Thief/Assassin PvE GuideAll of the information in this thread will pertain to Thieves and Assassins in a raiding and dungeon environment.

I. STATS
II. SKILL INFORMATION AND BUILDS
III. ROTATION AND PLAYSTYLE
IV. CARDS/RUNE CHOICES

I. STATS:
1 STR: +2 Attack Damage
1 AGI: +4 Critical, +2 Evasion
1 INT: Not applied to assassins.
1 WILL: +10 Max SP
1 VIT: +6 Max HP

STAT BUILDS:

50 STR, 26 AGI, 2 VIT (The one I use, the highest attack damage but sacrifices a little bit of crit.)

40 STR, 40 AGI (Trades 10 STR (Attack Damage) for 14 AGI for increased crit, another good skill build).

- Will add more later once I figure out other possible combinations. -

NOTE: The max stat you can have is 50.


II. SKILL INFORMATION:

Thief Tree:

Hiding (Stealth)
Cooldown: 3 Seconds
Hides you in the shadows, and the chance of being detected by monsters is reduced by half.
While hiding, your movement speed is reduced by 40/20/0% per skill point. Not usable in combat.

Double Attack
Cooldown: 1 Second
1 Combo Point Acquired
Hits your enemy two times with 17/19/21/23/25% of your Attack Damage per skill point.

Deadly Blow
Cooldown: 0 Seconds
Hits the enemy with 17/19/21/23/25% of your Attack Damage per skill point.
Every combo point adds an additional 7% Attack Damage, for a total of 60% Attack Damage.

Combo Training
When you gain a combo point, you have a 5/10/15% chance per skill point to gain an additional combo point.

Dark Illusion
Cooldown: 3 Seconds
Range: 20 Meters
Usable while Hiding
1 Combo Point Acquired
You appear behind your enemy and hit for 17/19/21/23/25% of your Attack Damage per skill point.
This ability always crits.

Dagger Throwing
Cooldown: 8 Seconds
Range: 20 Meters
Throws a dagger at your target to deal 18/21/24/27/30% of your Attack Damage per skill point.

Genocide Mark
Cooldown: 3 Seconds
Increases the critical chance of all party/raid members by 0.4/0.8/1.2/1.6/2% for 30 minutes per skill point.

Meteor Assault
Cooldown: 3 Seconds
Range: 2 Meters
Performs a shockwave which hits up to 3 enemies for 17/19/21% of your Attack Damage per skill point.

Cross Impact
Cooldown: 8 Seconds
1 Combo Point Acquired
Hits your enemy two times for 17/19/21/23/25% of your Attack Damage per skill point.

Poisoning Weapon
Cooldown: 3 Seconds
Applies a poison to your weapons for 30 seconds.
Each time you attack you have a 30% chance to poison your enemy, dealing 3/6/9/12/15% of your Attack Damage every 2 seconds for 20 seconds.


Assassin Tree:

Cloak Hiding
While hiding, your movement speed is increased by 10/20/30% per skill point.

Shadow Fiend
When combo points are acquired, you have a 4/8/12% chance per skill point to deal an additional 22% Attack Damage to the enemy.

Shadow Cloak
Cooldown: 3 Seconds
Increases your critical strike by 1/2/3/4/5% per skill point for 30 minutes.
Stacks with Genocide Mark.

Grimtooth
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Range: 10 Meters
1-3 Combo Points Acquired
A thorn from the shadow rises up and hits up to 3 enemies with 16/18/20% Attack Damage per skill point.
The number of combo points acquired depends on how many targets are hit.
(Hitting 3 enemies with Grimtooth will reward you with 3 combo points.)

Shadow Fang
Cooldown: 0 Seconds
The target and surrounding enemies will be hit for 9/10/11% Attack Damage.
Up to a max of 10 enemies will be hit, but will deal reduced damage if more than 6 enemies are hit.

Shadow Armor
Cooldown: 2 Minutes
Wraps your whole body in shadows for 10 seconds, reducing damage taken by 10/20/30/40/50% per skill point.

Shadow Form
Cooldown: 3 Seconds
You are in perfect harmony with the shadows.
Attack Damage and Movement Speed are increased by 6/12/18/24/30% per skill point. Lasts until cancelled.

Shadow Strike
Cooldown: 20 Seconds
Only usable in Shadow Form
3 Combo Points acquired
Attacks an enemy 3 times with 42% Attack Damage (Max).

Shadow Explosion
Cooldown: 20 Seconds
5 Combo Points Required
Consumes all your combo points to attack the enemy 2 times for 85% Attack Damage (Max).

Shadow Assault
Cooldown: 20 Seconds
Range: 20 Meters
Only usable in Shadow Form
Leaps towards the enemy to deal 26/28/30/32/34% Attack Damage per skill point.
Knocks the enemy down for 3 seconds.


BUILDS:

This build focuses entirely on dungeons and raids, and does not include any PvP talents, such as Dark Illusion and Shadow Assault. It maxes all of the core abilities you will use as an Assassin and leaves one point to put into other skills. ( I choose hiding for the increased movement speed, but that is just my personal preference. You can choose Shadow Assault if you want it. )

Why only rank 1 Cross Impact?: Because the skill is awful. A maxed Double Attack does the same exact damage as a maxed Cross Impact, except Impact has an 8 second cooldown. Not worth the points.

