Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Assassin Guide v1.0
by iLuvMomo (Lee Kian Chong)
dated: 19/07/2K1
based on: Diablo II: LOD patch v1.08
email: helsmley@yahoo.com


*************
Why Assassin?
*************
Why not? I must admit that the main reason why I chose to play as an 
Assassin was because she was a new character in the expansion. I wasn't 
bothered about continuing my level 60+ sorceress seeing as how so many 
spells in the 1.08 patch got nerfed badly. Besides I found that playing 
as my ice sorceress was extremely boring... what else do you actually do 
but run around and cast blizzard after blizzard after... well you get my 
point.
I had no idea whatsoever about the Assassin's game play but thought 
"what the heck?" So I gave her a try and found her to be quite 
interesting to play with.  
First off, she changes the boring gameplay of Barbarian, Paladins and 
Jabazons (amazons who use the Jab attack) of continuos clicking to a 
more satisfying combo attack. The Assassin gets charge up skills and 
finishing moves to be used which deals quite some damage and will put 
some of the toughest bosses down in a few hits.


****************************
Benefits of playing Assassin
****************************
- Two handed fighting style (on Barbarian is the other character out of 
  a total of 7 characters who also can use two handed fighting style)
- Lockpicking, being a thief class, the Assassin benefits from not 
  needing to carry keys around. She can open all locked chests.
- Balanced for Single player mode. She has it all, physical attacks and
  magical attacks (traps) to deal with all kinds of creatures 
  especially those pesky creatures in Hell mode with Physical Immune 
  (PI)
- Very quick with claws, and even quicker with burst of speed.
- Temporary physical immunity with Fade, which helps a lot in Nightmare
  and Hell mode, especially if you aren't fortunate enough to get your
  hands on resistant items.
- Tiger Strike + Claw Mastery + Venom means thousands of points damage
  which easily helps overcome the pesky 50% Physical Immunity in 
  Nightmare/ Hell mode.
- mana and life leech move available so she can look for one less 
  criteria in her weapons. Mana leech is very versatile since you can 
  sacrifice a lot of points of energy for your assasin and still end up 
  with an endless supply of mana when you want to cast traps.
- fun to play and very versatile

********************************
Double Claw vs Claw and Shield?
********************************
This is usually a hot debate for Assasins. I will give a pro-con debate 
from the Double Claw perspective.
 
Pros:
- this is assasin with dual wielding ala barbarian 
- claws are assasin only weapons, and can have +1-3 to special skills, 
  as well as +1-2 to Assasin skills at higher Clvl. This helps a lot if 
  you have 2 claws instead of 1.
- some double claw only skills e.g. Dragon Claw, Weapon Block
- Using a lot of skills will give you more bang for your buck if your
  mana if you use double claw (e.g. Venom)

Cons:
- Using 2 claws means you will be lowering your defense. While this is 
  exceptable in Normal mode, the damage you will be taking will add up
  to quite a lot in Nightmare/Hell mode. 
*pro rebutal* But with since the claws are very fast attack, most of 
              the time you will be hitting your opponent before he hits 
              you.
*con response* And what if you are facing a boss whom is very hard to 
               hit?
- Do you really need the Weapon Block skill? Shields give you a 
  good blocking percentage and can get as high as 75% (though that 
  shield is very very hard to find) With a shield you need to even 
  spend points on getting your weapon block skill to a respectable 
  level. Thats 5 big points at least (more if you are in Nightmare or
  Hell mode) which could have been used for other skills.
- Why use dragon claw when you have other skills you can put points 
  into? Surely dragon claw can be offset by other higher level skills.
*pro rebutal* Take a look at the other FINISHING move skills. There 
              are 4 of them. Dragon Kick has a very low + to damage.
              Dragon Tail is a whopping 10 mana and the additional
              damage is fire damage. At Nightmare/Hell mode, creatures
              more than likely have fire resistance. If you are going 
              to rely on this move alone then you are going to be very
              sorry. Dragon flight while useful is 15 mana per use AND
              has a short lag time after each teleport.
*con response* Dragon kick at lvl 20 has higher + to damage than Dragon
               Claw at lvl 20. With so many skill points savedby not 
               putting into Weapon block, you can easily pump this 
               skill to a decent level. Moreover, this is a kick attack
               so your weapon durability will last longer. If your
               enemy is resistant to fire attacks, then just use poison
               claw.
*pro rebutal* Weapon durability doesn't really matter much since you 
              can always repair the weapon. Besides, the Dragon Claw is 
              the most damaging finishing move possible among all at 
              the lowest mana cost.

