mage/assassin.. first template attempt

I'm making a slightly non-standard mage assassin.. the current rage is the irekei m/a/bloodprophet. This is an elf m/a/bladeweaver-traveller. I want a hard hitting atr whore who has backstab, because I believe having BS will give me another tactical advantage for use in team-oriented assassination. The Bladeweaver rune is there simply for dual wield, so I can hold two +atr daggers, and double backstab.

stats:

str 20 ( - 5 at creation )
dex 60
con 35
int 67 ( +12 at creation )
spi 45

took Precise rune ( +5% to atr ) for 8 pts

190 points to spend, final stats

str 20
dex 90
con 60
int 120
spi 80

42 points left over [* I don't know the various stat costs for runes, anyone have information on the costs? ]

Skills: 595 points to spend

Dagger: 90% ( approx 52 trains )
Sorcery: 80% ( approx 38 trains )
Warding: 40% ( I put like 4-5 trains here to open Spectral Bonds, in retrospect i shoulda let my int boosts do it for me. not paralyzing, though )
Shadowmastery: 120% ( approx 78 trains )

= 173 in focus skills

I don't exactly trust these numbers, but I don't think they are too far off. I have about 16 points left over after everything else, so I can afford a little here and there.

Hide: GM 40
Sneak: GM 40
Backstab: GM 40
Shielding: GM 40
Blood Boil: GM 40
Shadow Bolt: GM 40
Cloak of Shadows: GM 40
Blindness: GM 40
Steal Breath: GM 40
Shadowmantle: GM 40
Spectral Bonds: 1
Shadow Touch: 1
Silence: 1

403 + 173 = 576

leaving 19 points

Bladeweaver rune = no points, only applying it for dual wield.
Traveller Rune = 5 points for Fire Gate.

leaving 14 points.


There is another way to do this, I keep hearing that Shadow Touch is best when GM'ed.. so an alternative power build would shave points here and there, like so

Hide: GM 40
Sneak: GM 40
Backstab: 30
Shielding: 30
Blood Boil: 30
Shadow Bolt: GM 40
Cloak of Shadows: 30
Blindness: GM 40
Steal Breath: GM 40
Shadowmantle: GM 40
Spectral Bonds: 1
Shadow Touch: GM 40
Silence: 1

Sacrificing around 70 def from spells, GM in backstab, and dmg output from blood boil for the ability to freeze people for 9 seconds. Reasoning being that I am trying to not melee as it is, so 70 def wont hurt that much. Backstab, it's a secondary ability for the build as is, no need to spec it up to full. Blood Boil, since sorcery is relatively low, hence BB's atr will be lower, I probably will blind before I drop it on a hard target. In other words, it's not a 'use every time' spell. Stun immunity from Shadowtouch is 27 seconds, but it has no recast time. Tactically, a pretty sound spell.

As of now, Wednesday is level 13.. with around 60% SM and 117 int she has a 401ish atr. It's sure to get a lot higher as she gets better equipment.

what do ya'll think?

i think you should consider the AoE silence. would require 6 trains in silence and one in AoE silence. i think 7 trains for the ability to silence multiple people for 60 seconds is an incredible bargain.

let me roll up the build i was going to try for you to consider or just compare/contrast with. it will be a caster only build.

the 52 points in dagger are wasted, imo

from what ive seen, the most effective assassins kill purely will mage/assassins powers, no melee type assassin powers...

It's sort of up in the air about using backstab. I know I will be able to kill with spells, the dagger/bs addition is just to add another tactical option for the character.

edit: oh wait, the thing about the ae silence is that it's a point blank spell. I thought. Let me check.

yes its 0 range BUT!, if youre invisible does the range matter? here is how you do it.

Kick one point into slayers focus for the stun protection. You and the rogue barb walk into the middle of the XP group. you kick off AoE silence and then start nuking a weakend target. The barb will then cast his AoE stun while you take down the weakened target. you exit stage left and he hits lightning. all the while any casters were just raped by multiple backstabs.

i think we need a few mage assasins actually. mage assasins can make a tanks day very bad.

Update on Wednesday..

Still need a bladeweaver rune, if anyone can help me out, that would be great.

As of now, at level 33, she has ~830 atr with shadowbolt, ~635 def. However, she's not done with equipment by a long shot. She's wielding a +10 str, +130 atr dagger, that turned out to be throwing after I bought it ( it dosen't say throwing in the info ). In offensive stance, she's doing ~120 dmg with shadowbolt. Dagger atr is ~650, 10-30 dmg per strike.

Her stats are mostly complete, 1 pt away from target dex on the template, so they look like this:

30 str ( 20, +10 from item )
89 dex
70 con ( 60, +10 from item ) 1100ish hps
130 int ( 120, +10 from item )
80 spi 1kish mana

I am finding that 80 spi is giving me a good amount of mana. No need to take to 100.

