- Aug 5, 2005
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The PvP Fastcast WW/Kick/Stun Assassin - by Speederlander (Part 1 of 8)
Originally Posted Aug 18, 2005
Note: This guide was originally written for BNet. Please bear in mind it may recommend items not found or permitted in Single Player.
PvP Fast-cast WW/Kick/Stun Assassin Guide
Pre-Introduction
This guide focuses on strategy, not items and stats (though I will discuss both). As such it is useful for the build in the title (WW/Kick/Stun), 'ghost' style pure WW assassins, 'ghost' style pure kickers, BvC barbs (since there are a lot of practical whirlwind pointers), trappers, and anyone else interested in good dueling techniques. It is largely unchanged after the latest patch releases. I have altered some portions of the equipment section to reflect the hellfire charm. These changes are really minimal. It just means a bit more pre-planning, yet another 'perfect stat' expensive charm that everyone has to try and get, and added flexibility in stats and the like. Hopefully this guide will have a long and useful life.
Enjoy!
Quick List of Acronyms:
AoE - area of effect
AR - attack rating
BS - blade shield
CB - claw block (also WB - weapon block)
CoA - crown of ages
CTA - call to arms
DF - dragon flight
DR - damage reduction (physical)
DT - dragon talon
FHR - fast hit recovery
GC - grand charm
IAS - increased attack speed
KB - knockback
LS - lightning sentry
MB - mind blast
OW - open wounds
PLR - poison length reduction
Res - resistance
SC - small charm
SM - shadow master
WB - weapon block (also CB - claw block)
WW - whirlwind
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Build Goals
3. Note on Damage
4. Note on Attack Rating
5. Note on Claw Block
6. Note on Mana
7. Note on Mercs
8. Skills
9. Equipment
10. Alternate Equipment Set-up
11. Notes on Armor Choice
12. General Notes on Equipment
13. Anya Bug
14. Attribute Points
15. Notes on Poison Damage
17. Notes on Speed
18. Chance to Cast and Stun with Dragon Talon
19. General Strategy and Technique Guide
20. General Match-up Notes
21. Class-Variant Strategy Breakdown
INTRODUCTION
This build combines all of the best aspects of the kicker, whirlwind assassin, and trapper in a solid dueling framework. It uses whirlwind and dragon talon for its principal damage dealing skills. It uses teleport for its primary movement with tactical use of dragon flight in on-screen situations. It uses stun supplied by base level traps and level 42 to 50 mind blast, with high level mind blast supplying some damage dealing capacity and finishing capability at a distance of 2+ screens away with continuous cast via name-lock.
This is not a 'ghost' ww-sin. It is a ww/kick hybrid. I've been posting bits and pieces of this guide since early in ladder 1, before anyone heard of the name "ghost" attached to a ww-sin. I just happened to be doing it, at that time, with a pure kicker rather than ww assassin. Ladder 2 introduced certain items, like grief, which made pallys and melee generally very difficult. In the ladder 1 time-frame (both on and off the ladder), a tricked out kicker could hold their own in most public dueling games (even if certain melee builds could not be beaten at all). There were so many pure caster types that kickers always had good duels available. But now, there are so many paladins with a massive physical attack along with their ranged attacks (FoH, hammers, etc.), that you simply must have whirlwind. There were a LOT of paladins in ladder 2 (and off the ladder) as items and better, more refined, builds pushed more and more people toward that class. If you kicked only, you did not do well. I went into many 8 person public duel games and had 7 pallys plus myself. However, to go whirlwind only means that you lose the benefit of an extremely accurate and powerful tool against casters by forgoing kick. No matter what anyone says, kicking is the superior attack against sorcs, wind druids, necromancers, etc. You need both attacks, kicking (mostly) for casters and ww (mostly) for melee and pally casters. This doesn't mean I exclusively use kicks against necros, for example. It just means that kicks are my primary attack against certain classes. This is discussed in the strategy section below. WW + kick gives you a huge range of options in the heat of a duel. It is superior to a pure ww (whether ghost or otherwise) or any type of pure kicker. Finally, you don't need that big a skill point investment to make kicking effective, as I will outline below. There is no good reason NOT to have dragon talon as a skill!
