- Mar 13, 2019
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This is a repost of the Blender Assassin guide by lextalionis from the old dii.net strategy compendium. Note that it only works for 1.09 since 1.10 nerfed Blade Shield badly. You can find the original article on the web archive:
Beware when reading this and other guides in the old strategy compendium: Most of them have flaws ranging from a few false claims to being completely uninformed altogether. People back then did insane things, one barb guide even advises horking cows... 
I reformated it a bit to make it readable.
****
Navigation
Introduction
Blender Assassins are called this because they use a Blade Shield that whirls around them to constantly hit targets near them with Hit Freezes Target and Crushing Blow. Low level creatures in comparison to your character will simply shatter, regardless of hit points. A Shatter death is an instant kill. Blenders are most trying to get this shatter effect which can do incredible amounts of damage very quickly. Freeze will keep those creatures that are near you from being able to hit you. Even if the creatures don't shatter a constant beating from Blade Shield, which will always hit targets within the range, with 100% Crushing Blow will very quickly whittle away at monsters hit points since Crushing Blow reduces a creatures hit points by a percentage (See Formula Below) of the hit points they have left. The more life points that a creature has the more effective Crushing Blow becomes. Blenders still have to find a way to take away those last few life points of creatures being attacked. This can be done through a weapon switch or to by the use of a high level Phoenix Strike and with the help of Tiger Strike and Dragon Tail.
What is Crushing Blow?
Crushing Blow D2C: In Diablo II, Crushing Blow was enormously powerful, since it had the listed % chance of reducing a monster's current hit points by 50%. You could hit multiple times with this and kill quickly while doing very low damage. For example hitting for 1 damage on a 100 hps monster, but with Crushing Blow the monster's hps would be 100 > 49 > 24 > 12, in just 3 hits, rather than 97, if you had no Crushing. It only worked on normal monsters, not on bosses or other characters, and didn't work with ranged attacks at all.
Expansion and v1.08+ D2:Crushing Blow works with all attacks and on all targets, but the reduction in hps is much less than it was in D2. The following lists the actual percent hps removed. This is from a monster's current hps, not it's maximum, so you'll notice big drops on full hps monsters and very little on ones that are low.
Normal monster: 1/4 Melee, 1/8 Ranged Attack. Other: 1/10 Melee, 1/20 Ranged Attack.
"Other" includes all types of boss monsters as well as other players and their hirelings. This doesn't sound like much, but if Izzy has 100,000 hps, taking off 1/20th with your bow would be worth 5,000 hps.
Crushing Blow is best used with a high percentage, and when hitting very fast and for low damage it makes a big difference.
Why Hit Freezes Target?
Not only does it freeze creatures when it automatically hits creatures within your Blade Shield range, but it also gives you a chance to Shatter the creature right there. Player level vs. creature level is very important.
Hit Freezes Target Formula: The chance of freezing is 50 + (AL + (B*4) - DL) * 5 AL = attacker level, DL = defender level, B = freeze bonus from item (default is 1) if it's ranged, the AL has a -6 penalty. If it's ranged, the chance is divided by 3 freeze length = (chance - roll) * 2 + 25 frames with a minimum length of 25 frames (1 second) and a maximum length of 250 frames (10 seconds). Thanks to IceWraith
There is a level-based comparison rule in place that greatly diminishes the applicability of many Blade Shield friendly mods. Some of the mods impacted are: Hit Slows Target, Hit Freezes Target, Hit Blinds Target. From my experience, the only things where "What % you see is what you got" really are Knockback (behaves oddly), Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike and Hit Causes Monster To Flee. This means if you're not at least about 5 levels less or higher than your target monster, certain mods will basically not work, i.e., slows target. It makes weapons like the Minotaur, which would be a godly axe, totally suck.
Skill Allocation
9 Burst of Speed; See Below, figure out what level of BoS you need to hit your fastest breakpoint with your weapon of choice
20 Phoenix Strike
10 Blade Shield (Can Max if you are using some Double Strike)
20 Dragon Tail'
1 Tiger Strike (optional)
1 Venom (Optional)
1 Shadow Master
1 Dragon Flight (Extra Points)
1 Claw Mastery (Prerequisite, Not currently used)
1 Dragon Claw (Prerequisite, Not currently used)
87 Points Allocated so far
Note: You will get bonuses from + skill items you are wearing and take that into account so you do not waste skill points.
Note: Both Blade Shield and Blade Fury are supposed to be drastically changed in version 1.10, so save points in case you are required to put more points into those skills to keep them effective.
Mercenary Selection
Blessed Aim Mercenary (360% AR Bonus at level 20)
Interesting pick since almost no build, except the melee Necromancer or Sorceress, choose this Mercenary. But you have plenty of reasons for this choice.
1. You don't have a Mastery to improve attack rating. Claws don't work with a blender build because of limited range.
2. While some of your attacks (Phoenix Strike, Tiger Strike, Dragon Tail) will have an attack bonus many will have none or almost no attack bonus (Normal Attack, Cobra Strike, Dragon Flight).
3. Your equipment cannot really adequately fix this problem without Eth bug which may be fixed in 1.10.
4. Hitting with Cobra Strike for charges and actually landing a finisher to release the charges is what actually keeps you alive.
Defiance Mercenary
1. You will be close to the action so a higher defense rating can't hurt
2. This mercenary also tends to stay alive longer because he gets hit less too.
3. He does nothing to help your killing speed though
Might Mercenary
1. Added damage from this is nice, but doesn't aid much in the Crushing Blow damage
2. Does help for finishing blow, since Crushing Blow reduces by percentage it can never actually do the last point of kill damage
Holy Freeze Mercenary
1. Slows down how often you are hit
2. Slows down creatures
3. Chill from Blade Shield should do the same thing to everything but Cold Immunes
4. Phoenix Strike can also chill enemies
5. Burst of Speed already increases your R/W speed a lot
Statistics Allocation
Strength -- What you need for equipment (Possibly even taking into account tweaking for pluses from items
Dexterity -- What you need for max block (Blessed Aim will take care of the rest, but this will add to Kick Damage)
Vitality -- Everything else (3 life points for every point of vitality), important to this build because, blenders tend to be close to the action
Energy -- Base, unless you are attempting the Faster Cast Rate Build (See Below)
Equipment Selection
Extra Mods to Look For
Hit Freezes Target: This mod gives you a chance to Shatter your enemy which can be the most damage in the game. Chilling nearby creatures when they are hit by your Blade Shield also will keep them from hitting you.
Amplify Damage: Currently the Hell Physical Damage Penalty is in effect and, I believe affects Crushing Blow in Hell. This is can be rectified by the use of Atma's Scarab or other item that has % chance to cast Amplify Damage when you hit. Between your very fast attack speed and your Blade Shield you will be hitting very often and will be able to set off Amplify Damage a lot with this build. This will help your leach, your mercenary's leach, as well as your damage. The Physical Damage Penalty is rumored to be eliminated in version 1.10.
Plus skill Items especially plus Martial Arts Items help this build. Final Damage is done thru Phoenix Strike, Tiger Strike, and Dragon Tail finisher, all dependant on skill level for damage.
Staying alive when in close proximity to melee creatures when using your blade shield makes
Physical Damage Reduction
Resist All is important
Plus Vitality/Life Mods
Knockback ???-- Good and bad - Good because it can keep a crowd off you especially usefully with a quickly pulsing Blade Shield. Bad because it will also push creatures outside the range of your Blade Shield and weapons. (My recommendation is to try your setup both ways and see which works best with your style of play)
Hit Slows Target, this mod may currently be bugged however.
IAS-- while you don't need a lot, you may need some extra IAS to hit your last break point for your weapon speed. Some weapons need a lot of IAS to reach last breakpoints
Deadly Strike A % chance of dealing Double Damage. The damage is doubled after all other bonuses Strength or Dexterity modifying weapon damage, this excludes elemental damage. Will never stack with Asn/Barb/Ama Critical Strike bonuses (You won't be getting a critical strike bonus since you won't be using claw mastery). It rolls for 2x damage for one, then the other if it fails. So having this increases double damage chances, but never allows 4x damage. This will double the normal damage of Blade Shield and help to do more damage.
Defense: Being hit less is very important to a Blender. You will be right on top of your enemies, so being hit less is very important. Often this should be your guide when picking a shield or armor.
To a much lesser extent:
Pierce -- Currently not important, but if Blade Fury is improved in version 1.10 then Pierce may allow Blades to pass through to multiple targets
Life Leech isn't that important for two reasons
Enhanced Damage isn't all that important for the weapon. You will only really be leaching with Cobra Strike on the finishing moves, which will be either Dragon Tail or your normal attack (another reason for the Blessed Aim Mercenary).
Hit Causes Monster to Flee is a curse and will override Amplify Damage, which you absolutely do not want unless you want to spend most of your time running after fleeing cows.
