Help with Assassin

[AeonsLegend]

Just now, Boeroer said:

It reduces all raw dmg you receive by 25%. So the latter basically. Although the calculation is a bit different (as with all dmg reductions- it's going through double inversion) so effectively it's more than 25%.

 It's one of my favorite weapons, but not my favorite for an Assassin.  

By the way: the Assassin/Bleak Walker with a great sword has the additional benefit that the Ring of Focused Flames, when used with FoD, can counter the ACC malus of the Great Sword modal. That way you can squeeze in 30% more damage without having a huge drop in ACC.

Still arquebus at point blank is the best assassination weapon unfortunately. Works very well from the early game on (due to the very useful modal).

Yea I use Ring of Focussed flame with Paladins all the time. It's very nice. And free.

[AeonsLegend]

1 minute ago, Boeroer said:

It reduces all raw dmg you receive by 25%. So the latter basically. Although the calculation is a bit different (as with all dmg reductions- it's going through double inversion) so effectively it's more than 25%.

That's definitely wrong. The thing is voidwheel doesn't actually deal damage to you. You just lose it. It's not listed as damage in the overview nor is there a damage number over your head. I dealt 80 damage to an enemy and I took 8 damage with and without voidward. It made no difference at all. I think voidward only works on incoming damage, not self damage.

[Boeroer]

Just now, AeonsLegend said:

Not really seeing the benefit of bleeding cut from Axes. It's 10% of all damage dealt spread out over 60 seconds. You take a 50% hit to recovery which is insane to deal 0.5 damage per 3 seconds extra if your attack did 100 damage... Am I reading that wrong? Sounds utterly useless. Or is it 10% every 3 seconds? It states "over" 60 seconds. That sounds to me like it's spread over 60 seconds.

It's 10% every 3 secs and it stacks with itself. The recovery malus is not important if you attack from stealth because attacks from stealth have a 85% reduced recovery. So you can immediately act afterwards and vanish. Usually the Bleeding Cut will kill the enemy while you are hiding.

Anotehr trick is to use a Battle Axe in the main hand and something else in the offhand and do a Full Attack. The recovery of the main hand will then get skipped by the Full Attack. 

[Boeroer]

1 minute ago, AeonsLegend said:

That's definitely wrong. The thing is voidwheel doesn't actually deal damage to you. You just lose it. It's not listed as damage in the overview nor is there a damage number over your head. I dealt 80 damage to an enemy and I took 8 damage with and without voidward. It made no difference at all. I think voidward only works on incoming damage, not self damage.

I didn't use Voidwheel much so no idea what you experience. However the ring works perfectly well with a Forbidden Fist (who deals self damage with his curse), Alacrity and also Sacred Immolation and Hylea's Talons. 

However, the ring was specifically designed to counter the damage of Voidwheel. Would be weird if it didn't work. Maybe it has something to do with the Assassin's increased "damage taken".

[AeonsLegend]

3 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I didn't use Voidwheel much so no idea what you experience. However the ring works perfectly well with a Forbidden Fist (who deals self damage with his curse), Alacrity and also Sacred Immolation and Hylea's Talons. 

However, the ring was specifically designed to counter the damage of Voidwheel. Would be weird if it didn't work. Maybe it has something to do with the Assassin's increased "damage taken".

I tested this on my trickster and made several hits with and without the ring. Damage was exactly the same. It made no difference. It IS weird...

Seems like bleeding cut isn't good with Oathbreaker's End tho if you don't play Assassin... the hit in recovery is really bad.

Edited March 27, 2020 by AeonsLegend

[Boeroer]

Bleeding Cuts is worth it in terms of damage, but your reactivity suffers a lot. I also only use it if I can circumvent the recovery malus (e.g. with Ripostes or Barbaric Retaliation or Full Attacks and so on).

[thelee]

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

Bleeding Cuts is worth it in terms of damage, but your reactivity suffers a lot. I also only use it if I can circumvent the recovery malus (e.g. with Ripostes or Barbaric Retaliation or Full Attacks and so on).

you also need to make sure your foe is tanky enough to warrant such a long debuff at such a steep recovery penalty. though in one megaboss fight i stacked 8-9 on an add and that was a stupid amount of damage ticking every few seconds.

[thelee]

10 hours ago, AeonsLegend said:

But you'd spend more time casting that spell than doing anything else... I mean sure you can cast buff and debuff spells without getting spotted and with extra accuracy true. But you could also beat the encounter before then with another build. I might try it, but it doesn't sound efficient.

just to add on to what a few others have said - outside of something like the ultimate or solo, you don't need to build up too much of a duration. with a weyc's robe party (robe wearer upon empowering a spell grants brilliant to nearby party members), i would maybe cast enough Salvation of Time to get up to 45-55 seconds and that didn't take too long, is easily scriptable, and is generally more than i needed for many fights. for longer fights, i'd just top up again when durations start running low.

 

also, in addition to assassin/blodomage, you can also get efficiency with a priest of skaen/assassin. Because the priest also gets some rogue abilities as bonus spells. So with brilliant, you can also get invisibility up to every 6 seconds (shadowing beyond from priest) along with a point of guile, so you can really get a lot of assassinate bonii (but no vanishing strikes due to multiclassing).

Edited March 27, 2020 by thelee

[darkling.lithely]

Thank you, all, for enlightening me. I had no idea how complicated this would be. Bit overwhelming, so my brain splinters with possibilities.

But a sassy, solo assassin with Wael's scepter seems suitable. What difficulty do any of you think would be appropriate for a solo, pure assassin. The game I'm finishing is expert PotD with all of the companions.

Edited March 27, 2020 by darkling.lithely

[Kaylon]

I can confirm that Voidward doesn't reduce the damage taken from Voidwheel. Heal on kill and the regen from Devil of Caroc's breastplate are two easy ways to regain your health back.

[Boeroer]

I just reread the description of Voidward and it sounds as if the ring was build to protect against the raw lash of Voidward and not the self damage. I mean lore-wise. So at least it's not as weird as I thought.