Guide BUILD - Riftsin

Introduction
This is a guide for a Riftsin assassin. It is a hybrid kicker/trapper based around the Rift runeword. This build has potential to generate great damage output, and possesses excellent crowd control capabilities. For those not familiar with Rift, it is a weapon (scepter and polearm only) runeword with a decent chance to cast frozen orb on attack. You can see the wiki here: http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Rift_Rune_Word. Frozen orb is a great spell by itself, however the casting delay involved prevents it from being a more dominant spell. There is no casting delay with chance to cast, so you are able to send an army of orbs tearing thru enemies at will. This is incredibly powerful and satisfying, especially when coupled with other chance to cast elemental spells. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the Riftsin.

Breakpoints
FHR Frames
0% 9
7% 8
15% 7
27% 6 - My sin is here. I don't feel like it's slowing me down or putting me in danger
48% 5
86% 4
200%

FCR Frames
0% 16 - Not needed, don't stress it unless you demand faster teleports
8% 15
16% 14
27% 13
42% 12
65% 11
102% 10
174% 9

IAS
There's a lot involved in calculating dragon tail frames, so I'll refer you to this wonderful guide: https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/assassin-ias-tables.793810/
My setup has me using war scepter (-10 wsm) and level 14 BoS for reference.

Stats
I went with a max vita build, Head Hunter's Glory is not a good blocking shield

Str: Enough for gear (My highest is Mirrored Boots [2x up] Goblin Toe @ 163)
Dex: None
Vit: Everything else
Ene: None

Skills
Martial Arts
Dragon Talon: Max - This is your main (left click) attack
If you don't have Enigma/TM, then you may want 1 point into Dragon Flight for teleport
I chose not to use any charge-up skills and use only kicks

Shadow Disciplines
1 point into everything - Run with BoS, Venom and Shadow Master

Traps
Pre-reqs - Fire Blast, Wake of Fire, Blade Sentinel, Blade Fury: 1
Blade Shield: 1 - Keep this active, there are 8 blades which work with chance to cast on attacking (not on striking) which means 8 additional chances for an orb proc
Lightning Sentry: Max
Death Sentry: Max
Shock Web/Charged Bolt Sentry: Everything else, both provide the same boost for LS so take your pick

Gear
Rift is the center of this build, and I recommend aiming for as much +cold damage/-cold resist as you can manage

Helm - Nightwing's Veil
Only option in my mind. Find a +15% and stick a cold facet in it
Gloves - Anything
This is pretty open, I use rares with IAS/str/dex/resist but anything will work
Belt - Tgods
I highly recommend for the +20 str/vit and light absorb
Boots - Goblin Toes
Up these twice, the CB is good to have for bosses. Also up'd Gores, Shadow Dancers will work
Armor - Enigma/TM/CoH
I use TM with a cold facet, but this is fairly open. CoH is decent also, as you might be short on resist. Budget options are Treachery and Duress
Weapon - Rift
Look for a 4os war scepter, ideal for this with lower requirements and -10 WSM.
Shield - Head Hunter's Glory
Find one with 3os and fill it with cold facets. 4os monarch full of facets will work too, but I think the HHG provides some better bonuses. SS if you want a block build
Rings - Any
I have CBF from TM, so Raven wasn't needed. I use 2 x Carrion Wind for CTC twister. Coupled with the orbs and tornadoes from Rift, there's a lot of stuff flying around the screen
Amulet - Mara's
I'm still very low on resist and refuse to use fade with heavy armor on, so this was needed
Weapon Switch - CTA/Spirit
Even max vita, this build can be soft. Try to get your HP up as much as possible.

Inventory
Torch and Anni as usual
I have a few Shadow + HP skillers mostly for the HP, the BoS and venom boost aren't bad either
Resist SC/GC
Unless you use CoH you probably will be short on resists, so try to close the gap here

Merc
Due to the fact my build ended with 24% chance to block and no DR, she tends to take a beating. I felt that an A2 prayer merc with Insight was the best choice. The healing boost is actually quite strong and makes up for the very low LL due to the majority of damage being elemental.

Other than Insight I just threw on whatever extra stuff I had with IAS and CTC elemental attacks. I was focused on this build being a fireworks show, lots and lots of pretty colors and spells filling the screen.

Strategy
Fairly simple, approach mobs like a trapsin, lay down 4 LS/1 DS and tele right on top of the baddest one in the bunch. Kick them right in the mouth and watch the fireworks set off. You will have lightning, tornadoes, orbs, fire storms, corpse explosions, an apocalypse of elemental and physical damage. Nothing will be immune to the beat down the Riftsin will provide. Keep BoS, Blade Shield and Venom active and enjoy the show. The only mobs I seemed to struggle with were dolls, my advice is hit them with cloak of shadows and let the traps wipe them out. They can be quite dangerous if you let them get close.

Conclusion
This turned out to be way more fun than I anticipated, and can be built pretty cheap. She turned out to be fairly soft, which the prayer merc helps out a ton, but the damage she deals is actually pretty good. The character screen might show a 1k kick only, but don't be fooled, she can take on anyone, anywhere. I haven't tested her in PvP so I'm not sure how viable it would be, but that wasn't my goal to begin with. Hope you enjoyed this.

 

I'm going to have to try this. I've been in a new character funk lately and have never...NEVER...built a sin. Period. Of any kind.

 

I was waiting when Sara's riftsin will hit this server Since Ive never made her, Im slowly collecting necessary equipment

Gj with the guide

 

Was a pleasure to read!
Excellent, innovating and so fresh guide!
Great job!

 

Guide is really good, well done Timmy)

 

Have you tried dracs? There is nothing better to help you with life regen than good old life tap

 

No, life tap works the same as LL, only off of physical damage. Even though it is a high leech percentage, the kick damage is relatively low and you still have to wait for it to proc, which sometimes doesn't happen. Also I was having mana problems and so I decided against infinity.

 

Does it rly have such a small influence? 50% ll with your upped goblin toes should produce significant amount of heal imho...

 

When it's active it's fairly strong, yes. However it's only a 5% CTC, even with 6 kicks per attack that's low and I can't depend on that to survive. The +life after each kill is helpful too, however as I stated before I chose to go with prayer/insight merc and it works beautifully. I don't have to worry about waiting for a curse to proc, the heal is constant and also counteracts poison very well as my resist is pretty low. It's also a nice bonus when playing in a party or BHs because it's less common to have a prayer merc.

 

A mercenary needs a forti?? Or you can advise something more effective? Just started to reassemble the merc items, there is a mask andy eth, infinity, vampir gloves, armor ap eth 4 sock, boots sandstorm, tr belt)

 

Hello and nice build Timmy.I will tell you what i use for my build because other ideas can make you change something in your build.
I use: dracs+raven (if you use monarch and you need max block) /bk /dungo /up'd gores/Forty/NW/Rift/Highlord.
Its a good idea to throw few trap skillers aswell (they really help).
971-1638 DTalon dmg///DS-1-2339 dmg///LS-1-2861 dmg//DF-1356-2248 dmg.
I hope this is useful for somebody.

 

Nice guide for assassin, but for PvP you can try Lacerator for weapon casting amplify dmg almost every kicking with fast 2 fpa Dragon talon( actualy is 3 fpa because of buging game)