C/C hybrid / Dtailer Author: Lunatic Version: 1.10 Page 1 Navigation Introduction Abbreviations Why make this build? Skills Equipment Statistics Mercenaries Strategies Conclusion Introduction The assassin to me is a char with the most variety. They can handle every part of the game , both PvM and PvP. But this guide will be made with duel claw in mind. And also PvM only. This guide will be made on my own experience , so you don't have to follow it to the point. Abbreviations Sin Assassin c/c Claw / Claw c/s Claw / Shield TS Tiger Strike CS Cobra Strike FoF Fists of Fire BoI Blades of Ice CoT Claws of thunder PS Phoenix Strike Dtail Dragon Tail DF Dragon Flight WoI Wake of Inferno WoF Wake Of Fire LS Lightning Sentry DS Death Sentry CM Claw Mastery BoS Burst of Speed MB Mind Blast WB Weapon Block SM Shadow Master CoS Cloak of Shadows Why make this build? Why would someone want to make a hybrid assassin , if you can make a trapper or a Martial arts assassin too. Well , hybrids have the ability to play throughout the whole game , without the help of anyone else. MA sins tend to have a little more killing power then a hybrid , but a hybrid solves this with her variety. Trappers on the other hand can also take on just about everything in the game , but they lack the killing power you have with a hybrid. C/C sins have some advantages over C/S , as well as disadvantages. Here are the pros and cons of both. C/C vs. C/S Pros 1) C/C gives you more damage with TS/Dtail. Thanks to the big boost in stat points and +skills. 2) WB gives you a kind of block that stays the same , even if you're running. Shield block gets 1/3 of 75% when you run. 3) C/C attacks are uninterruptible. Which means as long as you're in attack range , you won't be interrupted when attacking. 4) C/C sins can have a lot more life then C/S sins do. Since C/C sins don't need dexterity for block. 5) C/C attacks (FoF , BoI , CoT and DC) are faster then the C/S attacks (TS / CS / PS) Cons 1) C/C gives you less block then C/S when standing still or walking. 2) C/C gives you less resistance then with C/S. Shields can boost your resistance a lot. 3) C/C usually have less damage reduction then C/S sins do , which means they are more fragile. 4) C/C attacks require more IAS to get the fastest attack. Skills There are different skills you can use on a hybrid , but I wanted to stick to the theme. So this is what I used. Max TS. TS might not be a C/C skill , but it has gives you a really nice phys damage source. It's also 1 of the main attacks you're going to use. Max Dtail. Combine this skill with TS , and you have yourself a really good attack which can hit multiple targets. This is the second part of my main attack. Max CoT. I used this skill , since at higher lvls it gives you pretty good lightning damage. And since the 3rd charge also releases 16 bolts , you can hit multiple targets with this. Not to forget this is a C/C attack. So it fits the theme perfectly. This was my secondary attack. Max WoI. I picked this trap over LS , since this does more damage to smaller groups. And I already have a lightning based attack. Combine with TS and CoT , I have 3 types of elemental damage. Which makes sure you can kill just about everything you encounter. 1 CM. I only put 1 point in this , to get a little AR / damage bonus. And since CM is bugged in 1.09 , it also gives you 100% critical strike. Which doubles you physical damage you do with your claw. But it doesn't give you 100% Critical strike to your kicks , so this isn't the most important skill for you. 1-9 BoS. Well this really depends on your equip. But since you really need 2 Bartucs , you need a level 9 BoS in total. If you can get it to level 9 with +skills with only 1 point into this skill , Only put the single point into it. Otherwise put a few more points in this skill until you get it up to level 9. 10 WB Get WB up to level 10 , which is 50% block. Normally this is 2 to 4 points. But this also depends on your +skills. Anymore isn't really needed , but your spare points can go into this skill if you find that 50% is to low. 1 DF. This is more a move around kind of skill , not 1 of your main finishers. But it can come in handy if you need to teleport to monsters. So it deserves 1 point. 1 CoS. This skill will save your butt plenty of times when you get swarmed. Although some people find it annoying that just about your whole screen turns black , but it has it's uses. Also , the -%def will make sure you hit a little more. Not to much more though. 