Assassin's Victory

Here's a cool concept that addresses a key concern for most offensive Assassin builds... energy and health management. In theory until I test it, the setup looks to be able to fight well by gaining mana and HP the more damage you inflict:

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Assassin's Victory

As/Wa

Dagger Mastery: 14
Deadly Arts: 10
Tactics: 10
Critical Strikes: 8


Expose Defenses: 8 seconds of ineffective evade/block skills vs. your attacks (Hex)
Black Mantis Thrust: 19 damage Lead, 14 second Cripple on the Hexed enemy
Jungle Strike: 19+27= 46 damage Off-Hand on a Crippled foe
Horn of the Ox: Knock down Double attack for 14x2= 28 damage
Falling Spider: Off-Hand poisons a fallen enemy for 19 seconds, 33 damage
Twisting Fangs: Dual Strike causes Deep Wound and Bleeding for 19 seconds, 10x2 = 20 damage
Victory is Mine!: Elite Shout. +49 health and +5E for each Condition on all enemies in the area
Rez

Full +energy armor and Zealous weapon mod is assumed until I can test to see if other options are possible.
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Use every skill in the order listed above. Start with your Hex and you should be able to get each future attack to connect with ease. When you are done, you have laid down four Conditions on your foe: Cripple, Poison, Deep Wound, and Bleeding. All of that gives you a max total of 196 HP and +20E from this one victim alone.... more comes to you if surrounding enemies in the area are suffering too.

A team of Assassins with this build together can battle a long time I'm guessing if they keep racking up the Conditions on as many enemies as they can. A group of four Assassins using this concept in an 8v8 setup can get almost 800 HP and +80E every 15 seconds! Have a couple of Mesmers use Diversion spam or some other means to control Mend Ailment and other common Condition cures from the Monks.

The stats were chosen for the following reasons:

- Dagger Mastery at 14 to maximize Dagger speed and DM skill damage while leaving room for points in other areas
- Critical Strikes is at 8 to maximize the amount of Crits possible in a non-Critical based build that still gets +2E each time you land one (I think L7 only gives you +1E)
- Deadly Arts is at 10 so that you can get 8 seconds of your skills not being dodged or blocked... L9 would make that 7 seconds and L12 takes too many points to get 9 seconds.
- Tactics gets the left overs of 10 points, which is still a high amount for a non-Warrior using four attributes.

The damage from one unaltered sequence is:

- 146 in skill damage (not counting Condition damage)
- 140 (estimate) in weapon damage, assuming an average of 20 damage per hit counting +20% damage mod and possible Crits
- 100 damage from DW on a 500 HP foe.
- Poison and Bleeding combine for -7 degen once your combo is done. It's 140 degen damage over 10s starting after the final hit of the combo
- +7E from Zealous alone, +4E to +8E on average from the Critical hits is a net total +11E to +15E as you battle.

Don't forget to yell "Victory is Mine!" to regain a ton of energy and plenty of HP. You're doing close to 400 damage from atacking with the main sequence. -7 degen and a few subsequent "normal" hits (giving you +1E and +2E with Zealous and Crits) as you recharge should finish them off in time if they can't heal/have no help. Your early Cripple hit ensures they stay close.

Your Hex (10s recharge) and Lead attack (12s recharge) should be ready in five seconds or so, with the other skills falling in line after that well before you get to them in your chain. If he survived the first skirmish, you should have all your energy back to give him another full dose in no time. Yet another way an Assassin can live up to his name.

Enjoy!

Seems great offensively, but I still don't think VIM alone can sustain an Assassin (or really any character, for that matter). Of course, that's just what I'm thinking; actual results may vary. And it would be fine with proper healing from another character, I guess. Maybe throw in Healing Signet, though?

Also, I'd be careful using Horns. Provided you can find a stray to attack, it's buttah. But you need to be careful. If the enemy positioning isn't spread out enough, Horns won't provide you the KD you need. What you may want to consider is Entangling Asp.

Expose Defenses-->Black Mantis-->Entangling-->Jungle Strike-->Falling Spider-->Twisting Fangs-->ViM

The only problem I'm seeing with that sequence is the timing. The foe would need to be on the ground long enough so you can use Jungle Strike and Falling Spider.

Actually, you could omit Jungle Strike completely. That'd give you enough time to go into Falling Spider after Entangling, then follow it with Twisting Fangs. Guaranteed KD from Entangling, plus Poison. Damage from Falling Spider in addition to renewed Poison, just in case their Monks are fast on the cond removal, hehe.

I think that would be more effective, even though you're doubling up on Poison. It's still four conditions inflicted. Entangling costs 10 energy, but with ViM coming around a second or two later, and using Zealous mods...10 energy means nothing.

Another build addicted to if an enemy is moving , or not(black mantis thrust).
People might try this build in 4vs4 , or in some pve areas, but for me its not the great assasin build everyone is looking for. By the way, u might consider adding some other skill instead of Rez, for 12vs12 areans, like dash, or return/recall.

+ one thing, martyrers make Vim builds quite weak.

I'd definitely suggest dropping J. Strike for perhaps another attack...

Go 16 daggers or nobody will care...

I'd suggest trying this:

16 dagger mastery
9 critical strikes
11 Deadly Arts
0 tactics - why? Well, it affects the self-heal, NOT THE energy given, so in theory, you can actually get stronger sin skills. Have monk heal ya after you unload on a foe. If you want to spread... Think of this then:

16 dagger mastery
9 critical strikes
8 deadly arts
8 tactics

That should give you a decent spread...