Returning assassins might be getting a wrong impression about the state of things in Age of Conan
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Issues with Lotus - before we go 1.6
Here are some of issues that I have documented:
1/ Slow death strikes - this combo should be a worthy alternative to Swift Strikes (we are SOOOO bored with using nothing than SS for a year now)and in order to do so it must go beyond 200 dmg per tick. When SDS and SS are used together it should create a burst damage which will pay for the effort involved (applaing two 3step combos and GC).
Solution: push Vile posion and Vile corruption upgrade further to 25% boost from recent 20%
Note: In order to benefit from strong SDS we must land grim corruption and we have shortest reach in game with cloth armor. The risk of getting close to other melee with longer or MUCH LONGER reach and always superior armor must be rewarded.
2/ Flesh necrosis - why this feat was not scaled is beyond me. This feat is super hard to execute: flesh rot hard to stack, flesh rot expiring fast, landing all combo steps to refresh the flesh rot we already have, buffing with Lotus overdose, debuffing with GC and the FINALLY using flesh necrosis IF your opponent is still near and you are not stunned/feared which will make your stack go away.
Solution: make the damage scale up to new health pools (with 3k HP pool, 900 dmg in nice, but with 10.000 hp?), or make flesh rot benefit from Swift ending in some way (the more damage the flesh rot does the more damage will come from necrosis), or just make it on 10s cooldown so its "spamable".
Note: Corruption's feat called death whirlwind basicly does the same thing, but is much much easier to use and does superior damage even unbuffed.
3/ Lethargy - this is beating a dead horse. Just look at this! Who with a sane mind would use this for anything? I kill chickens with it in Commons and thats it.
Solution: delete combo and try again
Note: seriously
4/ Opportunistic strike - there is no reason why this feat should be on one minute cooldown. It gets better with other buffs running, but the CD doesn't justify the benefits of it.
Solution: lower the cooldown to 20s. Corruption has Lunge on 20s and I will trade OS for Lunge any day of the week.
Note: in order to use OS you need to land your opener which is already hard as nails with shortest reach in game.
Bug: OS doesn't crit on openers that come from feated in combos (mainly: antrophy, sabotage, blindside, whirlwind, snapkick) so that leaves you with SS and SDS and GC...again there is no reason why it should work this way. The feat description says: "next blow that initiates a combo" - it sure blows, but when you initiate combo that is not SS,SDS or GC.
Corruption tree also needs a lot of work, but I am not the guy to go over it's issues.
1/ Slow death strikes - this combo should be a worthy alternative to Swift Strikes (we are SOOOO bored with using nothing than SS for a year now)and in order to do so it must go beyond 200 dmg per tick. When SDS and SS are used together it should create a burst damage which will pay for the effort involved (applaing two 3step combos and GC).
Solution: push Vile posion and Vile corruption upgrade further to 25% boost from recent 20%
Note: In order to benefit from strong SDS we must land grim corruption and we have shortest reach in game with cloth armor. The risk of getting close to other melee with longer or MUCH LONGER reach and always superior armor must be rewarded.
2/ Flesh necrosis - why this feat was not scaled is beyond me. This feat is super hard to execute: flesh rot hard to stack, flesh rot expiring fast, landing all combo steps to refresh the flesh rot we already have, buffing with Lotus overdose, debuffing with GC and the FINALLY using flesh necrosis IF your opponent is still near and you are not stunned/feared which will make your stack go away.
Solution: make the damage scale up to new health pools (with 3k HP pool, 900 dmg in nice, but with 10.000 hp?), or make flesh rot benefit from Swift ending in some way (the more damage the flesh rot does the more damage will come from necrosis), or just make it on 10s cooldown so its "spamable".
Note: Corruption's feat called death whirlwind basicly does the same thing, but is much much easier to use and does superior damage even unbuffed.
3/ Lethargy - this is beating a dead horse. Just look at this! Who with a sane mind would use this for anything? I kill chickens with it in Commons and thats it.
