pve discrimination

Quote:

Ok, now that I've read the entire thread.

To me, the Assassin is to combat what the Mesmer is to spellcasting. Does anyone remember when they used to have a warning that the Mesmer required a higher degree of skill than the other classes?

They don't do that anymore, but essentially the Assassin is the same in that regard. This, one could argue, makes the assassin (and mesmer) weaker, in that it requires a higher degree of skill.

But with that in mind, everyone knows a Mesmer in the right situation is worth his weight in gold. I suspect the assassin is the same way.

I did some "n00b" mistakes when I first started playing my assassin... I think thats natural; if you don't go read strategy guides, then you only learn via the school of hard knocks.

And at first, I was dying, a lot, and was getting very frustrated. But I swore not to let it beat me, and now, I'm doing very well surviving.

It's quite clear.... the Assassin is very front-loaded damage, where the warrior is back-loaded, building up adrenaline. The assassin, with chances to double strike, higher crits, chain attacks, etc, can wrack up damage faster AND stack on more conditions faster.

In exchange, they also go down fast. They have to think a bit like guerilla fighters: go in, make a kill, and get out, fast as they can.

They also can chain together a great degree of interrupt attacks. Moreso than the warrior, and although perhaps about the same as a ranger, theirs happens faster due to being in close range.

Of course, the fact remains that they can't take the hits the warrior can; with the right armor (IE, attack=armor bonus if in the frey a lot), and defense/shadowstep/healing as a balance to your attack skills, you should do fine.

I've found that the Assassin in PVE plays several roles depending on build:

1) Monk defender. Some mobs will, of course, go right for your healers. The right builds can solo warriors and take them down hard and fast (just one example: Shadowy Burden->Iron Palm->Falling Spider->Blindng Powder->Unseen Fury-> etc etc); there are several ways of doing this, but you get the idea.

2) Bait and Switch: still working on this one, but essentially, you move forward, attract the bad guys, kite them back to the rest of the group, then teleport behind them to get the tail edge. Example: Dark Escape Forward; either Shadow of Haste backwards or Scorpion Wire desired rearward foe; if scoprion wire, then recall backwards or whatever. Basically, the idea here is you trail the guys behind you, your rangers and eles then nail them to keep them running forward, as you shadow step backward to get the fleshy target.

3) Hit and Run Guerilla: Stay to one side of group, if possible; when primary group engages your tanks, etc, you shadow-step, dash, deaths charge, or whatever backwards to start killing the softie targets. Esp as interrupter or fast heavy damage, this works great.

Just a few ideas; the last is obvious, of course, but havent seen much of the first two. I actually have enjoyed being the second wave fighter; wait for the tanks to engage, then select someone thats double-teaming a warrior, or trying to get to the monk and assassinate them with extreme prejudice. I only go for the rear targets if there is a serious threat; usually a really powerful monk or ele boss that I can keep interrupted while the rest of the team takes out the mobs.

*shrug* I'm still learning the class, but I have no doubt I'll master it. I tell you though, I just got to Nahpui two days ago, and since then I cant find a group. I really hate spending what feels like hours sometimes trying to find groups, and the few times I get accepted immediately get booted again without any kind of explanation.

Ugh. I hate henching too. I play in part to socialize... looks like I may have to though....


Side note: I took a Rit secondary in order to use weapon spells, but I'm thinking that was a mistake. I've considered ranger, necro, and warrior as secondaries, but a part of me wants to be a secondary mesmer. I cant explain why, and I don't see many spells I'd really want to take (except illusion of weakness hehe), but the idea appeals to me purely as a matter of style, hehe!

Quote:

i don't get where you guys get the "nearly every assassin is utterly clueless" part, 'cause i've never met a REALLY bad assassin. however, i've met REALLY bad characters of every other class. i've just gotten my assassin though unwaking waters, and i must say that every assassin i've met died about as much as anyone else. that's hardly worthy of the singling-out exclusion that assassins are getting right now.

factions have been out for almost a month now. the "nearly every assassin is utterly clueless" statement might have been true at one point, but it is hardly true now. i suggest everyone to stop the unwarranted bull-intestinal-discharges and stop using it on large forums to further spread the aforementioned discharges.

I've met more really bad monks than bad assassins. They think they're all hot shit, then spam Heal Other the entire instance and keep calling out "My Energy is 0 of X". The only people that have ever made me break my composure and hurl abuse are monks. A bad Assassin is at worst, a leecher. A badly played monk kills an entire team.

Quote:

At that point the monk should sacrifice the assassin in favour of keeping the rest of the team alive.

^^ Point!

When 1 player is becoming too heavy a drain on my energy reserves, it's only right that I show them exactly what would happen if I wasn't there

In most of the PUGs I've joined with my assassin, I've ended up dying fewer times than the resident wammo. The only defensive/healing skills I use in my current PvE build are Vigorous Spirit--half because it's a cheap enchant that I can keep up all the time for Golden Lotus Strike--and Dash, and I don't think I've ever gotten more than 15% DP while playing with real people. (And it's always fun to ping "I have x% morale boost!" as an assassin when almost everyone else is pinging their death penalty.) I might use Aura of Displacement except that I need Moebius Strike to keep up my endless chain of ownage. And really, if you've got any kind of clue about positioning and aggro management, teleport skills aren't necessary in PvE.

Smart assassins shouldn't require any more healing than smart casters. And from my experience playing my monk in Cantha and grouping with assassins, that's usually the case. If the assassin knows what he's doing, he'll seem like just another caster in the party window; if he doesn't, his bar will be dropping like crazy. Either way, it's just as easy to find an idiot caster that will be dying all the time as it is to find an assassin who does the same.

So, personally, I think the prejudice I see in game all the time is pretty stupid. There've been a number of times where I've been playing on my monk, and the rest of the team will be bashing assassins who are sending party invites, saying crap like all assassins suck and are just wannabe tanks. Then we enter the mission and I find out that the warrior(s) (who are usually the ones spouting the most crap) can't tank worth a damn themselves. Which has led me to the conclusion that anyone who makes the sweeping generalization of, "all assassins suck," are simply idiots who don't know how to play the class.

Quote:

Quote: