Tier 4 Soon - Several Questions

[SanJ]

<DIV>Hello all,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I have a 29 ratonga assassin that I really enjoy playing.  I started with a Paladin at rollout and dinged 50 awhile back, but I'm mostly raiding with my tank now and finishing up an early jewelry profession.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The assassin profession caught my interest early on, but until a few friends started ALTs, I never took the plunge.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I should reach level 30 very soon and I have an array of questions (haven't seen a FAQ on this forum, so if these questions are asked elsewhere, a URL will suffice).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- I have a full suit of feyiron medium armor banked (been saving up) that includes proc'ing BP/Leggings, so I'm sure that's a good start for tier 4.  However, I'm at a total loss on weapons.  I keep hearing I should harvest for feysteel and go for imbued leafblades, but I'm concerned about using the same weapon damage types.  Do you guys mix piercing/slashing/etc. or tend to just grab the highest dps/proc stuff you can find?  When I turned 29, I equipped two of Kregnok's Axes as I completed the quest with a friend who gave me the 2nd one.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- I'm currently using Mordent Goo poison, but I'm hearing some speak of buying player crafted now as it appears to be better then a few patches ago.  What poison(s) should I be using at 30?  Do we have any combinations of poisons we can stack?  Do you perfer higher damage up front with smaller DOTs or smaller damage up front with higher DOT damage?  Are there viable alternatives to just damaging poisons such as lowering mob resists, etc. that I should investigate?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- Long bow or short bow and why?  I have an imbued tier 3 common long bow atm.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- How often do you switch from melee to ranged distance to "arrow" mobs?  So far, I have been going into stealth mode and hitting with assassin's blade on the tank's pull and rolling immediately into managing HOs which I understand very well and really enjoy managing--the faster, the better!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- I could potentially craft myself two imbued common rings (opaline) with my jeweler alt.  I'm thinking AGI first followed by STR.  What attributes beyond AGI are most important to the assassin near end game?  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>- I have not used a /respec yet  and examine options closely when offered but what are our best tier attacks/invis/stealth/ranged choices?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I was part of a group last night @ 28 (with mostly 32-33's) and consistently parsed out number 2 on the dps list behind a 34 zerker in the group and several times we were close on dps so I'm really pleased with the damage at this point.  I had an assassin in my group with my MT alt @ 50 the other night and he completely blew away the warlock and wizard in my group on dps and was the only profession that took my tanks aggro over about an hour of 6 player group play, so I'm guessing it continues to be consistent or gets even better?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I know I have a lot of questions regarding the profession, but I'm hoping some of the seasoned long-term assassin's will share insight so I don't make foolish mistakes at the beginning of the new combat tier.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks,<BR>Dash Whiplash (29 Ratonga Assassin, Najena Server)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Vuron]

<P>1) Like you mentioned, I like to use 2 different damage types.  I would go with a leafblade and a slow slasher.  If you don't have the feysteel to imbue 2 weapons, you can use any 2 weapons that you want and just switch out occassionally to get the other skill up.  You can normally raise piercing or slashing 5 points in a few fights.</P> <P>2) Poison really depends on how much money you have to spend.  Player crafted poison is definately better than NPC poison, but not by much.  Player poison normally has 200 procs vs. 100 for NPC and does slightly better damage.  You'll have to judge this for yourself.  Be careful... some player made poisons have very limited number of procs for some reason.</P> <P>I prefer the lowest upfront and highest dot for most adventuring.  I sometimes switch to highest upfront and lowest dot in groups and raids to prevent procs from overwriting.  I'm not even sure the overwriting is still a problem, though.</P> <P>You can, technically, use as many damage poisons at a time as you want, but only 1 will proc.  The others will have their timers and charges run down, and will never proc until the first one runs out.  You are able to stack 1 damage poison and 1 debuff poison together.  I normally try to get the piercing debuff, as most of our high damage skills use piercing.</P> <P>3) Long bow for me simply because of the range.  I've seen some short bows with decent stats, but don't like to use them.  It's also much easier to find long bow's vs. short bows as quest rewards and player made.</P> <P>4) We are reversed on this.  I normally use my bow skills first when the tank pulls.  The higher level bow skills have debuffs and interrupts built in which I like to get off first.  I used to use my stealth and big hitters first like you mentioned, but stopped around your level when I noticed that I started taking agro.  If your tank hasn't really locked in agro and you fire off a good Assassin's Blade, you will start getting agro.  I will normally only switch back to my bow skills when I have all 3 skills ready and I need to debuff, interrupt, or have most of my heavy hitters refreshing.  Bow skills seem to draw agro more than normal melee skills, so be careful.</P> <DIV>5) Imbued rings are great.  The order depends on the current level of your stats, but I went Str and then Agi, as my agility was already over the cap.  More strength = more melee damage.  I don't think anyone has ever figured out what agility does (if anything) besides raise your power pool.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>6) Wish I could answer this, because some of our skills are great and are better than ones that replace them.  I'm not at home and don't have access to the info.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Play the class and have fun.  There are some that like to complain about scout DPS, but all you need to do is upgrade some key skills, learn the play the class, learn the pattern of CA's to maximize DPS, and you'll consistently be at the top of the DPS chart in raids and normal group play.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[SanJ]

