Updated Asssassin EoF AA 8 November

[PIexor]

<DIV> <P>Posted by Beldain on beta:</P> <P>Last nights changes... some nice ones...</P> <P> </P> <P>Tier 1</P> <P>Cheap Shot - Increases duration by 0.1 seconds, 5 levels.... useless for raiding, cant stun epics</P> <P>Sprint boost - no change</P> <P>Scraping blow - +7% damage, 5 levels - 35% boost at cap</P> <P>Enmesh - increase poison debuff effectiveness, 5 levels, 30% at cap</P> <P> </P> <P>Tier 2</P> <P>Jugular - boost stifle duration by 1 sec, 5 levels - useless for raiding, cant stifle epics</P> <P>Constriction - recast boost, 10 seconds at max</P> <P>Honed Reflexes - is now +3% attack speed boost per rank, 5 ranks</P> <P>Flowing Wound - Increase damage by 4%/level, 5 levels</P> <P>Hemotoxin - reduce duration by 2 sec/level</P> <P>Ignorant Bliss - increase effectiveness, 30% at max</P> <P> </P> <P>Tier 3</P> <P>Freezing Strike - +1.5 sec/level, 5 levels - also useless for raids, cant root epics</P> <P>Crippling Strike - increase defense reduction, 20% at max... nice!</P> <P>Deadly Focus - increase dps boost by 3%/rank, 5 ranks</P> <P>Deadly Wound - increase damage by 6%/rank, 5 ranks</P> <P>Malignant Mark - increase proc chance by 3%/rank, 5 ranks - still useless for raids, since it'll auto fire fully just after casting</P> <P>Enhance Attribute Poison - Increase attribute reduction by 25% at max</P> <P> </P> <P>Tier 4</P> <P>Mastery Strikes - reduce reuse by 8 sec/rank, 40 at max - now its pretty useful..</P> <P>Exacting - reduce reuse by 8 seconds/rank... pretty decent..</P> <P>Deft Defense - reduce penalties 20%/rank - useful when soloing for quests, thats about it</P> <P>Cloaked Assault - +5% damage, only 1 rank... kind of ok, but appropriate since you can hit so many mobs with it</P> <P>Enhance Apply Poison - +1% proc chance/rank.. still bleh</P> <P> </P> <P>TIER 5</P> <P>Repeated Stabbing - 1 rank - Increase recovery speed 100% - passive boost... not reuse, but recovery - which is like half a second or so... not great, but when you're keeping every attack greyed out, this will add up over the long term on a raid, adds more autoattack time..</P> <P>Getaway - major boost - 30 second duration, 1 min 30 sec recast - instant incombat stealth, and PREVENTS AOE WHEN NOT DIRECT, still has the shadowstep component if ya get hit... pop this just before boss aes.. mmmmm (drops after attacking)</P> <P>Bleeding - decrease max hp by up to 5% per bleeding effect... examine your combat arts to see the full details on this - regular mobs , 5% decrease.. heroics 3%... epics 1%... woowooo - note, this isn't actual damage caused, its a max hp debuff component, on all 5 of our dots.. very nice..</P> <P>Frontload - now it doubles trigger percentages, 3 second duration - 5 ranks, so 15 sec at max.... 3 min recast... still weak, but better...</P> <P> </P></DIV>

[Defianc3]

<div></div>Wow if this is all correct then the new AA's might acutally improve our Class, sweet.But still a few days til it goes live, who knows what will happen...<div></div><p>Message Edited by Defianc3 on <span class=date_text>11-08-2006</span> <span class=time_text>07:49 AM</span>

[judged_one]

WOW I can't believe it.But I am very pleased with the new AA.Good Job to the Dev that decided to fix the EoF AA.

[khufure]

Thank god I switched my main to assassin (from conjuror/paladin) a while back.  These look fun!<div></div>

[Jayad]

<P>Good job on the adjustments, not overpowering but now at laest half are fairly useful.</P> <P>Anybody have experience with caustic vs. hemo on raids?  How much adjustment is needed before it becomes worth using hemo?</P>

[HellRaiserXX]

