Analysis of the Drow Assassin

[Marshal_Lannes]

Starting off, levels 1-3

My new project is an analysis of a Drow assassin and this will follow the format of my Analysis of an Elven Ranger. I usually gravitate toward ranged or caster builds so this will be a challenge for me taking on not only a melee build, but a very specific style of a melee build. As a melee character who is going to be getting hit I have slightly more twink gear and will update as such though I feel most of it is easy to get. Since it will be a while before I am assassinating anything I will be starting out as a TWF more or less.

So why Drow? Well I like many enjoy the fantasy representation of the Drow race. I read the Icewind Dale books and all the sequels that followed along with the Malus Darkblade novels in the Warhammer world. From a practical standpoint Drow also give you +2 Dex and +2 INT both of which are primary stats of an assassin. My starting stats look like this:

Str: 9
Dex: 20
Con: 14
INT: 15
Wis: 9
Cha: 10

Feat selected - TWF

I used daily dice rolls to skip L1 so I had 6 APs to spend and they were allocated as such:

AP - Knife in the Dark, Shiv, Sneak Attack, Stealthy, Venom Blades

Basically solo'd thru Korthos. Used daggers off the jump. Venom Blades makes a big difference at this level making all mobs pretty easy to take down. Took level 3.

Feat - Precision
AP - Dagger in the Back, Venom Blades II

Here is my equipment at the start of Level 3 as I head to the harbor:

Daggers - Dagger of Inquisition, Rhakmel's Dagger
Helm - none
Neck - Troubleshooters necklace
Trinket - none
Cloak - Furor's Hide
Belt - Rugged Belt
Rings - none
Gloves - none
Boots - Featherfall
Wrist - +1 resistance, 33% fort bracers
Armor - Gerard's Mail
Goggles - Troubleshooters goggles

Note - the Troubleshooters set is highly useful at these levels and the perfect starting gear for a Rogue.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Level 4

AP - Venom Blades III, SA II, Bleed them Out
Level up point in Dex

Not much to report here, solo or duo'd the Harbor elites. One thing I notice that kinda sucks with melee characters that you don't get with caster/ranged builds is that when you click on say bleed them out or shiv you can miss them based on the mob animation. This is never a problem with ranged builds and the waste of the clickies is a bit of an annoyance.

Gameplay wise nothing out of the ordinary to report.

[Sunnie]

How'd Stealthy Repossession go? Were you able to sneak past everything?

[Marshal_Lannes]

No, ended up getting Red DA with a fairly hectic fight around the gem with a Red Named Witch Doctor casting Fear and Shamans tossing lighting bolts thru the obscuring mist. Finally was able to kill the Witch Doctor, get off hurried and pick up the gem.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Level 5-7

Feat - Dodge
AP - SA III, Dex I, Staff Control, Fast Movement, Assassin's Trick, Power Boost II, Bleed them Out II, Killer I

There are a lot of low level groups atm. A lot of people must be back for the 10th anniversary so leveling is pretty fast right now when I am playing my rogue. Getting to L5 is a bit of a pain as I had cleared the Harbor quests so I did some of the L3s like a solo of Sacred Helm and Redfang and they weren't all that easy, then did Swiped Signet. I died in the Swiped Signet in a duo group getting hit head on and by archer fire. Played that a bit too much like a Barbarian/Paladin. I have to say going from L4 to L5 is a rather big DPS increase because you pick up the Rogue SA die and one form the Assassins tree. Level 5 was a breeze with Catacombs and Waterworks. Level 6 was also very easy and included the STK chain, Sharn Chain, Depths Chain all in the same group then a start of Tangleroot solo. Impressions:

1. No surprise with the SA die, Rogues work well in groups. Since there are no deception items at these levels it is much more fun to group than solo
2. Somewhat weak vs undead, at least until I get the Star of Irian at L8. Would have been a pain to solo Catacombs.
3. Parties actually stop and wait for traps to be done at these levels. Damage doesn't seem to scale enough up in higher quests to keep this sense of danger and when characters don't wait they get killed by the traps
4. Not really playing as an assassin yet since I can't, well assassinate. I don't like getting hit.

Onto level 7 and I solo'd the House K tavern quests while waiting for a 3BC group to form. Finally got a couple and we went thru the whole Cove. Quests all easy, having no difficulty with Traps, using a +10 CCove Search hat ML7. After the XP motherlode from the Cove, finished the path to L8 and went up 4 ranks into 9 after doing Necro1 (minus Bloody Crypt) with a full group who joined in with our 3BC trio. Search/Trap fun made the Necro quests exciting.

