Assassin and Ritualist

I've heard Ritualists described as "like the Engineer from Team Fortress", spirits are like sentry guns and supply stations, etc. That pretty accurate?

I should look into starting up a ritualist, I haven't tried them at all yet (or elementalists or rangers...)

BTW, anybody know when ANet's going to allow for adding more characters to your account? Sometime this summer?

PS - tip for assassins, look into Horns of the Ox + Falling Spider combo (good against casters since they stand by themselves alot, don't bother against melee since they bunch up), and combos that set up Blades of Steel, a pretty cool spike dmg dealer.
 
I believe that my Rt/Mo can heal/protect on par with any monk. And I'm saying this without having a single Rt elite nor a Restoration Magic weapon.
 
I have a lvl 20 Rt/Mo, origially he started out as an Rt/N but I changed once I found a greater need for the healing than offensive in getting groups. As a support healer Ritualist are excellent. I find that on all the missions that I have done so far (Im trying to get to Jade quarry now) that with the spirits the Ritualist is awesome. Getting the protective spirits up right before engaging the enemy is very very helpful. I cant say that I use any monk skills really as I find maxing out the spirits to be better.

All in all, I think that the ritualist is an excellent choice. I love when a warrior heads straight for me and I already have him blinded, inturrupted, and restoration on me before he reaches me. I know it must be extremely frustrating for them too... hehe.

I have been playing alot of Fort Aspenwood with him. I have found a great combo of skills and since the spirits healing area and attack distance is much greater than I had expected it is easy to support the team and frustrate the enemy all at the same time. I am able to hold one gate with the henchies and 5 or 6 spirits.

I know that getting 2 ritualist in a group can be great because of one focusing on Healing spirits/and weapon spells, and the other on offensive spirits/channeling magic making sure not to double up on spirits or if they do calling out because one spirit will cancel out the other.

I have not played at all with my assassin as I thought I would. I prefer my Ritualist. I am interested in getting some combos and builds going with the ritualist. Keep posting.
 
Curious...anybody tried an Assassin/Mesmer build with Illusionary Weaponry? Daggers are the fasting attacking weapons in the game...this seems like a natural combination?

PS - this is what I'm currently using in PvE for my Assassin and seems to be working well in the missions I have around Wajjun Bazaar and the Undercity. This is a pure Assassin build.

Shadow Refuge - regen health
Way of the Lotus - get nrg back when a Dual Attack hits
Unsuspecting Strike - opening spike damage
Fox Fangs - cheap filler Off Hand skill
Horns of the Ox - +Dmg and knock the opponent down if no one is adjacent to them
Falling Spider - Must hit a knocked down opponent. +Dmg and Poison
Return - Cast on an ally (can be cast on non-team NPCs too!) and shadow step to their location; adjacent enemies at previous location are crippled
Rez Sig

- Cast Way of the Lotus on target to recoup nrg at the end of your combo
- Bust out the combo and watch for the enemy to fall down if the conditions for Horns of the Ox are met, then bust out the Spider; many baddies in the Bazar area might be already dead or close to it before you even get a chance to use Spider, so pay attention
- Cast Shadow Refuge in the middle of your combo, as you need it
- After finishing combo, select a new target ('cuz your target will be dead or close to it) or get into a MOB cluster and cast Return on your healer (who should be out harm's way) to cripple some enemies (for your nuker perhaps); recoup 'n recharge energy, health and skills before going in and doing it again.
- Try not to waste Unsuspecting Strike on baddies that have more than 90% health, but don't let that stop you from starting up the combo either
- This combo works well against Spellcasting bosses; they usually stand alone so the conditions for Ox are met (good for an interrupt) and they have enough health to make using Falling Spider a necessity; just watch your health (good advice for any assassin)

Options:
- swap the Ox/Falling spider combo for Deadly Blossom and a skill of your choice if you want to do more damage to your target and the rest of the MOB cluster
- Unsuspecting Strike and Fox Fangs could also be swapped out for Black Mantis Thrust (+Dmg and cripple a hexed opponent) & Jungle Strike (+Dmg and +more Dmg if opponent Crippled). The recharge time on both skills will require you to play a little slower, and Black Mantis is costly unless the opponent is actually hexed, but it might be a better combo/more damage depending on whether you're favouring Critical Strikes or Dagger Mastery with more attribute points
- Return may also be swapped for Shadow of Haste, which is good if you don't want to have to worry about manually shadow stepping out of trouble, but I like Return's cheaper casting cost and cripple effect.
 
