PvP Fastcast WW/Kick/Stun Assassin Guide

Pre-Introduction
This guide focuses on strategy, not items and stats (though I discuss both). As such, it is useful for the build discussed below, “ghost” style WW assassins, BvC barbs and anyone else interested in good dueling techniques.

Auto-aim is thankfully disabled in the new 1.11 patch. For now...
I have several suggestions below for dealing with auto-aim users. Hopefully, auto-aim is gone for good. I doubt that, however. So, if it comes back the information is there.

I have also altered some portions of the equipment section to reflect the new hellfire charm.
The changes from this are really minimal. It just means a bit more pre-planning, yet another “perfect stat” expensive charm that everyone has to try to and get, and a bit more flexibility in stats and the like.
The hellfire skill chance-to-cast offers some interesting possibilities with talon against less than 10K defense opponents (where multiple rapid strikes are possible), mostly coming down to improved stun, especially when combined with the chance-to-cast skills on a chaos claw, assuming that claw is worn as primary. I’ll discuss in a bit more detail below.

All in all, I’m glad this guide is largely unchanged after the new patch release. I figured the whole thing would be consigned to the “dustbin of history”, as it were, once I heard a new patch was on the way. Hopefully it still has a long life.

Enjoy!

Quick List of Acronyms:

AR - attack rating
BS - blade shield
CoA - crown of ages
CTA - call to arms
DF - dragon flight
DR - damage reduction (physical)
DT - dragon talon
FHR - fast hit recovery
GC - grand charm
IAS - increased attack speed
KB - knockback
LS - lightning sentry
MB - mind blast
OW - open wounds
PLR - poison length reduction
SC - small charm
SM - shadow master
WB - weapon block (also CB - claw block)
WW - whirlwind

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. Build Goals
3. Note on Damage
4. Note on Attack Rating
5. Note on Claw Block
6. Note on Mana
7. Note on Mercs
8. Skills
9. Equipment
9.1. Alternate Equipment Set-up
9.2. Notes on Armor Choice
9.3. General Notes on Equipment
10. Anya Bug
11. Attribute Points
12. Notes on Poison Damage
13. Notes on Speed
14. Chance to Cast and Stun with Dragon Talon
15. General Strategy and Technique Guide
16. General Match-up Notes
17. Class-Variant Strategy Breakdown
18. Credits


INTRODUCTION

This build combines all of the best aspects of the PvP assassin kicker and the PvP assassin ww builds in a solid dueling framework. It uses teleport for its primary movement with tactical use of dragon flight in on-screen situations. It uses stun supplied by level 1 traps and level 42 to 50 mind blast.

This is not a “ghost” ww-sin. It’s a ww/kick hybrid. I've been posting bits and pieces of this guide since early in ladder 1, before anyone heard of the name "ghost" attached to a ww-sin. I just happened to be doing it, at that time, with a pure kicker rather than ww assassin. Ladder 2 introduced certain items, like grief, which made pallys and melee generally very difficult. In the ladder 1 time-frame (both on and off the ladder), a tricked out kicker could hold their own in most public dueling games (even if certain melee builds could not be beaten at all). There were so many pure caster types that kickers always had good duels available. But now, there are so many paladins with a massive physical attack along with their ranged (FoH, hammers, etc.), that you simply must have whirlwind. There were a LOT of paladins in ladder 2 (and off the ladder) as items and better, more refined, builds pushed more and more people toward that class. If you kicked only, you did not do well. I went into many 8 person public duel games and had 7 pallys plus myself. However, to go whirlwind only means that you lose the benefit of an extremely accurate and powerful tool against casters. No matter what anyone says, kicking is the superior attack against sorcs, wind druids, necromancers, etc. You need both attacks, kicking (mostly) for casters and ww (mostly) for melee and pally casters. This doesn’t mean I exclusively use kicks against necros, for example. It just means that kicks are my primary attack. This is discussed in the strategy section below. WW + kick gives you a huge range of options in the heat of a duel. It is superior to a pure ww (whether ghost or otherwise) or any type of pure kicker. Finally, you don’t need that big a skill point investment to make kicking effective, as I will outline below. There is no good reason NOT to have dragon talon as a skill.

In my opinion, this is the best PvP assassin type you can play for 1 vs. 1 duels when you are decked out. It’s better 1 on 1 than a trapper, though a trapper is better in a team. I also consider this the single most demanding PvP build you can play. I’ve played just about every style of dueler out there at one time or another going back to the beta. Nothing has come close, in my mind, to the complexity of making this build function well. As a result, I find it endlessly interesting and fun. Much more so than playing a trapper or a bone nec or a smiter or a ww barb or any type of sorc. 99% of time you will be the aggressor and will be chasing your opponent. It's always more fun to play offensively than defensively. It also takes MUCH more skill to be a good offensive player. Anyone can run and spam their attack.

Most of this guide is about tactics and strategy. Items are items and we all know how important they are. I assume the people who go to the trouble of reading PvP strategy guides have decent items or access to such items or are willing to work to get such items. Once we are on this semi-level playing field, we can focus on technique. Good items (or at least decent ones) are critical but you can't simply spend your way to winning with this dueler. They are necessary but NOT sufficient to do well.

This guide assumes you have familiarity with assassins. If you have never played a ww sin before or a kicker or at least a trapper, don’t start here. You’ll become frustrated. Play the more common variants first. Get good at kickers, then try WW, and then perhaps some trapping. That will get you the basics for making this build work for you. Note that I’m not posting all the hit recovery, fast cast rate or ias charts as some other guides do. If you’ve never had to look them up before or you don’t know that trapping is tied to ias and mind blast is tied to fast cast rate, then this isn’t the guide you should be looking at.

This guide is built with the philosophy of doing as FEW equipment changes as possible. When I do a public dueling game (or just about any dueling game, for that matter), I want to put on my primary equipment for that game, based on the mix of players, and be able to do well w/o having to run to my stash for new equipment every time I duel someone different. Other than the occasional AR gear switch or T'Gods/Jade Talon switch, I have tried to minimize required changes. Almost all of the people who duel end up doing mostly public games, since there just aren't any big private groups left. In a public game, you can have free-for-alls, teams, and people who just jump you when you are weak after dueling someone else. You also have random traps and hits from people not even trying to hit you. If you are equipped to "duel melee", then some sorc is going to swing through and kill you due to low res, etc. If you are equipped with all your res gear and some pally decides to take a swipe, you want full DR. Having to run to your stash to switch equipment on a per-duel basis is both unrealistic and, in the end, pretty annoying. It's just like people saying they will pre-buff their venom with bramble, 3/3 claws, shadow ammy, etc. After a couple of times it just gets old, fast. For a tourney, if it's allowed, then do it for sure. Otherwise, yuck. I want to be in a dueling game, kill a sorc, pop over and wax that necro that was observing, avoid (or kill) the smiter trying to slap me when I'm almost dead, and then still take out the annoying zon who hit me with a multishot 2 minutes ago while I was dueling the sorc. All without switching anything. I'm not saying you won't do equipment changes. Just that you won't do them all that often.

This build is not cheap. Further, it is complex to play and hard to master, especially with timing of attacks and hotkey use. I will provide cheap(er) alternatives to expensive equipment whenever possible, but the use of high level rune words, certain equipment, and decent charms is a must. There is no way around it. You also won't “own" a week after you make your assassin. I've played this build, or a variation on it, over two ladders now (both on and off the ladder), always improving it. If you aren't willing to put in the time practicing and getting better, and losing in the beginning, you'll quit in frustration. I’ve even quit myself a few times.

Finally, this is a major twitch build. It requires good reflexes and decent connection. If you lack either, you will probably have trouble making it work for you.

