User:Jinx/A/D Unseen Assassin

This assassin uses Unseen Fury and Sandy Grip to both blind enemies, and to make the assassins attacks impossible to evade or block.

Attributes and Skills

 * Signet of Malice can be a nice skill to take in order to remove one or two conditions from yourself. Most targets will have at least blind on them once you attack, and by the end of your attack chain will have 4 conditions. By keeping Cripple or Blind off, you are able to continue to blind your target.
 * Another option is a cover enchantment for Sandy Grip. I advise Aura of Thorns, a enchantment that will cripple nearby targets, lasts a nice period of time, and is fairly cheap.
 * Finally in gvg the ability to Shadowstep is a powerful ally. Death's Charge will allow you to get the drop on targets 1v1, as well as allowing you to quickly spike a target.

Equipment

 * Shrouded Armor should be used from torso to toe. Energy is an important resource for assassins, and you will want as much of it as possible
 * I recommend a pair of daggers with Earth damage, +5 energy (instead of 15^50) and +30 health. Energy is less important than damage with an assassin. The Earth damage is important to trigger Sandy Grip's effect, and fortitude is the best option for staying alive. Ideally you could have a second pair of daggers with a Zealous modification instead of the Ebon mod. This allows you to recover energy quickly, or you can use them where blinding your target isnt important, and the energy is.

Usage
Start by casting Sandy Grip. Pick a target to attack. Your target selection will depend largely on their team and the proffesions in your team. Start your attack chain with Golden Pheonix Strike and then follow it up with Horns of the Ox and then quickly falling spider. Finally use Twisting Fangs to quickly drop your targets health. The beauty of this build is that every attack skill you use will blind your target for 6 seconds. When used in conjunction with Unseen Fury (which lasts as long as the duration) you are able to hit foes that would normally block or evade your attacks. Furthermore you can keep a melee proffesion constantly blind and still do a large amount of damage. If you think your team will get hurt badly by the 2 warriors in the opposing team, then make sure you keep one of their warriors blind. If you think your team will benefit more from you attacking their spellcasters (especially ones who normally evade attacks, such as mesmers) then attack them.

Counters

 * The attack combo used is very energy expensive, and cannot be used often. A Energy Denial mesmer could quickly shut this build down using either Energy Surge or Spirit Shackles.
 * The working of the build depends upon Sandy Grip. If it is removed then not only will you be unable to blind, but also unable to use your first attack, Golden Pheonix Strike.
 * This Assassin provides very good melee shutdown. However, becuase it is melee based itself it is also relatively easy to shutdown. Blind or hexes that make your attacks slower or miss altogether will hinder your ability to do both damage, and blind their damage dealers.
 * The build has no self healing. It relys entirely upon other players to keep it alive.
 * The build lacks anti-kite. Pressuring Spellcasters therefore is difficult, as they can simple continually run. Anti-kite isnt a large problem when targeting melee, as they tend to stop often in order to attack. Essentially, attack warriors mostly, and switch quickly to a spell casters, unleash the attack before they have a chance to move, and then go back to giving the warriors a headache.

Variants
Instead of using the attack chain listed you could instead choose Jagged Strike, Jungle Strike, Horns of the Ox, Aura of Thorns. This has more emphasise on melee shutdown, rather than damage. Jagged strike allows you to inflict blind covered by bleeding every 4 seconds for a small energy cost.

A larger variant is based round the same principle. Instead of using an Assassin you could use a Ranger to quickly spread Blindness. Use an earth damage bow with Sandy Grip, use Apply Poison to cover the Blind with poison, and use spammable Ranger attack skills to quickly render their melee useless. Called Shot and ranger interupts, such as Savage Shot are perfect for this purpose.

Consider Vital Boon as a cheap (5 energy) cover enchantment and an additional method of self survivability, something Primary Assassins usually lack.