Venom or Boi/Pstrike?*Need Advice*

[MagicalPoop]

I am having kinda a hard time surviving in NightMare Act5 with my TigerStrike/DTail Kicksin. I've maxed out all my major skills and I dunno what to put in my skill points now..

I was thinking of spending the rest upon Venom or perhaps Shadow Master.
Though Blades of Ice is a nice skill for freezing.

Here is my current skill allocation at level 71 in Act5 NightMare
15 TigerStrike +5
20 DragonTail +5
11 ClawBlock+2
11 Burst of Speed +2
2 Blades of ice+2
2 Phoenix Strike+2
1 Shadow Master

Should I spend the rest on Venom?Or is venom really bad for my a kicksin..
(I mainly use tigerstrike+dragontail). I can barely take any hits ( 749 HP, no dmg reduce gear).

Also I am not doing great damage...with 3 charged level 20 TigerStrike+25 Dragontail I am only doing about 4000-6000. Would an upgrade from natayla boots (mesh boots) to say mymidon boots give a big dmg increase?
I die pretty fast too... 749 HP... 165 Vitality.
Suggestions?

Here is my equipment
Griswolds Armor
Bartuc Claw 177%ED
RareClaw
Natayla Boots
+2 Martial Arts rare Amulet
Rare leech rings
Mavina Belt
Cleglaw Gloves


Basically
1) Should I get Venom or put the rest into Blades of Ice/Phoenix or Shadow master
2) Any ways to improve my character?

[smartxtai]

actually, that damage you stated should be adequate enough to get through NM Act 5. I'm thinking that you are having a hard time with it is because the aoe range of Dtail kick is only ~4 yards and many of the monsters in act 5 are range. My lightning doing 300-4000 damage slaughters all the monsters there, so your kick should be killing them too.

[MagicalPoop]

Nevermind.. With level 3 TigerStrike I do about 6000-10K.
But still, even the monster being attacked only takes a small bit of damage for a 6000-10k attack ...

[Origin]

this is strange..
my old barb barely did 1000 damage (more like 7-800) and he went through nm very smoothly in 1.10 (tho hell was another matter)
how can 6-10 000 be a problem?

[Dogbert]

Put one point in Venom until you decide if you need/want to spend more points there.
It's good since you can have it active with Fade/Bos and level 1 Venom still lasts for 120 seconds.

The guy who started the thread seems rather confused. First his damage is 4-6k then suddenly 6-10k and still problems damaging enemies?

I went through nightmare with my paladin using Milabrega's regalia.
Also my druid used a normal (not upgraded) Ribcracker doing much less than your damage and still had no problems with nightmare whatsoever.

You could try wearing items giving crushing blow if you still have problems but i don't think you really should have any.

[pudftpcc]

Hmmm... probably a playstyle issue here. Are you using CoS and MB enough? Slipping that Cobra charge in there before the release?

Do a Rincewind and run away when the fight is going against you.

Get to 11 on SM with +skills gear. IMO it's silly to put more than 1pt in SM. You get +6 SD just from dual shadow claws on switch. You could find a shadow ammy to put on for casting SM on switch, and then you need just +1 elsewhere. This also gives you 11 BoS of course, fastest breakpoint for Bartuc's/shield but not for dual claws without additional IAS.

I found a high resist Skin of the Vipermagi very useful for NM leveling.

Have you exploited all open sockets? Or maybe get some new charms. A couple of +skillers and resist charms are nice giving you more gear flexibility.

Maybe you can switch gear for stuff that gives more life, or FRW or whatever. A couple of items changed can make a big difference. For example, struggle to lvl 72 and get myrmidon greaves and it's a whole new ballgame.

I went with C/S for this build and have no regrets ... but am still in NM so we'll see how things work out in hell. I have the same life as you but die only when I do something stupid.

Goodthighs
73 C/S TS/DT sin

[Perfectionist]

If you can get them, Goreriders are great kick boots. Kick dmg is a radius effect, and the dmg of you kick will be modified by the crushing blow.

Also, don't forget, the assassin takes alot of skill switching. You will always be casting cloak of shadows, then charging a point of cobra strike, then tiger strike, and another point of cobra strike if you need mana before unloading and laying waste to packs of enemies. But you charge that first cobra strike so you can quickly attack and heal if you need to. Even before the attack is really ready.

I can't stress enough the power of Shadow Masters either. Check out some other geat threads in here to see how tough she is. I can tell you she's the smartest toughest tank in the game. Easily beating out many uber equipped act2 pikemen in simple pvm.

Assassins were my favorite class for the finger excersize I got daily when playing them. But I've been spoiled here recently by a great CL/FO guide I found on the sorcs forum.

Don't give up on that Sin! She'll do ya well as you figure her out.

Perf