Most survivable hardcore assassin

[spigot]

Ok, so I've finally decided to venture into the world of HC. I've found it far too depressingly easy to amass riches so far in sc this ladder, and now, just as I've made my hammerdin to allow myself to self-rush quickly, I've decided I'm bored of the whole thing and want to start again.

I love assassins, it was the first class I played when I got the expansion and the first type I made (without having read any guides or anything) was a tiger strike assassin, it was very fun, and its what I'm going to go for in my move to hardcore, here is my build as it is at the moment, its going to be self-found items only, at least to start off with, and I would like some suggestions as to how I might tweak it to make it as survivable as possible:

20 tiger strike
20 dragon tail
20 shadow master
20 fade
20 claw mastery + pre-reqs

Or, should I go the claw block route and try:

20 TS
20 DT
20 SM
10 fade
20 claw mastery
10 claw block

leaves me 3 skill points to play with. Can anyone suggest the order in which I should go for this? Whether I'm going overkill on some skills (I know diminishing returns kicks in heavily on fade especially).

Also what stat distribution should I go for? Is it safer to play claw+shield? In which case, can anyone point me at that shield block calculator again? I like the idea of clawblock as I can more easily get +skills, and the elemental blocking is nice, however how useful will it be with a high fade and (obviously) as much resistance as I can wear in my gear?

Finally does anyone have any tactics? Anything mistakes I can try and learn from? Any advice would be welcome as this is my first hc character; I know not to play in pubby games at least to start with because of hacked pk methods, but beyond that, this is a tabula rasa to me, which is maybe why I'm feeling more excited about d2 than I have in a while :wink3:

[STINGER]

Looking at this as "You have nothing to work with"

You will have issues with immunities and Iron Maiden as a pure TS/DT build. I suggest you consider Pheonix Strike/DTalon if you want to go for a melee Sin and have good success.

DTail is simply sick in Norm and NM but it REALLY weakens in Hell. It does the job but FIs are an issue.

TS is going to also be sick in Norm and NM and depending on gear will probably be weak in Hell. TS even with average found weapons isnt bad early, but the need for a good weapon in hell will be obvious when you get there.

All Melee Sins need 1 point Blade Fury and a decent amount of Crushing blow so they can avoid Iron Maiden deaths and also FEs and dolls..etc

DTalon: Proven single target destroyer even with minimal investment, get 3-4 kicks out of it and team it up with crushing blow and you can kill anything non-PI. Nice thing about DTalon is you can do all of this with simply a pair of Goblin Toes, making you a rather item independent build! I killed DClone with a pair of GToes only upped once several times! Sure it took a while to finish him off but he died! Any item with Crushing Blow can make DTalon and Blade Fury kill things in conjunction with your Shadow and Merc!

Pheonix Strike: 3 different elements allowing you to kill anything in the game by using the proper charge. Boost one of the synergies so you can be very powerfull vs most things and adequate vs the rest. Personally I Claws of Thunder looks to be the most productive. Only (2) charges to hit the lightning damage on Pheonix and looks to be much stronger damage than trying to have Fire as you main focus and Ice is more of a controlling line than damage.

Add in (1) point invest Death Sentry for the CE! It is easily the most destructive 1 point wonder a Sin has.

TS with even just (1) point and +skills is still pretty solid damage if you get some good weapons, so if you go PS/DTalon you can still use TS.

Also, many, or at least most of your common LI's are weak by nature excluding the Tree like guys.

LI's in Hell (please add if i miss some)

Act 1: Tainted and Corrupt Spear and Bow are low life.
Act 2: Scarabs and Bats
Act 3: Willow Whisps, some Flayers and Zealots
Act 4: Finger Mages, Knights, Gloams and Tainted
Act 5: Tree Dudes (they have high life) Gloams, Knights, Scarabs (most in Baal runs.)

Keep in mind this doesnt account for bosses and doesnt consider things like trying to do areas that are not in the "normal known questing path" so if you go into the Mosoleum (all LI's) or the Pits then you need to add in some LI Skellys and Archers that are very high level as that is a lvl 85 area.

But if you look at this list and think about how easy most of these guys are to kill if you can attack them with what they arent immune to you realize they die dast. Finger Mages/Gloams/Tainted/Scarabs/Bats/Flayers/and even Corrupteds in ACT1 die pretty quickly to the right damages and with Pheonix and (1) point TS with your Merc and Shadow and (1) point DS you can beat then down easily if you arent there at to early a level. A "decent" Pole Merc pops most of that list in 1-2 hits in a 1 player game.

IMO Claw Block may be ok at only 1 point invested. It shouldnt be hard to get some +skills by the time you hit Hell and you wont need them before that really.


PS There is no such thing as "The most Survivable HC Assasin" if you are going melee! Everything that is melee has a large list of things that increase chances of death over being a ranged build like a Trapper. BEWARE OF FI's IN NM!!! Even some in Hell if you are cursed.

[spigot]

That was awesome and comprehensive advice, thanks, I think I'll try what you suggested and go for a more broad approach, this is what the skill plan looks like now:

5 Tiger strike
10 Dragon Talon
5 claw mastery
20 Pheonix Strike
20 Claws of thunder
20 Shadow master
5 points fade
1 point cloak of shadows
1 point death sentry
1 point cobra strike
1 point claw block
1 point blade fury

and all prereqs should leave the build complete at 91 (like I'm gonna get that far :rolleyes:)

Got the chaos orb on phoenix strike for freezing ability, good lightning damage on the chain lightning phoenix attack 1-3000ish, and then crushing blow on blade fury and kicks should be a good boss killer. CoS will allow me to avoid archers and gloams hopefully.

Why should I particularly be aware of fire immunes in NM? Did you mean FEs by any chance?

Have any ideas what would be a good character to back this up? My girlfriend wants to come in with me, woo!

[oOmpie]

Yeah, I'm sure he meant FE's.

[STINGER]

Ya, FE's the exploding death that tends to kill most anything.

You could place just about anything next to the Sin and depending on what she is playing and whether you can count on her always being there you could adjust your build.

I would suggest having her pick something she is comfortable playing but if she likes something like a Druid or Barb build it could really up your survivabilty with a life boost with Oak or BO. I would put more stock in her having something she will enjoy playing though. You just need to play according to what you have. If you have no life boost you play like you dont have it......pretty simple theory!

As for the build......

CM & TS @5 dont give you a great deal so do that last or even dont do it.

Fade @1 is usually enuff thru NM so add that later or depending on items dont add anything, or adjust things and add alot for the PDR......more to come on this.

The Shadows do very well in "small games" aka (2) players at less than max points. On my Trapper I run her at like 17 counting my + skills and she does just fine except under extreme situations and that is solo. When I run with a group I usually dont even use her as it annoys some people and she is less needed when there are 3-5 people.

So with those things in mind you could probably run a higher Fade to get more PDR out of it and never have resistance issues and go 1 in TS and CM and something like 10-12 in Master counting on +skills to get her to 17+. You can shop +3 Shadow claws to keep on switch to cast your Master and Fade and other things.

Ar will be an issue but with the Fade its easy to add AR gear where you would normally have resists. Many Normal Sets have AR boost that can go a very long way. Angelics ring/Ammy or even (2) rings and ammy are a very strong AR boost. Be sure to shop claws also it pays off at least in the +skills area. Keep in mind the low end runewords also, there are a couple with CB that can be big for you especially early.