Remaining points

[Namonaki]

I recently made a natalya/bartuc pheonix striker. I have 20 fist of fire, 20 claws of thunder, 20 pheonix strike. I have 1 in all shadow skills except for venom. So far I have no traps whatsoever. I'm level 79, with 11 skill points, 3 more coming from quests, and I expect I can get to level 90. So I have 25 points coming my way.

I'm considering:
1) Venom: Nice amount of poison damage per hit, but most of my plus skills are going to martial arts, so it won't get too nasty.

2) Shadow Master: I could use another tank, and the shadow master is nasty. Plus it uses traps, venom, etc so I could at least have some use of those as well.

3) Death Sentry: Corpse explode (hooray!) and some additional lightning damage.

Any suggestions? Any other skill choice ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[DmKEch]

Claw block: you block EVERYTHING spells, everything. well, if you aren't moving haha
Claw Mastery: more phys dmg
Venom: VERY nice output dmg. i htink all physical assassins should have this.

Fade: if your resists suck.
burst of speed: well, i tink 1 point is good enough here :D

[Sass]

Do options 2 and 3 first. Get at least one point venom and MB.

The remainder after all this can go into cb for a decent level ~(50ish, but I think you hit that with all that + skill) and venom.

I doubt res will suck since he's using a nat's set >>

[Namonaki]

My resists are alright, but I'm wearing a 20 resist amulet, so I may be out of luck when i change it. Either way I like my 1 point burst of speed a lot - it allows me to charge up quickly.

I'm not really big on the physical damage, as I won't have claw mastery or anything.

I'm very mobile except when attacking - so I'm not sure if that would be good for my claw block or not. I guess I'm generally not being hit when I'm not attacking as I'm very fast and keep my distance, so claw block might work out nicely for my survivability.

I like the shadow master as a tank, but with one point and plus skills I may not need to buff her - I'll have my merc anyway.

I think I would like venom a lot - I would then have fire lightning poison and to a lesser extent cold. I could also don trang oul claws and get much more damage. However, most of my plus skills will be to martial arts - I'll probably only have 10 or so all, and 30 venom only gives about 800 damage. It would be nice to be able to kill mobs while I charge though..

Is 1 point in death sentry worth all the prereqs? I've always loved corpse explode on my necro and it probably works nicely with me pheonix striking a group and killing at least a couple of mobs. If I go with 1 point in death sentry and 20 venom, it could even weaken the group so that my pheonix has a higher chance to kill when I release it.

You have both suggested some degree of claw block however, so I'm not really sure where to go from here -_-

Has anyone tried a similar build?

[Namonaki]

Claw Block is about 50% with 1 point and plus skills.

The shadow master is starting to get pretty decent and I still have a few more +skills coming my way, so I think I'll leave her alone.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with one death sentry for corpse explode, and 20 venom (by level 91).

Sound like a plan?

[Sass]

I just noticed my response seems like skilling to level 50 >> I mean 50 % block ><

PS: The sin in my avatar is a nats sin, my first and fav one ;) She wasn't too far off from the skills you had albeit, without synergies ><

[Namonaki]

@Sass: Yeah lol, I thought thats what you meant then I realized you must mean percentage. At 11 Skill you have 51% block, and I'm at 9 skill and planning on having a torch amongst other +skills.

The shadow master gets a rare amulet at level 16, which with a torch, possibly an annihilus (i have one I'm not really using) and a shadow amulet or a couple GCs should get me there, so no need to put points there.

Venom and Death Sentry it is I think.

So was your build the same, just pre-synergy? Did you go with venom? Was death sentry useful?

Also, thanks for the advice :)

[Sass]

Well, she was literally one point everything, but I was only learning the sin anyway. For whatever reason, I didn't like traps, but decided I liked charges...all of them...all at once ><

DS and venom were amazing though.


Several rebuilds later got better, but the main build is essentially like yours.

[Namonaki]

Yeah, I played an assassin back in the day the same way =P

I've decided on the 1 point DS and max venom. So far I'm seeing some better results.

[maxicek]

If I did mine again, I would go 0 points in claw block. I think it messes up your rhythm when you are charging up. Yes, no shadow master either. I don't want her mind blasting everything in my area of effect, converting them again and then I need a second charge up sequence to kill them.

As to the spare point, for me either Blades of Ice or Claw mastery.
- Its easy to overshoot on charging and get 3 charges - so why not let it do more damage?
- Increased chance to hit is good against bosses, and a bit more physical damage and therefore more leech never hurts.

I went DS and rarely used it.

[subver]

I think 1 point into Death Sentry is WELL worth the few extra points needed for the prereq's. I used to debate on putting the point into DS, but now I would never hesitate, I think DS is a very strong skill to have for just one point.
CE is invaluable at higher levels, especially for tightly packed groups of monsters, any melee Assassin should put a point into DS, I think.

[Namonaki]

Yeah, I ended up putting points into venom, and one death sentry and each prereq for it. The death sentry is quite nice, especially with CoS, you can just kill a bunch of monsters and if it's getting rough at all CoS and drop a bunch of DS to wipe out some more before you continue the fight. I'm still trying to figure out the range it can explode from though.