Dragon Talon Kicksin

Dragon Talon Kicksin, or Kicker, is one of the most popular martial arts builds for the Assassin class in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Properly built, they are capable of successfully handling the dangers of Über Tristram.

Stats

Strength: Enough to wear desired gear.

Dexterity: Enough to wear desired gear.

Vitality: Remaining points.

Energy: None recommended.

Skills

Main Skills

These would have a 20 point investment.

• Dragon Talon: Main attack
• Venom: Extra damage by means of poison.
• Death Sentry Has uses with Physical Immune monsters, PvP and consumes corpses.

or

• Dragon Talon: Main attack
• Burst of Speed: Always handy, especially if resistances are not an issue.
• Death Sentry Has uses with Physical Immune monsters, PvP and consumes corpses.

Secondary Skills

• Lightning Sentry: Use this if you desire to build the damage for Death Sentry.
• Dragon Flight: Limited Teleport. Your destination has to be an enemy. It has uses for rallying your units and for quick elimination of particular foes like Greater Mummies and Fallen Shamans.
• Fade: Worth a single point for a quick boost in resistances.
• Cobra Strike: Early in game, a few points in this will leech insane amounts of life and mana.
• Claw Mastery: If the Claw-class weapon is desired for a "full-time" application, use this to help boost Attack Rating and damage.
• Weapon Block: If two claws are used, this can be used to block even magical attacks. Has diminishing returns, so a player may not want to invest more than ten points.
• Psychic Hammer/Mind Blast: these are used primarily in PvP to have your opponents type the words BM a lot. Stuns a victim into inaction and allows the Assassin's allies to kill the opponent. Mind Blast can be effective for creating short term minions to break up mobs.

Equipment

Helm

• Guillaume's Face: Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike (DS don't work for kicks).
• Kira's Guardian: Hefty resistance bonus and Cannot be Frozen attribute.
• Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest: Resistance bonus, Dual Leech and easy to obtain.

Weapon

• Mosaic Runeword: Easily the best option, a pair of Mosaics allow kicksins to spam fully charged finishing moves without having to refresh charges.
• Bartuc's Cut-Throat: Faster Hit Recovery, Skills Bonus, Life Leech, Attack Rating Bonus
• Last Wish Runeword: Might Aura, Life Tap Proc, Ignore Target's Defense.
• Stormlash: Crushing Blow, a Static Field proc and a Twister Proc.
• Fleshripper: Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, Deadly Strike, a -50% target defense bonus (DS don't work for kicks).
• Call to Arms and a Spirit shield for using Barbarian Warcries.
• Beast: Fanaticism Aura, Crushing Blow and Open Wounds.

Shield

• Spirit: +2 to all skills and mana related bonuses.
• Sanctuary: High All Resistance.
• Stormshield: 35% Physical Damage Reduction and cold/lightning resistances
• Gerke's Sanctuary: Bonuses in both percent and integer damage reduction, increased chances to block.

Armor

• Enigma: +2 to all skills, massive attribute bonus and teleport
• Chains of Honor: +2 to all skills, high resistance bonuses, damage bonuses.
• Fortitude: (300% More Damage)
• Duriel's Shell: Has Cannot Be Frozen, Life bonus and significant resistance bonuses

Boots

• Shadow Dancer: Faster Hit Recovery, Walk/Run Speed and best damage for boots
• Gore Riders: Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow and Open Wounds properties (DS don't work for kicks).

Gloves

• Dracul's Grasp: Has Life Tap proc
• Soul Drainer: For Life and Mana Leech, also reduces monster defense with every hit.

Rings

• Stone of Jordan: Has skill bonus and mana related benefits
• Manald Heal: May not have the same benefits as the Stone of Jordan, but has decent bonuses to mana skills.
• Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band: Has skill bonus and vitality-related benefits
• Raven Frost: A popular item for its Cannot be Frozen attribute.

Amulet

• Mara's Kaleidoscope: +2 to skills and Resistance bonuses.
• Highlord's Wrath: Skill bonus, Deadly Strike attribute (DS don't work for kicks).

