A few musings on crowd control skills/equipment

[Crystalion]

[ed: as the primary point of this post is the lists, I will add/tweak there as needed]

I almost replied to the statement in Atma's Tavern (in a v1.10 thread) that Amazon Multishot with knockback is the best crowd control in the game (they did mention adding cold as well). But since my issue is technical and my interest is more general with CC than the particular statement I thought I'd unburden myself here.

Background: I've been fooling around with single player v1.10beta, mostly as a new [and untwinked] assassin [players 1] but I've briefly tested some things with older characters. I took a number of classes into Act I Hell to get a feel for how much harder the game is. [My characters have traded among themselves only] My level 72 [?] Fury Werewolf Druid [who has completed v1.09 Hell] was my only character to not experience any inconvenience or need to change playstyle. My level 57 Necro found, as the only difference, that things are harder to kill [for initial corpses for CE], but that is the Necro lifestyle, eh? My other characters have, in this test and others, all found the game harder or at least different.

So the skills, equipment and techniques of "Crowd Control" seem to now be more valuable.

I don't intend to write a complete guide to CC, but I've never seen a class-wide survey or even mention of a few odd methods and thought that if I mentioned a couple oddities perhaps the other Lurker's will flesh it out [and I can enjoy learning something].

So here's an [incomplete] overview list off the top of my head [expect omissions and naming errors] by technique, effect, class/skill...

Please note: I understand that quickly and utterly slaughtering the whole crowd is very effective "control" but I'm making the assumption that this isn't practical universally [at least in v1.10]. Thus I am simplifying my writing task by ignoring all the ways that increasing the ROK [rate of kill] helps crowd control. Further my time is not unlimited, so while I am attempting to start a v1.10 discussion, the vast majority of "facts" I'll allude to have not been verified in v1.10 [which, after all, at time of this writing, isn't even released]

I'm going to make this post just be the lists. I'll add commentary as time permits in follow-up posts.


Technique [something you "do"]
=======================
advance slowly [aka control monster activation]
run away [spread them out]
run past [leave them behind... funny fact, not many monsters are "required" kills]
move quickly [be the one choosing where to be]
move discontinuously [e.g. leap/LA, teleport, Dragon Flight, Town Portal/Waypoints]
use terrain pathing constraints [e.g. doorways, AI pathing stupidities]
Bait [provide a more tempting target than you for the AI]
damage dilution [since "defeat in detail" works for you, conversely make the enemy dilute their power across many targets]


Effects impairing monsters
===================
slow, Holy Freeze
chill, freeze [many skills]
fear [many skills]
Confusion, Attraction
converted
Taunt
knockback
stun [many skills]
blind
Cloak of Shadows
anything removing a corpse that might be ressurected [will ignore this in this post for simplicity]


Class/skills highlights [reminder: this is incomplete, so I'll focus on "special" transmission of impairing effects]
=============================================================================

Amazon:
AE/multi-monster skills transmitting [some] impairing effect[s]:
Freezing arrow, Exploding arrow, Multishot, Strafe, Pierce, Fend, Lightning Fury


Assassin:
Blade Fury [holding the skill active and mouse arcing in front of you allows spaming effects on to multiple targets]
as well as Blade Sentinel, Blade Shield [note all three, v1.10, become damage dealers as well]
AE cold: Blades of Ice, Phoenix Strike
Cloak of Shadows [special mention: can get your Shadow Warrior to do this for you]
Mind Blast [AE stun and conversion]
Psychic Hammer [knockback]


Barbarian:
Taunt, Howl, Stun, Warcry, Grim Ward, Bash
Whirlwind for affecting multiple monsters with impairments
Leap [knockback]


Druid:
Fury for affecting multiple monsters with impairments
Molten Bolder [repeated knockback]
Summon Grizzly [stuns]
Shockwave [AE], Maul [stuns]
Twister


Necromancer:
Clay Golem [slows target]
Iron Golem [effects by virtue of item created with]
Revives [effects by virtue of monster used]
Terror, Confuse, Attract, Dim Vision [AI affecters]
Decrepify [slow]
Bone Wall
Bone Prison [vastly better (synergies etc.) to dump points into in v1.10 and *still* "free"/spamable around level 26]


Paladin:
Zeal for affecting multiple monsters with impairments
Sanctuary [AE undead knockback]
Holy Freeze [also, of course, on Act II NM mercs]
Conversion
Smite [knockback, stun]
Charge [knockback, rapid movement]


Sorceress:
Glacial Spike
Blizzard
Frozen Orb
Frost Nova
Telekinesis

Hirelings:
Rogues with effects transmitted by arrow [flee transmitted AE by exploding arrow was a v1.09 favorite of mine]
Merc with Holy Freeze
Merc/Barb transmitted by melee
Sorc ice blast

[Guest]

When I said knock back was the best crowd control, I was specifically referring to knock back with multishot(and cold).