Equipment for the Blender Assassin
Helms
Guillaume's Face: Winged Helm (Great Helm)187-245 Defense, 40 Durability,115 Strength Required, Clvl Req: 34, Item Level: 41 +120% Enhanced Defense, +30% Faster Hit Recovery, +35% Chance of Crushing Blow, +15% Chance of Deadly Strike, +15 Strength
Note: The only way you can get away without using this is with using some sort of really expensive Robo weapon.
Harlequin Crest: Shako +2 to All Skills,+1.5 Life per clvl. +1.5 Mana per clvl, +50% Better chance of getting magical item, Physical Damage Taken Reduced by 10%, +2 to Strength,+2 to Dexterity,+2 to Vitality,+2 to Energy
Assassin Circlet with +2 Assassin Skills or +3 Martial Arts Skills
Amulets
Atma's Scarab: (20% bonus to Attack Rating and 5% chance to cast Amplify Damage)
Highlord's Wrath: Deadly strike and plus one to all skills
Mara's Kaelidescope:
Assassin Amulet with Plus 2 Assassin Skills or Plus 3 Martial Arts, Plus Life or Vitality
Armor
Arkaine's Valor: Balrog Skin, (Splint Mail), 1027-1449 Defense, 30 Durability, 165 Strength Required, Medium Armor, Item Level: 85, Clvl req: 85 +150-180% Enhanced Defense, 30% Faster Hit Recovery, +1-2 to All Skills, -10-15 Physical Damage, +0.5 Vitality per Clvl
Shaft Stop (PDR)
Duriel's Shell (Resists and Cannot Be Frozen)
Ice Blink 154-172 Defense, 30 Durability, 51 Strength Required, Medium Armor, Item Level: 30, Clvl Req: 22, Hit Freezes Target, +30% to Cold Resist, +4 Light Radius, Magical Damage Taken Reduced by 1, +70-80% Enhanced Defense
Rattlecage 328-335 Defense, 55 Durability, 70 Strength Required, Medium Armor, Item Level: 39, Clvl Req: 29, Hit Causes Monster to Flee 40%, +45 to Attack Rating, +25% Chance of Crushing Blow, +200 Defense
Fast ReCast of Blade Shield Build:
Skin of the Vipermagi: Serpent skin Armor, 246-279 Defense, 24 Durability, 43 Strength Required, Light Armor , Item Level: 37, Clvl req: 29 +120% Enhanced Defense, +20-35% Resistance To All, 30% Faster Cast Rate, Magical Damage Taken Reduced by 9-13, +1 to All Skills
Que-Hegue’s Wisdom - Honorable Mention
MageFists
Silkweave Boots
Stones of Jordan
Shields
Stormshield: (Kite Shield), 94-114 +3.75*Clvl Defense, Indestructible, 156 Strength Required, Item Level: 77, Clvl req: 73 +3.75 Defense per Clvl, Physical Damage Reduced by 35%, +30 to Strength, Indestructible, 35% Faster Blocking, +25% to Lightning Resist, +25 Chance to Block %, +60% to Cold Resist, Attacker Takes 10 Lightning Damage Listed-Blocking
al: 77%, Am/As/B: 72% D/S/N: 67%, Weight: Light
Whistan’s Shield: 175% Enhanced Defense: Fastest Blocking, +55 to block, Half Freeze Duration, +5 to Light Radius, Note: this is a set item with Guilliume’s Face
Gloves
Blood Gloves: Magical Heavy, or Sharkskin Gloves (Excep),,Vampirebone Gloves (Elite), + Jewel (any), + Nef Rune (#4), + Perfect Ruby Blood Gloves, Preset Mods:1-3% Life Leech, +10-20 Hit Points, 5-10% Crushing Blow
Venom Grip: Demonhide Gloves 81-118 Defense, 14 Durability, 20 Strength Required, Item level: 37, Clvl req: 29, +30% to Poison Resist, +5% to Maximum Poison Resist, Adds 59 Poison Damage Over 4 Seconds, +5% Chance of Crushing Blow, +5% Life Stolen Per Hit, +15-25 Defense, +130-160% Enhanced Defense
Hellmouth Gauntlets: No help for the build but fun to see a volley of meteors and firestorms around your Assassin.
Hit Power Gloves Magical Chain Gloves, or Heavy Bracers (Excep), or Vambraces (Elite), + Jewel (any), + Ort Rune (#9), + Perfect Sapphire Hitpower Gloves Preset Mods: 5% chance of casting Slvl 4 Frost Nova when hit, +3-7 Damage to Attacker, Knockback
Biggest Mod is +2 Martial Arts Skills (affects Phoenix Strike, Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike (attack rating bonus included), and Dragon Tail) IAS may be another mod you'll need to hit your last breakpoint for your weapon
Belt
String of Ears (PDR, Life Leech)
Razortail (Pierce)
Trang's Belt (+75-100 Defense, +30 Stamina, +5 Replenish Life (0.488 Life Per Second), +66 Life, Cannot be Frozen , -40% Item Requirements, +25-50 Mana
Rings
Assassin Rings + Assassin skills, plus life,
Raven Frost (Cannot Be Frozen), Cold Damage, Attack Rating
Bul Kathos Wedding Ring + Skills and Life Leech
Boots
Goblin Toe: 25% Crushing Blow, 20% Faster R/W
Gore Rider: 15% Deadly Blow, 15% Crushing Blow, 30% Faster R/W
Note: Crushing Blow is a very rare mod, but Hit Freezes target is even more rare, IceBlink is the only non-weapon I could find. Woestave is one of the few weapons with Hit Freezes Target.
Note on Ophiums Call Set: If you are not going to use stormshield or a Robo weapon and want to run with the Blender Build, you might want to use Ophiums Call set. It is just a shield, helm, belt, and gloves. The shield may be the second best shield for the build because of its enormously high blocking percentage. While ideally you might want to get the extra 10% Crushing Blow from BLOOD crafted gloves, the Magnus Skins have dual leach and 20 IAS, and no belt really effects this build too much. The set bonuses aren't bad: Partial Set Bonuses: ! Wearing any two items: +35 Life ! Wearing any three items: Attacker takes 5 damage Full Set Bonus: +50 Life, +10 Dexterity, +20 Strength, +100 Defense, +15% Resistance To All, +80% Better chance of getting magical item.
Note Low Level Items:
Clegclaw's Pincers: Knockback and hit slows -- Set has +35% Crushing Blow on it
STRENGTH Runeword AmTir has 25% Crushing Blow
Magic Find Setup
Skulder's Ire
Harlequin Crest Shako
Goldwrap
War Travelers/Gore Rider/Goblin Toe
Chance Guards or better yet MF CB gloves
Atma's Scarab Amulet 20% bonus to Attack Rating and 5% chance to cast Amplify Damage
MF Amulet and Rings with plus Martial Arts Skills
Tancred’s Amulet and Boots? - +78% Magic Find when both worn
-- Normally good for Magic Find, but since you can usually get MF and other better + skill mods on an Amulet and resists on the boots
Weapon Switch : Gull Dagger & Rhyme Shield or MF Claws
Best Weapon:
Theories for Weapons:
1. Weapon and Shield
2. Two-Handed Weapon with a lot of Range
3. Faster Cast Rate Weapons
4. Huffing Weapons
5. Magic Find Weapons
6. Robo-Weapons
7. High Damage Weapons
8. Ranged Weapons
9. Claws
For Theory 1: Weapon and Shield
BLACK: ThulIoNef, Thul (10) + Io (16) + Nef (4), Clubs, hammers, maces only. Clvl Required: 35, v1.09: Realm & Open, +120% Enhanced Damage, +200 to Attack Rating, +3-14 Cold Damage (3 sec), 15% Increased Attack Speed, Knockback, 12 Level 4 Corpse Explosion Charges, 40% Chance of Crushing Blow, -2 Magic Damage, +10 to Vitality
Note: BLACK Runeword Scourge, not terribly expensive. And is considered the item to use for this build right now. BLACK Runeword may only be placed in Maces, Clubs, etc. The Runeword has tremendous mods for this build.
Robo-Berserker Axe: 24-71 Damage Average ( 47.5), 26 Durability, Strength Req: 138, Dexterity Req: 59, Item Level: 71, Clvl Req: 63 D2 Sockets: 3, D2X Sockets: 1-6, Range: 3, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Inv Size: 2x3, Weapon Speed: 0, Swing Speed: Fast: Am/As/B/D/N/P, Normal: S
Robo-Phase Blade: 31-35 Damage Average (33), 0 Dur (Indes), Strength Req: 25, Dexterity Req: 136, Item Level: 63, Clvl Req: 55 Sockets: 1-6, Range: 2, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Inv Size: 2x3, Weapon Speed: -30, Swing Speed: V Fast: Am/As/B/D/N/P/S,
Robo-Scourge: 3-80 1H Damage Average (38.5), 65 Durability, Strength Req: 125, Dexterity Req: 77, Item Level: 67, Clvl Req: 59 Sockets: 1-5, Range: 3, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Inv Size: 1x3, 150% Damage to Undead Weapon Speed: -1 0, Swing Speed: Very Fast: As/P, Fast: Am/B/D/N/S
Note: Either may be very good for a one handed Robo-Blender Weapon. Noting that Phase Blade is indestructible, but also only range 2.