Gear check at Level 7:

Goggles - +4 Resist
Helm - Corsair's Bandana
Necklace - Sheltering +6
Cloak - Envenomed Cloak
Belt - +2 Dodge/+10 False Life
Ring - Deadly IV
Gloves - Dex +5
Boots - Corsair's Galoushes/FF
Ring - Int +3
Bracers - +58 Fortification
Armor - Wighthide, +2 STR slotted
Daggers - Vorpal, Whisperdoom's Fang

Average equipment, though I have had good daggers. Might be trying out Gnome with the new release so not sure if I will be back to this right away or sporadically.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Level 8-9

AP - SA IV, Execute, Bleed them Out III, Killer II, Power boost III
Feat - ITWF

Have you ever noticed that some levels just have bad qeusts? L6 quests sure feel like that way to me. I was over level from 3BC cove XP and it is a good thing because the L6 quests are sorely lacking. I joined a group for Bloody Crypt. It's Level 8 so I am using the Star of Irian. This really is one of the best weapons in the game as it can cover you vs undead pretty much thru the heroics. It may not be the best, but it does the job and that about sums up my ability vs Undead! Lol. I solo'd Redwillow because I really want that Drow Armor from the optional chest. I want to make a skin out of that. Alas didn't pull it. Oh a quick note on hirelings, using Nimeth here. She is a pretty great hireling. Another great hireling is Aunidil Tor'Val,(L5 or 6) she casts sound bursts a lot and really helps out a party. Nimeth came with me on Devil Assault and she mini-Thor'd me! LOL. Kill count in Devil's Assault was 106 Nimeth, 94 Me. She would kill things before I could ever get to them! Oh side note, if you don't know running Devil's Assault on normal doesn't break bravery and it is worth a lot of XP. I then joined a group for the Pit. I actually used some Rogue tactics for the first time, using sneak to move up on the Trogs and a combo of Bleed them out, shiv, execute. After a whopping 40K xp I took level and moved on.

Daggers being used - Blood Machete and Vorpal. Blood Machete is a really nice kurki

Had a series of good groups at Level 9 running all the greatest hits at this level, Gwylann's, Tear of Dalkan, Taming the Flames, Graverobber, the Sentinals Chain and Delera's Chain. L7 quests are some of the best in the game. High XP, fun, and interesting mix of traps and DPS. Various classes shined in various quests. I was outstanding in Gwylanns, Tear, and Sentinals, a wolf Druid dominated in Taming the Flames virtually killing all the fire elementals himself! Great job!! Graverobber and Delera's were carried by the better undead hunters. I had a blast in Storm the Beaches as I went in the underwater area and infiltrated the center of the fort. We had a three pronged attack that must have really had the pirates spinning. These quests really seem to provide challenges for a different variety of builds and classes - why doesn't this synergy scale up into epic questing? Things that make you go hmmm....Some thematic thoughts:

1.Releasing the Fire Elemental to blow up the Blood Tide is one of the my top 10 favorite DDO moments. It isn't a cut scene, but it plays like one.
2. Between Margariete's betrayal in the Catacombs by her Uncle to Delera's by Hargo that was really a theme in undead quest chains!
3. Are we the covert OPs team for Hobgoblin tribes? All sorts of Kingmaking by the PCs in Tangleroot and Tear of Dalkan.
4. Is the Pit a garbage pit? Why is there a huge volcanic Pit in House D? Aren't they ever worried it will errupt? Could this not be a source of an epic adventure where creatures from Fernia portal into the Pit?

[nokowi]

Thanks for this thread. There are some low level deception items.

Filthy Kukri (min 5)
Phiarlan Spy Dagger (min 4)

come to mind.

[Assassination]

Two nice 3BC weapons for leveling:

Tiefling Assassin's Blade, shortsword, keen and other nice effects, and does dex to damage... ml 4

Sky Pirate's Dagger, keen and x3 crit... ml 4

Dealing with undead is difficult:

Sun Blade, shortsword,1 to10 +4 light damage, ml 6. Also they look cool.

These don't have deception but are great weapons. Does random loot now have deception on it? I know i've seen weapons, at least in epic lvls.

Nice thread "Awesome"... I really enjoy the L7 quests as well.

[1Soulless1]

So I got to ask...where there any dirty TR mini-thors in the parties you where in? Or did you put up the LFM's and filter members?

