Not surprising, but the basics on attribute allocation haven't changed a bit from v1.07 to v1.10. Even with the multiple corpse system of v1.10, it is strongly suggested that you be able to equip everything you have without having to equip other items first, or at least make sure that the equipment that adds to your strength or dexterity can be worn without the aid of additional items.
For those who are meticulous about their attribute point allocation, I would strongly recommend downloading GA Finley's Diablo II Character Stat Point and Equipment Planner, available here as a zip file. To open the file, you'll need WinZip; to use the file, you'll need an MS Excel reader.
For more information on gems, jewels, runes, charms, attributes and magical affixes, please refer to the Arreat Summit.
Strength affects damage with melee weapons and the ability to equip items. For an assassin, strength also serves to raise her damage with kicks. There are two major stop points. The highest is 118: this is the requirement for scissors suwayyah. While that's not the best katar in terms of damage or speed, it's the katar with the heftiest requirements and just happens to be base item for Natalya's Mark. The other major stop point is 79, the strength requirement for Bartuc's Cut-Throat. Assassins start with 20 strength. Suggested target ranges are:
For a melee character, assassins don't need a lot of armor. Unlike other melee-oriented characters, she doesn't have any skills that boost her armor class. The most she can depend on is blocking, either through the Weapon Block skill or a shield. More life and high blocking will help her live through a nasty hit more than a suit of +1,800DR armor.
Rare gloves give up to +1-9 strength; magical gloves and rare rings, +10-15. Rare and magical amulets, belts, circlets, magical rings and body armor can go as high as +21-30. Amethysts of varying quality in helms and armor give +3-10 strength. In LOD, small charms can have +1-2 strength as a suffix; large charms, +2-5; and grand charms can have up to +3-6. Rare jewels of virility have +5-9 strength. A Fal rune gives +10 strength when socketed in anything.
Dexterity is raises damage with katars, attack and defense ratings, blocking percentages with a shield, and kicking damage. Assassins start with 20 dexterity. Suggested target ranges are:
Claws are one of the few weapons whose damage is equally distributed between strength and dexterity. The damage is 75% strength and 75% dexterity. For this reason, you might want to keep strength and dexterity roughly equal to each other.
Rare gloves, rings, body armor and boots have +1-15 dexterity. Rare and magical amulets, circlets, bows, crossbows, magical rings and gloves top out at the absolute limit of +21-30. Emeralds of varying quality in helms and armor give +3-10 dexterity. In LOD, small charms can have as much as +1-2 dexterity as a suffix; large charms, +2-5; and grand charms, +3-6. Rare jewels of daring have +4-9 dexterity. A Ko rune gives +10 dexterity when socketed in anything.
Assassins start with 50 life, 95 stamina and 20 vitality; they gain 2 life and 1 stamina per clvl. Every point of vitality adds 3 life and 1.5 stamina. Vitality is probably the most important attribute to the assassin; if you're going melee, put as much into vitality as possible. With more life, she'll more able to withstand a few good hits before having to retreat with lowered chances of being caught in "hit stun" (see FHR).
Strangely enough, while vitality is the most important stat the assassin has, it's also the one that can be passed over the most, thanks to charms that add life: a small charm that adds 20 life is about as good as 6 points of vitality, meaning that three small charms of vita with +20 life can easily replace twelve levels worth of stat points that'll be going to vitality. However, a general rule of thumb is regardless of how much life she has, so long as an assassin can keep her orbs filled, then all is well, no matter how much is needed to fill those orbs in the first place. This can easily be achieved through high damage and heavy amounts of life leech.
Rare rings give +1-40 life; rare amulets, belts, body armor and circlets give up to +41-60; magical amulets, belts, body armor and circlets can have as much as +61-100 life. Rubies of varying quality in helms and armor give +10-38 life. Magical amulets and body armor can also have the Centaur prefix (+{0.5/clvl} life); magical circlets can have the Elephant prefix (+{0.25/clvl} life & mana). In LOD, small charms have +5-20 life as a suffix; large charms, +6-35; and grand charms, +5-50. Rare jewels of spirit have +3-8 life; magical jewels of hope can have +9-20. An Io rune gives +10 vitality when socketed in anything.
Assassins start with 25 mana and 25 energy; they gain 1.5 mana per clvl. Every point of energy adds 1.5 mana. For most conventional builds, mana will not be a problem because most traps don't use up a lot of mana and because she can leech mana with the proper equipment: Cobra Strike pretty much assures that the assassin can quickly refill her orb with one or two attacks. I tend not to invest in energy at all, and recommend the same for most builds that depend mostly on physical damage.
Exceptions to this rule are trappers who depend on massive amounts of mana leech to fuel their high-mana skills, an extraordinarily large mana pool or both; the more mana you have, the more mana you regenerate per second. In any case, assassins will find it more advantageous to use +mana and items than investing in energy.
Rare rings and magical helms can have +1-15 energy; rare amulets, circlets and magical rings give +16-20; magical amulets and circlets top out at +21-30 energy. Rare jewels of knowledge have +4-9 energy. A Lum rune gives +10 energy when socketed in anything.
Rare body armor, boots, gloves have +1-40 mana; rare amulets, circlets and rings, up to +41-60; magical amulets, circlets and rings, +61-120. Magical amulets and circlets can also have the Memory prefix (+{0.5/clvl} mana); magical circlets can have the Elephant prefix (+{0.25/clvl} life & mana). Sapphires of varying quality in helms and armor give +10-38 mana. In LOD, there are no energy charms, but small charms have +1-17 mana as a prefix, large charms can get +2-34 mana and grand charms can have up to +3-59 mana.
last updated: Thursday, July 01, 2004 — version 0.10
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