Raiding advice for Assassins

[evilpants]

<DIV>I've recently started raiding and lacking a veteran raiding Assassin in my guild(so far as I know) I find myself looking for a bit of advice. What is a good group set up for maximizing DPS? Also, without the benefit of a plate class fighter type in my group what is the best use of my aggro transfer? I havent been in the MT group yet and with the benefits others can give I understand why. I havent had a whole lot of trouble with aggro unless I'm spamming big shots , which I rarely do until the end of a fight or when Dispatch is up (much love to my Brig brethren) and even then, with the use of my reducers, I dont pull it much. I'm getting my CA's upgraded to Master or ADIII (at least as much as plat allows) and just looking for that happy medium that will place me at the top of the parse yet keep me off the top of the aggro ladder. Consistantly I'm in the top 5 but if I'm doing my job right I should be on top every time(I'll settle for second but wont like it). I'll have to take a closer look after getting upgrades but I'm sure at this point that is part of the problem. I've alot to learn and am eager for knowledge so if anyone has anything to share, even if I havent asked the right questions, it'd sure be welcome. To be the best one must learn from the best right?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>                                                                      <IMG src="http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2/fatbastard69/Tag2.jpg"></DIV>

[thebigtime]

<div></div>A really good dps group is going to consist of a Fury, Illusionist, Inquisitor and for the other two slots any mixture of wizard/warlock/conjuror/troubador depending on what you need.. Your goal in a dps group should be first and foremost cap STR, so basically 520str. After that you want to have your dps and haste mods as close to 100% as possible. Beyond that your secondary goal should be to get your INT as high as possible and to get as many damage procs as possible.Assuming you aren't in the MT group or a secondary tank group I would highly suggest not putting your hate transfer onto a plate tank. The best classes to give your hate transfer are illusionist, bards, or low-aggro healer. So if you had only a fury and inquisitor to choose from you should put the hate on the inquisitor due to them being mostly reactive based and the fury a lot more direct heal based.As far as DPS I'd concentrate on getting ad3 and m1 in your best skills as soon as possible. These include Malignant Mark, Finishing Blow as well as Fiendish Villiany and your offensive stance. To increase your dps further beyond upgrading skills and gear work on different rotations of skills until you find the best not only for you but also for your dps.

[Bi]

<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div>Stats -STR  - affects your Melee DPS directly. The closer to 520 this is, the more melee damage it will do.AGI - power pool - most items with str will come with agi, I sincerely doubt you will ever have to worry about power with near maxed str.STA - Health pool. VERY VERY important for surviving AEs, as well as getting your mitigation / resistance up (depending on the AE) I suggest moonstone jewellery. If you cant afford it then topaz.WIS - effects resists, but hard resists effect spell avoidance, whereas wis just mitigates (if you think i'm wrong try maxing your wis, and see what the difference is between taking damage compared with hard resists - i was shocked too)INT - will effect the amount of damage your spells, procs and poisons do (according to skratch this does not include mark) EDIT2: after some testing of my own, i concur, STR effects mark, not INTweapons - try to get high DR weapons (its not 100% true, but in many cases the highest dr is the better one, grinning dirk of horror being the obvious exception)armour - mitigation and resistance for AEs, as well as focussing on high str, and lots of sta/int.Groups:If you have 2 healers in your group, you better be in some sort of ghetto 2nd tank group, or your raid is wasting places. Furies are good for int buffs and their Fae Pyre proc buff, their single target str/agi dps/haste mod is awesome.. inq's get a dps modifier for the group.Troubadours are a must-have. Power regen as well as hate reduction. Sorcerors will give you a proc buff - wizards would be an obvious preference as they also buff str and intDo your healers a favour and dont hate transfer them. Generally the troubie is the prime suspect, or a non zerk/brawler tank (they do high enough dps by themselves)Its been documented pretty heavily that in raids your main source of dps other than autoattack will be malignant mark, It's the favoured master 2. M1/Ad3 everything you can, like above poster says offensive stance and fiendish villainy being prime suspects.Also like AP says play with your rotation and work out what works well for you, and change your hotbars accordingly.<p>Message Edited by bieb on <span class=date_text>07-18-2006</span> <span class=time_text>11:32 AM</span>

[MystaSkrat]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> bieb wrote:<BR> INT - will effect the amount of damage your spells, procs and poisons do (<EM><STRONG>including mark</STRONG></EM>)<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>INT doesn't affect your damage with Malignant Mark.  It's not like it's hard to test it by just comparing it with 2 different INT levels... why do people come here and type things that aren't even true? lol  The game might treat it like a spell in some respects, but it still goes up with STR, not INT.  Test it yourself.  It's easy.

