Theoretical Build: Flourish Assassin (Warrior / Assassin)

After posting my 'Flourish based Warrior / Assassin', I have received some criticism. More than praise. So, b/c of that I have redone the build, but have not changed the concept (using Flourish to regain energy and therefore giving a repeatable attack).
- Black Wyn (In Game)
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Profession: Warrior Assassin
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Name: Flourish Assassin
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Type: PvP, PvE, GvG
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Category: Interrupt, Harrass, HoH (using alternative)
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Equipment:
- Full Glads
- Rune of Superior Strength
- Rune of Superior Vigor
- Rune of Superior Absorption
- Rune of Minor Tactics
- Decent Daggers (Vampiric / Zealous)
It's Important that you carry one set of Vampiric Daggers and one set of Zealous Daggers, the first one being for spiking the second one for regaining energy when needed.
- IMMORTAlMITCH (Alexa Domina - Ingame)
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Stats/Attributes:
Health: 455
Energy: 28 (+2 pips)
Strength: 14 (11+3)
Tactics: 6 (4+1+1)
Dagger Mastery: 12
Shadow Arts: 5
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Skill Set:
- Mantis Sting (Dagger Mastery)
If Mantis Sting hits, target foe takes +17 damage. If this attack strikes a fleeing foe, that foe is Crippled for 13 seconds.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:8

- Jungle Strike (Dagger Mastery)
Must follow a lead attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +17 damage. If it hits a foe that was Crippled, it does +25 damage.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:12

- Death Blossom (Dagger Mastery)
Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Death Blossom strikes for +22 damage against target foe and all adjacent foes take 22 damage.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:12

- Flourish [Elite] (Strength)All of your attack skills become recharged. You gain 7 Energy for each skill recharged by Flourish.
Energy:5 Cast:1 Recharge:10

- Rush (Strength)
For 19 seconds, you move 25% faster.
Adrenaline:4

- Shadow Refuge (Shadow Arts)
For 4 seconds, you have a 50% chance to "evade" attacks. When Shadow Refuge ends,
you are healed for 60.
Energy:5 Cast:1 Recharge:8

- Healing Signet (Tactics)
You gain 85 Health. You have -40 armor while using this skill.
Energy:0 Cast:2 Recharge:4

- "I Will Survive!" (Strength)
You gain +3 Health regeneration for each condition you are suffering. This
regeneration expires after 11 seconds.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:30
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Summary:
The main use of this build is to kill all support casters/healers. I guess you can use this build to kill frontline warriors (not entirely sure about that). Also, you can see that this build is Energy Based and therefore it is sucseptible to Mesmer Based Builds.

The Main Attack is done by [Mantis Sting > Jungle Strike > Death Blossom > Flourish]. The resulting outcome is +56 dmg (not including the dmg done by 3 dagger strikes), +22 dmg to all nearby foes (which would usually be other support casters/healers). Now, if the target was running, the resulting outcome would be +81 dmg (not including the dmg done by 3 dagger strikes), and cripple (to slow down the coward, and deal more dmg). You would also regain +21 energy (7 x 3) and then are able to redo the attack (the combo uses 20 energy total).

If you are low on health, use this [Shadow Refuge > Healing Signet]. The resulting outcome would be a regain of +145 health. Shadow Refuge would give you the nessesary defense in order to use Healing Signet w/o being damaged.

If you are under some harmful conditions use "I Will Survive!".
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Alternative Skill Set(HoH):
- Mantis Sting (Dagger Mastery)
If Mantis Sting hits, target foe takes +17 damage. If this attack strikes a fleeing foe, that foe is Crippled for 13 seconds.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:8

- Jungle Strike (Dagger Mastery)
Must follow a lead attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +17 damage. If it hits a foe that was Crippled, it does +25 damage.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:12

- Horns of the Ox (Dagger Mastery)
Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Horns of the Ox strikes for +13 damage. If struck foe is not adjacent to any allies, that foe is knocked down.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:12

- Falling Spider (Dagger Mastery)
Must strike a knocked-down foe. If it hits, Falling Spider strikes for +29 damage and target foe is Poisoned for 17 seconds.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:10

- Flourish [Elite] (Strength)
All of your attack skills become recharged. You gain 7 Energy for each skill recharged by Flourish.
Energy:5 Cast:1 Recharge:10

- Rush (Strength)
For 19 seconds, you move 25% faster.
Adrenaline:4

- Shadow Refuge (Shadow Arts)
For 4 seconds, you have a 50% chance to "evade" attacks. When Shadow Refuge ends,
you are healed for 60.
Energy:5 Cast:1 Recharge:8

- Healing Signet (Tactics)
You gain 85 Health. You have -40 armor while using this skill.
Energy:0 Cast:2 Recharge:4
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Alternative Skill Set Summary:
The Main Attack is done by [Mantis Sting > Jungle Strike > Horns Of The Ox > Falling Spider > Flourish] . This is used mainly in HoH. combo the target as much as you can. When he/she is running low on health they would probably use a Healing Signet or run. If they use a Healing Sigent just deal with it and do another combo. If they run, well just go after them with Rush and after 1 combo they should be knocked down, crippled, and poisoned. They have no escape. Still running? Do it again. Oh and did I mention that they would receive +101 dmg if they run? If they are standing still they would recive +76 dmg.

