[Shadow Warrior] Experimenting with Assault Stance

[Foxbeep]

I've been trying for the last few days to get the Assault SW into a viable setup and I've had some decent successes so I figured I'd share with you guys and see what other players have done along these lines.

For the sake of convenience, abilities and tactics will be abbreviated as follows

Abilities:
Broadhead Arrow; BHA
Spiral Fletched Arrow: SFA
Draw Blood: DB
Grim Slash: GS
Brutal Assault :BA
Exploit Weakness: EW
Opportunistic Strike: OS
Takedown: TD
Vengeance of Nargarythe: VoN
Counterstrike :CS
Eye shot: ES
Whirling Pin: WrP
Acid Arrow: AC

Tactics:
Wrist Slash: WrS
Sinister Assault: SA
Merciless Soldier: MS
Distracting Rebounds: DR
Pierce Defenses: PD

If I haven't come up with an abbreviation it's probably because I missed it or it's not something that will be used often in this build so I don't think it's worth the time to worry about abbreviation.

I started out with like this:
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=sw; ... 963:3966:0:
My renown points were spent all in parry, then dodge/disrupt then weaponskill as I ran out of ranks or points.

I ended up with ~600str in Assault Stance, 450 or so WS, 18% parry 11% ea ranged and melee crit and around 1400 armor.

I don't have a lot of money so I didn't invest yet in strength/toughness/armor talismans or potions, I'm saving up for when I can purchase full duelist and really give it a run for its money.

What I found was that maintaining that crucial 15-25ft gap between me and my target was very important, I was targeting mainly MDPS classes w/o guard and healers, especially pesky DoKs that closed the gap. I had mild success playing like I was a skirmish SW w/o powerful draw, keeping close proximity and floating a 15-20ft gap from the front line, closing in only to punish a soft target with a kill combo (Prep with BHA, AA, DB, VoN, BA, GSx2, BA) with an EW if I needed to disable for kill. I ended up finishing most SCs with 28-39k damage which really isn't much considering the class potential, but I always had 3-4 DBs and did a decent job discouraging MDPS from rushing our healers, as I'd leash like an MDPS and blow cooldowns to protect a healer.

It became quickly apparent to me though that given my squishy demeanor and semi-distant positioning that WrS wasn't the best third tactic (And I do believe NR and SA are mandatory) as I didn't really use GS all that often and it felt like a wasted tactic so I tried slotting a couple of different tactics. PD really helped against WE and Maras who were smart enough to slot parry and I found I was knocking them down with maybe 2-3 fewer GCDs so that really helped, but I found I got the most utility out of slotting DR.

Having a ranged AoE Detaunt to throw into the sorcs/SHs who were focusing me was allowing me to operate a lot more independently of healers, since I didn't need anywhere near as much focus to keep up in the general skirmish and being able to toss it into a group of melee before I closed the gap and engaged my target got me the extra 4-5 GCDs to hit my target hard, WrP out, Cleanse with M1 and get back to fighting.

I still only dealt the 30-45k damage and 4-6 Dbs I had seen previously but I was having a much easier time harassing and disengaging when I felt I was overextending/taking damage/getting attention.

Anyone else played around much with Assault? I'm jumping back and forth between assault and skirmish this week trying different specs each time and it's been a blast (And I've found a skirmish spec I like more already.)

Thanks for reading, death to the traitor cousins!

EDIT: Clarified reasoning for switching out WrS

[noisestorm]

I did try it out for a bit, but honestly the lack of available STR and espeially the missing ShadowSting sucked balls.
I was running a bit with this http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=sw; ... 8:;0:0:0:0:
while having full armor slotted (3200 Armor with pot!) but just had a measly 450 str. For the current stage of the game the specc is just not anywhere near being competetive at any stage. Maybe once we have a few mroe gears to mix setbonis better and draw out a lot more Balli things will change. I personally have a few ideas for changes once the Balanceforum goes live, but until then i benched my SW.

[Foxbeep]

I did try it out for a bit, but honestly the lack of available STR and espeially the missing ShadowSting sucked balls.
I was running a bit with this http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=sw; ... 8:;0:0:0:0:
while having full armor slotted (3200 Armor with pot!) but just had a measly 450 str. For the current stage of the game the specc is just not anywhere near being competetive at any stage. Maybe once we have a few mroe gears to mix setbonis better and draw out a lot more Balli things will change. I personally have a few ideas for changes once the Balanceforum goes live, but until then i benched my SW.

