Assassin Build

[diablo1ks]

Thanks everyone, just got back from my holidays and am extrememly pleased to see such a response...

2 more questions:
- Does anyone know the exact range of 'blade fury'?
- What gems or low lvl runes would you advise me to socket claws with?

[bigeyedbug]

I don't know the exact range, but I know it reaches somewhat off-screen 800x600. Enough so to be handy for scouting.

As far as low-level runes go, I hardly think you can do better than IthElEth Malice. The damage doesn't look that hot, but try comparing it side by side with another claw with 2x the damage. I found that the Open Wounds and -Def more than made up for its deficiencies. It still amazes me that the -100 defense actually sticks to its target indefinitely AND helps your minion and merc. If you have no problems with hitting, you might consider AmnTir Strength. This might be useful especially if you have no other source of Crushing Blow--otherwise Malice is far, far better.

Single runes that might be good would be Eth, Amn, and especially Nef. Gems are pretty obvious I guess, but I suppose its worth noting that the chill from cold damage is transmitted by BF. Also, I would much rather use a Skull than an Amn.

Hope that helps.

[arrunique]

I have a level 76 blade fury assassin currently struggling through act 4 hell

I decided to go with a two handed weapon just because an assssin with a big axe looks cool.

My build:
1 blade fury
20 venom
20 master
20 death sentry
and all prerequs....I'm currently maxing fade

I chose an act 3 cold merc who served me well through nightmare but he isn't cutting the mustard in hell. I'm in the process of leveling a might merc.

I found that cloak of shadows is the best defensive skill in the game, something a zon would kill for. It completely neuters all the monsters on the screen and lets you pull uniques/champions away from their packs. My shadow master is so efficient with her death sentry that I almost regret putting points in mine. Seems like every time a corpse drops 2 sentries appear on the screen, hers and mine.

I do use demon limb and an angelic ring + armor. Between those I don't really have an AR problem, about 80% chance to hit anything in hell which is good enough for me.

The best weapon I've found is a Reaper's Toll. With the speed of BF the decrep goes off all the time. The damage might not be the most spectacular but I expect by the time I level my might merc enough to use bonehew between us and my buff master we will me a team to be reconned with.

[diablo1ks]

My Assassin is coming along nicely, although I'd like more life leech... I chose the Strength Rune word and it's pretty good, I was wondering, if I made another to duel wield would I get the 7% life leech of both claws? Also I think I have being very stupid and chose Shadow Warrior instead of Master, am I really losing out on that much?

[Yogi_Baar]

Also I think I have being very stupid and chose Shadow Warrior instead of Master, am I really losing out on that much?

I don't know how good a Shadow Warrior is, but my clvl 52 assassin has a maxed Shadow Master (and a +1 shadow skills claw) and is having an easy time in Act III NM, where the SM does most of the killing. Between SM and a cold Act III merc from normal (also clvl 52), all she has to do is gather drops and leech back a bit of life every now and then.

So I guess the Shadow Master really is better, since it's a fire-and-forget minion. You don't have to worry about having the right skills on left and right mouse buttons. And for some reason, through clvls 18-29 she couldn't make the Shadow Warrior use Blade Fury, which is her only attack skill.

[diablo1ks]

And for some reason, through clvls 18-29 she couldn't make the Shadow Warrior use Blade Fury, which is her only attack skill.

My point exactly, I am clvl 38 with 10 points in SW... She dies every few minuits and still refuses to use Blade Fury!

[Boffin]

I'm a level 82 HC assasin and only use large two handed weapons. Apart from the looks, the blade fury damage can be significant. I have soloed hell upto Baal.

I do not use a claw/sheild as I do not want to be in close combat and would rather the extra damage from a two handed weapon.

With my hellslayer I am getting 539-2706 damage per blade and hitting over 75% of the time and this is not an etheral weapon. This damage is good enough in hell to get that first corpse.

