WW Assasin traps or pure? general ww HELP

[Blazing Blade]

Well im going to make a WW assassin but i dont know what to build and whats in my price range so i have a few(alot) of questions. Ok i have been reading builds and information about the WW assassin and noticed most people use hybrids, is this cause they are far superior? how does a pure ww assassin compare in terms of pubbie pvps?. I read the stickied ww/trap and it stated that they are expensive to make i have a some decent amount of money to spend on it although i dont think i can reach the full potentional with skill lifers/fhr etc will i still run good with plain shadows(how much do these cost USEASTLADDER). im asking for alot but iv got all pvm chars and want to make an awesome (not so common) pvper thanx for any help given. (general ww assassin help welcome to).
Edit: As far as gear switches go how much will life will i be sacrificing to use both bramble and enigma ?? is the recommended and how does it run? how much does the damage increase, more information please.

[soul killer]

A WW/Trapper Hydrid is a lot better than a pure WW IMO.
With a pure WW youve only got a low-range mid dmg physical atk and low modility (no enigma).
With a Hybrid youve got 7k Traps, which is extremly useful vs. everybody.

Bramble is used as a pre-buff for Venom.
I somtimes use wear it instead of enigma when im against annoying sorbadins.

Hybrid is a lot more versatile and is more of an anti-caster build, where as pure WW is better for hard hitting melee chars (Smiters and Barbs)

Just make a Hybrid :thumbsup:

[Moritz]

You should either use a wwsin using enigma and lvl1 traps for stun, commonly called a Ghost or Ghostsin; or a kind of hybrid - the most common is ww/ls.
I do not recommend using a wwsin that uses any armor that's not enigma as main armor. Switch equipment with forti/bramble can be useful in a few matchups, but by any means, use enigma as your main armor. You need the mobility.

Both builds are viable and can do really really well. For further information about the ww/ls vs ghost discussion, just read the last 2 pages of the stickied WW/LS assassin guide.
There has been a discussion yesterday about exactly this aspect.

[Blazing Blade]

Yeah i decided ill be going Hybrid:grin: they seem a lot funner and more variety in the arsenal. My concern is that it wont be able to run good without TWINKED gear i can afford most stuff though. Will i still be good with plain Shadow Skillers?

[soul killer]

yeah sure, my one only has one lifer and it doesnt do a lot worse than ones with 45s.

[Moritz]

well. assuming 35lifers (those arent that expensive in my realm) you lose 7-9*35l base life (7 if you use 2 fhr skillers etc), that means 245-310 base life. with bo that are about 500 life.

you can play with plain shadows at start, but you really should get some lifers later.
less than 3.5k life isnt a lot fun.

[Blazing Blade]

Hmm how do the prices differ between the lifers and plain (USEASTLADDER) if anyone knows?. Any information on stats would be great, i intend to be using switches against certain classes(is this really needed)?

[Moritz]

I personally don't use bramble or fort on my ww/ls hybrid at all, I find it a waste.

Others like it in some matchups, I always prefer the mobility even against smiters or such. It's sometimes useful to be able to teleport when your traps run out or anything.

[HappyAssassin]

On a hybrid switches are mostly a waste, on a ghost they are more important. If you want to build switches into your char, you'll have slightly lower life. By the way, the difference in price between 30+ lifers and plain gcs is pretty large, you can do okay with plain GCs, you'll just have less margin for error.

[ThatWasShockin]

I'm not sure if you've seen any of the videos of my ww/trap in the pvp forum, but those are with plain skillers. You will usually end up around 3k life without lifers and with them about 4.5k from my experience.

[Moritz]

I'm not sure if you've seen any of the videos of my ww/trap in the pvp forum, but those are with plain skillers. You will usually end up around 3k life without lifers and with them about 4.5k from my experience.

do the maths, you wont get 1.5k life just from lifesks. maybe you meant 3.5k

[ThatWasShockin]

I have 3.2 or something like that from plain. I also have a wwsin on d2pk with over 4.5k life and not all my skillers are lifers.

