Hardcore Crescent Moon assassin

Been playing with this build this ladder, hope to evolve this into a guide. Looking for input. Would love to know your experiences and learnings if you've made one, your questions if not.

What to call this build? I like "moondancer," but please feel free to make suggestions.

The overview: Crescent Moon (ShaelUmTir) is a runeword known for its 35% penalty to enemy lightning resists. With -enemy resistances now working with traps in version 2.6, this is a boost to lightning sentry and a good (and cheap) option for kick/trap hybrid assassins.

10% Chance To Cast Level 17 Chain Lightning On Striking
7% Chance To Cast Level 13 Static Field On Striking
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+180-220% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
-35% To Enemy Lightning Resist
+25% Chance of Open Wounds
+9-11 Magic Absorb
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
Level 18 Summon Spirit Wolf (30 Charges)

We build this in a phase blade because it has -30 base weapon speed. With the 20 IAS already in the runeword, we're at 3 frame kick and 10 frame traps already, without burst of speed or additional IAS from gloves/amulet/etc. This opens up other gear options and allows us to use fade for its tremendous defensive utility.

Spirit wolves disappear if you switch off of this weapon to use CtA or whatever. Until you have one, they can provide an extra meat shield. Putting the blade in your cube with an Ort and a chipped gem will repair the charges.

Skills:
max lightning sentry and its synergies
max dragon talon
max fade (I'm doing this one last, what's the best order?)
one point into shadow warrior (never use master), cloak of shadows, death sentry

It plays like the Rift assassin. Lay down four lightning sentries and one death sentry, then run in and start kicking.

Stats:

Strength for gear, 165 for upped Gore Riders should be the most you need
Dex for max block, this is important
Rest vitality
No energy

Gear:

We want max block and resists, with as much life as possible. A little life and mana leech is useful, there are a lot of combinations to get there with rare jewelry and circlets.

Crescent Moon phase blade, no option here
I'm using an upgraded Whitstan's with an Ort in it. As a luna it has 100% block rate and you hit max block with barely any more dexterity than it takes to equip your phase blade. You could use Moser's if you don't have enough resistances elsewhere. Maybe Gerke's is an option or Sanctuary? You shouldn't need the DR from Stormshield, and I certainly wouldn't want to use Spirit here.
CTA/Spirit Monarch on switch

I have a rare circlet with +2 sin, 17 @ res, 30 run/walk, and mana steal. Lore and Rockstopper are budget options. Griffs is tempting for the additional damage but offers little defensively. I like the r/w on mine, it gets me to 60 with Gore Riders so I don't feel too slow without burst of speed on. CoA, Shako, other ideas? Kira's would take care of res and freezing, would open up a ring slot to maybe use BK for skills and life. Would Gaze make sense for DR and dual leech?

Socket shield and helm with lightning facets if you don't need res.

Rare or crafted amulet with stats and res, Mara's, whatever. The additional IAS from Highlord's won't get you to the next breakpoint for kicks, and you'd still need 2% from elsewhere to hit nine frame traps. I don't think it's worth it for only +1 skills, though the lightning res is nice and it's +1 all.

I'm wearing Chains of Honor for the res, leech, skills. If you wear enigma you'd need to make up the res elsewhere but I'm sure that with a different shield it's an option. Treachery for budget/leveling.

Drac's for the chance to cast life tap and strength bonus. Venom Grip is the cheap option here. Other ideas?

Upped Gore Riders. Goblin Toes have no r/w, Shadow Dancers are an option but I think the crushing blow helps more.

T-God's for all the obvious reasons. You could wear Verdungo's or String of Ears.

Raven Frost on one finger, unless you're going to wear Kira's for cannot be frozen. A frozen assassin is a dead assassin. Other ring could offer resistances, leech, life, stats, whatever helps meet the goals.

Merc:

I'm using act 2 prayer with an insight. Mana is an issue without it. You can use Infinity if you think it's worth if for the increased clear speed, and you'll develop a drinking problem chugging mana potions. Otherwise standard act two merc stuff, Tal's Mask/Bulwark/Andy's, Treach/Fort/Leviathan/Shaftstop, whatever works.

Inventory:

Sin torch and anni of course, lightning sunder. Whatever res charms you need to make up, life charms are always useful. If you don't have run/walk other than your shoes I'd try to use enough charms here to get to a comfortable pace.

With my setup I have max block, max res, 35% physical damage reduction with fade, and ~1600 base life. Trap damage is at 6400 but that's deceptive because of the penalty to enemies. Kicks are also because of crushing blow.

What else?

i rolled kick/trap this season and the kick is basically useless aside from doing dclone. u better off just maxing fire blast and synergys after lit sentrys

hmm is this for when you already have a farm build or beforehand? since you have a few early ladder options too

A couple options before CoH are hustle and smoke/duress as well. I've grown to like hustle before enigma, especially when i'm using fade > BoS. that frw to dodge or to engage is very nice.

Yeah nothing…

This post was edited by Soppamies on Mar 7 2023 01:42am

I only did this because i'm going to make one but here....this is what I would do and if this is wrong it's not wrong by much...

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/ni0106yb

Thanks for the input everyone



Useful for all super uniques, I've taken down Andy and Izual in TZ96 zones very quickly with kicks. Were you wearing upped Goblin Toes and did you make your C-Moon in a phase blade? The ctc static with 3 frame kicks seems to help with mobs too.

I also think hybrid sins are more fun to play than pure trappers, that's just my preference.



My intent is to include both. I'll work on clarifying that in final draft.

Thanks for the tip on Hustle/Smoke/Duress.



This is a pure trapper. Nothing wrong with it that I can see, it's just a different build from what I'm going for here.

yes, the mobs went down quite slow, you run slow AF with goblin toe on, and i didnt have a cta yet and was squishy whenever i went into melee. feel like fireblast/sentry is better tbh for general purpose

This build is super versatile, but like others have mentioned can be squishy early in at lower levels in hell. What does Max fade get you in DR? Camp gaze could cover DR gap and provide life leach plus a socket for relatively cheap. Can run atmas for amp on kicking bosses like D and baal, or cats for more frw and dex for block. Gives can always be res/mf , or crafted with CB.

I love light dancer build in legacy so I'm going to try this eventually in d2r. Good start!

Seems like Gore Riders are a necessity for this build, Goblin Toe without burst is too slow, and we definitely want to use Fade with this build. Thanks for validating that.



Fade is a straight 1% damage reduction per level, the only cap is the 50% total. With 20 hard points and +skills items, we're getting 28-30% damage reduction here. Add items like CoH/Enigma, String/Verdungo's, Shako, and we're approaching maximum. Vamp Gaze covers a lot of bases and could definitely help with the early hell squishy part.



Good thoughts, I especially like the idea of Cat's Eye since we'll need some r/w outside of boots.



Thanks, please share your learnings.

yeah i switched to gorerider and honestly still dont like running fade. but fade with goblin toe is just horrible tier