Should I max shadow master or death sentry

[Bull]

I am a lvl 78 martial art sin who has maxed tiger strike, dragon claw, claw mastery, and I have placed a few points in weapon block, 1 pt in shadow master and 1 point in venom.

My equipments are - have all the nat set except for the claw, bartuc, some crappy life leech rings and amulets which I am planning to upgrade later. Also got 1 martial art gc.

I have like 7-8 skill pts on hold so far since I don't know whether I should max out shadow master or death sentry. I am slightly leaning towards death sentry since my shadow master will be benefited by the +skill equipments but I don't know if that's a good idea.
I also have a hard time killing monster in hell so far so I am thinking death sentry may help; but then again, I am a martial art sin so I don't know if that is a good idea.

Any ideas?

[sevencreature]

Death Sentry, definitely. Best crowd control is to obliterate the whole crowd :)

[Bull]

thx I am thinking of maxing out death sentry until I reach lvl 90, then I will put a few more pts in shadow master. Thanks.

[Vague]

I think you can get the best of both worlds. With plus to skills items, 1 point into death sentry should be fine i think, and you should still have a couple of skill points leftover to throw into your shadow master to beef her up.

[sevencreature]

I would gladly put 30 and more points into DS, if it was possible - probably the most usefull group damaging skill at your disposal. Remember that Shadow Master won't help you with killing much/won't increase your killing speed.

You can also try to use Atma's Scarab amulet - releasing DS on amplified group works like a charm :-)

[Bull]

I have just gotten the whole nat set, and I still have 13 pts unspent. I am going to max out death sentry just as some of u suggest since my shadow master is a fine tank in nm atm.

[BoSsS]

Just be sure to get your shadow master @lvl17 with +oskills, gcs, etc.
The reason: Your shadow will spawn'd with the best gear at her disposition.

[cakofony]

I am in basically the same position, lvl 75 w/ tiger strike, claw mastery, and dragon tail maxed, 1 pt in death sentry and weapon block. I dont have anything in shadow master, is that really worth it? lately i have had a really tough time killing fire immune guys (and my brother plays a fire sorceress). I have 15 points saved up, havent been able to decide where to put them. Do you think death sentry is the best place for me to put all the points, or should I put one in shadow master as well? I cant imagine that a tank would hurt, but is it worth all the points to build up the tree?

thanks :-)

[LonghornRob]

Personally I'm thinking ~5-8 points in DS and then maxing out Shadow Master. Mostly because the SM can help get that first kill against a phys immune, and then DS will do its job after that.. I've also walked around with another sin who maxed SM, and the Master alone was obliterating hell boss packs.

[Bull]

I have just tested out death sentry and realized that putting anywhere more than 1 pt in the skill is a waste since I don't have the synergies maxed out. The lightening does really bad damage without the synergies maxed and the damage of corpse explosion, while super effective, stays the same throughout the 20 levels. So I am making a second sin now and am planning to put only 1 pt in the skill.

[LonghornRob]

Well, the idea with maxing DS is that the radius of each blast will eventually fill the entire screen, and then some. The damage dealt to each creature does not increase, but the amount of damage each blast can deal in total greatly increases. Having said that, I'd say that a radius the size of the playing screen is a bit excessive, personally, so I'm choosing not to max it out.

[cakofony]

So, where should I put my 15 unused points? >.<

[cakofony]

Ive heard that shadow master and shadow warrior are pretty good, should I max one out? Which one is better? Will it be able to kill hordes of fallen?

[AlexanderM]

Shadow master is definitely better, the only drawback being that she'll occasionally toss down traps (and thus remove one of your traps, if you're at 5). Also, she gets resist-all and decent rare-spawned gear above level 11 (a full set at skill level 17). With +skills, aim for level 17 in Shadow Master, no more.

Edit: Fun note, if she spawns with enough +resist on her gear, she can be elemental-immune, as she's not capped at 75% (or even 95% as a player with +max resist would be). Fun against Diablo if you get immune fire ;).

[cakofony]

sounds good, I'll definitely have to put points into it. What about venom? is it worth a few points? Right now I think i'm doing good dmg to everything non fire-immune (i am up to hell a3).

[cakofony]

also, I dont understand how their gear works. The guides say that w/ so many skill pts, it gives her such and such gear. Can you give her gear like the mercs?

also, how is the shadow masters damage? I am a kicker sin, I use 2 bartucs which dont have the best dmg ever, but give +skills, so it helps my kicks. will that hurt the sm dmg? I could always up the 197% one if I have to.

[AlexanderM]

You can't give your Shadow Master items, she just spawns with them. Arreat lists the break points for what items she'll spawn with. At lv17 she'll have a whole kit of rare elite items. Venom is nice, and since the damage window is so small (0.4 seconds) it actually builds up quite fast, though all your sources of poison damage are also cut back to 0.4 seconds, so +100 damage over 4 seconds will only deal 10 damage with venom running. Death sentry is a good investment, despite the fact that the lightning damage is garbage, as the explosion radius at lv20 is HUGE (9.8 yards), even more than an equivalent necromancer, and mana-per-blast cheaper. Just be sure to wait until a monster dies before tossing it down, otherwise it's shots will be wasted on lightning.

In short, if you like to stay in the action without backing off, Venom is the way to go. If you don't mind dropping back after one kill and letting Death Sentry work it's crowd control magic, go that route.

[cakofony]

I already have 1 pt in death sentry, so its like 12 pts w/ all my +skills, I think thats enough.

I still have enough lvls left before the cap to put 20 pts in venom, and 20 in shadow master. I have 16 pts saved right now. so thats enough to have 11 in shadow master right now (over 20 with my +skills)

[LonghornRob]

also, I dont understand how their gear works. The guides say that w/ so many skill pts, it gives her such and such gear. Can you give her gear like the mercs?

also, how is the shadow masters damage? I am a kicker sin, I use 2 bartucs which dont have the best dmg ever, but give +skills, so it helps my kicks. will that hurt the sm dmg? I could always up the 197% one if I have to.

The SM's damage does not coordinate with your weapons because she does not use your weapons.

I am definitely planning on upping my 196 Bartucs, to use in conjunction with the nat's set.

[cakofony]

nobody has said anything about its dmg though, will it help me break through fire immune guys?

[wizAdept]

Ive heard that shadow master and shadow warrior are pretty good, should I max one out? Which one is better? Will it be able to kill hordes of fallen?Master is the one you will want to use and its not that the master can kill hordes at higher levels, its that the master can tank at higher levels which means you can kill more with less trouble.

For pvm you will want a high level death sentry however. For those nice large radius corpse explosions that clear whole screens at a time. You don't really need it maxed as it is possible to go through the game with 1 base death sentry, but more points in it do increase your killing speed quite a lot due to higher radius of corpse explosions.

It's nice to get shadow master to level 17 after your +skills so the shadow gets it's full equipment spawn, perhaps you should have cut some skill points out of your build elsewhere? Since youre not using an LS hybrid I dont see where you could have put all your points.


For continuing this build, if you're looking to survive and are having trouble, get a beefier shadow and dump the rest in death sentry. If you're surviving fine and are looking to pick up your killing speed, keep shadow at level 1 and max out death sentry.