Natalya's Set

[phaemoor]

Hi Guys.

I want to build an assassin around the full nats set, and not sure what way to go, whether it be martial or traps, single claw or dual claw.

I know nats is not the best for an assassin to wear, and I know I could/should make one with various runeword armors/claws etc, but I'm just planning on playing in PvM only, and just want to make one based on nats set.

What do you think is the best way to go? And if using single claw, should I use SS or Spirit? What Amulet, Rings, Belt?

Cheers
Phaemoor

[Eilo Rytyj]

Go with a Phoenix Striker; an Assassin who uses the elemental charge-ups Phoenix Strike, Claws of Thunder and Fists of Fire. Dual Claw, Bartuc's or Jade Talon as the complementary claw to Nat's. It's not worth it going Claw/Shield as Jade Talon is superior to Spirit in what it offers the build defensively, so is Bartuc's for that matter. With Mind Blast and Cloak of Shadows rendering you virtually immune then 75% block isn't necessary - ~50% from 1-point Weapon Block is plenty fine.

1-point DClaw as your finisher. 1 point DFlight as utility. DTalon and DTail aren't as useful due to the mediocre kick damage of Nat's Boots.

At least 1 in Death Sentry as with all PvM Assassins, as well as Mind Blast and Cloak of Shadows as your "cannot be killed" skills. By that I mean CoS and MB are godly skills that make you nearly impossible to kill by normal monsters if you use them well.

I'd look at using Burst of Speed over Fade, simply because it's better IMO. If you can get enough resists from your gear for max in Hell, then there's no real reason to use Fade as you've already got 30% DR from Nat's set, and possibly more from other gear (e.g. String of Ears or something). Venom is a 1-point wonder; the extra little bit of damage is always welcome, unless you can get Venom as a staffmod on a +shadow prebuff claw. Or you can max it if you want, it's your call. Most of your killing will come from the elemental Charge-ups though.

20 in Shadow Warrior or Master - depending on which you prefer. I like Warrior myself because of the control you have over her. Your call.

Amulet - probably a rare as long as it has +2 Assassin skills, or maybe Highlord's Wrath if you need the IAS to reach the fastest trap laying or DClaw attack speed.

Belt can be anything - Arachs if you can for the +1 skills, Slow Target (which you can take advantage of unlike casters) and FCR for faster MB/CoS casting speed. Otherwise, String of Ears, Thundergod's Vigor, Verdungo's, Rares or Crafted Blood/Safety belts.

At least 1 Ravenfrost, but 2 is better because of the mass AR and Dex bonus to fill the reqs of your claws, and Mana to keep you throwing out Mind Blasts and Death Sentrys all day.

Gloves - Rares with +2 to Martial Arts and/or 20% IAS are what you need end-game-wise. Crafted Blood or Safety gloves with the same mods are better still. Otherwise Bloodfists are the next best. Even Magic +3 MA/20% IAS gloves will do.

Yeah, there are probably better setups of uniques/rws for a Phoenix Striker still, but there's the style points of Nat's set that makes it worth using. They're one of my favourite characters, as they can make use of mods available to melee characters such as life/mana leech and crushing blow, but a large part of their damage is skill-based like casters. Plus the fact that they have access to the smartest and best summonable minions in the game (the Shadows), and they use two of the most advantageously broken skills in the game (Cloak of Shadows and Mind Blast).

[phaemoor]

Awesome dude.. this is exactly what I was after, thanks for the great reply.

My only question is claw mastery? 1 point? or more?

Cheers!

[Eilo Rytyj]

I'd say 1 point to start with, as maxing Phoenix Strike, Claws of Thunder and Fists of Fire, as well as getting all your other skills to use, is more important first. The charge-up skills themselves provide a bonus to AR% on every successive charge up hit, and they themselves have a respectable AR% bonus. They also add a small AR% bonus to your finisher with each successive charge. So if you charge up CoT3. Cobra3, Tiger3 and Phoenix2 for example you'll have quite a lot of AR% added onto your Finisher.

Also, Dragon Claw probably the highest +AR% bonus of any single skill in the game. I mean, it starts at 40% at slvl 1, and increases by a whopping 25% with each skill level. For a character that will be using a lot of +Martial Arts skills, it's a true 1-point wonder but an awesome one at that. My own Assassin has +17 to MA skills total, making for a slvl 18 DClaw with a +465% AR bonus.

On top of that, Cloak of Shadows lowers monsters' defense, again increasing your chance to hit.

As for the damage and Critical bonus of Claw Mastery... they aren't really worth it compared to the benefit of placing more points into Death Sentry, for example. That thing's like Corpse Explosion on steroids, just let a couple loose out of their cage and they'll mess things up real good for you while you sit back and enjoy the view. It deserves as many skill points as it can get for exactly the same reason a Necro's CE does.

Also, if you can get away with it, try and keep BoS at 1 point and use +shadow prebuffs. I think you can reach the fastest Normal Attack (includes Phoenix/Cobra/Tiger charge-up speeds), DClaw (includes FoF/CoT/BoI charge-up speeds) and Trap-laying speeds with Nat's Claw and a decent level BoS and nothing more. Don't quote me on that though, I'm not sure of the exact calcs, but BoS combined with a 40% IAS [0] speed main claw usually = FAST.

[dezzo]

u can socket the armor (3 sockets) either with resists runes (orts,etc), or IAS jewels.

u can also shael the claw for more ias.

nat set is quite fun, it's pretty good for pvm and kicker-trapsins can do pretty well in hell too.

i use shadow warrior and an act 2 nightmare merc. with lightning sentry, fireblast and death sentry to back them up.

[Romasm]

Nats with Chaos is pretty decent aswell. WW just rocks