Oh yeah, clearly this is the best specc...

What is the best specc for pvp? I sometimes get whispers from people "what specc r u?" and when I tell them (it is no mistery - it is classic hybrid)they are suprised and say "I tried that and it sucks, xxxx is clearly better". This got me thinking "how do you define best specc"? I would argue that there are basic 3 builds: lotus/general, corruption/general and lotus/corruption aka hybrid and all other builds are merely a variation of those - which one "rox the sox off"? Let's go over them really quck:

Lotus/general - great surviviality (Lotus got me safe out of most extrime group gank situations thanks to lotus bomb), amazing passive procs resulting in outstanding damage output

Corruption/general - increased resistance to melee damage, ability to deal quick bursts of damage, great buffs

Lotus/Corruption - best of both worlds for a hefty price - almost defenceless against CC and knockbacks (something that xxx/general speccs can deal easly with).

So how people are rating the builds? Exacly the same way I used to: when asked "why do you think xxxx is best?" I get same anwser "because I played with it yesterday (for 3 days, week, with guild etc.) and I owned hard". People try one specc, get into the minigame and loose it for one reason or another, and,oh what happens? Yeah - LET'S BLAME THE SPECC! You are starting to go over it in your head "if I had Lotus I would so won this fight" and so on. You can't lose the "big picture" which is: you can't specc for every situation, you can't specc for stupid team, fat fingers,bad timing and your own lack of good judgement. The point is: there is no best specc - go with the one you like and stick with it. I have read few forum posts where people were swearing how much they love lotus, but they are using "stupid corruption/general" because (here it goes) "it is the best specc".

You can have tons of heals, but that ranger will root ya and kill your hybrid build, corruption assassin might face soldier with ease, but it lotus assassin who will take all casters to school with 10% magic ress and lotus blood spell immunity. Get my drift? You will never have it all, so respecc few times, check the vibe of each tree, find what you like and enjoy your pvp - soon enough you will know what to do.

And to prove you that "it can be done, baby" here is already classic "Best at both worlds" pvp video by legend himself - Meph. This video is pre-gems era (so pre pvp 2.0 also) and shows assassin KICKING SOME ASS with both trees. Meph was really ahead of his time as he was landing almost all of his combo hits (back then combo preloading was standard for all melees) so his style is in fact closer to current 3.0 patch.

Now is a good time to start an assassin alt

You were thinking about getting an assassin alt for some time now, but never got around doing it because the very thought of re-doing Tortage 1-20 content gives you the creeps, right? Relax, now you can power level though 1-20 lvl with style thanks to this great thread by Neronitheus who shows you how to "[Spoiler] Level 1 to 20 in a day".
It is breakdown of all Tortage quests which are do-able in a stream so you can get from zero to hero in a couple of hours. Both hot and sexy.

Assassin from Bombay

Everyone knows Bombay TV right? Just check it, no need to explain it here. Well once in a while I get the "bombay TV" vibe going where I just gotta make some assassin related movie for reason that are beyond my primitive reckoning.

I know that most of them are not funny to the general pop so you have to be REALLY HARDCORE assassin player to "get it" and still it might now be worth a decent "lol".

This is my oldie, bombay TV from the very begining of AOC where assassins where underpowered and pre-70 guardians were UNKILLABLE for us (you could chew on them for hours). Since very few of assassin community were +70lvl at that time the FTD (from the darkness) was this mythical holy grail of assassindom (there is such a word?) so everone wanted to be lvl 70 so they could finaly kill stuff...ah good times.

Check the life before you hit lvl 70
Here is my latest creation: The last Lotus assassin, in memory to my friend, Alex from Siths clan who was the last assassin I know of on my server - Aquilonia - to use Lotus specc and still get that lvl 3 gear. He is gone now.

Just so we are clear on this: lotus does work in pvp, but you can do better with other specc (hit Lotus specc problem compliation thread for great info on this subject)

Get out of lethargy and save the lethargy!

After 3.0 patch the lethargy combo got hit hard by the Funcom and right now it hardly got any usage (it can be easly replaced by other, superior combos both in terms of debuff and damage).

Hit the link for test forums thread that may or may not have been already noticed by Funcom staff (most likely it wasn’t ;p)

[Guide] Death's gaze

5/5 corruption tree feat
This used to be our fear/stun spell - it would randomly fear your target, or stun him, making him stand still. The problem was: the fear was making your target run around like an idiot and stun proc was low (I am not sure if it was charm or stun).

As of patch 3.0 this all changed. Now days Death's Gaze always fears target and debuffs him with snare, making him easy target.

Here is what you should know about death's gaze:

Get those shards!
It needs one shard. Period! If you want to get DG from the very start (which you should) you can easily get it from either stealth attack or FTD. GC is also a good opener for both snare stacking and shard generation.

Chain CC
Since death's gaze is the only fear spell available to Corruption/general, hybrid assassins it can be used to totally Chain CC all classes wearing light armor or less:

FTD(gain shard)->Death Gaze (Slow death strike)->Snap Kick (SS)

1/ From the Darkness opens the chain for both element of surprise and shard generation.

2/ After fearing your target use Slow Death Strike to deal good amount of damage over time (DOT) to spread you DPS a little.

3/ When your target is DOTed use Snap Kick to get him down and then unload on him your highest SS buffed with Lunge or corrupting strikes.

CC breaking (PVE)
As since patch 3.0 all mobs can break fear/charms when you deal X ammount of damage to them. With that in mind use DG on the last combo step (it will not undo your combo!) and then unload SS rather than fearing and going through all the combo steps because the mob will break free.

Combo/skill breaker
Death’s gaze works wonders as combo breaker. If, for example, barbarian is unloading his cyclone of steel on you, use DG to fear him and avoid massive damage being done to you. Same with POMs knockback, oraz heals.

Death's Gaze as snare
Since this feat has range of about "dubble tap forward" you can chase after your opponent and fear him up as you get close to him.

Snare stacking
Death gaze snare stacks with grim corruption snare so you can:
Grim corruption-> Death gaze

this will get your target from "slowly running away" to "baby crawl" speed.

Closing notes
- Death gaze is a spell - it can be resisted by your target.
- When fear breaks/ends so does the snare.
- If you have shard you can use DG while mounted.

Chillwhisper taking Assassins to school on DPS

Chillwhisper down at US boards made 3 new topics regarding maximizing your DPS with nice break down of every feat and combos. Great read!



Be sure to check out:

Feat Contributions to DPS
Chillwhisper's guide to calculating combo damage and DPS
Chillwhisper's New and Improved Combo Review

Hats off to the "main man" Chillwhisper for outstanding pice of work.

Nipple set gotta go!

our pvp t1 armor looks horrible on male avatars because of our assassin nipples proudly displayed for our opponents to quake in fear at. Not cool!

For full description and petition to give us re-modeling go to this link:
http://forums-tl.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=40172

Now is the time to say no to man boobies, or for the next 500.000,00 pvp xp we will be the laughing stock until we get next tier armor…act now!