Reaper Endgame centered Assassin

Tronko

Well-known member
For the past few months, I have been playing a Rogue Assassin. Initially, I wasn't completely convinced, but I was wrong. It's a really fun playstyle, with solid single target damage and the ability to clear quests easily with some tricks. It's exceptional defensively, and assassinate is very effective.

Although I am not a big fan of Two-Weapon Fighting and prefer the mobility of other styles, TWF is definitely a valid choice for a rogue. The ability to assassinate two targets at once is a great advantage, and it deals higher damage against single targets. Vs groups, Lotus with stun upgrade and chains is solid.

Regarding the build, perfection doesn't exist, and choices need to be made. I chose to make my assassin Dex-based since I wanted to play the Assassin to assassinate ;)

Here’s a screenshot of my stats in reaper (self buffed).

Shadar-kai Rogue 20, SD (39) GmoF (23) LD (11)

rZJgbXx.png


An Assassin build has comparatively lower melee power when compared to other top-tier DPS builds (even with Prowess swap on, I only reach 426). However, this is offset by sneak dice.

Other relevant numbers:
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Enhancements

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The entire Assassin tree is really strong, but you can't have it all unless you use KtA as a trance or give up 20% movement speed. However, I wanted both assassinate and an area stun that could work even in the toughest content, and Dex wins vs Int.
Assassin's T5 is fabulous, and it's a T5 where you would want to take everything.
Measure the Foe is essential (30 mp, 10 dodge, 5 assassinate DC, 5 to hit), also because it's extremely easy to keep up, just click it before it expires. Knife Specialization is 4 critical units, another must-have, as well as Assassinate if you want to be an assassin :sneaky:
The choice for me was between the hp of Light Armor Mastery and Deadly Strike (which is also very strong). I chose hp for an easier life, but both choices are valid. Of course, you can have both if you give up the Dex trance. Basically, the trade-off is higher tactics DC vs more dps (when Deadly strike is applied).


Feats

TWF line, IC, Precision, Spring Attack line, Nimble Fingers, Improved Sneak Attack, OC, PTWF, Doublestrike, Crush Weakness, Harbinger of Chaos, Scion of Ethereal Plane.


Epic Destinies

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Unfortunately, there is no ideal solution for destinies. Shadowdancer is great for a stealth-playing assassin, but its T5 is terrible. It's not just bad, it really sucks.
Also, Dire Charge is unplayable, and to get Lotus, you have to spend 23 points in Grandmaster of Flowers.
While playing a stealth assassin, I don't like to give up Shadowdancer's mantle: sneak speed and 75% concealment, very underrated in my opinion. Plus 15% helpless if you invest in T4.
In the end, I tried various setups, including ones without T5 (T4 and Core 4 in SD, GMoF, and Fotw), and the one that satisfies me the most is Shadowdancer T5, Grandmaster of Flowers T4, and Legendary Dreadnought Core 3.
However, it depends on who you play with. You can sacrifice action boosts and some DCs for spot healing, using DC (Smite for healing support and Crusade between fights) or US as third tree.

Gear Setup

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Some considerations on gear... First off, 60 MRR... aaaaargh! I know, it's a bit frustrating, but I don't have mythic + reaper 5 melee power on Mind and Matter rings. Sad Panda.
My personal recommendation is always to base your gear choices on what you have available. For this particular gear set, I have melee power boosts on almost everything, which is great for maximizing DPS. The more melee power you have on items, the more DPS you can dish out!

Following is the gear breakdown.
V4EBnR2.png


Overall, I find this setup to be excellent as it maximizes all the key elements: Assassinate (+17+8 -Silver Tongue gives 8, not 7 as stated- +3), Stunning (+16 augment +5 Pendant), Deadly (Flameguard Lenses), Doublestrike (which isn't really an issue for a dagger rogue), Seeker (Tinkerer's Gloves), and Improved Deception, among others.
Although it's missing Quality Deception... you can't have everything.
The Raptor Teeth Necklace is fantastic and can be used as a swap.

