Are assassins any good in lld at level 18?

[Herbiegaf3]

Can MA assassins compete in level 18 llds? and if they can what kind of skill and gear setup would be most effective?

[DayDream]

kickers~ Not so much double claws.
Forgot gear/skillset but I'm sure cdm or another will be posting here shortly

[Magi]

Even mediocre zealots are going to win vs 18 ma sins more often than not. However, they'd give 18 jabbers a run for their money. I'm unsure how they'd do vs defense based conc barbs as they can get TONS of ar which is exactly what you'd need vs that type of barb. A good range 5 weapon on switch would do well vs smiters (Brandistock?). I don't know how they'd do vs 18 casters/ranged (hammerdins, psy-sins, ice boltresses, bowzons, throwbarbs.)

in absolutely no order:
ED jewels work best with kickers (20%)
+shadow prebuff claws on switch.
I'd go crushflange/gnasher as main weapon for the crushing blow/ow.
Swordback hold might be a possibility but I think I'd prefer a Vulpine bone shield of deflecting (dmg to mana)
Death's gloves and belt for the obvious psn resist and cannot be frozen.
Twitchthroe
not sure on helm, maybe a 3os mask with more ed jewels.
rare greaves for boots.

dtalon and bos are the main skills. maybe wake of fire as a "one hit wonder" for some added fhr lock.

Big debate vs all str/dex (for more dmg and get life from charms) or all vita for lower dmg and more life. My personal preference would be to go all Dex for TONS of AR and good dmg, although str adds slightly more dmg. Fair tradeoff methinks.

Wow....that was all extremely haphazard. I hope it makes a little sense. :undecided:

[crawlingdeadman]

magi got it right. even a very well decked out kicker will not be able to beat a mid zealot. some of his gear is off a bit though:

sig hat
angelics
twitch
crushflange
sig boots
sig gloves
deaths (if you need it otherwise good spot for godly rare or sig belt)
swordback is nice for the majority of duels, but if you wanna beat a zealot (or even get close) go with pelta lunata.

switch is 2x 1shadow claws.

a vit build is (imo) far superior to a str build. for non hell rushed you go 18 dtalon, 1 claw mastery, 1 bos (one spare point). a hell rushed version would pump the rest into cloak of shadows for a meager def bonus (the -def on opponent isnt really all that necessary as kicks have high ar anyway).

that is the cookie cutter kicker. now you can try a defensive route, which is what i was going to try when last ladder ended. basically that'd be about the same gear except you'd want an eth/repair ancient armor. you'd also need to skill a bit differently as you're losing the ias from twitch. pump what you can into cloak of shadows for a weak %edef. like i said i never got around to finishing (or starting for that matter) that sin and i'm not sure how much better it'd have been.

there's finally another build that has been mentioned elsewhere that i have absolutely no experience with that uses a 'steel' flail and crushing blow gloves to get a bit of range on the zealot. you then hit and fade so that you stay mostly in range while your opponent is just out of it with their range 1 cleg.

18 kicker is a fun build that can compete... just not w/ zealots.

[Herbiegaf3]

so dual claw isn't even worth trying?

[crawlingdeadman]

hell no.

[Herbiegaf3]

haha, alright.. thanks

[Queen Mebd]

Level 18 fireblasters with plenty of rep. can be vile as well. ^_^

[Magi]

but the sin's bos/frw, maxed resists, and hotspurs kinda put an end to that party. :(

[Zangeif]

The good thing about kickers is they are cheap.

The bad thing is that they almost never win.

[ILackEmpathy]

lol geez... "almost never win" very motivational haha

[crawlingdeadman]

they're fun as all get out and cheap. i made one as my first (and only) llder on west when i was there, i also started with one on east ladder. after a bit you get tired of dying to 18 zealots though.