The Comprehensive Guide To Assassins by The Rain aka Thostos
version 1.1

Table of Contents:
1) Introduction
2) The hybrid
2.1) Equipment
2.2) Stash
2.3) Inventory
2.4) Skills
2.5) Prebuff
2.6) General Dueling Strats
2.7) Detailed Dueling Strats
3) Ghost assassin, kick/ww variant.
3.1) Equipment
3.2) Inventory
3.3) Skills
3.4) General Dueling Strats
4) Tables
5) Dragon Talon and EIAS
6) Claws + Trap Placing Explained
7) Thanks to

Introduction

I've been playing assassins for a while and I thought I'd contribute some of my knowledge and builds. Under no condition these builds are absolute. They can always be changed for as long as you hit certain breakpoints. This is meant as a guide and I will look deeper into some of the most common gear choices. For better detail about why assassins rule, check xepolite's FAQ.

The hybrid

Hybrid assassin is an assassin using traps and whirlwind.
http://krukk.com/azgul/asn/3-charscreen-bo.jpg
This screen is taken without any prebuff.

Equipment

Helm: only option here would be coa. Try to get 2 socks with 15 dr. Don't mind the resists too much. Socleted with 15 ias 15 all res and following jewel could be 15 all res and 15 requirements. I'd use -15 req, 30 cold or light resis and 9 strength jewel. ( http://krukk.com/azgul/asn/4-pcoa.jpg ) You only need light or cold resists to stack cold mastery or conviction from mage/foher. The reason for -15 req 9 strength jewel is simple. You can use coa with lower req and it adds 9 strength which is vital for equipping shadow dancers.
Armor: Enigma. No other choice. The reason should be clear too. If not, then read on! Enigma is better than bramble in many ways. First of all and the most important of all, MOBILITY. Mobility >>>> damage by far. How much damage helps you, if you cannot catch your opponent? Second, enigma provides way more life.
Amulet: 2 assassin 15+ fcr stats amulet. Try to get amulet with much strength, life, dexterity and all resis.
Gloves: Trang ouls. 20 fcr, Cold Resist +30%, +25% Poison Skill Damage.
Boots: Shadow dancers. 2 shadow skills, 30 frw, 30 fhr and 25 dexterity. You can use any dupes too if you wish, these are not vital to the build and can be replaced. Though, more damage, frw, fhr and life is always nice, no? ( http://krukk.com/azgul/asn/13-shadows.jpg )
Belt: Arachnid mesh. 1 all skills, 20 fcr, increases max mana 5%
Rings: 20/250 raven. You need the dexterity and cannot be frozen. The ar add is nice too
Second ring should be fcr ring. Try to aim for ar, life, dexterity, all resis, mana in that order. ( http://krukk.com/azgul/asn/12-rarering.jpg )
Second weapon slot: Call to arms, duh. try to get 6 bo. Linked with spirit, you can precast your fade and gain +3 skills to it. same with venom.
The claws: Here's where people mess up big time. They usually want suwayyahs. They are good on bramblesin but for hybrid, you want ABSOLUTELY fast claws.
With a claw that has WSM (weapon speed modifier) of [-20], you need 40 ias on the claw with additional 15 ias from elsewhere (hence, the 15 ias jewel in coa). This kind of claw would be Feral Claw. Either rare with 40 ias or fury. With WSM of [-30] (runic talons, greater talons) you only need 30 ias + 15 from elsewhere. Fury or chaos in this kind of claw gets the job done. ( http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/Rain_08/Screenshot296.jpg )

Primary claw is the one above gloves. Left claw from you and assasins right claw. Keep in mind though, that you need to hit 60 ias with the primary claw (that is WSM + the ias on your claw, for example a claw with WSM -20, you need 40 ias)

Example: You have chaos feral claws and fury runic talon. You place fury on the slot above your gloves and voil? you got 9 frames trap laying.
Example 2: You have fools claw with 30 ias, 2 sock, um um. Let's say it's a feral claw. You'd need 40 ias on it to reach 9 frames trap laying. Your other claw is chaos runic talon. This setup won't get you 9 frames trap placing no matter what way the claws are. Not with 15 ias from equipment. What you need to do, is either sacrifice ww and use fury runic talon as primary claw or take out 1 um from the fools claw and stick in 15 ias jewel or shael.

CODE

Trap laying IAS   Frames 0 %   13   5 %   12 16 %  11 34 %  10 63 %  9

60 ias with claw + wsm and 15 ias from equipment.