BUILD GOALS (what we MUST accomplish)

1. 7/3 kick speed with either 3 or 4 kicks (after battle command from CTA)
2. Final breakpoint whirlwind speed of 4 frames with all claws
3. 9 frame trap laying speed
4. 65 fast-cast breakpoint for teleport and mind blast (except when wearing some res/absorb equipment)
5. High open wounds when need demands (achieved through fury claw)
6. Massive venom damage (lvl 40 or higher), within constraints of equipment
7. Largely a vitality build, to the extent possible (i.e. do NOT pump dex or str for AR or damage)
8. 60% claw block (with battle command active)
9. Max resistance in hell BEFORE the Anya quest (i.e. 75 res all in hell not including Anya)
10. 86 FHR BP when needed w/o loss of other important stats (You don’t always need 86 FHR, but you need to always be able to get it)
11. 50% physical damage reduction at all times (with battle command active)
12. Enough mana to allow fairly continuous teleport, trapping, mind blasting, and whirlwinding
13. Enough attack rating to hit well (see below)

These goals help us to define equipment as well as skill and stat point distribution.

NOTE ON DAMAGE:
With the set-up I provide, your goal should be lvl 40+ venom. This is critical. I have level 48 to 50 venom.
Your kick damage does not show the venom addition. Your listed screen damage will be in the 950 to 1K kick range on the max damage end. This number doesn’t matter. Everyone ends up with roughly the same number.

Your WW damage (and your kick damage) is simply a combo of your physical damage, venom, magic damage, and any other sources. Again, everyone is roughly the same here. Don’t try to design around small increments in kick or WW physical damage. Focus on the goals above. The damage will sort itself out and is focused on your venom damage.

Also, crushing blow is overrated. Don’t go out of your way to get it. In fact, I play with ZERO crushing blow. If you have some off-the-wall piece of equipment that has it, fine. But NEVER design around trying to get it. The numbers on CB, when you really break it down, don’t add up to whatever it may cost you. Crushing blow is critical for PvM. Feel free to have CB equipment for leveling. Just don’t think you have to use it for PvP, no matter what some critics may claim.

NOTE ON ATTACK RATING (see also equipment section below):
You want your WW attack rating in the 5000+ range and your kick attack rating somewhere over 5K as well. This allows you to hit all but high defense characters. Via good whirl-away you can also hit many high defense characters. When you run, the to-hit equation is ignored, so a 5K AR attack behaves like smite. This means those pallys with 30K defense might as well have have ZERO when they are running/charging for all the good it does them. This allows a lower AR character to actually hit, especially with whirlwind.

5K AR doesn’t always cut it however. Normally, against high def pallys and the occasional barb, I will wear my fools claw. This should get you in the 10K to 11K range (give or take). This is enough to hit non-defense specialists.

Fools claw plus angelics gets you in the 19K to 20K or better range. Combined with whirl-away, this allows you to hit any melee out there. Note, if you wear angelics you have greatly limited mobility (due to slower teleport cast rate). Usually you should only do this if you can get 1 vs. 1 duels w/o interference or if everyone you are dueling is primarily melee. Your resistance is also going to be low. A lot of people in pubbies will just pounce you when you are set to specifically duel someone else with constraining equipment changes.

Don’t ever pump dex in order to pump AR. I’ve tried it before. It really is of minimal help and costs you a load of life. You should end up with 115 dex (runic talon requirement), barring minor equipment variations like dex mods on rings, claws, etc.

Don’t stress about AR. I used to really worry about it. You don’t have to. Get it in the 5K range, keep some AR gear for certain match-ups, and forget about it. You won’t be able to PvM very much, but then this isn’t a PvM character.

NOTE ON CLAW BLOCK
Claw block does not check when you run; no to-hit check and no blocking. This is a fact. All attacks against you are auto-hit if they have proximity. Some people have trouble believing it, many people aren’t aware of it. But it’s true. Claw block is at full value when you teleport and when you attack and when you have WW active.

NOTE ON MANA
My assassin has anywhere from 775 to 830 mana, depending on my set-up and final character level. This is plenty for 98% of my duels. Most people, however, will not have the mana levels I get.

I recommend using mana pots. This recommendation will annoy some people, people who feel that there is an imaginary set of rules binding all people who do PvP. People will claim that using mana pots is “BM”. There is no such thing as “BM”. Be polite. Try to have fun duels. This means for both you and the person dueling you. That’s all there is to “mannered” dueling.

If you play in a league, and the league bans mana pots, then don’t use them. I don’t advocate breaking any rules or cheating in any way. However, 99% of the dueling in 1.10 occurs in pubs now. And in pubs, almost everyone uses mana pots. Indeed, certain builds like wind druids REQUIRE mana pots. I assume that everyone uses them. It just makes things easier.

In any event, you need to get your mana in the 600+ range to really have any shot at beating good casters.

NOTE: I do NOT advocate using life pots or rejuvs. Even when people use them against me my personal policy is not to use them. About the only universal rules that people SORT of agree on are with respect to life potting, NKing and guarding. Even these rules aren’t universal, as there are plenty of clans that play “BM” among themselves because they seem to enjoy it. I’m not here to judge anyone. My personal policy is not to life pot or rejuv.

I carry mana pots but I rarely have to use them. My build does NOT require mana pots. But you had better be prepared to shell out for charms if you don’t want to use them.

>>>>>>I say again: This build does NOT require mana pots.

NOTE ON MERCS
I never use mercs so I have no advice here. My personal opinion is that people who use mercs in PvP often lack the skill to duel well without them (though not always). They are expensive to resurrect, you eventually can’t depend on them (when you run out of cash to res), meaning you have to switch tactics and they are a crutch, promoting sloppy technique. If you want one, then go for it. I won’t recommend it for any PvP, however. You have one of the best mercs in the game, your recastable shadow master. Use it.

SKILLS

The skill set pretty well establishes itself:

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Dragon Talon – enough points to get talon to level 17 or 23 with equipment and battle command from CTA

Claw Mastery – 20

Venom – 20

Mind blast – 20

Fade – enough points to get 50% physical damage reduction with equipment and battle command (1 pt. fade = 1% physical damage reduction – Don’t forget to cast fade from your CTA/spirit/lidless switch to get 3 extra levels. The DR bonus from fade is not limited to hard points spent. Plus skill items also count to this bonus.)

Weapon block – enough to get 60% block with equipment and battle command (don’t waste points trying to get higher than 60% block)

Shadow Master – 1

Dragon Flight – 1 (with remainder of points going here after other skills are set)

Wake of Fire – 1

Lightning Sentry – 1

Blade Shield – 1 (Optional. Do everything in your power to get this as a mod on your chaos claw, the claw you will wear most often.)
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In order to get all these skills, you will have to be in the low to mid 90’s for character level.

Pump mind blast last when leveling, if you aren’t power leveling to 90+ in a couple days. I’ve always leveled over a weekend and so pretty much hit 90 a couple of days after I start, meaning all my skills are largely in place right away. Prepare to get rushed and to leech. You can’t equip much of anything until high levels (i.e. when your anni is available, etc.).

I say to drop the remaining points in dragon flight due to its critical importance against fast sorcs. This is discussed below in more detail, but against really good sorcs, you will largely be teleporting to get on their screen and then using DF to get on top of them with minion stack, deliver OW, and hopefully pause them for a brief instant to initiate a quick kick sequence. I advise to NOT drop extra points in SM. The master is a one point wonder. A few extra points don’t give it any major life boost and you will end up recasting her all the time anyway. I think it’s better to squeeze another 1K or so AR and extra damage out of DF. But do as you like in this regard.

NOTE: You MUST get to character level 90 to get the best OW breakpoint. Also, the higher your level, the better you hit and the harder you are to be hit. Leveling to 94 or 95 is very much worth it if you know your build is finalized.

Added note: Rumor has it that the OW break may be lower than 90. This isn't confirmed so I'm sticking with 90.

EQUIPMENT

Introduction to equipment section
There is a reason I started this guide with a list of Desired Goals. This allows people to directly break from any item I recommend below. As long as you meet the goals and breaks I have listed, then you're set. Personally, I would prefer to not list ANY gear, other than duel specific gear changes; allowing people to create their own combos. As long as you can hit the marks, then great. My focus with this guide is the strategy. I feel that even with (slightly) substandard gear, a good dueler, using the strats and tactics I've outlined below, can have good success. So many guides have like 5 pages on equipment and skills and such. I tried to do the opposite.

The equipment I list below is basically what I use. So if you are trying to copy my build point for point, here you go.