1 MB. This skill is also one that can save you in tight situations. Just cast it once or twice on a large groups , and you have yourself a few instant tanks. Be sure not to forget the timer. Otherwise you might be swarmed again. :)If you haven't killed the whole group yet that is. 1-5 SM Having a minion that can tank is always nice to have. 1 point is enough , since you only need this minion to have a tank. Combine this skill with MB and CoS , and you have yourself pretty good crowd control. You can put a few more points into this skill if you feel like having a minion with a little more life. But don't go overboard with it. 1 DS This trap also deserves 1 point. More points only increase the radius of Corpse Explosion. But with your +skills from your equip , 1 point gives you a high enough radius to finish of the stranglers you haven't killed with your traps and your melee attacks yet. You can put the rest of the points either in CM , SM or WB. All 3 things work fine. These are the skills I used on my C/C hybrid , but you can use some other skills as well. PS When using this skill , and having it up in the level 30 or higher , it can prove to be pretty useful too. Although it's weaker then CoT when it comes to damage , it has 1 big advantage over CoT. That is that you can use 3 elements with PS , while CoT only gives you 1. Also , PR doesn't really fit the C/C theme , so I didn't use it. LS This trap can also come in handy. It has a higher range then WoI has , but it's damage per shot is a little lower. If you don't have an lightning damage source yet , this trap might be very useful as an extra source of damage. WoF This trap needs to have lots of +skills to be effective. But it's damage is higher against larger groups then LS or WoI. Since you'll hit a lot more monsters with WoF , then you do with LS or WoI. So this trap could have it's uses. You do need to recast it very often. Venom I wouldn't use this 'aura' on a C/C sin. Since you'll have no real benefit from using Venom with a C/C sin then you have with a C/S sin. Not to mention you need the IAS you get from BoS too get max speed. Fade Although I didn't use this aura at all , it can prove useful in some situations. Like the chaos sanctuary for instance. It's still a 1 point wonder. FoF / BoI Although these 2 types of attacks are C/C attacks , they don't have much use. There damage is really low , and they're bugged. If you use any of these 2 attacks , you can't use CS or TS with it. Since it nullifies these 2 attacks at all. So I wouldn't use any of these 2 skills yet. Perhaps 1.10 will make these 2 attacks more useful. Equipment Now to get to the equipment part. This isn't something you should use to the point if you want too. A little variation is possible too. Helmet: Harlequin/gaze/rockstopper. I used this helmet for the really big boost in life and mana it gives you. It also gives you +2 skills , which will boost your Dtail damage. And it has 10% DR , which always comes in handy. I didn't use gaze at all , although if you want a little more leech , this helmet is the way to go. Rockstopper is a really underrated helmet. it gives you a really nice boost in resistance. It also gives you 10% DR and 30% FHR. For the not so rich look for something with LL or +skills. Talrasha's mask , Stealskull or crown of thieves can be nice for the leech. Or something like peasant crown , or even a lore if you're not rich at all. Amulet: Highlord's / Mara's / crafted +2 Assassin Amulet I used Highlord's on my sin , since deadly strike does work with kicks. If you like having a little higher +skills , either mara's or a nice crafted +2 Assassin amulet is the way to go. For crafted amulets , look for +2 sin , LL , stat points and resistance. For the less rich there's also something like cat's eye , since you need 20% IAS from somewhere. Or crescent moon if you don't have a ML source at all. And this amulet also gives you some more LL too. Which is always nice to have. Another really underrated amulet is Saracen's chance. It gives you a really nice stat boost and all resistance. Weapons: 2 * Bartucs. There's no real substitute for these claws. They come pretty cheap , so there shouldn't be any problem getting 2 of these on the realms. These claws give you a massive boost in stat points , give you +4 sin and +6 MA skills , which means a lot more damage with Dtail. They also give you 60% FHR , which means you can get 63% FHR (4 fps hit recovery) pretty easy. To get the max speed with all C/C attacks , you need a level 9 BoS + 20% IAS. So for your weapon switch you can always use 2 +3 shadow skill claws. These claws make sure you can leave BoS at level 1 most of the times. Armor: Lionheart / shaft / arcaine's. I would say go for Lionheart. It's a really good all round armor which boosts your Dtail damage , gives you all resistance and lots of life. Shaft is good for you if you die a lot , and need a little more Phys resistance. Although I didn't need it at all. And arcaine's is also a nice armor. The life , 30% FHR and +2 skills are all nice mods to have. For the less rich you could use something like Duriels shell too. Although Lionheart isn't expensive at all. Gloves: IK gloves / Laying of hands. The choice of gloves really depends on the rest of your equip. If you can get 20% IAS from anywhere else then , then use IK gloves. These gloves add to your Dtail damage. If you can't get 20% IAS from anywhere else , the gloves have to make up for this. Laying of hands are really good gloves for PvM. the 50% fire resistance , 20% IAS and 350% demon ED are all very useful. Laying isn't expensive at all , so there shouldn't be any problem getting such gloves. Belt: Strings / Wilhelm's pride. I would say go for strings on this one. DR and LL is really nice to have. If you don't have any ML at all from anywhere on your equip , Wilhelm's pride is the way to go for belt. 5% duel leech is really nice to have. And the 10% cold