[CaptnSparrow]

From playing WW/Trapper on D2PK, I'd say they require less skill than a pure Ghost does. The traps are a huge boost to the arsenal, and let you play at a distance, which allows for more mistakes on the players part.


A ww/trap will naturally be a little less sturdy without some pro *** gear, which everyone seems to have these days... but if you have the gear to make a strong hybrid then it's most likely the superior build. Also, they can force some lightning absorb equipment to be put on, which helps in team duels.


Still, I love max mind blast too much. <_<

[yelopen]

Still, I love max mind blast too much. <_<

I have to agree with this >.>

The maxed MB is something I've loved when playing my Ghost and it's making me hesitant to remake into a WW/Trapper.

[krajoz]

I have to agree with this >.>

The maxed MB is something I've loved when playing my Ghost and it's making me hesitant to remake into a WW/Trapper.

yea same with me. with the gear i use ill only have about 5.5k traps if i decide to switch to hybrid but itd be at the cost of my maxed mb and id probly have to get a few mroe things to get 50dr. its a toughy for me cause imo most good players wont be affected much by the measly 5.5k traps id have

[mephiztophelez]

Well im going to make a WW assassin but i dont know what to build...
congratulations! you've chosen to explore one of the more complex builds available.

the first thing i really feel i ought to tell you is that in the first month or so of your ww-sin duelling life, you are going to lose. a lot. no matter how good your gear, without some time with the class under your belt, you are a sitting duck for any half-skilled bvc/nec/nub'din. it takes a little while to know exactly the difference between when you DO have time to hit that slippery smiter with a 'blast and get away with it and the times when it's 'claw-block *please* don't fail me now'.

ww vs ww/trap: ww/trap needs better gear to really rock along while ww/kick is far more challenging to play but more can be done with less, if you catch my drift. i played a ww/kicker for a long while before playing ww/trap and have found the switch to be rather seemless. if anything, it's become a lot easier to win. 6.5k traps and some liberal mindblast are enough to deal with any pub scrimping on their lit-res. a level 46venom is, imho, rather swish and i'm constantly surprised by the number of pubs who've skimped on their poison res.

between the two, i'd say my ww/trapper has between 70% and 80% of the ww abilities as my ww/kicker, the difference being, from memory, about ~4k worth of 'standard kit' AR (with fools claw on both builds). however, i've found the times i'm really relying on my ww to clinch the win are also the times i fondly remember the number of occasions some random pub would lose to me, go their stash and strangly start dropping FoH's when i ww'd them. they would then lose again and complain that 2xwisp a tgods and Lo' blackthorns "wasn't enough sorb" against my mighty 1-15x lit sentries. some of the best fun i've had with a ww/kicker was faking peeps out and let them think i was a lit trapper, if i had the kit available, i'd maintain both 'sins. theres something intrinsically amusing i find, about max-mind-blast 'sins. it's quite amazing what a high-level MB can do at times.

a word on kicks: a point or two in d-talon along with +skills should be enough to see you at slvl12. voila you have a fantastic attack to use against a range of opponents. imho: no shadow dancer wearing sin should be unable to kick.

some quick thoughts on gear:

claws: fools > fury (exceptions are if you only have a 25%OW fools (like most of us) then a fury could be a valuable addition against some opponents (notably sin vs sin). a nice fools claw is almost a must on a top-flight ww/trap build and gives a ww/kicker a huge AR boost (i could hit 23k!)

hats: 2/20fcr circlet > CoA, that 65% FCR BP is absolutely crucial. the exception here, as i see it, is if you happen to have both A: a near perfect CoA (hard to get) and B: a stupendously good 15% FCR/res/skills/juice/pimpness amulet (much harder to get than a pCoA)

have fun with your 'sin, have a read of ilkori (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=405240) and happyassassin (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=516304) and speederlander (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?p=3760416#post3760416)