<DIV>I hate when SOE panders to all the whiners, but I cant complain about getting better AAs. These really arent that great either just more along the lines of what people wanted +dmg.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Heres a translation into numbers for these.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <P>Tier 1</P> <P>Cheap Shot - Increases duration by 0.1 seconds, 5 levels.... useless for raiding, cant stun epics <FONT color=#ff9900>- Stun lasts for 2.5sec instead of 2.  Always good for soloing</FONT></P> <P>Sprint boost - no change</P> <P>Scraping blow - +7% damage, 5 levels - 35% boost at cap <FONT color=#ff9933>- at 462str this does 282-471 and 56 tick X 35% = 380 - 635 and 75 tick - pretty big inc for a short casting CA</FONT></P> <P>Enmesh - increase poison debuff effectiveness, 5 levels, 30% at cap <FONT color=#ff9933>- debuff would be 2704 maxed, more debuff = good</FONT></P> <P> </P> <P>Tier 2</P> <P>Jugular - boost stifle duration by 1 sec, 5 levels - useless for raiding, cant stifle epics</P> <P>Constriction - recast boost, 10 seconds at max <FONT color=#ff9933>- no point in boosting recast if duration remains the same</FONT></P> <P>Honed Reflexes - is now +3% attack speed boost per rank, 5 ranks <FONT color=#ff9933>- max would be 51%, pretty huge</FONT></P> <P>Flowing Wound - Increase damage by 4%/level, 5 levels <FONT color=#ff9933>- 74-124 initial dmg, 112-187 tick, Untreated Bleed 524-874 at 462str X 20% = 88-148, 134-224 tick, Untreated Bleeding 628-1048 - Not bad more dmg = good </FONT></P> <P>Hemotoxin - reduce duration by 2 sec/level <FONT color=#ff9933>- total of 10sec from 24 to 14, might make us change from caustic, lots of testing will go into this.</FONT></P> <P>Ignorant Bliss - increase effectiveness, 30% at max <FONT color=#ff9933>- too much IMO we shouldnt be getting enough aggro to need something like this, but its useful to have</FONT></P> <P> </P> <P>Tier 3</P> <P>Freezing Strike - +1.5 sec/level, 5 levels - also useless for raids, cant root epics <FONT color=#ff9933>- uber solo</FONT></P> <P>Crippling Strike - increase defense reduction, 20% at max... nice! <FONT color=#ff9933>- will be 50 at max</FONT></P> <P>Deadly Focus - increase dps boost by 3%/rank, 5 ranks <FONT color=#ff9933>- this is good with stat cap increases, total 80%</FONT></P> <P>Deadly Wound - increase damage by 6%/rank, 5 ranks <FONT color=#ff9933>- at 462str 335-558 and 91-152 tick X 30% 435-725 and 118-197 tick</FONT></P> <P>Malignant Mark - increase proc chance by 3%/rank, 5 ranks - still useless for raids, since it'll auto fire fully just after casting <FONT color=#ff9933>- what he said</FONT></P> <P>Enhance Attribute Poison - Increase attribute reduction by 25% at max <FONT color=#ff9933>- GM Enfeebling will be at 85STR from 68 and hopefully 32 for the slash, crush, pierce, and ranged, although it didnt affect it previously</FONT></P> <P> </P> <P>Tier 4</P> <P>Mastery Strikes - reduce reuse by 8 sec/rank, 40 at max - now its pretty useful..