Have had a few people asking questions about how to play as an assassin (sin) recently so will put some thoughts and ideas of my own down here on what I think it is to sin.
There are many different ways to build a sin:
Medium armor or Heavy armor
Crit or Base damage
PvP or PvE
My current build and what I work with mostly is a medium armor, base damage, PvE sin. This build works great for PvE and even though it is built for that is fun (at least for me) in PvP too.
Attribute points
No matter the build, in my opinion, I would always put all attribute points into melee. The reason behind this is, half of a sins damage output comes through bleeds/DoTs and the higher your base melee attack power is, the higher those bleeds would be. Some people add focus into their attributes for a crit sin, but this will reduce the effectiveness of DoTs as they do not crit. You can build up enough crit through gems/talents for a good crit build, but its best to have that nice base melee AP there.
Beginners guide/Leveling guide.
I have leveled my main char as a sin through 99% of the content solo (except dungeons) the 1% I didnt do were a few bosses with adds that I couldn't control on my own (probably completely possible, but at the time I didnt put effort into it). So it is possible to level, and even grind as a sin.
For gear, you dont really need dungeon gear until you get to EoC and want to tackle the ascended dungeons and ICC. However, I Highly recommend you get into as much dungeons as possible (not story mode) throughout your leveling so you get a feel for it and know what to do come EoC. The random pickups you get will be fine to level with. As you are playing a sin, you will want two 1H weapons (make sure you dont equip a ranger dagger as they give range bonus instead of melee) and a throwing weapon.
As this is my build, I would also be equipping medium armor to get the most out of these talents.
So this is how I would build a sin from the start (lvl 5 is when you get your first talent point):
Talent (from talent tree)
Skill (from trainer)
Lvl 1 Learn Lacerate.
Lvl 5 Learn Rupture and Redemption from trainer.
Lvl 5,6,7 Dual Wield Mastery.
Lvl 8 Learn Sear, Lethal Concoction, Taunt and Serenity from trainer.
Lvl 8,9 Corrosion.
Lvl 10,11 Devastating Impact.
Lvl 12 Haste
Lvl 13,14 Concoction Mastery
Lvl 14 Learn Frozen Spires and Cauterize from trainer.
Lvl 15,16,17 Watch Your Step
Lvl 18 Vicious Poison (1 point only)
Lvl 19,20,21 Serrated Edge
Lvl 22,23 Evasion
Lvl 24 Swift Stride
Lvl 25 Phantom
Lvl 25 Learn Blind and Despair from trainer.
Lvl 26,27 Shock Trauma
Lvl 28 Swiftness
Lvl 29 Blood Thirst
Lvl 30 Hunger for Blood
Lvl 31 Lobotomize
Lvl 32 Feel No Pain
Lvl 33,34 Massacre
Lvl 35 Soul Fire
At this point you will have reached the end of the assassin tree and have a solid build for grinding. This would be the base of any of my medium sin builds regardless of whether it was crit or base damage based.
After that, make sure at 40 and 45 you try to pickup the new trainer skills (Concealed and Torture), I know they are expensive, but they are worth it.
Continuing to level (as my current build) I would do the following.
Lvl 36 Eclipse
Lvl 37,38 Slice and Dice
Lvl 39 Genocide
Lvl 40,41 Shadow Stirke
Lvl 42 Endurance (1 point only)
Lvl 43,44 Jolt
Lvl 45,46 Exposed
Lvl 47,48 Ambidexterous
Lvl 49 Deft Strikes (1 point only, if I keep this build and no new talents are added, would get second point at lvl 50)
So that is my Pure Medium Armor Sin build, and how I would do it from the start of the game. (see full build here on talent theory)
Now that we have read about the build, a bit on how to play it.
Levelling (solo play)
For the first 13 levels you may feel underpowered if you get swamped by many mobs, this is because sins aren't known for their AoE attacks. The only really effective one you have up to this point will be lethal concoction, so use that well if you are in trouble. Up to this point there should be no real issue with any single target so just make sure if you are having a tough time to pull them off one by one with a ranged attack and then when they come close (away from the group) use your melee attacks.
Once you hit level 14 and get Frozen Spires is when you can start grinding. This skill relies on you casting it on mobs, and then moving, if they then chase you it will damage them. Even more so when you upgrade it. So, test it out by gathering a small group, get them to chase you so they all gather together, stop, then cast it on them and move off again. Run a little way and then throw your Lethal Concoction on the ground underneath you. When they run onto the LC you can start your normal melee attacks.
Keep working on that, and as you get more talents you can make it work better, especially Swift Stride (Phantom) so you can dodge them better and Shock Trauma for the damage boost. When you get Shock Trauma, all you have to do is change the start of this method so that when they gather you use Blind, then Spires, then run.
Once you have maxed Shock Trauma, Watch Your Step, Lethal Concoction and Swift Stride. You can grind (clear) any area of normal mobs with ease using this method, provided you don't stand in the middle of them too long.
Bosses (solo play)
Bosses in solo play can be tough, but they are a nice challenge and with a bit of thought you can get through them.
The main thing to remember with sins is that half their damage comes from bleeds, so keep them up. The main one you need to keep up is your lacerated stacks, which come from Lacerate. These stacks increase DoT with each addition to the stack, so a stack of 5 will be doing 5x the amount of damage a stack of one is doing. So letting your stacks slip can be painful.
To make sure they dont slip, use Lacerate as your main attack in your skill rotation, split with Rupture and Sear those 3 DoT skills will be a great starter to any boss. Make sure to keep throwing LC on the ground to add yet another DoT.
Also, as you are in solo play, you can use Spires to great effect against bosses as you can run and get some breathing space, while adding some nice damage.
Dungeons (group play)
Your biggest friend (and it will also make you friends) in group dungeons is Shock Trauma. It is a must have and must use for all sins. It will boost the damage of everyone by 20% so use it as often as possible.
That being said, it is also good to learn the timings of the people you play with regularly so that you can time Shock Trauma with their big hitting attacks too.
Apart from shock trauma, during dungeons sins will do what they can during AoE groups, but then shine during bosses. Make sure you keep your Lacerated stacks up and do the same thing as in solo play, keep bleeding the boss. If the boss has adds, the AoE guys can pick them up, you keep bleeding boss. If there are no AoE guys, you may have to get the adds if the Tank/Healer need you to, but otherwise you keep bleeding that boss.
In group play, you shouldnt really be using spires at all as it relies on mob movement, and the only time mobs move is when the tank is pulling. If you use spires then - You. Will. Die. There are of course a few exceptions to this with some bosses, but until you know that, dont use it.
Other helpful hints
- As with most classes, using potions at the right time can be all the difference between winning and death. Make sure before you go out to do whatever it is you;re doing you get the right potions.
- Use the Shadow Strike bonus in PvE with your big hitting attacks (Lobotomize and Torture) to deal some nice damage.
- If you are about to use Soul Fire, you can use your big hitting skills which you may have been saving for some reason as they will be reset when you soul fire.
- Before a solo pull use swift stride to boost your dodge.
- For PvP you can chain together some skills (like other classes) before the CC Immunity buff comes on. Learn to utilize this well.
Some other builds
Coming soon...
TL:DR
Shock Trauma
Stab Repeatedly
Dodge
Edited by ernzor, 09 September 2015 - 04:54.
