User:The Gates Assassin

The Gates Assassin
Profession : Assassin

Age : 19

Weapons: Zodiac Sword and Diamond Aegis, Ancient Daggers, Steel Daggers, Platinum Staff and Aureate Daggers.

Things to Accomplish:

Get 4 sets of cool daggers

Beat all three games

Solo Shiro

Solo at least one boss using daggers (No Farming Builds)

Get cool looking armor

Unlock all Assassin Skills for this character.



Surviving Sin
Profession : Assassin

Age : 24

Weapons : Jade Daggers, Ceremonial Daggers, Steel Daggers, Dead Staff and Aureate Daggers.

Things to Accomplish:

Get 4 sets of cool looking daggers

Get cool looking armor

Solo Shiro

Beat all three games

Solo at least one boss using daggers (No Farming Builds)

Unlock all Assassin Skills for this character.

Challenges
Become a god walking amungst us mere mortals.

Kill Willa the Unpleasant on hard mode.

Run from Old Ascolon to Sanctum Cay on Hard Mode.

Complete the quest A Show of Force on hard mode without using Junundi to kill everything in the temple

Kill Droajam, Mage of the Sands on hard mode.

Take halls with at least 1 hero.

Earn at least 1 fame in a "Randomway" group in Hero's Asent.

Interupt a 3/4 casting time skill with any mesmer interupt on purpose.

Kill Maw the Mountain Heart on hard mode.

Earn 10,000,000 experience point on a character.

Kill the suit of 100 armor in under 5 seconds after it first takes damage (Timer starts when you first damage it in any way)

Kill Shiro in under a minute.

Become UAX

Beat every profession at least once in a 1 v 1 scrimage with the same profession.

Builds
= Assassin =

My own Creation

My own Creation

My own Creation My own Creation

Recently made Obviously not mine My own Creation My own Creation My own Creation My own Creation Made by a friend

Old Build Old Build Not mine, still owns

The ultimate guide to assassins
[SIZE=14][COLOR=yellow][CENTER]The Ultimate Guide to Assassins[/CENTER][/COLOR][/SIZE] [CENTER]By The Gates Assassin [/CENTER] [LINE]

Table of Contents:

X.Terminology 1.The Profession -1.A Purpose -1.B Weaknesses -1.C History -1.D Skill Naming --1.1.A Golden --1.1.B Black --1.1.C Mantis --1.1.D Ox --1.1.E Defense --1.1.F Powder --1.1.G Way of ___ --1.1.H Siphon --1.1.I Palm --1.1.J Dagger --1.1.K Prison --1.1.L Lotus --1.1.M Falling --1.1.N Fox --1.1.O Fang(s) (1 Acception) --1.1.P Spider -1.E Critical Hits -1.F Dual Striking -1.G Dagger Chains 2.Tactics -2.A PvE --2.1.A Positioning --2.1.B Shadow Stepping --2.1.C Targeting --2.1.D Escaping --2.1.E Build Type -2.B PvP --2.2.A Positioning --2.2.B Shadow Stepping --2.2.C Targeting --2.2.D Build Type 3.Build Creation -3.1 Purpose --3.1.1 Spiking ---3.1.A Deep Wound ---3.1.B Degeneration ---3.1.C Increased Attack Speed (IAS) ---3.1.D High Damage ---3.1.E Snare ---3.1.F Extra Effects ---3.1.G Pre-Made Builds --3.2. Pressure ---3.2.A Consistant Damage ---3.2.B Extra Effects ---3.2.C Pre-Made Builds --3.3 Running ---3.3.A Running Skills ---3.3.B Protection Skills ---3.3.C Condition/Hex Removal ---3.3.D Pre-Made Builds --3.4 Farming ---3.4.A Sliver Sin ---3.4.B Solo Tombs Sin ---3.4.C Elemental Farmer HM -3.Thing NOT to do 4.The Skills -4.1 Critical Strikes -4.2 Dagger Mastery -4.3 Deadly Arts -4.4 Shadow Arts -4.5 No Attribute 5.Secondary Professions -5.1 Mesmer -5.2 Monk -5.3 Warrior -5.4 Elementalist -5.5 Necromancer -5.6 Ranger -5.7 Ritualist -5.8 Dervish -5.9 Paragon 6.Myths/Rumors 7.Dagger Modification Selection -7.1 Tang -7.2 Handle -7.3 Iscrition 8.Runes/Attributes 9.Armor

= Purpose =

Assassins are a complicated class which has many different purposes in both PvE and PvP. They are most notable for their expertise in spiking solo as they have high additional damage which is uneffected by armor and dual attacks, allowing assassins to attack twice in the same second. Also they have some of the quickest and most deadly skills which containt deep wounds allowing for easier spikes (for example Impale or twisting fangs).

