The Swiftrapper Assassin strategy guide

Galinho

New member
The Swiftrapper Assassin strategy guide

Hi all!
I'm new in this forum, nice to meet u!

Anyway, I recently wrote my first strategy guide. It's about the assassin.
I called it: "The Swiftrapper assassin". Download it and you'll understand why ^^.
Please write comments in reply to my strategy after u read it.
it is a very detailed guide. about 12 word pages^^.
Thank u! hope u all find it useful so I'll know if people can really use it!

The guide is able for download at this link: http://s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=23BEX51YFO9LT0V6C11DR6X59V

thank u all!!!^^
 
By the way, I forgot to mention in the guide:
The Vit amount that i wrote u should have is maybe an exaggeration( I mean too low Vit) and u need to put more points into it... check it out because maybe some people will get along just fine with this amount of points in Vit...
If not, write it here as a reply and I'll change it before publishing( If publishing at all... Hope so^^)

Thanks
 
If I'm reading you right (and I'm not entirely sure I am) your character is level 14? And your writing a guide for it based on that?
 
middleman35 said:
If I'm reading you right (and I'm not entirely sure I am) your character is level 14? And your writing a guide for it based on that?

My character is already lvl 55 and keeps leveling up.
 
ilkori said:
That hurt my eyes. I couldn't get past the intro to the introduction. Sorry.

I didn't understand why?
Can u please make yourself clearer?

and another thing to both of u who replied and to all of u who still didn't-
The original file of the strategy is going through changes all the time...
not all the time maybe but still....
I already changed that 14 lvl to 55 lvl, and corrected the Vit amount, which I thought u guys will find not useful, and such.

Anyway, Ilkori, please explain.
 
cowpaste said:
Here's a tip. Beat hell Baal solo a few times with different versions of this build...*then* write a guide.

Look...
If your'e trying to make fun or to insult or something, your'e not doing very good.
If your'e serious( and I don't think u r), I don't need to beat baal solo in hell just to prove the strategy. Maybe it's what u need in order to find out if your strategies work, but not me.
I don't need to get all the way up there in order to see if it works because I can tell if it's good a lot sooner.
Don't be insulted or something, I just don't like the :"THEN write a guide".
Sorry, but I have already written the guide and I keep on fixing it, so no comments like that are necessary, thank u.

and by the way, middleman35, she's lvl 64 now^^.
 
well it is quite confusing for me to, but as i read youre equipment part youre pretty cheap build

and nat set is not realy useful for a trapper imo....

i would suggest this for youre trapper (ias and fcr)

helm: shako
armor: enigma/coh/viper
weapon: (2 types of choices)
1#: wizzy/hoto
storm/spirit
2#: 2* +3-6 LS claws (2 sox with 2* 15/1x ias/resist jewels) (use runic talons)
boots: Watterwalks/eth sandstorms
gloves: laying of hands/magefist/TO gloves (ias or fcr youre choice)
belt: arachnid
jewelry: 2* bk + mara or +2 assa 1x fcr (other nice stats)

how about youre skills?

oh lightning sentry has much BETTER DMG then death senty but you should use death sentry anyway cause it has corpse explosion

btw you tried hell CS or throne? cause i doubt you will survive with any claw unless you go martial art skills but else let youre traps do the work :uhhuh:

i think you should first make char and make it perfect before posthing somthing here cause youre strategy might be pretty useles or not that we dont know as you did not even finished it yourself :rolleyes:

edit: did you read the stickied guides at top of this forum cause there stand almost any good/decent build there is, we not insulting you but more advising you about how it could be better as it looks obvious to me you dont play the game that long cause natalya set is not made for a trapper but for a martial art assasin as a trapper needs much +skills to have good dmg and martial art builded assa just need good dmg not much +skills ;)
 
Galinho said:
Look...
If your'e trying to make fun or to insult or something, your'e not doing very good.
If your'e serious( and I don't think u r), I don't need to beat baal solo in hell just to prove the strategy. Maybe it's what u need in order to find out if your strategies work, but not me.
I don't need to get all the way up there in order to see if it works because I can tell if it's good a lot sooner.
Don't be insulted or something, I just don't like the :"THEN write a guide".
Sorry, but I have already written the guide and I keep on fixing it, so no comments like that are necessary, thank u.

and by the way, middleman35, she's lvl 64 now^^.