Stormshield
Whistan’s Shield
Note: This setup basically requires Iceblink Armor to get Hit Freezes Target Mod. Shattering while cool, is not terribly effective unless you are extremely higher level than the creatures you are attacking.
Note: Banar's Star & Tiamat's Rebuke-- Maybe much better after v1.10 if Elemental Damage can be passed on thru Blade Shield and Blade Fury
For Theory 2: Two-Handed Weapon with a lot of Range
1. Hone Sundan: Yari, (75-90) - (156-180) Damage, 28 Durability, 101 Strength Required, No Dexterity Required, Socketed (3) , Item Level: 45 , Clvl Req: 37 +160-200% Enhanced Damage, Adds 20-40 damage, 45% Chance of Crushing Blow, Repairs 1 durability in 10 seconds Range: 5, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Weapon Speed: 0, Swing Speed:, Normal: Am/B, Slow: D/N/P/S/, Very Slow: As
Note: Yari has three open sockets - See Robo for socketing advice.
2. The Cranium Basher: Thunder Maul, (Great Maul) (122-135) - (563-635) Damage, Indestructible, 253 Strength Required, No Dexterity Required, Item Level: 91, Clvl Req: 87 +200-240% Enhanced Damage, Adds 20 Min & Max damage, +25 to Strength, 20% Increased Attack Speed, Indestructible, All Resistances +25, 75% Chance of Crushing Blow, 4% Chance to cast level 1 Amplify Damage on striking, Range: 3, Damage Bonus: 110 Strength, Weapon Speed: 20, Swing Speed: Fast: D, Normal: Rest (Assassin 2.5 attacks per second possible, enormous IAS necessary)
Note: I almost didn’t list this item under this theory, but with both Amplify Damage and Crushing Blow on the same item, this item gets mention, even though it only has a range of 3. Cranium Basher also requires an enormous amount of IAS to get to 2.5 attacks per second.
3. Woestave: Halberd, (15-18) - (55-64) Damage, 55 Durability, 75 Strength Required, 47 Dexterity Required, Item Level: 38, Clvl Req: 28 +20-40% Enhanced Damage, -3 to Light Radius, 50% Chance of Open Wounds, -50 to Targets Defense Per Hit, Hit Blinds Target, Slows Target by 50%, Prevents Monster Healing, Hit Freezes Target Range: 5, Weapon Speed: 0, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Swing Speed:Fast: D/S, Normal: As/B/N/P, Slow: Am
Note: While Woestave has no inherent Crushing Blow, it does have many very good modifications for this build. It has high range and hit freezes target. It also has high range. This may be a good item. But look to make sure that Hit Blinds Target isn’t overwriting your Amplify Damage.
4. Robo-Giant Thresher 40-114 Damage: Average (74), 55 Durability, Strength Req: 188, Dexterity Req: 140, Item Level: 76, Clvl Req: 68 Sockets: 1-6, Range: 5, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Inv Size: 2x4 Weapon Speed: -10, Swing Speed: Very Fast: D, Fast: N/P/S, Normal: Am/As/B (2.5 attacks per second)
Note: This has six sockets, so you could get all your Crushing Blow from this weapon in theory. See Robo-Weapons.
For Theory 3. Faster Cast Rate Weapons
1. Wizard Spike
2. Suicide Branch
3. Claws with Faster Cast Rate on them
4. Lidless Eye Shield
For Theory 4. Huffing Weapons
Often used by Barbarians who use echoing weapons on weapon switch in order to have the greatest possible battle orders and to use Find Item and Find Potion. Burst of Speed, Venom, Cloak of Shadows and Shadow Master all benefit from the level of the skill at the time it was cast. This makes having claws with +3 to Shadow Skills (even better if it also has + to one of those individual skills) on weapon switch more effective.
Note: It might be possible in this build to have claws with + Skill that might have up to three sockets each or a total of six sockets.
For Theory 5. Magic Find Weapons
1. Gull Dagger
2. Rhyme Shield
3. Pair of MF Claws
4. Ali Baba Sword
For Theory 6. Robo-Weapons
Robo-Weapons, What should be Socketed?
1. Ber -- 20% Crushing Blow
2. Eth -- Currently the Eth bug makes attack rating useless (hopefully this will be fixed in 1.10)
3. Jah -- ITD (attack rating can be a problem)
4. Lo -- 20% Chance of Deadly Strike (Doubles Damage--What it doubles for Blade Shield Damage is in question)
5. Zod -- Indestructible (Blade Shield seems to drain Durability)
6. Shael -- 20% IAS (Possibly very important for Werewolves)
Note: Cham -- 32% Chance of Hit Freezes Target (It appears that this doesn't work as it should and just give cold damage in weapons, which will not be passed on through blade shield)
For Theory 7. High Damage Weapons
1. Cruel Colossus Blade of Evisceration
2. The Cranium Basher: Thunder Maul, (Great Maul) (122-135) - (563-635) Damage, Indestructible, 253 Strength Required, No Dexterity Required, Item Level: 91, Clvl Req: 87 +200-240% Enhanced Damage, Adds 20 Min & Max damage, +25 to Strength, 20% Increased Attack Speed, Indestructible, All Resistances +25, 75% Chance of Crushing Blow, 4% Chance to cast level 1 Amplify Damage on striking, Range: 3, Damage Bonus: 110 Strength, Weapon Speed: 20, Swing Speed: Fast: D, Normal: Rest (Assassin 2.5 attacks per second possible, enormous IAS necessary)
3. Schaefer's Hammer: Legendary Mallet, (War Hammer) (102-117) - (124-142) Damage +2* Clvl Max Damage, Indestructible, 189 Strength Required, No Dexterity Required, Item Level: 83 Clvl Req: 79 +100-130% Enhanced Damage, +2 Max damage per Clvl, +16 to Attack Rating per Clvl, Adds 50-200 lightning damage, +50 to Life, Lightning Resist +75%, 20% Increased Attack Speed, Indestructible, +1 to Light Radius, 20% Chance to cast level 10 Static Field on striking, Range: 1, Damage Bonus: 110 Strength, Weapon Speed: 20, Swing Speed: Fast: As/P, Normal: Am/B/D/N/S
4. High Damage Claws
Note: All these weapons should be used to deliver the finishers and release charges. These would want to use normal attack instead of a kick to deliver final damage. These would benefit highly from Tiger Strike charges and would be a good source to use Cobra Charges to leech.
Note: Special for Schaefer’s Hammer, Its range is 1, but it does give off Static Field charges when it hits. Which can be released by the Blade Shield.
Note: Special for Claws: This build may want to use Claw Mastery and Dragon Claw may add up to quite a lot of damage especially when coupled with Tiger Strike.
For Theory 8. Ranged Weapons
Hydra or Crusader Bow 6 Socket Bow with 6 Perfect Emeralds
Kuko Shakaku
Demon Machine
Note: All these items would benefit from added Pierce, probably from the Razortail Belt. Pierce allows you to hit more than one target with a single arrow.
Note: Both Kuko and Demon Machine have splash damage from explosive bolts they fire. This splash damage also carries the Crushing Blow of the character. Splash Damage can hit the same target more than once.
For Theory 9. Claws
Scissors Suwannah Three Sockets with nice mods with Ber Runes
Cruel Scissors Suwaanhah with good mods (MA or Venom)
Bartocs +6 to Martial Arts
Note: Each claw hits separately so CB is only effective for the claw that actually hits not the characters total Crushing Blow Chance.
Note: Disadvantages: Range of Blade Shield only one, at least for 1.09;
Skills in Gameplay
Blade Shield: This is the key to the Blender Build. Damage from this skill is negligible. All chances to cast when you hit do apply to blade shield, which is why this is such a nice skill. It can attack multiple creatures at the same time. Currently the range is not the listed 3.3 yards, but the attack range of your weapons. This precludes you from using claws (range 1) in this build. Just like the weapon affecting the range of Blade Shield, your weapon's Attack Speed will also affect your Blade Shields rate of pulse, or how often it will automatically hit creatures within its range. This is obviously very important to a Blender build so absolutely hitting the best break point for your weapon is important. Note: Blade Shield currently very quickly runs through your weapons durability. Putting points in Blade Shield will make it last longer, cost more to cast, and do slightly more base damage. For version 1.09, putting more than one point (remember that you will have some plus skill items as well) in Blade Shield will only gain you more time (at level 1 only 20 seconds) before you have to recast your Blade Shield, but in future versions this may be very important. Level 20 Blade Shield does 110-141 Damage but cost 65 mana to cast and will last for 96 seconds. Level 1 Blade Shield 1-30 Damage but costs 27 mana for only 20 seconds.
