Hi, long time no see.

Now that I've got the introduction covered, let's hit it.

In my spare time, I've decided to build a solo edition dclaw assassin, just because I like the class. My initial build was going to be something along the lines of this

20 tiger strike
20 claw mastery
20 dragon tail
...and the rest spread between claw block, fade, cloak of shadow and death sentry, as well as other 1 point wonders and prereqs.

Now, after reading a few threads about the build, I've come to realize that dtail did not actually function against physical immunes, as well as fire immunes, leaving me to jab at these with unpowered claw attacks. Do realize that, playing the solo edition, I do not have access to outside help to take out, say, Sszaak and such, and do not have access to any form of twink gear. Diablo would also prove to be a pain. So I've decided, last minute, to go for a dclaw build.

Now, so far (level 33), the build works terribly well. Durial went down without using any more than 5 potions, and I haven't died a single time thus far, which is, for players who know me, quite a feat, given my often reckless behavior and shittastic lagputer.

The new build would go along the lines of this:

20 dragon claws
20 claw mastery
...and the rest spread between, of course, claw block, fade, cloak of shadow and death sentry, as well as other 1 point wonders and prereqs.

Now, I figured that I'd have the same problem against physical and fire immunes, seeing how dragon tail (taken here as a 1 point wonder) would still end up being my only elemental (though not against PI's) attack. I also realized that I'd have quite alot of free points, especially seeing how the solo edition doesn't require as much as a defensive effort than the regular edition. And so I though, well, why not phoenix strike as well as one of it's synergies?

...

Uhh, which one do I pick?! They all seem to have their advantages! Hell, do I even use the strikes on their own, or is phoenix strike simply better? Or even, is it worth charging up both at once?

Fists of fire route advantages:
- Lowest mana cost (not significant)
- Seems like it has the best phoenix strike effect
- Requires only one phoenix strike charge

Disadvantages:
- By far the lowest damage of the three elemental charge attacks (perhaps not on phoenix strike, though)
- Shares its damage type with dragon tail

Claws of lightning route advantages:
- High damage
- Lightning resistant monsters aren't as widespread as fire or ice resistant monsters

Disadvantages:
- Phoenix strike effect doesn't seem too great
- Requires two phoenix strike charges

Blades of ice route advantages:
- High damage
- Slows stuff

Disadvantages
- Don't know if the phoenix effect is any good
- Requires three phoenix strike charges

Phoenix strike route advantages:
- I just felt like coloring this rainbow

So far, it would appear that the fists of fire route may be better, though I'm definitely worried about encountering fire / physical immunities (Achmel, if my memory serves me well).

Other questions include:

- How many points should I throw in fade / cloak of shadow / claw block? Note that this is a 80 point build (X elemental strike, phoenix strike, dragon claws and claw mastery)?
- Are there any items that I should be looking forward to acquire early, aside from a holy chestpiece?
- Which merc should I use? Remember, full solo play.
- Which runes does Nilathak drop in normal, nightmare and hell? For farming purposes.
- Is venom worth the skill point?
- Does dragon claw cause a charged up bonus to occur twice? (IE: Two meteors from a 1-charge phoenix strike)
- How do you cleanse the cursed ring / amulet again?
- Any comments? Things that I may have omitted to mention?

Thanks for reading, if you could make it through.

hmm. interesting ideas, I'm sure with some good skill choices and a nice skill spread you could get a sin that can be effective against any immune enemy.

a few things Ill add before we get strted on this.

The FoF CoT and BoI skills can all be stacked and released at the same time along with any charge you decide on phoenix strike.

The fists of fire is decent once fully charged as you get the added fire damage to attack. The splash damage will also hit the struck enemy so thats 2 hits and the fire patch will hit alot too so thats like 3 hits in 1.
Claws of thunder is much the same though I find not as effective. The added damage, and the nova effect are both good. The added charged bolts are pretty crap since they are released all around (like light enchanted enemys). This can be a god send since vs bosses it would cause major counter issues.
Blades of ice is by far the worst, as is the cold charge on phoenix strike. I avoid this one all the time except the phoenix charge since its handy to slow down mobs.

Phoenix strikes only useful charge is the first one, however that means you can cast alot of meteors very fast.
dtail is unique in its mechanics as its splash fire damage is calculated from the phys damage you deal to any enemy. meaning if an enemy has 50% phys res and you use dtail, your damage will be 50% of the listed damage (the fire splash that is), if tht enemy then has 50% fire res then that already lowered damage will be cut in half again meaning you only deal 25% of your initial damage.

