Guardian #15: Darkoooo, the loooong overdue Natalya Phoenix Striker

**Arkardo** · 28-04-2012, 18:36

Intro
Well, better late then never. A little over a year ago, Darkoooo generously donated me a Natalya's Mark. I then set off to make a Phoenix Striker sporting full Natalya's, but alas, deeds struck. Being discouraged to try again, it took me almost a year to restart this character. Fortunately, this time around I had more succes!

Stats
Name: Darkoooo
Class: Assassin
Experience: 840705962
Level: 82

Naked/Gear
Strength: 114/149
Dexterity: 48/118
Vitality: 318/318
Energy: 25/25
HP: 1523
Mana: 194
Defense: 1628
AR: 3483 (PS) 3483/3325 (FoF/CoT) 3910/3752 (Dragon Claw)

Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison: 71/76/90/72 (75 max all)

MF: 40
GF: 136
Block: 49 (Claw Block)
FR/W: 40 + 51 from BoS
FHR: 35 (6 frames)
IAS: 70/30 (7 fpa PS, 5fpa FoF, CoT, DC)
FCR: 0
DR/DR%/MDR: 28/41/31
Life/mana leech: 20 (+7 for Bartuc's)/21
Double damage %: 30% CS + 16% DS = 41.2%

Fists of Fire: 20/26
Claws of Thunder: 20/26
Phoenix Strike: 20/26
Dragon Claw: 1/7 <-- finisher
Dragon Flight: 1/7 <-- very useful
Shadow Warrior: 19/24 <-- pretty good tank
Claw Mastery: 1/6
Burst of Speed: 1/6
Weapon Block: 1/6 <-- 49% block
Mind Blast: 1/6
Cloak of Shadows: 1/6 <-- Mind Blast + Cloak of Shadows = IDDQD
Fade: 1/6
Death Sentry: 0/0 <-- no DS; dropped in favor of a more durable Shadow Warrior

Gear
Natalya's Mark [29% cold resist jewel]
Natalya's Shadow [3x Sol]
Natalya's Totem [Sol]
Natalya's Soul
Bartuc's Cut-Throat [Eth Rune]
Ghoul Touch Gauntlets

Spoiler

String of Ears
Highlord's Wrath
Raven Frost
Doom Circle Ring

Spoiler

Set bonusses: (just putting this here for your viewing pleasure ^^)
(2 items): Magic Damage Reduced by 15
(3 items): +200 Defense
(4 items): Poison Resist +20%
+3 to Assassin Skill Levels
14% Mana stolen per hit
14% Life stolen per hit
+150 Defense
Cold Resist +50%
Lightning Resist +50%
Fire Resist +50%
Poison Resist +50%
Damage Reduced by 30%
Unrecognized property: 181 <-- lol GoMule, that's the fade effect

Switch: nothing. I didn't have enough strength for a Demon's Limb, not even with a triple pamethyst shield. Maybe I should've Hel'd it. Oh well...
Inventory: Gheeds, looots of life and resist charms

Mercenary
Neeraj, level 82 Holy Freeze, sporting:

The Reaper's Toll [Shael]
Treachery Dusk Shroud
Vampire Gaze [IAS jewel]

Finds

A Gul, finally breaking my bad luck streak at the HF
A Gull from NM Baal

Experience
That was easy enough! PS'ers take a while to get used to, but once you get the hang of them, they're quite good! The first time around I was quite put off by the timing of PS, but I learned that the term "Phoenix Striker" is a bit of a misnomer. CoT and FoF are far better in most situations. You don't risk releasing the wrong charge, damage-wise they're not far off from PS, and they are dual-claw attacks, so they charge pretty fast. I decided to put a point in Claw Block, as outright negating half (almost all types of) damage at the cost of one skill point and the block pause seemed worth it. This also allowed me to take Shadow Warrior. Once I got to 79, I respec'd and ditched Death Sentry in favor of more points in SW. While DS would have been useful to have, I decided I was already using enough keyboard shortcuts, and my SW turned from a crumbly cookie to a decent tank.

Speaking of level 79, it took quite a damn long time to reach it. You see, I want to start Hell with my end-gear, or at least my build-defining equipment. This was probably my least favorite part of this character.

