PvE Assassin AE-condition bomber

I haven't seen anyone post anything similar yet, so I'm placing it in it's own thread

Profession: Assassin/Mesmer
Name: AE-Condition Bomber
Type: PvE
Category: AE-group condition delivery
Attributes:
Dagger Mastery 12 (11 + 1)
Shadow Magic 8 (7 + 1) or 9 (8 +1)
Critical Strikes 13 (11 + 2)
Inspiration Magic 5 (optional)

Gear:
-green Ceremonial Daggers is what I use
-Shrouded Armor (bonus energy needed)

Skills Set
1 - Black Mantis Sting, Jagged Strike, or Unsuspecting Strike
2 - Wild Strike, Jungle Strike, or Fox Fangs
3 - Temple Strike {E}
4 - Twisting Fangs
5 - Epidemic (required)
6 - Return (Teleport-retreat)
7 - Shadow Refuge (self healing)
8 - Ether Feast (optional, more self healing), Way of the Lotus, or Critical Eye

Summary: This build is specifically designed to deliver blindness, daze, bleeding, and deepwound to a large group of opponents. Yes, it is very energy intensive, but once your assassin delivers its payload, most monster groups collapse very quickly, being unable to hit and cast spells while losing a large chunk of health. I tested in in Raisu Palace/Divine Path just to see how it would do against L28 shirokens using only henchies, and it came through pretty well, finishing the mission just before the 30-minute mark.

I am sure Horns of the Ox + Falling Spider or other poison delivery can be incorporated in there, but this brings about more energy management issues.

The routine is simple: run into chosen target in a group (necessary due to energy requirements of combo skills), then attack with your chosen lead attack. Hit with Temple Strike once energy is near max, followed up by Twisting Fangs and Epidemic. Now your targetted group is blinded, dazed, bleeding, and deep wounded. They shouldn't last long assuming your other party members are doing their job. Use any of the listed offhand attacks in the place of Temple Strike while the latter is cycling so that you can still perform AE deep wounds + bleeding. Use Return for quick escapes should your assassin take massive spike damage, then quickly heal up with Shadow Refuge + Ether Feast.

Assassins deliver the most conditions in the shortest time frames, so Epidemic multiplies their effectiveness dramatically.

Credit: me? I haven't seen a similar post here yet...

Dagger Mastery 14 (12 + 2)
Shadow Magic 9 (8 + 1)
Critical Strikes 13 (10 + 3)
Deadly Arts 3 (2 +1)

Black Mantis Thrust
Temple Strike
Twisted Fangs
Epidemic.
Way of the Lotus
Return
Shadow Refuge
Rez / Entangling Asp


I guess this is for random?

I like the build but this one seems like it would do the same thing but with a little more energy management. Plus if you are going do ditch the Rez because it not Random PvP I would put Entangling Asp in its place. Having 14 in dagger mastery will you have daze and blind at 8 sec instead of 7 sec Cripple is now at 14 sec. Way of Lotus gives you 14 energy when you get your TF off. Just an Idea I probably try it both ways when I get home from work.

It says PvE, don't give pvp advice on a pve thread... Good Build there Shar. Where did you get our elusive comrade Temple Strike?

seems good, but how big of area is epicdemic?


edit.. i know its ajecent my bad, i hope mobs dont spread out then lol

Thanks everyone.

Bigb04202, I took your advice about incorporating energy mangement and replaced Ether Feast with Way of the Lotus -- results are looking good. The build doesn't have to apply all 4 conditions before using Epidemic... 2 or the 4 are fine depending on the mobs at hand.

Epidemic replicates all conditions on a single target to all adjacent foes. It is very useful with tight packed groups, particularly casters.

Temple Strike can be capped from 2 sources:
Assassin's Construct - Sunjiang District (Mission) - Shiro'Ken
Assassin's Construct - Silent Surf - Shiro'Ken

EDIT: Just finished Raisu Palace mission again in 22:22 using only henchies, so this set up is definitely viable.

Sorry I did not see it was PvE Bloodied Blade my mistake but my advice stays the same. You can go here http://www.xennon.co.uk/eliteskills/ to find where to cap your elite skills. I’m going to try this build when I get home in random that for the ideas lord_shar.

I just tried replacing Way of the Lotus with Critical Eye, and it seems to do a much better job at increasing energy gain, especially with a zealous dagger set. Just a quick FYI...