Skills to aim in from claws.

3 ls, dragon flight, shadow master, blade shield, mind blast.

Stash

Kiras (15/15)
Angelics
Thundergod
2 assassin 20 fcr helm possibly with stats (str is nice)
Jade Talon
Verdungos
Any prebuff stuff you might need
Demon limb (for enchant)
Any absorb you might need

Inventory

9* trap skillers with as high life as possible or 2* fhr skillers to gain 86 fhr with 1 fhr sc
10* scs with life/all res or life/light res or life/cold res (9 scs + 1 fhr sc)
you can use some 20/17s life/mana if you need mana badly
anni + torch of course

ALTERNATIVE: If you wish to have more damage (4k:ish without prebuff) then swap trap skillers to shadow skillers. This would result in ~7k trap and ~3,5k - 4k ww but is not worth it imo.

Skills

Here's where people usually get confused.
+1 Fire Blast
+20 Shock Web
+20 Charged Bolt Sentry
+20 Lightning Sentry
+20 Death Sentry
+1 Claw Mastery
+1 Burst of Speed
+1 Fade
+20 Venom
== 104 skills which are achieved at lvl 93 with all skill quests
Shadow master and mind blast and df should be got from claws. These save loads of skills.

Prebuff

When you swap your skillers to shadow skillers, enigma to bramble, 3 shadow 30 str amulet, 3 shadow 30 str circlet, 6 venom 2 sock +10% claws*2 and venom yourself, you will have 6k+ damage and when you change to your original equip, your venom damage will stay as it was when you casted it with prebuff gear.
NOTE: Even without shadow skillers, your damage will be 5k:ish.
NOTE: When you cast venom with bramble, it applies the 50% bonus twice to the venom (50% when you cast the venom and other 50% from bramble when you wear it) so when you take bramble off, you will lose ~1k damage.

General Dueling Strats

Always make sure you have 5 traps out. Play corners. ( http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/Rain_08/Screenshot299.jpg ) That way you have advantage over another trapper and usually against most other chars. Don't fall in to camping. That way you're an easy prey to everyone + they all will hate you. Instead, try to be offensive trapper. With proper tactic and offensive play + abusing corners, you can beat even the best. ( http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/Rain_08/Screenshot125.jpg )

Detailed Dueling Strats

Amazon

Bowazon
Your claw block really comes to the aid here. Always be on the offensive. Namelock, mb, trap, tele, ww. Abuse the enviroment to dodge arrows. They are mostly easy and can be killed with only ww + mb.

Javazon
Good ones can kill you in few hits. The general thing to do here is short wws and keeping her locked most of the time in dodge/fhr lock so she can't attack. That should be easy with 5 traps + short wws. If you still can't kill the good ones, you might have to slap on tg. For farcasting javazon, nevermind about gm shit. Just slap on 2 wisps and tg. fcr is not important here.

Assassin

WWsin
Use shadow skillers, slap on fools and you're pretty much good to go. You will have slightly lower damage than him, but you got 5 traps to aid and higher ar (most likely.) If he's using a bramble, you can just keep up distance with teleport. Remember to have 5 traps down at all times. If you got problems, use death's gloves for extra poison resist and reduced poison length duration. You could slap on andys visage too. Fools claw evens up pure ww fight, I've won an assassin 5-0 (with my ghost though) when I had way lower damage and life but I was using fools claw.

Trapper
She has advantage over you in damage, so you need to play better. Use corners to gain the advantage in reach. Always approach from south since that way you got much bigger screen.

Hybrid, mirrormatch
Heh.. one of my favourite duels. Treat like trapper, this fight is much based on skill and how well you can abuse the corners. If you need to use absorb, slap on tg and use 20 fcr helm. You can get advantage over him using fools claw too.

WW Barbs
If the barb is bvb, you won't have much problems. Low ww damage does not matter here since you don't want to ww him. He probably will have fortitude as armor so you don't have to worry about him catching you up. Just trap him, keep on the offensive. If he absorbs, start crying about it, say "5-0'd thanks" and s/e.
For bvc, you will need to use the same tactics pretty much.. You still can't ww him much because you will lose in ww against ww match. But since you got 5 traps with 12k damage at your aid, don't be afraid to abuse them. Get the barb in the middle of the traps. You can try and encounter him with ww if you are sure that your traps will deal damage at the same time. Otherwise, don't bother. Good bvcs will kill you most of the time but you can still give them hard time.

