Building around Temple Strike. A/W build.

[fallot]

This is a slightly modified version of the Assassin I used over the course of the FPE. It was reasonably effective in Random Arena but its geared more towards TA as the build lacks inherent condition and hex removal. Temple Strike has held my interest since the first PvP preview event and provides for a lot of 4v4 fun. I'm unsure as to how its effectiveness translates to GvG so if anyone has used this skill in an 8v8 situation, please share your experiences here.

Attributes:

Critical Strike: 12+1
Dagger Mastery: 12+1+3

Skills: (Skill descriptions are scaled 0...12)

1) Leaping Mantis Sting (Dagger Mastery)
If Mantis Sting hits, target foe takes +14..19 damage. If this attack strikes a fleeing foe, that foe is Crippled for 3..13 seconds.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:8

2) Temple Strike (Dagger Mastery)
Must follow a lead attack. If this attack hits, target foe is Dazed and Blinded for 1-7 second(s), and if target foe is casting a spell, that foe is interrupted. This is an elite skill.
Energy:15 Cast:0 Recharge:12

3) Twisting Fangs (Dagger Mastery)
Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, Twisting Fangs strikes for +10..18 damage and struck foe suffers from Bleeding and Deep Wound for 5..17 seconds.
Energy:10 Cast:0 Recharge:15

4) Wild Blow (Unlinked Warrior)
Lose all adrenaline. If it hits, this attack will be a critical hit and any stance being used by your target ends. This attack cannot be blocked or evaded.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:5

5) Frenzy (Unlinked Warrior)
For 8 seconds, you attack 33% faster but take double damage.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:4

6) Critical Eye (Critical Strikes)
For 10-30 seconds, you have an additional 1-6% chance to land a critical hit when attacking. You gain 1 Energy whenever you score a critical hit.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:30

7) Rush (Strength)
For 8-18 seconds, you move 25% faster.
4a

8) Ressurection Signet

Leaping Mantis Sting is one of my favourite Lead Attacks. IMO very few lead attacks compare to its sweetness. +19 damage at 12 DM and cripples fleeing foes. Also has a 5e cost and an 8s recharge which is superior to other Lead Attacks. Its best used somewhat pre-emptively (a little like Bull's Strike), its best to try to cripple a kiting opponent right before he begins to move.

This build is mostly intended for 4v4 shutdown with good DPS. Temple Strike should be self-explanatory. Applies two of the most debilitating conditions (Blind and Dazed) to foes. If you manage to cripple a spellcasting opponent before this is applied, he's basically shut down for the next few seconds. With Frenzy, the attacks per second shoot through the roof because of frequent double strikes, each of these attacks is essentially an interrupt. The strategy here is to quickly chain the first two attacks on your foe of choice and then rail on them with Frenzy. Twisting Fangs was mostly used as a finishing blow, IMO a melee damage dealer without Deep Wound is gimped.

13 critical strikes nets you 3 energy per successful critical strike. With Critical Eye, the energy gain and critical chance both increase. Its instant cast and can be kept up indefinitely with high enough CS. Coupled with Frenzy, there should be no energy problems, not that you need much energy between skill recharges. Rush is meant to keep Frenzy in check and provides a speed boost that helps to get Leaping Mantis Strike off against kiting foes.

Wild Blow is once again self-explanatory. Under my setup, 4e is recouped making this almost a free stance canceller. Just dont use it when you need to cancel Frenzy :smiley:

This build is slightly less susceptible to attack chain disruption since only two of the attacks need to connect at any time (you can always use Twisting Fangs later, but Temple Strike needs to connect. This means that Leaping Mantis Sting needs to connect too). However, Blind/Hexes are still disabling and require quick removal which is why this is generally not a good idea for Random Arena.

[Rhayve]

Hmm, two things:

You have absolutely no defense nor self-healing skill in your build, even if your TA group has a Monk, you're completely depending on his/her heals, and he'll/she'll have to concentrate pretty much only on keeping you alive, which drains his/her Energy quickly.

