[Not recommended as of 2.1] Maelstrom Assassin miniguide

[CircaG]

Hey man,

Love this guide! I'm going to try it out tomorrow when I get home. I have a question about mid/high level farming and how you efficiently get your upgrades:

When you say "this should be your first upgrade (the sacred shield)", do you actually have a plan of how to get that, or is it just the RNG of getting it? Like have you actually solo farmed and found all of the sacred items you need, or do you use the trade site on here? The trade site confuses me on here, but I feel like it would take 3 weeks of endless farming to find specific SUs.

Thanks man

[Istaryu]

Hey man,

Love this guide! I'm going to try it out tomorrow when I get home. I have a question about mid/high level farming and how you efficiently get your upgrades:

When you say "this should be your first upgrade (the sacred shield)", do you actually have a plan of how to get that, or is it just the RNG of getting it? Like have you actually solo farmed and found all of the sacred items you need, or do you use the trade site on here? The trade site confuses me on here, but I feel like it would take 3 weeks of endless farming to find specific SUs.

Thanks man

There is no way of target farming items. You gotta pay for rngsus if you play sp, and trade for it if you are playing on the server. There are some methods that allow you to farm quite some tg fast in early league. Not sure about now, but items are cheap by this point in the ladder.

[AKwasp]

Happy Thanksgiving! I respecced out of Ways for TF and managed to invest 0str with some gear modifications.

I'm curious what your stats are with that build compared to mine

► Show Spoiler

Firstly, I have plenty of MO available to fix missing combat speeds for 86+, I just ran out of gold temporarily.
I reverted from Water/Frost to Polis/Lionpaw for now because I wanted to stay at 0str stat investment. I'll have more flexibility after more charms and better jewelery. Rather waste temporary str MO on TU than req-lvl-80 set items plus I ran out of gold to experiment.
I made my first Honorific T3 skull cap which really enabled the 0str investment. It's nice but can't be blessed since lacking STR for sacred cap. I should switch to blessed honorific sacred circlet as soon as one drops, and I can afford the gold.
I haven't made any Abandoned crafts yet, still collecting low-str sacred rares. Seems like those will be a significant upgrade for end game.
Still using Tracker body/belt, it's a solid low-str combo. Crafts look better for end game.
I don't have any Empyrean rings unfortunately. 10dex/10str Ring of Disengagement + Assur Bane is tiding me over until something better drops. Annoying Assur cannot be MO'ed.

Not that important, but for boots, you do want ilvl90, because thats when 2 assa skills can roll on boots. You should also go above 85, because there are some affixes that can roll on ilvl85 items, but cant on higher, lowering your chances of hitting the better ones. All loot found in hell will be at least ilvl 99 anyways.

I didn't think to check Max alvl, excellent feedback. Also forgot to look at +skills, was just searching +/% to Attributes/Dex. Speaking of which, Affix documentation says Circlets can roll +Skills but not Dex/Attributes, while generic Helms are the opposite. Are Circlets technically a subset of Helms? Can Abandoned Shrine crafting/blessing still work if Circlets don't naturally roll stats?

Oddly, the Gem Shatter recipe appears to be missing from the Cube Recipe Documentation? magic item + gem + rune ⇒ reroll item as rare (loses 15% item level)
This would make ilvl85 rares very easy to prepare for shrine crafting.

You want to boost the base dmg of the weapon, and you want survivability from the life after kill.

Is the +1-2 dmg MO on armors similarly useful?

Rings and mulets should be MO'd with: mana regen, resists, magic find

There's no way to remove Mystic Orbs from an item, correct? I forgot MF can be worthwhile unlike in Path of Exile.


BTW I typed up a loot filter for searching for generic rare sacred armors:

