Weapon Selection Question

[MorgenNef]

<DIV>Since day one, I have always played my Assassin with the highest damage I could get, regardless of delay.  I guess this comes from an EQ1 mentality in regards to backstabbing.  My question is, what works best for you all?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Currently I am using a pair of leaf bladed spears.  But would another combo be better?  What are your thoughts?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>High Damage/High Delay in each hand?</DIV> <DIV>High Damage/ High Delay in one hand and Low Damage/Low Delay in the off hand?</DIV> <DIV>What about using a One Handed Weapon and a Shield?</DIV> <DIV>What about Slashing vs Piercing? Should I use a combo of a Piercing in Primary and a Slash in Secondary?</DIV> <DIV>Does the amount of damage affect the damage done with Combat Arts? Does STR affect damage when using Combat Arts?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Any insight into this would be most helpful.  I guess it would be a given that Imbued weapons would be more effective than non-imbued.  My Assassin is level 29.95 if a point of reference is needed and all CAs are Adept 1s</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks in advanced!</DIV>

[Ahlspiess]

<P><FONT color=#ff0000>High Damage / High Delay In each hand</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff>Doesn't matter much unless your weapon has a Proc on it. If you do have a Proc'ing weapon use the highdamage / delay weapons. Because they will proc more. Proc. rates are calculated as:</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#3333ff>(Weapon Delay / 3 Second Delay) X % Proc Rate =  Actual % Proc. Rate</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff>What's this mean? It's SOE's attempt to balance slower weapons and their procs. to faster weapons. </FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ffffff>Once you proc. there is a 3 second delay before you have a chance to proc. again. Your auto attack is paused during CA's so keep that in mind. However with haste and combat arts your slower weapons will have a chance to proc more during fights. The Slower the weapon the better the chance. Unfortunately, the highest DW weapon delay is 2.1. So there isn't going to be much of a difference.</FONT></P> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>High Damage/ High Delay in one hand and Low Damage/Low Delay in the off hand?</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I wouldn't. The weapons hit independently so it won't speed things up to have a faster weapon coupled with a slower.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>What about using a One Handed Weapon and a Shield?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>PvM I would say no. Our Objective is to stay away  from them when soloing and do as much DPS in groups as possible. Now PvP might be something else! /Duel is still being play tested and players have a large arsenal of stuns, roots and charges. It may be beneficial to locate a good shield and keep a hold of it until it comes out. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>What about Slashing vs Piercing? Should I use a combo of a Piercing in Primary and a Slash in Secondary?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>I stick with one type just because it won't matter until you run into a creature that is immune to either one. When you DO run into a creature that is immune to one it's faster to find out what the creature is immune to if you have just one type of weapon on you. Same with high resistance slashing/piercing creatures.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Does the amount of damage affect the damage done with Combat Arts? Does STR affect damage when using Combat Arts?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>1.) Not sure! I haven't checked to be honest with you. </FONT></DIV> <DIV>2.) Yes. From what parsers have said on the forums here at least. I haven't compared damage myself.</DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[SalBlu]

<DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>What about Slashing vs Piercing? Should I use a combo of a Piercing in Primary and a Slash in Secondary?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>If you're still sub-50, I would keep a one of each in either hand.  Reason being this maximizes your Piercing/Slashing skills simultaneusly.  Whereas if you keep a double Piercing or double Slashing setup, you're limiting your lvling capabilities.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I am working upward toward Assassin now, but can tell you from experience on my lvl 50 Wizard that if you can lvl 2 skills at the same time, you'll be saving time and effort in the long run.</DIV></DIV>

[Ahlspiess]

<DIV>True and good point! </DIV>

[NerroVI]

You will want 2 slash weps and 2 piercers by the time you get to 50 anyway.  Also don't forget to max your ranged attack, so many young assassins I talk to don't even use a bow, seriously we can lay a whooping on mobs with a good bow and some nice arrows,  especially soloing, often times you can have mobs half-3/4 dead before they even reach you. <div></div>

[MorgenNef]

<P>So what arrows are the best to use?  I wish SOE would list what the differences are between them...</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Craien]

<P>I would like to know about the arrows as well, especially since they can get so expensive.  I've read somewhere that quality (tin, or iron, or carbonite, etc) doesnt calculate into damage dealt with the CA's, so I pretty much just use iron.</P> <P>Regarding weapons, I am working my way to 2 of each damage type, slow and high damage.  I hate seeing such low autoattack numbers on those occasions in which I am oop and the fight still has a ways to go.  I would prefer that being higher than a small increased chance to proc.</P>

[Ahlspiess]

<DIV>The quality of the arrows that you use effect the damage and accuarcy when you attack normally. I haven't really noticed a significant difference with high quality arrows in Combat Arts. So if you  are just using Combat Arts then go cheap. However, if you are soloing a Heroic Mob I would recommend higher quality and autoattack along with Combat Arts or the fight will take awhile.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also you can buy hunting arrows from street vendors this is important because they are <FONT color=#ff0000>slashing damage <FONT color=#ffffff>and they are much cheaper then the player made arrows. So when you go up against that piercing immune mob later on in your career you can pull these mofo's out.  In early levels you really dont need them.</FONT></FONT></DIV>

[NerroVI]

For CL and Antonica pretty much iron arrows they can carry over to Nektulos/Thundering aswell but I jumped to carbonite they really packed a decent punch.  EL/Zek carbonite but Feyiron are pretty much gtg beyond this point except on raids with immune mobs.  Fulginate might get you a tad more higher hits but Feyiron work and are still cheap.  If you are trying to say kill a orange solo mob in EL using Iron arrows you will often miss or if u do hit it wont even scratch it, carbonite will hit much better and do better damage, fey iron lands alot more often and does higher damage, arrows dont really have a con system but thru trial and error this is what I observed For raids you have options now, woodworkers can make Rounded Arrows = crush and there are Hunting arrows = Slash rest are pierce, so if you got to do say a pierce immune mob u can pop on your slash arrows after raid put your regular feyiron arrows back in.. Also if you can get a imbued bow + decent arrows + use your poisons u can get some massive damage in before the mob even gets in aggro range.  If you have a SSoY <not sure if this is a bug or not> but I noticed while I had ssoy equiped sometime back, that even on ranged attacks sometimes it procced.  So if you had a imbued wep with ssoy equiped with poison on it you can see the potential for damage output. <div></div>

[NerroVI]

Forgot to add one other thing sorry. When I solo I use 2 fast delay wepaons, you want the mob dead as fast as possible, and I have found fast delay med damage like ancient ebon short swords work fine. When I group I  DO NOT want aggro so I use my Pristine Imbued Ebon Leafblade and Serrated Bone Dirk off hand. Does my DPS drop in groups cos of this not really, am I #1 every fight nope, but im also not taking aggro off the SK I group with mainly or the pally or the guardian etc.  Of course on Epic immune mobs you really havent got much of a choice either you are using slash or pierce so in that case you have to use what you got available.  Also in groups there is nothing wrong with doing the usual lingering blows and seeping wounds and backstabs but no one says you cant pop out a tad use your ranged attacks and pop right back in, if you want to boost your DPS but to me it is a waste of arrows unless we are fighting a really nasty mob or heavy dealing AE caster then i will pop out of range use ranged attacks grab a heal if need be and go back in, just use and try out everything thats at your fingertips, and don't forget one other thing. Evade is not a mastered ability iow it is still usable at lvl 50 keep it around it does work and it works really good saved me a ton when i accidentally pull aggro of a tank. <div></div>