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"Orion Ryder" <orionryder@hotmail.com>, in a display of leetness, fell down
the stairs, tripped over an urn, and then threw a cracked sash at Baal...
>My recent trip to uber-tristram has refueled Kasmir to come back to SC
>play. He really only has experience playinfgAssassins and from what I
>seen in uber-tris the only Sasin that is going to contribute anything
>is a BF Sasin with some extra added specialties, something the
>Armaggedon-like Goddess HolyStarsBatman with all of the Blowing Crush
>gear.
>
>He played last night to level 9 and has held off on skill and stat
>points. Jabber you might have posted your build and skills and stats
>but if so can you paste them here or post what he needs to distribute
>now and in the future.
Warning brain dump follows. May not entirely make sense. Reader beware.
First up:
Blade Fury won't "consume" durablity, which means big damage ethereal weapons
= GOOOD for blade fury (they'll never break).
Stats tend to be pretty generic -
STR - to use the biggest piece gear (if he needs specific numbers, we'd need
to look up a few "sample gear" options for him. But generally, if in doubt,
I go for 110 hard strength points minimum for pure melee, which allows me to
use most common items, including Thundergod's Vigor belt (which he may never
ever find, but that's another issue), things like IK set, bartuc claws, most
elite claws, etc. 156 strength to use one very nice shield by the name of
Stormshield (which, again, he may never EVER find).
However, if he's going purely ranged, you can do with less stength than 110.
Tiamat's Rebuke, which Jabber uses on his, requires quite a bit less strength
than 110. Most light elite armours (and archon plate, etc) require 110, and
can be used for the "Duress" runeword, big resistance runeword armours like
"Smoke" and "Gloom", Goldskin, etc. There's quite a bit that can be said on
this. Lots of variation.
Note - Gore Riders - 95 strength required. Anyone got the strength
requirement for Goblin Toes handy? Less than 95, obviously, but it's a nice
and cheap item to have around.
DEX - enough to equip gear (if claw/claw) or enough for max blocked if
weapon/shield and he wants maxed block (Jabber didn't, I did, both approaches
work, bear in mind that mind used kicks as well e.g. melee whereas his was a
ranged girl only i.e. pure furysin) We can write a lot more on this.
ENERGY - no points. NO POINTS. NOOOOOOOOO POOOOOOIIIIINNNNNTTTTTSSSSS.
VITALITY - whatever he can spare (assassin = 3 life points per point of
vitaliy = GOOOOD)
What else? Oh, crafted blood gloves are a great item to have around, if one
doesn't have Dracul's Grasp (Dracul's = Life Tap = GOOOOOD) Jabber and others
can give you good detail on that aspect, as I've never seen the ubers myself.
***
Skillz:
Blade Fury itself is generally a "one point wonder". More points in the
skill does add some damage, but because of the way this "skill damage" is
applied, it's not boosted by damage auras, etc, so the effect can be somewhat
minimua.
Blade Fury uses the same chance to hit as the assassins normal/default attack
skill. In other words, it has no innate attack rating bonus, which can equate
to a low attack rating. Some way of enhancing this attack rating is
preferable (the assassin's character level compared to the opposition's level
impacts chance to hit greatly, but SOME attack rating in order to hit
accurately.
Options here -
* ETH runes in weapons (not sure this will work on the ubers though?)
* Weapons that have -% target defense or "ignores target defense" on them
(there are even magic weapons that can be shopped that can have this
attribute)
* Gear with lots of +Attack rating on it, e.g. ravenfrost ring, nice charms,
part angelic set (amulet + ring), part hsarus set. Beware that using the
angelic or hsarus set options will tie up "equipment slots" in the end game
that he will probably want to use for "other mods".
* Blessed Aim mercenary (offensive mercenary in act 2 normal/hell difficulty,
IRRC (but I guess mercs mostly die against ubers anyway, unless they have
great gear+high level+throw them lots of purple potions?
* Ummm, what else? I can't remember right now. Brain = fried.