I also meant to imply(but probably didnt) that Im talking about fast killing characters. Who will be meeting monsters, killing them and moving ahead fairly rapidly.

I think I was fairly accurate.

[Mavfin]

Shadow Master seems smarter now. I was testing an assassin in Act 2 Hell, players 5, the other day. The Master was lvl 23, I think. I was toying with traps a bit, and then watched in awe as the Shadow Master proceeded to Mind Blast, CoS, lay traps, use venom, use Phoenix Strike, and generally kill 3/4 of what was there with no intervention by me......

Now that's crowd control...

Either her AI's been turned up, or I don't remember how she was before correctly.

And, those who haven't played D1 may not (some do, but many don't) know *how* to string things out, and all the stuff we generally did in D1 to handle hordes....I got an opportunity to use it here and there with a few chars, and it makes a huge difference...

[Crystalion]

When I said knock back was the best crowd control, I was specifically referring to knock back with multishot(and cold).

I also meant to imply(but probably didnt) that Im talking about fast killing characters. Who will be meeting monsters, killing them and moving ahead fairly rapidly.

I think I was fairly accurate.

Ah, an opportunity for commentary.

Let me start by saying that if you replace "the best" with "very good" then I'm in total agreement.

And let me clarify that I was never confused about you combining MS/KB/chill as a package deal.

On to analysis...

Elements under discussion:
1) the best crowd control
2) candidate: Bowazon using Multishot with knockback and chill
3) criterion: ignore competition if they are not a "fast kill[er]", to wit
3a) meeting monsters [presumably wherever/whatever the game throws at you]
3b) killing them [thus excluding crowd control techniques that "merely" neutralize or avoid]
3c) moving ahead rapidly [although this goal doesn't seem to take precedence over 3b as it would, e.g., in a MF run]

Well, if we ignore 3b then "free" spammed bone prison and teleport is definitely better CC so I guess I have to focus on the killing issue. A bone prison spammer, to kill things, really is looking to set off a chain of Corpse Explosions. The CEs themselves are vastly more efficient than MS, but getting the inital critical mass of corpses requires killing techniques that may well be less efficient than a Bowazon or even MS in particular [despite the damage penalty]. Whether the two cancel out in favor of the Necro or the Amazon under what conditions is probably up in the air. For example, you'd have to consider whether 3c precludes the Necro from bringing back a horde of monsters to the corpse site of the last horde he killed, so as to not waste time on starter corpses. I have a friend [Necro] who once cleared the entire cow level in [the space of] one screen, for example [herding them back to death central].

If we focus too much on 3b and 3c we might conclude that a Fury Werewolf Druid has the best CC by giving him a knockback and high% flee exploding arrow rogue and stunning grizzly--while this would keep monster density thin I suspect that the Druid would get pretty peeved from all the extra walking to targets [yes, I've tested such a Rogue... in v1.09 Hell Pindleskin prelude she kept the entire set of undead, 30+ levels her senior, away from my character, indefinitely]. I say focus too much, because by 3a we might meet a MSLEB, and clearly the Bone Prison Necro and Slow Missiles 'Zon deal with that better than Fury [arrrrgh...splat].

Having played a Grim Warding barb and knowing that WW barbs have [had?] high kill rates we could similarly argue for this over MS--bearing in mind that Leap/LA/Howl/Warcry definitely give the Barb the initial time needed to set up the GW when needed. In other words, Barbs don't tend to be played that way, but they are very flexible and very good at CC, so your MS/knockback/chill is a one trick pony by comparison, which can fail easily vs. cold immunes when knockback isn't giving you any room. So if MS doesn't kill any faster than a Barb can, it is not at all clear to me that awarding the Amazon the "best" title is accurate, even given your criteria.

And, of course, by focusing on Necro Bone Prison and complimenting Barb CC I do not in any way mean to slight the enormous other range of Necro CC skills [and apparently Confuse is now usable, perhaps even good, instead of being largely a joke]. It is just more an issue of debate whether a good CE Necro is better at 3c than a Bowazon. But I don't think people will have trouble accepting WW and Fury builds as qualifying under 3c.

