Assassins Strike - am I missing something?

[Troyusrex]

While pretty fun solo, I'm finding Assassin's strike useless in teams. The wind up is so long, and so easily interrupted, as to be next to pointless. Am I missing something? Or is this just not something that works well in teams?

Edited July 28, 2020 by Troyusrex

[nihilii]

In any situation where you feel outpaced by your team, it's best not to bother with the slow version of AS. Open fights with your strongest regular attack, keep building up Assassin's Focus stacks, and use the quick version of AS once the orange circle shows up.

[kiramon]

I dont even wait for hide in teams. Just gogo. Spam the Aoes.

 

Then again, I usually play the alpha-soaker so... 

[Hopestar]

@Troyusrex You're using AS the old way. The new way to play Stalker is to open from hide with your highest damaging non-AS attack then incorporate AS into your attack chain so that it doesn't get used from hide and because it's not used from hide it's fast. This is usually achieved by giving AS the Recharge/Chance to Hide Stalker ATO. It also has a mechanic where it will get increasingly higher chance to crit depending how many other Assassin's Focus-granting powers were used in a short time span, 33% -> 66% -> 100% chance. See Assassination here.

For example, when using Street Justice, you would typically have an attack chain of:  (From Hidden)

Crushing Uppercut > Heavy Blow > Shin Breaker > Assassin's Strike > Sweeping Cross > Heavy Blow > Shin Breaker > Assassin's Strike > Crushing Uppercut > Heavy Blow > ... etc.
This way your Assassin's Strike is always at 3 stacks of focus and is always fast (granted you never miss).

 

EDIT: I just reread what @nihilii wrote and it's pretty much the same thing, sorry nihilii. Hopefully this is made up by being a bit more in-depth of a description.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Hopestar

[Haijinx]

Yes.  That's why the chance for Hide proc goes *IN* assassin's strike so you won't accidentally try to use it when you are hidden. 

 

Nobody has time to wait for that slow ass animation.   Just you know Crushing Uppercut or Headsplitter or Crane Kick or whatever THEN hit AS.  

 

 

Edit - 

Or as Hopestar mentions so you build up your chance for Critting with AS - that's even better.   But the main thing is no AS while hidden its too boring that way. 

 

Edited July 29, 2020 by Haijinx

[Neogumbercules]

As you're using regular attacks you'll see Assassins Focus stacks building in the buff bar. Once you have 3 stacks, Assassins Strike is guaranteed to critically hit/Assassinate when used IN combat. You'll see an orange circle appear around AS in your powers tray when it's ready for a guaranteed strike. This is when you want to use AS. 

 

As others have stated, you need to open up with your most powerful regular attacks and work AS into your attack chain when that circle appears. 

 

The "old slow" AS still has some limited use cases, for example when you're fighting Malta you might benefit from Assassinating Sappers at the start of combat. Same thing with Night Widows.