In my opinion, this is the best PvP assassin type you can play for 1 vs. 1 duels when you are decked out. It's better 1 on 1 than a trapper, though a trapper is better in a team. I also consider this the single most demanding PvP build you can play. I've played just about every style of dueler out there at one time or another going back to the beta. Nothing has come close, in my mind, to the complexity of making this build function well. As a result, I find it endlessly interesting and fun. Much more so than playing a trapper or a bone nec or a smiter or a ww barb or any type of sorc. 99% of time you will be the aggressor and will be chasing your opponent. It's always more fun to play offensively than defensively. It also takes MUCH more skill to be a good offensive player. Anyone can run and spam their attack.
Most of this guide is about tactics and strategy. Items are items and we all know how important they are. I assume the people who go to the trouble of reading PvP strategy guides have decent items or access to such items or are willing to work to get such items. Once we are on this semi-level playing field, we can focus on technique. Good items (or at least decent ones) are critical but you can't simply spend your way to winning with this dueler. They are necessary but NOT sufficient to do well.
This guide assumes you have familiarity with assassins. If you have never played a ww sin before, or a kicker, or at least a trapper, don't start here. You'll become frustrated. Play the more common variants first. Get good at kickers, then try WW, and then perhaps some trapping. That will get you the basics for making this build work for you. Note that I'm not posting all the hit recovery, fast cast rate or ias charts as some other guides do. If you've never had to look them up before or you don't know that trapping is tied to ias and mind blast is tied to fast cast rate, then this isn't the guide you should be looking at.
This guide is built with the philosophy of doing as FEW equipment changes as possible. When I do a public dueling game (or just about any dueling game, for that matter), I want to put on my primary equipment for that game, based on the mix of players, and be able to do well w/o having to run to my stash for new equipment every time I duel someone different. Other than the occasional AR gear switch or T'Gods/Jade Talon switch, I have tried to minimize required changes. Almost all of the people who duel end up doing mostly public games, since there just aren't any big private groups left. In a public game, you can have free-for-alls, teams, and people who just jump you when you are weak after dueling someone else. You also have random traps and hits from people not even trying to hit you. If you are equipped to "duel melee", then some sorc is going to swing through and kill you due to low res, etc. If you are equipped with all your res gear and some pally decides to take a swipe, you want full DR. Having to run to your stash to switch equipment on a per-duel basis is both unrealistic and, in the end, pretty annoying. It's just like people saying they will pre-buff their venom with bramble, 3/3 claws, a shadow ammy, etc. After a couple of times it just gets old, fast. For a tourney, if it's allowed, then do it for sure. Otherwise, forget it. I want to be in a dueling game, kill a sorc, pop over and wax that necro that was observing, avoid (or kill) the smiter trying to slap me when I'm almost dead, and then still take out the annoying zon who hit me with a multishot 2 minutes ago while I was dueling the sorc. All without switching anything. I'm not saying you won't do equipment changes with my build, just that you won't do them all that often.
This build is not cheap. Further, it is complex to play and hard to master, especially with the timing of attacks and hotkey use. I will provide cheap(er) alternatives to expensive equipment whenever possible, but the use of high level rune words, certain expensive equipment, and decent charms is a must. There is no way around it. You also won't 'own" a week after you make your assassin. I've played this build, or a variation on it, over two ladders now (both on and off the ladder), always improving it. I played trappers for a year or more prior to 1.10. If you aren't willing to put in the time practicing and getting better, and losing in the beginning, you'll quit in frustration. I've even quit myself a few times.
Finally, this is a major twitch build. It requires good reflexes and a decent connection. If you lack either, you will probably have trouble making it work for you.
