Malicious Ashen Assault

Stealth Attack. Attack foes in front of you with a series of strikes, inflicting damaging conditions. The final strike makes them vulnerable. If this skill follows a Finisher skill, it grants initiative. Consumes all malice when striking your mark to inflict torment and increase the damage dealt. — In-game description

Malicious Ashen Assault

Profession

Thief (skill list)

Specialization

Deadeye

Weapon

Spear

Type

Stealth Attack

Game link

API

72924

“

10.5½  

Malicious Ashen Assault

Stealth Attack. Attack foes in front of you with a series of strikes, inflicting damaging conditions. The final strike makes them vulnerable. If this skill follows a Finisher skill, it grants initiative. Consumes all malice when striking your mark to inflict torment and increase the damage dealt.

 Damage (6x): 660 (1.8)^?

 Damage (6x): 552 (1.5)^?

₅ Vulnerability (8s): +5% Incoming Damage, +5% Incoming Condition Damage

₃ Bleeding (4s): 264 Damage

₂ Bleeding (7s): 308 Damage

₃ Poison (4s): 402 Damage, -33% Heal Effectiveness

₂ Poison (7s): 469 Damage, -33% Heal Effectiveness

 Initiative: 4

 Initiative: 3

 Number of Targets: 3

 Range: 240

— In-game description

Mechanics

Bugs:

• This skill has no cooldown when it fails to cast; other stealth attacks are placed on a 1 second cooldown when they fail.
• Unlike other Stealth Attacks this skill does not apply revealed when it strikes an enemy.
• The tooltip for this skill does not display the effects of Malice spent.

Anomaly:

Without Quickness, this skill will trigger the trait Sundering Shade twice.

• This skill only grants initiative if the last attack strikes an enemy and the finisher criteria is met.
• Effects of Malice on this skill:
  • The  Torment applied has a base duration of 0.5s and scales by 0.5s per Malice^{[verification requested]}.
  • The strike damage applied by the final strike of this skill scales by 2% per Malice.

Related traits

Deadly Arts

• Lotus Poison — Weaken targets when you poison them.
• Even the Odds — Apply vulnerability when you steal. Gain might when you hit with a stealth attack.
• Exposed Weakness — Deal increased strike damage to your target for each unique condition on them.
• Potent Poison — Poison you inflict has increased damage and duration. Other Deadly Arts traits apply additional stacks of poison.

Critical Strikes

• Sundering Shade — Stealth Attack skills inflict vulnerability and grant fury upon successfully hitting foes.

Shadow Arts

• Hidden Thief — Stealing inflicts blindness. Stealth Attacks inflict weakness. Cannot affect the same target more than once per interval.
• Shadow Siphoning — Stealth attacks siphon health if they hit. Cannot siphon the same target more than once per interval.
• Rending Shade — Steal boons from enemies you strike with stealth attacks. Striking a boonless foe with a stealth attack inflicts fear on nearby foes.

Trickery

• Preparedness — Increases maximum initiative by 3. Gain increased expertise.
• Deadly Ambush — Stealing also applies bleeding. Bleeding you inflict deals more damage.

Deadeye

• Malicious Intent — Marking a target or striking your mark with a stealth attack will immediately grant malice.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
April 14, 2026	Reduced the power coefficient from 0.4 to 0.3 in PvE only. Reduced the bleeding duration from 5 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE only. Reduced the poison duration from 5 seconds to 4 seconds in PvE only. Damaging conditions are now applied across all hits instead of on the final strike. Vulnerability is now applied on the final strike instead of across all hits.
August 20, 2024	Janthir Wilds release: Malicious Ashen Assault has been added to the game. Increased the attack range from 170 to 240. Reduced the bleeding and poison stacks from 4 for 8 seconds to 3 for 7 seconds in PvE only.
June 27, 2024	Malicious Ashen Assault was available during the Spear Beta Event.