Trap / Venom Thrower Assassin Build

[nebula]

1.10 Trap / Venom Thrower Assassin Build

Current Skills

Fire Blast : 15
Burst of Speed : 5
Death Sentry : 5
Venom : 5 (will eventually max.)
Shadow Master : 5 (will eventually max.)


Current Stats

At clvl 40, Vitality and Energy are both at 50 ('naked'). Strength is 60 and Dex is over 100 (I can already see I will need a decent investment in Dex to keep chance to hit at least 85%).


Strategy

Cast Burst of Speed to increase movement & weapon speed. Throw Fire Blasts / Venom enhanced missile weapons (javelins, darts, flying axes etc.) at monsters to create corpses. Damage / kill remaining monsters with Death Sentry corpse explosions. All of this while Shadow Master and Act 2 Defiance Merc tanks.


Current Status

I'm having fun with this build - a bit different to the usual 'fire & forget' trappers. My current Assassin is about clvl40, just entered Nightmare. I've tested a few 1.10 builds and this has been the most fun (for me) so far.

Also an effective item hunter as she can comfortably wear items with good +%MF without sacrificing damage and defense. I like the idea of throwing Venom tipped weapons while traps are firing, especially as this usually adds to the corpse pile for Death Sentry to feed on :D


Questions

I'm a little unsure as to how this build will survive in hell. I hope someone can answer the following questions and provide advice to help keep this poisoned carcass bomber alive :)

Death Sentry / Fire Blast - are these skills worth maxing? I'd max DS mainly for the increased corpse explosion radius and also the boosted lightning damage. Any more points in Fire Blast will only add 1 more shot to DS although this may be my only source of fire damage (don't want to use Wake of Fire or Inferno).

Corpse Explosion - how exactly does the radius work? For example, if Death Sentry has a radius of 5 yards, does that mean all monsters within 5 yards of an exploding corpse receive damage or does the corpse explode if a monster moves inside the 5 yard radius? Sorry if that sounds confusing. I think basically what I'm trying to find out is does a monster need to be standing right next to the exploding corpse to receive damage?

[Raziel]

Uh.. why not put a point into Blade Fury? Then you don't need throwing weapons, and can totally spam Venom'ed blades.

This build looks kinda like someone who kills [somehow] and then Death Sentry does the rest.

Why not pick LS over FB? For example:

BF: 1
Venom: Max
LS: Max
DS: Max
SM: 5
CoS: 1
MB: 1

That way you get a high lightning damage trap, death sentries, venom, blade fury (to apply venom), and a tank. You could max SM last (slvl 5 + 2x shadow claws = slvl 11 = rare equipment). Cloak of Shadows is never a bad thing, either. Nor is Mind Blast.

The "CE radius" is the radius of the CE explosion. The corpse itself can be on the edge of the screen, it doesn't matter. But the trap will opt to shoot lightning (read: waste a shot) if it can't find a corpse worth exploding that is also close enough to an enemy. The trap automatically seeks out corpses; i'm not sure how far from it's planting site it will actively seek corpses, but it effectively casts CE on the corpse for you.

Do you really *need* extra DS shots?

Then there's also the option of going with DTalon and kicking things down. But you can do that to a limited degree with Blade Fury. Enough Crushing Blow and your blades will hose all non-PI's, and those that live will die to LS/DS/Venom, or if worst comes to worst, your Shadow Master. CoS and MB will keep you alive.

EDIT: I'm sorry, I assumed automatically this was for 1.10. If it isn't, please disregard most of what i've said. But you're talking about extra DS shots from FB.. sounds like 1.10 to me.

[nebula]

Raziel

Thanks for your reply.

Uh.. why not put a point into Blade Fury? Then you don't need throwing weapons, and can totally spam Venom'ed blades.

I guess I just wanted to try something different - haven't really been all that impressed with Blade Fury in the past. Sounds like it might have been improved in 1.10 though. Thanks for the tip - I'll give it a try, especially if only a single point is needed to be effective.

Why not pick LS over FB?

Again - something different. Mainly for the extra DS shots and DS lightning damage synergy (+9% per level in FB). FB is also available from clvl 1 and I used it extensively all the way through Normal, still using it in early Nightmare. Probably won't be much use in Hell but by that time I should have enough points in Venom.

Do you really *need* extra DS shots?

With FB at slvl 15, DS fires 10 times instead of 5 for the same mana cost - trap stays up longer, more corpses exploding, more dead monsters.

EDIT: I'm sorry, I assumed automatically this was for 1.10. If it isn't, please disregard most of what i've said. But you're talking about extra DS shots from FB.. sounds like 1.10 to me.

Yes, this build is for 1.10 - I've updated my post to show this.