[Marshal_Lannes]

As I kind of allude to in my description, I think these levels are pretty balanced. All classes can shine given a range of quests. I would not say anyone was in a min-Thor range thus far. Maybe it's like the scene in the 80's Classic Can't Buy Me Love, we all started out on the same the playground. It is not until later that a big gap occurs between us.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Levels 10-11

Feat - Improved Evasion (Rogue)
AP - Sly Flourish II, Haste II, Dex II. Kind of saving up APs for the Assassin T5 at L12

A quick note on abilities. Execute is really a great ability. I don't know if this is WAI but it works on Red Names, including bosses, or at least some of them. And while most of my assassin attacks don't work on Undead, Execute does. So while I was doing the Necro2 chain execute took out 3 of the 4 Mummy bosses. I joined a group for Necro2 and it slowly filled out to a full group over the course of the four quests. I had mixed feelings about this chain, again - undead so blah for my Rogue attacks but the quests did provide challenges where my trap skills were needed. For non-corporeal undead I am using a Tenebrous Stilleto and the good old trusty Dagger of the Inquisition. Shadow Lord was tough as we had to split and my partner wasn't much help so I had to solo a lot of my side of the quest which took some care with my limited noncorporeal DPS. I had a large roll in Shadow Knight as you can imagine with all the traps. I ended up saving the end fight on Shadow Guard with both other party members dying but I was able to finish off the room. We had a full party of Shadow King so the quest ended up being fairly easy. This group broke up after this chain and I jumped into a Church and the Cult run. One thing I noticed right away, unlike earlier levels some people were zerging thru traps now. So while I detected and disabled the traps a couple characters racing thru the quest. Yes, the first hints of playstyle divergence creeping into DDO. I didn't stay with the group because if some were already zerging thru traps this wasn't to my taste.

I started to solo Sorrowdusk, a pack that I really like but which doesn't seem to be very popular. Yes, it is another PC Kingmaking quest for monsterous humanoids, but I like the civil war going on and the explorer zone is well done. In any event I played thru the first part of the chain by myself as I posted for and waited for a group to form for Stormcleave Outpost. Stormcleave has all the elements of a raid and I kinda wish they would give this a Legendary Treatment. We ended up getting a full group as we went thru the quest. Had a really fun time running Stormcleave and since we were right in the tavern we continued on to Stromvauld's Mine. My trap skills have held up thru all the quests thus far using +10 disable and +10 search items. We will see if this continues since all points go into DEX on level ups. This group finished up with VON 1 and 2. I took level after this and ended my gaming session.

Gear check at L11

Goggles - Seeker +4,+8 open lock slotted +2 STR augment
Helm - Captain's Chapeau with Superior False Life
Neck - CON +5, +6 Bluff
Trinket - Greater Nimble Trinket
Cloak - Deadly V
Belt - Great Commander GS HP Belt of Smoke, Displacement Click
Ring - Resistance +6, INT +5
Gloves - Spectral Gloves
Boots - Speed IV
Bracers - Fort 70
Armor - Lhor-Tragu's Shadow Armor
Daggers - Flint and Vorpal

Gear notes - Nothing really min/maxed gear wise. The Nimble Trinket has been with me since L4. My GS belt is only t2 so most people could make this item. The two clicks of 96 second displacement are good for boss fights. I use Lhor-Tragu's armor mainly because it looks cool, it doesn't have many practical benefits other than making me even sneakier when invis'd. I feel my daggers are blah. My DPS is high and I am consistently in the 1 thru 3 kill counts of groups but I feel its more the class abilities than the actual weapons. Good advice on weapons listed above and there are lots of daggers just nothing that seems like a must have. I have heard those Tiefling Assassin Blades are awesome but don't have one yet. Spectral Gloves solve my noncorporeal woes but really the only quest left where I need them is shadow crypt.

Speaking of Shadow Crypt this was a very fast level....Formed a group for Von 3 and 4 so I would be flagged for the Vault of Night Raid. Ended up with a 5 person group and I did quite well in Von3 racking up a high Kill Count prompting a Wizard to ask me if I were playing an assassin build and if I liked it. I had to respond that while yes, I was playing an assassin build, I couldn't assassinate yet, so was more or less a TWF Rogue at this point with a lot of points in the assassin tree. Again, Execute is amazing at these levels. I like the race to the finish endings like in Von4. It really gives a sense of danger - we had one of these in the Catacombs chain when Margerite's ghost chases the party and in a sense the whole quest Offering of Blood is like this. I would like to see another of these type of quests that end this way. We continued on to the Shadow Crypt where my Spectral Gloves were very handy allowing me to use the Star of Irian and Flint to great effect on the noncorps. We ran this quest twice then most of the group broke up except for another Rogue who stayed in group with me. We did the second part of Sorrowdusk, the cult of the Six and took level. A couple of the Cult of the Six quests really allow for sneaking gameplay and invisability use to avoid combat areas and stealth your way thru the quests. I like these tactical opportunities where you don't have to DPS every single last mob in a dungeon but can feel like actual Rogues sneaking into a complex and making your way out before the enemy knows what hit them. Here comes L12 and Assassinate!

