Effective assassin guide

''Note: this article is intended to provide guidance for experienced characters playing a new assassin or experienced assassins looking for additional options. If this is your first time playing Guild Wars, please see Getting started in Guild Wars Factions.''

The Assassin profession is only available in the Guild Wars: Factions campaign. Guild Wars: Prophecies and Guild Wars: Nightfall users will not be able to use this profession unless they have linked a Factions key to their Prophecies account.

An Assassin's Place
The assassin is a hit-and-run expert. Capable of moving in, dealing a substantial amount of damage, then retreating to safety, assassins provide a means to deliver spike damage by those who utilize them correctly. Armed with fast hitting daggers, medium grade armor, and high energy regeneration, the assassin can hit quick and hard.

Note that most players in PvE find assassins as more of a liability than something useful, as they can easily die often if not properly utilizing their shadow disciplines correctly, as well as adding additional Death Penalty. This often places huge pressure on the party's healers, and many groups will not accept Assassins. However, certain assassin tanking builds do exist and work effectively on small mobs, for example, a combination of Critical Eye and Way of Perfection as well as a maxed critical strikes attribute can make them even more effective tanks than warriors.

Being an Assassin
Primarily being a melee combatant, a large number of players play the assassin like a Warrior. However, with less armor, no absorption, and without a shield, they usually do not fare as well as their melee bretheren. As a result, many PvE groups actively ignore assassin primaries all together or restrict the number of them in the group. Do not perpetuate this generalization and know how and when to pull out. Repeat the mantra: "I am not a tank."

The assassin's strength is in its high-damaging and condition-causing dagger chains. Beware, however, that any break in the chain, usually caused by an opponent "dodging" or "blocking" an attack will often leave the assassin waiting for the opening attack to recharge. While this may only be a problem in some areas of PvE, be particularly aware of it in PvP. The longer the chain, the more chances your opponent has to break it. Also keep track of energy costs of the individual attacks. With the goal of achieving large damage in a short amount of time, any pause to regenerate energy to continue a dagger chain gives the opponent a chance to put up defenses or heal. The Assassin attack chain quick reference can be a useful tool for fitting together an attack chain.

One of the most important aspects of playing the assassin is to determine what to attack and when to do it. Since many Assassin skill chains often have non-negligible recharge times, it is unadvisable to be constantly switching targets every few seconds. Doing so will force you to break off a chain halfway, leaving you merely stabbing a foe for what may seem like an eternity as your skills recharge, especially if your chains involve spiking a target rather than continual pressure. The best (And possibly highest priority) targets for an assassin are the low-armor spellcasters, particularly Monks and other support characters, who sit often in the backlines of the opposing group. An assassin must also judge the appropriate time to make their hit - for example, attacking a Priest of Sorrows after it has casted Mark of Protection on a different foe will leave them vulnerable to your chain, as they will not be able to use the enchantment on themselves.

Assassins are the only class to make heavy use of the skill Shadow of Haste. This allows them to move in and retreat in a split second. The base damage of daggers is quite low, so do not hesitate to shadow step away to heal or set up defensive skills while you are waiting for your chain to recharge. In PvE, foes will often acquire a new target, increasing the assassin's survivability. In PvP, utilize shadow stepping to quickly close the distance to enemy casters or retreat from their melee.

An assassin must be wary of how to maintain its energy. While it has four pips of energy regeneration, the energy pool is often quite low when wielding daggers. As a result, attack chains can quickly run the assassin dry of energy and only hitting with the low base damage of the daggers. By raising Critical Strikes, the assassin not only increases its chance to score a heavy hit against its foe but also energy gained from the hit. This energy comes with no extra action needed by the assassin, but gains are still based on chance. Alternatively, attacks such as Golden Lotus Strike and Black Lotus Strike can be used to regain energy, Critical Eye can be used to further amplify critical strike chances and gains, and the Critical Strike attack will guarantee two critical hits (if the attacks find their mark).

Trying to create a tanking build out of an assassin is possible but not recommended. Most forms of Assassin tanking require either enchantments which can be removed or stances which can be ended with Wild Blow, Wild Throw or Wild Strike. Even then these plans are usually exclusive to physical damage or elemental damage.

Also, be particularly alert when playing an assassin. Unlike other professions, where if you're distracted for a second or so, you'll still be fine, when you're an assassin, you need to get out of there the second the feces hits the fan. Otherwise, you're dead.

