PC Perfect Assassin Build?

Hi!

I'm pretty new with Skyrim and I need information about creating a perfect dual wield assassin! So far from googling and researching this game feels really cryptic when it comes to mechanics, almost as cryptic as Demon's Souls and Dark Souls!! That's why I need help!

I really want to optimize my character as efficiently as possible (aka. Not wasting perk points in something I don't need endgame), mostly talking about combat performance here! For instance: I would be ready to spend a few perk points to get the pickpocket perk misdirection (so u can steal equipped weps) if I knew 100% sure that 2x Blades of Woe is the best dual wield combo, but I'm not sure because apparently it doesnt benefit of the dual flurry perk!

Meaning...

1. I want to know what the best dual wield daggers are? Or should I consider using sword/dagger?

Does anyone have stats to share with fully maxed/upgraded endgame damage values, attack speed etc.? Im not interested in base damage if another wep still has better endgame damage after being fully upgraded!

I hear people talking about:

-Dual daedric daggers (with good enchants)
-Mehrune's Razor (3% kill chance)
-Valdr's Lucky Dagger (25% crit hit)
-Blade of Woe (biggest damage but perk bug)

Regarding the BoW does the higher damage for instance outweight the lost 35% attack speed? Logically I would prefer a dagger with a little lower dmg if it benefits from the attack speed perk, meaning higher DPS than BoW!

2. What's the best bow?

Or do I even need to specialize in bows (Perks points) with uber daggers?

3. Best armor + accessory?

Ancient Shrouded Armor - Or is there anything better? Is this leveled?

4. Smithing & Enchanting?

Should I level them both to 100? And fill all perks? From what I understand it's possible to screw up upgrading a great wep if u dont have the perks or max skill level? I'm completely lost with this...

5. Leveled Items?

I heard there are some items that need to be aquired at a higher lvl for them to have the best stats? Any leveled items that an assassin should know about? How do I know if something is affected by character lvl?

6. Target Character Level

Should I aim for 81? (maxing all skills) or should I intentionally be a low level - high specialization character? Asking this because I heard enemies level with character lvl.

7. Target Health/Stamina?

I've mostly been pumping hp but after I hit 300 I started lvling stam atleast up to 200.

8. Any Shouts I should really be interested in?

Sorry for long post, I rly need help with this!

Btw I'm now lvl 25 with all perk points put into sneaking, and some to one-handed (3/5 +dmg% and 2/2 flurry), Im atm at the very beginning of the main quest (after first dragon kill at dragonsreach) and halfway through the dark brotherhood quests.

Thx!

sstefy said:

Hi!..

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The "Perfect" build will depend largely on the way you play. Do you LIKE crafting? If not, there's more than enough pre-enchanted items in the game for you, so you don't have to. Will you want to kill everyone sneaky, or do some F2F fighting as well? If so, Sword/Dagger is a nice combo, because you can still get the Assassin's Blade stuper damage, and fight your way out if it all goes pear shaped. Now, your specific questions in order:

1) Dual Daggers if you're going to be Backstabbing Everyone. A Double Attack (not power attack) makes you do all that damage twice, for a maximum of 120X Base Damage with all the multipliers from Skills/Perks. (Not counting Smithing.) Wanna 1shot a Giant with unenchanted Shivs? This is how you do it. The BoW does the most Base Damage, but doesn't smith up as high as Daedric with all the Perks. It also can't be enchanted, so you're stuck with 10 points of Absorb Health.

2) I like the Bound Bow, but that means Conjuration. You don't Need a Ranged Skill (The other one is Destruction, which lacks sublety) but it really helps to be able to hurt Dragons before they land. These are the main Bosses of Skyrim, and if you haven't noticed, aren't much Impressed by Assassins. Switch to Archery for them, it'll make these battles a lot quicker, and survivable. The Enchantment to look for is Cold, because it slows the enemy, in addition to the damage, and stamina drain.

3) Armor: Optional, especially if you're focused on "Don't Fight, Kill." Sneaking is Even Better in clothes, and if you check the shelf, they're available in Shrouded. Having no Equipment Weight beyond your Daggers means less Stammina for Silent Rolls, and Sprinting (cross country, if nothing else, until you get the good horse. ;-) Not to mention, you're a badass, if you are so good at sneaking that Armor is never needed.

