Guide:Hybrid WW/Kicker, PvP v1.10, by FX-Amanda

This build uses the Chaos Runeword to enable Whirlwind, teamed with Dragon Talon kicking attacks in PvP combat.

• Originally posted in the Assassin strategy forum, with comments and additions.

Diablo II Strategy Guide Info:

[edit]

• Patch: v1.10
• Gametype: PvP
• Class: Assassin
• Author: FX-Amanda

INTRODUCTION

Well the time’s come for me to write a guide based on my own pvp experiances.

I’m from Sweden and I’ve been played d2 since it came out back and forth I might add lol took a longer break before i read there was gonna be a big update 1.10. Assasins have always been my favorit when they came in expansion they kinda cover everything but it takes good skill to play them cuz you gotta be "active" playing. After many hours PvM and endless Mf runs did I slowly get borred of PvM and started planning what PvP char to build.

When I started 1.10 did i like the Kicker with Dragon Talon incredible much, a very fun char to play but when I entered Hell games did the kicker become weaker to play but still ok, but I put her in the char park. I must say thanx to Jrichards nice work in everything that comes with kicking etc.

When the time came for me to enter the pvp world was there 1 guide that did stick out among them all, Voides shadow wwsin . A very nice guide, got one chaos and started with it right away, the wwsin did great against most chars except one. The Barb with same skill and way much more life and most importently, high defense. So i did some testing got my kicker back in and tried her vs a wwbarb with high defense. I did much better so now I wanted to combine the 2 chars in 1 and that's how my wwsin/kicker char came up. This build is NOT cheap by any means and is finished at clvl 91,here it goes.(pardon me if there are any typos)

SKILLS

Martial Arts

Total 23 pts

• Max Dragon Talon
• 1 pt Dragon Claw
• 1 pt Dragon Tail
• 1 pt Dragon Flight

Shadow tree

Total 75 pts

• Max Claw Mastery
• 9 pt Weapon Block
• Max Fade
• Max Venom
• everything else 1 pt.
  • Optional after clvl 91 put more in Shadow master.

Traps

Total 5 pts)

• 1 ptWake of Fire
• 1 pt Blade Fury
• 1 pt Blade Shield
• 1 pt pres.

Comments:

Martial arts tree

• Dragon Talon (20)

Maxing Dragon talon the increase of kicks comes every 6th skill level with this build you’ll end up with skill level 24 (thats 5 kicks). Gives you a increase of damage and a very nice AR bonus and thats one of the very good things with this skill coming to that later on.

• Dragon Flight (1 ~)

Dragon flight the assasin teleport with damage included. With this build you MUST have 1 in the skill since you will need it when you go kicking and with the "kicking switch" that i’ll come to that later in gear section. You can place more here later on to get a higher damage, it's neat later on.

The others are just pres.

Shadow tree

In order to get Dragon Talon i had to steal some skill points and that came natrual from Weapon block. By stealing 11 pts from it and rest from the Shadow Master you gain Dragon talon and you dont really loose that much all to all. Your lost in weapon block is 2% from 62% block to 60% block. Shadow master is more like an decoy and with your gear and inventory skillers your shadow will do great with just plain 1 pt for decoying matters as for damage you shouldn't send a baby to do a foxs work.

• Fade (20)

Fade is prob the best aura in the game. It provides DR, res all and massive curse length reduce. It’s the aura i use and I hardly ever use BoS.

• Cloak of Shadows (1)

Cloak of Shadows this skill is really a 1 skill wonder. Provides you with a lilttle def boost and lowers the oponets defens a little too. Makes the target monsters "blind" well they only attack you when you get close to them. So like the Golams dont fires away their nasty lightnings. The Undead guardians and shamens dont revive their summons, the ranged attacks dont fire. I use this skill frequently.

• Mindblast (1)

Mindblast well it's a decent skill but however it’s more of use for a Trapper to keep targets with in range for their traps. WWsins are melee. Dont for get that.

• Venom (20)

Venom skill provides you with high poison with very short time range 0,4 sec. It’s kinda a must for this build and it's one of the main damage source so it's a must to max this skill.

