Hardcore hybrid Sins still viable?

[killerxbabe]

Hardcore hybrid Sins still viable?

Never really played Sin much but recently found a couple of Bartucs and a unique wrist sword. Been working on my trapper off an on (lvl 12 now) and would like to go hybrid since i have all these nice melee claws at my disposal but haven't the slightest idea how to go about a hybrid. Checked the sin forum but it's all about low lvl duelers (no thnx) and a hybrid seems like it would be pretty fun. Of course any assn will be pretty interesting since I never played her much.

Saw the hybrid guide, but it was written for 1.09. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thnx.

 

[Omikron8]

Never really played Sin much but recently found a couple of Bartucs and a unique wrist sword. Been working on my trapper off an on (lvl 12 now) and would like to go hybrid since i have all these nice melee claws at my disposal but haven't the slightest idea how to go about a hybrid. Checked the sin forum but it's all about low lvl duelers (no thnx) and a hybrid seems like it would be pretty fun. Of course any assn will be pretty interesting since I never played her much.

Saw the hybrid guide, but it was written for 1.09. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thnx.

With the exception of kick assasins, melee assasins have been horribly nerfed in 1.10. The AR bonuses on chargeups are pathetic at best. The only worthwhile martial arts chargeups are tiger strike and a fully synergized phoenix strike. The problem with 2 claws is that you will have pathetic resists unless you have some truly amazing charms or nat's set (great resists). That and melee chars that DON'T have a shield and are not a barbarian (battle orders) or druid (oak sage) well don't get treated nicely ie. ripped apart/shot down in seconds. Another problem is that traps without significant synergies will simply be a tickle to hell monsters. Something like lightning sentry or death sentry would require at least one maxed synergy along with the maxed skill itself. Sorry to be pessimistic but 1.10 truly killed many hybrid builds in many classes.

 

[skunkbelly]

I'm having fun with my martial arts 'sin, and she's in hell now. If you're going hybrid, you'll want to keep it simple: I'd suggest maxing TS and Dtail, for killer kick damage... don't bother with phoenix strike, let your traps handle the elemental damage.

If you go this route, I highly suggest getting yourself some Shadow Killers, which can be had pretty cheaply, or at least imbue some elite greaves. They have the best damage for kickers. Also, you'll want to pour on the strength (through charms or items, at the least). At level 76, my assassin has around 220 strength, and her fully TS-charged kick dishes out 17K-31K damage. Fun Not safe at all, of course, but fun.

EDIT: and don't forget, if you go dual claw, to put a couple points in claw block. It works better than shield block, though you won't be able to get your % as high. And don't bother with claw mastery...

MORE EDITS: Omikron's right, of course... you'll have a hard time getting effective traps AND effective MA skills. So here's an idea:

20 TS
20 DTail
20 LS
10-20 DS
5-10 Shadow Master
2-4 weapon block
your choice of Fade or BoS, 1-5 points
all the rest in prereqs.

Basically, the idea is to build a kicksin with a really good Death Sentry. With my trapper in hell, I actually used DS almost exclusively, even though the lightning damage was a few hundred under what I could get with LS... it was enough for solo Pit runs, though. With this build, kick things to pieces, then let DS make things messy. Still more dangerous than a pure trapper, but hey... that's the charm.

You'll want to use BoS instead of fade, so maxing resists will be tough. But it can be done. Get yourself either Smoke armor, or a Nat's armor with three sockets. That'll help enormously.

 

[killerxbabe]

Yeah, looking at the tree it was looking like it my be pretty tough to go the hybrid route. And the guide just didn't seem all that viable anymore. Kicking looks like a lot of fun though. Gonna have to make up my mind here soon I guess. :scratch:

 

[PhatTrumpet]

Another option is to load up on the Crushing Blow and throw a pt in Blade Fury. Liberal use of Cloak of Shadows is a must of course.

 

[STINGER]

DS with only a few points is still a good skill somply for CE.

I can see a TS Kicker useing Blades and a small DS investment working fine but of course it wont be easy.

 

[det]

Hm..I am actually playing a kicker Hybrid right now after reading how well Dragon Talon is supposed to work. So I thought 4-5 kicks at a framerate of something like 7/2/2/2/2 sounds pretty nice..and OH - there is this Venom skill that has a duration of 0,4 seconds (10 frames) would that not go nicely along? (at least with every other kick).

Needless to say that build ROCKS in normal..but then again..what does not :lol:

Since a few of my KTA fellows were nice enough to share/lend/give me some gear I tried several suggestions that have been kicked around in the guides at the assassin forum.

A pure lightning and fire trapper seems to be the much safer build, but the Kicksin Hybrid is still fun. I have explored several areas with normal monsters so far, and because all of my kicks leech life and mana back, the globes are pretty much always full.

Bigger monster groups are usually approached like this: 2 DS or LS to scout, then Cloak of Shadow or/and Psychic hammer. While most monsters are stunned, others are converted. I quickly try to kick one to death, lay a couple of new DS and the group is usually dead.

Areas like Plains of despair need liberal use of Fade...the difference between 40 LR and 75 LR is HUGE as you can imagine.

Not sure how it will be in hell, probably such a deseaster, that I wish I'd gone all traps :lol:

 

[skunkbelly]

Not sure how it will be in hell, probably such a deseaster, that I wish I'd gone all traps :lol:

Yep, you probably will But it's still fun... in fact, more fun than a straight trapper.

And yes, Venom *is* a nice addition, if you have extra points. I put one into it, then let + skills do the rest.

 

[killerxbabe]

OK, so now for the "NEWBISH ASSASSIN QUESTION OF THE DAY AWARD" I keep hearing everybody talk about kicking, and have only ever leveled one assn to lvl9 until i got this one going. She was just gonna be a mule (the 9) but got her killed trying to get the strength to wear sigs. Was having fun kicking with her and all but what about the claws? Is there any use to trying to use them other then for blocking and plus skills?

 

[jrichard]

killer,

kick damage doesn't depend on claw damage at all. Kick speed is based off of your claws' base speed, however. So, Blocking, +skills and speed are what you want off of the claws.

There are two guides stickied in the assassin forum you might want to check out. The TS/Dtail guide by wildjinn and the Dtalon/trap hybrid by c-beat. Lunatic's .09 hybrid guide in the compendium of assassin guides (also stickied in the assassin forum) will work in this patch with just a few adjustments. Luna mentions those at the end of the guide. You basically take the pts from WoI and it's prereqs and put them into LS synergies.

jrichard