BUILD GOALS (numbers that we MUST hit)
1. 7/3 kick speed with either 3 or 4 kicks in a talon sequence (after battle command from CTA)
2. Final breakpoint whirlwind speed of 4 frames with all claws
3. 9 frame trap laying speed
4. 65 fast-cast breakpoint for teleport and mind blast (except when wearing some res/absorb equipment)
5. High open wounds when need demands (achieved through fury claw)
6. Massive venom damage (lvl 40 to 50 venom)
7. Largely a vitality build, to the extent possible (i.e. do NOT pump dex or str for AR or damage)
8. 60% claw block (with battle command active)
9. Max resistance in hell BEFORE the Anya quest (i.e. 75 resist all in hell not including Anya)
10. 86 FHR break point when needed without loss of other important stats (You don't always need 86 FHR, but you need to always be able to get it)
11. 50% physical damage reduction at all times (with battle command active)
12. Enough mana to allow fairly continuous teleport, trapping, mind blasting, and whirlwinding
13. Enough attack rating to hit well (see below)
These goals help us to define equipment as well as skill and stat point distribution. Look again at these goals. These are the numbers you have to hit. These are the heart of the build.
NOTE ON DAMAGE:
With the set-up I provide, your goal should be lvl 40+ venom. This is critical. In fact, level 40 is really too low. I had level 48 to 50 venom with my final assassin.
Your kick damage does not show the venom addition. Your listed screen damage will be in the 950 to 1K kick range on the max damage end. This number doesn't matter. Everyone ends up with roughly the same number.
Your WW damage (and your kick damage) is simply a combo of your physical damage, venom, magic damage, and any other sources. Again, everyone is roughly the same here. Don't try to design around small increments in kick or WW physical damage. Focus on the goals above. The damage will sort itself out and is focused on your venom damage.
Also, crushing blow is overrated. Don't go out of your way to get it. In fact, I play with ZERO crushing blow. If you have some off-the-wall piece of equipment that has it, fine. But NEVER design around trying to get it. The numbers on CB, when you really break it down, don't add up to whatever it may cost you. Crushing blow is critical for PvM. Feel free to have CB equipment for leveling. Just don't think you should use it for PvP, no matter what some critics may claim. These numbers have been run IN DETAIL by several people who spent a great deal of time on it, including myself. CB is not a mod to sacrifice anything for.
NOTE ON ATTACK RATING (see also equipment section below):
You want your WW attack rating in the 5000+ range and your kick attack rating somewhere over 5K as well. This allows you to hit all but high defense characters. Via good whirl-away you can also hit many high defense characters. When you run, the to-hit equation is ignored, so a 5K AR attack behaves like smite. This means those pallys with 30K defense might as well have ZERO when they are running/charging for all the good it does them. This allows a lower AR character to actually hit, especially with whirlwind.
5K AR doesn't always cut it however. Normally, against high defense pallys and the occasional barb, I will wear my fools mod claw. This should get you in the 10K to 11K range (give or take). This is enough to hit non-defense specialists.
Fools claw plus angelics gets you in the 19K to 20K or better attack rating range. Combined with whirl-away, this allows you to hit any melee out there. Note that if you wear angelics you have greatly limited mobility (due to slower teleport cast rate). Usually you should only do this if you can get 1 vs. 1 duels w/o interference or if everyone you are dueling is primarily melee. Your resistance is also going to be low. A lot of people in pubbies will pounce you when you are set to specifically duel someone else with constraining equipment changes.
Don't ever pump dex in order to get AR. I've tried it before. It really is of minimal help and costs you a load of life. You should end up with 115 dex (runic talon requirement) fully equipped, barring minor extra equipment stats like dexterity on rings, claws, etc.
Don't stress about AR. I used to really worry about it. You don't have to. Get it in the 5K range, keep some AR gear for certain match-ups, and forget about it. You won't be able to PvM very much, but then this isn't a PvM character. If you have 5K AR and you feel like you aren't hitting, take a close look at your technique before you go altering things to punch up your attack rating.
NOTE ON CLAW BLOCK
Claw block does not check when you run; no to-hit check, no blocking. This is a fact. All attacks against you are auto-hit if they have proximity. Some people have trouble believing it, many people aren't aware of it. But it's true. Claw block is at full value when you teleport and when you attack and when you have WW active. This is mentioned again in the general strategy section.
NOTE ON MANA
My assassin has anywhere from 775 to 830 mana, depending on my set-up and final character level. This is plenty for 98% of my duels. Most people, however, will not have the mana levels I get.
I recommend using mana pots. This recommendation will annoy some people, people who feel that there is an imaginary set of rules binding all people who do PvP. People will claim that using mana pots is 'BM'. There is no such thing as 'BM'. Be polite. Try to have fun duels. This means for both you and the person dueling you. That's all there is to 'mannered' dueling.