In conclusion, I'd suggest trying both styles out and figuring which 
style you prefer. Best yet, have both styles equiped since there is of 
course the 2 weapon set system in Diablo II. Personally though, I prefer 
the double claw style over the claw and shield combo. It is common 
belief that Claw and Shield is a necessity when playing Nightmare or 
Hell mode. Well all I can say is, my Assassin is living well and Healthy 
in Nightmare mode using double Claws.

*********************
What Kind of Assasin?
*********************
Well I don't know how to describe it, but the Assasin I play is a dual 
claw wielding one, which focuses a lot on melee combat, and traps play a 
secondary role. Basically I added loads of points into Str and Dex early 
on and add a point here and there to Vit. I basically gave my assasin 
only a few points for Energy in the first few levels and never added any 
since. I got by even at high levels with a poor Energy score with one of 
my favourite move, Cobra Strike.


************ 
Hotkey Mania
************
Playing an Assasin requires more skill, strategy and finess than playing 
a mindless character like a whirldwind barbarian. With so many useful 
charge up skills and finishing moves as well as those skills which 
temporarily boost your character, you will have a nightmare if you do 
not assign hotkeys. Even the preset hotkeys (F1-F12) is pretty hard to 
use since they are located quite "far" away from your Alt, Ctrl and no. 
Keys.
 
What I did was reassign most of my keyboard hotkeys.  
Basically I relied on 3 charge up Attack, 3 finishing moves and 4 shadow 
skills. Therefore I mapped the keys as follow
Q - Charge Up Attack 1
W - Charge Up Attack 2
E - Charge Up Attack 3
A - Shadow Skill 1
S - Shadow Skill 2
D - Shadow Skill 3
F - Trap
Z - Finishing Move 1
X - Finishing Move 2 
C - Shadow Skill 4
F1 - Shadow Skill 5

Basically the charge up attacks were assigned to my left mouse button 
(since I would be clicking that the most) and the other skills were 
assigned to the right moust button. So by level 30 after obtaining all 
possible skills it was something like: -
Q - Cobra Strike
W - Phoenix Strike
E - Tiger Strike
A - Fade
S - Burst of Speed
D - Venom
F - Death Sentry
Z - Double Claw
X - Dragon Flight
C - Cloak of Shadows
F1 - Shadow Master


So what about the other hotkeys? Well most of them weren't very 
important (when compared to your combat hotkeys), So I just reassigned 
them to the F5-F8 keys.
As you can see I put Shadow Master as F1. Why? Because I wasn't going to 
cast a her very often. It'd be pointless of me to put the Shadow Master 
on say Z key and having to reach further away to change to Double Claw. 
In essence, at higher levels, you won't have that much time to change 
with monsters pounding relentlessly on you.
Of course this is my preference, and you can (and should) come up with a 
set of hotkeys which suits your style. Whatever it is though, hotkeys 
ARE a necessity to playing an Assasin to her fullest potential, unless 
of course you prefer to use the same skill over and over again (and get 
killed in the process)

 
*********************
Charge Up? Finishing?
*********************

As said before, playing an assasin is quite complex with those charge up 
and finishing moves. Let me break down all the details to you in a Q & A 
format. Most of the information was taken from www.diabloii.net

Q: Whats Charge Up And Finishing move?
A: Basically a Charge Up move is when you store charges when a move 
   succesfully connects. When you hit your opponent with a charge up
   move you will see a glowing orb surrounding your character. 
   A finishing move on the other hand will cause all the charges 
   surrounding your character to be used up. You will see a flash 
   according to the colour of the glowing orb if you succesfully 
   use a charge with a finishing move.

Q: How many charges can I store?
A: You can store a maximum of 3 for each charge-up skill. You can stack 
   the charges with other charge-up skills however for a potential of
   18 total charges. For example, you hit your opponent 3 times with
   Tiger Strike and obtain 3 white orbs. You then switch to Cobra 
   Strike and hit your enemy 3 more times. You should see 3 white orbs
   as well as 3 green orbs circiling your character.

Q: How long does each charge last?
A: It last for 8 seconds (give or take) if your character does not 
   attack an enemy. However if you continue hitting an enemy with 
   a charge-up skill (of the same or different kind) the orbs will
   last indefinitely until you stop for 8 seconds or use a finishing
   move. Remember however that even if you can hit your opponent
   more than 3 times using the same charge up skills, you can only
   store a maximum of 3 orbs.

Q: Can I use Chargeup Skills if I don't use claws?
A: Definitely. However you won't be able to use the full selection. 
   There are two charge up skills which require claws that is 
   Blades of Ice and Claws of Thunder.

Q: Can I use finishing move if I don't use double claws?
A: Yes. In fact you can use a finishing move even if you don't use 
   claws. However, you are limited to only 3 finishing moves. You 
   can't use Dragon claw if you choose not to use double claw.