Druid

Windies
Stun is your friend here. Always have 5 traps down and be prepared to mb asap you get him in your screen. Let your traps to hit him first before trying to ww, so he doesn't have oak and wolves/bear protecting. _always_ when he flees to recast cyclone armor or minions, get after him. You might be able to catch him recasting and in the process inflict damage to him.

Rabies/Fury
Treat like any other melee, keep your distance. Remember that ww is uninterruptable so you can do few bypass whirlwinds on him. ALWAYS keep 5 traps down. You can close in on him by laying few traps down next to him. If he comes to you, just ww. If he runs away, follow, rinse and repeat.

Paladin

Smiters
Generally fairly easy, but always a threat. Ok, first off, slap on fools claw and angelics. Keep coa on, you need the dr. You might want to swap for shadow skillers to gain higher claw block. With angelics and fools claw you got very nice (20k-30k+) ar so you will most likely hit him well. He will most likely start charging at you so when he does, ww away. If he runs, feel free to ezpk him using ww only. If he walks, have traps all around you at all times, mind blast him so that he can't walk and asap move traps to him. If he starts charging at you to get free of the mind blast, ww quickly on the direction he is charging.

Hammerdins
The pub hdins are easy. They rarely even charge so all you got to do is just follow him and keep on aggressive with traps.
The better hdins pose a threat, though. They most likely will charge and desync. Lightning sentry shoots him even though he's desynced so if you look closely when they start shooting nothing, you can actually predict where he's going or where he is. Try making long whirlwinds to the direction you suppose he is going, lay down a few traps too. If you get him in your screen, namelock and mind blast him. Mind blast slows charge down and occasionally reverts him back to where he was a while ago. Namelock mind blast and then tele ww. Claw block and shadow are your friends here. Always have shadow out when you are going to namelock tele on him.
If you need ar, use fools and/or angelics. You'll lose 65 fcr break with angelics though. Alternative is hsarus boots and belt and 20 fcr circlet with fools.

Foher
Lmao, stack resis and use tg, if you still lose, quit d2.

Necromancer

Boner
Use bos so his golem can't slow you down. Try to aim for 86 fhr. Bartucs helps alot here. He can definitely outrange and snipe you so don't bother camping, always move and try to catch him with df when you get him in your screen. Traps are not that useful because if he's skilled, he can avoid them.

Poison nova
Thank god for fade.
He needs to get close to hit with psn nova so just have traps always down, try to tele to him right after he casted nova so that nova wont hit you. If you got any problems (fade lowers curse durations so lower resis is not that useful for him) then slap on deaths gloves and use 20 fcr circlet.

Sorceress

FB sorc
They hurt, yikes. Most of them can be dealt with ease but good ones can tank your traps for a while and kill you. So never stay still and let fb hit you. Try to catch her in mind blast, shadow helps here alot since she can stun her. MB -> ls -> mb -> tele -> ww. Any problems with her, so slap on infernostrides to stay legit and not hear complaints about hotties ^^

Blizz sorc
Hazardous. Without stacked resis they can 1-hit-ko you. But with stacked resis and 1 raven you should have no problem against them, stay cautious and treat like fb sorc.

Orb sorc
These are telespamming nitwits. They rely on you chasing them. 1 raven and stacked resis will allow you to rip through them with ease. Don't push your luck and go through the centre of the orb though. It hurts even with max absorb.

Light sorc
They got the same range than you. They can 1-hit-ko you too, but since the damage range is something like 7-46k, it will happen rarely. Tg and 20 fcr circlet is the way to go.

Any 9x es sorc no block
One df combined with ww brings their life down to 1. Then you can finish her up with mb easy. If you want to do it with style, let your shadow do it, just tele close to her and shadow should mb or df her.

Any 9x es sorc with max block
Fairly hard. Be more cautious here than anywhere. They can tank your traps for a while and it's hard to hit them too. If you cant hit her with 1-2 wws, retreat, put your traps up fast in case she follows. Don't chase her much down, you must always be near your traps.

Ghost assassin, kick/ww variant.

This is the build I'm using at the moment. It crushes multiple opponents 1v1 but is not as good in xv1 situation (hybrid assassin is better there).
With this build, you are going to reach 50 dr, 9 frames trap placing, 4 fpa ww, 11 frames casting, 30 fhr, 15k ar, ~4k ww, 7/3 frame kicks with 3 kicks.

