Re: Concerning A/N or N/A...level with me here, folks.

[ContactCombat]

With typical newb enthusiasm (and a rather boring desk job) I have been creating dozens of lists and possible combinations for an Assassin/Necro or Necro/Assassin. During the FPE I fussed around with a bunch of different combos, but I wasn't able to put in enough time to unlock every skill that I wanted to experiment with.

As such, I've been investing pretty heavily in some theorycraft with hypothetical builds...and I've been falling short.

Chalk my apprehension to lack of experience.

So far I seem to come across a few different blocks that ultimately lead me with a negative impression of the concepts I'm thinking about.

I first attempted to create some sort of "Nasty Hex Assassin". Primarily focused on CS/DM/SA and Curses, the main concept is an Assassin played in a rather "Generic Assassin Manner" with the added benefit of some nasty hexes. However, I find that any build that draws upon some of the nastier Necro hexes immediately becomes rather shy on energy...any effort to minimize this results in the elimination of all but one or two Necro attributes (with Plague Touch a must)...thereby begging the question "What makes this uniquely Necro-ish" followed by "Why bother?"

In response to this let down, I begin concocting different types of builds that focus on some of the rather devastating Necro touch attacks. Since these require a hefty attribute investment and energy reserve, it naturally follows that a Necro primary would benefit this build better. In playing with this idea, it seems logical to outfit said N/A with daggers for quicker damage dealing between touch attacks. Yet, I realize that a build like this is completely gimped without a heavy reliance on touch attacks, since the primary dagger attacks are near useless without a decent investment in Dagger Mastery and Critical Strikes.

This thread is essentially a request to see if the concept of a N/A or A/N is really a viable option...and in what ways you've managed to, theoretically or in play, define the build in a manner that couldn't be replicated better with another primary/secondary.

So far I'm finding the concept more of a novelty than anything...what have you found?

[Sherlock]

Well I am not an expert but how about using Assa attack to put a condition and then follow with Virulence ?

For example :

Twisting Fangs
Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Twisting Fangs strikes for +3-9 damage and struck foe suffers from Bleeding and Deep Wound for seconds.

and then :

Virulence Elite Skill
If target foe was already suffering from a condition, that foe suffers from disease, poison, and weakness for 3-13 seconds. This is an elite skill.

This should be massive degen !

[Rhayve]

And add in Vile Miasma:

Vile Miasma
Target foe is struck for 10-54 cold damage if suffering from a condition, that foe is hexed with the Vile Miasma and suffers -1-3 health degeneration for 10 seconds.

and

Iron Palm
Target touched foe suffers 5-41 damage, and if that foe is suffering from a Hex or Condition that foe is knocked down. Iron Palm may be used as a lead attack.

And to aid yourself:
Signet of Malice
For each condition suffered by target foe, you lose one condition.

[MaximumSquid]

and then :

Virulence Elite SkillI seriously don't recommend ever using Virulence on a melee build. It always ends bad even if you do kill your target.


And add in Vile Miasma:I was looking at this combo, and it seemed like it would run almost exactly the same as Entangleing asp. Only difference is Entangleing asp knocks down your foe for you.

I've been focusing on Elemental Assassin builds, but I have ran into a few people running N/A and A/N. The most successful one i've seen so far was someone running a pureskills assassin build with plague signet.

I'd check the inexpensive necro elites and see what you can work with them.

Stuff like tainted flesh, weaken knees, etc.

[Bobross]

I think the main trick with a caster/assassin hybrid is the same problem I was having with my illusionary weaponry mesmer....you can do good damage in melee, but you have to be attacking...so the spells that you do cast should either help you in melee, or be very fast casting.

One easy suggestion is to go with curses. Mark of Pain is great(though a bit slow), combine that with locusts fury, with high dagger mastery, you'll be doing lots of aoe damage. (Dagger mastery at 16 = 1 hit/second with locusts fury it's more!). Add in death bloom for a finisher, and we've got a good combo. Also expect people to run when they've got mark of pain on...so there's assassin skills that only work when people are running...

How about going with death, I always wanted to try out aura of the lich...how about that with putrid explosion and soul feast/shadow refuge.Add in critical eye for frequent crits, critical defenses to make you hard to hit, and high critical strikes/dagger mastery...lots of damage over time and very hard to kill, plenty of energy from crits and occasional corpse spikes...good, no? not sure about casting times for blood spells....

[drtstudios]

I made a n/a build in the beta event and to my suprise had some success. What I would do is get on a ledge overlooking the enemy (in an ideal situation but its not requred). Once they are in range use life siphon (3 degen and 3 regen for you). After that use aura of displacement to shadow step to them. Once you are there use the lead crippling attack (prevents escape), the off hand stand clearer (just in case they have a stance that could cause some trouble) and finally the bleeding (3 more degen) and deep wound (less health to finish) dual attack. After the attack remove shadow step (returning you to the safe start locaion) and use Vile Miasma causing 4 more degen and cold dmg and if they are still alive and the degen isn't going to do it (up to 10 if done correctly) then use vampiric gaze when you have enough energy. To do the full combo I thing you need canible/scar armor for the energy since daggers don't give you any, thats what I did. When they die I got something like 11 energy from soul reaping so i was well on my way to being ready to attack again or if the need arose, defend. The time that you are right next to the enemies go by so fast that most of the time I never even got hit. The clear weakness to this is a) monks fully healing/protectioning, b) the weakness after an attack (mainly from spell casters) and c) missing any of the attacks in the combo. In the hectic luxon vs kurzich misions and 12 vs 12 battle atmosphere it is easy to find a target without any support. Another thing to note is that you can expect a lot of negative comments from the targets or at least I did. I had something like:
atributes:
16 blood magic (sup+scar)
11 soul reaping (minor)
8 dagger (the req of my daggers)
Skills:
1. Aura of Displacement
2. Life Siphon
3. Vamperic Gaze
4. Leaping Mantis Sting
5. Wild Strike
6. Twisted Fangs
7. Vile Miasma
8. rez or other

In the end, personally I thought it was pretty fun, even if almost a little cheap.

[scorche]

i ran a n/a and a me/a and the FPE, what worked for me was to do degen with your nec hexes then spike them with your attack combo. a good build would be

soul reaping: 7(6+minor rune)
blood magic: 16(12+sup rune+blood helm)
dagger mastery:11

Life transfer
Life Siphon
Black Mantis Thrust
Jungle Strike
Death Blossom
Rez
Awaken the Blood/Well of Blood
Plague Touch

how you use this build is: use awaken the blood if you brought it to strengthen your hexes spread around life siphon on a few targets, then transfer your primary target, then hit him with your attack combo. This should kill them very quickly. then use well of blood if you brought that instead of awaken to heal you and your teammates (though with life transfer and siphon you shouldnt need much healing).
and of course use plague touch to rid yourself of conditions