Right way to build Throw Assassin?

[Manu300000]

main question is : can it clean fauzt efficently?

made a short showcase, it can clear ok, not ultra fast, but it is alright

nice video, actually testing it myself atm. Do you use Void rw? atm im using trackers weapon (just for testing) moed with mana leech and its working out fine.

[aerial]

Yea for trash clearing you can use whatever, tracker is good, other knives with procs are good too.

[PlayerOne]

Question is what else can you do with spare points to maximize its effectiveness.
<snip>

Interesting that you seem to have come full circle on Doom and wots since the earier posts in this thread (not a criticism btw, just an observation as to how the thinking is developing in unexpected ways).


I'm much less experienced at this game, but I've been following the thread and seeing the discussion of how best to use the skill points - I hope you won't mind if I mention a few thoughts (please don't laugh!)...

Since we need maxed Perfect Being and will probably always use maxed Prismatic Cloak, if we start with maxed maelstrom (assuming Void gives enough mana to sustain it) and and maxed wots + Doom, then we already have pretty much a full build.

Any spare points, I'm wondering about Vampiric Icon to sustain life.

Perhaps another strange way to build this (apologies in advance if it's crap, just throwing ideas around) is to look for a decent mana pool and some mana regen from items (that is, items that give both dex and mana such as

Topspin

Topspin
Skull Cap (4)
Defense: (76 - 83) to (115 - 125)
Required Level: 3
Required Strength: 28
Item Level: 1
5% Attack Speed
+(31 to 50)% Enhanced Defense
+(31 to 50) Defense
(3 to 5)% to Dexterity
(3 to 5)% to Energy
Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
10% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (1)
Defense: (277 - 301) to (365 - 397)
Required Level: 20
Required Strength: 55
Item Level: 31
15% Attack Speed
+(61 to 80)% Enhanced Defense
+(71 to 100) Defense
(6 to 8)% to Dexterity
(6 to 8)% to Energy
Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
20% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (3)
Defense: (704 - 760) to (876 - 943)
Required Level: 37
Required Strength: 192
Item Level: 51
25% Attack Speed
+(91 to 110)% Enhanced Defense
+(151 to 200) Defense
(9 to 11)% to Dexterity
(9 to 11)% to Energy
Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
30% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (4)
Defense: (1182 - 1258) to (1471 - 1564)
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 384
Item Level: 77
30% Attack Speed
+(121 to 140)% Enhanced Defense
+(301 to 400) Defense
(12 to 14)% to Dexterity
(12 to 14)% to Energy
Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
40% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (4)

). That way we can use a different knife since we don't need

Void

Void
Weapons
'Sur'
Runeword Level: 75
Adds 7-13 Damage
+(58 to 72)% Enhanced Damage
Slow Target 20%
Regenerate Mana +15%
Cold Resist +40%
Physical Damage Reduced by (11 to 15)
+(3 to 5) Mana on Striking
2% Reanimate as: Random Monster

to sustain mana - and also use Phase Bomb, boosted by the mana pool (I find Beacon annoying with all the grpahic 'noise'). If we use Vampiric Icon to sustain life then we could be using maelstrom without needing to have the skill or the knife's mods sustain our life.

I'm thinking in this it would be useful to use a Priestess merc with

Phantom

rw for crowd control and healing. 2nd choice, abjurer if we don't need the cc. Obviously we can't have a melee merc with Phase Bomb.

Is this remotely viable or am I missing something?

[smartasss]

Question is what else can you do with spare points to maximize its effectiveness.
<snip>

Interesting that you seem to have come full circle on Doom and wots since the earier posts in this thread (not a criticism btw, just an observation as to how the thinking is developing in unexpected ways).


I'm much less experienced at this game, but I've been following the thread and seeing the discussion of how best to use the skill points - I hope you won't mind if I mention a few thoughts (please don't laugh!)...

Since we need maxed Perfect Being and will probably always use maxed Prismatic Cloak, if we start with maxed maelstrom (assuming Void gives enough mana to sustain it) and and maxed wots + Doom, then we already have pretty much a full build.

Any spare points, I'm wondering about Vampiric Icon to sustain life.

Perhaps another strange way to build this (apologies in advance if it's crap, just throwing ideas around) is to look for a decent mana pool and some mana regen from items (that is, items that give both dex and mana such as

Topspin

Topspin
Skull Cap (4)
Defense: (76 - 83) to (115 - 125)
Required Level: 3
Required Strength: 28
Item Level: 1
5% Attack Speed
+(31 to 50)% Enhanced Defense
+(31 to 50) Defense
(3 to 5)% to Dexterity
(3 to 5)% to Energy
Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
10% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (1)
Defense: (277 - 301) to (365 - 397)
Required Level: 20
Required Strength: 55
Item Level: 31
15% Attack Speed
+(61 to 80)% Enhanced Defense
+(71 to 100) Defense
(6 to 8)% to Dexterity
(6 to 8)% to Energy
Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
20% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (3)
Defense: (704 - 760) to (876 - 943)
Required Level: 37
Required Strength: 192
Item Level: 51
25% Attack Speed
+(91 to 110)% Enhanced Defense
+(151 to 200) Defense
(9 to 11)% to Dexterity
(9 to 11)% to Energy
Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
30% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (4)
Defense: (1182 - 1258) to (1471 - 1564)
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 384
Item Level: 77
30% Attack Speed
+(121 to 140)% Enhanced Defense
+(301 to 400) Defense
(12 to 14)% to Dexterity
(12 to 14)% to Energy
Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
40% Bonus to Defense
Socketed (4)

