Assassin build?

[piccolo38]

I was wondering if anybody can give me suggestions on a good assassin build. I read up on the moves and there seems to not be a good chargeup + finishing move combination. Dragon claw only enhances the first hit of ur duel claw attack, wasting ur second claw. The other finishing moves look like kicks, rendering ur claws useless, right? I was also wondering of the cookie-cutter build for assassin, thanx.

[NuurAbSaal]

edit(n/t)...

[piccolo38]

ohh ok sorry i'll post it there...

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Piccolo,

Moved it for you :D Oh, and there's no *real* cookie cutter Assassin build, in the sense of other CC builds (eg WW Barbarians), but most seem to be Claw/Shield, Phoenix Strike and...umm...forget the name, the Exploding Kick finisher (never used it myself). Oh, and Tiger Strike and Cobra Strike go without saying :D Throw in some Death Sentry and Burst of Speed, with a Shadow Master and Claw Mastery, and you have a build that works very well.

Personally, I prefer my MYST - she uses a Sword :D

[piccolo38]

is the damage of the kick finishing move affected by ur claw weapon? if not wouldnt it be a wasted claw...only used to charge up the move...also what if i meet a fire immune monster? wouldnt i be kinda screwed if i used dragon tail (exploding kick)

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Piccolo,

Kick damage is based on Strength and Dexterity (I'm too tired at the moment to recall the formula - perhaps later), not the weapon. The Claw gives you the ability to charge up (though, you can do that weaponless - I do), but it also gives you +skill options. Fire Immune? You may recall I said Phoenix Strike: it does Fire, Lightning or Ice damage.

I did say that Assassins cannot be played like the old WW Barbarian or whatever: you may find you need to think with them.

[CrescentWindX]

The kick damage formula is as follows:

Minimum damage = (str + (dex - 20))/4
Maximum damage = (str + (dex - 20))/3

Taken from this page.

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

There's nothing stopping you from using your claw for finishing, Piccolo. A normal claw attack also functions as a finishing move, discharging all your build-ups.

*tips helm*

[Saga_Keeper]

I personally use normal attack as a release. Normal attack is faster then a kick finisher, and you can just swap hotkeys. With a good amount of burst of speed and just minimal ias gear you can drop charges of pheonix strike (PS) or tiger strike (TS) all day long.
You'd also want claw mastery to help your ar, as normal attacks have significantly lower ar then chargeups (as little as 1/3 in some cases) or you can just put an eth(#4 iirc) rune into your claw.
I personally advocate using a shield, and not trying to wade into monsters... but take them on in small groups using the third charge of pheonix strike and mindblast to manipulate and divide packs.
-Saga_Keeper

[piccolo38]

hm is there a way to charge up another attack before release one? I think i've seen an assassin have more than one charge-up attacks swirling around her. how does this work and does anybody kno an advantage of it?

[AtomicKitKat]

Hotkey the charge-ups so that you can switch as soon as you hit the desired number of charges for that move.

Disadvantages:

1. Slow.
2. Useless on normal monsters to charge up EVERYTHING
3. You're only doing normal weapon damage while charging.

Advantages:

1. Tiger Strike+Cobra-Strike+Dragon finish=more damage=more leech(and in the case of dragon tail, more fire damage)
2. I ALWAYS try to charge up Phoenix Strike as many as possible. The meteor, IMO, is generally useless compared to the other 2, since it has a rather small area(at least compared to the other 2) Chaos Orb is good because it helps freeze EVERYTHING(except CI and some Frenzy-taurs)
3. She looks like a Christmas Tree when you do all SIX charge-ups.
4. It's more colourful than the 4th of July when all charges are released. I personally wish Phoenix would release all 3 elements on the finish, and Cobra would work when FoF/BoI/CoT are stacked with it(currently, if you charge up those 3, Cobra won't leech AT ALL)

I also wish FoF/BoI/CoT would work with other weapons(would require a slight name change of course) :/

[Saga_Keeper]

The first charge of Pheonix Stike negates the need for fire damage from Pheonix Tail, Pheonix Tail's damage also doesn't work on PI monsters.

Meteors get better with even higher skill levels, (not to mention the other 2 charges) which isn't hard to achieve as an assassin at all. They can do a ton of damage, burn quite a while, and stack nicely as well as working on PI monsters.

Pheonix Tail isn't bad, I just dont' care for kick finishers, mostly because they're slower... and drop my ~2 meteors/second rate on pheonix strike.

-Saga_Keeper