They are also great for pressure, or consistant damage with some builds. Builds like the many moebius strikes builds deal great amounts of pressure as well as using combos with recharges that are very short so by the time that the dual attack is finished, the lead attack has recharged.

Assassins can be very effective runners using the elite Shadow Form, which makes all spells against you fail and all attacks miss, making runs much easier so long as you can either survive until the recharge (If you run out in the middle of a mob) or have it run out where there are no mobs. Also skills like dash make for a faster run but also it is a great deaggro skill.

Assassins can also be farmers too with a few select builds. 2/3 of them use shadow form because it makes you virtually invisible while you can deal large amounts of damage to mobs or as seen in the sliver sin, bosses.(See below for build and expliation)

While in PvP they are very strong and can be what loses it for some teams, mostly in Random and Team Arenas, and most notably Hero Battles, many people (Not as much anymore with recent buffs made) believe that assassins are very weak in PvE. This is because many see assassins as a spiking class, which is utterly useless in PvE due to the fact that most mobs in Factions, Nightfall and GW:EN have much larger mobs. However certain elites and build combinations prove that wrong such as Moebius Strike and Assassin's Promise.

= Weakness =

With such high DPS and the ability to have most people on the floor in about 5 seconds there has to be a balancing factor, which there are many.

First off, interupting or making one peice of a chain miss can throw off a spike and leave assassins useless until recharge.

Second their healing relies on enchantments, which are very easily removed in both PvE and PvP.

Third they're normal attacks don't deal over 40 damage even on critical hits, and thats 16 dagger master.

Fourth, since they use both hands they can only have 1 fortitude mod, putting them back 30 health.

Fifth, which can also be a strength, is their ablility to attack twice in a second, skills like insidious parasite will activate twice and there is no stopping the second strike.

= History =

Assassins, as they first came out, were thought of as a very weak class, because as mentioned before, they are a spiking class. As if this wasn't enough, people used them as if they where another warrior class and would rush in first into the battle or worse, death's charge in. Doing that put them very far away from the monks making them a very easily killed target.

Slowly but surely they became more accepted as strong builds like the shock and shove sin came out and farming builds such as the sliver sin. In Gvg they were very commonly sent into the opposing teams base to gank all of the NPCs before VoD with the AoD Shock build (Mentioned later). The skill shadow of haste use to last longer than its recharge, making it a great yet annoying tactical skill for Gvg. This was even more used when Nightfall came out and Shadow prison hit the meta making assassins the best gankers. Even in PvE this was used for soloing Tombs and FoW. This skill was later nerfed to its state it is in now.

= Skill Naming =

Golden
If the skill name has the word golden in it, it requires an enchantment to get an effect whether it be a deep wound or for it to just hit.

Black
If the skill name has the word black in it, it requires a hex to get an effect whether it be to hit or to cripple the foe.

Mantis
If the skill name has the word mantis in it, it has the ability to cripple a foe but has to meet certain conditions.

Ox
If the skill name has the word Ox in it, it has the ability to knockdown a foe but has to meet certain conditions.

Defense
If the skill name has the word Defense in it, it gives a condition to the next foe that hits you.

Powder
If the skill name has the word Powder in it, it is a skill that causes blind, but it is not an attack.

Way of ___
If the skill name has the word Way of (the) ___, it enhances your attacks/attack skills.

Siphon
If the skill name has the word Siphon in it, it degrades a foe in one way and buffs you in the same way.

Palm
If the skill name has the word Palm in it, it deals damage by touching the foe, and has a 3/4 casting time.