Item mods excluded from kicks

• Weapon's Enhanced Damage
• + Minimum Damage
• + Maximum Damage
• Damage +
• +% Damage to Demons
• +% Damage to Undead
• Claw Mastery (skill)
• Critical Strike (skill)
• Deadly Strike

Hireling

Although many players solo with their characters, Hirelings can certainly increase the survivability of any character if maintained properly. Typically, most choose the Act 2 Defensive Mercenary in Nightmare Difficulty (the "Holy Freeze Merc") or the Offensive version (the "Might Merc"), but the others have plenty of potential if geared properly. The Helmet and Armor are standard choices, the only thing that would vary are the weapons. Act 3 Hirelings with cold attacks used to be popular, but are rare now due to many monsters being immune to their attacks. Although Barbarian Warriors are quite rugged, they can be overcome by large mobs. On the other hand, properly equipped, he can definitely play a major factor in increasing the character's survivability. And the Rogue Archer should not be counted out either, although without particular gear her ability to assist in later stages of the game diminishes by quite a bit. Although the weapons vary, the armor and helmet choices are mostly stock, with some variance in regards to armor.

Helmet

• Guillaume's Face: Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike.
• Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest: Mostly for the 10 percent life leech and +15 to Resistances.
• Crown of Thieves and Stealskull are also popular choices for their ease of finding and life leech.
• Kira's Guardian or Darksight Helm: The reason for choosing either helmet is the Cannot Be Frozen attribute.

Armor

• Fortitude: 300% Enhanced damage against everything.
• Duress: Features 15% chance of Crushing Blow.
• The Gladiator's Bane: Cannot be Frozen and integer damage reduction at a level that actually makes a difference.
• Hwanin's Refuge: Static Field proc. Still useful even if lightning immunes aren't affected by it in Hell Difficulty.
• Treachery: may be of more benefit to a Rogue for the Increased Attack Speed.
• Skin of the Vipermagi: Iron Wolves can make better use of the Faster Cast Rate as they usually attack from range.
• Duriel's Shell: For Hirelings, this armor is prized much for being relatively easy to find, its Cannot be Frozen attribute and Vitality bonus.

Weapon

• Rogue Archer
  • Faith: The Fanaticism aura and obscene damage are the big perks of this bow.
  • Ice: The chief reason for this selection is the Holy Freeze Aura.
  • Witchwild String: Amplify Damage proc and two sockets to customize it with.
  • Riphook: Slows opponent and Open Wounds.

• Desert Mercenary
  • Hone Sundan: Crushing Blow and three sockets.
  • The Reaper's Toll: Decrepify Proc.
  • Obedience: Crushing Blow and an Enchant Proc.
  • Infinity: Boasts a Conviction aura. A very popular rune word for those specialized in elemental attacks as it will break many elemental immunities.
  • Insight: Has a Meditation Aura that will help alleviate mana demands.
  • Breath of the Dying, Last Wish, Death or Doom: These are very powerful. They are also equally difficult to create.

• Iron Wolf
  • Spirit Sword and Spirit Shield: This combination will give the hireling excellent resistance bonuses as well as a total +4 to their skill levels.
  • Lidless Wall: Has +1 to all skills and a Faster Cast Rate bonus.
  • Rhyme: Has Cannot Be Frozen and Faster Hit Recovery. Nice all resistance as well.

• Barbarian Warrior
  • Bloodletter: Fast, and has life leech. The sword will likely be obsolete by early Hell, however.
  • Headstriker: Level dependent Deadly Strike as well as level dependent maximum damage.
  • Azurewrath: The base damage is a bit low, but the added damage makes this blade frightening once it can be equipped.
  • The Grandfather: Very high damage and Attack Rating bonus.
  • Lawbringer: a relatively easy rune word to construct. Has a Decrepify proc.
  • Breath of the Dying, Grief, Death are also options, albeit difficult ones, considering the runes required.

Demonstration of the effectiveness of a Dragon Talon Kicker

Kicksin vs Diablo Clone - Round 2