Assassin Discussion Thread

[Meresgi]

So you're saying Devotion is better then Deadly Abandon? o_O

[Firehawk]

Hi,
I was wondering. I'm a Lv25 Assasin right now and i have been using dagger/dagger for like 90% of the time, Sometimes while i'm questing i see lower Lv assasins using a dagger/sword setup, And in cities i've also seen some high leveled assasins use a dagger/sword setup, and pretty expensive swords at that so they must have taking it seriously.

So i was wondering what would be the best for me? And if someone would be so kind as to explain to me why would i be interested in offhanding a sword, because i feel comfortable using 2 daggers but at the same time i dont want to gimp my damage output.
Please excuse my English.
Thanks in advance!

[Kurp]

Daggers have 50 more base crit compared to swords. Skills and auto-attacks use your main hand crit, so people use daggers main hand.

Swords do more damage than comparable daggers, so they put one in their offhand for increased auto-attack damage.

When people get gear with a lot of sockets and crit and it becomes easy to reach the 440 crit soft cap, many people use sword/sword for higher weapon damage.

You should take the quality of your weapon into account when you decide which setup to go with, though.

[Koga]

Questions!

First: Stigma Build - This is intended for small group PvP/Solo PvP
Aion Armory - Assassin Stigma Calculator - By Terhix

Is it possible to use Stigma Slots like this? or do the "advanced slots" have to be used for advanced stigmas?

Flurry - Hot. 20% ATK Speed is amazing.
Aethertwisting - Pesky Casters with large casts.
Ambush - Free teleport to the player and stun.
Shadow Walk - Permenant Improved Stealth.
Blinding Burst - More so for dealing with Melee Classes. Don't care so much for the AoE aspect; more of an added bonus I guess.
Crashing Wind Strike - Self Heal
Divine Rune - Silence
Throw Shuriken - Ranged Attack



Also - Crit Cap is 450 right?
Lets say I am dual daggers for the higher base crit. Should I stop stacking crit from stones/gear at 450 or 350 since we have Clear Focus. If I stop at 350, then I can allocate the gear/stones more into attack then crit since beyond that it would be wasted by going over 450. But then again, considering the cap is only a soft cap, is 100 more crit enough of a difference that I should stack to 450? It almost seems like a wasted buff if the 100 crit from Clear Focus is so marginal it can't be noticed and I could stack something like attack in its place so that when I use Clear Focus, I hit the soft cap then.

[Meresgi]

Adv stigma slots can have any stigma in them. But Adv stigmas have to go in the adv slots.

[Theosis]

First: Stigma Build - This is intended for small group PvP/Solo PvP

Is it possible to use Stigma Slots like this? or do the "advanced slots" have to be used for advanced stigmas?

Flurry - Hot. 20% ATK Speed is amazing.
Aethertwisting - Pesky Casters with large casts.
Ambush - Free teleport to the player and stun.
Shadow Walk - Permenant Improved Stealth.
Blinding Burst - More so for dealing with Melee Classes. Don't care so much for the AoE aspect; more of an added bonus I guess.
Crashing Wind Strike - Self Heal
Divine Rune - Silence
Throw Shuriken - Ranged Attack

Yeah, you can use them that way. Not sure how good Crashing Wind Strike is, since I'm not an Asmo & Divine Rune is Elyos only, so yeah. Also Divine Rune for Elyos is the exact same skill as the skill book we get at 50, so no point socketing the Stigma. I would assume it's the same way for the Asmo equivalent of the skill which is Darkness Rune.

Also - Crit Cap is 450 right?
Lets say I am dual daggers for the higher base crit. Should I stop stacking crit from stones/gear at 450 or 350 since we have Clear Focus. If I stop at 350, then I can allocate the gear/stones more into attack then crit since beyond that it would be wasted by going over 450. But then again, considering the cap is only a soft cap, is 100 more crit enough of a difference that I should stack to 450? It almost seems like a wasted buff if the 100 crit from Clear Focus is so marginal it can't be noticed and I could stack something like attack in its place so that when I use Clear Focus, I hit the soft cap then.

Soft cap for crit is 440, I currently have 350, mainly because I can hit 440 with my crit scroll.

[Berabouman]

Thread necro!

