looking for suggestions to increase my dps

[f16killer]

<DIV>Hi all. I am a level70 assassin that is just starting to raid on a regular basis. From what my guild is trying to get me to and what everyone seems to say in the forums, an assassin should be able to easily reach 2k dps.  I am just starting to get ahold of fabled equipment and at this time, with the exception of maybe 4 items, I am still mostly legendary equipped with about 5 master spells. So far, most of my parses are between 800-1100dps with occasional parses close to 1400 which is far from where I need to be.  I often find on the lower parses that I lose time due to difficulty getting a good position behind the raid mob, usually cause the place is crowded on multiple encounters and its hard to see which mob is being targeted and what direction its facing, not to mention kickback.  I have about 75AA equally spent in STR line, INT line, and Bleeding. I typically use the Hemotoxin and during raid I am spamming nearly every CA the instant its reuse timer is up. I feel like I work very hard to get the dps that I do get out of him, but my parses are hardly near where they need to be. So I am looking for suggestions from experienced assassins that can reach 2k dps on a consistent basis on how they obtain their numbers.  Am I doing something wrong perhaps in the order my CAs are cast, or is my equipment really holding me back that much? Not looking for replies of the type "well u just dont know how to play your class", but real suggestions and/or CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on how to improve my numbers. Thanks.</DIV>

[steelbadger]

<div><blockquote><hr>f16killer wrote:<div>Hi all. I am a level70 assassin that is just starting to raid on a regular basis. From what my guild is trying to get me to and what everyone seems to say in the forums, an assassin should be able to easily reach 2k dps.  I am just starting to get ahold of fabled equipment and at this time, with the exception of maybe 4 items, I am still mostly legendary equipped with about 5 master spells. So far, most of my parses are between 800-1100dps with occasional parses close to 1400 which is far from where I need to be.  I often find on the lower parses that I lose time due to difficulty getting a good position behind the raid mob, usually cause the place is crowded on multiple encounters and its hard to see which mob is being targeted and what direction its facing, not to mention kickback.  I have about 75AA equally spent in STR line, INT line, and Bleeding. I typically use the Hemotoxin and during raid I am spamming nearly every CA the instant its reuse timer is up. I feel like I work very hard to get the dps that I do get out of him, but my parses are hardly near where they need to be. So I am looking for suggestions from experienced assassins that can reach 2k dps on a consistent basis on how they obtain their numbers.  Am I doing something wrong perhaps in the order my CAs are cast, or is my equipment really holding me back that much? Not looking for replies of the type "well u just dont know how to play your class", but real suggestions and/or CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on how to improve my numbers. Thanks.</div><hr></blockquote>Personally, I say if you are working off legendary gear you're doing pretty bloody good dps.  Sure an assassin can hit 2k dps, but that is fully fabled, with GDoH and DoN in secondary, with a pile of masters, and only in certain situations.My dps probably hangs slightly below your mark, my gear leaves quite a bit to be desired (mishmash of fabled, legendary and mastercrafted) and my casual guild has no swashy or brigand in the raids (zomgwtfbbq?).For a good idea of what order you should be doing things in I'd suggest <a href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=40&message.id=18992" target=_blank>THIS THREAD</a> as Outerspace gives a very good rundown of what we're meant to be doing.</div>

[HazNpho]

One suggestion I'd make is change up your poison, Go to Caustic, it does a greater one shot then hemo, and in most cases will hit more in the long run. From my experience and that of others, hemo normally gets reprocced, meaning you lose a good chunk of the DoT effect. Also, are you using other poisons? 2 I would suggest is Gracelessness, and Warding Ebb, Warding Ebb I find to be the superior one, but if you have another poison user making use of it, switch to Gracelessness. Other then that your around the same spot as me, I have 4 masters, 2 fabled, 3 legendary and the rest is mastercrafted, and I pull roughly 1.2 - 1.4k on a good night.<div></div>

[f16killer]

That CA order is about exactly what I been doing. My guild suggested going caustic instead of hemotoxin as well. I was using 2 additional poisons that stacked but they werent those particular 2 that u mentioned. Didnt really know if being all fabled made taht big a difference or not since the diminishing returns bit on stats and such.

