Assassin help please

[cakofony]

I created my first battlenet toon the other day, an assassin.
so far, i am level 40 with 20 pts tiger strike, and 20 pts claw mastery. I have one point in weapon block, dragon talon, and dragon claw.

My thought was that I should max out dragon claw or dragon tail next (couldnt decide which). Do you guys think i should continue down this root, or are there any good skills I am missing?
Lots of people like shadow master, but i really cant get excited about another mercenary, because they tend to be fairly glitchy, and its nice to be in control.

I traded for Bartuc's Cut-throat, which I have in the stash for in 2 levels, should i add a socket and put gems/runes in it?

thanks :-D

[cakofony]

The only thing i really have a problem with so far is killing multiple guys, since i have no area of effect spells...
I was thinking a finisher that would do dmg to groups, I think that would be dragon tail. It costs 5 times more mana than dragon claw though. I read that dragon talon was good because kicks are fast, so it would be good against large groups, but i havent tried it much.


edit: I tried out my rank 1 dragon talon (kick) and i dunno if i like it that much...

how well does dragon tail work?
it says fire damage +50% and attack +20% for the first level, but i dont really understand what that means

[CarloC]

I kind of agree about Shadows, and they aren't great tanks or anything (nothing like a bear or Valkyrie), but they do help you gain control of the situation. They attract enemy attention so you can do what you need to do more often.
And you can just spend 1 point in shadow master. Your +skill gear will help her become a good distraction for the enemies.

As for the martial arts skill, I can't help you much there, but I think you should get an AoE one too. Why don't you look at some martial arts builds and see what they've done?

[mmmpld]

I'd recommend at least 1pt into Death Sentry (bottom left of the trap tree). Once you have a corpse Death Sentry will explode it, killing the guys around it and setting off a chain reaction. Hopefully this will help you taking out large groups.

[cakofony]

Sounds good, but is it worth all the points to build it up?

[cakofony]

and does dragon tail's "+50 precent fire damage" mean that its based off wep dmg?

edit: i guess not, since its a kick :-/ glad i didnt put points in it. I think i'll stick with dragon claw for my finish move. what should i go for first? more pts in dragon claw, or death sentry?

[CarloC]

Yeah, it's worth the points it costs to build up. It does around 80% of the corpse's damage when it does corpse explosion, which is mmm mm good.

[dryzalizer]

Actually, based on what you have done so far, you should max Dragon Tail. It works great with a maxed Tiger Strike, doing multiplicative AoE damage. You will need myrmidon greaves boots to get the best damage, an upped pair of Gore Riders is probably the easiest to get and most useful for CB. Here's the guide: http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=540

Even builds that use DC don't usually max it, and they use PS not TS, so I would stop putting points there immediately. Death Sentry is so good as to make the game easy, so I'll leave that up to you.

[cakofony]

I only have 1 point in DC, so do you think i should start stacking DT? or should i put a pt (or few pts) in Death Sentry? I right now i have 6 pts saved up, and it will take 5 to get my first death sentry

[CarloC]

One point is all you need in death sentry. +skills will do the rest, and it's not really necessary either. All you want it for is corpse explosion, and the range only becomes noticably higher at level 15+.

[cakofony]

Somebody traded me "Immortal Kings Pillar - War Boots" would they kick well?

[dryzalizer]

Exceptional boots do less damage than elites, but they'll do until you get Gores and can upgrade them.

http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/sets/sets5.shtml#immortalking
vs.
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/elite/boots.shtml

[cakofony]

Does dex help me with damage? i have about a hundred now, should i start putting more pts into vit and str? (my str and dex are roughly the same)

[cakofony]

I hit lvl 50 and got my second bartuc's today, what wep should I start looking for next?

[dryzalizer]

Dual claw Dragon Tail kicker right? Dual Bartuc's give great +to skills for this build, I'd stick with them until the end of nightmare unless you are low on resists. Lots of people use Jade Talon for resists and end-game off-hand claw. You have the option of upping the Bartuc's for more claw damage, and since you will need the strength for upped Gores, you might as well do it at some point in the future. Remember, your claws are mostly for charging up TS, the boots are most important for delivering damage. I think upped Bartuc's require 115 str and dex, you will want to reach that total with your ravenfrost and other +dex gear.

[cakofony]

what do you mean "upped" bartucs?

[dryzalizer]

Upping is a horadric cube recipe. Your Bartucs will do more damage but have higher str and dex reqirements when they become Runic Talons. I'm not saying you have to do this, its just an option.
From Arreat Summit: "1 Lum Rune + 1 Pul Rune + 1 Perfect Emerald + Exceptional Unique Weapon = Elite Version of Weapon (Single Player, Ladder Only)
This formula changes the base item type from the exceptional to elite version. For example a Cleaver is turned into a Small Crescent. This does NOT convert the item to the Elite Unique version of the Exceptional Unique Item. Unique item bonuses remain the same; only the item it's based on is upgraded. This can be used to upgrade Ethereal Items also. They will continue to be Ethereal after they are upgraded. You cannot do this formula unless you are using a Ladder Character. Also if the item is socketed, then jewels or runes and their mods will also remain."

[cakofony]

I think i have over 115 str/dex already, should i try to up it? how much dmg do you think it will do?

[dryzalizer]

Well, I always thought that DT kick dmg was multiplied by your claw dmg and then enhanced by your boots, but on further investigation it looks like it is entirely boot-based. So get the best boots you can and it is up to you how powerful you want your claws to be, they don't have any effect on your kick dmg. My 178% ED Bartuc's only went from 83-147 to 91-172 when I upped them for a different build, and since your kick damage greatly exceeds claw damage, you probably don't need to bother. Save your runes for upping your Gore Riders to Myrmidon Greaves, the cube recipe for that is 1 Ko Rune + 1 Lem Rune + 1 Perfect Diamond + Gores. Str and Dex also increase your kicking dmg, but you still only want enough str to wear the upped Gores.

[cakofony]

But, i am using the charge up move that gives me 18 times wep dmg when i use a finish move. are you telling me that uses my boots attack, not wep?

[dryzalizer]

I think so. I looked at the dmg equations, and didn't see claw dmg in there. Hopefully someone more familiar w/kicking will stop by this thread and confirm or deny. Keep reading those kicker guides, I'm pretty sure this is explained somewhere in one of them.