Gear-wise, I decided to go with Bartuc's as my secondary claw, and not with Jade Talon. While the resists of the latter would have been very useful, I preferred the skills, stats, life leech and AR bonus of the former. Both are, in my opinion, equally fine choices though. I went with Highlord's, because I didn't really have anything better. The Cat's Eye would've been great, as would have been Mara's or a nice +2 assassin skill level rare, but alas. I Sol'd all the armor sockets, despite having 41% DR from gear already. One is better than the other, depending on the situation, so I just took both. This, together with the DR%, MDR, almost max'd resists and 49% block, made this character quite durable!

Snapshots
Monsters with lots of HP + FE + Cursed = watch the **** out, as I've learned the hard way
'sploding NM Thresh Socket (who killed Darkoooone) to hell
Finding a Bartuc's slightly stronger than my current ones

"They'll never see me coming!" <-- really nice with the fade effect
'Lost' City?
Look at us being cool and see-thru and all (ugh, sorry for keeping the map up)
No kick damage?
Hephasto getting his face murdered
Lord de Seis, sporting Might instead of Fanatism for a change
A convicting Infector, seconds after almost deeding me and me escaping using Dragon Flight
Baal regretting getting up this morning

Conclusion
This Guardian completes my second sept! Sweet chocolate Jesus, who would've thought I would get this far? Certainly not me... Anyway, thanks for reading! Special thanks to Darkoooo for his generousity, of course. Here's to ya, mate!

**zaphodbrx** · 29-04-2012, 01:53

Dear god, it seems from your stats that you used Bartucs as the primary claw. I suppose the eth rune helped, but the ITD on Natalya's Mark is one of the coolest things about the set, just pointing that out. Though if you mostly used FoF and CoT, that doesn't matter as much. With a little practice and the itd of Natalya's claw, it isn't that hard to get the correct charges. Only BoI is ( imo ) superior to its phoenix strike variant and really useful in areas with no cold immunes. Also, Bartucs doesn't have the ias needed to hit 7fpa/5fpa, I doubt it.

Other things I noticed - unnecessary leech ( String of ears instead of dungoes ) , mana leech ( awesome ring tho ) - Natalya set already gives insane amounts of both ( and Bartucs has it too ). and Highlord's wrath was a puzzling choice , as a Kenshi's amulet or Mara's would almost certainly have been a better option.

Okay, sorry for nitpicking, it's still an awesome character, and hey it's a guardian! Congrats on finding the Gul and Gull.

**Drystan** · 29-04-2012, 03:42

Grats on the Phoenix Striker 'sin! Love the skill, although, I quite enjoyed my cold-based PS'sin.

"They'll never see me coming." Love this quote. Nice to see others enjoy the character remarks still.

@Darkooo - You have to come out of lurk mode for this!

**Arkardo** · 29-04-2012, 09:22

Originally Posted by zaphodbrx

Dear god, it seems from your stats that you used Bartucs as the primary claw. I suppose the eth rune helped, but the ITD on Natalya's Mark is one of the coolest things about the set, just pointing that out. Though if you mostly used FoF and CoT, that doesn't matter as much. With a little practice and the itd of Natalya's claw, it isn't that hard to get the correct charges. Only BoI is ( imo ) superior to its phoenix strike variant and really useful in areas with no cold immunes. Also, Bartucs doesn't have the ias needed to hit 7fpa/5fpa, I doubt it.

Other things I noticed - unnecessary leech ( String of ears instead of dungoes ) , mana leech ( awesome ring tho ) - Natalya set already gives insane amounts of both ( and Bartucs has it too ). and Highlord's wrath was a puzzling choice , as a Kenshi's amulet or Mara's would almost certainly have been a better option.

Okay, sorry for nitpicking, it's still an awesome character, and hey it's a guardian! Congrats on finding the Gul and Gull.

I'm pretty sure Nat's was the primary claw, as that one got equipped first in the left (glove side) slot, and the Bartuc's got equipped last in the right (boots) side slot. It might be a GoMule goof. But how would you guess that from the stats? Anyway, unless the German weapon speed calculator is incorrect, with 30% off-weapon IAS and a level 9 BoS I should have 7fpa for PS and 5fpa for the others. I'm guessing that the 5fpa is per claw attack, so 10fpa total for one cycle.

