Whats everyone doing with their Assassin AA line?

[Delta G]

<DIV>I'm guessing most are going for getaway but what about the rest of the points?</DIV>

[Bi]

maybe on pvp servers, it was heavily nerfed and its unlikely that any pve'ers are going for it afaik~<div></div>

[Forsaken Falc]

<P>gateway is teh suxz.</P> <P>atm I'v got 3 in, Frezzing strike, Jugular, Scraping blow,Flowing wound, Enmesh, & Sprint.</P> <P>5 in, Honed Reflexs, Deft Defense, Cloaked Assault.</P> <P> </P> <P>I'll prob place 3 in deadly wound next, My current selection is a nice balance for raid's group and solo imo. I'v tryed NerfAway and no longer bother to use it, Was thinking of going frontload but 15 second's isn't worth it, Bleeding 1 is meh, Repeated Stabbing only realy seem to make Exacting cast faster so I have no idear [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] it's ment to realy do.</P> <P>hhhmmm now looking at the aa line as I type i think I'll place My next 5 in Exacting <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>Long story short the bottom 1's sux</P>

[Malandrin]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Forsaken Falcon wrote:<BR> <P>the bottom 1's sux</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Exactly. There are some better intermediate AA's than the 4 bottom ones, which is ridiculous (frontload, repeated stabbing, excessive bleeding and afkaway).<BR>

[Jvaloth]

<DIV>Spend 50 on KoS AA then save up the remaining 50 until they fix them and make the EoF ones worth getting.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If you dont believe me, watch your parsing before spending EoF AA's, then watch your parsing after spending the EoF AA's.   Your parse will be identical.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Ketel]

<DIV>EoF AA for assassin are very bad. I would advise some devs to revise them with more creative ones because there is no difference between me having 90AAs and my friend having 47..  </DIV>

[Jayad]

I put them in a achievement money market account.  Hoping to earn some interest on them for when I can buy real AAs. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Jodah]

<DIV>I jsut went for the 35% faster casting in KOS agi tree and got Repeated Stabbing in Assassin Tree</DIV>

[Nathdorl]

getaway looks kinda ridiculous...i had 21 unspent points in my calculation and put 20 into physicality (like androit defense for soloing). then i figured i had 1 point left, i couldve put it into crippling strike but i decided to put it into getaway instead, but im not sure whether ill be using it anyways

[Computer MAn]

Since our EOF AA's are so awful I basically went for a soloing setup (this is coming from a hardcore raider). Went down the left side of physicality (haste, def stance, exacting and sprint), and got getaway (suprisingly I have found some uses for this skill through my raids). Then increased stun / stifle duration as well as crippling strike and master strike reuse and then got Repeated stabbing. And put the last few points into the bleeding line. Kind of a strange setup but there really isn't much you can do either way your not getting much more DPS from our EOF AA's.<div></div>

[steelbadger]

I have got Getaway thus far.Why?  I know that many of our stealths can be foxed by a badly times AoE, or a group heal from my groups healer, or simply by a reactive.  Whilest we have enough stealths to, theoretically, use every one of our stealth attacks, because of the issues previously stated rarely is that actually the case.Getaway is an instant cast stealth, which cannot be parried, does not trigger reactives and cannot be broken by a badly timed AoE.So I like it <span>:smileyhappy:</span>And it's sooo useful in duels, so many people think they can fox me by standing and AoEing, with this skill I can run up next to them regardless. <span>:smileyvery-happy:</span><div></div>

[Graton]

<div><blockquote><hr>Delta G wrote:<div>I'm guessing most are going for getaway but what about the rest of the points?</div><hr></blockquote>in pve, it's pretty much horrible. the best aa's i've found in the assassin tree are the exacting cast reduction and increased dmg on cloaked assault.</div>

[Graton]

<div><blockquote><hr>Jodah66 wrote:<div>I jsut went for the 35% faster casting in KOS agi tree and got Repeated Stabbing in Assassin Tree</div><hr></blockquote>as i recall that's in the agility line. you're giving up a lot of dps if you don't do str / int on the predator tree.</div>

[DresdenMalicaster]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ketel wrote:<BR> <DIV>EoF AA for assassin are very bad. I would advise some devs to revise them with more creative ones because there is no difference between me having 90AAs and my friend having 47..  </DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Oh how completely wrong you are!</P> <P>Scraping blow : 5</P> <P>Flowing wounds : 5</P> <P>Deadly wounds : 5</P> <P>Jugular : 5</P> <P>Freezing strike : 5</P> <P>Honed Reflexes : 5</P> <P>Exacting : 5</P> <P>Cloaked assasult : 5</P> <P>Deft Defense : 5</P> <P>Excessive Bleeding : 1</P> <P>With the 3 into sprint or cheap shot or what ever you made decide it makes for quite an AA tree!</P> <P>If they buffed our tree any farther it would render us overpowered, if you aren't topping the parses as is I suggest reviewing the way you play your class~</P>

