The Ronin (PvM Guide)

[Dimmu Borgir]

The Ronin (PvM Guide)

So yeah. I've been working with my Tiger Tail Sin, and I love the increidble damage output, but in Hell... she quite frankly gets owned. So I decided, what can I do to this build to allow this Sin to handle ANY situation?

I'm going pure melee, so not traps to help me out here. So here's what I've come up with.

Main build consists of:

20 Tiger Strike
20 Dragon Tail

Which, alone, gives you rediculous splash damage. Upwards of 20K with enough +skills. But that's pure fire, so Fire Immunes just stand there and call you a noob.

So to deal with them, and for good boss fighting support, I invested in Dragon Talon. Throw down some upgraded Gores and you're set.

But then there's the Physical Immunes, and the Physical/Fire immunes. So I thought, why not make a Passion and Berserk them...

...Which brought me to the central idea for this build: Tiger Strike Berserk.

If Dragon Tail can achieve 20K, and has 250% fire damage at level 20, think about Berserk. It works the same way, only with magic damage, and no splash. It can achieve 400%+ magic damage alone. Couple that with +1500% Tiger Strike, and +300% on a Fortitude, and dear god, you have the highest damage physical melee attack in the entire game. Period. And only one type of monster is immune to it, which only apears once in one area.

So the build ended up like this:

20 Tiger Strike
20 Dragon Tail
20 Dragon Talon
20 Fade
20 Claw Mastery

Claw Mastery, even though you can't make a Passion out of a claw, is thrown in there to make sure Tiger Strike hits and gives you your charges. So the basic idea here is to go Claw/Claw, build up your Tiger Strike, and have Berserk and your Passion already set on switch, so when you need to switch out Tail for Berserk, you can do it instantly.

I named it the Ronin because she can basically take out anything and everything on her own, without the help of any summonables (traps) or minions (shadows), very much akin to a real Ronin who has no master.

Now, as for Passion, I thought about making it in a 2-Hand sword to fir a more Samurai theme, but Assassins don't look very good holding one. They hold them like a bat rather than in a "sheathed" stance. So I need suggestions on the weapon to make a Passion out of, what looks the coolest for a 2-Hander on an Assassin?

 

[mephiztophelez]

hate to bust your bubble, but bezerk isn't a 'finisher or normal attack'. afaik, you can't use it to release your tiger strike charges.

I'm going pure melee, so not traps to help me out here. So here's what I've come up with.

i think this is a massive cripple on your character. i would suggest that 20 into death sentry will REALLY improve your killing in hell.

 

[Dimmu Borgir]

Figures Berserk wouldn't release charges. I'm gonna test it out though.

And I don't care about traps, I'm not going to use them because this build is not a trapper.

 

[NewForumBloke]

Theres always the use of having a Gimmershred and Tiamet's Rebuke ok a switch for ele dmg to deal with those pesky immunes. Or you could always incorporate pheonix strike maybe?

-BLoke :smug:

 

[BIGeyedBUG]

Figures Berserk wouldn't release charges. I'm gonna test it out though.

Feel free to test it of course, but it doesn't work. The only things that realease charges are the four finishers and Normal Attack.

Lawbringer makes a handy Dtail weapon by the way, though you're stuck with swords then if you want to stay with the Samurai feel. Personally I think 2h swords look terrific (and fairly realistic, considering) on Assassins--the real problem that's pissed me off for years now is their base speed using them.

Other weapon types that are vaguely Oriental, not too horribly slow, and look good IMO, are polearms and staves. There aren't a lot of options that really fit Dtail with the latter, but there are definitely some good polearm possibilities.

 

[ilkori]

A few more bugs in the theory.

Berserk doesn't work like Dragon Tail even if it released charges. It would add the Tiger Strike ED to the ED on the skill, rather than multiplying damage like Dragon Tail.

While taking advantage of the C/C route for charges, then releasing with a desired alternate weapon is a cool idea, it takes a very long time to switch weapons. Not only that, it can be buggy, which means you spend time without attacks, and become vulnerable. It is very difficult to do in the heat of battle, and this is the reason I only do switching between traps and melee (and stay out of the fray while I'm switching).

Even though I haven't tried it much, here's another vote for Lawbringer. It lowers defense, has slain monsters RIP (Samurai kill things dead), and has some additional elemental damage. The Decrep and Sanctuary help even more. Your only challenge will be to get an attack speed that you are comfortable with.


While it has challenges when you consider game mechanics, I'm loving the story and concept. Samurai were open warriors, so traps would be out (since they are the territory of ninjas). As solo rogues, having no shadow or merc also follows suit (unless the samurai became its own master and took an apprentice and hired additional help - an A5 merc would be sweet here).