Another 1.11 Kicker and K/T Guide

[JanusJones]

perf guide
much better then janus his thread imo about build etc

Ouch!

But true, methinks. That was my first kicker, and I had fun writing the guide. I used a lot of Jrichard's calculations and his spreadsheet info, but I didn't include it and I learned as I went along. Ilkori, you have your info down pat - very nice! This is definately an expert's guide.

A very merry holiday to all!

 

[Naliworld]

That'll help some. Quite a bit, actually. I'll do some more intensive search later.

How about Baron's Bazaar? It is a very small site, but a forum, and could be viewed as competative. I'd rather not link to the b.net forums (where it is also posted) because of the many "forums down" issues it has been having.

Elly isn't too flexible on this one, unfortunately. I can understand where you're coming from, but if I let this one through, I'd have to allow every competing forum link as well.

 

[ilkori]

Thanks, JJ. If nothing else, your guide did two great things - it made Uber Hunting more accessible to Assassins (mostly through your enthusiasm), and it gave me time to hone my own guide while another one was on the market. Would it be all right if I were to link to your guide for experiences in Uber Hunting?


Nali, understood. No eta for the finished version - I should probably find a point where I stop looking for info to include, and start focusing on paring it down to the essentials. But... I'm not there yet. On the plus side, 99% of what the casual player wants to know is already in here, and probably a whole lot more.


By the way, there's a link to "Things you SHOULD know about Diablo 2 (A player's FAQ by Ernir)", which should be either removed, or retargeted to this link:
http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=d2-gameplay&t=163465&p=1&#post163465

Thanks.

 

[JanusJones]

Please do! I'm flattered, really. Enthusiasm is why I play the game - I actually still enjoy it! Nice work, and I'm always keen to see what comes next.

:xmas10:

 

[k/t]

Omg! Someone named an assassin build after me!

Looks like I have a secret (well, not any longer) admirer.

Blush! :xmas8:

 

[ilkori]

:xmas5:

Actually, I don't know whether your name influenced it or not. My first guide was posted July of '04, and you joined dii.net May '04... but I didn't see your name until quite a bit later. Since we don't know, I guess you could call me an admirer. :jig:

 

[k/t]

I joined in March ^^.

And I never posted in the Assassin forum until a few months ago.

But you're still an admirer!

 

[ViperBoss]

thank you

this guide was great
i am building a kicksin strictly for the ubers, and i will have you know thta i solod
uber lilith and durial tonight with no problems at all
with all the extra points i had, i added a bunch to light sentry, to beef up death sentry a bit more, seemed there wasnt much more i could do as far as melee dmg was concerned
i am missing one crucial piece of equipment
i play on nonladder and am unable to find uped goreriders for the life of me
if ANYONe has uped gores for trade-uswest NL PLEASE whisper me at viper4886
thank you, and this is a great build, most fun character i have ever made

 

[ilkori]

this guide was great
i am building a kicksin strictly for the ubers, and i will have you know thta i solod
uber lilith and durial tonight with no problems at all
with all the extra points i had, i added a bunch to light sentry, to beef up death sentry a bit more, seemed there wasnt much more i could do as far as melee dmg was concerned
i am missing one crucial piece of equipment
i play on nonladder and am unable to find uped goreriders for the life of me
if ANYONe has uped gores for trade-uswest NL PLEASE whisper me at viper4886
thank you, and this is a great build, most fun character i have ever made

Awesome, thanks, and good luck with Trist.

Goreriders are the best, but not necessary. The two metal elite boots are the important parts - and crafts can make up for those if you don't have Gores or Dancers. Blood Craft on an elite boot can be end game gear if you are playing untwinked.

I joined in March ^^.

And I never posted in the Assassin forum until a few months ago.

But you're still an admirer!

Mar? May? Close enough. (I'm Lysdexic)

 

[Bionic]

I have a question in regards to upping the Gores, I have a pair of 177's and was thinking of upgrading them. The question is, will the damage be the same on my 177's compared to some that are 190+? You also mention that % damage to demons does not work on kicks, does that include the Laying of Hands and Chains of Honor? Thats actually what Im using now.

 

[ilkori]

Ahoy! All Up'd Gores (even ethereal ones) have the same damage. The XXX% has to do the the defense, and nothing to do with damage.

Also, no form of +% dmg to demons/undead works including your LoH and CoH. Great gear, but the LoH does next to nothing for the build. Chains is still nice for the resists and other great stuff on it. On another note, the +% demons will help you out a lot if you use Blade Fury with a good weapon.

 

[YouHaveMail]

I've been slowly lvling this char thanks to the death of my 93 MF Sorc.
She's currently at 79 I believe. And I haven't used the kick skills yet because I'm still unsure as to if I want to risk it. The gear would be this..hopefully..

Bartuc's/Stormshield
Glad's Bane
Guillame's
Upped Gores
Gloves??
Jewerly?!
Belt?
With a 14/17 asn torch. and some lifers in inventory, maybe 2 trap skillers.
Any suggestions/upgrades? I'm doing this char for nihl runs basically.

 

[ilkori]

You got to level 79 without kicking? Wow. I'm guessing you had a lot of trapping to get there, right? I'm going to assume so since you mentioned the Trap skillers.

