New to assassins, build advice plz

[FrustratedNecro9500]

i know kicksins are popular now, and of course the lightning trap assassins, but i just have this need to try my own thing, be disappointed, and start all over again. hehe. anyway, here is what i was thinking (or not thinking, as im sure several of you will point out lol):

max: claw mastery, tiger strike, dragon claw
5 each in burst of speed, weapon block
~ 10-12 pts in shadow master
1 in death sentry to help weaken enemies when meleeing;
probably use a might merc

however, the more i thought about this, the more i realized i would be a physical immune unique's dream come true in hell. but really most of my confusion is on the shadow master...says they use all skills. but at what level? will a shadow master throw down a bunch of lvl 20 lightning sentries and help you out, or just stand there and throw fire blasts or something?

alternatively, i thought of this build:
20 claw mastery, fire blast, wake of inferno
5 each in burst of speed, weapon block
~10-12 in shadow master;
holy freeze merc to help the wake of inferno hit enemies, so its not constantly firing one step behind a bad guy hehe

the 1st seems to pack quite a punch as far as physical damage goes, which would be ok if the shadow master was somewhat reliable. i guess one last way to go is with the 1st build but use an act 1 or 3 merc.

Just as a side question, how hard and expensive is it to get nats set?

any experience assassins out there able to help me out with this?

[ilkori]

Check out the Strategy Compendium (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=538) for technical info on shadows/skills/etc. Click on the links in the Table of Contents to get info what you're looking for.

For the first build, use Venom rather than Tiger Strike. Tiger Strike takes time to charge, and you can do more damage by simply using Dragon Claw constantly. I'd also consider adding more points into Death Sentry. Elemental charms/jewels/etc help with Physical immunes also. This will give you two powerful forms of damage (physical/venom) with a nice physical/fire backup from Death Sentry (and any charms).

As elite sets go, Nats is fairly cheap. The claw is the most expensive/rare piece.

[FrustratedNecro9500]

Check out the Strategy Compendium (http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=538) for technical info on shadows/skills/etc. Click on the links in the Table of Contents to get info what you're looking for.

For the first build, use Venom rather than Tiger Strike. Tiger Strike takes time to charge, and you can do more damage by simply using Dragon Claw constantly. I'd also consider adding more points into Death Sentry. Elemental charms/jewels/etc help with Physical immunes also. This will give you two powerful forms of damage (physical/venom) with a nice physical/fire backup from Death Sentry (and any charms).

As elite sets go, Nats is fairly cheap. The claw is the most expensive/rare piece.

hmmm ok...i figured with dual claws, tiger strike would charge rather quickly and make one heck of an impact when claw was unleashed. also, regarding venom...wouldnt that take forever to actually kill something? and death sentry does fire and physical? u mean from the explosions, right...cuz the skill description says something about doing lightning damage. thanks for all the advice tho...as for nats set, i already have the helm, and honestly, i dont have anything good (cough cough UM) that i could trade for it anyway, was mostly just curious.

[ilkori]

It might be possible to get the full set for Um, maybe more, maybe less - depends on what realm you're on, and the air speed of a fully laiden African swallow.

I can get the exact numbers for whether Tiger or pure DClaw is better, but I think you'd be surprised. Yes, you do a lot in that one hit, but it takes a lot of time to charge up (where not very much damage is done). IIRC Tiger Strike only uses one claw, but Dragon Claw hits with both.

Venom is a great skill. It doesn't usually kill anything by itself, but it adds another form of damage, and can help with your Physical Immune problems.

Yes, the explosion on Death Sentry is what does the fire/physical. The lightning damage is negligible.

[FrustratedNecro9500]

It might be possible to get the full set for Um, maybe more, maybe less - depends on what realm you're on, and the air speed of a fully laiden African swallow.

I can get the exact numbers for whether Tiger or pure DClaw is better, but I think you'd be surprised. Yes, you do a lot in that one hit, but it takes a lot of time to charge up (where not very much damage is done). IIRC Tiger Strike only uses one claw, but Dragon Claw hits with both.

Venom is a great skill. It doesn't usually kill anything by itself, but it adds another form of damage, and can help with your Physical Immune problems.

Yes, the explosion on Death Sentry is what does the fire/physical. The lightning damage is negligible.

venom does look tempting, it would be nice to finally use a poison skill where ur not standing there for 20 seconds waiting for it to do its damage hehe. its only .4 seconds. one question though..can you have venom and burst of speed working at the same time? i tried an assassin i think all the way back when the expansion 1st came out, and i seem to remember fade, burst of speed, and venom cancelling out each other, so u could only be using one at a time. maybe its different in 1.10 though...if i cant use burst of speed when i have venom, im not sure using that is such a good idea. but on the other hand i could also not do much with burst of speed, and just have IAS equipment instead. also i was looking at claws of thunder and noticed charged bolt damage, which many players seem to be a fan of (charged boltresses/charged strike zons). does this release like or 8 charged bolts that all do damage or just one? this would be one way i could have a good elemental attack without using venom, if it would interfere with using burst of speed.

sorry about so many questions hehe.

[BIGeyedBUG]

Maxing TS + DC is a waste of skill points for the damage you get. If you want physical damage, go one or the other, but not both. (You could still use a 1 pt DC to release though.) They each have their advantages used individually.

Tiger Strike attacks at the same rate whether single- or dual-claw.

Venom can be used at the same time as either BoS or Fade now. BoS and Fade still cannot be used with each other.

Fire Blast + WoI isn't going to get you much.

CoT is nice, but its CBs don't compare favorably to the other CB skills. It does have two other semi-stackable damage types though. There's about 16 CBs.

[FrustratedNecro9500]

Maxing TS + DC is a waste of skill points for the damage you get. If you want physical damage, go one or the other, but not both. (You could still use a 1 pt DC to release though.) They each have their advantages used individually.

Tiger Strike attacks at the same rate whether single- or dual-claw.



ah i see...i was thinking if u maxed TS and DC, that TS damage bonus would apply to BOTH claws when u attacked with DC. in other words, the damage bonus of both TS and DC would be applied to each claw and added together. numbers wise, it seemed like maxing both would pack a huge whallop of physical damage...especially with claw mastery maxed and a might merc. i guess the saying goes...if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is hehe.

ok so after rethinking, what about this build as far as skill points go:

20 Claws of thunder
20 Claw mastery
20 dragon claw
10 shadow master
5 weapon block
1-5 burst of speed
1-5 death sentry
prereqs

this way i have a decent physical damage attack (i guess), and can do additional lightning damage to either kill quicker, or deal with phys immunes. burst of speed and death sentry both seem like with a fair amount of skill adds from items/charms, could be sufficient with just 1 point. shadow master should tank well enough at 10 pts.

from your reply im guessing wake of inferno needs to max 2 synergies, not 1 to be effective. guess i'll give this build a go and see what happens...at 1 point i was considering having this build have 2 venom rune word claws equipped, but then realized 2 mal runes could be used for a lot better things than that.

[FX-Amanda]

Hiya. heres some pointers.

So you wanna go full meele?

i wouldnt put more then 1 on BoS with gear you'll get more then enuff in IAS and FRW.

as for wb ... plan your gear and aim for the % you want after 56% it's a big gap between the %/skill points...

since i dont play melee, dont i have any input about the melee.

as for Death sentry 1 or 5 is the same so aim for 1. OR depending on what claw you are gonna use ... get a "DS rune word claw" and save it to other skills.

also would i try to get DF to "tele" into battle. and Dont forget to use CoS every melee asas best friend.

regards
FX-