resistance never hurts either. Boots: Waterwalk / Gorerider. Waterwalk give you a really nice boost in life. The 15 dexterity is always nice to have too. I didn't use waterwalk on my build , but I used gorerider. the 15% deadly strike boosted my Dtail damage. And crushing blow and open wounds are ok mods to have too. But both boots can be used. For the less rich I would suggest using sander's riprap. These boots add 40% run , 100 AR , 5 strength and 10 dexterity. Again , nice mods. But I would rather go with any of the first 2 boots. Rings: Raven / bul kathos / manald / rare or crafted LL ring. 1 ring should be a raven. The dexterity / AR boost is really good to have. And the Cannot Be Frozen is needed throughout the whole game. So try getting this ring if you don't have it already. The other ring depends on the rest of the equip. Manald heal if you don't have ML already. Otherwise go with something with LL. Bul Kathos Wedding band also gives you +1 skills , which boosts your Dtail damage a little more. But Rare/crafted LL rings can get more LL. But all these rings can get the job done. Statistics Strength Strength is needed to wear your equipment. It also boosts your Dtail damage. Either have enough strength until you can wear your highest strength requirement equipment. This is only if you're really afraid of body popping. Another option is getting just enough strength to equip your items that give you +strength (Bartucs , IK gloves , etc). Then make sure with all +strength you get enough strength to equip your final piece of equipment. 1 thing you should look out for when doing the last thing is that your weapon switch also contains as much strength as your normal weapons. Otherwise you can body pop if you die in your weapon switch mode. Dexterity Dexterity is needed to equip claws , as well getting more AR and Def. For Dtail it also boosts your damage. This is debatable. You can either go for enough dexterity so you can equip your claws. Which is 79 with Bartucs. Or you could boost this a little more for Dtail. I did the last thing. This will make your sin a little more fragile , but you do get a higher damage. So I won't recommend this if it's your first sin. Vitality Vitality is needed to get a more life. Again , this depends on what you want with dexterity. If you go for low dexterity , put all spare points in Vitality. More life means you will survive a little easier. My C/C sin used 150 base vitality , which gave her a little more then 1000 life with level 85. She also have 100 life from charms. I wouldn't do this if you're not familiar with sins. Energy Energy is needed to get more mana. Don't ever put a point into energy. At first it might seem you're running low on mana if you use a few traps. But when you level a little more , and get better equip to put on you won't ever need more mana. So any point in here is wasted. Mercenaries Although you don't need a Mercenary for this build , he can come in handy from time to time. There are a few types of Mercenaries that can be pretty good for this build. Act1 mercenary This Mercenary won't run into a group and let her get killed. She also uses fire arrow , which can come in handy against phys immunes. If you give this Mercenary +3 Amazon/all skills , she will shoot a lightning hose. This will do some pretty good damage , but she needs to get a little closer to the action , since the range isn't that great. Act2 mercenary These Mercenaries are pretty good tanks , if you equip them well. They also have aura's , which will aid you and your Mercenary. There are only 2 types of aura's that you should use though. That's either defiance or holy freeze. The reason for this is that you're going to use MB a lot , which converts monsters too. And converted monsters get the aura from your Mercenary too. And after they unconvert , they will keep this aura for another 3 sec. Defiance is nice if you have an ok base def already. You can get this Mercenary in normal and hell. But I wouldn't recommend getting 1 from hell. They have lesser stats , and there aura is 2 lvls lower. You could also pick a holy freeze Mercenary. This Mercenary chills monsters all on your screen when he's high enough. This Mercenary needs to be bought in Nightmare. And both Mercenaries are defense types. Act5 mercenary These Mercenaries have 3 advantages over act2 Mercenaries. 1) They have more life then the act2 Mercenaries. 2) They're the only type of Mercenary that can use class specific items. For Barbarian that is. 3) They often do more damage then the act2 Mercenaries. The downside of these Mercenaries is that they don't have an aura to support you. So these Mercenaries are more tanks , then a real support char for you. I didn't mention act3 Mercenaries , since there damage is somewhat low. Not to mention they tend to die faster then with the other Mercenaries. Since these Mercenaries don't leech life back at all. Strategies These strategies can be used if you play single. If you play with a team , you can rely on them a little more , as well as they can rely on you. Normal. Act 1 To get through the first few lvls get whatever claws you can get. And use TS and CS a lot. With these 2 skills you can finish act 1 with around level 15 