, I found that I was running Distracting Shot over Favorable Winds towards the end of the event, and as Paccmoi said I made several friendly MM happy. Honestly, I got far more utility out of Distracting than I did Favorable - 12v12 fights tended to move and shift too quickly for me to get much mileage out of spending five seconds summonng a spirit, and I really hated giving enemy bowmen the boost.
If I were to update the build today, I'd probably drop Caltrops and toss in Way of Perfection, as has been stated. Looking at it now (noting that this is GWG's skill listing and thus suspect), that thing is nuts. With the critical rate the OWB has, I'd be self-healing at a rate even Monks would envy, especially with Barrage. Though, to Paccmoi, it seemed as though my Barrages were critical-linked to me - either the whole blast criticaled or none of it did. I might have been wrong, and it may change in five/six days here, but even then would mean that my Barrages would net a trucload of health every second or third shot. Let's see...something lke this:
Barrage [E]
Distracting Shot
Critical Eye
Sharpen Daggers
Way of Perfection
Viper's Defense
Dash/Dark Escape
Shadow Refuge
Dual self-heals may seem a bit excessive, but while WoP is superb at keeping me alive during the beatdown, it isn't gonna do squat when I have to pull back and heal without attacking. In that case, Shadow Refuge will help. That and hitting Refuge and your speed stance is still a time-honored (sort of) method for Assassins to Get Out of Dodge.
Anyways. Thanks for the comments, praise, and advice guys. I appreciate it, this is still my favorite Assassin build thus far. Keep it coming!
Critical Defenses could make a good addition, but I was finding that while I had enough Energy to run everything I had, it was -barely- enough. Budget was stretched tight, though I admit I was scoring les Energy per crit than I was supposed to be. Also, I found that I was running Distracting Shot over Favorable Winds towards the end of the event, and as Paccmoi said I made several friendly MM happy. Honestly, I got far more utility out of Distracting than I did Favorable - 12v12 fights tended to move and shift too quickly for me to get much mileage out of spending five seconds summonng a spirit, and I really hated giving enemy bowmen the boost.
If I were to update the build today, I'd probably drop Caltrops and toss in Way of Perfection, as has been stated. Looking at it now (noting that this is GWG's skill listing and thus suspect), that thing is nuts. With the critical rate the OWB has, I'd be self-healing at a rate even Monks would envy, especially with Barrage. Though, to Paccmoi, it seemed as though my Barrages were critical-linked to me - either the whole blast criticaled or none of it did. I might have been wrong, and it may change in five/six days here, but even then would mean that my Barrages would net a trucload of health every second or third shot. Let's see...something lke this:
Barrage [E]
Distracting Shot
Critical Eye
Sharpen Daggers
Way of Perfection
Viper's Defense
Dash/Dark Escape
Shadow Refuge
Dual self-heals may seem a bit excessive, but while WoP is superb at keeping me alive during the beatdown, it isn't gonna do squat when I have to pull back and heal without attacking. In that case, Shadow Refuge will help. That and hitting Refuge and your speed stance is still a time-honored (sort of) method for Assassins to Get Out of Dodge.
Anyways. Thanks for the comments, praise, and advice guys. I appreciate it, this is still my favorite Assassin build thus far. Keep it coming!
The Fox
Now that I think about it. I didn't have the right runes unlocked for the FPE, so the energy management might be better than my results.
Mercury Angel
Doh, this got bumped up while I was writing out my bow assassin 
And I like this one better.
It sounds fun as well. Perhaps I'll settle with an A/R for my first Factions PvE chars and see how it goes.
I'm sure there'll be more A/R variations to come that'll be equally fun in the future.
And I like this one better.
It sounds fun as well. Perhaps I'll settle with an A/R for my first Factions PvE chars and see how it goes.
I'm sure there'll be more A/R variations to come that'll be equally fun in the future.
The Chimpster
Ditto lol
Thought I'd bump this up instead of people posting in the topic I made about the same thing :P
Damn, one day I'll come up with a clever build that no-one else has, I just know it
Thought I'd bump this up instead of people posting in the topic I made about the same thing :P
Damn, one day I'll come up with a clever build that no-one else has, I just know it
ProGamer777
That's awesome.
winty161
i really like the idea for this build well done, but im having a problem i cant find barrage in factions plz help!!
creed-shaman
how do i get to 12 vs 12's ?!?!
Lambentviper
great build. Ive started using a similair build in TA and makeing people cry and scream "omg noob!"
but be careful, i can see a nerf in its future. Almost unlimited heals, aoe damage, and power is never a good thing when ANet goes sniffing around the pvp arenas :/
but be careful, i can see a nerf in its future. Almost unlimited heals, aoe damage, and power is never a good thing when ANet goes sniffing around the pvp arenas :/
LaserLight
True enough, but how could they nerf it, honestly? It takes the whole to make the parts any good - alone, none of the skills save Barrage are worth nerfing, and the thing does need to be attacking for those massive heals.
I'm actually confident my Bloody Barrage here won't be nerfed for an entirely different reason. AreanNet only tends to nerf builds that become wildly overused instead of things that work well. Nerf Bat is a tool for making people switch up their blasted builds, and in all honesty I can't see the BB here taking off like that. It's a wicked build, but it's not the sort of thing one looks to use in GvG, and that's where the Nerf Bat hits hardest.
It is going to be sick in a neo B/P build, though XD.
I'm actually confident my Bloody Barrage here won't be nerfed for an entirely different reason. AreanNet only tends to nerf builds that become wildly overused instead of things that work well. Nerf Bat is a tool for making people switch up their blasted builds, and in all honesty I can't see the BB here taking off like that. It's a wicked build, but it's not the sort of thing one looks to use in GvG, and that's where the Nerf Bat hits hardest.
It is going to be sick in a neo B/P build, though XD.
disposable-hero
Quote:
Originally Posted by winty161
i really like the idea for this build well done, but im having a problem i cant find barrage in factions plz help!!
personally i've just poped back to tyria and killed markis for it but i dont know if you have chapter 1 so i cant say thats the EASYIST thing to do.
Evilsod
Hehe, nice build. In both PvP and PvE (barrage teams obviously). Does it only inflict bleeding though? Becuase in a well organised B/P team enemies really don't have time to bleed.
Something tells me 'Sharpen Daggers' is gonna be hit with a vengeance, Anet can't have let a skill with that name affect everything purposly surely... specially with it working on staffs :S
Something tells me 'Sharpen Daggers' is gonna be hit with a vengeance, Anet can't have let a skill with that name affect everything purposly surely... specially with it working on staffs :S
ProGamer777
I ran through a test with a Barrage-less build of this, and it did wonderfully, almost singlehandedly wiping out the field on the Captured Son quest, using only Dual Shot. Once I get Barrage, it's going to be more ridiculous.
Awesometastic.
Awesometastic.
Xasew
It's out of the box, works and is definitely fun. I love it.
It's nice when people come and prove that creativity is not always a bad thing in Guild Wars.
It's nice when people come and prove that creativity is not always a bad thing in Guild Wars.