Ranger to Assassin - What Changes?

[Velth]

<DIV>I'm tired of the way Rangers are being treated so I've made the decision to forsake all my Masters and take on the roll of an assassin. I have a few questions tho on how this will impact my character.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1. What happens to my current diety? What happens to the cloaks I've earned as a Ranger (Tunare & Marr).</DIV> <DIV>2. Does my mount transfer over? Or should I sell it?</DIV> <DIV>3. I'm planning to go down the STR/INT Predator AA lines, but what should I go for in the Assassin tree?</DIV> <DIV>4. What's more important to an assassin; CA's or Autoattack?</DIV> <DIV>5. Does anyone have any specific strategy they use in raid situations?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I know all my CA's get reset, but I've already secured the majority of the Assassin CA's in A3 form.</DIV> <DIV>I also know that any 'class specific' gear becomes useless, luckily I've never bid on relic gear; I'm all Fabled with no restrictions.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Any input is appreciated.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Velthas on <span class=date_text>12-02-2006</span> <span class=time_text>02:26 AM</span>

[DarkMirrax]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Velthas wrote:<BR> <DIV>I'm tired of the way Rangers are being treated so I've made the decision to forsake all my Masters and take on the roll of an assassin. I have a few questions tho on how this will impact my character.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1. What happens to my current diety? What happens to the cloaks I've earned as a Ranger (Tunare & Marr).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>/Good question i imagine u cant have tunare anymore but marr should still be fine </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2. Does my mount transfer over? Or should I sell it?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>/Your mount you can take with you no prbs</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3. I'm planning to go down the STR/INT Predator AA lines, but what should I go for in the Assassin tree?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>/Theres a few good AA's the health debuff is uber so work down that line first for sure</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4. What's more important to an assassin; CA's or Autoattack?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>/Both as a ranger u will be used to being out of it mainly ... time to get up close and personal .. you need to be close to make sure your close enough that your melee attacks are connecting , it sounds like common sence but the amount of assassins that dont get close enough to hit on auto attack is just stupid the amount of dps you lose out on is nuts .. back on topic you should in time be able to learn to time all your attacks to perfection giving u the right balance of ca/auto attack .. an assassin is an art form we aint ranger who sit there and plink plink plink plink .. with an assassin its a lot more BLAM BLAM <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5. Does anyone have any specific strategy they use in raid situations?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I know all my CA's get reset, but I've already secured the majority of the Assassin CA's in A3 form.</DIV> <DIV>I also know that any 'class specific' gear becomes useless, luckily I've never bid on relic gear; I'm all Fabled with no restrictions.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffff00>/Good for you full nemesis i take it ? or we talking alternative random ranger/assassin drops ?</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Any input is appreciated.</DIV> <P>Message Edited by Velthas on <SPAN class=date_text>12-02-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>02:26 AM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>

[Jayad]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Velthas wrote:<BR> <DIV>I'm tired of the way Rangers are being treated so I've made the decision to forsake all my Masters and take on the roll of an assassin. I have a few questions tho on how this will impact my character.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff>I know the feeling.  I did this about 6 weeks ago to accomodate the guild needs and my own desire.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1. What happens to my current diety? What happens to the cloaks I've earned as a Ranger (Tunare & Marr).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6666ff>You can't worship Tunare any more, or any of the good deities.  I believe you lose them.  Neutral ones are ok.  Rallos is worth switching to though.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2. Does my mount transfer over? Or should I sell it?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6666ff>It depends on the mount.  Most mounts aren't aligned but some are.  If the mount says "If a citizen of..." under the whistle info then it's tied to a city.  In that case you want to sell it beforehand.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3. I'm planning to go down the STR/INT Predator AA lines, but what should I go for in the Assassin tree?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff>It's still being explored but I think bleeding and physicality are the best ones for raiders.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4. What's more important to an assassin; CA's or Autoattack?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff>It's the same as the ranger - you want your CAs up to snuff and learn how to use them, but auto-attack ends up being a large chunk of your dps as well.  With similar group requirements, except you buff your own dps instead of haste.  You need some good dual wield weapons to do a lot of dps just like a ranger needs a bow(s).</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5. Does anyone have any specific strategy they use in raid situations?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff>The first thing I had to learn as an assassin was positioning.  Rangers require positioning as well but it's a lot more picky as an assassin.  Since you're up and close now it's pretty confusing at first.  Takes a few hours of raiding/grouping to get used to it.  In general you'll want to position yourself behind the mob - and I do mean exactly behind.  You have CAs which require very close to rear positioning.  The Ranger CAs I believe only require side or rear.  (Some assassin ones are side or rear)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff>Second you have to get good at jousting, or knowing when you need to.  As a ranger you joust in to do damage, as an assassin you're always in melee range except when you have to joust out to avoid damage.  Unlike a ranger, there's no point in going to ranged to "add" dps.  Any time spent at range lowers dps.  The reason is the ranged CAs have long cast timers while the melee ones have short ones.  A ranger can joust in and run a bunch of CAs and go back out and increase their DPS.  An assassin would lose dps while trying to cast their ranged CAs.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff>Third, you want to learn to use Concealment and the temp buffs - Exacting, Deadly Focus, and Honed Reflexes.  The latter two are similar to the Ranger buffs.  Concealment and Exacting are very important buffs which increase DPS by a lot (unless you are haste capped).  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff>Finally, there's some quirks with your CAs.  Killign Blow only does major damage if the mob is at 20% or lower - but it's the best CA besides the Mark line in zone-wide DPS because it refreshes so quickly.  Mark does the most damage by far of your CAs.  Cast it every time it's up.  It's important to wait a little bit on raid mobs for the debuffs to go on before casting concealment with your big stealth attacks.  At the start of the fight I'd debuff the mob and cast your DOTs (of which you have 3).  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#6633ff>Enjoy it's lots of fun. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></FONT>  </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>

