Level 30 assassin gear...?

[redoubt]

Its been a while since I've played an assassin at cap. Its a dex based assassin/knife fighter.

Here is what i'm thinking so far.

Legendary Mist Laden Vestment
Fortification 202
PRR 50
Parry 9
Profane stat +2
Green slot:

Legendary Shadowhail Cloak
Hide 22
Move Silent 22
Deception 16
Ghostly
Green slot:

Legendary Braided Cutcord
Quality Dodge 4
Blurry
Dexterity 19
Quality Dexterity 4
Green Slot:

Silent Avenger Set Bonus:
Artifact Doublestrike 15
plus 3 SA dice
Artifact fort bypass 25%
Artifact vs helpless 10%

Legendary Knife Palm
Assassinate 9
Bluff 22
Deadly 16
I - Diversion 15
Yellow Slot:
Mist Set

Intricate Field Optics
Spot 20
True Seeing
Intelligence 8
Yellow Slot
Green Slot

Craft helm
Wisdom 13 (15 if I use level 34)
Accuracy 20
I - Spot 10
Slot

Necklace of warrior Focus
I-double strike 7
armor pierce 21

Craft Trinket
Alacrity
hamp
I - accuracy (could be deadly)

Ring of Deception
Imp Deception
Cha 8
Social Skills 20

Craft Boot
Seeker
Diversion
I - seeker

Craft Ring
Con
false life
I - dex

Craft Bracer
Resistance
Dodge
Sheltering (to pick up MRR since the one on the laden vestments is PRR only.)

Augments:
deathblock
armored agility
vitality
draconic soul gem
globe of imperial blood +1 exceptional stats
luck +2
striding
spell points


My known hole is that its missing a doublestrike item, but it gets 15 and 7 from the set bonus and the necklace. I'd like regular doublestrike as well, but I can' find anything I can drop for it.

What am I not seeing? What ideas do you have?

[blerkington]

The most obvious and largest improvement would be the addition of Slavers items, all the way up to a five piece set if you can stand the grind. Using the helm would mean you would only need to make two or four pieces to qualify for a set bonus. Four good effects of your choice plus an augment slot for each crafted item is very hard to beat.

If you don't want to make Slaver items specifically for an assassin, or even for a melee, you could probably still build some with effects that could be useful to most races and builds and try to keep your assassin/melee specific stuff on named and cannith crafted items. The crafted Slavers items are also BTA, so if you want to share the items with another character they are useful for that too.

Some of the more important effects (IMO) you seem to be missing are devotion, insightful assassination and insightful sneak attack. I think the Ring of Prowess is also a very good item for a melee, particularly if you can score one with a mythic and/or reaper bonus. The ring adds melee power and has near BiS deadly and accuracy effects and a green augment slot.

Anyway, with some luck we will hear from some other capped assassins about what they are doing. Although I'm currently using a five piece Slavers set and the Silent Avenger stuff from Ravenloft, my gear is still not quite how I'd like it to be. It would be very good to see how other people are doing this, because although I'm fairly happy with my set-up and it's working well even in difficult content, the choices I made means I don't have the highest possible values available in a couple of key areas.

Thanks.

[redoubt]

Thanks a lot Blerk... omg more slave lords... just kidding. Good suggestion, though I might dread it. Here is what I massaged in:

Lost:
-- Imp Deception (I'm also losing it on my weapon since I've been using agony and will go to barovian or TF)
-- I - Dex 4
-- I - double strike 7

Gain:
-- relentless fury
-- doublestrike 17
-- art MP 4
-- art deadly 4
-- art str 2
-- art dex 2

Some other small ups and down as various things moved between items, but those are the ones that caught my attention.

