Master Assassin: an int based build

[Tid12]

What do you use for deathblock? Seems like a well placed Finger or Disintegrate etc would take you out.

Deatblock doesn't stop Disintegrate.

You can use Deathward for Finger or Energy Drains, and that comes from:

- Visor of the Flesh Render guard (7min DW Clickie)
- Deathward potion from Cleric's Trade in, in Eveningstar (20 min DW)
- Gloomy potion of Death Ward, Mabar turn in (10 min DW)

[Mellkor]

What do you use for deathblock? Seems like a well placed Finger or Disintegrate etc would take you out.

Tid12 summed it up very well.

There is usually a divine around casting DW. If not, I use deathward clickies. For disintegrate, just move out of the way. Be aware of your enemy and be ready for them. Disintegrates don't really "take me out" anyway. I have over 600 HP's when buffed up. More HP's is always nice, but really if you "need" more than 600ish HP's on sneaky back-stabbing assassin type then there are other issues at play. Also hirelings for DW are great!

[Mellkor]

I am a little disappointed that its so low on that armor, I will have to get an Elite one to finally drop for me to test out the break points I did some number crunching and i believe i can get my ac to 80 without sacrificing a twist (actually freeing up a twist since it cant accomidate 19% dodge) or compromising my other slots. The goodies on that armor are pretty awesome, but since they made it like Spiritcraft rather than celestial it makes a great rogue item something ideal for epic Hard... rogues in skirts is just not DnD to me

I need something better than my +7 Hallowed Celestial Chain of Omniscience

I really like destroying of superior stability robes. The destruction is a great debuff these days, and +6 stacking bonus to saves and AC is nice. (probably a bug since the bonus to saves is listed as the same type of bonus that is on my cloak, so enjoy it while you can!).

I also swap in where best needed:
Destroying of Spell Proofing
Deathblock of superior stability
Fearsome of superior stability
Epic Diabolist's Robes (for summon monster IX clickie)
clickies such as divine power, cure poison, etc, etc.

[Mellkor]

Regarding weapons as of U16:

I have settled on 3 main sets that take care of 99% of my dps needs:

Balizarde + EMG (with +1 excep int slotted in): This is my main set. It brings a LOT to the table for this build. I only swap out of this set when I am not assassinating and/or need DR by-passers, or a special situation arises.

Celestia x2: by-passes almost all DR out there, most notably on elementals, constructs, and undead. Very nice to do full damage to those 3 types of mobs! Finally! (They heal the iron golum in VON5, however, so we are still SOL there.) Plus with all the fort reduction this build has as well as sneak attack enablers, you often get good sneak damage against them as well.

EMG x2: I use this set when CC is important (paralyzing works great in many situations.

Exceptions to these are rare such as:

Shining Devestation: I use this just for rust monsters.
Weakening of Greater Abberation bane: still takes out beholders faster than anything else I have.

[Mellkor]

I have been playing with consume. It is fixed! It works great on EH and lower, but not so great on EE quests. I works especially good on those darn umbral rats. The description still does not say how its DC is calculated, so I am not sure how to maximize its DC.

[voodoogroves]

Just an FYI - in your max INT for assassins, I don't think you added in the 2 from Great Intelligence.

[Tid12]

I have been playing with consume. It is fixed! It works great on EH and lower, but not so great on EE quests. I works especially good on those darn umbral rats. The description still does not say how its DC is calculated, so I am not sure how to maximize its DC.

It does absolutely nothing for me. Not even on wilderness mobs. DC is still not shown up so I think it's still broken.

Do you get constant results (e.g. taking out 6 mobs in EN difficulty) or one mob per encounter?

[Mellkor]

It does absolutely nothing for me. Not even on wilderness mobs. DC is still not shown up so I think it's still broken.

Do you get constant results (e.g. taking out 6 mobs in EN difficulty) or one mob per encounter?

I often kill 5-6 mobs if there is 10 or so around me on eHard quests. On EE its more like 1 maybe 2 per use, and sometimes none.

[Mellkor]

Just an FYI - in your max INT for assassins, I don't think you added in the 2 from Great Intelligence.

Thanks for the heads up. I will be TRing into HElf next week (finally got that darn abbot quiver and slotted out all my gear, I only just have to grind out 2 more commendations from citw), so I will be able to fix any errors in build description.

Thanks!

[Alizee8a]

I started my first rogue a few months ago (before the expansion) based off your build, but didn't get past level 9 before I got consumed with the update. I also started off taking the Mechanic enhancement line. It seemed to me that there were more benefits to being a mechanic at lower levels (repeaters doing more damage and being able to keep your distance as a squishy rogue). I was also having a hard time hitting anything at low levels. To be honest, I wasn't too excited at that point with the class.

But a few weeks ago I decided to revisit the toon, got to 12, and respected to assassin. The world changed! I love this toon now. In just about 2 weeks I got to level 22! It has been a blast, especially since I grinded out some gear on my other toons in preparation for this toon (for example, I had 2 Epic Midnight Greetings waiting for me to craft when I hit 20). Even on a first life, this toon is really powerful.

I do have a few questions, mostly about gear.

1. Do you have fortification? Your gear list doesn't have anything with it.
2. Where is your DEX item?
3. I find that I am bluffing a lot, not so much on the diplomacy. Do you find yourself doing the same? And where do you have your bluff item? I see a "swapable ring" that you mention, but do you really swap it our every time you hit bluff?
4. Finally, I am starting to craft my Greensteel HP item. You mentioned a "Smoke Screen" necklace. I assume you are talking about a Fire/Air/Fire Aspect of Smoke item with Displacement and Blur, right?