2nd... I ain't sure about this, but the description of Critical Eye says: "You gain 1 Energy whenever you score a critical hit." so this actually means, you are sacrificing your 2-3 Energy gain with a high Critical Strikes attribute for an increased Critical chance, which means, you effectively lose Energy for damage. Correct me if I'm wrong^^
So, with only 1 Energy gain per critical hit (2 with Zealous mod) you might quickly run out of Energy, (even with Frenzy) due to the high energy loss of activating all your skills
5E+15E+10E= 30E for your Combo, +5E for Frenzy,+5 for CE - 8E cause of your hits (if they are all criticals) = 32E, which is the maximum Energy of a Assassin wearing their Energy armor. So you're pretty much empty and it'll take you quite a bit of time to recharge to be able to repeat your combo, and during this time you only have your normal attacks. (and continued use of Frenzy + Wild Strike and the possibility of Energy denial will slow down the process even more)

Anyway, you will pretty much shut down/kill any caster due to Dazzlement and your fast attacks.

[fallot]

2nd... I ain't sure about this, but the description of Critical Eye says: "You gain 1 Energy whenever you score a critical hit." so this actually means, you are sacrificing your 2-3 Energy gain with a high Critical Strikes attribute for an increased Critical chance, which means, you effectively lose Energy for damage. Correct me if I'm wrong^^

No, you gain an additional +1 energy for every critical hit. You will therefore gain +4e per critical hit. This is not a theory crafted build. It saw extensive use during the FPE. I can safely say that there were zero problems with energy. Sometimes I'd even have 8-10 energy left after chaining attack skills, due to the critical strikes. Critical Eye would get shattered/drained sometimes but even then the energy gain was adequate.

In my experience an attacking Assassin doesnt have many energy problems. The only thing required is enough max energy to chain attack skills without pause.

[MaximumSquid]

Looks like a solid setup so long as you don't get jacked while under Frenzy.

I've only seen temple strike work right in 3 builds though.

A/W can make it useful by running IAS stances
R/A can make temple strike cost nothing to use
and. . .
A/Me with temple strike and blackout is a permanent shutdown if build properly.

I recommend you try different combinations without all three setups. You might find one you like better than just hitting faster.

[Syes]

Not to much that can be said. In 4 vs 4 it's a nasty build that will slaughter any team that doesn't have good secondary condition removal, in 8 vs 8, it's far less certain, but should considering that a lot of kills comes in sub 5 second spikes, it may just give you enough damage and shutdown to combine for the kill.

As to the skills, my only concern is that Leaping Mantis is your only lead attack. At first glance this may not seem an issue until you consider that it is fulfilling 2 roles in this build, 1 - to open up for TS, 2 - to cripple your opponent. You want to get Temple Strike on as quickly and as often as possible. If you have to wait for your target to start moving so that you can ensure the cripple, you're not using it to full potential. Conversely, if you go ahead and use it whilst they're stationary, then you can guarantee they will run once Temple Strike lands, and the 8 second recharge of Leaping is just enough to watch your daze all but disappear.

I would recommend testing with a second Lead Attack in place of Critical Eye. It's a great skill, but with 13 CS, Frenzy and preferably zealous daggers, you shouldn't need it. My choice would probably be Disrupting Stab for more shutdown.

On a similar note, I would suggest you try Dash in place of Rush. I used Dash + Leaping to great effect in the first preview, and it is very efective for closing that slight gap to get the hit landed asap. Getting a cripple in fast and consistently will do more for you than Rush's 25% speed boost.

[fallot]

As to the skills, my only concern is that Leaping Mantis is your only lead attack. At first glance this may not seem an issue until you consider that it is fulfilling 2 roles in this build, 1 - to open up for TS, 2 - to cripple your opponent. You want to get Temple Strike on as quickly and as often as possible. If you have to wait for your target to start moving so that you can ensure the cripple, you're not using it to full potential. Conversely, if you go ahead and use it whilst they're stationary, then you can guarantee they will run once Temple Strike lands, and the 8 second recharge of Leaping is just enough to watch your daze all but disappear.

Thats why I tried to give the build reasonable DPS as well, so that an opponent that doesnt kite is sufficiently punished. Nevertheless, you bring up a valid point and this is indeed one of the builds weaknesses. I initially attempted this with Black Mantis Thrust, but there really isnt much place for a hex in this build. Plus, I find it to be an easily avoidable skill as an opponent will begin to kite as soon as you lay the hex. I will generally avoid following up with Temple Strike unless the opponent is crippled but I suppose having an additional lead attack could only be beneficial. Unfortunately, testing will have to wait for a few weeks :)


I would recommend testing with a second Lead Attack in place of Critical Eye. It's a great skill, but with 13 CS, Frenzy and preferably zealous daggers, you shouldn't need it. My choice would probably be Disrupting Stab for more shutdown.