I kept my 4 Ravenloft items and the silent avenger set bonus:
Legendary Mist Laden Vestment
Fortification 202
PRR 50
Parry 9
Profane stat +2
Green slot:

Legendary Shadowhail Cloak
Hide 22
Move Silent 22
Deception 16
Ghostly
Green slot:

Legendary Braided Cutcord
Quality Dodge 4
Blurry
Dexterity 19
Quality Dexterity 4
Green Slot:

Silent Avenger Set Bonus:
Artifact Doublestrike 15
plus 3 SA dice
Artifact fort bypass 25%
Artifact vs helpless 10%

Legendary Knife Palm
Assassinate 9
Bluff 22
Deadly 16
I - Diversion 15
Yellow Slot:
Mist Set

Slave Lords added:
L Executioner's Helm
I deception 7
Relentless Fury
Seeker 17
Q combat mastery 4
Green Slot

Legendary Ring of Power
Q - STR 4
Command
Alacrity 15
i- armor pierce 13
Green Slot

neck
con
resist
umd

Ring2
Shelter
Accuracy
Spot

bracer
False Life
Armor Piercing

Slave Lord Set Bonus
A Melee Power 4
A Deadly 4
A Str 2
A dex 2

Cannith Crafting:
Goggles Craft
wis
true seeing
I - spot

Tinket craft
DoubleStrike
Hamp
I - accuracy

Boot craft
dodge
diversion
I - seeker

[DrawingGuy]

Simply by giving up the 5 piece slaver's set, you could slot Lore-Fueled Packbanner for Ins CON 9 and ins Doublestrike 10. With the Slavers you're dropping, move Accuracy to goggles (True Sight is an 11 minute scroll, so no real loss) and augment False Life.

I'd drop Ins Seeker on boots for Ins DEX 7 to get a jump on your assassinate DCs, and 3+ base damage would outweigh 7 seeker anyways.

And if Assassinate is your main goal, you could put Ins Assassinate 3 on your trinket instead of Ins Accuracy.


Those changes will net you with more DPS, more Assassinate, and more HP. Slaver's set bonus I always considered amazing for caster DC builds, but meh for everyone else. Though the items themselves are still strong due to their flexibility. Still expect them to soon be way-sided for all but casters as new items come out due to power creep outstripping the stats enough that people would give up an ability for a stronger main ability or new set bonus.

[redoubt]

Thanks Drawing. For round 3, I'm incorporating those ideas. I also juggled some other stuff round on the crafted item. Decided on I-assassinate instead of I-accuracy. Should get to 84 (89 w/ measure the foe).

- Use True Sight scrolls instead of slotting it.
- Move FL to an augment.
- 5 piece slavers, but still have 3 piece.
---- - 2 MP
---- - 2 deadly
---- - 2 dex

+ 10% doublestrike
+ I con 9 (more than covers difference in FL levels)
+ I dex 7
+ open ring slot, can put Improved Deception back on.


Same Ravenloft gear:
Legendary Mist Laden Vestment
Fortification 202
PRR 50
Parry 9
Profane stat +2
Green slot:

Legendary Shadowhail Cloak
Hide 22
Move Silent 22
Deception 16
Ghostly
Green slot:

Legendary Braided Cutcord
Quality Dodge 4
Blurry
Dexterity 19
Quality Dexterity 4
Green Slot:

Silent Avenger Set Bonus:
Artifact Doublestrike 15
plus 3 SA dice
Artifact fort bypass 25%
Artifact vs helpless 10%

Legendary Knife Palm
Assassinate 9
Bluff 22
Deadly 16
I - Diversion 15
Yellow Slot:
Mist Set

Slave Lords:
L Executioner's Helm
I deception 7
Relentless Fury
Seeker 17
Q combat mastery 4
Green Slot

Neck SL
con
Accuracy
I spot

Ring2 SL
Shelter
resist
Spot

SL 3 piece set
A MP 2
A deadly 2

Added one Ravenloft:
Legendary Lore-fueled Packbanner - bracer
I - con 9
PRR 50
I - doublestrike 10%
Green slot
Mist Set

Cannith Craft:
Goggles Craft
wis
Alacrity
I - seeker

Tinket craft
DoubleStrike
Hamp
I assassinate

Boot craft
dodge
diversion
I - dex

Ring of Deceit
Imp Deception
Cha 8
Social Skills 20

[DrawingGuy]

I personally don't think Imp Deception is worth losing Armor bypass for. Imp Deception is not nearly important as it used to be:

- It no longer turns mobs, losing that survival boost. (Though I think that is for the better as turning raid bosses is a bad thing)
- Improved Feint was seriously buffed making it a worthwhile feat and a strong way to apply an AOE bluff
- Shiv is another application that can last up to 6s

That combo does have only a 10 out of 12s uptime.

Then there's always using an Imp Deception or blinding weapon. Pain and Suffering is a very nice weapon set that is nice DPS and gives Imp Deception. Until you have that set, Thunderforged, Agony, and Legendary Greensteel are all ways to auto-qualify.