Attribute Summary

 * Critical Strikes: Increasing points into this will raise the inherent chance to land a Critical hit with a weapon attack. However, the increase is a mere 1% whereas the increase gained by increasing an associated weapon skill is closer to 1.4%, meaning that if your goal is to gain maximum potential for critical hits, it is better to raise your weapon skill before raising Critical Strikes. However, you may still want to bump up Critical Strikes if it would move you to the next energy gain threshold.
 * Dagger Mastery: Most of the dagger chain attacks are found here. The chance for a Double strike is also increased by raising this attribute.
 * Deadly Arts: This attribute primarily includes many non-dagger related offensive skills and debuffing hexes.
 * Shadow Arts: This attribute contains more defensive and self-healing skills, but it also contains a few offensive skills.

Added by Sneaky Sage:

It's essential to understand how the Assassin's Attributes and Skills are used effectively:

Critical Strikes: This is one of the most important attributes and bears much consideration. For each point spent in this primary attribute, the Assassin gains an additional 1% chance to land a Critical Hit. Please refer to this link for the numbers: http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Critical_hit

For each Critical Hit that lands, the Assassin gains energy (maximum of 3 per critical hit at Attribute level of 13) and deals 40% more than the base dagger damage. A higher attribute level only increases the critical hit percent. It is not dependant on using daggers either, and will work with almost any weapon or style of attack. Check this link for a table of Critical Strike: http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Critical_Strikes

Dagger Mastery: This attribute affects the amount of damage you deal out per attack. Obviously, having a high attribute level here is important as well. This only applies to daggers so it is important you get the best daggers you can find. The max damage output of assassin daggers is only 7-17. That sounds pretty pitiful compared to some warrior weapons like hammers or swords which max out in the high 20's or 30's. Please check the numbers here: http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Dagger_Mastery

The mechanism which helps increase the dagger damage is called DOUBLE STRIKE. This concept is not discussed in the official manual but nevertheless is very important. The Double Strike signifies the number of times a dagger strikes the target per swing. Each dagger attack has a chance to trigger a double strike (extra hit). For each rank in Dagger Mastery, you increase the chance to double strike by 2%. With Dagger Mastery set to 16, your chance to double strike increases to 32%. Just swinging your daggers at a target counts as an attack. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND. An Assassin may deal out as much damage in the same amount of time as a warrior's base sword damage because of this.

Deadly Arts: This attribute improves the duration and effectiveness of attack skills, hexes,and spells. These skills can add damage to other attacks and count as Lead, Offhand or Dual attacks. So far, not too many assassins use these skills. Some are very useful but if you want to max out your damage and energy regen rate, not too many points can be spared to make these attacks very useful. I'm sure there are those out there who have learned to use these attacks effectively and will want to dispute my feelings regarding Deadly Arts. These skills see some action as secondary skills in GvG such as Searing Flames E/A gankers.

Shadow Arts: These skills mostly deal with defense and health regen. Obviously you need to have some siginificant points in this attrubute as well.

No Attribute: Aura of Displacement (teleport) is here along with speed boosts and a few others.

Choosing a Secondary
While most dagger-based assassins do not take much from their secondary, very useful skills can be added to increase the effectiveness of particular builds. For an extended look at possible secondaries, see Secondary professions for an Assassin.

Elementalist
One popular use of assassins is to create a series of knockdown chains, and Shock is often used with them. The A/E Falling Shocker build is an example of this. In addition, the Conjure series of enchantments may work well with the high hit rate of daggers.

Mesmer
With the numerous conditions caused by assassin attacks, Fragility can add a fair amount of extra damage.

Arcane Echo can be useful with Shadow Form.

Monk
To help make up for the assassin's lower defense, many chose to utilize the monks protective and healing skills to keep it alive. A common use is Vigorous Spirit and/or Live Vicariously, providing good healing with the fast attack rate of daggers.

Necromancer
As with the warrior, Plague Touch works wonders when already in melee range.

Ranger
By picking up a bow, the assassin increases its distance from foes and thus improves its survivability. the A/R Critical Barrager build lays out most of the advantages of this combination, allowing for critical strikes to take advantage of bow's high damage range. Another application of this profession combination is for running, as alternating Storm Chaser and Dark Escape allows for a constant speed boost.

Ritualist
By setting up defensive spirits ahead of time, the assassin can focus on dealing damage and have a better chance of coming out alive. Spirit Walk may be used as a means to return back to the safety of the spirits should the pressure begin to mount.

Consume Soul could be combined with Spirit Walk for a spirit-hunting role.

Warrior
As a warrior secondary, the assassin gains access to a number of defensive stances from the Tactics line. Fast-hitting daggers recharge adrenaline skills such as "Watch Yourself!" and "Fear Me!" quite fast. On the other hand, many choose to use a weapon with a high range of damage such as an axe and combine it with critical strikes to land the upper end of the damage spectrum more often such as seen with the A/W Axe-assin build.

