The object of this build is to stay alive in an Alliance Battle and use Death Blossom to deal massive amounts of damage to multiple targets, or pick out an individual target and take them out for the benefit of the team. This build uses skills like Critical Defenses and Vigorous Spirit to remove the majority of melee threats so the Assassin can worry about taking out casters for the benefit of the team.

Attributes and Skills

Assassin / Monk	Attribute Rank
Dagger Mastery	12 + 1 + 1
Critical Strikes	11 + 3
Healing Prayers	6

Vigorous Spirit

Critical Eye

Aura of Displacement

Golden Lotus Strike

Leaping Mantis Sting

Wild Strike

Death Blossom

Critical Defenses

• It is not suggested you use any variables of this build, unless there is a better replacement for Vigorous Spirit, because this build depends on all the aspects provided.
• If you feel it necesary, you can replace Wild Strike with another fast recharging Off-Hand Attack.

Equipment

• Armor
  • Dagger Mastery Headpiece
  • Nightstalkers Armor works fairly well with this build.
  • Valkyries armor, I have found, works much better.
• Runes
  • 1 Superior Critical Stikes Rune
  • 1 Minor Dagger Mastery Rune
  • 1 Vigor Rune (Minor, Major, or Superior works fine)
  • 2 Runes of Attunement
• Weapons
  • Any set of Zealous daggers with a health mod should work fine. (I use Everthorn's Chakrams.)

Usage

• Start out by using and maintaining the skill Critical Eye and the spell Vigorous Spirit. Keep these up at all times.
• Pick a target and immediately cast Critical Defenses and cast AoD to shadow step to the target foe. This will keep all melee and physical damage out of your way.
• If your target was running, like many will probably be, immediately after AoD use the attack skill Leaping Mantis Sting. If they were not running, don't waste your energy and use Golden Lotus Strike to make up for your lack of energy.
• If they are crippled attack them until they are dead, using your other attack skills and just circulating through them while maintaining Vigorous Spirit and Critical Eye in hopes that your Critical Defenses will stay up, which they should.
• Repeat as necessary on multiple targets and do not be afraid to dive into a large group of enemies. Critical Defenses should stay up, and if not recast it as it will be recharged after 30 seconds.

Counters

• Massive Degen (caused my Necromancers or Mesmers)
• 2 or more enchantment removal skills
• Blind

Variants

• It would be possible to replace Aura of Displacement with such skills as Moebius Strike or even Way of the Assassin if you're desperate. However, that would take out one of your major defenses, so as I said, it may not be the best idea to alter very many things in the build.

Notes

• Make sure Vigorous Spirit is cast after Critical Defenses if you do cast CD later in the battle. This will make sure that any enchantment removal skills will only remove Vigorous Spirit and not leave you vulnerable to melee damage in the middle of a mob.
• The way this build is set up, Critical Defenses should stay up (as stated above) for a very long time. You have a 28% chance for a critical hit with the combination of your Critical Strikes attribute and the skill Critical Eye.

This build is not perfect; however when I used it, I stayed alive longer than anyone else (especially other Assassins) as long as I wasn't receiving massive amounts of degen. This build also takes out the major threat I used to experience with degen, Condition Rangers, as you can block their shots and not have to worry about their degen taking you out. Degeneration Mesmers and Necros are going to take this build out fairly fast if they focus on it constantly, but I have yet to take a whole lot of damage from SSor Insiduous Parasite Necromancers and Empathy Mesmers because of Vigorous Spirit.