User:NightSilva/builds/pve/assassin

= A/Rt Splintering Nightmare =

The Splintering Nightmare alternates splinter weapon and nightmare weapon to deal high level of damage while providing a means of a self heal.

Attributes and Skills
Optional Elite:
 * When survivability is an issue, use Flashing Blades instead of Moebius Strike to provide extra defenses
 * Altenatively, Critical Eye can be replaced by Critical Defenses at the cost of some energy gain

Equipment

 * Either armor with blessed insignia or a mix of nightstalkers and blessed Armor can be used.
 * Any Zealous Daggers.

Usage

 * Use Splinter Weapon before a combo (Jagged -> Wild strike -> Death Blossom) to deal a lot of AoE damage. Remember to target clusters of enemies for maximum effectiveness.
 * Use Moebius Strike strike to reset the combo, and allow a second application of Death Blossom immediatly afterwards
 * Use Nightmare Weapon before a combo for a self heal while still dealing a lot of damage.
 * Use Flashing Blades or Critical Defenses for extra defense if selected just before you engage
 * Remember to kite around to avoid enemy spells or to allow a more heavily armored character take the majority of damage.
 * Sins are not a tank. Don't play like one in PvE.

Counters

 * Blindness
 * Cripple
 * Anti-melee hexes
 * E-denial
 * Blocking stances and abilities

Variants

 * Flashing Blades instead of Moebius for more defense.

= A/R Relentless Spiker =

Similar to the this build is for PvE only and uses deadly dagger attacks coupled with degenerative conditions along with Assassin's Promise to swiftly kill your target and be able to move on to the next target without delay, while having Lightning Reflexes as not only an IAS, but a very high block rate. It is capable of taking out most targets by itself, but heavily armored or healed targets are best killed with team spikes just to be safe. If nothing else, this is probably the most fun build you will ever run.

Equipment

 * A Full set of +Energy Armor, get energy around 35. + Energy armor is optional aslong as energy is at a minuim of 28. Which can be Nightsalkers and one Rune of Attunement.
 * Zealous and Vampiric Daggers of Fortitude, along with +5 Energy Daggers. Sundering Daggers can be used also.

Usage

 * Select your target and activate Assassin's Promise
 * Choose targets VERY carefully. Take out 'squishy' targets such as monks, elementalists, etc. first. Then when the mob begins to wind down to a few monsters, pile onto the heavier armored enemies such as warriors with your team to ensure the kill.
 * Immediately follow with Death's Charge followed by Lightning Reflexes
 * Use your attack chain: Black Lotus Strike, Twisting Fangs, Black Spider Strike, Blades of Steel.
 * Your target should be dead or near death, finish him off and move to your next target.
 * Use Feigned Neutrality as a self heal.
 * A good tactic to use is to cast Feigned Neutrality before the enemy dies, and let the conditions kill him off so Feigned recharges.

Counters
Plague Touch
 * Standard melee counters: Blind,Empathy,Price of Failure etc...
 * Failing to kill your target or having Assassin's Promise interrupted results in a very long downtime.
 * Hex Breaker.

Variants
Sacrifices Twisting Fangs and Death's Charge for Death Blossom and Impale, works great to take out PvE mobs with effeciency.
 * Other possible changes are listed here:


 * Dark Prison instead of Death's Charge for a cover hex, but Lightning Reflexes will need to be cast after Black Lotus Strike.
 * Shadow Refuge instead of Feigned Neutrality.
 * Horns of the Ox instead of Blades of Steel.
 * Lightning Reflexes can be switched for any IAS.

Attributes and Skills

 * Your optional slot is quite flexible, but there are a few especially good options, most of which will be based on your setting (PvE or AB).
 * Resurrection Signet is obviously an important choice in PvE, but near-useless in AB.
 * Way of Perfection is useful as a long-term heal, and can serve to keep Way of the Assassin active (the downside is the short duration and small heals at lower levels of Shadow Arts).
 * Critical Eye will grant a huge boost to energy-management, not to mention the sizable extra Critical Hit chance.
 * Siphon Speed is a huge boon in AB especially, allowing you to chase down other Assassins and force one-on-one fights (which is an optimal situation for this build in many cases).
 * Expunge Enchantments is a very useful enchantment removal skill, which will serve well in AB (though not so useful in PvE). Especially deadly against Elementalist Tanking builds and 55 Monks.


 * If survival is an issue, you can go A/D and switch Shadow Arts for Earth Prayers (see Variants, below). The A/D variant loses a bit of the original build's flexibility, but more then makes up for it in pure staying power.