Why Rank 1 Grimtooth/Shadow Fang?: I mainly use these two skills for a small AoE (Area of Effect) Damage, or for combo point generation. Assassin AoE is pretty lackluster, and should only AoE if it is absolutely necessary. (With that being said, don't completely ignore Grimtooth, it is an awesome AoE to use to gain combo points and spread Poison Weapon damage)

Shadow Armor: I have not fully tested this skill, but looks like a great ability to use for emergency situations. Maxing it would require you to take some points out of other damaging abilities, but like they say: Dead DPS is no DPS.

III. ASSASSIN PLAYSTYLE/ROTATION:

ROTATION:

Assassin's damage rotation is pretty straightforward. From 1-50, you will be spamming Double Attack half of the time until you reach 5 Combo Points, and then executing the enemy with a Deadly Blow.

Deadly Blow should ONLY be used when you have 5 Combo Points for maximum damage. (At lower levels, some people have stated that spamming Deadly Blow works better than Double Attack. I've never tested it, feedback would be great!)

Shadow Form is definitely one of the most important skills to get in the Assassin tree. It increases your Attack Damage by 30%, and makes you move 30% faster. On top of that, your rotation will change a little bit because of two new skills you can use: Shadow Strike and Shadow Explosion.

Because these two abilities have a 20 second cooldown, they should ALWAYS be used once they are up, unless you are above 2 combo points. ( Shadow Strike gives 3 combo points, so it would be a waste to use this if you are above 2 combo points. )

Dagger Throw should always be used if you cannot get in range of the enemy. This ability can still trigger Poison Weapon, so it is quite useful.

As stated before, Assassin's AoE (Area of Effect) abilities are pretty bad. However, Grimtooth is still an amazing skill because of the combo points you can gain from it. If you are fighting three enemies that are grouped up, you can use Grimtooth to gain 3 combo points, as well as apply your Poison Weapon to them as well.

Hiding is a great skill in dungeons/raids. it allows you to sneak up to enemies without getting in combat, and it also doubles the damage of your next attack. Using this in combination with Shadow Strike deals massive damage in the beginning of a battle. (Make sure you don't pull off your tank! (This thread is not available for Guests. Please log in or register to read it!) )

Here's an example of what my basic rotation would be in PvE:

Hiding (Pre-Combat) -> Shadow Strike -> Double Attack (Until 5 Combo Points) -> Shadow Explosion -> Double Attack (Until 5 Combo Points) -> Deadly Blow -> Repeat.

Remember to throw in some Grimtooths if you are facing more than one enemy, for added combo points!


IV. CARDS/RUNE CHOICES:

CARDS:

Because of the insane amounts of damage in raids/dungeons at the moment, Assassins are forced to use Scratch Raider Cards (+6 STR/AGI/INT/WILL, +17 VIT) for the health boost. You can also choose to use the improved version of Scratch Raider (+8 STR/AGI/INT/WILL, +21 VIT) for added stats, but these are expensive and hard to obtain.

As you obtain more gear, your health pool will increase enough to where you can start replacing Scratch Raider Cards with Higher +Strength/Agility cards.

Here's a list of decent cards to use as an Assassin at level 50:

Scratch Raider Card (+6 STR/AGI/INT/WILL, +17 VIT) - Obtained from "Reaver" creatures in Road of Blessing

Scratch Raider Card [General+] (+8 STR/AGI/INT, +7 WILL, +21 VIT) - Obtained by card synthesis with a Scratch Raider Card

Miyaong Card (+12 STR/INT, +3 WILL, +9 VIT) - Obtained from "Miyaong" in Road of Blessing

Miyaong Card [General+] (+14 STR/INT, +12 VIT, +4 WILL, +2 AGI) - Obtained by card synthesis with a Miyaong Card

Garbong Card (+9 STR/AGI/VIT, +6 INT, +3 WILL) - Obtained from "Garbong" in Road of Blessing

Garbong Card [General+] (+12 VIT, +11 STR/AGI, +8 INT, +4 WILL) - Obtained by card synthesis with a Garbong Card

(While combining cards, there is a low chance of creating a rare (blue) card with really good stats.)


RUNES:

Runes are items crafted by artisans that you can place into gear with runespots. Gear with runespots are only found in dungeons, and require a Rune Hole punch (Made by blacksmiths) to create a hole in the gear.

Check if your gear has a "Blocked Runespot" in the item description. If so, buy/craft the appropriate level Rune Hole punch, and right click the punch. The mouse cursor will turn into a drill, and you can click on the piece of gear. A window will appear saying "Would you like to expand the socket?" Hit yes

Now you can fill the hole with a rune! Buy/Craft an appropriate level rune and right click it. Your mouse cursor will turn into a cogwheel, and simply click the piece of gear again. Another window will appear saying "Runes will be mounted". Click it to confirm, and voila! You have successfully socketed your gear with aRune!

At level 50, there are 3 runes that are worth using for Assassins:

Brilliant Strength Rune: STR +5

Brilliant Agility Rune: AGI +5

Brilliant Vitality Rune: VIT +5