[Guide] The Immobilizer (Blades of Ice/Dragon Tail)

The Immobilizer (Blades of Ice/Dragon Tail)



Navigation
1. Introduction
2. Skills
3. Frozen vs. Chilled Monsters
4. Stat Allocation
5. Equipment
5.1. General PvM
5.2. Magic Find
6. Tactics
6.1. General PvM
6.2. Specific MF Areas
6.3. To Melee or Not to Melee
7. Mercenary Selection
8. Leveling

Introduction
The Immobilizer (or FI'CE) assassin will have the power to render her enemies unable to hit back while at the same time killing them leaving no corpses that can be used against her. The Immobilizing effect will come in 3 stages to safely and effectively destroy all who stand in her way and at the same time making her neigh untouchable.
The build will rely on as much + skill items as possible to deal high cold + fire damage simultaneously incurring a freezing/knockback effect with a freeze duration possible of over 18 secs (over 4 secs in Hell) and is very well suited for playing hardcore

Skills
Primary Skills will be:

20 pnts - Blades of ice

Why Blades of Ice?

Blades of ice is often considered a very weak skill compared to others , I have to disagree.

Pros:

BOI now in 1.10 freezes and doesn't just chill the target, with an AOE of 4 yards that increases in freeze length the higher the skill level.
BOI is an elemental attack so it needs only 20 frames to fully charge (4 hits) , compared to phoenix strike which requires 21 frames to charge (only 3 hits).
BOI does higher damage than PS skill for skill and leaves a chill area on the floor for around 1-2 secs that can still freeze monsters if they wander into it before it dissipates.
A level 37 BOI with maxed PS as a synergy does 2108 - 2269 with a freeze length of 18.4 secs.
BOI will always deal cold damage (ie with only 1 or 2 charges) when confronted with mana burning monsters , especially in hell.
BOI Has no timing problems to worry about. Always 3 charges are needed , usually 2 clicks of the mouse is all that's needed.

Cons:

BOI has a low AR bonus compared to other skills , but this won't be a problem
BOI needs more IAS to reach Max break point.

Frozen vs Slowed (Chilled) Monsters
Frozen monsters do not suffer a Defensive Rating decrease when frozen, as Stone Cursed monsters did. In addition, not all chilled (slowed) monsters shatter into fragments upon death, only a percentage of them. All frozen monsters will shatter, however.

Below is a list of which monsters are Cold immune and whether they CANNOT BE FROZEN for HELL DIFFICULTY only. Each name is a group name and can include usually around 5 different types . ie Fallen contains Fallen, Carver, Devilkin, Dark One, Warped One. The first number is total cold immune , the second is total in that group

Act I Bestiary

0/5 Fallen (Demon)
0/5 Fallen Shaman (Demon)
0/5 Spike Fiend (Animal)
1/5 Zombie (Undead)
4/5 Wendigo (Animal)
5/5 Corrupt Rogue (Demon)
1/5 Corrupt Rogue Archer (Demon)
1/5 Corrupt Rogue Spearwoman (Demon)
0/5 Skeleton (Undead)
0/5 Skeleton Archer (Undead)
3/4 Skeleton Mage (Undead) *
1/5 Goatman (Demon)
0/4 Blood Hawk (Animal)
0/5 Tainted (Demon)
0/4 Giant Spider (Animal)
0/5 Wraith (Undead) CANNOT BE FROZEN
1/5 Fetish (Demon)
5/5 Vampire (Undead)
0/1 Flying Scimitar CANNOT BE FROZEN
0/4 Blood Hawk Nest
1/1 Gargoyle Trap CANNOT BE FROZEN

Cold Immunes = 24%

* Of the 3/4 , Skeleton mages have a random chance to deal None/Cold/Fire/Lightning so this means these 3 have a 1/4 chance to be cold immune or a 3 / 15 chance out of the total and could make the overall 24% even less.