Additionally, one of the most powerful aspects of using Warrior as your secondary is access to a number of attack-speed boosting stances such as Flurry and Burst of Aggression. The speed at which the chain can be executed is increased rather impressively, allowing kills in a matter of seconds. One example is the build A/W Berserking Shadow.

Armor & Runes
Assassin armor provides a number of unique bonuses. Armor that grants a bonus while attacking may be useful during battle, but it may not be active during crucial times when stopping to heal. Armor that shortens condition durations may also be useful if unable to remove them by other means. Energy granting armor is often popular to allow dagger chains to be linked with less of a chance of having to stop the chain to regenerate. It is helpful to have some runes on your armor but usually its best to stay away from superior and major runes as the assassin has less armor than most melee characters like the warrior, although if you have enough gold it is a worthwhile investment to get some vigor runes to boost your health or counter the superior or major runes.

Weapons
The assassin's usual weapon is the daggers. Requiring both hands and having low base damage, their primary advantage is speed. With dual strikes and double strikes in addition to a fast attack speed, any buff that adds damage to each hit will find quite an improvement when paired with daggers. Vampiric and Zealous weapon mods can easily compensate for the pip of degeneration as long as the assassin keeps landing blows. However, requiring both hands, there is no room for a defensive shield or energy granting offhand item.

Many assassins will also choose a non-dagger weapon with a high variance in damage. The goal is to raise the chance of critical strikes, thereby using the highest damage the weapon can produce more frequently.

Plan of Attack
In PvE, assassins tend to have a harder time than many other classes. Like the mesmer, the class does a good job at focusing on an individual foe but has a more difficult task against large groups of angry mobs. Worse yet, the AI tends to focus on weaker armored targets, often resulting on them focusing on the assassin instead of the allied warrior. Learn how to maneuver around your heavily armored friends, using them to body block your retreat when needed. Also, be careful of using the defensive shadow stepping skills that randomly move you, as it may place you in aggro with a nearby group of enemies.

Shadow stepping proves invaluable as a tactical tool. Enemy warriors cannot body block against it, so it can be extremely useful to reaching backline casters. While the warrior should try to tank in the center of battle, the assassin should be jumping around the fringes, wounding or taking out isolated targets before moving back to heal. Skills such as Aura of Displacement, Recall and Shadow of Haste are useful in that they provide a means to reach an opponent as well as a means to escape in one skill.

The general battle tactic is to wait for your tanks to sponge up the enemy aggro, and then when the time is right, shadow step in, throw in your attack chain, and shadow step away.

Added by Sneaky Sage:

As you've already seen, the Assassin uses daggers and special abilities to attack targets quickly and deal out massive damage, then retreat to heal or recharge. With high points in Dagger Mastery, Critical Strikes and Shadow Arts, the Assassin can, with the right skills, deal out a lot of damage in a short amount of time, regen energy and continue to attack while others are recharging. But how do we play this character to the fullest?

My first recommendation is to max out Dagger Mastery. There are some who disagree with this concept and indeed, there are some attack sequences and instances where you want Critical Strikes to be higher than Dagger Mastery. That one attribute alone increases the damage output the Assassin can deal. It affects only daggers and directly increases the damage level of skills and spells. I like mine at 16 (12 + 4) in most instances.

The next most important attribute to increase is Critical Strikes. Because of the way the energy increases, the most efficient attribute levels are at 3, 8 and 13. Higher than 13 will not increase the rate of energy regen but increases the percentage to double strike.

Leftover points should be put in Shadow Arts for healing and escape/defense or your secondary profession.

The next thing to look very carefully at is the sequence of attacks. These are:

LEAD ATTACK, OFF HAND AND DUAL. A lot of Assassin attacks need to be in this order. Many spells will specify that they MUST follow a lead, offhand or dual attack. When the proper sequence is followed or the correct condition induced, the spell will light up on your skill bar meaning it is primed for use.

Other spells do not require a certain order even though they are listed as offhand or dual. Palm Strike, an elite skill is an offhand skill but does not require a lead attack to be used first. Pick your skill bar to accomplish what you want.

I"m spring-loaded to using Critical Eye which gives an increased 1-7% chance to make a critical hit when attacking. Couple this with a strong attack sequence like: Jagged Strike, Fox Fangs and Death Blossom. Add something like Flashing Blades (increased chance to block incoming attacks), Death's Charge or Aura of Displacement to shadow step to target foe, Shadow Refuge to heal yourself and Rebirth (monk secondary) to revive your henchies or teammates, (PvE) and you have a workable build.

LEARN TO KITE. Running away is one of the best defensive skills an Assassin has. Since you have to get up close and personal, learn to spot when you are getting ganked and losing health fast and start running. In GvG, one of my favorite techniques is to auto kite. I line up my character with the target and a safe area and press the R key to start running towards the target. When in range, unleash an attack then hit the X key to turn around and R to start running again.