</P> <P>Exacting - reduce reuse by 8 seconds/rank... pretty decent.. <FONT color=#ff9933>reduces by 15 more sec than before, cant complain about that</FONT></P> <P>Deft Defense - reduce penalties 20%/rank - useful when soloing for quests, thats about it <FONT color=#ff9933>- didnt change</FONT></P> <P>Cloaked Assault - +5% damage, only 1 rank... kind of ok, but appropriate since you can hit so many mobs with it <FONT color=#ff9933>- 1 rank? dont really want to calculate that out lol</FONT></P> <P>Enhance Apply Poison - +1% proc chance/rank.. still bleh</P> <P> </P> <P>TIER 5</P> <P>Repeated Stabbing - 1 rank - Increase recovery speed 100% - passive boost... not reuse, but recovery - which is like half a second or so... not great, but when you're keeping every attack greyed out, this will add up over the long term on a raid, adds more autoattack time.. <BR><FONT color=#ff9933>Glad they got rid of Silencing, will be interesting to see if this will add much to our DPS, recovery time is .5sec, could add up in the long run. </FONT></P> <P>Getaway - major boost - 30 second duration, 1 min 30 sec recast - instant incombat stealth, and PREVENTS AOE WHEN NOT DIRECT, still has the shadowstep component if ya get hit... pop this just before boss aes.. mmmmm (drops after attacking)<BR><FONT color=#ff9933>OOO Prevents AOE, comeon guys make a brig if you wanted this so bad, extra stealth aint bad, but jeez SOE pandering at its finest.  I cant complain cause its a decent ability, but we dont need it. At 90sec recast you can avoid roughly 1/3 of AEs. Maybe we are rogues now :/ There were very few AEs in KoS we couldnt just fight through and I think learning to joust should be an important part of our class and it doesnt cut your DPS that much if you do it right. Kinda dissappointed with SOE for giving us this. This has to be used right when an AE is about to hit or you are just using it as another stealth and will lose DPS sitting in stealth waiting for AE to hit.</FONT></P> <P>Bleeding - decrease max hp by up to 5% per bleeding effect... examine your combat arts to see the full details on this - regular mobs , 5% decrease.. heroics 3%... epics 1%... woowooo - note, this isn't actual damage caused, its a max hp debuff component, on all 5 of our dots.. very nice..<BR><FONT color=#ff9933>This is awesome will definately take this one we have 5 bleed abilities which is 5%.  5% of a 2million HP mob is 100000HP debuff, pretty good and we can keep at least 3 bleed abilities up at all times for sure.  I wouldn't be surprised if raid leaders might ask us to take this one.</FONT></P> <P>Frontload - now it doubles trigger percentages, 3 second duration - 5 ranks, so 15 sec at max.... 3 min recast... still weak, but better...<BR><FONT color=#ff9933>15sec to proc poisons twice as fast is decent, not sure I want to put the points into it though, will have to see.  If you are proc heavy on your gear this will be a nice one.</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#ff9933>The best thing about these new AAs is the wide range of possibilities to go.  Now each line is a decent option and it will be interesting to see the different combos we can come up with.  Playstyle is key, pick em to fit your playstyle.  Definately a good improvement, although I really didnt mind the previous ones, its all good.</FONT></P></DIV> <P>Message Edited by HellRaiserXX on <SPAN class=date_text>11-08-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>06:42 PM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by HellRaiserXX on <span class=date_text>11-08-2006</span> <span class=time_text>06:53 PM</span>