Blade Shield does appear to pulse every time you recast it. Thus you with Faster Cast Rate gear you can pulse Blade Shield very rapidly. This means that Crushing Blow can be delivered to every creature within Blade Shield range with each recast. This will be much quicker than any weapon speed that you can achieve. But remember that the current build has low mana pool. Recasting Blade Shield, much like recasting high level Lightning Nova can be very mana intensive.
Elemental Damage from items is not passed on when Blade Shield hits, at least in v 1.09. Blade Shield pulse speed may not vary upon weapon speed. Confirmation would be helpful.
Phoenix Strike: Even though this build is based around the Blender and Crushing Blow, this is your main attack. It can attack multiple creatures at a time, just like your Blade Shield. It has an Attack Rating Booster built into it as well. This attack allows you to use the appropriate finisher for each elementally immune set of monsters. Remember quite often this will be what does the majority of damage other than Crushing Blow.
Dragon Tail: I use this as my primary finisher, because I’m almost always hitting more than one target with this attack. Its a kick damage to target is calculated with a formula. All Kick damage is determined by the following formula: minimum damage = (STR+DEX-20)/4 maximum damage = (STR+DEX-20)/3 example: If your STRENGTH is 150, and your DEXTERITY is 150, then your base kick damage would be 70-93. +%Enhanced Damage on weapons does not affect kick damage. +%Enhanced Damage on non-weapons is added as if it were an additional +strength in the equation. Plus Additional Damage does not affect Kick Damage. Basically, the more Strength and Dexterity you have the more damage you will do. Realize the dexterity you are using to obtain max Shield Block is also extra Dexterity for extra damage in Dragon Tail. Often this is less than your normal attack damage; check this, if it is you will want to be able to switch to normal attack for single targets. Dragon Tail's real beauty is that is has splash damage. (Supposedly additional fire charms and fire damage will increase this radius, but I haven't tested this.) Splash Damage is fire damage calculated as a percentage of the physical damage done by your kick to all those within the radius of your splash. Additional Tiger Strike Damage does seem to increase both the damage and radius of this blast. As a bonus you can hurt PI's with the splash damage from your Dragon Tail attack. The splash damage will not carry Crushing Blow damage, like the Crushing Blow damage is carried over the splash of Demon Machine Crossbow. This will probably be your best finisher most of the time especially when fighting multiple foes. Note that especially when you are leveling this can eat up your mana, as you get to higher levels you will have a larger mana pool and effective use of Cobra Strike will help to keep your Mana Pool full. Also remember that your splash can effect PI's but the kick must hit a non-PI creature.
Note: Some People don't find Dragon Tail necessary or even all that useful.
Dragon Talon: This is another finishing move worth mention, since this is an enormously quick series of three kicks. The damage from the kicks won't be that much and only the first kick will deliver the charges from your other skills. But its a great way to get three very fast Crushing Blow hits onto a single target.
Normal Attack: Many characters simply use normal attack to deliver the finishing move. Because of Kick damage calculation does not take into account many weapon bonuses.
Burst of Speed: This is your primary "Aura." It allows you the most freedom to actually hit your weapons top break point for attack speed. It also grants you extra run/walk speed. Of the most importance is having enough points in this skill to hit your last weapon speed breakpoint. Again see here. BTW, the German calc uses the client-side speeds (what you see on your monitor), which are faster than server-side speeds (what battle.net sees). However, the server automatically takes priority over the client, so you're actually slower than what you see. So, going by server-side speeds, you actually need slvl 9 BoS + 29% IAS to hit 8 frames with a Berzerker Axe. Slvl 15 BoS + 20% IAS works as well. For the 'Black' Scourge, you need slvl 9 BoS + 15% IAS (the 'Black' runeword already provides the 15% IAS you need, though).
Tiger Strike: Will be modifying finisher, either your Dragon Tail, Dragon Talon or your normal attack. Considering the low physical damage of your weapon of choice, this can be more useful when you think you are about to kill your prey with a real last hit or when you need to recharge life or mana through the use of Cobra Strike. Having a cruel colossus blade of evisceration on weapon switch may also be useful to finishing off big targets.
Note: Tiger Strike too is not a crucial skill to this build.
Cobra Strike: has enormous Life Leach (Mana Leach as well with two charge ups). More points in this skill equals more LL and ML, but more importantly more Attack Rating. On far too many of my assassins, I have died because I couldn't charge up my Cobra Strike because I couldn't hit with it. This skill and the fact that you cannot use Claw Mastery for this build are probably why you most need that Blessed Aim Mercenary.
Dragon Flight: At high levels has an enormous damage bonus, but it hits only a single target and has a casting delay. Its biggest bonus is a limited teleport ability when caught in a pack or to cross obstacles with the Shadow Master trick.
Venom: is a great "Aura" to use before you begin a fight. This is not an important part of this build, it may be helpful in v 1.10 if Blizzard fixes Poison. If you want to try it, You should Poison your enemies from a distance. Also, if you are using Venom, you aren't using Burst of Speed (which will drastically increase both your walking speed and Attack Rate), thus you will want to infect as many creatures with Venom as possible (emphasis on Pierce and Explosions) then start using Burst of Speed. Then use Crushing Blow and other Melee/Elemental attacks in this build to kill while you are still doing what is really timed damage from Venom. Since this build emphasizes plus skills much like a Sorceress or Necromancer, you will have a very high level Venom if you max this skill. Adding a poison charm or two to change your timer to the correct speed is very important. See the Venom Strategy Guide in the Strategy Compendium for a more comprehensive guide to using this skill, even though it says it is Player vs. Player it has an entire section on Player vs. Monster. See http://www.diabloii.net/strategy/x-...pvp-xenotip.php
Shadow Master: Purely a meat shield in this build. More points are really only more hit points. All traps and Cloak of Shadows the Master will lay will be half the level you have in Shadow Master skill. You will have a lot of plus skills in this build and if you want to max this guy out so that he will be laying heavy duty traps, its your choice. Often big Venom users that have lots of plus Assassin skills or Shadow Tree Skills enjoy a Master that can lay traps that can do damage. Personally, I figure he's just a meat shield and thus he can always be recast, so go with base points and let your plus skills boost his life.
Cloak of Shadows: Especially if you decide to use a Defiance or Might Mercenary as opposed to a Blessed Aim Mercenary, you may want this skill to enhance your attack rating.
Blade Fury: may get a substantial increase from version 1.10. Its rumored that this skill will pass on elemental damage and also Venom damage. If this occurs then this build will almost surely want to make use of the skill. Venom would be a great opening round attack, initially poisoning the enemy (letting that damage continue to occur during the entire fight) and then quickly casting Burst of Speed, allowing you faster Blade Fury attack speed. This would allow you to use nasty Crushing Blow from a distance in one weapon setup. Very nice for the Strong Lightning Enchanted Bosses, which you aren't going to want to get on top of. Then as you get on top of the enemy, you would quit using Blade Fury and start using Blade Shield and Phoenix Strike. Points in this may or may not be important, depending on the formula for damage on Blades, currently Blade Fury carries no mods from your equipment and is worthless.
Claw Mastery: You will have a point in this as a prerequisite. If you do use Claws on weapon switch you will get some bonus and the Deadly Strike bug. But with this build you probably won't have the points to add more to this skill unless you are planning on using this as a weapon switch. Maxing this may be very helpful if you actually are going to attack with your Claws.
Double Claw: Just as above this build doesn't normally use claws because of the small range it grants to blade shield. However in purely attacking a boss, claws can be effective since if you are hitting a single target, they are also automatically within your Blade Shield range. If you aren't worried about dealing with crowds or more than one or two enemies at a time, you may want to use Claw Mastery and Double Claw as a finisher. Maxing this may be helpful if you want to use this as a finisher.
Mind Blast: Not heavily used in this build. Might be a good escape skill. There is also a bug that allows converted creatures that return to being evil with only 1 hitpoint.
Psychic Hammer: Not heavily used in this build.
Death Sentry: One point in Death Sentry can be helpful in leveling and to finish off whittled down creatures. Death Sentry allows the trap to explode for an enormous amount of damage with a Corpse Explosion when a creature comes near it. The lightning damage of the trap goes up with each additional point, but most of the damage is from the Corpse Explosion damage. Also Death Sentry has a number of prerequisites so try to pick it up on an item. Corpse Explosion is a good skill for when you have a lot of creatures on top of you closely packed because of the massive damage it can do.
Note: Someone has said that at level 10 you get a larger range of damage from your Corpse Explosion on Death Sentry. I haven't personally confirmed this.
Other Traps: Some players like to use traps for additional damage and to stun opponents. Maxing one of these might be worth investment since they will continue to fire without a lot of attention from you and you will be using a lot of plus skill items to up the trap damage. The Blender build only requires a few skills to be effective, so it gives you a lot of choices to build your character in whatever way you'd like.