• Clawmastery (20)

Clawmastery provides you with critical and higher clawdamage and is also a must to max for this build.

• Weaponblock (9 or with your chaos/fury with +3 wb in each you can go 3)

At level 26 you will have 60% block if you go all the way you'll have 62% so the step aint that much. Instead try and make your Chaos and Fury with +3 weapon block in each it will make you get some extra skill points to place either in Dragon Flight, Shadow master or here in this place to get 61% weapon block.

• Shadowmaster (1 ~)

Maybe good for PvM but works more as a decoy in PvP 1pt is all you need here with gear you'll get it up to lvl 18 later on. How ever it's optionell to place here after level 91. However would i place em into Dragon flight.

Traps tree

• Wake of Fire (1)

The Wake of fire is good to use for locking chars but i’ll come to that later on in the strategy section.

• Blade Fury (1)

Now Blade fury is a 1 skill wonder. Blade Fury transfers ¾ of weapon damage I love that it gives you a safe passage thru Chaos Sanctury and in nightmare and hell baalruns. Where all the Iron Maiden mages are. It also works good in pvp wich i’ll come to later.

• Blade Shield (1)

Same as Blade fury it transfers weapon damage leaching etc but not as much as BF it's ¼ of weapon damage. I find it good but it wears of pretty fast so you'll have to recast it pretty often.

STAT POINTS

• Strength 170
• Dexterity 170 (from clvl 91 + is it optional to put here)
• Vitality 185 (from clvl 91 + is it optional to put here)
• Energy base

Strength: Well in order to get Dragon Talon up decent you gotta have good str (with gear im sugessting you have close to 300 on "DT switch

• Dexterity

Here is the key to sucsess if u go low on dex just to equip your katars you’ll end up with poorer AR . If you go higher like atleast 170 base you’ll get over 10K AR with all the gear. There are ways to get around AR issue like the Angelic combo but why sacrifice some much to get the AR when you can do it with out loosing skills and ias and deadly strike thats also needed from highlords. Now lets compare Dex vs Vita... 1 atrpt dex gives 1 dex and 1 atrpt in Vita gives 3 life. Take for instance a Skiller with Shadow skills like you are gonna use. Can best provide 6 dex but can provide 40 life = 13,3 Vita ( even tho very expensive). In small charms you max get 2 dex but can get 20 life with 36 AR on top. Dex provides higher damage , defense, and AR and blocks if you are using a shield.

• Vitality

Kinda covered it in the dex. But i know alot of people don’t share my opinion and like more life to be safe so if you want more in Vita it’s all up to you of course. I’ve found that for me 1400 life covers my needs in life once you get the nice highlife shadowskillers you’ll be very nice set.

• Energy

Don't put anything in here. With one manald your mana is covered to leech when leveling up and as for pvp ..mana pots are not considered bad manners so just drink em when ww drains your mana.

Gear

I’m first gonna post my pvp gear and whats in my chest and inventory.

My regular pvpgear

• Weapon switch 1 "WW switch " Chaos claw + Fury" , or Jade talon 2/2 +5/-5 poison facet
• Weapon switch 2 "DT switch" Azurewrath soc with Um rune, Lightsabre soc with ias/9str Stormshield +5/-5 poison facet
• Helm CoA +10/-10 poison facets, Magic grimhelm with +3 Shadow skills +24 life and +10/-10 poison facets
• Armor Nats armor +15/-15 poison facets, Bramble 21 thorns +25% poison skills (i know worst ever)
• Boots Shadow dancers
• Gloves Draculs grasp , Steelrends, Trang Oul’s
• Belt Thundergods vigor
• Amulet Highlords wrath
• Rings Ravenfrost + Ravenfrost , 2 Dwarf stars, 2 Wisp projector
• Inventory 8 sc of 20 life 6 of them with AR and 1 with 3max/19ar, 1 Anni 20/20, 10 Shadow skillers with extra mods 37/37/36/36/33/32/30/30/28/28/.

