Martial Art assasins

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N'thraXX

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Martial Art assasins

I just checked the assasin forum for guide only to find out there were like a million of them. Like usual I can't decide what to build. I've been wanting to do a full Nat assasin for years. Now that I finally have the chance I'd like to know a few things.

Is an assasin wearing Natalya's full set (dual Nat claws) viable? Is there a custom designed build for a full Nat's assasin?

If Natalya is set aside, what would be the best MA sin build to go with? Tiger Strike/Dragon Tail? Is maxing Phoenix Strike and one synergy worth the skill points?
 
Tiger Strike/Dragon Tail/Phoenix Strike MA sin is what I'm hoping to do. It sounds fun and effective, but she's still lvl 18 so I can't tell you how it works in late stages...

For dual claw sins, though, Jade Talon is usually the preferred off-hand claw, since the dmg and related mods don't help you unless you're using Dragon Claw (and I heard there are problems with that attack as well).
 
In my experience, which includes my own TS/DT/PS/CoT Martial Artist and a few Natsins I've run into in multiplayer games, pure Martial Artists are far from easy. I think TS/DT hybridized with Death Sentry or something would work better than my 'sin did.

If you do really want to do pure Martial Arts, I'd say TS/DT/PS/BoI. There are a couple of reasons I'd recommend BoI. Firstly, it has a chilling effect over an area, which makes for safer play. Secondly, Chaos Ice Bolt is the last Phoenix Strike charge, so you can't miss it, in a sense. (I spent a lot of time trying to get the Chain Lightning on the second charge, but ending up with Chaos Ice Bolts anyway.)

Also, beware that with Natalya's set, I doubt Dragon Tail is as effective as the guides make out. A portion of the damage calculation (which is complicated, and confuses the heck out of me) comes from the boots, and Mesh Boots aren't the deadliest of boots.
 
My MA sin is lvl 76 now and finished A1 Hell. She is untwinked and therefore doesn't use Nat's set. I use two +2 assassin skills blade talons. Skills are Tiger Strike / Dragon Tail and Venom/Blade Fury combo as backup, almost maxed Shadow Master and a few utility skills at 1 point.

She is very powerful with this setup, doing 11k-17k damage per kick IIRC. It would be possible to get her max dmg to 20k quite easily (adding +3 MA skills on both ammy and circlet, as well as some even better boots).

She can survive well in hell so far. PIs are a problem when they occur without other monsters inbetween... that is what venom/BF was intended for. I found that just hitting them with my claws (and venom of course) brings them down a lot faster than using BF though. At the current stage the points in BF and prereqs seem wasted, but perhaps when venom is maxed it will look better. I can't comment on the Phoenix Strike, I never tried that. Perhaps it will work better than venom, but it costs more skill points, especially when a synergy has to get points too.
 
I also found Physical Immunes a bit of a problem, but I also had a hard time with Fire Immunes. I'm not sure if thats a property of lousy boots though: I was using Rite of Passage.
 
Personally, I've always found Assassins to be much harder to play all-around then most of the other character classes - I think that they are often gear dependent, and in order to utilize their skills properly, you need to have a lot of switches on hotkeys, etc.

Which makes them all the more fun! Good luck. Unfortunately, I can't offer to much advice about pure MA sins, though I'm making one right now (Budget Assassin guide...oh yeah).

~Necro
 
I am also in the midst of making a MA Sin. My plan is maxed TS, DC and PS, with points in CM, SM and WB. Gear includes Treachery, Bartuc's and Jade Talon. Starting to get concerned that completely un-synergised PS might not be enough to take down PI's...
 
If you're looking for a power build, I'd recommend you stay away from any kind of kicker for a Nat's 'sin. Mesh Boots just don't cut it. 15k damage sounds good on a TS/Dtail, until you realize that it takes 3 TS charges + a DT release to get it. Point of comparison: my TS/Dtailer does around 35k with up'd Gore Riders (Myrmidon Greaves have the highest base kick damage) and good, but not amazing other gear.

That being said, I'm sure it's a good enough set to carry you through the game. With a little skill and a lot of hotkeys, anyway.

I also have no idea how claw-based MA 'sins work with Nat's.
 
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