In short, I think the knockback Bowazon suffers *situationally* with 3a too much to win "best" over "very good". Indeed I think you [and any reasonable person] posit too many criteria for anything to take the "best" title.

To illustrate, suppose I tell you I want the best character/items/techniques at crowd control to join an awesome xp generator [uber killer] and myself, a hardcore soso character being rushed. Your job is to keep me alive, in the heart of danger, where I qualify to leech xp. It is clear to me, with even this very limited criteria, that evaluating "best" CC gets complex really really fast. For example, if I know Leap or teleport, would I want the CCer to be a "hostile" necro, safely encasing me in bone prisons? Would I prefer an assassin, who can usually protect me with CoS and can use range 5 knockback shield of blades to auto-repel approachers while he mind blasts other threats? Etc. etc.

OTOH, if we modify 3a to be "most of the time" and add 3d) nothing complicated, just kill stuff and CC is a don't-need-to-think-about-it bonus, then my inclination is to agree with Bowazon/knockback/chill [although sometimes strafe would seem likely to be the CC over MS].

Had I thought the issues were simple I wouldn't have posted. But I certainly don't mind people, out of personal preference, going for a straightforward style of play. It is probably the case, given the enormous number of players of D2, that only straightforward styles of play will be evident at the top of the v1.10 ladders. So, recasting "best" in that sense I think you have a shot. Indeed, having gone the strafe route with my zon, your observation tempts me to try a hurried [focus: fast kill, fast leveling--not my usual M.O.] MS zon.

[Guest]

Yes for pure control its hard to beat.

[Occhidiangela]

Great analysis thread, Crys, thanks for starting it. I will toss in a few Assassin comments, but won't be able to mess with beta until the Weekend, if at all.

Crowd Control: Stop the mad rush!! Get 'em offa me!!

That to me is Crowd Control's primary purpose. Having slowed them down, you do have to solve the next problem: OK, now that I have stopped them, what do I do with them?

My vote? I think the Assassin gets the best of both worlds, particularly with traps and Death Sentry, and now with Blade Shield and possibly Blade Fury taking on weapon effects without causing desynch. (The Necro bone barriers have a lot of benefits, monster channeling, that can control the fight quite nicely though. )

1. Assassin has a spammable "keep them busy" Shadow Master or Warrior who is no slouch at combat.

2. Mind Blast heeds no resistance, no immunity. MS, however, does not take as much precision to aim.

Its range vis a vis MS/Knockback + Cold confines its advantages to a smaller AoE. MS can control a large area, and so be a great Party asset, MB can only influence small areas: unlessyou spam it all over the place. (My trapper has been known to do that when facing to many due to me being careless) In tight areas, Act III Temples, MS advantage is not so noticeable, and MS is a No Shield skill that can cost resists versus Blood Lords, etc.

MB allows use of a shield.

MB also works against, unless they changed 1.10, all bosses champs and uniques except for :

Andarial, Duriel, Mehpisto, Diablo, Baal, insofar as "slow him down." They are not a crowd control problem, other than Andariel and Mephisto if you choose to take them on with their minions still running amok. ("Retribution," anyone? )

I have used MB against Ancients in Hell Diff, and was glad I had it. :)

Mind Blast's conversion feature for non-champ, non-boss, non unique monsters is a synergistic asset. Atract beats it one on one in some regards on a point for point investment, though. (Excepting OK's (pun intended)) MB yields the occasional side benefit of monsters slowing themselves down as they beat each other up for a little while. (Attract does this better with one point than MB does with one to ten) MB: two bits of crowd control in one skill, no equipment needed. :) With De Seis leading a pack of Doom Knights, he just got owned by his own minions, in 1.10. :o Necromancer "Attract" will do something similar there, particularly if a bone barrier is put up before casting to separate friend from foe.

MB allows you to decide and act. The stun of 6-10 guarantees that.

The critical piece is to stay inside their OODA loop, so your decision cycle is the shorter than the monsters'. Stair traps, if your BoS and Attack speed is up, can be containted with a few fast Mind Blasts. You then scram or fight without watching red ball simply dry up.

3. Psychic Hammer. Spamming Psychic Hammer quickly can slow down a crowd but it takes a bit better aim and has a short duration. The critical piece is to stay inside their OODA loop, so your decision cycle is the shorter than the monsters'. Stair traps and Psychic Hammer? I have not had a lot of luck, but gosu mouse twitchers, with fast claws and fast gloves and BoS up, might be pretty handy at it. Major Micro, but some folks like that. :) Such as MA assassins!