Claw Mastery is an option, however, of course it only benefits the blade fury
girl when she uses claws instead of some other weapon, AND... many GREAT/UBER
weapons for a blade fury girl are, in fact, NOT claws. There is quite a bit
that could be written on the topic of claw versus non-claw for a BF girl.
Jabber had maxed Fade on his (just generally, we both built our girls BEFORE
uber tristram was around), being more of a "pure" blade fury girl, whereas
mine had points in Dragon Talon (Tail? I ALWAYS get the names of those two
kick skills mixed up - it's the first on on the tree that I have) whereas he
had points in Fade (mind used a Stormshield, whereas his used a Tiamats).
I also experimented with using Shadow WARRIOR on mine, instead of Shadow
MASTER, but this was simply a stylistic choice on my part. There's a lot
that could be written on WARRIOR vs MASTER, too. Default choice, however,
usually = Shadow MASTER.
I think Jabber and I both maxed Venom, as this adds in the vacinity of 1000
poison damage per second at level 20, give or take. However, given that a
blade fury girl gets a lot of her damage potential from crushing blow gear,
I'm not completely convinced that Venom is really necessary for a fury girl
(will it even stop monster life regeneration in uber tristram anyway?) It
also depends on how "pure" one wants to make a build - a fury girl without
high level traps or kicks will quite simply have points to burn.
Open Wounds > Poison Damage (Venon) > Prevent Monster Heal? Guys? What's
the word on this?
A basic build:
Blade Fury 1 hard point
Shadow Master 1-20, this can vary GREATLY. People with great gear can put
one (or NO) points here and still raise a level 20+ Shadow. But for less
rich players... If in doubt, take her to about 8-10 hard points, and see how
see goes. Tell Kasmir to be on the lookout for claws that have the "+
shadow kills" property of them, as these can be put on "weapon switch" and
used to "precast" a stronger Shadow. Basically, this means her strength is
determined by the level of your Shadow skill at the time of casting.
Other skills:
Venom 20 hard points
Burst of Speed 1 hard point as a pre-req for Fade/Venom, maybe more if he
decids to be a kicker also, and needs a couple extra points to reach a speed
breakpoint (again, there's TONS that could be written on this)
Fade 20 hard points - a great combo of resistance boost and damage reduction,
which sounds ideal for uber tristram (I STILL haven't been there, so I can
only speculate) I never felt like a needed much in Fade for general play,
but for uber tristram, it sounds a lot more useful. If I was making a girl
specifically for uber tristram, I'd strongly look into maxing Fade as an
option.
Weapon Block - 1 point as a pre-req for other skills (if weapon/shield), or
for Claw/Claw, 5+ points here, something close to 50% block. While one point
plus skill adders will get you a good chance to block, an assassin visiting
the ubers might well want to focus gear more towards life/stacked
resistances/crushing blow and so on, than +skills.
Guys, again, does Weapon Block more stuff in Uber Tristram than shield block?
Mind Blast 1 hard point, generally, it's a great, I mean, SUUUPPPEEERRR "crowd
control" skill in general play. Guys, again, does it work in Uber Tristram?
Some also like Cloak of Shadows. I don't.
Other options:
Fury/Kick Assassin - Dragon Talon (whatever the firstt kick in the MA tree is
called) - anywhere from 10-20 hard points (skill level 18 = 4 kicks, 24 = 5
kicks per skill use? I can't recall exactly. It's something like that,
anyway.
Fury/Trap Assassin - points in Death Sentry (and optionally, Lightning Sentry)
to taste. This, however, is a more "hybrid" build suited for PVM general
play, rather than the ubers.. again, I guess? I've never been there, but
there's tons of lightning immunes down there anyway, right?
I'd suggest at least one hard point in Death Sentry regardless of the build,
however. It's good in all sorts of situations while he's questing and
leveling up.
That'll do for now. I probably missed a ton of stuff.
More can be written on this Kasmir doesn't understand some of it (LOTS on
weapon options in particular), and there are some good guides to blade fury
and/or fury/kick assassins around. The thing is, there's so many ways one
could go with the build.
Oh, "Black" runeword = cheap source of massive crushing blow.
--
USWest SCL: 82 barb, 87 necro, 87 paladin, 87 sorceress.
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