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Forgot to add in that with a suped up Dagger Mastery attribute, increasing your chances of "double hitting", an Assassin can attack even faster.

But as near as I can tell, there aren't any Assassin or Mesmer skills that cause you to attack even faster. :/ And with Illusionary Weapon's high recharge time, in PVE this combo is really only good vs. bosses.
 
Shagz,
I was thinking something just along those lines myself only I was thinking a Mesmer/Assassin. Since the dagger attack rate is faster than that of a sword axe or hammer you would be dealing 40 damage with max illusion plus an illusion mask and superior rune. The reason I say Mesmer/Assassin instead of Assassin Mesmer is purely for the fact that IW doesnt need mastery in the weapon being used, and you can use the mask and runes with a Mesmer. Actually Im gonna go try that now and see how that works out.
 
Wicked...eagerly awaiting your report!

Though, if you wanted your daggers to double hit, wouldn't you want mastery in daggers?
 
Yea I realized that as I was messing around with builds in the training area. Also I thought that instead of being a me/a, perhaps an IW me/w with frenzy using daggers and IW would be rather effective as a fast spiker. I need to come up with a full build but if I could get a few more who would be willing to try it in RA I think it would be rather effective if executed right plus IW is just so much fun to play. And come to think of it for double hits you need the assassin primary attribute crtical strikes which only increases your chances of a double hit I believe. I think you have a small chance of double hit without it. I need to run some numbers to see which would be more effective, the primary mesmer with few to no double hits but hitting for 42 each hit or the secondary mesmer with a higher probability of double hits hitting for a max of 34 per hit.

hmmm...
 
re: Criticals Strikes (Assassin Primary) and Dagger Mastery (anybody)...For each point of Critical Strikes, you increase your chance to hit a Critical Strike (1 pt = 1%), and you get back 1-3 energy when you land a Critical; amount depends on your ranking.

For each point in Dagger Mastery, you increase your chances of landing a double hit (which will appear to your like two hits happening right after each other) by 2%, you increase your chances of a critical hit with daggers (not sure the amount), and increase the damage you can do with daggers.

So a Mesmer/Assassin with daggers and a high dagger mastery will double hit. Criticals don't figure into it, and since you're not actually damaging the target you're attacking, you're damaging the target with IW on it, Critical Strikes don't matter. I don't know what the comparisons are between Mesmer and Assassin armor though, who has tougher armor? That might determine your primary...
 
Another interesting combo: Assassin/Warrior, using condition causing spells and Victory is Mine?
 
*gasp*

She has an appreciation for sarcasam too!!!

Prior to 5 July, 2001... I would have had such the crush on you. Now I'm just very happy for my new friend Paul. :)

MaidMirawyn said:
Actually, no. It shouldn't.

See, we have this thing called an "alphabet." We use the alphabet to spell words according to an agreed-upon method. It's quite quick and efficient, both to write and to read, leaving more time to actually do stuff...

It also takes far fewer characters, making posts much more compact.
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techwhosaysnee said:
She has an appreciation for sarcasam too!!!
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Friendly sarcasm! I feel terrible if I hurt someone's feelings for real...

And thanks for the compliment. Normally I would say I'd be too old for you, anyway; in your case, I'd be too young... :D

5 July, 2001...Is that your wedding date or when you met your wonderful wife?
 
My wedding date. :)

MaidMirawyn said:
Friendly sarcasm! I feel terrible if I hurt someone's feelings for real...