4) Crafting: Optional, and here's why. What Enchantments do you need beyond Muffle, Fortify Sneak, and Double Backstab Damage? You've got that. Maybe Fortify Archery, also available. The other thing is, with Shrouded Gloves, and Dual Wield, you're using Multipliers to deal stupor damage. Sure, smithing up your dagger to do moar is just as better, but have you actually Tried grinding up to the point where it's a significant difference? If the target's dead, you win. Any extra damage on top doesn't make them any deader. If you're going to fight as well as Backstab, then Armor/Smithing might be a good idea.

5) Leveled items: The best is the Nightengale Blade. Here's the thing, if you get it at the top tier, it can't be smithed. However, it does Ebony Damage +Absorb Health, and Stamina at 25 points each. You Could make a better sword, but you'd have to Master enchanting. (And possibly some other skills.) The best sword for fighting your way out of anywhere.

6) You'll know when you're done. 81 requires maxing all 18 skills, including the ones you don't use, just to get some more Perk Points. KISS, I can get everything I need under level 30.

7) Stamina is Very nice, if you're Silent Rolling a lot (Especially into Critical Charge) Health doesn't do much for you, unless you're taking damage. If you aren't, don't spend to much on it. If you are, toughen up a bit, and wear more armor. I don't post proportions, because there's no perfect balance that will work on ever build in everbody's hands. Ever time you Level Up, even in the midst of combat, stop, take a breath, and think back to the past level. Ever run out of Stamina? Die a lot, because you're too squishy? You should be able to tell what you need, if you take the time, and this dials it in more organically.

8) Aura Whisper. It tells you where everyone is, so you can plan accordingly. Wuld is nice for quick getaways, you can simulate the Distracting one with an arrow, there really is none better than AW for assassins.

The best assassin characters, in my opinion, are the ones that use illusion spells. You can sneak up on everyone, but once you enter a room where there are 10+ enemies, it will be hard. You could simply dual cast the Calm/Pacify spell and then slit their throat one by one, or use the Fury/Frenzy spell to let them kill eachother while you hide in the shadows.

The invisibility spell is very good for assassins, as you can escape once discovered.
If you do not invest in the Archery tree, you might have some problems against dragons, but then you could always use the "Sanguine Rose" staff to summon a Dremora Lord to fight for you.

Eury said:

The best assassin characters, in my opinion, are the ones that use illusion spells. You can sneak up on everyone, but once you enter a room where there are 10+ enemies, it will be hard. You could simply dual cast the Calm/Pacify spell and then slit their throat one by one, or use the Fury/Frenzy spell to let them kill eachother while you hide in the shadows.

The invisibility spell is very good for assassins, as you can escape once discovered.
If you do not invest in the Archery tree, you might have some problems against dragons, but then you could always use the "Sanguine Rose" staff to summon a Dremora Lord to fight for you.

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Alchemy provides a lot of the same advantages, (Paralysis Poison, instead of Calm, but it's still pretty wicked.) Only one poison at a time, but it can go on an enchanted bow, so whatever's clever. Also a lot more effects you don't get from Illusion, like Regeneration potions. Apothecary Assassins (I like a little alliteration.) can actually get in pretty low level with just Achemy, Archery, and Sneak.

My "Perfect Assassin" is unarmored with a Greatsword. Switches to Block when she has to, hacks, and bashes to finish the tough one, and pops the occasional Vampire Dust when she needs to. (Ok, she's addicted to it.) She's perfectly balanced to Adept, without using OP damage multipliers, and a few combos that save her now, and then. Don't make them too perfect, or I wind up never playing them.

I played a just about perfect assassin a while back. All you really need are the x15 backstab multiplier perk, medium smithing, quiet casting and the ability to turn invisible at will. For kit, any muffled booots and the DarkBrotherHood gloves.

Unfortunately this kind of char gets VERY boring once you have achieved the above. Approaching every target completely undetected, and creeping behind them to one shot them at your leisure isn't much of a challenge, although it can be challenging UNTIL you get invisibility.