[Saekee]

Use assassin's trick on undead, elementals, etc. Great results!
I suggest a ring of the stalker as part of your upcoming gear

[Marshal_Lannes]

Level 12

Feat - IC Pierce
AP - Nimbleness, Assassinate (!), Knife Spec, Haste III, Stealthy II and III

Finally, assassinate! And of course the first quest I run doesn't utilize it, lol, more undead! Joined a Cursed Crypt about 8 mins in that went really fast. I then started a group for Ataraxia's two quests. Had one Wizard join me for Reclamation. Knife Spec is a huge increase to DPS. So much that in a running combat you don't even need to worry about assassinate the damage rolls out so fast. However, the tactical versatility of assassins started to emerge in the next quest, Sykros Jewel. The Wizard dropped so I solo'd Sykros and used a combination of assassinate and DPS tactics to clear out the quest easily. I very much felt like a character from a book in some of the room full of dwarf fights towards the end of the quest. I would cast displacement, sneak in and assassinate one or two then kill the rest in a blur. Pretty cool play experience.

I tried to form a Tempest Spine/Vault of Night raid group, but ended up doing TS 4 man. My Drow was a nightmare for the Sorjek's Drow. Topped the kill count 89-30 as the enemy Drow melted away to my running attacks. Again, there is a HUGE DPS increase with knife spec. As I alluded to in Sykros, one of the cool things about assassin is you can get multiple play styles in a quest, so while my main running attacks were the norm, I also snuck down the Ice Reaver hall and assassinated my way to the Reaver, taking out two Giants then assassinating the Reaver as well. In and out and the Giant's were none the wiser.

Another thing I noticed, Spell Resistance is really quite useful at these levels. Enemy casters would quite often get the blue shield block when trying to zap me. I virtually never see this in epics though. This seems to be a mechanic that works well in heroics but doesn't scale well or at all into epics. I tried to get Vault of Night run two more times after this, running thru a VoN3 solo while waiting but again had no luck. Ah well, guess it was not meant to be. Took level and heading into the Sands.

Equipment thoughts - Using the very excellent Guardian of the Liturgy at this level along with Flint. When facing giants (or trolls/ogres) I pair the Guardian dagger with the Ancient Vulkoorum Dagger. I got this real cheap off the AH (5k PP) and it works quite well vs it's type. I swapped out my Hobgoblin leathers for the Vulkoorim fighting leathers with moderate fortification slotted. They give a +10 to hide and 20 Fire resistance. Interesting to note that I have not had 100% fort yet and haven't really noticed it running all elites. 70-75% has been good enough. Probably gonna need 100% by Gianthold though.

Saekee - I have a L20 ring of the stalker. I am still working out assassin't trick and must admit I don't understand it all that much. When I click it I make an attack but don't attack. I assume it makes the target vulnerable to SA damage?

[Marshal_Lannes]

Level 13

Feat - Opportunist
AP - Measure the Foe I, Light Armor Mastery I

I joined a group for ADQ and red door'd it. This was a good find because I am not sure I would be much help vs the Queen with limited ranged capabilities. Maybe worth investing in Shadow Knives? They were L14s so after the quest I tried to form a Sands walk up group. Without getting any interest I ended up soloing the first few and really had a stealthy game experience. I did Purge the Fallen Shrine, Chamber of Kourash and Maraud the Mines. I went thru Kourash in complete sneak mode, never disturbing hyennas or undead, assassinating Gnolls where I needed to and making it to the end in true Tomb Raider style. Awesome fun! Of historical note, Kourash is translated in English as Cyrus and might refer to Cyrus the Great. If so they should have included his famous tomb inscription in the quest, here lies Kourash, King of Kings. Maraud the Mines was also a complete stealth assassination as I went from area to area sneaking and surgically taking out targets. Sneak...assassinate...bleed them out and execute whoever might be left, move on to next group.