If you are low on health, use this [Shadow Refuge > Healing Signet]. The resulting outcome would be a regain of +145 health. Shadow Refuge would give you the nessesary defense in order to use Healing Signet w/o being dmged.
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Notes / Concerns:
- Mesmer Based Builds will destroy this build. So, Mesmers and Monks will be your primary target.
- Rush can be replaced by Sprint
- Again this build is purely theoretical and based off GWFreaks. I do not know what the Faction Skills will really do.
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Credit:
- GWFreaks.com for giving the information needed and the character builder that
helped me (alot) with my theoretical build.
- And giving credit to myself (Black Wyn) for this build.
- IMMORTAlMITCH (Alexa Domina - Ingame) for the Zealous / Vampiric Daggers and the inspiration for the HoH Alternative Skill Set

The concept works, I've ran builds like this in both the PvP preview weekend and the FPE, to great success I might add.

However I think you made some poor decisions as far as attack skills are concerned.

For a GvG type of warrior you will want something like this:

Golden Lotus Strike
Fox Fangs
Horns Of The Ox
Flourish [E]
Frenzy
Rush
Healing Signet
Ressurection Signet

Or:

Golden Lotus Strike
Bull's Strike
Falling Spider
Flourish [E]
Frenzy
Rush
Healing Signet
Ressurection Signet

The attributes would be something like this:

14 (10+4) Strength
9 (8+1) Tactics
12 Dagger Mastery

And for a HoH Warrior:

Wild Blow
Golden Lotus Strike
Protectors Strike
Flourish [E]
Expunge Enchantments
Frenzy
Rush
Ressurection Signet

Your attributes should be:
14 (10+4) Strength
12 Dagger Mastery
2 Deadly Arts

Or:

Golden Lotus Strike
Bull's Strike
Falling Spider
Horns of The Ox
Flourish [E]
Frenzy
Rush
Ressurection Signet

Your attributes should be:
16 (12+4) Strength
12 Dagger Mastery

It's Important that you carry one set of Vampiric Daggers and one set of Zealous Daggers, the first one being for spiking the second one for regaining energy when needed.

Quote: Originally Posted by IMMORTAlMITCH

I agree that you might want to swap out either Heal Sig or Refuge for Frenzy, since one of the major benefits to being W/A instead of A/W is having enough armor to be able to use Frenzy (somewhat) safely. You'd have Rush as your cancel stance. Of the two, I think Shadow Refuge is a better skill since it serves a dual purpose.

Quote: Originally Posted by Effigy

Frenzy is pretty much required for warrior spiking in mid-high level pvp.

It makes your attacks follow each other 33% faster which gives the enemies' monks less time to heal.

Frenzy is good because you deal a lot more damage. The thing is, if you start getting attacked, you use another stance to cancel it so you won't take double damage. Frenzy is a PvP skill, not nearly as useful in PvE where a warrior is usually supposed to tank.

Tiger Stance is not even close be being a substitute imo. At most, you'll have it up 50% of the time, whereas Frenzy can be up 100% if you need it to be. Additionally, Tiger Stance will get cancel almost instantly if you try to attack someone who has Aegis, Guardian, Distortion, or whatnot on them. I'd say just stick with Frenzy but don't use it unless you have another stance like Rush/Sprint ready in case you need to cancel.

hmm, well i see ur point. I guess frenzy is really good. It would be a great use to heal yourself while do dmg with daggers. Assuming daggers have a high(er) attack speed than the sword. *sigh* time to re-edit.

(because I'm working with the numbers from Shaktiboi's DaggerFAQ 4.0, I'm going to leave the 38% customization + 15^50 bonus off, just so I don't have to convert it every time)

I think Dagger W/A's are gimped from the start because they can only work with a 16% critical rate. Though their energy income is not based on criticals, criticals are nonetheless important to the amount of DPS that they do. Having 12 DM and 0 CS (base 16% crit rate) brings in 13 DPS. For comparison, a sword with 12 points does 15.4, an axe does 15.5 and a hammer does 17.4 DPS. Boosting Critical Strikes to 13 (obviously, only possible as a primary assassin) increases your Dagger DPS by 1.5 while producing scads of energy and opening up another skill line.
Basically, unless you can squeeze ungodly amounts of damage and/or utility out of dagger attack skills by using flourish, you're only just making up for the superior energy machine of the Assassin. Dagger attacks at 12 DM are just not compelling enough to cause a warrior to forego Swords Axes or Hammers. Dagger Warriors are not armored Assassins, they're just warriors out of their element.