Kicks was the third character I made after restarting in D2R. I was excited to test the changes to charges. I had made it to act 5 nm and was farming for the runes/base to make Lawbringer. Right as I completed Lawbringer, I parked this character until last week.
My plan for this character was to use some of the shiny uniques that I had found in Terror Zones, specifically Azurewrath and Crown of Ages. With that in mind, I leveled to 85 in the pits. While leveling, I used a few different ideas to test their effectiveness. I was using Hustle armor, spirit shield, shako for this. I had 30+ unused skill points that I eventually put into Death Sentry / Fire blast while leveling.
-Lawbringer: every mod on this weapon is perfect except SMRIP. More on this later
-Lacerator: Super high chance to cast amp, but ruined by a higher chance of hit causes monster to flee. Which overwrites amp. What a shame, it felt worse than lawbringer.
-Fleshripper: Classic kicker weapon, but just seemed slow. I was using a level 14 dragon talon on Fire Immunes, but this didnt feel good either.
-Mist GMB on Act 1 merc: I did nm act V and leveled to about 83 with this setup. I thought the concentration would be helpful while surrounded by mobs, but it is only 20% chance to not be interrupted. It was fun the one time the merc froze several monsters with one FA. I switched to an act 2 might merc and that was an improvement overall.
-Obedience Thresher: Yes, you read that right. The cheapest option to get -enemy fire resist, comparable to crescent moon but actually a good weapon. The enchant was super nice. The max 10 fpa Tiger Strike was not super nice. I sometimes used my cta to build charges and then switch, and this worked decently. Ultimately that was not how I wanted to play her, and would still prefer lawbringer. A budget sin with lawbringer /spirit and obedience on switch would be good, but for me the safety of cta was too good.
Final Choice of Gear at level 85 for Hell runthrough:
Crown of Ages
Corona
Defense: 390
Durability: 39 of 50
Required Level: 82
Required Strength: 174
Fingerprint: 0x1082fa53
Item Level: 96
Version: Resurrected
Indestructible
+1 to All Skills
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
+50% Enhanced Defense
+141 Defense
All Resistances +28
Damage Reduced by 15%
Damage Reduced by 14
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Corona
Defense: 390
Durability: 39 of 50
Required Level: 82
Required Strength: 174
Fingerprint: 0x1082fa53
Item Level: 96
Version: Resurrected
Indestructible
+1 to All Skills
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
+50% Enhanced Defense
+141 Defense
All Resistances +28
Damage Reduced by 15%
Damage Reduced by 14
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Sol Rune
Socketed: Sol Rune
Azurewrath
Phase Blade
One Hand Damage: 114 - 128
Indestructible
Required Level: 85
Required Strength: 25
Required Dexterity: 136
Fingerprint: 0x1bb47e44
Item Level: 96
Version: Resurrected
Level 11 Sanctuary Aura When Equipped
+1 to All Skills
+30% Increased Attack Speed
268% Enhanced Damage
-25% Target Defense
Adds 250 - 500 Magic Damage
Adds 250 - 500 Cold Damage Over 10 Secs (250 Frames)
All Stats +5
+3 to Light Radius
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Eth Rune
Phase Blade
One Hand Damage: 114 - 128
Indestructible
Required Level: 85
Required Strength: 25
Required Dexterity: 136
Fingerprint: 0x1bb47e44
Item Level: 96
Version: Resurrected
Level 11 Sanctuary Aura When Equipped
+1 to All Skills
+30% Increased Attack Speed
268% Enhanced Damage
-25% Target Defense
Adds 250 - 500 Magic Damage
Adds 250 - 500 Cold Damage Over 10 Secs (250 Frames)
All Stats +5
+3 to Light Radius
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Eth Rune
Arkaine's Valor
Balrog Skin
Defense: 1305
Durability: 25 of 30
Required Level: 85
Required Strength: 165
Fingerprint: 0x6672b443
Item Level: 95
Version: Resurrected
+2 to All Skills
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
+152% Enhanced Defense
+44 to Vitality (Based on Character Level)
Damage Reduced by 21
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Sol Rune
Sol Rune
Required Level: 27
Version: Resurrected
Weapons: Armor: Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Damage Reduced by 7
Balrog Skin
Defense: 1305
Durability: 25 of 30
Required Level: 85
Required Strength: 165
Fingerprint: 0x6672b443
Item Level: 95
Version: Resurrected
+2 to All Skills
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
+152% Enhanced Defense
+44 to Vitality (Based on Character Level)
Damage Reduced by 21
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Sol Rune
Sol Rune
Required Level: 27
Version: Resurrected
Weapons: Armor: Damage Reduced by 7
Shields: Damage Reduced by 7
Plague Hand
War Gauntlets
Defense: 50
Durability: 21 of 24
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 110
Fingerprint: 0xe5b68979
Item Level: 75
Version: Resurrected
12% Chance to cast level 4 Charged Bolt when struck
+2 to Martial Art Skills (Assassin Only)
Lightning Resist +30%
Half Freeze Duration
13% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
War Gauntlets
Defense: 50
Durability: 21 of 24
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 110
Fingerprint: 0xe5b68979
Item Level: 75
Version: Resurrected
12% Chance to cast level 4 Charged Bolt when struck
+2 to Martial Art Skills (Assassin Only)
Lightning Resist +30%
Half Freeze Duration
13% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
5% bk ring
8/15 string of ears
169/19 raven (probably could have muled on a better one)
Stormshield - Pdiamond
Eagle Wing
Amulet
Required Level: 30
Fingerprint: 0x2f7bcd46
Item Level: 83
Version: Resurrected
+2 to Martial Art Skills (Assassin Only)
4% Mana stolen per hit
+2 to Dexterity
Fire Resist +39%
33% Extra Gold from Monsters
Amulet
Required Level: 30
Fingerprint: 0x2f7bcd46
Item Level: 83
Version: Resurrected
+2 to Martial Art Skills (Assassin Only)
4% Mana stolen per hit
+2 to Dexterity
Fire Resist +39%
33% Extra Gold from Monsters
Fire Sunder
18/15 assassin torch
19/12 anni
1 MA gc (had 2, removed one for gheeds)
res charms to get fire/lite to max
cta/spirit switch
Act 2 Might merc with Reapers, Treachery, Vamp Gaze
Act 1 Hell:
So I set off from the pits at /p5. I made it to the catacombs and hit the FI spiders. With 95% resistance, they were a pain. I knew it was inevitable, so I went ahead and did it. I grabbed a 3 socket crown because CoA looks bad ass and made a Flickering Flame. Much better, Spiders actually werent bad now. My resistnaces werent maxed, so I was switching between fade and bos when I needed lite or fire resist. While it was fun being an absolute tank, it was not fun being an absolute tank that was hella slow. I muled on a few extra charms and maxed the resistance so I could stay with bos full time.