Act II Bestiary

1/5 Leaper (Animal)
0/5 Scarab Demon (Animal)
0/5 Sand Maggot (Animal)
0/5 Sand Maggot Egg (Animal)
0/5 Sand Maggot Young (Animal)
0/4 Vulture Demon
0/4 Swarm (Animal)
2/4 Sabre Cat (Animal)
2/4 Slinger (Animal)
0/5 Mummy (Undead)
1/4 Greater Mummy (Undead)
2/5 Sand Raider (Animal)
1/5 Bat Demon (Animal)
5/5 Claw Viper (Animal)
0/4 Baboon Demon (Animal)
1/4 Blunderbore (Demon)
0/1 Lightning Spire
1/1 Mummy Sarcophagus
0/1 Fire Tower

Cold immunes = 21%

Act III Bestiary

0/3 Fetish Shaman (Demon)
0/2 Giant Mosquito (Animal)
4/4 Thorned Hulk (Animal)
1/3 Frog Demon (Animal)
0/2 Willowisp (Undead) CANNOT BE FROZEN
0/3 Bone Fetish (Undead) CANNOT BE FROZEN
0/3 Tentacle Beast (Animal)
1/3 Zakarum Zealot (Animal)
2/3 Zakarum Priest (Animal)
0/2 Council Member (Demon)

Cold Immunes = 28%

Act IV Bestiary

0/3 Finger Mage (Undead)
0/3 Mega Demon (Demon)
0/3 Regurgitator (Demon)
1/3 Oblivion Knight (Undead)
1/3 Vile Mother (Demon) *
2/3 Vile Child (Demon) *

Cold Immunes = 22%

* Maybe an error on Arreat Summit but both Vile Mother/Child lists cold resists of over 140 %. which would indicate total immunity.

Act V Bestiary

4/8 Baal's Minion
4/8 Suicide Minion
2/5 Death Mauler
0/1 Catapult
5/5 Overseer (Demon)
0/5 Demon Imp (Demon)
3/5 Siege Beast
4/4 Abominable
3/5 Reanimated Horde (Undead)
0/5 Succubus (Demon)
2/5 Stygian Fury (Demon)
5/5 Frozen Horror
1/5 Blood Lord *
0/5 Putrid Defiler (Demon)
2/5 Pain Worm (Demon)
0/3 Minion of Destruction (Demon)
0/0 Reziarfg (Demon)

Cold Immunes 44%

* Blood Lords have very low Chill Effectiveness with one having 0 (Death Lord). Basically these will be hard to freeze.

Also Monsters from other acts can appear here randomly thus increasing/decreasing the percentage accordingly.

What's interesting is that most Cold immunes still have the ability to be Chilled ( and thus shattered) and the Monsters listed as CANNOT BE FROZEN are usually NOT Cold Immune (although some like the Bone Fetish still has 75% Cold resist)

This means a high percentage of slain monsters will shatter and can't be resurrected (ie shamans) or exploded (ie nihlathak).


20 pnts - Pheonix Strike

PS is purely for the synergy bonus it gives to the elemental skills and is not needed to actually use.


20 pnts - Dragon Tail

DT will be our main releaser for this build. The explosive kick will cause great fire damage based on how much physical damage you do and will be partnered with Myrmidon Greaves to maximize its potential.

Why Dragon Tail ?

Pros:

The kick alone can achieve the HIGHEST AOE damage to an area of 4 yards that does not require any charging for the minimum number of skills points invested.
This explosive kick when combined with BOI will cause lots of instant shattering.
There is a Knockback effect meaning you will rarely find yourself surrounded.
When combined with Tiger Strike the damage can increase by insane amounts.
This is Physical damage to release target and Fire damage to the AOE so its 2 forms of damage by itself.
The next delay problem with COT can be gotten around by using Dtail as the releaser.

Cons:

DTail is the slowest kick but its AOE damage more than makes up for this and the IMMOBILIZING effect of the build means you have plenty of time anyway.


Damage possible with 3 charge of BOI(lev 37)+ DT(lev 37)finisher = 3973 - 5448 (at lev 37)


1-20 pnt - Tiger Strike : will be around lev 17+ after + skill items;


Our secondary attack which we will be using after 1 successful charge and release of BOI.
Damage possible with 3 charge BOI (lev 37)+ 3 charge TS(lev 17)+ DT finishe(lev37)r = 15k - 23k.
I would recommend 1 pnt here and let + skills increase its level.


20 pnts - Claws of thunder

COT will be our third chargeup skill (unless you go the TS route) that we will use when we encounter cold+physical immunes.
Damage possible with 3 charge BOI(lev 37)+ 3 charge TS(lev17) + 3 charge COT (lev34)+ DT finisher(lev37) = 15k - 35k (quite jaw dropping and note my COT is only lev 34 .. 3 more levels till max)

1 pnt in rest of MA tree as a prerequisite.

0-1 pnt in Dragon Flight as this skill will never be needed unless you plan on MFing.

1pnt in all SHADOW tree. This will give level 16 + to all after + skill items.

Primarily we will be using venom/Burst of speed (for pre casting) and Cloak of shadows /Mind blast (when appropriate) .See Tactics below.

