Seeking kindly advice. I'm here on behalf of my husband, who plays an assassin. I play a wizard. I have no issue solo'ing (with merc) Fabled Kurns, Awuidor, Merchant's Den, etc. 1-2 AoE kills all trash groups or boss adds and I can almost always kill off the bosses before they have a chance to start any significant fight mechanics that might complicate things. Before I had taken a break from the game, assassins generally outperformed wizards. We figured he'd have at least as easy a time doing it as I do. But he's having an impossible time with boss fights - particularly those with adds. He's using the celestial centaur inquisitor merc. He has less hp than I do, and I'm already spec'd for low hp (but with multiple, big replenishing wards). What do we need to do to beef him up? Or maybe get more aoe? Here's a link to his character on EQU. Any advice or guidance would be appreciated. He's relatively new to the game, having just started playing two months ago, and I've only just returned since Kunark Ascending - so there is a lot that I'm re-learning or learning anew. https://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_detail/2594179257782 We're still working on gearing up via Kurn, Den and (for now) Awuidor, earning shadow tracker tokens and leveling up mounts/mercs/familiars to max. Caught up on timelines, got the Heart of Luclin, got the mount/merc/familiar and guild buffs.
You're missing Enhanced Vigor from the Prestige Tree. You'll want some points in there to boost your HP at least until you're able to kill stuff quick enough that low hp isn't an issue.
Concerning your stats: As they're related to gear concerning Potency and CB, you'll get em as your gear gets better. Whatever. Cast speed: Max it out. Get at least 100 on it. Same with reuse. I see it's over 100. That's good. You don't need more than, but it'll end up that way cause gear. Ability doublecast, get as much of it as possible. IMO flurry is trash, and I don't bother with it. Your AA are all over the place, and not really in anything great. Here are some considerations: Predator tree: First line, bottom ability. Increases the effectiveness of your Assassinate and Necrotic Blade. Second line, 3rd option. Weapon Expertise. Increases potency of combat arts by a percentage of your agility. Second line, bottom ability. Increases Fervor. You want as much fervor as possible. Third line. 2nd Ability. Drop the 10 pts in Max health. Max health is meh. 4th line, bottom ability. Smoke Bomb. Okay AOE damage, and fantastic aggro drop. 5th line, 3rd option. Toxic Expertise. Increases the effectiveness of your combat arts. 5th line horizontal: 8 pts in Hastened Reusability to increase fervor OC, and 8 pts in Stealthy Avoidance for a 40% damage reduction after you cast Stalk, which you should always put right before you Fatal Followup. Good for when the mob turns on you after you hit em with a big boom. Bottom chart ability. Predator's final trick. Increases potency. Nice to have before throwing your chain. My Suggestion lines as follows: Archer's Agility. 0. Str: 10, 2, 10, 1, 0 Agi: 2, 10, 10, 1, 8 Sta: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 8 Wis: 2, 10, 10, 1, 0 Int: 0, 0, 8, 0, 0 2 (4pts). Max 100 points in chart. Assassin Tree: First line horizontal: 2nd option. Adds damage to Cheap Shot. Not super great, but one of the better options in this chart. Third line horizontal: 5th option. Adds flurry multiplier to Honed Reflexes. Again, not super great, but one of the better options. Fourth line horizontal: 5th option. Enhance Deadly Focus. Do this. No questions. Fourth line horizontal: 6th option. Enhance Apply Poison. This is meh and not worth the points, especially since it only goes on 1 person, and most folks forget it even exists. Middle line. Frontload. Increases fervor. Good to throw before a chain. Sixth line horizontal: Swiping Blades. Increases your Whirling Blades buff. Again, do this. No questions. Bottom ability. Shadow Step. Some folks have it. Some don't. I personally love it, and