And thanks for the compliment. Normally I would say I'd be too old for you, anyway; in your case, I'd be too young... :D

5 July, 2001...Is that your wedding date or when you met your wonderful wife?
Click to expand...
 
Another interesting combo: Assassin/Warrior, using condition causing spells and Victory is Mine?
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I've definetly considered that, especially since I use ViM for my warrior.

Friendly sarcasm! I feel terrible if I hurt someone's feelings for real...
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no, actually, hurting people's feelings rock.
 
Was thinking a little today about Assassins, and I figured out that another one of the major shortcomings of the class for new players, aside from the fact that they (new assassins) think they can tank, is the fact that comboing and chaining is built into the class' skills so obviously.

This translates into a lot of pure assassin builds that load up on combo skills because of the attraction of coming up with this "wicked" chain. The first time you read "Blades of Steel", you think "oh man, if I put this together, chain it into this other thing, and bust out the Blades, that'll be a +50 dual attack!" But in order to do that, you have to use up more than half your skill bar building the combo, a combo that could be easily interrupted, shutdown by blindness or never get completed in PvE 'cuz you kill the monster before even getting part way through the combo! Then you end up with 2 or more skills that you never get to bust out and are just taking up space, when you could have had some hex removal or heal/shadow step spells to get you out of trouble. :P

I'm trying to focus on assassin builds now that aren't so myopic in their approach, and focus on doing something specific in a 3 spell combo, and do it really quickly. "Horns of the Ox" + "Falling Spider" has to be one of my favourite short combos (10 nrg for two +27 hits, +30 single, knockdown and poisoned) and if you cap the "Palm Strike" Elite, it's very quick to pop off against at lone casters or bowmen. (Plus "Palm Strike" is a touch, armor ignoring attack that can do upwards of 85-90 dmg for 10 nrg)

I also really like "Return". It's 5 nrg shadow step to a teammate that cripples all nearby opponents. Get into the mob, bust your combo and Return out just before your Nuker drops fire from the sky, and the enemy will be limping away, trying to get out of range.


So....don't tank...and don't go combo crazy! :)
 
Well said, I think.

I was actually just wondering about my skill bar the other day. It's been the same pretty much since I started. And it doesn't use my ritualist secondary at all, which I understand has some nice healing features.

Shagz said:
Was thinking a little today about Assassins, and I figured out that another one of the major shortcomings of the class for new players, aside from the fact that they (new assassins) think they can tank, is the fact that comboing and chaining is built into the class' skills so obviously.

This translates into a lot of pure assassin builds that load up on combo skills because of the attraction of coming up with this "wicked" chain. The first time you read "Blades of Steel", you think "oh man, if I put this together, chain it into this other thing, and bust out the Blades, that'll be a +50 dual attack!" But in order to do that, you have to use up more than half your skill bar building the combo, a combo that could be easily interrupted, shutdown by blindness or never get completed in PvE 'cuz you kill the monster before even getting part way through the combo! Then you end up with 2 or more skills that you never get to bust out and are just taking up space, when you could have had some hex removal or heal/shadow step spells to get you out of trouble. :P

I'm trying to focus on assassin builds now that aren't so myopic in their approach, and focus on doing something specific in a 3 spell combo, and do it really quickly. "Horns of the Ox" + "Falling Spider" has to be one of my favourite short combos (10 nrg for two +27 hits, +30 single, knockdown and poisoned) and if you cap the "Palm Strike" Elite, it's very quick to pop off against at lone casters or bowmen. (Plus "Palm Strike" is a touch, armor ignoring attack that can do upwards of 85-90 dmg for 10 nrg)

I also really like "Return". It's 5 nrg shadow step to a teammate that cripples all nearby opponents. Get into the mob, bust your combo and Return out just before your Nuker drops fire from the sky, and the enemy will be limping away, trying to get out of range.


So....don't tank...and don't go combo crazy! :)
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