By: LexTalionis
Major Input from: BoneScorpion, Syl_Aran, and Raziel
I reformated it a bit to make it readable.
****
Navigation
- Introduction
- What is Crushing Blow
- Why Hit Freezes Target
- Skill Allocation
- Mercenary Selection
- Equipment Selection
- Equip. for Blender Asn
- Skills in Gameplay
Introduction
Blender Assassins are called this because they use a Blade Shield that whirls around them to constantly hit targets near them with Hit Freezes Target and Crushing Blow. Low level creatures in comparison to your character will simply shatter, regardless of hit points. A Shatter death is an instant kill. Blenders are most trying to get this shatter effect which can do incredible amounts of damage very quickly. Freeze will keep those creatures that are near you from being able to hit you. Even if the creatures don't shatter a constant beating from Blade Shield, which will always hit targets within the range, with 100% Crushing Blow will very quickly whittle away at monsters hit points since Crushing Blow reduces a creatures hit points by a percentage (See Formula Below) of the hit points they have left. The more life points that a creature has the more effective Crushing Blow becomes. Blenders still have to find a way to take away those last few life points of creatures being attacked. This can be done through a weapon switch or to by the use of a high level Phoenix Strike and with the help of Tiger Strike and Dragon Tail.
What is Crushing Blow?
Crushing Blow D2C: In Diablo II, Crushing Blow was enormously powerful, since it had the listed % chance of reducing a monster's current hit points by 50%. You could hit multiple times with this and kill quickly while doing very low damage. For example hitting for 1 damage on a 100 hps monster, but with Crushing Blow the monster's hps would be 100 > 49 > 24 > 12, in just 3 hits, rather than 97, if you had no Crushing. It only worked on normal monsters, not on bosses or other characters, and didn't work with ranged attacks at all.
Expansion and v1.08+ D2:Crushing Blow works with all attacks and on all targets, but the reduction in hps is much less than it was in D2. The following lists the actual percent hps removed. This is from a monster's current hps, not it's maximum, so you'll notice big drops on full hps monsters and very little on ones that are low.
Normal monster: 1/4 Melee, 1/8 Ranged Attack. Other: 1/10 Melee, 1/20 Ranged Attack.
"Other" includes all types of boss monsters as well as other players and their hirelings. This doesn't sound like much, but if Izzy has 100,000 hps, taking off 1/20th with your bow would be worth 5,000 hps.
Crushing Blow is best used with a high percentage, and when hitting very fast and for low damage it makes a big difference.
Why Hit Freezes Target?
Not only does it freeze creatures when it automatically hits creatures within your Blade Shield range, but it also gives you a chance to Shatter the creature right there. Player level vs. creature level is very important.
Hit Freezes Target Formula: The chance of freezing is 50 + (AL + (B*4) - DL) * 5 AL = attacker level, DL = defender level, B = freeze bonus from item (default is 1) if it's ranged, the AL has a -6 penalty. If it's ranged, the chance is divided by 3 freeze length = (chance - roll) * 2 + 25 frames with a minimum length of 25 frames (1 second) and a maximum length of 250 frames (10 seconds). Thanks to IceWraith
There is a level-based comparison rule in place that greatly diminishes the applicability of many Blade Shield friendly mods. Some of the mods impacted are: Hit Slows Target, Hit Freezes Target, Hit Blinds Target. From my experience, the only things where "What % you see is what you got" really are Knockback (behaves oddly), Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike and Hit Causes Monster To Flee. This means if you're not at least about 5 levels less or higher than your target monster, certain mods will basically not work, i.e., slows target. It makes weapons like the Minotaur, which would be a godly axe, totally suck.
Skill Allocation
9 Burst of Speed; See Below, figure out what level of BoS you need to hit your fastest breakpoint with your weapon of choice
20 Phoenix Strike
10 Blade Shield (Can Max if you are using some Double Strike)
20 Dragon Tail'
1 Tiger Strike (optional)
1 Venom (Optional)
1 Shadow Master
1 Dragon Flight (Extra Points)
1 Claw Mastery (Prerequisite, Not currently used)
1 Dragon Claw (Prerequisite, Not currently used)
87 Points Allocated so far
Note: You will get bonuses from + skill items you are wearing and take that into account so you do not waste skill points.
Note: Both Blade Shield and Blade Fury are supposed to be drastically changed in version 1.10, so save points in case you are required to put more points into those skills to keep them effective.
Mercenary Selection
Blessed Aim Mercenary (360% AR Bonus at level 20)
Interesting pick since almost no build, except the melee Necromancer or Sorceress, choose this Mercenary. But you have plenty of reasons for this choice.
1. You don't have a Mastery to improve attack rating. Claws don't work with a blender build because of limited range.
2. While some of your attacks (Phoenix Strike, Tiger Strike, Dragon Tail) will have an attack bonus many will have none or almost no attack bonus (Normal Attack, Cobra Strike, Dragon Flight).
3. Your equipment cannot really adequately fix this problem without Eth bug which may be fixed in 1.10.
4. Hitting with Cobra Strike for charges and actually landing a finisher to release the charges is what actually keeps you alive.
Defiance Mercenary
1. You will be close to the action so a higher defense rating can't hurt
2. This mercenary also tends to stay alive longer because he gets hit less too.
3. He does nothing to help your killing speed though
Might Mercenary
1. Added damage from this is nice, but doesn't aid much in the Crushing Blow damage
2. Does help for finishing blow, since Crushing Blow reduces by percentage it can never actually do the last point of kill damage
Holy Freeze Mercenary
1. Slows down how often you are hit
2. Slows down creatures
3. Chill from Blade Shield should do the same thing to everything but Cold Immunes
4. Phoenix Strike can also chill enemies
5. Burst of Speed already increases your R/W speed a lot
Statistics Allocation
Strength -- What you need for equipment (Possibly even taking into account tweaking for pluses from items
Dexterity -- What you need for max block (Blessed Aim will take care of the rest, but this will add to Kick Damage)
Vitality -- Everything else (3 life points for every point of vitality), important to this build because, blenders tend to be close to the action
Energy -- Base, unless you are attempting the Faster Cast Rate Build (See Below)
Equipment Selection
Extra Mods to Look For
Hit Freezes Target: This mod gives you a chance to Shatter your enemy which can be the most damage in the game. Chilling nearby creatures when they are hit by your Blade Shield also will keep them from hitting you.
Amplify Damage: Currently the Hell Physical Damage Penalty is in effect and, I believe affects Crushing Blow in Hell. This is can be rectified by the use of Atma's Scarab or other item that has % chance to cast Amplify Damage when you hit. Between your very fast attack speed and your Blade Shield you will be hitting very often and will be able to set off Amplify Damage a lot with this build. This will help your leach, your mercenary's leach, as well as your damage. The Physical Damage Penalty is rumored to be eliminated in version 1.10.
Plus skill Items especially plus Martial Arts Items help this build. Final Damage is done thru Phoenix Strike, Tiger Strike, and Dragon Tail finisher, all dependant on skill level for damage.
Staying alive when in close proximity to melee creatures when using your blade shield makes
Physical Damage Reduction
Resist All is important
Plus Vitality/Life Mods
Knockback ???-- Good and bad - Good because it can keep a crowd off you especially usefully with a quickly pulsing Blade Shield. Bad because it will also push creatures outside the range of your Blade Shield and weapons. (My recommendation is to try your setup both ways and see which works best with your style of play)
Hit Slows Target, this mod may currently be bugged however.
IAS-- while you don't need a lot, you may need some extra IAS to hit your last break point for your weapon speed. Some weapons need a lot of IAS to reach last breakpoints
Deadly Strike A % chance of dealing Double Damage. The damage is doubled after all other bonuses Strength or Dexterity modifying weapon damage, this excludes elemental damage. Will never stack with Asn/Barb/Ama Critical Strike bonuses (You won't be getting a critical strike bonus since you won't be using claw mastery). It rolls for 2x damage for one, then the other if it fails. So having this increases double damage chances, but never allows 4x damage. This will double the normal damage of Blade Shield and help to do more damage.
Defense: Being hit less is very important to a Blender. You will be right on top of your enemies, so being hit less is very important. Often this should be your guide when picking a shield or armor.
To a much lesser extent:
Pierce -- Currently not important, but if Blade Fury is improved in version 1.10 then Pierce may allow Blades to pass through to multiple targets
Life Leech isn't that important for two reasons
- You don't do that much physical damage, since you can't leech off of crushing blow damage
- Cobra Strike is such a good source of life leech
Enhanced Damage isn't all that important for the weapon. You will only really be leaching with Cobra Strike on the finishing moves, which will be either Dragon Tail or your normal attack (another reason for the Blessed Aim Mercenary).
Hit Causes Monster to Flee is a curse and will override Amplify Damage, which you absolutely do not want unless you want to spend most of your time running after fleeing cows.