For augment sets, I've opted for Cunning Impact (Dex) and Tough Shields (PRR), but MRR Cap is also a viable option that trades 30 PRR for 30 MRR. I usually try to survive with 60 MRR and use Crystalline Gauntlets as my first absorption swap, followed by trinkets.

As for weapons, I prefer to use Dino Daggers. Goldcursed is nice, but with a good Lotus, its use is really niche, in my opinion.
For filigrees, I use Sucker Punch/One Against Many x2, Treachery/Twilight's Cloak x2, Dreadbringer Melee Power x2, Dreadbringer Tactics x2, Dreadbringer Dex, Treachery Melee Power, Bravery Throughout/Shattered, Shattered Melee Power, Shattered Armor Piercing, and Shattered Attack and Damage as my base set.
Additionally, there are the sentient swaps, including Prowess (for action boosts) and Healing Amp (with LGS offhand), as well as the full Dex swap for trance, though I tend not to use it as I find it tedious when there's lag and I also have to scroll Tenser.


Pros
  • Assassinate. It's very enjoyable, with the potential to target two enemies per attempt. Based on my experience, 121 DC is enough.
  • Lotus. It's my favorite epic strike for TWF. It's fast and effective for both damage and crowd control, with no chance of failing the DC even in tough content. The highest DC I achieved is 147 with boosts and Ancient Tactics on... overkill. High 130s is more than enough.
  • Chains. TWF chains aren't as good as SWF chains, but they deal satisfactory damage against helpless mobs with a 53% damage bonus.
  • Damage avoidance. Impressive 75% concealment, along with 41% Dodge + Improved Meld and Improved Uncanny. Sky-high Reflexes as well. Unfortunately, Jaunt and From the Shadows share the same cooldown, I have Spring Attack too.
  • Sneaky. Fast stealth movement speed, very high Hide and Move Silently, Hide in Plain Sight, and up to 47d6 Sneak Attack damage.
  • Some unique debuffs. Bring Darkness and Shadow Loss are great if other party members don't provide them.
  • Traps. Obviously.
  • Balanced. Even though it's not optimized for raiding (it can be adjusted to take T5 LD, etc.) and not the best build for blasting through quests, I think this assassin build can perform well in any situation, with good single target DPS, and Lotus and chains for groups.
Cons
  • Tenser. You always have to scroll Tenser. The duration of 1:06 is quite annoying.
  • Healing and self-healing. If you want to heal others or yourself, it's better to sacrifice LD and take DC/US as the third tree. It depends on who you play with...
  • TWF. Pros (single target DPS while standing still), but also cons. The mobility of other styles is often missed, even though Lotus and Chains are helpful.
  • Capped MRR. If you don't pay attention, you can get obliterated in some situations. But you can live with it. If you don't like 60 at all, you can easily reach 90 by changing augment sets or gear.
  • Epic Moment. There's no need to beat around the bush, Shadow Mastery as an epic moment is pretty terrible, especially when compared to Action Hero.
  • No rages. Playing a melee without investing in FotW, without Blood Feast, Unquenchable Rage, etc., is still bewildering to me 😅
Feel free to ask for more information.
 
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Riffolk

Member
Any chance you tried Embodiment of Law (instead of Harbinger) and T5 Crusader? I'd be interested to hear your take on the differences.
 

Tronko

Well-known member
Hi Tronko. Any issues with lack of Ki and drifting lotus or are you able to regenerate it fast enough?

Hey there! No way, regenerating Ki for a melee character is a breeze. With just 55, you have more than enough for Lotus (which costs 20), and Lotus itself restores Ki when you land hits. It's impossible to run out of Ki.


Any chance you tried Embodiment of Law (instead of Harbinger) and T5 Crusader? I'd be interested to hear your take on the differences.

Hey! In my opinion, Crusader's T5 is very lackluster. Law of the Divine is trash-tier and it seems to scale with only 100% melee/ranged power instead of 200%.
Shadowdancer's T5 is also very underwhelming, but at least SD has a lot of other benefits.
Generally speaking, DC has little to offer. The mantle is often used to achieve maximum BAB when other options are too complex. Crusade is an excellent buff, but I believe it works better on debuffers than on DPS toons because sacrificing a good epic strike for Consecration (such as Adrenaline) is a big deal. Personally, I don't mind Divine Smite, as it can come in handy with Consecration if no one is healing, which sometimes happens.
 

