Shadow Disciplines

[PuppMaster]

Shadow Disciplines

alright. im fairly new to the assassin.
i am going to concentrate all my points into
1. claw mastery
2. calw blocking (dont knw the exact name)
3. the one that speeds you up (dont knw the exact name)
4. the one that raises resistance(dont knw the exact name)
5. venom something or another (dont knw the exact name)

again im new to the assassin which is y i dont know the names.
these are all in the shadow discipline tree.

any ways, is this a good way to go?
any tips?


PS
i put a couple points in my traps early on in a1 normal., are those wasted points going to screw me over later on in the game?

 

[Gnouf Behaviour]

Yop!
Few things to do first :
1/You should first explain your aim (PVP/PVM).
As you are new to assa I assume you are just going for a pvm one.
2/You can try and take a look at the builds in the assa channel (they give nices advices for gear /skills)

But if you are against reading, I can do a quick summary :

Claws block/Burst of Speed (the increasing speed) are not usefull to be maxed because it's a degressive formula (the more you put, the less you get). Fade can be good to max because there's a Hidden bonus of Physical damage reduction. Max Venom to level 20 it's one of the best poison skill in the game.

You have to choose betwen Burst of Speed (the increasing speed) and Fade (the increasing resist) as you can't have both at the same time.

And you'll need a way to attack monsters so you'll have to take something like Dragon Tail or Double claw attack in the martial art tree.

And by the way you should get at least 1point into each skill of the shadow tab :
Shadow Warrior is a good decoy (smart IA good damage), mind blast is really good for ground control, and Cloak of shadow is really great as monsters will stop attacking you!!

For the traps, if you went to the Lightning part, you are good! just continue to reach the Death sentry trap (the one that can explode corpse) because corpse explosion is a must in pvm.
If you went fire well...that's bad but you might have spare point to spent so it's ok

Here is it!

 

[PuppMaster]

well for the burst of speed and the fade, basically i use them when i need to:

i use fade when there are monsters that use magic/poison.
and burst when they dont.

2. yes i am doing PvM
3. how high does the blocking percentage get?
4. claw mastery is a good idea, correct?
5. im not intrested to the martial arts or traps, but is it absolutely necisary to build them?

 

[BlueOctoberFan]

well for the burst of speed and the fade, basically i use them when i need to:

3. how high does the blocking percentage get?
4. claw mastery is a good idea, correct?
5. im not intrested to the martial arts or traps, but is it absolutely necisary to build them?

3. 57% at 20, but it's already at 50% at 10, so that's something to consider.

4. only if you're using claws... sounds stupid, but many people prefer to play s/s and use spirit sword and shield or something like that in order to get the easier resists from a shield.

5. While you might attack fast with Burst of Speed, you'll never be able to drop large groups with the same speed as using Death Sentry to pop the bodies. Martial arts are my least favorite set of skills for the assassin, but the kicking (Dragon Talon) is the fastest attack in the game, so if you get a weapon with crushing blow, you'll really crush the opponents, even bosses.

 

[Gnouf Behaviour]

3. how high does the blocking percentage get?
5. im not intrested to the martial arts or traps, but is it absolutely necisary to build them?

3-> Max blocking is 60% at lev 26 i think but for pvm 50% is totally ok and you can get that with only 1 point and +skills

5-> Using only Shadow tab for pvm would be like well...using only masteries and Bo for a barb and keep going with the normal attack. That's really less efficient. You don't have to consider the charging skills (Wich I personnaly don't really like) but at least take a look at the finishing attacks they are really easing you up.

But, if you really don't want to use the martial tree at all, and if you are wealthy, try and get yourself a chaos (runesword) that'll provide you the ww barb skill. Or simply just get a normal 3 socket claw with doubleclaw attack skill, make an Ith El Eth rune word (can't remember the name, i assume it should be malice) wich will give you cheap open wounds and try it.

Considering to have a high chance (60+%) of trigerring a crushing blow is also a must for pvm (Best than open wounds actually).


For Fade and BoS if you are using both, then don't max any, it will be a waste (And if you got correct res, you'll get addicted to BoS :wink2: ).