What I am basically trying to say is that if you are using blade fury as your primary skill then you have to play like a amazon up the back of a party. Defence is ok but not essential. Cloak of shadows, your speed, your merc and the shadow master will be your defence the rest should be offence.

If you haven't tried a two handed weapon yet then I suggest at level 30 upgrading a bonesnape and trying it out, you may be surprised.

[bigeyedbug]

That's a decent amount of damage. About twice what my L83 BF Assassin is doing. Just remember that 2-handed weapons suffer a 50% damage penalty. IIRC...Hey now! My first IIRC!...Ahem, IIRC that is in addition to the standard 3/4 BF and IIRC (Wheeeee! I'm rollin' now!) the 50% is not reflected on the LCS.

If that last is still true then you are actually doing about the same amount of raw damage as my puny claw. Hellslayer and Bonesnap have other perks besides damage though.

How are you getting around the AR problem?

[diablo1ks]

If you haven't tried a two handed weapon yet then I suggest at level 30 upgrading a bonesnape and trying it out, you may be surprised.

Oh sorry, I didn't mention that I play Single Player, therefore getting items like Bonesnap may not be too easy <_< . I'm clvl 46 and just gone into Nightmare.

[Boffin]

Just remember that 2-handed weapons&nbsp; suffer a 50% damage penalty.&nbsp; IIRC...Hey now!&nbsp; My first IIRC!...Ahem, IIRC that is in addition to the standard 3/4 BF and IIRC (Wheeeee! I'm rollin' now!) the 50% is not reflected on the LCS. decent amount of damage.&nbsp;&nbsp;

I am new to all this lingo. What is IIRC and LCS.

As for 50%reduction for a two handed weapon where is this calculated? From my stats the base attack with merc is 708-3595 and my blade fury is 539-2706. Are you saying that it is reduced by 50% when it hits the target? Several people have said that it is reduced by 50% but I have seen no evidence yet.

I fix my AR with 2 angelic rings and a amulet. Also I put too many points into cloak of shadows (lvl15 with +skills)

[adeyke]

What is IIRC and LCS.

If I remember/recall correctly. Lying character screen/sheet.

As for 50%reduction for a two handed weapon where is this calculated? From my stats the base attack with merc is 708-3595 and my blade fury is 539-2706. Are you saying that it is reduced by 50% when it hits the target? Several people have said that it is reduced by 50% but I have seen no evidence yet.

Your BF damage is really (approximately) 269-1353, half of what's listed. A quick test did support this. I had two weapons, one one-handed, one two-handed, but both with nearly identical listed damage (the two-hand one had slightly more). The one-hand weapon killed about twice as fast with BF.

[arrunique]

I fix my AR with 2 angelic rings and a amulet. Also I put too many points into cloak of shadows (lvl15 with +skills)

Try the enchant on demon limb....its about 3x attack rating

my blade fury is 539-2706

How are you getting that?

I couldn't even squeeze that much out of a hellslayer with an ED jewel in it

[Hastur]

This build is interesting. I think i'll use this character to reaquaint myself with Diablo2 (haven't played since 1.06). She seems safer to use than most builds which is perfect for a 1.10 newbie like me. One question though: what is the ideal stat distribution for this assassin? There doesn't seem to be a clear cut distribution pattern for her.

[Boffin]

I had no idea of the LCS what a bugger.

I also did some tests with almost identical two handed and one handed swords agains several monsters. The damage was purely physical and I was using swords that did not vary in damage much. I was testing for around one hour and stopped the monsters with cloak of shadows to have a good look.

With the one handed weapon I was almost killing a monster with two hits. With the two hander I was getting around 85% off the life with two hits. So yes there seems to be a LCS but it is in no way 50% reduction in damage, more like 15%.

Once again this was only with swords. Maybe using a claw you get extra benifits. I'll have to test this.



As for my damage with the hellslayer there is nothing special that I have done. My str is 260 the weapons damage is 98-598 phy + 150-250 fire which gives me 399-1854 damage on BF. I also use the might merc to boost it up to 539-2706.

