Assassin Equipment

Assassins in speedclears always take the role of tank or terra using Shadow Form.

Armor

Standard Armor

Assassin standard armor uses 5x Blessed insignas, a shadow arts headpiece with superior shadow arts rune (+1+3), a superior vigor and 3x runes of vitae (30 hp) or attunement (6 energy). Health is better for general tanking, especially in DoA, while energy is preferred on FoW terras.

You always want an extra "high hp" headpiece with a minor shadow arts rune (+1+1) for a 75 hp boost.

You may want to have an extra piece of armor (not headpiece) with a superior dagger mastery rune to swap to meet the req on your daggers on terra roles.

Armor vs Type

Assassins have access to the profession specific insignas which provide +10 armor vs physical and an additional +10 vs each physical damage (Piercing, Slashing, Blunt). It may be worth having an extra set of armor with one of those if you decide to focus on some specific role. Those armors will have the same runes as the standard one, and all Insignas replaced:

• Infiltrator's (+10 vs physical, +10 vs piercing) for Gloom (DoA) as Trench Tank and Cave (FoW) as T2 (FoW) or T4 (FoW)
• Saboteur's (+10 vs physical, +10 vs slashing) for tanking Wolves in Urgoz
• Vanguard's (+10vs physical, +10 vs blunt) for tanking abyssals in FoW as MT

Area	Domain of Anguish		Fissure of Woe			Urgoz		The Deep	Shards of Orr		Catacombs of Kathandrax	Rragar's Menagerie		Slavers' Exile	Frogroots	Frostmaw
Role	MT	Trench Tank	MT	T2	T4	tank	sinway	WotA	A/P	A/N		tank	gater	tank	tank	sinway
Blessed armor	✔	✔	[1]	✔	✔		✔		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔
Saboteur's armor						✔									✔
Infiltrator's armor		[2]		✔	✔
Vanguard's armor			✔

1. ^ In T2way, Blessed is good anywhere but forge.

2. ^ Infiltrator's can be nice for doing cave, but is definitely not required.

Weapons

• Sword/Axe/Spear of Enchanting with "I Have the Power" as your main weapon.
• Insightful Earth Magic Staff of Enchanting with "Have Faith" as your high energy set.
• Flatbow of Enchanting for pulling.
• Customized Vampiric Daggers of Enchanting with "Guided by Fate" for damage.
• Zealous Daggers of Enchanting with "I have the Power" for energy.
• Zealous Scythe of Enchanting with "I have the Power" for energy.
• Zealous Spear of Enchanting with "I have the Power" for energy.

If you play T2 (FoW) you want to have a Silencing mod (+33% daze duration) on one of your martial weapons (Dagger, Bow or Spear) to cast Technobabble.

Area	Domain of Anguish		Fissure of Woe			Urgoz		The Deep	Shards of Orr		Catacombs of Kathandrax	Rragar's Menagerie		Slavers' Exile	Frogroots	Frostmaw
Role	MT	Trench Tank	MT	T2	T4	tank	sinway	WotA	A/P	A/N		tank	gater	tank	tank	sinway
vamp daggers	✔	✔	✔								[3]		✔		✔
zealous daggers								✔	✔[4]	✔[4]	✔					[5]
flatbow	✔	✔		[6]	[6]				✔
spear		[7]		✔		✔	✔
enchanting one-hand	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔	✔	✔	✔		✔	✔	✔
enchanting staff	✔	✔	[8]	✔	✔	[8]	✔		[8]	[8]	✔	[8]	✔	[8]	✔	✔

3. ^ If you have no energy problems in Kath, vamp daggers will improve your DPS.

4. ^ Zealous daggers are only used for re-gaining energy at Fendi.

5. ^ In Frostmaw's, zealous daggers are only used by the A/N.

6. ^ Flatbow is only useful to T2/T4 for pulling wolves when they are in an awkward spot.

7. ^ HCT and other staff mods can be somewhat useful, but are absolutely not required.

Shields

Along with your main weapon, you want a shield of devotion with one of the following inscriptions:

• +10 vs Demons such as Aegis of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh for DoA tanking
• +10 vs Slashing for tanking Wolves in Urgoz, Shadows and Skeletons in FoW
• +10 vs Blunt for tanking Abyssals in FoW.

Area	Domain of Anguish		Fissure of Woe			Urgoz		The Deep	Shards of Orr		Catacombs of Kathandrax	Rragar's Menagerie		Slavers' Exile	Frogroots	Frostmaw
Role	MT	Trench Tank	MT	T2	T4	tank	sinway	WotA	A/P	A/N		tank	gater	tank	tank	sinway
demon shield	✔	✔						[9]
blunt shield			✔						✔
slashing shield			[10]	✔		✔			✔						✔
piercing shield												✔		✔
earth shield	[11]
fire shield											✔	✔
lightning shield			[12]												✔	✔

9. ^ Demon shield is only useful in the Deep for running past onis and Kanaxai Aspects.

10. ^ Slashing shield is only useful in FoW for tanking Skeletal Berserkers and Shadow Warriors.

11. ^ Titans do not count as demons for the purpose of a shield, so +10 vs earth is effective against them.

12. ^ In T2way, lightning shield is effective against Skeletal Icehands and Spirit Shepherds.

Pcons

Assassins don't typically need many pcons to be effective, however every little bit helps. Cupcakes are mandatory in Terra roles, and you should always have Powerstones in your inventory in case you get interrupted.

Summoning Stones

• Ghastly stones for damage
• Legionnaire Crystal for damage
• Throwaway stones for breaking aggro

PvE Skills and Titles

• Norn is extremely important for IaU, which is really common on assassins
• Deldrimor for Dwarven Stability on T4 (FoW)
• Ebon Vanguard is extremely important for Honor, which is taken on terras and Main Tank (FoW)
• Asuran rank 4 is required for T2 (FoW)

Area	Domain of Anguish		Fissure of Woe			Urgoz		The Deep	Shards of Orr		Catacombs of Kathandrax	Rragar's Menagerie		Slavers' Exile	Frogroots	Frostmaw
Role	MT	Trench Tank	MT	T2	T4	tank	sinway	WotA	A/P	A/N		tank	gater	tank	tank	sinway
Technobabble			✔[13]	✔
Dwarven Stability			✔[14]		✔	✔			✔	✔	✔		✔		✔	✔
Great Dwarf Weapon											✔
Ebon Battle Standard of Honor			✔	✔	✔		✔[15]		✔		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Ebon Escape							✔	✔		✔
Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support							✔				✔		✔
"I Am Unstoppable!"	✔	✔	✔[14]	✔		✔	✔							✔	✔	✔
"You Are All Weaklings!"									✔
"You Move Like a Dwarf!"	✔							✔

13. ^ As FoW MT, you can either bring Technobabble to help finish off Shadow Monks, or if you are confident in your V1, you can bring Dash instead.

14. ^ FoW MT can bring either DStab or IaU for anti-KD.

15. ^ Only one sin in sinway Urgoz (often the A/N) brings Honor.