[GUIDE] Diablo II Characters: Assassin

The Assassin


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The Assassins are an ancient order originally founded by the Vizjerei to hunt down and eliminate rogue mages within their own ranks. Employing secret disciplines to combat and resist the magical abilities of their elusive quarry, the Assassin's bag of tricks includes traps and other infernal devices, martial arts, and powerful mental abilities. Common people know nothing of the Assassins, but they are widely feared and respected by all who employ the magic arts.


Starting Attributes
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Vitality: 20
Energy: 25

Hit Points: 50
Stamina: 95
Mana: 25
Each Character Level
Life +2
Stamina +1.25
Mana +1.5

Attribute Point Effect
1 Vitality point gives 3 Life
1 Vitality point gives 1.25 Stamina
1 Energy point gives 1.75 Mana

Skills:
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Martial Arts Skills


Tiger Strike
Required Level: 1
Prerequisites: None

Charge-up Skill: Through extensive training in human, animal, and demonic anatomies, Assassins have developed the ability to perceive natural points of weakness in their foes and target these locations for especially devastating attacks.



Dragon Talon
Required Level: 1
Prerequisites: None

Finishing Move: An Assassin is taught to utilize her entire body as a weapon-using this skill, she lets loose a powerful kick to send her opponents flying.



Dragon Claw
Required Level: 6
Prerequisites: Dragon Talon [1]

Charge-up Skill: Combining her powerful Martial Arts abilities with her psychic training, an Assassin can charge her own fists with pyrokinetic energies, scorching her opponents when the charge is released.



Fists of Fire
Required Level: 6
Prerequisites: None

Charge-up Skill: Combining her powerful Martial Arts abilities with her psychic training, an Assassin can charge her own fists with pyrokinetic energies, scorching her opponents when the charge is released.

Fists Of Fire Receives Bonuses From
Phoenix Strike: +12% Fire Damage Per Level



Cobra Strike
Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Tiger Strike [1]

Charge-Up Skill: A properly trained Assassin can focus her mind to draw upon the ambient energies surrounding her. Using this skill, she can drain her adversary of life and spiritual essence.



Dragon Tail
Required Level: 18
Prerequisites: Dragon Talon [1], Dragon Claw [6]

Finishing Move: The experienced Assassin can deliver a kick so powerful it actually causes an explosion on impact, sending any nearby victims sprawling.



Claws of Thunder
Required Level: 18
Prerequisites: Fists of Fire [6]

Charge Up Skill: Using her weapon's metal blades as conductors, an Assassin charges the ions surrounding her and delivers a devastating lightning attack to any who dare challenge her. (Requires equipped Claw-class weapon.)

Claws of Thunder Receives Bonuses From
Phoenix Strike: +8% Lightning Damage Per Level




Blades of Ice
Required Level: 24
Prerequisites: Fists of Fire [6], Claws of Thunder [18]

Charge-up Skill: Charging the ether around her claw blades, the trained Assassin can chill opponents with a vicious rake of her razors. (Requires equipped Claw-class weapon.)

Blades Of Ice Receives Bonuses From
Phoenix Strike: +8% Cold Damage Per Level



Dragon Flight
Casting Delay: 1 Second
Required Level: 24
Prerequisites: Dragon Talon [1], Dragon Claw [6], Dragon Tail [18]

Finishing Move: After years of disciplined physical conditioning, an Assassin can develop the ability to move faster than the eye can follow in one quick burst. Using this skill, she lunges at her target and delivers a devastating kick.
- Dragon Flight will teleport you and your minions to the monster you clicked. It requires a clear line of sight; in other words, trees, walls and other obstacles will omit a Dragon Flight beyond it. Use Dragon Flight to quickly bypass rivers or to teleport you out of danger when surrounded.



Phoenix Strike
Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Tiger Strike [1], Fists of Fire [6], Cobra Strike [12], Claws of Thunder [18], Blades of Ice [24]

Charge-up Skill: This mighty skill allows the Assassin trained in its arts to prepare an attack that gives off powerful elemental energies.
- Phoenix Strike launches the active charge, not all three charges at once. So if you have it built up to Charge 2, Chaos Lightning will be released.
- Phoenix strike is a handy skill if you're fighting around monsters with different Resistances, because you don't need to change between skills.

Phoenix Strike Receives Bonuses From:
Fists of Fire: +10% Fire Damage Per Level
Fists of Fire: +6% Average Fire Damage Per Second Per Level
Claws of Thunder: +13% Lightning Damage Per Level
Blades of Ice: +10% Cold Damage Per Level




Shadow Disciplines Skills



Claw Mastery
Required Level: 1
Prerequisites: None
Passive Effect: Well-disciplined training in this skill improves the artistry with which an Assassin wields her unique Claw-class weapons.