Q: Tiger strike gives +Attack % bonus. Does that mean I gain the attack
   bonus for the finishing move?
A: Yes, well at least it is in v1.08 which I am currently writing on. 
   So technically you could stack all your attack bonuses for your 
   charge up skills and watch your attack rating go up.


Q: Dragon claw states it is a double claw attack where you hit your 
   opponent seperately with two claws. How does the damage modifier  
   apply?
A: The modifier only applies to the FIRST hit. You only do normal 
   damage for the 2nd hit, unless of course the first hit missed. 
   The same applies for Dragon Kick since you get up to 3 kicks, only
   the first kick applies. Therefore it is wise to have the most
   powerful weapon assigned to your first attack if you plan to use
   Dragon Claw.

Q: How much damage does a kick do?
A: Look at your boots... LOL. Actually, the damage each kick does is
   dependent on your Character's Str and Dex Rating.
   Minimum Damage: (Str/4)+(Dex/4)
   Maximum Damage: (Str/3)+(Dex/3)
   For example, BladeDagger has a Str and Dex Score of 60. She will
   do a minimum of 30 points of damage and a maximum of 40 before 
   damage modifiers are added in. If you are planning to go the 
   sword & claw route, it would be wise for you to pump up on your
   character's Str and Dex. 

Q: Which is the best Charge-up and Finishing move?
A: There is no "best" move in the game. Each move complements each 
   other. However for the record, my favourite charge-up move is 
   cobra strike and fave finishing is Double Claw. Even if they 
   are my favourite attacks, however, I still use ther other 
   charge ups and finishers all the time to complement these moves.



***************
Skills Overview
***************
I have a policy when writing an FAQ not to grade skills. The reason is 
because even if I find a skill totally useless, it is because I don't 
know how to use it correctly. Point in case, Paladin's Blessed Hammer. I 
once thought that skill was sucky and I was right to have that 
opinion... until of course someone came up with the idea of Hammerdins 
where Blessed Hammer + Concentration made Paladins a force to be reckon 
with (unfortunately for Hammerdins, the combo got shafted). Anyways I 
will try my best to give my opinion of a certain skill and should you 
disagree, well thats fine because its just that... my opinion!

Martial Arts
------------
 
Tiger Strike 
Type: Charge Up Skill
Required Level: 1
Mana: 1
Comments:
This IMO, is one of the Assassins' best skill... especially since it is 
a Level 1 skill! For the cost of ONE measly Mana, you can charge up your 
weapon up to 3 times. At level 1, 3 charges will nett you +300% 
damage... very useful when you are fighting bosses early on. Later when 
you reach Nightmare and Hell mode, you will want this up to Level 20 
ASAP. Why? Just look at the damage mods man! At level 20, it gives you 
+1440% extra damage. AND not to mention all this comes with a 
complementary + AR. +1440% extra damage is INSANE! Currently my Level 50 
Assasin does an average of 100 points damage per hit. Now charge up 
tiger strike and you will be doing something like 1500 points for your 
finishing move! This is a must for assasins in taking down enemies with 
loads of HP so that you can use corspe explosion cheese tactics.


Fist of Fire
Type: Charge Up Skill
Required Level: 1
Mana: 2
Comments: 
Put one point into this skill, and save the rest for later. This skill 
is okay.... for early goings (level 1 to 6) More hits increase the fire 
explosion radius, but thats besides the point. To get the damage up to 
even a respectable level you need to pump something like 10 points or 
so... and thats only useful in normal mode. By Nightmare mode this skill 
is totally eclipsed. Not to mention the fact that other skills would 
then be so much more stronger. By the way, I never used this skill at 
all. I just put it as a prerequisite to other skills.


Cobra Strike
Type: Charge Up Skill
Prerequisite: Tiger Strike
Required Level: 12
Mana: 2
Comments:
This is an excellent skill for the assasin. This is the main reason why 
you can skimp on Energy points for the Assasin's game. FYI, my Assasin 
had only 40 points allocated for Energy, and thats very little 
considering she is a Level 50 Assasin. I use this mainly to leech back 
huge amounts of mana after casting 5 death sentry's which is quite a 
mana drain needless to say. Also its very useful against bosses who are 
hard hitting since a fully charged up skill will help leech back all the 
life you lost. Remember that the life leeched increases instantly like 
using a Rejuvenation potion, and not over time like using a Health 
Potion. This is something bear in mind, as you might want to use a 
health potion, but your enemy hits you before your health can reach a 
safe level. I put only ONE point (which is all you need really) and it 
still has stayed useful right now in Nightmare mode. Please remember 
that some creatures like Skeletons (other Undead too) cannot be leeched 
for health or Mana. Oh... and you get some +AR% too!