Even if it's a room full of enemies, you quickly learn to backstab-recast invis-move a bit-enter sneak-wait a few seconds repeat etc....and while waiting you can appreciate the silliest dialogue in the game:- Bandit `I could have sworn I heard something`(while standing over the corpse of his comrade in arms, who has a deathly white palour, and a huge gash across his throat)....`bah, must have been my imagination` (As someone else pointed out, that's a mighty powerful imagination....)

My current char, the 1st Assassin I've played since the above build spoiled Assassins for me, relies on the shadows, deception (distraction arrows), and his Cat Night Vision, absolutely no illusion magic. For me anyways, it's a more satisfying character to play, knowing that if I get discovered I have a very real chance of getting killed, keeps the tension and character interest.

Just some thoughts....

There are many type of assassins.

The one that get up-close and use daggers. For that one, dual wield daggers is not really necessary. with Shrouded Gloves and Armsman 5/5 you can already one-shot everything that you can sneak on. Now, for pure melee if situation gets tricky, I would choose a Sword/Dagger combo.

The Sniper: uses bow or crossbow (if you have Dawnguard). This character would rarely comes to melee, as with high sneak and/or invisibility he can get away and move to another spot to snipe again. Just a sord as a backup is enough.

The Trickster: uses illusion to kill. Fury/Frenzy on the target or the target's friend. You don't even do the job yourself. Calm and Pacify if anyone comes at you, then get away and recast Fury/Frenzy. Fun to play at first, but VERY tricky against Dragon. You will have to lure them to where others will kill them.

Now, there are no "perfect" assassin, they are just the assassin that is the most suited with your playstyle.

Thank you all for the replies!

So it seems that the perfect build is more about playstyle and preferences. I like to fight melee, starting combat through sneaking and if things go wrong then i wanna be able to survive going head on with pretty much anything!

I'm always looking for creating the strongest possible character class and I've actually found out something about dual wielding and I'd like to hear what u think about it in this type of char build:

Apparently when dual wielding, you can attack with both hands at the same time by pressing both attack buttons simultaneously (not talking about the power attack where you HOLD the buttons down). And when you do this, the speed of the attack is measured by your offhand wep (also affected by dual flurry perk)! This means that if u have a dagger in offhand and a slow hard hitting mace in mainhand, using the dual attack is actually the same speed as swinging with two daggers for example..

Which means... Dagger OH and Mace MH deals much bigger DPS than dagger x2!

This was completely new for me!

Has anyone tried this setup and what do u ppl think? Quite OP if you ask me!

Was thinking about running enchanted daedric dagger and ench daedric mace once i get a hold of these items! also pumping points into the mace specialization perk!

From UESPWiki

Your primary hand seems to attack about 15% faster. Swords normally do highest damage per second. However, because of dagger's fast speed, high-end daggers upgraded to Legendary will outclass even swords in DPS (Legendary Ebony Dagger has same DPS as Legendary Daedric Sword). Furthermore daggers are the lightest melee weapons, which is important when it comes to power attacks as the amount of stamina lost depends on the weight of the weapon. The downside to using daggers is that they do not have a weapon specialization (they get a perk in the Sneak skill tree instead which works only with sneak attacks) and they do not benefit from Fortify One-handed effects, which can dramatically increase the damage output of one-handed weapons. Temporary enchantments like the Elemental Fury shout, poisons, weapon enchantments and the Armsman perk do work with daggers.
Additionally, daggers have a shorter range, making it easier to "miss" a target if not close enough. This should be taken into consideration when under heavy attack and needing to gain ground or run to recover via Restoration.

ShadowGambit said:

From UESPWiki

Your primary hand seems to attack about 15% faster. Swords normally do highest damage per second. However, because of dagger's fast speed, high-end daggers upgraded to Legendary will outclass even swords in DPS (Legendary Ebony Dagger has same DPS as Legendary Daedric Sword). Furthermore daggers are the lightest melee weapons, which is important when it comes to power attacks as the amount of stamina lost depends on the weight of the weapon. The downside to using daggers is that they do not have a weapon specialization (they get a perk in the Sneak skill tree instead which works only with sneak attacks) and they do not benefit from Fortify One-handed effects, which can dramatically increase the damage output of one-handed weapons. Temporary enchantments like the Elemental Fury shout, poisons, weapon enchantments and the Armsman perk do work with daggers.
Additionally, daggers have a shorter range, making it easier to "miss" a target if not close enough. This should be taken into consideration when under heavy attack and needing to gain ground or run to recover via Restoration.

