Blade Fury Assasin (Ver 1.10)

[Tanatus]

Oh no I did not mean say tht souls pose problem for merc or SM.... they could pose problem for me ... sadly. Reason why I said it fact that under CoS souls indeed usually sleep in herbination but only untill time something (dont really matter who) get in melee range. So worst case scenario is: you attacking pack of souls, got CoS up (...~20s hebination for most of pack or untill souldrainers proc weaken) but then you merc or/and SM engage one soul and got in melee range for 1 or 2 more then next thing happend (or could happend better say)... Soul start use dreaded combo lighting-melee attack (and 1-2 closest friends as well) onto your SM or Merc ... which is normally barely scratch em ... but if merc or SM is on same line of sight as you are then :rant: you will take pretty nasty hit as well from ranged attack (yes even under CoS). Now imagine in this moment souldrainers proc weaken ... its surviable with 23fade but take your time for retreat and repostion and recase CoS (if timer refreshed)
As for damage per blade I mean displayed damage per blade not actual...

 

[Ritslev]

...Ra (Rah?)...

Just Ra. I've always been an enthusiast for Egyptology. The Ra addition to the name is that of divinity. All my characters carry the -Ra after their name, sorta my signature if you will.

Ra'H' is the secondary Egyptian way of spelling Ra.

...One thing that would be nice is a bit more exposition on low- and mid-level gear, such as Strength (or Steel?) runeword claws, full Cleg's set, & so forth. ....

Hehe... In Version 1.11 sound ok?

 

[Ritslev]

...I don't know if it's an exception to your statement that Pierce Target doesn't work...

Thank you very much for your compliments that is always nice..

In section 3.4 you'll see what works and what doesn't work. This is a list complied from Naliworld, Blizzard, and personal testing.

Hope it helps.

 

[Muffassa]

Ive been playing through my Blade Fury Sin quite a bit this weekend - and let me tell you, nothing beats her at killing pvm. I have her up to high 50's low 60's soloing 8 player nightmare, and nothing can touch her. I have 20 in venom, and 20 in Shadow Master. I tend to be a minimalist when it comes to life, and I was running around with base vitality almost the whole time (~250 life) and I only died one time (trapped myself in a corner - Flayer jungle). I then pumped ~60 stat points into life, and I haven't had any more issues.

As I was preparing this person, I wanted her to be able to use Lightsaber - but as I tried it out I was disappointed that the 5% lvl 20 chain lightning never went off - then I noticed it is a "chance on attack" not "chance on striking" - so of course it wouldn't work.

Right now I am using a Chaos claw (forget what kind) and the frozen orb and charged bolt are kinda fun I need to find a good weapon for that rune word with static field - I figure it will double/tripple my killing speed.

I'm saving up skill/stat points until I get into hell - want a bit of flexability. I think I will probably end up putting about 10 into fade, and then a few more into Death Sentry (CE is fun).

Once again, great guide !!

 

[Ritslev]

...I'm saving up skill/stat points until I get into hell - want a bit of flexability. I think I will probably end up putting about 10 into fade, and then a few more into Death Sentry (CE is fun)....

Just keep in mind that 20 in Fade = 20 in Damage reduction which is vital in Hell Diff.

But that has already been mentioned.. just wanted to comment that 1 in DC will do but Fade 20 is vital.

 

[Mordenkainen]

Does crushing blow suffer a penalty like it does with range weapons when using BF?

 

[Ritslev]

Does crushing blow suffer a penalty like it does with range weapons when using BF?

I knew this question would eventually come, and I dreaded the day

To my knowledge and from my testing it does 'not' suffer from the penalty. I have though no way of verifying this, nor do I have any other proof than my word.

I have tested this the following way.
I dropped off all my gear/charms (all that gave elemental damage). All items with crushing blow I kept on :
Gore + Rattle + Guilluames.
Then I attacked without using a weapon. Yes the damage sucked, but Mephistos still lost initially a lot of life, it scaled down.
I then tried it again I beleive it was 4 times, and each time the same result.
Crushing Blow was at : 70% and that was sufficient to show that his life deduction 'looked' like it wasn't hindered with the ranged penalty.