Don't forget that when you are not using a spell or attack buff, you are still causing damage and gaining energy by simply swinging your daggers. That's when you can score double hits and increase your energy gain.

One more thing to consider: Try using Major or Minor Runes instead of Superior ones. Health is a big deal with the Assassin. I'd rather have 75 more health points than deal an extra 5 points of damage. -- My Favorite Builds --

PvE: The build I like the best so far or PvE play is The Vigorous Blade. A/Mo with attribute levels of DM 14, CS 13, Healing Prayers 10 with Shiro's Blades (vampiric) alternating with Gold (non-vampiric) daggers and energy armor.

1. Vigorous Spirit (monk healing spell gives you +15 health points per hit) 2. Critical Eye (assassin spell that gives increased chance of making a critical hit and increasing energy) 3. Golden Lotus (returns 10 energy if you are under an enchantment i.e. Vigorous Spirit) 4. Palm Strike (E) strikes for 5-65 damage 5. Death Blossom (strikes for 15-40 damage and deals that amount to all attackers in vicinity) 6. Orison of Healing (monk) 7. Mend Ailment (Monk. Gets rid of annoying conditions like crippled, blind, etc.) 8. Rebirth (monk)

There is almost NO energy management problems with this build and it keeps the healing constant.

Another favorite with Assassin only skills:

Poison Blade Assassin

1. Aura of Displacement 2. Golden Lotus 3. Entangling Asp 4. Falling Spider 5. Twisting Fangs 6. Sharpen Daggers 7. Critical Eye 8. Shadow Refuge

An A/Me build I tried for awhile:

Illusion Mastery 11 Dagger Mastery 16 Critical Strike 8

1. Illusion of Weakness 2. Critical Eye 3. Kitah's Burden 4. Golden Lotus 5. Palm Strike (E) 6. Death Blossom 7. Flashing Blades

One of my favorite builds for Alliance battles:

A/Mo Cruel Assassin

DM 16 (12+4) Healing Prayers 9 Deadly Arts 8 (7+1) CS 8 (6+2)

1. Sharpen Daggers (Enchantment, all of your ctitical hits cause bleeding for 5-15 seconds) 2. Critical Eye (For 10-35 seconds you have a 1-7% chance to land a critical hit) 3. Aura of Displacement (E) (Enchantment. Shadow step to target) 4. Golden Lotus Strike (Lead attack for 5-20 damage and if you are under an enchantment like Aura of Dis, you gain +10 energy) 5. Entangling Asp (Deadly Arts. Must follow a lead atk, tgt is knocked down and is poisoned for 5-20 sec) 6. Falling Spider (DM. Offhand, must strike a knocked down foe and does 15-35 dmg and poisons foe for 5-20 seconds) 7. Twisting Fangs (DM. Dual attack, must follow offhand attack, strikes for 10-20 damage and foe suffers from bleeding and deep wound for 5-20 seconds). 8. Healing Breeze or Orison of Healing or Mend Ailment (monk)

You can also drop the monk attributes and just use Shadow Refuge as well. This build deals massive bleeding and poison. Often, after unleashing this attack on that poor, unsuspecting mesmer, necro or ranger and running away, they will run off and simply die 20 seconds later from their wounds. Another favorite technique is to unleash this attack on one of those casters in a mob then run away letting the group chase you. With the warrior up front hacking at you, keep running until you are getting critically low on health then double-click on Aura of Dis to remove it. You instantly teleport miles back to where you initiated the spell and leave the mob scratching their heads as to where you went.

A good PvP build:

I watched this build work in a very highly ranked Guild. The concept was to take the Assassin (or 2) and go gank the enemy's base killing archers and bodyguards.

A/Mo or any other profession

1. Critical Eye 2. Sharpen Daggers (Enchantment. Causes tgt foe bleeding for 10-35 seconds) 3. Expose Defenses (DA. Hex.  Tgt cannot block or evade your attacks) 4. Iron Palm (Tgt foe suffers 5-50 damage and if suffering from a hex is knocked down, i.e. Expose Def) 5. Falling Spider (Must strike a knocked down foe, causes 15-35 damage and poisons for 5-20 seconds) 6. Twisting Fangs (Strikes for 10-20 damage and foe suffers from bleeding and deep wound for 5-20 seconds) 7. Seeping Wound (E) (Hex. For 5-20 sec, if tgt foe is suffereing from bleeding or poison, suffers -2 health degen) 8. Shadow Refuge (SA. Self healing spell)

This build was deadly against NPCs. The assassin would teleport in close, unlease the full attack bar, then teleport out again and heal while the NPC bled to death. Nice work.