TooBadUnknown
13-04-2006, 03:12
I've been looking at people's builds quite a bit lately, and I've notice a lot of these considerations did not seem to be taken in account (I'm not talking about all the builds I'm seen though), which they should when dealing with the case of PVP.
Note*: sorry that this post is so lengthy, so feel free to divide them into sections if you want to read them, but don't want to read so much at one time.
Introduction
I would like you to first understand me, that is, I want to let you know that I'm a regretist, someone that leans toward the worst possible situation. I also want you to know that I do not own Prophecy, and the knowledge I have comes mostly from reading the forums on gwonline.net. Whether you think my comments are valid or not is for you to decide.
attack speed - I want to first start off with attack speed because many of you have probably read that DPS faq stickied at the top. Dagger Mastery does not make your dagger attacks faster as many might have misinterpreted. It gives you a greater chance of double striking on any ONE hit. Your dagger attack speed is 1 hit per every 1.33 sec unless you buff it up with some kind of skill. So do not think that it will make you attack any faster, which could throw your considerations off when using such skills as temple strike {e} in your build to daze the casters because the fact is that many of them can easily remove the condition faster than your attack speed can interrupt them while they're dazed.
Ex. The Monk's skill Purge Condition only takes 1/4th a sec to cast (1/2th a sec to cast while dazed)
cast time - I would like to address that when choosing certain skills/spells, look at their cast time. If you have too much skills that you need to cast (any buffing skills or hex spells) before going into battle take into considerations how long it takes you to cast and the duration the skill lasts for.
Ex. The Assassin's Shadowy Burden takes 2 secs. to cast, and though it hexes the target to move 25% slower and -20 Armour Level if they have no other hex on them it only lasts for 4-9 secs. The time length that it takes you to catch up to your foe could out match its usefulness because 25% slower isn't very much, and your target is probably no where near you by the time you finish casting it. However, I do see potential use when hexing while a teammate does the attack (or you can make use of some teleport skills, which will be discussed in spatial control).
In addition, thanks to arredondo, "spell casts often come with a minimum .75 aftercast before you can do anything else." So Shadowy Burden is even less effective if you consider this.
chase/cripple - This follows off of the last example about Shadowy Burden. Crippling is a condition and can be used before casting Shadowy Burden so that you can keep Shadowy Burden's effect and catch up to your target (this is assuming your a melee attacker). Remember that your target can run, so watch out for that.
execution time - This is very important (though I'm not 100% sure, I do recall being paused in movement whenever I hit my target). Whenever you attack, there is an execution time. Your attack skills do not execute as fast as you can activate them as the DPS faq seems to suggest. Also, while your character is activating any attack (whether it be a skill or just a normal attack), your character becomes immobile. If you have dazed your target be aware that because your character becomes immobile for the split secs. or so after hitting your target once, monks or whoever are able to run and cast a condition removal in that time frame from the distance gap they accumulated by running right after your attack.
Ex. The monk is dazed, you hit him as he starts running, there is now a gap between you and him, he completes casting a condition removal right before you reach him and hit him. (But obviously, you can better avoid this if your teams are also attacking that monk, preferably rangers, before the monk can remove the condition)
knockdown/straight damage - If your attack skill combo does not knockdown your target or prevent him from casting in any kind of way, be wary that if your high damage output might not be very useful. What I mean is that I've seen some builds that do massive damage (about 600 or more), but over the course of 6-8 or even more secs. This is a problem because your target can heal more than that in the same time frame while you are attacking, even if we assume that the target doesn't run (either because he's a monk or his team members can easily cast in the heals if they see an assassin trying to kill one of them over the course of over 6 secs.).
spatial control - I have yet to see much people utilize spatial control in their build. I know Death's Charge and Dark Prison takes way too long to recharge, and because Aura of Displacement is an elite, many dismiss its potential usefulness since they prefer other elites, but lets bring out those potential use. Shadow Stepping, or in other words, teleporting to your target, allows you to surprise attack him. This will benefit you because your target will most likely be ill-prepared for your incoming attack combo. Thus, you won't have to worry about them having some enhancements or stance that blocks/evades your attack as much as if you just charged in at him. Also, I find it unlikely that you will be blinded before you finish off your surprise attack combo.
Ex. If you search for an isolated target and incorporate the Assassin's Horns of the Ox into your skill set, you can shadow step and potentially dispose of your target before he gets back up from the knockdown.
time takes to kill - this goes along with the knockdown/straight damage category, and it's somewhat addressed there. Take into account how long it takes to complete your combo and remember that there is also an execution/animation time in addition to the cast time (the only exception that I've seen are stances, which you can cast instantly while running and continue to run).
Critical Strike - I'm talking about the skill in the Critical Strikes attribute for the assassin. I haven't seen anyone incorporate this in their build, and I've just learned this from reading Bobross's post, http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=393791,
that since it's a dual attack and automatically lands criticals, it is one of the most damaging attack skill an assassin has, and it only takes 6 secs. to recharge. Also, since it's a dual attack and automatically does critical if it hits(and even though it costs 10 energy to use), you will do double strike with two strikes being criticals. That means that the criticals will gain you back energies for each attack, and each one will deal damage as though the target had -20 Armour Level. Just thought that I should mention this skill to those who weren't aware.
Update: Please read scorche's comment about critical strike because I might be wrong about its usefulness, which is two replies down.
However, I have not changed my original post because no one has yet tested and confirm that Critical Strike doesn't give you back energy for its critical strikes, so we don't know. And if scorche's post is true, then wouldn't the critical % added from Dagger Mastery not count also?
