My Assassin Conditions Build (PvE)

I havn't tried this in PvP yet, because I loathe PvP, but that's besides the point. Someone else can go try it if they like. The only problem with this is that its no good for attacking many targets through the course a battle. Its more for sniping out the key enemies, such as the monk, boss, or other dangerous squishies (even warriors if it comes to that). Also, it currently doesn't include any elites, but that will change once I get a little farther, and can improve upon this.

Without further ado:


1) Mark of Instability- for 30 seconds, the next time target foe is hit by a dual attack it is knocked down.

2) Black Mantis Thrust- lead attack. Strike for +18. If that foe is hexed (Mark of Instability) they are crippled for 13 seconds.

3) Jungle Strike- Offhand attack. Strikes for +18. Does +27 mroe damage if that foe was crippled.

4) Twisting Fangs- Dual Attack. (remember Mark of Instability? it kicks in now) Strike for +19, and target foe suffers bleeding and deep wound for 18 seconds.

5) Falling Spider- Must strike a knocked down foe. (foe is now knocked down from mark of instability+dual attack) Strikes for +32, and target foe is poisoned for 18 seconds

6) Shadow Refuge- for 4 seconds, 8 health regen, +56 if ur attacking when it ends.

7) Way of Perfection/Lotus (take ur pick). One does health, the other does energy. I prefer health, personally.

8) Rez Sig, of course. What build is complete wtithout it?

Here are the attribute assigments associated with this build:

Dagger Mastery: 13
Critical Strikes: 13
Shadow Arts: 9


Voila, try it out, see if ya like it. It works for me. Suggestions are always encouraged and appreciated, but please be contructive

i actually think the initial combo idea is best suited for PvP. The reason for that thought is you have no real survivability vs mobs. Shadow Refuge will not save you from large mobs if they close in on you. I find that in PvE as an assasin, it is ESSENTIAL to have at least one form of teleport. Whether it be the random Heart of Shadow, or Shadow of Haste, Recall, etc...

if you customized this to use an entrance AND exit teleport you will be golden in PvP. Even in big scirmishes like Alliance Battles, you could tele behind enemy front line unload on the caster of ur choice, then teleport back outside of danger. Like maybe pre caste Recall on a fellow caster (healer) and charge in with Deaths Charge which would tele you to target...

I think the idea is great though, it focuses on really shutting the target down as fast as possible. The target will receive Cripple, Deep Wound, Bleeding, Knockdown, Poison, all on top of your normal weapon dmg. Suweet. The only weakness i see however is lack of persistance. This is a one time combo, like a single shot sniper rifle type deal. Once you onload all attack combo on your target, you will be out, if not already completely out of energy. This means you may not have enough to use defensive, healing or teleporting skills in time before you are killed. To keep this build in the PvE realm, i would try to work in better energy management like Critical Eye with Zealous daggers, and then an additional skill for defense such as Heart of Shadow... or something. So all in all, you might have to sacrifice one or two conditions to target to make this build more effective.

Then again, you did say you would rather have that hp return. So i guess its more preference. i still see the survivability and mobility of this build a slight problem...

enjoy.

Nice build!

for a teleport you can use the elite aura of displacement

When you cast Aura of Displacement(e) , Shadow Step to target foe. When you stop maintaining Aura of Displacement, you return to your original location.

I'd switch it for the Way of Perfection/Lotus.

And like batou said, you really need zealous daggers to pull this off

Zealous is probably good, but I just havn't which green ones i want. Energy isn't noramally a tarrible problem. Once my combo is spent I usually just keep whacking stuff (+3 per crit strike) and it recharges quicker.

I know about the teleporting, I just don't have AoD yet. I really don't want to sacrifice any conditions. I kinda feel like the conditions are at the heart of this build, and to remove them would take away from it as a whole. I don't know what i would remove anyways.

I actually tried this, just the original skill set, in RA for a bit last night (RA in 20 minute chunks spaced apart by at least an hour is all the PvP I can stomach most of the time) and it worked reasonably well, but far from great. Usually about 1 or 2 kills per round, sometimes 3, depends on who i faced (seeing as its random and all). One of my biggest issues was escaping from Warriors who had Sprint equiped. I guess if I threw on AoD right back in the starting pit, and zapped back there no warrior could touch me. He wouldn't know where I had gone to

I'm only at Dragon's Throat so far, and Closer to the Stars quest, so I'm gonna have to go look up the cap location(s), and research greens with zealous and preferably health as well.

Thanks for the comments,

-Mike

just tried it... I love the build concept...


however...

the energy cost IS HUGE (i know already established) and comparing kill time vs the following build...

Dagger 15
Shadow 11
Criticals 11

Golden Lotus
entangling asp
falling spider
blossom/fangs
Way of Perfection
Sharpen Blades
Refuge
Critical Eye

it takes much longer to kill, keeps you constantly low on energy and the timing of execution is much more difficult

I was excited about your build idea... soon as i read it i was like wow nice combination logged on and tried it.. and it is a nice combo just the above here seems to be a lot more effective... and doesn't make you feel so limited after the chain...

with the above build your energy is almost imposible to run out of
using valk armor for more hp

chain is easy...

sharpen
perfection

CE
Lotus

Asp
Spider

blossom/fangs
refuge

attack
attack

attack
attack

lotus
refuge

attack
attack

asp
spider

blossom
refuge

repeat if they aren't dead already you can run through the chain TWICE in under 30 seconds which is a garanteed kill solo on everything cept for bosses which btw are only a few norm attacks from death at this point anyhow

OOOH... took some of your idea and modified it a bit....

using

golden lotus
entagling asp
falling spider
twising fangs
mark of instability
way of perfection
refuge
critical eye

try the following...

perfection
instability
Critical eye
lotus
asp
spider
refuge
attack
attack
fangs
spider
lotus
refuge
attack
asp
spider
refuge
attack
attack
fangs
spider

little quicker kill times on hard targets.... soft targets are dead usually before you hit lotus the second time... this combo is pretty much continuos compared to my previous and the heals are more properly timed...

took 2.5 chains to kll Xuekao... compleated in just over 30 seconds

The only thing i don't like about this build is the recharge of Mark of instability (which is 20 seconds).
the combo doesn't really work that well when have to wait that long for the skill to recharge.
ofcourse you use a bit of time from the point you used MoI till the point your combo is done.

I'm gonna stick with my FotM combo, but this was good. GPS combo just takes out everything in pvp and pve in 1 or two cycles, repeated in less than 30 seconds each.

what about elites? if you have good monks id suggest seeping swapping out way of perfection for seeping wounds just do kill em faster. Other than that the build rocks, just did Raisu Palace with it. Only con is the long recharge on Golden Lotus Strike.