need help with kicksin

[Thrasher]

Well I just completed the den of evil without much trouble using a combination of mind blast and cloak of shadows (though corpsefire did pack quite the punch). I guess I had just gotten use to plowing through nm and norm just kicking...now I have to use strategy (heaven forbid!). Anyway now that I have my extra skill point I'm wondering if I should stop putting points in venom and invest towards death sentry...I'll probably use my points until 80 doing that if I decide to. Should I just put all my points into death sentry or is the extra shot from fireblast really worth it?

Yes going to Hell is not like going from Normal to Nightmare. It's different, mainly because you'll come up against uniques with multiple immunities. For example, my Flashdancer whizzed though normal and nightmare on /players 5. She got floored by her first PI/LI immune undead in Hell (who also had stone skin, ouch!). So make sure you have at least 3 reliable ways of doing high damage once you get to Hell!

For a trapper, I would suggest fire, lightning, and a strong merc with a high damage weapon (like bonehew) to do physical damage (with maybe an elemental bonus of poison like viperfork). Maybe also give yourself high venom, just in case. You will need to be able to keep the merc alive for the rare cases you come up against fire/lightning immunes. CoS and especially mindblast are key in Hell for this. You only need a point in each, but keep lots of potions on hand to keep your mana up and to heal your merc. I'd stay back out of harms way with a trapper.

Death Sentry is very nice against hordes of baddies. Can really get your clearing speed up! Few (if any) hordes are both PI/FI, but some uniques are. But DS is not required. It will make handling hordes a lot easier, but you should be able to beat them in other ways. What is the gamestopper is multiple immune uniques. Imagine an ancient that is both LI/FI! Make sure your venom is good!

 

[PrkChopXpress]

Sorry to hijack... This is great info! Thanks! I don't get this though - "The catch is that all the staffmods must be within four adjacent skill tiers." Your example was on different tabs. Not sure how to relate tiers on different tabs. Is it the required level (no)? Or number of prerequisite skills back to the root of the skill tree (yes?)?

BTW I was wondering about people talking about rune'ing claws with staff mods. So +skills don't count as magic for the purposes of runewords? What other affixes don't prevent runewords from working?

Thanks!

"Tiers" refers to the skill level requirements. It has nothing to do with skill tabs, that's why I purposefully used a cross-tab example. So TS/DTalon/CM/PH/FB are all tier1; PS/Venom/SMaster/DS/BS are all tier6. The highest tier skill and the lowest tier skill can be no more than 4 tiers apart (ie. tier2-tier5).

And no, staffmods (that's what the +specific skill are called) don't count as magic modifiers. So you can use a +3/+3/+2 katar to make runewords as long as there aren't any other mods on the weapon.

 

[Thrasher]

How do you come up with the tier numbers?

So only +skills afffixes can be used with rune words? No other afffixes work with runewords?

Thanks!

 

[PrkChopXpress]

How do you come up with the tier numbers?

So only +skills afffixes can be used with rune words? No other afffixes work with runewords?

Thanks!

Just start at the top of the skill trees and every step down (or up in lvl req, depending on how you want to look at it) constitues a new tier. lvl1 skills are tier1. lvl6 skills are tier2. lvl12 skills are tier 3...etc. So all it really means is that you'll never see lvl30 skill staffmods and lvl1 or lvl6 staffmods on the same item. Likewise, you'll never see lvl24 skill staffmods and lvl1 skill staffmods on the same item.

And just as a point of emphasis, +skills affixes and staffmods are two different thing. Barb helms, Druid pelts, Necro heads, Zon bows/spears/javs, Sin katars, Sorc orbs, scepters, and (I'm pretty sure) wands, can all spawn with staffmods. As long as the above item's names are either white or gray, they can be used for making runewords, even if the item has staffmods on it.

 

[Thrasher]

OK! Thanks for the explanations!

 

[Galasieni]

Alright I think I'm going to end up remaking my assassin so I can get points in death sentry early and so I don't put as much points into shadow master as I did. I had a question or 2 before I do this however. How important is damage reduction to the assassin? Right now with max fade and shaftstop I have 50% but I'm thinking there are probably better options than shaftstop for armor out there. If dr is that important I can always get a stormshield to replace the lost dr from the shaftstop. On that note should I bother maxing fade at all or should I leave it at a lower level (say 10) and let plus skills bring it up? Also if I go with the stormshield would it be worth getting max block, that way I have max damage resist with fade, hefty resists, and a 75% chance to block. I'm thinking that might increase my survivability but the reduction in life may be too much. what do you guys think?

*edit*

Also I've seen it recommended in guides and such but how useful is venom really if most of my damage is going to come from crushing blow? Is the couple hundred extra points of damage worth it?

 

[Silent Shaddow]

I'd strongly advise you to max Dragon Flight, it's an awesome skill for (mainly) 2 reasons:
- yes, it can be used to teleport (some victims required though^_^)
- DF allows you to kill a particular monster (like shaman or smth like that) in a crowd.

Get STRENGTH runeword (Amn+Tir) in a fast claw instead of ur 'flange. 7% leach DOES help to survive hard battles, and +20 str significantly improve your kick damage.

these two are not quite right, the main reason for strength is the crushing blow,

and YOU SHOULDN'T EVER MAX DRAGON FLIGHT. it is as useful lvl 1 as it is lvl 20, its only useful for movement and that doesnt require the extra 19 points, the increase in damage is negilble and with a slow buggy attack speed and the high mana cost it isnt really viable as a main attack.

sorry dragon flight is movement only.



DR is a less important mod, with everything else as it should be you shouldnt need it. good crowd control, fast attack speed and life leech etc you should be getting hit that much to need it.

 

[Zauzich]

and YOU SHOULDN'T EVER MAX DRAGON FLIGHT. it is as useful lvl 1 as it is lvl 20, its only useful for movement and that doesnt require the extra 19 points, the increase in damage is negilble and with a slow buggy attack speed and the high mana cost it isnt really viable as a main attack.

sorry dragon flight is movement only.

I have a slight objection to the idea that DFlight is useful "Only" for movement.

In strict PvE that may be true. For PvP, however, I have noticed a difference (and been quite pleased with the results of) pumping points into Dragonflight.

Sure, against AI the added damage in a boosted DFlight is ignorable when compared to follow up attacks, be they claw kick or trap. Against a player, though, it can be the difference between a finishing kill-shot or your opponent teleporting away, or smiting you in the face, or whirlwinding you in two, or etc.