[Kimira]

An upgrade except i liked the sped up dots better than base damage increases but they could do far worse <div></div>

[Siclone]

<DIV>"I hate when SOE panders to all the whiners, but I cant complain about getting better AAs."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Translation- I hate when SOE listens to their customer base, goes back and re thinks things to see if they have any credability and if finds that some of the compliants are warrented reworks it some to make it an overall better system and more enjoyable for everyone. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>nice feed back on AA, thanks it will help us better understand them </DIV><p>Message Edited by DaStone on <span class=date_text>11-09-2006</span> <span class=time_text>07:26 AM</span>

[Vertis]

In my opinion we couldnt ask for more.  This is much better than the previous info. 

[Kel]

<div></div><blockquote><hr><div>Scraping blow - +7% damage, 5 levels - 35% boost at cap <font color="#ff9933">- at 462str this does 282-471 and 56 tick X 35% = 380 - 635 and 75 tick - pretty big inc for a short casting CA<font color="#ffff00"> - The AA only changes the damage over time portion, so it is 282-471 and 75 tick, theoretically.</font></font><p>Enmesh - increase poison debuff effectiveness, 5 levels, 30% at cap <font color="#ff9933">- debuff would be 2704 maxed, more debuff = good <font color="#ffff00">- Agreed.</font></font></p><p>--</p><p>Constriction - recast boost, 10 seconds at max <font color="#ff9933">- no point in boosting recast if duration remains the same <font color="#ffff00">-  This allows twice as many mobs to get debuffed, while clearing trash. I know that sometimes I miss debuffing some mobs entirely because they don't last 20 seconds. It is somewhat pointless on the long fights, yes.</font></font></p><p>Honed Reflexes - is now +3% attack speed boost per rank, 5 ranks <font color="#ff9933">- max would be 51%, pretty huge <font color="#ffff00">- Agreed. 51% instead of 36% is a nice boost.</font></font></p><p>Flowing Wound - Increase damage by 4%/level, 5 levels <font color="#ff9933">- 74-124 initial dmg, 112-187 tick, Untreated Bleed 524-874 at 462str X 20% = 88-148, 134-224 tick, Untreated Bleeding 628-1048 - Not bad more dmg = good<font color="#ffff00"> - Again, only on the DoT damage.</font> </font></p><p>Hemotoxin - reduce duration by 2 sec/level <font color="#ff9933">- total of 10sec from 24 to 14, might make us change from caustic, lots of testing will go into this.<font color="#ffff00">- It's an interesting though, but I doubt it's going to cause a change- There's too much of a chance of the poison double proccing and losing damage with Hemotoxin. Perhaps if they made it so that reproccing dot poisons increased duration instead of overwriting..</font></font></p><p>Ignorant Bliss - increase effectiveness, 30% at max <font color="#ff9933">- too much IMO we shouldnt be getting enough aggro to need something like this, but its useful to have<font color="#ffff00"> - To be honest, I like this- I'm not sure why you would complain about it. Anything to give us less aggro is lovely.</font></font></p>--<p>Freezing Strike - +1.5 sec/level, 5 levels - also useless for raids, cant root epics <font color="#ff9933">- uber solo<font color="#ffff00"> - For me this is useless, but for people who like to root mobs, I can see where it comes in handy.</font></font></p><p>Crippling Strike - increase defense reduction, 20% at max... nice! <font color="#ff9933">- will be 50 at max <font color="#ffff00">- 44.4 defense debuff at AD3, wonder which way it rounds...</font></font></p><p>Deadly Focus - increase dps boost by 3%/rank, 5 ranks <font color="#ff9933">- this is good with stat cap increases, total 80% <font color="#ffff00">- It will be 74%, if I recall correctly, the M1 version of the spell was nerfed to 59% instead of 65%.</font></font></p><p>Deadly Wound - increase damage by 6%/rank, 5 ranks <font color="#ff9933">- at 462str 335-558 and 91-152 tick X 30% 435-725 and 118-197 tick <font color="#ffff00">- Again, just the DoT portion.</font></font></p><p>Malignant Mark - increase proc chance by 3%/rank, 5 ranks - still useless for raids, since it'll auto fire fully just after casting <font color="#ff9933">- what he said<font color="#ffff00">- When I looked this morning, it was 1% a point, making it even more useless. 5 points for 5% increase in trigger chance to a spell that triggers instantly 99% of the time is horrible. Not too bad for soloing, I suppose, though.</font></font></p><p>Enhance Attribute Poison - Increase attribute reduction by 25% at max <font color="#ff9933">- GM Enfeebling will be at 85STR from 68 and hopefully 32 for the slash, crush, pierce, and ranged, although it didnt affect it previously <font color="#ffff00">- I forget for sure whether it did or not, but I'm pretty sure it didn't change the mitigation debuff bits still</font></font></p><p> --</p><p>Deft Defense - reduce penalties 20%/rank - useful when soloing for quests, thats about it <font color="#ff9933">- didnt change <font color="#ffff00">- Don't see anyone except PvP assassins even thinking about using this, honestly.. I can't remember the last time I used defensive stance.