Proven PvE Build Archetypes and Examples

[Malachi Auroras]

Here is the build that I fell in love with...
1 Impale
2 Iron Palm
3 Falling Spider
4 Black Lotus Strike
5 Assassins Promise
6 Twisting Fangs
7 Healing Breeze
8 Mending
I usually travel with henchies and very very seldomly do I die. My attributes are somewhere around with the use of 2 maj runes (I ditched the Sup when they changed the -health rate for major runes):
Healing 4
Dagger 10 * or just enough for the dagger I am using
Deadly Arts 12
Critical Strikes 13

To be sure of success all you really need is 28 energy. Its quick kills if you run the chain from 1-end. Try it...oh, and I usually use Chkkr's Daggers...thus the reason for an only +2 mending

[LordShar]

This build is already in the Assassin Guides section, but I thought I'd repost it here since it is relevant: http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=414387

The "hyper-sin" pve build combines flurry (or any other increased attack speed skill) with high damage, fast cycling dagger attacks to dish out sustained offense. The current skill set is as follows:

Attributes:
Dagger Mastery - 11 (10 + 1); or 12 if using tactics skills
Shadow Magic - 11 (10 + 1) or 8 if using tactics skills
Critical Strikes -13 (11 + 1 + 1)

Skills:
1 - Flurry
2 - "Watch Yourself," Bonetti's Defense, Wild Blow, or Distracting Blow
3 - Unsuspecting Strike
4 - Wild Strike
5 - Critical Strike
6 - Moebius Strike {E}
7 - Twisting Fangs
8 - Shadow Refuge or Healing Signet

Optimum weapons: zealous daggers of fortitude +30

Flurry should be up at all times while attacking -- It dramatically shortens all attack animations, letting your assassin deliver more dagger attacks (and a LOT more damage) in a given time frame vs. any non-IAS'd assassin. Critical Strike + Moebius strike is used for raw damage and energy recovery. Twisting Fangs is used for more durable targets.

The nice thing about the hypersin is that it delivers a lot of fast sustained damage, and once the current target is dead, it can move onto the next target without any down-time. Also, it has no enchantment or hex dependencies. This makes it a very reliable damage dealer so long as you don't get focus-fired.

[Stranger The Ranger]

Here's my PvE build, like shaktiboi's AP build with some changes

Crit: 10
Dagger M: 12
Deadly: 12
Prot: All thats left

Assassin's Promise
Black Spider Strike
Twisting Fangs
Protective Spirit
Purge Conditions
Recall/Return
Free Slot
Rebirth

[shaktiboi]

I'm surprised this thread got sticked (it's fairly old), and even more surprized that Pattcmoi's amazing AP-Prot "tanking" build never made it onto this thread. So here ya go--the *best* PvE build available before Nightfall was released:

A/Mo

Zealous daggers

Prot 9
DM 12+2
Deadly 7+1
CS 10+2+1

Assassin's Promise
Black Lotus Strike
Twisting Fangs
Golden Phoenix Strike
Death Blossom
Rebirth
Shielding Hands
Protective Spirit.

Wait for initial aggro priority to set. Apply SH and cover with PS. Run into the fray and stay there, using AP > BLS > TF > GPS > DB on each target as fast as you can drop them. Most of the time you won't even get to GPS or DB except on high level tanks and healers.

Important! Keep PS up at all times. It should take priority over even your attack combos. If you're not up against enchant-stripping foes, you can wait on applying SH until you come under fire. But PS is your main mitigator, you should never let it drop.

Because GPS and DB are rarely needed you can sub them out if you like. I enjoy using Death's Charge right after AP as one possible substitute, which gets you to each target faster and lets you jump from the enemy's backline to your own backline in a blink.

Nightfall Substitution: If you have Nightfall, Black Spider Strike is a better substitute for GPS. Also, you might want to experiment with changing the order of the off-hand attacks so that the chain goes AP > BSS > TF > BLS > DB.

[shaktiboi]

And now that Nightfall is out, here is another excellent build from Patccmoi that is designed to be an aggressive "tanking" build similar to the AP-Prot build, but with a larger spike component and far more mitigation. This currently looks to be the best-of-breed aggressive PvE build so far.

Quoted exactly as Patccmoi posted it:

--------------
Golden Phoenix Strike
Death Blossom
Moebius Strike
Critical Strike / Twisting Fangs
Vital Boon
Conviction
Signet of Pious Light
Rez Sig or other utility.