). That way we can use a different knife since we don't need

Void

Void
Weapons
'Sur'
Runeword Level: 75
Adds 7-13 Damage
+(58 to 72)% Enhanced Damage
Slow Target 20%
Regenerate Mana +15%
Cold Resist +40%
Physical Damage Reduced by (11 to 15)
+(3 to 5) Mana on Striking
2% Reanimate as: Random Monster

to sustain mana - and also use Phase Bomb, boosted by the mana pool (I find Beacon annoying with all the grpahic 'noise'). If we use Vampiric Icon to sustain life then we could be using maelstrom without needing to have the skill or the knife's mods sustain our life.

I'm thinking in this it would be useful to use a Priestess merc with

Phantom

rw for crowd control and healing. 2nd choice, abjurer if we don't need the cc. Obviously we can't have a melee merc with Phase Bomb.

Is this remotely viable or am I missing something?

U die to Phase bomb with melee and ranged attacks so ur missing alot...

[Sprow]

Sounds like dex give a lot of dmg to maelstorm.
How about

Dawn (Xis)

100% all attr + nice proc for clear speed

[aerial]

100% all stats rw is interesting suggestion, but you gonna run oom vs bosses. With no procs you gonna run oom even vs trash, unless you have maybe hexward and some other proc (Knights grace boots?) or/and mana on kill.
You can totally get away with different weapon vs crowd, something with wdm proc and mana leech = mana sustain will be fine, in places like fauzt/teganze/duncraig/vizjun. Set knife, penumbra, many options. They can feel little better than lo xis (damage should be worse because rw gets more ed, but you get proc). Just remember that those procs aren't that strong in comparison to maelstorm hits, I explained it earlier.
But vs bosses, in rifts if you wanna kill minibosses you gonna run oom, need Lo runeword.

Phasebomb it wll kill you, deals 50k damage if you hit cursed enemy with weapon damage. Thing is, even if this part of it was removed, I don't think it would be worth it, it is magic damage spell, and this build has zero scaling for it, no energy, no magic spelldmg, no energy factor. Only thing going for it would be doom, not enough. Beacon 50% movement speed is really good btw.

Personally for few spare points I like to take blink to at least 3s, and getting more than 1 blade to QOB.
Wots honestly doesn't really matter, without any pierce it is also on weak side. If I was running rifts as deep as possible, I'd take wotp. But all of it is minor difference. You can spec to whatever way and you will notice little to no impact on your clear, because literally 90%+ damage is done by magic damage and crushing blows. In video I was using wots just because this is what I had specced at that time. Wotp will be better vs bosses.

[PlayerOne]

Oh ok I didn't get that from reading the skill description of Phase Bomb (says 'Do not hit phased enemies with a weapon') - it doesn't sound (to me) like it includes firing arrows at them (only if you were able to whack them with your bow ).

'Do not hit phased enemies with weapon damage skills' would be clearer.

That said, Phase Bomb was just my way of avoiding Beacon - the screen going yellow every 20 seconds is painful. But mainly trying to solve the mana sustain issue without being limited to a choice of only two weapons.

I get the feeling the assassin skills need some rework. Having to max Perfect Being (and take 4 pre-reqs) in just about every build to get near the survivability of other classes isn't great - but then, if we could get those points back, in some builds it seems that we have nothing good to do with them. For maelstrom, maybe they could reduce the mana cost to give us more freedom over weapon choice.

[Tkorpi]

Oh ok I didn't get that from reading the skill description of Phase Bomb (says 'Do not hit phased enemies with a weapon') - it doesn't sound (to me) like it includes firing arrows at them (only if you were able to whack them with your bow ).

'Do not hit phased enemies with weapon damage skills' would be clearer.

That said, Phase Bomb was just my way of avoiding Beacon - the screen going yellow every 20 seconds is painful. But mainly trying to solve the mana sustain issue without being limited to a choice of only two weapons.

I get the feeling the assassin skills need some rework. Having to max Perfect Being (and take 4 pre-reqs) in just about every build to get near the survivability of other classes isn't great - but then, if we could get those points back, in some builds it seems that we have nothing good to do with them. For maelstrom, maybe they could reduce the mana cost to give us more freedom over weapon choice.

i havent used Lo rw for ages now. i just got endless loop with +1 mana on striking and also some mana leech on weapon with mo. nothing else is needed.

for bosses i use LO rw but not only because of mana. it provides you with slow that you pretty much want on boss fights. you can still do bosses witouth it also.

[aerial]

I personally didn't see enough difference between LoXis and other su weapons, to make a difference, can as well just go with infinite mana, 40% slow and 3% reanimate. Remember than vs trash all that slow works, bosses are capped @ 25%, but trash can be slowed past that point, even to like 90% I think.

Same reason why it is so good load merc with slow gear, If you give merc 40% slow weapon, add that 10% slow belt (endless loop), krys gloves for 30 more, that is already 80%. Then item like razorspine chest slows everythig around via spikenova procs. They are slowed really hard, it makes enormous difference for squishy builds. Not that blocksin needs it, but in general it is useful. Slow is extremely strong.

[smartasss]

Slow is 25% for bosses / 50% for regular mobs in Sigma patch imo.