Assassin Diablo 3: March 2012

Friday, March 30, 2012

Assassin IAS Tables

[:1]Assassin IAS Tables

Revision 1.3

Contents

[1] Introduction, links to online calculators and how to use the tables

[2] Trap laying

[3] Normal Attack, Phoenix Strike, Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike, Berserk, Vengence

[4] Dragon Claw, Fists of Fire, Blades of Ice, Claws of Thunder

[5] Dragon Talon

[6] Dragon Tail

[7] Dragon Flight, Whirlwind, Werebear

[8] Zeal

[9] Abbreviations, Credits

1.0 Introduction

This work is an updated and corrected version of the tables in the original thread by JRichard. Obviously this thread is based on his excellent work, my contribution is re-formatting and correcting errors. JRichard's Site is still active. It explains much more than this thread about the mechanics behind these calculations, for those that are interested. Be aware that there may be errors contained in some of the tables on his site, I haven't checked them directly.

The Latest German Weapon Speed Calculator by Titanseal calculates all Assassin attacks correctly to my knowledge. Make sure that you have two claws equipped for Dragon Claw calculations or the skill is not listed. For most people this is the best and easiest method of calculating attack speeds.

Personally I sometimes find tables easier, particularly when planning an assassin that uses Burst of Speed. You can look at a table and decide if to hit the breakpoint it is better to put some hard points into the skill, or maybe sacrifice an equipment socket for a Jewel of Fervour. If you have MS Excel, the complete spreadsheet with all these tables is available here. The Excel has the advantage that you can enter EIAS values for alternative breakpoints and re-calculate the table.

1.1 How IAS required is calculated

The IAS required to hit a given breakpoint is defined by the following formula (I use the MS Excel notation)

IAS = ROUNDUP((120*(EIAS - Skill_IAS + WSM))/(120-(EIAS - Skill_IAS + WSM))

IAS - This is the additional IAS (ie from weapon or equipment) required to hit the breakpoint. Remember that if you are dual wielding claws, only the IAS on the primary claw counts.

EIAS - EIAS required for the breakpoint. The tables for this are listed for each skill.

Skill_IAS - This is the EIAS bonus that you get from BoS (or Fanaticism). The values are defined in section 1.2.

WSM - Weapon Speed Modifier - how quick your weapon is. See section 1.3.

1.2 Correct BoS Values (EIAS)

These are the correct values for the Burst of Speed EIAS bonus, as discussed in this thread. Thanks go to RTB and Stephan for their input into that thread.

Code:

BoS Level   Skill_IAS
0            0
1           21
2           27
3           31
4           34
5           37
6           39
7           41
8           42
9           44
10          45
11          46
12          47
13          48
14          49
15          50
16          51
17          51
18          51
19          52
20          52
21          53
22          53
23          54
24          54
25          54
26          55
27          55
28          55
29          55
30          55

1.3 Weapon Speed Modifier (WSM)

Weapon Speed Modifier (WSM) defines how quick your weapon is. Values for all weapons are available on the Arreat Summit, but I have included all claws and some of the other more popular weapons in the table below.

If you are using two claws, you need to use the average WSM of your two claws.

eg. You have a Runic Talon (WSM -30) and a Feral Claw (WSM -20). Average is (-30 + -20)/2 = -25.

Exceptions to the averaging rule for dual wielding claws:

1. WSM Bugging (see section 1.4).

2. Using Normal Attack or Whirlwind. In this case each claw hit is calculated seperately.

Code:

Name              WSM   Examples

Normal Claws
Katar             -10
Wrist Blade         0
Hatchet Hands      10
Cestus              0
Claws             -10
Blade Talons      -20
Scissors Katar    -10

Exceptional Claws
Quhab               0
Wrist Spike       -10
Fascia             10
Hand Scythe       -10
Greater Claws     -20
Greater Talons    -30   Bartuc's
Scissors Quhab      0

Elite Claws
Suwayyah            0
Wrist Sword       -10   Jade Talon
War Fist           10
Battle Cestus     -10   Shadow Killer
Feral Claws       -20   Firelizard's
Runic Talons      -30
Scissors Suwayyah   0   Natalya's Mark

Other Popular Weapons
Berserker Axe       0   Various Runewords
Flail               0   Heart of the Oak (for trappers)
Ward Bow            0   Widowmaker
Scourge           -10   Stormlash
Bone Knife        -20   Wizardspike
Fanged Knife      -20   Fleshripper
Phase Blade       -30   Various Runewords

1.4 Weapon Speed Bugging

Below is a good explanation of weapon speed bugging by TienJe, from his Ghost Assassin guide:

"WSM bugging is a little trick used to lower the Average WSM of your two claws, lowering the IAS requirements for trap + non-WW animations. It works by placing your secondary claw in your inventory first. That means that after you switch to your weapons, lift and replace your glove-side claw, and it’ll bug your WSM.

Instead of just averaging the WSM’s of the two claws, your AWSM = average + (right WSM – left WSM). So, for example, if you use a Runic Talon (-30 WSM) in the boot-side slot and a Suwayyah (0 WSM) in the glove-side slot, if you bug the WSM, you’ll have an AWSM = -15 + (-30 - 0) = -45 instead of -15 like you would if you didn’t bug it. It’ll help you reach your trap IAS BP’s if you use a slow claw on one hand. If you look at the equation, it’ll tell you to make sure that if you DO use a slow claw, make sure the fast one is in the secondary slot, so when you bug it, it makes your AWSM faster. Otherwise, it’ll actually slow down AWSM. To simplify, a chart is included below, showing the AWSM’s for every claw combination after WSM bugging.

Code:

                   AWSM after WSM Bugging

                � Boot-Side Claw WSM
                � 10     0   -10   -20  -30
________________�___________________________
Glove-      10  �10    -5   -20   -35   -50
Side         0  �15     0   -15   -30   -45
Claw       -10  �20     5   -10   -25   -40
WSM        -20  �25    10    -5   -20   -35
           -30  �30    15     0   -15   -30

In summary, put fast claw in secondary slot, slow claw in primary slot, and lift and replace your slow claw to bug it. Every time you switch weapons, it replaces the primary claw first, so you’ll have to rebug it. Note that after WSM bugging, the glove-side claw becomes secondary, and the boot-side claw becomes the new primary claw."

This information is repeated in Shuko-Jutsu - The Art Of The Claw, along with some worked examples of WSM bugging.

1.5 How to use the tables

1. Work out your WSM, as described in section 1.3. Remember to take the average WSM if you are dual wielding claws. If you are using two claws and are Weapon Speed Bugging, refer to section 1.4.

2. Read down the appropriate column to find out how much IAS for a given level of Burst of Speed. Remember that only the IAS on the primary claw counts.

3. If you are using Fade instead of BoS, your BoS level is 0.

4. IAS only counts if it is on the primary claw or in your equipment. IAS on the secondary claw has no effect, except for Whirlwind or normal attack.

An Example:

I'll use the example of a Phoenix Striker using the Natalya's Odium set, as it is a fairly common scenario.

Natalya's Mark is a Scissors Suwayyah, so has a WSM of 0.

I decide to use Bartuc's (Greator Talon, WSM -30) as my off hand claw.

My average WSM is 0+ -30 = -15.

Let's assume I put only one point into BoS.

Nat's set give a total of +5 to Shadow Disciplines - +3 form the set bonus, +2 from the armour.

With the bonus from the set, that means I cast it at level 6.

I look at the table for Phoenix Strike, and read down the -15 WSM column until I get to BoS level 6.

This tells me I need 19IAS to hit the 7FPA breakpoint.

Natalya's Mark has 40IAS on weapon, so hitting 7FPA is no problem, as long as it is in the primary position.

I'm going to use Dragon Claw as a finishing move, so this time I look at the table for Dragon Claw and again read down the -15 WSM column until I get to BoS level 6.

This tells me I need 54IAS to hit the 10 Frame DC breakpoint.

Natalya's Mark has 40IAS, so either I need more points in BoS, or some more IAS. A Jewel of Fervour in the weapon / armour would do the job, as would some gloves with 20IAS. Alternatively I could put another 5 points into BoS, giving me a cast level of 11. This would only need 40IAS, which is already covered by Nat's Mark, meaning I need no additional IAS in my gear.

Just to clarify, Nat's Mark must be in the Primary position (above the gloves) in this example. Even though you have the same claws, the IAS from Nat's Mark does not count in the secondary position (above the boots). If I did for some reason decide to use Bartuc's as the primary, I would need 19IAS for the 7FPA PS and 54IAS for 10 frame DC.|||2. Trap Laying

61 EIAS required for 9 frame trap laying. Weapon type does not matter.

Code:

BoS Weapon Speed Modifier
Lvl -60 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 2 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174 208 250 304 377
1 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168
2 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99
6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83
9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75
11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72
12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70
13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68
14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65
15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63
16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60
17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60
18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58
21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56
22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56
23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54
24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54
25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54
26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52
27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52
28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52
29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52
30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52

EIAS Table for Trap Laying

Code:

|||3. Normal Attack

Phoenix Strike

Tiger Strike

Cobra Strike

Berserk, Vengence

70EIAS Required for a 7 frame attack with a claw.