4. Cloak of Shadows: No boss influence, similar to Taunt in that regard.

Per your comments, it is a very good "I am going to bypass you guys" skill, but your rear and flanks are now vulnerable, so its use in some geography is a set up to get swarmed from all sides.

AR assistance is nice for the follow on attack to mop up, particularly if you have a rogue merc. For a solo play skill, it is superb, I used it all the way through hell with my Rogue Assassin variant, but its short duration can lull you into being swarmed if you are a bit careless. (And I have the scars to prove that!)

Downside: In coop games, some party members dont like going blind. Depends on who you play with.

5. Shadow Master: like Valk, Golem, Grizzly. Keep the monsters busy. Pound for Pound, IMO, Shadow Master is the premier summonable in the game, due to combined versatility, lethality of attack, overall capability, and resists. She can occupy a crowd, but like any summonable has the disadvantage of being a catalyst to Moon Lords, etc, which is why Mind Blast is necessary to save your shirt now and again. :)

6. Claw Skills/Finishers:

Dragon Flight: Poor wench's teleport.

Claws of ice/Phoenix Strike cold release: what's not to like, though tough to aim, compared to, for example, Ice Arrow of Glacial Spike, or Arctic Blast, and you need to mix it up with the Crowd to get it started.

If you are mixing it up, who is in control here, eh? You are, if you use MB or Cloak to set the conditions of the engagement and protect your flank with Miss Shadow.

Claw attacks in general: controls one critter at a time, puts you into the crowd without supplement form other skills. Affixes, though, do work. I'd say "Monster Flee" is the premium CC affix here, particularly if you pump Venom so that some runners don't come back. :) Slows Target gets votes as well, possibly more votes, depends on preference.

7. Burst of Speed: Run Away, not as good as teleport or Leap Attack, or Leap for that matter.

This works universally, unless there is nowhere to run to. (Act III and II temple/tomb stair traps anyone?) Is a nice partial counter to Holy Freeze bosses with large radius, see Hell Diff.

It speeds up other CC skills to be cast, such as Psychic Hammer and MB.

8. Blade Shield is more expensive, and if you use a L 5 weapon, No Shield!!! That hurts resists and blocking, which are other issues for avoiding stun and hence the crowd's closure with you.

9. Fade: NO CC, just elemental stun/death prevention.

10. Blade Fury: I hear rumor that it works with Knockback if that affix is on the selected weapon?

Is that confirmed?

If so, Blade Fury can be sprayed the way I spray Arctic Blast with my elemental Druid, and can approach Strafe's knock back potential, if not MS's, depending on equipment. NO To HIt check, which is nice I think.

Does it also stack with venom? Add cold and either Dim Vision/Blinds target or, HMF, and a scattergun Blade Fury, and things could get very interesting, though I suspect not as fast as MS with a well equipped Bow Amazon.

I guess we need to look at that.

MOre after the weekend.

[Mavfin]

Venom with the right side of the trap tree is confirmed. I tested it myself in hell with a test char. Blade Fury, Blade Sentinel and Blade Shield. Pretty neat. But Venom is no longer long-acting. It's high, almost instant poison damage.

[Occhidiangela]

Weird Thought™ here.

If you get Thorns way up in level, in some games the monsters do enough damage to the tank/target so that each hit they inflict does enough damage to stun themselves due to "%" stun rule. With a decent sized army of summonables and a high enough Thorns, the monsters stun themselves by virtue of the damage they do.

I wonder where the break points are for this in game size, it will also vary with level of Physical Resistance, though I suspect that with Amp Damage over their heads from a friendly Necro or a weapon with "cast Amp Damage" affix you could see some interesting results.

Take a Hell Zombie Boss, Fanaticism, Extra Strong, and have him hit you or your merc when Thorns is maxed out, up in the high 20's, and some Amp Damage over his head, and I wonder at how badly he will hurt himself, particularly if he rolls a critical hit. He could stun himself in the process! :) But what a way to "control" him.

Tactical requirement is a summonable or two to get hit. Their proximity is doubtless a better "spread the monster's target choices" CC than the thorns, in any case I suppose.

Does Thorns work with Bone Walls/Prisons when attackers take damage? You can always use yourself, if you are playing a Glutton For Punishment variant.

Other Thorns thought: last night, I used a Paladin Only Shield that I found to make an Iron Golem. I wonder if the +1 Paladin SKills on the shield added to the Golem's Thorns aura. I unfortunately did not test it out, and the Golem died while I was going after an LEB before I thought to try and do some sort of test to confirm or deny that thought.