I'm trying to figure out how you laid out your gear, as I am figuring out my end game setup.

Thank you again for the post! I have had such a great time playing this toon!

[Tid12]

I often kill 5-6 mobs if there is 10 or so around me on eHard quests. On EE its more like 1 maybe 2 per use, and sometimes none.

Weird. There are several people claiming that its DC is still broken. I think it's not counting the character level yet again, but with your high INT you are having better results.

Of course, something is wrong. With your INT, on EE DC should be something like 10 + 25 char level + 22 INT bonus = 57 DC. No way you'd kill no mobs with Consume, even on EE.

Btw, I'd drop it since it doesn't work on EE. Spent the points in Meld Into Darkness, 15 secs 100% dodge, really nice.

[Mellkor]

Weird. There are several people claiming that its DC is still broken. I think it's not counting the character level yet again, but with your high INT you are having better results.

Of course, something is wrong. With your INT, on EE DC should be something like 10 + 25 char level + 22 INT bonus = 57 DC. No way you'd kill no mobs with Consume, even on EE.

Btw, I'd drop it since it doesn't work on EE. Spent the points in Meld Into Darkness, 15 secs 100% dodge, really nice.

I am not sure how this works. /shrug

I am keeping it for now just to play with it.

I will most likely give it up since it does not work so well on EE, as you say, for meld or something.

[Mellkor]

I do have a few questions, mostly about gear.

1. Do you have fortification? Your gear list doesn't have anything with it.
It is on my bracers. I updated the op. Thanks for the catch!


2. Where is your DEX item?
There is +6 dex on the assassin ring from TOD


3. I find that I am bluffing a lot, not so much on the diplomacy. Do you find yourself doing the same? And where do you have your bluff item? I see a "swapable ring" that you mention, but do you really swap it our every time you hit bluff?
Yeah I swap it in when needed. I dont use it too much except when soloing, and I do not do that much, as I prefer to be social and run with groups


4. Finally, I am starting to craft my Greensteel HP item. You mentioned a "Smoke Screen" necklace. I assume you are talking about a Fire/Air/Fire Aspect of Smoke item with Displacement and Blur, right?
I dunno, I use a greensteel builder for dummies website that tells you how to build them, LOL. Mine has smokescreen(perma blur), +6(total) to dex skills, and a displacement clickie (and other things that dont matter)

I'm trying to figure out how you laid out your gear, as I am figuring out my end game setup.

Thank you again for the post! I have had such a great time playing this toon!
me too![/QUOTE]

[Tid12]

I dunno, I use a greensteel builder for dummies website that tells you how to build them, LOL. Mine has smokescreen(perma blur), +6(total) to dex skills, and a displacement clickie (and other things that dont matter)

Smoke screen isn't perma blur anymore with all the changes to concealment. If you let a caster cast Blur on you, you will see it in your buff bar, meaning it's not the same bonus.

However, the fact that you will see it on your buff bar doesn't mean that they ACTUALLY stack (haven't done any test yet), but it's just better to have both Blur and Smoke screen.

[jejeba86]

Hey Melkor. We got some nice items on this update for rogues, with ghostly, blur and much more.
Are you trying anyone of them?

[Mellkor]

Hey Melkor. We got some nice items on this update for rogues, with ghostly, blur and much more.
Are you trying anyone of them?

The blur and ghostly I already have on this guy is better than whats on those items.

I have tried some of them. I would have to give up the 5-piece epic abashai set to use most of them, so its a no go for me. They are nice items tho. I just don't feel like investing on a whole new gear set, especially after only just finally finishing pimping out my epic abashai set, lol. Maybe after I get my hands on epic elite versions of all the items I will put some thought into trashing the abashai set. I especially like the epic elite version of the boots and bracers.

I can only really comment on the whisper chain. It only has a max dex bonus of 13 or so, therefor it will not allow a full 25% bonus to dodge. Because of this, I still like to use robes to allow a full 25% dodge bonus. I feel that the full 25% dodge bonus trumps the small bonus to AC I get from that armour. (My AC is around 42 with robes). I don't consider AC to be really important on this build. I rely instead on having max 25% dodge + 25% incorporeal + 20/50% concealment.

I am thinking of going red dragon robes + some of the new gear and maybe a 3-piece abashai set. Dunno. I will put some thought into it over the next few weeks to see if I can come up with something nice. Probably easier than the grinding and slotting in a 5-piece set for sure.

[hi_sa1nt]

Are the Destroying of Superior Stability robes a crafted item? I don't see them on the wiki on where to get them. Yeah, I'm a nooblet.

[Mellkor]

Are the Destroying of Superior Stability robes a crafted item? I don't see them on the wiki on where to get them. Yeah, I'm a nooblet.

random loot gen.

[hi_sa1nt]

That's the name? And I'm assuming they aren't btc or bta buy you can buy them from the AH?

[voodoogroves]

That's the name? And I'm assuming they aren't btc or bta buy you can buy them from the AH?

You can get them on the AH or find them. It's really just a prefix (Destroying) and a suffix (Superior Stability).

I've got a set of robes and a set of light armor (better PRR, longer swap time) - both of which I ganked off the AH.

I *wish* you could craft them.