It wasn't worded in the politest way, but he's got a very good point. There are alot of builds that play one way early in the game, and then another way late...or even become "unviable". Most PvM people are interested in builds that have been proven that they can go all the way.

It's also irresponsible to call your work a guide at this point, for the sake of anyone who might use it as such. What if you realize that stats or skills should be different? What if you see that the equipment needs to change? Stats and skills can't be reassigned, and while equipment is easier to change, it might not be possible for poorer players.

I'd call it a journal for now, rather than a guide. That way you're not making any guarantees.

By the way, I haven't read your document, as I'm leery of downloading anything from people I don't know. I'd be happy to read it if you post it here, and I think you'll get more comments from other people as well.
 
I understand that this is a good char in the beginning but later on it will be very difficult to get through the game. Attacking with claws is weak without the aid of other skills. Half synergized traps won't cut it. There are quite a lot of flaws. Please understand the people in this forum have thought of about 99.9% of all the builds that work and are only(well most of us) interested in builds that is differents and can solo the entire game. What we mean is to experiment with the character(go through the game) before making assumptions. A lot of things look good on paper but are not very good in the game.
 
Galinho said:
I didn't understand why?
Can u please make yourself clearer?

and another thing to both of u who replied and to all of u who still didn't-
The original file of the strategy is going through changes all the time...
not all the time maybe but still....
I already changed that 14 lvl to 55 lvl, and corrected the Vit amount, which I thought u guys will find not useful, and such.

Anyway, Ilkori, please explain.
Ok, here's your intro to the intro:
Galinho said:
The Swiftrapper Assassin Strategy Guide- By Galinho

First of all- U will probably start reading the introduction and think this is a guide about the druid, and that I confused the headline with the context. NO! This is a guide about the assassin! The introduction mentions the druid at first, just to show how the druid helped me understand the assassin better!
HAVE FUN! ?

Introduction to this guide:
Hi! I am Galinho, and I play Diablo 2 LOD on the Europe realm. I play Diablo 2 LOD on Battle.net for few years now.
The Char I like the most is the shapeshifter werewolf druid.

[ect. etc.]
Ok, first things first, a good guide requires spelling and grammar. The fifth word of your text is "U." That's a bad start. There is also a question mark at the end of your first paragraph...** after the exclamation mark... which was on a sentence that was not even a question. Aside from that, you have a superfluous writing style that most readers will not want to sort through in order to find out what they need: does this guide work? What will my final build look like? What are some variants that have been used and tested? Can this be used in Hardcore?



Galinho said:
Skills

First important thing to know is one sentence u must remember and keep in mind: DO NOT TOUCH THE MARTIAL ART SKILL TREE.
The skills u r going to use as a Swiftrapper assa are only taken from the other 2 skill trees- Shadow disciplines, and Traps.

This is the order u should deal the skill points as u level-up:

Lvl 2-5: Give 1 point to fire blast, 1 point to psychic hammer, and all the rest goes to claw mastery.

Lvl 6-11: Give 1 point to shock web and all the rest to Burst of speed.

Lvl 12-17: Give 1 point to Charged bolt sentry and, 1 point to Weapon block, 1 point to cloak of shadows, and all the rest to Burst of speed.

Lvl 18-23: Give 1 point to Shadow warrior and all the rest to Burst of speed.

Lvl 24-29: Give 1 point to Lightning sentry and all the rest to Burst of speed.

Lvl 30-34: Give 1 point to Death sentry, 1 point to Shadow master, and 2 points to Burst of speed. U should have maximized( 20 points) Burst of speed by now.

The next Lvls: From now on, Maximize Death sentry. U should be then at about Lvl 53. Now Maximize Claw mastery/Shadow master. I've given u the choice what skill of the two to maximize first, because I think u can get along great from now on by maximizing one of them and then the other, and I don't think there's a better choice than the other one. Suit yourself at this point. Just for u to know- I would go for Maximizing Shadow master first, and then Claw mastery… But that's just my opinion?.