My group started filling for Desert Caravan with 3 people then had a full group after. Desert Caravan was an Assassin's kill zone as I racked up a 108-27 kill count edge. It is interesting how some quests melt away from sneak attacking death dealers. We completed the Sands walk ups with Raid the Vulkoorum and Offering of Blood. We had a very good group and continued on with all the other L11 quests, Dreams of Insanity, Enemy Within, Whisperdoom, Made to Order and finished with Tomb of the Blighted leading up to level. I am still hitting all traps. Enemy Within was blah after being so strong in everything suddenly it's undead! I am using star of Irian and a sun blade but DPS still is probably only 25-35% of what it normally is vs undead. Really nothing to be done but accept the class limitations and get traps. One note on Made to Order, it is really a nicely designed quest. The Traps in the Halls with mobs behind them, the explosive barrells everywhere, the golems to switch up the mobs. It can be challenging for a wide variety of builds and really rewards having a trapper. One again wonders why/how can a quest like this be scaled up into epics?

[Tricosene]

I am still working out assassin't trick and must admit I don't understand it all that much. When I click it I make an attack but don't attack. I assume it makes the target vulnerable to SA damage?

It took me some time to get used to Assassin's Trick, but now I use it a lot. Probably even when it doesn't help, just because it's become a twitch reaction for me.

When you use Assassin's trick, you'll see a blue glow around the enemy. It also alerts them to your presence, so the routine I use for undead and anything else immune to sneak attacks is Assissin's Trick followed by Shiv. I also have deception, so it helps when that goes off. Sometimes I also use it as a bluff - hit the mob with assassin's trick, it comes after me, then shiv-heartseeker-execute, and move on to the next victim.

It also confirms vulnerability to critical hits. I'm not sure about your assassin, but mine gets crits fairly often. So, for instance, if I have to pull out a thrower to deal with a skeleton archer on a ledge, I'll hit it with assassin's trick before attacking.

Try it out with your training dummy on your airship for practice.

[Saekee]

It took me some time to get used to Assassin's Trick, but now I use it a lot. Probably even when it doesn't help, just because it's become a twitch reaction for me.

When you use Assassin's trick, you'll see a blue glow around the enemy. It also alerts them to your presence, so the routine I use for undead and anything else immune to sneak attacks is Assissin's Trick followed by Shiv. I also have deception, so it helps when that goes off. Sometimes I also use it as a bluff - hit the mob with assassin's trick, it comes after me, then shiv-heartseeker-execute, and move on to the next victim.

It also confirms vulnerability to critical hits. I'm not sure about your assassin, but mine gets crits fairly often. So, for instance, if I have to pull out a thrower to deal with a skeleton archer on a ledge, I'll hit it with assassin's trick before attacking.

Try it out with your training dummy on your airship for practice.

This! Nice! It technically adds fort bypass but seems to always bypass, including undead. I also use it to pull mobs from tough packs; trick does no damage but it aggros them.

You could run with a mournlode chain shirt (it will kill your dodge though) and get weaken undead on hit plus the very handy perma-protection from evil.

[Marshal_Lannes]

. So, for instance, if I have to pull out a thrower to deal with a skeleton archer on a ledge, I'll hit it with assassin's trick before attacking.

Try it out with your training dummy on your airship for practice.

Does it have a range limit? Good description of the ability, thx!

[Tricosene]

Saekee - good catch. It only lowers fort by 25%. Add on top of that Precision (25%) and any armor-piercing gear you have. Like Saekee's experience, I get critical hits regularly on mobs like undead using this set up.

The range is somewhat limited. Fortunately, it gives you feedback if it works (the bluish glow) and feedback if it doesn't (a notice pops up), so you can learn the approximate distance. It seems further than a magic missile will go, but it's no where near a ray spell's distance.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Level 14

AP - Arablaster, Mechanics III. I still have 6 APs and am kind of rolling them over. I can see one of the advantages an INT assassin has is that you can go into the Mechanic Tree for improved traps and harper tree for know the angles. I can do the same as a DEX assassin but the benefit is much less. This is one of the few builds I have played thus far where I have an abundance of APs. I didn't take any of the assassin poison attacks as it seems mobs will just save on them. Definately have APs to spend.

