User:Gebnar/A-ME IW Build

The objective of this build is to max dagger mastery - considerably increasing the chance to double strike, and therefore the dps of IW.

This build also abuses some of the side effects of IW to make the player very hard to kill, through the use of shadow arts.

Attributes and Skills
[build prof=Assassin/Mesmer DaggerMastery=12+1+3 ShadowArts=8+1 IllusionMagic=10] [Illusionary Weaponry] [Illusion of Weakness] [Death's Charge] [Heart of Shadow] [Feigned Neutrality] [Shadow Refuge] [Shroud of Distress] [Dark Escape] [/build]

(optional skills)

Equipment
Blessed Insignia... any daggers with 20% enchanting, other non-damage mods can be useful...
 * Armor
 * Weapons

Usage
Cast Illusonary Weaponry, followed by Illusion of Weakness and Shroud of Distress.

Approximately every third attack will be a double strike, raising your average dps to almost exactly the damage listed in IW. While your damage may seem unimpressive, consider that IW ignores the effects of high armor, Blind, miss chance, Weakened, and blocking - thus negating most anti-melee defenses.

Shroud of Distress makes it even harder to remove Illusion of Weakness via damage, makes you very hard to kill, and provides another cover enchantment.

Heart of Shadow, followed by Death's Charge helps to confuse enemies and provides a massive self-heal.

Heart of Shadow can also be used to escape from tight or dangerous situations. It's range is in fact much larger than "in the area", potentially taking you well away from a bad situation.

Heart of shadow has a similar cooldown to IW and IoW - consider using it to give yourself some distance before recasting your enchants.

Feigned Neutrality and Dark Escape will not end if you attack with Illusionary Weaponry... so abuse them to stay alive for even longer.

Cast Shadow Refuge any time you're not full on health.

This build is geared toward survival. You are a tank with moderate (but consistent) dps.

Counters
Health boosts like Defy Pain/Endure Pain make it take much longer to kill your target.

Heavy enchantment removal can ruin your ability to deal damage, though with some decent daggers, you might still fare ok.

Watch out for skills like Diversion - if your protective skills get delayed, you will be much easier to kill. If IW gets delayed, you won't be doing much damage.

Generic damage reduction like that provided by Defy Pain or Shielding Hands will reduce your dps considerably.

Empathy, Insidious Parasite, and Spiteful Spirit are all quite dangerous. If hexed with one or more of these, you are faced with the choice of not attacking, or not living...

Variants
Reducing Shadow arts to increase Illusion Magic will considerably raise your dps, but also considerably reduces your survival ability.

Average DPS at 12 illusion magic is