The Assassin Guide

lol it cuts down on time spent running between mobs

but it's still pretty useless imho

1) Tackling Slash>Puncture Wound>Deep Sting>Spark Eruption>Either Rib Strike or Slipstream Strike(to finish)>any other skills you like

Either I'm on crack and stupid, or the bleed from Puncture Wound will wake up any target you try to sleep.

To any Sin over 59, this works for me: Rib Strike > Adv. Spark Eruption > beat to death. Mix in chi gaining skills as needed. Bleeding is a waste of time on regular mobs as they'll be dead before your spark wears off. Even before Adv. Spark eruption, you should still be getting enough chi to Spark Erupt on every mob, and it's still faster and more efficient to do so. Adv. Spark eruption just makes the kills faster.

Or you could use Chill of the Deep and needlessly waste MP on skill-spam, when such tactics are better suited for PVP anyway.

DoT's don't wake up a sleeping mob. Only direct damage will wake it up. I've slept a mob and had a psychic cast Torrent on it and it didn't wake up.

i love the guide im a pure dex build and using some of the combos ive seen on here i barely take enough damage to notice the squishyness so ty ppl for all the combo postsb:victory

Toneshifter - Harshlands wrote: »

You all do know that Assassins should use normal attacks to cause the most damage? just get rising dragon skill and inner harmony and you should be able to double spark alot.

headhunt is indeed a very good pvp skill, just like shadow teleport.
shadow tele to them, use rising dragon, double spark, genie windshield (+10% atk speed) and normal hit them to death, this worked fine of every LA and Robe so far.

I only see a problem in HA venosb:cute

personallyi dont see how hard HA veno is.. just more defence b:surrender guess ill need to find a HA veno and pk b:chuckle

ArkToNE - Harshlands wrote: »

Blademaster: Tidal Protection for Axe Wielders, Focus Mind the others. A difficult class to defeat, but not impossible. If you can, start the fight at max distance since your max Knife Throw will have an outstanding 35 meters range and keep kiting them until they can no longer be kited. Much like Barbs, you want to lower their physical defense with Tangling Mire, Stun Lock, and be sure to Rib Strike them. Also note that another way to kill them is with Metal Genie Skill named Rumbling Thunder. If you strike them with Power Dash level 10 at level 80 or so, you'll have a good 60% chance of landing a critical hit on top of triple damage if target is on ground and double if you are close to them (1200% Genie Damage on crit).

Your only real chance of killing a Blademaster with physical attacks is going to be sparking with tangling mire, wolf, etc. You don't want to be stunned out of that. You're better off ALWAYS using Tidal protection. 50% chance to avoid Aoelian, Roar, Occult Ice, Heaven's Flame, any other kind of genie debuff, and so on. BMs don't do enough damage per hit to be a threat, it's their ability to stun most of the time. Fist BMs do have high DPS, but that's what rib strike is for. You don't want to be hit by a dragoned True Emptiness either, it'll most likely kill you. I rather go with the 50% chance of dragon not working than the 25% chance of TE hitting 1.


And no, don't use knife throw, use stealth to catch them off guard, lower their HP with whatever will allow you to do so without dying, then force stealth out to prepare for the real kill. (Assuming they have a charm, you'll want to get them to ~60% HP before sparking or something similar.


Also, depending on what genie you're using, Thunderstorm could be better. It's stronger than Rumbling thunder assuming you have like 50 dex/str or more, but it's for on the ground instead of in the air. Also, you could try using Subsea followed by Harmony and Power Dash before using a genie skill. Not sure if Wolf Emblem works on genie skills.. but if it does, use that as well. I'd probably stick to combining Tangling Mire and Occult Ice with sparking.

Honestly I do not get the whole commotion over this guide. It covers the basic builds and it gives a basic overview of the skills. The writer does inject opinions of the class, build and skill usage and so it is for the reader to digest the information that is useful.

There are several talking points where sins are concerned and what follows is simply my own observations based on my experiences.

1) The pure dexterity build does indeed seem to make the most sense for this class. Sadly I sank 17 points into vitality before I realized this. The assassin has several skills that make any reliance on hp or pdef from vitality useless. I still continue with this character though because the 17 vit points do not significantly alter my damage output but then again neither do they enhance my survivability.

