Caster Assassin

Was wanting to try a more caster focused assassin for something different and this is what I came up with. Its focused primarily on spreading conditions(blind,poison,crippled,deep wound).

Assassin/Mesmer
Deadly 12+1+3= 16
Shadow 10+1= 11
Illusion 8
Critical 2+1= 3

Uses Wand/Offhand or Staff instead of Daggers

1. Fevered Dreams[E]
2. Dancing Daggers
3. Entangling Asp
4. Blinding Powder
5. Mantis Touch
6. Phantom Pain
7. Arcane Echo
8. Res Sig / Shadow Refuge(for 12v12)

Start out with FD, cover it with PP. Then proceed to your assassin combos:
DD->EA->AE->BP
Wait 10 Sec(Can throw in another DD here if you like for some extra damage)
DD->MT->BP
Can keep up your conditions up almost indefinately this way as long as they arent removed. In PvP, you'll probably want to use MT in the first chain and AE in the second(can try to time your knockdown this way and getting the cripple off earlier is helpful)

I haven't been able to test it much yet, but I think it should be useful as crowd control in PvE and pretty good in 12 vs 12 battles.

At first when I read the title I thought...how is this going to kill casters.

Neat concept though, kind of do it yourself.

Good synergy with the skills at 20 recharge so you can pull the combo. 16 second blind on AoE to nearby is awesome.

Without the bonus energy from critical strikes and no energy management, thats going to be a problem. Assassins only have a max 32 energy from armor and then an additional X depending on the wand/focus/staff youre using. This only solves the initial energy problem to pull the whole chain. After that youll have to wait awhile to build back up.

With the above problem still applying, Id see this as a good disabling build still meshing with the assassin's opportunistic style. But since you blow all of your energy as once with no way to get it back save 4 pips of regen, youll be waiting around a good 30 secs if you want to do a 4 condition stack again.

I dont get why you have arcane echo though. Even if it is to pull another blind to cover the gap, thats a lot of energy to spend for it and youll just end up having even more downtime anyways.

-Kod

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll work in some Inspiration and replace Arcane Echo with Spirit of Failure since that meshes pretty well with the Blind and I've found it to be a nice energy builder in PvE.

Heres the revised build based off your comments:

Assassin/Mesmer
Deadly 10+1= 11
Shadow 11+1+3= 15
Illusion 8
Inspiration 6
Critical 2+1= 3

1. Fevered Dreams[E]
2. Dancing Daggers
3. Entangling Asp
4. Blinding Powder
5. Mantis Touch
6. Phantom Pain
7. Spirit of Failure
8. Res Sig / Shadow Refuge

I like this skill

I think it'd work better as a Mesmer primary. Critical strikes really isn't buying you anything, and your only Shadow skill is Blinding Powder... doesn't seem like that justifies a 15 attribute score.

I would try this attribute spread as a Me/A:

Fast Casting: 2 (1 + 1)
Illusion: 11 (8 + 1 + 2)
Inspiration: 10 (8 + 2)
Deadly Arts: 11
Shadow Arts: 9

Your cripple, poison, and deep wound are all 16 seconds, and the blind is still 10 seconds.

When equipping a staff or wand, are you unable to land critical hits? If you can, I don't see why it's *not* viable. With armor that adds energy, you can have 49 for your pool, and 4 regen, plus extra from crits. Not bad for a caster at all in my opinion.

i like it, but i dont see why you cant just go Me/A