Anyway, U should now be at about Lvl 88, with 11 skill points left to invest into skills.
I'm leaving it all to your hands. I believe u can now choose the skills on your own, because u r at a really high Lvl and strong enough. From this point on, u can't spoil it. U should be already very swift and strong.
I have a few recommendations, though…

* One option u have is to give it all to lightning sentry, which gives a 12% bonus to Death sentry's damage on each level u give it.

* Another choice is to invest it into Weapon block, which is also a great choice because u will be hurt by others much less.

* I really wouldn't do it if I were u, but you can also invest those skill points in Fire blast, which will give a 1 shot bonus to Death sentry on each 3 Levels u give it.
Bad choice if u ask me. If Death sentry would have gotten 1 shot for each point u give Fire blast… But each 3 Levels?!?!? No thanks… Not for me! But u can always choose your favorite skills?.
Have you even played a character in Hell? Ever? This section was so painful that I refuse to open or read or comment on your guide again. It is beyond repair. See me when you face the Hell Ancients. We'll talk then.



** read "..." as a pause.
 
First I would like to say that this is a nice first attempt of a guide, but honestly having played the game for over 4yrs now (single player and recently... bout 6months now online) and having always been "in love" with the Sin class for its viability I must say Galinho, this guide really wont do much on a 8 player game... you will be faced with lightning immunes and other sort of characters that will really render your build useless. I also noticed that in your guide you really dont do much refrence to the stats in your character except for a slight mention of :
OK. So- The swiftarpper's attributes goes like this:
Dex+Str+Dex+Str+Dex+Str…….
Did I mention Dex and Str? J
As I said before, in the introduction to the guide- The Swiftrapper's strategy is based on the combination between 3 general important things. ATR, Dmg and of course ATS. This 2 primary attributes are the two that are most important to the Swiftrapper, because they cover 2 out of those 3 important things: ATR, And Dmg.

honestly I have a trapsin and a monk sin on multi player and on single player I have a few meesed up characters that I plan to delete...

anyways a good trap sin be speed or ghost (fade) dosent really need str... a melee sin, be kicker or puncher also do not need much str... dex is great for evading attacks but most importantly you need vitality wich your guide totaly avoids.... honstly Galinho I would suggest to keep your character up a bit more and try to develoup it a bit more... once you have reached its max-potential (around hell's diablo or hells world stone keep) and get too see all those wonderful lightning immunes and phisical immunes.... what then???


save and exit
 
Ok. So-
First of all i thank all of u who helped me with your comments and i appreciate this even if I'm disappointed.
Thank u all, except Likori.
Likori- SHUT UP MAN!!! I MEAN SERIOUSLEY!!!
Listen up man! this is not a formal letter written to the prime minister, but a strategy guide in a game!!! For heaven's sake!!!
So first- My english is good, and it's ok to write like this in a DAMN STRATEGY GUIDE. shut up.
second- As u said, u don't want to comment my guide. I DO NOT WANT U TO COMMENT MY GUIDE!! I DON"T TAKE COMMENTS FROM NOOBS!!!! SO STAY AWAY FROM THIS TOPIC OR CHANGE YOUR DAMN ATTITUDE!!!!!
:mad: :mad: :mad:
Now- I don't really remember who it was that said "It's obvious u don't play the game for a long time..."
I play diablo since I was 12 or 13 years old. Now I'm almost 18.
And to all of u- I don't know why u think that claws r useless if u don't use martial arts. That is so not true. I have Bartuc on one hand and it does REALLY GREAT DMG. I'm planning to get to lvl 79 to start using Nat with my other hand( Now lvl 66). Maybe laeter I'll use jade talon instead of Bartuc, but even if not, that's not my point. my point is- Claws r the perfect weapon for every assa, and not just trappers. They deal good dmg if u get the right claws, and they r always fast/very fast as!!!
And about natalya-Believe me- it's great for every assa and not only the martial artists. I use Nat and it's great for me as a claw-trapper.
And to all of u guys- I don't really think u HAVE TO kill baal in hell solo to prove that your guide is good for use.
And another thing- I'm still working on it and still fixing it as u all said. It's much better now, and I'll keep working on it, but I hope soon it will be published here. Whoever wants to use it, will use. Whoever don't-won't.
In spite of my Dissapointment i got when i read most of your comments, I still thank u all for advising and replying (but not likory... DON'T REPLY HERE NOOB!!!). It's very important to me, and as i said-I'm continuing the work on it, and I think it's gonna get a lot more useful. Special thanks to those who used a calm comment and expression such as: "Wer'e not trying to insult, just to advise". Maybe all of u should write this way instead of your usual writing habits. Thanks! Cya! :thanks:
 
youre writing is very unclear hardly readable....

