Diablo II: Lord of Destruction/Assassin

"Schooled in the martial arts, her mind and body are deadly weapons."

Like a mimic, the assassin can be fashioned into a character that resembles any of the other character classes. An assassin specializing in traps may keep her distance like a sorceress; an assassin focusing in martial arts may battle like a barbarian; and an assassin who has learned shadow master may let her minion assist her like a druid or necromancer. Yet her speed, cloaking ability, and finishing moves give the assassin her own special flavor. Her trap-setting skills and ability to damage crowds of foes also make the assassin a valuable asset in groups of adventurers.

Initial Attributes

 * Strength: 20
 * Dexterity: 20
 * Vitality: 20
 * Energy: 25

Attributes
Thanks to her nimbleness, stealth skill, and traps, the assassin does not need to focus on defense to the extent that paladins and barbarians must. None of her skills take tremendous amounts of mana, and quite a few skills generate effects that last a long time; for example, burst of speed lasts for a couple of minutes, and shadow warriors stay alive until they are slain.

An assassin character specializing in traps and martial arts will want to put more points into the energy attribute than one who relies on stealth or summoning. Trapping can often be done from a safe vantage point, allowing for the peaceful quaffing of a mana potion, while martial arts assassins need mana in the thick of a fight--thus, it is especially important for these hand-to-hand masters to have plenty of available energy.

Assassins may choose to wield a weapon and a shield or two weapons--almost always, two claw-class weapons. The choice should be based on your style of play. A player who is tired of dying or who is playing hardcore will likely wish to emphasize defense and will therefore tend to use shields. A player who runs more risks to become a slaying machine will likely opt for a pair of claw-based weapons.


 * TIP: Although a dual-weapon assassin may learn a skill that allows her to block, this skill's benefits are easily attained by a decent blocking shield.

Assassin Initial Equipment

 * Weapon: Katar
 * Armor: Buckler

Fashioning a Powerful Assassin
The assassin's wide range of abilities allow her to become almost anything she likes, from a raging melee fighter defended by spinning blades to a more standoffish spell caster to a hit-and-run poisoner. If you attempt to create an assassin who is well-rounded in all of these areas, however, you will likely find the higher skill levels (nightmare and hell) quite difficult.

An assassin character should be focused in one of the three main skill types--martial arts, shadow disciplines, and traps--and should then be semiproficient in one of the other two. This will put her in a specific role, whether fighting alone or in a group, while giving her the option of approaching certain tough situations in an alternative way.

For example, an assassin who is highly proficient at martial arts will spend most of her time charging her attacks and releasing finishing move spells on large groups of creatures--but there will be times when a few traps, or a shadow warrior, will make it easier for her to stay alive. An assassin who is a master of traps will be called on to soften up crowds of enemies but should have some weapon mastery to help polish off the survivors.

Martial arts are the best route for players who thrive on excitement and who enjoy the challenge of mastering the back-and-forth mouse clicks that the martial arts require. Players who prefer to strike first and mop up later will likely enjoy the trapping skills, which allow for this kind of approach. And some players will dive into the role of the assassin, learning to cloak, backstab with poison, and control the minds of enemies.

In any case, an assassin character will be best served not by being a jack-of-all-trades, but by specializing in one field, while keeping a second as a weaker but viable option. The makeup of the other players in her group, should the assassin player opt to join one, will affect your decision as to which skill to specialize in.

Weapons
In stark opposition to the barbarian, whose skill tree lets him specialize in any of six weapon classes, the assassin can gain special mastery in only one class: the claw-class weapons. Many of the assassin's martial arts and shadow disciplines rely on her wielding one or two sets of claw-class weapons. For these reasons, it is a rare assassin who will not use a weapon of this type.

Every assassin must decide whether to wield two sets of claw-class weapons or to wield just one with a shield. An assassin player who is gung ho and daring will be more likely to go without a shield, while a more patient and careful assassin will opt for the safety of a shield. Hardcore players may wish to go the latter route, giving the nod to defense rather than offense.