Equipment

Helm: 3 shadow 20 fcr 2 sock circlet with 2*15 ias 15 all res jewels ( http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/Rain_08/Screenshot300.jpg )
You need 30 ias in your helm because for a runic talon on primary hand and jade talon off-hand you need:
63 IAS to get 9 frame trapping
68 IAS to get 7/3 kicking
Armor: Enigma. No other choice. The reason should be clear too. If not, then read on! Enigma is better than bramble in many ways. First of all and the most important of all, MOBILITY. Mobility >>>> damage by far. How much damage helps you, if you cannot catch your opponent? Second, enigma provides way more life.
Amulet: 2 assassin 5+ fcr stats amulet. Try to get amulet with much strength, life, dexterity and all resis.
Gloves: Trang ouls. 20 fcr, Cold Resist +30%, +25% Poison Skill Damage.
Boots: Shadow dancers. 2 shadow skills, 30 frw, 30 fhr and 25 dexterity. ( http://krukk.com/azgul/asn/13-shadows.jpg )
Belt: Arachnid mesh. 1 all skills, 20 fcr, increases max mana 5%
Rings: 20/250 raven. You need the dexterity and cannot be frozen. The ar add is nice too
Second ring can be any ring with stats or if you need absorb, you can use wisp/dwarf there. I, personally, use second raven but I'm planning to get a ring with 1xx ar 1x dex 3x life with mana and/or all resistances.
Second weapon slot: Call to arms, duh. try to get 6 bo. Linked with spirit, you can precast your fade and gain +3 skills to it. same with venom.
Claws: I like to use fools claw most of the time when pubbing. When 1v1, you need to decide which claw combination is the best. vs necromancer, bartucs is useful because it helps you to reach 86 fhr. Usually I go with fools as primary claw and chaos as secondary. You don't actually need any skills here.

The only ias that matters here is that which is on your primary claw and your equipment NOT INCLUDING your off-hand claw.

NOTE: Chaos runic plus the 30 IAS in your helm only gives 65 ias. You keep your trapping but lose your max kick speed. You still have 3 frame follow-up kicks, but your initial kick is 8 frames.

For two runic talons or any claws with -30 WSM you need:
42 IAS to get 9 frame trapping
46 IAS to get 7/3 kicking speed

For a runic talon on primary hand and jade talon off-hand you need:
63 IAS to get 9 frame trapping
68 IAS to get 7/3 kicking

NOTE: Whenever the game looks for mods for kicks, it looks at your primary claw. Another reason more why you want to have fury as primary. Malice wont help as off-hand (if you wanted 100 ow ^^) If you are going to ww most of the time, then it could be good choice to make malice in runic talon (or any -30 WSM claw) and use it as secondary claw with chaos. That extra ow helps alot vs sorc.

( http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/Rain_08/Screenshot302.jpg I use chaos all the time as secondary so I made it in feral claw )

Inventory

9* shadow skillers with as high life as possible or if you want 86 fhr, then use bartucs and 2*12 fhr skillers
10* scs with life/all res or life/light res or life/cold res
you can use some 20/17s life/mana if you need mana badly
anni + torch of course

Skills

+1 Fire Blast
+1 Shock Web
+1 Charged Bolt Sentry
+1 Lightning Sentry
+1 Wake of Fire
+20 Mind Blast
+20 Claw Mastery
+20 Venom
+1 Dragon Flight
+1 Shadow Master
Enough to weapon block for 60% chance to block.
Enough to fade for 50% dr (~14 with cta + spirit and bc)
Enough to dragon talon so you got 3 kicks with bc
( http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/Rain_08/Screenshot303.jpg )
( http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/Rain_08/Screenshot304.jpg )
( http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/Rain_08/Screenshot305.jpg )
Trust me, you don't want more kicks. More kicks means more time still. If your first kick misses, so will the initial kicks. This gives time for the opponent to launch an attack against you. 3 or 4 kicks is nice enough so if you miss, you get off kick animation fast.

General Dueling Strats

Your main weapon vs sorceress will be kicks. They are deadly when combined with ls and wof and mb. If you have noticed, when you mb someone, a swirlie appears on top of them. While it is visible, they will go into hit recovery from every damage made to them, thus your lvl 1 traps are a real killer. ( http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/Rain_08/Screenshot308.jpg )

Because you will rarely need ww against sorc, it's better to use high ow + ias claw combined with fury vs sorc. I've noticed though, that using ww vs a sorc with max block is far better than kicks.