Equipment

 * Nightstalker's Armor is recommended.
 * Daggers with an "of Enchanting" mod is best, and preferably a "+15% while enchanted" or "+15% while in a stance" mod. Daggers of Xuekao may be the best green daggers for this build.
 * The build's defense is high enough that you'll be able to afford the HP loss from adding Superior runes to the build. A Superior Daggery Mastery can increase both your damage output and your critical hit chance by a small amount. You should always be careful with having too many high-end runes on a single build though, as the health loss might outweigh the offensive boosts.

Usage

 * The build centers around keeping three key skills up at all times: Shroud of Distress, Critical Defenses, and Way of the Assassin. In the heat of battle, you'll need to remember to check your status bar often, and make sure to keep all your skills up as much as possible.
 * When first initiating battle, activate Shroud of Distress as you charge. Right before you engage, activate Critical Defenses (make sure not to activate this skill too soon, or you run the risk of not getting a critical hit fast enough to recharge it). Once you engage, activate Way of the Assassin. Be careful when first starting this all, as you will lose a pretty sizable chunk of energy. Once you get a few hits in, your energy should recharge quite quickly.
 * Make sure to use your attack chain often, as it will deal a large amount of consistent, unblockable damage thanks to your high critical chance. Keep an eye on your status at all times. When anything starts to run out, make sure to re-activate it right away. Pay special attention to Critical Defenses in particular. When your target dies, make sure to switch to a new target as quickly as possible to keep Critical Defenses up.
 * Shroud of Distress serves two major purposes here; keeping Way of the Assassin active, thanks to its long duration, and also granting you a very sizable amount of evasion when your health gets low. At seven Shadow Arts, it should last for 44 seconds (not counting any bonus from Daggers of Enchanting). This should be more then enough to last the duration of the battle, and the recharge time is one second longer, in case you need to re-activate. With your Enchanting Daggers, you can easily keep it up constantly.
 * Keep in mind that you have an increased chance of a critical hit when attacking lower-level monsters (this increased chance is more easily noticeable when attacking creatures around level 10 or below). Target a nearby spirit or a weaker monster if you're in desperate need of a critical hit (Ritualist Spirits are normally easy to find in AB).
 * When facing foes with Enchantment removal, keep in mind that Critical Defenses will almost always be the first to go, regardless of the order you activate your enchantments. This is because whenever you land a critical hit, Critical Defenses will re-apply itself, thus moving back to the top of the list. If you know that you're going to be losing an enchantment, it's probably a bad idea to get yourself in a fight with another melee character.

Counters

 * There are a few counters, but most of them are too narrow to consider a real threat.
 * Enchantment removal and the Blind condition are your main worry. When Blinded, your best bet is to get out of combat. Without a critical hit, you'll lose Critical Defenses and be easy prey for most attacks. Enchantment removal can also get rid of Critical Defenses, but this can normally be fixed by killing whoever is wielding the enchantment removal.
 * Degeneration or anti-melee curses do a good amount of damage to this build, as do spiker elementalist setups; your high block chance only affects melee attacks, so spells are a weakness. Shadow Refuge will only do so much against degeneration, and you don't have any hex-removal in the main build (consider using skills from your secondary to fix this).

Variants

 * For superior self-healing and defense, consider going A/D and switching all of your points from Shadow Arts into Earth Prayers. This will allow you to use Vital Boon and Mystic Regeneration (replacing Shadow Refuge and Shroud of Distress). The large Block chance granted by Critical Defenses, in addition to the +9 Health regeneration provided by Mystic Regeneration (at 8 Earth Prayers and with all three enchantments active), should serve to keep you alive for a much greater amount of time and especially against other melee classes (don't forget the +72 maximum health bonus you'll gain from Vital Boon). Your attribute points should be re-ordered, like so:
 * This variant works much better against melee foes than casters, and the quick recharge times on the Dervish enchantments means you don't suffer nearly as much against foes with enchantment removal, as it's not a big deal to simply re-cast one of your cheaper enchantments to keep Way of the Assassin active.
 * With this setup, you can add yet another good choice for your optional slot; Pious Restoration, which grants you a quick and simple way to deal with Hex skills. Make sure to activate Vital Boon just before though, so you can take full advantage of the large health gain when you remove it. This also reduces the risk of removing Critical Defenses by mistake.


 * If a Dervish secondary isn't what you're looking for, Assassin's Shadow Arts attribute has plenty of tricks to boost your survival even higher. Drop your Critical Strikes attribute down to 11 and add a Major Rune of Critical Strikes (11 + 2), and drop Dagger Mastery down to 10, keeping the current rune and headgear setup (10 + 1 + 2). This will allow you to boost your Shadow Arts attribute all the way up to 10.