(Although, really, I suppose I might if it had no debuff, but it takes a lot of points to get to this aa)</font></font></p><p>Cloaked Assault - +5% damage, only 1 rank... kind of ok, but appropriate since you can hit so many mobs with it <font color="#ff9933">- 1 rank? dont really want to calculate that out lol<font color="#ffff00">- Takes 5 points for the one rank of this AA, and it only works on the DoT portion IIRC, same as others - Which puts it at about the same damage it is currently after the nerf it got along with all other masters.</font></font></p><p>Enhance Apply Poison - +1% proc chance/rank.. still bleh <font color="#ffff00">- The only reason I even use this spell is because it adds a *little* damage.. I don't care about helping the tank do an extra 4 dps very much, sorry... Not worth the points, at all, especially since it is the end of the line and not going to be a req for anything.</font></p><p>TIER 5</p><p>Repeated Stabbing - 1 rank - Increase recovery speed 100% - passive boost... not reuse, but recovery - which is like half a second or so... not great, but when you're keeping every attack greyed out, this will add up over the long term on a raid, adds more autoattack time..<font color="#ff9933">Glad they got rid of Silencing, will be interesting to see if this will add much to our DPS, recovery time is .5sec, could add up in the long run. <font color="#ffff00">- Agreed; Silencing was a horrible idea.. Melee range harmony was pointless. A question about this though- Recovery time doesn't stop you from autoattacking, does it? It seems like this AA is only helpful if you queue your attacks, which you shouldn't be doing, theoretically, or for stealth attacks, which would still add up, I suppose.</font></font></p><p>Getaway - major boost - 30 second duration, 1 min 30 sec recast - instant incombat stealth, and PREVENTS AOE WHEN NOT DIRECT, still has the shadowstep component if ya get hit... pop this just before boss aes.. mmmmm (drops after attacking)<font color="#ff9933">OOO Prevents AOE, comeon guys make a brig if you wanted this so bad, extra stealth aint bad, but jeez SOE pandering at its finest.  I cant complain cause its a decent ability, but we dont need it. At 90sec recast you can avoid roughly 1/3 of AEs. Maybe we are rogues now :/ There were very few AEs in KoS we couldnt just fight through and I think learning to joust should be an important part of our class and it doesnt cut your DPS that much if you do it right. Kinda dissappointed with SOE for giving us this. This has to be used right when an AE is about to hit or you are just using it as another stealth and will lose DPS sitting in stealth waiting for AE to hit. <font color="#ffff00">- This is pretty worthless except as an extra stealth unless the AoE prevention isn't tagged as part of the stealth. Too much DPS loss otherwise as you sit back on your [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] in stealth instead of jousting and using bow attacks.</font></font></p><p>Bleeding - decrease max hp by up to 5% per bleeding effect... examine your combat arts to see the full details on this - regular mobs , 5% decrease.. heroics 3%... epics 1%... woowooo - note, this isn't actual damage caused, its a max hp debuff component, on all 5 of our dots.. very nice..<font color="#ff9933">This is awesome will definately take this one we have 5 bleed abilities which is 5%.  5% of a 2million HP mob is 100000HP debuff, pretty good and we can keep at least 3 bleed abilities up at all times for sure.  I wouldn't be surprised if raid leaders might ask us to take this one. <font color="#ffff00">- Well, The question I have is whether or not it is going to stack between Assassins, and whether or not the mob gets healed if they wear off. Most raids I'm at we have two or three Assassins, which means between 5 and 15% depending whether it stacks, which is a huge difference- 100000 or 300000, and if it heals when they drop, that is a BIG problem. If not, it is going to be a requirement for at least one Assassin per raid setup, I'm sure- Which isn't a big deal, because putting 20 points into the line makes the most sense dps wise, I think- The only constant DPS increase I can see, really.(5 into the Scraping Blow, Flowing Wound, Deadly Wound and 5 into Excessive Bleeding)</font></font></p><p>Frontload - now it doubles trigger percentages, 3 second duration - 5 ranks, so 15 sec at max.... 3 min recast... still weak, but better...<font color="#ff9933">15sec to proc poisons twice as fast is decent, not sure I want to put the points into it though, will have to see.  If you are proc heavy on your gear this will be a nice one.<font color="#ffff00"> - The real benefit to this AA is that at the moment, assuming it doesnt change, you dont have to put all 5 points into it, apparently- You can put the leftovers in.</font></font></p><hr size="2" width="100%">Personally, unless Recovery Time affects auto-attack timers, I will be going with Excessive Bleeding and Frontload(5 Enmesh, 5 Ignorant, 5 Attribute, 5 Frontload, 5 Scraping, 5 Flowing, 5 Deadly, 5 Excessive) and then probably going with Honed Reflexes and Deadly Focus for the last 10 points or Cheap Shot/Constriction/Crippling.<p><font color="#ff9933"></font></p></div></blockquote><div></div>