Claws of Thunder
Type: Charge Up skill
Prerequisite: Fist of Fire, Claw Weapon
Required Level: 18
Mana: 4
Comments: 
I put only one point in this skill. The damage done is respectable, but 
if you charge up this move more than once, then the lightning damage 
done will be 1-x (x is maximum damage) Big gamble here. It would be 
quite useful if not for a better skill later on....


Blades of Ice
Type: Charge Up Skill
Prerequisite: Fist of Fire, Claws of Thunder, Claw Weapon
Required Level: 24
Mana: 3
Comments:
This skill is very useful indeed. You obviously want to charge this 
skill up 3 times for the freezing effect (your opponents can't move, and 
you get a free hit) Increasing the skill points allocated for this would 
not only increase your +AR% and Cold damage, but also the freeze Radius. 
Very important! If you think that Ice is the way for your style, then 
pump this skill up since to charge cost one less mana point, but if you 
want a more versatile move then wait somemore....


Phoenix Strike
Type: Charge Up Skill
Prerequisite: Fist of Fire, Claws of Thunder, Blades of Ice, Tiger 
              strike, Cobra Strike
Required Level: 30
Mana: 4
Comment:
This is the Assasin's most versatile charge up Skill. For the price of 
ONE skill point, you can dish out fire, lightning or ice damage. This is 
great but has some drawbacks in some cases. First, the meteor (first 
charge) is pretty useless unless fighting huge swarms of enemies in a 
tight corridor. If you played a sorceress I'm sure you'd know by now 
that the meteor takes forever and a day to land, by which time your 
opponent would have ran or teleported away. Second, the damage done by 
the Chain Lightning could have been better.. 1-x damage is horrible as 
always, and even at skill level 20, you will only be doing 300+ damage. 
Not very good compared to Claws of Thunder. Lastly the Chaos Bolts cast 
may or may not hit a target even if they are in close. This can be vital 
at times when fighting swarms of enemy (especially in Nightmare mode) 
where that freeze could easily mean life or death. That compared to 
Blades of Ice which freezes EVERYTHING in the freeze radius. (well not 
bosses or uniques though) However, this skill is a very welcome addition 
for the Assasin's already congested skill lists and proves very 
versatile in a lot of situations since you don't need to change from one 
skill to another.


Dragon Talon
Type: Finishing Move
Required Level; 1
Mana: 6
Comments:
One point is all you need. This costs too much mana, and does too little 
damage early on to be of use. Of course, if you actually bother to pump 
it up to at least Skill Level 12, then you get 3 kicks, and a good 
damage modifier... but with that kind of skill points, I'd rather invest 
it in Claw Mastery or Weapon Block. 

Dragon Claw
Type: Finishing Move
Prerequisite: Dragon Talon
Required level: 6
Mana: 2
Comments: 
If you are going dual claw, than this IMO is the best finishing move. 
With a low mana cost, and doing decent damage, this is my favourite 
move. If you find a good weapon with high damage, then this is the ONLY 
finishing move which would be of good use. Why? Kick damage depends too 
much on Str and Dex. So lets say my Level 50 Assasin has Str and Dex of 
115 he would be doing a MAXIMUM of 78 damage. If I get a good weapon 
with Str bonus I could easily do an AVERAGE of 100 damage. Thats a big 
difference... if you add Tiger Strike Bonus into it. The down side of it 
though is that it requires double claw, and thus you will have to invest 
a lot of points into Weapon block and might not be able to get this 
skill up to scratch later on. Just to note however, my Level 50 Assasin 
is Surviving pretty well in Nightmare with only 2 skill points allocated 
to this move (but there is of course skill bonuses from my equipment)

Dragon Tail
Type: Finishing Move
Prerequisite: Dragon Talon, Dragon Claw
Required level: 18
Mana: 10
Comments:
Choke! Gasp! 10 mana! Thats a lot. Fortunately Dragon tail is a area 
hitting move, which means it damages all enemies around. If you do not 
go dual claw then this is THE move you should use. If you choose dual 
claw then you might still want to keep one point in this kill if only 
for the knockback properties, which is a lifesaver against swarms of 
enemies. Adding points into this increases the damage done (fire damage 
however) and +AR%. Useful but not necessary


Dragon Flight
Type: Finsihing move
Prerequisite: Dragon Talon, Dragon Claw, Dragon Tail
Required Level: 24
Mana: 15
Comments:
I seldom regard this as a proper finishing move on its own but rather as 
a tool. The benefits of this move is too great not to be used even if it 
is costs a hefty 15 mana. This move as the description read is a 
teleport and finishes off with a kick. It might not be apparent to you 
but when you reach Act 5 with those teleporting imps, this will be your 
best friend since you can catch up with them teleporting around. Also, 
it is great say in the Arcane Santuary (Act 2, Quest 5) with those pesky 
Ghoul Lords always hiding behind the Goat men (as I call them) casting 
10001 firewalls. Very useful for breaching their defence (while your 
shadow/shadow master) holds them up especially in Nightmare mode.
However, as a proper finishing move though, I give it a thumbs down, 
because while it is useful and has good +AR% and +damage bonus even at 
level 1, the 2 sec casting lag can be a killer. As I understand, 
Blizzard created the 2 sec casting lag to reduce the bandwidth load. 
Imagine 8 Assasins teleporting around at will on the same map....


