What is the best way to use Assassin's Strike?

First time with a new Stalker and getting used to these powers. One in particular is the Assassin's Strike. The first thing I noticed with this power was the major delay before it would kick in. Now, from what I gathered, the delay should be no big thing as you will normally be in "Hide" mode so no one can knock you out before it kicks in but for the times when you are seen, then it can be interrupted and becomes useless it seems.

So, with that being said, what is the best way to use this power?
Me thinks it could be used something like this:
When on team play and going up against a group with a Boss. Have the Stalker sneak up on the Boss in Hide mode and go to town with the AS. "Boom", then the rest of the team comes in to take out the group. When in solo play and going up against a Boss, rinse and repeat as same in team play. I cannot think of any other way to use this power because once you use it, you will be seen and thus it doesn't reactivate fast enough without getting interrupted. Any other suggestions out there would be helpful.

BU-> AS-> placate something->Scrap for awhile.

There really isn't a "best" way to use Assassin's Strike, due to the variety of situations you'll find yourself in and the varying power combinations.

As for whether or not it's worth using in an attack chain, that's dependent on your secondary - high defense means you can get away with it, and I frequently use it as an extra single target attack on my Elec/Nin - and what other powers you have available in your primary. For Energy Melee, for example, it's hardly worth bothering with unless you're hidden for the extra critical. Throwing out Stun, it's the worst non-critical DPA in the set. For Spines and Dual Blades, though, it's ranked third.

With resistance/healing based secondaries, I tend to only use it in the beginning of a fight, or after a Placate if nothing else is looking at me. You can also time it between attacks of enemies, since the interrupt time is two seconds and most mobs don't have attacks available that frequently.

You can't even state that it's always the best attack to use from Hide - oftentimes you'd rather have that chance to critical with an AoE if there are a lot of minions and picking one off isn't going to make much difference.

If this isn't very helpful then I apologize, but like I said, there are so many permutations that coming up with a "best way" that works in all of the scenarios isn't something easily done. You just need to develop a feel for it, and that comes from experience and trying it at different points. Even with the relatively low DPA compared to the other attacks in EM, it can still be better than Bone Smasher or Energy Punch if it would kill off the mob you're attacking with it, since then you can use those attacks on the next mob instead of using both of them on a mob that it would kill.

From the other thread you asked about with Stalker questions, I saw you had an EM/SR - in which case I'd say use it at the beginning of a fight, after Placate, and as needed during the fight only if other attacks aren't recharged which would do the job faster. Once your defenses are slotted up you shouldn't have trouble getting it off during combat, but it's not the best attack to use unless you're coming from hidden status.

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On my NB/Nin, I use AS with 3 different approaches.

1> Standard: BU -> AS -> coup de grace... from hide.

2> Secondary: Placate -> AS -> coup de grace... when hide is "down"

3> Filler: ....attack chain... Air Superiority -> AS (if foe was knocked down)

Cases 1 & 2 are usually fatal for the victim. Case 3 is a filler
attack which does decent damage (better than Gamber Cut or
Flashing Steel), but without the heavy duty AS crit component.

Using it after Air Superiority does a knockdown eliminates the risk
of the AS being interupted.

I'm sure other folks have different approaches, but I use those 3
methods all the time, quite successfully.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
4

Ultimately I think it will depend on your primary/secondary combo. BU -> AS from hide is almost always good for an opener on a boss. If you have a soft capped (or near softcapped) defense based secondary you can frequently rely on placate followed by a second AS later in the fight if you need it, as your def will prevent the AS from being interrupted. If you are regen or a resistance based secondary you are better off using placate to get a crit on an attack from your primary that can't be interrupted - Midnight grasp, Eviscerate, Vengeful slice, eagles claw and Soaring dragon are all 100% crit chance after placate and are not interruptable. Obvsiously, some of these are better than others (MG is awesome, Vengeful slice not so great) and on some sets with a group of enemies you might be better off with an AE attack after placate - for example, 1K cuts does really nice damage when it crits and with a 50% chance if you hit 3 or more targets it is likely to be better than vengeful slice. For that matter, placate -> sweeping strike might even be better as it is a lot faster than 1k cuts.

With my electric/ninjitsu stalker I pretty much only use AS on bosses - groups with LT's get BU + LR + TS for lots of AE goodness. I imagine spines has some similar AE combo's that are good with enough enemies but I haven't played a spines stalker yet so I can't say.