[HellRaiserXX]

<DIV>Lol if it only affects the DoT portion than its not that huge and I bet on the two that had their durations lowered below the reuse it will equate to about the same amount of dmg. More dmg is good but if its only the dot its gonna add very little to DPS. </DIV>

[Astyr]

<P>It's nice to see they change things, but the way they do seems pretty odd to me. First our skills were 'improved' by reducing durations and recasts - now this is completely gone and replaced by increasing the damage component. It seems there is no concept at all.</P> <P>For me it doesn't matter much, but certainly some continuity would be nice. Although the approach to change the system into something more useful should be honored, I am still missing the 'flavour'. Flavour meaning the assassin as the name may indicate: Striking with deadly precision instead of butchering the hell out of that son of a b**** mob. That's for Rogues and Bruisers. But then again - we are rogues, aren't we? *sigh*</P> <P> </P>

[prochu]

this monday every class have got boosted his dps with eof aa but we no,if the extra damage is only for dots it will be very very very useless ( as 20 dps lol )again rangers getting double prok for poison,double atacks and & damage on hight hits while we are getting useless aa

[Jayad]

Any enthusiasm I'd have over it would be removed if it only affects the DOT portion of the CA.

[Astyr]

<P>Yes - especially when you have more than one assassin in a raid and the dots still overwrite each other ...</P> <P> </P>

[ligiguinesmule]

<P>Did some extensive testing using Frontload and the 5 points put into it,  giving it 15 sec duration.  It seems like a long time but you have to realize all procs have changed.  My 12% proc weapons description now states that it will proc 1.8 times per minute on average instead of the old 12%.  I put 5 points into Malignant Mark % increase and then 5 points into Frontload so for 15 i should have had 20% chance to proc.  Now thats around 3.5x per minute avg if you look at it the new way procs work.  I would start off a solo pvp fight,  first skill I'd use is Malignant Mark, pop Frontload and just autoattack with my opponent just standing there.  Ten times I did that and none of those times did Malignant Mark proc while Frontload was up.  In fact even after Frontload wore off in 6 of the 10 fights Malignant Mark completely wore out without procing.</P> <P>With the new proc changes its a little tougher to figure out what are the best lines.  I haven't parsed Hemotoxin vs Caustic as I have no more caustic poisons left but I have experimented with Hemotoxins.  With 5 points put in in pvp it seems to constantly be up.  With 5 points into enmesh aa it has ticked from 202-268 damage every 3.5 secs.  Like I said I can't test it against Caustic in pvp but from what I've seen from hemo its nice so far.</P> <P>Repeated Stabbing seems very nice in pvp.  Hard to tell exactly how good it has been but as a PVP assassin currently getting your skills off when you want to can be a very difficult chore.  I seemingly had an easier time getting my stealth attacks off.  Getaway is broken so can't test it.  </P> <P>Excessive Bleeding is a very nice skill in pvp.  The added damage % to the non-stealth CA on their ticks is ok for pvp but each of the CA doing 5% hp reduction makes them extremely worthwhile in pvp.</P> <P>Jugular's stifle length extended to 8 secs is great in pvp.  Only 4 points need to get it to 8 secs with the 5th point doing nothing to extend the pvp timer.  Freezing Strike's added pvp length of root is nice as well.</P> <P>All in all it seems that the new assassin aa's have a little something for the pve and pvp player alike.   In pvp I'm more balanced against the classes we used to have alot of trouble against being Brigs, Swashies and some plate tanks.  My survivability has increased alot but i think thats due to the overall mit and avoidance changes.   With repeated stabbing all those fights where I was so close to a kill but couldnt get my last stealth attack off should decrease.   The Deft Defense aa is very nice in pvp as well.</P> <P>I must say I really like the changes =)</P> <P>Bleed </P> <P>70 Assassin Nagafen</P> <P>Oh ya almost forgot.  With any kind of mount right now when in combat you are snared what seems like 80% when moving backwards.  Takes some getting used to but fighting on a mount is not feasible anymore.  Remember if you like to root and use bow attacks get off your mount hehe.</P><p>Message Edited by ligiguinesmule on <span class=date_text>11-10-2006</span> <span class=time_text>06:52 AM</span>

[HellRaiserXX]

<P>The rangers get better in order to further balance our two classes out.  In any given fight where we both can do full DPS we should be equal.  There is only a slight difference, but hopefully it will make it little or no difference.  Only problem I see is that SOE has a habit of going from one extreme to another and it wouldnt surprise if rangers hold the top spot the majority of the time again, wont be as bad as in t6, but wont be good either.  In a perfect world, out of 100 fights, each should parse higher than the other 50% of the time or be exactly the same for all 100. Obviously the world isnt perfect and there are many variables, however I think SOE is trying to make the balance as close to perfect as possible with these AAs.</P> <P>We get a huge advantage with Deity abilities compared to what a Ranger can take, granted these wont affect DPS in any broad sense because of their reuseability, but comparing the deity abilities straight up we get much better choices. </P> <P>Hopefully the balance wont be changed drastically and Rangers and Assassins will finally be on very near equal ground, which is fine with me. Like I have been saying all along, because level cap didnt increase neither should our ability to do damage, slight increases here and there through AAs, deities, and stat cap increases, but it definately shouldnt be anything major like several hundred or more extra DPS. You have to consider that in a raid setting if everyone got a several hundred DPS boost or more that the raidwide DPS is going to go up by several thousand.  Average raid mob HP probably hasnt been increased very much and raising raidwide DPS by thousands on an average level would make content too easy, they would have to rework content to fit player ability whereas in most cases player ability is tooled to fit content. </P>

[Recca[BK]]

imo frontload isnt useful with hemotoxin, nor is it worth the points in the in the poison line. give me more dmg i dont need better deaggro. i prefer the aoe immune line personally. granted deft defense is bugged. last night me and hecken raided emerald till my connection crapped out, hemotoxing with 5 points was doing about 20%, of my overall dmg i think he said.

