Lotus Leveling - My Feat Build

There have been several posts on the Assassin class forums about Corruption and Lotus which are the two Assassin feat trees and people want to know which in particular is better for leveling. I would have to say hands down that Lotus (post 30) is better for leveling and that prior to 30 neither of them really make a huge difference. Here are the feats I've chosen as I've leveled up (45 now) and the order in which I maxed them out.

Level 10-14
Improved Poison Stance (5 points)
Relatively simple choice, you should always be in a stance and going down the Lotus tree this is your only choice.

Level 15-19
Flesh Rot (5 points)
This skill, often with one weapon swing will do a significant amount of damage. I know early on it can be underwhelming but you have to keep in mind this is PASSIVE and it's a flat damage increase that can stack up to 5 times.

Level 20-23
Cat's Paw (5 points)
Assassins early on have trouble getting used to being squishy and not having "outs." Well this is one of your outs and can be used when you need to take on 2-3 stronger mobs or a boss mob. It gives you great evasion for 10s.

Level 24-26
Flesh Necrosis (3 points)
The key to using this feat correctly for leveling involves watching your combat log. Continue to do your combos but usually when a mob is at around 40% health I'll glance at my combo log and if Flesh Rot is (3) or higher, I'll fire off Flesh Necrosis. It's a stamina-free, combo-free, source of damage and if you manage to see (4) or (5) stacks of Flesh Rot the damage will go up significantly as it's percentage based.

Note: This skill will BUG you if you use it when your target does not have Flesh Rot. Your bars will lockup and you will not be able to swing or use hotkeys. In order to fix this hold your "Active Blocking" button (Default X) and once you see the "defensive" type animation/stance, you're fixed.

Level 27-29
Deft Blades (3 points)
Yet another passive damage increase, it gives you a percentage chance to hit with your offhand weapon. You only want to do three points here because at 30 you get your key feats and you want to be able to get both of them at the same time.

level 30
Golden Lotus Extract (1 point)
This one point wonder is on a cooldown, but essentially heals you for 50-60% of your HP and could be considered a "get out of jail free" card. When you use it, it does an instant heal (like a potion) and then adds a HoT which heals the same as the instant heal. In PvE and PvP Golden Lotus Extract especially when combined with potions makes it very easy to escape almost any situation or to heal through a caster nuking you while you're mezzed/rooted/knocked back.

Snap Kick (1 point)
This one point wonder is also on a cooldown and like Golden Lotus Extract is one of the Lotus tree's defining feats. You can use it on NPC's and players alike though it has a chance to fail on players. Another "get out of jail free" card against any 1-2 mobs you're fighting as it disables them for approximately 4 seconds and CAN hit multiple targets. In PvE I usually potion/Golden Lotus Extract and then go for the Snap Kick if I get low as it stops their damage and allows the HoTs to catch up. This is also great when you're PvP'ing- open with a sneak attack followed by a Momentum stun and then a Snap Kick followed by a Combo.

Level 31-32
Deft Blades (2 points- making it 5 total points)

Level 33-37
Combo Atrophy (5 points)
Yet another defensive combo this lowers your targets damage significantly for a short period of time. I use this on bosses mostly but occasionally on indvidual mobs.

Level 38
Excellent Balance (1 point)
This is knockback resistance/immunity. You'll start running into mobs around 38-40 that are soldiers and will knock you down. They do it very predictively (like most players!) and you can pop this right as you engage a mob you know will knockdown (especially if there is a group) and save yourself a lot of taken damage and time spent out of commission.

Level 39
Accelerated (1 point)
Makes the cooldown on your Lotus / Poison combos shorter. Simple and passive.

Level 40
Opportunistic Strike (1 point)
This is an ability that makes your next combo starter a critical strike. One important thing to note is you have to use Opportunistic Strike BEFORE you start the combo. This means you can't go Combo>Opportunistic>First hit. You have to go Opportunistic>Combo>First hit (Crit!). It's on demand dps and it's useful in PvE and PvP, I would suggest using it every time it's up.

Level 40-42
Combo - Blindside (3 points)
Right around level 39 or so I began to notice stamina regen was becoming an issue and having put all of my attributes in Hide/Skulk/Endurance for PvP reasons I couldn't rest it quickly. How convenient that right around this time you get access to Blindside.

Level 43-44
Accelerated (2 points- making it a total of 3 points)


Level 45-49
Vile Poisons (5 points)
Rounding out your damage dealing ability now that you have survivability and cooldowns, this along with Accelerated is an "okay" damage boost, but better than any of the other alternatives.

This is where my personal experiences stops. Here are my plans through level ~58.

Level 50-53
Lotus Weapon (5 points)
Another "Flesh Rot" and as far as I know they both stack.

Level 54-58
Flurry of Blows (5 points)
Mainhand attacks have a chance of increasing offhand attacks.