Hammatimes

Well-known member
Thanks for sharing the build, does the invisibility guard augment stack with ethereal? And is the int gearing just for trapping?
 

Tronko

Well-known member
Thanks for sharing the build, does the invisibility guard augment stack with ethereal? And is the int gearing just for trapping?

Hey there! That's a great question. I'm hoping they have independent procs, but I'm not entirely certain about that. Regarding Intelligence, you are absolutely right. It's just for skills so, with just one LGS item swap, I'm good to go.
 

Jack Jarvis Esquire

Well-known member
Hey Tronko, thanks for sharing your build. Looks great. 👍

I see you mentioned the raptor teeth necklace as a good swap item, is that for the epic bloodrage procs, and if so what is your experience of it's proc rate and duration?

I'm wondering if it's worth trying to build it in to a thf build, either as a swap or permanent item, but haven't farmed it yet... 🤔
 

Tronko

Well-known member
I see you mentioned the raptor teeth necklace as a good swap item, is that for the epic bloodrage procs, and if so what is your experience of it's proc rate and duration?

Hey! Imo, the raptor teeth necklace is a must-have for any melee class focused on clearing mobs. The duration of Enhanced Bloodrage is two minutes, and once you've obtained the proc, you can safely swap out the necklace for another one.
ILkxFaZ.png
 

Tronko

Well-known member
Would love to see a breakdown of Melee Power please.

There you go:

15 Assassin tree
30 Measure the foe
24 Dread Adversary
72 Epic/Legendary Power
5 Scion
55 ED cores
4 Tome
15 Artifact
15 Profane
10 Augment
62 Filigrees
39 Mythic/Reaper bonuses
-
50 Prowess Boost
-
30 Damage Boost
-
10 Enhanced Bloodrage
-
15 Potion
 

saekee

Well-known member
Doesn't the Enhanced bloodrage proc keep you from dropping into sneak? I was experimenting with the Dagger of the Liturgist that has the rage procs built-in and suffered this. Maybe changed?

One tradeoff to consider is taking only one rank in MtF. It means that it takes a long time to get the 5 stacks. However, for a soloist, that is not an issue, and in fast moving groups, you won't need them anyway or will lose them too quickly from meleeing CC'd mobs all the time.

Ying recommends Tier 5 DC but with Embodiment of Law feat; also adds the Power critical (and pre-req of weapon focus) to really boost his Seeker values offered in tier 4 of that tree: Purge the Wicked Bostoner, so you get +6 seeker and power critical's +2 for +8 total. With a good shatter like from the Rockslide ring you can make Cower knock out a group of mobs around you and then finish them off with the chain attack.

But Ying does not sneak at all! I think he said that he runs in groups that CC so his job is to bring in raw DPS on held mobs and bosses.


At level 20, the best epic strike is from Fatesinger, The Sword Sings: 3[W] +2 Critical Threat Range, Your weapon swings with the power of song, causing an additional 2d10 Sonic damage per character level that scales 200% with Melee Power. You gain a stack of Chords of Fate which lasts 30 seconds, stacks 3 times. Critical hits cause the target to be Stunned for 2 seconds, no save. Cooldown: 4 seconds. The cooldown of 4 seconds is insanely good; the stun procs often and the scaling damage from the sonic is out of this world. I find when first in epics that I prefer the Fatesinger mantle too as it gives temp hp and extra damage procs.: All your attacks and spells have a chance to cause a swirl of music notes to surround you causing 1d6 Sonic damage per level to all nearby foes. Scales with the highest of Sonic Spell Power or 200% Melee Power or Ranged Power. This will not damage Fascinated targets. When this occurs you gain 6 per character level temporary Hit Points for 10 seconds. Can only occur once every 10 seconds.
When I get to cap again I plan to experiment with Fatesinger more, will keep all posted, but would be curious to see your thoughts and results!