1pnt in Blade Fury. Only 4 pnts will be used in the TRAP tree , the other 3 are for prerequisites for BF .See below To melee or not to melee.

ps. the above damages shown are including venom and are what is seen on screen, so this includes physical damage as well.


Stat allocation
STR - enough for equipment
DEX - enough for equipment
VIT - Rest after the above is met
ENE - None


Equipment
Below will be 2 recommended equipment choices, one for general all-round everywhere pvm and the other with Magic find in mind.

General PVM:

Weapon primary: 1xBartuc(main) + 1x Jade talon (socketed with Eth to help with hitting). Both are relatively cheap and give lots + skills + nice bonus's. The different between 2 Bartucs is only 1 MA skill but the Jade gives us our Mana Leech + ~50 all resist

Weapon secondary: Shadow Killers(main socked ETH) + bartuc . See below To melee or not to melee .

Secondary: Any claw with nice stats ie. + 3 MA ,+3 BOI , +3 DT etc. High damage on the claw is not needed although on switch any high damage claw (Ethereal) will do

Armour: Chains of honor: The ideal armour for this and probably every melee build out there.2 skills ,65 all res, 8% Damage reduce ,Leach + STR bonus. Best made in a scarab husk or archon plate as both are light armours.

Secondary: Any armour with + skills and/or res.Arcaines/ Vipermagi (upgraded perhaps) /Silks of the victor etc.

Helm: Harlequin /Nightwing : Both give +2 skills , Harle gives us DR + life/mana + MF . Nightwing gives us up to +15% to cold skill damage which can give us up to 2609 cold damage.

Secondary: Again any + skill helm will help this build. Crown of ages gives nice stats, DR/RES/ 1 Skill but very expensive. Peasant crown + lore are very cheap alternatives with + skill as well.

Belt: Vedungos gives us up to 15% Dr + lots vita

Secondary: Arachnid has 1 skill but little else for this build. String of ears has Dr, Deaths set belt has cannot be frozen.

Boots: Shadow dancers will boost our DT damage to the max and give us + 2 Shadow skills + 2x dex .

Secondary: Myrmidon greaves are a must for maximum DT damage .Upgraded Goreriders or nice rare Myrmidon greaves with FRW/FHR/RES etc

Gloves: Crafted Blood/Rare +2 MA ,20 ias ,res are best for this build .

Secondary: + 3 MA + 20 ias magic gloves may be better better than the above if you can find them and have enough res .

Rings: 1 Bul kathos + Raven . Gives us life + skill + cannot be frozen.

Secondary: Soj / Any res/str/LL.

Amulet: Seraphym / Maras . Both give + 2 all skills but maras gives us resist all and Seraphs gives us + ar to demons and undead . Seraphs is almost 99% of all monsters and is what i use.

Secondary: Highlords /crafted/rare/blue + 2assasin/+3 Ma + res + other mods

Sockets: 20% ias is enough on equipment to reach max Hit rate with level 16 BOS. I dont have 20 ias on my gloves so i socked my Primary Bartuc with a shael to gain 20 ias.
This leaves the Helm with an open socket for you to do what you like , and maybe the Bartuc if you have 20 ias on your gloves. I would recommend a Perf Topaz/Ist in the shako to give us 99/100 Mf.

Charms: Martial arts skill charms are ideal. They will boost ALL attacks + the AR and seem to be cheaper than Trap or Shadow skillers.
Don't forget the annihulus charm will give + 1 skill + res + stats

Secondary: Life/AR/Res/Shadow skillers. Basically what you can get. Cold damage charms will not effect our Freeze duration 1 bit so they are not needed.

Using the above recommended you will have:

33% Damage reduction (using harlequin) : I find this to be more than enough
100% Faster Hit recovery
75 all resist in Hell
99 MF

Magic Find:

Weapon primary: 2x Jade talon(1 socked Shael(main) 1 socked amn). This will ensure our resists are at least ~0 in hell before any other equipment is allocated and we get + skills /LL/ML

Weapon secondary: Not really applicable here so anything from Call to arms or + 3 Shadow claws for pre buffing

Armour: Enigma / Skulders( socked um/all res jewel) / Chains of honor . Enigma will allow for quicker runs but will lack resists and is very expensive. Skullders is ideal and still gives + 1 skill

Helm: Harlequin is the winner here as it gives us a cool 74 mf when socked with a Ptopaz and amazing other stats as well.

