Any pros to keep training for example Drain Health/Freezing strike skills? Or Power Break? I see the use of Hex to lower an opponents defense. What about confusion?
Perhaps the drain HP / Freezing is only usefull with bsps?
Perhaps I can also add Bleed/Sting. Will these be usefull past the lvl 40/50s? I see bleed can slow an opponent. Can they stack? Stings damage too low?
Sorry for the load of questions ... just want to plan a little ahead with the new Assassin I am planning to go AW. Thanks!!!
i dont recommend getting most magic skills like poison confusion or any of that. hex is a must and MAYBE freeze strike to slow down your enemy. but seeing as your already a dagger with more run speed than most classes and you need to get lucky for it to land i dont think its a must like hex is.
about the sting, im not sure but i think it wont stack. just replace each other if they land.
imho confusion is only good in groups to get aggro off the squishies (esp. healers) but if u have a good tank w/ hate then confusion is pretty useless. Drain health also fairly useless doesn't heal u for much and has slow cast time. Freezing strike good for pvp mostly like archers or sws or other classes that can kite u. I don't know if sting/bleed stack. Blessed spirit shots (& emp) will increase the land rate of all magic skills/debuffs and the dmg of things like drain health.
But at that level sp shouldn't really be a problem so get everything if you can.
Hex is the only skill you need to operate at max effeciency. but, theres alot of room for fun pvp messing around. fighting an orc? open with poison then sting, and run around in circles while they writhe in pain. imho the best part about freezing strike is the cast animation, looks exactly like a lethal blow. position yourself behind someone (backstab range) and cast freezing strike, they might just pee their pants, you can also press escape, and not even go purple.
but my perspective is that pvp is a social dance of fun times.
from my experience bleed > sting but it costs more mp, and is not an overhit, and they dont stack, also bleed/poison do 0 direct damage, so you could easily leave someone with 1hp if your feeling evil.
if your a pure pwnage powergamer (bot) you only need hex. by the way most dagger bots are TH, because higher armor/dagger mastries and con lets them successfully afk tinktinktinktink far better than AW.
TH have the int of a brick, AW are pretty **** smart statistically, and with clever skill application you can have alot of fun. but if you wanna do what 10,000 other daggers have done before you, the pvp equation is F1->F2->F3 repeat
Made lvl 40 and specced AW.
Just my experience so far about some of the skills used:
Hex: I see the benefit of it and mostly use it on high pdef mobs.
Drain HP: It can be handy to fill up some lost HP with bsps, magic crits are actually very nice. And ok mob puller if you dont use hex on the mob.
Freezing Strike: Dont use it often ... not really seen the use of it, have not done much pvp.
Power Break: I think I have never used this ...
Bleed: Too little PvP, but I use Sting instead sometimes on mobs though.
Hm, also like someone mentioned, the SP received is sufficient to train the necessary skills, if you skip the bow skills from lvl 20-40 and die a few times ...
Hm, changed my view on some magic skills and others ...
First one question, what are the timers on say Hex/Powerbreak/Sting/Bleed?
Anyway, I basically stopped using HP drain and freezingstrike, too long cast time, even with bsps.
Then again, I started using Power break a little. For example, when there is no other chance but to pull 2 mobs, use powerbreak on one, hex on the other and of course kill the hexed one first. The cast time of these skills is ok to live with ;-)
I have not used bleed much, but sting seems nice sometimes, if it must hit or to flag a player.
drain life + freezing strike are pretty much useless. Maybe very rarely in 1:1 pvp but thats about it
Power break is almost useless. It has its times, like you mentioned when you power break the strongest one and kill the other mops first, but your mp is much better spent just killing fast with deadly blow + making up damage with vamp rage / herbs.
don't know why aw has both bleed + sting, sting is the exact same thing except it does initial dmg as well, so might as well just use that. Usually best used on just 2x hp mops or more.
You should really have no need for confusion at all, it shouldn't be that often that you pull agro off the tank, and if you do it constantly, then you're probably doing something wrong and should rethink your style of playing.. Again, this mp is much better spent on better skills
The main thing about daggers is mana conservation, every point is very useful because the skills do such great damage. Its really easy to underestimate the use of managing mp + getting the most out of dagger masteries + backstabs, but it can make you lvl almost 2x faster when you can most effectively use your skills. In a party, the bonus of mana conservation is most prevalent, especially when you're fighting 2x hp or cata mops.
does bleed reduce runspeed? I didn't know, it might have use in small 1:1 or 2:2 pvp in that case over sting, but in any other situation, still go with bleed.
On mops, I believe all debuffs = 2mins? Just powerbreak a monster and wait to see how long till its hits hurt again. Bleed/sting = 15 sec if im still correct.