Flame
Crown
NefPulVex
Defense: 48
Durability: 47 of 50
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0xd933b885
Item Level: 41
Version: Resurrected
Level 7 Resist Fire Aura When Equipped
+3 to Fire Skills
-12% to Enemy Fire Resistance
+30% Enhanced Defense
+30 Defense vs. Missile
+52 to Mana
+5% to Maximum Fire Resist
Half Freeze Duration
Poison Length Reduced by 50%
Crown
NefPulVex
Defense: 48
Durability: 47 of 50
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 55
Fingerprint: 0xd933b885
Item Level: 41
Version: Resurrected
Level 7 Resist Fire Aura When Equipped
+3 to Fire Skills
-12% to Enemy Fire Resistance
+30% Enhanced Defense
+30 Defense vs. Missile
+52 to Mana
+5% to Maximum Fire Resist
Half Freeze Duration
Poison Length Reduced by 50%
Act 2: Overall, the Flickering Flame was a great choice. Fire immunes, undead PI, no problems now. Near the end of act 2 I realized I was tired of my shadow master mind blasting things and not letting my aoe damage really sing, so she got the boot. I occasionally used shadow warrior from here on out, but found no real difference either way.
Act 3: No problems, other than stupid act 3. I rerolled the map once because I could not find the Flayer Dungeon in the first map and was tired of running back and forth.
Act 4: I realized that Might was doing me no good as I only had about 5k ar, so I changed to a Blessed Aim Merc. In hindsight maybe I should have gotten a demon limb too. Izual went down in like 2 cycles, surprisingly fast. CS was okay, undead monsters get shredded by the sanctuary aura, so even though the doom knights took a few cycles, i was pretty safe. Being cursed with lower resist was more of an issue. I decided to fight the Infector of Souls while I had lower resisst on, and that was a mistake. I didn't die, but I actually had to use a potion.
Act 5: At some point early in this act I realized the merc could be wearing a Cure for curse reduction. While it does help, I was jealous of how quickly the faded merc stopped being cursed. My curse didn't really dissipate because I was at a new cursed bosspack by the time it wore off. I took on the ancients at p5, too and I guess I should have brought extra potions. I had an nde seeing how far I could push it while cursed after the merc died. Kicks was successful and had 2 full purples left. I used 4 blue pots (mana burn whirler), 4 health pots, and 6 purples. I face tanked all 3 for the first half of the fight before I started running low on supplies and decided to separate them a bit. Baal waves were uneventful. Lister went down easy enough, not especially fast or slow. Baal was taken at p3 and merc, shadow, and I all had survived.
Final Thoughts:
I did not have infinity or extra super gear, but I took all of hell on at /p5 and had absolutely no issues. It was fast. In act V hell I was one shotting boss packs. The auto hit when you have charges was nice, and obviously it wasn't as nice to miss or get blocked when accumulating charges. What was really nice was the change where only one charge is consumed. I did 39-60k at 3 charges, 27-42k at 2 charges, and 15-24k with one charge. That is an insane amount of damage to where you don't have to be at 3 charges all of the time. If your 3 charge attack didn't kill everything, most like the 2 charge attack did. I ended the game with 15 unused skill points.
Things I would do differently: I would not use death sentry. Since I took Hell on at p5, it was kind of nerfed a bit anyway. Plus, it does damage in the 2 elements I already excel at. I think I would prefer to go full lightning sentry. Why not? It would give me a third element and it only takes 60 points now. I will probably respec and try this, and possibly switch back to Lawbringer. Azurewrath has some speed and a socket, but Lawbringer has some life leach which would be nice, and more -enemy defense, plus extra decrip.
Future plans: I think adding a phoenix could be awesome{-fire res, at high player levels DS isn't that good), and I would wonder if using a Hand of Justice pb would also be an upgrade. Every mod it has would lend well to a TS DT sin, especially the itd. Although losing sanctuary would suck and the kicker might be the hit blinds target. It is too expensive for me to test right now. Infinity on merc would be a huge boost, going from sundered 83 resist to 66, doubling damage to immunes and doubling damage to non-immunes.
The elephant in the room: Yes, this build would destroy with dual mosaics. Even one Mosaic would be pretty useful (probably make up for losing sanctuary), but two would be nuts. 50k aoe damage every 7 frames, auto hit? It is dumb how powerful mosaic is on a build that is 1/10 the power the builds that people actually use. Mosaic is the reason I parked this character, I was so annoyed that I thought I might not touch the assassin again. I am glad I finished it, and if one used enigma / infinity / phoenix, I dont know how this assassin sans-mosaic isn't a top tier build.
Thanks for reading, and I think she looks pretty cool
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