<DIV>Thanks for the tips and advice on the profession.  Although our tank did a great job last night with aggro in general, I did take aggro two or three times with assassin's blade (once for 800ish while still level 28--adept 1).  I was also surprised how much I connected on red heroic mobs (to me) as my Paladin struggled quite a bit in the same level range with missing like crazy on reds.  However, assassin's blade is probably too much damage too soon when the tank is working on hate.  As a 50 Paladin on the side I also like to do a ranged pull solo HO to lock in the aggro, so I'm kind of doing with my assassin exactly what I don't want when I'm tank <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I like the philosophy of debuffing a mobs piercing with poison and then adding DPS through DD and DOT stacking poison --WILL definitely start doing.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As a very cool zebra patterned ratonga and short as possible, the long bow was more of a mental obstacle even though I still use one--having more distance for pulling is a nice bonus not to mention most I've examined tend to show a lot more damage.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'll look into the various weapon options as well as I've never used a leafblade but hear rumors they own.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I have probably the strangest mix of skills atm with 50% apprentice 1 and 50% adept 1.  I tend to buy adepts (those not insanely priced for my level) as coin permits and neglect the apprentice 1's I lack coin, but of course my 40 Jeweler alt could certainly rememdy apprentice 1's to 4's. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks again!</DIV> <DIV>Dash (29 Ratonga Assassin)  time to make a new graphic sig since this toon is being played more and more now <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[sneakli]

<P><SPAN>Hi ya, just to add my two cents...</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN>For the weapons I would recommend working on your PGT, it really is a great help and procs often. It's not equip able until lvl32 if I remember correctly.  I personally like to use one slash and one pierce weapon just for the off chance I unexpectedly end up fighting something with a particularly high resistance.  As for the actual weapon choice, at the levels in question I don't believe you will get near any haste cap that may exist even if you find one of the 5 enchanters in existence.  I would look for the best damage-rating weapon you can find with decent stats.  Personally I would prefer faster weapons as it makes each miss less important. </SPAN></P> <P><SPAN>On the poisons, I like the high up-front damage because of the DOT over-writing issue.  It may not really be an issue but as far as I can tell it does over-write itself.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN>Now I do have to say you must play with some great tanks, my opinion is that starting off the fight with a big hit is asking to test your armor's value, and mine usually leaves me disappointed.  My recommendation would be to start with debuffs then assassin's mark, and when you think it will almost kill the mob throw the big hits so if the mob does decide you are worthy of lunch it won't be too long before it's dead.  And of course, all the while run the HO's.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN>I would also recommend definitely getting assassin's mark to adept3. Just don't throw it too early in the fight or you will be lunch in most pick-up groups I encounter.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN>I don't really have a lot else to add.  On the stats you might consider additional stamina as you get to a point in STR and AGI that you are happy with.  Being single shotted is a drag, and additional hp would be nice.</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN>Oh and the question about when to pull out of melee to use bow attacks.  I find it a hard question and I rarely do it.  The 3-second cast times seem just too long, but it may just be a perception thing.  If there is a lot of AoE then I use the bow, and if the mobs running from caster to caster I tend to use the bow rather than chase them around trying to hit them or perhaps when having stacking issues with another assassin on the usual melee special attacks, but with the limited space in a lot of situation and the cast time I generally don't stop my melee specials to do bow specials damage.</SPAN></P> <P>Anyway I digress.  I'm only 43 so no "end-game" experience, but just my thoughts.</P> <P>Good luck and welcome!</P> <P><SPAN>Scratch</SPAN></P>