Helm: Crown of Ages – Yes, it can be expensive, but if you get a 1 socket with mediocre DR and res, you can get by. You need this helm for the combo of FHR, res, damage reduction, and (potentially) 2 sockets. You need to upgrade this to as close to perfect as you can afford. You spend a lot of stat points to be able to wear this. Don’t let them go to waste.

Socketing: For the poor, use a pair of 15 ias jewels with the best res mod you can swing. For the more well-off, use a pair of 15 ias/15 res all jewels.

Armor: Enigma – This is the only possible armor for this build. Get the highest defense you can, while still being able to equip it w/o spending ANY strength points just for the enigma itself.

NOTE: with 20 str base, 20 str from the anni, 20 str from the hellfire and 40 strength (for example) invested to get to the point where you can wear your CoA, you have 100 strength to play with for choosing your enigma armor. Don’t pick a heavy armor that slows your movement. These numbers are examples only. Do your OWN calculations!!

Belt: Arachnid mesh – Again, this is the only possible primary belt for this build. You will occasionally switch it for T’gods, OW belt, etc. See below.

Boots: Shadow Dancers (get the best stats you can initially so you can minimize later rebuilds)

Rings:
Ring 1 – Raven frost (the dex is built in, you can’t take it off)
Ring 2 – Fast cast ring with mana, attack rating, resist all. Stats like str are pointless. You need to be able to take the ring off and switch it for a wisp, angelic, etc. Dex can be OK as a substitute for AR, but just don’t build it into your assassin.

Ammy:
Fast cast ammy with 15 to 20 fast cast. Look for assassin skills and resist all as your two primary mods after the FCR. Stats, again, don’t help much since you cannot build them in. Mana is good. AR boost is good. Etc.

IF you decide to use a fools claw ONLY, and never to use angelics at all, then you can build your ammy in. In this case, try to find an ammy with high strength and/or dex boost. Use this ultimately to boost your life via attribute point savings.

Gloves: Trangs gloves

Charms:
9x shadow skill GCs with life
1x assassin hellfire
1x anni
10x life/mana sc

Claws (I keep one of each):
1. Chaos Runic Talon (Get venom and mind blast mods first, then go for dragon flight or bladeshield)
2. Fury Runic Talon (Get venom and mind blast mods first, then go for dragon flight or bladeshield)
3. Jade Talon with 15 ias jewel (You need the 15 ias jewel to get the 4 frame break on ww with the Jade. Try to get 15 ias/15 res all or 15 ias/30 light res for the jewel)
4. Fools mod rare fast claw. Generally socket with UM or IAS depending on whether you need to get the last WW breakpoint or open wounds.

Note on the fools mod claw: Knockback is REALLY nice to have against melee pallys. Seriously try to get a fools mod claw with a KB auto-mod. I know that is very hard. If you can’t get this, then try a NEF in the claw and see what you think. You can always unsocket it if you don’t see a benefit. My personal view is that KB is absolutely critical.

NOTE: Do NOT get claws with skills you can’t do without, like weapon block. If you have weapon block on your fury and you designed around those WB points, and you change the fury for a fools mod claw that doesn’t have equal WB, you will lose a claw block cut-off break. Always go for Venom first, then mind blast. After that I prefer one claw with as much to dragon flight as possible and one claw with a point or two in blade shield.

So...
Primary skills on claws: venom number 1, mind blast number 2
Secondary skills on claws: blade shield and dragon flight, in whatever order you like. I prefer the blade shield on my chaos, since I almost always wear my chaos.

On Switch:
CTA and spirit (on ladder) or lidless wall.
You must have a CTA. This is so critical I can’t emphasize it enough. You need the life AND the mana boost it provides.

ALTERNATE EQUIPMENT SET-UP:
Helm: +3 shadow circlet with 20 fast cast and 2 open sockets (socket with 15 ias/15 res all jewels)
Ammy: 30 res maras.
This allows you to get up to lvl 50 field-castable venom and mindblast
You will have to pump points into fade to make up the DR.
You will likely need to pick up resistance via some 5% res all scs with life (not many though)
You need to make up some FHR via switchout on 2 GCs plus a SC.
Note you save strength from the CoA. Don’t build around the stats on the mara unless you don’t plan on ever using angelics. If you think a fool’s claw is enough, then use the 5 str and 5 dex on the maras to get more life.

This was my final set-up on my last assassin. I moved away from the CoA/caster ammy at the end. Both versions are very good. I just liked having the extra shadow skills. Also, the helm wasn’t as hard to get as it would first seem. This alternate set-up is easier to put together than a nearly perfect CoA + nearly perfect caster ammy.

I don’t claim one is better than the other. Make up your OWN mind as to which you prefer, if you prefer either.

Also in Stash:
2x shadow skill w/FHR
1x fhr sc with mana or attack rating

Angelic ring and ammy
Dwarf star ring
20 absorb Wisp ring (or the best absorb you can swing)
T’Gods belt
Demonlimb
9% or 10% OW belt with big life mod and other good stats (resistance, etc.)

Cold resistance over-stacking gear (see below) for auto-aiming blizzard sorcs (optional)

NOTES ON ARMOR CHOICE
Question: Why do I use enigma and not bramble or fortitude?
Short answer: Because that’s the build.
Longer Answer: There is no one you can kill with bramble or fortitude that you can't kill with enigma. But there are many people you CAN kill with enigma and fast cast that you CANNOT kill without it.
Also, fortitude is a poor armor generally for ww-sins. If you want a high physical damage whirlwind, make a barb.

This build is all about mobility. Mobility is critical to beating any casters that are halfway decent. Without good mobility they will always have a huge advantage over you. Mobility also helps greatly against several melee types.

Last, when you run, your claw block drops to zero. Therefore, by moving via teleport, you maintain max block at all times. It’s hard to come up with a better reason for using enigma than that.

GENERAL NOTES ON EQUIPMENT
I consider the CoA/Dancer combo to be superior to most 1.08 Valk combos. People are free to disagree.

In any event, my set-up is universal. It can be played on or off-ladder. A Valk build does not allow this.

I am also not recommending any specific pre-1.10 rares. A given (duped) rare on USWest non-ladder, for example, is not available anywhere else, making the guide non-universal if I would recommend it.

I am sure that there are certain insanely good rares and/or crafted items (legit or otherwise) that may beat the gear I am recommending. I say go find that great and hard-to-find stuff and use it. This is why I provide general goals. Feel free to customize as much as you like.

ANYA BUG
The resistance provided by the Anya quest in act 5 will go away if you die in a game and don’t leave the game and return. Since leaving and returning after every death is annoying and often means you won’t be able to get back in the game, make sure you have max res in hell plus a little stack for dealing with facet lower resist without Anya. I say again, do NOT include the Anya resistance into any of your calculations.

ATTRIBUTE POINTS
You will have just enough strength to wear the CoA. WAIT until the highest possible level to put the last points into strength. Your enigma will keep giving you str as you level up. I waited until I was level 92 on my most recent build before I had the str to wear it. If I rebuild, I would try to leech my way to as high as lvl 94 before I could equip. Just wear a T’Gods in the meantime for a strength boost. This will allow you to equip everything without resorting to strength charms and help you to survive in Baal runs.
You will have 115 dexterity with items. Enough for the runic talons. Be careful to equip all strength items first, i.e. shadow dancers, in order to get the dex boost. Everything else goes to vitality.

My assassin sports anywhere from 3600 life to 4000 life, depending on which equipment I am wearing. My typical life is about 3800 in standard gear, 4K in melee only gear.

Don’t pump dex for attack rating.

NOTES ON POISON DAMAGE
Poison (i.e. venom in our case) has several features that make it very desirable for our assassin.

First: the double application bug/feature
When +% skill mods are applied, they act once when venom is cast, and then again when it is applied.

Example
Level 45 venom = 1260 average damage over .4 seconds
When cast with trangs gloves, this becomes: 1260 x 1.25 = 1575 over .4 sec.
When you attack someone, the trangs bonus acts AGAIN on this new total yielding: 1968 over .4 sec.
So the bonus actually acts on itself. Nice for us.