Yeah, the leech was a bit excessive, even with the low physical damage. The choice for the ring was mostly for its resists, and the SoE for the DR% and the MDR. I'm really unlucky in the amulet department, so the Highlord's was really the best I had.

Thanks for the comments! I don't see it as nitpicking, but as constructive feedback. Assassins are probably my least played class, mainly because of my poor understanding of claw mechanics.

Originally Posted by Drystan

Grats on the Phoenix Striker 'sin! Love the skill, although, I quite enjoyed my cold-based PS'sin.

"They'll never see me coming." Love this quote. Nice to see others enjoy the character remarks still.

@Darkooo - You have to come out of lurk mode for this!

Yeah, the cold charge was quite a nice crowd-control skill at times where CoS and MB didn't work so well. I love to use it against minions of destruction when my merc was having a rough time. It gave him ample of time to leech back life.

**jiansonz** · 29-04-2012, 09:49

Nice to see other players enjoying Phoenix Strikers. Good write-up and LOL @ 'Lost City'.

From your comments, I suppose you thought that going claw + shield was never an option?

I like the damage reduction gear. Very good for HC.

Why do you need so much Strength? Is that for the heavy armor?

I am very surprised you had nothing on the switch. Why not some sort of ranged attack, since you do not have any (not even the merc has one). 'Strength' claw with Blade Fury staffmod would have been an obvious choice. And in that case, you could've had a second claw with Death Sentry staffmod. Or you could've used items with useful charges, like a Lower Resist wand and a Terror shield (although I suppose these would be less useful than normal because of Reaper's). Riphook would not have been bad either.

**zaphodbrx** · 29-04-2012, 10:01

Arkado, the game does not exactly work that way. The claw that is equipped first is the primary claw, irrespective of boot or glove slot. Since you have 118 dex, and Natalya's Mark needs 118/118, it's obvious that you equipped Bartucs first ( which gives 20/20 ) and then Natalya's Mark ( which thus became the secondary claw ). If you had done it correctly, your screen would show 138 dex. ( Equip Natalya's first and then Bartucs ).

There are other ways of telling. N's has better physical damage so check the dragon claw output. Or just observe the assassin as she walks. GTs and scissors suwayyahs have distinctive graphics. The mainhand claw is always the one in the right hand. Don't feel bad, I made the same mistake when making my Nat's PSer, though I realized it by A2 Hell.

I'm sure you can get a +3 ammy or +2 sin blood craft or even just Mara's soon. And dungo's instead of SoE ( DR,Hp and FHR ). And MA skillers. They're cool.

The high strength is for the heavy armor, yes.

**Arkardo** · 29-04-2012, 10:39

Originally Posted by jiansonz

Nice to see other players enjoying Phoenix Strikers. Good write-up and LOL @ 'Lost City'.

From your comments, I suppose you thought that going claw + shield was never an option?

I like the damage reduction gear. Very good for HC.

Why do you need so much Strength? Is that for the heavy armor?

I am very surprised you had nothing on the switch. Why not some sort of ranged attack, since you do not have any (not even the merc has one). 'Strength' claw with Blade Fury staffmod would have been an obvious choice. And in that case, you could've had a second claw with Death Sentry staffmod. Or you could've used items with useful charges, like a Lower Resist wand and a Terror shield (although I suppose these would be less useful than normal because of Reaper's). Riphook would not have been bad either.

I went with claw/claw mainly because it's awesomer than claw/shield. I think I had other reasons as well, but I can't seem to remember them. I think it was because a 1-point Claw Block meant 49% blocking, and I usually go with 50% (or, rather, 51%, as running cuts it to 1/3 and I think 50%/3 blocking gets rounded down to 16%. Anyway, I disgress) on non-Paladin builds anyway. That, and a second claw means more attacks per second and more skills.

I supposed I could've stuck one Hel in the Armor, but I just went with 3 Sols for the hell of it. The switch idea is pretty good actually; these are the kind of things I still need to learn about assassins.

