All Diablo2 Talk here.........

Cafe Society
781

A couple questions garnered from playing a lvl 56 SP assassin who just killed NM Diablo:

-Am I right in thinking that it’s only my right-hand weapon (the one on the left-hand side of the inventory screen, that is) that’s activated when I use a left-click martial-arts skill like tiger strike? If so, will I double my attack speed if I set my right-click button to a different charge-up power (e.g., phoenix strike), and then once I’m full of charges switch to a finishing move?

-Given that I’ve put a lot of points into claw mastery, block, tiger strike, phoenix strike, cobra strike, and the double-claw finishing move, right now I’m fighting groups with phoenix-phoenix-phoenix-double-claw until the group is whittled down, and then switch to tiger/cobra (3 each) and double-claw. Is there a more efficient fighting style for such a character?

-I’ve got nothing in traps, except a claw granting +2 to death sentry, which I wield in my secondary slot (along with a nice unique shield). Is two points in death sentry worth bothering with at these levels? I can’t really make out how much damage it’s actually dealing, or how I should use it.

-The only gemstones I’ve used so far are topazes, in order to equip my follower with MF. I’ve got close to two dozen perfect gems by now, all the common runes, a Shael, and an Um. Are there strategies for using these gems and runes that I should be looking at?

-Finally, I’m coming up on the quest for socketing an item. I’ve got a suit of armor that gives 376 to defense (from Charsi’s enchanting a suit of ancient armor), the best I’ve seen so far that I can wear; would y’all recommend socketing that, or should I do something else in expectation that better armor starts showing up soon?

Daniel

782

Don’t socket that armor. Especially since there’s a socketing recipe. Also, instead of the 376, what’s the ED% on it? It could be an upgrade candidate.

783

LHOD, the three “Strike” skills, Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike, & Phoenix Strike, only attack with a single claw, the one in your right hand. If you’re specializing in those, you’re not using the best finishing move, IMO. A better combination for those skills is one of the kicking finishing moves. The “Claw” skills, Fists of Fire, Blades of Ice, and Claws of Thunder, use both claws on attack, and so work better with that finishing move. I think you’d be better off going with Claw/Shield, and upping one of the other finishing moves.

Other than that, your tactics sound fine.

784

D’oh! I’ve got tons of points in double-claw finishing move. Guess I’ll look for some good boots and up some of the kick-finishers. Any advice on which? I’ve got 50 energy, since early on I foolishly was trying to balance all my ability stats and it’s too late to change that now; mana is thereby not a huge consideration, as long as I don’t screw up and cast venom three times in a row like I sometimes do :).

Although it does occur to me that all my points in phoenix strike give percentage bonuses on blades of ice etc.; maybe I ought to switch over to using those instead, and start putting points there?

As for the armor, I don’t remember offhand what the ED% is; I’ll check when I get home. It also gives +44 to life and something like +24% fire resist. The life isn’t such a huge deal, but the fire resist is nice, since I don’t have very good resists otherwise. What is the socketing recipe?

Thanks!
Daniel

785

I don’t play ma assassins, only trappers, but it’s my opinion that even a 1 pt investment in death sentry is worthwhile. As long as it has a corpse or two to work with, it does a wonderful job–damage done by exploding death sentry corpses is 40-80% of the monster’s base hp. In hell, it can scale up to a heck of a lot of damage…

Additional skill points only increase the radius and the damage of the lightning bolt it fires if it can’t find a corpse. Basically, it’s a good idea to drop one or two of them before you go off and make bodies, particularly if you’ve got a crowd on the way.

786

Overall, I think it mostly just matters what sort of assassin you want to play. Personally, I really like the feel of wandering around with two claws, so I tend to specialize in one of the double claw skills. Usually Ice, since the freezing effect really helps against mobs.

If you’re already 56th level, and have been spending a lot of points in Tiger Strike & Cobra Strike, I stick with your current set and just work on a different finishing move. Fewer points to use. If you really like the double claw attack, then go with Blades of Ice.

One thing I hadn’t really noticed before: Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike, and Phoenix Strike will all work with any 1-handed or 2-handed weapon. I hadn’t really considered an assassin weilding a 2-handed sword or anything of the sort.