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I myself haven't noticed a buff in attack speed when hitting only with the mace in MH and dagger in OH. But the attack speed buff is significant when using the double attack (tapping both attack buttons at the same time). Wouldn't the mace outperform a dagger in DPS (especially with mace perk) when spamming the double strike? I'm assuming a daedric mace fully upgraded has higher damage per hit than a daedric dagger? :/

sstefy said:

I myself haven't noticed a buff in attack speed when hitting only with the mace in MH and dagger in OH. But the attack speed buff is significant when using the double attack (tapping both attack buttons at the same time). Wouldn't the mace outperform a dagger in DPS (especially with mace perk) when spamming the double strike? I'm assuming a daedric mace fully upgraded has higher damage per hit than a daedric dagger? :/

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Depends on the level, and investment in improving weapons. In late game, the difference in damage is less than the difference in speed, so faster really is better. Also, if you're using Sneak Multipliers, striking speed is less of an issue, because the plan is to hit them once, anyway. Being able to strike faster is less important to me than having the reach to hit them farther away. And again, if they're dead, you win, so any extra damage might as well be wasted if it doesn't make them any deader.

Mace/Dagger is pretty interesting, especially for an assassin, but do you want to limit yourself to Nothing but double attacks? The Skullcrusher Perks don't add any more damage, but lessen the amount absorbed by armor, if they happen to be wearing any, and even then, it's not usually that much. Hack&Slash adds damage to every strike, regardless of Armor (which has no effect on that damage) while Bladesman may randomly add damage. If you're going for pure Maximum Damage, mace/dagger may work for you, but remember, you can swap the off-hand weapon instantly, or carry a shield, and drop in a dagger just for the backstab. It sounds to me like the plan is more of a stand-up fighter with backstab capability than a dedicated assassin.

Save before you invest in Bonebreaker. See if it's really worth 3 points to you, or it's as disappointing as I found it. If you're perking for maximum damage in every strike, Hack&Slash might be a better value, or Bladesman evens out to more DPS in the long run. About the only time I was actually thankful to have Bone Breaker (or actually Skull Crusher, it's 2H counterpart) was fighting Dwemer Animunculae, which aren't all that common. Makes a noticeable, but not fight winning difference with Bandit Chiefs, and the like, but the vast majority of enemies are going to ignore it. You may even want to skip weapon specific perks all-together, and spend three points on something more significant.

Bladesman is a little weak. The reason is that, like with Critical hit damage, the amount of damage done is calculated from the BASE DAMAGE of the weapon, not the one upgraded with your skills, smithing and enchantment.

With Bladesman 3/3, you will only add about 2.5pts of additional damage per hit, when it triggers. Not worth 3 perks for me

Phew! Sorry I've been away for a while! I actually made an Assassin Montage video! I think you'll like it! It's focused around "playing" with enemies in close quarters, stun locking them and avoiding their attacks etc.

I hope you like seeing my toon in action!


Please like/comment if you enjoyed it!

1. I want to know what the best dual wield daggers are? Or should I consider using sword/dagger?

A)This depends on what level you want to be. cuz lower lvl is kinda caped with none smithing weapons
If you want to stay in sub lvl30 than dagger with 2x glove would do the trick but once you get to higher lvl than mobs become more tanky
I'll say sword with backstab perk and save 1 perk from dagger (you do not need to put 1 handed perk what so ever, All you need is backstab from sneak tree)

Regarding the BoW does the higher damage for instance outweight the lost 35% attack speed? Logically I would prefer a dagger with a little lower dmg if it benefits from the attack speed perk, meaning higher DPS than BoW!

A)This also depends on your level
fully upgraded bow and needed perk would make a shot do 1300+ damage/shot (with falmer helm and circlet)
that's sneak 1sko to ancient dragon in master difficulty

2. What's the best bow?
A)Deadric or if you have dawnguard than dragon

Or do I even need to specialize in bows (Perks points) with uber daggers?

A)Bow is THE ultimate damage dealer

3. Best armor + accessory?

A)Light armor and bow damage bonus+ 1 hand damage bonus ring and amulet

Ancient Shrouded Armor - Or is there anything better? Is this leveled?

