[2.3] [PHC] Looking for some advice/discussion on Assassin

Posted this on Reddit, but I really only get like 1-2 people that actively reply to these discussions on there, so giving the forums a try for real for the first time since closed beta! Hopefully there is more traffic here but I have my doubts.

So I noticed how amazing the [2.3] Assassin's set of Poison/Bleed nodes are. It allows for VERY easy 2x/3x/4x dipping, alongside the Ascendancy already giving (in my honest opinion) the best Power Charge generation in the game (if it is still bugged/working as intended from 2.2). I figure this allows us two things for build theorycrafting: Less passive tree points invested into damage, allowing for tankier builds in HC; Freeing up the potential need for Assassin's Mark/Voll's chest since Acuity is no longer practically free or even in this league.

So with the premise of making a tanky build that inherently has awesome clearspeed due to DoT/crits, I wonder what skills would be interesting to try out with this Ascendancy taking those points. My first thought is Spectral Throw, since with the right setup and the decelleration helm enchant, it already has a psuedo-tick damage mechanic due to hitting the same target multiple times every 0.3 seconds. Add in hard hitting crits, GMP for clearspeed, and an insane DoT...you see where I am heading with this.

What ideas and thoughts do you guys have? I'll post the proposed passive tree soon when I complete it for anaylsis and feedback. In the mean time, I would really enjoy some ideas of what gear to utilize here, assuming PHC only.

Voidheart synergizes heavily with the aforementioned assassin damage over time nodes.

Personally I'm using Assassin with Blade Vortex + Poison, and using the bleed chance with movement skills and counter attacks.

I've seen someone on here earlier theorycraft an earthquake assassin build with Voidheart.

But if the promised div card for Varunastra is implmented before prophecy ends, a Varunastra EQ assassin with voidheart could be very strong.

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zSavage wrote:

Voidheart synergizes heavily with the aforementioned assassin damage over time nodes.

Personally I'm using Assassin with Blade Vortex + Poison, and using the bleed chance with movement skills and counter attacks.

I've seen someone on here earlier theorycraft an earthquake assassin build with Voidheart.

But if the promised div card for Varunastra is implmented before prophecy ends, a Varunastra EQ assassin with voidheart could be very strong.

Unfortunately voidheart is restricted to melee attacks which makes it useless for spectral throw.

I'm also not very fond of the idea of using varunastra with a shadow. I had a varunastra char and the damage ain't taking off unless you take Deadly Dilettante and By the Blade to make use of varunastra's unique mod. The weapon is taylormade for duelist imo. Starting as shadow you either distort your tree or neglect the unique varunastra mod.

Best pick for poison is blade vortex imo as it synergizes really well with the poison stacking.

For the melee/voidheart option i would stick to a crit dagger build. The relevant nodes are all in the shadow area and high attack speed synergizes well with poison stacks (not so optimal with bleeding though). With the ring one can just use one of the many crit dagger reave builds.

A two hander build with slow attck speed but high per hit damage (earthquake for example) would be best if focussing on the bleed part but suffers from the fact that the two-hand nodes are on the opposite side of the tree. If noxious strike is used instead of voidheart, attack speed (and crit) should be the main focus, so one handed daggers it is.

I'm not a fan of phys builds like blade vortex or bino's due to phys reflect, seeing as you can go pure chaos nowadays and reach similar clearspeeds with the malicious weapon prefix+added chaos damage, disregarding reflect entirely.

My current build is a Chaos Wander Assassin that utilizes the high crit of wands as well as the power of kinetic blast (good clearspeed, good against bosses with frost wall) in combination with assassin's poison and crit.

A chaos claw build with Reave is a cheaper option worth exploring due to how common malicious gemini claws are (thanks to the rabid rhoa divination card). Something like: Reave+Added Chaos Damage+Void Manipultion+Conc Effect+Multistrike+Increased AoE would do a great job against anything. You could even do no-leech maps because gemini claws have innate mana gain on hit.

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Novalisk wrote:

I'm not a fan of phys builds like blade vortex or bino's due to phys reflect, seeing as you can go pure chaos nowadays and reach similar clearspeeds with the malicious weapon prefix+added chaos damage, disregarding reflect entirely.

My BV Assassin can do reflect maps no problem. Why, you may ask? He has nearly 10K armor, unflasked (along with 3 endurance charges). Due to the relatively low damage per hit of blade vortex, I've found that armor mitigates reflected physical damage extremely well.

Can't say the same for a weapon build though. While it still hits quickly, it's a snail's pace compared to blade vortex and hits much much harder per hit. I have a crit claw reave build that still depletes HP vs a phys reflect rare unless I pop a strong armor flask (and that build has more armor than my BV character).