You see in PvP (Pk etc) I find that my skills are far more valuable than my stats. That is why I can successfully take on any class I have encountered so far and hold my own (more wins than losses right now). As far as grinding goes my kill speed is excellent and a combination of bloodpaint and focussed mind helps keep me alive (along with pot usage - manufacturing your own pots helps reduce pot cost).

2) Where the issue of chill of the deep is concerned, that is a personal preference. For me I love the skill and use it both in PvP and PvE. On the other hand I have met many an assassin based on attack speed. Of course in Pk or a duel they suffer somewhat. In my opinion if you want to go for attack speed a fist BM is more suited to that role due to its higher hp/pdef. Sure for PvE it can be extremely mana efficient but in PvP an assassin who is not using their skills is severely limiting their combat ability. Not to say attack speed sins won't use skills at all but they are still limited.

Remember for a second (if you PvP often) that the dynamics of a fight can change very quickly and many classes have skills (not to mention genie skills) that can change a straight forward brawl into a downright embarrassment for you. For me so far going the route of attack speed = death in PvP. I've encountered enough Pk and dual situations in my 47 levels on the harshlands to know this. Its a bit different to when I play on my bm. I rely heavily on my skills with the obvious downside being that I am a mp junkie.

3) Due to low hp, winning for me boils down to killing smart and killing quick. First is being able to maximize my damage. So as far as skills go I like to keep my high damage skills up to date. As far as the other skills go you need to determine for yourself how they can help you. For example I don't level raving slash or deep sting. Lets look at deep sting, its an excellent anti spell cast skill but its damage component is limited, so it makes no sense to use spirit points at my level on it other than to get level 1. The sleep is 5 seconds regardless. How about raving slash? At my level I have no real use for it. It has a purpose yes. Its an extra speed boost and I keep it on my skill bar just in case but most times I can shadow jump my opponent and either kill them or die before they attempt to escape. Many times fights involve jumping or are in the air: run speed is useless there. It was useful though versus a few exploding mobs I fought earlier.

Another skill argument I see is puncture wound. Well bleeds are pretty annoying when stacked (my bm would know) but direct damage skills are exactly that, they get straight to the point. That said at my level puncture wound is awesome however later on I don't anticipate it will be a big part of my offense either in PvP or PvE. So should you level it? Thats up to you, mine is lvl 9 since I still got a lot of mobs to kill but in PvP its not a priority skill.

Knife throw is a skill I would not underestimate. It is quick, it is ranged (very good range too) and very importantly it is not chi dependent. This is one of those overlooked skills that players who PvP more often will know how to use and when to use it. Only 70% chance at max but that could be a 70% chance to not get 1 shot and to save your deadened nerve from being used too quickly. Should you level it? depends on how good you are at identifying when someone is channeling and how often it happens. For PvE only people I would ignore it since deep sting can cover mobs magic skill usage but for PvP I would level it when I can.

I could go on but I will not.

For the most part a character is something you play to enjoy. Some take their characters more seriously than others as they strive for perfection and dominance. As such each player has to know their play style as well as the limits of their PvP ability (if PvP is your focus). Spirit and money are a bit limited early on and that is why many guides like to help players decide when and on what to spend their money and spirit. At later levels its more a question of which skill is most suited to which situation as opposed to what is more important to level. I therefore find this guide to be apt to the task of making players aware of their choices. The manner in which the skills have been displayed and broken down into their various uses/builds (e.g. speed/PvP/def etc) and the description (though opinionated but already acknowledged by the writer) makes this one of the best writen guides in the Assasin section.

I like this guild, even if its not to the 'pros' standards it definitely points people in the right direction as a stepping stone to figuring out how they will use the assassin. Its a lot trickier to use than people first thought. Everyone thought it was going to bump off the archer with no real consideration to the fact it was melee and therefore in harms way much more than the archer.

Personally I can't stand melee classes for most games solo because most games don't allow any sort of reach or type of movement while attacking. I find this very frustrating because targets can kite attacks with the most minute movements away. I've already had melee monsters kite me enough to stop my normal attack because I was too close even for them.