Solution: delete combo and try again
Note: seriously
4/ Opportunistic strike - there is no reason why this feat should be on one minute cooldown. It gets better with other buffs running, but the CD doesn't justify the benefits of it.
Solution: lower the cooldown to 20s. Corruption has Lunge on 20s and I will trade OS for Lunge any day of the week.
Note: in order to use OS you need to land your opener which is already hard as nails with shortest reach in game.
Bug: OS doesn't crit on openers that come from feated in combos (mainly: antrophy, sabotage, blindside, whirlwind, snapkick) so that leaves you with SS and SDS and GC...again there is no reason why it should work this way. The feat description says: "next blow that initiates a combo" - it sure blows, but when you initiate combo that is not SS,SDS or GC.
Corruption tree also needs a lot of work, but I am not the guy to go over it's issues.
On the horizon: 1.6 just after1.05.5?
You already know the GD letter for this month so lets go into other dirty details:Veteran Points
About damn time I can get something back for my undieing loyality.
How the system will work is not exacly clear at this point - few options are considered. Aslo every payment counts as "active subscription" so that is good news for gamecards users.
1.05.5?
GD says that we will have atleast two more 1.05.x "hotfix" balance patches. As I type this 1.05.4 is on test live with MASSIVE changes to BS and Barb (total revamp).We can only HOPE that last patch before 1.6 - the 1.05.5 will bring assassin revamp, otherwise we are WELL and TRUELY FUCKED.
1.6 implementation
GD consideres delivering1.6 in batches of patches instead of one HUGE ASS patch that takes forever to roll out. That is a welcomed change in policy.
What will not make it into 1.6
Custom guild insignias / cloaks or banners or guild alliance system is not coming in this update.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
[Guide] Second wind
Second wind - some deem it useless crap, while others praise it. When used this will rapidly replenish your stamina pool and... that's it - it goes on 10m cooldown.
How can you use that? Let find out.
Bigest bang for the buck
Lets say you are investing feat points in the general tree up to agile mind. First quick recovery 5/5 to open up your tree, then toughness 5/5 for more armor, excellent balance (no brainer here) and 3/3 into amazing escape artist. What do you see? Yes, you are one point short if you want to get 3/3 into agile. But what to get? One point into natural protection for +44 protection? Don't think so. Perhaps 1% evade from acrobat? Crap.How do you feel about 3,5% weapon damage that lethality gives? Yeah, not so much into that... How about feat that will bail your ass out of sticky situations? Hmmmm...
I think that second wind is indeed best option when it comes to opening other feats in general tree. Just for that - 1 feat point spent on second wind is justified in my eyes
Running out of stamina
This is abovious use. There will be many times when you will be out of stamina in a very middle of a fight. If you can't do combos then there isn't really much you can do to your opponent. Second wind will get you back into the fray on not ime.
Fight or run
If you use stamina pot, second wind and Lotus overdose you will outrun every single other class in the game. Massive stamina regeneration that comes from both of those feats will regen your whole bar...couple of times. If you use both of those feats at the same time you won't be able to even run out stamina until their duration is over. I suggest using second wind first and then Lotus overdose (otherwise you will waste too much stamina). I can't count the times this allowed me to catch up with caster or ranger that was running away or to run from a losing fight.
To sum it up: I find it worth 1 point when I feat in agile mind. I do recomend it.
How can you use that? Let find out.
Bigest bang for the buck
Lets say you are investing feat points in the general tree up to agile mind. First quick recovery 5/5 to open up your tree, then toughness 5/5 for more armor, excellent balance (no brainer here) and 3/3 into amazing escape artist. What do you see? Yes, you are one point short if you want to get 3/3 into agile. But what to get? One point into natural protection for +44 protection? Don't think so. Perhaps 1% evade from acrobat? Crap.How do you feel about 3,5% weapon damage that lethality gives? Yeah, not so much into that... How about feat that will bail your ass out of sticky situations? Hmmmm...