Originally Posted by zaphodbrx

Arkado, the game does not exactly work that way. The claw that is equipped first is the primary claw, irrespective of boot or glove slot. Since you have 118 dex, and Natalya's Mark needs 118/118, it's obvious that you equipped Bartucs first ( which gives 20/20 ) and then Natalya's Mark ( which thus became the secondary claw ). If you had done it correctly, your screen would show 138 dex. ( Equip Natalya's first and then Bartucs ).

There are other ways of telling. N's has better physical damage so check the dragon claw output. Or just observe the assassin as she walks. GTs and scissors suwayyahs have distinctive graphics. The mainhand claw is always the one in the right hand. Don't feel bad, I made the same mistake when making my Nat's PSer, though I realized it by A2 Hell.

I'm sure you can get a +3 ammy or +2 sin blood craft or even just Mara's soon. And dungo's instead of SoE ( DR,Hp and FHR ). And MA skillers. They're cool.

The high strength is for the heavy armor, yes.

Ah, I had equipped the claws in GoMule, which allows you to equip items regardless of your stats. I didn't consider that I needed the stats from Bartuc's to equip Nat's. Well spotted, sir! Unfortunately, I don't have future plans for this char, but it feels like quite a bummer to find out I was DOING IT WRONG!!

That does mean that the Jade Talon option was probably better, since the dex bonus isn't that useful. Or I could've upgraded the Bartuc's, as I seem to remember that the requirements of Nat's are pretty close to that of Runic Talons. Bah, so many options.

**Pijus** · 29-04-2012, 10:42

Originally Posted by jiansonz

I am very surprised you had nothing on the switch. Why not some sort of ranged attack, since you do not have any (not even the merc has one). 'Strength' claw with Blade Fury staffmod would have been an obvious choice. And in that case, you could've had a second claw with Death Sentry staffmod. Or you could've used items with useful charges, like a Lower Resist wand and a Terror shield (although I suppose these would be less useful than normal because of Reaper's). Riphook would not have been bad either.

Why would one need a ranged attack?

Using Strenght claw on switch would probably take longer than just killing things with the characters normal skills. Same with Lower resists. The build has several elements at it's disposal, so you can just pick the appropriate one for whatever monster you're facing.

I don't think plinkng away with a Riphook would be fun either, not when the build isn't tuned to use normal attack(would have low AR), and especially not when the main attack has good AR, and thousands of points of elemntal damage.

**zaphodbrx** · 29-04-2012, 11:12

I think in HC you sometimes just don't want to be going into melee range against bad boss packs.

Sorry to nitpick even more, but pamethysts in a shield do not give strength. Fal runes do though. Minus the bartucs, you would have had 149-20 = 129 str on switch. 133 is needed for demon limb, so a single Fal'd shield would have done the trick. Or Hsaru's iron fist buckler, if you don't want to waste a Fal.

**Arkardo** · 29-04-2012, 11:41

Originally Posted by Pijus

Why would one need a ranged attack?

Using Strenght claw on switch would probably take longer than just killing things with the characters normal skills. Same with Lower resists. The build has several elements at it's disposal, so you can just pick the appropriate one for whatever monster you're facing.

I don't think plinkng away with a Riphook would be fun either, not when the build isn't tuned to use normal attack(would have low AR), and especially not when the main attack has good AR, and thousands of points of elemntal damage.

Originally Posted by zaphodbrx

I think in HC you sometimes just don't want to be going into melee range against bad boss packs.

Sorry to nitpick even more, but pamethysts in a shield do not give strength. Fal runes do though. Minus the bartucs, you would have had 149-20 = 129 str on switch. 133 is needed for demon limb, so a single Fal'd shield would have done the trick. Or Hsaru's iron fist buckler, if you don't want to waste a Fal.

Well, I did find myself standing on the sidelines while my merc and shadow fought a pack from time to time. With dolls for example, or for a dangerous boss pack or a pack where I haven't yet seen the unique's mods. On the one hand a ranged attack with CB would be useful in these situations, as well as killing act bosses more quickly. On the other hand losing the 50% resist and 30% DR bonusses from the full set during this situation is quite risky.

OMG @ the pamethyst mistake. I have now two shields in my GoMule stash, stuffed with flawed amethysts and perfect amethysts. All because I thought amethysts in shields gave strength. Now that is quite embarrassing.