The rule of thumb here is that you need to mb them often. Watch your shadow. Whenever she mbs them, it's your chance to lock them. Mb + traps. Remember. mb + mb + wof + mb + ls + mb + wof + df + kicks

vs smiter, you should not worry about kicks. Trap stunning here is quite useful. If they try to walk and maintain their block so your ww cant hit them, lock them with mb + traps. be sure to ww on time though, they might set off in to charge to bust your ass. that's easy hit in if you're fast enough. Always when they charge, just ww away. If they start walking again, repeat the trapping.

NOTE: Never count on claw block to save your ass. Never take a hit so that you can hit them.

Remember that df replaces teleport on close range. Use mind blast to kill those with low health. Hammer paladins can be killed using only mind blast, trust me, I've done that.

Tables

CODE

Faster Hit Recovery FHR  Frames 0    9 7    8 15   7 27   6 48   5 86   4 200  3 4680 2

CODE

Faster Cast Rate FCR  Frames 0    16 8    15 16   14 27   13 42   12 65   11 102  10 174  9

CODE

Trap laying IAS  Frames 0 %  13 5 %  12 16 % 11 34 % 10 63 %  9

CODE

Frames | Modified WSM*  12   |   33 and higher ------------------------              10   |   32 to 25 ------------------------     8   |   24 to 10 ------------------------     6   |   9 to -12 ------------------------     4   |   -13 and lower

* Modified WSM is WSM of the claw minus any IAS you have on the weapon. Modified WSM = WSM of claw - IAS on weapon.

Dragon Talon and EIAS

EIAS stands for Effective Increased Attack Speed. Your amount of EIAS is found with this equation:

EIAS = skill_IAS – WSM +((120*equipment_IAS)/(120 + equipment_IAS))

Skill_IAS refers to the bonus given to attack speed by BoS or Fanaticism.This value is not affected by a diminishing returns formula as is equipment IAS.

Equipment_IAS. This refers to the IAS modifier you may have on your equipment. This means all of your equipment, weapon included. The only exception for assassins is when using the cross-class skill Whirlwind. Whirlwind only counts the IAS on your weapon. When we get into discussing whirlwind in particular, we'll talk more on that. Equipment IAS includes all types of IAS modifiers whether we are talking about Shael runes, jewels of Fervor, or magical suffixes on the item. IAS which is located on your equipment has to go through a diminishing returns formula. It does not directly affect your EIAS value. That diminishing returns formula is what is listed as the last part of the EIAS formula, the part in parentheses:

((120 * equipment_IAS)/(120 + equipment_IAS))

When using this forumula to figure how much EIAS a given amount of IAS will add to your setup, you must use the total amount of IAS on your equipment. You can't just take the amount of IAS you plan on adding, convert it to EIAS, and add it to the EIAS total. I see this mistake being made all the time when converting IAS to EIAS. Let me explain it a little better by using an example.

Let's say you have a setup using a 0 WSM weapon, no BoS, and you have 40 IAS on your equipment. Right now, you would have an EIAS value of:

EIAS = skill_IAS – WSM + ((120 * equipment_IAS)/( 120 + equipment_IAS))
EIAS = 0 – 0 +((120 * 40)/(120 + 40))
EIAS = 4800 / 160
EIAS = 30

So, we start out with EIAS of 30. Let's say we want to add two Shael runes to our weapon. That's an additional 40 IAS. The mistake gets made when players try to just convet that 40 additional IAS to EIAS and then add it to the 30 EIAS we started with. If we do that, we'll figure that the extra 40 IAS will add 30 more EIAS to our setup giving us a total of 60 EIAS. The reality is different. Here's what the total for EIAS would actually be:

EIAS = skill_IAS – WSM + ((120 * equipment_IAS)/( 120 + equipment_IAS))
EIAS = 0 – 0 +(( 120 * 80)/(120 + 80))
EIAS = 9600 / 200
EIAS = 48

That's quite a difference! Remember, in order to convert IAS to EIAS you need to add all your sources of IAS together and convert them just once. They cannot be converted separately.

We can also derive from this equation a means of converting EIAS to IAS. The equation for doing so is:

IAS = (120*EIAS)/(120-EIAS)

With that equation, we can figure out how much IAS we need to hit the next breakpoint providing we know how much EIAS we currently have. Just subtract the EIAS you have from the EIAS needed to hit the breakpoint and run it through the equation.

