Vampire (Assassin Build)
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[edit] Introduction
The Vampire build for the Assassin is a highly focused close melee combatant. Her main skill in combat is the Cobra Strike (accompanied with a finisher move) to ensure her survival. But it is the Shadow Disciplines that are heavily developed.
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[edit] Stats
- Strength (around 35%) should be the highest in order to equip the best armors, important for a close-melee combatant.
- Dexterity (around 30%) should be second highest to help equip the best claw-class weapons, as well as for high attack rating.
- Vitality (around 20%) is the third to be focused on, to build a sizable life pool.
- Energy (around 10%) is the least important, since, as a Vampire, you won't be using up much mana, however, you will be stealing alot of it.
- 5% discretionary points, where ever you'd like them.
Stats for the fresh, new, starter Vampire...
Through Act I, you'll want the Vitality stat to be the highest, since you won't have much defenses to back you up.
Strength, Dexterity, and Energy can all be developed equally.
By the time you're in Act II, you ought to have the Skills you need, as well as a Rogue, and weapons that do cold damage (at least one of them) or a charm that does cold damage, in which case, you can then start to develop your stats in the recommended way.
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[edit] Equipment
A pair of claw-class weapons (katars) with cold damage is very important for the Vampire. Combined with Burst of Speed, your enemy will barely have time to react before you finish them off!
Armor with high defense is important. Particularly ones with high elemental resistances.
Gear and charms with increased percent of getting gold is great in order to not have to depend heavily on looting (in order to sell for gold). This will save you room in your inventory for the truly valuable items you come across without having to make too many trips to town.
As a Vampire, you'll barely need potions to help keep you alive since you'll be stealing life and mana from your enemies during combat. This being the case, keep with you every rejuvenation potion you find, and you'll soon have a hoard of them!
With the aid of a Horadric Cube (which you will find in Act II), transmute three rejuvenation potions at a time for a Full Rejuvenation potion. A Full Rejuvenation potion will instantly recover 100% of your life and mana!
In your belt (which has four slots), fill two slots with Full Rejuvenation potions. Fill the third slot with either Health potions or Full Rejuvenation potions again. Use the last slot to put in helpful potions such as Stamina potions, Antidotes, Thawing potions, and/or town scrolls.
With life/mana stealing power and a belt loaded with full rejuvenation potions, you'll appear practically immortal to both your enemies and your teammates!
This will also dramatically reduce your need to go back to town or leave the heat of battle to recuperate. So, while your buddies are jumping in and out of combat, you can tough it out like a champ.
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[edit] Skills
Primary Skills...
Secondary Skills...
- Cobra Strike
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Flight (optional)
Make an attempt to have an equal amount of points in your Primary Skills. By the time you reach Baal, all of your Primary Skills should be around 10 (at least 8).
- Claw Mastery is important for increased attack rating, damage, and chances for critical attacks. It will make the small and light claw-class weapons extremely powerful in the hands of one with adept skill in Claw Mastery. It's a passive skill, which means it's always activated and doesn't use mana.
- Burst of Speed is fantastic for the Vampire. It will increase your attack speed, which will allow you to build up charges faster and release them faster, allowing you to heal as fast as you get hurt (and even faster with high skills!). It's also great for moving around very quickly, making traversing across land alot faster, as well as being able to outrun your enemies. At the first level, this skill can last up to two minutes (and more with additional points). Be sure to always have Burst of Speed activated for its speed advantage.
- Weapon Block is added protection on top of defense. It will allow the Vampire to use both her weapons to block and parry incoming attacks, effectively replacing the need of a shield. It's a passive skill, which means it's always activated and doesn't use mana.
- Shadow Master can become the Vampire's most trusted and dependable ally. This talented subordinate is not only an ethereal clone of the Vampire; she can also use every skill available within the Assassin class! The Shadow Master is extremely valuable since she can use her skills to effect large groups of monsters, where as the Vampire can only attack one at a time. The Shadow Master will also heal gradually, much like hired help. However, you can not use potions on a Shadow Master.