Second: The hidden hell PLR penalty
There is a -100% poison length reduction penalty in hell. I am NOT talking about the -100% to your resistance! That is a different penalty. I assume dueling is happening in hell. All poison sources act on you at their full strength for twice the listed period when playing in hell.

Going back to our example:
1968 venom damage over .4 seconds becomes 3937 over .8 seconds.

That is just a LOT of damage over .8 seconds folks. After the PvP penalty, it's 656 real PvP damage over .8 seconds (basically per application). Combine this with your physical damage, magic damage from chaos, and open wounds, and it's really nice damage. When you kick, you basically have your target continuously poisoned at the rate of 820 pvp poison damage per second (not considering resistance damage reduction).

Further, this poison damage (as well as your OW and magic damage) goes through bone armor, energy shield and cyclone armor directly. Very few people care too much about poison. There aren’t many people who use it in mass quantities anymore except poison jav zons and poison nova necs. Most people figure they will pop an antidote or run to town if heavily poisoned. Therefore, it is the most commonly neglected resistance. Your poison acts so fast that many people don’t even realize the extent of the poison damage they are taking.

I don't pre-buff poison. Some people do. If you want to keep +3 shadow/+3 venom claws with 2 psn facets each, a +3 shadow helm with 2 facets, +3 shadow ammy, and 2 SOJs, go for it. I think it's a huge pain. Try to get strength on the ammy and helm. I had an ammy with +3 shadow and 29 str last ladder and a helm with 20 str or thereabouts so I could equip bramble for pre-buff while still keeping my str investment intact from the enigma. And after all that effort to get all that stuff, I'll bet I pre-buffed maybe 3 times over the course of the season. You can kill just fine w/o pre-buffing. Once I go out, I don’t like to come back to town except for healing after a duel or to put on AR equipment for melee or a jade for stacked res. If you pre-buff, you also have to carefully watch your durations, as you can’t just recast venom out in the field every time you recast BO. You have to wait until you return to town. Personally, I like to cast venom and fade every time I cast battle orders. This way there is no fear of it running out.

Finally, don’t ever use poison damage charms as venom renders them useless.

NOTES ON SPEED
For two runic talons 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

The only IAS that matters here is that which is on your primary claw and your equipment NOT INCLUDING your off-hand claw. Make sure you equip your primary claw FIRST. Claw equipping order matters! A lot!!

You can see why you need 30 ias in your CoA.
NOTE: Chaos runic plus the 30 IAS in your CoA 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. This is why I go a runic fury with my jade talon for most pure caster battles (with high elemental damage) where I know I will kick primarily. 95% of the time, 8/3 will still get you a win. But there is that other 5% when your opponent is really good and you will need that frame. In those cases, go either chaos + fury (if you can live w/o the jade talon res boost) or go fury + jade (if you don’t need ww at all). If you want to be able to ww against elemental casters, then go chaos/jade and don’t worry about the frame slower initial kick.

Play around with claw combos and find what works for you.

NOTE: Weapon switching for casting battle orders will reset your primary. If you are toying with IAS and claw positions, especially after reading the sources I provide below, keep in mind the safest bet is to equip the claw with IAS on the glove side. (Thanks to Ilkori for this advice)

All combos I list reach the 4 frame WW breakpoint. I encourage you to investigate this in more detail if you want to understand the mechanics. I’m not posting the information here.

Some people claim that WW speed is fixed for all claws. This is NOT entirely true. For pure ww-sins, always using chaos and fury only, there is enough ias on the claws to hit the fastest WW breakpoint for whatever claw type you use. However, if you wear a jade talon offhand, which has no inherent ias, you WILL miss the last breakpoint with that claw (you need a 15 ias jewel to make it up). Also, if you use a fool’s mod claw for the AR bonus and that claw lacks ias, it may miss the breakpoint depending on what type of claw it is.

Check out this link for far more information:
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=229326

Also check out:
http://e.domaindlx.com/JRichard/D2/aas22/

Finally:
The diabloii.net barbarian forums have several people who have worked out all of the details for ww mechanics for both barbs and assassins.

These sources will give more detail than most people could ever want. The WW info in the second link is somewhat out of date, however, and you should consult other sources.

CHANCE TO CAST (CtC) AND STUN WITH DRAGON TALON
With chaos on your primary hand and the new hellfire charm’s 25% CtC, you will set off a literal fireworks display of orb, charged bolt and hellfire when you kick vs. opponents with 10K defense and below (assuming you haven’t boosted your own AR). These CtC effects will aid you in stunning your opponents as long as you keep mind blast swirlies on them at all times. Combined with wake of fire or lighting sentry and talon itself, you should be a stunning machine.

GENERAL STRATEGY AND TECHNIQUE GUIDE

This mini-guide section isn’t comprehensive. It isn’t a class-by-class strategy breakdown. The class-by-class is later in the guide. This is meant to be a GENERAL record of several techniques that work, as well as ideas I’ve been working on for a long time with my assassin.

These points are somewhat random and are not meant to be complete. Words are no substitute for lots and LOTS of practice.

1. Never run, always teleport
Claw block is your best friend. It blocks almost every attack in the game, including fireball, bonespirit, bone spear, orb, etc. HOWEVER, claw block drops to ZERO when you run or walk (but stays at max value when whirlwinding). Some people will claim this is not true. They are wrong. It has been extensively tested. Over and over and over. If you teleport, your block is always at max. Run, and it’s zero. Only run when you have to. Also, you sometimes have to run to escape trap lock.

2. Play to the south
Try to keep your opponent north of you. You have more screen to work with. More visible area is more tactical advantage.

3. Play the diagonals
This ties into #2. Keep your opponent (as much as you can) to the northern diagonals. This further increases your advantage. You will notice good trappers, for example, often trying to get screen advantage for trap laying this way.

Do it right, especially trapping the upper diagonals, and you will be accused of scrolling or auto-aiming your traps quite often.

4. Hotkeys
Hotkeys are EVERYTHING. I am not going overboard. People who have their skills all along the f# buttons are not playing correctly at all. Your hotkeys should be toggled between just as fast as a professional typist hits their keys. In order for this to be the case, your hotkeys must be organized close together and logically. If you do this right, you will be accused of cheating. I can move between skills so fast it seems continuous to the people I duel. People regularly claim I’m cheating, saying that I can’t cast mind blast simultaneous to using ww, for example. In reality, it isn’t simultaneous, it’s just THAT FAST.

This is my set-up. I’m right-handed and toggle the hotkeys with my left-hand.

Primary hotkeys:
S – mindblast
D – wake of fire/lightning sentry
W – teleport
F – dragonflight
Q – shadow master
A – whirlwind

Secondary hotkeys:
R – cloak
Z – battle command
X – battle orders
C – venom
V – fade
B – blade shield
F4 – BoS (so I don’t screw up and undo fade, BoS is moved out of the way)

Play with middle finger on the “S” button, index finger on the “D” button. The index finger can toggle “F” for flight, the middle finger can toggle “W” for tele.

With this set-up I can instantly go from MB to wake to tele to flight or tele to WW with basically zero delay.

All hotkeys are on the right mouse button. Dragon Talon is permanently on the left-click mouse button.

5. Teleport replacing DF when target goes OFF-SCREEN
In 1.09 dragon flight extended for over 2 screens away with name-lock. Now Blizzard, in their wisdom, has taken away this huge advantage. But with teleport from enigma we can get it back. The problem is that now you can overshoot. The key is to quickly toggle tele and back to MB (or wake or WW). You want one tele right on top of your target, when kicking, for example (which also gets you critical minion stack, discussed below).

5.5. DF vs. Tele and vice versa
DF only when your target is within half to three quarters of a screen. Use tele to get close and THEN initiated dragon flight. Flight is messed up with 1.10. It’s buggy, misfires and is heavily interruptible. It can’t be depended on once your opponent is near the edges of your screen. This is why tele is absolutely critical for duels vs. fast teleporting casters. It sets up your dragon flight.

DF is very good at delivering open wounds to a variety of targets. It is also very good with the previously discussed minion stacking. DF is your close-range super accurate teleport. I actually use DF much more than I did in the past (since I'm getting accustomed to its bugs), but it is not viable without teleport as an on-screen closer.