I could very well be wrong and I could very well be mistaken and so on.. These are though my experiences, and you should make up your own mind... unless someone cna verify/deny this with a blizzard page as referance as proof.

 

[Mordenkainen]

I just did some testing of my own against Baal, wearing only a manald ring, guillaume's face, goblin's toe, and a vipermagi. No weapons, so my only means of inflicting non-negligible damage was crushing blow, and I'm pretty sure my first shuriken only removed 10% of Baal's life (as far as I could tell), so apparently the range penalty to crushing blow does apply to blade fury. Still, 10% isn't completely useless. If 10 shurikens hit with crushing blow, the enemy's life will be down to 34,87%. Items with a % chance to cast static field might be a better investment, though. Too bad there aren't many of those.

 

[FrolfFreak]

@ Mord: Presuming that you did the test on /players 1 or a one-player game, i think your results actually means that CB from BF does NOT suffer from the range penalty. From the ever-popular Arreat Summit:

Crushing Blow
This is a chance of reducing a monster's health by X% in a single blow.

-Default: 1/4th
-vs. Players: 1/10th
-vs. Hirelings: 1/10th
-vs. Champions, Uniques, Bosses: 1/8th
-with missile weapons, default: 1/8th
-with missile weapons, vs. Players: 1/20th
-with missile weapons, vs Hirelings: 1/20th
-with missile weapons, vs Champions, Uniques, Bosses: 1/16th

1/8 =~ 12.5%, 1/16 =~ 6.25%. So if it looks like you did about 10% damage, i think it means no ranged penalty for CB from BF. W00t!

-FF

 

[Mordenkainen]

@ Mord: Presuming that you did the test on /players 1 or a one-player game, i think your results actually means that CB from BF does NOT suffer from the range penalty. From the ever-popular Arreat Summit:

Crushing Blow
This is a chance of reducing a monster's health by X% in a single blow.

-Default: 1/4th
-vs. Players: 1/10th
-vs. Hirelings: 1/10th
-vs. Champions, Uniques, Bosses: 1/8th
-with missile weapons, default: 1/8th
-with missile weapons, vs. Players: 1/20th
-with missile weapons, vs Hirelings: 1/20th
-with missile weapons, vs Champions, Uniques, Bosses: 1/16th

1/8 =~ 12.5%, 1/16 =~ 6.25%. So if it looks like you did about 10% damage, i think it means no ranged penalty for CB from BF. W00t!

-FF

Sweet! You may very well be right. I used Baal for my test because I figured with his huge amount of hit points the ~10 damage inherent to blade fury wouldn't matter, but I didn't think there was an additional penalty when BF is used against bosses! I'll do some more tests against normal baddies with lots of life, like those bulls in worldstone keep, but I think you're right!
One more reason to make a furysin!

 

[Ritslev]

-vs. Champions, Uniques, Bosses: 1/8th

When I tested vs Mephistos that was what I was looking for .. not a 25% reduction.

The reduction which Mord received at 10% sounds quite right as to what I got as well. Though the added crushing blow chance made it a bit easier
due to the higher chance.

If others whish to do testing, perhaps trying the Bloody Hills would be a nice way to test it... personally I've run in to quite a time lapse, since my wife is pregnant I have to dedicate my time to this project rather than testing the basics of a game .)

I will though keep ajour with this forum and try to keep myself updated.

 

[FrolfFreak]

Congrats on your new project, Ritslev

-FF

 

[Madmartagan2002]

Cheap Way to Kill D-Clone Solo

I've been thinking about getting a cheap 3 socket claw with +1 to Blade Fury to socket Malice in, and use it as a weapon switch. I'm thinking the prevent Monster heal and open wounds will help me kill the Diablo Clone with my lighting trapper. (Hey, I don't have "uber" items and am not likely to get any, so I only do 1 to 3300 light damage.) So I am wondering if this might be a cheap way to deal with the diablo clone's massive life regeneration. (This is my problem, I can damage him but he just heals it all back). In your expierence as a Fury Assasain, will this be effective? I need to find away to kill him solo, cause I'm tired of doing most of the work and then not getting the charm. If someone has other suggestions I'm open to them.

