Assassin Spike Ideas

[I XM]

First of all, hi, I'm new to this forum and fairly new to GW. Recently started playing Prophecies after having enjoyed the FPE.:wave:

I would like a few pointers for spiking with assassins. Of course, apart from limited FPE experience (and quite likely some skills will be adjusted), it is all theorycraft for another 2 weeks.

I think a 3-chain combo is way too long and vulnerable, so I tend to think about 2-chain comboes. Two seperate 2-chain comboes take 4 slots but might be workable in a build that is all about spiking. A better solution is 2 off-hands that don't require a lead, and a quick recharge dual attack, like Critical Strikes.

Here is an initial idea for an A/W:

Sharpen Daggers(offensive)/Critical Defenses(defensive)/Way of Perfection(defensive)/Shadow Refuge(defensive)

Wild Blow (5s recharge) and ridiculously better than Wild Strike :sad:
Golden Phoenix Strike (8s recharge)
Critical Strikes(6s recharge)
Flourish{E}(10s recharge)

Critical Eye
Return/Spirit Walk (if your team is bringing spirits that will be at the back, spirit walk is much better as it can be used to move both forward and backwards and has a much shorter recharge)
Rez Sig

The idea is to be enchanted so as to bypass a lead attack with Golden Phoenix Strike.
Wild Blow to remove stances. If it does trigger Critical Strikes energy return, then it will return it's energy cost (3+1+1: from 13 crit strikes+ crit eye+ zealous daggers)
Golden Phoenix Strike next followed by Critical Strikes (costs 10 energy and returns 10).
Flourish(costs 5 energy, returns 3 from the 3 attacks recharged) immediately and repeat.

The only skills that actually cost energy after their use would be Golden/Flourish/Golden (total 12) assuming you have allowed your energy to regen after casting your enchant (not if you used shadow refuge ofc).

You have also done at least 6 crits within a few seconds, which is why 3 of the enchants I suggested trigger on crit. Way of Perfection especially would benefit greatly from this.

A few seconds later wild blow is available again, and the others should be cooled down in time as you get back enough energy from your normal attacks + natural regen.

Disadvantages/Problems
The reason this build has return/spirit walk is because you are all offense (except for defensive enchants) and while usually "attack is the best defense". When you're blind and snared, teleporting away to your friendly team monk suddenly seems more appealing because:

(1) Enchant removal completely screws you if you are using an enchant with a long cooldown (i.e, anything except Shadow Refuge) or your team cannot give you some cover enchants. Shadow refuge should be quite good with this build because energy is plentiful but having enchants that trigger on crit looks good too with at least 12 crits in 15 seconds, without counting your 40% crit chance on normal attacks as well.

(2) Absolutely no hex/condition removal. Once again you have to rely on your team for this. Can you say blind? :angry:

(3) No snare either. Although it is tempting to think of replacing return/spirit walk with Siphon Speed. I would definitely replace rez sig with a speed buff or snare in 12v12.

So this is definitely a hit-and-run build.

Anyone has some good ideas for spiking with an assassin? Afterall we are meant to assassinate no?

XM

[shaktiboi]

The main problem is that Flourish is a Strength skill. An Assassin primary won't have access to the Strength attribute.

[I XM]

That doesn't really matter. I am not using for energy management, although 18 energy would be nicer than 3. I only use it to recharge the combo. The only variable affected by strength for flourish is the amount of energy gained per attack skill recharged.

Thanks for the comment anyway.

[Purifier]

Your big problem is that Flourish is not going to help you all that much, Golden Phoenix strike and Critical strikes alone is nowhere near enough damage to take someone down. The elite Mobeus strike deals a great ammount of damage and you can get off a 3 combo in about 2 seconds, most people wont react that fast if you know what your doing. IF your thinking about spiking dont look at the one on one, and look at the group, two assassins can take down a heavily armored target in under 5 seconds and thats even with stances if they use wild blow. You want three people to teleport to the target and begin attacking, anything short of a warrior or an earth ele with armors up will die VERY fast. Warriors you get the 3 hits off of Golden phoenix strike, your dual skill then Mobeus and then all of your skills are recharged for another go.

[Bobross]

I like it...it's got a lot in common with the build I posted earlier today, but flourish really adds something cool in there. You could take care of condition removal with signet of malice (instead of shadow refuge) since you're causing bleeding a lot with sharpen daggers...Other condition causing attacks could replace sharpen daggers too like blinding powder...but I think sharpen daggers works the best here because it constantly reaplies a condition and odds are that even if blinded you'll still connect with one crit...so you'll be able to use sig of malice.

At least it doesnt have as many problems with being blind....hexes will still hurt, but no one's perfect.

[Masoj Hunett]

problem I see is that you can only use flourish once every 10 seconds, so after using it once, and your target is alive, you have to wait 10 seconds.

[I XM]

@ Purifier:
This is an excellent point. I considered Moebius Strike, and the reason I think Flourish is better when you are already A/W is that flourish is guaranteed, whereas Moebius Strike has 3 requirements (follow a dual-hand, needs to hit and the major one, target needs to be <50% hp). But given you would be spiking with 1 or 2 other people, I think you maybe right in risking it. Moebius Strike also has a shorter recharge of 8 seconds.

It could allow for Golden Phoenix --> Critical Strikes --> Moebius --> Critical Strikes --> Golden Phoenix (add some wildblow in there for stance spammers, distortion has a 5s recharge afterall) straight after each other and without having to wait for any energy regen. After another 5 seconds, both Critical Strikes and Moebius should be ready again, but your target is probably dead by then.

The other reason I think Flourish might become popular in Factions is the new Necromancer elite, Wail of Doom. It is very easy to cast (only needs you to be attacking something even with normal attacks), shuts down all attack skills for a duration longer than it's recharge (even with moderate Soul Reaping) and it is not a hex so can't be removed. It can be prevented because it is a spell, but I wouldn't count on that. I suspect it will be nerfed for release or soon after, but Flourish is the only counter I can think of, since it is not itself an attack skill.

@Bobross:
I just read your thread and indeed there are some similarities. Signet of malice is very good as well, especially if your spike partner is using the Temple Strikes/Twisting Fangs combo. I would have to drop Return or in 12v12 rez sig for it though. I cannot drop wild blow since it's the main point of being A/W in the first place, being able to remove stances. If someone else is able to carry a snare (my first choice for rez sig replacement in 12v12) then that becomes quite viable indeed. I like your "interruptor" ideas too, A/Me for shutdown/interruption would be nice, although I think rangers and mesmers would probably do it better.

@Massoj Hunett:
Actually 8s (recharge of golden phoenix) but even that is indeed quite long to wait. I haven't been able to figure out a more spammable sequence, hence the idea of using a skill like flourish/moebius strike to instantly recharge. The damage on repeating strikes is poor, at least I thought so in the FPE.

Serpent's Quickness looks interesting as well for spamming attack skills.