its pretty nice damage and can teleport you to the target if you get knocked back or are over 10m away. It's a personal favorite. My Suggestion lines as follows: 5, 5, 0, 0 5, 5, 0, 5, 0 5, 5, 3, 0, 5, 5 5, 0, 5, 5, 5, 0 1, 1, 0, 1 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5 1 83points Shadows Tree: Most of this stuff is terrible. First line: Only thing you don't have I would recommend is increasing the duration of your food n drink. Second line: The only thing I bother to take in this line is Offensive Prowess and Evasive Maneuvers. Third line: 3rd ability. Makes your bleeds tick faster. Last ability. Noxious Enfeeblement. Some take it, some don't. I do just for somewhere to put my points. It's an okay debuff + damage. Fourth line: Only things I put points in would be Killing Blow, Mark of the Assassin, Stealth Mastery and Touch of the Nightshade. My Suggested Lines as follows: 5, 5, 5, 0, 0, 0 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 1 0, 5, 5, 0, 5, 5, 1 0, 0, 5, 5, 0, 0, 1, 1 56 points Heroic Tree. First line. last ability. Drop the 10 points. Max health and power doesn't really do much good. Second line. Drop the 10 points in ability reuse. You can get it from gear. Third line. Max out Killing Spree and Dexterous Attacks. They increase your AoE CAs and Shadow Step by 100% and makes your Ambush, Masked Strike, Jugular Slice, Eviscerate, and Assassinate hit twice, respectively. Definitely worth the points. Last line. Exploit Weakness. Decent hit. Would recommend. My Suggested Lines as follows: 10, 10, 0 10, 10, 0 0, 0, 10, 5 1, 0, 0 62 points Dragon Tree: Second line vertical: 10, 10, 10, 0, 1. This increases your max health (meh). reduces damage done to you when the mob is below 25% (alright for fights that starts hitting harder the lower the health goes), increases your physical mitigation, and gives you a death prevent. Third line vertical: second ability, 10 points. Adds damage to Evade. Fourth line vertical: Third ability, points in increasing agility. I only have 8, but I'd max it if I had a couple more points to spend. The rest of the line is meh. My Suggested Lines as follows, going vertical: First line: 0 0 0 0 0 Second line: 10, 10, 10, 0, 1 Third line: 0, 10, 0, 0, 0 Fourth line: 0, 0, 8, 0, 0 49 points. Play around with the 3rd line a little if you want. Dragon Claws is okay if you're not hitting Fervor OC. But if you are, it's worthless. Prestige Tree: It can be done many ways. But this is how I do it. First line horizontal: 0, 3, 1, 0 Left Side Squiggle: Max points in Murderous Intent, In Plain Sight, Fatal Concealer, Double Coating, Acidmist, & Nightblade's Intensity. Middle: Max points in Caustic Weaponry. Right Side Squiggle: 2 pts Bloody Assault. 2 points Carnage. Don't bother putting points in CB Overcap. Since they removed reforging from the game, I find it highly unlikely anyone is hitting the CB Overcap anymore, so those points are wasted. My Suggested Lines as follows: 0, 3, 1, 0 2, 1/ 0, 2 1/ 0 3/ 3/ 2 3, 3, 0/ 3, 0/ 0, 0,0 1/ 0 Prestige Assassin: Detect Weakness. 8 pts Enhanced Vigor. 5 pts Imbued Insight. 1 (2pts) Accuracy from strength. Increases CB by percentage of Agility. 5 pts Undeniable Power. 1 (2pts) Power from the Soul. Increases Potency by percentage of Agility. Shadow is optional. I take it. But if I didn't, I'd put the extra points in Carnage in the Prestige tree and Undeniable Power in the Prestige Assassin tree. Dagger Storm. *These points I'm unsure if you've earned since you seem like a returning player. But you'll have them eventually if you keep playing that toon regardless. Martial Vigor; 5pts. Increases damage of combat arts. Expert's Understanding. 5pts. Increases Ability Doublecast. Again, as much as possible. Heavy Handed. 3 pts. Increases auto attack multiplier for the group. Totally meh, but I needed somewhere to put points. Ready Up. 3pts. Resets your abilities like a Brew of Readiness and can proc in combat. Extremely useful. Blightshadow Scourge. 