[adeyke]

With the one handed weapon I was almost killing a monster with two hits. With the two hander I was getting around 85% off the life with two hits. So yes there seems to be a LCS but it is in no way 50% reduction in damage, more like 15%.

Hypothetical situation:

Monster has 200 life.

You deal 170 damage in one hit. It takes two hits to kill the monster.

You deal 85 damage in one hit. After two hits, you've removed 170/200 = 85% of the monster's life.

This matches your situation and also matches a 50% reduction in damage. With just two hits to kill a monster, there's a major loss in precision due to overkill and due to the variability of damage (i.e. if you have a large damage range, you could get a high one twice or a low one twice). OTOH, if you have too tough a monster, the regeneration would skew results.

Once again this was only with swords. Maybe using a claw you get extra benifits. I'll have to test this.

Claw mastery would give claws extra damage, which may prevent accurate results (as there are no two-handed claws).

[Boffin]

Hypothetical situation:

Monster has 200 life.

You deal 170 damage in one hit.&nbsp; It takes two hits to kill the monster.

You deal 85 damage in one hit.&nbsp; After two hits, you've removed 170/200 = 85% of the monster's life.

Yep I thought about that.

With my two hits the monster always had a little bit of life remaining (so no over killing). I had to hit it a third time to kill it.

The damage range of both swords was tight to prevent random large hits.

Regen was also not a factor as death came quickly ;)

I'll test some more items soon, what were you comparing between?

[arrunique]

I also use the might merc to boost it up to 539-2706.

There we go....my might merc is very immature right now, I had a cold mage merc up till act 4 hell when I realized I need the death sentry damage too much now I'm trying to level the bugger.

I'm using reapers toll but killing speed is slow, even though I don't get hurt much. I'm hoping to trade for an ethereal one at some point.

[Raziel]

Two handed weapons suffer a 50% damage penalty on the transfer to Blade Fury.

So there's really no point in using a two-hander unless the damage is > 2x that of a one-handed weapon.

[Boffin]

Did some other tests on the blade fury damage.

This was a blade (14-15 damage) vs a two handed axe (14-18 damage).
The natural attack damage was (50-51)blade vs (45-58) axe.
The blade fury damage was (45-48)blade vs (41-53) axe.
Claw master is at level 6 (+55% damage).
My str is 225, the dex is 54.
I was testing on zombies in nm. Their hit points are 551-787.
I killed 19 zombie with the blade then the axe and counted the amount of hits needed. I know regen may have a small influence on these results, also critical hits from the blade may influence results.

With the blade it took between 7 to 12 hits with an average of 9.7.
With the axe it took between 13 to 19 hits with an average of 16.1.

With the blade the average damage is 46.5, so it took approximately 9.7*46.5= 451 damage to kill a monster ???? but the monsters hit points are between 551-787.

With the axe the average damage is 47, so it took approximately 16.1*47= 756 damage. If the damage is transfered straight from the character screen to the monster this value should have been closer to 669. The difference is 13% which is very simular to the 15% reduction in damage for two handed weapons that I reported several posts ago.

Now why is the blade fury damage from the blade increased? The difference between the average damage of the axe to blade is 68% which is not close to 100% as reported before. Now if the 13% reduction is taken off because of the two handed axe, that leaves 55% which is the claw master bonus.

Other test may have been done with maxed claw master which is a 111% bonus hence the apparent 50% reduction for two handed weapons.

More testing needs to be done to find when this mutiplier is calculated. If it is at the end then the claw is far superior but if it is added to the total damage bonuses then large two handers are still viable. For example I have a might merc (230%) + laying of hands gloves (350% vs demons), the extra 111% would not be worth it.

[mjagger]

I Just Recently Started A BF SIN And I Must Say That This Is One Of The Most Fun Characters I Have Played In D2. <_< :)