[pczry]

ooo no, you pisted off skratch =/<div></div>

[MystaSkrat]

No, the rest of it is pretty informative for someone, but there was that one thing that stuck out as so glaringly wrong I had to point it out.  But I mean, it does piercing damage lol it's affected by STR

[Loung]

When you say 520 STR are you talking with or without help. I have crap gear and i've found it to be pretty trivial to get to 520 STR when buffed...

[Bi]

my bad. I thought as it was effected by spell crits, that it was a spell, and therefore effected by int.your tone isnt that kind skratch for an honest mistake <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div>

[Bi]

<div><blockquote><hr>Loungen wrote:When you say 520 STR are you talking with or without help. I have crap gear and i've found it to be pretty trivial to get to 520 STR when buffed...<hr></blockquote>doesnt really matter. self buffed is occasionally nice if your raid leader doesnt know/doesnt want to put you in an ideal setup group which can buff your str and proc rate.If your raid leader knows what (s)he is doing and the right classes are available your str will max out with grp buffs, and selfbuffing yourself over the cap wont make a shred of difference. The same goes for resists.</div>

[Graton]

<div><blockquote><hr>evilpants wrote:<div></div> <div>I've recently started raiding and lacking a veteran raiding Assassin in my guild(so far as I know) I find myself looking for a bit of advice. What is a good group set up for maximizing DPS? Also, without the benefit of a plate class fighter type in my group what is the best use of my aggro transfer? I havent been in the MT group yet and with the benefits others can give I understand why. I havent had a whole lot of trouble with aggro unless I'm spamming big shots , which I rarely do until the end of a fight or when Dispatch is up (much love to my Brig brethren) and even then, with the use of my reducers, I dont pull it much. I'm getting my CA's upgraded to Master or ADIII (at least as much as plat allows) and just looking for that happy medium that will place me at the top of the parse yet keep me off the top of the aggro ladder. Consistantly I'm in the top 5 but if I'm doing my job right I should be on top every time(I'll settle for second but wont like it). I'll have to take a closer look after getting upgrades but I'm sure at this point that is part of the problem. I've alot to learn and am eager for knowledge so if anyone has anything to share, even if I havent asked the right questions, it'd sure be welcome. To be the best one must learn from the best right?</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div>                                                                      <img src="http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2/fatbastard69/Tag2.jpg"></div><hr></blockquote>i'd say in order of priority things not mentioned...1. keep a large stack of poisons at all times. if you can't afford the rare crafted type, that's ok you can do quite well with regular ones here's what you should carrycaustic poison - there are just too few occasions where hemotoxin generates more dmg, most of the time this should be runningmental breech - there are fights that are long enough where you need some mana regen. with even the regular lvl of this poison your power pool can last a really long time. if you have the grandmaster version you pretty much can't run out of power unless you are dealing with a manadraingracelessness - critically important buff for us, particularly if you are dealing with brawler mobs that parry / deflect. talk to the other rogues / preds in the raid someone should be running this and someone else should run...warding ebb - debuffs mob against magical dmgignorant bliss -deaggro poison proc. honestly in the right group you can get by without this but it makes a lot of sense to run this since the other blue poisons choices don't make near as much sense in a raidyou can run a red / purple and blue poison all at the same time so caustic or mental breechgracelessness or warding ebbignorant bliss2. figure out ca pattern. don't cop out with 'i do better when i don't use a pattern, blah blah' because i pretty much assure you that you won't. if you stick to a fairly consistent pattern you get an excellent sense over time of what's refreshing so you don't need to look down at your ca bar you'll just know that masked attack and punch blade are back.3. know how many maintained spells should be up in your window at all times. sounds dumb but this will help you avoid dumb things like, 'oh, my poison ran out 6 fights ago' or 'i forgot to put on my offensive stance after i got killed'. if you know that once you buff yourself and apply poison you have x slots than this will help you avoid forgetful mistakes4. use potions. ok, there aren't near as useful as they were pre lu24 but i know being a ratonga i can't cap stamina without them. stamina = hp's and hitpoints really are important. ward potions are a good idea too. at the very least if you know that a 4.5K ae or a mean dot is going to hit you during the fight, the few silver a dose of these ward potions cost can give your healer more time to save you and make you more likely to survive the ever frustrating one shot.5. respec and take + sta as often as possible along with hit point pool. mana regen does nothing for you, power pool is rarely an issue and when it is you have mental breech. regen is useless. taking str may have made sense when you were lvl'ing but in most groups you will easily exceed the strength cap.</div>

[Aienaa]

<DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>my bad. I thought as it was effected by spell crits, that it was a spell, and therefore effected by int.<BR>your tone isnt that kind skratch for an honest mistake</FONT> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>You are correct in that it is effected by the Spell Crits....  But as Skratch said, the damage is effected by Strength....  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>you can also blame Skratch's tone on me, as it seems that I have PO'd Skratch....</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Gwern - 70 Assassin - Kithicor</DIV>