[HazNpho]

Then enlighten us all masterfull one, what makes your choice so much better then every other assassin that does not see a worth while change in these AA's. One better, show us some screen shots of your oh so wonderfull parses where you have never been overly beat out by a swashie, necro or other class that everyone is stating to be lower then a T1, yeah I realize Wizard and Warlock are supposedly on the same spot as us with Tier balance in DPS, but they also don't have much else other then damage to offer to a group/raid.<div></div>

[Hawkewind]

dude the guy 2 up from me is being sarcastic...doing a pretty good job of it too as he got you hook, line and sinker....of course he was trolling for responses like that but I found you catch very big fish trolling and drinking beers as you bask in the sun, soaking up rays<p>Message Edited by Hawkewind on <span class=date_text>01-19-2007</span> <span class=time_text>03:17 PM</span>

[Foob]

<DIV>No, I'm being completely serious.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I find nothing wrong with the assassin AAs~</DIV>

[CycoZ]

<DIV><STRONG>Bleeding line:</STRONG></DIV> <DIV>Scraping blow 5</DIV> <DIV>Flowing wound 5</DIV> <DIV>Deadly wound 5</DIV> <DIV>Cloaked assault 5</DIV> <DIV>Excessive bleeding 1</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Tricks</STRONG></DIV> <DIV>Cheap shot 5</DIV> <DIV>Jugular 5</DIV> <DIV>Freezing strike 5</DIV> <DIV>Constriction 3 - had to spend to reach exacting</DIV> <DIV>Crippling strike 2</DIV> <DIV>Repeated stabbing 1</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Physicality</STRONG> </DIV> <DIV>Deft defense 3 - had to spend to reach exacting</DIV> <DIV>Exacting 5</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Currently have 89 points and am just finishing off the Tricks line.</DIV> <DIV>I have tried as far as possible to avoid the completely useless AAs but couldn't avoid putting some into constriction and deft defense.</DIV> <DIV>I am interested to see if repeated stabbing will make any of the CA chains smoother (or as is more likely the case - completely no difference). Has anyone tried it?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[-Steppenwolf-]

I tried repeated stabbing and noticed no difference... note that lag is incredibly bad in raid instances on my server, so I guess it's hard to notice a 500ms difference when you can count to 3 between the time you push the button and the time your CA actually launches. No difference on the parser either though.<div></div>

[Kaiser Sigma]

<DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Scraping blow 5</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Flowing wound 5</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Deadly wound 5</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Freezing Strike 3 (so I could get Cloaked Assault and because the Mark AA sucks)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Cloaked assault 5</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Excessive bleeding 1</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Improved Sprint 3</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Honed Reflexes 3</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Deft Defense 5 (hey...I farm and I like to tank Tactician's armor)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Exacting 5</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Enmesh 5</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Hemotoxin 5 (on heavy AoE encounters where you only stay in for no longer than 10 seconds it's actually useful...kinda)</FONT></DIV></DIV>

[HellRaiserXX]

<P>Cheap Shot - 5</P> <P>Jugular - 5</P> <P>Freezing Strike - 5</P> <P>Master Strike - 5</P> <P>Repeated Stabbing - 1</P> <P>Sprint - 3</P> <P>Honed Reflexes - 5</P> <P>Deft Defense - 5</P> <P>Exacting - 5</P> <P>Cloaked Assault - 5</P> <P>Enmesh - 5 ( may change this one to Crippline Strike)</P> <P>Getaway - 1 ( only taking this cause it has its uses in certain situations and I have 1 point left over so [Removed for Content])</P> <P>I dont have all 100, but that is what Ill probably do.  Thats the most use for my points I could find, the only one I deem really a waste is 3 in Sprint other that Im content with that setup, if they change some I may respec, but Im not gonna bank em.  Might as well get some use out of em.</P> <P> </P><p>Message Edited by HellRaiserXX on <span class=date_text>01-22-2007</span> <span class=time_text>10:55 AM</span>

