I struggled understanding how best to exploit
Blade Fury and finally built what I feel is a thoroughly-reliable version. It's not as much a guide as a blueprint for the exploitation with some "why's and wherefor's" thrown in to help explain the decisions.
First off, I yielded the Critical Strike potential since I don't use a claw. Why? I stick only with
Ignore Target's Defense weapons and ignore AR totally. It frees up the dexterity allocation (to focus on strength/vitality) and inventment in skill mastery (saves 20 skill points right there).
The first ITD weapon I used was the
Skewer of Krintiz, a low-level unique sabre that does light damage but, once socketed, can rock. Remember that the high attack rate of BF multiplies minimal damage fast enough to keep up with the heal rates. It can also be upgraded to Shamshir and finally Elegant versions but well before the elite, you'll be using ITD rune words, so I started cubing all low-level runes like crazy and collecting upgrade gems in parallel in preparation of the boon beginning at Level 47, somewhere around mid-Nightmare.
There are three mundane weapons to begin collecting for socketing: 1H axes/1H swords and warhammers. My preference is the hammer because of the advantage vs. undead types but all 3 work very well. My ultimate goal is the elites Legendary Mallet and Berzerker Axe. Weapon speed stats mean nothing so just ignore them. Use the socketing recipe to produce the number you need (the prescriptions follow below). Ethereal versions would be IDEAL but, TBH, I have yet to find those versions for the elite weapons-of-choice. But keep looking. You never know. Here is my weapon progression:
Level 1 to 46 (add one socket ea):
Skewer of Krintiz, Spineripper, Heartcarver, Zakarum's Hand
Level 47 to 64: 3-sock
Crescent Moon axe or sword
Level 65 and beyond: 4-sock
Famine axe or hammer
I'll keep the
Crescent Moon on a switch until Lightning immunes begin to become a problem (the Static Field OnStrike is extremely effective vs. all others at high attack rate) then change the switch weapon to any
Call to Arms (5-sock) just for the barb pre-buff party boosts.
The best combination I've found is a
Famine Legendary Mallet, normal or ethereal, as the primary weapon. BF will not erode eth weapons, but BEWARE!...
Blade Shield will! So I will avoid BS if I have ethereal equipped (but like I stated earlier, haven't found the elusive eth versions yet).
My total damage, counting the elemental charms, gear enhancements and high-strength (well over 250) is around 3000 max. Multiply that base by 6 FPS and it will kill high HP monsters incredibly fast. In seconds.
Now to skills. Really easy to do this part.
All prereqs at 1. I usually allocate 3 to
Burst of Speed initially but respec back to 1 once enough +skills gear has been accrued. I like
Cloak of Shadows to stay at minimum so that I can spam it faster vs. artillery attacks with the shorter cool-down. I use
Death Sentry to scout forward but
Lightning Sentry might be less expensive, mana-wise, but I just don't quickslot it.
#1 -
Blade Fury: MAXIMUM. Why? It's harder to steal mana for (almost quadruple the mana cost of Level 1 BF) but more than compensates for the BF damage penalty. Trust me. You really want to max this and will notice immediately the difference between the "1-point wonders" and an ultimate BF exploit.
#2 -
Death Sentry: MAXIMUM. Why? The lightning damage is totally incidental because there are so many light immunes. But... in Hell, 40-80% corpse explosion is HUGE!
#3:
Wake of Inferno: MAXIMUM. Why? So many lightning immunes. Set a cluster of 5 in the midst of a tight mob or around a boss that is not fire-immune and it does sap health to make kills go faster. The range means little since you'll set them almost on top of the target anyway.
#4 -
Shadow Master: (gulp!) MAXIMUM. A decent tank. Not near as bullet-proof as the
Valkyrie and buggy as hell (seems to go *poof* for no apparent reason). Plus, it has the uncanny ability to mind-control monsters
behind you while your toon is attacking forward so that when the mind-control wears off, you get flanked by the fresh, small army. But SM is the best the assassin class has to offer so you get what you paid for.
#5 -
Blade Shield: 1 to MAXIMUM. Just be careful about the corrosive effect on ethereal weapons. A BF assassin should have little opportunity to employ the effects of BS because it is an artillery build. Getting hit by melee attack should be shear accident and avoided under normal combat encounters.
----> Any SPARE points put into
Fire Blast in groups of 3 to add to the
Death Sentry shot total. And that's about all you need to dominate through Hell Baal.
My stats just split between strength and vitality. I decided to limit dexterity to just the base needed for the weapon and ignore blocking altogether. I tried both spreads and feel that more damage and larger health soak seemed more valuable overall for an artillery build like the BF. With my playstyle, my toon is moving constantly to avoid ranged attacks so my relying on blocking is impractical. Your own playstyle may dictate a higher investment in dexterity/blocking, though. There
will be a cost to split out stats that thinly, however.
Bottom line is that I can get very near the +skills cap (30) without using claws. Since the maximum sockets a claw can contain is 3 and the weapon class restriction added to that factor, it precludes access to excellent (and necessary) runewords that contain ITD, an essential factor in making this build work. If you happen to find one of the unique claws like
Bartuc's or
Firelizard, you could sock them with a
Jah, but depending on
that is a total crap shoot. Besides, a claw will never approach the damage output of a Legendary Mallet and both will attack at the exact same speed. It's your choice. All I can report is what does work and what recipe depends less on luck than other methods.
Hope this helps aspiring Blade Fury exploiters.
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