07-18-2003, 01:04 PM
Did some testing with a Blade Assassin a while back. Yes, claw mastery does apply. Dual-wielding is unhelpful, only the damage from the character's right-hand claw is used. WEAPON SPEED IS IGNORED for Blade Fury once you're in attack position. All of this leads me to think that the most powerful Blade Assassin would be one with a big ol' high-damage ethereal elite polearm. Since weapon speed doesn't matter, you can use Fade to compensate for the lessened resists. A good claw + maxed mastery is the alternative, if you really want to use a shield (and are willing to sacrifice some killing speed).
I also realized that putting points into Blade Fury is a big stinkin' waste. 19 skill points for an extra 93 damage per blade, and an extra cost of seven mana per shot? Thanks, I'll pass. Stick 'em in Venom, and get 400+ extra damage at a flat cost of 12 mana every few minutes, and you're now dual-elemental.
The trouble with this build is that, although you're doing a lot of damage quite quickly to a single target, you don't have any effective means of crowd control. Blade Sentinel doesn't do nearly enough damage to be viable in late Nightmare even, the other traps need a lot of synergy points to really be useful (and your high-damage equipment is ill-suited for an elemental trapper anyway), and if you're gonna march down the Martial Arts tree, why not just make a Martial Arts assassin? The whole point of Blade fury is that it's ranged, you can do a lot more damage with the Martial Arts attacks if you're gonna be up close.
This leaves us with Cloak of Shadows, and while it's probably one of the most useful skills in the game imo, it'll make for some reeaaalllly slow going in Hell difficulty.
I wish Blade Shield didn't have so many damn prerequisites, it could at least be useful as a one-pointer for Martial Artists. As it stands, I unfortunately don't see any use for the Blade skills. I'd love to be proven wrong.
I also realized that putting points into Blade Fury is a big stinkin' waste. 19 skill points for an extra 93 damage per blade, and an extra cost of seven mana per shot? Thanks, I'll pass. Stick 'em in Venom, and get 400+ extra damage at a flat cost of 12 mana every few minutes, and you're now dual-elemental.
The trouble with this build is that, although you're doing a lot of damage quite quickly to a single target, you don't have any effective means of crowd control. Blade Sentinel doesn't do nearly enough damage to be viable in late Nightmare even, the other traps need a lot of synergy points to really be useful (and your high-damage equipment is ill-suited for an elemental trapper anyway), and if you're gonna march down the Martial Arts tree, why not just make a Martial Arts assassin? The whole point of Blade fury is that it's ranged, you can do a lot more damage with the Martial Arts attacks if you're gonna be up close.
This leaves us with Cloak of Shadows, and while it's probably one of the most useful skills in the game imo, it'll make for some reeaaalllly slow going in Hell difficulty.
I wish Blade Shield didn't have so many damn prerequisites, it could at least be useful as a one-pointer for Martial Artists. As it stands, I unfortunately don't see any use for the Blade skills. I'd love to be proven wrong.