Against Nihl and company, I like having a fairly fast weapon for dishing out CB and damage with Blade Fury (Talon if there are no Vipers). For a Belt, I usually use String (for the DR and MDR), and would definitely choose that since you already have Glad's Bane on. Dracul's is an excellent glove for the OW and Life Tap. Jewelry is mostly adding some of the other goals. Some FCR is really nice on this build, and resists can be hard to do in Hell if you don't use Fade (but it looks like you are). There is always the choice of adding +skills to various parts of your gear.

A couple questions - Pure Lightning on the traps, or did you include Fire Blast?
- What's your switch? You could do Trapping on one set and Kicking/Blade Fury on the other.
- Did I guess anything wrong? The advice changes depending on which way you go with everything.
- Merc/Shadow?


If you want to get a handle on kicking, find a "safe" place in Nightmare to practice. At level 80ish, it'll be harder for them to hit you, and easier for you to hit them. Some good places are Act 5 (except where Souls and OKs spawn), and Act 4 (Except the Chaos Sanct - the mana drain enemies are good practice). The Flayer Jungle is a favorite of mine just because of how thick the little guys come in, and how quick they fall to Death Sentry.

 

[YouHaveMail]

I was thinking of T-God's but then again viper's aren't that bad. What's so good abot blade fury..as a one point wondeR? Never paid attention to it.
I did a lot of e/s/p runs.
With maxed Sentry/CBS/maybe DS not sure..and a lot of points left over.

 

[ilkori]

Blade Fury turns whatever weapon you use into a ranged attack. It's very useful.

TGods would be the other belt option, definitely. You don't happen to need it a whole lot on the way to Nihl, though.

 

[YouHaveMail]

Hmm I'm only at 81 but it looks like this so far...
Bartuc's/Whistan's...not gonna do runs till I get my SS.
Max Block.
Might swap out bartuc's for jade talon, how would that work?
Guillame's Helm to be added.
Bane when 85
Gloves..I guess dracul's. Althought they don't seem that important.
Boots will be up'd gores
Belt..thinking Dungo's now..
Rings..10FCR/10 STR/25 Lit res for one
10 FCR/15 STR/7 Lit res the other
2 Asn/15 Str/13 Dex/35 Cold Res ammy

Charms:
14/17 Torch
2x Traps
40 Life Gc

How do I look so far? I want to gear my MFer first though..so this will be a while off..
Merc? Not Holy Freeze...any suggestions? And as far as gear goes? Thanks ahead of time.

 

[ilkori]

Well, I did list the suggestions for almost all of this in the guide. Let's check where we are for final goals. You have both kicking gear, and soem trap charms, so I'm guessing a Dancer build? Also, Fade or Burst of Speed?

Your weapon could use a major upgrade (imho). The Bartucs are nice if you need the +2 to trap skills, but otherwise, I'd look for something with a more offensive twist (Black Flails, for example). I think weapon switches are the best way to deal with your very different needs of melee fighting/tanking, and the needs of trapping with +skills.

Is your budget limited on this? How about Arachnids?

 

[YouHaveMail]

Well my MF sorc died again. at 84.
So I've lost 3 tals armors, 3 shakos, 3 wizzys, 2 storms, and 2 tals ammys...this week.
93,84,81..so yeah. Not gonna wanna waste stuff anymore.

 

[nerdbert]

My pure kicker is currently lvl 82, with the following skills:
20 DTalon
20 Venom
20 Death Sentry
20 Shadow Master
1 in all preqs

My current gear is:
Duress
Guillaumes
Upped gores
Draculs
Stormshield with pdiamond
Jade talon with shael
Verdungos
Highlords amu
Rare ll/res ring
Ravenfrost
12/20torch
2*3 shadow claws on switch

Enough str for gear, enough dex for max block, rest in vit.

My question is now I've maxed all my skills what should I put my remaining skillpoints in? Would it be worth the 3 points to get blade fury? My weapon damage isnt great (114-151), but I have 65% chance of CB. I don't fancy going the trap route, so even if I did decide to go for blade fury, what should I put my skills into after lvl 85?

Cheers for any help.

 

[ilkori]

Well my MF sorc died again. at 84.
So I've lost 3 tals armors, 3 shakos, 3 wizzys, 2 storms, and 2 tals ammys...this week.
93,84,81..so yeah. Not gonna wanna waste stuff anymore.

Ouch, sorry to hear about your losses. If you want to make the kicker for fun, you can just go from scratch and do it for fun instead. A kick/trap hybrid is probably the only way to go, but it'd be fun if you wanted to do it. The only thing you'd really want to twink is a decent weapon (Black comes to mind).

Would it be worth the 3 points to get blade fury?

Yes! I'd also go to get Dragon flight (3 pts), and add two more into Fire Blast to get an extra Death Sentry shot. After that, add one point into various other skills (aka Phoenix and pre-reqs) to make a more powerful Shadow. An extra point in Mind Blast is also nice for this if you want her to cast it more often.

By the way, Deadly Strike doesn't work on kicks, so you may want to switch your Ammy to something else. Other than that, it's looking good. How is the JT treating you as a weapon?