first off, this post speaks to my soul, so i’ll tell you of my experience.
the sad truth of the matter is, an elemental martial artist assassin will never outperform trapsin for aoe/survivability, nor will it keep up with a kicksin on damage. this is just the heartbreaking truth.
that being said, a dual claw pheonix striker assassin is, in my opinion, the single most fun build in the game to play.
you need a treachery runeword armor(i use a scarab shell base). any helm with +skills, or natalyas hat. natalya’s boots, or go for the fastest run speed and max resist increase of some sort. assassin skill amulet. i’m not sure what the full natalya’s odium set bonuses are as i’ve never finished that one. a ring with cannot be frozen, i prefer raven frost. another ring with attack speed and resists.
i use a bartuc’s claw in one hand, and a jade talon in the other.
https://www.icy-veins.com/d2/assassin-skill-calculator#-1-1*13--1*-1-*13--1*13--1*-20-=-20-1*1--*-10-1*--*--*--=--*--*--*--*--*--&0
this is the build that works for me.
i start out with claw mastery for the initial attack rating boost, then one point in tiger strike. it’s great for dropping elites and uniques even with just one point in it. one point in burst of speed. if you can get some 3 socket claws you can dual wield Malice runewords, but be careful to watch your health because they have a life drain suffix on them. you’ll want some leech before you use that. one point in each of the finishing moves as you level. one point in burst of speed. i skip fade because with treachery it’s almost always up unless you overwrite it with burst of speed. i skip mind blast because i just don’t use it, but you can leave a point off weapon block for it, or claw mastery.
the important points here are weapon block and claw mastery. at ten points, weapon block will give you a straight up 50% chance to block with claws. it faces heavy diminishing returns after the tenth point. at ten points it’s 50% block, at 20 points it’s 58%. so i stop at 10 points in it and poitns from gear are just a bonus.
i only put 1 point into dragon claw, even though it’s the attack that uses both claws. it boosts attack rating and does decent damage as a finisher for charged skills, but claw mastery affects ALL claw attacks, so i feel it’s the better investment of points. i’m not a professional min-maxer though, i jsut feel like i do more damage with claw mastery maxed out than with dragon claw maxed out, at least using pheonix strike build.
i ignore venom. treachery armor makes sure it’s constantly applied anyway, with 25% chace to apply lvl 15 venom on striking, and striking like a walking blender with dual claws and burst of speed, it’s never not up.
and then onto the meat of the build. i do 13/13/13 for the elemental strikes themselves, and 20 into pheonix strike. pheonix strike boosts all three of it’s predecessor strikes, they only boost pheonix strike. i like to balance the elemental damage so i can take on literally ANYTHING in hell. with an act 2 nightmare merc to slow them down with holy freeze.
between bartuc’s and jade talons, treachery, and +skill ammy/helm, you should be at like +12 to martial arts and +10 to shadow disciplines. this’ll put you at over 20/20/20 for the baseic elemental strikes and over 30 points into phoenix strike. this means you can drop absolutely MASSIVE damage of any element at any time you wish. dual immunities can go pound sand, you got options no matter what.
it doesn’t kill as fast as my sorc for farming hell cows, but it’s so much more satisfying. and dragon flight lets me teleport out from the middle of a pack if i get surrounded. the only annoying thing is that the fade proc from treachery will override burst of speed. but that’s okay, since i mainly use burst of speed for run speed. with dual wield you’ll be building charges faster than you can release them, and with fade up you just ignore elemental damage
but you will need a lot CB/Open Wounds/+Add damage gear