[C] [A/W] Blade Barrier

I put this together as a Random Arena build. Auspicious Parry is a more or less constantly available defensive stance, as well as being a more or less constantly available cancel stance for frenzy. Auspicious Parry acts as a melee/ranger deterrent- use of AP while being attacked supercharges your adrenaline, boosting your damage output hugely. My rather halfassed calculations say that you can reasonably charge Final Thrust in 3 seconds if you're parrying an opponent as soon as it refreshes.

Critical Strikes: 6+1+1
Deadly Arts: 6+1
Swordsmanship: 12
Tactics: 10

Auspicious Parry, 1a - 1s elite*
For 9 seconds, the next attack against you is Blocked and you gain 4 strikes of Adrenaline.
Frenzy, 5e - 5s
For 8 seconds you attack 33% faster and take double damage.
Siphon Speed, 5e 1 5s
For 10 seconds, target foe moves 15% slower and you move 15% faster.
Sharpen Daggers, 5e 2 20s
For 23 seconds, all of your critical hits cause Bleeding for 10 seconds.
Gash, 7a
If this attack hits a Bleeding foe, you strike for 17 more damage and that foe suffers a Deep Wound for 17 seconds.
Sun and Moon Slash, 8a
Attack target foe twice. The first attack cannot be "blocked". The second attack cannot be "evaded."
Final Thrust, 10a
Lose all adrenaline. If Final Thrust hits, you deal 32 more damage. This damage is doubled if your target was below 50% Health.
Healing Signet, - 2 4s
You gain 115 Health. You have -40 armor while using this skill.

This build hits all my standard marks for an RA melee character- IAS (with frenzy and its cancel stance), runspeed boost, and a self heal. It is well defended against physical attack, and you'll notice it doesn't carry a superior, and so has a base of 530 health. The assassin passively spams bleeding and is capable of spiking with a deep wound through gash. Sever-Gash-Final has been replaced by Gash-SunMoon-Final, adding in a bit more damage while not lengthening the chain.
It's also worth noting that this build enjoys the use of a shield, boosting its standard AR to 86 and out of 'assassin-go-splat' territory.

I'm going to post an alternate hammer build right below, but please give me feedback on the core of the build (auspicious parry, frenzy, heal sig, siphon speed).

Critical Strikes: 6+1+1
Deadly Arts: 6+1
Hammer Mastery: 12
Tactics: 10

Auspicious Parry, 1a - 1s elite*
For 9 seconds, the next attack against you is Blocked and you gain 4 strikes of Adrenaline.
Frenzy, 5e - 5s
For 8 seconds you attack 33% faster and take double damage.
Siphon Speed, 5e 1 5s
For 10 seconds, target foe moves 15% slower and you move 15% faster.
Hammer Bash, 6a
Lose all adrenaline. If hammer bash hits, your target is knocked down.
Irresistable Blow, 5e - 4s
If this attack hits you strike for +24 damage. If Irresistible Blow is "blocked," your target is knocked down and takes 24 damage. Irresistble Blow cannot be "evaded."
Crushing Blow, 5e - 10s
If this attack hits, you strike for +16 damage. If you hit a knocked-down foe you inflict a Deep Wound for 17 seconds.
Healing Signet, - 2 4s
You gain 115 Health. You have -40 armor while using this skill.

Rez Sig
OR
Wild Blow, 5e - 5s
Lose all adrenaline. If it hits, this attack will be a critical hit and any Stance being used by your target ends. This attack cannot be "blocked" or "evaded."
OR
Iron Palm, 5e 3/4 20s
Target touched foe suffers 26 damage. If target foe suffers from a condition or hex they are knocked down. Iron Palm may be used as a lead attack.


This is basically a crossbreed of a Thumper and my Auspicious Assassin core. Critical Strikes (and the 2e from each) takes the place of expertise in allowing the assassin to spam 5e hammer attacks. Auspicious Parry is in the same role as before, except now it's only fueling hammer bash. I recommend taking Wild Blow, as the loss of adrenaline is nothing serious when your only adrenal attack already eats all adrenaline and the other adrenal skill costs 1a and returns 4a. Iron Palm is another possibility, but I don't think it's nearly as useful as Wild Blow. Either Siphon Speed (hex) or Deep Wound (condition) can fulfill the condition on Iron Palm, allowing for a double knockdown.