[Poison-X]

<DIV>These aa's still blow..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>bleeding does jack takes max hp down 5% per effect then gives it right back soon as it wears off tested it on pvp person with about 6k life dropped to 5700~ with mark on him soon as </DIV> <DIV>I canceled mark he went right back to 6k .. tried it again and melee'd him once still got the hp back  this is just going to screw up raiding doesn't do jack for pvp.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Getaway aoe immunity is only active with stealth on...pointless.  Make it 2 separate buffs (1 for stealth 1 for aoe immunity like how our snare works) then it would be somewhat [Removed for Content]</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Frontload ..... give it up this sucks.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The recovery one i didn't really test but im sure it sucks..</DIV> <DIV><BR>What's wrong with you people who think these aa's are fine?  Have you looked at what other class are getting?   Assassins are going to be at the bottom of the parse and still wont be killing anyone in pvp.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>How about something like..  </DIV> <DIV><BR>--Enhance concealment [Passive]<BR>  While under the concealment effect melee attacks gain a 20% chance to crit</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>  -And please change concealment to "Stealth ability's no longer require stealth" you just did it for the rangers hawk dive so we know you can do that.<BR>  -Then it would make assassins decent in pvp.  It's pretty much the same thing anyways except it would actually work.</DIV> <DIV><BR>--Frontload [10 minute recast]<BR>  Instantly resets the cooldowns on all damage based ca's with a recast of 1 minute or longer.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>--Bleeding [3 minute recast]<BR>  Instantly completes all bleed effects and finish the cooldowns on them.</DIV>

[Itsumo]

<div></div><div></div>Can someone on beta duel someone and do this:Check HealthDuelApply "Malignant Mark"Check healthUse Freezing StrikeCheck HealthCancel Maliginant MarkCheck Health (current)Reapply Malignant MarkCheck Health (current)The point is to see: Malignant Mark is applied, health should drop 3% or 5%Freezing Strike should do about 500 damage in a duel and see how much health you haveThen, cancelling Malignant Mark should make the current/max health go up a bit, but Current won't be maxed because you injured the personThen, when you reapply the mark, and this is the kicker - <i><span>their current health should drop to around what it was when you first injured them</span></i>I tested this with a warlock and their 931 max health reducer, which, when I cured it off myself, restored me to full healthWhen she hit me with Thwart for around 950 damage while I was under the effect of the health reduction, and I cured the reduction off, my health was down the same amount of points it should have been had I been hit with Thwart without the health reductionHowever, she recast the health reduction on me when I was down around 950 health, my <span>current health</span> dropped as well when my max health did.I also had her cast the spell on me (Curse of Insolation if anyone cares) when my current health was at 500. It dropped to 400, and I lost the same 931 max health. I'd really like to see how it works with Excessive Bleeding. Hopefully someone skilled with math and scientific proccess (oooh, big words <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />) can do some extensive tests in the next few days before release.<div></div><p>Message Edited by Itsumo on <span class=date_text>11-10-2006</span> <span class=time_text>05:02 PM</span>

[HellRaiserXX]

<DIV>assassins are not going to be the bottom of the parse [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] with that bs. No one is getting anything insane enough that they are going to be outparsing us. We might not be the top of the parse as often, but we arent losing any DPS and no class is going to be upped by enough DPS to totally dwarf us.</DIV>

[ligiguinesmule]

<DIV>Tried doing some more testing but since Fluffy has been down hard to find many targets as everyone in greater faydwar is a Q and cant fight eachother so they just log off.   Haven't been able to test Excessive Bleeding again to see how the HP goes back up after it wears off but will try to.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Poisonx-I totally agree I'd love to have a Concealment AA.  Even if not the crit% increase at least a way to make it last longer.  It would do nothing to disrupt pve damage if it were extended to 12-15 secs instead of the 7 it is now and would be extremely helpful in pvp.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One combo i experimented with thats a little radical and is for pure pvp purposes because it totally neuters our dps output would be to put the points that are currently into the KoS Int aa line into the Agi line with the objective of getting halved recovery timers from Repeated Stabbing and combining that with 35% decrease in casting timers.  I tried this combo and it's amazing how many CA we can get off in 1 second.  Probably around 2.5 CA per sec.  Such a shame that it requires taking all the points out of the Int line to do it.  I really wish it was more feasable to do this build for pvp but I'm not sure i can sacrifice the Int line and 52% proc crit chance.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One thing I tested and its kind of alarming is assassin vs berserker.  Twice i had a zerker stand still while i used dps and haste buffs as I popped Concealment and used all my big stealth attacks.  Decap,  KB,  Eviscerate and Jugular and twice the best I could do was get a zerker down to 20% hp!!!  Kinda rediculous if you ask me but oh well.  Good thing we can extend Freezing Strike's root duration so I can run further away from the first zerker I see after EoF.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Bleed</DIV> <DIV>70 Assassin Nagafen</DIV>

[Recca[BK]]

i tesed the bleed AA on beta using mark.duel commencesmark used reduces hp 1%cancel mark hp returnstake about 50% of the enemy's hpmark again take 1% of current hpcancel mark back up to 50% hpso the AA it not as good as some ppl in the assassin channel would belive. since you cannot keep the 5 bleeds up at all times.

