Hi everyone,

First of all, I am sorry for my bad English.
Returning for almost 10 years without D2, I realised how much I loved this game when I tried it on the ladder reset.


Since the extension came out assassin is my preferred char ever. But I love close combat,

I actually play a lvl 50+ dragon claw dual claw assassin in nightmare, with 1 point in death sentry.

For now everything is absolutely fine, but I know it will be a.nightmare ( lol) when I'll reach hell because of the physical immunes.

I don't want to use phoenix strike cause it doesn't use the two claws requires a lot of points to reach it.

I am invested a lot in shadow because I love everything in it, dual claw block , fade ( I don't use bos cause I'm poor and I love fade :p) , master shadow ,.clock of shadow... Mind blast ( god I LOVE that skill)

Naturally o thought of venom, but everyone or almost says it is really really bad , at least in pvm

Please help me, my only idea is fist of fire because, it requires only points before, it does fire DMG and convert physical in fire so it seems my only solution.

Can you ppl please help me a bit on that ?
I can't rely on high end stuff, I will try to get Natalya cause I love the set a lot.

Thanks a lot to those who will read this wall of text !

amp and decrep break physical immunities
the most common way is to use lawbringer yourself, or give your merc lawbringer or reaper's toll

all sources of decrep and amp:
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php/Decrepify
https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php/Amplify_Damage

Blades of ice is actually a really solid skill to use with dual claw / dragon claw assassins because every time you click with blades of ice, it strikes with both claws which gives you 2 charge up balls for every click. And the cold damage when fully charged is actually pretty good.

I made a full natalyas set sin with a dragon claw / blades of ice build, and she’s pretty damn good for a budget build. Currently in hell a3 or 4

This post was edited by GetStabby on Dec 16 2019 02:10pm

Thanks a lot for the answers, its so nice there is still d2 players out there. I thought no one would play it 20 years after. I still love it, i realised how i missed it all that time.

I simply forgot some aura/curse could break immunes. Thanks a lot for the imput, i guess reaper's toll must be quinda valuable ( well, for me, i am really on a budget, i dont play the game effectively, with my weird builds, so high items/ runewords are unreachable, buts this is perfect, cause i still try to reach them)

I am on a budget, exactly, and i really love natalyua set , which seems to be designed for close combat assassins mostly, with leech, and this nice claw.

I thought of blade of ice, but there is a real pblm for me. Despite i play melee, i rely a lot on death sentry to help me destroying the pack, and ice damage tend to make them shatter, hence no corpse explosion.
There is other keypoints, like the fact Dragon claw has insane Attack rating, i have almost 10k ar at lvl 52, which seems insane, but unfortunately, all other assassin's attack have less than half this ar , which can result in missing a lot in hell and i wont use ar merc, or angelic duo

Actually here is how i play : cloack of shadows to approach the pack, mind blast if needed, then i dragon claw one monster, i drop one or more death senttry depending on the time i have, then i kill another monster, mind blast if needed, etc. I really love that kind of gamplay. It requiers some shorcuts, and key killing ( for the explosions to reach the max monsters ).

I think the reaper's toll is a really good solution, despite i wont be able to use dracul's gasp (for life tap), i'll go with the set +300 demon gloves instead (forgot the name). I played the mighty trapsin once, but i fall asleep so its not good for hc =D. Melee had some real adrenalin (hello fanatic archers that amp dmg you before group fire ! ) and often their items are really cheap, due to the fact barely no one play them in hc, which is perfect for me, as i play for fun, and i dont have fun with ranged op stuff.

This post was edited by delikana on Dec 16 2019 04:05pm

The benefit of natalyas claw is that it has “ignore targets defense” so you’ll hit nearly 100% of the time except for bosses and act bosses and such.

Don’t underestimate tiger strike and dragon tail.

Majority of the time, I walk my assassins as tiger strike with dragon tail, and dragon talon. Dragon tail does insane explosion damage when paired with tiger strike. But you must have high damage boots.

if you want life tap, the alternative solution to physical immunes is sanctuary aura from azurewrath. It won't work against non-undead immunes tho, and it's lvl85.

I remember ITD, but for me its not that good, it works only for white monsters, and in hell, you have elites everywhere, and its those who are dangerous.

I am not a good player, but when i was playing nats 10 years ago, i remember that with my 5k ar tiger strike i was missing like 1 hit on 3, its extremly irritating, i came to a point where i was using only dragon claw, cause it was 12k+ ar, so 95% hit chance even on bosses.

If i am correct, elites and bosses have increased armor, block chance and such, on melee char, with normal ar like let's say 5k, you will likely miss 1-2 hits on 3 on elites and rare, thus you'll need to hit like 6 times to get 3 charges and release. I was really killing faster by using only Dragon claw, which is absurd, but the combination of the insane ar, and they double attack, was making better result than hitting with a single claw for tiger, missing 30% of the time, then releasing. This is what i remember, i may be wrong, and i always play with budget gear.
I still think single claw is better with kick. But i play dual claw so dragon claw is a nice skill

back then i finished hell alone, it is nothing, but its ok for me, i killed diablo clone too, that was my first self found annihilus.

I will try to remake this, better, but i loved natalya so much, its really good memories, even if tiger strike single claw and horrible ar, was underwhelming.

This post was edited by delikana on Dec 16 2019 08:32pm

buy a staff with teleport charge and ignore the immunes

venom also helps as it does psn dmg as well

So my assassin is now 80 and is really fine. I made a lot of tests, burnt the three respecs, and it appears that phoenix strike is the best choice by far to go with dragon claw.
I didn't remember there was immunes absolutely everywhere and with nasty combinations.
I took shadow skillers, cause it is what I need the most, it increases claw mastery, which increases both DMG and ar for phoenix and dragon, but also all I constantly use : shadow cloak, mind blast, burst of speed, shadow master, venom. With one point I reach 19 (!) Thanks to the extremely cheap torch someone sold me.
I maxed dragon claw, phoenix, and now I am maxing fire and lightning synergies.
When I reached lvl 79 jumping to Natalya was such a relief, my god. Phoenix in combination with dragon claw and death sentry's is th most satisfying gameplay I ever had in D2.
I have incredible fun and there is nothing I can't kill.
Compared to infinity trap assassin I m slower but I have something else : ultra nervous complicated gameplay and ultra budget char which can clear any zone I want.
Extremely cheap, extremely fun, love D2 and Natalya !
Thanks everyone for the help, long live to my baby Natalya