What is the best secondary prof. for an assassin?

[Demetri]

Here the possible prof. combos possible with the assassin:

/elementalist: offers loads of spells. PBAoE and earth/water armour buffs could work well with the assassin

/monk: offers self healing, perm resses and smiting (check the 'Balthazar's Fang' thread for a good smiting assassin build)

/mesmer: offers loads of hexes that could work well with the assassins combos, and some attacks offer conditions such as crippling when target foe is hexed.

/nercromancer: offers hexes and damage+healing in bloodmagic

/ranger: offers wilderness survival -and troll unguent, best self heal in the game - and the chance to use a pet with charm animal. A bow could also be used.

/ritualist: the only things i can think of that would be effective with the assassin are the weapon spells, and the perm res 'flesh of my flesh'

/warrior: offers the chance to use a weapon apart from daggers, and tactics.

So guys what do you think will be the best secondary proffession for assassins in PvE and PvP?

[Longasc]

For PvE I would say Monk and Vig Spirit, Ritualist for FomF and the mentioned weapon spells, but they are pricy and one shot mostly.

I think as a primary assasin you will be that: An Assassin.
You will have only few skills of your secondary.

On the contrary Assassins offer a lot to the primary classes as a secondary with their utility skills IMO!

You cannot spread points too thin to have some points for a decent non-primary attribute line... switch secondarys as need arises, but hum, you want an answer, and you shall get a concrete answer. :)

I think Warrior, Monk and Ritualist make strong PvE combos.

Wild Blow can help you score a crit + gain energy and will destroy stances that might make you fail. For zero attribute points.

Monk and Ritualist would offer rez spells plus low energy buffs like Vigorous Spirit. Also read Malhavoc Adhamars Balthazars Fang build.

Though some Assassin attackes require a hexed foe, someone else should do this, necro and mesmer hexes cost quite some energy and recharge is often quite long.

If you read arredondos excellent build ideas, you will see that they are almost if not absolutely pure assassins.

A crit heavy assassin-warrior or monk/ritualist seem to be sexier in PvE than Ranger, Necro or Mesmer secondaries. But maybe Ranger for the stances... um.




No opinion on PvP: Assassin Elementalist with Knockdown (Shock) would work here e.g. A/R would give you access to evasive stances... so um. :)

[Reikai]

R/A for PvP i think will be the "norm"... but :/

[scorche]

It really all depends on what you want, every profession has skills that will compliment another profession. Though i do see a/mo as an easy to run pve build, but i still think a/rt will be the new w/mo ><
getting back to the point. If you want extra damage an obvious choice would be a/e, if u want to add more degen to your assassin a/me and a/n, if u just want an assassin, a/rt or a/mo would be good so that you have a perma rez. but there are some not so obvious combinations. like an assassin with a lightning upgrade and the iron mist skill (working on that build rite now ^^) or the fragility assassin (look at a/me thread)
so again, it all depends on what your looking for

[MaximumSquid]

I'd go RItualist or Monk secondary for PvE just for the hard resses.

In stand alone PvP i'd hands down go Necromancer for the raw utility.

In GvG I'm estimating Warrior as the secondary that will be most commonly used.

For fighting multiple enemies at once A/E gets the nod.

For fighting a single enemy A/Me wins here.

A/R. . .?

Unless you're dropping spirits you should just be a R/A.

[keydet]

Well to start I'm going with an A/Rt, just because I want to have one slot left over while unlocking skills. Grrr.... lousy bs tradeoff for linking accounts... grrrr

To answer the question though, it depends on what you want your assassin to do.

My guess is ranger for troll unguent and throw dirt to make the assassin more self-sufficient. Although the elementalist armor buffs could be nice too.

And for those who want to charge in and mess someone / something up, they will go with necromancer or mesmer.

Monk or Ritualist for the infinite rezzes will get lots of use too.

I think there will be lots of combos out there. Hopefully it wont be another case of 99% War/Mo 1% War/x.

[Tigris Of Gaul]

A/W with Shock* ftw! (PvP)

[Nanashi]

Depends what you like more and what you're going to use your assassin for.

[petezombie]

I'm thinking of trying out a assassin/mesmer build cause then you could use mantra of concentration or mantra of resolve and not be interupted while doing your combinations unless they start disabling your skills (like with blackout for example). But I still need to look into all of this a bit more.

[Viri]

A/W with Shock* ftw! (PvP)
Hahahahaha that would be nice .... too bad we cant have 3 classes :D

[ajoo]

I'll go as A/E cause of the armor buffs and Slowing Hexes (like shard storm and Ice prision).

