The Ninja is back

[whyBish]

D'Oh cheers!
Thank goodness I hadn't found a shael yet :P

[TriggerHappy]

Has anyone considered this untwinked and mostly "safety" build for the Ninja?

Dual "Strength" claws and "Blood" crafted gloved for a minimum of 55% (maximum of 60%) total Crushing Blow, which would also provide 17% life steal.

A "Blood" crafted helm for additional life steal and 5-10% deadly strike (+3% from the prerequisite claw mastery and whatever points more invested in it, if any).

A pair of elite "Blood" Crafted boots, for very good "finisher" damage (is it stil possible to get up to 10% Crushing blow on these?).

A Blood belt is an optional piece of equipment for even more life steal and a small chance of Open Wounds.

Any other Crushing Blow equipment would be icing on the cake.

Weapon switch to two Claws each with 5% change to cast level 1 amplify damage, for physical immunes (after a successful Amp Damage, switch back to crushing blow gear).

Weapon block that doesn't need dexterity, giving constant 42% block with a mere 5 point investment (50% with 10 points isn't worth it in my opinion).

Cloak of shadows, ofcourse (one point + adders).

Shadow Master or Warrior for tanking.

Fade (maxed) for resists, curse duration reduction and 20% physical damage reduction (Link). Which is always nice for a melee build to have.

Blade Fury one point investment for dealing with dangerous situations, assuming acceptable + Attack rating equipment is available (angelic rings + amulet as suggested before).

Act2 Might Mercenary for even better "finisher" damage. If possible the mercenary could also have a "strength" polearm or spear to complete the theme ;) .

Poison charms to prevent monster heal, as long duration as possible desired, Venom not desired due to extremely low duration.


Sounds good?


What i'd love to know is whether Dragon Talon gets extra kicks from additional skill levels beyond 20. If it does, that could make a "lore" helm or a +1 to 3 to martial arts circlet and/or amulet very desired equipment (gamble) for a non twinked character.

One more thing i was wondering about, is the "Safety" Crafted amulet's + (1-10)% Increased Chance Of Blocking fixed mod. Would this apply to weapon block? Would be great if it did.

[whyBish]

Yes the crafts are good for filling out slots. However there is one problem with balance at the moment ... Crescent Moon. The NM Hellforge dropped me an UM and it changed me from being decent but challenged in A5 nm players 1, to being a 'kill everything onscreen in 3 sec' char. I used to need to rely on mind blast (with thorns merc) against meleers, or cloak of shadows against ranged monsters to thin them out and get the first few corpses for DS, but now I just kick all the time :(

It's also a pity that def rating doesn't really help much. When I had a defiance merc, and some pretty nice crafted exceptional armor (as well as exceptional crafted boots/gloves) my to-be-hit was only at 50% after CoS.

Also, the drops are much better now, so 'playing your hand' is a lot easier. One of the pieces that I got early on was a hawkmail. I gave it to the merc, but realised that it fits so much nicer on the 'sin. No freeze is worth a slot on its own, and with the normal->exceptional upgrade being cheap you can also get some decent def out of it. Another good drop I got at around level 60 or so was an assassin rare amulet, with 4% life leech and about 40-50% worth of resists and some strength... these are the things that you can't plan for but they happen more often than previously.

[Raziel]

Dual "Strength" claws and "Blood" crafted gloved  for a minimum of 55% (maximum of 60%) total Crushing Blow, which would also provide 17% life steal. 

[...]

What i'd love to know is whether Dragon Talon gets extra kicks from additional skill levels beyond 20.  If it does, that could make a "lore" helm or a +1 to 3 to martial arts circlet and/or amulet very desired equipment (gamble) for a non twinked character.

As soon as you can manage it, I would suggest swapping the "Strength" claw on your primary hand for a "Malice" claw. 100% Open Wounds is just too good to pass up. It's like having super-venom always available.

Dragon Talon kick = (slvl / 6) + 1. So a new kick is gained at skill levels 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, etc...

[whyBish]

Is the open wounds damage formula known yet?