The perfect assassin setup?

[Senshiki]

The perfect assassin setup?

I decided to make my master character, and after reading JanusJones' Warrior Monk guide, I decided to make one as the ultimate character. Everything he writes of in the guide seems flawless! So, I did some item up-looking, skill research and hard thinking to put together what I think is the perfect assassin build, right down to where every skill point goes and the best item setup. Leave me your thoughts and criticisms before I spend all my spare time making her.

Stats:
Same as always, enough for gear, life, no energy, blah blah blah. Her strength will be around 100 even and her dex will be similar, because she will use a phase blade.

Main Skills:

Blade Fury - 1
Dragon Talon - 20
Venom - 20
Shadow Master - 20
Mind Blast - 1-20
Death Sentry - 1
Blade Shield - 1

She is a shuriken flinging *** kicking ninja! Following JanusJones guide, she does the kicking on bosses and other big targets while she throws shurikens in other areas that need it. The Blade Fury is basically like hitting them with your weapon, it transferes almost every modifier, including CB, DS, OW, elemental damage, chance to cast on strike, leech, and 3/4 of the weapon damage. It is like a bow, but the CB works at full effectiveness.

The kicks are the fastest in the game, as such is on of the best options for delivering CB. It also leeches and adds elemental damage.

Venom is a great skill that goes to blades and kicks.

The Shadow is obvious, a tank and more damage.

Now my mods, Mind Blast is great crowd control, and will be explained in depth later. The conversion WILL BE important.

Death Sentry is only used for its Corpse Explosion. Body disposal, extra fire and physical damage, worth a few points I think.

Blade Shield transferes the same things Blade Fury does, which is great.

Gear:

Vampire Gaze - Shael/Um
Chain of Honors (AP)
Stormshield - P. Diamond
Last Wish (PB)
Highlord's Wrath
Laying of Hands
Trang Oul's Girth
Sandstorm Treks
Bul Katho's Wedding Band

A great setup. Last Wish is a must, the might aura and CB are good enough, but then it has Life Tap castings so you don't waste time with Drac's. Then if even has prevent monster heal and blind target. Also a chance to cast fade when hit will help when fighting uber meph and his Conviction aura. This gets better with the mercenary:

Act 1 Rogue Merc:
Faith Hydra Bow
Bramble Armor
Dream Helm

She provides two auras, does significant physical and lightning damage, and stands back to stay alive. Also she casts inner sight to help with attack rating problems.

The resists are close, with Chains and Stormshield being your main sources. However it is taken care of in other areas:

35% Lighting resist on Highlord's
50% Fire resist on Laying of Hands
60% Cold resist on Stormshield
70% Poison resist on Sandstorm Treks
Cannot be frozen on Trang Oul's Girth

Also, life is no issue. With plenty of life bonuses from Treks, Kathos ring, Trang's belt and Chains, it will be nice and high with CtA. Plus there is Life Tap, and life leech from Bul Kathos and Vampire Gaze.

Defense is mid-range, unless you choose to max Cloak of Shadows, but between max blocking (125 min. dex to wield a phase blade + Stormshield) and max Damage Reduction (15-20 Vapm, 8 Chains, 35 Storm) losing life is nothing to sweat about. Plus, you can leech plenty back from far away with blades or quickly close up with kicks.

Attack rating is no biggie with ITD on last wish, although it only works for blades. Dragon Talon has a high attack rating bonus however, and again, 125 minimum dex. And don't forget about Inner Sight.

So lets see what all the damage modifiers are here:

Base weapon damage
+
Strength Bonus
+
Last Wish runeword Enhanced damage
+
Might Aura
+
Fanatacism Aura
+
Open Wounds
+
Venom poison (and whatever other elemental damage)
+
550% Damage to Demons, 200% Damage to Undead (Chains/Laying of Hands)
+
Deadly Strike

Incredible output for a small lady I'd say.

So in the end, you have a swift assassin who can toss out huge amounts of damage with high crushing blow. Add the ability to convert or stun minions, leech like crazy from close or far, destroy corpses and use them as MORE damage, keep max resist, DR, and blocking without sacrificing killing ability, a Shadow Master tank, and then a lvl 18 Might, 15 Fanatacism, and 21 Thorns aura on her, her Shadow, her Rogue, and any minion she converts, so when they hit them they get damage or, even worse, hit the Assassin herself and recive the blow of not just Thorns, but the entire punch of her damage modifiers via Blade Shield.

