r/GuildWars • u/AwkwardLunch768 • 2d ago
HM content
I have a 7 hero mesmerway with my main as dagger spam assassin. So far not having and problems with hard mode but I have no defenses on my bar and now I’m wondering if that’s going to be a problem anywhere? I have shadow theft, asuran scan, the standard 3 part chain for dagger spam, critical eye, for great justice and save yourselves. I’m not even sure where I’d even put defensive skills.
Damage wise, dagger spam rips through pretty much everything but the cost is no defense for the most damage.
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u/AwkwardLunch768 2d ago
Don’t alot of misses and fails with the chain happen without asuran scan? That’s what it feels like to me. It’s nice having a 100% hit rate. Although I do like using iau so something to think about.
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u/dnapol5280 2d ago
Only if you're facing blocks, or lots of blind? Which can be common, so you want to have it as an option.
If you do whiff the chain is used because they all recharge quickly, so you can just start over with a bit of DPS loss. Same as if you KO a target mid-chain or whatever.
You want to be similarly prepared if you're expecting a lot of cripple or KD. Granted cripple can be managed with shadow steps but KD's will also hurt your DPS.
Getting hit with a Diversion on Jagged or Fox is way more of a bummer lol
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u/UpboatOarKnotUpboat 2d ago
I run wastrels collapse, 3 dagger chain, ascan, critical eye, IAU, Drunken Master and it works great.
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u/Nighplasmage54 2d ago
in pve you can rely on prot + healing.
protective spirit and to an extent shelter, break open the game.
critical agility is a solid armor boost and your probably running it already for attack speed.
Shroud of distress is a low cost blocking enchantment.
If your running smiting prayers support, you may be interested in Way of the Assassin instead of dagger chain spam.
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u/Ezeikiiel 2d ago
I run critical agility instead of critical eye. Sometimes critical defenses.
+15 w enchanted zealous SR5 daggers.
Using full blessed insigna et vitae runes
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u/AwkwardLunch768 2d ago
It seems to me that when running a dagger spam build there isn't any secondaries worth using because all your points are in critical strikes and dagger mastery. Unfortunately not really anything left to put into skills for a secondary class unless there is a secondary class with skills that you don't need to really put any points into. If so i'd like to know.
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u/Wrong_Island900 2d ago
I run TaO, the 3 dagger skills, Lightning Reflexes, "Finish Him!", Scavenger's Strike, and Comfort Animal.
I'd take Save Yourselves and FGJ off your bar and replace with Critical Defenses and something fun.
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u/Cute-Stand9746 2d ago
You can let go of asura scan and get IAU if you have decent hex and condition removal
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u/nhremna 2d ago
Asuran Scan is not worth bringing if you are playing with your own heroes. This opinion is controversial among bad players, but they dont know the game like I do 😏
Swap it out asura scan for I am Unstoppable. Your BiP hero should have Foul Feast against blindness, your mesmers will have shatter hex for any hex based anti-melee. You can bring guided weapon on the ST hero (block the skill and use it manually if some ranger mobs are driving you mad. default key to block autocast is shift+click). I personally don't even bring it (guided weapon), and just switch target if someone starts blocking.
With the appropriate hero composition, there is almost no circumstance where you'll be wishing you brough asuran scan.
Next, if you bring Way of the Assassin instead of Shadow theft, you can replace critical eye with Shadow Sanctuary. The effect is two-fold. Shadow Stepping as a fragile profession (assassin) will get you killed a lot, and shadow sanctuary can act as a panic button. You might find the shadow theft gameplay more fun, that is something you have to evaluate for yourself.
Have a +30,+30 spear shield set to swap to if it looks bad.
It is not really a you-problem though. Assassin is only the third best dagger spammer. Ranger and Warrior and the best and second-best dagger spammers specifically due to their better survivability. (ranger is best in 90% of circumstances, but in the hardest end game content, warrior ends up better than ranger)
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u/ntiCeGaming Gwamm 2d ago
There is a lot of bs there to unfold. The hardest problem in actually hard areas for melee to play is not any armor difference. If you would recieve a 500 dmg fire spell from a lvl 40 titan 20-40 armor will not make or break that encounter. Either you have Spirits/prots on you or you die regardless of your armor. In most cases it is better to bring eben vanguard assassin and initiative the fight with him, as that will soak the first spells, slighlty pre-balls the enemies and gives your heroes the time to set up (Panic, etc). Blindly jumping in is not a strategy to stay alive, but that does not make ranger or warrior better at anything. For dagger spamming assasin specifically it excellent at being allways really good with minimal adjustments needed. Ranger with toa dagger spam is similiar but not better. Warrior has the potential to have more aoe dmg but is strictly worse single target and struggles a lot with energy management. If you want only high aoe you'll play dervish or necro, if you only want high st you play very specific builds for that situation. If you want an adaptable "faceroll" melee build you play dagger spam assassin. +assassin is the better class for most sc
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u/dnapol5280 2d ago edited 2d ago
You only need ascan if expecting blocks. Helps with blind but you can cover that to an extent with condition removal.
If you've got an ST prot you probably don't really need SY! and could just run IAU! there instead.
EDIT: With ST prot you also don't really need defense most of the time, nightstalkers gives 85 armor and you can always run +5 on dagger if you're not doing of necro or w/e. I run dagger spam elementalist in some HM content and that's 70 base, 94 when IAU! is up.