How does Prevent Monster Heal work anyway? Is there a timer? Is it reset every time I hit him? Will the effect be erased when my traps hit?

 

[Ritslev]

...I've been thinking about getting a cheap 3 socket claw with +1 to Blade Fury to socket Malice in, and use it as a weapon switch...

Instead of getting a cheap one.. I would suggest you found a :
+3 trap (or +3 lightning sentry)
+1 blade fury
and used that with malice.

You see on your switch you should have an LOWER RESIST wand. That will help you greatly with all Lightning Immunes as well as Diablo Ãœber

... How does Prevent Monster Heal work anyway? Is there a timer? Is it reset every time I hit him? Will the effect be erased when my traps hit?

To my knowledge. This is how PMH works.
The damage you do with the attack is that which is not able to be healed. It is not on a timer like poison, but works from blow to blow like crushing/critical blow.
Example :
You do 50 damage with your BF and 3000 with your Lightning trap.
50 of that isn't able to be healed, while the 3k is.
I hope this helps.

If you don't want such a stat, instead of PMH, look for 100% open wounds. You see that has a timer. That will also prevent the other damage from being healed, simply cause instead of healing the damage it will bleed form the monster. BUT! Only as long as you keep re-effectuating the OW.

Again Malice has both stats, so Malice is a good choice. Just know that Malice will not be a huge Boss killer, since the real stat for Boss Killing is Crushing Blow. With that in mind.

Personally I think I'll try and go look for that 3 socketed claw with +1 BF + 3T... cause it would be a nice addition to my Trapper, just an added momentum to her arcenal. A really good idea. Since the +3 LS/+3 TRAP I've been looking for just hasn't shown itself lately.

 

[Frankeinstein]

I would suggest you found a :
+3 trap (or +3 lightning sentry)
+1 blade fury
and used that with malice.

You see on your switch you should have an LOWER RESIST wand. That will help you greatly with all Lightning Immunes as well as Diablo Ãœber

Personally I think I'll try and go look for that 3 socketed claw with +1 BF + 3T... cause it would be a nice addition to my Trapper, just an added momentum to her arcenal. A really good idea. Since the +3 LS/+3 TRAP I've been looking for just hasn't shown itself lately.

I have such claw. +3 trap/+3 Ls/+1 DF/+2 BoI but it is not socketed. Would it be possible to get 3 sockets on it from socket quest or from cube recipes. I have never tried to do that before on a magic item. I have only tried to socket unquies like harly & skulders.

I also have several +3 traps claws & +3 shadow claws... I've been collecting them. The MA claws I have tossed cause I think bartucs & nats are better than what I have found.
But I keep shad & trap claws. I wish I could get my hands on a 1.08 bartucs (+2 shad skills)

BTW so a +3 Ls claw is a good find too? I tossed one cause I thought my +3 trap claw was better (opps)

 

[Madmartagan2002]

Dang- I was hoping the Prevent Monster Heal would prevent the D-Clone from healing from my lighting traps... it looked like that was what happened when my Merc (who has PMH) hit him- the problem is after a few seconds the D-Clone eats my Merc.

I thought only magic claws got +3 to skill trees- and therefor no runewords.

I might still try it if I find a claw... the open wounds should help at least. Thanks for the idea of a lower resist charged wand though. Good Idea.

 

[Geralcik]

Nice guide
What do you think about the following modification: more strength, ethereal stone crusher/schaeffer/stormlash, steelrend and, say, natalya's armor with 3 ed jewels, also an ed jewel in guilames (or two in giant skull) ? This could potentially increase your physical damage by a whopping 260% ! Well, actually only the 3/4 of the weapon dmg, but it's still massive. The 'way of crushing blow' is probably better in 1ppl, but in crowded games the 'real' damage could be more important then the scaled crushing...
My 2 cents

 

[Ritslev]

...More strength, ethereal stone crusher/schaeffer/stormlash, steelrend...