[MethoDizer]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> HazNpho wrote:<BR>Then enlighten us all masterfull one, what makes your choice so much better then every other assassin that does not see a worth while change in these AA's. One better, show us some screen shots of your oh so wonderfull parses where you have never been overly beat out by a swashie, necro or other class that everyone is stating to be lower then a T1, yeah I realize Wizard and Warlock are supposedly on the same spot as us with Tier balance in DPS, but they also don't have much else other then damage to offer to a group/raid.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>as much as i would love to disagree with Shax, but hes right, you should be #1 parse if your playing your class right. I parse # 1 95% of time on raids, although I don't parse agaisnt swashs since im Freeport alinged.</P> <P>Fingerzz</P>

[Kabahl]

<P>In case you HAVEN'T seen it yet, try going here:</P> <P><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=achievements&message.id=5969" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=achievements&message.id=5969</A></P> <P> </P> <P>Or, just go to the Achievement section in the forums.  It's the post with over 475 replies.  Hard to miss . . . </P> <P> </P> <P>- Charn, 70 Assassin, Guk - Warrior of Zek . . . Fight the Power!!  Fight FOR power!  Fight for glory!  In fact, just FIGHT!!  (He'll thank you for it . . ( - :  )</P>

[Rian18]

<STRONG></STRONG><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> DresdenMalicaster wrote:<BR> <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ketel wrote:<BR> <DIV>EoF AA for assassin are very bad. I would advise some devs to revise them with more creative ones because there is no difference between me having 90AAs and my friend having 47..  </DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Oh how completely wrong you are!</P> <P>Scraping blow : 5</P> <P>Flowing wounds : 5</P> <P>Deadly wounds : 5</P> <P>Jugular : 5</P> <P>Freezing strike : 5</P> <P>Honed Reflexes : 5</P> <P>Exacting : 5</P> <P>Cloaked assasult : 5</P> <P>Deft Defense : 5</P> <P>Excessive Bleeding : 1</P> <P>With the 3 into sprint or cheap shot or what ever you made decide it makes for quite an AA tree!</P> <P>If they buffed our tree any farther it would render us overpowered, if you aren't topping the parses as is I suggest reviewing the way you play your class~</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>If you are parsing number one, then you would in all likelyhood be parsing number one if you hadn't spent 1 point in the EOF AA's.</P> <P>Congrats! You spent 50 points in EOF AA's and have gained........36.7 DPS.   </P> <P>I'm guessing you are one of those Assassins who has never actually read, what the AA's do or misunderstand them.</P> <P>You are probably sitting there and saying <BR><BR>OMG a flat % increase to Scraping blow Dmg!</P> <P>Its not, its just to the dot portion.  Look around these forums, literally <STRONG>dozens</STRONG> of Assassins have parsed the increases in DPS from the Bleed line.  Assuming all Master I abilities its a 36.7 DPS increase.</P> <P>Wow, that bowls me right the [I cannot control my vocabulary] over.  What about you?</P> <P>You are an Assassin you should be parsing number 1.   Thats not the arguement.  The arguement is why are classes that have 10X the utility (Necro's/Swashies) parsing in most cases either equally, higher or just slightly below Assassins a class who's only utility <STRONG>is our DPS</STRONG>.</P> <P>Most resonable Assassins have no problem with Rangers, Wizards and Locks being right there with us on the damage meters.  In an ideal system any one of those 4 should with equal gear be able to finish 1st on a parse (whether zonewide or single).   <BR><BR>Yet, here you have Utility classes parsing right there or ahead of the what is suppose to be the top melee dps class in the game.    That is the [I cannot control my vocabulary]ing arguement.</P> <P>The arguement is we recieved a huge passive nerf by being given 50 worthless AA points in comparison to other classes.  Ranger's double attack with a bow ability is literally 2x the dps as our entire bleed line, if he procs it 1x a minute non crit with any half decent bow.  Forget about it if he procs more or crits.</P> <P>So,  you want to tell us your Zomg Numero 1 DPS'O in your guild.  Well big [I cannot control my vocabulary]ing deal, most of us are right there.   Point is, why is that Necro with more utility then FLorida Power and Lighting parsing even or 20 or 30 dps behind me, and from ranged no less.</P> <P>Why is that Swashbuckler doing equal or more dps then the Assassins who are suppose to be masters of melee damage?</P> <P>The point is sooner or later raid guilds will ask themselves why bring an Assassin when a Swashie or Necro can do equal damage or extremely close to it, and bring a ton of utility as well.</P> <P>Grats on being number 1 in your guild.....Obviously we are not a flawed class, in fact we may need another Nerf.</P> <P>Next Update:</P> <P><Fixed a bug that allowes Assassins to duel wield and use poisons></P> <P>There maybe something like that will allow the other members of your guild to compete with your Leet DPS champ.</P> <P> </P>

[Tallanas]

