This is essentially the setup is use every time I start a new martial arts assassin, regardless of whether I’m using: Fist of Fire+Claws of Thunder, Phoenix Strike, or Tiger Strike + Dragon Tail
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/82eq303k
Other then the boots and belts, everything can be: farmed from NM Countess, bought from Anya or another vender, and can be crafted with the cube;
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The claws can be bought with +1 all skills, from normal anya, once you’re level 30, and +2 all skills can be bought from nightmare anya at lvl 56+
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The amulet and rings can be crafted using the cube, and you can pick which elements you get on the ring to better round out your resists. Ideally Rare All Resist rings would be best:
6 Perfect Gems (1 of each type) + 1 Amulet (Magic) = Prismatic Amulet
Use this formula to create an Amulet with Resistance to all. ilvl = 50. The amulet will always have the Prismatic prefix (All Resistances +16-20) and has a chance at getting a suffix as well.
1 Magic Ring + 1 Perfect Emerald + 1 Antidote Potion = 1 Jade Ring
Use this formula to create a Poison Resistance Ring. The Jade Ring has a random percentage (21-30%) of Poison Resistance. You may also receive an additional Magic Suffix. ilvl=30.
1 Magic Ring + 1 Perfect Ruby + 1 Exploding Potion = 1 Garnet Ring
Use this formula to create a Fire Resistance Ring. The Garnet Ring has a random percentage (21-30%) of Fire Resistance. You may also receive an additional Magic Suffix. ilvl=30.
1 Magic Ring + 1 Perfect Topaz + 1 Rejuvenation Potion = 1 Coral Ring
Use this formula to create a Lightning Resistance Ring. The Coral Ring has a random percentage (21-30%) of Lightning Resistance. You may also receive an additional Magic Suffix. ilvl=30.
1 Magic Ring + 1 Perfect Sapphire + 1 Thawing Potion = 1 Cobalt Ring
Use this formula to create a Cold Resistance Ring. The Cobalt Ring has a random percentage (21-30%) of Cold Resistance. You may also receive an additional Magic Suffix. ilvl=30.
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Magic Leather Gloves/Demonhide Gloves/Bramble Mitts+Ort Rune+ P Amethyst+Jewel = Caster Gloves use this formula to craft caster gloves for some passive mana regen and mana per kill. Ideally you get some martial arts skills, increased attack speed, resistances, or all of the above. I like to make the gloves before the rings, and hope for a nice resist roll on the gloves, then I can better choose which elemental ring to make. Also if you find a rare set of gloves with martial arts skills and resists, or IAS. I’d take them over caster gloves, the MPK is really nice, so I recommend it as the glove slot craft, just in case no other good gloves were found along the way. + skills for more dmg is typically your best bet, you need all the dmg you can get for hell.
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Hsarus’ Boots and Belt in regards to chasing the boots and belt, your best bet is Normal Andarial with ~50%+ MF, any amount will do really. She has approximately a 1:30 chance of dropping the boots or the belt, and if you start the grind @lvl 30ish, just before or after completing nightmare, its super easy to grind and kill her quickly. It typically takes me about 15→60mins of grinding with the assassin to obtain both, quicker if you use a sorc. It’s also only really necessary for hell, so you can clear all of nightmare and hope you find one of the set pieces to save some time. Then hop back into the normal Andy grind.
When building a martial arts assassin, for any of the skills, I think it is extremely important to obtain as many +all/sin skills as you can, and you need some sort of extreme base attack rating boost like Hsarus’ boots, Angelic’s amulet, or Sigon’s helmet provide.
Dual claws with +2 all skills, can help with this, especially cause some skills demand claws. I think Hsarus’ boots and belt is the best combo for obtaining bonus flat AR, because the head slot is often needed for hearth for CBF, until you find raven frost, and once you get ravenfrost, you’ll want to stack +all sin skills on the helm slot; lore, circlet, shako, etc. And using the amulet and ring slot for Angelics makes you miss out on lots of resistances from the ring, and you miss out on + skills from the amulet slot. So all in all, I think Hsarus’ boots and belt are best in slot for the assassin, and will remain to be BiS until you obtain Infinity for its “-X% enemy defense.”
You’ll also want to up the belt, and maybe boots using:
Tal + Shael + P Diamond
I also highly recommend you play with either a controller, or ideally mouse and keyboard but you turn on “quick cast skills”, this will all you to better manage your charges by making a rhythmic button pressing routine to build and spend charges. It can make casting the correct element with phoenix strike much easier, and it just plays way better with all martial arts skills in general. ex.
hotkeys:
1 = phoenix strike (charge)
2 = normal attack (spender)
and you want to unleash lightnign, your rhythm becomes:
1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, etc
and since you’re playing hardcore, get used to using Mind Blast a lot. Being able to redirect some damage and agro by converting a mob, and or using a stunned monster to safely build and release charges is extremely important. Getting knocked into hit recovery, getting blocked or blocking, or missing an attack can make the charge and release rhythm really annoying, but mind blast makes the spec play much smoother.
I also highly recommend you use the shadow warrior, and make it so your right click skill is always set to Cloak of Shadows, or Death Sentry. This will make it so the Warrior constantly casts CoS keeping you safe, or drops death sentries for you and you don’t need to worry about manage them. Death Sentry is gravy imo, and should be last skill you obtain.
I think using CoS with the shadow warrior is much better, it’ll keep you safe. Also the Shadow Warrior can cast fade and become immune to elemental damage, but you need a lot of +all skills to achieve that; she needs to be lvl 13 and have lvl 6 fade to pull it off.
Tiger Strike+Dragon Tail, or Tiger Tail as I call it, can be extremely powerful and is quite capable of clearing the game SSF, I’ve done it quite a few times. Max out Tiger Strike, and Dragon Tail, put 1 point Cobra Strike for a massive amount of life and mana steal when ever either pool gets low, compliment with another element like CoT or BoI, or max Venom, and you should be good to go from there.
The other specs do have a bit of issues with resource management. I recommend you use insight on either the Act 1(cold and inner sight) or Act 2 merc (blessed aim) for all of the specs, and then start stacking Mana Per Kill. It can also be really helpful in off setting mana costs, especially early game when your small mana pool makes insight somewhat unreliable. In regards to life leach, life per kill is ideal, but extremely hard to come across, so some LL can help out a bit. You’ll mostly be relying on potions though.
Fade can be extremely useful, especially considering you’re playing hardcore, but its not necessary, and sometimes a good defense is a strong offense, and BoS helps with that. We’re essentially a sorc that uses IAS instead of FCR, so attacking slower than usual is extremely bad for DPS, but CBF and BoS can help rectify that.