A)any armor is fine just looks nasty in some cases
586~7???? is the armor cap and most light armor can go very close to it even without armor perks
all shrouded item is not lvled item i think

4. Smithing & Enchanting?

Should I level them both to 100? And fill all perks? From what I understand it's possible to screw up upgrading a great wep if u dont have the perks or max skill level? I'm completely lost with this...

A) sub lvl30 would prolly pass on those trees including alchemy but if you want to make the absolute best gear than alchemy/smithing/enchanting all max is must

5. Leveled Items?

A)there are lot's of item that is lvled but as assassin? none matters
it is like either if you want to use 2x glove or not and that glove is not lvled item

6. Target Character Level

Should I aim for 81? (maxing all skills) or should I intentionally be a low level - high specialization character? Asking this because I heard enemies level with character lvl.

A)I'll say some-what specialized, Or should i say highly specialized?
i usually stay in late 50s sub 60 so my bow will do 1sko the dragon all the time

7. Target Health/Stamina?

A)150 stamina or more and rest is up to you cuz it doesn't matter much

8. Any Shouts I should really be interested in?

A)Aura whisper is must for assassin and get them first
whirlwind is also good for mid-air acrobatic jump trick (like you have to jump very far......)




my final assassin character is

alchemy 100 7 perks used
alchemist x5 - Physician - Benefactor

smithing 100 5 perks used
steel-elven-advanced-glass-dragon

enchanting 100 8 perks used
enchanter x5 - insightful - corpus - extra effect

sneak 100 9 perks used
stealth 3x - muffled - light foot - silent roll - silence - backstab - deadly aim

restoration 70 3 perks used for necro-vamp

pickpocket 50 3 perks used for more carry weight

1 handed 100 no perks used

archery 7 perks used
overdraw x5 - eagle eye - steady hand

light armor 100 no perks used but may put 4 perks for wind walker the stamina generator

speech 100 no perks used

lock pick 100 no perks used

total 42 perks used and 13 left

above skills will get you lvl 55 without illusion depend on race i think(i'm always breton for extra magic resistance)
with illusion you will be lvl 59 and you need to put 9perks to it
novice-dual casting-animage-hyponotic-kindred-aspect-quiet-rage-master

my equipment is...

circlet bow damage + fortify illusion
falmer helm bow damage + fortify illusion
dragon scale armor stamina regen or was it just stamina? + fortify illusion with 10% magic regen
dragon scale glove bow damage + 1 hand damge
amulet bow damage + 1 hand damge
ring same as above
dragon scale boot 1 hand damage + stamina regen

i have dawnguard so i use dragon weapons
dragonbone sword do 600 damage with above gear and backstab will do about 3600 damage, No Enchant
dragonbone bow do 1320 something and will do close to 4k damage with deadly aim without trueshot potion< No enchant

I found weapon enchant is kinda not needed (personal preference)


illusion skills i use
invisible / rage or frenzy?? can't remember/ mayhem

I am a vampire with necromage perk If you don't understand what vampire+necromage than google it
and again aura whisper shout is very nice for assassin!!!! Get them!!!

This ought to help you out.

sstefy said:

Hi!

I'm pretty new with Skyrim and I need information about creating a perfect dual wield assassin! So far from googling and researching this game feels really cryptic when it comes to mechanics, almost as cryptic as Demon's Souls and Dark Souls!! That's why I need help!

I really want to optimize my character as efficiently as possible (aka. Not wasting perk points in something I don't need endgame), mostly talking about combat performance here! For instance: I would be ready to spend a few perk points to get the pickpocket perk misdirection (so u can steal equipped weps) if I knew 100% sure that 2x Blades of Woe is the best dual wield combo, but I'm not sure because apparently it doesnt benefit of the dual flurry perk!

Meaning...

1. I want to know what the best dual wield daggers are? Or should I consider using sword/dagger?

Does anyone have stats to share with fully maxed/upgraded endgame damage values, attack speed etc.? Im not interested in base damage if another wep still has better endgame damage after being fully upgraded!

