[CLASS BUILD] Vorpal, The Quiet Executioner – Assassin Devoted with Amra 2H Axe - Solo PotD
Class: Assassin/Devoted (technically Amra gives you 2 Barbarian-like abilities that will proc in almost every fight, so this is more an Assassin/Devoted/Mini-Barb!)
Concept: Very synergistic mix of stealth and melee dealing high damage and CC to multiple targets. Can be crudely summarized in 6 words: Clear Out With Amra From Stealth. This is a No-Rest build.
Game Version: RTwP. Works with latest updates and DLCs as of v5.0.00040. I recommend the Full Community Patch and the No Forced Rests mod (otherwise just metagame around them, it’s fully viable but just a bit annoying).
PotD Solo Viable: Yes. However be advised that you will NOT be able to best Hauani o Whe… at least not without a lot of tedium and RNG luck involved. Not that it really matters to this build anyway.
Companion: Nope (meant to be played solo by definition). Maybe Edér could approximate but he would be noticeably weaker.
As always, this is going to be a somewhat long post so please bear with me. I’ll explain briefly why I think this toon is interesting, go over the specs and key abilities, and detail some useful strategies throughout the game.
-----INTRO------
I won’t bore you with my long thought process on trying to build a strong solo melee MC Assassin, but I’ll just explain why I ultimately landed with this one and why I find it interesting enough to share with the community:
It is one of a few melee glass cannon builds that is viable to play solo on PotD. Also one of a few strong MC Assassin combinations that is neither a ranged weapon user nor a spellcaster.
It makes optimal use of the 2-handed Axe Amra, which is a super cool weapon obtainable very early, but that can be somewhat hard to build around effectively.
It is very synergistic: the end result is noticeably stronger than the sum of its parts. You start with a typical Fighter/Thief archetype, but you end up with a cloaked meat grinder from Hel.
It has a very fun playstyle, feeling both very dynamic and powerful. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll have very few reloads. Tearing groups of enemies apart with a well-placed Clear Out leaving sturdy opponents prone with half their health missing while you turn invisible for a second round is some of the most fun I’ve had in melee with this game.
Before going through the specs, I’ll just mention a couple more things:
Devoted is optimal here in combination with Assassin + Amra and other items because together they concentrate a lot of goodies that are important to this build: on one hand piling up a ton of Accuracy, (Crit) Damage, Penetration and Sneak Attack/Deathblows-enabling Afflictions to kill very fast and on the other hand having Invisibility, Crowd Control and lots of passive Healing to stay alive. The downsides are almost nonexistent because: you can still use other weapons with pretty good accuracy if needed, there are very few enemies strictly immune to Slash DMG and you can punch through virtually any Slash AR. Plus as a backup before getting Amra, Devoted bonuses also apply to your fists (hello Monastic Unarmed Training).
It has been said before but for those who are wondering: Assassin builds can somewhat counter-intuitively benefit more from a high DMG 2-hander than from dual-wielding, even if most of their offensive abilities are full attacks - and this build is another one to prove it. This is mostly because of stealth and recovery mechanics and how they work with initiating combat, but also because in our case we will use a lot a certain Fighter ability (Clear Out) that is a primary attack anyway.