Weapons

"WW switch"Fury as 2nd claw is the best option i’ve just got me one. Now what is a good claw to make the runewords in? For me the optional is getting one with +3 Dragon flight/+3 weapon block/+3 Clawmastery. If you get 2 claws like this one will you save 6 skill points in weapon block and can aim either for getting up Dragon flight higher or getting your decoy Shadow up or get weapon block to get 1 % more block. I also like two +3 Shadow claws you can buy them at Anyas in hell act5.

Cheaper optionaint many since you gotta have atleast 1 Chaos, i use Jade talon as 2nd claw when im duelling in my duelling group sice we are only allowed to use 1 high rune, so thats a decent claw to use or good ole Bartuc's or a Malice.

"DT Switch"Azurewrath with Um is a very good kicker weapon provides so much goodies. Cold/Magic damage,-30WSM, 30 IAS, +1 skills and Atributes and the Um gives you 25% OW. Stormshield is really not much to say provides with 30 str the DR aint really that needed but the nice defense is. Other weapons worth mentioning is Kingslayer nice kicker weapon should be made in a 4 socket phaseblade but with this build you will loose 1 skillpoint and there for loose 1 kick and since kicking aint your main skill just a back up plan i'd say it's no use for this build. Also a Beast weapon could be viable but same proublem there you'll loose the needing skill point.( CTA i dont miss it a bit).

Cheaper optionLightsabre even tho then you gotta get 6 more IAS from somewhere since it provides only 20 IAS that’s gonna be to the suffer on Um maybe? You’ll also loose the +1 skill that is needed for 5 kicks so it’s gotta be a different gear set up all to all. I do use this weapon once inawhile it's when you meet a good playing trapper when the 25% light absorb comes very handy.

Helm

I’ve chosed CoA i love that helmet got much there in it and provides 2 socs just waiting to get facets in. I’ve been reading other guides with ppl using Shako,what good with Shako is that it provides +2 skills and big life and mana. What CoA provides is+1 skill but have the res that you will only get from soceting Um into it or even more expensive 15 res all jewel and comparing them you’ll loose +10/-10 poison damage also do it have 30%FHR and 3 times higher Defense. I’d say easy that the life, +1 skill and the +2 atr dont taste the same after compaing the 2 items.

Cheaper option Andariels could work if you are gonna use Lightsabre even tho –30 fire res can be tough to cover.

Armor

Well perfect Bramble is a very nice armor and the thorns is usefull vs melee chars, has huge FHR and poison damage. My bramble came out worst ever in poison damage but even if it came out best would i still choose nats with 3 soc facets because it provides the 2 shadow skills and life. You need the 2 skills to get 60 WB and your shadow to break 17 (18). Now to Enigma well +2 skills are nice and the huge str is great the 5% life increase is about same as Nats. It provides higher defense, but you’ll loose 3 socs to put facets in.

Nice armor but way to expensive and i’d rate the Jah rune in a Fury claw much higher. It’s better to spend your wealth on getting the other gear flawless and as for teleport you have Dragonflight.

The New Duress armor well it's more for plain kickers from my point of view, so for this build it doesnt match up against nats armor.

Cheaper options well Nats armor is kinda cheap as for how things are now so i dont have much other armor to suggest even more then as for regular PvM do i love Lionheart.

Boots

There are only 2 boots that even can be considered Shadow dancers and uped Goreriders but Shadow Dancers wins easy with the nice 25 dex bonus and +2 Shadow skills. I used regular gores in mid levels but thats when they are good for this build.

Cheaper options DT needs good damage boots so it's myrmiddons that you gotta use so for cheap option get a rare pair of myrmiddon boots untill you can get shadow dancers.

Gloves

Well the gloves i choose is Draculs, The str and OW rocks great since im lacking on OW in "DT switch". The str is good and life tap triggers pretty often when you are in kicking mode. Others are Trangs and Steelrends but i rather use my draculs.

Cheaper option Trangs are cheap get these til you get a good pair of Draculs.

