Non-Conformist Build Wars

Note: I have not tested this build after the change to Illusion of Pain. It should still work, but energy may be more of an issue. Also, with the shorter duration it's possible that you won't be able to kill someone with just a single use of it.

The New Year brings with it a new build! This is an Assassin caster that causes massive health degeneration on a single target. I made this build for Alliance Battles, so it doesn’t have Resurrection Signet.

A full chain from this build will kill a target of any amount of armor assuming they don’t use any kind of healing. It’s easy to maintain the various skills on the target though, so you can just pressure them until death even if they do heal. This build causes -13 health degeneration as well as doing 23 damage per second. Taking into account the -10 health degeneration cap, this is the equivalent of doing 43 armor ignoring damage per second. This doesn’t take into the account the damage from Dancing Daggers and Signet of Toxic Shock, which adds another 75 damage and 70 armor ignoring damage periodically.

Usage:
Find a target. You’ll have a lot of trouble killing monks, so your best bet is to find someone with minimal healing abilities. Cast your skill chain: Dancing Daggers > Entangling Asp > Seeping Wound > Illusion of Pain > Signet of Toxic Shock.

If they use no healing skills they will die from this no matter how much armor they have. If they heal themselves, just keep re-applying Seeping Wound and Illusion of Pain; Save Dancing Daggers and Toxic Shock for a spike if you need it.

Use Dash to get around the map quickly and to keep up with fleeing enemies.

Ether Feast is your heal. If everything goes well, you will never need to use Distortion, but if things start getting nasty, that’s what it’s there for.

Items:
For weapons, use an Illusion Wand with a Wand Wrapping of Quickening and a Don’t Think Twice inscription and an Illusion Focus with a Focus Core of Swiftness and a Serenity Now inscription.

For armor, use a Critical Strikes head piece with a Rune of Superior Critical Strikes, a chest piece with a Rune of Major Deadly Arts. For the other three, use two Runes of Attunement and a Rune of Superior Vigor. All pieces should have Radiant Insignias.

Illusionary Seeping Pain
OwVk4hD1YGwkWDEjC0bzb2CwEEKA

Assassin/Mesmer
Level: 20
Critical Strikes: 13 (9+4)
Deadly Arts: 10 (8+2)
Illusion Magic: 12
Inspiration Magic: 5

- Dancing Daggers (Deadly Arts)
Send out 3 Dancing Daggers at target foe, each striking for 25 earth damage if they hit. Dancing Daggers has half the normal range. This skill counts as a lead attack.
Energy:5 Cast:1 Recharge:5

- Entangling Asp (Deadly Arts)
Entangling Asp must follow a lead attack. Target foe is knocked down and becomes Poisoned for 15 seconds.
Energy:10 Cast:1 Recharge:20

- Seeping Wound [Elite] (Critical Strikes)
For 20 seconds, if target foe is suffering from Bleeding or Poison, that foe takes 14 damage per second.
Energy:5 Cast:1 Recharge:10

- Illusion of Pain (Illusion Magic)
For 10 seconds, target foe has -9 Health degeneration. When Illusion of Pain ends, that foe is healed for 15 Health for each point of Health degeneration caused from this Spell.
Energy:10 Cast:1 Recharge:5

- Signet of Toxic Shock (Deadly Arts)
If target foe is suffering from Poison, that foe takes 70 damage.
Energy:0 Cast:1 Recharge:15

- Distortion (Illusion Magic)
For 4 seconds, you have a 75% chance to block attacks. Whenever you block an attack this way, you lose 2 Energy or Distortion ends.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:5

- Dash (Assassin None)
For 3 seconds, you run 50% faster.
Energy:5 Cast:0 Recharge:8

- Ether Feast (Inspiration Magic)
Target foe loses 3 Energy. You are healed 30 for each point of Energy lost.
Energy:5 Cast:1 Recharge:8