Assassins

[Wendigo]

Okay, I give. I'm trying to play an Assassin again but I can't seem to get just, like, her whole deal. Stealth attacks are cool and all but even on the lower levels they're just not all that good, at least compared to how much carnage other classes are doing at those same levels. She'd good at avoiding combat but then she's not gaining levels, so I don't see the point. I thought maybe the Narcosis skill was going to be awesome but when I got it I wasn't impressed, why stun enemies when I can just throw lightning at them until they die?

Any help? I've taken the long grind and gotten her to level 17, put most of my points into DEX, her gear's fine, and now I'm just playing her like an awful Warrior. It's fun in a way since I get to plot out where my next focused attack's going to be but she doesn't have nearly the same DPS or crowd control of any other class at the same level. Am I doing something wrong or is the whole class just a failed experiment?

[SkyrosX2]

Hi, Wendigo, how have you been?! =D (I'll reply your email at some point, but I've quit Belzebub for the time being)

About the Assassin, I saw in some post here in the forum once a link from an Asian country with videos where the guy showed all his chars (all classes) beating the game in Torment, including the Assassin. So, it is definitely possible to do it, but I have tried the Assassin myself.

[Wendigo]

Oh, hey man! I been good, it's my off season now so I'm trying to figure out the characters I haven't gotten through Normal yet, in case I ever actually get started on that walkthrough. I've seen that video you mentioned but those top-tier tactics were a bit beyond me, lol. I was lost.

[SPAZZ]

Have patience and get up to level 24 skill (Fanaticism) leave that in the left mouse button all the time i have the Thunderfist Knout set items on and when she hits its start stacking..its pretty kool..i am at Level 44 with her and tryin to get her up to Level 50 so i can run the Viz Set Items...i think this will be a pretty badass killing machine when i get there

[SPAZZ]

sorry that these videos kinda suck..i am self teaching myself but its something, and when i figure how to use this OBS Studio thing i will do some runs with some of my builds https://youtu.be/OMwOb1BZqxY

[Wendigo]

Oh, I see, I think I get that. So her deal is she ends up trying to combo hits; she doesn't hit hard but she wants to hit as often as possible to rack up as much of a chain as possible. Hmm. How was it getting through the higher difficulties? It seems like that would be problematic since you want elemental affixes on her sword.

Thanks!

[SPAZZ]

all i remember is when i finally got her to were she is now (armor) putting a foot up Diablo's ass was a breeze..i am at level 16 in hell mode and i am having trouble with big crowds..if you can break them up taking them out is no problem (FAST) some of the Bosses u have to get creative..but keep dropping Golems and for the most part you will be fine..i dont think i can kill Diablo in hell mode now...i will take my time get her to 50 and drop the Viz Set on her and then see whats up

[Miacis]

Well assassin IS the worse warrior but you can make it work I think with usage of her skills to disengage whenever you want
Early leveling (like first two difficulties) I would suggest to do with +MAG items and OP magic of your choice (Blizzard, CL etc) and then switch to using actual melee weapons once you have the access to all innate skills. Would not recommend putting a lot of points into magic, if any at all.
Assassin is definitely not the first hero to play the game with so you'd want good leveling gear that you'll find with other characters.

[Wendigo]

Yeah, she's got some pretty overpowered gear for her level, I'm not worried about getting stuck any time soon. It's just right now she's completely dependent on her equipment so I was wondering how long before she's doing more than just driving that tank, lol.

[Miacis]

I've decided giving her a try and things are going surprisingly well. She looks like an absolute monster of phys single target DPS so far.

Pretty hard to play without good items though. I'm yet to solve the problem with her squishyness, but in nightmare difficulty survivability is just enough to take screenshots of UI mid-fight.

Note: character is in Tchernobug.

[SPAZZ]

right on! give us a screen shot of your equipment

[KJYKJY1985]

My first character with this mod was an assassin. I struggled with almost every boss in the game and couldn't make it to Diablo on my first go through floor 16. I just thought this mod was especially hard... until I tried a barbarian. I just breezed through the game with my barbarian. I beat most of the bosses (including Diablo) on my first try! The few times I died really felt like my fault for playing so sloppily (I guess I was getting overconfident.). I had a few hand-me-downs in my trade stash, but nothing exceptional.

The barbarian just has so many natural advantages over the assassin: no damage penalty for wearing a shield, higher attack speed with more powerful weapons, an AOE attack, a higher life factor, no mana constraints on his attack skills... His abilities also just seem to be better versions of what the other melee classes get. He gets the same level 8 ability as the warrior, except it's free to use; Frenzy is almost the same as Fanaticism, except he gets it 8 levels earlier and, once again, it's free to use; his level 24 ability is a nice defensive buff, which sort of makes up for the defensive buffs that the warrior gets that he doesn't.

I haven't tried the warrior yet so maybe he doesn't work quite how I imagine and maybe the higher difficulties that I haven't tried yet balance things out more.

One question I have about the assassin: Does elemental damage get the damage penalty from a shield? Because it seems like stacking elemental damage and spell procs might be the way to go.

[Wendigo]

It's an admittedly informal test but when I equipped a shield with my Assassin it didn't seem to have any effect on the elemental side damage of the three weapons I tried it on. That's a very good question you've asked.. but unfortunately higher difficulties make elemental damage rather obsolete as monster resistances/immunities become common. Still, by that time you'll be getting better gear to mitigate the problem so the game does reward adapting on the fly.