Belt

For me there it’s just Thundergods it provides both str vita +5 max res lightning and light abs. Compare it to Verdungos i like Thundergods better. But if you so like use Verdungos.

Cheaper option Thundergods is a decent cheap belt, string of ears maybe but there are no subsitue for Thundergods and Verdungo.

Rings

Well Ravenfrost in 1 finger is glued from lvl 45 but on the other finger it’s just a flavor of opponent if not needing fire and light absorb do i use 2 ravens. BK if you are lacking on skills to provide 24 in ma tree others i’d not use it. SoJ is sucks with this build.

Cheaper option 1 Ravenfrost is essential to not be frozen part from that you can use a rare ring if u can't afford the ones above look for ar/str/dex/res/life.

Amulet

Highlords no doubt +1 skill and 20IAS wich is needed for kicking and deadly for boosting ww, great amulet. Maras na doesnt match up for this build. As for the Angelic combo to be honest i dont use it, it steals to much from the other things needed in my opinion. It’s a massive boost no doubt but when you got nice ar/life scs you’ll get your ar up nice. You’ll need the deadly and ias and skill that highlords provides more.

Cheaper option Angelic if you are gonna go with ring as well or a rare assasin amulet with nice extra mods.

Charms

Look for life its here you gotta get life instead of waisting all on atr points. In scs try and get life/ar sc ... and use rather 36ar/20life then 3max/20AR/20 life. max on items dont transfer to kicks and you need ar to penitrate the high defensiv barbs and paladins.You will need 1 Anni most importent stats on it is attributes

Equipment bonuses

With my regular pvp gear do i get:

"WW switch"

• 75 IAS
• 91% Open Wounds
• -25% Targets Defense
• 20% Attack Rate
• 33% Deadly strike
• +10 Strength
• 216-471 Magic Damage
• Ignore Targets Defens
• Prevent Monster healing
• 6 % Life leech
• 9% Chance To Cast Level 11 Frozen Orb On Striking
• 11% Chance To Cast Level 9 Charged Bolt On Striking

"DT switch"

• +30% Increased Attack Speed
• Adds 250-500 Magic Damage
• Adds 250-500 Cold Damage, 10 sec. Duration
• +1 To All Skills
• +9 To All Attributes
• Level 12 Sanctuary Aura When Equipped
• 25% Open wounds[/color]
• + 337 Defense (Based On Character Level)
• +25% Increased Chance Of Blocking
• 35% Faster Block Rate
• Damage Reduced By 35%
• Cold Resist +60%
• Lightning Resist +25%
• +30 To Strength

Other:

• +2 To All Skills
• +4 To Shadow Disciplines
• +35 To Strength
• +65 To Dexterity
• +20 To Vitality
• +80 To Mana
• +90 To Life
• +60% Faster Hit Recovery
• +30% Faster Run/Walk
• Damage Reduced By 14%
• All Resistances +28
• Poison Resist +25%
• Lightning Resist +35%
• 10% To Maximum Lightning Resist
• +20 Lightning Absorb
• Cold Absorb 40%
• Poison Length Reduced By 75%
• Cannot Be Frozen
• 25% Chance of Open Wounds
• +25% Poison skill damage/-25% to enimies Poison resist
• +480 To Attack Rating
• 20% Increased Attack Speed
• + 33 % Deadly Strike
• 5% Chance To Cast Level 10 Life Tap On Striking
• 9% Life Stolen Per Hit
• Adds 1-30 Lightning Damage
• Adds 1-50 Lightning Damage
• Adds 15-45 Cold Damage, 4 sec. Duration
• 5% Chance To Cast Level 7 Fist Of The Heavens When Struck
• +8 Life After Each Kill

As you see i get most of what i need from the gear. High OW sorce good poison skill damage and - res. I got good FHR there are 2 numbers needing either you go for 48%FHR or 86%FHR ive cosen 48 for myself, but if u chose Bramble you'll have 110%FHR. Nice amount Deadly strike (double damage) 50 IAS with -30 WSM for fastest frame rate 7/2/2/2/2. Decent amont of resist bare inmind you'll get 70 res all from Fade, i havent incudled my anni in this. You get +4 skills on DT switch (anni included) to get 24 DT. You get +14 shadow skills with (Shadow skillers included). Over all a nice gear in my opinion.