If you did a Monk splash for the sneak movement speed, that also gives you access to Unbalancing Strikes (easy permanent SA qualification, though takes Vertigo investment) as well as Blinding procs with Perfect Pinnacle ring while in Fire stance.

The list of rings I'd think would be better is pretty long... though if you are indeed struggling to get your SA qualifications, it makes sense. If you are consistently qualified (be it weapon procs, partying, etc), drop it immediately as you're just burning a slot for no gain.


An option I just thought of would be to slot Assassinate instead of Doublestrike on your Trinket, and then you could roll with Molten Silver Gauntlets to get the needed Armor bypass along with even higher Doublestrike. You would need to slot Bluff onto one of your Slaver's items, but could be worth the 2 Assassinate DC loss.

[redoubt]

I personally don't think Imp Deception is worth losing Armor bypass for. Imp Deception is not nearly important as it used to be:

- It no longer turns mobs, losing that survival boost. (Though I think that is for the better as turning raid bosses is a bad thing)
- Improved Feint was seriously buffed making it a worthwhile feat and a strong way to apply an AOE bluff
- Shiv is another application that can last up to 6s

Okay, thank you... I'd been watching for it and just thought I wasn't seeing it or that they were going back and back again fast enough that they did not animate properly.

I do use shiv a lot and occasionally assassin's trick. I was able to solo severlin in the party and get sneak about 75% of the time.

I've not used feint. I'll have to take a look at it.

That does open up a lot of options if I no longer need to worry about deception....

[redoubt]

The list of rings I'd think would be better is pretty long... though if you are indeed struggling to get your SA qualifications, it makes sense. If you are consistently qualified (be it weapon procs, partying, etc), drop it immediately as you're just burning a slot for no gain.


An option I just thought of would be to slot Assassinate instead of Doublestrike on your Trinket, and then you could roll with Molten Silver Gauntlets to get the needed Armor bypass along with even higher Doublestrike. You would need to slot Bluff onto one of your Slaver's items, but could be worth the 2 Assassinate DC loss.

I'm not ready to count on the raid gear just yet. I've only run baba twice and that on my cleric. I'm just about to start ravenloft content with my assassin.

But I do have the legendary ring of prowess. The deadly is duplicated, but the accuracy is 28 which is 5 higher than I could craft and with the +dex we swapped I'll end up with about the same to hit overall, even without the I-accuracy. That lets me put armor pierce onto the SL ring2. Then I get +8 melee power. I don't see that show up many places and you can't craft it.

Armor Pierce
28 SLring2
25 Artifact (avenger set)
15 Grim Precision
68
25 assassin's trick temp
93

Double Strike
17 cannith trinket
10 I-double lore -fueled
15 Artifact (avenger set)
9 martial past life x3
5 perfect twf
3 shadow training 4
5 knife specialist
5 celerity
69
20 Killer and rapid slash both morale (I expect with both things, I can keep one going at all times, but they don't appear to stack.)
89
10 coins (when this happens to proc, i'll be within 1 of cap)
99

20 offhand doublestrike.

[DrawingGuy]

Prowess is a strong option for the Accuracy and 8 Melee Power. Power gave alacrity and insightful bypass. Nightfall ring gives Ins Deadly and Ins INT boosting your trapping skills and making it a single swap if you use KtA (Phasecloak being a perfect one as you'd then have 19/9/4 to INT when you use KtA or need to boost Disable/Search). Keylock could be used for passive trapping skills. Or you could move your Slavers crafted from Neck to Ring and then open up that slot.

Doing Slaver's ring to free up necklace would give you access to Shroud of Ardent for Heal Amp to better fit Echo of Ravenloft. Also LGS could give you 128 unconcious range along with +11/6 DEX skills if you're an Ethereal build to stack on more Hide to SA -- or any other number of splits. Giving up goggles too would open up an Opposition HP combo (trip neg and trip pos being a nice combo).

There's no shortage of options... there's a reason I can spend hours planning out my characters.