[HazNpho]

Deminishing did actually hurt us that were not up in gear. But its not hard to remedy with the new group gear if you have the group strength and time to go grind to get it. As for the other poison I normally use Turgur if I am main poison user, if someone else is using it I'll use fettering, though this only helps to slow their move speed, it slows them switching agro to a healer or mage too. If your not primary agro transfer Ignorant Bliss is very important. And for solo stupifying, since thats about its only usefull location.Thats just my opinion though.<div></div>

[Jayad]

<P>Given your current state of gear and such, I think your dps is pretty good.  One thing that doesn't get mentioned a lot is that the amount of dps the raid is doing has some influence on your own dps.  The reason is because assassins can unload a lot of damage in a short amount of time.  A 30 second fight is very favorable to us.  If your raid isn't killing things fast enough, it'll land you on the downswing of your dps.  We have pretty good sustained DPS (long fights), but a relatively short fight of half a minute or so is the best case. </P> <P>For legendary equipment and few masters, that's about what you would expect.  If you get some cheap fabled DWs like the labs drops, it will help a bit.  Getting 1st or 2nd tier weapon will improve things a lot, but you have to be raiding the right zones.   As others have mentioned, switch to caustic - hemo is pointless, especially if you're with a bard.  Get as much STR on the gear as you can get, provided you have enough to survive AOEs.</P> <P>For higher raid dps, your group situation and buffs are very important.  #1 you need some kind of STR buff if you can get it.  #2 you would like to be hasted in some fashion.   Try to get in a group with a dirge, illusionist, zerker, fury, etc.  Much of the improvement on the high end is from having the right buffs on you.</P> <P>A good way to look at dps is to look at the % of dmg you're doing compared to the raid.  If you are doing 10% or better then good job.  If your raid is fabled/mastered out and you're just starting up, then don't look at that # yet because you'll get depressed. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[f16killer]

Thats pretty much the situation. Most of the other raiders are already decked with fabled gear and the mage classes are do a lot more dps then I. But i guess i feel a little better if its mostly my gear holding my dps down.

[Arda]

A good advice (if you're not already doing so) to keep an overview in a raid situation: Try blending out NPC and group/player names (try the option "target or mouseover). I think it's in the options under -> interface -> names and chat-bubbles. You can also (if not already done so) make an /assist MA macro rather than an /target MA macro (best is to have both so you can switch to /target shortly before the MA changes target in an multiple mob encounter). So you always see the current target with /assist but don't have all the annoying pets in your way. I personally would love to have an option to switch off pet names alltogether. Getting to the right position immediately is crucial for a good dps throughout the whole zone. You also avoid repostes when you're behind the mob and therefore take less dmg (and hit better). I also think your dps is quite okay for your gear. When you get better equipment and spells you'll notice a real increase in dps (especially with weapons). And last but not least: I'd stick to caustic not hemotoxin, but there are different opinions on that issue <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. Never mind any bad English or spelling. so longDai<div></div>

[Graton]