Code:

BoS Weapon Speed Modifier
Lvl -60 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 11 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200 240 292 360 456 600
1 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232
2 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187
3 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163
4 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147
5 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133
6 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113
9 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102
11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99
12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95
13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92
14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89
15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86
16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83
17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83
18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80
21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78
22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78
23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75
24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75
25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75
26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72
27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72
28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72
29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72
30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72

EIAS Table for Normal Attacks / Strikes

Code:

FPA Claw 1h 2h S/S 2h Fist Bow Xbow
32   -30
31   -28
30   -25    30
29   -23    29
28   -20    28
27   -17 -30   27
26   -14 -29   26
25   -11 -26   25
24   -7 -23   24
23   -3 -20   23
22   0 -17  -30 22
21  -30 5 -13  -26 21
20  -28 10 -9  -23 20
19 -30 -25 16 -4  -19 19
18 -28 -20 22 0  -15 18
17 -24 -16 29 6  -10 17
16 -20 -11 36 13  -5 16
15 -15 -6 44 19 -30 0 15
14 -9 0 54 27 -26 8 14
13 -2 8 65 36 -21 15 13
12 5 16  47 -15 24 12
11 13 25  59 -8 34 11
10 24 37  74 0 46
9 47 50   11 61
8 51 68   23
7 70    38
6     58

|||4. Dragon Claw

Fists of Fire

Blades of Ice

Claws of Thunder

91 EIAS Required for a 10 Frame attack with two claws equipped.

Note: You will attack with both claws in 10 frames, for an effective 5 frame per hit.

Code:

BoS Weapon Speed Modifier
Lvl -60 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 42 63 75 89 105 125 147 174 208 250 304 377 480 638 909 1480 3480 0
1 11 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200 240 292 360 456 600
2 5 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232 280 345 434
3 0 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200 240 292 360
4 0 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215 259 317
5 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232 280
6 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215 259
7 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200 240
8 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232
9 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215
10 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174 208
11 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200
12 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194
13 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187
14 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180
15 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174
16 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168
17 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168
18 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168
19 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163
20 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163
21 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157
22 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157
23 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152
24 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152
25 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152
26 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147
27 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147
28 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147
29 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147
30 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147

EIAS Table for DC, FoF, CoT, and BoI with Two Claws Equipped

Code:

EIAS Table with Claw/Shield or Fists

Code:

|||5. Dragon Talon

Main Kick

63 EIAS required for 7 frame main kick

Code:

BoS Weapon Speed Modifier
Lvl -60 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 4 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223 270 330 414
1 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180
2 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147
3 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105
6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89
9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80
11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78
12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75
13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72
14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70
15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68
16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65
17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65
18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63
21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60
22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60
23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58
24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58
25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58
26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56
27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56
28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56
29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56
30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56

Dtalon BoS/IAS needed for 8 frame main kicks

I have included this table for 8 Frame main kicks as 8/3 kick is all you really need PvM.

Main Kick

45 EIAS Required for 8 frame main kick.

Code:

BoS Weapon Speed Modifier
Lvl EIAS -60 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200
1 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99
2 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80
3 31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70
4 34 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63
5 37 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56
6 39 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52
7 41 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48
8 42 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46
9 44 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42
10 45 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40
11 46 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39
12 47 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37
13 48 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35
14 49 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34
15 50 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32
16 51 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30
17 51 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30
18 51 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30
19 52 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29
20 52 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29
21 53 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27
22 53 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27
23 54 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26
24 54 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26
25 54 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26
26 55 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24
27 55 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24
28 55 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24
29 55 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24
30 55 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24

Secondary Kicks

34 EIAS equired for 3 frame secondary kicks.

Code:

BoS Weapon Speed Modifier
Lvl -60 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35
6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27
9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23
11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22
12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20
13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19
14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18
15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16
16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15
17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15
18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14
21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13
22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13
23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11
24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11
25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11
26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10
27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10
28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10
29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10
30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10

EIAS table for Dragon Talon

Code:

EIAS FPA Follow-ups
-70 43 14
-69 42 13
-68 41 13
-67 39 13
-66 38 12
-65 37 12
-64 36 12
-63 35 11
-62 34 11
-61 33 11
-60 32 11
-59 32 10
-58 31 10
-57 30 10
-56 29 10
-55 28 9
-53 27 9
-51 26 9
-50 25 8
-47 24 8
-45 23 8
-43 22 8
-42 22 7
-40 21 7
-37 20 7
-34 19 7
-33 19 6
-31 18 6
-27 17 6
-23 16 6
-19 16 5
-18 15 5
-13 14 5
-7 13 5
0 12 4
9 11 4
19 10 4
31 9 4
34 9 3
45 8 3
63 7 3

|||6. Dragon Tail

103 EIAS required for for 7 frame kicks

Code:

BoS Weapon Speed Modifier
Lvl -60 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 68 95 113 133 157 187 223 270 330 414 535 728 1080 1938 7080 0 0 0
1 27 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215 259 317 395 507 680 988 1680
2 19 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174 208 250 304 377 480 638 909
3 14 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215 259 317 395 507 680
4 10 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232 280 345 434 566
5 7 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174 208 250 304 377 480
6 5 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232 280 345 434
7 3 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215 259 317 395
8 2 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174 208 250 304 377
9 0 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232 280 345
10 0 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223 270 330
11 0 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215 259 317
12 0 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174 208 250 304
13 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200 240 292
14 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232 280
15 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223 270
16 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215 259
17 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215 259
18 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215 259
19 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174 208 250
20 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174 208 250
21 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200 240
22 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200 240
23 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232
24 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232
25 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194 232
26 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223
27 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223
28 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223
29 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223
30 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223

EIAS Table for Dragon Tail

Code:

|||7.1 Dragon Flight

The length of the Dragon Flight’s animation is 23 frames in length, but due to its one second delay the Assassin actually attacks every 34 frames when used continuously. The delay is applied after the action frame (the frame in which the attack is actually executed), which should be the ninth frame of the animation (34-25 = 9).

Thanks to onderduiker for this correction.

7.2 Whirlwind

IAS requirements

Code:

FPA*    Modified WSM
12     33 and higher
10     32 to   25
8     24 to   10
6      9 to  -12
4    -13 and lower

*With only one claw equipped you hit once in this time frame, with two claws you hit twice.

Modified WSM is the WSM of your claw (eg. you would use 0 here if you used a Scissors Suwayyah), minus the amount of IAS you have on your weapon.

Modified WSM = WSM of claw - Weapon IAS.

Here are a few examples:

1) Scissors Suwayyah with 15% IAS from a jewel. Modified WSM = 0 - 15 = -15. So, this claw would reach the speed cap of 4 frames with WW.

2) War Fist with 10% IAS. Modified WSM = 10 – 10 = 0. So, this claw would only reach 6 frames with WW.

3) Runic Talon(no IAS). Modified WSM = -30 - 0 = -30. So, this claw would reach the speed cap of 4 frames with WW with plenty to spare.

Note:

- IAS outside your weapon does not work with WW.

- WW hits are calculated individually, so both claws need to hit the breakpoint.

7.3 Werebear

Notes:

- The table below is only applicable for claws.

- If you are attacking with a different weapon, please use The Latest German Weapon Speed Calculator by Titanseal.

- As with Druids, off weapon IAS does have a very limited effect on attack speed. It may gain you one frame, but is mainly effective at slower speeds (6FPA +).

- The information below is taken from the work done by TitanSeal at The Amazon Basin.

- I have re-ordered the formula to be in the same notation as the WW formula in 7.2 in an attempt to avoid confusion. This way a faster Modified WSM is a negative number, as WSM normally is.

IAS for Normal Attack in Werebear form, with a claw:

Code:

FPA     Modified WSM
5        -51 to  -69
4        -70 to -126
3       -126 to -171
2       -172 and lower

Modified WSM is the WSM of your weapon (eg. you would use -30 here if you used Runic Talons), minus the amount of IAS you have on your weapon.

Modified WSM = WSM of Weapon - Weapon IAS.

The 2FPA Myth

Jewelers Runic Talons of Quickness Shael Shael Shael

WSM-WIAS = (-30)-(40+20+20+20)

WSM-WIAS = -30-(100)

WSM-WIAS = -130

= 3FPA

Claws are the only weapons capable of getting to 3FPA.

- Although you can get a -150 Modified WSM on a Phaseblade, it is capped at 4FPA. Actually a Phaseblade only required 60IAS to get to 4FPA.