Dagger
If the skill name has the word dagger in it, it throws a dagger at the enemy, and has a half range casting range. The exception being Sharpen daggers which both breaks this rule and the Way of ____ because it effects the next few attack skills.

Prison
If the skill name has the word prison in it, you shadow step to that foe and they move slower.

Lotus
If the skill name has the word lotus in it, you gain energy if you hit.

Falling
If the skill name has the word falling in it, it requires a knocked down foe to hit.

Fox
If the skill name has the word fox in it, it makes your attack, or attacks unblockable (Way of the fox or fox fangs for example)

Fang(s) (1 Acception)
If the skill name has the word fangs in it, it gives deep wound, however fox fangs does not fit to this rule.

Spider
If the skill name has the word spider in it, it causes poison.

Dagger Chains
= Tactics =

PvE
"Assassins are meant for spiking one target at a time which is useless for PvE. Thankfully no class completely follows what they are 'meant' to do." ~...Okay that was me

In PvE you job is to not only take out the most worrisome enemies but also have the ability to do ANOTHER spike right after taking out that person. There is one simple way to do this, pick attack skills with short recharge times like Shattering Assault. Also the hex Assassin's Promise is great for spiking one person and then another because of the energy gain. One of the more common ones is Moebuis strike which combined with Death Blossum is devistating to the very commonly balled up enemies in PvE.

Positioning
In PvE, depending on the group, assassins are a combination of a backline and a frontline character. In Pug groups where monks are not as good as they could be most of the time, it is best to play it safe. If you start to take damage, run to the backline(Or at least until the enemies deaggro). In good groups with relyable monks it is ok to stay in the frontline because enemies most of the time will deaggro by themselves if you start taking no damage or are enchanted heavily. This isn't to say you are a tank, rush in and stay in fighting. It just means you are more free if you trust your monks. If you can see your monks have good builds then your set.

Shadow Stepping
This is tricky and doesn't follow the rules of normal positioning. Wait for your group to aggro the enemies, meaning stay in the backline. Then once the monks are close enough that if you do shadow step, you aren't completely out of range and extremely vulnerable. Rushing in and shadow stepping once YOU are in range means the monks have to catch up to you and they are 1/2 of the aggro bubble in back of you. When you equip a shadow step it is common for some people to take another shadow step to get out, making them a hit and run assassin. Shadow walk and dash are very common example of this. It allows you to quickly get in and do lots of damage to your enemies and if you run into trouble you have a quick way to deaggro them, usually closer to the monks.

Not all shadow stepping takes you to a target. A few skills like Viper's Defense and Heart of Shadow shadow step you to a random nearby area. This can be helpful when a few things happen:

1. You rubber band, these skills fix this and puts you out of danger.

2. You are surrounded by melee enemies, this shadowsteps around them.

3. You are low on health, this gets you out of danger and in Heart of Shadow's case, it heals you as well. This gives monks more time to save you.

Although many say that these skills may take you too far away, this is most of the time false. About 90% of the time you will still be in the aggro bubble of your monks especially if they are heros. These skills can be extremely helpful when trying to get the survivor title, but don't want to resort to Critical Barrage type builds (Shown later).

Targeting
Your targets should normally be spell casters, unless there are none. In that case go for which ever is causing the most damage to your team. In the case that there are spell casters a lot of the time you want to go for the monks, however most smite monks you should just skip. Then if you see an elementalist they are a huge target especially ones like Rain Titans, Rain of Terrors or Siege Ice Golems.

Another big factor of who you target is dependent on what build you are using. If you are using for instance Siphon speed and Shroud of Silence you can use Siphon Speed on one target, then use Shroud of Silence on another, then kill the person with Siphon speed on. That shutsdown one caster and leaves the other one exposed. If you are using a hexed based build and you know there is hex removal (Like Am Fah Mesmers), then take then out first and then finish off the rest. That's why it's better to research an area for hex removal so you don't have to.