 * TIP: Some assassin players who have chosen to focus on martial arts skills like to go without a weapon, using their quick fists to charge up their devastating finishing moves rapidly. Certain claw-class weapons carry a speed bonus, however, which can make them as fast as (but more damaging than) plain old fists. The appeal of going weaponless may override such considerations, however!

The assassin may learn the weapon block skill, which gives her some safety when she fights with a pair of claw-class weapons and no shield. But most good shields provide quite a bit more blocking ability at no cost to skill points, especially for an assassin with high dexterity.

Several of the assassin's skills can rightly be considered weaponry, especially the blade skills. Her level-30 blade skill, blade shield, has a name that sounds defensive, but this skill offers quite an attacking bonus, especially against enemy melee.

Fighting Enchanted Monsters and Bosses
An assassin's tactics in all-out brawls with the game's toughest foes depend on what development path her character has pursued.

The right trap will do great amounts of damage not only to the swarm of minions surrounding enchanted monsters, but also to the enchanted boss itself. A trap assassin can often dispatch an entire enchanted monster group using traps alone, if she has a mana potion or two along. Many enchanted monsters are located behind closed doors in caves, temples, and the like; look for glowing lights on the floor behind closed doors, and set some traps on the far side of the door (hover the cursor over the door until "Closed Door" appears, and then release the trap). Watch for it to activate, and watch for signs of corpses appearing.


 * TIP: Traps also work quite well against bosses, who can often be lured mindlessly into a waiting group of five. Test your traps against your most powerful enemies to see which ones do the most damage; some bosses are immune to or protected against certain kinds of damage.

If you have the ability to summon a shadow warrior or shadow master, use her to distract an enchanted monster or boss, while you use the assassin's quickness to dart in and out of danger. An assassin at full health (with reasonably high resistance percentages) can take a wallop from just about any monster in the game, giving you time to recover and dash away if a boss turns from your summoned partner to face you.

An assassin who is talented in martial arts can dispatch the minions of most enchanted monsters easily enough, but area-effect finishing moves are not as efficient once the battle turns to the enchanted monster itself. Against a single foe, it is usually best to turn to finishing moves, which specifically do damage against a single opponent (or steal life and mana from the foe).

A new assassin is quite capable of advancing through the first two acts without spending many skill points at all, enabling her to have a nice supply when she begins encountering serious resistance. Therefore, you should consider saving spell points up until your character begins to face opponents that require more determination. For some players, this may occur quite early in the game, but for most, it will not happen until Acts III or IV.

This will give you a chance to accustom yourself to the assassin's special abilities, and you will know better what kind of assassin you would like to concoct. In general, don't spend skill points (unless you are dying to have a particular skill) until the monsters you are facing begin to pose significant problems to your character.

Below are several distributions of skill points for a variety of assassin characters, each of which has specialized in a different type of play and has completed the game. We assume that such a character is at level 35, and therefore has 39 spell points (one per level and four from quests) available. Note that some items increase skill levels, but such items are not assumed.

Remember that these examples are just that--examples! These are certainly not the only way you could choose to apply skill points, and they aren't necessarily the best way. Apply skill points to cater to your particular style of play. Use these examples as guidelines for specializing your character class in a particular skill.

Martial Arts Specialist
Here is an example of how an assassin learned in the martial arts may have spent her skill points:

Martial Arts

Tiger Strike -- 1 skill point Cobra Strike -- 3 skill points Phoenix Strike -- 5 skill points Dragon Talon -- 1 skill point Dragon Claws -- 1 skill point Dragon Tail -- 1 skill point Dragon Flight -- 8 skill points Fists of Fire -- 1 skill point Claws of Thunder -- 1 skill point Blades of Ice -- 4 skill points

Shadow Disciplines

Claw Mastery -- 6 skill points Burst of Speed -- 1 skill point Weapon Block -- 1 skill point Shadow Warrior -- 1 skill point

Traps

None

To accomplish this distribution, you must have at times saved skill points to spend on higher-level skills. Furthermore, because of the restriction on how quickly level-30 skills can be upgraded, this player will have four skill points available at this point. This assassin will use phoenix strike (left mouse button) and dragon flight (right mouse button) for the most part, although she will switch to cobra strike from time to time for its life- and mana-leeching benefits.