As long as you have a weapon, one-handed that deals out the damage you feel is suffiecient then that is fine. With those you mention let me just mention those.
Stormlash (If etheral) - I'd die to have such a weapon.
Schaeffers - A great weapon, but with a too high Strength requirement in my mind. You could use this weapon if you switched Rattlecage for an Enigma armor, but otherwise I'd not put more stats into Strength since the damage isn't changed much.
Stone Crusher - Great Crushing Blow, and defencive deduction to monster, but otherwise it's damage isn't that great..
Steelrend - Errr.. I haven't been able to find that one..

...natalya's armor with 3 ed jewels, also an ed jewel in guilames (or two in giant skull)? This could potentially increase your physical damage by a whopping 260% ! Well, actually only the 3/4 of the weapon dmg, but it's still massive...

ED works great with characters such as the barbarian, paladin, amazon, melee assasin. Cause they have skills with add to the % damage. The blade fury assasin (who doesn't use a claw and thus not claw mastery) doesn't have that luxury.

ED is a great mod. Elemental damage in the case of the Fury Sin is the kicker. For that reason I'd suggest Facets. Depending on what weapon you use, Lightning or Poison. So assuming you'll be using Nats armor and not Rattlecage.

For those fortunate enough to have Stormlash or a Cresent Moon Runeword a 3 Facet Nats armor, with a Facet in Guilluames face, would give close to 20% lower resistance. The 260% has the 3/4 cut, so does the elemental damage, but the lower resist doesn't have it. Thus you utilize the facet 95% (see the 1-78 lightning damage has a 3/4 cut, and thus you loose 5% of the facet hehe) where as the ED loose 25%, leaving you with only 75% utilized. Not a lot, but if you factor in their effect on charms there is a large difference. The damage output is larger with a facet. Also the Facets makes Static more effective. A big and important point to remember.

For those with a weapon wihtout lightning damage and static. 3 Psn facets are the way to go, to boost your Venom skill.

While yes Crushing Blow is scaled in multi player games, it's not 'just' crushing blow you rely on here. It's the elemental damage. The physical damage is hard to get and while, yes, ED jewels are a good source they are also your only source really. The reason for not choosing ED is also that you won't have -enough- ED to make charms like MAX damage give a lot of damage.

ED of 260% is a bit I agree, but it's not really much compared to the 500% a Barb can have for example ... If you have a 3/xx/xx that will be :
260% * 3 * 0,75 = 8 (A Blade Fury Sin)
260% * 3 = 10,1 (11) (Any other character without ED%)

Now while 3 more or less in damage doesn't sound like much how about having 30 of those in your stash. Then we're talking 90 more in damage. While we're at it what respectable Barb only has 260%.. a Barb for example would have closer to 500%
500% * 3 = 18..... a difference of 540.

The point is ED from jewels will be your sole source of ED. For thise reason they won't have enough impact on other items such as charms.
Facets will though.

Yes Facets are also more expensive, but still.....

SonOfRa

 

[Geralcik]

Actually, I didn't take into consideration the fact that ed from jewels applies to damage charms. I was more into: say, eth unique mallet 350 avg dmg, 260ed adding... and now it gets tricky, after I thought about it a bit more I realised it would be adding more or less 210 dmg (correct ?). Nice, but I can see that elemental damage will be more rewarding.

To clear things up though: ed jewels add relatively more when you don't have ed from elsewhere. Say you have a weapon with base avg dmg 83 and 500ed makes it 498 dmg. Additional 40ed gives you 33 dmg. Increase from 498 to 498+33=531 isn't great, whereas from 83 to 116 is IMO. (Is this correct ? I mean, ed applies to base weapon damage, doesn't it ?)

Another thing is, in hardcore, I'd probably be more willing to use sockets for offense and stick to life charms (thus going the physical damage way) than to load up on elemental charms and socket facets, having significantly less life. This would need to be calculated though to show trade-offs between those two setups. Come to think of it, it is quite possible that the latter will be better even in hc, since you'll have about 40 more points in vitality..

Oh well, turned out to be a long post, thx for reading

 

[[cK]Extreme]

What doesn't work
-Chance to cast on Attacking

Incorrect. I've used Blade Fury many times while having chaos/draculs equiped, and I can confirm both frozen orb and life tap have been shot off while using it. :scratch: