Venom Dedicated

Introduction
The Dedicated Venom Assassin is primarily a melee elementalist, she does however have several other utility skills that make her into a very broad and widely applicable build. Her main form of damage is poison from the skill Venom but is supplemented by various minor elements. The dedicated Venom build excells most against single powerful enemies as she deals single target DPS and has claw block to deflect many attacks that other characters cannot block; hence the character is often used as a boss slayer.

Skills
Venom:

Venom is a pre-buff skill, when activated it adds a certain amount of poison damage that is always dealt over 0.5 seconds as "weapon damage" (subject to change). It should be noted that Venom damage will not stack, if a second Venom is applied while one is already active it will either override the current if it is stronger or be ignored if it is weaker.

Claw Mastery:

This skill simply adds an enhanced damage and attack rating bonus to all attacks that are performed with a claw, it is also a synergy to Venom.

Claw Block:

Claw block is a passive with the ability to block any non damage over time skill while dual wielding claws. The chance to block is governed by soft points and hard dexterity and does suffer from diminishing returns. It provides most of the defense that allows the Assassin to live and is imperitive to the build, it only functions at full effectivness while standing still or walking (not running) but is still one of the most powerful defensive skills in the game.

Fade:

Fade is a prebuff that increases the resistance to the three main elements and gives a curse reduction bonus. Due to the use of dual claws lots of resistance is lost to the Assassin, fade makes up for alot of this with a resistance buff and at sufficiently high levels removing debuff curses. Curse immunity is another extremely powerful feature that is a must have for this build.

Cloak of Shadows:

Cloak is a spell that when cast blinds all non boss/champion flagged monsters within a certain radius for a certain time depending on the magnitude of the skill. While under the effects of blindness it also has a poison resistance debuff that is unpenalised and can be used to break a select few poison immunes, due to its limitations on use its debuff properties are not extroadinarily usefull but they can be used to kill gargoyle statues which is a notable feature. The blindness however is a very handy feature and can be used as an effective strategy in many tough areas.

Burst of Speed:

Another pre-buff of the Assassins which adds effective increased attack speed, faster hit recovery and faster walk rate. The increased attack speed is fairly useless in most situations due to the low breakpoints on claws but it can be used to negate slowing effects. The faster walk rate is very usefull against boss fights such as Diablo to dodge dangerous attacks. Faster hit recovery is always useful, especially whilst under the effect of stun.

Mind Blast:

This skill is used as a one point wonder in the Assassins book of tricks. The skill has a chance to convert/stun many enemies and has a knockback associated, the radius of the skill is synergised by the energy investment associated with Venom and hence is usefull for several crowd controlling purposes.

Blade Fury:

This skill is another one point wonder that shoots blades imbued with venom damage. It is usefull for attacking powerful enemies at range when melee isn't an option.

Blade Sentinal:

Yet another one point wonder that releases a sentinal that flies around poisoning enemies with venom. It is limited to applying its damage once per second but can be usefull against many weak enemies or to avoid counters.

Dragon Heart:

A passive life buff for the Assassin.

Dragon Claw:

The final skill of the build is the primary attack catalyst for Venom, it is a dual swing attack used with two claws and is slightly faster than normal attack with better attack rating; it also applies a small amount of lightning damage.

Skill Allocation
Shadow Tab 

Claw Mastery- 13

Burst of Speed- 13

Cloak- 13

Fade- enough for curse immunity

Claw Block-13

Mind Blast-1

Venom~20

Trap Tab 

Blade fury-1

Blade sentinal-1

Martial Tab 

Dragon Claw-1

Dragon Heart-all remaining skills

Note that the amount of points in venom is flexible, due to stat limitations it will be a personal preference of points in dragon heart for more life or venom for more damage.

Stats
Strength-96

Dex~100

Vitality-The rest

Energy~80

The strength is just enough to wear natalya's set

Dexterity is enough to gain desired level of claw block after the amount of skills in claw block are considered and will be variant based on the availability of books.

Vitality will be everything you can afford to put into it as it is your life source

Energy will pend on just how many points you want to invest in venom

Gear
Helm:

Natalya's, quad socketed with enough emeralds to hit 50% DR after all other sources are considered- remaining sockets are rubies.

Armour:

Nat's, see above for socketing

Belt:

Nat's

Boots:

Nat's

Claw:

Nat's with emeralds or lum runes

Claw:

Unique claw specific shadow claw with emeralds or lums

Gloves:

Emerald Craft

Ring:

Hero Band

Ring:

Dragon Ring

Amulet:

Emerald craft with shadow skills or the uncursed amulet

Prior to using nat's at level 64 Iratha's set combined with assorted unqiues and crafts are the best bet.

Mechanic Tables
50% faster claw block is the max break point and is a 2 frame block rate. Depending on whether or note you can get faster block rate on gear and how much you can get claw block's faster block rate above 50% you may be able to achieve a 1 frame block rate.

Summary
The end result is a character that will be sturdy enough to excell against single enemies. The damage to a single target will be very high and should kill very fast. The character will be curse immune. The weakness of the character will be against many trash enemies.

Game Play Tips
Diablo:

Make use of burst of speed and blade fury to run and shoot at Diablo, this is a class advantage tipped majorly in your favour and will bring Diablo down with ease; see the Diablo strategies for tailoring of gear for this fight.

Mephisto:

Engage in melee combat, with suitable resists this one should be easy.

Baal:

This character will usually be the designated attacker, see the Baal strategies for detailing on the role in this fight.

Duriel:

Stand still and let claw block absorb as much damage as it can, Duriel is specifically weak against poison so pot like mad and try to outlive him.

Andariel:

This is the only act boss you cannot deal with, get a friend.

For general fighting you must learn to relly on claw block to get the most out of this build, that means learning to use shift to stand still and being careful with your movements. Certain bosses are alot easier at range so make use of blade fury when needed, the strategy section holds much more details on when this is appropriate.

In higher difficulties you will find strong trash mobs a difficult adversary, try to make use of Cloak of Shadows as much as can, it will blind monsters allowing you to pick them off in complete safety. A perfect example of when this is useful is to stop werewolves in Act 1 and to blind the minion mob accompaning De Seis.

Another effective method of mob control is mind blast, give the trash a couple of blasts to convert a few and make your own tanks or support your party, this works extremely well on the causeway.

Lastly remeber to check the strategies on individual bosses, this character is very diverse and can take advantage of many of the advantages mentioned there.

- DreadTalon 03:46, 27 December 2008 (UTC)