Shadow Disciplines
------------------

Claw Mastery
Type: Passive Skill
Required level: 1
Comments:
I really... really... like this skill... You can tell because by level 
40 I already had like 16 points in this skill. Since I was playing 
through the game my first time as an Assasin (without prior knowledge of 
ANYTHING bout Assasin) I decided that my safest bet was to invest points 
in passive skills when I was in doubt (ala Barbarian). In truth, you 
prolly won't need that many points in this skill... at first. But when 
you reach Nightmare and Hell difficulty, and considering that Assasin's 
Claws does puny damage (well compared to elite weapons of say the 
Barbarian) the damage modifier is a must. Remember, this damage modifier 
and AR modifier is added to every hit... not your charge up hit only or 
your finishing move. EVERYTHING that hits with a claw. (sorry Kicks... 
no damage mods though) This is the main reason WHY I went double claw... 
to benefit fully from this skill. By hell mode, have this skill at level 
20. If you don't plan on investing any points on this, then choose 
Necromancer instead.


Psychic Hammer
Type: Offensive skill
Required level: 1
Mana: Increases as Skill Points Increases
Comments:  
Urh? What is this move? Well... its useful because you can put one point 
into it and then get other skills later. Come on.... at Level 20 you 
will be doing something so pathetic like.... 29-32 damage... for 8.7 
mana! Geez! Even a trap does more damage!


Burst of Speed
Type: Boost-up Skill
Required Level: 1
Mana: 10
Comments:
This skill is extremely useful... have at least 2-3 points in this for 
the best skill point investment. You thought the Assassin's Claws hit 
very fast already eh? Well think again! This boosts her skills 
tremendously and should be recharged the second it runs off. The 
additional run/walk speed boost is just icing on the cake and helps 
offset the run/walk speed which has been nerfed in Diablo II v1.08.


Cloak of Shadows
Type: Enemy affecting Skill
Required Level: 12
Prerequisite Skills: Psychic Hammer
Mana: 13
Range: 20 yards
Duration: 8 secs
Comments:
This is one of the most overlooked skill and is darn effective even if 
you put ONE skill point into it. Forget the -def% for your enemy... even 
though that is the benefit if you increase the number of skill points 
for this, the BEST thing about this skill is that it blinds ALL your 
enemies within the 20 yard range (except for Uniques, Champions and 
Bosses of course). Why is this useful? You only got to go into the 
flayer jungle where all those pigmy boys start pelting you with their 
blowpipes before you know why this skill is one of the best. Being 
blinded, your enemy won't be able to see you at all. That means pigmy 
boys won't be able to see you, pelt you with bullets and run away. No... 
you can simply run up to him at your leisure and beat the hell out of 
him before he even knew what had happened. It works very well especially 
with a huge group of enemies.... but by the time you actually need this 
skill badly, you will already have Death sentry and all you actually 
need to do is take out the fattest enemy or two around. With Tiger 
Strike and a full 8 secs, I'm sure your enemies won't be able to stand 
for long...


Weapon Block
Type: Passive Skill
Required level: 12
Prerequisite Skill: Claw Mastery
Comments:
Basically if you play double claw assasin and don't put any points into 
this skill you should consider quitting diablo 2 for good. I love 
playing a double claw assasin (more attacks, better finishing move) and 
as such the Weapon Block is a bread and butter skill. I spent LOADS of 
points early on in normal mode on this skill to get it up to Slvl 10 
(50% blocking) of course the higher is better.  Defense rating only 
helps in soaking up damage, but with weapon block you totally AVOID 
being hit at all. Thats a whole load useful. With an average of 50% 
blocking, thats every other hit you avoid. Currently in Nightmare I have 
it a SLvl 15 which offers 55% blocking. Put as many points as 
possible.... by Hell mode this skill has to reach SLvl20 before 
factoring any other items with skill bonuses.


Fade
Type: Boost-up Skill
Required level: 18
Prerequisite Skill: Claw Mastery, Burst of Speed
Comments:
This skill does two things, give you temporary resists all and reduces 
your curse length. The duration of this skill increases with the 
addition of skill points as well as the resist all and reduction of 
curse length bonuses. This skill does help a bit if you are not lucky 
enough to get the proper resist element like say an Amulet with 25% to 
resist all to offset the resist penalties in Nightmare and Hell mode 
(especially since the Horadric Cube recipe to create said amulet is 
currently disabled) Still, the curse length time reduction isn't all 
that useful, and the loss of speed (when you are not using Burst of 
Speed) really hurts a lot. Put one point in this skill only as that 
should be sufficient.


