Ya I did try it. Didn't like it too much actually. It makes it pretty difficult to get 50% DR if you use it. Also, you lose lots of life, and even more importantly, the mana from shako.

To each his own though

But why would you assume that your frenzy barb would win if he didn't have knockback? was his sin not good, or are you just that good? Cause dueling any barb without a shield is a certain 100% victory for a ww sin no matter what attack they use.

I like, I like... complete with dueling strategies, and everything...

Whirlwind Barb's aren't impossible, though, I faced one with full gear and still beat them ._.
once.
out of 12 times.

xu-godx, would you mind post or taking screenshots of ur gear, stats, and skills? It would help me out a lot. thx.

when i verse bone necros..
right after i dragon flight they walk like 1-2 meters away so that i cant dragon claw them without getin hit...is there a beter way to kill them since theres tons of them around

Vs Bone necs, there are a few things you can do, see what works best for you. (there a bitch to kill though, no doubt about it)

1) Shadow master bug - anyone who plays bone necro, pls look away When you have a shadow master out, use dragon flight and then immediately start dragon clawing them. As long as their using bone spirit, they can't hit you. Don't move though, or the bug goes away.

2) WW'ing - You can dragon flight / WW them, but if they are using teleport a lot, chances are your not going to hit them with the WW. If they do try to tank you a bit, then this is the best way to kill them, because with weapon block, you should kill them before they kill you if your trading shots. Many bone necs are far to cocky with their bone armor, not realizing that your raping them with venom

3) Pure Dragon flight - For the bone necro's that are just way to teleport happy, your going to have to follow them around with just dragon flight. My WW sin has a good amount of points in dragon flight, and I use bone weave boots, so my flight damage is pretty reasonable. Just follow them around on foot, dragon flight when you get a chance, and right away, run run run... Don't stand and wait for another dragon flight. Do 1 at a time only. Dragon flight, run away. Dodge all the bone spririts if there following you, and then when you get a chance, do it again. This will take multiple flights depending on how good he is. As many as 10, but sometimes as few as 3 or 4.

In my experience, that is the only way to kill them.

I don't know how to do screen shots, so I have to do this the old fashion way

FOR ANYONE WHO REALLY WANTS TO KNOW, THIS IS MY EXACT ASSASSIN BUILD. USE SOME OF IT, OR COPY THE WHOLE THING, EITHER WAY, HOPE IT HELPS

I won't be on as much as I used to be, because I am basically quitting, but I will still check forums regularly just for fun. So this is my final contribution to anyone who wants a kick ass WW assassin. I'm not exagerating at all when I say I win about 98 or 99% of duels. Trust me, copy the build and see for yourself. Enjoy


CASTER GEAR SET UP: (for casters, and in general, just my basic public game set up to be prepared for anyone)

5/-5 poison facet SHAKO
19/45% BRAMBLE archon plate (my only regret, not getting a 50% bramble. Oh well, i never botted or ebayed, so I guess I have my limits
40/15 VERDUNGO'S
2 x perfect RAVEN FROST'S
perfect MARA'S
TRANG OULS gloves
IMP SHANK bone weave boots (duped)

348% CHAOS CLAW (3 dragon flight, 2 mind blast)
ETH perfect JADE TALON CLAW (15% resist jewel. I know, it will break eventually, but cheap to replace. After months of dueling, mine still has about 15 Dur left)

6 bo CTA flail / LIDLESS shield

* with my caster set up, I will almost always cast Burst of Speed. Thats why I use the jade talon, so I can have max resists and run fast. I will only cast Fade in caster duels vs bliz sorc's and Foh pally's to stack up my resists. Also, if I duel a V/T pally, of course I will need resists and DR, so I cast fade but use caster set up.

* In public games, I will use this set up, but I am always ready to cast fade for the DR if a melee character comes at me. I hot key both fade and BOS, cause i use both


MELEE GEAR SET UP:

5/-5 poison facet SHAKO
19/45% BRAMBLE archon plate
40/15 VERDUNGO'S
2 x ANGELIC RING'S
ANGELIC AMMY
TRANG OULS gloves
GORE RIDER boots

CHAOS
FURY (fury in right hand, left side of character screen. You get the 20% ar bonus if you wear it in your primary hand)

CTA / LIDLESS

* for melee set up, I will of course always cast Fade to get my Max DR%. With demon limb enchant, I get 21K Attack rating, which is good enough to take out anybody except the most elite WW barbs (unless you pre buff venom before the duel, then I can take even leet barbs out, but its a pain in the ass to do)

* also, since hammerdins and bone necro's both use magic damage, I use my Melee set up vs them, because resists don't matter. I will use melee gear set up and cast BOS


INVENTORY: (always the same, never changes. Although, for other people, I usually say you can add resist sc's if you fight bliz sorc's or foh'ers. I don't, but if it helps ya)

5 x SHADOW GC'S with 30+ life
12 x 3/20/20's
4 x Sharp GC's ( on average, they are about 10 max / 70 Ar / 40 life... cheaper then 12 more 3/20/20's, but basically just as good)
1 annilhus ( 1 / 19 / 19 / 7 )


SKILLS: (Everything is base unless I say otherwise)

20 - Claw mastery
20 - venom
13 - weapon block
16 - fade
12 - Dragon flight
5 - cloak of shadows
bos
fade
blade fury
blade shield
shadow master
wake of fire
dragon claw
+ 1 in pre reqs that i didn't mention

* its important to get to LVL 90, because that is a very strong breakpoint for open wounds, which is based on your character lvl


STATS: (base stats first, then caster gear stats in brackets, and finally melee gear stats after that)

* oh ya, i'm still wearing my annihilus of course, so those aren't technically my base stats, but w/e

Str - 101 ( 136 ) ( 113 )
Dex - 87 ( 134 ) ( 99 )
Vit - 387 ( 434 ) ( 429 )
Ene - 44 ( 51 ) ( 46 )


For str, I have 101 base, because my Kicker boots require 118 Str to wear. I get 2 from shako, 10 from chaos, and 5 from mara's. Thats 118 Exactly. They have 118 str on them, so thats why i have 136 after equipping them. Seems high, but its actually perfect for those boots

For dex, I have 87 base. I get 2 from Shako, and 10 from angelic set, bringing me to 99 dex to hold my chaos in melee gear. I have way more then that in caster set up, because I use raven frosts in caster gear.

* also, my dragon flight damage with my caster gear set up is over 1700, and then add to that the stacked venom damage. You can see how this comes in very handly vs casters, and especially vs bone necro's.

* if your going the kicker boot / dragon flight route, I strongly suggest only using one of the three boots here. Boneweaves are best, then scarabshells, and finally wyrmhide boots. Those are the only three boots that are elite for damage, but have a relatively low str req. Mirrored boots and myrmiddon greaves require to much str

Hope that helps you out.

This post was edited by xu-godx on May 25 2004 09:57am

you press print screen, and then go to your diablo 2 folder and look for the pic. but that's okay, thanks so much for typing it all out, I appreciate your work.

So (Sry its just i want this clarified) To find how many pts to put in Fade, you take 50 and subtract what from the shako, the DR, or the skills, or both?