Secondary: Peasant crown is the poor mans harle 1 skill + ~50 mf. Again can be socked with PTopaz.

Belt: upgraded Gold wrap has 10 ias + 30 MF + 4 slots

Boots: rare/blue Myrmidon greaves with MF + Frw/FHR/RES etc ~20 mf is common to find

Gloves: Crafted Blood/Rare ~15 mf+ 2 MA/IAS/RES or the nearest to this combination

Rings: 1 Nagel + 1 Raven . Will maintain our CBF mod

Amulet: Ideal would be 2 ASSA + mf + res but any combination is ok.

Sockets: Ptopazs in armours /Helms or All resist jewels if needed.

Charms: Annihulus charm will give + 1 skill + much needed res + stats. MF/REs/Life/Ar charms should be the the rest. A great place to use the ~25 fire/light/cold grand charms as well

An example MF build

74 Shako + PT
124 Skullders + PT (lev 80)
15~ Amulet
15~ gloves
30~ belt
25~ rings
20~ boots
303 Mf

2 jade + 1 Anni + 3x 25 res (fire/light/cold) + 3 x ANYA quest= ~75 fire/light/cold res not including any resist on other items

Tactics
General pvm

Before venturing out of town make sure that you have precast Burst of speed + Venom and our Shadow master.

Part 1 of immobilizing At the first sign of trouble/monsters immediately cast Cloak of shadows.

optional: After part 1 ,depending on the difficulty/location i.e. Blood moor or Worldstone Keep The use of Mind blast to convert a few monsters first may be appropriate.

Part 2/3 of immobilizing Join your Merc and Shadow Master and immediately Fully charge Blades of Ice and release with Dragon Tail.

Providing there are no cold immunes they should be frozen or chilled and/or Knocked back or shattered. Only in later parts of hell may there be still some monsters remaining. If that's the case-

Fully charge BOI again + fully charge Tiger strike and release with DT . Rinse and repeat.

Never release your DT on a Physical immune as the resulting Fire damage will be ZERO , UNLESS you are relying on Cold/Light to Kill.

Cold Immunes

When we encounter a CI we can choose to then use either Tiger strike + Dtail or Claws of Thunder.
I find that even though a monster is not fire or light immune they often take more damage from one than the other.
i.e . A lower damage COT could kill quicker than a higher damage Dtail.

Usually a safe bet is to charge with Tiger Strike first and see how quick its life goes down after the first Dtail release. If the reduction is not what you would expect switching to Claws of thunder will usually see the job done quicker.

Remember that champions/Uniques/Bosses CANNOT be frozen although they can be chilled.

Tip

If you are unfortunate to find yourself surrounded with no obvious means of escape then you did something wrong. However all is not lost as Dtail alone will push everything around you away giving you some breathing room to either regroup or make a quick retreat.

Specific MF Areas

At these popular MF locations you can decide yourself how you aim to get there. The Pit and Pindle can easily be obtained by running alone, but at Mephisto and Baal i would recommend using Enigma for the Teleport skill if the fastest possible runs are needed( although i personally find doing Baal runs slowly killing everything on the way to be very enjoyable and immensely satisfying).

The Pit

This area contains just about every type of immunity there is and is where this build really shines.
The fastest way there if on foot is via the Outer Cloister WP then back through the big door to be immediately in the Tamoe highland.
With plenty of space to maneuver, the entrance can be found without engaging a single monster.
Mostly Corrupt rogues and zombies are to be found here and as a general rule:

Only cast Cloak of shadows if you find any missiles heading your way as the chance to cast it again may be a while longer than it will take you to take out that group. Use Mind blast instead if you must.
If they are NOT CI then use normal tactics BOI + DTAIL will make small work of all down here.
If they ARE CI then using only Dtail is sufficient. Usually 3-4 kicks and that group is now dead.
The immobilizer has no trouble clearing this area quickly.

Pindleskin

Here make sure you precast all skills except for your shadow as you do not need her straight away.
Ignore all the corpses on the floor immediately as you enter the red portal as they are always cold immune , proceed instead directly to the room that contains Pindle.
As you enter this room , the second you can glimpse Pindle and his crew cast your shadow smack in front of the group , followed immediate by casting Cloak of shadows ( this gives the group something to occupy them whilst you blind them).
Immediately After casting COS start to spam Mind blast on the ones nearest to you until 1 or 2 monsters get converted.
Then approach to the right hand side of your shadow ( seems to give a better view of everything being on the right instead of the left) and charge your Blades of ice and release . Everything that was in the blast radius (except pindle) will be frozen so immediately charge another BOI + a TS and release... rinse repeat.
Often pindle is killed as well whilst attacking the others unless he's cold or fire immune (he can be all types immune).
If he is not treat him like any other boss when he's alone .. depending on his immunity pick the best attack ( you have them all).

ps The immobilizing effect will minimize the chance for you to be attacked whilst identifying your newly found Unique Hydra Bow as most of the killed minions will be shattered and won't come back to haunt you .