Shadow Warrior
Type: Summon Ally
Required level: 18
Prerequisite Skill: Claw Master, Weapon Block, Psychic Hammer
Mana: Increases with addition of skill points
Comments: 
I put one point in it and never used it. Use Shadow master instead as it 
is more useful later on. 


Mind Blast
Type: Enemy affecting Skill
Required level: 24
Prerequisite Skill: Pyschic Hammer, Cloak of Shadows, 
Mana: 15
Duration: 6-10 secs
Comments:
This skill does a bit of damage to your enemy (increases with SLvl) and 
also has a small chance of converting them. I don't see why this skill 
would be useful. Firstly, most of the enemies you can covert can easily 
be killed without much hassles. Second, the duration lasts too short to 
be of much use. I'd say save your skill point for your Shadow Master, 
since she will be able to use this skill (without you even having any 
points in this skill) but even then it can be more of a hindrance than 
of a help.


Venom
Type: Boost-Up Skill
Required Level: 30
Prerequisite Skill: Claw Mastery, Burst of Speed, Fade
Mana: 12
Comments:
Put skill points in this skill as needed. I'd say at least 6 points in 
this skill by the time you reach Hell because of those pesky Physical 
Immune enemies. Note that in v1.08 all poison damage (from Charms, 
poison weapons and this skill) is STACKABLE which means you could do 
possibly over 1000 points of damage if you have the right equiptment. 
It would also be advisable to have a Elite Claw type weapon socketed 
with Perfect Emeralds to help boost up your poison damage. This skill, 
like Fade, is non stackable with other Boost Up skills, so use this 
skill only when needed, otherwise stick with Boost of Speed.


Shadow Master
Type: Summon Ally
Required Level: 30
Prerequisite Skill: Claw Mastery, Weapon Block, Psychic Hammer, Cloak
                    of Shadows, Shadow Warrior
Mana: 40
Comments: 
If you need an ally this is where you should put your skill points into. 
Not only does it have a FIXED mana cost (unlike Shadow Warrior which 
reahces an abominable cost at higher levels) but your ally has more HP 
(per Slvl) compared to a Shadow Warrior of the same SLvl.
The summon resists and attack rating bonuses are just all icing on the 
cake, but what makes the Shadow Master real strong is the fact that she 
has ALL Assasin Skills available, even those that you do not have any 
skill points in Yet. How can this be useful? Well it simply means you 
won't need to spend points on certain skills which you don't need (or 
don't need yet) For example, I never needed to use much traps during 
Normal mode (which was my first 40 levels) and did not put a point into 
any of the Trap skills till reached Level 35 so the trap setting of my 
shadow master came as a welcome (albeit not necessary) boost for my 
Assasin. Whats more, you can keep casting the Shadow master as long as 
you have mana, compared to hiring a Mercenary which quickly gets 
expensive at high levels to ressurrect. Great Cannon Fodder Late On!



Traps
-----
Traps IMO, aren't worthwhile for the first 30 levels or so and in fact 
you don't even need to put ANY points in any trap skills whatsoever and 
STILL get to defeat Normal mode completely. However, One trap in 
particular makes everything oh so worthwhile and is DEFINITELY a worthy 
addition to the Assasin's arsenal in Nightmare mode. Be warned that you 
can only set up to a maximum of 5 traps at one time. After that if you 
cast a 6th trap the 1st will disappear. Blizzard has reasons for this - 
to reduce the information on server and thus reduce lag.

Fire Blast
Required level: 1
Mana: Increases with SLvl
Comments:  
Useful for the first act or so but save your skill points for other 
traps. I never went the Fire route.


Shock Web
Prerequisite Skill: Fire Blast
Required level: 6
Mana: 6
Comments:
Like Fire Blast, almost obsolete by 2nd Act. Put one point just as a 
prerequisite for more powerful traps and save the rest up.


Blade Sentinel
Required level: 6
Mana: 7
Comments:
This does decent damage, and would prove useful early on, but even at 
SLvl 20 79-83 damage is too little to prove useful especially in Hell 
mode. One point is all you need if you need the later skills.


Charged Bolt Sentry
Required level: 12  
Prerequisite: Fire Blast, Shock Web
No. of shots: 5
Mana: 13
Comments:
This does decent damage, and is good early on, but really the damage 
even when maxed out is PATHETIC. I mean at Slvl 20 this does something 
like 39-45 damage per shot... which isn't much..... not to mention not 
ALL the shots will hit. You won't need more than one skill point in 
this...