They will accuse you of auto-aiming your teleport with this one, since your flight really becomes PART of your teleport sequence.

6. Mindblast name-lock to hotkey flash teleport/WW
Get mindblast name-lock, while still pressing the right mouse button, hotkey teleport. An instant after the teleport animation begins, hotkey WW. You will exit on top of your opponent doing whirlwind. This is the most useful single attack you have against running targets or targets too dangerous for kicking or targets who are off your screen. This is very hard to time right. Often you toggle WW too fast and end up canceling your teleport and doing a WW in place.

You have to learn to instantly re-center the cursor as the teleport ends in order to do small, triangular whirls. It is easy to end up whirling long using this technique. Long whirls usually get you killed. This skill takes lots and lots of practice. Go out on the blood moor, get a potion (or whatever is useful) and drop it. Move so the potion is at the edge of your screen. Lock it, MB it, then tele/WW on top of it with tight triangles. Drop a pair of potions and just go back and forth. Do that for 30 minutes every night for a few weeks and you WILL get better.

You can hit targets 2 or more screens away with this tactic.

7. Minion stacking
Minion stacking with your shadow master is a lifesaver. It makes you semi-immune to many ranged attacks. Always teleport with your shadow out. If your shadow dies, get in the habit of ALWAYS recasting (if safe to do so). Make sure you have your shadow out for when you dragon flight ON TOP OF YOUR TARGET. You can get minion stack in both cases (DF and teleport), taking significant hits away from you. If you are chasing a hard hitting opponent like a bone necro and your master dies, don’t be afraid to break off the chase to recast.

8. WoF/MB vs. LS/MB
Use wake of fire combined with mindblast to stunlock your target. Wake + MB absolutely dominated in 1.09 but 1.10 brought with it a .16 second nextdelay nerf. As a result, it’s easier to escape now than in 1.09.

Characters with good FHR, lots of life, and skill can escape trap-MB lock. Slippery targets may require different techniques, such as heavier DF and OW dependence and the previously discussed name-lock tele skills.

Against melee generally use LS + MB for better stunning. Melee will tend to desync out of wake, so the longer range auto-target LS is better. Use wake exclusively against java zons, however, to trigger endless evade for an easy kill.

9. Shadow master mind blast technique and MB swirly duration
This is a key technique. The SM/MB technique will allow you to mind blast opponents 2+ screens away. The SM is not constrained by the same limits as you are with having to get name-lock for MB. My SM constantly mind blasts opponents 2 to 3 screens away. It has been the observation of both myself and others that when you max out MB, she seems to mind blast a LOT. My shadow master mind blasts everything in range all the time, so much so that I can’t use her on Baal runs when I’m leveling. She just converts everything. When you tele, you constrain her to not being able to do much of anything but MB and occasionally dragon flight.

Update: I was recently informed by Ilkori at d2.net that some of the code divers and mechanics at the Amazon Basin have confirmed the link between skill point investment and casting frequency with the shadow master AI.

Your master will mind blast FOR YOU much of the time (though not all) while you tele, though she only has to do it occasionally due to the long MB swirlie duration. This allows you to drop traps to trip up and lock up your target and/or get in good position for a strategic dragon flight. It’s really incredible how it all comes together.

High level mind blast also impacts the length of time the swirlies remain over the target's head. You want this duration maximized to improve stun chances.

NOTE: This is NOT meant to free you from MBing. It only reduces the load. I still mind blast a great deal on my own, independent of the shadow’s actions.

>>>You will CONSTANTLY be accused of auto-aiming your mind blast.

10. Maintaining stunlock and number of kicks
Once you have a target locked, the most likely way to lose that lock is while kicking (or whirlwinding). Therefore it is key to trap and MB between kick sequences or whirlwinds unless you are in a life-or-death tanking situation. To this end, there is a strong argument for limiting your number of kicks to 3. The easy reason is that it allows you to trap more often. But there is also a mechanical reason that is not widely recognized.

There is a misfire that occurs when you have longer kick sequences. This misfire makes proper and continuous trapping more difficult than it should be when executing kick sequences. The effect from this misfire is two-fold. You cast wake but you are still in your kick sequence and wake never fires. That’s fairly obvious. The exact beginning and end of your kick sequence is often a fraction of a second off from what you see on your screen due to slight lag, especially with many traps firing. Further, there is a more subtle effect. The failed cast, or perhaps the cast during the kick action, seems to lead to a slight, barely noticeable, pause from when the kicks end to when you can actually lay down a trap.

Many pure kickers have a problem with not having 5 kicks and max talon. It is, however, a mistake to do so. And I don’t say this just because you need the skill points elsewhere, which you do. You are NOT as effective if you have long kick sequences.

4 kicks is also reasonable. I prefer 3 kicks, however. Go no more than 4 kicks in any event.

11. Spiral in to your target
Circle your target and spiral in to them. This allows your shadow master to MB and confuses your target. Trap while closing in. This is obviously more applicable to targets standing still, spamming an attack, etc. Fast teleporters often won't allow any type of spiral attack to develop.

12. Always have traps out
Self-explanatory. More traps equal a higher probability of a mind blasted target hitting one and getting tripped up. This means you drop traps as you teleport, even if you don’t have your opponent near you.

13. Keep your eyes open
When your target hits a trap, and gets tripped up, you have only a second or two to get to them and reinforce the stunlock with more traps, an extra MB and attack. If they get caught and you don't see it, you missed an opportunity (if nothing else) to deliver OW. More likely you missed a chance to end the duel and kill them.

14. Know when NOT to chase
Don’t chase defensive bone necs or orb sorcs. They WILL wear you down. If you are SURE you can get them, then give chase. Otherwise, make them come to you. These runners are more likely faster than you and hit harder than you if it’s a direct hit. Be VERY careful about chasing defensive blizzard sorcs who drop blizzard in your path and always run away as they will certainly kill you if you make a mistake.

15. Know when NOT to tank. Know when to break off the attack
If I die to a druid and, to a lesser extent to a bone nec, it’s often because I made a bad decision to tank. Always be ready to run and regroup. A druid or nec with good FHR can sometimes out-tank you if their life is high enough. Your best tanking occurs when you have the 86 FHR mark achieved.

16. Hit and run open wounds
Know when to play defensively. This doesn’t mean you run away after hitting and inflicting open wounds, it means you hit and stay close, not getting hit yourself. Basically, you chase but don’t engage, looking for an opportunity to inflict open wounds via DF or a quick kick sequence. Make them THINK you are after them. MB and drop traps, but only close for kicks and/or get in a good DF when necessary or when a good opportunity presents itself, i.e. when OW has run its course. Obviously this is for VERY VERY hard duels and especially for those cases where you are very low on life.

17. Use your minimap. Anticipate their minimap.
If they see you on their minimap, they know where you are and where you are coming from. If you are going to come at them, exit their minimap and come at them from a different angle. This minimizes spammed bonespirit and the like. Also, watch out for necro IBS.

Make SURE your minimap is set to FULL SCREEN and is always up! Do not use the smaller map up at the corner of your screen. You want your minimap marker to lie under your character. Otherwise you can’t “see” both displays simultaneously. You want to be able to go from display to mini and back just by changing eye focus, not by looking at a different part of your screen.

18. Play fast and aggressive
It's better to be all over your target and make them play defensively than to be defensive yourself and allow them to get the initiative. FAST FAST FAST!! You need to be all over them from start to finish except in special cases like hyper-defensive teeth spamming necros, high defense hammer pallys, hyper-defensive orb sorcs, etc. For these guys, you need to allow them to come to you and to make a mistake.

19. Watch out for the shadow master DF cast “bug”
When you cast SM, the skill is on a timer. You can’t cast it again for several seconds. This timer also starts on dragon flight when you cast SM, meaning you can’t flight EITHER until your SM timer runs out. This has screwed me a few times in the past when I really needed to DF and the skill was red because the SM timer hadn’t expired. This is an easy problem to have happen as you often recast your SM on the run to keep minion stack up so be aware of it.