- Cobra Strike will give you the ability to suck the life and mana out of your enemies. Three points in this skill is enough to get you all the way through to Baal. It's a charge up skill, which means you need to build up charges before you can get the benefits of Cobra Strike. For each successful attack on an enemy (using Cobra Strike), a green flash of energy will circle the Vampire (up to three). A max of three charges can be made. Using a Finisher move or a normal attack will activate the benefits of Cobra Strike (at least one charge).
- Charge up bonuses (level 3)
- One charge = 50% life steal
- Two charges = 50% life & mana steal
- Three charges = 100% life & mana steal
!NOTE! - Put Cobra Strike permanently as your left-click attack as soon as you notice that it doesn't drain much from your mana pool. You should be able to do this by the end of Act I. Cobra Strike uses only 2 mana for each strike.
- Dragon Claw is a good finishing move to add to your Cobra Strike charges. Just one point is enough for this skill to get you through the Acts all the way to Baal. This skill is a double attack strike with both claw-class weapons and adds 50% to attack rating and 50% to damage. Since it makes good use of both weapons and costs only 2 mana for each strike, Dragon Claw is definitely the preferred finisher move for the Vampire.
- Dragon Flight is an optional skill that the Vampire can add to her collection of abilities. This skill will give the Vampire the ability to teleport with a powerful kick to any enemy that can be seen. Useful for getting out of swarms, moving across gaps or rivers to the other side, or to help your teammate by instantly appearing over and attacking your friend's foe. Unfortunately, this skill can only be activated by using it on enemies, which means you can't freely teleport anywhere unless you're targeting a monster. It also has a short cool-down period, so you can't consecutively teleport rapidly over and over. Still, it's a useful skill with just one point.
Skills for the fresh, new, starter Vampire...
Since you can pretty much kill most monsters with just one or two strikes at the beginning of Act I, put your first couple of points in Claw Mastery and one in Psychic Hammer until your Assassin is level 6. A few points in Claw Mastery will make the Vampire devastating at an early stage; and since Psychic Hammer is needed as a prerequisite to get to Shadow Master, one point there will make it a useful long-range attack for a while.
Once your Assassin has reached level 6, put a point into Burst of Speed. This will help you move around quicker.
As you keep leveling up, put more points into Burst of Speed and Claw Mastery. Put a point into Tiger Strike and another into Dragon Talon. Use these Martial Arts skills to take out really strong enemies with ease (you'll need these as prerequisites).
Once your Assassin reaches level 12 and up, start putting points into Cobra Strike, Dragon Claw, and Weapon Block. Be sure to be wielding two claw-class weapons by then.
Also, put a point into Cloak of Shadows. While it is needed as a prerequisite, you can also use it on large groups to reduce their defense and bring up yours a little for a few seconds. Use it around the end of Act I and around the beginning of Act II for a small advantage.
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[edit] Hired Mercenaries
The best mercenary for the Vampire is one that does long range attacks. A Rogue's long range arrow attacks complements well with the Vampire's close range approach.
Give the Rogue a bow with cold damage to freeze more enemies at a time along with your cold weapons. Or better yet, give the Rogue a bow with different elemental damage (fire, lightning, or poison) to create a wider range of diverse elemental damage from your little party.
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[edit] Final words and notes on the Vampire
Tried, tested, and true, the Vampire is a survivor and a cold, ferocious fighter. The fully-developed Vampire seldom needs help from her teammates, and makes a good distraction on enemies so that her teammates can pull back and recover or attack from a distance and/or prepare skills.
On her own, the Vampire does perfectly well with her hireling and Shadow Master to back her up.
Due to her capabilities, the Vampire is a great Assassin Build as a Hardcore character.
When fighting against a foe that is much too dangerous to attack head on, use the Shadow Master as a decoy and attack from a distance.
Remember that the Vampire isn't truly immortal and can get killed. Use precaution and be alert. Full Rejuvenation potions will save your life when you're losing life faster than you're stealing it. So use them!
When a situation gets overwhelming and you fear for your life, use your Burst of Speed to run like the wind to safety!
Using the old instinctive response of fight or flight strategically will help keep you alive.
- Contact Ryona (the designer of the Vampire: Assassin build) with any thoughts regarding the build at silent_moon_ninja@yahoo.ca