Leveling gear

Low level

Sigons with Eye of etich, cathans , Manald and Rixots Keen ( now i know some reacts strangly this lvl 2 sword provides CB right away good all the way up so theres no point getting another weapon until you can equip other better up).

Midlevel gear

Goreriders, Waterwalks, Lionheart, Guillaumes Faces, Raven, Manald, Rare Asa amulet with life leech, Thundergods vigor, Tiamats rebuke, asa golves with +2 ma skills, Bartucs then Cresetmoon/phaseblade

LEVELING HELP & PvM

lvl 1-5 1 pt in Claw Mastery then rest in DT (At lvl 5 you should have 4 DT and 1 CM, "den quest included").

lvl 6-11 1 pt BoS then DT and get pres for Cloak of shadows. (At lvl 11 you should have 8 DT, 1 BoS, 1 CM, 1 PH and fully equiped Sigons).

lvl 12-17 Get Cloak of shadows and pump rest in DT. (At lvl 17 you should have 14 DT, 1 CoS, 1 BoS, 1 CM, 1 PH, "Radament included").

lvl 18-23 Dont get the shadow warrior instead get Blade Fury (for chaos sanctury so you dont need to kick things there with Iron maiden on you) and rest in DT. (At lvl 23 you should have 17 DT, 1 BF, 1 CoS, 1 CM, pres for BF and 1 PH, Izu included).

lvl 24-29 Finish DT and get either 1 Fade + from choise of yourself Clawmastery, Fade, Dragon claw.

lvl 30-99 Max venom then get Dragon flight and start getting fade up a bit at lvl 56 start maxing claw mastery then back to finish fade then get weapon block to slvl 9 then get the shadows. ( If you tend to get lonly you can get 1 shadow to help you i got myself a shadow master some where among lvl 50).

Attribute tips

Pump strength right up to 100 then follow with dex up to 100. Then Vita to 50 then dex and str to 170 then follow up with vita.( i did this and had no proub with life, you leech super so theres really no need for anything early in Vita).

I always leave normal around lvl 45 i join baalruns. You lvl great speed up to atleast lvl 45. With this build i set lvl 47 to my goal before leaving and lvl 76 to leave nightmare. The reason why lvl 47 is that to wear the good gear Lionheart and Goreriders and Tgods, and as for 76 did i wanted to wear draculs before hell.

Comments:
A good PvP char can be viable PvM if you cant kill mobs safe and easy how can you kill an other player? Ive never been scared to die going down hell baalruns i dont die against anything there, in puplic baalruns you see all other chars die at times specially against golams hihi. It's easy with this char. You dont have any problem killing bigger crowdes infact its safe. But you dont kill as fast as a super buffed hammdin or a nice sorc bliz, fire, lightn. But you can kill EVERY monster since you do decent damage in so many ways. Dont forget to use Cloak of Shadows it's your ally so goes for Mindblast it's got a chance to trigger "conversation" usfull against larger crowds.

TACTICKS & PvP

First of all there are many like me who find public pvp game to be boring. I dont mind chars like teling bonemancers spraying all there spirits all over or teleing Botd barbs. What i don't like is when ppl are rude and sorry to say it usually are some rude kids in every game. Hearing this you have guessed im not a kid and kinda like a fun fight with out hearing noob, hacker, looser every other centense. So ive joined a duelling group. We have strikter rules so some of my gear i can't use but it's still way more fun. I practice in public games and have my good time in my duelling group.Enuff said about that.

Now the main killer is OW it's what kills in pvp this chars main sorce of damage, poison is for bonus, it can be resisted and the damage do suffer penalty. The magic damage on Azurewrath do come at handy since there are no resist against em.

