hit and run assassin

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but I didn't see it. I was thinking of a new method of soloing today. Not in the sense of being able to tank mobs, but rather to unload and get away. Ideally, you would kill one enemy, and retreat, then simply repeat. As you might have guessed, it would center around recall.

Haven't figured out attributes yet, so if you wanna help there, feel free. Skills in usage order are:

1. Recall -- cast while a good distance away from enemies, and wait for energy to regen.
2. dark prison -- teleport onto target and leave them hexed
3. unsuspecting strike -- becuase it rocks
4. black lotus strike -- while they're still hexed, so get that energy regen
5. critical strikes -- 2 crit. hits with +damage
6. jagged strike -- need another lead attack, and the bleeding is good -- may be replaced by sharpen daggers (and therefore used before dark prison), as ususp. now has a faster recharge, and could be used a second time here
7. entangling asp -- kd and poison
8. other
Then simply end recall, and you're out of harms way.

Spot 8 will need more research before I can know what to do here. If survivability is a problem, may make it either way of perfection or shadow refuge. If I find that the above process does not do enough damage (even with the residual bleeding and poison), I could add impale, and cast before dark prison. Another option for the damage route would be to end the second combo string with falling spider, but the poison would be redundant.

So once you cancel recall and are out of harms way, regen and repeat. Sound do-able? Any suggestions or improvements? I'm working with the descriptions here on guru, so I know the skills have changed, but don't have a resource for the new versions.

Really hope someone can make a build like this work

An elite?

To tell the truth, I'm not particularly crazy about many of the elites for assasins. Plus, I figure not relying on one would theoretically let you get the skills and get the build up and running earlier. But, since you asked so nicely, I went back and looked again.

I see two decent options. First would be Aura of Displacement. This would essentially fill the shoes of recall and dark prison (except the hex part to prime black lotus strike. However, this would free the spot to put impale in the front of my combo, adding the damage and providing a hex for black lotus to feed off of. The second option would be Shadow form (with max shadow arts and daggers to lengthen enchantments, of course). Since I want this to be solo, that would essentially give you 25 sec. of invulnerability. So, you could rush in, take some beatings, activate it, continue to fight, and end recall to retreat as it is about to end.... could work, but will take some practice.

Any other comments?

Edit: with only one off hand attack (unless I can indeed pull off falling spider, but at which point I wouldn't have room for another skill anyway) and working on a very short period of time I could be in the fray before recalling out, I don't see moebis strike fitting in here. The damage is nice, but it would either be critical strikes, or moebis, and I think the extra crit. hit with +8 is better than +29 (depending on attributes).... could be wrong, though

Not always necessary, Kunisaki. Though, this build will have some severe energy problems. That and while Dark Prison has an excellent effect...it takes a minute to recharge.

Calculate:

Recall (+15, -1 pip) + Dark Prison (+10) +Unsuspecting (+10) + Black Lotus Strike (call it -5), Critical Strike (+6 with less than 13 CS), Jagged Strike (+5), Entangling Asp (+10)

Totals at 51 Energy spent, factoring in the gains from Black Lotus and Critical Strike's auto dual-critical. Also factoring in the -1 pip from Recall and even if you had Zealous daggers and a critical hit on every attack (+9 extra Energy with 8-12 CS), you'd run dry before you could unload the whole thing. Especially with Zealous daggers eating another pip.

Good concept, but would need major reworking to be viable.

Thing is, recall is cast and the energy regen's before you even get anywhere near attacking, so you can factor that out of the equation, except for the loss of 1 pip regen (leaving you at +2, or the equivalent of a warrior). I'm optimistic about there being an armor that provides the starndard + energy bonus (while I haven't done my research here, the base of 25, and the number of enchantments and hexes in the skill lines indicate that assassins should be like casters/rangers), which would add 7(?) more. Then, on top of the 2 or 3 from each of Critical Strike's crit's, I was pretty much expecting around 2 more crit's in the attack process (just an rough estimate from playing this weekend).

So the way I see it is from max, 10 for dark prison, 10 for unsuspecting, 10 for black lotus (maybe having to wait a few sec. or a hit or two to be able to cast it, depending on the presence of + energy armor). This pretty much drains the supply, but then you'll be boosted to about 20. Crit. Strike costs 5, but returns 4 or 6 depending, leaving you still around 20 energy. Next comes Jagged for 5 en., and entangling asp for 10. So we've got 5-10 energy left, depending on regen, any crit's, etc. Either way, that's enough for falling spider's cost of 5.... pretty much puts you at the end of your energy, as well as your combo, so recall on out.

I understand that this is assuming a whole lot, and there are a lot of variables (armor, if you can do enough damage, aprox. energy values, etc.). But, at least in my mind, it's not completely obscene. ** Crosses fingers**

Edit: as previoiusly stated, I'm basing this off of the only skill descriptions I have here on guru. If they are really that drastically different, I'm gonna be needing the Go RED ENGINE filter for a while

Do not trust Guru's skill listings at all. Many of their numbers are now blatantly false. For instance, Critical Strike costing 10 Energy instead of 5, as well as several other pretty hefty changes.

Retotaling my math to account for waiting on Recall, I take it as (best-case scenario) 37 total Energy needed to launch the whole thing, factoring in Zealous daggers and criticals on every weapon hit. Assassins do get a +Energy armor, but it doesn't hit +12 Energy. it gets the same +7 as everyone else's making it 32 total base Energy to start with. Still five shy, man.

Well, if you're going to go for the long recharges... Golden Lotus FTW?

Well, the skills need a desperate update, then. Very frustrating. Nonetheless, my stubbornness forges forward.

I'm looking at the following attributes:
Critical strikes: 10+3
Dagger mastery 10 +1 +1
Deadly arts 11+1

So you're saying I'm 5 energy away. With 13 in crit., not sure if that changes or not, but I'm asking you to humor me. Who knows, the skll descriptions may change drastically again before the final release... who knows. Oh, and according to guildwiki, assasins have 4 pips of energy regen. Thus, with recall on, you still have 3, or 1 energy every second to factor into energy management of the build.

If we can assume/pretend that the energy will indeed workout, what improvements can be made to the build? I know there are better brains than mine out there, so are there better skill combos to be inplemented here? Or could this same idea be better used as a secondary to transport a different class in and out of battle? I know there's a whole lot up in the air and likely to change, but in an ideal world, where this could be pulled off (and I most certainly will be trying come release), what would be best to do so? Thanks for humoring/helping me with this idea!

The Build I use has worked pretty well for a hit and run assassin

Dagger Mastery 11+3+1
Deadly Arts 6+1
Critical Strikes 12+1

1. Unsuspecting Strike
2. Desperate Strike
3. Wild Strike
4. Death Blossom
5. Siphon Speed
6. Aura of Displacement
7. Critical Eye
8. Rez Sig

I use zealous Daggers to help with the energy problem.