Modders: comments on that last?

[Occhidiangela]

If it's fast, then you get to benefit from each attack's poison damage, in full, rather than merely re setting the already extant damage.

Or are you saying that Venom does not last as long per cast? Not sure what you meant: poison duration, or time between casts of Venom.

[Crystalion]

MB allows use of a shield.

I have used MB against Ancients in Hell Diff, and was glad I had it. :)   

8.  Blade Shield is more expensive, and if you use a L 5 weapon, No Shield!!! That hurts resists and blocking, which are other issues for avoiding stun and hence the crowd's closure with you.

10.  Blade Fury: I hear rumor that it works with Knockback if that affix is on the selected weapon? 

Does it also stack with venom?

v1.10 beta has one second duration increase per skill point in Cloak of Shadows beyond the 8 sec. of v1.09.

Knockback works with blade fury [as does leech].

I have to say that, at 3/4 weapon damage, BF is so good [no AR needed] that I often switch to an etherial magic maul to cast it [new v1.10 beta assassin, no twinks; currently level 28 in act5 norm]. If the game hadn't been made so much harder in Hell diff then I'd claim BF should use str/dex damage like the finishing kicks as using a slow hard hitting 2h weapon just to toss shuriken seems a bit cheesy.

Certainly, with Venom being 0.4 second poison, fanning out the shuriken in spam mode probly means you could simultaneously keep two or three mobs strongly poisoned instead of regenning. Of course CoS buys you the time, non-boss/champ, to safely stand there and watch them melt.

I ran into an extra fast nasty boss in close quarters and made use of Blade Sentry, casting them in front of me almost randomly as I continually played keep away, and I also made good use of the skill in tunnel and corridor fighting, so I think all the blade skills may now qualify as one point wonders.

Still, my concern is that by act5 Hell mobs have so much HP that only high damage [read: thousands/sec.] characters will avoid "slow" play. The only Assassin skill that scales to that level seems to be Death Sentry [and some encounters don't offer corpses].

Thanks for mentioning Mind Blast works on the Ancients, as I'm about to face them and would have presumed them to be immune.

In v1.10 it looks like they've made the Shadow Warrior and Master more equal in stats, so being able to control the actions of the Warrior could ["could"] be more valuable now than a Master depending on whether you like the obligation and privilege of monkey-see-monkey-do play.

A range 3 javalin class weapon can be used with a shield if you want a weapon switch for spell casting mode amenable to blade shield flee/knockback defense. [not tested in v1.10, going by v1.09]. Further, Blade Shield is cheap, not expensive, from a mana/sec. perspective. Now that Blade Fury leeches and shops sell mana, the overall cost should be managable. Since my [new] Assassin is only level 28 I don't yet know if BS itself leeches, which would be a hoot. I'm guessing that in v1.10, like Blade Sentry, it will not add special effects, like knockback and leech, but only damages [poison, cold, etc.]. In which case using it for flee/knockback would be moot. I'll know in a hour or so after this post. :)

[Mavfin]

High poison damage, very low duration on the damage.

435-445 over 0.4 seconds, Venom duration 196 seconds at slvl 20.

[lemekim]

I have to say that, at 3/4 weapon damage, BF is so good [no AR needed] that I often switch to an etherial magic maul to cast it [new v1.10 beta assassin, no twinks; currently level 28 in act5 norm].

Are you sure it doesn't use AR? From what I see in the game, if my to hit was at about 70%, I really did only hit about 70% of the time with Blade Fury. I first noticed this because my leech was inconsistent, and the red swirls sometimes would show up more often and sometimes will almost stop, all the while I have a constant lock on a monster and every star seems to hit him.

Another thought is that it might be some character/monster level formula... I tried to run a quick test on this and see if with lower AR I would hit less, and it appears that blade fury did hit less. But it still doesn't exclude possibility of the level difference or some similar formula, since my testing was not exactly an excercise in precision.

Of course, it could always be some screen bug...

[Crystalion]

High poison damage,  very low duration on the damage.

435-445 over 0.4 seconds, Venom duration 196 seconds at slvl 20.

My assassin made level 30 and has played with venom a bit. I notice that Fade and Burst of Speed can't be active at the same time but either works with Venom. Did I misrember that previously venom was aura like and competed with either of those two?

