Re: Best build using some MA?
Until recently I've run dual claw sins of various types, all MA oriented... mostly cause claws are kinda cool and I was convinced with the right balance of gear, stats and skills I'd eventually work out a build that was decently effective. Sadly they always kinda sucked, getting weapon damage and a block rate that's even remotely respectable is very difficult with dual claw and requires a massive skill investment. Alternatively shield/weapon on a dtalon kicker gives you a lightning fast attack with excellent damage, frees up skill points that would usually go to charge-up skills, claw mastery and weapon block for use elsewhere and makes a decent block rate easily obtainable.
Set-up is pretty easy, run enough strength for your boots (you'll need elite boots for respectable kick damage, preferably myrmidon greaves or mirrored boots, upped gore riders (myrmidon) being probably the strongest choice, though shadow dancers (myrmidon) and double upped goblin toes (mirrored) are also decent options. Enough strength for boots pretty much gives you enough strength for almost any other gear you could want to carry, so I wouldn't put any more in beyond that. Enough dex for max block on your shield of choice (with final gear) and pump the rest into vitality, a few points in energy wont hurt the overall build but you'll find it's not necessary to invest any.
Skill choices I run with are dtalon at level 18, ensures a minimum of 4 kicks per dtalon with any gear and a +skills goal of 24 for an extra kick (+3 torch, +1 anni and +2 somewhere else on gear will do it) and level 18 dtalon is still very powerful. I also put 1 point in dflight to allow me to teleport in to attack quickly, which is handy for dealing with enemies using ranged attacks. I have maxed shadow master and have venom nearly maxed, as well as an extra point in mind blast to encourage the shadow to throw it more, which helps keep crowds occupied. In traps I have maxed death sentry and put three points in fire blast for an extra sentry shot, as well as put a point in the one point wonder that is blade fury. Once venom is maxed I will have pretty much achieved my build goals and will put any additional points into lightning sentry for more lightning damage on DS via synergy bonus.
Overall gear goals on the defensive side are the usual for a melee char, high elemental resists with absorb being helpful, can not be frozen, faster hit recovery, high block rate, damage reduction, good life leech (%chance to cast life tap is very helpful, ie via draculs grasp) and some mana leech. % damage goes to mana is also worth mentioning as all your attacks consume mana, it'll help stop your mana bottoming out at a really bad time.
On the offensive side you primarily need a fast weapon as your kick speed is dependent on this (ias may be necessary for some weapon choices to keep kick speed reasonable) and a large amount of crushing blow, which helps kicks rip huge chunks of life off. Weapon damage needs to be reasonable as blade fury essentially deals a shuriken of your weapon at 3/4 phys weapon damage with the addition of most on or off weapon modifiers, likewise dtalon also picks up most weapon and on gear damage modifiers and adds them to your boot damage. With these needs in mind you have a ton of choices with regard to dealing effective damage via both attacks, they both frequently set off chance to cast on striking effects (static being especially useful), both carry your elemental damage, open wounds is most helpful to both attacks, % deadly strike will help blade fury, likewise ignore target defence is very helpful to blade fury.
With +skill items the most benefit is gained on your shadow disciplines tree, as it will increase the durability of your shadow, increase your venom damage and improve other useful skills such as fade, mind blast, cloak of shadows and burst of speed, whilst your martial arts and traps trees only pass on moderate gains from additional skills under this setup.
All in all this is a pretty versatile build, if you look at the build goals, gear wise you can see there's a heap of choices. I would suggest at minimum you want to be able to hit 40-50% chance of crushing blow when using your primary weapon, max resists, ideally some lightning absorb or raised max lightning resistance, and at least 48% faster hit recovery. Beyond that you can totally change the way the build kills with just a weapon change as both your primary attacks carry most weapon modifiers. Other than the boots the only other thing specific I would suggest you will probably need to have is +skill items on weapon switch, a pair of bartucs or a spirit/spirit or spirit/hoto set. This is just a quick switch to cast venom, shadow and fade. With enough +skills elsewhere though the plus skills on switch could be dropped for an alternate weapon/sheild combo for melee use... switch gear that gives massive elemental damage for dealing with phys immunes or that has a chance to cast a useful curse is just a couple options I can think of off the top of my head. Alternatively the whole sin can be rigged to emphasize venom damage via items that give +% damage to poison skills and/or a -% to enemy poison resistance.
I've purposely tried to not be too specific with gear except boots as there are so many choices that are viable with this build.
In pvm, this build deals with individuals and small numbers quickly via kicks, blade fury and shadow. When large groups are involved the shadow will distract enough of them for you to drop death sentries and start attacking without being mobbed, with extra large or nasty aura crowds you can spam mind blast or CoS if you feel it's necessary. Once a corpse or two hits the ground the death sentries pretty much take care of the rest of the work. Venom is there to help deal with phys immunes or when you need higher kill speed, such as if you fall back to blade fury for dealing with mana burners or are at high risk of being cursed with iron maiden. Knockback can also be useful as it triggers well off blade fury allowing you to use your shuriken to move enemies onto trapped corpses or keep mana burners pinned against a distant wall.
As for bosses, well just cursor lock and hold down dtalon, with a good setup you leach harder than they can damage and even hell baal is no challenge in a full game on bnet.
If you decide to try this out an need any further thoughts feel free to msg me, otherwise good luck with whatever you choose I hope it works out well.
Those skills have really high Ar and damage bonuses, quite overlooked. 