Psychic Hammer
Required Level: 1
Prerequisites: None

Effect: By utilizing her intense mental prowess, an Assassin creates a powerful force of mental energies and directs it towards a hostile creature, blasting it backwards.
Psychic Hammer is effective early in the game and it pushes an enemy back.




Burst of Speed
Required Level: 6
Prerequisites: Claw Mastery [1]

Effect: Increases Attack And Movement Speed For A Period Of Time
Burst of speed will also benefit some assassin trap skills as they are affected by Increased Attack Speed.
***Burst of Speed and Fade will not work at the same time.


Cloak of Shadows
Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Psychic Hammer [1]

Effect: Moving through the darkness, unseen by her foes, the enshrouded Assassin can steal past opponents or ambush her unsuspecting victims with devastating attacks.
Cloak of Shadows causes the sky to become dark. If the sky suddenly becomes dark, possibly an Assassin is nearby using this skill. In addition to the darkness, enemy Defense is reduced. This is a handy skill that almost all Assassins will want to take advantage of.

*This skill is extremely useful. When cast, many skills of some monsters are blocked: archers cannot fire (except champion and unique ones), Sand maggots cannot lay eggs, Unravelers cannot use their poison breath, Venom lords cannot use their Inferno attack etc. Most monsters stop moving when you cast Cloak of shadows until you get close to them. Once you attack them, they can use their skills again.



Weapon Block
Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Claw Mastery [1]
Passive Effect: After developing this skill, an Assassin wielding two Claw-class weapons can use her blades to deflect incoming attacks, thus giving herself a defensive edge without using a shield. (Requires two equipped Claw-class weapons.)
- Weapon Block allows Assassins to use two Katar (or Claw Weapons) while still having Blocking. Assassins that use two Katars will want to invest heavily in this skill. Even a 1% Increase in Blocking will provide a great amount of protection.
- Weapon Block does not benefit from Dexterity or increased chance of blocking.
- You will only block while standing still or attacking. Weapon Block does not work while walking or running.
- Note: Whirlwind is an attack and weapon block will still function during the attack.



Fade
Required Level: 18
Prerequisites: Claw Mastery [1], Burst of Speed [6]

Effect: An Assassin can will her physical being to shift partially into the astral planes. As her body becomes less substantial, she becomes less susceptible to the effects of elemental attacks and magical curses.
- Fade has a hidden bonus to Physical Resistance. Being hidden, it doesn't display on your character or on the skill. It is capped at 50%.
- Fade reduces Shrine duration by the same percentage as it reduces curse duration. To avoid shortend Shrine duration, cast Burst of Speed before touching the shrine; once you touched the Shrine, cast Fade again.
- Burst of Speed and Fade will not work at the same time.



Shadow Warrior
Casting Delay: 6 Seconds
Required Level: 18
Prerequisites: Claw Mastery [1], Psychic Hammer [1], Weapon Block [12], Cloak of Shadows [12]

Effect: The Assassin trained in this discipline has the ability to project a "shadow" of herself. The Shadow Warrior makes use of normal attack and the two skills the Assassin has readied for herself.
Shadow Warrior uses the skills you have selected. This allows you to control what kind of spells she will use.
The Shadow Master, the next minion, can cast spells that you do not have so consider this before spending many points in Shadow Warrior.
Shadow Warriors have a base strength and dexterity equal to their level * 10. Also, the Shadow Warrior gains +4 resistance to all per level, to a max of level 75.




Mind Blast
Required Level: 24
Prerequisites: Psychic Hammer [1], Cloak of Shadows [12]

Effect: Focusing her anima, an Assassin using this potent ability can crush the will of a group of enemies, stunning them and confusing the feebleminded into attacking their comrades.




Venom
Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Claw Mastery [1], Burst of Speed [6], Fade [18]

Effect: Poison use is another technique an Assassin has to help even the odds when battling demons and their ilk. An Assassin who has mastered this skill secretly coats her weapons with vile toxins.
Venom caps the poisoning duration at 0.4 seconds, thus preventing long term poisoning. Consequently, all other items will only inflict poison damage for 0.4 seconds. Example: Though 700 damage over 10 seconds might seem impressive only 28 damage will be inflicted due to the 0.4 seconds cap.