Venom forces your poison damage output to a 0.4 sec duration, so you get benefit from other sources but no additional duration. This is quite good if you are repeatedly hitting the target as the rate of poison for venom is sky high. If, however, you are using poison as poor man's prevent monster heal then you have a problem.

Since the Blade line carries the venom you can potentially get more venom out there on mobs than just 2.5 in a second. Presumably having venom and sneaking a weapon switch to set a Blade Sentry before opening a door would be worthwhile.

I have to agree with the "what's not to like" assessment, at least for the first point (to get the freebie bonus from + all stuff).

[Crystalion]

Are you sure it doesn't use AR? From what I see in the game, if my to hit was at about 70%, I really did only hit about 70% of the time with Blade Fury.

Of course, it could always be some screen bug...

I don't know. I'll pay more attention. However what you describe and the lack of AR display is still consistant if, for example, the mobs you are hitting can block (since I would imagine that blades are considered blockable--this should be easily tested PvP, no?)

[Arutha]

Unless they've improved it chill duration in 1.10, Blizzard isn't effective at all as a crowd control skill.

You left out Frost Nova. I'd say Frost Nova is one of the best crowd control skills a sorc has at her disposal.

Have they improved telekinesis in that patch? In 1.09, telekinesis gives you knockback, but the stun length can't be improved and is ridiculous. If stun length improved with skill level, it would qualify.

[LucianDK]

What rates of damage is possible to attain with blade fury? And perhaps using a massively damaging weapon that have been runeworded with breath of the dying as example? I am just teorizing to see how big a damage you could potentially let out. And is Blade fury dependent on faster cast, or faster attack?

[Pren]

Leap is one of the best crowd control skills in the game.

As it goes up in level, the knockback radius goes up. At high levels, leap has a knockback radius larger than the screen. By chain leaping, you can hold any monster except act bosses away forever. And if you push something into a wall, it is an ignores target defense, ae stun lock.

[Crystalion]

You left out Frost Nova. I'd say Frost Nova is one of the best crowd control skills a sorc has at her disposal.

Have they improved telekinesis in that patch? In 1.09, telekinesis gives you knockback, but the stun length can't be improved and is ridiculous. If stun length improved with skill level, it would qualify.

Added Frost Nova and Telekinesis. This reminded me to add Twister to the Druid. Like Telekinesis the stun with Twister is pretty lame. Telekinesis is notable however in that it commonly appears as charges. Probably still pointless.

Probably should add to the list CC skills potentially worth pumping because of the new synergies. For example, as Pren notes, Leap is a great CC skill, but only if pumped (which few players are wont to do). Now that Leap contributes 10% damage per level to Leap Attack it may see some wider use.

[Crystalion]

1.  Assassin has a spammable "keep them busy" Shadow Master or Warrior who is no slouch at combat.
.

Actually, while thinking along CC lines I hit level 30 and started using a Shadow Master instead of my tell-my-Shadow-Warrior-what-I-want-her-to-be-doing M.O.

So I now think the Shadow Master is Master of CC! Except CC stands for Crowd Chaos.

I swear... she teleports into messes of trouble constantly. At the present time she is way overpowered compared to the mobs [and the new Venom would be a large part of that] so the behavior is rather endearing. But at some point the tables will turn and greater caution will be in order.

I'm kinda sleepy now, but I think I was able to verify that my Shadow Warrior casts skills with the synergies you have (example: Fire Blast increasing the number of shots for Death Sentry). But I spent half an hour following my Master around and she never cast Death Sentry so I could check.

Frankly I'm the kind of "remote" evil Assassin that enjoys spamming Blade Fury from a distance on my left button, while I spend no mana switching skills on my right button to tell my Warrior what to do. Now if only automating such instruction sequences didn't involve violating the dreaded "no third party programs or macros" edict I could really have some robo-assassin warrior fun. It is already hilarious launching her like a missile by selecting Dragon Flight. But I really need charges of Teleport to pull her back, since Town Portal or resummon is too much pain.

The Traps tree still looks a bit underpowered to me for v1.10, but it sure is visually entertaining. Too bad none of the place-and-forget traps have CC properties (ala Grim Ward, for example).

[lemekim]

I don't know. I'll pay more attention. However what you describe and the lack of AR display is still consistant if, for example, the mobs you are hitting can block (since I would imagine that blades are considered blockable--this should be easily tested PvP, no?)

Yes, that is another possibility that I did not mention. I did do the tests on zombies and quill rats in blood moor mostly, but with the new patch it's quite possible that they have some sort of block now. I'll check it out tonight.