Some stuff is hard to print down in words you'll have to learn your char before you get good. Mainly you want to Dragon flight in and then ww close around ranged attackers and casters, longer wws away from melee or using DT dont forget to ALWAYS cast Cloak of Shadows.But here are some point outs.

Casters

Sorcs:

• Blizzard, Orbers, Fireballs, Lightning.

They will tele around like crazy most of em anyways. But they will need to stop inorder to cast their damage you gotta move around in circle and tighten it, must be very mobile so you dont get to many hits. Once you see them Dragon flight on left mouse button and right mouse button do ww right away short back and forth. If they manage to flee Dragon flight chase them. Each time do they get stun locked when you hit em. A good try is also go with "DT switch" cuz you will keep em stunned when you DT them. You can put on more absorb if needed but mostly regular setup will work. Your decoy can be good here as a shield for Hydras if the sorcs using them. Over all do i find caster sorcs pretty easy to kill.

Necros

• Bone, Posion

Samething here they cast at fast rate some uses Enigma, against Bonemancers the onces that you Bonespear are tougher cuz they travel much faster then spirits. Samething here try and move around them in a circle and tighten up the range once you spotted them DF and short ww back and forth. If they try and lock you with prison just ww out from it or if they are in range for DF just DF them. Against poisonmancer use samewhat same tactic. You decoy usually dont last long here. If they use Iron maiden jsut move away and use BF it's make em stop the IM dont stick long time and it will make em stop once they noticed its useless.

Paladins

• Hammerdins, FoHs

Well let the hammerdin just cast his hammers. Once he stop and has to move look out for the left over hammers and then do same hehe DF and ww short back and forth. FoHs are the easiest once you see them just DF and ww short back and forth.

Druids

• Wind

Well stay out of their hurricane DF in target their Heart of Oak and finish them. They should go down pretty easy.

Assasins

• Trappers

Or pvp sisters they can be enoying at times specially the once who put up 5 traps just outside of town. They will try and MB you so you stay inrange for their traps to do the killing. However MB is good but it cant hold you til you die, so ww to get out of MB or just move away from them try and get DF or just ww in. Sooner or later will you get close to them and get a ww on them.

Melee

Barbs

• Ironbarbs, Frenzy

These are tough, here you are better of using DT. Move around and wait for the ww to stop then DT them. DT will hit them even if they are wwing and DT can make them get in stunlock. The Stormshields block come handy here so over all vs all melee you sould go DT. Dont for get to use CoS.

Paladins

• Smiters,Zeal

Smiters you ww away from dont be scared they'll kill themself. Zealers are way tougher they usually got mad def i met one with 40k. Against these youll have to get lucky. You can go DT against them they are like you, fast hitter but with DT you get higher AR and the Stormshield to back up with more blocking, it will be a tough fight but u can get them into stunlock with kicks . Or you can try and run around casting Blade Fury and staying out of hitting range if you feel unsecure, even tho they got high defen so its gonna be tough to get a hit with blades on em.

Druids

• Shapeshifters

They usually dont give you any hard time just ww around them try and aim for their oak.

Amazons

• Javason, Bowazon

These can give you hard times they do high light damage and dodge like a crazy but you should go for same plan try and get close ww short back and forth. They usually got guided on switch so sometimes they go ranged have your decoy as shield get in by moving around like usual and get DF in on them and finish them. Heres a good plan also to cast wake of fire to make em dodge "stun". For pure Bowazons try and catch em with DF as usual and ww or DT them. They shouldn't give you that much trouble.

Once again it's hard to say how you should play most importent is you keep moblie move around alot always move in big circkles around your target and against melees try and play smart you are an assasin, make a few hits un noticed and then move out. The rest i leave for you to explore on your own.

SUMMARY

I wanna thank Voide for his usfull guide this one is kinda the same but i felt like pointing out some differenses , I also wanna thank Jrichard for his nice work with kicking it's always been a nice source.

Remember this. There are no Chars that will kill everyone all the time. All chars have strength and weaknesses. In PvP and regular PvM its all about how you play your char that makes the big differance and how you like your char. But i promise you this if you learn how to play this char you'll have a chance to kill anyone.