I've only taken backstab to like 3, practiced with it a bit, and she does ~130 dmg with a successful strike.

PK encounters:

Nabbed myself an r4 prelate that attacked my group, group did have a hand in beating him down.. but he ran and I was the only person chasing. Killed him from half life, he wasn't able to escape the snare dot and chain nuke ownage.

I got pissed at some fessor in my group and murdered him. We were both r2, but he was slightly higher.. but he got off a grand total of 2 casts before he was dead.

Losses, I got PKed by an r4 scout when I was 26, he attacked me when I was at half life, 1/3 mana, and alone.. took him to half his life before I went down.

PKed by a r5 healer/channeler at level 29, I got him down to 20% life before he started healing =\ Pretty much got owned there, I didn't realize he was a healer. No way I can beat a healer of any type until I have Shadowmantle.

Even at r2, however, I did not have a problem landing spells on the higher rank players. I am still liking the template, she is sheer death againt mobs.. as long as she dosen't have to tank them too long. She can slip a hit or two wih her decent def, but if a red attacks me, I have to kite.

Modified the spec slightly, reflecting experience and some thoughts about spell interaction.

Hide: GM 40
Sneak: GM 40
Backstab: 30
Shielding: 40
Blood Boil: 30
Shadow Bolt: GM 40
Cloak of Shadows: 30
Blindness: GM 40
Steal Breath: GM 40
Shadowmantle: GM 40
Spectral Bonds: 1
Shadow Touch: GM 40
Silence: 1

I've thought a bit about GMing, and realized something: the only spells/abilities that absolutely MUST be GMed are the ones that directly oppose another ability. Example, Hide, since it is opposed by Detect Hidden. For this reason, the abilities I need GMed are Hide, Sneak, and Shadowmantle. Everything else is point specced for effect.I really need to GM Shielding, because it gives melee resists. Cloak of shadows, not so much, it gives raw def and cold resistance. I may sacrifice some points to get 100% dagger, it seems a waste to not get the +atr from shadowmastery =) I may get the points from Sorcery, or from Shadowtouch or Steal Breath.

Also, I noticed that im getting points in Dagger Mastery just from INT alone. I've got like 34% in it withough spending points, which opens up the first style, and presumably gives me a bit more atr. It should go up slighltly with an INT rune ( if i ever get one ).

edit: this could be interesting:

Hide: GM 40
Sneak: GM 40
Backstab: 30
Shielding: 40
Blood Boil: 30
Shadow Bolt: GM 40
Cloak of Shadows: 30
Blindness: 37 ( defense - 47% rather than 50. The difference is like 36 def on a 1200 def character )
Steal Breath: 30 ( 50% speed debuff at this level )
Shadowmantle: GM 40
Spectral Bonds: 1
Shadow Touch: 34 ( 8 second stun instead of 9, 24 sec immunity )
Chilling Shadows: 19 ( -30% to opponents attack speed )
Silence: 1
Slayer's Focus: 1 ( 120 sec stun immunity ain't bad )

What is the difference between shadow daggers and daggers? stats?

shadow daggers damage type is cold, normal daggers damage type is piercing

I see. Someone told me to GM Shadow Dagger on my assassin instead of dagger so I was wondering...

shadow daggers are based off of shadowmastery, i believe

while normal daggers play off of dagger mastery

You cannot 'GM' Shadowdagger, it isn't a separate skill.

Shadowdaggers are the assassin clas weapon, you need 100% Dagger skill to equip them. However, they use your Shadowmastery focus skill as their mastery skill, not Dagger Mastery. You don't get any additional styles, but you do get the +atr bonus ( 2 atr per point in SM ) and the +def bonues ( think it's the same, 2 def per point in SM ).

The bonus being that you don't have to spend points on Dagger mastery. Most class weapons work this way, Faith Hammers, Burning Great Swords, Psiblades.. etc..

cool. is there a list of class specific weapons?

Now I am looking into a Centaur Spear guy (edit: oops DOUBLE INFO posted in threads) ... is there a class specific spear ? ;X

I dunno. I can't wait to play. shit will be here in like 10 days tho.

note to self: stat rune costs


+Curr/Max/Cost/PreReq
+3/10/4/90
+4/15/5/95
+5/20/8/100
+6/25/9/105
+7/30/11/110
+8/35/12/115
+10/40/15/120

Are the grandmastery dagger styles worth ditching shadowdaggers? I wouldn't think so. But my guy will be primarily a backstabber/disabler. So I need dagger as effective as possible.

You wouldn't need to ditch shadowdaggers to use the dagger mastery styles. They are still daggers =P Wed's high int gave her access to the first dagger mastery style, I can use it np with shadowdaggers. I wouldn't suggest using it though, you aren't really there for sustained melee damage. Your dmg output with shadowbolt will pretty much always exceed your melee output.