Equipment for the Blender Assassin
Helms
Guillaume's Face: Winged Helm (Great Helm)187-245 Defense, 40 Durability,115 Strength Required, Clvl Req: 34, Item Level: 41 +120% Enhanced Defense, +30% Faster Hit Recovery, +35% Chance of Crushing Blow, +15% Chance of Deadly Strike, +15 Strength
Note: The only way you can get away without using this is with using some sort of really expensive Robo weapon.
Harlequin Crest: Shako +2 to All Skills,+1.5 Life per clvl. +1.5 Mana per clvl, +50% Better chance of getting magical item, Physical Damage Taken Reduced by 10%, +2 to Strength,+2 to Dexterity,+2 to Vitality,+2 to Energy
Assassin Circlet with +2 Assassin Skills or +3 Martial Arts Skills
Amulets
Atma's Scarab: (20% bonus to Attack Rating and 5% chance to cast Amplify Damage)
Highlord's Wrath: Deadly strike and plus one to all skills
Mara's Kaelidescope:
Assassin Amulet with Plus 2 Assassin Skills or Plus 3 Martial Arts, Plus Life or Vitality
Armor
Arkaine's Valor: Balrog Skin, (Splint Mail), 1027-1449 Defense, 30 Durability, 165 Strength Required, Medium Armor, Item Level: 85, Clvl req: 85 +150-180% Enhanced Defense, 30% Faster Hit Recovery, +1-2 to All Skills, -10-15 Physical Damage, +0.5 Vitality per Clvl
Shaft Stop (PDR)
Duriel's Shell (Resists and Cannot Be Frozen)
Ice Blink 154-172 Defense, 30 Durability, 51 Strength Required, Medium Armor, Item Level: 30, Clvl Req: 22, Hit Freezes Target, +30% to Cold Resist, +4 Light Radius, Magical Damage Taken Reduced by 1, +70-80% Enhanced Defense
Rattlecage 328-335 Defense, 55 Durability, 70 Strength Required, Medium Armor, Item Level: 39, Clvl Req: 29, Hit Causes Monster to Flee 40%, +45 to Attack Rating, +25% Chance of Crushing Blow, +200 Defense
Fast ReCast of Blade Shield Build:
Skin of the Vipermagi: Serpent skin Armor, 246-279 Defense, 24 Durability, 43 Strength Required, Light Armor , Item Level: 37, Clvl req: 29 +120% Enhanced Defense, +20-35% Resistance To All, 30% Faster Cast Rate, Magical Damage Taken Reduced by 9-13, +1 to All Skills
Que-Hegue’s Wisdom - Honorable Mention
MageFists
Silkweave Boots
Stones of Jordan
Shields
Stormshield: (Kite Shield), 94-114 +3.75*Clvl Defense, Indestructible, 156 Strength Required, Item Level: 77, Clvl req: 73 +3.75 Defense per Clvl, Physical Damage Reduced by 35%, +30 to Strength, Indestructible, 35% Faster Blocking, +25% to Lightning Resist, +25 Chance to Block %, +60% to Cold Resist, Attacker Takes 10 Lightning Damage Listed-Blocking
al: 77%, Am/As/B: 72% D/S/N: 67%, Weight: LightWhistan’s Shield: 175% Enhanced Defense: Fastest Blocking, +55 to block, Half Freeze Duration, +5 to Light Radius, Note: this is a set item with Guilliume’s Face
Gloves
Blood Gloves: Magical Heavy, or Sharkskin Gloves (Excep),,Vampirebone Gloves (Elite), + Jewel (any), + Nef Rune (#4), + Perfect Ruby Blood Gloves, Preset Mods:1-3% Life Leech, +10-20 Hit Points, 5-10% Crushing Blow
Venom Grip: Demonhide Gloves 81-118 Defense, 14 Durability, 20 Strength Required, Item level: 37, Clvl req: 29, +30% to Poison Resist, +5% to Maximum Poison Resist, Adds 59 Poison Damage Over 4 Seconds, +5% Chance of Crushing Blow, +5% Life Stolen Per Hit, +15-25 Defense, +130-160% Enhanced Defense
Hellmouth Gauntlets: No help for the build but fun to see a volley of meteors and firestorms around your Assassin.
Hit Power Gloves Magical Chain Gloves, or Heavy Bracers (Excep), or Vambraces (Elite), + Jewel (any), + Ort Rune (#9), + Perfect Sapphire Hitpower Gloves Preset Mods: 5% chance of casting Slvl 4 Frost Nova when hit, +3-7 Damage to Attacker, Knockback
Biggest Mod is +2 Martial Arts Skills (affects Phoenix Strike, Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike (attack rating bonus included), and Dragon Tail) IAS may be another mod you'll need to hit your last breakpoint for your weapon
Belt
String of Ears (PDR, Life Leech)
Razortail (Pierce)
Trang's Belt (+75-100 Defense, +30 Stamina, +5 Replenish Life (0.488 Life Per Second), +66 Life, Cannot be Frozen , -40% Item Requirements, +25-50 Mana
Rings
Assassin Rings + Assassin skills, plus life,
Raven Frost (Cannot Be Frozen), Cold Damage, Attack Rating
Bul Kathos Wedding Ring + Skills and Life Leech
Boots
Goblin Toe: 25% Crushing Blow, 20% Faster R/W
Gore Rider: 15% Deadly Blow, 15% Crushing Blow, 30% Faster R/W
Note: Crushing Blow is a very rare mod, but Hit Freezes target is even more rare, IceBlink is the only non-weapon I could find. Woestave is one of the few weapons with Hit Freezes Target.
Note on Ophiums Call Set: If you are not going to use stormshield or a Robo weapon and want to run with the Blender Build, you might want to use Ophiums Call set. It is just a shield, helm, belt, and gloves. The shield may be the second best shield for the build because of its enormously high blocking percentage. While ideally you might want to get the extra 10% Crushing Blow from BLOOD crafted gloves, the Magnus Skins have dual leach and 20 IAS, and no belt really effects this build too much. The set bonuses aren't bad: Partial Set Bonuses: ! Wearing any two items: +35 Life ! Wearing any three items: Attacker takes 5 damage Full Set Bonus: +50 Life, +10 Dexterity, +20 Strength, +100 Defense, +15% Resistance To All, +80% Better chance of getting magical item.
Note Low Level Items:
Clegclaw's Pincers: Knockback and hit slows -- Set has +35% Crushing Blow on it
STRENGTH Runeword AmTir has 25% Crushing Blow
Magic Find Setup
Skulder's Ire
Harlequin Crest Shako
Goldwrap
War Travelers/Gore Rider/Goblin Toe
Chance Guards or better yet MF CB gloves
Atma's Scarab Amulet 20% bonus to Attack Rating and 5% chance to cast Amplify Damage
MF Amulet and Rings with plus Martial Arts Skills
Tancred’s Amulet and Boots? - +78% Magic Find when both worn
-- Normally good for Magic Find, but since you can usually get MF and other better + skill mods on an Amulet and resists on the boots
Weapon Switch : Gull Dagger & Rhyme Shield or MF Claws
Best Weapon:
Theories for Weapons:
1. Weapon and Shield
2. Two-Handed Weapon with a lot of Range
3. Faster Cast Rate Weapons
4. Huffing Weapons
5. Magic Find Weapons
6. Robo-Weapons
7. High Damage Weapons
8. Ranged Weapons
9. Claws
For Theory 1: Weapon and Shield
BLACK: ThulIoNef, Thul (10) + Io (16) + Nef (4), Clubs, hammers, maces only. Clvl Required: 35, v1.09: Realm & Open, +120% Enhanced Damage, +200 to Attack Rating, +3-14 Cold Damage (3 sec), 15% Increased Attack Speed, Knockback, 12 Level 4 Corpse Explosion Charges, 40% Chance of Crushing Blow, -2 Magic Damage, +10 to Vitality
Note: BLACK Runeword Scourge, not terribly expensive. And is considered the item to use for this build right now. BLACK Runeword may only be placed in Maces, Clubs, etc. The Runeword has tremendous mods for this build.
Robo-Berserker Axe: 24-71 Damage Average ( 47.5), 26 Durability, Strength Req: 138, Dexterity Req: 59, Item Level: 71, Clvl Req: 63 D2 Sockets: 3, D2X Sockets: 1-6, Range: 3, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Inv Size: 2x3, Weapon Speed: 0, Swing Speed: Fast: Am/As/B/D/N/P, Normal: S
Robo-Phase Blade: 31-35 Damage Average (33), 0 Dur (Indes), Strength Req: 25, Dexterity Req: 136, Item Level: 63, Clvl Req: 55 Sockets: 1-6, Range: 2, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Inv Size: 2x3, Weapon Speed: -30, Swing Speed: V Fast: Am/As/B/D/N/P/S,
Robo-Scourge: 3-80 1H Damage Average (38.5), 65 Durability, Strength Req: 125, Dexterity Req: 77, Item Level: 67, Clvl Req: 59 Sockets: 1-5, Range: 3, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Inv Size: 1x3, 150% Damage to Undead Weapon Speed: -1 0, Swing Speed: Very Fast: As/P, Fast: Am/B/D/N/S
Note: Either may be very good for a one handed Robo-Blender Weapon. Noting that Phase Blade is indestructible, but also only range 2.
