The Protected Promise PvE Assassin avoids the common trap of trying to be a heal tank and instead uses monk enchantments, fueled by the assassin's ability to generate energy, to reduce damage taken.

Attributes and Skills

Assassin / Any	Attribute Rank
Dagger Mastery	10 + 2
Critical Strikes	10 + 2 + 1
Deadly Arts	7 + 1
Protection Prayers	9

Assassin's Promise

Black Lotus Strike

Twisting Fangs

Golden Phoenix Strike

Critical Strike

Shielding Hands

Protective Spirit

Optional

The optional slot can be:

• Dark Prison - a snare and an extra hex in case AP fails
• Impale - extra hex and adds some damage
• Mend Ailment - to get rid of blind/cripple
• Spirit Bond - so that any really big damage (bosses) will actually heal you
• Rebirth (or any Rez of choice)

Equipment

• Nightstalker's Armor (+15 AL when attacking)
• Zealous Daggers of Enchanting (the higher the better). +5 Energy is also good.

Usage

• Cast Protective Spirit and Shielding Hands. This will reduce most large elemental damage to around 35-40 damage, and any smaller damage will be reduced by 13, both of which are very good damage reduction. Keep these two up as much as possible.
• Combo mobs, using the Assassin's Promise-Black Lotus Strike-Twisting Fangs-Golden Phoenix Strike-Death Blossom combo.
• If a 10 second kill (the duration of Assassin's Promise) is not assured, start with GPS instead which can be used anytime with enchants up and cast AP when the kill is certain.
• If AP expires before triggering, continue to use GPS every 8 seconds, alternating dual attacks until it is recharged. If the optional slot is used for an extra hex, BLS can be used when needed, and AP will recharge everything once it's ready. Protective Spirit recharges fast enough that it will still be available even without the recharge from AP.

Counters

• Enchantment stripping is very bad, as is any significant hex removal. For both reasons, the Nahpui Quarter mission is particularly problematic for this build.
• As with most assassin builds, blind or any defensive stances can cause problems.

Variants

• In areas with lots of clustering mobs, Death Blossom and Twisting Fangs can swap places. Even though TF does more damage, repeated Death Blossoms to multiple foes can end up doing more total damage to the entire group.
• In lower level areas, kills will happen soon enough that Death Blossom (and in some cases GPS) can be dropped for other skills as well (speed buffs, snares, or skills which prevent block/evade).

Notes

• The listed skills are all Core or Factions, so Prophecies is not needed for this build.
• This build was originally posted on GW Online by patccmoi.