Introduction

After having played a whole lot of assassins I've come to the conclusion that they are somewhat overpowered. A small part of what makes D2 fun for me is trying to make the best decisions about equipment. The assassin's skill trees dramatically reduces the number of issues one has to consider when picking gear. Burst of speed reduces the need for IAS items, Fade supplements her resistances, Claw Mastery improves her damage, Weapon Block alleviates (somewhat) the need for a shield, etc.

The downside to this otherwise rosy picture is the dreaded clvl/mlvl curve. All the assassins I have played have been simply brutal in normal difficulty, challenging but acceptable in nightmare, and totally useless in hell. I refuse to exp grind. If I wanted that I would have stuck with Everquest.

So. That said, I am starting another assassin. Enter BluntTrauma. In the past my assassins have been claw specialists with full use of their skill trees. BT will restricted to Tiger Strike. No traps, no Shadow Disciplines, and no other Martial Arts. Additionally BT will use only blunt weapons. She will have no further item or stat restrictions.

A quick look at Tiger Strike gives you a good feel for what will happen. At clvl 18 her Tiger Strike will be maxed. With one charge she will do approximately 5x damage, with 3 charges, 14x. Her damage will be off the charts... if she can hit. Normal should be a cakewalk. Nightmare is where things will get more interesting. I will NOT be doing any exp grinding. The only exp BT will get beyond that of a normal full clear will be for monsters she has to kill again after session breaks. My goal is to take her as far as possible (hopefully all the way).

The big problems she will face are those of all D2 melees. Cursed, Aura, and LE monsters will be deadly. Physical immunes will be a hassle.

She will be softcore as I am too lazy to load my old saved games or clear normal an extra time. I will retire her at her first death.

The Clvl/Mlvl Curve Problem Explored

Chance to hit: (From the Arreat Summit) 100 * AR / (AR + DR) * 2 * alvl / (alvl + dlvl)

As either of the fractional terms approach zero (that is, DR or dlvl become large without corresponding increases in AR or alvl) your chance to hit drops. I have prepared a graphic that illustrates this:

This graph plots the chance to hit for a 35th level character with 1000 atk against various hypothetical monsters. The large black band is for reference and represents 45-55% chance to hit.

0/0	mlevel	110
mdef
3000	95% 5%

Perl code for generating this gif. Requires ImageMagick and the perl bindings. Please contact me if you spot errors.

This graph makes things look pretty bleak, in my mind.

Act I

Things are going swimmingly, as predicted. So well, in fact, that towards the end of the first session I was getting fairly careless. The first LE boss I ran in to (in the cave, I think) calmed me down fairly quickly. It was very nearly my shortest D2 run ever.

There really has been little of note in Act I thus far. I have had a decent run of gambling luck and my equipment is decent for my level. In a truly amazing spot of luck a random named in the Black Marsh dropped Stoutnail (unique spiked club). I have a feeling that it will be a long time before BT finds anything with which to replace it.

This first problem with this build is beginning to become apparent. Damn near every monster out there (including Fallen) gets to hit BT once while she's swinging. I am going to put some emphasis on finding an IAS piece. In most cases the damage isn't that terrible but this is normal and even now it fairly quickly builds up and requires a return to town or a potion. Repair costs, thanks to my unique club are getting a little on the high side. I don't know how all the uber realms types can afford to keep their unique museums in good repair.

So far pretty much everything has been a one hit kill. Even one or two of the bosses if I have charges up. At slvl 10 Tiger Strike is already devastating. Mace class weapons, while seemingly slow, have good damage output. At some point I need to do some testing with another of my assassins to see if the speed is just a perception problem. Anyone have up to date weapon speed information? The Lurker's Lounge data predates the expansion.