Trapper or martial artist?

[Lord_Impaler20]

Hello, i'm kinda new to the assasin forum and I was wondering:

I got to level 66 with my first trapper, i used the lightning tree and got quite far but I got bored :( I did quite good damage aswell. It was quite fun as a trapper but I think it's time to try something different. Im only into PVm so no dueltips ok? Which of the MA builds are the most fun to use?

Should I use Dtalon with two claws or should I go for PS and some of the synergies with one claw and shield?

[OscarWong]

I recommend you to play as Martial Artists.
You will know how good she is!

[Joergermeister]

Well Lord I just Matriarched my first MA sin on the new ladder a few weeks back. MA sins are a lot of fun and there are many different builds you can go with. I recommend Wildjinn's guide at the Strategy Compendium as good reference material for starters. http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=540

Good luck and have fun.

[OscarWong]

Yes, I really love Wildjinn's brilliant strategy!
However, I do not like Hybrid with some MA and Traps.
I would like introduce my wonderful build, although there maybe some flaw in my build:
Skills:
Max Tiger Strike
1 Dragon Talon
Max Fists of Fire
1 Dragon Claw
1 Cobra Strike
Max Claws of Lightning
Max Blades of Ice
Max Phoenix Strike
1 Claw Mastery
1 Burst of Speed
1 Weapon Block
1 Fade
1 Venom

Equipments:
Mainly follow his/her strategy.

My PvM Strategy:
Nothing special. Just set the 6 charge-up skills to be the hotkey. Then click them continuously and crazily...After charging a lot of hits, release all of them with Dragon Claw. Finally, I would say 'Nice Hit'!

[Baboon]

My PvM Strategy:
Nothing special. Just set the 6 charge-up skills to be the hotkey. Then click them continuously and crazily...After charging a lot of hits, release all of them with Dragon Claw. Finally, I would say 'Nice Hit'!

I can't play like that. If everything is not dead after 18 hits, it pisses me off. Besides, what do I use for the final blow? Some fallen? :)

[OscarWong]

But that is the main playing skill of MA!
If you get high attack speed+high HP, you shouldn't have that kind of problems.
I think Dragon Claw is the most suitable finishing move for MA since it takes 2 mana only, and two hits at once. Great Attack!
Sure that there will be some fallen, but never mind, just keep on fighting with tens/hundreds of monsters!

[knuckle_sammich]

Yes, I really love Wildjinn's brilliant strategy!
However, I do not like Hybrid with some MA and Traps.
I would like introduce my wonderful build, although there maybe some flaw in my build:
Skills:
Max Tiger Strike
1 Dragon Talon
Max Fists of Fire
1 Dragon Claw
1 Cobra Strike
Max Claws of Lightning
Max Blades of Ice
Max Phoenix Strike
1 Claw Mastery
1 Burst of Speed
1 Weapon Block
1 Fade
1 Venom
The only flaw i see with your build is maxing fists of fire. That skill will convert your physical damage to elemental damage making tiger strike useless. Unless you are only maxing it for synergy to pheonix.

[OscarWong]

Hmmm...
Actually, I seldoms use Fists of Fire, it is the synergy for Phoenix Strike.
However, I want to ask how many percents will Fists of Fire change phyiscal damage to fire damage?

[~YouThinkYouKnowMe~]

I wouldn't use PS. Dual claw Dtail + TS should make v-good dmg. Up to 100k. Of course on PvM style. Charging in PvP will make you die in a split second.

I'd put pts more or less like this:

Max Tiger Strike
Max Dragon Tail
1 pt Dragon Talon
1 pt Dragon Claw
1-5 BoS (up to you later how much you put)
Max Shadow Master

And the rest should be up to you. But venom doesn't work on kicks, does it?

[OscarWong]

In four main finishing moves, DTail gets the least attack rating bonus. In Level20 DTail, it only adds 305%.
Also because of the high mana cost. Although you may have 200 mana, you can just hit 20 times or more.
So, I don't think it is worth to spend 20 points on it.

[Lunatic]

I made a FoF / CoT / BoI sin once. She was really fun and hardly had any problems with anything. The only thing that could kill her were those freaking frenzytaurs in worldstone. BoI didn't freeze them , they were fire immune so I only could use CoT on them. But the real pain was they hit quite hard. With the rest I didn't have any trouble at all , except for the ocasional IM from obliv knights , but MB + CoS helped alot there (just MB those knights a few times , then go for the knights first).

[turmania]

you can make a good trapper/martial artis assa if u have some time and equipment and u get the best of both worlds. most easy and good one is a dtalon kicker. with traps or tiger strike/drgon tail backed with light traps... i prefer the kicker one. but you need to have godly items for it to work.

[GenXCub]

Oscar, DTail will do TONS more damage than Dragon Claw when paired with Tiger Strike because it's the only finisher that multiplies TS (the others just add to the ED). All you have to do is get Tiger and Dtail to level 30, wear a pair of myrmidon greaves, and you're doing over 25000 damage to a whole group of monsters within the DTail radius.

DC is more for Phoenix Strikers.

[BIGeyedBUG]

The only flaw i see with your build is maxing fists of fire. That skill will convert your physical damage to elemental damage making tiger strike useless.

That's not correct, in any case. FoF converts final physical damage after TS to fire, so nothing is lost in the conversion. You do lose damage over time because of the need to get at least one charge of FoF.

[BIGeyedBUG]

Oscar, DTail will do TONS more damage than Dragon Claw when paired with Tiger Strike because it's the only finisher that multiplies TS (the others just add to the ED). All you have to do is get Tiger and Dtail to level 30, wear a pair of myrmidon greaves, and you're doing over 25000 damage to a whole group of monsters within the DTail radius.


TS/Dtail certainly is powerful, but anybody who want to use it should know that its effectiveness can be affected by both fire and physical resistance. This is a major problem in Hell especially, and generally entails a lot of investment in other skills. I'm sure you know this, but it really should be emphasized when explaining the potential damage to someone unfamiliar with the build.

Basically, the fire splash damage is based on the physical release damage. For a complete explanation, read the FAQ or Wildjinn's guide mentioned earlier.

In four main finishing moves, DTail gets the least attack rating bonus. In Level20 DTail, it only adds 305%.
Also because of the high mana cost. Although you may have 200 mana, you can just hit 20 times or more.
So, I don't think it is worth to spend 20 points on it.

Dtails AR bonus does suck, and is a major concern if you're playing untwinked. Otherwise, it's easy to deal with.

Same goes for the mana cost, at low levels at least. But remember that with the huge physical of a maxed TS any kind of mana leech is going to fill your blue easily. When leech is a problem, drink a potion.

Also note what you get for that 10 mana: An area damage effect with knockback. DC will never affect more than 1 target at a time. While it costs 5 times what DC does, you can often affect more than 5 times the targets. The kb also provides a safety factor that Dclaw lacks.

Dtail does have problems. The immunity issue mentioned above, and the slowness of it's attack being the chief ones for most players.

[OscarWong]

Maybe I will try TS/DTail after finishing my present character...
But it seems to be unaccurate! I cast 4 DTails but only 1 to 2 hits is/are useful to do damages on monsters...