Escaping
Escaping simply means deaggroing the enemies so they go after someone else. This can be done in a few ways. A simple way which requires no skills to be used is to switch to a high health/armor set and run back towards your monks until they stop attacking you. Another reletively common way is to take a shadow stepping skill that works on allies. Death's Retreat is an example which even heals you. This can be harder because it takes a small amount of time to click on a backliner and then use the skill, especially if you still only use your mouse to activate skills. Another strong way is using skills like dash or dark escape and simply run out like the first example. This can be used in combination with the first one as well for even more armor. Another somewhat common one is to use skills like Aura of Displacement or Shadow of Haste to get in, and get out. This is much easier than a shadow step that targets an ally because it reduces it to only one step, which is to click on either another skill or an icon.

Escaping shouldn't take a long time. Once you are no longer the target go back in and continue to attack the enemies. Very rarely enemies try to target you after just deaggroing off of you.

Build Type
In PvE you actions should change depending on your build and the area you are using it in. Most builds in PvE are one of the following:

Repeated Spikes (Assassin's Promise is a good example, also shadow prison builds can be another)

Endless Spikes (Moebius Death Blossum is the most common of this but also builds with attacks that recharge in about 4 seconds fit this too)

Also these have other factors which effect it which are:

Hex based

Enchantment Based

Some builds are not restricted by these but many are. This is why it is a good idea to see if any monsters in the explorable area have direct counters to your build such as going into Perdition Rock with an AoD build or fighting the Am Fah with a Shroud of Silence type build.

PvP
"If you can run a build given to you and can follow orders, you can PvP. Things like infusing and interupting come with experience, thats why people look for the title." ~ Someone in TA.

Assassins most common perpose in PvP is spiking, mostly in Hero Battles. They can be extremely deadly in 4 v 4 matches and in Gvg they can be deadly gankers when paired with others, such as Burning Arrows rangers or Weapon of Remedy Ritualists.

Purpose
Before you begin to make a build think about where you are going to use it first, and what purpose it will serve in you group. Assassins have a few jobs that they are very good at doing. These are spiking, pressuring, farming and running. While they are not the absolute best at #2 and 3, they still have the ability to do it. Each of the four have certain things that need to be in the build to make it effective and viable. Below I have all four kinds of builds and ways to make new ones, along with example builds that clearly show all the characteristics of it.

Spiking
Spiking is what the assassin class is best at, because it was made for that very purpose. Most spiking builds drain a lot of your energy so it is important to have some form of energy gain/management. Dual attacks are extremely strong and beyond that the effects happen twice, making dual attacks essencial for most spiking builds (discluding sig spiker builds).

The best way to test a spiking build is to go to the Great Temple of Balthazar and test it against the armor 60 target. If you kill it cleanly (without having to use normal attacks to finish off the last bit of health) then try to kill the 80 in one run, then try the 100. The most effective builds can kill the level 60 armor targets in under 5 seconds. This test doesn't mean to take 7-8 attack skills and attack the 100 armor, because it will take much longer to finish off the target (adds on about 3-5 more seconds). A good sin build for spiking has about 4-5 attack skills (including things like impale).

Deep Wound
This is key to all spiking builds. If you don't have a deep wound the chances are a monk can heal right over it or if there is no monk (such as in AB or areas in PvE) then it may take a few extra hits to kill it. Some of the most effective builds use twisting fangs or impale for their source of deep wound. Other builds such as signet spikers use Augury of Death to get the deep wound because it will not interupt their combo if it does activate(if they get to 50% hp, it interupts all actions and shadow steps you to them).

Important things to note about deep wound is that it can not kill the enemy, it takes one more bit of damage (even if it only deals 0 damage) to "activate it". If they only have 30 health left and they just suffer from a deep wound, their health is brought down to 1, NOT 0. Another important thing to know is that even if someone had 80,000,000 health, deep wound can only bring them down 100 health as a maximum. So at 500 health, a deep wound stops lowering it by more. Also, while it is extremely rare to see, a monk can "heal themselves to death". If they are suffering from a deep wound at about 30ish health, they techically have -70 health. So if they health themselves for any less than that number, it raises it to for example -30 health, thus activating the deep wound and killing them.

Degeneration
This isn't completely necessary, but many times you will become blind, knocked down, die or what ever and can't finish the spike, but they are almost dead. This can get the last few points of health off so long as they don't have healing or a monk. The most common degeneration types assassins have are bleeding and poison.