I'll also switch my R/Mo to R/A to try out some combos

[Shadowleaf]

Well, I think that the best two are Monk and Ranger... I played the Assassin a whole bunch during the two preview events. The first time I only played A/R and the second one I tried A/Mo and liked it more...

The reason I think these two are good secondaries is that Assassin's big weakness is the lack of self healing. Though it doesn't have Warrior armor, the Assassin actually has plenty of tanking potential. Shadow Refuge was changed from a decent evasion and poor self heal into a powerful damage reduction skill. Then there are skills like Critical Defenses, heck, that isn't even a stance! It stacks with your stances!

Ranger is great because it gives you Troll Unguent as well as attack speed increasing stances and evasion stances, which obviously help out with a straightforward dagger build... But a 2 second cast for Troll Unguent makes Healing Breeze a better choice, especially since an Assassin can afford Healing Breeze.

Another thing I found good to use as A/Mo was Healing Seed. As a melee damage dealer, you actually don't want to be the main target of your enemies, but someone next to you will be. Throw Healing Seed on them and both of you reap the benefits.

Also, you can help the monks heal with an A/Mo since you have a lot of energy to work with.

One thing I loved about an A/R though, was combining Sharpen Daggers with Apply Poison. Giving a good duration -7 degen to several targets is very good. Also, you don't need any attack skills that inflict conditions. You can use a high damage build AND inflict high degen at the same time.



Hahahahaha that would be nice .... too bad we cant have 3 classes :D

Well, you can always do A/W with Shove. :)

This is just an idea I haven't tested... but how about something like...

Death's Charge, Shove, Falling Spider, Horns of The Ox as a spike combo for a lone target and of course, Wild Blow for stance users and anything else that might help... maybe some Warrior stances... definetly Shadow Refuge.

[eddie the reaper]

good im rly stuck they all sound so good i dunno rly want i want to use my assasin 4. i hve an assassin wit no secondary prof and im not sure wot 1 i will choose i think i am leaning towards necro though purely for the blood magic i think that could work well wit life stealing.

my main worry which will eventually influence my descion is health/staying alive. when i first made my char in prophecies i made a w/e only l8er in the game did i see how bad this was as i only had 2 helaing skills and 1 was aura of enchantment ( i think that is what it is lol) and it was next to useless the only other was healing signet which was very easy to interupt so basically i died a hell of alot (lol, some peeps may put this down to no player skill). well anyway l8er in the game i changed to w/mo which was alot better. so rly i am wondering if i go wit something like a/e or a/w am i going to hve the same problem?? so far playin wit my assasin i again only hve 2 healing skill and 1 is a shadow step so it isnt as useful as the other which gives good health regen 4, 5 secs. i dont rly want a a/mo as i dont think that will rly provide enough fire power and will result in a char nearly exactly the same as my w/mo.

so plz tell me do u think a a/n would b good 4 me in pve or shall i jus cut straight to the chase an go wit a a/e or even a/mo to stay alive even though i said i didnt rly want this, but i dont want to b dying evry 5 mins lol.

[shaktiboi]

If you want the best, easiest survivability, go with a Monk secondary. You'll also have a nice reusable teleporting rez for those party wipeouts that will happen with remaining mobs standing too close for normal rezzes to work.

If you want higher damage output, the second best choice is Ranger secondary.

If you want even more flexibility and possibly the highest damage output, go Warrior secondary, but be aware that your only healing in this case will be Shadow Refuge and you'll have to reduce your need for healing with constant use of Watch Yourself! (+20 AL) and Critical Defenses. Your build simply must include both Watch Yourself! and Critical Defenses. On the plus side, you'll need/want Critical Defenses on probably any assassin build with any secondary profession.

[marlblank]

i play a/me. The conjure pantasm and some other skills help degen on enemy. And because i am a huge fan of bleeding and poison or other degens on the enemy, i love my build

[Feynt]

When I played my assassin in the preview (A/E) I found that I used less and less secondary skills and more and more assassin skills. Assassins are a class not unlike the ranger; they're self contained more or less with a good selection of evasions, attacks, and misc. skills. Shadow Refuge has become a weaker form of Troll Unguent now as well. Anyhow, here's my thoughts on the various secondaries:

A/E:
Major damage potential. Sliver Armor lets you really dish it back out when you're toe to toe with your enemies. During the preview it had a little glitch where it would only deal damage to one target close to you, no matter who attacked you. Attacking that one target while everyone else beats on you could easily out pace any healing. Double Dragon, Inferno, Whirlwind, Lightning Touch... countless PBAoE spells that can all be used to great effect in melee given the fast regen rate of the assassin, plus the added regen that a high criticals can give. Burning Speed is easily my favourite combat starter. Nothing says "You are dead" like a full tilt, dagger wielding maniac that's wreathed in flames. ^.^;