Ran thru Invaders in a group I joined, then formed up one for the Diplomatic Impunity chain. Some fun assassinations - the red named Giant in Frame Work and two of the red named elementalists in Eyes of Stone. As I have alluded to, when you play an assassin you can almost play a game within a game. For example, in Frame Work, I split off from the group to get the traps on the stairs then looped around and assassinated my way back to the group. Sneaky! Did a full 30% trapping of Wiz King and finished with Relic of Sov Past. The group split up and I stared to solo Chains of Flame. A bard eventually joined and both he and were very high DPS. He liked my build and we wondered why more people don't choose to play assassins We then tried to duo ADQ but wiped at the Queen. Alas poor melee's that we are we have little ranged ability. That is definately a build weakness and might draw back to those extra APs and go for shadow knives. Took level.

Gearing - I made a triple negative green steel dagger and it's a lot of fun. I went INT +6/Evil Burst/Evil Blast (slay living). The evil damage works on all mobs and the slay living goes off fairly frequently, or at least as long as I roll 20s. Gear set up at L14:

Goggles - Tharne's Goggles
Head - Captain's Chapeau (I just like the superior false life lol)
Necklace - Choker of the Silver Tongue, striding slotted
Cloak - Deadly V
Rings - Fortification 105, Seeker VI
Boots - Dex+6, Acid Guard II
Bracers - +5 Resistance, +7 CON
Trinker - Greater Nimble Trinket
Belt - GS HP
Gloves - Doublestrike +6
Armor - Black Dragonhide
Daggers - Guardian of the Liturgy, GS Triple Negative
Undead - Star of Irian, Light Mace of Disruption

[Marshal_Lannes]

Level 15

Feat - GTWF
AP - Spell Resistance I, Drow Dex I

As I have highlighted some levels are quest light, this level has tons of quests. There are three full chains to do at this level, Assault on Summerfield, GH walk up quests and Trials of the Archons. I joined a group doing the tail end of the GH walk ups and we did Cry for Help and Foundation of Discord. We had a very strong group highlighted by a diverse group of classes, myself playing an assassin, a freezing bard, a warlock, a divine artillery using mechanic and a Unwavering Ardency using Ranger. Divine Artillery and Unwavering Ardency are fantastic for these levels if anyone is considering 10th anniversary quests. I will say this, playing an assassin has trained me to stay alive well especially in regards to agro management. The Mechanic died many times over the course of our quests because he would draw agro and get taken out. Sometimes when you are killing up close you have to learn how to be stealthy. After going thru these two quests we did the Trial of the Archons chain. This is a HUGE jump in difficulty. If the GH quests are L13, these feel more like L16. One character died 8 times in Devil's Details. I pulled the trinket and shuriken in loot and will add these to the gear list next update (next level I guess). The group broke up after this and I joined a Mired in Kobalds group. We three manned it and since we were all melee we failed on the Mother Dragon optional. Sometimes you do need that ranged ability! (or a human healer)

I couldn't find any groups or couldn't anyone to join my Maze of Madness LFM so I solo'd several quests. Did a solo of Trial by Fire, Assault on Summerfield and Blockade Buster. I got thru Blockade Buster killing only 2 enemies! Killed the Orc Pirate Captain and the red named Kobald Engineer. I blew up 2 of the ships without raising an alarm. Really fun. Assault on Summerfield was also very fun solo - it felt like a sabotage mission to the Droam Siege as I went from area to area taking out the enemy. Finally got another person to join my LFM after that and we did Maze of Madness and Undermine. There are a LOT of mobs to kill in Undermine, I think I killed something like 150 mobs.

Been having success with Assassin's Trick now, especially on elementals in Undermine. Also noticed that red names can save vs it. Some cool assassinations were taking out the whole Mountain Top area of the GH Explorer area with the red named Frost Giant in stealth mode. Very Tenchu Assassion like. Mars the Dynamo fell to the knife and the best was taking out the Assault Droam Siege Master in Summerfield. He is a rare and is surrounded by orcs and engineers. He thought he was safe from the assassins knife, he was wrong....

[Marshal_Lannes]

Level 16-17

Feat - Defensive Roll (think I am going to invest in improved defensive roll from the TA tree)
AP - Still kinda stockpiling them

Like level 15, there are tons of quests at L16. I started by doing the GH saga. I solo'd Cabal for One while group was forming. Duo'd Prison of the Planes and finally had a full group for Madstone and Tor. A couple thoughts - Don't use Althea the L16 FVS hireling! She is is terrible. Has absolutely brutal AI and won't throw heals. Natasha the cleric is vastly superior. Secondly, I was killed in 3 of these 4 quests by champions. I like the challenge that champions present and I am acutely aware of the squishy nature of my character. I constantly have to remind myself that I can't trade face to face blow by blow. I excelled most in Madstone with a 102-28 kill count mastery. The mobs almost seemed spaced out to be assassinated and when the seer is casting the ritual they don't come out of the tunnel until assassinate is off timer. In Tor we did we the Black and White dragons, skipping Blue as no one needed the scales.