However, if you kick an enemy that is not phys immune while surrounded by phys immune enemys then all the phys immunes will be hit (and usualy killed) too.

Ok, to start off the discussion. I wouldnt personally max dclaw as most phys dmage skills are reliant on a high damage weapon and returns from skills are very low as it is skill ED and not weapon ED.

maybe 10 in dclaw to raise attack rating but any more than that would be a waste. Max claw mastery as you suggested since it will buff your charge up skills ar too.

Think about investing heavily into death sentry. It will clear extremely fast for you and speed up progress. It will also help with fire immune and phys immunes.

My meteorsin uses dcalw as her finisher (it will not release 2 meteors im afraid as thats why i decided to use it with meteors.)
Her build went asd follows.
20 Claw mastery
20 Fists of fire
20 Phoenix strike
5-10 Dclaw
15 claws of thunder
1 in all pre reqs and death sentry
remaining points in fade

That allows her to deal good phys damage with dclaw, good fire damage from meteor, good light damage (from claws of thunder not phoenix charge as its hard to hit) and clears at a good rate.

The reason I decided on doing the light also was I would sometimes miss my meteor charge and as a result deal shitty low light damage. The light damage on phoenix strike has a 4 frame Next hit delay so the damage is rather poor and is not able to be stacked well on the initial target. Ie. having all 4 released bolts hit the first target.

On to your questiong at the bottom.
I usualy max fade for the dr% buff. That is hard to do if you are trying a mix of all damages, hence why i didnt on this build. Its easy to get the dr% maxed with equip later on but you may have tanking problems early game. 1 point CoS and clawblock.
Try to find a rare claw with ctc amp to use on switch and fill it with amethysts. Apart from that, try to mix melee equip and caster equip to buff your elemental damages. You will likely want a high phys damage setup for act bosses and a caster style setup in cube for phys immunes.
act 2 might merc. Later on use a brand javelin on him to provide constant amp for you.
Blue.Arimyth.com has nihlas rune drops.
venom is not worth 1 point. It only works when maxed and at a very high level. (level 50 venom +)
dclaw will not cause 2 meteors, I havent noticed on the other attacks like fists of fire.
purification glyphs from normal uncurse the ring, from nm to uncurse the amulet. The locations can be found here

Hopefully this helps you decide.

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Do realize that I'm trying to have a counter to physical immunes, and that I don't care if I have to single target them. With that in mind, do you think that blades of ice or claws of thunder would end up being better, due to their higher single target damage? In fact, the blades of ice seems to deal way more damage than the firsts of fire, and has a larger area of effect in addition to freezing. And claws of thunder just has a huge damage spike on its first charge. Both cases would ignore phoenix strike, and just have it for synergy purposes.



I have to tank bosses though, and I may end up relying on leech quite a bit to stay alive. I don't think that I can afford not skilling dragon claws to a maximum.



Trash isn't the thing that generally the thing that holds you back in the solo edition, but bosses are, though I can definitely see this being useful, I think that one point would be worth something.



Oookay. Not that I expected it to do so.



Are there any cases of key bosses being immune to both physical and fire, OR physical and ice, OR physical and lightning? That would most likely dictate my choice. I can't be blocked anywhere in the game.



Isn't the lightning damage on phoenix strike a chain lightning effect?



What's the runeword exactly? can you get that early?

Yes, the second charge of Phoenix Strike is chain lighting. However, the chain lightning skill suffers severely from the Next Hit Delay mechanic, especially on single targets. In case you don't know, NHD is a timer that determines how quickly a certain damage type can repetitively damage a single target.

Chain lightning loses much of its effectiveness against anything less than 3 monsters, as it will just quickly bounce back and forth between the same 2 mobs. Let's say the NHD timer is 1 second, which means that a single target will "wait" one second after taking lightning damage before it can take lightning damage again. If chain lightning bounces back to the first target in less than 1 second, it won't receive any damage from the second hit.

As for leech, you may want to consider something that casts Life Tap later in the game. While this will override any source of Amp, the choice is up to you since you're soloing - if you REALLY need the leech, you can learn to made do without the added physical damage from Amp. Life Tap won't help your damage in the case of physical immunes, but then again, maxing Dclaw for extra damage won't help against physical immunes either (as far as leech is concerned).

