Naginata Assassin

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Lynderika
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Links
Basics : Skills - Physical version overview - Elemental version overview - Breakpoints
Walkthrough : Early game - Dungeons & Rifts
Bonus : Mercenary - d2stats set up - Afterword




Introduction

This build is by far my favorite, and quite literally the basis of my liking to this game. I hope that in this guide I'll be able to properly share my fun, along with all the knowledge I've come to get from playing a build since a time the most info you could get asking about it was memes.


Strengths and weaknesses :

- Naginata is entierely viable Solo Self Found, with just a crafted weapon. Leveling to 140 while doing every quests except lvl 135 ones without stopping to farm for gear nor trading, just doing content as it unluck is something I often do, and show here. And it's fairly fast, even.
- Can get every charms, and have an overall very good boss killing capacity.
- Very good farming power in many places ; Viz jun and Fauzt most noticably, but every very dense zones are good.
- Trophy farming is very good thanks to Shunpo, Assassin's high movement speed and the above-named boss killing power.
- Has multiple defensive passives, noticably Perfect Being. This makes purify fights way easier than most other classes, if you're looking for easy Valthek or Laz, you're on the right place. It also make Nagi very suited for Hardcore.
- Very active gameplay with lots of fun
- Very active gameplay with lots of hand pain if you aren't strong enough. (use this opportunity to get stronger then !)
- Mediocre scosglen farmer. Or well it's decent, but you'll see better. Good part is that it's safe and fun, and don't require much. Running Scosglen ssf or just with the set works, it's just that you literally cannot scale enough to make it amazing. I myself like scosglen gaming a lot, but if you wanna roll over it effortlessly, I can't recommand.
- Might take some time to get used to the gameplay and properly use all your tools well

Physical vs Elemental builds

Phy leveling (1 - 120)  - Safer than ele due to leech and other defensives stats
Ele leveling (1 - 120) - More damage when farming, easier to get speed breakpoints

Here's the list of lvl 120+ builds varient I played and recommand :

Pure Physical - Decent at everything
Hybrid Physical / Poison  - Better than the above when farming while still killing bosses fine and without losing leech
Pure Elemental (farming)  - The fastest farmer, safe and strong
Pure Elemental (Bosses)  - Stronger phy now but need a bit more set up to be so

If you want a sure and easy way to get everything right easily, I recommand the "Physical / Poison" build with the full
The Snake Pit
The Snake Pit
(Assassin Naginata Set)

Serpent's Coil
Serpent's Fangs
Serpent's Tail
Serpent's Tongue

Set Bonus with 2 or more set items:
+1 to Assassin Skill Levels
Weapon Physical Damage +30%

Set Bonus with 3 or more set items:
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
Elemental Resists +50%

Set Bonus with complete set:
20% Chance to cast level 36 Deathstrike on Melee Attack
Adds 63-250 Damage
-30% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+18 to Hyena Strike
10% Deadly Strike
Weapon Physical Damage +210%
+150 Life after each Kill

set the most. If you want to play Solo self found, you're pretty much locked into pure physical until you drop something. Elemental is both cheap and strong to farm and kill bosses ; buy a Zular Khan and that's it, you're ready to go zooming in fauzt. For doing bosses well as elemental you'll also need either
Cold Blood
Cold Blood
Crystal Sword (Sacred)

Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity:
1020
Item Level: 120
Innate Cold Damage:
(45.0% of Dexterity)
Regens 15% Life Over 5 Seconds Upon Taking Weapon Damage
100% Chance to cast level 50 Shatter the Flesh on Kill
1% Chance to cast level 50 Blizzard on Striking
25% Attack Speed
Adds (310 to 410)-(500 to 600) Cold Damage
-10% to Enemy Cold Resistance
+20 to Banish
Maximum Mana -50%
Requirements +100%
Socketed (6)
for banish or a crafted claw with Banish on melee attack proc, to curse bosses with it then swap back to Nagi and play normally.
I haven't played Black Ice yet, and as a non expert I don't wanna say too much, so currently there's no info about it here, sorry !





Skills

Basic Gameplay

Simply put, think of Broadside as your single target skill, Barrier Strike the medium aoe big damage skill, and Hades Gate the big aoe medium damage skill. In practice, Broadside is still useful when farming as it set up leech/life on kill from afar, and help stay safe. But most of the gameplay is Barrier strike with lots of shift clics, and running. As for Hades Gate, the more enemies there is on the screen, the more valuable it become. In ranged monsters heavy rifts such as Fauzt, Barrier is only used to spawn corpse, and Hades is the main clearning tool. In melee heavy rifts such as Duncraig, or when monsters are too tanky for Hades to deal with such as Scoslgen, then you can pretty much focus on Barrier Strike.
Keep Shadow refuge pretty much always up, and bloodbath in moment you want regen/plan to spam Hades Gates.
For bosses, Broadside alone does most of the job but if you get bored you can spam Barrier Strike, of course.

Complete list of every useful skills with details (not updated for 2.3 don't read it it's all lies)

► Show Spoiler






Physical Naginata Sin overwiew
Leveling set up


Image

My old favorite set up there, can do all content nicely, fun to play, construct itself naturally while leveling, no problems only gaming.