14 Dagger Mastery
13 Critical Strike
8 Earth Prayers

Keep Vital Boon up, and then do GPS-DB-Moebius-CS-Moebius-DB-Moebius-DB till death.

With a +15AL while attacking or +10AL in stance armor, you have near warrior level armor and you'll be doing huge AOE damage if you can get a mob below 50%. It might actually be stronger when mobs start getting higher AL since you can do Moebius-DB-Moebius-DB longer on a mob before he dies, doing 86 armor ignoring AOE every time.

I think overall you shouldn't have much trouble keeping the killing rate steady while staying alive decently.
-------------

And my own notes about the mitigation aspect of this build:

You want to keep Conviction on full time and also Vital Boon up full time to provide you with +24 AL and a +80 HP boost that moves you very low on the AI priority table. When you need healing, make sure Vital Boon is in effect and pop off Signet of Pious Light to give you a massive 225-point heal, then reapply Vital Boon as soon as it refreshes. You can pull off this huge heal every 8 seconds as Vital Boon recharges, so it's best if you can time the heal combo to go off just before Vital Boon would drop anyway.

Unlike the build featuring Protective Spirit, you are vulnerable to massive alpha strike damage in new encounters, so might still find yourself squishy to a reasonable degree, but if you manage your Vital Boon to keep your +24 AL bonus most of the time, the additional armor coupled with the fairly large heal should help you weather most such alpha strikes.

The main advantage of this build over the AP-Prot build, IMO, is the much larger spike you can pull off, which is especially useful versus bosses and level 28 healers or tanks with backline healers that haven't been taken out first.

[Terenas]

Very interesting build ^
As soon as I get some gold and I get to the mainland, I'll give it a try.
In fact, although playing 'sin is a lot about awareness and movement, I often like to deal some serious damage. This build seems to allow for this and great survivability, at least on paper. As for opening spikes yes, there is no real mitigation, but the healing should be enough to recover.

I think that Pat's AP-Pro (as in Protection and 'Pro' :D) build is stickied here.
Another great build. Gz.

[shaktiboi]

And my own notes about the mitigation aspect of this build:

You want to keep Conviction on full time and also Vital Boon up full time to provide you with +24 AL and a +80 HP boost that moves you very low on the AI priority table. When you need healing, make sure Vital Boon is in effect and pop off Signet of Pious Light to give you a massive 225-point heal, then reapply Vital Boon as soon as it refreshes. You can pull off this huge heal every 8 seconds as Vital Boon recharges, so it's best if you can time the heal combo to go off just before Vital Boon would drop anyway.

Correction to the above numbers, after double-checking them in GW itself rather than relying on the currently incorrect numbers in The Edge.

With 8 ranks in Earth Prayers, you'll have +72HP with Vital Boon active. When you strip VB with SoPL, you'll get a 220-point heal.

[countdon]

Here is the build that I fell in love with...
1 Impale
2 Iron Palm
3 Falling Spider
4 Black Lotus Strike
5 Assassins Promise
6 Twisting Fangs
7 Healing Breeze
8 Mending
I usually travel with henchies and very very seldomly do I die. My attributes are somewhere around with the use of 2 maj runes (I ditched the Sup when they changed the -health rate for major runes):
Healing 4
Dagger 10 * or just enough for the dagger I am using
Deadly Arts 12
Critical Strikes 13

To be sure of success all you really need is 28 energy. Its quick kills if you run the chain from 1-end. Try it...oh, and I usually use Chkkr's Daggers...thus the reason for an only +2 mending

How can you run this chain from 1-end? Skill 1 is Impale...here is its description:

For 20 seconds, the next time target foe is hit by a dual attack, that foe is struck for 25-100 earth damage. This skill must follow a dual attack.

if it must follow a dual attack, how can it be the 1st skill in your chain?

[Silverwyng]

it doesn't follow that you put the first skill you use in every fight in slot number 1. to each his own i guess...

[Doyle]

How can you run this chain from 1-end? Skill 1 is Impale...here is its description:

For 20 seconds, the next time target foe is hit by a dual attack, that foe is struck for 25-100 earth damage. This skill must follow a dual attack.

if it must follow a dual attack, how can it be the 1st skill in your chain?

That post is very old. Impale used to be a normal hex and only did 14..58. They only recently changed it so that it must follow a dual.