► Show Spoiler

#
#----- Sacred Rare Armor Bases (Non-Class Specific) -----
#
"Quilted Armor" sacred rare sound2 #str 460
"Leather Armor" sacred rare sound2 #str 474
"Hard Leather Armor" sacred rare sound2 #str 486
"Studded Leather" sacred rare sound2 #str 499
"Ring Mail" sacred rare sound2 #str 512
"Scale Mail" sacred rare sound2 #str 525
"Chain Mail" sacred rare sound2 #str 538
"Breast Plate" sacred rare sound2 #str 550
"Splint Mail" sacred rare sound2 #str 563
"Plate Mail" sacred rare sound2 #str 576
"Field Plate" sacred rare sound2 #str 589
"Light Plate" sacred rare sound2 #str 602
"Gothic Plate" sacred rare sound2 #str 614
"Full Plate Mail" sacred rare sound2 #str 640
"Ancient Armor" sacred rare sound2 #str 720
"Cap" sacred rare sound2 #str 456
"Skull Cap" sacred rare sound2 #str 486
"Helm" sacred rare sound2 #str 516
"Full Helm" sacred rare sound2 #str 546
"Great Helm" sacred rare sound2 #str 576
"Crown" sacred rare sound2 #str 606
"Circlet" sacred rare sound2 #str 0 dex 262
"Coronet" sacred rare sound2 #str 0 dex 327
"Tiara" sacred rare sound2 #str 0 dex 392
"Diadem" sacred rare sound2 #str 0 dex 524
"Mask" sacred rare sound2 #str 540
"Bone Helm" sacred rare sound2 #str 563
"Buckler" sacred rare sound2 #str 446 dex 469
"Small Shield" sacred rare sound2 #str 463 dex 499
"Large Shield" sacred rare sound2 #str 480 dex 529
"Kite Shield" sacred rare sound2 #str 497 dex 559
"Tower Shield" sacred rare sound2 #str 514 dex 589
"Gothic Shield" sacred rare sound2 #str 531 dex 619
"Bone Shield" sacred rare sound2 #str 0 dex 527
"Spiked Shield" sacred rare sound2 #str 0 dex 550
"Sash" sacred rare sound2 #str 452
"Light Belt" sacred rare sound2 #str 490
"Belt" sacred rare sound2 #str 529
"Heavy Belt" sacred rare sound2 #str 568
"Plated Belt" sacred rare sound2 #str 606
"Leather Gloves" sacred rare sound2 #str 454
"Heavy Gloves" sacred rare sound2 #str 484
"Chain Gloves" sacred rare sound2 #str 514
"Light Gauntlets" sacred rare sound2 #str 544
"Gauntlets" sacred rare sound2 #str 574
"Boots" sacred rare sound2 #str 458
"Heavy Boots" sacred rare sound2 #str 492
"Chain Boots" sacred rare sound2 #str 527
"Light Plated Boots" sacred rare sound2 #str 561
"Greaves" sacred rare sound2 #str 595
#
#----- Sacred Rare Assassin Shields -----
#
"Parma" sacred rare sound2 #str 480 dex 529
"Aspis" sacred rare sound2 #str 497 dex 559
"Totem Shield" sacred rare sound2 #str 0 dex 527
"Bladed Shield" sacred rare sound2 #str 0 dex 550
#

[Artas28]

delete

[Eltrius]

Great guide, always loved this build, just one question, why no point on Scorpion blade for fleetches, or is not worth at all?

[Crash]

Great guide, always loved this build, just one question, why no point on Scorpion blade for fleetches, or is not worth at all?

why would he use a poison wdm/spell knife skill on a build that primarily focuses on magic dmg?

[Eltrius]

Great guide, always loved this build, just one question, why no point on Scorpion blade for fleetches, or is not worth at all?

why would he use a poison wdm/spell knife skill on a build that primarily focuses on magic dmg?

you're not gonna use Scorpion Blade skill, just for the fletchees synergy

[Istaryu]

I have no idea what you are talking about guys. Maelstrom doesnt have any synergy with Scorpion blade. It is the other way around. Scorpion blade fires more knives per 4 base lvls in maelstrom.

[skrig]

I have no idea what you are talking about guys. Maelstrom doesnt have any synergy with Scorpion blade. It is the other way around. Scorpion blade fires more knives per 4 base lvls in maelstrom.

Classic

[AKwasp]

I've got a weekend gear update!

I'm curious what your stats are with that build compared to mine

► Show Spoiler

► Show Spoiler

Very lucky and excited when Witchhunter's Hood dropped on Sunday! Paired it up with body armor for that nice +75 dex, and it requires even less STR than Tracker. Decided to pair this with Serpent's Belt + Boots because I could achieve the 318 STR with honorific t4 gloves. I also have spare MO space on all the armor I'm not sure how to fill, probably with flat damage eventually. Overall, feels smooth to play and very fun character!

I tried shrine crafting but nothing came out as good as these semi-set pieces. Especially because they require so much more strength to equip. I drafted a table of relevant craftable affixes, but am having a hard time evaluating the outcomes. Advice would be appreciated. Especially advice how to weigh the value of +skills.

► Show Spoiler

Also where did you find the throwing/balanced knife IAS breakpoints? Do they cap out as you listed?

I'm looking forward to playing through Triune and Teganze when I next get a chance. Never gotten that far in MXL before. Hopefully my gear is good enough!