Noted.



On a similar note, I would suggest you try Dash in place of Rush. I used Dash + Leaping to great effect in the first preview, and it is very efective for closing that slight gap to get the hit landed asap. Getting a cripple in fast and consistently will do more for you than Rush's 25% speed boost.

I disagree. Rush is required as a stance canceller, Dash's prohibitive recharge hurts it in this department. I noticed that Leaping Mantis Sting seems to have a bit of range, this may be just because of the animation (the Assassin throws a twirling dagger towards the foe, which subsequently returns) but Rush was quite adequate to get the cripple off.

[shaktiboi]

Thats why I tried to give the build reasonable DPS as well, so that an opponent that doesnt kite is sufficiently punished. Nevertheless, you bring up a valid point and this is indeed one of the builds weaknesses. I initially attempted this with Black Mantis Thrust, but there really isnt much place for a hex in this build. Plus, I find it to be an easily avoidable skill as an opponent will begin to kite as soon as you lay the hex.

I noticed in The Edge 2.0 that as of FPE, Siphon Speed (Hex) now creates a 40% speed differential. And you can recast it every 5 seconds if need be. The cost of Black Mantis Thrust has gone up to 10E.

Would it work for you to replace Critical Eye with Siphon Speed, and replace Leaping Mantis Sting with Black Mantis Thrust?

Casting Siphon Speed hexes them, and even if they try to run, the 40% speed differential lets you catch them and nail them with the cripple from BMT. Siphon Speed lasts long enough that you can easily regain the 5E from the cast while chasing them down so that you have a full 25 E to land the BMT followed by an immediate Temple Strike.

Other than that, I like the build, for a focused build that has no self hex/condition removal nor any self-healing. If you're not worried about those two things, it's nice and solid.

[fallot]

I noticed in The Edge 2.0 that as of FPE, Siphon Speed (Hex) now creates a 40% speed differential. And you can recast it every 5 seconds if need be. The cost of Black Mantis Thrust has gone up to 10E.

Well, with Black Mantis Thrust, you can forget about chaining Twisting Fangs immediately after Temple Strike unless you get a crit during the first two attack skills. That minor annoyance alone makes me avoid this particular combo. The other reason is that Siphon Speed is a skill I'm not comfortable using because its basically:

Assassin: "Hello, I've cast a hex on you from afar. In the next few seconds I will approach you and use Black Mantis Thrust. Be careful."

It boils down to personal preference in the end I guess, because I'm unable to test the build with this Lead Attack until factions is released :)

[shaktiboi]

Well, with Black Mantis Thrust, you can forget about chaining Twisting Fangs immediately after Temple Strike unless you get a crit during the first two attack skills. That minor annoyance alone makes me avoid this particular combo. The other reason is that Siphon Speed is a skill I'm not comfortable using because its basically:

Assassin: "Hello, I've cast a hex on you from afar. In the next few seconds I will approach you and use Black Mantis Thrust. Be careful."

It boils down to personal preference in the end I guess, because I'm unable to test the build with this Lead Attack until factions is released :)

Hmmm. Unless you're wearing the +E armor, Assassins have 25 energy max. Leaping Mantis is 5, Temple is 15, and Twisted is 10. You still can't spike all three immediately.

And as for "hello, I've cast a hex on you from afar...", remember that *this* hex (Siphon Speed) gives you a 40% speed differential. If you can close the gap before somebody can remove the hex, they sure as heck aren't going to be able to kite you.

With Leaping Mantis, by contrast, if they see you coming and choose to run early enough, you have no way to slow them down to even land the Leaping Mantis.

[fallot]

I used a mixed set that gave me +30 energy, for this build I'd be using the +energy set. I understand your point about Siphon Speed, it would work, but I have reservations using it that are derived entirely from personal preference. As for getting Leaping Mantis Sting off, that isnt very difficult. You do have Rush, building 4a on an alternate target and then suddenly pulling this skill has an element of surprise that I enjoy :)