I think that second wind is indeed best option when it comes to opening other feats in general tree. Just for that - 1 feat point spent on second wind is justified in my eyes
Running out of stamina
This is abovious use. There will be many times when you will be out of stamina in a very middle of a fight. If you can't do combos then there isn't really much you can do to your opponent. Second wind will get you back into the fray on not ime.
Fight or run
If you use stamina pot, second wind and Lotus overdose you will outrun every single other class in the game. Massive stamina regeneration that comes from both of those feats will regen your whole bar...couple of times. If you use both of those feats at the same time you won't be able to even run out stamina until their duration is over. I suggest using second wind first and then Lotus overdose (otherwise you will waste too much stamina). I can't count the times this allowed me to catch up with caster or ranger that was running away or to run from a losing fight.
To sum it up: I find it worth 1 point when I feat in agile mind. I do recomend it.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Escape artist + brutality or Lethality for PVE on PVP Server?
12AX7 wrote:
Hi Slith, what do you think about dumping 5-lethality for 3-Escape Artist and 2-Brutality for levelling in a pvp server(Lotus/general)?
PvE side I will find difficult the solo instances with Lotus/General as you wrote in a preceeding post or this is changed after 1.5.3?
Thanks and keep up the good work... best assassin blog I've seen!
Hey 12AX7 (if that is your real name ;p)
Thank you for picking my assassing blog as your source of news - it is hard to compete with all those other assassin blogs, but I try to stay competitive.
As for your question: tough call,
Lethality, even if it is not best choice for assassins, will benefit you in EVERY encounter which will translate into more damage done and that translates into more xp per hour
Brutality will bail your ass out of sticky situations when confronted by several mobs - procing fatality will do AOE damage and give temporary immunity while still being healed with GLE, pots. Read more on brutality here.
You should not get into sticky situations in a first place so my conclusion would be taking lethality, playing smart and not dieing. Brutality also has nasty cooldown and 2/3 doesnt provide as big of a benefit as 3/3.
As for escape artist... I guess it is essential for minigames and such, moreso if you are on pvp server and getting jumped at a lot while leveling.
My conclusion:
If you are going to power level to 80 then take lethality - ignore pvp and grind your xp. You will be getting huge xp from Villas (my personal recomendation, I got my lvl80 in there) and only one boss can root you there...once (Nemedian quest line).
If you are going to mix pve and pvp on your road to 80lvl then escape artist + 2/3 brutality will benefit you in both pvp and pve. Not having escape artist in minigames will make your experience horrible.
As for solo instances - Lotus/general is now a valid specc for solo instances. It is as good as corruption/general if not better. Read up more on that here.
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"Readers questions" will now be part of this blog. I will *try*(TM) to anwser interesting questions found in comments, but please DO NOT abuse this and spam questions.
Thank you for picking my assassing blog as your source of news - it is hard to compete with all those other assassin blogs, but I try to stay competitive.
As for your question: tough call,
Lethality, even if it is not best choice for assassins, will benefit you in EVERY encounter which will translate into more damage done and that translates into more xp per hour
Brutality will bail your ass out of sticky situations when confronted by several mobs - procing fatality will do AOE damage and give temporary immunity while still being healed with GLE, pots. Read more on brutality here.
You should not get into sticky situations in a first place so my conclusion would be taking lethality, playing smart and not dieing. Brutality also has nasty cooldown and 2/3 doesnt provide as big of a benefit as 3/3.
As for escape artist... I guess it is essential for minigames and such, moreso if you are on pvp server and getting jumped at a lot while leveling.
My conclusion:
If you are going to power level to 80 then take lethality - ignore pvp and grind your xp. You will be getting huge xp from Villas (my personal recomendation, I got my lvl80 in there) and only one boss can root you there...once (Nemedian quest line).
If you are going to mix pve and pvp on your road to 80lvl then escape artist + 2/3 brutality will benefit you in both pvp and pve. Not having escape artist in minigames will make your experience horrible.