[wayward]

<DIV>all i want to know is can assassins solo good.  i talk to 2 lvl 70 guildies and one said he soloed fine and the other said not really.    now the one that said he can solo fine and well said assassins have some stealth frontal attacks thats let him do that.  and the other said no we have to use more stealth side or back .    im going to change my rng to a assassin.    so  do they solo better than rng?  thanx</DIV>

[Velth]

<P>Thanks for all the advice and while I know Assassins are an art form, so is being a Ranger. I don't want to discredit the Ranger community at all for the work they have to put in to bring up their DPS. It's a sweet spot playstyle that requires timing ranged attacks between melee CA's and then using ranged CA's under temp-buffs. Both classes I imagine are tons of fun to play, both requiring their own unique strategies.</P> <P>As for the gear I'm using:</P> <P>Nemesis Hood</P> <P>Parasitic Cuirass</P> <P>Armguards of Dread</P> <P>Cloak of Valor</P> <P>Shining Drakescale Vambraces</P> <P>Reinforced Bloodsoaked Gloves</P> <P>Belt of Dagarn</P> <P>Ancient Hardshell Leggings</P> <P>Kithicor's Nighthunter Boots/Nemesis Footpads</P> <P>MoA</P> <P>Silvered Hoop of the Catacombs</P> <P>Fitzpitzle's Earcog</P> <P>Ring of Relkententinar</P> <P>Echolalic Band</P> <P>Amulet of the Forsworn</P> <P>Silver Bracelet of Rage</P> <P>Damaged Idol of Zan Fi</P> <P>Sealed Book of Knowledge</P> <P>Sinew Wrapped Longbow/Wurm Destroyer/Rain Caller</P> <P>Adamantine Dragonfang, Qeynos Cutlas, Wurmslayer, Talonsreach</P> <P>Half of it is adorned. *shrug* I'm getting there.</P> <P> </P>

[Jayad]

<P>Assassins can solo OK.  They're not great at it nor terrible.  The main problem is your big damage attacks are much more limited, so you end up just using your dots with the occasional backstab.  The ranger can kite mobs and do a lot of damage before they even get close, but if the mob closes they're pretty gimped.   Assassins have more melee attacks but the big ones require position and/or stealth. </P> <P>There's certainly no problem killing normal solo mobs as an assassin with the proper gear and skills, but you can't do it very fast compared to your normal DPS output.  Since your normal DPS output is very high, even gimped you do alright. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>If mobs can't see invis then you can land some big attacks to start the fight and generally make it trivial.</P> <P>It's really in comparing it to some classes which dont' have the same positional requirements that assassin soloing doesn't look so good, like for example a swashy or a bruiser.  They can do most of their normal attacks even toe to toe, and have an easier time soloing.  There's no solo content that assassins would have trouble with, just not as fast as they could be with position in a group or a duo.</P>