My first assassin!

[FarmenSebastian]

My first assassin!

I'm a totally Assassin newbie and wonder..

1) .. How assassins can be so powerful they seem to be ..
I mean, sure, damage and speed seems ruthless, but what about survival? Ain't them kinda vulnerable? Not as high defense nor vitality/life as Barb/Pala... or am I missing something?

2) .. What skills are popular
My first thoughts are to more or less skip the martial art skills and go for these:
-max claw mastery
-max burst of speed OR venom (cant have both at the same time right?)
-this ghost warrior thingie.. is it Shadow Warrior or Shadow Master most people use?
-and at last this trap thing everybody seem to put up...shooting lightning - is that "lightning" or "death" sentry? (which are most popular?)

Also, some general tips for stat points would be awesome (base energy for my type of asn right?=)

Thx
"jZÃ¥"

 

[phlegmatic]

The thing with the Assassin class imho is that it is powerful only if you attack fast and quick. If you get surrounded by larger mobs -you will go down. You will be able to tank smaller mobs but you must have your mind set at defence if you go the melee route. You have not as high defence as other melee classes, nor do you have the huge amount of life due to BO for instance. Life leech is important!

Personally I love the MA-aspect of the asn-class and especially the Phoenix-striker. They are fast, viable and did I mention they are fast and viable? The downside is that they are a bit item-dependant but the Natalya Set is not very expensive to get at all, in fact it is quite cheap. I have not tried to build the Phoenix-striker without Nat's but I guess it could be doable, however Nat's give you very very nice bonuses once you equip the complete set.

I would not suggest maxing Burst of Speed as only a few points is more than enough. I don't think I have ever put in more than one point to be honest. Once you get a few itemw with +skills you will be fast enough.
Some like to max Venom but for the Phoenix-striker I did not put any points in it; the thing I like with that build is that it can attack multiple targets at the same time(thanks to the area of the finishing moves), venom only target ONE enemy. Oh, and you can use Venom with BoS, you just can't use BoS and Fade at the same time.

Throughout the years I have never used a Shadow Warrior, only Shadow Master. SW can only use the skills you have (and the ones that are active I think?) while the SM have access to all the skill tree of the Assassin class. Remember that both SW and SM get better quipment at lvl 13 and lvl 17, a general tip is to put enough points into SW/SM so that when you wear your end-game quipment it's skill level is at 17. More points means you will not have to recast her as often and she will kill faster too.

Regarding traps; for a Melee Assassin Lightning Sentry does not make a lot of sense. Death Sentry is much better as it does the same amount of damage at lvl 1 and lvl 30; the only thing that change is the CE radius. This skill should not be used due to the lightning damage because Light,Sentry is superior when it comes to lightning damage. However Death Sentry clear up mobs much faster! And this is really nice for a melee-sin.


So you are about to make your first sin?

First thing you have to ask yourself is what kind if damage would you like to dish out? There are several options available, Lightning/fire/cold/poison/physical. You want to use charge-up's or just press and hold down until monster is dead? There are other builds too; trapper and blade fury-sin and several hybrids. I would suggest you to read through the guides because it seems you don't really know what kind of build you want to make?

» Edit: stats depend on what build you want to make! For a trapper you would want to invest points into Mana while as a Phoenix-striker you should not invest in any mana.

 

[Phesto]

It's Burst of Speed or Fade, not Venom.

Also, I believe the Assassin and SW share the maximum number of traps, which is 5, but I can't recall where I read this.

 

[Zukarius]

I made my first sin the start of the new ladder season. I used jrichard’s guide to build a lightning trapper. You can find this guide in the compendium. I went with a Lightning/Charged Bolt sentry set up. I absolutely love it. Sin’s have to be quick and agile and they are! I circle my foes laying traps and watch them fire and pick up the dropped items. Fire Blast is useful too as there are lots of lighting immunes out there. By contrast try not to put any points into mana and find some + to mana items as you will need all the stat points you can spare into vitality.

Here is what I have done with skills:
20 Fire Blast (FB)
18 Shockweb
20 Charged Bolt Sentry
20 Lighting Sentry
9 Shadow Master
1 point into Death Sentry, Fade, Weapon Block, Cloak of Shadows, Mind Blast

Take a look at the guide and have a blast playing!

 

[JanusJones]

I just built a melee kicker whom I LOVE - I wrote about her in a thread that's still active - check it out if you're interested. Basically it's a ranged/melee character with Dragon Talon and Blade Fury - I cast Cloak of Shadows a lot so my enemies can't see me, fire off a bunch of shuriken, then kick them to death when they get too close. It is a bit gear dependent, though, and requires some planning to make. Best mods you can look for are Crushing Blow and Chance to Cast X (Life Tap especially!). Let me second what everyone else is saying: Assassins require a very different play style than most folks are used to. You have to use your skills well and play strategically - strike hard and fast then fade away (how cheesy I wax! but 'tis true!). Cloak of Shadows is a great single point skill in PvM if you have a ranged attack as it keeps your enemies from mobbing up. Dragon Talon is the fastest melee skill in the game. Phoenix Strike is awesome for crowd control. Traps are, and always have been, a nice safe (but cheap . . .) way of taking out the competition. Shadow Master spams tons of Mind Blasts, making for great crowd control. Tiger Strike is beefy in combo with Dragon Tail. Look through the guides for more suggestions. And go Assassins!