I am a terrible assassin [Diablo 2]

[synkr0nized]

"OH MAN SYNK YOU SHOULD POST THIS IN A DIABLO FORUM."
No, shut up. I am not joining a Diablo forum when I'm sure several of you have more than enough knowledge to help out / we can get some neat Diablo stories going in this thread.


I haven't ever really played the Diablo games. OH NO I MUST SURRENDER MY GAMER CARD. At LANs here and there, sure, I'd happily join in and randomly pick a class and click at monsters, but I never really learned the game. Cool games, though, I knew that much; kept informed enough to talk about the games.

As I recently find myself playing with friends, I am re-discovering how bad I am at selecting skills appropriately. I am thinking of them too much like WoW skill trees or like leveling up skills in Mass Effect, to think of an example that's similar to my way of thinking about it. Being able to toss only one point into something and count that as sufficient/count that skill as just a stepping stone until I level enough for the one I actually want isn't easy to get used to.

But that's not really what this is about, as I'm learning that and getting a feel for the trees.

This thread is about me being a piss-poor assassin. Or at least I think I am. I have an assassin that is level 18 or so and in Act II (lol slow?). I've been playing with a buddy over TCP/IP and also in single player with /players 3-4. And killing Andy a lot 'cause I like yellow drops.

That said, I feel like in clusters I am downing potions faster than I am breathing air to complete combos and not die from poisons when fighting those monsters that have it. Or the ones that are lightning enchanted. Fuck those sparks.

I also chose to go with dual claws and work down the shadow tree to shadow master. Perhaps that is a terrible idea! Perhaps I should be putting more points in Martial arts! I don't know, honestly.

I'm not feeling this weak on any other class (in fact the game feels much easier on them), so I'm pretty sure I'm-a doin' it wrong. Though on single targets I feel like I can bring the pain, so maybe I shouldn't be thinking of the assassin as something that's meant to take on hordes?

So, make fun of my assassin/help me see what I could've done when leveling AND share your Diablo 2 tales!

build so far at level 19 (extra point from that book that drops off the first Act II quest named):
Tiger Strike - 1
Dragon Talon - 1
Dragon Claw - 1

(should I have picked up cobra strike?)

Claw Mastery - 8
Psychic Hammer - 1
Burst of Speed - 1
Weapon Block - 5
Cloak of Shadows - 1
Shadow Warrior - 1


The plan is to nab dragon flight, shadow master, and venom, leveling the latter two as well as claw mastery and weapon block but not the prereqs.
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Also I laugh at Mephisto. For a Prime Evil, he was kind of meh.

[Ryong]

I um, always went with getting a LOT of points in Tiger Strike then picking between Dragon Flight or Dragon Tail.

Alternatively, get a fuckton of traps. Either way, don't worry about Shadow Warrior/Master, they're good. Fade is also very important.

[Azisien]

Get some life leech. For low levels, Cathans Seal Ring (6% per finger) works well.

[Bells]

I was never able to play a decent Assassin. Never. It always failed. Guess i'm too lazy, since what i truly enjoy in Diablo 2 is getting a mean Necromancer, spamming the screen with minions and watch them go to town on everything else while i pick treasure from the floor.

it's fun.

But if my memory serves me right, Assassins are MUCH more Equipment based than skill based. But you won't get very far without fast attacks and area-based damage

[Hanuman]

Sin works the same in D2 as in GW, you are a melee spiker that can bring the pain every 1-3 hits, mana leech is pretty essential, kiting is HUGELY important.

There's a few ways to play MA sins, the basic 2 primaries are ice claws and kickers, dragon is for PvP if you are to level it, you can also go for fire fists if you want dragon tail as the tail translates all melee fire damage into AoE fire damage.

All of these builds will be useless vs. physical immune, to deal with that get an amp damage amulet or something to that effect, one with charges.

Kickers are great, they have insane AR (especially when enchanting themselves with Demon Limb), and they can drain almost any monster down to nothing super fast. This works because they are essentially a 4 attacks per animation version of a smiterdin, you apply Crushing Blow with Dragon Talon and watch them lose 20% of their total HP per hit, quickly draining them to about 15% regardless of their original HP score.

Really, MA isn't built for damage though, and is a pretty difficult melee class to run.

Trappers on the other hand work amazingly, require no gear, kill most units based on layout and strategy (but sadly not on immunity), and almost never die (making them my 2nd best choice for hardcore).

http://d2items.com/skills.php

Shadow master is a good idea, it's a mana tank that will help you kite, so is cloak of shadows which is essentially area-wide dimvision.

Venom is OK but really it never has many points unless you are playing a Ninja, which is gear required to fuel the blade fury.

Right now it would be best to choose one of 2 things: elemental or tiger strike.

If you choose elemental, then train that element and phoenix strike, if you choose tiger then level up your talon and charge up tiger with dual claws.

Also, don't put points into claw blocking in the future, if you think you need to block use a shield (like when fighting diablo and his hose) then switch back to claws as the point of dual claws is to have fast attack and blocking speed is harder to get than FHR so you're going to spend more time stunned as a blocker than just taking the hit.

[Sithdarth]

I had a Trapsin a long time ago. Worked great right up until hell and immunities then I didn't really have the gear to support myself. That's about the only experience I have with them. You might want to try traps though they might not fit your play style while. Certainly no matter what you play its a good idea to learn how to kite effectively.

Currently I'm running a Hammerdin (which was respecced from a Zeolot because they are easier to run at low levels) and have managed to solo all the way to Act 4 on Hell difficulty.

[synkr0nized]

I avoided traps because that whole line seemed dumb (regardless of actual in-game power, I mean)/not appealing to me personally. I thought the shadow line with martial arts would fit more what I wanted to think of as an assassin. Unfortunately for me most of the builds/strategy things I read were very positive about traps, so I went "derp?" and moved on.


Isn't paladin like easy mode? :P

[Fifthfiend]

Um Synk I don't remember seeing DIABLO FORUM written at the top of this forum maybe because it isn't one you should probably go find a forum that is one of those and then post this thread there

[Bells]

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

Um Synk I don't remember seeing DIABLO FORUM written at the top of this forum maybe because it isn't one you should probably go find a forum that is one of those and then post this thread there

Fifthfiend ... the Fun Police

As far as paladins go, HammerDin is Easy Mode. Every other paladin build i know is Seasonal at best.

Sorcerer still sucks outside of PvP though

[Sithdarth]

It is certainly easier than playing a Zealot but I still can't just run around like I'm superman or anything. Act II was a particular pain in the but with all the magic immune undead.