[Foxbeep]

I did try it out for a bit, but honestly the lack of available STR and espeially the missing ShadowSting sucked balls.
I was running a bit with this http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=sw; ... 8:;0:0:0:0:
while having full armor slotted (3200 Armor with pot!) but just had a measly 450 str. For the current stage of the game the specc is just not anywhere near being competetive at any stage. Maybe once we have a few mroe gears to mix setbonis better and draw out a lot more Balli things will change. I personally have a few ideas for changes once the Balanceforum goes live, but until then i benched my SW.

Damn, the forum ate my post.

I wouldn't pick up swift strikes, I can't really find a good time to use 3 seconds doing that little damage in melee range, I'd rather counter strike buildups and knockdown/disarm and then kill combo so I could get back out of melee range ASAP.
If I were to go into Skirmish at all for SS I would do something more like
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=sw; ... 8:;0:0:0:0:

Admittedly at that point you're more a skirmish SW than assault but you can make use of BA to punish melee who overextend into your healers without a guard and, since you'll not be in melee range for the most part, you can skip DR and slot Masterful Aim or Pierce Defenses or one of the AP regeneration tactics.

I think at this stage in the game BA, NR and DR is the best tactic setup for an assault SW and the only real progress I can make is technique, gear and most importantly renown points.
I realized at work today that if I'm trying to stay out of melee range until disable/kill combo then my 18% parry is wasted so I can spec into strength or disrupt or weaponskill or something.

I'll come back with results as soon as I've gathered progress.

[noisestorm]

I did try a full Assault specc as well dont worry. I was trying pretty much every possible specc and currently they are all just bad. In every situation one is better off playing skirmish in the first place.
But i repeat myself here, once we have more skillpoints and access to higher gears stuff will maybe look different to now. I'll keep him benched and enjoy my WH for now : D

[Foxbeep]

I did try a full Assault specc as well dont worry. I was trying pretty much every possible specc and currently they are all just bad. In every situation one is better off playing skirmish in the first place.
But i repeat myself here, once we have more skillpoints and access to higher gears stuff will maybe look different to now. I'll keep him benched and enjoy my WH for now : D

I might end up coming to the same conclusion myself, we'll see.

Played tonight with a slight variation of my previous spec
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=sw; ... 8:;0:0:0:0:

Swapped swift strikes for Sweeping Slash
My reasons were
A) It's essentially a free hit on anyone within 25 feet that does a little more damage than grim slash
B) I don't use swift strikes ever

I also put all my renown points into strength and ended up at 760ish str without pot
One more renown rank would put me into 800+ str

That being said I didn't see all that much of an improvement. I found my playstyle to be a disadvantage more than anything most of the time and I did the least damage of any SW on the team while only getting a few DBs per match. I rarely got the opportunity to drop CDs and stomp anyone so it felt pretty pointless.

For what it's worth most of the destro in the SCs tonight was tanks so it really wasn't a good night to try it.

Any ideas?
Might just switch back to Skirmish until I get full duelist or adjustments are made but if I can provide any anecdotal or empirical evidence for the devs to work with on adjusting assault spec I think all my time will be worth it

#saveassault

[Foxbeep]

I won't get a chance to play more until likely tomorrow night so anyone who has a chance to hop on and experiment to provide additional feedback, build ideas or points of view would be really appreciated.

I intend to get into it again Saturday night if anyone wants to help or discuss in game PM me and I'll get back to you.

[Foxbeep]

Tried a weird build this afternoon
http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=sw; ... 963:3966:0:

My process was
Eagle eye does more damage than Grim Slash
If I'm in Grim Slash range I can hit 1 Second eagle eye

Played exactly like before, just swapped DR for ES and didn't have too much success

I think I'm gonna have to set assault down for now, not sure what else I can do at this point.

Learned some good lessons though, gonna play around a bit with scout or go back to skirmish until the balance forums open and the Assault tree gets a good looking at.

[noisestorm]

Stick to skirmish and endure it until we have enough points once we get lvl40 : D

[TenTonHammer]

I had a throught and i want to drop it here, what if assualt stance insted of giving you STR and WS, converted all your ballistic skill to str? Like it does for SH i belive?