- A Demon Machine with 5 Shaels would give a Modified WSM of -160, but this only gives 5FPA.|||8. Zeal

68 EIAS needed for 8 Frame Zeal main hit with a one handed weapon

Code:

BoS Weapon Speed Modifier
Lvl -60 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 9 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223 270 330 414 535
1 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152 180 215
2 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174
3 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129 152
4 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138
5 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125
6 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105
9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95
11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92
12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89
13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86
14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83
15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80
16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78
17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78
18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75
21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72
22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72
23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70
24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70
25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70
26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68
27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68
28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68
29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68
30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68

75 EIAS needed for 4 Frame Zeal follow up hits with a one handed weapon

Code:

BoS Weapon Speed Modifier
Lvl -60 -50 -45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 18 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120 142 168 200 240 292 360 456 600 840
1 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223 270
2 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157 187 223
3 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138 163 194
4 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147 174
5 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113 133 157
6 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125 147
7 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99 117 138
8 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109 129
9 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105 125
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102 120
11 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95 113
12 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109
13 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92 109
14 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89 105
15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86 102
16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99
17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83 99
18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 15 22 29 37 46 56 68 80 95
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92
21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92
22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 14 20 27 35 44 54 65 78 92
23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89
24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89
25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 13 19 26 34 42 52 63 75 89
26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86
27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86
28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 18 24 32 40 50 60 72 86
29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83
30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 10 16 23 30 39 48 58 70 83

EIAS Table for Zeal main hit

Code:

Fpa 1h Spear 2hS 2h
32  -30 -30
31  -28 -28
30  -25 -25
29  -23 -23
28  -20 -20
27  -17 -17 -30
26  -14 -14 -29
25  -11 -11 -26
24  -11 -11 -23
23  -3 -3 -20
22  0 0 -17
21 -30 5 5 -13
20 -28 10 10 -9
19 -25 16 16 -4
18 -20 22 22 0
17 -16 29 29 6
16 -11 36 36 13
15 -6 44 44 19
14 0 54 54 27
13 8 65 65 36
12 16   47
11 25   59
10 37   74
9 50
8 68

EIAS Table for Zeal follow up hits

Code:

Fpa 1h Spear 2hS 2h
16   -30
15  -30 -26
14  -28 -21
13  -23 -15 -30
12  -16 -8 -25
11 -30 -8 0 -17
10 -29 0 11 -9
9 -21 12 23 0
8 -12 25 38 13
7 0 43 58 29
6 17 67  50
5 41
4 75

Fpa - Frames per attack, where 25 Frames = 1 second.

1h - One handed swinging and one handed thrusting/throwing weapons

Spear - Spear class weapons

2hS - Two handed swords

2h - Staves, Polearms, Two handed maces and Two handed axes .|||9.1 Abbreviations

BoS- Burst of Speed

CoS- Cloak of Shadows

DF - Dragon Flight

FPA - Frames Per Attack (1 second = 25 frames)

IAS - Increased Attack Speed

LS - Lightning Sentry

MA - Martial Arts

WSM - Weapon Speed Modifier

WW - Whirlwind

3os - 3 Open Sockets

FoF - Fists of Fire

BoI - Blades of Ice

CoT - Claws of Thunder

PS - Phoenix Strike

TS - Tiger Strike

9.2 Credits

JRichard for all the original work.

TitanSeal for the Werebear information.

Stephan and RTB for help with the BoS.

onderduiker for the correction on Dragon Flight.

Tienje for the WSM bugging explanation.

9.3 Revision History

Revision 1 - First post.

Revision 1.1 - Added onderduiker's correction on Dragon Flight, example of how to use the tables and the revision history.

Revision 1.2 - Revised section 7.3 Werebear.

Revision 1.3 - Excel link now working.

Assassin FAQ

[:1]Assassin FAQ for Version 1.13

Revision 0.2

This FAQ is a work in progress. Please see the revision history for where input is required and list of changes

Contents

[1] Forum Rules

[2] General FAQs

[3] Traps

[4] Shadow Disciplines

[5] Martial Arts

[6] OSkills

[7] Links

[8] Credits

[9] Revision History

1. Forum Rules

Short version: Be polite.

Longer version: are here. No, not negotiable.

Trading takes place in the Trade Forums but if you are in dire need, please use the Assassin Forum Item Fund rather than make a thread begging for items.|||2. General FAQs

Introduction

The Assassin is one of the more complex characters in D2, with a wide range of skills. Dragon Talon gives her one of the fastest attacks in the game. Lightning Sentry gives a powerful ranged elemental attack. Charge up skills are unique amongst the D2 classes. Mind Blast, Fade, Venom, Burst of Speed all add complexity and depth. For me there are more varieties of Assassin build possible than any other class - she is capable of shining as both a PvM and a PvP character.

This FAQ is intended to go into further depth than the basic skill info that can be found either in game or at The Arreat Summit. It is not intended to repeat damage tables etc., but to give an understanding behind the mechanics of how the skills work.

Basic Terms and Abbreviations

AoE: Area of Effect

AR: Attack Rating

BoI: Blades of Ice

BoS: Burst of Speed

BF: Blade Fury

C/C: Claw/Claw (dual wielding claws)

C/S: Claw/Shield (using a claw and a shield)

CE: Corpse Explosion (from Death Sentry)

CoS: Cloak of Shadows

CoT: Claws of Thunder

CS: Cobra Strike

DC: Dragon Claw

DF: Dragon Flight

DR: Damage Reduced (a mod on items)

DT: Dragon Talon

DS: Death Sentry

DTail: Dragon Tail

EIAS: Effective Increased Attack Speed

ED: Enhanced Damage

FoF: Fists of Fire

IAS: Increased Attack Speed

LCS: Lying Character Screen. Referred to this way as it is often incorrect.

LMB: Left Mouse Button

LS: Lightning Sentry

MA: Martial Arts, usually referring to the Martial Arts skill tree

MDR: Magic Damage Reduced (a mod on items)

Nat's: Natalya's Odium (the assassin set)

PS: Phoenix Strike

PvM: Player Vs. Monster

PvP: Player Vs. Player

RMB: Right Mouse Button

SD: Shadow Discipline Skill tree

slvl: Skill Level

SM: Shadow Master

SW: Shadow Warrior

TS: Tiger strike

WoF: Wake of Fire

WoI: Wake of Inferno

WB: Weapon Block

W/S: Weapon/Shield (normally for a non claw weapon)

WW: Whirlwind

Faster Hit Recovery

Code:

             Hit Recovery Frames                    
             8    7    6    5    4    3
Assassin     7   15   27   48   86  200

Faster Cast Rate

Code:

             Cast Rate Frames                    
            16    15    14    13    12    11    10     9
Assassin     0     8    16    27    42    65   102   174

Faster Block Rate

Code:

             Block Rate Frames                    
             5     4     3     2     1
Assassin     0    13    32    86   600

Faster Block Rate does affect Weapon Block, although the only applicable item is Guardian Angel Unique Templar Coat (30 FBR, which increases block rate from 5 to 4 frames).

Next Delay

NextDelay is a property that activates a hidden "hit timer" that limits how often any attack from that group can damage a single target.

When a missile flagged with Next Delay collides with a target, it prevents any other missile flagged with Next Delay from colliding with that target for the length of that missile's delay. For example, Wake of Fire's 4 frame next delay prevents any of its other missiles from colliding with a target more than once every 5 frames, so it can never apply its displayed damage more than five times per second.

Assassin skillsaffected by NextDelay

25-Frame Delay (1 second)

Shock Web

Blade Sentinel

4-Frame Delay (0.16 seconds)

Wake of Fire

Claws of Thunder (nova and bolts)

Phoenix Strike (lightning and freezing bolts)

So, the moment a certain skill from the list damages a monster, it prevents every other skill on the list from hitting the said monster for the original skill's NextDelay duration (whether from you or any other character).

Assassin Claws

Claw class weapons are the Assassin's class specific items. Assassin claws may have +1-3 points in up to 3 individual skills from all three of her skill trees, Traps, Shadow Disciplines, and Martial Arts. These random +skills work just like the bonuses you see on wands/scepters/staves in Diablo II, and can occur on normal, magical, and Rare items and can be any of her skills, Clvl 1 up to and including Clvl 30 ones.

All you ever wanted to know about claws, and much you probably didn't can be found in Shuko-Jutsu - The Art Of The Claw. For WW assassins see also What to look for in Fools claw by HappyAssassin.

Natalya's Odium

Natalya's Odium is the Assassin class specific set. It is of limited use to most assassin builds as it does not have very high bonuses to trap skills and kick damage is low due to the boot type. It can be used for elemental charge up builds and works quite well for Phoenix Strikers.

Keys

What's a key? The Assassin does not need to keep keys to open locked chests.|||3. Traps

IAS Tables for Trap Laying

Trap skills are normally divided into three groups:

- Lightning Traps

- Fire Traps

- Blade Skills

The fire and lightning traps also have two sub-types:

Sentry Traps

The Assassin can place a maximum of five Sentries at any one time. These can be mixed (2 Wake of Fire, 3 Lightning) or all the same kind. The five cap only applies to Sentries (Charged Bolt Sentry, Wake of Fire, Lightning Sentry, Wake of Inferno and Death Sentry). Do note that the Traps that your Shadow casts also counts towards this limit. For example, if you had five WoI traps active, and your Shadow casts an LS, one of your WoI traps would be destroyed and replaced with your Shadows's LS.

While BFury, Blade Shield, SWeb and FB don't count as Traps in terms of the trap limit, BSentinel does (when you have 5 WoI traps active, and cast a BSentinel, one of your WoIs will disappear). Theoretically, an Assassin is not able to have more than 5 BSentinels active at the same time, due to limitations from its casting delay and duration (there is also a hard limitation that prevents more than 5 BSentinels from being cast, as the first BSentinel will wink out before the sixth is cast).

All 'set' Traps (i.e. LS, WoI, etc. as well as BSentinel) are automatically destroyed if you go beyond 2 screens' distance from them, even if they haven't depleted their shots. Sentries cannot be destroyed by other players or monsters.

Sentries are considered as minions by the game and benefit from neither -resistance or +damage from items like Facets, Crescent Moon or Griffon's Eye, despite what the LCS may say.

How quickly you can lay sentry traps is determined by you attack speed. How quickly they fire their shots is fixed.

