A few questions about Assassin before I roll one.

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Hey guys, 

 

Had a few questions about playing a ranged Assassin in a party on PotD. 

 

1. How fun is playing a ranged Assassin using pistols, and how much damage does it do compared to melee Assassin? In Verde's thread posting DPS numbers, Soulblade/Assassin seemed to do quite a bit, but fell short of other options like pure Ranger Maia or Swashbuckler Eder. I was thinking of running Ascendant/Assassin, and was curious as to both the fun factor (Mainly worried about super long recovery time stalling combat) and whether or not there are better options for ranged damage. 

 

2. Speaking of better options for ranged damage, would Assassin/Evoker be a better option? This combination was recently brought to my attention on one of my other threads discussing this, because Assassinate works on spells from Stealth - so big AoE spells like Fireball or Ninagauth's Shadowflame have +25 extra Accuracy and extra Penetration/Crit Damage when attacking Fortitude and Reflex. I do lose out on Cipher's excellent CC roster, and I'm also missing out on some of Wizard's excellent self-buffs if I go for Evoker. 

[thundercleese]

Didn't know Assassin bonus worked on spells, so I suppose if you are fine with empower nuking from stealth then Assassin/Evoker would be the top pick by a fair margin. Only buff spells I used on my pure Evoker were Infuse with Vital Essence (nature godlike) and Merciless Gaze. Just make sure you are stealthed until your tank has all the agro then start nuking, everything should be dead before they can turn their attention to you.

 

Someone posted an Assassin/Bleak Walker build based around Arquebus FoD from stealth for insane alpha strikes. Think it was before all the nerfs though so how viable it is in current patch I'm not sure.

 

Personally for a ranged Assassin I would use Wael's eye, for the invisibility proc, which happens fairly often (I'm far too lazy to micromanage invisibility abilities and potions through every fight lol). Pair it with something that can buff action speed such as monk, barb or wizard for DAoM, probably dual wield with something high damage like a pistol. Believe someone posted a build like this as well.

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Didn't know Assassin bonus worked on spells, so I suppose if you are fine with empower nuking from stealth then Assassin/Evoker would be the top pick by a fair margin. Only buff spells I used on my pure Evoker were Infuse with Vital Essence (nature godlike) and Merciless Gaze. Just make sure you are stealthed until your tank has all the agro then start nuking, everything should be dead before they can turn their attention to you.

 

Someone posted an Assassin/Bleak Walker build based around Arquebus FoD from stealth for insane alpha strikes. Think it was before all the nerfs though so how viable it is in current patch I'm not sure.

 

Personally for a ranged Assassin I would use Wael's eye, for the invisibility proc, which happens fairly often (I'm far too lazy to micromanage invisibility abilities and potions through every fight lol). Pair it with something that can buff action speed such as monk, barb or wizard for DAoM, probably dual wield with something high damage like a pistol. Believe someone posted a build like this as well.

 

Scepter/Pistol might actually be pretty cool, yeah. And definitely really unique... 

 

Hmm. I guess now my concern is just how much the Cipher's extra dialogue choices matter, in the end. 

[thundercleese]

Should work with Cipher too, I've just got little experience with them in Deadfire, so hopefully someone else can chime in there.

 

For pistol Scordeo's comes to mind, upgrade the action speed buff to apply to everything. Though I guess a pistol with a lash (if one exists, not sure) would probably get more benefit from Assassinate. On that note, I'd say monk comes out on top due to lightning strikes and turning wheel. Dance of death for wounds, would probably take Nalpazca over Helwalker as the extra might quickly becomes insignificant with all the Rogue bonuses (also more free wounds, just watch out for arcane dampener). Also Helwalker/Assassin is about as frail as it gets lol.

[Enoch]

a pistol with a lash (if one exists, not sure)

 

(This song gets stuck in my head whenever I equip the item.)

[1TTFFSSE]

If I was rolling an assassin it would be around 2 weapons: either kitchen stove or eye of wael.

 

for kitchen stove I would probably just go ascendant as second class mentioned. Open out of stealth with thunderous report to get max focus and kill/cripple half the enemies in a pack outright and then clean up with cipher spells.

 

or make a high crit build around eye of wael so I would stealth again in combat on crits consistently without using smoke cloud of shadowing.

secondary class there would be either berserker for frenzy crits +attack speed., sharpshooter for driving flight, or devoted again for more crits. also definitely hearth orlan to get more crits, try to get crit % up to 40+.

 

Also there is a helm in port maje (Death's Maw) which easily neutralizes assassin's penalty to taking extra damage.

Edited July 26, 2018 by 1TTFFSSE

[thundercleese]

 

a pistol with a lash (if one exists, not sure)

 

(This song gets stuck in my head whenever I equip the item.)

 

Thanks, was fairly certain there was one but as I rarely use them I wasn't sure lol.