I've just reached 40 and have lots of burning questions about the Sin at 40. (and in general) Here are some of them :

1. Should I save up and get the blue attack speed crafted sword? (Expert Durable Adamantium Sword, I think it's called) It's about 6-7 mil on my server, will take all my cash and then some. I noticed a jump in my DPS when I got the blue attack speed gloves at 36, (yeah, I know they can be worn at 33, couldn't afford them then) and at 18% attack speed (since they stack) it will be like having Flurry on all the time, which is pretty sweet.

2. Continuing with that, if I do get the sword, do you think it is worth max Enchanting it and Godstoning if I am going to use to 50? Or should I get the Xeno weapons instead?

3. When do you guys use Devotion and Killer's Eye in your rotations? I typically use KE before SA, but I find that I don't have time to fit Devo in their before the attack. I try to Devo before Pain Rune/SA, but I find that that only adds like 200-400 extra damage (maybe my gear just sucks) What do you guys do?

4. While we're on that topic, do you all pop FE when a fight just starts, or save it for when the mob uses a TP move?

5. Bows - do you bother keeping them up to date? Poison - do you bother using it, and is the Stigma poison actually worth using in PvE?

6. Now that I have the 3 attack of the Beast chain, I am wondering if it's a good idea to get Sigil Strike, so I can carve up to 5 runes easily. What do you all think?

Not expecting answers to all the above queries, just wanted to pick the brains of my fellow Sins.

[Trocian]

1. Should I save up and get the blue attack speed crafted sword?

It's an awesome sword, but I'm not sure if it's worth it if it'd totally break you kinah-wise. It's not a must in any way.

2. Continuing with that, if I do get the sword, do you think it is worth max Enchanting it and Godstoning if I am going to use to 50? Or should I get the Xeno weapons instead?

Get both, and use the Xeno in your mainhand. Avoid enchanting since you'll replace Xeno by lv50, and just use the attackspeed weapon in OH.

3. When do you guys use Devotion and Killer's Eye in your rotations?

Devotion as an opener before Ambush/carvings. Killer's Eye before SA.

4. While we're on that topic, do you all pop FE when a fight just starts, or save it for when the mob uses a TP move?

Depends. If I know the mob has any nasty moves, I'll save it. Otherwise I just use it right away for the extra damage.

5. Bows - do you bother keeping them up to date? Poison - do you bother using it, and is the Stigma poison actually worth using in PvE?

It doesn't hurt to have a decent bow, but it's not a requirement. You'll use it to pull and kill off runners, not an everyday thing. Poisons are worthless since they don't prevent flight anymore. I don't use them at all.

6. Now that I have the 3 attack of the Beast chain, I am wondering if it's a good idea to get Sigil Strike, so I can carve up to 5 runes easily. What do you all think?

If you maily PvE, then go for it. Not much use in PvP.

[Berabouman]

1. I thought I would just get the sword and use it to farm back the money I spent on it

2. Is Xeno's worth it? The quest chain seems awfully long. So I should hold off on enchanting anything until 50?

3. Seems about right to me. Thanks for the input.

4. Ditto.

5. I was going to try out the poison stigma with 18% attack speed, seems like it might be useful then.

6. I just tried it out last night. Not too bad, I might stick with it since there are no other "must-get" stigmas for me right now.

[Drex]

So I went to create a male assassin char, and the "default" when the char creation screen first came up was a black dude with an afro and the "mouth size" and "lip size" sliders set to max

lol

[Berabouman]

I've seen an Assassin who looks just like that on my server, his name is (appropriately enough) Frosassin.

[Trocian]

2. Is Xeno's worth it? The quest chain seems awfully long. So I should hold off on enchanting anything until 50?

The chain is pretty annoying, but you do get decent EXP and a good weapon out of it, well worth it.

Also, putting +1 or +2 on a weapon isn't a big deal, but avoid going higher unless you know you'll keep it in your mainhand for quite a while. Sticking an enchanted weapon in your OH is generally a waste.

[Berabouman]

Just found out that Xeno's is an Elyos-only quest chain Do the Asmodians have an equivalent?

Ok, I'll try enchanting +1s and 2s to see how it goes. Can you fail on a +1?

[Trocian]

Just found out that Xeno's is an Elyos-only quest chain Do the Asmodians have an equivalent?

Ok, I'll try enchanting +1s and 2s to see how it goes. Can you fail on a +1?

Yeah, the Asmodian weapons are called Betoni, available at lv43. http://www.aionarmory.com/quest.aspx?id=2656

You can always fail enchants, but the weapon can't get any worse f you fail on an unenchanted weapon, so it's not the end of the world.