Bomb Traps

- Fireblast and Shockweb do not count towards the five trap limit.

- Fireblast and Shockweb work as normal with -resistance and +damage from items like Facets, Crescent Moon or Griffon's Eye.

Lightning Traps

Shock Web

Firing Speed – 9 FPA

NextDelay – 25 Frames

Charged Bolt Sentry

Initial Delay – (?? frames)

Firing Speed – 31 FPA

NextDelay – None

Shots – 10

Firing Speed - 31 FPA

Awareness radius - 16 2/3 yards

Lightning Sentry

Initial Delay – 33 frames

Firing Speed – 31 FPA

NextDelay – None

Shots – 10

Awareness radius - 16 2/3 yards

Death Sentry

Initial Delay – (33 frames - confirm??)

Firing Speed – 31/32 FPA

NextDelay – None

Shots – 5 + 1 shot for every 3 points invested in Fire Blast. That's a maximum of 11 shots with a level 18 Fire Blast

Awareness radius - 10 2/3 yards (lightning bolt only)

Death Sentry will trigger CE if a target is within its line of sight and a corpse is within radius of that target. The corpse does not have to be within line of sight of either the sentry or the target, and its damage is always applied to targets within its radius, even if there is a wall or other obstacle between it and the target. Blocking, Weapon Block, Dodge, Avoid and Evade cannot prevent damage being applied.

As Sass observed, in practical terms this means that you can affect if DS triggers a corpse explosion or lightning by where you place the trap. If you place a DS outside the 10 2/3 yards awareness radius of the Lightning and in line of sight of a target, it will trigger DS. Placing the trap on top of an opponent is more likely to trigger lightning. This is very useful for kick trap hybrids - Place DS on screen before advancing into a new area. When you attack a monster pack, corpse explosion will trigger after you have got the first corpse and you won't waste DS shots with lightning.

Fire Traps

Fire Blast

Firing Speed – 9 FPA

NextDelay – None

Wake of Fire

Initial Delay – 40 frames

Firing Speed – 17 FPA

NextDelay – 4 frames

Shots – 5

Awareness radius - 10 yards

Wake Of Inferno

Initial Delay – ?? frames

Firing Speed – ?? FPA

NextDelay – None

Shots – 10

Awareness radius - 8 2/3 yards

The actual missile that causes the damage of WoI is extremely thin, which makes it useless on moving targets. WoI still has hope with completely stationary targets, though.

Blade Skills

Despite what the character screen displays, off-weapon % Enhanced Damage from items, stat bonuses, auras (Might, Concentration, Fanaticism and Heart of Wolverine) and Claw Mastery (when equipping claw) applies to all listed damage, not just weapon damage, with the exception of Blade Shield skill damage. +% Damage to Demons or Undead from items (including weapon itself) is added to % ED when attacking Demons or Undead.

See Blade Fury Analysis by Ceramic Weasel for more information.

Much of the information in the tables below is taken from onderduiker's Blade Skill Modifiers Guide at The Amazon Basin.

Blade Sentinel

Code:

Modifier                           Works?
_________________________________________
Chance to cast on Attacking           N
Chance to cast on Striking            N
Critical Strike from Claw Mastery     Y
Crushing Blow                         N
Deadly Strike                         Y
Elemental Damage/Venom               3/8*
Hit Blinds Target                     N
Hit Causes Monster to Flee            N
Hit Freezes Target                    N
Hit Slows Target                      N
Increased Attack Speed                N***
Ignore Target Defense                 Y
Knockback                             N
Leech                                 Y
Open Wounds                           N
Physical/Weapon Damage               3/8*
Pierce Target                         Y**
Prevent Monster Heal                  N

* Half this damage applies if using a two handed weapon, although it it not dispayed correctly in the LCS. So for blade sentinel damage with a two handed weapon is 3/16.

** Blade Sentinel has natural pierce

*** All blade skills have a fixed speed, regardless of IAS on weapons or gear.

Blade Sentinel also gets +(20*slvl) base AR, and 100% of the relevant MonLvl TH (To Hit) value: for example, in a Ladder Hell game 3,408 base AR is added when cast by a level 85 Assassin or Shadow Warrior, since 3408 is entered in the L-TH(H) column of MonLvl.txt for level 85. Consequently, Blade Sentinel chance-to-hit can be significantly higher than that of the summoning Assassin or Shadow Master.

Blade Fury

Code:

Modifier                           Works?
_________________________________________
Chance to cast on Attacking           N
Chance to cast on Striking            Y
Critical Strike from Claw Mastery     Y
Crushing Blow                         Y**
Deadly Strike                         Y
Elemental Damage/Venom               3/4*
Hit Blinds Target                     Y
Hit Causes Monster to Flee            Y
Hit Freezes Target                    Y
Hit Slows Target                      Y
Increased Attack Speed                N***
Ignore Target Defense                 Y
Knockback                             Y
Leech                                 Y
Open Wounds                           Y
Physical/Weapon Damage               3/4*
Pierce Target                         N
Prevent Monster Heal                  Y

* Half this damage applies if using a two handed weapon, although it it not dispayed correctly in the LCS. So for Blade Fury damage is 3/8 with a two handed weapon.

** Blade Fury is considered a ranged attack when determining the effect of Crushing Blow.

*** Blades are thrown at 6FPA, regardless of IAS on weapons or gear.

Blade Fury uses Normal Attack AR to in the to hit calculation. If you use a Claw with BF, the AR bonus from Claw Mastery does not apply.

Blade Shield

Blade Shield has melee range 1-3 against size 1-3 targets, regardless of the weapon equipped.

Code:

Modifier                           Works?
_________________________________________
Chance to cast on Attacking           N
Chance to cast on Striking            N
Critical Strike from Claw Mastery     Y
Crushing Blow                         N
Deadly Strike                         Y
Elemental Damage/Venom               1/4
Hit Blinds Target                     N
Hit Causes Monster to Flee            N
Hit Freezes Target                    N
Hit Slows Target                      N
Increased Attack Speed                N*
Ignore Target Defense                 Y
Knockback                             N
Leech                                 Y
Open Wounds                           N
Physical/Weapon Damage               1/4**
Pierce Target                         N
Prevent Monster Heal                  N

* Blade Shield speed is fixed at 25FPA, regardless of IAS on weapons or gear. However, as Blade Shield does damage on the first frame, you can increase the rate at which it hits by standing still and continually re-casting it.

** Blade Shield does not actually penalise you when using a two-handed weapon. However, unlike Blade Sentinel and Blade Fury, its skill damage is also reduced (to 1/4 like weapon attack damage, although the character screen doesn't display this) and added before +% Damage, as displayed by the character screen.

+% Skill Damage applies to Blade Shield damage, but not Blade Fury or Blade Sentinel.|||4. Shadow Disciplines

You can pre-buff Shadows, Fade, BoS & Venom. They will keep the bonuses at the time of the cast, even if you change equipment.

Burst of Speed and Fade cannot be used together, although either can be used with Venom.

Claw Mastery

Unlike a Barbarian's Masteries skills, this does not automatically warrant 20 points if you are using claws. As with most of the Martial Arts are either doing elemental damage or kicking, it is normally left at one point. For Blade Fury, Whirlwind or Dragon Claw Assassins it is worth a heavier investment though.

Claw Mastery's +% Attack Rating doesn't apply to Blade Fury, although the damage does if you are wielding a claw class weapon.

Claw Mastery applies no bonuses to kicks, if you use a claw when kicking. You kick with the boot, not the claw.

Weapon Block

Weapon Block only works when you are dual wielding claw class weapons. It does not work when moving, only when you are attacking or standing still. Chance to block is based on the skill level only and is independent of Dexterity or Increased Chance of Blocking from items.

Weapon block has the ability to block most elemental, missile or physical attacks, much like the Amazons Avoid and Evade skills. It does apply to attacks which apply fire damage per second: however, fire damage is applied every frame, often by multiple missiles. For this reason Firewalls, residual Meteor flames were previously considered as unblockable.

Weapon Block does not block:

- Holy Fire radial damage

- Holy Freeze radial damage

- Holy Shock radial damage

- Shiver Armour cold damage

- Attacker Takes (Lightning) Damage

- Returned damage from Thorns, Iron Maiden, Iron Golem and Spirit of Barbs

- Nihlathak Corpse Explosion

- Corpse Explosion

- Death Sentry corpse explosion

- Monsters using Charge (Claw Vipers and Reanimated Horde)

- Psychic Hammer

- Mind Blast

- Psychic Hammer

- Telekinesis

- Paladin Smite - This seems to be blocked at a reduced rate, see this post by stephan for further information.

Poison damage over time is not blockable in the same was as residual fire damage, only the initial attack can be blocked.

Spoiler

The mechanics of fire damage per second are not the same as poison damage. Poison damage only requires a single successful attack before applying poison damage every frame of its length, while fire damage per second requires multiple successful attacks every frame to apply damage for a single frame each time. So while Poison Nova bolts and Rabies attacks and missiles can be blocked by Weapon Block, if they're not then WB does nothing to prevent poison damage then being applied for its length. This is not the case for fire damage per second.

