Triggering Assassin's Mark

[Linkblade]

I play as Nightblade and got the celestial power (Devotion) "Assassin's Mark", which only triggers on critical strikes. I can only bind that to an offensive skill. I wonder which skill I should bind that power to. How does this triggering work? Must the bound skill do a critical strike or the equipped weapon with a normal attack? Can skills do critical strikes? Which skill have you bound that power to? I have currently bound it to Amastra's Quick Cut, because that does a critical strike with 20% chance so I thought that would trigger the power most often. Is that right or can you please correct me?

[RodHull]

So it works only from the skill its bound as in if you bind it to quick cut, then only when that skill scores a critical will it proc. Generally you want it bound to a skill that hits consistently as crits are already only around 15 to 25 chance even if you have high OA so binding it to quick cut means that only 1 in 5 hits proc quick cut then of those 1 in 5 only 1 in 4 score a crit, my math is awful but thats a quite low chance (1 in 20 maybe ??)

Quick cut only adds to crit damage not crit chance so it has no effect on helping to proc assassins mark, usually I put it on a default attack replacers like cadence or savagery or something like ring of steel if you dont use one of those because that hits multiple targets at once and you can control when you use it.

Yes skills can crit, even DOT damage can crit. Now there is an interesting thing, I use assassins mark on my 2 handed warder for the Physical rr, and Ive noticed although its bound to a standard melee attack skill, it sometimes effects mobs nowhere near me, and I think thats cause of weird interactions with other on hit effects happening at the same time as it procs and it spreads to mobs it technically shouldnt hit (though more knowledgeable types here might be able to confirm or deny this)

[ha..HA!]

If you're set on using it with a wps. Quick cut isn't that bad since it hits the enemy 3 times, each with a chance to crit/proc assassin's mark. At least that's how i understand the skill.But yeah, it works better with a default attack replacer though that could be reserved for proccing blind fury or something else.

Personally, I bind assassin's mark to belgothian shears on my blademaster as the skill hits twice and hits multiple targets giving a half decent chance to proc assassins mark.

If I understand correctly, if you inflict internal trauma damage per hit then even wps skills are decent at proccing assassins blade since a crit from internal trauma inflicted by your wps skill would proc assassins mark. Or maybe I'm wrong.

Test it out on the training dummy and see what works best.

[Azunai]

to be honest, assassins mark is one of the worst devotion powers in the game. requires a crit, affects only 1 target and doesn't do any damage at all. the only reason people use it is because resistance reduction is such a big deal.

it's pretty much useless against anything but bosses. the conventional wisdom of binding the power to an AoE skill doesn't help in this case since the mark itself is not an AoE skill and will only affect the random target that you happened to score a crit on.

if you don't have any other more valuable power, you pretty much have to bind it to your main attack so it procs somewhat reliably against bosses. if you have a more suitable skill that could be bound to the main attack instead (olerons rage for example), you should probably just leave it on quick cut and forget about it altogether. it will occasionally fire and affect the boss you're fighting. (or affect some random trashmobs that probably died from that same crit that triggered the debuff)

hope that skill gets updated in the future.

[RodHull]

Originally posted by Azunai:

to be honest, assassins mark is one of the worst devotion powers in the game. requires a crit, affects only 1 target and doesn't do any damage at all. the only reason people use it is because resistance reduction is such a big deal.

it's pretty much useless against anything but bosses. the conventional wisdom of binding the power to an AoE skill doesn't help in this case since the mark itself is not an AoE skill and will only affect the random target that you happened to score a crit on.

if you don't have any other more valuable power, you pretty much have to bind it to your main attack so it procs somewhat reliably against bosses. if you have a more suitable skill that could be bound to the main attack instead (olerons rage for example), you should probably just leave it on quick cut and forget about it altogether. it will occasionally fire and affect the boss you're fighting. (or affect some random trashmobs that probably died from that same crit that triggered the debuff)

hope that skill gets updated in the future.

Ive seen it proc on multiple targets, don't ask how but it has. Maybe its to do with what ha..Ha said, internal trauma. My Warder uses it and often manages to paint multiple targets with it, and it remains the best non class skill form of Phys RR in the game.

[Azunai]

yes it can affect multiple targets at once. it doesn't have a cooldown, so it should actually pop up on every target that took a crit from a multi target skill.it's quite possible that DOT damage from skills can also trigger it. but it doesn't have AoE of it's own - it won't pop up on adjacent targets when you crit some random trashmob.

i think i've used assassins mark in every phys or pierce build i ever played. but that says more about how limited the options are, not about how good that skill is :)

[Eryniell]

Originally posted by Azunai:

yes it can affect multiple targets at once. it doesn't have a cooldown, so it should actually pop up on every target that took a crit from a multi target skill.it's quite possible that DOT damage from skills can also trigger it. but it doesn't have AoE of it's own - it won't pop up on adjacent targets when you crit some random trashmob.

i think i've used assassins mark in every phys or pierce build i ever played. but that says more about how limited the options are, not about how good that skill is :)

That is very true but in the end it's all about boss fights imho. And that's where it plays a huge roll in terms of dps. trash mobs get killed so fast it doesn't matter anyway. And yes, you're right. Not many options in the end

[ZarahNeander]

Originally posted by Azunai:

if you have a more suitable skill that could be bound to the main attack instead (olerons rage for example),

Nitpick incoming....

Oleron rage is a skill and doesn't has RR to begin with. If you mean Blind Fury from the Oleron constellation, it's not exactly fair. Mark has a req. of 1 yellow, oleron 20 purple, 10 (?) yellow

You're right, that mark is kinda meh, but you can get it early, in fact, with cruc, after burial cave.

Just saying...nitpick off

[Finnvbot]

I bind it to Blade Spirit (Blademaster) and Upheaval (Warder) and it triggers aplenty.

[RodHull]

Originally posted by ZarahNeander:

Originally posted by Azunai:

if you have a more suitable skill that could be bound to the main attack instead (olerons rage for example),

Nitpick incoming....

Oleron rage is a skill and doesn't has RR to begin with. If you mean Blind Fury from the Oleron constellation, it's not exactly fair. Mark has a req. of 1 yellow, oleron 20 purple, 10 (?) yellow

You're right, that mark is kinda meh, but you can get it early, in fact, with cruc, after burial cave.

Just saying...nitpick off

As an aside for the ludicrous investment needed and the fact you are forced to take lots of devotions that dont synergise particularly well I find Olerons and the related Blind fury proc very underwhelming.