If you play in a league, and the league bans mana pots, then don't use them. I don't advocate breaking any rules or cheating in any way. However, 99% of the dueling in 1.10 occurs in pubs now. And in pubs, almost everyone uses mana pots. Indeed, certain builds like wind druids REQUIRE mana pots. I assume that everyone uses them. It just makes things easier. If you think that madly teleporting WW barb, windy or bone nec isn't dropping mana, think again.
In any event, you need to get your mana in the 600+ range to really have any shot at beating good casters.
NOTE: I do NOT advocate using life pots or rejuvs. Even when people use them against me my personal policy is not to use them. About the only universal rules that people SORT of agree on are with respect to life potting, NKing and guarding. Even these rules aren't universal, as there are plenty of clans that play 'BM' among themselves because they seem to enjoy it. I'm not here to judge anyone. My personal policy is not to life pot or rejuv.
I tend to carry mana pots but I rarely have to use them. My build does NOT require mana pots. But you had better be prepared to shell out for charms if you don't want to use them.
>>>>>>I say again: This build does NOT require mana pots.
NOTE ON MERCS
I never use mercs so I have no advice here. My personal opinion is that people who use mercs in PvP often lack the skill to duel well without them (though not always). They are expensive to resurrect, you eventually can't depend on them (when you run out of cash to res), meaning you have to switch tactics and they are a crutch, promoting sloppy technique. If you want one, then go for it. I won't recommend it for any PvP, however. You have one of the best mercs in the game, your recastable shadow master. Use it.
Originally Posted Aug 18, 2005
Note: This guide was originally written for BNet. Please bear in mind it may recommend items not found or permitted in Single Player.
PvP Fast-cast WW/Kick/Stun Assassin Guide
Pre-Introduction
This guide focuses on strategy, not items and stats (though I will discuss both). As such it is useful for the build in the title (WW/Kick/Stun), 'ghost' style pure WW assassins, 'ghost' style pure kickers, BvC barbs (since there are a lot of practical whirlwind pointers), trappers, and anyone else interested in good dueling techniques. It is largely unchanged after the latest patch releases. I have altered some portions of the equipment section to reflect the hellfire charm. These changes are really minimal. It just means a bit more pre-planning, yet another 'perfect stat' expensive charm that everyone has to try and get, and added flexibility in stats and the like. Hopefully this guide will have a long and useful life.
Enjoy!
Quick List of Acronyms:
AoE - area of effect
AR - attack rating
BS - blade shield
CB - claw block (also WB - weapon block)
CoA - crown of ages
CTA - call to arms
DF - dragon flight
DR - damage reduction (physical)
DT - dragon talon
FHR - fast hit recovery
GC - grand charm
IAS - increased attack speed
KB - knockback
LS - lightning sentry
MB - mind blast
OW - open wounds
PLR - poison length reduction
Res - resistance
SC - small charm
SM - shadow master
WB - weapon block (also CB - claw block)
WW - whirlwind
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Build Goals
3. Note on Damage
4. Note on Attack Rating
5. Note on Claw Block
6. Note on Mana
7. Note on Mercs
8. Skills
9. Equipment
10. Alternate Equipment Set-up
11. Notes on Armor Choice
12. General Notes on Equipment
13. Anya Bug
14. Attribute Points
15. Notes on Poison Damage
- The Double Application Feature
- The Hidden Hell PLR
17. Notes on Speed
18. Chance to Cast and Stun with Dragon Talon
19. General Strategy and Technique Guide
20. General Match-up Notes
21. Class-Variant Strategy Breakdown
Necromancer
- Bone Necros
- Standard Bone Nec Technique
- Bone Necs with Minions
- Defensive Bone Necs
- Poison Nova Necs
Sorceress
- Fireball Sorcs
- Frozen Orb Sorcs
- Lightning Sorcs
- Light Sorc with Conviction Merc
- Light Sorc with Conviction Merc and Auto-Aim
- Blizzard Sorcs
- Blizzard Sorcs with Auto-Aim
- Energy Shield Sorcs
Druid
- Wind Druids
Assassin
- Trappers
- Trapper Type 1: claw-claw
- Trapper Type 2: 102 FC, hoto/shield
- 'Evade' Trappers
- Trapper with a conviction merc
- Bramble WW-Sins
Paladin
- Smiter/Chargers
- Fist of Heavens Pally
- Fist of Heavens Pally with Smite and Charge
- Hammer Pally
- Auradins
Amazon
- Bowazons
- Javazons
- Plaguezons
Barbarian
22. Credits- WW Barbs
- Alternate technique vs. Barbs
INTRODUCTION
This build combines all of the best aspects of the kicker, whirlwind assassin, and trapper in a solid dueling framework. It uses whirlwind and dragon talon for its principal damage dealing skills. It uses teleport for its primary movement with tactical use of dragon flight in on-screen situations. It uses stun supplied by base level traps and level 42 to 50 mind blast, with high level mind blast supplying some damage dealing capacity and finishing capability at a distance of 2+ screens away with continuous cast via name-lock.