For example, Fire Wall's displayed fire damage per second is based on three missiles applying fire damage every frame for the 25 frames of a second (so 75 times per second in total). Level 20 Fire Wall (without synergy bonuses or Fire Mastery) may display 1,284-1,307 fire damage per second, but this is based on 17.125-17.4375 fire damage being applied 75 times per second. Consequently, Weapon Block (and Avoid or Evade, for that matter) can only reduce total damage taken rather then preventing it entirely (even 65% WB only has ~0.002% (100*(0.65^25)) of blocking all 25 collisions with just one missile in a second).

Fire damage per second typically has quite a tight damage range, so if you want to test this in the field it should be clear that WB reduces total damage by its percentage (the position of missiles may vary so neither the target nor the attacker should change positions: in the case of Fire Wall, actual damage to a size 2 target like a player may equal displayed damage when cast along a line parallel to walls or other edges, but will only be 1/3 when cast along a line parallel to the edge of the screen).

Psychic Hammer

PH deals half Physical, half Magic damage.

Burst of Speed

Calculations for how BoS affects attack speed can be found with the IAS tables

Cloak of Shadows

- The enemy vision radius of the monster while blinded is reduced to its melee range, which varies by monster type, but if a monster is doing something (e.g.. chasing you) when you cast CoS, he will continue to do so (until you interrupt him, with a Psychic Hammer, for example), then remain stationary when the action is finished.

- CoS dispels Firewalls (in the Arcane Sanctuary).

- CoS prevents Shamans from reviving Fallen, Flesh Spawners from creating babies, Sand Maggots from laying eggs and ranged attackers from firing.

- CoS forces monsters to use their melee attack, even if they are in range for a secondary attack (e.g. Balrogs will never use their Inferno ability when CoS is active).

- The blinding effect of CoS does not work on Bosses, Champions, Super uniques (including Act Bosses). Minions of Destruction, Oblivion Knights, Suicide Minions and Putrid Defilers aren't blinded either, and neither are static hostile units like Gargoyle Traps and Tentacle Beasts.

- The -%defense on CoS works on all monsters except Act Bosses in all incarnations and the following as well:

- Blood Raven

- Griswold

- Radament

- The Summoner

- Izual

- Putrid Defiler

- Nihlathak

- Uber Izual

- CoS functions like a curse, i.e. you can overwrite your Necro friend's curse and vice versa with it. When CoS is overwritten, all effects on the monster in question are removed(i.e. it is no longer blinded or suffering from defense reduction, despite the dark screen).

- Cloak of Shadows +% Defence and that of non-armor items like Ribcracker Unique Quarterstaff is added to +% Defence from skills.It's been assumed that, because item_armor_percent is applied instead of skill_armor_percent, the two stats are applied separately, but testing has confirmed that this is not the case: for once, the character screen is actually accurate.

Fade

Fade has a hidden PDR bonus of 1% per skill point invested it in (whether natural or from +skills). So, an slvl 10 Fade would have 10% hidden PDR. This only applies when Fade is active.

The game treats lasting Shrine effects as Curses, and accordingly, they suffer a shortened duration when used in conjunction with Fade (exact decrease in duration depends on the slvl). So, when you're about to activate a Shrine, remember to switch to BoS(you can switch back to Fade once you've activated the Shrine with BoS, with no ill effect).

Shadow Warrior

Shadow Master

Shadow Warrior can cast only the two skills readied in your left and right skill button, while Shadow Master can use any of the Assassin's skills, even if there are no points in it. Shadow Master has more life than the Warrior and comes with in-built elemental resistances and will be able to inflict a good deal more damage. In addition, at higher levels, Shadow Master spawns with better equipment than Shadow Warriors. Shadow Master costs 40 mana to cast and Warrior costs 27 at level one and rises by 2 with each skill point.

In most cases, Shadow Master is going to be a superior minion when compared to Shadow Warrior. Shadow Masters are downright the best summoned Minion in the game. Shadow Masters can use 28 out of 30 of the Assassin skills, including skills that you haven't invested any points in yourself. Of course, a Shadow Warrior or Shadow Master cannot summon their own Shadow. Shadow Masters with enough points in the skill have pretty decent hit points (not as many as a Valkyrie, but Valkyries are nothing more than big dumb meat shields), can help out by tanking for you against monsters, can set traps, Mind Blast monsters (sometimes this is an undesirable effect, but their other benefits outweigh the occasional ill-timed conversion), and even do moderate damage, even in Hell.

However, with some micromanagement, SWarriors can complement your killing efficiency quite well, due to way Shadows gain synergy bonuses.

General

SW has Damage Regen 3, SM has Damage Regen 2: this means SW can regenerate 75/4096 (~1.83%) of her maximum life per second, while SM can regenerate 50/4096 (~1.22%) of her maximum life per second. However, note that damage regeneration doesn't apply in frames in which as little as 1 bit (1/256 point) damage is applied, so neither will regenerate while standing in fire (applying fire damage per frame) unless they're Immune to Fire. Shadows can be healed but you do not heal them as you do Mercenaries {giving them a health potion}. Shadows are healed when you visit the town healer.

The SWarrior has a defense bonus of 12%/level, SMs have no innate defense bonus.

The SM attacks roughly one frame faster with DC/CoT/BoI/FoF. The SWarrior attacks roughly one frame faster with BF/DFlight. Both have the same Normal Attack speed.

Both Shadows attack twice with DF/DC/CoT/FoF/BoI in one 'click' (that is, when you see your Shadow DF'ing someone, she actually has the chance to inflict the damage of two DFs in one stroke, even though only one DF is seen)

Both Shadows have an AI delay of 0.6 seconds (15 frames) before they can do any other action.

Shadow Master costs 40 mana to cast and Warrior costs 27 at level one and rises by 2 with each skill point.

Both you and your mercenary gain experience from Shadow kills.

Resistances

Shadow Warrior gains min ( 4*slvl , 75 ) All Resistances

(1.13) Shadow Master gains min ( 5 + [ 85 * [ (110*slvl) / (slvl+6) ] / 100 ] , 90 ) All Resistances

How this formula works:

Spoiler

The general form of the diminishing returns formula is as follows:

[code]

min ( a + [ (b-a) * [ (110*slvl) / (slvl+6) ] / 100 ] , b )

min ( x , y ) minimum value of x or y

a Minimum value

b Maximum value

* Multiply

[x] Round down x

slvl Skill level[code]

Minimum and maximum values are determined by parameters in Skills.txt (5 and 90 for Shadow Master + All Resistances, 20 and 65 for Weapon Block chance), and maximum value is reached at level 60:

Code:

Level 60 = min ( a + [ (b-a) * [ (110*60) / (60+6) ] / 100 ] , b )
         = min ( a + [ (b-a) * [ 6600 / 66 ] / 100 ] , b )
         = min ( a + [ (b-a) * 100 / 100 ] , b )
         = min ( a + (b-a) , b)
         = min ( b , b )
         = b

Which is borne out by the following:

Level 99 Weapon Block (65%).

Code:

Level 99 = min ( 20 + [ (65-20) * [ (110*99) / (99+6) ] / 100 ] , 65 )
         = min ( 20 + [ 45 * [ 10890 / 105 ] / 100 ] , 65 )
         = min ( 20 + [ 45 * 103 / 100 ] , 65 )
         = min ( 20 + 46 , 65 )
         = min ( 66 , 65 )
         = 65

Though neither Shadow can become innately immune to the elements, if she spawns with +resist all equipment or receives the effects of a Paladin's Salvation aura for example, both Shadows have the ability to be completely immune to an element(they cannot absorb, unfortunately), as their resistance is pushed to 100% (being minions, they have no 75% cap). Both Shadows spawn with 40% PDR regardless of level (this can be increased if they decide to use Fade). Since a player has more control over what a Shadow Warrior uses, it's easier to make her cast Fade, which can easily result in her becoming Immune to Fire, Lightning, Cold and Poison

Shadow's Skills

Shadows' skills are 1/2(your Assassin's level in that skill including +skills) rounded down PLUS 1/3(level of shadow at time of casting including +skills), rounded down. So, if you had a lvl 24 MB and slvl 9 SM, your SM would cast an slvl 15 MB. This formula is also used to calculate synergy bonuses in the FAQ below.

Shadows do not appear to have a synergy cap of 20 points, as per other classes, but continue to gain synergy bonuses even after slvl 20, assuming the Assassin has +skills that will boost that level above 20(potentially allowing the Shadow to do more damage with a certain skill than the Assassin herself, or at least matching it). However, to gain the synergy bonuses of a certain skill, it must choose to use that skill (for example, a Shadow would need to use Fists of Fire before getting Fists of Fire's synergy bonuses on PS's Meteor.) Sentries summoned by Warrior use Assassin's base skill level for synergy bonuses, not Warrior's skill level (and Blade Sentinel uses Assassin's weapon attack damage, not Warrior's). onderduiker yet to confirm whether the same applies to Master.

Note: Once that particular Shadow dies (or you re-cast it), it has to "re-learn" all its synergies.

While it's possible to get a Shadow to do more damage with a Lightning Trap than yourself, it often becomes a trying exercise in order to get your Shadow to use the skill you want it to (given how fickle the Shadow AI is). It's easier to control which skill a Shadow Warriors uses, but it gets difficult keeping even a high level SWarrior alive in Hell.

As an example to illustrate how a Shadow might do damage with her skills:

Assuming the Assassin has:

20 LS (+20 skills)

20 DS (+20 skills)

20 CBS (+20 skills)

20 SWeb (+20 skills)

20 SWarrior (+11 skills)

LS damage/bolt: 4485 avg.