<div><blockquote><hr>f16killer wrote:<div>Hi all. I am a level70 assassin that is just starting to raid on a regular basis. From what my guild is trying to get me to and what everyone seems to say in the forums, an assassin should be able to easily reach 2k dps.  I am just starting to get ahold of fabled equipment and at this time, with the exception of maybe 4 items, I am still mostly legendary equipped with about 5 master spells. So far, most of my parses are between 800-1100dps with occasional parses close to 1400 which is far from where I need to be.  I often find on the lower parses that I lose time due to difficulty getting a good position behind the raid mob, usually cause the place is crowded on multiple encounters and its hard to see which mob is being targeted and what direction its facing, not to mention kickback.  I have about 75AA equally spent in STR line, INT line, and Bleeding. I typically use the Hemotoxin and during raid I am spamming nearly every CA the instant its reuse timer is up. I feel like I work very hard to get the dps that I do get out of him, but my parses are hardly near where they need to be. So I am looking for suggestions from experienced assassins that can reach 2k dps on a consistent basis on how they obtain their numbers.  Am I doing something wrong perhaps in the order my CAs are cast, or is my equipment really holding me back that much? Not looking for replies of the type "well u just dont know how to play your class", but real suggestions and/or CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on how to improve my numbers. Thanks.</div><hr></blockquote>"any assassin easily reaching 2k dps." that's just people boasting or other classes trying to get assassins nerfed. averaging 2k on a zone-wide is a challenge. sure lots of assassins can hit 2k on lots of fights but it's really more important how consistent you are.few things here:1. " I have about 75AA equally spent in STR line, INT line, and Bleeding."bad idea. put 49 into the predator tree first as follows:Str: 4-4-4-8-1Int: 4-4-4-8You'll get an immediate jump up in dps doing this. The predator ca's are far more important than the assassin ones. then go with the bleeding line except don't spend anything on mark , take the root instead.2. typically use the Hemotoxin and during raid I am spamming nearly every CA the instant its reuse timer is up.i've found hemotoxin is only better in the new eof raid zones and only if you spend 5 points in hemotoxin or if you are fighting an orange mob that lasts awhile. since you are probably not in the new raid zones all the times and don't have all aa's, use caustic.don't just spam ca's. you need a plan if you want the most bang for your buck. make sure you group together your like recast time ca's.3. I often find on the lower parses that I lose time due to difficulty getting a good position behind the raid mob, usually cause the place is crowded on multiple encounters and its hard to see which mob is being targeted and what direction its facing, not to mention kickback. "yah, this isn't your strong suit and it never will be. on large multi mob encounters, stealth in advance, drop cloaked assault and then try and get off slaughtersault. if position goes bad because your warlock wants to impress everyone with 3.5k dps on a 2 second encounter your numbers will never be that great. thing is on a zone wide parse you'll see that these encounters don't matter much. focus on zonewide not big spikes.4. shoot for a grinning dirk of horror from lyceum. spend all your dkp to get it if you need to. if your guild raids inner sanctum you want the rapier of darkness. if they don't you want the dirk of negativity from halls of seeing.5. keep swindler's luck up during raids, it raises your hit %-age , particularly on auto attack melee.6. if you dont' have a gdoh or don, best choice is probably wurmslayer since you'll miss fewer swings with the delay. wurmy is real nice in kos zones because the proc hits near everything. the dagger from the clockwork menace is also very nice with a good ratio, almost equivalent to the don.9. don't ignore sinister strikes, it's good dps. do the quests if you need to10. group setup will affect you greatly. you will get the biggest bang out of being with a bard because of their crit increase. the good dps priests are furies and inquistors. being with shaman sucks.</div>

[whytakemine]

<div><blockquote><hr>steelbadger wrote:<div>Personally, I say if you are working off legendary gear you're doing pretty bloody good dps.  Sure an assassin can hit 2k dps, but that is fully fabled, with GDoH and DoN in secondary, with a pile of masters, and only in certain situations.</div><hr></blockquote>I think you're overstating a bit.  I'm in a mix of treasured/legendary/fabled, I don't have either of those weapons, and I break 2k extDPS pretty frequently.Unless you're talking zonewide parses.  It didn't sound like the OP was, but you might have been. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />For the original poster:  I was doing about the same as you not too long ago, with roughly equivalent gear as to what I have now and maybe 1 or 2 less masters.  Two things really made my dps go up.1.  The raid started doing more dps2.  I got better at casting orderAlso, boost your STR any way you can.  Raid buffed I used to be at about 400-500.  Now I'm up to about 700 most the time.  It makes a big difference. </div>

[Graton]

i was remiss in pointing out that the single biggest thing you can do to up dps is to acquire all the master spells that you can. the majority of our damage comes from ca's so upgrading them is exttremely important.<div></div>

[ChildofHate]

<cite>steelbadger wrote:</cite><blockquote> For a good idea of what order you should be doing things in I'd suggest <a href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=40&message.id=18992" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">THIS THREAD</a> as Outerspace gives a very good rundown of what we're meant to be doing. <p></blockquote> </p><p>Could someone find the link mentioned please.    I was interested to see what said but can't.  With the new boards, this link is now broken.  I tried doing a search but the search feature does't allow user's to search by name anymore.</p><p>Thank you!</p>