[Ninjitsu] Is assassin a viable template?

[imperterritus]

I have a ninja character who is not very far along, and I was thinking of how I might want to develop him. The idea of an assassin comes to mind, with the following template:

120: Fencing
100: Ninjitsu, Hiding
90: Tactics, Stealth
80: Poisoning
70: Healing, Anatomy

I'd aim for jewelry which would bump up Healing a bit, and he would have dexterity at 100 or greater. Any comments?

 

[imperterritus]

Looking thru my inventory, Zeke has two mini-arties which might help a lot.

Burglar's Bandana
* Snooping, Stealth, Stealing -- all +10
* Dexterity Bonus +5
* Physical 10
* Fire 5
* Cold 7
* Poison 10
* Energy 10
* Durability 255 / 255

Fang of Ractus (Replica)
* Hit Poison Area 20%
* Spell Channeling
* Hit Chance Increase 5%
* Defense Chance Increase 5%
* Damage Increase 35%
* Poison Resist 15%
* Physical Damage 100%
* Weapon Damage 10-12
* Weapon Speed 2s
* Durability 150 / 150
(has same special attacks as kryss, infectious strike at 90 fencing)

They don't help healing, but they seem to fit assassin-wise.

 

[mjolnir131]

what posioning is needed to hit the secondary skill on a weapon? if your just going to use pisioned weapons do you need tact that high? maybe 70 for primary.

 

[northwoodschopper]

assassins have always been very viable, though it requires guile and different tactics. is this for pvp or pvm?

pvp - you'll be focusing on stacking as much damage as possible at once. you'll be shooting to do round 150 damage through 70 resists in a little under 2 seconds. think glass cannon tactics. don't expect to fair well against a group, assassins are a one-mark deal.

pvm - while not nearly as effective as other classes, assassin pvmers can lethal poison and bleed foes into submission fairly fast, and shadow strike back into stealth mode with impunity, shadow jumping to safety against area effect spammers. slow and methodical.

 

[imperterritus]

Thanks, guys. The character will be mainly for PvM, but having effective PvP skills is always a plus. Poisoning skill at 80 lets me apply it without ever getting poisoned myself.

I know a ninja can use shurikan and fukiya darts to apply poison at its native strength, without requiring the Poisoning skill. With that skill at 80, though, would those delivery methods bump the poison level by 1 as it does for the Infectious Strike special attack?

 

[Connor_Graham]

Poisoning is a total waste of time and skill points in PvM. Most monsters, or at least ones worth fighting, will just cure themselves instantly and repeatedly.

 

[NickyDishes]

the whole template is a waste for pvm. go pvp

 

[Taylor]

Agree with Chopper, Connor, and Nicky: assassin is not well suited for PvM. An assassin is about a quick burst of damage. A burst of damage, plus the element of surprise, plus lethal poison can lead to the quick end of a player with 150 hp. Conversely, a monster typically has a great deal more hp, and after your initial attack, you're standing in front of a monster with a melee weapon and only mirror image to parry.

Pretty fun for PvP, though!

 

[northwoodschopper]

i thought most monsters have a hard time curing lethal poison, at least the ones that aren't outright immune to it. of course, champs, new creatures, and peerless have high enough magery that they almost never fail at a cure.

poisoning could've been more fun if the devs would allow for a greater range of effects that poisons could have, like lowering resists, or stats. darkglow and parasitic poisons were underwhelming, although parasitic poison with the right template grants very nice health.

 

[Connor_Graham]

i thought most monsters have a hard time curing lethal poison, at least the ones that aren't outright immune to it.

I've never seen any monster that you'd want to actually use poison on stay poisoned for very long. Then you have those whose poison resist is so high the lethal poison doesn't do enough damage to justify using a charge on them. Of course there are a few that it would work just fine on, but they're so few in number it's really not worth wasting the skill points. You'd be better off using a wep with Bleed or Mortal as a special as those can't be cured and aren't affected by resists for the most part. Honestly, the only reason you'd want to use poison in PvM is to stop them from healing, as the damage from poison would be negligible, which can easily be accomplished with several different specials.