This is not a 'ghost' ww-sin. It is a ww/kick hybrid. I've been posting bits and pieces of this guide since early in ladder 1, before anyone heard of the name "ghost" attached to a ww-sin. I just happened to be doing it, at that time, with a pure kicker rather than ww assassin. Ladder 2 introduced certain items, like grief, which made pallys and melee generally very difficult. In the ladder 1 time-frame (both on and off the ladder), a tricked out kicker could hold their own in most public dueling games (even if certain melee builds could not be beaten at all). There were so many pure caster types that kickers always had good duels available. But now, there are so many paladins with a massive physical attack along with their ranged attacks (FoH, hammers, etc.), that you simply must have whirlwind. There were a LOT of paladins in ladder 2 (and off the ladder) as items and better, more refined, builds pushed more and more people toward that class. If you kicked only, you did not do well. I went into many 8 person public duel games and had 7 pallys plus myself. However, to go whirlwind only means that you lose the benefit of an extremely accurate and powerful tool against casters by forgoing kick. No matter what anyone says, kicking is the superior attack against sorcs, wind druids, necromancers, etc. You need both attacks, kicking (mostly) for casters and ww (mostly) for melee and pally casters. This doesn't mean I exclusively use kicks against necros, for example. It just means that kicks are my primary attack against certain classes. This is discussed in the strategy section below. WW + kick gives you a huge range of options in the heat of a duel. It is superior to a pure ww (whether ghost or otherwise) or any type of pure kicker. Finally, you don't need that big a skill point investment to make kicking effective, as I will outline below. There is no good reason NOT to have dragon talon as a skill!
In my opinion, this is the best PvP assassin type you can play for 1 vs. 1 duels when you are decked out. It's better 1 on 1 than a trapper, though a trapper is better in a team. I also consider this the single most demanding PvP build you can play. I've played just about every style of dueler out there at one time or another going back to the beta. Nothing has come close, in my mind, to the complexity of making this build function well. As a result, I find it endlessly interesting and fun. Much more so than playing a trapper or a bone nec or a smiter or a ww barb or any type of sorc. 99% of time you will be the aggressor and will be chasing your opponent. It's always more fun to play offensively than defensively. It also takes MUCH more skill to be a good offensive player. Anyone can run and spam their attack.
Most of this guide is about tactics and strategy. Items are items and we all know how important they are. I assume the people who go to the trouble of reading PvP strategy guides have decent items or access to such items or are willing to work to get such items. Once we are on this semi-level playing field, we can focus on technique. Good items (or at least decent ones) are critical but you can't simply spend your way to winning with this dueler. They are necessary but NOT sufficient to do well.
This guide assumes you have familiarity with assassins. If you have never played a ww sin before, or a kicker, or at least a trapper, don't start here. You'll become frustrated. Play the more common variants first. Get good at kickers, then try WW, and then perhaps some trapping. That will get you the basics for making this build work for you. Note that I'm not posting all the hit recovery, fast cast rate or ias charts as some other guides do. If you've never had to look them up before or you don't know that trapping is tied to ias and mind blast is tied to fast cast rate, then this isn't the guide you should be looking at.