[Shadow_Jumper]

Gear:
Head: Legendary Executioner's Helm
Goggles: Legendary Greensteel 3x opposition
Armor: Legendary Mist-laden Vestment
Bracers: Legendary Lore-fueled Packbanner
Ring 1: Legendary Ring of Prowess
Boots: Legendary Greensteel 3x opposition
Gloves: Molten Silver
Ring 2: Cannith Crafted Insightful Assassination
Belt: Legendary Braided Cutcord
Cloak: Legendary Shadowhail Cloak
Trinket: Cannith Crafted Assassination and Insightful Dexterity
Necklace: Slave Lords Sheltering/Deception/Quality PRR


I’ve made some changes but they’re slight. With a second dagger set slotted for assassinate dc (4x treachery, and 3x Dex filigrees) I can hit standing 100 dc in reaper (with assassination weapon and knifepalm swap). Or 90-95 without. My main weapon set obviously has prowess filigree set + 2x treachery for threat reduction and MP.

Only thing that I really need right now is reaper on the helm, but who doesn’t?

EDIT: I have legendary phasecloak and nightfall ring as swaps for when buffing KtA.

[Gilga1]

Gear:
Head: Legendary Executioner's Helm
Goggles: Legendary Greensteel 3x opposition
Armor: Legendary Mist-laden Vestment
Bracers: Legendary Lore-fueled Packbanner
Ring 1: Legendary Ring of Prowess
Boots: Legendary Greensteel 3x opposition
Gloves: Molten Silver
Ring 2: Cannith Crafted Insightful Assassination
Belt: Legendary Braided Cutcord
Cloak: Legendary Shadowhail Cloak
Trinket: Cannith Crafted Assassination and Insightful Dexterity
Necklace: Slave Lords Sheltering/Deception/Quality PRR

Hi, actually I’m leveling a shadarkai rogue assassin vistani to play in high skulls reaper (dex based, KtA, no assassinate but assassin capstone and tier 5).

Do you consider LGS opposition mandatory? I estimate 2000+ hp at cap (and +1000 temp from LGS Affirmation).

Hereunder the setup I planned (Silent Avenger, Adherent, 3 Slave Lords Might):

Helm: Legendary Executioner's Helm
Necklace: Slave Lords (Intelligence +17, Accuracy +28, Stunning +22, Quality Constitution +4)
Goggles: Legendary Negotiator's Spectacles (Van Richten's Spectacles in LD)
Trinket: Echo of Ravenkind
Armor: Light Legendary Mist Laden Vestment
Cloak: The Invisible Cloak of Strahd (Legendary Shadowhail Cloak in LD)
Wrist: Legendary Lore-Fueled Packbannes
Belt: Legendary Braided Cutcord
Gloves: Molten Silver Gauntlets
Ring: Legendary Ring of Power
Ring: Legendary Ring of Nightfall
Boots: CC (Dodge +15%, Diversion +31, Insightful Dexterity +7)
Weapons: Pain & Suffering (LGS Ice x2 and LGS Affirmation as swap)
Sentient: Prowess 5 + Treachery 2

Thanks for advice.

[Shadow_Jumper]

Hi, actually I’m leveling a shadarkai rogue assassin vistani to play in high skulls reaper (dex based, KtA, no assassinate but assassin capstone and tier 5).

Do you consider LGS opposition mandatory? I estimate 2000+ hp at cap (and +1000 temp from LGS Affirmation).

Hereunder the setup I planned (Silent Avenger, Adherent, 3 Slave Lords Might):

Helm: Legendary Executioner's Helm
Necklace: Slave Lords (Intelligence +17, Accuracy +28, Stunning +22, Quality Constitution +4)
Goggles: Legendary Negotiator's Spectacles (Van Richten's Spectacles in LD)
Trinket: Echo of Ravenkind
Armor: Light Legendary Mist Laden Vestment
Cloak: The Invisible Cloak of Strahd (Legendary Shadowhail Cloak in LD)
Wrist: Legendary Lore-Fueled Packbannes
Belt: Legendary Braided Cutcord
Gloves: Molten Silver Gauntlets
Ring: Legendary Ring of Power
Ring: Legendary Ring of Nightfall
Boots: CC (Dodge +15%, Diversion +31, Insightful Dexterity +7)
Weapons: Pain & Suffering (LGS Ice x2 and LGS Affirmation as swap)
Sentient: Prowess 5 + Treachery 2

Thanks for advice.

Would say 2 is enough. I have 1600 hp in reaper without the set bonus right now, if that 2k is without it LGS then I’m curious how you got it that high.

