I don't know what to snip, so I'll just leave it all in. :-)

I have a clvl 88 MA Assy on East. She soloed the entire game and has
never died once. I never played her after she beat Hell Baal, so my
memory of her stats and skills is hazy, but here are some thoughts, in
no particular order.

She used the full Nat's set. Possibly boots like Gore Riders would have
been better, but what attracted me most to the Nat set was the 30%
Damage Reduction. With no skill like Battle Orders it's not a bad idea
to get as much DR as possible. She also used Highlord's, SoE belt (?),
some rare ring, a Raven Frost, Laying of Hands (I didn't have Draculs
or Soul Drainers), and a Bartuc's as the second claw.

One thing you'll have to decide is whether you want to be a claw/claw
assy, or a claw/shield assy. If you go the claw/claw route, you'll need
some points in Weapon Block. Including hard points and pluses to skills
from equip, getting this to slvl 10 will give you a 50% chance to
block. A couple of points in Burst of Speed also wouldn't hurt.

Her skill points (sorry, I'm fuzzy): a number in Weapon Block to get
that 50%, 2 or 3 in Burst of Speed, the prerequisites, maxed Claw
Mastery, maxed Phoenix Strike, maxed Shadow Master (some will only get
to slvl 17 so she can get a rare ammy, but I have never regretted my
decision to max her - with + skills items she will become a wonderful
tank that only IM and the most vile pack of Moon Lords will kill),
several in the synergies, several in Tiger Strike and Dragon Claw
(since she was claw/claw).

In my opinion it is not necessary to put any more than one point in
Blades of Ice as a synergy as all you really want the Chaos Ice Bolt
charge of Phoenix Strike to do is freeze things (and shatter things
that resurrect).

My Assy also had Blade Fury, which she used exclusively in areas with
IM, and in places where there seemed to be pack after pack of said vile
Moon Lords.

I found it useful to always have some hits of Cobra Strike charged up,
so that when I fired off my finishing move I also healed myself of any
damage I may have taken.

I'm sorry, I don't remember her stat points offhand.

Have fun.

--
Jill

Hi

phoenix strikers r LOTS of fun. I built mine with nats set cuz that set
is just made 4 a phoenix stryker. if u cant get nats set then I would
go with dbl claw maybe upped bartucs on 1 hand and firelizard or jade
talon on other. armor if u have coh then that seems best 4 meleer
enigma only if u want 2 tele round but u have dragonflight 4 that.

the finishing move I use is dragon claw and never even bothered with
dragonflight.

dracs r nice gloves that life tap can b VERY nice it help keep my
phoenix striker alive LOTS.

boots goreriders r nice and u don HAVE 2 up them 4 a phoenix stryker
cuz ur damage wont b from kicking it will be from ur phoenix strike. so
u can keep them as warboots and save some str points and some runes :)

highlords is very nice ammy or ne plus skills ammy with leech or
resists or both :)

belt string of ears or vergundos if u can if not then best belt u have
with life and resists.

rings 1 should be ravenfrost 4 cbf if u not getting that from nething
else and then other ring can be whatever u have 2 pick up slack  like
resists or leech or life or ar or whatever.

hat ne nice melee hat like vampgaze or crown of thieves or even
guilames face or nice circlet--btw if u mean shael in hat 4 more ias
then don do it cuz shael in hats and armor only add hit recovery not
ias  but hit recovery not bad thing tho :)

if u want 2 do shield instead of dbl claw that not bad choice either
but then u will need other finishing move side dragon claw cuz u need
dbl claw 4 that.  probably best shield would be stormshield or spirit
monarch and if u do that then might as well up gore riders cuz  u will
HAVE 2 use a kicking finishing move since dragon claw need 2 claws 2
work and that will help damage or u could just use normal attack 2 set
off charges but that not as fun hehe.  also the str req 4 upped gores
is 156 and that same as monarchs and if u gonna use a monarch like SS
or spirit then u will need that much str neways. Rhyme shield could be
nice 2 u wont need as much str and it can be where u get cbf from and
that leaves ringspot open for more leech or whatever. other shields
like mosers or whitsans or nice yellow shield with good mods could work
2 but if u dont have a ss or don want 2 use spirit or rhyme i would
just go 2 claws.