CODE

Dragon Talon initial kick EIAS Table EIAS Fpa -30 18 -27 17 -23 16 -18 15 -13 14 -7 13 0 12 9 11 19 10 31 9 45 8 63 7

CODE

Dragon Talon follow-up kick EIAS table EIAS Fpa -30 6 -19 5 0 4 34 3

Claws + Trap Placing Explained

Many people have problems regarding trapping claws. Or maybe they're just dumb. Hope this makes it more clear.
WSM = Weapon speed modifier. It defines the base speed of the weapon.
Greater talons (the trapping claw that is most sought for) has a WSM of -30 which means it has 30 base ias.
take a look at this (graph is considering hybrid build):

in the screen you see:
Assassin using greater talons with 30 ias (2 assa 3 ls 2 sock with 2 jewels 15 all res 15 ias) with 15 ias from other equipment and using runic talons (wsm -30 claw) as secondary DOES HIT 9 FRAMES TRAP PLACING.
== You can socket whatever you want in the 2nd claw. Many people prefer 7 fhr 15 all res jewels.
You can, however, use slower off-hand claw if your primary claw has base ias or you use 2 shaels.
Greater talons with 40 ias + 15 ias from other equipment = you can use wsm -20 claw at off-hand.
Greater talons with 50 ias + 15 ias from other equipment = you can use wsm -10 claw at off hand.
etc.

Thanks to

Zephiris aka Raptor for the hybrid build + alot other assassin info. He has helped me by far the most.
Xepolite for his FAQ for which I am not forced to include loads of more information in this guide
Speederländer for his amazing guide which got me to assassins in the first place.
Monica for she helped me to screenshot stunning.
AzGuL^ for letting me use screenshots of his old assassin.
Me, I suppose, for making this guide and almost ending up having a headache.
http://e.domaindlx.com/JRichard/D2/aas22/ This site for amazing info of attack speeds.
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=229326 This site for EIAS tables.

What to look forward to in next version?

• Dueling strategies for ghost assassin
• Pure trapper build
• Maybe something else Taking suggestions

I'd like some feedback..

much better than the first version, but this link doesnt work:

http://krukk.com/azgul/asn/3-charscreen-bo.jpg


and i still think that hybridsins are better off with using shadow skillers, because putting on prebuff stuff every few minutes is really annoying.
hybsin with non-prebuffed venom and shadowskillers will also have 7-8.xk ls dmg and good ww-dmg, but thats just my opinion.


the guide is well structured and gives the most important info in a short summary. well done.

For gear. I dont think you need a coa, 08 valk is good? 15 res/15 ias it. Also, against claws i wouldnt even use fury. Considering ur not having angelics, get a fools claw that gives like 2 sin skills + x Ls. that would give u better AR.

This post was edited by Arkbound on Sep 15 2006 03:41pm

whats the difference beetwen pure wof lock and wof/ls one ? iam using wof only and it works fine with me

ark on which build are you refering? i think its the hybrid build.


08valk is ofc also nice, but only a few players got access to it, and if you dont want to prebuff fade, you will be glad for every point of dr you gain. also the resis of coa are very welcome.

for the goststyle ww/kick build, a valk 08 would be more beneficial, as you got some more freedom with ur skilling setup and can even go 1x points into fade if you use valk.

the fools claw is a possibility for both builds, but it not easy to find one, as u need a -20 or -30 wsm type, 40 ias on them, 2sin skills etc...

@konieczny: ls is superior to wof for stunning purposes against those opponents who move very fast and in straight lines. i.e. smiters, foh and generally all paladins who use charge as a means of transportation, as well as ww barbs. these are at least the chars where i like ls or a mix of ls and wof. they just desync out of the wofs too fast.

hmm damn, need to remove that one then. Maybe add new screens.

If you read my guide totally, it has ALTERNATIVE choice for inventory which I explained. Instead of trap skillers, you could use shadow skillers and have roughly 7k ls and 3,5k-4k ww.



Again, I noted several times in the guide that using fools is a must most of the time. 08 valk is good but not many ladder players have it ^^



they sort of supplement each other so the fhr lock is more complete. Pure ls lock then again is too weak since it has bigger delay than wof



actually, charge and ww are uninterruptable so ls doesn't help there. At base level it inflicts slightly more damage than wof, that's it. Though, ls has more range than wof but that shouldn't really matter against charging paladin.

ww barbs and smiters/fohs/hdins must stop charging/wwing at any point (palas when they execute their actual attack; barbs when they finished their ww), and thats where ls hits and interupts them. this can occasionally give you time to recast mb or just tele/ww flash them and deliver ow/psn.


the little damage you gain from ls is no point for me. its about 1-2xx or so at baselvl (?) and with resis that wont harm your opponent.

This post was edited by Skully. on Sep 16 2006 04:00am