Hoping to see some inventive non-dagger Assassin builds...A/W The Weedwhacker
My Weedwhacker build is based off of a few goals: to make a high-damage Assassin without energy management concerns, to provide a multi-tiered strength for PvP players of different skill levels and to have a lot of fun doing something different (you'll see the need for the name when you watch an Assassin swing a hammer!). Variations on the build can allow for an Assassin with an overabundance of energy providing access to high energy cost skills, heal/speed Assassins, typical Warrior knockdown stuff or other things I haven't thought of yet.
Attributes:
Hammer Mastery 12
Shadow Arts 9
Critical Strikes 9 (This should be upgraded to 10 with proper helmet selection.)
7 attribute points unspent
Skills:
Enraged Smash {E}
Counter Blow
Staggering Blow
Auspicious Blow
Fierce Blow
Death's Charge
Dark Escape/Viper's Defense
Shadow Refuge/Res Sig
Alternate build skills:
The above build has more Energy than it knows what to do with. Replacing one of the Hammer skills with Caltrops or Return will allow for Crippling abilities in PvP in exchange for some damage/offensive output. The addition of Flurry would provide for faster attacks, again at the expense of skill variety or pure spike. Shadow Arts opens up a lot of possibilities, as does going for knockdown in the hammer skills.
Primal Rage {E} in place of Enraged Smash would provide 10 seconds of minimum 20% chance of critical but would not guarantee a certain measurable damage.
Build Usage:
Beginner players: The key to this whole build is Enraged Smash. Enraged Smash at level 12 will provide +10 damage per fully-charged adrenal skill (maximum +40) and recharges every 2 strikes. This means that you're doing 40 - 50 damage every other hit. When combined with minimum 10% chance of critical, this gives the Weedwhacker a 40 - 100 damage poential against squishies every other strike if your hammer skills have charged up. Let the hammer skills charge and all you need concern yourself with is to use Enraged Smash until the enemy drops.
Advanced players: Obviously, the above applies but there is a good chain of condition/damage skills in the other hammer skills; they're not just there for show. If you've got someone on the ropes, abandon your Enraged Smash/DPS and run down the list of charged skills. (Knockdown could figure more prominently in this build but in the combo we have we're doing a lot for the player in other ways.) Counter Blow will knock down an attacking enemy, Staggering Blow provides weakness, Auspicious Blow will boost you by 7 energy in addition to damage and Fierce will finish off with extra damage against weakness.
Of course, the use of this combo reduces the effectiveness of going back into an Enraged Smash spam but once the skills charge again you're good to go doing +40 damage every other hit. Therefore, I see this as a decent, simple damage build with a nice combo potential for knockdown or conditions when appropriate. On the whole, it appears it would be a strong choice for melee and I can't wait to try it with a permanent character.
Finally, the use of Shadow Arts provides a nice means of healing and fast ingress/egress. When used properly, this would allow you to build up adrenaline on an attacking warrior, Death's Charge to a squishie for surprise, potentially catch them off-guard with Counter Blow and begin spamming damage.
Weaknesses:
The straight build has no IAS. I'd like to find a way to integrate a good attack speed booster but the one I really want - Tiger's Stance - is not a good choice for a Warrior secondary [tied to Strength]. Typical Warrior shortcomings and the fact that you're using Assassin armor for a Warrior's job also come into play, here. Adrenaline denial would crush this build.
Hope you enjoyed the read!
