Need a bit of advice please

[Ni'ka]

<p>Hey there!</p><p>I'm hoping for a bit of advice.  I currently have these chars:</p><p>67 Coercer</p><p>64 Ranger</p><p>56 Shadowknight</p><p>52 Inquisitor</p><p>43 Brigand</p><p>I love my ranger very much - the damage that I can pump out makes me very happy.  I'm liking the DPS role so much, that I'm considering making an assassin as well.</p><p>Here is where I'd like advice... is it going to be a different playstyle from my ranger?  How different? </p><p>I played an assassin up to about 28 before, but my melee missed so often, that I felt almost useless in a group and couldn't solo worth a darn.  I remember trying a ranger around that same time, a year ago, and didn't like it then.  Somehow when I stuck with the ranger this time however, it got insanely fun and really good.  Is assassin like this?</p><p>Second question ... the str line in the achievements... how many skills that assassin has does that actually affect? </p><p>Thanks for the help</p>

[HollyW07]

<p>I adore my assassin. She's level 71 and I just started a ranger alt a couple of days ago.</p><p>I never had a problem soloing my assassin in the lower levels. Group mobs were tough and I had a hard time with named mobs but for the most part it's all about timing. The assassin is mostly positional based which can be tough at times but with practice it gets easy, especially if you know your skills and your limits.</p><p>Since my ranger is only level 13 I can't really compare the two. Assassins do get some ranged attacks but I think we're better with the sneak in and attack from behind approach. I don't really know how much different the two playstyles are going to be, I wish I could be a little more helpful there. From what I've noticed in trying out the other rogue-type classes (brig and swash) they all have similarities but they also have things that set them apart from the other classes of that type. So if you roll an assassin and chose to stick with it, you'll find that there are things about the two classes that play the same, and there are things that are different.</p><p>Good luck!</p>

[Pakhet]

<p>I played my assassin as a ranger up until 71, then betrayed. The difference in playstyle is pretty big.</p><p>Pretty much as many melee attacks as you have as a ranger is what the assassin has for ranged (4) - they do OK damage, but the melee is key.</p><p>Assasins have "chain combos" where you chain a bunch of CAs together in stealth and at 80 we get a CA called "fatal followup" that does pretty good damage if you chain them correctly.</p><p>Assassins AA is for hemotoxins, rangers is for caustic</p><p>If I get lazy with timing my auto attacks with my sassin (usually in easy zones) I can still pull off 4k DPS, my ranger depended a lot more on timing.</p><p>The gear (void shard especially) is a lot the same with the two classes - we are both predators after all. I can still range down a heroic if need be, but it takes a lot longer. Won't have as many snares, so kiting isn't as good a strategy for solo.</p><p>As for the bottom of the STR line... pretty much it helps execute (our version of sniper shot).</p><p>Oh and a assassins have a lot of bleeds. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>You shouldn't miss much if you are in offensive and have your skills trained up.</p>

[Ni'ka]

<p>If it wasn't for the fact that I'd have to have all my skills redone, I'd prolly consider betraying over to assassin just to try it out for awhile, and then either remaking the ranger, or betraying back and doing an assassin on a new char.  But that would be just plain expensive.</p><p>With my ranger, I can seem to sustain some pretty good dps - can assassin keep the dps going in longer fights, or are they pretty much burst ... wait awhile... burst again ... so on and so forth?</p>

[Gareorn]

I'm a betrayal and under no circumstances would I ever roll another ranger. I'd rather lick a cheese grater until I had enough tongue for a salad than go through that pain again.