This guide is built with the philosophy of doing as FEW equipment changes as possible. When I do a public dueling game (or just about any dueling game, for that matter), I want to put on my primary equipment for that game, based on the mix of players, and be able to do well w/o having to run to my stash for new equipment every time I duel someone different. Other than the occasional AR gear switch or T'Gods/Jade Talon switch, I have tried to minimize required changes. Almost all of the people who duel end up doing mostly public games, since there just aren't any big private groups left. In a public game, you can have free-for-alls, teams, and people who just jump you when you are weak after dueling someone else. You also have random traps and hits from people not even trying to hit you. If you are equipped to "duel melee", then some sorc is going to swing through and kill you due to low res, etc. If you are equipped with all your res gear and some pally decides to take a swipe, you want full DR. Having to run to your stash to switch equipment on a per-duel basis is both unrealistic and, in the end, pretty annoying. It's just like people saying they will pre-buff their venom with bramble, 3/3 claws, a shadow ammy, etc. After a couple of times it just gets old, fast. For a tourney, if it's allowed, then do it for sure. Otherwise, forget it. I want to be in a dueling game, kill a sorc, pop over and wax that necro that was observing, avoid (or kill) the smiter trying to slap me when I'm almost dead, and then still take out the annoying zon who hit me with a multishot 2 minutes ago while I was dueling the sorc. All without switching anything. I'm not saying you won't do equipment changes with my build, just that you won't do them all that often.
This build is not cheap. Further, it is complex to play and hard to master, especially with the timing of attacks and hotkey use. I will provide cheap(er) alternatives to expensive equipment whenever possible, but the use of high level rune words, certain expensive equipment, and decent charms is a must. There is no way around it. You also won't 'own" a week after you make your assassin. I've played this build, or a variation on it, over two ladders now (both on and off the ladder), always improving it. I played trappers for a year or more prior to 1.10. If you aren't willing to put in the time practicing and getting better, and losing in the beginning, you'll quit in frustration. I've even quit myself a few times.
Finally, this is a major twitch build. It requires good reflexes and a decent connection. If you lack either, you will probably have trouble making it work for you.
BUILD GOALS (numbers that we MUST hit)
1. 7/3 kick speed with either 3 or 4 kicks in a talon sequence (after battle command from CTA)
2. Final breakpoint whirlwind speed of 4 frames with all claws
3. 9 frame trap laying speed
4. 65 fast-cast breakpoint for teleport and mind blast (except when wearing some res/absorb equipment)
5. High open wounds when need demands (achieved through fury claw)
6. Massive venom damage (lvl 40 to 50 venom)
7. Largely a vitality build, to the extent possible (i.e. do NOT pump dex or str for AR or damage)
8. 60% claw block (with battle command active)
9. Max resistance in hell BEFORE the Anya quest (i.e. 75 resist all in hell not including Anya)
10. 86 FHR break point when needed without loss of other important stats (You don't always need 86 FHR, but you need to always be able to get it)
11. 50% physical damage reduction at all times (with battle command active)
12. Enough mana to allow fairly continuous teleport, trapping, mind blasting, and whirlwinding
13. Enough attack rating to hit well (see below)
These goals help us to define equipment as well as skill and stat point distribution. Look again at these goals. These are the numbers you have to hit. These are the heart of the build.
NOTE ON DAMAGE:
With the set-up I provide, your goal should be lvl 40+ venom. This is critical. In fact, level 40 is really too low. I had level 48 to 50 venom with my final assassin.
Your kick damage does not show the venom addition. Your listed screen damage will be in the 950 to 1K kick range on the max damage end. This number doesn't matter. Everyone ends up with roughly the same number.
Your WW damage (and your kick damage) is simply a combo of your physical damage, venom, magic damage, and any other sources. Again, everyone is roughly the same here. Don't try to design around small increments in kick or WW physical damage. Focus on the goals above. The damage will sort itself out and is focused on your venom damage.
Also, crushing blow is overrated. Don't go out of your way to get it. In fact, I play with ZERO crushing blow. If you have some off-the-wall piece of equipment that has it, fine. But NEVER design around trying to get it. The numbers on CB, when you really break it down, don't add up to whatever it may cost you. Crushing blow is critical for PvM. Feel free to have CB equipment for leveling. Just don't think you should use it for PvP, no matter what some critics may claim. These numbers have been run IN DETAIL by several people who spent a great deal of time on it, including myself. CB is not a mod to sacrifice anything for.