I cannot think of anything better. Thoughts?

 

[stephan]

Personally I think maxing SM is a waste, and a maxed DS a must.

I'd prefer a weapon with CtC static over LW as CB doesn't work too well in higher player games, and there is no need to go overboard with CB. It is only reallly useful against Act Bosses.

Blade Shield does not transer the same things a Blade Fury. It does not do CB and it does not trigger CtC on strike.

The conversion from Mind Blast generally slows your killing speed.

 

[sexyfool]

I assume you are making this character as pvm and particularly with ubers in mind.

I have a last wish warrior monk and am in the process of stripping her to make a better character. With experience I have found last wish to be overrated and indeed life tap itself to be a short cut that oftens leads to bitter disappointment in Uber Tristram. The skills layout you propose will require some adjustments and in doing so you would need to decide whether the SOLE focus for your character is uber killing or if you wish to have a more rounded 'sin.

So, my two cents worth.

Skills.

Choose your level of dragon talon to be a multiple of six. You currently have level 24 selected but have made no mention of charms. A torch and anni would make you level 28 which is a waste of 4 pts.

Points in death sentry increase corpse explosion radius which is very helpful in general play but not much use in uber tristram. In case you were not aware, the ubers all do what baal does in his throne room. You can only explode corpses when the ubers arent close so really, whats the point.

Despite the issue of time on the spell ( refer to janusjones' guide ) I personally found higher levels of cloak of shadows very useful in uber tristram. You dont leave the area untill they die and they take longer to die than the timer takes to reset.

You didnt mention fade which in uber tristram is your best friend. It will add res and pdr which you will need when you read my item suggestions list. The level of fade you need is a matter of choice and if you really dont want to add more than 1 point you can make treachery and prebuff easily enough.

Mind blast is a very useful skill and is worth 1 point in any build. In my experience more points in pvm are not really worth the effort. Casting mb when entering a new area is a great way to have meat shields and FASTER bodies which means FASTER killing. Conversion speeds up your initial killing and only the converted monsters reverting will be around after the mass ce's go off. Who cares about mopping up 3-4 bad guys when you just wiped out 20.

Items.

As I mentioned in opening, last wish in uber tristram is overrated, as is life tap. However in general play, both items work very well in most area's except those where fast, high hp monsters mob you and then it's "good night saigon" for almost any sin that isnt fast on her feet. In uber tristram you are far better off preventing mobbing by minions first, then killing the ubers second. I now use and recommend the much cheaper law bringer as the uber killing weapon of choice. It has ctc decrepify, -50% target def and sanctuary. So by bf'ing the crowd to cast decrep 1st, you slow down everything dramatically, santuary keeps Mephs skels off your back, and -50% def means you can actually hit the bad guys which is often very hard to do with last wish. Btw itd does not work on bf or kicks when attacking bosses.

The use of sandstrom treks as boots is a nono. All sins use myrmidon greaves. It is the boots that give kicks their damage and the only boots for an uber trist sin are upgraded gore riders. There are umpteen posts on the ins and outs of this, just search for the detailed explanations.

Deadly strike does not transfer to kicks so highlords gives you 1 skill and 35 light res. There are many better ammy choices in rares and either maras or metalgrid in uniques for the res, skills or ar.

You cant leech from ubers so gaze becomes a source of pdr and def. With fade on you have lots of better helm choices. The two I prefer are kiras and guillames. If guillames wasnt so hideous it would be the only choice. Kiras is your switch for uber meph and guillames is your 35% cb baal and diablo butt kicker.

There have been a number of posts regarding laying of hands and kicks. It is my belief that % damage to demons has been proven NOT transferrable by kicks. This doesnt negate the use of LoH as they still offer 20%ias and 50% fire res, just dont count on the extra damage.

You appear to have a spare ring slot. Put a ravenfrost on and you can lose the trangs girth for a belt that fills your needs a little better. Credendum, upgraded nightsmoke ( 50% damage to mana is really useful ) or my personal favourite the glove and belt ik combo. Check arreat summit for a complete list but 45 str, 20 dex, light res, fire res and 25 ias are really nice useful numbers.