[Ni'ka]

<p><cite>Gareorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>I'm a betrayal and under no circumstances would I ever roll another ranger. I'd rather lick a cheese grater until I had enough tongue for a salad than go through that pain again.</blockquote><p>Would you mind saying what was a pain with em?  I'm not sure I understand.</p>

[Gareorn]

<p><cite>Triella@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Gareorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>I'm a betrayal and under no circumstances would I ever roll another ranger. I'd rather lick a cheese grater until I had enough tongue for a salad than go through that pain again.</blockquote><p>Would you mind saying what was a pain with em?  I'm not sure I understand.</p></blockquote><p>No I wouldn't mind.  I should have elaborated, my apologies.  I raid, so my point of view is mostly from a raider's perspective.  I played a Ranger for about 3 1/2 years and during that time, it was like riding a rollercoaster.  One Game update, rangers would be god-like, the next GU, they'd bottom out.  There were always about five DPS related CAs that were totally useless because they resulted in lower DPS for both the ranger and the raid force.  They didn't have any group buffs and no major debuffs -- they have one group buff now, if it ever got fixed.  It was still broken when I betrayed.</p><p>I think the problem is that Rangers do melee damage from range and developers have never really figured out that puzzle -- not just in EQ2 either.  This problem is pretty much the same across all MMO's.  I understand melee attacks have been beefed up a little so the class plays more like a ranger now.  In the past, we were nothing more than archers, and anyone who knows anything about rangers knows rangers don't equal archers.</p><p>I absolutely love playing an assassin.  I have no complaints.  It would be nice to have some group buffs other than hate transfer and the ability to apply toxins to one person, but our DPS is sufficient to still make us a viable part of a raid force.  Rangers can't say this unless they have their mythical.  It's always been that way with rangers too.  If they don't have the best bow in the game, they can't pull their weight on a raid.  Sure, I don't get the class benefits of a DE or a ratonga.  But I still put out premium DPS with my woodelf assasin.</p>

[Ni'ka]

<p><cite>Gareorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Triella@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Gareorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>I'm a betrayal and under no circumstances would I ever roll another ranger. I'd rather lick a cheese grater until I had enough tongue for a salad than go through that pain again.</blockquote><p>Would you mind saying what was a pain with em?  I'm not sure I understand.</p></blockquote><p>No I wouldn't mind.  I should have elaborated, my apologies.  I raid, so my point of view is mostly from a raider's perspective.  I played a Ranger for about 3 1/2 years and during that time, it was like riding a rollercoaster.  One Game update, rangers would be god-like, the next GU, they'd bottom out.  There were always about five DPS related CAs that were totally useless because they resulted in lower DPS for both the ranger and the raid force.  They didn't have any group buffs and no major debuffs -- they have one group buff now, if it ever got fixed.  It was still broken when I betrayed.</p><p>I think the problem is that Rangers do melee damage from range and developers have never really figured out that puzzle -- not just in EQ2 either.  This problem is pretty much the same across all MMO's.  I understand melee attacks have been beefed up a little so the class plays more like a ranger now.  In the past, we were nothing more than archers, and anyone who knows anything about rangers knows rangers don't equal archers.</p><p>I absolutely love playing an assassin.  I have no complaints.  It would be nice to have some group buffs other than hate transfer and the ability to apply toxins to one person, but our DPS is sufficient to still make us a viable part of a raid force.  Rangers can't say this unless they have their mythical.  It's always been that way with rangers too.  If they don't have the best bow in the game, they can't pull their weight on a raid.  Sure, I don't get the class benefits of a DE or a ratonga.  But I still put out premium DPS with my woodelf assasin.</p></blockquote><p>I've never been on a raid, so I suppose I can't really understand it until I experience it.  So far, I've been very pleased with the ranger... but I've never tried an assassin.  I'm tempted to, but I don't think I can afford to level another character right now.  Especially not when the price of loam is so high.  I don't have the patience to mine it myself.  I'm tempted to betray on my ranger ... but if I don't like it then I have to betray back and spend all the money for CAs again. </p><p>/sigh.  Thanks for your opinion, I'll have to think about it more.</p><p>As a side note ... any really rich assassins on Antonia Bayle wanna fund a betrayal?  (Adept IIIs?)  I have good armor and weapons, lol.  The CAs though are my problem, heh.  (This really is kidding, and I don't expect anyone to do such a thing)</p>