It occurs to me that Auspicious Parry can function in two ways- adrenaline battery, by putting it up every time it's available or as a precision block, by putting it up in the same moment as an important incoming attack skill. Careful use can neuter an attack chain- your executioners isn't worth so much without the eviscerate.

Also, I'd like it if someone would Theory Wars with me a little- who can think of a Warrior build that could kill these Assassins in a 1v1? The challenge is to get around a near-constantly available block stance.

Quote: Originally Posted by swordfisher

Exactly. A Thumper is probably the single biggest threat to this assassin, at least as far as melee goes. Because Auspicious Parry has a 1 second recharge, it can be 'overloaded' with attacks in the way that a standard evade stance can't- the more attacks, the fewer Auspicious Parry can catch. TF is already a better choice than Frenzy, because trying to attack the Assassin at all is feeding large portions of adrenaline to attack skills, which means some serious pain will come your way if you're frenzied.
Irresistable blow has the benefit of knocking a foe down if they 'block' the attack. This can be spammed, and makes a very good case against spamming Auspicious Parry against everything.
The best defense is a good offense, in this case- while the ability to block hits is nice, the real value is in the extra fast adrenaline charging on your attacks. For the sword, this means large damage spikes. The hammer makes up for its lack of shield with the defensive qualities of knockdowns. At 10 tactics, Auspicious Parry returns 4a for 1a spent- recharging every second, it can charge hammer bash in two blocks- two seconds. It's like having a multipurpose counterblow.

I knew that auspicious parry will work on many assasin or warrior builds, the skill's just too cheap

I dont like the first build. There is no good reason why it should be an Assassin primary when you have adrenal attacks for damage and Healing Signet as the self heal. The second one makes a lot more sense.

I actually have to agree. The first build is better served by a W/A, and even then the A is optional. The truth is, I just felt like people would yell at me for putting Auspicious Parry on a warrior- because warriors don't attack warriors. On the other hand, there's nothing that being an assassin is doing for the first build except prevent me from having 16 sword and better armor.

I consider the second build to be much more useful across the board. Being an Assassin is justified by the energy returns from Critical Strikes, and for Siphon Speed (best nonstance runspeed boost there is). Irresistable Blow and Wild Blow give the Assassin the ability to hit through defenses, and Hammer Bash gets to be positively spammable. In fact, in a 1v1 situation, a warrior attacker will spend most of the time on their back, giving the assassin the choice of either spiking with crushing wild irres or healing with heal sig.

Having crunched numbers a bit, I'm going to revise the build a little to make it more reliable on energy. I'm still playing with the numbers, but I think 9 CS + 5% Critical Eye +16% base weapon crit should be enough to keep this sucker going at 3e per crit. This still is without the use of a Sup Rune, though I had to bump Deadly Arts down a little, and Siphon Speed now lasts 8 seconds instead of 10. Having 1% greater crit chance (6+4 CS) and a 10 second siphon (6+1 DA) may be worth 75 health to you; I leave it to your discretion. I would run this with a Zealous Hammer.

Critical Strikes: 7+2
Deadly Arts: 4+1
Hammer Mastery: 12
Tactics: 10

Auspicious Parry, 1a - 1s elite*
For 9 seconds, the next attack against you is Blocked and you gain 4 strikes of Adrenaline.
Frenzy, 5e - 5s
For 8 seconds you attack 33% faster and take double damage.
Critical Eye, 5e - 30s
For 25 seconds, you have an additional 5% chance to land a critical hit when attacking. You gain 1 Energy whenever you score a critical hit.
Siphon Speed, 5e 1 5s
For 8 seconds, target foe moves 20% slower and you move 20% faster.
Hammer Bash, 6a
Lose all adrenaline. If hammer bash hits, your target is knocked down.
Irresistable Blow, 5e - 4s
If this attack hits you strike for +24 damage. If Irresistible Blow is "blocked," your target is knocked down and takes 24 damage. Irresistible Blow cannot be "evaded."
Crushing Blow, 5e - 10s
If this attack hits, you strike for +16 damage. If you hit a knocked-down foe you inflict a Deep Wound for 17 seconds.
Healing Signet, - 2 4s
You gain 115 Health. You have -40 armor while using this skill.