Increased Attack Speed (IAS)
This is and extremely important part of spikes because it reduces the time it takes to use all the attacks skills by a lot. What normally would take around 6-10 seconds only takes about 5 or less. It also gives less time for monks to react, increasing the chance of the spike to be a success. Some of the most common forms of IAS are flurry, Tigers Stance, and Lightning Reflexes. Flurry is seemingly bad but because it only effects base attacks, and not bonus damage, it only removes about 40-50 damage from a spike making it a strong spammable IAS. Tigers Stance has a decent recharge and no negative effects in it and its recharge fits the shadow prison build. Lightning reflexes allows you to block the enemies attacks against you, being helpful when attacked by other assassins that didn't plan for it. The down side being its high recharge time.

High Damage
Assassins have very quick high damage in most skills they have. One of the most common high damage skill is blades of steel, as it can hit for ~80 damage to a 60 armor target and beyond that the bonus damage ignores armor, as do all bonus damages.

The best high damage comes from dual attacks, as the damage happens twice, not just once. This is why Black spider strike and black lotus strike are extremely common amungst spiking builds, because it allows you to use two dual attacks. This followed with impale allows for extremely strong spikes that can kill some of the best monks.

Snare
This is key, because unless you are moving faster than normal (IMS = Increased movement speed), a monk can just run away from you and you won't be able to get your spikes in. It also allows for the enemy to get more time to think of a plan that they wouldn't have if you did have a snare.

There are two snare skills that are miles ahead of the rest, and those are siphon speed and shadow prison. Siphon speed is great because you are technically moving 66% faster than your enemy. Also even if this hex is removed, it only has a 5 second recharge, making it a great hex. It can also be used to simply run away faster, giving it more than one purpose. Shadow Prison allows you to shadow step to the enemy, thus surprising them, AND it allows you to snare them. This also being a hex allows for the use of black spider strike and black lotus strike, making it a very popular elite.

Crippling and knocking down are also very effective ways of snaring someone. As of lately Grenth's Grasp is a very common elite to see with the release of Trampling Ox. Other skills that work well are Black Mantis Thrust and Shadowy Burden. Black Mantis thrust is good to lead into Jungle Strike, which works off crippled foes. Shadowy burden, so long as it is your only hex on them, can raise 90 damage on a 60 Al target, to 112 (Blades of Steel), while also giving you a small snare. Hidden Caltrops is also a good snare, as it deals damage too, however you need to hurt them while running first AND the hex ends when they do so it is better to take 2 hexes if you plan to make a hexed based build out of this elite.

Some snare skills are just not worth taking such as:

Mantis touch - while it has spell cast range, it requires a lead attack, so you have to be to them already. Also it deals no damage, making it a weak spiking skill

Caltrops - Not as bad as mantis touch but it costs way to much energy for its effect, and is outclased by others.

Extra Effects
Many things can be added to spikes to make them even more effective. Such things include:

Enchantment removal -

Expunge Enchantments, Shattering Assault, Dark Apostasy and Assualt Enchantments are amung the best of this. Many times, especially in AB, people stack up on enchantments to weaken spikes and make themselves invisible. Enchantment removal makes that useless and have them have to recast everything. It takes about a second to notice, 1/2 to react, anywhere from 1/4 to 2 seconds to fix it. By then you should be done your spike.

Hindering (Can mean a lot of things, but basically, they can't do stuff they normally could due to a hex/enchantment)

Very few skills do this but the best examples are Shroud of Silence and Shadow Shroud. Shroud of Silence, while it hurts you too, absolutely sends monks into panic mode and unless they preveil or hex breaker it, they're going to die so long as you snared them. Shadow Shroud is much less common in Assassin builds, but if very effective in team spikes to prevent prot monks from using their enchantments.

Also hindering can be dazing someone making Beguiling Haze a good elite

Shadow Stepping

This is nearly key for spiking, but with a snare you don't need it. This adds the element of surprise into your spikes, giving monks less time to react. This is yet another reason why Shadow Prison is extremely popular in PvP. While this does help you surprise the enemy, it can also get you out of range of you monks, leaving you exposed.

Unblockable

This is nearly key, but you can get around it. Things like expose defenses are great for doing this.