Stormshield
Whistan’s Shield
Note: This setup basically requires Iceblink Armor to get Hit Freezes Target Mod. Shattering while cool, is not terribly effective unless you are extremely higher level than the creatures you are attacking.
Note: Banar's Star & Tiamat's Rebuke-- Maybe much better after v1.10 if Elemental Damage can be passed on thru Blade Shield and Blade Fury
For Theory 2: Two-Handed Weapon with a lot of Range
1. Hone Sundan: Yari, (75-90) - (156-180) Damage, 28 Durability, 101 Strength Required, No Dexterity Required, Socketed (3) , Item Level: 45 , Clvl Req: 37 +160-200% Enhanced Damage, Adds 20-40 damage, 45% Chance of Crushing Blow, Repairs 1 durability in 10 seconds Range: 5, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Weapon Speed: 0, Swing Speed:, Normal: Am/B, Slow: D/N/P/S/, Very Slow: As
Note: Yari has three open sockets - See Robo for socketing advice.
2. The Cranium Basher: Thunder Maul, (Great Maul) (122-135) - (563-635) Damage, Indestructible, 253 Strength Required, No Dexterity Required, Item Level: 91, Clvl Req: 87 +200-240% Enhanced Damage, Adds 20 Min & Max damage, +25 to Strength, 20% Increased Attack Speed, Indestructible, All Resistances +25, 75% Chance of Crushing Blow, 4% Chance to cast level 1 Amplify Damage on striking, Range: 3, Damage Bonus: 110 Strength, Weapon Speed: 20, Swing Speed: Fast: D, Normal: Rest (Assassin 2.5 attacks per second possible, enormous IAS necessary)
Note: I almost didn’t list this item under this theory, but with both Amplify Damage and Crushing Blow on the same item, this item gets mention, even though it only has a range of 3. Cranium Basher also requires an enormous amount of IAS to get to 2.5 attacks per second.
3. Woestave: Halberd, (15-18) - (55-64) Damage, 55 Durability, 75 Strength Required, 47 Dexterity Required, Item Level: 38, Clvl Req: 28 +20-40% Enhanced Damage, -3 to Light Radius, 50% Chance of Open Wounds, -50 to Targets Defense Per Hit, Hit Blinds Target, Slows Target by 50%, Prevents Monster Healing, Hit Freezes Target Range: 5, Weapon Speed: 0, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Swing Speed:Fast: D/S, Normal: As/B/N/P, Slow: Am
Note: While Woestave has no inherent Crushing Blow, it does have many very good modifications for this build. It has high range and hit freezes target. It also has high range. This may be a good item. But look to make sure that Hit Blinds Target isn’t overwriting your Amplify Damage.
4. Robo-Giant Thresher 40-114 Damage: Average (74), 55 Durability, Strength Req: 188, Dexterity Req: 140, Item Level: 76, Clvl Req: 68 Sockets: 1-6, Range: 5, Damage Bonus: 100 Strength, Inv Size: 2x4 Weapon Speed: -10, Swing Speed: Very Fast: D, Fast: N/P/S, Normal: Am/As/B (2.5 attacks per second)
Note: This has six sockets, so you could get all your Crushing Blow from this weapon in theory. See Robo-Weapons.
For Theory 3. Faster Cast Rate Weapons
1. Wizard Spike
2. Suicide Branch
3. Claws with Faster Cast Rate on them
4. Lidless Eye Shield
For Theory 4. Huffing Weapons
Often used by Barbarians who use echoing weapons on weapon switch in order to have the greatest possible battle orders and to use Find Item and Find Potion. Burst of Speed, Venom, Cloak of Shadows and Shadow Master all benefit from the level of the skill at the time it was cast. This makes having claws with +3 to Shadow Skills (even better if it also has + to one of those individual skills) on weapon switch more effective.
Note: It might be possible in this build to have claws with + Skill that might have up to three sockets each or a total of six sockets.
For Theory 5. Magic Find Weapons
1. Gull Dagger
2. Rhyme Shield
3. Pair of MF Claws
4. Ali Baba Sword
For Theory 6. Robo-Weapons
Robo-Weapons, What should be Socketed?
1. Ber -- 20% Crushing Blow
2. Eth -- Currently the Eth bug makes attack rating useless (hopefully this will be fixed in 1.10)
3. Jah -- ITD (attack rating can be a problem)
4. Lo -- 20% Chance of Deadly Strike (Doubles Damage--What it doubles for Blade Shield Damage is in question)
5. Zod -- Indestructible (Blade Shield seems to drain Durability)
6. Shael -- 20% IAS (Possibly very important for Werewolves)
Note: Cham -- 32% Chance of Hit Freezes Target (It appears that this doesn't work as it should and just give cold damage in weapons, which will not be passed on through blade shield)
For Theory 7. High Damage Weapons
1. Cruel Colossus Blade of Evisceration
2. The Cranium Basher: Thunder Maul, (Great Maul) (122-135) - (563-635) Damage, Indestructible, 253 Strength Required, No Dexterity Required, Item Level: 91, Clvl Req: 87 +200-240% Enhanced Damage, Adds 20 Min & Max damage, +25 to Strength, 20% Increased Attack Speed, Indestructible, All Resistances +25, 75% Chance of Crushing Blow, 4% Chance to cast level 1 Amplify Damage on striking, Range: 3, Damage Bonus: 110 Strength, Weapon Speed: 20, Swing Speed: Fast: D, Normal: Rest (Assassin 2.5 attacks per second possible, enormous IAS necessary)
3. Schaefer's Hammer: Legendary Mallet, (War Hammer) (102-117) - (124-142) Damage +2* Clvl Max Damage, Indestructible, 189 Strength Required, No Dexterity Required, Item Level: 83 Clvl Req: 79 +100-130% Enhanced Damage, +2 Max damage per Clvl, +16 to Attack Rating per Clvl, Adds 50-200 lightning damage, +50 to Life, Lightning Resist +75%, 20% Increased Attack Speed, Indestructible, +1 to Light Radius, 20% Chance to cast level 10 Static Field on striking, Range: 1, Damage Bonus: 110 Strength, Weapon Speed: 20, Swing Speed: Fast: As/P, Normal: Am/B/D/N/S
4. High Damage Claws
Note: All these weapons should be used to deliver the finishers and release charges. These would want to use normal attack instead of a kick to deliver final damage. These would benefit highly from Tiger Strike charges and would be a good source to use Cobra Charges to leech.
Note: Special for Schaefer’s Hammer, Its range is 1, but it does give off Static Field charges when it hits. Which can be released by the Blade Shield.
Note: Special for Claws: This build may want to use Claw Mastery and Dragon Claw may add up to quite a lot of damage especially when coupled with Tiger Strike.
For Theory 8. Ranged Weapons
Hydra or Crusader Bow 6 Socket Bow with 6 Perfect Emeralds
Kuko Shakaku
Demon Machine
Note: All these items would benefit from added Pierce, probably from the Razortail Belt. Pierce allows you to hit more than one target with a single arrow.
Note: Both Kuko and Demon Machine have splash damage from explosive bolts they fire. This splash damage also carries the Crushing Blow of the character. Splash Damage can hit the same target more than once.
For Theory 9. Claws
Scissors Suwannah Three Sockets with nice mods with Ber Runes
Cruel Scissors Suwaanhah with good mods (MA or Venom)
Bartocs +6 to Martial Arts
Note: Each claw hits separately so CB is only effective for the claw that actually hits not the characters total Crushing Blow Chance.
Note: Disadvantages: Range of Blade Shield only one, at least for 1.09;
Skills in Gameplay
Blade Shield: This is the key to the Blender Build. Damage from this skill is negligible. All chances to cast when you hit do apply to blade shield, which is why this is such a nice skill. It can attack multiple creatures at the same time. Currently the range is not the listed 3.3 yards, but the attack range of your weapons. This precludes you from using claws (range 1) in this build. Just like the weapon affecting the range of Blade Shield, your weapon's Attack Speed will also affect your Blade Shields rate of pulse, or how often it will automatically hit creatures within its range. This is obviously very important to a Blender build so absolutely hitting the best break point for your weapon is important. Note: Blade Shield currently very quickly runs through your weapons durability. Putting points in Blade Shield will make it last longer, cost more to cast, and do slightly more base damage. For version 1.09, putting more than one point (remember that you will have some plus skill items as well) in Blade Shield will only gain you more time (at level 1 only 20 seconds) before you have to recast your Blade Shield, but in future versions this may be very important. Level 20 Blade Shield does 110-141 Damage but cost 65 mana to cast and will last for 96 seconds. Level 1 Blade Shield 1-30 Damage but costs 27 mana for only 20 seconds.