Later on, I tried to form a group for Grim and Barrett as my hunt for the quiver continues. Myself and two first life characters did the quest and it was TOUGH. The Warlock died 14 times. I died twice and since neither the warlock or the fighter were able to stay alive or get agro I was continually having to hit the abashai head on. Took about 40 minutes but we finally got it done. There was an epic bottleneck with a champion abashai that took a while to overcome. Very challenging. After that I started a Necro IV group. Duo'd Inferno first and props to the Paladin with me - we missed the first light the torches and took a long time to find them again after the fact. We both stuck with it and finished the quest - another very long run time of almost an hour. We both did get a right frame though. The other three necro quests were pretty easy as we had a full group form up. Finally, I joined a group for Crucible in progress. This was the third straight in progress Crucible group I joined that I ended up doing the swim on! LOL, I am getting pretty good at it now.

I was getting close to leveling but I saw a LFM for Tavern Brawl. I joined that a three person group of did Tavern Brawl, Grim and Barrett and Multitude of Menance and it was far, far easier. Grim and Barrett was night and day from previous attempt as I was constantly getting sneak attack on the abishai. I got Slice passed to me from the Menance chest. I took L17 on a hard cap.

Gear set up at L17

Daggers - Slice and GS Negative Dagger
Armor - Black Dragon hide
Goggle - Tharnes
Head - Cpt Chapeau
Trinket - Token of the Proven
Neck - Golden Guile
Belt - GS HP
Gloves - Assassinate +3/+1 insightful assassinate
Boots - +7 Dodge, +6 Str
Cloak - Deadly V
Rings - Dex +7, Seeker 6
Bracers - +5 resistance, +7 CON

I have a full Sigil Frame so I was able to do Litany of the Dead. Duo'd that on elite (high priest) then joined a group for Acid Wit and Delirium. I then went back and solo'd a normal litany (Cinnis). Joined a group for the Missing chain - had a spectacular double assassination of the two red names at the start of the Missing quest who turn on you. I think joined a group for some Cannith challenges and some great Mario Party style fun. Did Dragon's Hoard, Buying Time and Labor Shortage. Dragon's Hoard was thrilling as we got the foreman killed for a full star challenge with 1 second left on the clock! I assassinated the red named Rhaksaha in that one. Finally, got lucky with a Litany group doing the beholder and Mentau which I finished and got flagged for Abbott. Took L18.

[nokowi]

I assassinated the red named Rhaksaha in that one.

I don't believe you can assassinate red-named. Orange and Red bosses look very similar. If you go into options, you can change the color of orange named to something that doesn't look so red. I highly recommend this as a failed assassinate can cause quite a delay even if you are skilled enough to always get though the encounter.

[Marshal_Lannes]

I haven't found that option to change the color yet, will keep looking for it as I can see it being very useful.

Level 18-21

Feats - Toughness, Skill Mastery, Overwhelming Critical. I debated long and hard between Toughness and Mobility. Trying out Toughness right now as I find the weakest part of Rogue is the defense.

AP - Ended up going with Lethality, Deadly Shadow, Sly Flourish III, Subtlety III, Shadow Dodge III, lMeasure the foe II, Acrobat Dex I, Spell Resist II, Keen Senses, Nothing is Hidden, Crit Mastery II, Skill Boost, Improved Defensive Roll, Awareness, Wand and Scroll Mastery II. I have 1 AP left and might end up changing some of these around. I took 2 ranks in scroll mastery because my self sucks w/o scrolls now. Coccoon reallly doesn't do too much since I don't have HAMP and a devotion item, though at L21 I added the Dagger of the High Priestess so that has Potency. If Coccoon helps more with that then I will reallocate a bit. Nothing is Hidden is one of my favorite abilities and how good is Shadow Dodge?!

Some questing highlights -

Crushed Running with the Devils as I was able to assassinate my way thru the quest. Assassin might be one of the best classes I ever played in the quest. Assassinated the Orange named Orthon in Rainbow in the Dark guarding the seal and the Beholder. In Sleeping dust both the orange named Ogre-Magi were assassinated, in Lords of Dust Inquisitor Gnomon fell to the assassin's blade. Don't use the L18 FVS hireling Merenon Lior, she is terrible. Ran thru the Vale, Lords of Dust and some Reaver's Refuge up to L20.