20. Let the SM finish off 1 life opponents if you are also low on life
You will often be in dueling situations where your opponent has just 1 life, usually due to you open wounds. If you are also low in life and they hit hard, then make sure your shadow master is out and just tele in their vicinity. The master will mindblast them or DF them for the kill, saving you from having to get dangerously close. I’ve actually used this a lot.

21. Public dueling common sense (if you do pub dueling)
Get clear of the town entrance. You need room to move and maneuver. Pick your fights, don’t hostile everyone in the room. You don’t do well when people team you. Try to keep your duels 1 vs. 1 unless you know you can handle multiples.

22. Lag hurts you more than most
Out of all the character types I’ve played, lag seems to hurt fast-cast ww-sins and kick-sins more than most others. You require a bit more time to kill and you need a lot of accuracy in movement. When in ww, you are vulnerable to lag, esp. if you come out and just stand there for a second or if you ww “in-place” due to getting charged simultaneous to initiating ww.

23. You aren’t very good on a team (most of the time)
It’s just a fact. You shine in 1 vs. 1 dueling. You simply take too long to kill to be a good team dueler. You can help your team by stunning, but you are not at your best. Diablo 2 team dueling is all about massive damage really fast. It’s in the 1 vs. 1 stuff that good movement and the like come into play. If you are on a team, focus on the opposing casters first along with stunlock support.

24. Terrain
Use the terrain. Terrain is very important and rarely exploited. When dueling barbs, stay in the bogs. This means they have to get around obstacles. They can’t easily desync their WW by whirling long. It also protects you from straight-line charge attacks by pallies if you are pounding them with mind blast. Be careful though. If a smiter gets you against a bog and starts smiting, you are dead. Chargers can also pin you against terrain if they get a good knockback sequence. Likewise, it can really mess up your whirlwinds and trip you up.

25. Personalized Techniques and Individuals vs. "Classes"
Don't confuse "individuals" for classes. What I mean is this; you may do very well generally against trappers, for example, but every now and then, a trapper comes along who just doesn't fit the existing molds. You will probably lose to this person initially, even over several duels or sessions. I find, when someone has an original playing style and they are good, I have to duel them on multiple occasions in order to get a feel for the best techniques to use against them. In time, you don't lose so much, and the edge goes to you and your build. What works against 95% of the trappers out there, including the good ones, may not work against this guy. Don't think that suddenly you aren't so good against trappers (or whoever it may be). Use this new, difficult duel to generally get better and improve your technique. I would rather duel someone who tends to beat me than someone I always beat. If I'm getting slapped around, it means I have to be creative and figure out new tactics.

>>>Don’t just fall in the trap of messing with your equipment just because you lose a few times. Try to win with better playing style, not changing around items.

26. Occasionally play WITHOUT using teleport
Duel some without using teleport at all. This is good practice for those times when you run out of mana. It also forces you to learn to trap 1.09 style, which is good technique. There are certain duels against fast, defensive casters where you want to do the stationary trap field technique or the walking trap field technique that was common in 1.09. This also helps you get a feel for the limits of dragon flight.

27. Learn to walk your traps
This is classic 1.09 trapper dueling style (see #3). Good 1.09 trappers learned to herd their opponents by always trapping toward them, preferably at the corners of their screen. Don’t get in the 1.10 habit of hiding in your trap field and letting people get the initiative on you. Defensive trappers are the kind of trapper that loses to me because I herd THEM. Offensive trappers are all over you, either by walking their traps toward you or teleporting at you and trapping like mad. Walking your traps allows you to play defensively, but with an offensive element. This is critical when you are dueling other trappers. Obviously, this isn’t applicable to anyone teleporting like a crazy person, in which case you simply have a stationary trap field (assuming defensive play on your part). Or you try to jump them when they hit a trap-free area before they can get their full trap field down.

28. CRITICAL TECHNIQUE: Get a 200 FCR Sorc to tele around you to practice your MB name-lock skills
This is very important. You must develop your name-lock-obtaining skill for MB. You often only get one or two chances to get it in some duels.

Get someone with a 200 fast cast rate sorc and:
1. Have them tele around you with you standing still. Try to get name-lock with MB.
2. Chase them, trying to get name-lock. Have them play defensively, spamming some low damage fireballs occasionally or something. They shouldn’t just run away in straight line all the time, as this isn’t a true representation of what would happen in a duel.
3. Try doing this with trapping as well, especially with you standing still and using a stationary trap field. I.e., try to catch them with traps.
4. Try this with DF only. DF is also a name-lock skill. Have the fast sorc play defensively and try to get in repeated DF hits by teleporting onto their screen and locking them.
5. Don’t use your SM for ANY of this.

29. Fake them out with unsummon
I’ve only messed with this technique but it has worked (sort of) the few times I’ve used it. After a while, the people you duel will expect you to follow up mind blast name-lock with a whirlwind and will take defensive measures whenever they are locked. You can also get name-lock with your unsummon skill. This way, they don’t head for the hills the second you pound them with MB, either taking them out of range of your teleport or making accurate WW harder. Unsummon is sort of a “stealth” hotkey tele/WW flash. Again, I haven’t used this much. It felt awkward and unfamiliar the first few times I tried it. But that’s not to say it wouldn’t improve with time or that other people wouldn’t be able to make good use of it. So I’ll post it here and people can use or not use it as they choose.

GENERAL MATCH-UP NOTES

When you duel, kicks are better vs. some, ww is better vs. others. Obviously, I made a hybrid so there must be a reason.

Kicks are more accurate than WW and have better hit recovery inducing potential in that they are, on average, more frequent. In this I mean that you have a consistent, basically non-stop, sequence of attacks. WW has two swings every 4 frames to talon’s one kick per 3 frames (on follow-up) but this speed advantage is illusory as perfect non-stop WW checks don’t exist except for very short periods of perfect triangular whirls. Kicks tend to work better against most casters than WW. They allow you to maintain constant pressure on the caster, with no fear of overshoot or any other ww-related problem. It is also easier to re-trap with kicks. WW, however, is almost always superior vs. melee, allows more effective hit and run vs. certain duelers, including some casters like hammer pallies, and gives you defense (via whirl-away) in many situations. It also provides an uninterruptible escape vs. stun situations.

I usually go (rough numbers):

Sorcs - pure kick with high OW (fury, jade)
Wind druids - 80% kick, 20% ww (chaos, fury)
All pallys – 95% ww (chaos + fury or jade dep. on pally type)
Necros - 80% kick with high OW, 20% ww (chaos + fury)
Trappers - 80% ww, 20% kick (chaos + fury)
All other melee besides pallys - pure ww (chaos + fury)
Bow zons - 60% kick, 40% ww (chaos, fury)
CS zons - pure kick (chaos, jade). You may not need the jade at all if you are good as they will rarely hit you.

All these numbers are ballpark and vary depending on the match-up. You may very well alter them. Each person has their own style.

With kicks, I never overshoot. I never get annoying ww lock. I never have to worry about sloppiness. Anyone who is a pure ww who claims they have perfect triangle ww's whenever they want with solid accuracy is lying. Over the course of multiple ww's you will make the occasional sloppy ww (or more than occasional due to slight lag, weird terrain, too much caffeine, etc.). And that occasional bad ww is often the spot where you either die, lose the most life, or your opponent escapes. I have yet to see anyone with perfectly accurate ww's every single time on demand.

WW is a great killing skill. But assassins have a shorter range weapon than barbs. As a result, our triangle ww's have to be TIGHTER. Against really fast teleporters, you're going to come up short.

Over and over I tele onto a good dueler with ww only to have them be gone simply because their cast rate is just a fraction faster. Over and over, good fhr chars can escape from WoF/MB lock because their fhr allows them a window in the wake nextdelay.

The faster the teleporter, and the better their fhr, the more I tend to kick. Unless it's a pally, in which case ww-away either just by ww'ing literally away from them (vs. smiters) or via MB name-lock hotkey flash (vs. hammers, FoH, etc.) is the best route.