or so Act 2 You should get your first point in Dtail. Which will make your life a lot easier. Since Dtail isn't depended on your claw damage , you can use just about any claw you can find. use TS + Dtail from now on. And use CS when your life / mana is getting low. You should be around level 20 when you finish act2. Act 3 This act can be a little hard in the beginning. use your Shadow warrior and CoS to make sure you won't get swarmed with flayers. And if you don't rush into large groups , act3 isn't that hard either. The council can cause a problem too. Just make sure to kill them 1 at a time. You should be over level 24 when you finished act 3. Act 4 Well act4 is going to be hard. Since your resistance aren't going to be top notch. Don't rush into large groups , you're still to fragile. Again , make use of CoS and your shadow. These 3 skills should be your friend throughout the whole game. Also , you should have a point into MB by now. Use this for crowd control. By this time you also have a point into WoI or LS. The use of all these skills is going to be needed here. Diablo can be a problem too, so stack lots of potions. His block and your lower chance to hit are your main problems. Next to your lower resistance of course. Use TS + CS + normal attack to kill him. This can take some time though. Act5 If you can get a friend who can help you do the ancients , do that. Otherwise get some level ups in the Bloodhills first. If you're around level 30 you should been able to do the quests from act5. After that level up to around level 42 to 45 before going into nightmare. With level 42 you can wear your Bartucs , so I would suggest going to 42 at least. Baal isn't going to be much of a problem when you can wear your Bartucs. Perhaps Lister can still be problem. But with the right use of MB and your shadow , you can take them out 1 by 1. Nightmare When you hit nightmare you should have a high level TS and a base level Dtail. 1 or a few points in CoT/PS , 1 point in DS. And 1 or a few points in FoI / LS. With all these skills it shouldn't be much of a problem to get to the first 3 acts. Just make a lot of use of MB , CoS and your shadow. Act4 is still pretty hard. Since C/C sins tend to have lower resistance. So the use of Fade can prove useful here. Although your attack speed will be lower with this. Just fight your way through up to Diablo. Diablo in NM shouldn't be such a problem as he was in normal , but he's still far from easy. Make sure you won't stand in his Firewave at short range , and you can survive Diablo. This also applies for normal and hell of course. Once you hit act5 , do the same as you did in normal. So either get a friend to do the ancients , or else get a few more lvls , so you can do it yourself along with the other quests. You should hit hell when you're around level 65 up to 70. It can be done with level 60 , but a little higher is always nice. For hell you should have a maxed TS. Then either CoT/PS or WoI/LS pretty high. Since in hell you'll encounter phys immunes. Which you can't take out with TS/Dtail. Dtail can be maxed as last , since it doesn't add as much damage to your Dtail as TS does. Hell Kind of the same like Nightmare , although you need to rely on CoT/PS and your trap a lot more. But with at least 3 types of damage (physical and elemental) you can kill just about every monster you encounter. Act 1 and 2 shouldn't pose much of a problem. Act 3 on the other hand has lots of lightning immunes. So you can't rely on LS / CoT there. Or the 2nd charge of PS for that matter. And again , the council can be pretty bad if they spawn with PI and LI/FI. Act 4 isn't going to be easy either. Since it's filled with fire / cold / lightning immunes. Your best bet is using CoT or LS a lot here , since lightning immunes spawn the least. You should also heavy rely on MB + CoS. And your shadow of course. Since those oblivion knights do some nasty elemental damage. By the time you hit act5 you should be around level 70 to 75. And you should been able to do all the quests with that level. Again , heavy use of CoS + MB and your shadow is advised. As for the ancients , they can spawn with really nasty mods. So if they have lots of those mods , just open a portal , and reactivate them until you can handle them. And for Baal's minions you can't use TS/Dtail for Colenzo and his pack (the 1st) nor for Lister and his pack (the 5th). Since these 2 packs are fire immunes , and they don't take damage from Dtail. Only the monster that gets hit by Dtail will get a little damage , but this is physical. Conclusion The C/C hybrid / Dtailer assassin is a fun, effective character to play. It is also one of the best-balanced classes in the game. It takes practice and a good strategy to use the character effectively. She is not overpowered like a hybrid Amazon , or sorceress, yet she still has enough killing power to kill on her own. A well-played C/C hybrid assassin is a versatile character that can take care of herself anywhere in the game. I hope this guide helps you to do that. As always, enjoy! Renι AKA Lunatic. 0 Please log in to post... Please log in. Use your Diii.net Forum account. Username: Remember me? Password: Want to register?     Lost password?