Wake of Fire
Required Level: 12
Prerequisite: Fire Blast 
No. of shots: 5
Mana: 20
Comments: 
Basically this trap sprays fire in a triangle (fan shape). The damage 
isn't too high, but what can be expected from a level 12 skill? Again, 
if you want to go for Wake of Inferno, then just put one point here. No 
point spending more points in this.


Blade Fury
Required level: 18
Prerequisite: Fire Blast, Blade sentinel, Wake of fire
Min. Mana: 3
Comment:  
Since when did Assassins become Ninjas? Since they learned how to throw 
shurikens. IMO, this is an OK skill again in Normal mode, but in the 
long run it just proves too mana intensive at higher levels doing too 
little damage to be effective. If you need long range attacks, get a 
bow, get some arrows and just shoot.


Lightning Sentry
Required level: 24
Prerequisite: Fire Blast, Shock Web, Charged Bolt Sentry
Mana: 20 
No. of Bolts: 10
Comments:
Again like other traps this can be useful early on but is totally 
obsolete by the time it reaches Nightmare mode due to its low damage and 
the increase vitality of your enemy. Save skill points for the next uber 
skill.


Wake of Inferno
Required level: 24
Prerequisite: Fire Blast, Wake of Fire
Mana: 20
No. of Blasts: 10
Comments:
While at Level 20 this does 189-203 damage which VERY good... you can't 
afford 20 skill points on this skill alone. 20 mana is a lot... not to 
mention the range is poor. By the time you need to do that kind of 
damage you are prolly in Hell mode, and creatures will have magical 
immunity of some sort. IMO Venom + any lightning trap will give you 
enough options to cover your bases. If you do not wish to go for a 
lightning trap, then go for this.... but if you do... well read on....


Death Sentry
Required level: 30
Prerequisite: Fire Blast, Shock Web, Charged Bolt Sentry, Lightning
              sentry
Mana: 20
No. of Bolts: 5
Comments: 
Question! What makes the Necromancer the badass overpowered creep that 
he was in v1.0 Diablo II? Corspe explosion of course! And now.... the 
Assassin gets to enjoy some of the benefits of the Assasin, with some 
added bonuses to it. Death Sentry IMO, is the best trap skill and in 
fact one of THE BEST skill for the Assassin. Corspe Explosion here alone 
does 40-80% of the corspe life. And for the cost of 20 measely mana you 
also get the additional benefit of shooting lightning bolts should NO 
corpse be available.
So what makes it so good? Corpse explosion of course! But wait.. for the 
necromancer, he can only make ONE corpse explode at a time, but if you 
have a fast cast rate and quick fingers (and enough mana) you can set up 
to a maximum of 5 traps, and cost 5 corpses to explode at one time. 5 
corpses!!! That is MORE than enough to kill all the enemies of the same 
type. Having trouble with those pesky maggots in Hell mode spawning 
those baby maggots before their eggs can even cool? No problemo... kill 
a few maggots.. set 2-3 traps and watch the chain reaction... baby 
maggots kill more baby maggots... more baby maggots kill big fat mother 
maggot. 
So how many points do you put in this? 20? Not if you were me, I 
invested in this skill putting just 2 point in it (though admittedly I 
have the additional bonuses from my equipment which give +3) Thats good 
enough.. increasing it further increases the lightning damage and range, 
but the radius should be good enough with 5-6 points invested to see 
huge chain reactions, and the lightning damage is almost worthless in 
Hell mode.


Blade of Shields
Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Fire Blast, blade Sentinel, Wake of Fire, Blade Fury
Mana: 27 and increases with Slvl
Comments: 
It works somewhat like Iron maiden only that your enemy does NOT need to 
hit you with this skill to deal any damage. Frankly though even though 
seems useful, I never put any skill points into it. Any comments and 
suggestions would be welcome.


**********
My Assasin
**********

Currently my Assassin is Level 60 (or so IIRC) in Act V, Nightmare mode. 
While I can't remember everything of her in full detail, I will give you 
a best description of her possible and the way I play her.

Name: Kaycee
Stats (after bonuses from equiptment):
Strength - 152
Dexteirity - 138
Vitality - 74
Energy - 43

So what makes her great? Look at her high Strength and Dex scores. Then 
think of her attack rating and damage. Does that mean ANYTHING to you?  
She has a BASE attack rating of 3000+ including equipment using Cobra 
Strike. No that does not include any charge up with Charge-Up skills.. 
with that factored in she reaches around 5000 average (not all skills 
used). 
She does insane damage of up to 300+ points of damage with all the 
poison and +damage charms stacked up. 300 points on ONE CLAW that is... 
not 2. And thats not even considering tiger strike bonuses for her 
finishing move! (Claw base maximum damage is 54 btw) Choke... add Tiger 
Strike at Level 20 with 3 charges... Choke.. and Venom and you can 
imagine the damage... choke... dealt out on the finishing move. 