787

Good to know, slortar. I’ll keep that claw around in an alternate weapon slot, mind blast, drop two sentries, and then get to clawing. I’ve recently started using mind blast, and really really like it; it seems absolutely necessary for fighting large crowds of monsters, especially boss minions.

Daniel

788

Just wait… I’ve maxed raise skeleton and skeleton mastery and have, thanks to generous donations from Fenris and punha, two +2 wands, a +2 shield, a +1 ammy, and am wearing Trang’s armor which gives a +3 to skeleton mastery (I have a +1 shield on switch that I actually found myself ;)). All this causes my skelly army to be quite hard to kill. I really don’t want to max skeleton mages, but I may have to just for their elemental damage. Since I practically neglected them, they die fairly easily compared to their sword weilding brethren. Against NM Baal, all 11 of my skeletons survived.

Of course I did have my gollem, 5 skelly mages, and 8 revived doom lords when I went in that didn’t make it out. :wink:

789

I really should be home when I make these claims, or think about things more…

Trangs gives +2 to all summoning and the Undead Crown gives to +3 to mastery.

And wield is spelled wrong…

790

If you really want to make a strong skelemancer, go see if you can dig up an Arm of King Leoric. That thing is just sick.

791

King Leoric really is not all that fabulous unless you’re just trying to get skel and mastery up as high as you can. But you gotta have curses or you’re gonna have a hard time of things.

One trick I have seen for getting an army without killing anything is to go into Nihl’s temple and get some of those bodies before they get up. I know this is possible because I’ve gone in and horked a few before. But that of course requires that you have that option.

792

cough

793

Assassin can also use the normal attack (the one given to you at the beginning that takes no mana or skill points) as a finisher.

If you didn’t know that already, I find that the normal attack is by far the best finishing move. However, I’m not an assassin master. I’ve played my share and never found any of the finishers to be of any value, even the one that teleports you to kick the monster.

I prefer making trap assassins as well. Ever notice that wake of fire is a good skill or any other traps for that matter because the mana inccurred on using the skill stays the same from level1 to level20+ skills put in it.

well if you didn’t know you can use the normal attack as a finisher like you didn’t know you can use non-claw weapons with charged attacks, try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised

794

I love asn’s and I like the double claw attack a lot. It is usually my favorite finisher because of the speed and the mana cost. I have made a kickassin and she performs well also, but you really have to have some good boots to make it work and the attack sucks mana like crazy.

I like Blades of Ice and Phoenix strike the best although my Blades of Thunder do a good job too.
As for traps, I don’t have any use for them. I like to have Blade Fury though, because it deals a percentage of your weapon damage as well as bonuses on the weapon (such as open wounds and knockback.) Makes for a good way to stand off and kill stuff quickly. The mana cost is negligable and the fire rate rocks. One point it all you really need there too.

795

Hey Pun–we put a ton of Dx into my Sorc so she could use a shield, but she’s getting slaughtered when she tries–she’s up to about a 50% block with it. Part of it is the lack of resists, but still…is it the shield or am I doing something wrong?

Fenris

796

Yes, slortar, but the thing is that using King Leoric at the expense of other wands means Who_me? will be weaker in the area of curses and offensive weapons. And since he already said he had skellys done and was going for other stuff, I figured that something more in tune with addressing his weaknesses, rather than something to unnecessarily boost something else, would be a good idea.

That and I don’t have a King Leoric to offer him yet (I think).

Fen, what’s the blocking speed on that thing? You might need to Shael it. Or it might be that the casting-intensive facet of nova, along with the “shit, I have to stop casting to block this stuff” aspect of blocking, combines for some not-so-fun stuff.

Anyone gonna be on tonight?

797

Well, I just found the shield in the “orphan’s call” set that has the highest block of any shield in the game…which helped! :slight_smile:

You don’t have the rest of the set, do ya Pun? :wink:

798

I’m going on now. Should be on 'til 11:30 or so EST.

799

Alas, Fen, not on ladder. vol or his friend D has the belt, and I’ve no idea about the rest of it. I might not be so exuberant to wear the full set, however, as it offers no +skills. Very decent mods otherwise, but no +skills whatsoever. Unless, that is, that’s changed since 1.09.

800

I blame you guys for keeping me on line until after midnight. When the alarm rang at 4:15 this morning, I wanted to hit it with something very heavy. :wink:

Thanks again for the Balrog spear, Voltaire.