Further, no matter how good you are at ww, you WILL overshoot over the course of a duel. And by overshoot, I mean be in ww for just an extra second or two. That's not a lot, but it IS long enough for any blizz sorc (for example) worth anything, to one-hit kill you if they see it happen.

Kicks simply tend to be superior against fast teleporters.

NOTE: WW sins are NOT ww barbs. We can't use the technique of desyncing across the screen with our ww. We move too slowly and our range is too short. What works for barbs does not work for assassins, unless your opponent really has no skill or just lags a lot. You CAN desync, but you just can’t depend on it. I’ve killed people using it, especially bowazons and trappers. I don’t recommend it. When I have desynced it was usually because of a bad ww, where I locked my opponent and didn’t have control of the ww, following them all over the blood moor.

This post was edited by Speederländer on Aug 17 2005 09:49pm

CLASS VARIANT STRATEGY BREAKDOWN

STANDARD BONE NECROS
Every bone nec isn’t created equal. There are sub-categories within this class-variant. These include:
--Standard bone necs who are well-built and have good fhr and fcr
--Bone necs that use minions for minion stack (but who are still primarily bone based)
--Defensive bone necs that spam teeth as they always fall back and away from you.

Any one necro can exhibit all these behaviors at one time or another, depending on circumstances. Let’s consider them one at a time.

Standard bone nec technique
I assume the necro opponent is good. Any good nec is a tough duel, even with the marrow walk synergy bug now fixed. I assume they have the best possible FHR and max fast-cast. Good necros are one of the most enjoyable duels in my opinion. It is often very hard, yet very possible to do well. The necro will hit for massive damage when they connect, whether it’s via spear or bone spirit. Here is a list of tactics for dealing with standard bone necs.

Procedures:

• Use BoS, not fade. This is self-explanatory. Don’t use fade unless the nec has an army. BoS allows you better movement to close small distances, overcomes the problem of clay golem slow, and helps overcome getting decreped. Always use fade if the nec has a hard hitting merc or lots of minions.

• Always tele, never run. Remember, your block is zero when you run. Never run unless it’s for short distances or you are out of mana and have no choice.

• Your OW will go through their bone armor, as will your venom.

• Don’t tank unless you have the 86 FHR break. Most people assume that all you need is high enough life. In your case that’s not true. Your life should be between 3K and 4K. You can’t tank a good nec without good FHR. This FHR allows you to maintain a rapid attack, keeping the nec in recovery animation himself. You attack faster, but this fast attack won’t get you anywhere if you are in recovery. Once the nec gets a sequence of spears going, you will probably die if you are trying to tank (assuming the nec is good and well-built).

• Go for the wake/mb lock to the extent possible. Some necs are very slippery and don’t seem to remain locked up well. Your OW will be key in these cases. Don’t be afraid to DF even when lots of bone spirits are in the air. You will pass them up, get a hit, and then tele away.

• When the nec escapes wake/MB lock, it’s often because they ran out of it, desyncing from the wake. Use DF to get in a parting shot and deliver/reset OW. Usually their goal is to escape and regroup. This is a good time to try tanking if possible. Don’t trap, allow your master to MB if she’s out.

• Don’t approach the necro in a straight line!! They will see you on their minimap and spam bone spirit. By the time you close, you’ll have 20 of them flying around. Get off their minimap and approach from a different direction than they last saw you. Get to them fast but take a parabolic path. If the necro is spamming spirits or spears, spiral in. The nec will be slightly behind you with their shots 90% or more of the time as you move in, IF you are fast and accurate.

• Beware of IBS. This is a quick way to lose massive life. If you go off the necro minimap, move from your location. Any good necro will be spamming BS in your direction with the hope of creating IBS.

• ALWAYS have your shadow master out. She will mind blast for you, confuse the necro and give you critical minion stacking. If your master dies, get her back up IMMEDIATELY! Don’t do anything without your master deployed. Get in this habit early.

• Be hyper aggressive at all times. Get all over the necro from the first second of the duel and never let up.

BONE NECS WITH MINIONS
Medium to hard duel.

This type of nec hides behind a small army and still has substantial bone skill damage, along with all the other issues and difficulties associated with necros. BUT, they are actually easier to kill. Why? They are a bigger target! This is where you will mind blast almost as much as your master. The necro is easily hit with mindblast, just aim for that big pack that’s jumping around your screen. With practice you’ll rarely if ever miss.

Procedures:

• MB the pack yourself if possible. The shadow will do it, but so can you.

• Get those traps out! You’ll lock up the necro AND all his minions.

• The key is to find the necro amid his minions. This can be hard. But you can do it. You have to CLICK mind blast once the necro and his minions are locked up. Don’t spam it by holding down the mouse button. You click in order to discern different targets. Once you find the nec, initiate DF without unclicking the mouse button. Commence kicking but do NOT forget to keep deploying traps and mind blasting. You have to keep the minions (and the nec) locked up.

• If the necro has a merc, kill it! These guys can hit harder than the nec up close. But they usually die with a single kick sequence. If you are kicking the necro and you see his merc, use one talon click and take him out.

• Use fade, not BoS. You need the DR/res as the necro’s minions can actually hit hard as well as giving him heavy minion stacking.

• Don’t be afraid to break off the attack! If you are kicking the necro and he’s locked up but his minions and/or merc is free, they will rapidly kill you. Be ready to break off. If they are on top of you, stun won’t save you. Get clear and try again. Usually after you lock them once, the necro will become defensive. Defensive bone necs with minion packs begin to fall under the next category.

• I will often actually play 1.09 trapper style, setting a trap field semi-circle and waiting for the nec and his minions to come to me. Usually they want to tele on top of you much like a windy. Use this to your advantage. Get a trap or two under you as well. The instant they tele to your position tele one click away and MB them. It's often an easy lock this way.

• Use cloak of shadow to blind the minions. This can be a BIG deal, especially if they have a hard-hitting merc mixed in with their minions.

DEFENSIVE BONE NECS
This is the often the hardest duel besides ww barbs and some smite/FoH combo pallys. The most annoying tactic a nec can take is always staying off-screen and spamming teeth/spirit as they go. A 3K+ life bone nec with good FC and FHR using this tactic can easily beat you if you aren’t careful and pretty good yourself. I consider a GOOD bone nec playing semi-defensively to be the hardest duel in the game. Try to get a 50-50 win ratio vs. the best bone necs out there. You won't "dominate" them, but with skill, they won't dominate you either.

Your build takes a lot more skill to get wins with than a bone nec. It is also much more subject to lag and hiccups in the game. Bone necs have it easy. If they have the best possible equipment, they simply need to learn a few solid defensive techniques against you. You, however, have to CATCH them and not die. You have to kill them through all their defenses and countless spammed 800 PvP damage bone spirits. You have an uphill battle because they won't easily allow you to even get on their screen. Play carefully and assume it's your hardest duel.

I occasionally jump up to the 102 fcr breakpoint in order to stay on their screen.

Procedures:

• Don’t play their game!!! It’s no fun (and deadly) to chase someone who is both faster and harder hitting than you all over the blood moor while they chip away at your life. Find an area that offers good terrain and stay in it. Drop a solid trap field and make them stay in your general area if they want to duel you.

• Your SM will mind blast from over 2 screens away. You will need this in spades. Always have the master out.

• You will usually have one chance at most to capitalize on a mistake by the nec. If he momentarily gets tripped up in a trap, you have to know it and you have close immediately! Don’t miss an opportunity.

• Don't be afraid to take damage. Your going to get hit, a lot, by teeth. Ignore this as much as possible unless your life is getting critical. You'll simply have to take hits to get in hits yourself.

• Use chaos on your main hand. You want to take them down fast if you lock them up. The magic damage helps and the CtC effects help to stun. Trying to win with repeated OW applications against a good nec is difficult. If you want to go the WO route, then equip your fury as primary. You can then go either chaos off-hand or eth bartucs off-hand (but no ww at then in case you need it.). I recommend always having ww if you need it for this duel. Even though I kick most of the time, I have found ww useful in numerous instances.

• Watch out that they constantly spam teeth and then suddenly switch to very high damage bone spirit. They can easily take you by surprise with this quick change over in skills.

POISON NOVA NECS
Generally easy duel.