A/Ra:
I'm working on this right now, more so because of my experience during the preview with critical hits. I like pets, I like criticals, and to make the best use of critical hits that I can I need to attack fast. So Beast Mastery for Tiger's Fury/Beastial Fury (new name, slightly worse duration) and an extra combat partner seemed ideal with a 15% critical hit rate. Way of Perfection, Critical Eye, and a Critical Strikes of 8+ give me a very consistant energy gain, plus a decent health regen that makes keeping me alive easier. When I get it again, Critical Defenses will also keep me alive a good deal longer.

Other tactics include using all those conditions and warping abilities to your advantage to zip in, poison/bleed everyone, then leave. Death Blossom a tight group of enemies with Apply Poison on and you've just done a lot of damage (on top of the 30-70 you would do to everyone in the group). And of course, nothing keeps you alive like Troll Unguent (except Mark of Protection. Nothing beats that in a pinch).


A/Rt:
Somewhat counter intuitive. Assassins are melee, while ritualists are largely ranged. Assassins have practically nothing over 1 second casting time, ritualists have a lot of slow summon spells. However ritualist spirits can REALLY benefit a party, and if you can get multiple spirits out before the fight begins, bonus. You drop one (Union for instance), your team's healer drops one (Shelter?), you're likely to be set for the whole fight. And then you can jump into the fight to attack anyone you want with a spell like Death's Charge after the enemies have broken ranks to engage your team's melee units.

Ritualists also have decent heals (Mend Body and Soul), as well as weapon buffs which can aid in your damage dealing (Brutal Weapon) and snares (Binding Chains).


A/Me:
Lots of degen possibilities, snares, Blackout (you ARE in melee after all, and you don't really need your attack skills to be painful), Fragility, Sympathetic Visage... The possibilities are numerous. Illusion of Weakness makes a great combat heal buffer. One thing I would definantly recommend against though is Illusionary Weaponry. Assassins don't really attack faster than anyone else, and you're more likely to do more damage with your attack skills than with IW. The only exception is if IW hits twice with dual attack skills, or possibly hits everyone with Death Blossom (which I highly doubt). Fevered Dreams with all your assassin skills for crippling, poison, etc. can really add up.


A/Mo:
As was listed elsewhere, smiting is a very real possibility. There are a lot of touch range smites, there's those damage reflection skills, and now two Symbol of Wrath type spells. Strength of Honour can really improve your damage output too.

There's also a plethora of protection spells, new and old, which last a while once cast and can be recast quickly and cheaply. Aegis, Guardian, Pacifism, Protective Spirit, Shield Guardian, Spirit Bond, or simple ol' Mark of Protection are all very effective at buying you precious seconds between death and your monk's ability to heal you.

And then good ol' healing which doesn't need a listing really.


A/W:
I personally don't think this has a lot to offer an assassin. There's no way the various other weapon skills are anywhere near as effective as your dagger skills, especially with Critical Strikes, and you don't get Strength, so that leaves you with Tactics. Besides a few defensive stances and Frenzy or Flurry which would work well in tandem with crits (see my A/R notes, sans the pet) even without any points sunk into another attribute, there's not a lot you can get out of this class. This is primarily the reason I didn't take warrior as a secondary. There's just so much more that ranger has to offer in place of warrior.


A/N:
Barbs ftw! ^.^
There's so many possibilities, from touch draining to area curses, Chilblains to Mark of Pain, and plenty of raising the dead to enhance your combat abilities. In short they are the new N/W, only with more effective skills and better armour. Plus that flesh golem.... MAN can he tank!

[eddie the reaper]

i went with the a/n and he is rly quite good although alot of the blood magic spells cost 10 energy which isnt so gr8 4 my assassin if he needs a quick shot of health although he does seem quite resilient and reluctent to die quickly lol which is a good thing of course and is dmg output is also excellent :)

but one of the major drawbacks of course is that the assassin takes up so many skill slots for him to be fully effective this then in turn leaves not many slots for ur secondary proffession. also i find it hard to concentrate on 1 or 2 attributes for the assassin as most of the link up moves very there attribute from dagger mastery to critical strikesa and to deadly arts so that leaves the attributes points quite low.

all in all though i think the a/n is quite efficent and effective.

[SLZ]

I Have 2 assassins right now.

Assassin/Mo definately can get in and do the deed and the permares helps alot
Assassin/Necro once i get a few more skills think this one is gnna be a fast moving powerhouse.