 * You'll need to switch out Shroud of Distress for Way of Perfection, and switch Shadow Refuge for Critical Eye. With your Shadow Arts all the way up at 11 (10 plus the minor rune), Way of Perfection lasts 28 seconds out of the 30 second recharge, and grants a 32-health heal every time you land a critical hit. With Critical Eye as well, you'll gain tons of energy, and everything up and running grants you a massive critical hit chance, which will keep health and energy topped off during nearly any fight. The optional slot can be anything, but preferably you'll want to bring either a resurrection skill (when in a party), Shadow Refuge as an out-of-battle self-heal (just in case), or even Sharpen Daggers to add bleeding to the attack chain. If enemy casters are a problem, you can bring Disrupting Stab or Disrupting Dagger, both of which are nice, easy interrupts skills (D. Stab can also help to start your attack chain, while D. Dagger won't mess up the chain if used halfway through).


 * In some cases where the unblockable chain isn't needed, good options as a replacement attack chain are attack chains like Golden Phoenix Strike, Horns of the Ox, and Falling Spider, or maybe a chain with Jagged Strike, Wild Strike, and Death Blossom for faster damage. Using Golden Phoenix Strike will also allow you to use just itself and a Dual Attack, thus leaving you an extra skill slot as well.


 * If Blinding skills are a common occurrence, skills from other professions, such as Remedy Signet (Paragon), Antidote Signet (Ranger), Mending Touch (Monk), and Sight Beyond Sight (Ritualist) are easy to add to the build with no investment into other attributes.


 * Going A/E will allow you to replace a skill (preferably Shroud of Distress) with Conjure Flame/Frost/Lightning, which will not only enable Way of the Assassin (thanks to the fact that they're Enchantments with a long duration), but grant an additional +1...17 damage per attack. This of course will require a slight investment into the Fire/Water/Air Magic attribute, and your Daggers will need the corresponding Elemental damage modifier (Fiery/Icy/Shocking).

Templates
Below is the skills template for the A/D Variant:

= A/any Shadow Blossom =

This is a build designed for fun, as well as PvE damage dealing. It uses degeneration and area-of-effect attacks to take down foes while making use of the Assassin's unique ability to Shadow Step to move in and out of combat.

Attributes and Skills

 * Users with Nightfall should replace Return with Death's Retreat for added healing.


 * As this is a PvE build, Rebirth would be a good way to fill the 8th slot but non-Monk secondaries can use the Resurrection Signet just fine.

Equipment

 * Nightstalker's Armor for extra protection.
 * Any Daggers would work, but since Assassins tend to be fragile, consider:
 * Extra Armor, with daggers of Defense or of Shelter
 * Extra Health, with daggers of Fortitude
 * For extra damage, you can use Vampiric or Sundering daggers. I prefer Sundering because I don't like to deal with the pip of health degen, which can get worrisome.
 * The best Vigor rune you can afford, a Rune of Major Dagger Mastery, a Rune of Major Critical Strikes, a Rune of Minor Shadow Arts and any other rune you like. I use Vitae.

Usage
This is a fairly easy build to use. Early on, identify a party member who will likely be staying away from melee (like a Ranger). Remember his location on your party window, since he's going to be the one you shadow step back to when things get nasty.

Let your warriors charge in first, since they're good at it and it makes them happy. It also helps keep the heat off your much more fragile self.

If possible, position yourself so that Death Blossom's AoE will hit several foes. When you can, use Moebius Strike to hit a target with Death Blossom several times.

Keep pressure off your monks by using Shadow Refuge whenever your health begins to get low. You can also use Death's Charge on a healthy foe for an emergency burst of healing.

You are not a tank. Don't be afraid to Return to the back line, heal yourself, and pop right back into combat. Not only does this help keep you alive, but it helps take the pressure off your monks. With practice, you can be a fully self-sufficient damage dealer: use this to your advantage, because if the Monk has to choose between healing you and the tank, he will likely choose the tank.

If you want to be a little more creative and save Death's Charge for when you need healing, you can wait for a Warrior to engage, then use Return on him to enter melee. This lets you save Death's Charge for when you need a quick heal, or for more critical targets.

Counters
Blindness and spike damage can really hurt this build. A target using a defensive Stance such as Shield Stance can make your attacks hard to chain. Also, keep a watchful eye out for enemies who like to use spells that punish melee attackers.