main diff between 2 claws and claw shield, 2 claws can block things
that regular shield cant and ur blocking wont be from ur dex/char levl
formula but from how many pints u have claw blocking.  downside 2 claws
is claw block ONLY work when u standing still if u running or even
walking it wont work and even with max claw blocking and tons of plus
skills i think claw block is capped at 65% so it will never block as
much as shield. shields can block more if put dex in2 it and u can
block when running or walking but putting tons of dex 4 blocking
instead of life might be hard on chars life. specially if u go with
spirit monarch cuz i dont think it have increased chance of blocking
mod. SS has like 25% and rhyme even more so they would be easier 2 keep
75%. and if u cant keep 75% blocking then def go 4 1 point in
clawblocking with plus skills and use 2 claws and put more points in
life instead of dex.

also I have no idea of blocking speeds but claws might be faster
animation than shields  least it would make more since that way for an
assassin and if it is then u want a shield with increased chance of
blocking AND faster block rate and that would elave out spirit monarch.

4 skill points i would do this-
20 points in phoenix.

20 points in claws of thunder and 20 points in claws of fire 4
synergies. dont put xtra points in the cold 1 cuz it doesnt add as much
damage as other synergies.  if it added 2 chill time then yeah points
would be worth it but it don so i just left it at 1 point 4 the prereq
2 phoenix strike

I maxed out clawmastery 4 xtra damage ar boost and crit strike and cuz
my asassins main attck and finishing move both claw attacks and
sometimes against mana burners  big hit point PIs or unleechables mana
drop fast and even trying 2 do special attack wont work cuz no mana and
u have 2 do normal attack then max claw mastery helpful with that 2.

rest of stat points  into shadow master until u get get her 2 lvl 17 or
18 with plus skills. 1 point in mind blast and blade fury 4 crowds and
IM knights. 1 point in bos and fade and then use whichever 1 u need
most at the time  having 2 plus 3 shadow claws on switch will help with
that and with shadow master.

I wouldnt put points in venom  unless u put lots of points it really
not all THAT helpful and points used 2 max it would be better in other
things I think.

after u got phoenix maxed the 2 synergies maxed and claw mastery maxed
and 1 point in all the 1 point wonders and have nice shadow then ne
other points i would put in either shadow master or in claw blocking if
u using dbl claws.

4 same reason i wouldnt put points in venom i wouldnt bother with
points in traps  only 1 that could be helpful would be death sentry and
there just not enuff points 2 go around 2 make it very useful. but if u
find a plus 3 shadow with plus 1-3 death sentry claws then keeping that
on switch would be nice hehe :)

neways that bout all i can think of right now  if u have ne other
questions ask I will asnwer if i can or just be patient and some1
smarter than me will give better answer than i can hehe :)

hope this helps :)

Kaytie

I'm building a new one (in her 50's now) and I plan to only max PS and
SM, with the rest distributed evenly (more or less) between PS's
synergies and BoS (and letting plus skills boast dual claw blocking).
Having a strong SM who's not tied to my skills is very valuable to me. A
max SM is the strongest minion in the game and I love having her at my
back. An alternative is to forget BoS and go for Fade instead, if you're
happy with your unboosted weapon speed. Fade has a lot going for it,
especially the 1 PR per skill point invested. It's almost worth maxing
at the expensive of PS's synergies...

Why insight? Seems a bit of a waste to me, as with mana steal and a few
levels on you, I doubt you'll run out.

Claws will never have great damage compared to swords and the like, and
as your main killer is PS I'd concentrate on IAS, +skills and other nice
mods. Jade Talon is nice for the resists if you use BoS instead of Fade.

I'd go dual claw myself, especially if you're +skill rich and can let
claw blocking be boosted to a good level.

SoE would be a good, and not too difficult to obtain choice.

Report back, will you? I'm curious to know how things go for you. There
are few MA assasins in the games I play. I've not seen one in a week.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet