How to Play an Assassin in PvE
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Introduction
The assassin has gotten a lot of hate in PvE ever since Factions was released, and admittedly for good reason. Assassin is one of the hardest classes to play effectively in PvE and most players out there simply don't manage it. So I decided to write this little guide and help people out by explaining the basics of playing an assassin in PvE.
Step 1: Know Your Purpose
A lot of new assassins treat the class like they would a warrior, which is one of the worst mistakes you can make. Everyone loves to hate the assassin who runs in and starts blindly hacking away at baddies -- for five seconds before they get killed. You don't want to be that assassin. The assassin you do want to be is the one who kills two or three targets in the time it takes the warrior to kill one, while also staying alive.
The main purpose of the assassin in PvE is damage compression, or doing large amounts of damage quickly. This is different from straight up spiking, however, which is the purpose of most PvP assassins. In PvE it's both more difficult to spike down a target (because of higher enemy levels, health, and armor) and less effective in the overall fight, so most PvP assassin builds won't be especially effective when used in PvE. Your goal, then, is to outdamage a warrior for at least long enough to kill one group of enemies.
Step 2: Know Your Targets
Contrary to most other professions, assassins should not always follow called targets. There are many times when you should, but also many times you shouldn't, and it largely depends on the situation and what your build is like. What it comes down to, though, is efficiency: Your party may be able to kill the called target, say, two seconds faster if you follow, but that may mean the enemy dies in the middle of your attack chain and you're left with a few seconds of recharge before you're useful again. On the other hand, if you attack a fresh target, you can cycle through your entire chain and maybe even kill it by yourself by the time the rest of your party kills the called target. It's not always that simple, but you should weigh the pros and cons of following the called target while engaging enemies and make your decision accordingly.
Also, while an assassin's daggers do a paltry 7-17 base damage, their skills add lots of armor ignoring damage to their attacks, making them especially suited to killing highly armored targets such as warriors and paragons. Keep this in mind and don't blindly chase caster classes just because they're soft targets. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your team is to take down enemy warriors who are ravaging your own casters.
Step 3: Know Your Strengths
You've got a few things going for you as an assassin and it's important to make them most of those strengths. You're good at damage compression; you're good at condition stacking; you're highly mobile. As already mentioned, the first strength is the main point of the PvE assassin. Condition stacking tends to be less important than straight up damage in PvE but is still a powerful thing -- just don't sacrifice too much damage for it, or else you might as well play a ranger. Your mobility, whether in the form of shadow steps or something as simple as Dash to shake off aggro, plays a big part in keeping you alive. Play off of these strengths and don't try to force your assassin into a role better suited for another class (critical barrage being the classic example of that).
Step 4: Know Your Weaknesses
I said it before and I'll say it again: Don't play your assassin like a warrior. Your biggest weakness is your low (base 70) armor level and you simply cannot soak up damage like they can. You can, however, deal with this weakness in a few ways.
The biggest thing you can do to keep yourself alive and out of the enemies' line of fire is to know how aggro works and how to avoid it. Do not, under any circumstances, attack before your warrior has gathered the aggro. This includes shadow stepping past the warrior while enemies are still running towards him. Until aggro has been set, treat your assassin like any other soft target and hang back with the casters.
Shadow steps are a great way to keep yourself alive since they instantly transport you away from the fight and almost alway break any aggro you had gathered. When things go wrong and you start getting targeted, skills like Return, Shadow Walk, and Aura of Displacement will save your life. Always try to fit one on your skill bar.
Blocking stances and enchantments can also help in keeping you alive but you shouldn't rely on them alone. Often times much of the damage you take will come from spells, which they don't help at all against. Consider combining one of these with another form of defense.
Finally, Nightstalker's armor (+15 armor level while attacking) and a dagger handle of defense (+5 armor level) can go a long ways in keeping you alive. Together, they bring you up to 90 armor while you're attacking, which isn't too shabby. If you can afford the lower max energy from not using Shrouded armor, I highly recommend using Nightstalker's.
And, of course, assassins are susceptible to most of the things warriors are. Blind will shut you down, blocking will disrupt attack chains, Empathy or Spiteful Spirit will destroy you in short order, etc.
Step 5: Design a Build
This is where you put together the above concepts into creating a good PvE assassin build. I'm not going to tell you specifically what skills to use or which skills suck, because there's lots of different combinations that can work in the hands of a skilled player. But I will give you a few tips.
You definitely want your build to be flexible. Or, in other words, you don't want to be completely crippled if something happens to go wrong -- because something will go wrong. Short recharge skills are good, as are energy management skills like Golden Lotus Strike and Critical Strike. Being able to switch targets and restart your chain quickly is incredibly valuable, as is being able to use your skills for extended periods of time without running out of energy.
Don't rely too heavily on hexes or enchantments unless you know what you're going to be facing ahead of time. Bringing an enchantment based build into an area with heavy enchantment removal will be a disaster. Also, if you do use an enchantment or hex based build, make sure you can cast your hex/enchantment often. Just like selecting low recharge attacks, you want to minimize your downtime when needing to recast it.
Be wary of skill rechargers like Moebius Strike or Assassin's Promise. While they can be great for allowing long recharge skills to be used often, you don't want to have excessive downtime if the recharge fails. Consider how likely to fail the recharge is and weigh the benefits against the risks.
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