Notes :

  • Skills to max, in order : Shadowrush → Laserblade → Broadside → Momentum → Perfect being → Backstab → Execution. Once everything has taken shape, your remaning points will all go in defensives passives ; In order : Purity, Tenacity, Endurance, Prismatic cloak. Doom is better to use than beacon, but it start to shine after putting points into, while beacon is an ok 1 pointer to use purely for the movement speed. Therefore, either decide to max it fast or take beacon and focus on defensive passives for now. Shred and Vampiric icon are optional, they're nice to use but if you see you never use them,; then forget it.
  • Cast speed is used to cast Bloodbath, Shadow refuge, Doom, Vampiric Icon, queen of blades and Disco Inferno. You'll not use all of theses, but getting the bare minimum of cast speed at least for buffs is important.
    Don't forget that it's also useful for purify fights, for some of them you might want to swap to a defensive nagi with cast speed and life, or a claw + shield even for better speed, but you lose the beauty of being a Nagi so it's up to your preferences


Endgame build list


► Show Spoiler








Leveling Gear (lvl 1-130)


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Endgame Gear

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Elemental Naginata Sin overwiew

Leveling set up
Image

Notes :

  • This is a level 109 tree, as you see perfect being isn't maxed yet, this is the next thing to do. I prioritise damage over tankyness here, but you technically can remove a way to get it earlier if you're scared.
  • I start this build at level 105 so I'm not sure what's the best skill order earlier, it's probably best to max phoenix or gryphon way first, then spider, then broadside, then raven.

Endgame build list

► Show Spoiler


Leveling gear

► Show Spoiler



Zular Khan tempest gear

It's either fire/cold/light + broadside for bosses or all 4 ways for farm, so consider (poison) gear as the farming options

► Show Spoiler


Black Ice gear
TBA



Walkthrough
Early gameplay and Milestones (non updated for 2.3)


► Show Spoiler
Edited by Lynderika 3 months.
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Lynderika
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Dungeons and rifts



Gameplay and videos
Not everything is up to date but mostly

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Edited by Lynderika 1 year.
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Lynderika
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Crafting
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Mercenary

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d2 stats set up
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Afterword

I love Naginata Assassin, and hope I could transfer a little bit of my love to you, or even just make you reconsider the build strength.

Comparatively to most of Median builds, it's true that Naginata require lots of skill switching. But once you know what you're doing, you're welcomed with a strong build, able to clear both bosses and rifts nicely. In any situation, you'll find a skill that'll help you. If the skill switch isn't to your liking, know that farming some zones like fauztinville can mostly be reduced to Hades Gates spam, if you want to. There's many way to do well without being as hyperactive as me.
If you do decide to do so, I do not take responsability for any hand cramp, RSI, or any other hand problem you may encounter after playing too much.
Edited by Lynderika 1 year.
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Lynderika
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(4th reserved post just in case.)

Still undecided if you wanna try out Naginata or not? Let the wheel decide for you Cookies to Marco for this masterpiece. He's also the mastermind behind the Banner and the multiples buffs patches after patches. Say your thanks !

Note to self : Video updates need : Laz, Astro, Baal, Giyua
Others : Update Maze map (maybe though). Add video of Void way.
Skill issue : Develop more properly Samael and Lab

Alternatives banner :
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Edited by Lynderika 1 year.
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huangyunshy
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It's great. The most important thing is to have a video. Very good guide
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oztor
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Amazing build, great guide. 10 extra fingers required to play it though :-]
Maybe I'll give it a try one day.
akbugger
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Fwiw, I don't think nagisin needs nerfs. It rewards skilled gameplay, which is perfect.
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Lynderika
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huangyunshy wrote:It's great. The most important thing is to have a video. Very good guide


Thanks ! I also think so, to the point I ended recording litteraly(almost) everything, I wanted anyone to be able to check how I get to an uber, or whatever they want, even the shameful part of the run (I won't say exemples) or the multiple hour trophy farming. Putting my first clear of every ubers and commenting my gameplay where it's flimsy or not and sometimes putting better exemples is a good way to learn, I think.
My goal were more to share my nagi experience than creating a short and easy guide, I just wanted to hand out litteraly everything I know and think it worked, now we'll see if anyone's interested. I ended with litteraly about 50 hours of content to clear everything, I know it's too much but the goal is to take whatever you want from it.

oztor wrote:Amazing build, great guide. 10 extra fingers required to play it though :-]
Maybe I'll give it a try one day.


Can confirm 2 finger is enough, but damn the mouse hand hurt, it's impossible to farm for too long haha

akbugger wrote:Fwiw, I don't think nagisin needs nerfs. It rewards skilled gameplay, which is perfect.


I think it's fine right now too. More than nerfs I'd rework a few things, like giving more interactions with vampiric icon, some changes in barrier strike and crucify that would make them useful and worth investing point into, differents 1 and 2 charged batstrike, for exemple. Maybe the recent defense bonus from laserblade is slightly too much as it add yet another defensive layer, or some may argue getting litteraly free max res from subterfuge doesn't make any sense... It's fine right now, but I can see some changes. I just hope backstab stay the same, invulnerability is stupidly strong but I like very much the idea of having to choose between an offensive broadside use or keeping it for the right moment. I sure hope it doesn't become a simple broadside support.
Edited by Lynderika 3 years.
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Wulf
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akbugger
Pit Knight
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I leveled up my nagisin to 110, but couldn't digest the Broadside skill. :( It feels to me as if I'm playing a trapsin rather than a naginata. I did use SSU with Broadside cooldown reduction, maybe I overused it a bit. (altough, seeing Akerat melting at lvl 110 in a single Broadside was rather epic - the first char who managed to kill him at that level).
Vampiric icon I'd rewamp completely. Assassin doesn't need it - you got Bloodbath from lvl1 to heal from packs.
Anyhow - really nice guide, t-up for taking time to write this.