Since assasins are not seen so much (due to other builds being more party friendly and usualy dealing better damage) I decided to dedicate a thread to one of the most fun classes (in my opinion). Please share any experiences with the MA tree builds, either your own builds or assasins you have teamed with. What are the pro's and cons of the tree during boss fights and trash clearing/farming. What equip did you find useful, what tactics you employ to maximise output and survivability. What would make a nice change to the builds etc. please share vids and screenshots of these chars in action to make this a good interesting read for anyone who discounted the abilitys and fun this char can bring to the table.
I`ll start off with my phoenix sin.
She is mainly a fire assasin, making use of the first charge only. This is handy since you dont need to fully charge up before releasing your full power. I use dragon claw to release my charges for a number of reasons.
1: The stun makes sure my target stays in 1 place till her meteor falls.
2: Since my finisher and my charge are dependant on my claws, claw mastery helps both sides of the build, the charge and the release.
3: The 2 hits coupled with mastery can provide a steady level of lifeleech to allow her to stay in the fray that little bit longer
4: Its a fast way to release the charge. While DTalons kicks are fast, only the one hit releasing the charge is of real use and the knockback moves the target away from the fire patch you are making. DTail knocks everything back and away from your fire patch making it harder to make a single patch of fire and maximise the DPS of the average fire damage.
I have always been a fan of death sentry on any assasin. It's a 1 point wonder that makes the build extremely strong against trash mobs. I always get it at level 36, since once I have it my trash farming ability goes through the roof and I can level up alone and quite fast even if there are no groups going. It may seem like alot to spend so many points on prereqs for a 1 point skill so early but it really pays off in the long run.
I dont make much use of my shadows. I find the warrior to be pretty stupid at times and I spend alot of time making sure she has fade and BoS on her. The master is alot easier to use, just cast and let her do her own thing. She can cause problems for me sometimes aswell though. having her spam mindblast and converting all the stuff just before my meteors start coming down is a real pain, then I have to start stacking in another place all over again. When she starts laying traps that overwrite my death sentrys, again lowering my overall kill speed. I prefer to keep her on my f8 hotkey and only cast her if there is a very nasty mob in order to split them up. as soon as the harsh mod is gone I unsummon her until I need her as a distraction again. I get her from the + shadow master on verdungo's, Until i had that i relied on warior to provide a few secs distraction while I got a patch of fire ready.
I make good use of cloak of shadows, but only when really needed like when being attacked by a very harsh mob or when around chargers. I am reliant on having enemys walk up to me and into my fire so I dont have to drop a meteor on every bunch of enemys.
while fighting trash I usualy drop a death sentry or 2 before I begin my attacks (due to low mana) then once I have leeched my mana bulb back I drop another few so there are always a couple at my feet. DFlight is a fantastic skill and I keep it on my Z key hotkey so its always close to hand should I need to get out of a nasty pack. Having the charge ready then using flight to start your attacks off is a good way to get things started. you dont always have a charge ready so its not often that happens. (looks cool when it does though
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There are 2 ways I set my hotkeys up. the first is to have phoenix on f1 and dclaw on f2. then I just hold right click down and tap f1, f2, f1, f2, f1, f2. This is only when I am being lazy though. This hotkey setup means I quite often hit the second charge (light). That was a real problem in the begining as the damage was terrible and it was a wasted charge. I ended up maxing claws of thunder later on so when that did happen I was at least dealing some ok damage. It also meant that I had another element at my fingertips for fire immunes. I keep claws of thunder on my L key and usualy just use that to dispatch fire immunes along with death sentry. I could use phoenix strike second charge but again, catching that second charge limits the output when you miss it and deal the cold damage instead.
The second hotkey setup I use is phoenix strike on right click (f1) and dclaw on left click. this is alot more accurate and easier to release the charge you want. it means i am alternating clicks on each button though and it can get annoying on the ears and the fingers. I always keep d sentry on the spacebar so its close to hand and i use it alot. other hotkeys are for CoS, Fade, BoS and Dtail. I use Dtail if I am taking to many hits or to open a route to a specific enemy (like healers in a3) since it knocks everything back I use it prior to dropping my meteors to keep the heat off me while I get into position.
The cold charge on phoenix strike isn't without its uses either. I sometimes find I will fully charge phoenix strike against random stragglers as I run around and release on the full packs in order to chill the enemys and slow them down. This lets me get a fire patch ready while they creep closer and can help alot in dispatching groups. Having to fully charge the skill to release it always put me off maxing the cold synergie as the longer it takes to charge the longer it takes to deal my full damage.
Her skills have gone as follows.
Max Phoenix
Max Fists of fire
Max Claws of thunder (with 3 more points)
Max Claw mastery
the rest in pre reqs and 1 pointers +1 death sentry
She has 5 skill points from quests to get still so at level 101 she will have another 15 skill points. (if she makes it that far
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She is using full nats at the min (level 91) with a firelizards as the main hand weapon with ms rubys in the 2 sockets. in the nats claws I added 1 Ko 1 fal and 1 ist rune to the claws the ist just to help her along mf wise when playing alone, the ko to raise her ar more and the fal to get her boots on. Since - enemy res wont work on the off hand I have them spare really. Getting her attack rating as high as i possibly could has been the main thing. every time I miss an attack I can potentialy screw up the charge I want to get so I really need to hit as often as i possibly can. Its hard to see just 1 ball revolving around her, especialy in big packs of enemys. I dont want to have to watch for that charge since I want to drop meteors as often as possible so being able to attack once then release without worrying if I have got the charge saves time and raises my dps. the + to traps from nats really helps the range on my sentrys so as an all round equip choice it is a real winner IMO. Verdungo's belt for the + phoenix strike and champ fists fot the same reason. 2 sin skill rings, 1 with 17 dex 1 with 20 str and a terrible +3 MA amulet. her jewelery needs a major overhaul tbh. In the sockets in nats helm I used 2 MS ameths since the boots are so damn heavy and an Ms emerald to get dex up in order to equip the nats claws. She uses 4 Ms rubys in nats armour for obvious reasons.
With this setup she is at level 43 phoenix strike with no skill charms.
She is far from perfect and has alot of room to grow. She is one of the most fun builds I have played though and I'm happy with her performance so far. however. Notice 1 point Dtail is alot higher than a maxed phoenix strike with phoenix strike dedicated equip. That needs looked into i think.
Vid of her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YEDB-P1PMQwatch in HQ
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