Hi. The other scout classes sent me to stand in this line...

[Eetog]

I'm trying to find some information about the scout that can do what I want it to do and a spell / skill lineup that will help my playstyle. I want to primarily solo and occasional group. Do some HQ's with a healing partner and be somewhat useful. I want to do something dual wielding (slashing, poking weapons) cause I'm not a tremendous fan of punching or crushing. I was looking to be a tough quisinart (sp) and a flurry or whirling and damage. I wouldn't mind some self healing, cause when it comes right down to it, if you want to be a successful soloing tank, you have to have some kind of good DPS and healing. First, I start out at the Rangers, thinking bow combat would be cool. Cut em down from ranged and finish em in melee.  They say they suck, make an assassin. I talk to the assassins, I'm PM'd to say that I should go swashbuckler. Swashys say they suck, and don't come into their own till 40's. Go Brigand for debuffing. Brigands say they suck, make an assassin. I look at the assassin spell list and I see long timer CA's, no healing and less than enthusiastic solo value. The disparity of the rogue classes and the "we suck try someone else" is getting really really old. I don't have the character slots nor the time to play to get all these rogue classes up to 50's to see if they're what I'm looking for. Without the redirection of "we suck, make a soandso", do you nice assassins have some advice for me and those that are looking to find a good rogue-home?<div></div>

[-Steppenwolf-]

Really, I'd say you should chose what suits your playstyle. All scouts have their utility. But if you pick a scout that doesn't fit your playstyle, you'll probably suck. Also, knowing what is missing in your guild could help you choose.<div></div>

[whytakemine]

<P>You're getting some very bad responses.  Pretty much all scouts rock as far as I'm concerned, although I think the bards are less fun to play (effective, just not fun).</P> <P>For what you want, I'd say go swashie or brigand.  You do not want assassin, but not because we suck.  We kick [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] in groups and raids, but assassins IMO are the worst at soloing of all the scout classes.</P> <P><BR> </P>

[Sirlutt]

the brigands are lying .. they just dont want the word to get out and become flava of the month and get nerf'd.Make a Brig, use vitality poisons, get good armor/weapons and enjoy.<div></div>

[Malkosha]

<DIV> <P>My Assassin is still low level so take this with a grain of salt …</P> <P>I am a diehard soloer and yet find the Assassin to be the most fun out of all my chars. He isn’t twinked in any way, but still manages to deal out misery to many of the MOB’s he stealth’s across. He has tons of options and different ways of approaching combat that make him very versatile. Whether he is a versatile as another class is irrelevant. <SPAN> </SPAN>My Assassin does what he needs to do and does it well.</P> <P>Assassins may shine in groups and raids, but they do pretty well solo. I had problems at first then as my levels went up things got better and better. I think solo play gets better as you get higher in level because you simply get more options. Assassins have some pretty good CA’s and I almost always have something up to use. I’m still working on mastering the positional stuff even though I feel I do well there and besides, there is always room for improvement.</P> <P>Poisons are a must as quite a bit of damage comes from them. Also, stealth is your friend. I couldn’t imagine playing another char in this game without it. That’s how spoiled I am. I can stealth into a dungeon and find the MOB’s I need to finish a quest, that would have been impossible with any other class. Most other classes would require me to fight my way through … Heroic’s and all.</P> <P>Assassins (I imagine other scouts may be the same) have a certain rhythm to them. Once you find that rhythm you will be devastating. I would just roll one up and see. At the worst, you have spent a little time playing that you might have spent on … well … playing <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>Go for it!</P> <P> </P></DIV>

[Crychtonn]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Sirlutt wrote:<BR>the brigands are lying .. <EM>they just dont want the word to get out and become flava of the month and get nerf'd</EM>.<BR><BR>Make a Brig, use vitality poisons, get good armor/weapons and enjoy.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Way to late on that one.  Seems like there are more and more brigands popping up everyday.  Think they're close to having the same explosion in population rangers had in DoF lol.</P> <P> </P> <P>But to the OP.  If your going to duo alot with a healer I'd suggest Brigand or Swashbuckler.  The two rouge classes are hands down the best scout types able to tank and hold aggro.  Depending on the AA lines you choose a rouge can tank as good if not better then some real tanks.  The predator classes (assassin and ranger) have to many positional and stealth requirements for solid duo play playing the tank roll.</P> <P> </P>

[kaosnafe]

