MA Assassin build help

I’m designing an MA build, I was hoping those more familiar with MA Sins could give me some pointers. I can make pally’s and necy’s but aside from at trapasin I’m not as good with assassins.

Build concept - this will be a duel Katar MA build, that uses the charge ups and finishing moves, not a massive kickasin.

Skill allocation - I build to lvl 85 as I figure I need to have a viable build at that level not assuming I need the extra skill pts to make it work.

Claw Mastery - 20
Weapon Block - 10
Cloak of Shadows - 10
Phoenix Strike - 10
Dragon Claw - 5
Tiger Claw - 5

At that point it leaves 28 pts to allocate. So here’s my questions/thoughts.

Dragon claw will be my main finishing move (not interested in building a kicker), not sure how much it’s worth adding too many pts to this. I will get a decent amount of AR and weapon damage with claw mastery, Tiger strike will bring the damage so how much is it worth putting pts into this finisher.

Weapon Block hits 50% at 10 pts and 58 at 20 pts, thus it doesn’t seem worth it to go more in that skill.

Cloak of shadows similarly gets to a decent spot at 10 pts, but is this really just a one point wonder? I do highly value the ranged monster shut downs.

So what’s the thoughts on where to put the rest of the skills? is shadow master worth maxing or should I drop all the points in phoenix strike, dragon claw or tiger strike? Any other things to consider. Will a normal Assassin with maxed Claw mastery have good enough AR or do I need a blessed aim merc to make it work? I would prefer a ranged merc, thus Rogue or Wolf…

IIRC, Dragon Claw Sins don’t really use Phoenix Strike. I would suggest something like this:

  • Claw Mastery 20
  • Tiger Strike 20
  • Dragon Claw 20
  • Shadow Master 20
  • Rest in BoS
  • Maybe some points in Fists of Fire for Phys Immunes?
  • Maybe even 1 point in Death Sentry would be nice

MA builds aren’t really that all-powerful so don’t expect too much.

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Just follow this:
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Elementalist

Since you are shooting for 88 max points, and Phoenix Strike + Dragon Claw is your desired goal, I’d say:
20 Phoenix
20 Fist of Fire (synergy)
20 Claws of Thunder (synergy)
1 Blades of Ice (synergy, but mostly the utility element of PS)
1 Dragon Talon (pre-req)
3 Dragon Claw

10 Claw mastery
10 Weapon block
1 Burst of speed
1 Fade

Any points past lvl 85, I’d spend on Blades of Ice or Dragon Claw. You could also add 1 point to Venom, or Cloak of Shadows, or Psychic Hammer, or Mind Blast (depending on what utility you prefer).

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I maxed claw mastery/tiger strike/phoenix strike/dragon tail.
With charms and +skill gear I was able to get to level 48 on each of those.
The charge skills all were at like, level 30 also, by investing just one point in each.
Build up all the charges and release with dragon tail and everything went bye bye.

I think I used:

2x bul kathos wedding bands for +1 all skills each
String of Ears
Vampire Gaze
+2 Skill Balrog Skin
Gore Riders
+3MA Amulet
+MA skill gloves
2x Bartuc’s Cut Throat
And a whole lot of +1MA charms

You actually can use phoenix strike with dragon claw and it is effective that way. The advantage of phoenix strike in hell is that you can change the damage type in case you run into any immunes of one type. With enough +assassin skill gear you really don’t need too many points in weapon block or cloak of shadows since if you get weapon block even to 11 skill points it will be above 50% block anyway and there is a lot of diminishing returns on weapon block. Also, the most important part of cloak of shadows is reducing enemy defense in order to hit them which if you have enough points in claw mastery will not actually be that hard. For the most part I would agree with Instapeace’s gear setup as being really good for almost any martial arts assassin. If you wanted to use Instapeace’s gear setup you actually would be getting +8 to shadow disciplines meaning if you wanted a 10 in weapon block you would only have to put 2 there. For nightmare, a cheap way of increasing all assassin skills would be to use the treachery rune word armor.

So I’ve been mimicking my last build, but somewhere things really got screwed up, to a degree I can’t explain. I’ll attempt anyway.

First and foremost, currently, a level 28 tiger-strike/phoenix strike/dragon tail does very little damage, especially noticeable in hell difficulty, which includes targets that are not fire immune.

The same is true, when the above circumstances are included with a level 9 fists of fire/claws of thunder/blades of ice is unleashed with a dragon tail finishing move regardless of the opponents immunities.

Releasing the charges with a level 9 dragon claw finishing move is negligibly better, but it is single target…

Life Leech seems to also be bugged, as I have 2 bartuc’s claws equipped that each have 8% life leech, and yet, I’m capped at 8%…

Maybe if I complain long enough, someone at Blizzard will take the initiative and attempt to fix the Martial Arts branch, to which I’d say, take a look and see how the aforesaid skills were coded in game patch 1.09/1.10 and compare the code with the code implemented by further game updates, beginning with the most recent since 1.10.

On another note, for an MA sin I’ve seen some builds where people put more than 1 pt in Death Sentry. I figured it was a 1 pt wonder for anything but a trapper, with any extra pts going to fire blast. Any reason why people would max DS for an MA sin. I get 1 pt.

for one thing weapon block is a must have skill but it increases blocking at a decreasing rate so just put one point into it and when you get get with +to all skills, + to assassin skills it will tend to max out. when you are getting only 1 % extra blocking for a skill point its not worth it, so bartucs, +shako, + jade talon, +chains of honor, +maras, +shadowdancers, +hellfire torch=+13 to shadowskills. that would get you to 54 weapons blocking with only 1 point in the skill.

I would highly recommend if you’re using Dragon Claw as your main skill that you skip the charge-ups altogether. You will deal more damage faster just Clawing your way through stuff constantly.

Think about it. In the time you take to do 3 Tiger Strikes and 1 Dragon Claw, you could have just done 3-4 Dragon Claws. Tiger Strike itself does basically no damage, so you are essentially turning 80% of your attacks into trash in the hopes of landing one good one. Tiger Strike can be good with Dragon Tail or a HIGH damage weapon, but not fast claws.

Stack up lots of damage, elemental damage, and Crushing Blow with your claws and gear instead.

20 Claw Mastery
20 Dragon Claw
1 Dragon Flight (for mobility)
1+ Claw Block (get to level 12+ with bonuses)
1+ Shadow Master (get to level 17+ with bonuses for best gear)
1+ Death Sentry (as much as you feel is helpful
1 Cloak of Shadows
1+ Mind Blast
Optional: 1 in Cobra Strike for leech

This leaves you with a TON of skill points. Focus on getting damage with optimal gear. Maybe Blades of Ice for crowd control but honestly you probably don’t need it. Just put all your points in Shadow skills and in Death Sentry synergies (especially 2 extra points in Fire Blast) and you will SHRED stuff.

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Phoenix can be rough sometimes, its something you have to experience to understand. Timing the charges with the fact that you miss sometimes can be really frustrating. But some people love it. To me it feels like a worse sorc with 10x the effort.

This build will get steamrolled in hell. Phoenix strike is bad. You need fade and burst of speed to make a MA build work even a little. I prefer a kicksin if you want a MA build.

I know you’ve seen it already, Rondel :slight_smile: I appreciate the support. Just gonna share for others that might be interested:

Phoenix strike is not that bad. It’s definitely capable of clearing hell without issues, and it doesn’t require the craziest gear to pull it off. You can follow my guide on it here and even download the single player character files if you’d like to try it out yourself.

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