Blade Shield does appear to pulse every time you recast it. Thus you with Faster Cast Rate gear you can pulse Blade Shield very rapidly. This means that Crushing Blow can be delivered to every creature within Blade Shield range with each recast. This will be much quicker than any weapon speed that you can achieve. But remember that the current build has low mana pool. Recasting Blade Shield, much like recasting high level Lightning Nova can be very mana intensive.
Elemental Damage from items is not passed on when Blade Shield hits, at least in v 1.09. Blade Shield pulse speed may not vary upon weapon speed. Confirmation would be helpful.
Phoenix Strike: Even though this build is based around the Blender and Crushing Blow, this is your main attack. It can attack multiple creatures at a time, just like your Blade Shield. It has an Attack Rating Booster built into it as well. This attack allows you to use the appropriate finisher for each elementally immune set of monsters. Remember quite often this will be what does the majority of damage other than Crushing Blow.
Dragon Tail: I use this as my primary finisher, because I’m almost always hitting more than one target with this attack. Its a kick damage to target is calculated with a formula. All Kick damage is determined by the following formula: minimum damage = (STR+DEX-20)/4 maximum damage = (STR+DEX-20)/3 example: If your STRENGTH is 150, and your DEXTERITY is 150, then your base kick damage would be 70-93. +%Enhanced Damage on weapons does not affect kick damage. +%Enhanced Damage on non-weapons is added as if it were an additional +strength in the equation. Plus Additional Damage does not affect Kick Damage. Basically, the more Strength and Dexterity you have the more damage you will do. Realize the dexterity you are using to obtain max Shield Block is also extra Dexterity for extra damage in Dragon Tail. Often this is less than your normal attack damage; check this, if it is you will want to be able to switch to normal attack for single targets. Dragon Tail's real beauty is that is has splash damage. (Supposedly additional fire charms and fire damage will increase this radius, but I haven't tested this.) Splash Damage is fire damage calculated as a percentage of the physical damage done by your kick to all those within the radius of your splash. Additional Tiger Strike Damage does seem to increase both the damage and radius of this blast. As a bonus you can hurt PI's with the splash damage from your Dragon Tail attack. The splash damage will not carry Crushing Blow damage, like the Crushing Blow damage is carried over the splash of Demon Machine Crossbow. This will probably be your best finisher most of the time especially when fighting multiple foes. Note that especially when you are leveling this can eat up your mana, as you get to higher levels you will have a larger mana pool and effective use of Cobra Strike will help to keep your Mana Pool full. Also remember that your splash can effect PI's but the kick must hit a non-PI creature.
Note: Some People don't find Dragon Tail necessary or even all that useful.
Dragon Talon: This is another finishing move worth mention, since this is an enormously quick series of three kicks. The damage from the kicks won't be that much and only the first kick will deliver the charges from your other skills. But its a great way to get three very fast Crushing Blow hits onto a single target.
Normal Attack: Many characters simply use normal attack to deliver the finishing move. Because of Kick damage calculation does not take into account many weapon bonuses.
Burst of Speed: This is your primary "Aura." It allows you the most freedom to actually hit your weapons top break point for attack speed. It also grants you extra run/walk speed. Of the most importance is having enough points in this skill to hit your last weapon speed breakpoint. Again see here. BTW, the German calc uses the client-side speeds (what you see on your monitor), which are faster than server-side speeds (what battle.net sees). However, the server automatically takes priority over the client, so you're actually slower than what you see. So, going by server-side speeds, you actually need slvl 9 BoS + 29% IAS to hit 8 frames with a Berzerker Axe. Slvl 15 BoS + 20% IAS works as well. For the 'Black' Scourge, you need slvl 9 BoS + 15% IAS (the 'Black' runeword already provides the 15% IAS you need, though).
Tiger Strike: Will be modifying finisher, either your Dragon Tail, Dragon Talon or your normal attack. Considering the low physical damage of your weapon of choice, this can be more useful when you think you are about to kill your prey with a real last hit or when you need to recharge life or mana through the use of Cobra Strike. Having a cruel colossus blade of evisceration on weapon switch may also be useful to finishing off big targets.
Note: Tiger Strike too is not a crucial skill to this build.
Cobra Strike: has enormous Life Leach (Mana Leach as well with two charge ups). More points in this skill equals more LL and ML, but more importantly more Attack Rating. On far too many of my assassins, I have died because I couldn't charge up my Cobra Strike because I couldn't hit with it. This skill and the fact that you cannot use Claw Mastery for this build are probably why you most need that Blessed Aim Mercenary.
Dragon Flight: At high levels has an enormous damage bonus, but it hits only a single target and has a casting delay. Its biggest bonus is a limited teleport ability when caught in a pack or to cross obstacles with the Shadow Master trick.
Venom: is a great "Aura" to use before you begin a fight. This is not an important part of this build, it may be helpful in v 1.10 if Blizzard fixes Poison. If you want to try it, You should Poison your enemies from a distance. Also, if you are using Venom, you aren't using Burst of Speed (which will drastically increase both your walking speed and Attack Rate), thus you will want to infect as many creatures with Venom as possible (emphasis on Pierce and Explosions) then start using Burst of Speed. Then use Crushing Blow and other Melee/Elemental attacks in this build to kill while you are still doing what is really timed damage from Venom. Since this build emphasizes plus skills much like a Sorceress or Necromancer, you will have a very high level Venom if you max this skill. Adding a poison charm or two to change your timer to the correct speed is very important. See the Venom Strategy Guide in the Strategy Compendium for a more comprehensive guide to using this skill, even though it says it is Player vs. Player it has an entire section on Player vs. Monster. See http://www.diabloii.net/strategy/x-...pvp-xenotip.php
Shadow Master: Purely a meat shield in this build. More points are really only more hit points. All traps and Cloak of Shadows the Master will lay will be half the level you have in Shadow Master skill. You will have a lot of plus skills in this build and if you want to max this guy out so that he will be laying heavy duty traps, its your choice. Often big Venom users that have lots of plus Assassin skills or Shadow Tree Skills enjoy a Master that can lay traps that can do damage. Personally, I figure he's just a meat shield and thus he can always be recast, so go with base points and let your plus skills boost his life.
Cloak of Shadows: Especially if you decide to use a Defiance or Might Mercenary as opposed to a Blessed Aim Mercenary, you may want this skill to enhance your attack rating.
Blade Fury: may get a substantial increase from version 1.10. Its rumored that this skill will pass on elemental damage and also Venom damage. If this occurs then this build will almost surely want to make use of the skill. Venom would be a great opening round attack, initially poisoning the enemy (letting that damage continue to occur during the entire fight) and then quickly casting Burst of Speed, allowing you faster Blade Fury attack speed. This would allow you to use nasty Crushing Blow from a distance in one weapon setup. Very nice for the Strong Lightning Enchanted Bosses, which you aren't going to want to get on top of. Then as you get on top of the enemy, you would quit using Blade Fury and start using Blade Shield and Phoenix Strike. Points in this may or may not be important, depending on the formula for damage on Blades, currently Blade Fury carries no mods from your equipment and is worthless.
Claw Mastery: You will have a point in this as a prerequisite. If you do use Claws on weapon switch you will get some bonus and the Deadly Strike bug. But with this build you probably won't have the points to add more to this skill unless you are planning on using this as a weapon switch. Maxing this may be very helpful if you actually are going to attack with your Claws.
Double Claw: Just as above this build doesn't normally use claws because of the small range it grants to blade shield. However in purely attacking a boss, claws can be effective since if you are hitting a single target, they are also automatically within your Blade Shield range. If you aren't worried about dealing with crowds or more than one or two enemies at a time, you may want to use Claw Mastery and Double Claw as a finisher. Maxing this may be helpful if you want to use this as a finisher.
Mind Blast: Not heavily used in this build. Might be a good escape skill. There is also a bug that allows converted creatures that return to being evil with only 1 hitpoint.
Psychic Hammer: Not heavily used in this build.
Death Sentry: One point in Death Sentry can be helpful in leveling and to finish off whittled down creatures. Death Sentry allows the trap to explode for an enormous amount of damage with a Corpse Explosion when a creature comes near it. The lightning damage of the trap goes up with each additional point, but most of the damage is from the Corpse Explosion damage. Also Death Sentry has a number of prerequisites so try to pick it up on an item. Corpse Explosion is a good skill for when you have a lot of creatures on top of you closely packed because of the massive damage it can do.
Note: Someone has said that at level 10 you get a larger range of damage from your Corpse Explosion on Death Sentry. I haven't personally confirmed this.
Other Traps: Some players like to use traps for additional damage and to stun opponents. Maxing one of these might be worth investment since they will continue to fire without a lot of attention from you and you will be using a lot of plus skill items to up the trap damage. The Blender build only requires a few skills to be effective, so it gives you a lot of choices to build your character in whatever way you'd like.
By: LexTalionis
Major Input from: BoneScorpion, Syl_Aran, and Raziel
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