Remember when soloing assassinate to scroll Shadowwalk. You move faster and are displaced, assassinate does not break it.



On another note, until now the best results I have had with a stealthy assassin was splashing 3 swash and using a guardbreaking buckler; even reapers were getting dazed and quickly annihilated. I miss it. It did not proc sneak attack damage well but with the barb level thrown in, I was fast and invincible, and sneaking was even funner.

I do not have Isle of Dread and will not bother creating a level 32 item set since I know the devs will make it a relic with the next level cap increase to 35 or whatever, so I am not sure what to do.
 

Jack Jarvis Esquire

Well-known member
Thanks Tronko, duly farmed the necklace today. 😁👍

Now I just need to farm the other items to make my gear Tetris work! 😂

I do not have Isle of Dread and will not bother creating a level 32 item set since I know the devs will make it a relic with the next level cap increase to 35 or whatever, so I am not sure what to do.

FWIW, I considered this approach too Saekee, however I understand the next cap uplift is a year or more away, and even then the same logic will persist and will do for years to come until we hit 40...🙄

So I relented, and farmed a new gearset. YMMV of course! 😁👍
 

Ying

5000+ hours played
But Ying does not sneak at all! I think he said that he runs in groups that CC so his job is to bring in raw DPS on held mobs and bosses.
The people I play with regularly prefer to zerg through R10s, so there's no time to sneak up to a mob then Assassinate. The Reaper Assassin build I posted a couple of updates ago doubles down on helpless damage primarily because my Cower DC is good enough to affect Despair Reapers. The only time I sneak is when I'm disabling traps, primarily so I can do it unaccosted.

To be clear, there's nothing wrong with using Assassinate if that's your play style. It just isn't mine anymore.
I do not have Isle of Dread and will not bother creating a level 32 item set since I know the devs will make it a relic with the next level cap increase to 35 or whatever, so I am not sure what to do.
Legendary Shroud gear is still relevant today, and it's been around seven and a half years. The devs have done an amazing job of keeping most gear relevant. The flexibility with Dread gear will provide it a long life, similar to Legendary Shroud.
 
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Tronko

Well-known member
Doesn't the Enhanced bloodrage proc keep you from dropping into sneak? I was experimenting with the Dagger of the Liturgist that has the rage procs built-in and suffered this. Maybe changed?

No, absolutely not. Rage prevents you from entering sneak, Enhanced Bloodrage does not. Here's a screenshot.
7qEb3wf.png


One tradeoff to consider is taking only one rank in MtF. It means that it takes a long time to get the 5 stacks. However, for a soloist, that is not an issue, and in fast moving groups, you won't need them anyway or will lose them too quickly from meleeing CC'd mobs all the time.

Yes, it's a possibility. But if you play in a group or make a mistake and forget to renew it in time, recovering the 5 stacks in quests becomes impossible with only 1 rank.

Ying recommends Tier 5 DC but with Embodiment of Law feat; also adds the Power critical (and pre-req of weapon focus) to really boost his Seeker values offered in tier 4 of that tree: Purge the Wicked Bostoner, so you get +6 seeker and power critical's +2 for +8 total. With a good shatter like from the Rockslide ring you can make Cower knock out a group of mobs around you and then finish them off with the chain attack.

But Ying does not sneak at all! I think he said that he runs in groups that CC so his job is to bring in raw DPS on held mobs and bosses.

Everyone plays what they want. There are even melee players who use Sentinel's T5.
Law of the Divine with Embodiment of Law, which as I have already explained, is really, really, really bad. Try it in R10 and see how much damage you do...
Basically, melee dps have two options, which are FotW and LD. The monk also has GmoF as an option.
With the assassin, I made a different choice, but it's a thematic choice, and also investing so many points in Shadowdancer with the assassin makes sense to me. This doesn't mean that the Shadowdancer's T5 is not bad, of course. But still better than Divine Crusader. Try Shadow Mastery in stealth and see how fast you move 😉