As synergy bonuses stretch beyond slvl 20(for the Shadow), the Shadow would use (according to the formula in the previous FAQ):

31 LS

31 DS

31 CBS

31 SWeb

LS damage/bolt: 4244 avg.

Shadow Warrior does not use Claw Mastery and Weapon Block, and has been observed using every other Assassin skill (with the obvious exceptions of Shadow Warrior and Shadow Master) except Blade Fury and Cobra Strike. It has been reported that Shadow Master also does not use Blade Fury, and uses Cloak of Shadows very infrequently (if at all).

Shadow's Equipment

The SM spawns with items at a higher level than the SWarrior(this is in addition to the SM spawning with better quality equipment at higher levels, consult the other FAQs). Specifically:

Shadow Warrior item level formula: 18 + 2 * Slvl

Shadow Master item level formula: 24 + 3 * Slvl

SWarriors get all their bonuses at level one

- Magical Blade Talon on their left hand

- Magical Cestus on their right hand

- Magical version of the your own armor's base item (e.g. if you wore a Spirit Shroud, they would spawn with a magical version of Ghost Armor)

- Magical version of your own helm's base item

At level 1, SMs spawn with

- Superior Suwayyah/War Fist/Scissors Suwayyah on their right hand

- Superior Battle Cestus/Runic Talon on their left hand

- Superior version of your own armor's base item

At level 5, SMs spawn with

- Superior Bramble Mitts/Vambraces/Orge Gauntlets

At level 6, SMs spawn with

- Magical version of your own armor's base item

- Magical version of your own helm's base item

- Magical Bramble Mitts/Vambraces/Orge Gauntlets

- Magical Suwayyah/War Fist/Scissors Suwayyah on their right hand

- Magical Battle Cestus/Runic Talon on their left hand

At level 9, SMs spawn with

- Magical right ring

At level 11, SMs spawn with

- Rare version of your own armor's base item

- Rare version of your own helm's base item

- Rare right ring

- Rare Bramble Mitts/Vambraces/Orge Gauntlets

- Rare Suwayyah/War Fist/Scissors Suwayyah on their right hand

- Rare Battle Cestus/Runic Talon on their left hand

At level 13, SMs spawn with

- Rare left ring

At level 17, SMs spawn with

- Rare amulet

So, all in all, a maxed out (item-wise) SM would spawn with

- Rare version of your own armor's base item

- Rare version of your own helm's base item

- Rare left ring

- Rare right ring

- Rare amulet

- Rare Bramble Mitts/Vambraces/Orge Gauntlets

- Rare Suwayyah/War Fist/Scissors Suwayyah on their right hand

- Rare Battle Cestus/Runic Talon on their left hand

Some further info from RTB about shadows:

Spoiler

Code:

Shadow Warrior

aidel 15
threat 11
"max target dist" = 40
"max boss dist" = 30
"attack chance" = 60
"skill decrement" = 1
"summoning skill" = 268
"min to use skill" = 5
"max to use skill" = 64

Animations
Normal Attack
EIAS frames
0 14
6 13
14 12
24 11
35 10
49 9
65 8

FoF/BoI/DC/CoT (hits twice) (-10 wsm)
EIAS frames
0 17
6 16
14 15
22 14
31 13
42 12
55 11

Blade Fury
EFCR frames
0 16

Dragon Flight (hits twice)
0 22

Coldeffect: -50%
Drain: 0

40% physical resist

damageregen: 3 (0 to full in 54.61 seconds)

Stats
 Normal NM Hell
Life: 376 376 376
Def: 196 196 196
AR: 163 243 323

+ar: 40 - Slvl
+% defense: 12 - Slvl
str: 10 - Slvl
Dex: 10 - Slvl
fire/cold/light/pois resist: 4 - Slvl, capped at 75

delay: 150 frames = 6 seconds

Mana cost: 27 + .5 - Slvl

+hp%: 15 - Slvl

Ilvl of items: 18 + 2 - Slvl


Shadow Master

"approach dist" = 20
"melee bonus" = 10
"progressive bonus" = 10
"random pick" = 20
"ignore range" = 36
"boss leash" = 36
"attack chance" = 60
"summoning skill" = 279

Animations
Normal Attack
EIAS frames
0 14
6 13
14 12
24 11
35 10
49 9
65 8

FoF/BoI/DC/CoT (hits twice) (-10 wsm)
EIAS frames
0 17
6 16
14 15
22 14
31 13
42 12
55 11

Blade Fury
EFCR frames
0 16

Dragon Flight (hits twice)
0 22

Coldeffect: -50%
Drain: 0

40% physical resist

damageregen: 2 (0 to full in 81.92 seconds)

Stats
 Normal NM Hell
Life: 376 376 376
Def: 196 196 196
AR: 163 243 323

+ar: 40 - Slvl
str: 10 - Slvl
Dex: 10 - Slvl
fire/cold/light/pois resist: 0.75((110-lvl) / (lvl+6)) + 5

delay: 150 frames = 6 seconds

Mana cost: 35 + .5 - Slvl

+hp%: 15 - Slvl

Ilvl of items: 24 + 3 - Slvl

I'll add the rest of the SM speed tables later.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=RTB;3793663]A month later, but whatever

Code:

Normal Attack
EIAS frames
0 14
6 13
14 12
24 11
35 10
49 9
65 8

CoT/BoI/FoF/DC (two hit-checks)
EIAS frames
0 16
8 15
15 14
24 13
34 12
46 11
61 10

Dragon Flight (two hit-checks)
EIAS frames
0 23

Blade Fury
EFCR frames
0 17

There's a delay of 15 frames between decisions.

Mind Blast

MB deals pure Physical damage.

Stun length has 10% chance of being applied to Champion, Unique and Super Unique monsters, with no further penalties (so length is the same). Monsters without a knockback mode cannot be knocked back, but while this applies to some Super Unique and boss monsters (like Griswold, Izual, Nihlathak and the Ancients) it certainly does not apply to all (like Blood Raven, the Smith, the Summoner and Hephasto the Armorer).

Venom

When Venom is active, it converts the durations of all the poison sources on your equipment match its own (0.4 seconds). Consequently, the damages of all your poison sources are reduced to how much damage they would do over 0.4 seconds (for example, a 400 poison damage charm with a 5 second duration would be converted to 32 poison damage charm with a 0.4 second duration, when Venom is active). For this reason, external poison damage sources are usually useless when used with Venom. Despite this, keep a lookout for items with a high damage/low duration ratio, which may add a decent amount of damage to Venom, in addition to +skills and +poison skill damage mods.

Also, try to look at things in terms of ratios (this doesn't just apply to Venom, it applies to many chargeups and Traps as well). While 500 damage on Venom applied over 0.4 seconds may look paltry at first, look at it in terms of seconds(1250 damage/second, or even 12500/10 seconds) and you might change your mind. The only time you have to worry about the true duration (in Venom's case, 0.4 seconds, or 10 frames), is when you're checking whether you meet or exceed the listed duration with your attack, so you're doing the most damage/time possible(10 frames or below, in Venom's case). If you're attacking slower than the listed duration, you're not getting the most out of the skill, as there are instances where Venom's duration elapses, when you're still attacking(11 frames or above, in Venom's case).

Venom can be pre-buffed with +% Poison Skill Damage mods like the ones found on Trang-Oul's Claws and the 'Bramble' runeword. The bonuses will remain after the items are removed. +% Poison Skill Damage is applied when Venom is cast, and again when its poison damage is applied by a melee attack. The character screen also applies +% PSD to ranged attack damage, but this does not actually happen. So if the items are removed, the +% PSD from the pre-buff will only apply once if using a melee attack.

Venom is only applied to the target monster when using a missile weapon with the 'Fires Explosive Arrow/Bolt' mod (e.g.. Kuko Shakaku, Demon Machine).|||5. Martial Arts

The Martial Arts tree is probably the most complex tree in D2, containing many different types of attack. All Charge-Ups require a Finishing Move, but Finishing Moves do not require a Charge Up. Some, like Dragon Talon, excel without a finishing move.

The table below shows which weapon types are compatible with which martial arts skills.

Code:


                  C/C    C/S    W/S    2h   Fists
Tiger Strike       Y*     Y      Y      Y      Y
Cobra Strike       Y*     Y      Y      Y      Y

Fists of Fire      Y      Y      N      N      N
Claws of Thunder   Y      Y      N      N      N
Blades of Ice      Y      Y      N      N      N

Phoenix Strike     Y*     Y      Y      Y      Y

Dragon Claw        Y      N      N      N      N

Dragon Talon       Y**    Y      Y      Y      Y
Dragon Tail        Y**    Y      Y      Y      Y
Dragon Flight      Y**    Y      Y      Y      Y

Javelins & Throwing Weapons can be used as melee weapons.

*The secondary claw does not hit for strike skills.

**Offensive mods do not apply from the secondary claw.

Charge Ups

Charge-Up move is any skill from the Martial Arts tree that's labeled Charge-Up. Some Charge-Up attacks can be used by any melee weapon, though the Elemental branch of the Martial Arts tree (Fist of Fire, Claws of Thunder, and Blades of Ice) can only be used by claw-class weapons. The maximum number of charges you can accumulate per skill is 3, though you can have multiple Charge-Up skill charges active at once.

