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 account. Factions owners may only create an Assassin by starting their character in the Factions campaign.

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.

Finally, one of the most important aspects of playing the Assassin profession is knowing when to retreat. Most other classes are durable enough to be able to shrug off a moment's distraction, but the Assassin must remain alert to any potential threats - An Assassin without a chain is a sitting duck, and the best choice is to get out when the going is good. As such, many of the more effective Assassin builds incorporate some sort of retreat strategy, especially after completing their chain. These may include (but are not limited to) retreat shadow steps (Such as Return), defensive shadow steps (Viper's Defense, Heart of Shadow), escape Stances (Dark Escape) or Enchantments that provide a temporary defensive bonus to give the Assassin a buffer time for escape (Feigned Neutrality).

Attribute Summary

 * Critical Strikes: Increasing points into this will raise the inherent chance to land a Critical hit with a weapon attack. 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, whenever an assassin lands a critical hit, they gain anywhere from 0-3 energy, based on the number of ranks in this attribute. See Critical hit for more information on critical hits improve damage.


 * Dagger Mastery: Most of the dagger chain attacks are found here. The chance for a Double strike, where you strike an opponent twice regardless if the attacks actually hit, is also increased by raising this attribute. For every rank you put in this, you increase the chance of this happening by 2%. Double strikes automatically occur whenever you use a Dual Attack.
 * 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.

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. Many assassins in areas inhabited by the Afflicted choose to bring Protective Spirit to shield them against the Soul Explosions.

Necromancer
As with the warrior, Plague Touch works wonders when already in melee range. Also, Parasitic Bond is an ideal choice if you wish to satisfy the "while hexed" condition that numerous assassin skills have due to the fact that it is cheap, quick and has a fixed 20 second duration.

Ranger
By picking up a bow, the assassin increases its distance from foes and thus improves its survivability. the Build: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. Also, making use of the many Weapon Spells available to ritualists can be effective in boosting your combat ability.

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.

Dervish
As a dervish secondary, there are few skills that the assassin can utilize without substantially taking attribute points from the primary and very necessary for the assassin fighting style. Skills such as Vital Boon and Vow of Strength can greatly help the assassin. Vital boon, (Earth Prayers: 8) will give you an extra 72 max health and heal for 142 when it ends and always lasts 20 seconds (unless taken by opposing spell). Vow of Strength will always last 10 seconds and give you 29% extra damage at Att:8. It is also possible to take advantage of the massive damage a critical hit with a scythe deals with high ranks in critical strikes as well as Scythe mastery.

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. 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. More on this below.

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. 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.

Effective Assassins always remember their sequence of attacks:Lead Attack, Off-Hand Attack and Dual Attack. With only a few exceptions, such as Palm Strike, Iron Palm, Black Spider Strike, and Falling Spider, many skills will specify that they MUST follow one of these attacks. When the proper sequence is followed or the correct condition induced, the skill will light up on your skill bar, meaning it is primed for use. Effective assassins also remember that they can be the best at escaping. Skills like Return, Aura of Displacement, Death's Retreat, and Shadow Meld are excellent skills to use, depending on your build, to get out of trouble. As mentioned above, running with a tank who can body block for you also can save you if all else fails.