For Kicksins

[Hacknshoot]

I decided to try one of these and I didn't see a definitive guide on them. So, I decided to make a variant of my own, and this is how it should turn out:

20 DTalon
10 Burst of Speed(the increases become negligible then, and I can get +skills anyway... Too bad I lost EVERYTHING I had planned for this person.)
20 Venom
20 Fade
0 Tiger Strike (I do almost 100 at level 12, 13, or 14 right now(can't remember level) and I would forget that I had it)
1 Mind Blast (that extra convertee may help)
1 Claw Mastery, Psychic Hammer, Claw Block, Cloak of Shadows, Shadow Warrior (prerequisites)
5 Shadow Master (for those times when I need help, which isn't likely with a merc)
Extra points can be put into moves like Cobra Strike, Mindblast, Shadowmaster, and Burst of Speed.

As I put a lot of points into Strength and plan on having at least 150 both Strenth and Dexterity, I won't have as much in Vitality, but trust me- I can make up for it. I have with all my characters, so don't criticize me.

Any ideas on skills I left out? Nothing about traps, though- this is all kick, no trap.

[the boss]

pvm?pvp?gears?

Check out JanusJone's Monk Warrior guide its pretty cool

[Hacknshoot]

It's gonna be PvM, and my gear... well... The mass majority of it went away after a freak rollback accident made me lose all the gear I had, save some Angelic's and a Shadow Killer. But I can always get some stuff, and that's why I didn't post it here- it isn't godly like everyone wants, but I'm not trying to be the best, so :p.

[ilkori]

How's this? (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=405240)

[Hacknshoot]

Yes, it is. But why do people use Death Sentry? For that extra mob take-down power when they need it?

[ilkori]

Death Sentry is a 5-shot+ auto-fire Corpse Explosion. It is mostly for mobs, which happen to be pretty common. Talon is exceptional at taking down a single target (it stays on the same monster for every single kick), so hit the largest one in the bunch, and watch the fun begin.

[Hacknshoot]

I thought as much. Would it be smart to try putting points in it after I get high up on my other skills, or now, as I'm level 20? (the prereq traps, I mean, and yes, 3 into Fireblast for the extra shot)

[ilkori]

I always put the 1 point in Death Sentry as soon as I hit lvl 30, regardless of what order I start maxing things. On the pure kicker, I max Talon first, then move onto either Venom or Death Sentry as the first one to max. Both work great at level 1, and both get better as you go on.

If you max Venom first, then your Blade skills become more important through Nightmare. If you max DS first, then you play pretty much the same throughout the whole game.

[Hacknshoot]

Would playing the same through the whole game be a good thing, or a bad thing? ;)

[Speedwrath]

Dragon Talon sucks without Crushing Blow. :/ Soooo... much.....

1 point in Cobra Strike is MORE than enough. Here is a "Do not put more than 1 point in it" list:
- Cloak of Shadows
- Mind Blast
- Cobra Strike
- Blade Fury
- Psychic Hammer (are you kidding me?)

I don't know about this, but maxing Fade is totally pointless. How BAD would your gear have to be for you to need an extra 65% resist? I got charms if you need them. Plus, with at slvl 10, it's +56% resists, and at slvl 6, +45%. Think about it.

By the way, don't kill Nightmare Baal for the quest, because if you go to Hell with a pure DTalon kicker that has no Death Sentry, you are going to cry, even in Act 1. This is DTalon, not Zeal, so that pack of Fallen in Stony Fields that you will CERTAINLY run into is going to make your life miserable... Come to think about it, in Hell OR Normal, it sucks either way. Having no crowd-killing skills sucks so much... :( Hopefully we have Death Sentry to solve that. :D

[ilkori]

Would playing the same through the whole game be a good thing, or a bad thing? ;)
Depends on which way you like. :p Most of Nightmare flies by so quickly it doesn't matter a whole lot anyway.

I don't know about this, but maxing Fade is totally pointless. How BAD would your gear have to be for you to need an extra 65% resist? I got charms if you need them. Plus, with at slvl 10, it's +56% resists, and at slvl 6, +45%. Think about it.If someone was dumping points into Fade for the resists, I would agree. Generally it is only given lots of points for the hidden 1% DR bonus.

[Speedwrath]

So many better skills out there... I would say it's a waste maxing it. It gets deminished returns just like BoS. If you are really maxing it then you probably have nothing better to get. Plus, only possible reason why I think you would use Fade for DR is if you're going melee, but then isn't BoS better?

[ilkori]

You only *need* BoS for a couple builds, and with the right weapon, DTalon isn't one of them. You need it for, say, Gimmershred, but most of the good weapons are faster than that, much faster.

Again, it's only for the 1% DR per slvl - which can let you use Spirit instead of Stormshield on the build.

Granted... I'm saying this and use BoS on almost all of my builds. My point is that it can go both ways, and isn't always a waste.

[Hacknshoot]

While I was thinking about that, I did come to a conclusion: It would be better to be safe and have a good resist skill AND a speed skill, and to use each when I would need it, such as using Fade in the Chaos Sanctuary and BoS in the Halls of the Dead. I WOULD have had decent equipment on a few equip slots, were it not for rollback.

And for big groups? I can kinda beat a group of enemies down easy right now (act 2 undead guys, but who cares?), since I have a Shadow to help me. That, and I have played a lot of characters (this is my 23rd, total, on all my accounts) and I know how to adapt some things.

Oh yeah, I also made a Trapper. Go figure, I can never stop making people. Would BoS or Fade be better? I'm probably going to use Fade for that since she's basically completely untwinked, and I won't be finding a second 4os Monarch to use for her. And would it still be smart for just one point into Mind Blast, or should I go for a little more for the stun/convert chance?

... I never hit the submit button this morning? *stabs self with a rusty spoon*

[ilkori]

I've started dropping two points in Mind Blast to have my SMaster cast it more often.

For Fade/BoS ... it depends almost entirely on your equipment. BoS is left at one point whether you use it or not (I'd put a maximum of 3 points in it if you are a speed freak or won't have many +skills). Using Fade as a secondary is actually what I have been doing on my Faded c/c build. I used BoS for most of the game, then swapped over to Fade whenever it got tough.