When you attack an enemy with either a normal attack or a specific Finishing Move skill, all charges are released, and their effects added to the effect of the Finishing Move. For instance, let's say you charge Tiger Strike three times and Phoenix Strike two times. You then release with a normal attack. This normal attack now has the damage increased by the Tiger Strike's three charges, and has the effect of releasing a bolt of chain lightning starting at the enemy you hit.

A Charge Up skill can be charged up to three times, each charge is more powerful than the previous. You must successfully hit your target to register a charge indicated by a colour orb circling the Assassin. Once charged its bonuses can be released by using a Finishing Move {or Normal Attack}. The Finishing Move will also apply a bonus to the attack. The AR bonus is not stored with the Charge Ups and released with the Finishing Move. The AR bonus is applied each time you attack with the Charge up. If the Finisher has an AR bonus also then that is applied when you strike with your finishing move.

Charges last for 15 seconds before expiring (in 1.13 - in previous versions it was 9 seconds) before either requiring another charge up attack of that type to hit or a finishing move to be completed.

Gameplay with Charge Up Skills

The easiest way to play with charge ups is to assign all the charge ups and finishers to the right mouse button. You then run around with the right mouse button held down and use the hot-keys to toggle attacks.

Example: I assign Phoenix Strike to X and Dragon Claw to Z. I press X, position the pointer on empty ground and press and hold the RMB. I can then run around with the button held down. When I get close to a monster I will automatically start to attack. When PS has charged twice I press Z to switch to DC and unleash the charges, then press X to start charging PS again - all keeping the RMB held down.

Assigning finishers to LMB and charge ups to RMB is much slower and leads to frequent miss clicks.

Kicks

All kicks are classed as Finishing Moves.

Physical kick damage is calculated from Strength, Dexterity, Skill Bonuses (kicks and Pally Auras), Boot Damage, and %ED from equipment, only. This is not including mods such as elemental damage. Weapon physical damage is completely useless, meaning you want to choose weapons for other mods.

Kick damage formula

Equations for kick damage and an explanation are in the section below.

A kick damage calculator is available at the Amazon Basin.

Spoiler

Kick Damage

Minimum Damage=[(STR+DEX-20)/4]*(100+skill_bonus)/100 + BootMinDam*[100+(STR*StrBonus/100)+skill_bonus+off_weaponED+Aura_bonus]/100

Maximum Damage=[(STR+DEX-20)/3]*(100+skill_bonus)/100 +BootMaxDam*[100+(STR*StrBonus/100)+skill_bonus+off_weaponED+Aura_bonus]/100

Any decimals are rounded down.

(STR+DEX-20)/4) and (STR+DEX-20)/3)

Self-explanatory: Just substitute STR and DEX for your current STR and DEX. Notes: For base kick damage, with no boots, STR and DEX have the same effect on Kick damage. DEX, however, also boosts AR and defense. Thus, in 1.09, DEX was the better choice for boosting your kick damage. This is no longer strictly true in 1.10, but the difference comes in a later part of the equation.

*(100+skill_bonus)/100

The skill_bonus spot is where the ED for DTalon, TS, DFlight, and some other skills such as might get placed (note: this does not include aura bonuses, such as the ED bonus on Might, or ED on equipment, which get added below). If more than one of these sources of ED are present, they get added together and placed into this slot. Remember to put this combined number in absolute terms (e.g.. 1440, not 1440%). Note: DTail's ED bonus is not figured into the equation in this place, it’s actually figured using the result of the kick damage equation (more below).

BootMinDam and BootMaxDam

These refer to the minimum and maximum damages of boots, respectively.

Code:

Name              Min Dmg  Max Dmg
Leather Boots        3        8
Heavy Boots          4       10
Chain Boots          6       12
Light Plated Boots   8       16
Greaves             10       20
Demonhide Boots     26       46
Sharkskin Boots     28       50
Mesh Boots          23       52
Battle Boots        37       64
War Boots           39       80
Scarabshell Boots   69      118
Boneweave Boots     69      118
Mirrored Boots      50      145
Myrmidon Greaves    83      149

Note: For the purposes of determining Kick damage, the mods on the pair of boots are irrelevant (+%defense and whether the pair of boots is ethereal also has no effect on Boot Damage). Only the boot type matters.

*(100+str*StrBonus/100+skill_bonus+off_weaponED+Aura_bonus)/100

StrBonus is always 120, regardless of boot type. The skill_bonus slot is handled just as it was in the previous part of the equation. A few paragraphs back, it was noted that DEX is no longer the best choice for increasing Kick damage. Why? While DEX still gives AR and defense, but for pure damage with boots, STR gets figured into the equation twice (once for calculating base kick damage, and again when calculating boot damage) whereas DEX only gets figured into the first part of the equation (base kick damage only).

off_weaponED refers to +%enhanced damage that doesn't come from weapons (as long as the ED isn't on a weapon, it is added here. The one exception where non-weapon ED doesn't work with Kicks is the ED on +%ED/Max Damage jewels, regardless of ).

Aura_bonus refers to +%enhanced damage that comes from auras like Might, Fanaticism and Concentration.

One last note on fitting in DTail's ED bonus into the equation:

DTail's ED bonus is special, as DTail's ED bonus is multiplied by the result of the above two equations (a property that allows it to get much higher damages than either DTalon or DF, given the same amount of listed Kick ED, per kick). Once you've calculated the results of the above two equations, substitute them into this equation to find the damage of the Fire Explosion attack:

Minimum Damage (the first number you calculated above) * (100+DTail ED bonus)/100 = Minimum Fire Explosion Damage

Maximum Damage (the second number you calculated above) * (100+DTail ED bonus)/100 = Maximum Fire Damage

Here are two examples for calculating Kick damage:

Example No. 1

An Assassin with 200 STR, 100 DEX, slvl 20 TS (charge three currently active, +1440% ED) and slvl 20 DTail(+240% ED), using Myrmidon Greaves, with an slvl 12 Might currently active(+150% ED) and +350% ED on armor:

[/code]Minimum Damage=[(200+100-20)/4]*(100+1440)/100 + 83*[100+(200*120/100)+1440+350+150]/100

=(280/4*1540/100) + 83 *(100+ 420+1440+350+150)/100

=(70*1540/100) + 83 *2460/100

=1078 + 2041.8

=3119

Maximum Damage=[(200+100-20)/3]*(100+1440)/100 +

149*[100+(200*120/100)+1440+350+150]/100

=(280/3*1540/100) + 149 *(100+ 420+1440+350+150)/100

=93*1540/100 + 149 * 2460/100

=1432 + 3665

=5097[code]

Minimum Damage=3119

Maximum Damage=5097

In game terms, these two numbers represent the amount of pure Physical damage you do to the monster you target DTail on. Note: If you're releasing DTail on a StoneSkinned or PI monster, reduce the damage of these two numbers accordingly(-80% for SS or -100% for PI), before calculating the Fire AoE damage, below. Incidentally, it's this property of DTail that makes it extremely weak against any type of Physical Resistant monster.

To calculate the damage of the Fire explosion, you multiply these two numbers by DTail's ED bonus:

Minimum Fire Damage=3119 * (100+240)/100 = 10604

Maximum Fire Damage=5097 * (100+240)/100 = 17329

In game terms, these numbers represent the amount of pure Fire damage done to all monster (including the monster you targeted DTail on) in a radius of 4 yards.

Example No. 2

An Assassin with 200 STR, 100 DEX, slvl 20 TS (charge three currently active, +1440% ED) and slvl 20 DTalon(+138% ED), using Myrmidon Greaves, with an slvl 12 Might currently active(+150% ED) and +350% ED on armor:

Code:

Minimum Damage=[(200+100-20)/4]*(100+1440+138)/100 + 83*[100+(200*120/100)+1440+138+350+150]/100
=(280/4*1678/100) + 83 *(100+ 420+1440+138+350+150)/100
=(70*1678/100) + 83 *2598/100
=1174 + 2156
=3330

Maximum Damage=[(200+100-20)/3]*(100+1440+138)/100 +
149*[100+(200*120/100)+1440+138+350+150]/100
=(280/3*1678/100) + 149 *(100+ 420+1440+138+350+150)/100
=93*1648/100 + 149 *2598/100
=1532 + 3871
=5403

Minimum Damage=3330

Maximum Damage=5403

In game terms, this is the damage of the initial Kick of DTalon (you have to calculate the damages of DTalon's follow-up Kicks separately). However, the subsequent Kicks of DTalon do not gain TS's ED bonus, and hence the skill_bonus should be 138, not 1578, when calculating the damage of each subsequent Kick.

What Works with Kicks

- Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, Slow Target

- Magic, Elemental, and Poison Damage (not displayed on the character screen)

- Knockback (Dragon Talon and Tail have their own knockback, only works for Dragon Flight)

- Life/Mana steal and Life/Mana after kills

- %Chance to Cast on Attack/Strike

- +% Damage (except from weapon)

- +AR (Weapon + Attack Rating of any kind (Based on Character Level, Undead or Demons) does apply to Dragon Talon, Dragon Tail and Dragon Flight, it's just not displayed by the character screen.)

Deadly Strike and Critical Strike do not work with kicks.

Dragon Talon

IAS Tables for Dragon Talon

Dragon Talon can have multiple kicks but any charge ups are released on the first kick only. This means it is rarely used in practice with a charge up. It's main PvM use is to apply crushing blow quickly, so it is normally used with a weapon and shield setup.