-----SPECS------
Race: Aumaua (Coastal probably optimal, doesn’t matter too much)
Background: The White that Wends – Hunter
FINAL STATS WITH ALL PERMABUFFS AND NO-REST BUFFS AS OF 5.0 (without combat buffs):
MIG 30 (18 Base +2 Aumaua +2 Berath +1 Gift from Machine +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Hot Razor Skewers +2 Woedica’s Strangling’s Grasp +1 Chameleon’s Touch)
CON 10 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Konstanten Boon +1 Upright Captain’s Belt)
DEX 23 (16 Base +1 Chameleon’s Touch +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Guile +2 Amira’s Blessing
PER 28 (18 Base +1 White that Wends +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +1 Effigy: Sagani +2 Alchemic Guile +1 Savage Cunning +1 Cauldron Brew +1 Ajamuut)
INT 24 (17 Base +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Charm of Bones)
RES 11 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Nature’s Resolve +2 Rikuhu’s Blessing)
ADDITIONAL PERMABUFFS:
Food: Hot Razor Skewers
Adratic Glow
All Trainings
Dawnstar Blessing
Luminous Adra Potion
Nature’s Resolve (Accuracy)
Savage Cunning (Survival)
Galawain’s Gift x3 (Acc. against beasts)
Infamous Captain, Bonus Skills, Champion Stats, Port Maje vendor, Fully discovered Map, Bonus Money… invested all 105 Berath’s Blessing Points
SKILLS
This time counting all the bonuses and items I invested to have 13 Athletics, 13 Mechanics, 12 Stealth, 12 Diplomacy, 18 Survival, base + bonuses on others). Temporary focus on Arcana as needed to steamroll certain big end-game DLC fights.
----- ABILITIES ------
ASSASSIN (+GENERAL)
Crippling Strike, Backstab, Fast Runner, Smoke Veil, Blinding Strike, Dirty Fighting, Two Handed, Arterial Strike, Gouging Strike, Combat Focus, Persistent Distraction, Tough, Uncanny Luck, Deep Wounds, Improved Critical, Deathblows.
DEVOTED
Disciplined Barrage, Warrior Stance, Disciplined Strikes, Rapid Recovery, Weapon Specialization, Conquerer Stance, Unbending, Armored Grace, Clear Out, Unbending Trunk, Weapon Mastery.
OPTIONAL/SITUATIONAL
Until you get Amra, you should go Monastic Unarmed Training and 2 weapon style.
The Rogue’s Deep Pocket is helpful if you temporarily switch to Arcana-heavy to remove a bump in the road with a barrage of scrolls.
I will comment on those choices in Strategies further below. Note that I have tested a lot of the other passive/offensive abilities and none seemed to bring a lot of additional power or utility - happy to discuss though!
-----GEAR------
Weapon Set 1: Amra! Mythic, Wanton Gore, Tempered Fury.
Weapon Set 2: Nothing critical here but I like to keep handy Oathbreaker’s End, Magran’s Favor, Slayer’s Claw, The Red Hand, Dragon’s Dowry...
Head: Helm of the Falcon. Keep handy Acina’s Tricorn.
Neck: Charm of Bones. Keep handy a couple Fireball Necklaces for fun with Boeroer’s stacking trick.
Chest: Devil of Caroc! Mythic, Heart of Bronze, Devil’s Due. With permabuffs, it gives us 12 Guile & Discipline / Encounter.
Cape: Ajamuut’s Stalking Cloak!
Gloves: Woedica’s Strangling Grasp. Keep Burglar’s Gloves and Firethrower’s gloves handy.
Ring 1: Chameleon’s Touch. Keep handy Ring of Focused Flames.
Ring 2: Ring of Prosperity’s Fortune. Keep handy Ring of the Marksman (keep Kuaru’s prize handy)
Boots: Slippers of the Assassin! Keep handy Rakhan Field’s Boots for fun, and Sandals of the Water Lily.
Belt: Upright Captain’s Belt
Pet: Abraham. Keep Eviee handy.
Potions: Invisibility, Ryngrim’s Repulsive Visage (this potion is always amazing in tough fights if your enemies are vulnerable to RES afflictions), Ascension, Healing.
-----GENERAL STRATEGIES------
The general strategy until you start fully solidifying this build is to use Rogue abilities to focus down targets one at a time, and reset the fight as appropriate with Smoke Veil. Do not keep the fight up for too long at a time. At the beginning, you will use your fists, which are surprisingly effective and will carry you well into level 12-13. Buy all the nice stuff in Port Maje, the Necklace of Fireballs from the optional vendor in particular can be nice to quickly dispatch the drake and its buddies at the Digsite and save some time. You can go to Gorecci street at level 4+ and punch everybody to death, which is nice.