Tip

If you decide to do pindle whilst in 8 player games (ie whilst waiting for a baal run) he will obviously take longer to kill but the same tactics apply. Make sure you stay close to the far end near the exit down as this stops you attracting any corpses from outside coming in to spoil things for you.

Mephisto

Not much to be said here other than running there can be difficult due to lack of space and many doors to go through , so using Dflight can aid you to pass a group that's in your way.
Once at mephisto treat him like any boss , Charge everything until dead.

Baal

Here you have two choices Tele / or Fight your way there. Running there will 99.9% of the time = death so don't try.
If you fight beware of Black souls and remember to use COS alot. Here a higher level COS is better as not all groups go down as quick.

Once in the throne and and the area is cleared :

On all waves

Cast your shadow in the middle of where the each wave appears BEFORE THEY APPEAR and as they do appear cast Cloak of shadows.
Convert 1-2 monsters by spamming Mblast a few times and recast your shadow if necessary.
Go in Charge BOI + DT........ BOI + TS+ DT ........BOI + TS + DT ..........etc
Recast COS if needed.

2nd Wave

The skeletons that are made are all cold immune but CAN still be shattered so charge BOI + TS + Dtail continuous . The TS/DT combo will kill the skeletons quick and all BOI/TS/DT will damage the mummies (that revive the skeletons) as well at the same time.

Last Wave

These guys are on a mission to destroy you but immobilizing effect of the build makes it much easier to tank. Always try and start to tank minions that are furthest from Lister and keep the frozen minions in-between you and him at all times. Only when he's alone must you try to take him out. As he can't be frozen and he does hit hard, back away till he's focused on your merc or shadow then go attack.
Here I find more often than not that he's Dual immune and its usually Cold + Fire so having a max Claws of thunder is awesome. (COT+TS+DT)

Tip
Often an entire wave may be Fire immune , so here don't bother charging TS instead use BOI+COT+Dtail (Dtail still knocks back and releases our charges even though in itelf it will do 0 AOE damage , although it will do physical to the one we release on)
Keep yourself so you cannot see baal himself , as this puts you out of range of his Decrepify curse. If you do get cursed then Spam MBlast and retreat to town to heal yourself.
Get into the habit of recasting Burst of speed + venom in-between each wave.

Finally Baal himself. He's relatively easy to tank but it can sometimes take a while due to his high life. Keep plenty of mana potions as he uses a mana burning attack which can be rather annoying.
If he uses the cold attack and you get pushed away ,using DFlight can get you and your companions right next to him again to continue.

If possible get yourself up against a wall so if he does use his cold attack it won't push you away.
Make full use of his festering appendages he uses often , they will give you a nice mana boost when attacked.

To melee or not to melee
I have found that using low ED Bartucs/Jade means I have never died when I have been cursed with Iron Maiden and hit something. 4 hits usually means I have lost 1/2 my life and not dead (unlike in 1.09). When this happens switch to secondary weapons and use Blade fury on all Doom knights etc( the ones that can cast curses). They always have low life and are quite easy to kill from Blade fury alone.

Against single Bosses then charging of all skills BOI+TS+COS+DT to unleash 15k-35k of cold/fire/light/physical/poison damage. Suffice to say you will cut through anything like butter

Merc Selection
Initially I thought that the ACT 2 AR boosting merc would be best for this build but having just over 7000k AR at lev 85 is more than enough to hit anything when combined with COS. So I now use the Defiance Merc to boost my Defence to make it even harder to be hit. Expect to get about 4.5-5k def.
Kit your Merc out with Reapers Toll /Shaft/ Rockstopper to give him nice DR + resists + he'll cast decrepify often to slow everything by 50%, that combined with your Freeze/chill will slow everything to a crawl.

Leveling
The effectiveness of this build is apparent as soon as you can use both BOI + DT on normal.
I suggest putting alternative points in BOI/DT until maxed BUT putting points into prerequisites when available.
2nd should be PS maxed then finally COT.
If you plan leveling beyond 88 then might I suggest putting points in TS to boost your fire damage



Credits to morris.