In summary - if you have enough big targets (Multiple bosses or Boss + Lt's or higher) opening with BU+AS and then holding off for a second AS after placate is a good, basic strategy if you have a def based secondary. If you have a hard boss or EB then BU + AS + placate + <biggest damage attack after AS> is also a good combo for opening a fight. After that it really depends on your primary and what you are fighting. If you propose a specific selection of primary/secondary sets I suspect you will get some very specific suggestions.

The situation varies AS's use so much, there is no best way to use it. It's really all about your playstyle, build, the foe, team/solo and most importantly, the situation.

When teamed, you'll generally use AS on the hardest or most annoying target (Boss, Tsoo Sorcerer, Deamon Lord, Sapper, etc) from hide if you're not using an AoE from hide. Placate you either save for a new target you want to AS or to get your bacon out of the fire later.

Solo is a different ballgame. It's generally up to you how you use it as long as you understand the power's limitations and quirks:
-it's interruptible
-you must have line of sight during the last couple of seconds or else the power will auto-miss
-from hide it will always assassin's crit (I think 1.8x the damage?) while it only has your 10% chance for a normal (1.0x) crit outside of hide
-there is a small chance to double assassin's strike (an assassin's crit + normal crit) from hidden status
-missing with AS does not unhide you, reset your hide timer or alert the foe of your failed action
-DoT (such as Spine's toxic damage, Caltrops or Midnight Grasp's DoT) will alert a foe even if you placate him. Some secondary effects do the same, one I can remember being -recovery from Electric Melee.
-you can move at the last part (the non-interruptible part) of AS without causing you to interrupt the attack
-a successful AS will demoralize foes in a (25ft?) radius of the foe *if* he survives or self-rezzes
-demoralized foes will have their ToHit debuffed by an unresistable -7.5% (even AVs who resist ToHit debuffs) and they have a chance to be feared from the rank of boss and below

Knowing those quirks, you can pull off interesting 'tricks' that make battles just so satisfying. My Elec/Regen can pull off mid-fight AS even without defense. Vs Freakshow, I can Buildup>AS a Lt, turn to a minion and 2-shot it, the Lt self rezzes (demoralizing the group), Thunderstrike + Lightning Rod(one or the other will knock down everything)the Lt then placate > AS the boss (demoralizing them again) and focus on the boss after that. Anything that survives or rezzes will get swallowed by Thunderstrike, Lightning Rod and Chain Induction AoE.

My Spines made it a habit to Buildup > AS the boss (and jump back just before it hits) then placate the boss, and crit impale something else. Even with his toxic DoT messing with placate, range or the knockdown in Ripper can still get you that crit.

With my DM/Willpower, I really enjoy one-shotting things because he has a few set bonuses for +damage. He'll step up, Buildup > AS one, touch of fear another, placate another and the crit Midnight Grasp another. Stand around for 3 seconds then cue up AS on the placated one which will go off juuuust as hide comes back to take him out, turn to the only foe left and touch of fear him again, wait till hide comes back and crit Midnight Grasp again. It's not super fast or effective but it sure is satisfying and usually earns me a flawless victory.

I agree BU+AS(from hide) usually on the boss.
I also use it as part of an attack chain sometimes. What I normally do is try to anticpate the hit, if it even does hit. As soon goes into his attack animation, I use AS, and it usually connects.
Another one I've experimented with (but doesn't always work) is Teleport Foe(to me from far away)+AS

Aim to spike damage a target that is the pain of the enemy group, call target so you don't share it, wait for team to start then you strike (this way you don't end up tanking mobs).

Oh and you can start AS just before being hidden should you see an opportunity.

Assassins Strike, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1. BU -> AS from Hide
2. Placate -> AS anything you want
3. Placate -> BU -> AS when scrapping bosses
4. Placate mob 1 -> AS mob 2

Granted, I play Kat/Nin so ASing out of Hide isn't really worth my while and using placate -> AS with one or two mobs shooting at me is perfectly viable. As Leo G said, optimal AS usage depends on a large amount of factors. In teams, for instance, I only use AS as an opener if the tank (as in the function, not the AT) is not going to be able to take the alpha (something that rarely happens after level 20 or so). Placate sees a lot of use regardless, because who doesn't like a free crit?