Hey guys,
I just finished Layer 8 as assassination right before reset and the 8% buff, and want to share my experience and also some advices.
So, first of all It took me only two attempts which sounds easy, but the truth is it wasnt at all in the end.
The main problem behind this are the rogue anima powers and our damage, that are mostly underwhelming.
We have so much vanish modifiers, which are completely useless for boss fights.
Here you can feel the rush in development for rogues at the end of Beta.
Second problem i had and also wiped because of that, was the melee hit box of enemies during the last three floors.
Basic non-elite enemies were hitting me for 40-50k with melee attacks in the last 3 floors, which was 99% of the time instant kill, elite enemies in 17th floor like sentinels or ravagers were hitting for 105k overall and guess what happens when they crit ?
During the first run I was so unlucky with the anima powers that i’ve got only like 1x single oberon anima for 15% HP which resulted in wiping during 14th floor, where i have 40k HP and Boss near the exit entrance proc my cheat death on the first hit.
Although the fact that I’ve had the best anima powers for damage i wasn’t able to oneshot Entrance bosses and needed atleast one minute to actually kill them.
But during the second run i was a bit more lucky with anima powers so I’ve managed to stack 131k HP in the end of floor 17.
To summarize this:
I’ve killed every enemy and looted every phantasma.
Last boss of 18th floor has 11M health
I’ve got Gargoyle boss with overal melee hitbox 110k
Final boss fight took me about 2 mins.
Whole Layer 8 took me 2.5 hours.
For recommendations:
I’m not sure what powers other covenant gets, but I cannot imagine how to beat this without Kyrian.
Offensive Mandatory:
Silent Elysian Bell Kyrian
Ringing Doom Kyrian
Reverberating Strike Kyrian
Jack of All Trades
First Steps
Slippery Wraithcoil 3x or more stacks
Those are absolutely must have powers that you need to play the clunky Reprimand minigame with combo points combined with shadowstep and your offensive cooldowns to maximize damage as fast as possible. For maximum damage you need to use vendetta - Shiv - Reprimand, then spend your combo points and use Shadowstep Envenom with the Reprimand minigame to do the 400% + 20x Envenom finisher, which did for me maximum of 2M crits.
Optional Powers:
The Last Blade For maximizing one shot build.
Unceasing Chain Link Increase of sustained damage, have synergy with ER.
Red Ink more sustained damage.
Rupturing Spike good for aoe with subterfuge.
Shadowblade’s Lesson Take Stratagem always.
Defensive Mandatory:
Organized Vial Satchel 3x stacks asap.
Quicksilver Mixture Have synergy with Vial Satchel.
Scroll of Forewarning
Shimmering Cloaktrails
Restless Onyx Geodes
Leather Apron
Obleron Endurance As much stacks as possible.
Against elites and bosses in the last floors you definitely want those powers, especially the first two, because they do so much melee damage, you want to spam crimson vial to keep the 100% uptime of your cloak + evasion.
Optional Powers:
Surefoot Grease This is good against Tower Guards which makes you immune to their slow and haste reduction aura.
Worthless powers:
Shadowlaced Armaments
Invigorating Shadowdust
Pouch of Soul-Ash
Thistler
Vial of Unseen Poison
Terror-laden Slumbersand
Vein Rippers
Distracting Charges Useful in the lower floors 1-6
Those powers I find little to no value in higher floors and so I wouldn’t recommend to take them at all.
If you have any questions or better experience, let me know,
otherwise good luck with Torghast 