Procedures:

• Careful about lower resist. Your fade will reduce its duration to a few seconds, but avoid the necro during those few seconds if possible.

• Wear a jade and possibly a snake cord (I have yet to wear a snakecord even though I have one in my stash).

• Use chaos on your primary for chance-to-cast stun bonus and good magic damage boost. You want to kill them fast (chaos magic damage transferred to you kick will assist this). They are likely to get off one nova while you are kicking them, meaning you had better do it right the first time.

• Lock them up with wake/MB and keep your distance. Don’t DF or tele in until you are SURE they are locked down (i.e. lock them down HARD, with all traps firing before you DF on top of them).

• Don’t be afraid to play aggressive when you are down to only 1 life.

• Use talon to kill. If you overshoot a WW or get sloppy, they’ll escape and nova you on their way out.

If you have trouble with poison necs, it’s probably from being overly scared of the nova.

FIREBALL SORCS
Most of the time, this is an easy duel.

Procedures:

• Put on jade off-hand, fury primary hand (i.e. skip whirlwind).

• Don’t bother trapping unless they are good.

• Use teleport to get on their screen and dragonflight to deliver OW (if they are a runner) and to get in a quick kick sequence for the kill. Your res, 60% block, good FHR, minion stack, and rapid recovery inducing attack means you can often just tank them dead in a couple seconds if you can land the DF.

• Be careful. The 200 fast cast rate sorcs WILL tank your kicks IF they can get those fireballs going. They can lock you down if they can get a stream of fireballs hitting you. Be prepared to break off and regroup.

• If the sorc is good, don’t even use talon. Just dragon flight with OW until they are at 1 life. Then either kill with DF or let your shadow master kill her as you tele around.

• If you try to trap them, use wake of fire. 99% of these sorcs have absolute crap FHR and are easily locked up. The real trick is catching them though.

• Remember, if you land DF, they are paused for a second. This gives you time to initiate dragon talon. I kill 70% of FB sorcs this way, 25% with the DF/OW technique and the remaining 5% with actual trapping

• The FB sorc has to stop to shoot their fireballs. This is what allows you to stay with them, even when they have 200 fast cast. The good ones will even try to aim a little as you chase them around.

• Watch your mana. If you aren’t using mana pots, lure them close and then explode after them.

• Always have your shadow master up for minion stack. I will go many duels vs. FB sorcs and never take a point of damage due to minion stack and claw block.

• Tele off her corpse immediately when you kill her as she is likely to cast meteor on dying.

• You shouldn’t need a dwarf or any absorb at all to win this duel.

FROZEN ORB SORCS
Easy to moderate hard duel. Orb sorcs are runners. They want to keep you off their screen and chip away at you since you are hoping for them to get close to lock them up or DF them.

Procedures:

• You will likely never catch them in a trap/mb combo. Use the same DF/OW technique that I outlined for the FB sorc.

• If you have a few jades with jewels, use the one with a 30 cold res/15 ias jewel.

• Play defensively yourself. DON’T CHASE THEM! A good defensive orb sorc is actually sometimes hard to kill. Their large AoE attack means they can mindlessly drop orbs without any need to aim, concentrating on keeping distance between you and her. If you chase after them, you are giving them what they want. Make them come after you.

• They are FASTER than you. Try setting up trap fields and playing 1.09 style, using tele only when it is tactically advantageous.

LIGHTNING SORCS
Easy duel 98% of the time.

Procedures:

• Same as fireball sorcs on tactics. Careful though as the light can hurt a lot if they have good lower res. Light takes time to cast making your job easy.

• Make sure to circle them as you approach. If you come in on a straight line, she’ll have her best shot to kill you.

LIGHT SORC WITH CONVICTION MERC
Medium duel.

Procedures:

• Don’t DF them until the merc is dead.

• Use traps and MB to lock them up.

• Do a tele-ww pass to kill the merc. Then use standard techniques against the sorc.

LIGHT SORC WITH CONVICTION MERC AND AUTO-AIM
Medium to Hard duel.

Procedures:

• Same strategy as for the non-aa variety except play more defensively.

• Always have your master out to take a hit off of you.

• Don’t stand in one spot spamming MB and traps. They will shoot you right through FHR animation due to the auto-aim (technically, in-between the FHR animations, but it's always shooting). You need to stay circling them, and only DF on top when the merc is dead and you see them tripped for a sec from the traps/MB swirlies that you are constantly laying down.

• Do not DF the sorc for any reason until you’ve killed the merc. Otherwise she’ll one-hit-kill you.

BLIZZARD SORCS
Can occasionally be quite hard, usually easy to medium though. A good blizzard sorc can one-hit-kill you with a lucky shot. This adds a degree of randomness to your duels. Accidentally tele into a blizzard and the duel is over. Blizzard damage is mentioned in a note below.

Procedures:

• Tele carefully and try to trap them.

• Make sure you have all five wakes firing and that she hasn’t/can’t cast blizzard on top of herself before you tele on top of her.

• Tele off immediately when you kill her since she is likely to cast blizzard on dying.

• Beyond this, DF her but don’t talon. You can try WW, but if she survives it she will often blizzard you before you can tele away. If you try to talon she WILL get a blizzard off if she has paid any attention to FHR.

Most (not all) blizzard sorcs have very little pvp skill and are relatively easy (sorry all you blizz sorcs, it's the truth). They think they are good because they have this overpowered skill that works well against the unwashed public dueling masses who die in droves thanks to an equal lack of dueling skill. BUT there are a few good ones floating around with both equipment and experience and they are a very hard duel. The better duelers will always try to stay off your screen, counting on you blundering into one of their (usually) semi-randomly placed blizzards.

NOTE ON BLIZZARD DAMAGE (this example attributed to AndyChrono)
Blizzard inflicts a very large amount of damage on the first hit, absorb notwithstanding. Here’s how it works.

Absorb heals you first and then reduces damage. Since the first hit usually occurs when you are already at full life the healing part does nothing and it only reduces. Due to Blizzard's massive damage the effect is magnified.

Say 15k Blizzard and -100 resist against 2x Ravens; about 5000 PvP damage.

First Hit: Heal 40% of 5k which is 2k. But since opponent is at full life this is ignored. Then reduce damage by 40% of 5k (5000-2000) which turns out to be 3k. Thus the first hit does 3000 damage.

Second Hit: Heal 40% of 5k (2000). Then reduce damage by another 40% of 5k (2000). Thus the second hit does 5000-2000-2000 = 1000 damage.

So given this, plan your strategy accordingly. A lot of people will be one-hit-killed by that first blizzard.

BLIZZARD SORC WITH AUTO-AIM
Usually they are unskilled slime. Their blizzard will one-hit kill you from 2+ screens away.

Procedures:

• Stack cold res!! Use a 6 socket phase with an UM and 5x 30 to 40 cold res jewels (get a couple with ias) and a 4 thul shield. That’s about 300 cold res right there. Add in 50 to 60 on your CoA, 67 or so from fade, 16 or so from an anni, maybe 20 on an ammy, and you are sitting in the neighborhood of 450 to 460 cold res. If you need a bit more, keep some 10% or 11% scs in your stash and trade out some life/mana scs. If you can get 500 total cold res you’re golden.

• Always keep your master up to draw off an aimed blizzard.

I normally don’t recommend guarding corpses, but if you are on a blizzard sorc’s aim list, this is probably a good time to start. Careful though, even naked, her auto-aiming blizzard can kill you.

Alternate plan: Don't duel them!

ENERGY SHIELD SORCS
Usually this is not a bad duel because most people don’t have the know-how/equipment to defend against you.

Procedures:

• Get your fury on your primary and the jade on secondary.

• Skip ww.

• Open wounds and poison will be your primary killers as they go right through the sorc’s energy shield. Use DF liberally.

NOTE: It is possible to put together ES builds that become immune to you. You can’t kill them. You can get them to 1 life and that’s it. You’re stuck. I’ve seen just one of these in all my duels so don’t lose any sleep over it. If they do that, just over-absorb and stack res against any attack they have and it’s a draw. If they completely nullify you, you have every right to do the same.