<DIV> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#ffffff size=3>Not on expert on scouts but have played a swashy in past, my main now is a Brigand and I have just started an Assassin alt however my view may be swayed by the fact I play on a PvP server, but here is my advice from what I know.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#ffffff size=3>Both Swashy and Brig are good solo, also can be very good in groups and can both give group stealth which is great for getting friends into those hard to get to places…though best get your friends to understand the limitations of group stealth else they break it at the wrong moment. In PvP both Brig and Swashy are excellent classes and for a new player either would be a good recommendation.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#ffffff size=3>Assassin I am fairly new to, it takes more skill to play affectively and they do not have as much group benefit except for their great DPS. However, I have seen some Assassins perform kills that leave me in awe. Never have much trouble with Assassin solo, so long as it’s single target kill and not group of mobs. This of course makes the exp grind a little slower than Rogues who perform a little better against larger groups but no less enjoyable.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#ffffff size=3>Of course, probably the best suggestion would be make one of each and see which best suits your style.</FONT></P></DIV>

[Mordacion]

<P>I dunno we do fine solo I think. I can solo buff up to 69.5% avoid and around 3500 mit using my shield.Add some vitality breach and i'm farily good to go. Yes thats an extreme nubmer set because of my gear but an avg assassin should be able to get about 66% and maybe 2800 mit, not sure. Been a while since i was in anything like 'regular' gear.</P>

[Rahatmattata]

<DIV>Bruiser or monk sounds like what you are looking for. With the exception most of them duelwield quarterstaffs or fist wraps. If you really must have daggers, stealth, and tracking, roll a swashbuckler or brigand.</DIV>

[Neribus]

<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div>Like the previous poster said, if you have to have a scout go Brigand or Swashie.  However, bruiser and monks are pretty awesome also.  I've grouped with guildies and brigands can be pretty good tanks if they want to, its so fun have a brigand tank because... well just because its brigand tanking!  Swashies? They just rock.  As an assassin i've tanked for groups before when the tank has gone linkdead, and its gone well.  However, I take a lot of spike damage so sometimes i'm hard to keep up (brigands have a seriously nice Mit buff [but seriously why would a scout get a mit buff?]); and for the times when you can't keep agro I just go stealth and killing blade them and get them back.Edit: I tanked Iron Fang Vanguard in PoA and some of the philosophers all the way at the top with 2 furies keeping their 30sec mit buff (urchin?) up as much as possible on me but I'd be green then yellow, then green, then red, then green... yeah my health was all over the place but we did it and they never got agro.  So its possible, but its not what we were designed for.<div></div><p><span class="date_text"></span><span class="time_text"></span></p><p><span class="date_text"></span><span class="time_text">Edit2: Quote:</span>I want to primarily solo and occasional group. Do some HQ's with a healing partner and be somewhat useful. I want to do something dual wielding (slashing, poking weapons) cause I'm not a tremendous fan of punching or crushing. I was looking to be a tough quisinart (sp) and a flurry or whirling and damage. I wouldn't mind some self healing, cause when it comes right down to it, if you want to be a successful soloing tank, you have to have some kind of good DPS and healing.</p>What you've said here is what a bruiser or monk is.  They hit things with their fists, they can use 2 staff weapons to dual wield crush the mobs, they have AoE attacks in which they whirl around and do damage. They solo awesome, and they have heals, bruiser's is self only and monk can use thier heal on someone else.  Brigands/Swashies and Preds can use vitality breach to self heal but sometimes thats iffy.  If you are looking for "quisinart (sp)" I'd go Bruiser, Brigand, Swashie. Not in that order as they are all really good in my eyes for that, but it comes down to play style, bruisers have i think 1 back attack, Brigands have around 3 and a stealth attack or 2, Swashies have around 2 or 3 flank/back attacks and a stealth attack that stuns; they all have some nice frontal attacks.Edit3:  I forgot to mention that bruisers and brigands are more focused on doing damage to single targets while the swashies get more AoE attacks.<span class="time_text"></span><p>Message Edited by Neribus on <span class=date_text>09-15-2006</span> <span class=time_text>12:06 PM</span>

[Sirlutt]

also for solo play.. Feign Death is the god send .. you can train your way through just about anything with it.. definately monk or bruiser as the most fun solo class.  They get heals (self for bruiser and group membe for monk), feign death, safe fall etc etc.  Honestly if they gave them tracking they'd be the most amazing farming machines ever.. lol.. they already are really.<div></div>

[HellRaiserXX]

