OK, runewords enabled (yay!) Time to get prepared for Act 2.

Got A2 combat merc to help me sustain longer in the battle. Gambled new claws. Made several Countness runs to build stealth. I'm ready to go!

I noticed that I use Cloak of Shadows more, things are gettting harder. Fist of Fire/Claws of Thunder still do decent damage, hope this won't change soon :)

Duriel done! What a fight! Had to go back to town at least 7 times to pot up and resurrect my merc. Duriel packs quite a punch + his slow and knockbacks made it really hard to do dps.

Some observations:

• Claw of Thuder great for groups, Fists of Fire still better for bosses - those flames!
  
• For CoT and FoF damage listed in description for 1st charge is also applied for next attacks. Meaning if 1st charge says 1-40 lighting dmg, then with 3 charges my next spender attack will do 3-120 dmg - didn't know that before!
  
• Martial Arts assassing does well vs groups as long as you are not swarmed by monsters. Block and hit recovery mode slows you a lot
  
• Very potions intense - need a lot of lifesteel and mana leach, because claws do not do high physical damage
  
• You cannot make steel runeword in claws :D - learned it the hard way

Let's rush through A3, don't like this jungle. My plan is to farm up on Mephisto (dreaming about Sigon's set!) and get lvl 30. Hopefully in A3 :)

This post was edited by el_profesor on Jan 21 2020 07:47am

Now I learned what it means to be swarmed... flayer jungle was very tough due to those small runs jumping on me from every directions. Had to abuse Burst of Speed and Dragon Flight to rush through the jungle...

Travincal suprasingly easy. Meph was a challange on p8 though. Did few MF runs on him afterwards and even on p1 he almost killed me a couple times. Funny though, was killing him faster with Fists of Fire than Claws of Thunder (same lvl).

I will progress a bit to get lvl 30 (Phoenix Strike, Venom, Shadow Warrior!) and go back to farm meph. I hope for Sigon parts - will make my life easier:)

This post was edited by el_profesor on Jan 21 2020 02:24pm

What is dead may never die... Assa died at river at lvl 29. My silly mistake, wanted save & exit, but double pressed Esc so it didn't stop my game. I should have quit earlier, no need to be greedy

Hopefully I this time I will be able to post ss
https://imgur.com/wLkHUHs
https://imgur.com/c8HfWTn

Here are my thoughts after this run:

• Martial Arts assassin is fun and versatile, but same combos over and over become a bit boring
  
• Not the safest char for HC - unless without proper gear
  
• Can handle P8 on norm, bosses are a bit challenging
  
• Decent mobility with BoS and Dragon Flight, decent crowd control with Cloak of Shadow and Mind Blast
  
• Always cool to try new builds

Oh well, thought I will go further than this. Got my next WT in mind - probably something on Classic

Thx for the support guys!

Damn it, still can't post images, any idea why? Got 15 posts already

This post was edited by el_profesor on Jan 22 2020 02:07am

get more post to embed those images. gl!

just testing to see if I can post image https://imgur.com/iLOB3wo