Note that an assassin who prefers to use dual claw-class weapons would likely put skill points into dragon claws and weapon block rather than dragon flight. This layout also allows for the assassin to summon a shadow warrior, who can help distract difficult enemies, and cast burst of speed, which increases the rate of attack.

In the early game, this assassin would rely on the basic combos of charge-up and finishing moves; these, even with few invested points, will easily suffice. In midgame, blades of fury and shadow warrior will come in very handy. Finally, the assassin would make the big move to phoenix strike and dragon flight.


 * TIP: In nightmare and hell difficulty levels, enemies have increased resistance to elemental damage, so you may have better luck beefing up tiger strike and/or cobra strike than phoenix strike.

Shadow Discipline Specialist
Here is an example of how an assassin focused on shadow disciplines may elect to distribute skill points:

Martial Arts

Tiger Strike -- 3 skill points Cobra Strike -- 5 skill points Dragon Talon -- 1 skill point Dragon Claw -- 1 skill point Dragon Tail -- 1 skill point<BR> Dragon Flight -- 6 skill points

Shadow Disciplines

Claw Mastery -- 6 skill points<BR> Burst of Speed -- 1 skill point<BR> Fade -- 1 skill point<BR> Venom -- 4 skill points<BR> Weapon Block -- 1 skill point<BR> Shadow Warrior -- 1 skill point<BR> Shadow Master -- 3 skill points<BR> Psychic Hammer -- 1 skill point<BR> Cloak of Shadows -- 1 skill point<BR> Mind Blast -- 3 skill points

Traps

None

To accomplish this distribution, you must have at times saved skill points to spend on higher-level skills. One nice feature of shadow disciplines is that relatively low investments of skill points can bring nice returns. Shadow masters, for example, have quite a lengthy life span right off the bat and do not require resummoning often. Mind blast, cast in a crowd, has a hefty chance of converting monsters even at level one. These advantages give a disciple of the shadows the freedom to invest in either martial arts or traps.

The benefit of going the martial arts route is that it lets you get close to enemies, who can then be turned by a mind blast. This assassin will fight throughout the game with her martial arts, summoning shadow warrior or shadow master when she reaches the appropriate level. In the end game, she will use cloak of shadows and venom to attack particularly tough monsters, and she'll use mind blast to convert enemies to her side.

Traps Specialist
Here is a sample distribution for an assassin who has great skill in the traps discipline:

Martial Arts

Tiger Strike -- 1 skill point

Shadow Disciplines

Claw Mastery -- 5 skill points<BR> Burst of Speed -- 1 skill point<BR> Weapon Block -- 1 skill point<BR> Shadow Warrior -- 1 skill point<BR> Shadow Master -- 1 skill point

Traps

Fire Blast -- 1 skill point<BR> Shock Web -- 3 skill points<BR> Charged Bolt Sentry -- 1 skill point<BR> Lightning Sentry -- 1 skill point<BR> Wake of Fire -- 4 skill points<BR> Wake of Inferno -- 5 skill points<BR> Death Sentry -- 4 skill points<BR> Blade Sentinel -- 1 skill point<BR> Blade Fury -- 1 skill point<BR> Blade Shield -- 1 skill point

To accomplish this distribution, you must have at times saved skill points to spend on higher-level skills. Furthermore, because of the restriction on how quickly level-30 skills can be upgraded, this player will have seven skill points available at this point. At this point, the assassin will rely on fire traps to soften up enemy groups, a shadow master to accompany her into the fray, and blade shield to assist in her close-combat attacks. The tiger strike skill point will, when charged up, multiply her basic claw attack.

As the game opens, this assassin will rely on shock web and simple attacking to plunge through the first couple of acts. As the game grows more difficult, she will begin to use shadow warrior along with lightning and fire traps to make her way easier. Finally, this assassin will summon death sentry traps and a shadow master to help her blast apart enemy monster crowds.


 * TIP: Note that if this assassin plays in a party, her death sentry skill may be wasted if she is accompanied by party members who freeze and shatter opponents. Only whole corpses will explode, not shattered ones.