Shadow Master
Casting Delay: 6 Seconds
Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Claw Mastery [1], Psychic Hammer [1], Weapon Block [12], Cloak of Shadows [12], Shadow Warrior [18]

Effect: This discipline allows an Assassin to project an even more powerful shadow avatar. The Shadow Master has access to all of the Assassin skills, also skills you don't have yet.
- The Shadow Master has Resistances when compared to the Shadow Warrior. Most players choose the Shadow Master for play past level 30 although the Shadow Warrior offers more control over which skills and spells she casts.
- Shadow Masters have a base strength and dexterity equal to their level * 10. The skills a Shadow Master casts have the skill-level equal to half her skill-level +1.
- You can either have a Shadow Master or a Shadow Warrior
- Resistances of the Shadow Master do not suffer from the penalties in Nightmare and Hell difficulty. Furthermore, they are not capped at 75%. Hence, it's possible to get the Shadow Master immune against elemental attacks.
- The Skills a Shadow Master uses are: Cloak of Shadows (rarely), Mindblast, Fade, Burst of Speed, Death Sentry [some Martial Arts and other traps]
- Items for the Shadowmasters
Lvl 17 Rare Amulet
Lvl 13 Rare Ring left
Lvl 11 Rare Suwayyah, War Fist or Scissors Suwayyah in right hand
Lvl 11 Rare Battle Cestus, Runic Talons or Scissor Suwayyah in left hand
Lvl 11 Rare Vambraces or Ogre Gauntlets
Lvl 11 Rare Ring right
Lvl 11 Rare Armor; same type as Assassin
Lvl 11 Rare Helm; same type as Assassin
Lvl 9 Magic Ring right
Lvl 6 Magic Suwayyah, War Fist or Scissors Suwayyah in right hand
Lvl 6 Magic Battle Cestus, Runic Talons or Scissors Suwayyah in left hand
Lvl 6 Magic Bramble Mitts or Vambraces
Lvl 6 Magic Armor; same type as Assassin
Lvl 6 Magic Helm; same type as Assassin
Lvl 5 Superior Bramble Mitts, Vambraces or Ogre Gauntlets
Lvl 1 Superior Suwayyah, War Fist or Scissors Suwayyah in right hand
Lvl 1 Superior Battle Cestus, Runic Talons or Scissors Suwayyah in left hand
Lvl 1 Superior Armor; same type as Assassin
Lvl 1 Superior Helm; same type as Assassin
These items are generated randomly on each cast.






Traps



Sometimes, the incredible martial prowess and awesome psychic capacity of the Assassins are not enough to battle all forms of magic-wielding menaces. To supplement her array of tools and abilities, the Assassin has access to an ingenious group of devices. These mechanisms, engineered by Viz-Jaq'taari sages, have been perfected over many years of use. They range from simple thrown missiles and bombs to more complex proximity-triggered sentries.
- There is a limit of 5 Traps.
- Traps are very effective in Normal and later on into Nightmare. Players traveling to Hell might find traps start to become less effective at higher acts due to Monster resistances and Life. Traps are, however, easy to use and there is not much risk of harm which balances this out. Traps can be used at higher difficulty levels for additional help and the Death Sentry's Corpse Explosion ability can be great anywhere.
- Certain items will allow a player to lower an enemy's resistances and/or heighten elemental damage. These items will not function with most traps as some traps are minions of the character and the damage is not generated directly from the character in question.
- Blade Sentinel, Blade Fury, Blade Shield: All three blade skills receive an additional 50% penalty to the "weapon" portion of the damage while wearing 2 handed weapons. So equipping a thunder maul would make blade fury add only 3/8 of your 'normal attack' damage instead of 3/4, and would make blade sentinel do 3/16 instead of 3/8, and blade shield do 1/8 instead of 1/4.
- Note: traps function as golems and summons, that means that they are not affected by items that give +%lightning/fire damage or -% lightning/fire.



Fire Blast
Required Level: 1
Prerequisites: None

Effect: This skill gives an Assassin the ability to manufacture and throw a small incendiary device. This ordinance explodes on impact, damaging any foe within its small blast radius.


Fire Blast Receives Bonuses From
Shock Web: +9% Fire Damage Per Level
Charged Bolt Sentry: +9% Fire Damage Per Level
Wake of Fire: +9% Fire Damage Per Level
Lightning Sentry: +9% Fire Damage Per Level
Wake of Inferno: +9% Fire Damage Per Level
Death Sentry: +9% Fire Damage Per Level




Shock Web
Required Level: 6
Prerequisites: Fire Blast [1]

Effect: These traps comprise a collection of small conductive components that arc electricity between one another, damaging any opponents who tread upon them.