This is all I have for now, if I see any other situations or skills that assassins should take into consideration, (or if any of my info is wrong) I might update this.
Note*: sorry that this post is so lengthy, so feel free to divide them into sections if you want to read them, but don't want to read so much at one time.
Introduction
I would like you to first understand me, that is, I want to let you know that I'm a regretist, someone that leans toward the worst possible situation. I also want you to know that I do not own Prophecy, and the knowledge I have comes mostly from reading the forums on gwonline.net. Whether you think my comments are valid or not is for you to decide.
attack speed - I want to first start off with attack speed because many of you have probably read that DPS faq stickied at the top. Dagger Mastery does not make your dagger attacks faster as many might have misinterpreted. It gives you a greater chance of double striking on any ONE hit. Your dagger attack speed is 1 hit per every 1.33 sec unless you buff it up with some kind of skill. So do not think that it will make you attack any faster, which could throw your considerations off when using such skills as temple strike {e} in your build to daze the casters because the fact is that many of them can easily remove the condition faster than your attack speed can interrupt them while they're dazed.
Ex. The Monk's skill Purge Condition only takes 1/4th a sec to cast (1/2th a sec to cast while dazed)
cast time - I would like to address that when choosing certain skills/spells, look at their cast time. If you have too much skills that you need to cast (any buffing skills or hex spells) before going into battle take into considerations how long it takes you to cast and the duration the skill lasts for.
Ex. The Assassin's Shadowy Burden takes 2 secs. to cast, and though it hexes the target to move 25% slower and -20 Armour Level if they have no other hex on them it only lasts for 4-9 secs. The time length that it takes you to catch up to your foe could out match its usefulness because 25% slower isn't very much, and your target is probably no where near you by the time you finish casting it. However, I do see potential use when hexing while a teammate does the attack (or you can make use of some teleport skills, which will be discussed in spatial control).
In addition, thanks to arredondo, "spell casts often come with a minimum .75 aftercast before you can do anything else." So Shadowy Burden is even less effective if you consider this.
chase/cripple - This follows off of the last example about Shadowy Burden. Crippling is a condition and can be used before casting Shadowy Burden so that you can keep Shadowy Burden's effect and catch up to your target (this is assuming your a melee attacker). Remember that your target can run, so watch out for that.
execution time - This is very important (though I'm not 100% sure, I do recall being paused in movement whenever I hit my target). Whenever you attack, there is an execution time. Your attack skills do not execute as fast as you can activate them as the DPS faq seems to suggest. Also, while your character is activating any attack (whether it be a skill or just a normal attack), your character becomes immobile. If you have dazed your target be aware that because your character becomes immobile for the split secs. or so after hitting your target once, monks or whoever are able to run and cast a condition removal in that time frame from the distance gap they accumulated by running right after your attack.
Ex. The monk is dazed, you hit him as he starts running, there is now a gap between you and him, he completes casting a condition removal right before you reach him and hit him. (But obviously, you can better avoid this if your teams are also attacking that monk, preferably rangers, before the monk can remove the condition)
knockdown/straight damage - If your attack skill combo does not knockdown your target or prevent him from casting in any kind of way, be wary that if your high damage output might not be very useful. What I mean is that I've seen some builds that do massive damage (about 600 or more), but over the course of 6-8 or even more secs. This is a problem because your target can heal more than that in the same time frame while you are attacking, even if we assume that the target doesn't run (either because he's a monk or his team members can easily cast in the heals if they see an assassin trying to kill one of them over the course of over 6 secs.).
spatial control - I have yet to see much people utilize spatial control in their build. I know Death's Charge and Dark Prison takes way too long to recharge, and because Aura of Displacement is an elite, many dismiss its potential usefulness since they prefer other elites, but lets bring out those potential use. Shadow Stepping, or in other words, teleporting to your target, allows you to surprise attack him. This will benefit you because your target will most likely be ill-prepared for your incoming attack combo. Thus, you won't have to worry about them having some enhancements or stance that blocks/evades your attack as much as if you just charged in at him. Also, I find it unlikely that you will be blinded before you finish off your surprise attack combo.
Ex. If you search for an isolated target and incorporate the Assassin's Horns of the Ox into your skill set, you can shadow step and potentially dispose of your target before he gets back up from the knockdown.
time takes to kill - this goes along with the knockdown/straight damage category, and it's somewhat addressed there. Take into account how long it takes to complete your combo and remember that there is also an execution/animation time in addition to the cast time (the only exception that I've seen are stances, which you can cast instantly while running and continue to run).
Critical Strike - I'm talking about the skill in the Critical Strikes attribute for the assassin. I haven't seen anyone incorporate this in their build, and I've just learned this from reading Bobross's post, http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=393791,
that since it's a dual attack and automatically lands criticals, it is one of the most damaging attack skill an assassin has, and it only takes 6 secs. to recharge. Also, since it's a dual attack and automatically does critical if it hits(and even though it costs 10 energy to use), you will do double strike with two strikes being criticals. That means that the criticals will gain you back energies for each attack, and each one will deal damage as though the target had -20 Armour Level. Just thought that I should mention this skill to those who weren't aware.
Update: Please read scorche's comment about critical strike because I might be wrong about its usefulness, which is two replies down.
However, I have not changed my original post because no one has yet tested and confirm that Critical Strike doesn't give you back energy for its critical strikes, so we don't know. And if scorche's post is true, then wouldn't the critical % added from Dagger Mastery not count also?
This is all I have for now, if I see any other situations or skills that assassins should take into consideration, (or if any of my info is wrong) I might update this.