<DIV>I have to agree with that.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For 5 AA I can get the Scraping Blow increase - at 61 with good gear, that's a 35% increase to 51 damage every 4 seconds!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>17 damage every 4 seconds is just over 4 dps. For 5AA. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Absolutely ridiculous.</DIV>

[Talz]

This is why the 50/50 and 4 to unlock is stupid.  Players shouldn't be forced to waste AA on junk.  I won't say EoF lines are worthless but at 21 points in poison I didn't really care if I got anymore AA or not.People should get 100 points to spend any way they want and it wouldn't break the game.  The current idea isn't bad in theory but in reality I have 40 points in both trees that I would give away to somebody if I could.<div></div>

[f16killer]

I have to ask. Whats wrong with excessive bleeding? I have about 25 points invested in the bleeding line. If I understand it correctly, your not gonna see a big jump in your parse. The point of excessive bleeding is to reduce the mobs total health points by a percentage for each bleeding ability that u have active on the target. This isnt gonna show as extra dmg in a parse, but rather reduce the total amount of required dps to kill the mob. On epic encounters, thats up to 3 or 4% of the mobs total health points that you dont have to kill. That sounds to me like a worthwhile investment.

[Tallanas]

<P>Ok two points here.</P> <P>I have recently been looking at that one ability, Excessive Bleeding, and can't decide if it is worthless or actually quite good. Generally I don't like vague language - "up to 5%" worries me... Also, it is totally unclear as to how this works - this max hp reduction. What are the mechanics of it?</P> <P>But even if it is adequate, for which there is no evidence (and that surprises me, given the amount of scrutiny these AAs have come under), it still means you have to waste 20 points in worthless rubbish just to get it.</P>

[f16killer]

I know people have gone over this before and claimed that spending points in the bleeding line only gives a small increase in dps. Maybe and maybe not since its hard to judge without averaging a lot of parses before and after you have spent those points. I personally spent 5 points in every bleeding ability in the tree (more than the minimum amount required to get excessive bleeding). But really, of the other EoF lines, has any others given you that much better dps? I have both my STR line and INT line filled out as well and as far as I can tell, the rest of the lines both EoF and KoS are junk. I had gone the poison line at first and after switching to the bleeding tree, I like it alot better. Its harder to tell on Epic encounters, but for heroic and solo mobs I have noticed that they go down a lot faster with excessive bleeding.

[CycoZ]

<P>Following the changes in the mastery system I am probably gonna invest 5 points in that AA.</P> <P>32 secs isn't that much of a saving but at least it is a skill that should add some dps.</P>

[t0gar]

<div></div>Well an example of bleeding line:Scraping blow with 1 point (7%) with a dot dmg at 50 (ad3 with 500str) it's not hard to calculate the effect..07 x 50 = 3.5 extra dmg per hit, but since it hits once every 4 secs...3.5/4 = .875 DPSso with 5 points into it at ad3 and 500 str you're not even getting 5dps(4.4). In a raid situation you're going to have a lot more... but nothing significant.Flowing Wound with 1 point (4%) dmg at 112-187 (M1 500 str).04 x 112 = 4.48 /hit, but again every 4 seconds... = 1.12 dps.04 x 187 = 7.48 /hit.... /4 = 1.87 dpsso an average of 1.5 dps/point at M1 + 500 str. Again raid would be better, but it's still nothing you'd even notice on the parse. With a 24 sec duration and a 30 sec recast it'd be even less since it's not up 100% of the time.Auto-attack fluctuations make up or lose you more dmg then that entire line. If you've noticed a change since getting this line it's because A) you got better gear, B) your raid group or situations have changed, or C) you just got better at dpsing.<div></div>

[stonebo]

<P>Standard or weaker 5%</P> <P>Stronger than standard 3%</P> <P>Epic 1%</P> <P> </P> <P>Does excessive bleeding stack?</P> <P>Anyone tried to parse this at all to see if it is even working?</P> <P> </P>

[HellRaiserXX]

<P>it works, but I think with the recasts being so short on the bleed abilities it cant be sustained and doesnt really affect anything. If it were a 5% solid debuff it might work better and be easier to measure, but as it is now it would be very hard to measure it accurately.  If I were to make it I would make it so it didnt stack personally, especially if it were a solid 5% debuff.  I think it does stack now, but like I said its almost impossible to measure and would only be of any help on encounters that take awhile, in most cases debuffing 5% of max health wouldnt make the encounter much easier to kill. It would shorten the encounter by a few seconds at most.</P> <P>You cant even do the full 5% since in a raid Mark triggers instantly so it would only debuff for a split second.</P>