Pressure
Pressure builds are useful because you are constantly using attacks, and are either able to switch targets easily or are doing AoE damage. They are not necessarily fast, deffinately not as fast as spike builds but are helpful as they make monks waste their energy and eventually make them run out and die, as opposed to a spike which can be blocked ever 10-20 seconds, leaving monks with plenty of energy to keep it up for ever.

Assassins do not have as many pressure builds as other professions, however the few they have are effective.

Thing NOT to do
Ok beyond the obvious I am going to just list everything you should never ever do with an assassin unless your goal is to die:

Do NOT run into combat without your monk in your bubble. Do NOT have more than 5 attack skills. Do NOT attack melee if there are other spell casters, especially monks, around. Do NOT make dagger chains that involve more than one type of weapon (Sounds crazy to do but I once saw a build that used backbreaker and falling spider in the same build on wiki). Do NOT sacrifice origonality for effectiveness. Elites are over used for a reason, don't try to aviod them when they are obviously the best choice for an area. Do NOT try to make "Sin Tank Builds" because sins are not tanks, they are damage dealers. Taking critical defenses and calling it a sin tank is fine, it's just not a tank. Do NOT attack protected targets, go for ones that you can remove quickly or the ones that are doing the protecting, or simply change targets. Do NOT stay for that one last dagger attack if you are being heavily attacked, it can get you killed. Do NOT try to kill someone in PvP because of what they said, be a heartless emotionless fighter and go for the targets that truly are hurting your team. Not to mention it's totally predictable. Do NOT try to combined things from other professions if they use it more effectively (Ex: IW Sins, MM sins, or the wonderful sin tanks). Golden Phoenix strike and Death Blossum and then all protection/healing skills IS NOT A BUILD. At least not a good one. Do NOT take mending to counter the effects of a vampiric weapon. Just use weapon swapping. Do NOT use less than 3 attacking skills.

The Skills
Assassins have four skill attributes avialable, and a few non-attribute skills. Critical strikes is mostly energy management, higher critical chances and skills that work off of/cause critical hits or attack skills. Dagger Mastery is where most of the attack skills are however only one skill doesn't fit this, Flashing Blades. Deadly Arts is where most of the hexes are for assassins, however like most attributes it has exceptions like Vampiric Assault and Way of the Empty Palm. Shadow Arts is where almost all of the healing and protection for sins are. Below is a list of every single assassin skill avialable and descritions of each.

One major thing about assassin skills is that there are only 2 skills that have more than a 1 second cast time, so all of the skills activate really quickly.

Assassin's Remedy
"Enchantment Spell. For 30 seconds, the next 1...8 attack skills you use remove 1 Condition."

Cast Time: 1

Energy: 5

Recharge: 20

Campaign: Nightfall

Effectiveness: 9/10

This skill is great for protecting your combo against blinding skills as it removes blind before the skill hits. It even removes conditions if you miss, such as if you use horns of the ox without an off hand attack. This skill makes blind less of a threat making the only other direct counters to you anti-melee hexes and blocking. Also note that since it works on attack skills, dual attacks do not remove two conditions.

Assault Enchantments
Elite Skill. Must follow a dual attack. Target foe loses all Enchantments.

Cast Time: 1/4

Energy: 5

Recharge: 2

Campaign: Nightfall

Effectiveness: 8/10

This skill is extremely effective and is one of the best anti-enchantment assassin skills avialable. As long as you can get to your dual attack, the rest of your combo is set. This makes it extremely effective in short recharge combos because you can constantly use this skill. Once you use a dual attack, you can continually spam this even after you use it once.

This skill has the ability to remove obsidian flesh and even shadow form, however it is a very rare occation that it will be removed because you have to get you dual attack in before shadow form is cast.

Black Lotus Strike
Off-Hand Attack. Must strike a Hexed foe. If it hits, Black Lotus Strike strikes for +10...27 damage and you gain 5...17 Energy.

Cast Time: Normal Attack Speed (1.33 seconds)

Energy: 10

Recharge: 12

Campaign: Factions

Effectiveness: 10/10

This skill does exactly what it is made for, it sets up a spike by both skipping the lead attack and giving you energy to completely it. This is one of the most common skills in hex based builds