Assassin's Mark Proc

[Erydanus]

Just curious how good you all feel the proc in Assassin's Mark has been for you. Well, actually technically it's a global, it gives all your assassin attacks a 4% chance to proc, and if they do they instantly reset buildup. Thing is ... it works for me really really really well. Like I have the suspicion it's checking multiple times when I use Mass Levitate because I keep getting results like:

 

FADE IN: EXTERIOR, RIKTI SHIP RADE

 

Build Up

from hide Mass Levitate

Assassin's Mark!

Build Up

tab 5x trying to find something

Assassin's Strike!

Mass Levitate (hits something)

Assassins' Mark!

Build Up

 

It's nuts. I've literally stacked multiple build ups on myself frequently. (I haven't even added the Gaussian proc which apparently fires off frequently in Build Ups as it is, much less RESET CHAINED BUILD UPS). I'm not saying it's triggering off every Mass Levitate but 1 out of 4 maybe? Of course in the Ship Raid setting I get external buffs and may be lifted to the damage cap by others but merely being able to get myself 160% damage before assassin striking a Rikti Magus is nothing to sneeze at. I had very similar results when I was trying to clean up all the Rikti Monkeys on a Vanguard mission map.

 

[Bunmaster]

Yeah it's amazing. Coupled with Concentrated Strike from Kinetic Melee (and Gaussian proc) i have days of build ups. Also works great with your judgment power, since it can also proc.

 

[KingsGambit]

Yeah it's amazing. Coupled with Concentrated Strike from Kinetic Melee (and Gaussian proc) i have days of build ups. Also works great with your judgment power, since it can also proc.

 

Where do you slot Gaussian?

[FUBARczar]

Yeah it's amazing. Coupled with Concentrated Strike from Kinetic Melee (and Gaussian proc) i have days of build ups. Also works great with your judgment power, since it can also proc.

 

Where do you slot Gaussian?

 

Probably in BU so you get double BU sometimes

[Bunmaster]

Yes, i slot Gaussian in BU

[Mr. Vee]

For the situation where the mark proc goes off while build up is active has anyone done the nerd math on hitting build up again vs waiting for first to end? Is the lost built up attack during the animation made up for by the double build up for the next few seconds? I've just been going by feel depending on how far into the original, what i'm targeting, etc., but it seems like the kind of thing some min/max lunatic would have a chart on already.

[Kruunch]

23 minutes ago, Veelectric Boogaloo said:

For the situation where the mark proc goes off while build up is active has anyone done the nerd math on hitting build up again vs waiting for first to end? Is the lost built up attack during the animation made up for by the double build up for the next few seconds? I've just been going by feel depending on how far into the original, what i'm targeting, etc., but it seems like the kind of thing some min/max lunatic would have a chart on already.

You won't have time to double up on the Gaussian's proc. Generally speaking I'll hit BU every time its up unless I'm in the middle part of a chain that's working.

[Scrapulous]

 

44 minutes ago, Veelectric Boogaloo said:

For the situation where the mark proc goes off while build up is active has anyone done the nerd math on hitting build up again vs waiting for first to end? Is the lost built up attack during the animation made up for by the double build up for the next few seconds? I've just been going by feel depending on how far into the original, what i'm targeting, etc., but it seems like the kind of thing some min/max lunatic would have a chart on already.

 

I haven't done the math, Vee, but I have been conditioned by the ATO and by Concentrated Strike to just slam BU any time it comes up, because I loathe triggering a reset when it's up. This happens often enough that I just now use BU whenever it's up. I took Moonbeam too, so I follow any use of BU with an instasnipe if Moonbeam is up, and I gamble on an AS regardless of Assassin's Focus stacks if Moonbeam isn't up. It's hell on my endurance bar to keep using BU and insta-snipe and insta-AS, but Energy Aura helps well enough with that. I am now at a point where my attack chain is roughly> T2, T3, AS > did I hide? If not, repeat, if so, T9 (or Burst) > BU > Moonbeam > repeat; I monitor constantly for an insert of BU > Moonbeam into that chain. I used to try to wait for guaranteed AS crits, but I stopped doing that because it wound up sub-optimizing my chain and I have enough to monitor by watching BU and my hidden state. It may even be theoretically less optimal to do things this way, but this is what I have found feels the fastest to me. I should probably download that damage monitor tool and find out for sure.

