Name: Sacrificing Blade
Type: PvP
Goal: Single-target annihilation
Attributes:
16 Dagger 12 + Superior + Mask)
13 Critical Strikes (10 + Superior)
9 Deadly Arts (8 + Minor)
3 Shadow Arts (2 + Minor)
Skills:
1.) Leaping Mantis Sting
2.) Jungle Strike
3.) Twisting Fangs
4.) Critical Eye
5.) Aura of Displacement [E]
6.) Impale
7.) Rush
8.) Viper’s Defense
Weapons:
Zealous *** of Fortitude
Insightful Staff of Get-Me-Adrenaline (also Fortitude)
Armor:
Preferably +HP mods (I forget the name right now) or +Energy if you can’t stand the lack of it. Avoid stat-reducers – if you’re being hit with them, your life is in the hands of your healers anyways.
Summary:
This is one of those things that looks insane on the surface, but makes a twisted kind of sense when you think it through. The Sacrificing Blade takes advantage of the Assassin’s highly mobile playstyle and vicious damaging capabilities to overcome what many believe to be fatal flaws in the class. Most people say that Assassins are meat in a one-on-one fight against a Warrior. Yeah, this may be true, but Warriors aren’t what we, or the Sacrificing Blade, are meant to fight. Instead, the Sacrificing Blade is meant to deliver very high-powered blasts to weaker characters such as spellcasters or already-battered Warrs, finishing them off with a vicious string of attacks.
There is, of course, one question going through your mind right now, and it would be best phrased as…”ARE YOU INSANE?!?!11!1shiftone!eleven”. Yes dear, those are two Superior runes up there. But before you bartch at me, let me ask you this – against anything not designed to resist melee, is the loss of that 75 extra HP really going to stop the Sacrificing Blade from laying you cold?
Answer: not a chance in hell. Data shows that 16 Dagger, supported by Critical Eye and high Critical Strikes, shells out higher damage than anything other than hammers, and it’s virtually even with hammers. And dagger streams go off a lot faster than hammer streams. You start off with Impale, adding a sizable chunk of damage to the end of your attack, then lay in with your skill stream. If you get Leaping Mantis’ Cripple, your Jungle Strike will hit for damage well in excess of an Executioner’s Strike, and then you get two doses of Twisting Fangs after that. It is now that you flick off Aura of Displacement and recharge, staffing every now and then to keep your Rush nicely charged. You can use Rush to help catch fleeing foes for an easy Leaping Mantis Sting cripple, leading to the beefy Jungle Strike.
As you can probably guess, your weapons and armor are aimed at recovering some of the HP you give up for your second Superior and offering just a little resistance to degen. Fortitude mods are important, as is the normally unused +HP armor. This gives you a bit of replacement cushion against degen, which is your bane.
In summation, the Sacrificing Blade is a true glass cannon, carrying more offensive firepower than most people thought feasibly possible and paying in blood for it. You won’t win fights against Warriors that often, but you will demolish anything else in your path, and quickly. Don’t be afraid to stick around for a few seconds after your skill stream and finish the devastated enemy with autoattacks – if your skill stream didn’t do it altogether. So long as you have Aura of Displacement up, you have an instant out, and you have Viper’s Defense to add a second layer of defense as well. If the enemy has a bare sliver of health left, for God’s sake stay there and finish the hit!
Notes:
Obviously your main concern is degen. It hurts you more than it hurts the average dude. You’re all offense and very little defense – extend too far beyond your Monks for too long and you’re a dead sin. So don’t do it. If a Warrior is bothering you, you have two options – flip the VD and run for your life, or turn at bay, hit your skill stream, then flip the VD and run for your life. The second option is based on whether your stream is immediately available, your current health/DP levels, and the positioning of your Monks. If you can do it, show the nice Warrior why daggers are mean, but don’t stick around for the slugfest. Pop, pop, pop, VD, and go.
You are, however, strangely resistant to Deep Wound, which will take less from you than from others. Not much less, and not enough to matter, but it is worth noting that there are some advantages to lower maximum Health
Credit:
Only thing I’m talking credit for is the balls it takes to use two Superior runes. Aside from that, thing’s a fairly standard Daggersin with a hint of Deadly freshness and a twinge of adrenal fun. Nothing earth-shattering save for sheer damage output.