this topic will get closed anyway soon i hope
we dont like flaming here
the word noob and wors alike intended to flame are not allowed here
ilkori is very smart guy he knows much about assasins so i suggest to listen to him i doubt you will even get to hell ancients without a boost
 
Galinho said:
ilkori...NOOB!!!

:scratch: "I don't think that word means what you think it means."

Really, ilkori is one of the most knowledgable 'sin players in the game. He's helped a lot of people out here. Maybe he'll even help you.

If you look at the other guides here--and if you haven't, you should--you'll see that they're written properly. They don't have to be fancy, but you're not going to see a lot of 'u's and 'r's in them. That's fine for chat, but you're writing a guide--you've got time to spell things out. Since you said you'd like to have your guide published here, think of what ilkori said as constructive criticism.

If you follow his advice, more people will read your guide.
 
Galinho: By posting your guide, it's implied you want critique/comments on your guide. However, by calling out posters, you're lessening your chance of getting some useful suggestions. While ilkori didn't word it in the nicest way, he has a point in that a guide poster ought to know how his/her build will fare in almost all parts of the game, in all difficulties, so guide readers will have a good idea of what to expect and how to tackle areas that may pose a challenge to the build. Without this, guide readers will be left blind when they reach Hell. I'll let the namecalling pass this time round, but next time you flame other users, I won't be so lenient.

Onto the guide itself:

1) IMO, the intro needs to be shortened a bit. While it's interesting to find out about how you formulated the build, it doesn't need to be that long.

2) Statistics: I notice you rely on Defense/Attack Rating gained from DEX investment quite a bit. However, given the Assassin has few Defense-increasing skills(CoS being the only one), so I'm not sure a heavy DEX investment is a wise idea, particularly in late NM/Hell when monsters receive a lot of AR, not counting some monsters who have Ignore Target Defense. Furthermore, as you yourself said later on,
... ATR is a different story, because it's really easy to find on items, especially rings

Armor
Again- if u have a chance to complete Nat, I recommend a socketed or even a non-socketed Nat armor.....
it's relatively easy to get AR on equipment, while +VIT/HP harder, so why not invest in VIT instead?

You also mentioned STR has a strong part of your guide for reasons of damage. However, STR only increases claw damage by 0.75% per point. Looking at the big picture, do you believe that it's more worthwhile to get 75% ED(100 STR) or 300 life(100 VIT), especially considering you're only using claw damage half the time?

3) As other posters have mentioned, you need to improve your writing style. Guides have to be concise and to the point, and need to be in grammatically correct English. Anything less makes reading the guide significantly more difficult.

4) I'm not sure about your decision to max BoS....the diminishing returns really start to make themselves apparent after slvl 10. Also, using Natalya's Odium with a Bartuc means you'll probably already be at the speed cap for Trap-laying and Normal Attack at slvl 5-8 BoS, so any further points in BoS will probably only benefit you by giving Faster Run/Walk. While I understand your emphasis on speed, why not consider putting the excess BoS points into a direct damage skill like Lightning Sentry/Charged Bolt Sentry to synergize your Death Sentry?

5) There seems to be a conflict between stat points and skill points. Why do I say this? You place a high emphasis on STR in your stats for the purposes of increasing claw damage, yet you have no points in Martial Arts. While claw damage boosted by Claw Mastery/STR may last you into NM for some time, isn't a better idea to place skill points in Martial Arts that will definitely improve melee damage(such as elemental chargeups like PS/CoT, or Kicks like DTalon/DTail, which would make excellent use of your STR/DEX investment) rather than rely solely on the reader's ability to get high damage claws, which may be too expensive?
 
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