Shock Web Receives Bonuses From
Fire Blast: +1 Missile Per 3 Levels
Charged Bolt Sentry: +11% Lightning Damage Per Level
Lightning Sentry: +11% Lightning Damage Per Level
Death Sentry: +11% Lightning Damage Per Level



Blade Sentinel
Casting Delay: 2 Seconds
Required Level: 6
Prerequisites: None

Effect: This skill allows the Assassin to throw a razor-sharp device that flies back and forth between the Assassin and its target, slicing any hostile creatures in its path.
Blade sentinel will not trigger % chance to cast on striking nor % chance to cast on attack effects, and will not apply open wounds




Charged Bolt Sentry
Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Fire Blast [1], Shock Web [6]

Effect: This small device, once cast upon the ground, emits charges of electricity that shock any adversary who strays too close.

Charged Bolt Sentry Receives Bonuses From
Shock Web: +1 Bolt Per 3 Levels
Lightning Sentry: +1 Shot Per 4 Levels
Fire Blast: +6% Lightning Damage Per Level
Lightning Sentry: +6% Lightning Damage Per Level
Death Sentry: +6% Lightning Damage Per Level





Wake Of Fire
Required Level: 12
Prerequisites: Fire Blast [1]

Effect: Once erected, this trap releases waves of flame that incinerate any opponents within its path.

Wake of Fire Receives Bonuses From
Fire Blast: +8% Fire Damage Per Level
Wake of Inferno: +8% Fire Damage Per Level



Blade Fury
Required Level: 18
Prerequisites: Fire Blast [1], Blade Sentinel [6], Wake of Fire [12]

Effect: Using this skill, the Assassin throws several small blades, shredding her enemies with a barrage of metal.
- Blade Fury doesn't use up durability of weapons, thus qualifies for ethereal weapons.
- Blade Fury will attack constantly with 6 frames per attack. It does not work with Burst of Speed or any other increased (or decreased) attack speed.
- Blade Fury is indeed dependant on your attack rating although that's not displayed. Check your chances of hitting a monster with a normal attack to determine your chance with Blade Fury.
- Blade Fury does not work with pierce or exploding arrow effects.
- Blade Fury works with effects on striking, but not on attack. Therefore, Curses and other effects can be triggered very fast.
- The +min/max damage listed on the skill effectively works the same as +min/max damage added to your weapon on normal attacks, except that it is not reduced by the 3/4, 3/8 & 1/4 penalties. So for damage dealing purposes, on blade fury, you could treat it exactly the same as an offweapon source of +min/max damage, ignoring the penalty. This is especially important, as with high levels of blade skills, the +skill damage can deal more than the weapon "half" of the damage.



Lightning Sentry
Required Level: 24
Prerequisites: Fire Blast [1], Shock Web [6], Charged Bolt Sentry [12]

Effect: This device discharges great bolts of electricity, frying assailants when they come near.

Lightning Sentry Receives Bonuses From
Shock Web: +12% Lightning Damage Per Level
Charged Bolt Sentry: +12% Lightning Damage Per Level
Death Sentry: +12% Lightning Damage Per Level




Wake Of Inferno
Required Level: 24
Prerequisites: Fire Blast [1], Wake Of Fire [12]

Effect: Once an Assassin throws it to the ground, this trap expels a large spout of fire at any opponent who moves within its range.

Wake of Inferno Receives Bonuses From
Wake of Fire: +0.5 Yards Per Level
Fire Blast: +10% Fire Damage Per Level
Wake of Fire: +7% Fire Damage Per Level
Death Sentry: +10% Fire Damage Per Level



Death Sentry
Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Fire Blast [1], Shock Web [6], Charged Bolt Sentry [12], Lightning Sentry [24]

Effect: This trap emits projectiles laden with a potent chemical catalyst, detonating the exposed cadavers of slain enemies.

Death Sentry Receives Bonuses From
Fire Blast: +1 Shot Per 3 Levels
Lightning Sentry: +12% Lightning Damage Per Level



Blade Shield
Required Level: 30
Prerequisites: Fire Blast [1], Blade Sentinel [6], Wake of Fire [12], Blade Fury [18]

Effect This contrivance releases several small razors and uses magnetic forces to set them spinning about the Assassin, inflicting grievous wounds on any foe who approaches her too closely.
- Using Blade Shield will reduce the durability of your weapon.
- This will not trigger "On Striking" spells. It will however, trigger On Attack spells.
- Blade shield will trigger a "hitcheck" as soon as it is cast, so you can make it hit faster by standing within range of your target and spamming it.