So how did I get to that? Analysing My skill Point Distribution

Level 2: Tiger Strike
Level 3: Claw Mastery
Akara Reward: Dragon Talon
Level 4: Save (1)
Level 5: Save  (2)
Level 6: Burst of Speed, Dragon Claw, Save (1) 
Level 7: Save (2)
Level 8: Save (3)
Level 9: Claw Mastery
Level 10: Save (4)
Level 11: Claw Mastery
Level 12: Weapon Block, Pyschic Hammer, Cloak of Shadows, Cobra Strike,
          Save (1)
Level 13: Tiger Strike
Level 14: Save (2)
Level 15: Save (3)
Level 16: Save (4)
Book of Skills: Tiger Strike
Level 17: Save (5)
Level 18: Dragon Tail, Fade, Shadow Warrior, Save (3)
Level 19: Weapon Block
Level 20: Weapon Block
Level 21: Weapon Block
Level 22: Weapon Block
Level 23: Weapon Block
Level 24: Fist of Fire, Claws of Thunder, Blades of Ice, Phoenix Strike
Level 25: Dragon Flight
Level 26: Save (1)
Level 27: Save (2)
Tyrael Reward: Save (3)
Level 28: Save (4)
Level 29: Claw Mastery
Level 30: Shadow Master, Venom, Save (3)
Level 31: Save (4)
Level 32: Fire Blast, Shock Web, Charged Bolt Sentry, Lightning Bolt
          Sentry, Death Sentry

From there on, everything else went into Pumping up my Character's Tiger 
Strike, Claw Mastery and Weapon Block until she had 16 in Claw Mastery,  
10 in Weapon Block and 15 in Tiger Strike before adding in Skill Bonuses 
from Equipment. 

With added bonuses, Claw Mastery is at SLvl 21, Weapon Block at Slvl 16 
and Tiger Strike too at SLvl 20. I would say... she is one badass 
character.  
Further points obtained will be invested in Dragon Claw and occasionally 
Claw Mastery and Tiger Strike (seeing that they are already Uber 
powerful)

But all power is for naught if you don't have a game plan. So what did I 
do?

- Basically Normal mode is a walk in a park (at least for me) All I  
  needed was Cobra strike x3 and then finish off with one of the 
  finishing moves (toggled between dragon flight and dragon claw) and 
  any if not all the enemies could be beaten. This of course with a 
  burst of speed boost factor.

- For Uniques, I used the Cobra Strike x3 - Tiger Strike x3 combo and 
  boosted my character using venom. I had pretty good equiptment to 
  boost my resistance so fade was not used much here. When Enemies were
  swarming me in Normal mode, I just used Phoenix strike charged 2 or 3
  times depending on their type of resistance and let go to drop many
  at once.

- I had no trouble with bosses in Normal mode (Mephisto, Baal) was
  particularly easy, but Diablo was rather challenging (though not
  impossible to beat even if I did die ONCE) This is mainly due to 
  me hanging around levelling up. 

- Enter Hell mode, with enemies gaining more health and partial 
  physical immunity, loads more points were invested in Claw Mastery 
  and Tiger strike. Now the basic combo is Cobra x3 - Tiger x3 and then
  finish off with a finishing move. That combined with Death Sentry 
  made short work of all the enemies.

- Uniques were tougher now with resistance of some kind (some even 
  having physical Immune!!) and as such I had to make full use of 
  what I had (Venom, Traps) as well as Fade due to the Resistance
  penalty to get it to Maximum (especially vs Lightning attacks) Still
  they were not too difficult to do away with especially since their 
  minions themselves do quite some damage with Corspe Explosion.

- Bosses were rather challenging. Mephisto was still a walk in the park
  due to the high resistance I had (by then), but Diablo Had me 
  sceaming and cursing non stop. Haven't fought Baal yet.



So there it is.... my Assasin. Will continue to play and fill you in 
once I reach Hell mode *shudders* 


**********
Conclusion
**********

In short, I thank you for your time for reading this FAQ. Any comments, 
and discussions will be entertained though I do not want any spam Mail. 
I know that I am human and WILL make mistakes, so if I do, do not flame 
me or anything kay? I'm after all, just another Diablo II player.

Also since I am an A lvl student who wil be sitting for my exams come 
this November I naturally do not have that much time on my hand and will 
not be able to give a quick reply to all mails. I however can guarantee 
that all mails will be read and responded too ASAP. Thanks for reading 
my FAQ again and God Bless.

- Kian Chong