I hear people talking about:

-Dual daedric daggers (with good enchants)
-Mehrune's Razor (3% kill chance)
-Valdr's Lucky Dagger (25% crit hit)
-Blade of Woe (biggest damage but perk bug)

Regarding the BoW does the higher damage for instance outweight the lost 35% attack speed? Logically I would prefer a dagger with a little lower dmg if it benefits from the attack speed perk, meaning higher DPS than BoW!

2. What's the best bow?

Or do I even need to specialize in bows (Perks points) with uber daggers?

3. Best armor + accessory?

Ancient Shrouded Armor - Or is there anything better? Is this leveled?

4. Smithing & Enchanting?

Should I level them both to 100? And fill all perks? From what I understand it's possible to screw up upgrading a great wep if u dont have the perks or max skill level? I'm completely lost with this...

5. Leveled Items?

I heard there are some items that need to be aquired at a higher lvl for them to have the best stats? Any leveled items that an assassin should know about? How do I know if something is affected by character lvl?

6. Target Character Level

Should I aim for 81? (maxing all skills) or should I intentionally be a low level - high specialization character? Asking this because I heard enemies level with character lvl.

7. Target Health/Stamina?

I've mostly been pumping hp but after I hit 300 I started lvling stam atleast up to 200.

8. Any Shouts I should really be interested in?

Sorry for long post, I rly need help with this!

Btw I'm now lvl 25 with all perk points put into sneaking, and some to one-handed (3/5 +dmg% and 2/2 flurry), Im atm at the very beginning of the main quest (after first dragon kill at dragonsreach) and halfway through the dark brotherhood quests.

Thx!

Click to expand...

Well i say the best way the make an assassin is work on these perks/skill trees.



1. sneak, perks:stealth (no plops), backstab, deadly aim, now this is a must have assassins blade, with a whopping X.15 damage! but with the shrouded gloves X.30 damage! thats gonna get you a instant kill almost on anything (only works with daggers, also depends on dagger damage), and then from there on get what ever u want, i highly suggest u get every perk in sneak.


2.Archery,perks: overdraw, eagle eye, steady hand,power shot and every other perk.


3.light armour, perks: agile defender, matching set, custom fit, matching set, and wind walker

those are the important ones

weapons


Bow:the one that does the most damage (get ur smithing up to 30 to get elven weaponery, there good for starters, im lv 21 and i still have my elven bow and dagger)


Dagger: blade of woe, complete the dark brother hood quest or just pickpocket it of astrid, mehrunes razor, this dagger has a small chance to kill an enemy instantly (even a dragon) u must be level 20 to start the quest for the dagger.



Armor: DB armor, it gives some of the best enchantmenst for a assassin here they are

Shrouded cowl: bows do 20% more damage

Gloves: back stabs do double damage

Chest piece: increases poison resistance by 50%

Boots: wearer is muffled and moves silently

total base protection and weight: 83 protection, weight 15


Or nightingale armor (u should be lv 35+ when u get it thats when it gives u the best enchantments, here u go



Armor at 35+:increases stamina by 40p increases frost resistance by 50%

Hood at 35+: illusion spells cost 17% less

Boots at any lv: wearer is muffled and moves silently

gloves at 35+: lock picking is 20% easier, one handed attacks do 20% more damage


total base protection and weight: 84, weight 18



if u want enchantments for ur daggers, swords, bows


Sword:get the dawnbreaker, it comes with a great enchantment (dont get it if ur a vampire... an explosion can happen when u kill an undead and it kills every undead within the radius... as a vampire u are undead)

Bow: frost, flame or electricity, if u can put them all in one enchantment

Dagger: soul trap, for enchanting and filing enchanted weapons (or get mehrunes razor or blade of woe)


spells


Illusion: invisibility, calm humanoid, fear, fury
(for all spells get silent casting)
conjuration (depends if u want to be mage assassin): bound weapons

Power:vampirism (only become vampire if u have dawnguard, because if u get the vampire disease without dawnguard installed if u go 4 days without feeding everyone will be hostile) The best way to become a vampire is to get bit by Harkon because u can turn in to a vampire lord and it makes assassinations in cities easier (when stage 4 vampire u get ability called embrace of shadows, which allows u to go invisible once a day 4 3 mins, and have night vision)


Race:kahjiit/woodelf/argonian

dont use shousts use, night eye, embrace of shadows something that doesnt give u away!


Well thats my assassin build. hope it helps!!