At L20 I had a magnificent gaming session in Amarath. We formed up a 6 man group and ran all the Devil's quests on elite. Afterword everyone wanted to do the raid and we ended up getting two more people to join and went in. We wiped the first time on the Shadows boss but completed it the second time. Fantastic time and one of the most fun gaming sessions I have had in DDO. The group really pulled together, we exchanged mats to get everyone boots and one person made a cold absorbtion item to tank the shadows. Since we were all between L18 and L21 it was a pretty good representation of how the raid used to feel. So much fun.

L21 Gear set up -

Goggle - Nothing (can't really find anything to use atm lol)
Head - Minos (for Fort)
Neck - Golden Guile
Trinket - Epic Treasure Hunters Spyglass SP Slotted
Cloak - Drow Piwafwi (really useful for assassins)
Belt - GS HP
Rings - Epic Ring of the Buccaneer (natural armor slotted), Ring of the Stalker (CHA slotted)
Gloves - Assassinate +4, Deadly +6
Boots - Boots of the Woodsman
Bracers - +7 CON, +5 Resistance
Armor - Epic Duelist Leathers False Life slotted
Daggers - Sacrificial Dagger, Dagger of the High Priestess.

I don't have a lot of EDs unlocked so my 3 twists are limited

Coccoon
Brace
? - I am just going into the Sorc tree to unlock the +6 reflex saves here from Draconic Reflexes.

Running in Shadow Dancer but might have to switch around to open up epic feats.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Level 22-23

Went thru EE on first two ES chains. You have to be careful but basically if you learned to be stealthy in your first 20 levels then those lessons will have served you well. I don't think I have a super high assassinate DC (67) but it works on all EE mobs so far except champions. I dominate kill count in some quests (EE Devil Assault) but am mid pack in others (EE Battle of ES), it really depends on how zergy the group is - the more zergy the less kill count as I play carefully since I know I have weak defenses. It's pretty fun to play these low level EE (first two ES chains, Devil Assault, Chronoscope) because all my abilities work and there is a sense of danger - break stealth and you better have an out, it's like always want to know an escape route. Red Names are more annoying now on EE and I am glad I took threat reduction now. Rest of XP was filled out with dailies. I think one good benefit of the daily quests is that you can get a full group formed and them move on to do something else with at least half the group.

I have been running in Fury to cap out a Primal sphere for perfect two weapon fighting. Now moving on to cap out 2 martial spheres (LD and Shadow) for elusive target. I am not sure what I am going to point for at L29. I don't anticipate having the 90s DC that some of the builds listed in this section have as I hate chasing DCs and really don't like Min/Maxing so dire charge probably won't be great. I'll be interested to see when my assassinate stops working in EE.

[nokowi]

I haven't found that option to change the color yet, will keep looking for it as I can see it being very useful.


Escape-->UI Settings --> scroll down until you see a color pallet with "Miniboss Monsters" I clicked on yellow to make orange named yellows.

[RistoffDervish]

Escape-->UI Settings --> scroll down until you see a color pallet with "Miniboss Monsters" I clicked on yellow to make orange named yellows.

I like to change killing blow to teal as well so I can see when I am getting the kills.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Up to L28 now. Just a few general comments thru L27.

A 68 assassinate DC has been good for EE in 3BC, GH, all the Drow quests and most of Devil's Gambit. I would say I succeed 80% of the time in Devil's Gambit. Turbine has done an excellent job of providing items to make assassinate work on even moderately geared assassins. My 68 DC was also good all the time in LH Tempest Spine. Now one difficulty I experience in the newer quests like Devil's Gambit chain is that many mobs have AOE attacks that will break my sneak and on EE they cause lots of damage that my Rogue HPs struggle to handle. It also make grouping with warlocks difficult as some of their tactics are to get all the mobs around them then blast away - this can be tough on a Rogue going in for the attack as all of them are dropping AoE attacks which a warlock might shrug off but can severely hurt a mere mortal assassin.

I enjoy the play style though and in some quests assassinate really is awesome sauce.

Feats I took were Perfect TWF, Blinding Speed and Elusive Target.

[Marshal_Lannes]

It looks like the Devil's Handiwork set might be a really good fit for an assassin. I am using the Ship Kickers, the Lion's Mane and Slice right now. Trying relentlessly to farm Multitude of Menance for Dice but have had no luck so far.