[HellRaiserXX]

should easily be able to keep scraping blow, deadly wound and flowing wound up almost indefinately, 3% is still pretty awesome.  Has anyone tested frontload with Caustic? Do you notice increased proc rate?

[GerOcrana]

<DIV>uhm the increase duration for Concealment wouldnt be effective, in the normal case you dont have decapitate up. You click your stealth line trough during concealment is active. I do it with my Line KB, Eva, Puncture, Stiffler and the 2 AEs in 7 Secs... or with Decapitate only one AE Style. One Style has 0.5 Secs cast time and i think 20% Crit for example is usefully as a longer Concealment Timer. A Second Concealment wouldnt be useful again, the recast is good with the original Conc.. Some Styles with non fabled Set Gear takes the time to getting up again. The normal Styles in the Assassins Line you can use Masked Attack, Surv. and Stealth and that is enough to click the lower 1 min or less Styles to do your Job. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The Best Example for a good AA Finisher is Frontload. If Procs too with Caustic Poison then make it sense and its a powerfull AA Style. Its effects Poison Proc Chances and what is with the offense Stance Proc or maybe Malignant Mark ? is the Chance doubles and what is with damage Proc Weapons ?</DIV> <DIV>15 Secs duration with 3 Mins Recast, its okay and useful. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But a second Concealment ? Makes no Sense really, a second Concealment (Passive) with double Decapitate for example (Percent Chance to get it up a second time,maybe 20% Crit Chance or halfed Recast) would be powerful. One AA Tree from Rangers increases the damage of every good Range Style and what get Assassin´s ? DoT Styles Damage Incr. and nothing increase our Stealth Line <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For Example </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Range Skill Damage % Incr. <-> DoT Damage Incr. <--- makes a Ranger > Assassin (50-100 Incr. Damage per DoT Attack is a Joke)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Range Skill Damake % Incr. <-> Stealth Line Damage Incr. <--- Fair enough</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think the EoF AA Line is a bit useless for the melee Assassin. The Ranger has no probs to die in a AE, he has deaggro / hawk and Range. The Assassin must be in Melee and makes the same Damage as a Ranger ? Come On Peeps, we are dangerous in Melee on Raids and should make more dps as a Ranger and the AA System isnt balanced between Rangers and Assassins. In KoS that was a very fair time from the dps different.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Greetings Ocrana</DIV>

[HazNpho]

It looks like the main focus on the new AA's is for solo combat and less oriented to Raiding. Personally I'd like to see the 100 AA usable anywhere, put it in either the new AA or the old, I'll just stack my first AA tree and kick the snot out of a few more epics while I'm at it.<div></div>

[GerOcrana]

<DIV>i play the Assassin Class since release, the Assassin nerfed here and there to do nothing great in Solo. Its a group / raid damage Char and should have a Tank and a healer in it to make the job. SOE nerfes Roots, Stuns, Poisons and much Solo abilites and why should we get some things back again ? Makes no sense really, the Assassin is a group class and not a solo char. The Ranger or much other class got improve damage over some fantastic things. But incr. Short Timebuffs effects lol really. The Timers with 3 Mins or longer is hard. Other Classes like a Swashbuckler has many good things and debuffs but we cannot increase our class specials. The Assassin is a stealth char but what we get as bonus ? Melee DoTs, lolly im a cat instead a stealth murderer... a ranger gains rangedamage and we dont got stealth damage. Or Prevents AOE, im not a rogue and a hard job is jousting the AE but no need more damage on meleedots... the correct AA would incr. stealth damage instead of dots. Poisons okay but melee dots is lol <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[morningmists]

<P>regarding repeated stabbing...</P> <P>you do not auto attack during recovery(as a swashy we've well tested this due to inspiration)</P> <P>even though my asn alt is low, I can see this reduction of recovery times very useful if using fast hasted weapons, and also for getting off attacks after using CA that puts you into stealth faster</P>