All the above are things I do myself. Whether you choose to use any or all is up to you. Kickers are a great boss killer and are open to whatever variation you prefer. Glhf.:smiley:

 

[Silent Shaddow]

lose the act1 merc immediately, your an assassin so you should be dragon flighting things creating a minion stack, pooling damage on to one target (btw the extra damage/cb from a act2>ed auras from act1 merc) and using the lifetap from your lastwish to keep him alive. personally i choose a holyfreeze merc for the added safety, you dont need AR becuase of the huge bonus from your kicks and if you do need more then i suggest a few ar charms.

Choose your level of dragon talon to be a multiple of six. You currently have level 24 selected but have made no mention of charms. A torch and anni would make you level 28 which is a waste of 4 pts.

seconded

Who cares about mopping up 3-4 bad guys when you just wiped out 20.

because due to the AoE effect of your traps the 3-4 would have died anyways. CoS>MB 99% of the time, only use MB if you are dieing

You cant leech from ubers so gaze becomes a source of pdr and def. With fade on you have lots of better helm choices. The two I prefer are kiras and guillames. If guillames wasnt so hideous it would be the only choice. Kiras is your switch for uber meph and guillames is your 35% cb baal and diablo butt kicker.

he needs atleast one source of mana leech

I'd prefer a weapon with CtC static over LW as CB doesn't work too well in higher player games, and there is no need to go overboard with CB. It is only reallly useful against Act Bosses.

i beg to differ, especially with a low damage char CB makes up a huge amount of damage and unlike static cb doesnt have a limit and cb isnt resisted as much

The conversion from Mind Blast generally slows your killing speed.

agreed


Death Sentry is only used for its Corpse Explosion. Body disposal, extra fire and physical damage, worth a few points I think.

my jaw just hit the floor, this is one of the THE strongest skills in game. a maxed death sentry can get about 14 yards radius for its CE, 5 of these can decimate entire rooms in seconds. If you are to PvM this kill will do the most damage....
a kicksin creates corpse for the death sentry, kicking everything to death takes ages, using dsentry clears entires rooms in seconds....

sorry for random posts, i just posted as things got my attention...

 

[stephan]

i beg to differ, especially with a low damage char CB makes up a huge amount of damage and unlike static cb doesnt have a limit and cb isnt resisted as much

I wasn't arguing that one should walk around with no CB, but the CB you get from Gores and Guillaume's is more than enough in PvM. Static is a very useful modifier in conjuction with Death Sentry and worth a lot more than the difference between 50 and 100% CB.

 

[Silent Shaddow]

that sounds more right :laugh:

 

[Senshiki]

Well I finally got D2 up and running and I tested the build, at level 60, 85, and 99, with surprising results. Thanks to everyone for your input, and I take all of your advice. Here are my results:

- On players 8, once I got used to her, I was not only able to solo Hell everywhere, but I found NO NEED FOR MY SHADOW. She made things a bit easier, but I never actually had to have her out to tank. Also I didn't ever use a Merc of any kind, and she did fine all by her lonesome.

- Blade Fury doesn't cast Life Tap, which was disappointing, however Blade Shield does! I was able to stand in a crowd SURROUNDED by monsters hitting me, and I healed up. After testing, I found it useful to MAX Blade Shield, for the duration and extra damage. Monster hits healed me, and some monsters fell to the ground from hitting me because Blade Shield did such big CB and damage.

- Attack rating was just a little bit of an issue towards Act 4, so I swapped the Laying of Hands for Lavagout to get the Enchant.

- My mistake, it is 136 dexterity, not 125 to weild a Phase Blade.

In the end I found only two problems:

1. Mana was low. Dual leech kept my blue bulb full when fighting everything except Undead ,where you can't leech.

2. For the same reason as above, Baal was a tough cookie with his Mana burning blast. I did find a good way to fix this though: simply Blade Fury his Appendiges, and you leech from them. Other than that, just keep kicking him while Life Tap'd, and every now and then toss a blade at a tentacle.

So thanks, this character is great, good input you guys. I'll update further findings later.

 

[Rane-]

What gear did you end up deciding on?