After Port Maje, you can start getting a lot of levels under your belt quickly, while starting to pick a lot of the items and permabuffs that will enhance your combat abilities. Pick Amra when you want to go to Dunnage, there’s no rush. At this point already, you can virtually kill anything with Gouging Strike if you take your time. The Slippers of the Assassin are a great early add for a free invisibility once per fight. Helm of the Falcon + Abraham + DoC breastplate + Armored Grace is going to put your recovery in a really sweet spot. From an item point of view, Ajamuut’s Stalking Cloak is really a big upgrade when you get it (increased ACC, DMG + free Stun on hit from Stealth/Invisibility).
Things start to be really strong when you get Clear Out. Then of course Deathblows with Persistent Distraction/Clear Out and Unbending Trunk when needed will drastically improve your combat potential. Let’s discuss some cornerstones of the build:
AMRA: what a beauty. Very high base DMG and PEN, bonus crit DMG, a situationally nice weapon modal when you want to boost your DoT, a no-drawback Frenzy proc that puts our MIG to the max of 35, a Carnage-like proc that can seriously boost your DMG output on all enemies around… In practice, those procs will always trigger in serious fights. The build is entirely well, built around this weapon.
SMOKE VEIL: Absolutely crucial of course. Can be used to run away and reset a fight, or more honorably to ignore incoming attacks, deaggro enemies and prepare your next devastating attack.
ARTERIAL STRIKE AND GOUGING STRIKE: The bread and butter of most Rogues, these abilities are useful from beginning to end. Arterial Strike is really nice when you can make the enemy run around or chase you without taking nasty disengagement attacks. Potions of Ryngrim’s Repulsive Visage and Clear Out will be helpful for that, and of course you can create a horrible DoT-fest between Arterial Strike, Gouging Strikes, Deep Wounds, Bleeding Cuts… Gouging Strike is cheesy but so powerful of course. It can simplify a lot of fights and help you effortlessly farm Mythical Adra Stones with Dorudugan and Belranga.
DISCIPLINED STRIKES: Disciplined Strikes and other Hit-To-Crit modifiers can get you to serious conversion rates, to complement your already high ACC. This is key to maximize because a lot of our crazy DMG bonuses are On-Crit. With Disciplined Strikes, Dirty Fighting, Uncanny Luck and Prosperity’s Fortune, you can get to almost 50% Hit-to-Crit conversion, and up to 61% with a potion of Perfect Aim on top. [1-(1-0.25)*(1-0.25)*(1-0.15)*(1-0.1)*(1-0.1) = 61%]
CLEAR OUT: I could write a poem about this ability. A weapon ability that hits in AOE is always great. If it pushes and inflict prone on top, even better. Clear Out actually hits enemies twice with damage for some reason unknown to me, which bumps it up a tier. I think there are a couple funky things happening with those double hits in terms of the interactions with Sneak Attack, Deathblows, Assassinate and Backstab (the Raw DMG lash version from the Community Patch) but the bottom line is that in almost all situations you are going to hit like a truck. DMG per target will very often be in the 200-300 range, and you can of course prone-lock opponents. Now this ability is supposed to be balanced by the fact that it targets FORT, which is usually the highest defense on PotD. But we can reach an ACC of 173 from invisibility and a high Hit-to-Crit conversion rate so… yes, this ability is insanely powerful with this build. Clear Out alone with a few Smoke Veils can win a surprisingly large amount of harder fights.
UNBENDING TRUNK: With such high MIG and Dawnstar’s Blessing, your healing is so high that this ability becomes essentially a “Cannot Die” effect for as long as it’s up. As simple as that.
-----THE END------
Always happy to read your thoughts and potential for improvement! If like me you’ve ever wondered what would happen if we gave a giant battle axe to The Predator and dropped him on Eora, then I think you may have fun with this toon!