Dragon Tail

IAS Tables for Dragon Tail

Dragon Tail deals both Physical and Fire damage. The physical damage is applied only to the target that the kick is unleashed on, the fire damage is applied to the target and everything in the area of effect (4 Yards). The Kick Damage Formula section above gives a worked example of how this damage is calculated. The damage displayed on the LCS is the sum of the physical and the fire damage.

However the target's physical resistance is taken into account when the actual fire damage is calculated. The physical damage is calculated, the monster's physical resistance is applied, then the damage is converted to fire damage. This means that if you unleash the DTail on a monster that is Imune to Physical, the attack will do neither Physical nor Fire damage, although the explosion graphic is still displayed in game. The area of effect will do no fire damage either.

Dragon Flight

IAS for Dragon Flight

Dragon Flight give the assassin a pseudo teleport skill. It has a long attack speed and is highly interruptable. It is also lots of fun. If you assign it to the left mouse button skill, you can run around with the button held down and it will auto Dragon Flight when a target comes into range. It is not possible to assign it to the right mouse button and shift+click the ground to effect a (slow) teleport - you have to target something. With a bit of luck it can be used to positon yourself on the other side of one of the doors you have to break, or the towers in the open areas of A5 - DF the barricade and sometimes you will land on the opposite side.

Dragon Flight can only attack targets within an 18 yard radius of the Assassin: if she tries to attack a target beyond that radius, she will kick and the target will flash but she will neither teleport to nor attack the target. A target doesn't need to be selected, as the Assassin will attack a unit within a ~6 yard radius of the targeted point.

Further information about Dragon Flight by jrichard. It's old but there is still some good stuff in it.

Dragon Claw

IAS Tables for Dragon Claw

Just like frenzy, Dragon Claw lists two damages and two attack ratings in the LCS. Dragon Claw hits with one claw then the next, with separate to hit checks and damages for each claw. It is a 10 frame interruptible attack, during which you strike with each claw in turn. Although the description for Dragon Claw reads "Adds charged-up bonuses to both claw attacks", it does not do so. It releases charges with the first claw that successfully attacks and the second just comes with the damage/attack bonus of Dragon Claw.

The following item stats on your secondary weapon should be applied when attacking with your primary weapon. In the case of Dragon Claw it can be considered that these are the mods that will transfer from the claw that you are not striking with to the claw that you are striking with.

Code:

Skill bonuses
Attribute bonuses
+ to Life/Mana/Maximum Stamina
Maximum Life/Mana %
Replenish Life
Regenerate Mana %
+ to Life/Mana After Each (Demon) Kill
% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
Attacker Takes (Lightning) Damage
% Extra Gold From Monsters
% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+% to Experience Gained
Reduce All Vendor Prices %
+ to Light Radius
% Increased Chance of Blocking
% Faster Run/Walk /Hit Recovery/Block/Cast Rate
+ Defence (vs M�l�e/Missile)
+% Enhanced Defence
(Magic) Damage Reduced (by %)
Resist +%
+% to Maximum Resist
+ Absorb (%)
Poison Length Reduced by %
Half Freeze Duration
Cannot be Frozen
+% to Skill Damage
-% to Enemy Resistance
Aura when Equipped

For example: Dragon Claw using two 'Strength' runeword claws. Crushing blow does not transfer, so you do not get 50% Crushing blow per hit. The primary claw gets 25% CB and the secondary claw gets 25% CB. Each hit will only get 7% Life Stolen per hit and 35% ED. You will however get +20 to Vitality. +40 to Strength and +4 to Mana After Each Kill.

Strikes

IAS Tables for Strikes

The three strike skills are charge up attacks that can be used with any weapon type. If two claws are equipped, the secondary claw will not be used to attack with.

Tiger Strike

When fully charged, Tiger Strike has the ability to add a huge amount of enhanced damage to your attack. It is normally used with the following as finishing moves:

- Normal attack using a high damage weapon (often two handed).

- It enormously increases the damage of Dragon Tail.

Cobra Strike

Cobra strike can be used to leech back huge amounts of life and mana. In practice this often isn't required as leech from equipment can normally suffice, and means you don't 'waste' an attack charging up. One point is all that is needed if it is used at all.

Phoenix Strike

Phoenix Strike differs from all the other charge ups in that the effect of it's three charges is selective rather than cumulative. All the other charges get more powerful as you add to them, Phoenix Strike allows you to select between three different elemental attacks, depending on which charge you use.

Elemental Charge Ups

IAS Tables for Elemental Charge Ups

Only a single claw has to be equipped for elemental charge ups. If two claws are equipped, each claw hits in turn, as Dragon Claw.

Fists of Fire

Blades of Ice

Claws of Thunder

CoT has a NextDelay of 4 frames, which means anybody receiving Nova's damage (the faster animation, compared to CB) becomes immune to its bolts for 4 frames (note that while those monsters damaged by Nova are immune to the bolt's damage, they won't be hit by the bolts at all, so targets out of the Nova's range will be damaged by the bolts).

Effects of Facets

The table below shows the effect of -resistance and + damage from items such as Facets, Griffon's Eye and Crescent Moon on the Elemental Martial Art skills.

Code:

Skill           Charge  +Damage  -Resistance

Fists of Fire      1        Y        Y 
                   2        Y        Y 
                   3        N        Y 

Claws of Thunder   1        Y        Y 
                   2        N        Y 
                   3        N        Y 

Blades of Ice      1        Y        Y 
                   2        Y        Y 
                   3       n/a       Y 

Phoenix Strike     1        N        Y 
                   2        N        Y 
                   3        N        Y

|||6. OSkills and Assassins

Unfortunately none of these OSkills can be used to release Charge Up skills.

The level of these skills can be increased by adding items that have the + to all skills mod, like Enigma, Mara's or Harlequin Crest.

Whirlwind

Whirlwind is gained from the 'Chaos' runeword. It does gain damage and attack rating bonuses from Claw Mastery. As with the Barbarian's WW, it does not chance to cast on striking / chance to cast on attacking skills.

IAS Calculations for Whirlwind

At level 1, Whirlwind has a negative enhanced damage. Whirlwind applies ((8-slvl)-58)% Damage, which is added to % Damage from all other sources, so the difference between level 1 Whirlwind (-50%) and level 8 Whirlwind (+6%) is just +56% damage: with 120 Strength (+90%), 120 Dexterity (+90%), level 20 Claw Mastery (+111%) and level 17 Might (+200%) this is between +441% and +497% Damage, or 5.41 and 5.97 times weapon damage (that's only ~10% more).

In summary, if you want to increase the damage of WW, you are better adding Enhanced Damage from equipment (Fortitude, Ruby Jewels etc.) than looking for + to all kills.

Zeal

Zeal is gained from the 'Passion' runeword.

IAS Tables for Zeal

Berserk

Berserk is gained from the 'Passion' runeword.

Berserk uses the same IAS tables as Normal Attack.

Vengeance

Vengeance is gained from the 'Kingslayer' runeword.

Vengeance uses the same IAS tables as Normal Attack.|||6. Links

Note that some of the following links may contain outdated information. Be careful before relying on it.

1.10 FAQ - Previous version of this FAQ.

Linked for reference, please refer to this FAQ for all relevant content.

Assassin Forum Item Fund

Shuko-Jutsu - The Art Of The Claw by maxicek

What to look for in a Fools Claw by HappyAssassin

Facets and assassin charge-up skills by onderduiker

Kicking basics by JRichard (from 2004)

How to automatically WSM-bug your claws by alphaz

Off forum info

Latest Weapon Speed Calculator by Titanseal

Assassin Attack Speeds by JRichard

C/C weapon speed basics by JRichard

Kicking basics by JRichard|||8. Credits

This Version of the FAQ: maxicek, onderduiker, stephan, Sass, Thyiad.

Original FAQ: jrichard, Frenzied Bovine, Sebol, Fenriz, LGT_Freak, RogueMage (from the Amazon Basin forums), LeserXYZ, Cironir, Brainles, Skythe, BT-LightDash, Loschnorg, eclipsedk, Tommi Gustafsson, The_Great_Apple, Mr Bones, StealthStalker, BIGeyedBUG, Polaris, *Cyrus*, Zath (from the Lurker Lounge forums), Shade, zen_bc, The_Great_Apple, Noni_Ryder, weylun, archpsi, Forksup31, dydx, adeyke (from the Amazon Basin Forums), several users of the Diabloii.net Assassin forum and the Lurker Lounge, RTB.|||9. Revision History

Revision 0 - Contains everything in from the original FAQs and all onderduiker and stephan's corrections from the input thread.

Revision 0.1 - Corrected Shadow Master resistance formula and added an explanation. Added explanation of how residual fire damage is blocked. Thanks to onderduiker for both of these. Added some basic info to most of the Martial Arts skills.

Revision 0.2 - Linked to kick damage calculator at the Amazon Basin. Added updates to traps, especially awareness ranges of sentries and clarified some points for blade skills. Added notes on Dragon Flight, Shadows and CoS, thanks once again to onderduiker. Confirmed Telekenisis cannot be blocked by WB, thanks to Sass.

Next Revision

It's getting there, but still a few modifications required. Areas where input is required are marked with a double question mark (??).|||Placeholder for the future.