NOTE ON ATTACK RATING (see also equipment section below):
You want your WW attack rating in the 5000+ range and your kick attack rating somewhere over 5K as well. This allows you to hit all but high defense characters. Via good whirl-away you can also hit many high defense characters. When you run, the to-hit equation is ignored, so a 5K AR attack behaves like smite. This means those pallys with 30K defense might as well have ZERO when they are running/charging for all the good it does them. This allows a lower AR character to actually hit, especially with whirlwind.
5K AR doesn't always cut it however. Normally, against high defense pallys and the occasional barb, I will wear my fools mod claw. This should get you in the 10K to 11K range (give or take). This is enough to hit non-defense specialists.
Fools claw plus angelics gets you in the 19K to 20K or better attack rating range. Combined with whirl-away, this allows you to hit any melee out there. Note that if you wear angelics you have greatly limited mobility (due to slower teleport cast rate). Usually you should only do this if you can get 1 vs. 1 duels w/o interference or if everyone you are dueling is primarily melee. Your resistance is also going to be low. A lot of people in pubbies will pounce you when you are set to specifically duel someone else with constraining equipment changes.
Don't ever pump dex in order to get AR. I've tried it before. It really is of minimal help and costs you a load of life. You should end up with 115 dex (runic talon requirement) fully equipped, barring minor extra equipment stats like dexterity on rings, claws, etc.
Don't stress about AR. I used to really worry about it. You don't have to. Get it in the 5K range, keep some AR gear for certain match-ups, and forget about it. You won't be able to PvM very much, but then this isn't a PvM character. If you have 5K AR and you feel like you aren't hitting, take a close look at your technique before you go altering things to punch up your attack rating.
NOTE ON CLAW BLOCK
Claw block does not check when you run; no to-hit check, no blocking. This is a fact. All attacks against you are auto-hit if they have proximity. Some people have trouble believing it, many people aren't aware of it. But it's true. Claw block is at full value when you teleport and when you attack and when you have WW active. This is mentioned again in the general strategy section.
NOTE ON MANA
My assassin has anywhere from 775 to 830 mana, depending on my set-up and final character level. This is plenty for 98% of my duels. Most people, however, will not have the mana levels I get.
I recommend using mana pots. This recommendation will annoy some people, people who feel that there is an imaginary set of rules binding all people who do PvP. People will claim that using mana pots is 'BM'. There is no such thing as 'BM'. Be polite. Try to have fun duels. This means for both you and the person dueling you. That's all there is to 'mannered' dueling.
If you play in a league, and the league bans mana pots, then don't use them. I don't advocate breaking any rules or cheating in any way. However, 99% of the dueling in 1.10 occurs in pubs now. And in pubs, almost everyone uses mana pots. Indeed, certain builds like wind druids REQUIRE mana pots. I assume that everyone uses them. It just makes things easier. If you think that madly teleporting WW barb, windy or bone nec isn't dropping mana, think again.
In any event, you need to get your mana in the 600+ range to really have any shot at beating good casters.
NOTE: I do NOT advocate using life pots or rejuvs. Even when people use them against me my personal policy is not to use them. About the only universal rules that people SORT of agree on are with respect to life potting, NKing and guarding. Even these rules aren't universal, as there are plenty of clans that play 'BM' among themselves because they seem to enjoy it. I'm not here to judge anyone. My personal policy is not to life pot or rejuv.
I tend to carry mana pots but I rarely have to use them. My build does NOT require mana pots. But you had better be prepared to shell out for charms if you don't want to use them.
>>>>>>I say again: This build does NOT require mana pots.
NOTE ON MERCS
I never use mercs so I have no advice here. My personal opinion is that people who use mercs in PvP often lack the skill to duel well without them (though not always). They are expensive to resurrect, you eventually can't depend on them (when you run out of cash to res), meaning you have to switch tactics and they are a crutch, promoting sloppy technique. If you want one, then go for it. I won't recommend it for any PvP, however. You have one of the best mercs in the game, your recastable shadow master. Use it.