 

Scrap

 

 

[Mr. Vee]

That seems right, thanks. I have a tendency toward saving build up too much anyway and this just magnifies it. If you go check my inventory in single player games you'll probably find 99 basic potions in all of them too 😛

[Tremalion]

Just finished leveling my Stalker to 50 and I noticed a huge difference in how often this goes off when I started dropping Ball Lightnings on 8-man spawns vs. single target. It seems obvious to me that the % chance to go off is checked against every target hit, which is...bonkers.

[Gulbasaur]

13 hours ago, Tremalion said:

Just finished leveling my Stalker to 50 and I noticed a huge difference in how often this goes off when I started dropping Ball Lightnings on 8-man spawns vs. single target. It seems obvious to me that the % chance to go off is checked against every target hit, which is...bonkers.

It already goes off more often than I can keep up with... it's bananas on AoE powers. 

 

I usually open combat with Build Up > Shield Charge¹ > Fireball² and it usually procs in one or the other, so that makes sense that it checks repeatedly, actually. I almost always have it back up to start my normal single-damage routine after my initial Very Stealthy Explosions³ phase.

 

¹ does not break stealth - this must be an oversight and will maybe get patched

² your second AoE crit because of the above - you're still Hidden

³ seriously, it is utterly broken. I've cleared +4x8 groups before my teammates have even caught up the distance as the nuke phase starts with a teleport. This combo and Pyronic Judgement is guaranteed to finish off any thing below boss-tier and reduce most bosses to one-shot wonders.

Edited July 31, 2019 by Gulbasaur
I can't type.

[Redlynne]

Scrapperlock

Quote

• A state of mind where the player (most commonly a Scrapper or Brute) dashes from foe to foe without regard to surroundings. Similar to berserkers, players in Scrapperlock may fail to notice damage being taken by themselves or their teammates.
• It should be noted it's considered bad form to wipe out the 8-man spawn that killed everybody else on the team.
• Common symptoms include going the other way than the team, surviving going the other way than the team, and the words "You guys go ahead, I'm waiting for my rez to recharge."

 

[Mr. Vee]

Just noticed that even though this is a weird global sort of proc it still seems to depend on the power it's slotted in being available and used, like a normal proc. Had to yank it out of lightning rod to charged brawl to get it functioning in the insane way i'd grown accustomed to on my other stalker. I'm prolly the last to get the memo here but thought i'd mention it in case i wasn't.

[Gulbasaur]

9 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Scrapperlock

Hah, yeah I'm not that bad. It's more a strong opener than a berserker rage as a lot of my survivability is built on a blaster-style "they can't kill me if they're already dead" attitude when my click powers are down. Also, I need to start off Hidden so I have to hang out for a few seconds. I'm not a selfish teammate, honest!

 

That did make me chuckle, though.

5 hours ago, Veelectric Boogaloo said:

Just noticed that even though this is a weird global sort of proc it still seems to depend on the power it's slotted in being available and used, like a normal proc. Had to yank it out of lightning rod to charged brawl to get it functioning in the insane way i'd grown accustomed to on my other stalker. I'm prolly the last to get the memo here but thought i'd mention it in case i wasn't. 

Hmm. I was wondering about this as I have it slotted in with the rest of the set for the bonuses and I wondered how the recharge would impact it.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Gulbasaur

[Mr. Vee]

9 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

Hah, yeah I'm not that bad. It's more a strong opener than a berserker rage as a lot of my survivability is built on a blaster-style "they can't kill me if they're already dead" attitude when my click powers are down. Also, I need to start off Hidden so I have to hang out for a few seconds. I'm not a selfish teammate, honest!

 

That did make me chuckle, though.