Runewords - http://critterkiller.arimyth.com/
Brand - Ber Lo Mal Gul, in bows/xbox/javs/throwing weapons

$.02

oops... double ftw

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all 3 charges are added to the finisher with FoF, BoI and CoT.

The cold one has added damage, then a radius, then added freeze length iirc.
The fire one has added damage, splash effect, and an added patch of fire to deal extra damage.
The light one has added damage, an added nova and the added charged bolts, so for over all output, light his by far the most.

You can charge all 3 fully and then release all 3 at once for a tripple element effect


My point here is that skill ED adds very little in terms of damage, pretty much all your damage will depend on claw damage. the only thing maxing combat skills is good for is attack rating and you will have very high attack rating anyway.

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Just max...

dclaw
claw mastery
venom
COS
clawblock

and you win

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I'm currently level 48, act 4. I'm very undergeared - still using those level 20 unique claws, socketed with ITH's for increased damage. I know that I'll need to upgrade my gear before beating big d. I can farm dragon just fine, as well as lazarus. Which items am I looking for?

Helm: Absolutely no clue. Maybe sigon's with 3 diamonds for the armor and magic reduction vs d?
Armor: Trying to find a rockfleece. I'm currently sporting an (eth) rattlecage, and the crushing blow is definitely nice.
Gloves: Keeping death's.
Belt: See above.
Boots: Goblin toes or tearhaunches? My guess would be toes, for the +5% crushing blow and magic reduction.
Ring: Would be Manald (for the mana leech) and a cleansed horadric ring.
Amulet: See if I can find a curio or etlich.
Weapons: Obviously 2 night hands socketed with +ed/max jewels, though I have yet to come across even one. :[

use rare claws with ctc amp on switch. rares are generally better than the uniques for a melee early/mid game. maybe even craft some.

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iratha set + nighthand goes like a good combo, u should maybe test it. boots definelly go for gtoes and armor must be arcana.. due the mdr... arcana+gtoes will make you almost inmune to the big Red with 5% cb, irathat gives AR and mana leech i believe... get some decent leech rings and and a good resistances ammy (rare maybe).

use amp claws on switch with ar boost.. perhaps ametists? not sure.



just 5pts clawblock you noob...

dclaw
claw mastery
venom
COS
5pt-clawblock
rest in sentry


thats what i did on mine and just look at her... shes not God just because this is just a game =P

Eh, actually. I got through Diablo easily, I'm working on the ancients, but ragequitted after being one hit - in melee range - by korlic a dozen times in a row. Current gear includes:

Head: Duskeep - I need a new one. Looking for undead crown for the cannot be frozen.
Chest: Silks / rattle
Boots: Tear, looking for gtoes still
Claws: Both level 40 unique socketed with iths, and shael on the mainhand for speed breakpoint
Belt: Death, would be string of ears if I could get undead crown for cnnot be frozen
Gloves: Death, would be frostburn if I could get undead crown copy paste
Ring: 1 manald for mana leech, 1 horadric
Amy: Curio

I realize that I should have more points into fade. Is there an editor of some form that I could use to reset my skill points?

I would suggest farming Hatestorm for Rockfleece (he drops it most for me) and stick the highest diamond you can in it. Or do a (Power?) armor craft, whichever provides chance to cast Frozen Armor when struck (= Defense + DR/MDR) and 4-diamond it.

Also, consider crafting a blood ring - leech/res/life/etc. Gloves, when you can switch away from Death's = bloodcraft for more leech, life and CB.

Could also craft a Caster helm for the mana leech and all res, and you can 4-diamond it (thus freeing up your ring slot for something better than Manald, i.e. the Horadric if you want it, or another Blood craft).

Once again, $.02

Edit: Editors I use are Udietoo and Zonfire. Both serve their purpose (Udietoo is pretty much everything except oddball item creation, for which Zonfire is better, though I rarely tinker with that anymore).

Ancients have died, after reworking my tree a little bit with more points into fade, and equipping string of ears for 15% dr and frostburn for frost armor. Cleft of dimension, here I come.

Yeah and Pebo still rapes you. '-'

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Do you think that maxed venom would be enough to tackle the physical immunes that I may encounter? With COS that is. Also, can COS break poison immunity?

Can AMP break physical immunity?