Though the biggest issue I may have is your decision to not take assassinate. Assassinate is huge in high skull reaper, and by not taking it you are pigeonholing yourself needlessly, as you say, you are taking assassin capstone. Assassinate gains power the more difficult content you do. IE; nobody cares if you assassinate 2 mobs on r1 cuz r1 is roflstomp difficulty. But on r10 a well timed assassinate on a champion or a mage or two can be huge.

[Bolo_Grubb]

This is what I am using

Goggles: Crafted, seeker +15, True Seeing, Insightful Seeker +7, yellow slot blindness immunity
Head: Legendary Green Steel, Hit points and Dex skills on all 3 tiers, +70 hit points, +39 to balance, Hide, Move silently, Open lock, tumble
Neck: Crafted: Heal +22, Natural Armor +15, Insightful Constitution +7, green slot good luck +2
Trinket: Crafted Double Strike +17, Heal Amp +61, Insightful Assassinate +3
Cloak: Invisible cloak of Strahd Invis Guard, Nightmare guard, Deception +17, magical Sheltering +52, Green slot Draconic soul gem, Blue slot True imperial blood
Belt: Braided Cutcord, Quality Dodge +4% Blurry, Dex +19, Quality Dex +4, Green Slot Water breathing
Ring: Crafted Balanc +22, protection +12, Ins Dex +7, Green Slot Power +250
Ring: Ring of Nightfall, Insightful Int +9, Insightful Deadly +7, Reflex +16, Physical Sheltering +50, Green Slot Festive Int +2
Gauntlets: KnifePalm, Assassinate +9, Bluff +22, Deadly +16, Insightful Diversion +15, Yellow Slot Sonic resist +40
Boots: Boots of blessed travels, Dodge +12%, Quality Amror Mastery +2, Speed XV, Freedom, Insightful Reflex +3, Green Slot Fear immunity, Yellow slot Feather fall
Bracers: Slave Lord crafted, Constitution +17, Resist +14, Spott +22, Quality Constitution +4
Armor: Mist Laden Vestments, Fortification +202%, Physical Sheltering +50, parrying +9, Profane Well Rounded +2, Green Slot False Life +40

Main weapons:
Pain Half of the whole with sentient gem, Long Shadow 5 piece set, 2 piece sucker punch set
Suffering Half of the whole

At level 30 i have
Hit points: 1633
AC: 165
Dodge: 43%
PRR: 133
MRR: 80
Double Strike: 56.16%
Melee Power: 158
Assassinate: 101

[Gilga1]

Would say 2 is enough. I have 1600 hp in reaper without the set bonus right now, if that 2k is without it LGS then I’m curious how you got it that high.

2k without LGS. +20/+9/+4/+2/+1 Constitution from equip and reaper points.

Though the biggest issue I may have is your decision to not take assassinate. Assassinate is huge in high skull reaper, and by not taking it you are pigeonholing yourself needlessly, as you say, you are taking assassin capstone. Assassinate gains power the more difficult content you do. IE; nobody cares if you assassinate 2 mobs on r1 cuz r1 is roflstomp difficulty. But on r10 a well timed assassinate on a champion or a mage or two can be huge.

Maybe you right. Though the investment is one point only, assassinate imho requires some effort to reach a minimum useful DC. Usually I play with capable casters who instantkill all the mobs without DW, so I'm planning to focus on dps only. Idk... and my Dex will be not so high, around 94-96 I think.

[Shadow_Jumper]

2k without LGS. +20/+9/+4/+2/+1 Constitution from equip and reaper points.



Maybe you right. Though the investment is one point only, assassinate imho requires some effort to reach a minimum useful DC. Usually I play with capable casters who instantkill all the mobs without DW, so I'm planning to focus on dps only. Idk... and my Dex will be not so high, around 94-96 I think.

Depends on what you’re looking for I guess. But without assassinate you are simply a less survivable tempest that doesn’t have DoD. Assassinate is good in high skulls, and your Dex is fine for a decent DC. Since you have stunning items on SL I presume you focus more on Dire Chrge then. With the number of builds that take dire charge I find I have no need for it as I’m usually running with 1 or 2 dire charge builds all the time. Assassinate gives a different ability to the group than dire charge imo and diversity is useful in r10