Hmm. I was wondering about this as I have it slotted in with the rest of the set for the bonuses and I wondered how the recharge would impact it.

recharge in the power doesn't matter since it's not a PPM

[Scrapulous]

I am fairly certain that you need to use the power it's slotted in periodically. I tested by killing 30 grey Warriors in Talos Island normally and seeing a bunch of build up resets. Then I waited a while, removed the power the ATO was slotted in from my power tray, and killed 30 more grey Warriors. There were four build up resets in the first test, and none in the second test. It's probably not conclusive, but it suggests that the slotted power at least needs to be used for the rest of them to proc the ATO.

 

Also, despite the ATO's description, it's not just attacks from your primary that can proc it. It can proc off my snipe and my judgement as well.

 

Scrap

 

[Squidnunc]

I usually leave BuildUp as my auto power, so it just goes off whenever it can. Sure, I might not be able to time things perfectly, but I figure that's outweighed by the number of times I'd forget to hit it otherwise. Am I screwing myself over by doing this? Is there a better use of the one auto power we get?

[Microcosm]

20 hours ago, Scrapulous said:

I am fairly certain that you need to use the power it's slotted in periodically. I tested by killing 30 grey Warriors in Talos Island normally and seeing a bunch of build up resets. Then I waited a while, removed the power the ATO was slotted in from my power tray, and killed 30 more grey Warriors. There were four build up resets in the first test, and none in the second test. It's probably not conclusive, but it suggests that the slotted power at least needs to be used for the rest of them to proc the ATO.

 

Also, despite the ATO's description, it's not just attacks from your primary that can proc it. It can proc off my snipe and my judgement as well.

 

Scrap

 

I have it slotted in Sky Splitter, which I very rarely use because it's animation is long and the best chain for staff doesn't include SS. I also almost never see this proc fire, so I've been reading this thread thinking "what the heck!?" I think you are on to something; using the attack it's slotted in may allow other attacks to proc it for a time.

[Mr. Vee]

2 hours ago, Squidnunc said:

I usually leave BuildUp as my auto power, so it just goes off whenever it can. Sure, I might not be able to time things perfectly, but I figure that's outweighed by the number of times I'd forget to hit it otherwise. Am I screwing myself over by doing this? Is there a better use of the one auto power we get?

I'd probably not do it since I want build up recharged for a new mob but if it's working for you, why not.

[Scrapulous]

Vee also asked a significant question the other night: How long does the proc period last after you use the power it's slotted in? It's a really good question, and I have been trying to figure out a way to test without much success. It's definitely long enough that I can skip using the power it's in for a few rotations if I'm on an iTrial and have a ton of recharge and get lucky with procs (which means I'm doing BU > Moonbeam a lot more than usual and so can drop an attack out of my rotation) and still see the proc triggering. I feel like it's at least 10 seconds, and maybe closer to 15, but I don't know for sure, and it's really hard to measure when an invisible effect like this expires.

 

7 hours ago, Squidnunc said:

I usually leave BuildUp as my auto power, so it just goes off whenever it can. Sure, I might not be able to time things perfectly, but I figure that's outweighed by the number of times I'd forget to hit it otherwise. Am I screwing myself over by doing this? Is there a better use of the one auto power we get?

Are you screwing yourself over? I guess you'll know better than we will. There will be times when BU fires non-advantageously, and you'll probably notice it. How often is that? Does it keep you from using it when you want it? If so, I guess the answer is "yes." For me, on my kinetic stalker, the ideal is to build up into an assassin strike which triggers the hide proc and then mash Concentrated Strike while the BU is still in effect so that it recharges BU, then hit BU again and fire moonbeam and then drop back into my normal T3 > T2 > AS > hope for hide rotation. If I had BU on autofire, it would mess with that. But I also agree with Vee: if what you're doing is working for you, then you're not screwing yourself. Play the game in a way that's fun for you.

 

Is there a better use of autofire? It depends. For me, my priorities for autofire are: Hasten if I have it permanent or near-permanent, my status protection click power if I'm running Super Reflexes or Shield Defense, and then in really rare situations an autofire attack when I'm dual boxing. But that's because those uses have more impact than maximal build up uptime does for how I play.

 

Scrap

[KeepDistance]

On 7/31/2019 at 10:02 PM, Mr. Vee said:

I'm prolly the last to get the memo here

I can assure you, you were not 😄