<P>I solo really good with my assassin, lvl 67^^^ and if there is room to bow kite and they arent a caster can go even higher.  Vitality poisons rock for soloing. I solo in SoS all the time.  You have to pick your targets tho, for instance casters pwn me because I cant avoid their dmg, some can be negated by putting on resist gear so it reduces their dmg.  Solo in defensive stance and melee classes have a devil of a time even hitting you.  Another thing is that for an assassin, gear plays a huge role in soloing, lvl 67 mobs I can solo no problem become very hard if I put on my resist gear or backup gear.  I am not sure could solo 1-70 with an assassin very easily, but I know people who have. Biggest thing is to find some heroic^^^s that you can handle easily, get your ranged skill up, get some vitality poisons and snare poisons (good to back up your one snare), and get your agi as high as possible.  I [Removed for Content] wizards off all the time because I take the named they are always camping, had a bunch of people say they didn't think assassins could solo heroics.</P> <P>Another thing is if you want to group more, assassins [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn]ing own when it comes to grping and raiding.  The amount of dmg you deal in grps doubles from solo because you can utilize all your positional attacks. That is probably the biggest fault most people have with assassins for soloing because a lot of our combat abilities are positional. If you like small grp play, nothing is more fun than duoing with another assassin or a bruiser, can do practically anything and don't need a healer.</P><p>Message Edited by HellRaiserXX on <span class=date_text>09-17-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:30 AM</span>

[steelbadger]

The important thing here though is NOT assassins end game solo ability, especially not when they are kitted out with fabled armour and adept 3's.  Assassins at the beginning are great solo, their high damage attacks are capable of killing a white con mob, but as levels pass you by you start to hanker for a bit more frontal dps, we have the freezing strike line and a few bog standard frontal moves, our frontal dps basically comes from HO's.Now, if we have the mitigation and avoidance to survive for 60 seconds against a mob then that mob is dead, in that time we can dump every high damage attack in our repetoir on them.  No solo mob can withstand all of an assassins high dmg attacks.But they have downtimes of 1 min, 3 mins and 15 mins (on assassinate/decapitiate).The downtime alone on our positional attacks slows our soloing down quite a bit, because it tends to be a positional attack that finishes the encounter off.At lvl 55 or so we get a CA that places us into stealth everytime we land a CA for 6 seconds.  Awesome, kicks [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn], allows us to get a mid-combat positional off on an arrowed (up arrow) mob.Yes, we can solo, but our forté is groups and raids.  We survive solo, we excel at grouping.  If you plan to be a mainly soloer then an assassin is not such a great choice, because whilest we can solo, we are not as good as others.  Bruisers, Monks, Swashbucklers and Brigands, all solo better than us, and are also more than welcome in a group if you ever happen to want one.But you should chose whatever class seems most attractive to you, I'd just say that an assassin tends to be very hard to level up if you don't at least duo with someone.<div></div>

[darkdama]

<P>Hi I have a Llevel 45 assassin and I solo a LOT. It is not easy and pretty much if I get an add of even con or higher I am done. The other very frustrating thing is that a lot of our damage in any given solo fight comes from an opening move. If that gets resisted/parried then you have a very tough fight that you probably wont win. I love my assassin but I do believe that the swashy or Brig is a better soloer. but duoing with another assassin and things don't live very long or if you have a good tank that can hold aggro you gonna shine..</P> <P> </P> <P>But the bottom line is just pick a class you WANT to play and learn how to play it. You will be happier in the end.</P>

[Siclone]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Eetog wrote:<BR>I'm trying to find some information about the scout that can do what I want it to do and a spell / skill lineup that will help my playstyle. <BR><BR>I want to primarily solo and occasional group. Do some HQ's with a healing partner and be somewhat useful. I want to do something dual wielding (slashing, poking weapons) cause I'm not a tremendous fan of punching or crushing. I was looking to be a tough quisinart (sp) and a flurry or whirling and damage. I wouldn't mind some self healing, cause when it comes right down to it, if you want to be a successful soloing tank, you have to have some kind of good DPS and healing. <BR><BR>First, I start out at the Rangers, thinking bow combat would be cool. Cut em down from ranged and finish em in melee.  They say they suck, make an assassin. <BR><BR>I talk to the assassins, I'm PM'd to say that I should go swashbuckler. <BR><BR>Swashys say they suck, and don't come into their own till 40's. Go Brigand for debuffing. <BR><BR>Brigands say they suck, make an assassin. <BR><BR>I look at the assassin spell list and I see long timer CA's, no healing and less than enthusiastic solo value. The disparity of the rogue classes and the "we suck try someone else" is getting really really old. I don't have the character slots nor the time to play to get all these rogue classes up to 50's to see if they're what I'm looking for. <BR><BR>Without the redirection of "we suck, make a soandso", do you nice assassins have some advice for me and those that are looking to find a good rogue-home?<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Most people will always say there class sucks, its the "grass is greener on the other side of the fence thing" When you play a class you get to learn the weakness, if your just looking on from the side line you dont see the weakness</P> <P>the other reason is, people feel that if they praise their class to much sony will hit them with the nerf bat.  </P> <P>I think its fair to assume that all classes have there strength and weaknesses, different classes offer better solo and pvp opertunities, other classes offer more benefit to group,,there is no "The class to be"...so you can stop looking now and pick something that will suit your style </P>