As for solo instances - Lotus/general is now a valid specc for solo instances. It is as good as corruption/general if not better. Read up more on that here.
--------
"Readers questions" will now be part of this blog. I will *try*(TM) to anwser interesting questions found in comments, but please DO NOT abuse this and spam questions.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Assassin - welcome back guide
Here is a short guide/information that I have put together so people have easier time adjusting to 1.5 reality. This is in no way a detailed guide, for details go to past patch notes
http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6
http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6
Combo mechanics
You have to "land" every combo "step" in order to deal 100% damage. If you miss one combo step you will see one of combo's "arrow" light up red. Missing a combo step will apply penality of -5% damage.
Game mechanics
Dubble tapping and using active block no longer gives buff
Dubble tapping backwards puts evade buff on cooldown
Combo steps
Combos got their steps reduced.
Combo changes
- Lots of cooldown changes
- Grim corruption and Slow Death Strikes combo tiers now share cooldowns (example: using GCIII will put also put cooldown on GCII)
Grim corruption
a) it applies snare
b) it applies debuff. Debuff type is dependant on stance in which GC is applied.
Feat changes
Lotus tree
a) Flesh necrosis - adding points will also add damage to corrupted backlash, it is instant now, can be used while moving (upgraded)
b) Blindside - it now deals more damage and drains more stamina from your target (upgraded)
c) Lotus weapon - it now always proc, does more damage (upgraded)
d) Swift ending - it now proc sooner (uprgraded)
e) Lotus overdose - it no longer applies any penality (upgraded)
f) Furry of blows - longer duration (uprgaded)
g) Assassination - bigger bonus (uprgaded)
h) Corrupted body - it adds protection bonus on damage (reworked)
i) Curse of Lotus - limited to 12 targets, no casting time, instant (upgraded)
Corruption tree
a) Unholy Strenght - it adds 5% damage intead of 10% (nerfed)
b) Life leech - it heals more (upgraded)
c) Unholy armor - gives 50% bonus to your armor (changed, nerfed)
d) Death's gaze - it is instant now (upgraded)
e) Avatar of death - duration is 15s now from 20s (nerfed)
f) Seeds of corruption - it applies debuff for HP regeneration, if GC is used the seeds will "explode" and deal instant damage (reworked)
g) Lunge - it now adds 70% weapon damage, 20s cooldown (reworked)
h) Burden to bear - applies armor debuff, more points give higher chance to proc (changed)
i) From the darkness - it stuns, captures soul shard (changed)
General tree
a) Quick recovery - adds stamina regeneration (reworked)
b) Excellent balance - needs only 1 point, 1 m cooldown (changed)
c) Lethality - adds weapon damage, poor choice for assassins (new)
d) Agile mind - it is now clickable, each point added reduces its cooldown from 9 to 3 (reworked)
e) Ambush - it no longer gives damage boost (nerfed)
Combos usefull in PVP and PVE
Swift Strikes are still our bread and butter,
Slow Death Strikes deal a lot of damage,
Grim Corruption mainly debuffs target
How to use combos in typical PVP/PVE encounter
1) Apply debuff (Grim corruption)
2) Apply slow death strikes
3) Use swift strikes
PVE Leveling speccs
Lotus/general
Corruption/general
There haven't been any great changes to assassins. It safe to say that your experience and "feel" of this class will remain mostly unaffected in 1.5.
Found an error? Let me know.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Leper colony
This place has a very unique vibe. Basicly it is a place where people sick from leprosy get thrown to die horrible, painful and slow death.You can't attack lepers and they will try to follow you around - stay a while and the whole colony will come to stare at you. How freaky is that? The models are well done and really give you the feeling that this place is rotten to the core.
You can even get sick here! Check the screen.
Also FC made a great move of making this place a spawning point for murderers.
I strongly suggest visiting this place at night.
Check the video:
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