At level 20, the best epic strike is from Fatesinger, The Sword Sings: 3[W] +2 Critical Threat Range, Your weapon swings with the power of song, causing an additional 2d10 Sonic damage per character level that scales 200% with Melee Power. You gain a stack of Chords of Fate which lasts 30 seconds, stacks 3 times. Critical hits cause the target to be Stunned for 2 seconds, no save. Cooldown: 4 seconds. The cooldown of 4 seconds is insanely good; the stun procs often and the scaling damage from the sonic is out of this world. I find when first in epics that I prefer the Fatesinger mantle too as it gives temp hp and extra damage procs.: All your attacks and spells have a chance to cause a swirl of music notes to surround you causing 1d6 Sonic damage per level to all nearby foes. Scales with the highest of Sonic Spell Power or 200% Melee Power or Ranged Power. This will not damage Fascinated targets. When this occurs you gain 6 per character level temporary Hit Points for 10 seconds. Can only occur once every 10 seconds.
When I get to cap again I plan to experiment with Fatesinger more, will keep all posted, but would be curious to see your thoughts and results!

In the past, Fatesinger was a fantastic option for melee. Then they realized a couple of things... 🤣

On another note, until now the best results I have had with a stealthy assassin was splashing 3 swash and using a guardbreaking buckler; even reapers were getting dazed and quickly annihilated. I miss it. It did not proc sneak attack damage well but with the barb level thrown in, I was fast and invincible, and sneaking was even funner.

SWF with chains is great of course, as well as guardbreaking. It's something completely different tho, and I think the assassin performs best if played TWF. And I'm really not a fan of TWF as a style. ;)
 

Hammatimes

Well-known member
@Tronko, you mention that you suspect Law of the Divine to scale only with 100% MP and then say to test it out in R10.... is it possible it just seems low compared to sneak dice because it's getting hit by the caster R10 nerf or did you account for that already?

Edit since it's off topic: Tested out law of divine and it's scaling properly with 200% mp. It's likely getting hit with the same caster/imbue nerf in R10s though
 
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Tronko

Well-known member
The people I play with regularly prefer to zerg through R10s, so there's no time to sneak up to a mob then Assassinate.

Wow. Lucky you! My guildies are so slow that even when we play casual, I can assassinate all the mobs in the quest before they even leave the first room 😅

Jokes aside, I don't understand why assassinate is perceived as a 'slow thing.' Stealthy + mantle gives you decent movement, and you have three jumps (Jaunt puts From the Shadows on cooldown, right. But if you use them in reverse order, you only have a 3-second cooldown on Jaunt). And then with Shadow Mastery, you have 30 seconds of warp speed. To use assassinate, you just need to move close to the mobs and click to remove two. Of course, Assassinate has a 12-second cooldown compared to Quivering Palm, but it's a 2x1. The monk runs faster, but not everyone is a monk.

@Tronko, you mention that you suspect Law of the Divine to scale only with 100% MP and then say to test it out in R10.... is it possible it just seems low compared to sneak dice because it's getting hit by the caster R10 nerf or did you account for that already?

Idk, I tested it long time ago and the damage was trash tier.
 

Ying

5000+ hours played
I don't understand why assassinate is perceived as a 'slow thing.'
When people in your group have 45% sprint boost + wings, it's a race to get to a mob pack before it's dead.

Law of the Divine with Embodiment of Law, which as I have already explained, is really, really, really bad. Try it in R10 and see how much damage you do
Beckon Divinity is the MVP in the tree for high skull push raids. Law of the Divine is just icing at that point. I'm too lazy to respec EDs between raids and quests, especially when R10 quest mobs already die so fast.
 

Tronko

Well-known member
I'm always in favor of flavor builds, so an assassin who doesn't assassinate, plays as DC to resurrect allies and takes wings from EA would probably be something I'd like as well 😅
 

Thulsadoom

Well-known member
There you go:

15 Assassin tree
30 Measure the foe
24 Dread Adversary
72 Epic/Legendary Power
5 Scion
55 ED cores
4 Tome
15 Artifact
15 Profane
10 Augment
62 Filigrees
39 Mythic/Reaper bonuses
-
50 Prowess Boost
-
30 Damage Boost
-
10 Enhanced Bloodrage
-
15 Potion
 
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