Blade Fury Sin

This build utilizes the Blade Fury skill, a ranged attack that takes into account the melee weapon damage and certain properties that transfer to the attack such as Crushing Blow. This build can be a lot of fun to play and it is possible, if properly built, to complete Uber Tristram solo.

Skills

Skills to max out:

Shadow Warrior or Shadow Master: Blade Fury is a ranged attack, and having something to get in the way will help.
Mind Blast: Stuns opponents as well as having a chance to convert non-unique monsters.
Venom: Add poison damage to the attack. Keep in mind that all poison damage has a duration of 0.8 seconds, so other sources of poison aside from the Venom skill will be nerfed badly.

Blade Fury: Although the bonus damage added by maxing out this skill may not initially look like much, it is added to base weapon damage and can be multiplied many times over by off-weapon ED% such as Fortitude or Laying of Hands, Might auras, etc. This can easily result in thousands more damage vs. placing only a single point in Blade Fury. (This increased damage will not show up properly on the LCS, "Lying Character Sheet", but it has been stated to work this way on Blizzard's Arreat Summit site and has been confirmed to work this way in independent testing.)

Secondary Skills

Cloak of Shadows: 7-10 points will make it more helpful in defense bonuses and to damage/evade foes without mob retaliation
Blade Sentinel: A single point should be enough.
Blade Shield: A single point should be enough, but more can be added. Keep in mind that this causes the player's weapon to deteriorate, so an ethereal weapon, unless it has a repair mod or is Indestructible will suffer weapon degradation.
Claw Mastery: A single point can return benefits, especially if there are +skills to this tree.
Weapon Block: If the Assassin will be employing two claws, this will allow a character to block even magical attacks. Due to diminishing returns, it is suggested not to invest more than ten points in this skill.
Death Sentry: Fires lightning or launches Corpse Explosion.
Fire Bomb: Add some points to this to increase the number of shots a Death Sentry can deliver before expiring.

Equipment

Helm

• Giant Skull: Strength bonus and Crushing Blow

• Guillaume's Face: Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike

• Vampire Gaze Dual Leech and Slows Opponent

• Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest: Dual Leech and bonuses to resistances

Armor

• Fortitude: 300% enhanced damage across the board.

• Enigma: +2 to all skills and teleport

• Chains of Honor: +2 to skills and damage bonuses.

Amulet

• Angelic Wings: When used in conjunction with the Angelic Halo rings, it grants +12 Attack Rating per level per ring. An inexpensive way to boost attack rating.

• Mara's Kaleidoscope: +2 to all skills and a bonus to resistances.

Ring

• Angelic Halo: When used in conjunction with the Angelic Wings amulet, the character gains +12 attack rating per ring per level.

• Stone of Jordan: Mana related bonuses and a +1 to all skills

• Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band: Vitality related bonuses and a +1 to all skills.

• Raven Frost: Although this is a ranged attack, this ring can be used for its Cannot be Frozen modifier.

Gloves

• Dracul's Grasp: These possess a Life Tap proc, useful for keeping the life globe full, even from unleechable monsters.

• Souldrainers: These are gloves best used in PvM for their dual leech and the reduction in defense per hit.

• Cleglaw's Pincers: The humble gloves of the Cleglaw's Brace set have Knockback and apply a movement penalty

• Laying of Hands: Another PvM glove which offers 50% fire resistance and 300% enhanced damage versus demons

• Steelrend: Enhanced damage as well as crushing blow.

Boots:

• Gore Riders: Crushing blow, open wounds and deadly strike make these boots popular. Goblin Toes' big brother.

• Silkweaves: These offer bonuses for those concerned about mana.

Weapon:

• Last Wish: Popular for its Life Tap proc

• Breath of the Dying: Due to its high damage and its indestructible modifier, placed in an ethereal Berserker Axe, it will have pretty much the highest damage for a one handed weapon in the game.

NOTE: Don't use a two-handed weapon: Blade Fury has a penalty of 3/8 for two-handers, not shown on the character screen.

Shield:

• Phoenix Rune Word: The preferred shield due to its enhanced damage modifier.

• Lidless Wall: This shield gives mana related bonuses and a boost to skills.