New assassin needs a little tactics help

[MatMaster]

<DIV>Alright, I know I am probaly not doing something right for maximum DPS while I am soloing. I will explain what I do here then you guys can give me the serious help I probaly need lol.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1st: Make sure Catacomb Sludge (Or whatever NPC poison that is my level is called) is on, have Adept 1 Hunters Instinct, Pathfinding, And Blade Flurry on.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In Battle: Hunt>Elaas Pincer Blade> Bleed>Hagers Befuddling>HO1(Which has HO starter,Dirty Tricks, and Peirce on it)>Assassins Mark>Impale> Then repeat the following: Hagers Befuddling>HO1>Bleed>Impale</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I may also use the running in circles arrow technique if I am bored, but this is what I do when I don't feel like getting dizzy.</DIV>

[Putka]

<DIV>Soloing seems to be a whole lot easier with ranged arts. You seriously should get an imbued long bow (doesnt have to be rare crafted), poison and a nicely upgraded Blade Flurry helps too <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Then I just start the fight with all 3 ranged arts which usually results in hundreds of various proc'd damage <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> , and when the mob gets to me, I stick Assassin's Mark on it asap and just mash all my frontal attacks with some HOs. Keep kiting with ranged attacks if neccessary <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[MatMaster]

Is that all? I realize that the bow and arrow thing is good, but right now at 22, I only have an app1 backshot and openshot, so it is not very fastly effective. Is thier anything I could do that is more using of my stealth and Pincer Blade? I really like them <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />!

[Putka]

<P>eh? Well then get adepts and raise your bow skill. What did you think, you'd never use your bow till lv50? You'll be missing out on a huge portion of DPS. Suit yourself.</P> <P>Assassins arent built for frontal attacks.. we can't take hits and we cant dish it out from that position either.</P>

[Mordock of the Highwynd]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> MatMaster10 wrote:<BR> Is that all? I realize that the bow and arrow thing is good, but right now at 22, I only have an app1 backshot and openshot, so it is not very fastly effective. Is thier anything I could do that is more using of my stealth and Pincer Blade? I really like them <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />!<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Also use entangle (caltrops when you get it) and make sure to turn ranged combat on.  But I only kite quest stuff.  For soloing, it's too expensive for me.  I do pull with the bow while soloing.</P> <P>Julian Granger (Juliun)</P> <P>Antonia Bayle Server</P> <P>The Discipleship</P>

[MatMaster]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Putka wrote:<BR> <P>eh? Well then get adepts and raise your bow skill. What did you think, you'd never use your bow till lv50? You'll be missing out on a huge portion of DPS. Suit yourself.</P> <P>Assassins arent built for frontal attacks.. we can't take hits and we cant dish it out from that position either.</P> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Alright, I get your point.  One last question before I am done here: Any idea on what arrows I should be using? Yes, I am this retered <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Graton]

<div></div>you want to use the best possible arrows for your lvl lvl 10 to 20 - iron arrows lvl 20 to 30 - carbonite arrows lvl 30 to 40 - feyiron arrows   i'm only 37 so not sure on lvl 40 ones but i suspect fulginate. you can buy tier 3 and above i believe at the bowyer shop in east freeport where you pick up the armor quests. iron and tin arrows are usually sold on a vendor in your home neighborhood. i know they were on temple street which i don't suspect is special. <div></div><p>Message Edited by bolasete on <span class=date_text>04-19-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:36 PM</span>

[Putka]

you must be filthy rich then.. I always use tin arrows since they have no impact on CA damage and all.. :smileyvery-happy:

[MaNiaGG]

Yep, that's also what I thought when reading that. I am using iorn arrows, but only because of the fact my house is in west fp and I am as fastert in crossroads as i am in big bend or sth ^^ <div></div>

[Graton]

he's asking about soloing.  you can solo pretty efficiently using regular range attack which is most definately affected by the arrows you use. as for arrows being expensive i admit it's annoying to drop 77 silver for a stack at tier 4 but i've tracked what i've gotten in loot the last 4 or 5 times i've stocked up and i'm still making money. given that a large number of the chest drops i get would only be possible kiting, i still think it works out. <div></div>

[scivias]

bola, just to make this clear, what advantage - exactly - do you think that a feyiron arrow would have over an iron or tin arrow? <div></div>

[Kven]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> scivias wrote:<BR>bola, just to make this clear, what advantage - exactly - do you think that a feyiron arrow would have over an iron or tin arrow?<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I'll answer for him.  When using REGULAR ranged combat attacks (NOT combat arts), the arrow and bow are both taken into account for damage.</P> <P>When you're using Combat Arts that use ranged weapons, they are ignored, just a mere check that they are there.</P> <P>Feyiron is far superior to iron or tin, or carbonite for that matter when it comes to damage calculations on normal ranged attacks.</P>

[scivias]

<div></div>As it turned out you have not answered for him, but for me.I know what feyiron arrows do, I was merely curious whether <a target="_blank" href="../view_profile?user.id=14654"><span>bolasete</span></a> would know it, since his latest posting sounded somehow odd to me, him refering to more chest drops, which I seriously doubt can be done soloing while you are busy shooting your feyiron arrows without any CA whatsoever, apart from the ones that can be done from the front of the mob.Lets calculate a bit, shall we? As a 49 assassin I can use 3 ranged CA per minute.. probably about 2000 damage done there with iron arrows. I can also do 3 stuns in one minute, (not counting ringing blows from HO) which can be used once to get away far enough to kite für a ranged attack series, and twice with surveil and cond. blade / garotte / punch blade sneak attacks.So while I make full use of all my damage dealing abilities when that can be done while soloing .. including regular use of the ranged attacks, can someone "please" explain to me how the use of feyiron arrows can make up for all this damage potential that's unused there?So there is virtually no sense in investing in feyiron arrows when soloing, unless someone intends to kite for quite some time, which means to run in circles away from a blue ^^ conned mob, or above, neatly shooting one arrow after the other after either 5 minutes (and a whole stack of arrows) have passed and the mob died, hopefully resulting in one chestdrop, or spending 5 minutes of hit'n kicking solomobs, making use of all melee speed and dps buffs and also ranged CA, and laying 3-4 solomobs to rest.Not only has the second method a higher probability of chestdrops and sellloot, its also much cheaper in terms of ammo.There is only one situation when I would recommend to use high quality arrows, and that is when a raid-/questmob has a nasty AOE attack. The last situation I'd recommend it is when soloing. Now at lvl 49 I wouldn't really care about the money, but who here had at lvl 30 enough money to support his regular need of ammo with feyirons?<div></div>

[Graton]

the advantage is they do more dmg. maybe you can toe to toe better at 49 then i can in the 30's but for me to solo a heroic mob that's blue or white i cannot use my melee attacks except when the pgt proc is up or i'll get stomped. the best source of dmg soloing is definately stun / strafe / stealth attack but that doesn't work real well if you're fighting multimob encounters. i've been able to solo things kiting that i wouldn't have been able to otherwise at various lvls - the lightstone Captains for example and i'm certain this would not have been possible toe to toe even with stuns. heroic grouped mobs tend to have nicer loot drops then solo mobs and you really only need to get one or two decent ones a week to make up for arrows costs. maybe at tier 5 the costs is crippling but i've never found it impossible to keep a good supply of tier 4 arrows around when i want to kite something that i can't melee. also at my lvl there are only two ranged CA's that can be used while kiting - head shot / deadly shot. the only other i currently have is cloaked barb where i need to be behind the mob so there is plenty of time to turned on ranged attack and add significant dmg if you have a good bow and good arrows. <div></div>