Oh, and I made it to nightmare. What is the lowest boss that can drop my prized jade claws thingy? I'm hoping for juggy, he's so easy to farm. Possibly DK of duriel though, which sucks*. :[

ye you can handle few enemies with venom and slowly kill some weak psn inmunes but the venom is to get around 5k spare dmg later on game + cos works good... and yes cos breaks inmunities like amp does with some PIs. (not bosses)
a3 to get jades i believe... that or gamble :S

to Mraw: fu! xD

Actually, I found a jade from some act 2 trash (pretty fucking lucky?) though I did farm death knight ~10 times (it's a pain, even with holy armor btw). Anyway. I need to get another one, and we'll see if I can kill duriel.

Dury is ez shit for dclaw... just take him to the wall to beat his knockback.

(yes you are a lucky bastard xD)

Yeah, that's what I did back in normal. Being back to the wall also prevents his "ultimate" blue explosion thing to deal alot of damage.

Dark knight is really being a dick though, he's dropped every god damn class unique that aren't my jade claws, of course. Watch them be ethereal when he does too. At least claws have alot of durability.

And so, here I am, level 75. DClaw is maxed, as well as fade. I have 1 pt in death sentry and its prereqs. 1 pt in tiger strike to clear trash quickly when combo'd with dtail. I'm now debating on what I should max next - the ideas I have so far:

20 fists of fire
20 phoenix strike
rest claw mastery

or

20 venom
20 CoS
rest claw mastery

I still need to know if venom will be enough to tackle physical immune monsters & bosses, because I would lean towards that, due to the huge defensive boost that cos would provide. + it's less of a hassle to use.

On the other hand, +martial charms will benefit the FoF / phoenix strike route. Though I might as well go for shadow gc's anyway. Doh.

venom is only relly good with skill charms, however you can make a good switch setup to prebuff it so it will probs be ok with decent prebuff gear in the cube

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Worst case, I can just edit my character back to some other skillset :p

when u remove the "prebuff" gear the venom dmg goes down also... so prebuff wont work

no it wont. the damage listed as the cast stays the same. if you take it off you will lose the secondary buff (the buff to damage on weapon in mastery form). If you use venom buffing equip to raise the damage listed on the skill to 9k once you cast it you will always have 9k poison damage on weap. however if you leave the +% items on then that 9 k will be buffed by the appropriate percentage.

Ie. 5k venom damage on the skill. you use say a 30% bramble and a 20%poison skills set of boots your listed cast damage jumps to 7.5k
after the cast, that 7.5k is buffed by 50% again as long as you have the +% equip on. If you take it off you will still have 7.5k venom. if you leave it on you will be dealing the 7.3k venom + an extra 3.75k poison (from the 50%) so overall damage would be 11.25 venom damage.
The initial cast damage will not go down after removing the % damage equip. I know this coz i had a wwsin at 18k venom not long ago. I would use 2 +3 venom claws on switch with "Pestilance" rw in them until 85. At 85 I used tal runes in firelizards on switch to prebuff and a 30% bramble and perf psn boots. After taking prebuff equip off she was listed around 25-26k ww (18k venom and phys claw damage +a couple of shitty facets.

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weird... it happens to me that after prebuffing my dmg goes to normal venom dmg if i remove prebuff gear... or am i missing something?

it will go down to what is listed on the skill with prebuff gear you have on. if you take all claws etc off and cast with prebuff gear on it will say maybe 8k on the skill. once you cast with prebuf equip it may say 14k (due to the +% working at that moment). when you take the buff gear off it will go down to the 8k that was listed. If however you cast it with prebuff gear when its at level 50. then switch to non prebuff gear and its level 56 but lower damage, if you cast again the higher skill level one will stick. If you cast low damage venom first but higher level. ie' level 50 venom with +skills stuff at 8k damage. then switch to prebuff equip and its level 45 but with +% equip. the lower dmage higher level one wont be over written.

Once its been casted. the damage sticks though, its like chant.

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Still debating venom + cos vs. fof + phoenix strike. :'l
are there any known poison and physical immune monsters, or fire and physical immune?

Nightmare Diablo down. Let's see if I can make it to Nilathak today (and farm the living fuck out of him, or what's left of it anyway... and start looking at some runewords).

Speaking of which, I'm not too familiar with runewords. What should I look for?

Also, goreriders or war travs? Gore has stuff like 5% CB, but war travs has +20-40 damage, which is pretty wtfmassive.

cb is better

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Think I'll use travs for trash, gores for bosses.