2 pts. Hella nice AoE Damage. My Suggested Lines as follows: 1 8, 5, 5, 0, 0 0, 1, 1, 0, 0 1, 1 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 5 3, 1, 0, 3 (reads as 1, takes 3 points) *Putting points in the bottom is weird and needs to be done as top line points are done first, second line, outside abilities take points before inside abilities, so Ready Up and Heavy Handed first, then Blightshadow Scourge. I am no expert. Definitely feel free to piddle around with the AA and find a set up you like. But keep in mind many things are worthless atm. Poisons are basically useless and trash damage. They're really only debuffs now (*tears of sadness.) So boosting them is minimal and worthless. They trashed melee auto attack damage hard, so things that boost it are also negligable. Your best damage will come off of Blightshadow Scourge, a well-timed FFU chain, Necrotic Blade, and Gut. Assassinate is good, but I haven't seen it topping any parses lately. After that, you're gonna be waiting for a reset from ready-up. Other things I could recommend: *Upgrade your food and drink. I prefer Karuupa Candied Kumquat and Vetrovia Midnight Vintage currently. *Upgrading all your adornments past abyssmal (kinda Captain Obvious I suppose). Even if you don't complete any of the sets of red runes, get at least one of each. They grant decent potency for wearing at least one of each. White Adorns Suggestions: *Put adornments of Extra Attacks in your shoulders and neck slots. *Heart of Luclin can be shuffled as your adornments change (getting Brawl set, for example, would suggest putting HoL in cloak and Brawl adorn in waist.) *Tol'Ren set in Chest, Forearms, and Feet unless you start doing Merchant's Den in challenge mode and clearing the spider for that adornment set and can start replacing them. *Personally, I'd put Extra Attacks in hands, unless you're hitting fervor overcap. Then I'd switch to Fading. *Raw Power in Legs, Primary & Secondary. *Increased Criticals in Ranged, Ears, & Fingers. **Charm and Wrist white slots: Recommend adorns that increase combat skills unless you can get a Backwoods Brawl group. Then combat skills for charms and Brawl adorns in wrists and waist. If you can get a group that will go back to Backwoods Brawl (3-piece white adorn set) and Vasty Deep Heroic 2 (Labomination Fight, Cerebral Incubator charm), these work in tandem and will boost stats. Use the incubator for a 2-hour buff and put your regular charm back on. *Red adorns will come as you play. Keep an eye out for Gleeful Ire, Abrupt End, Bloodbound Tainted Blade, Desecration in particular. *Red adorns for Weapons would recommend: Reactionary Strike, Aura of Intelligence, Rage, and Rending Torrent. I have set adornments in the other 2 slots. But Anguish isn't too bad if you want to wear it. *Also, try to get a group to run you through all the RoS heroic zones for a Tormented Void Rune. Blue adorns: **Charms: Do the line for Merchant's Den and get the blue adorn for Collected Knowledge for your charm slot. It's hella good potency boost you can use every 10 minutes. Critical Thinking for the other one. Just don't use it. Using it will share potency with the group at your expense. (Decreases the static 4k pot buff to temporary 3k group pot buff. No bueno. Good to wear passively. Not to use.) *Neck, don't bother with this. Once you finish the collections for VoV, Merchants den, or Trakanon, the necklace you get has a proc on it that is nice to use but cannot be used with any other adornment in tandem. It will always choose the necklace proc over an adornment proc and there is currently no way to use an adornment individually from a gear piece (silly, I know! but a thing.) Just leave the blue slot blank. *Weapons: You're already doing the best choices with Mystery, Insight, and Embers. Green adorns: Always ones with Fervor/Fervor OC. The rest are crap. Hope this splurge of info is helpful. May your stabby adventures be bloody fun!
@Mercychalice What is your assassins ingame name so I can have a peek at your AA's please on eq2 caracters
