Weapons

While assassins can use just about every weapon well, this section will deal mostly with the assassin-exclusive weapon class known as katars or claws. All katars have a range of 1.

Basic Katars (clvl-1 to 29)

We all need to start somewhere: at this point, normal claws are fairly medium damage weapons that should be used in conjunction with a shield until Weapon Block opens itself up — if you've decided to take that route, of course. The player needs to learn superior skill over superior equipment, slowly getting used to the bowazon at this initial stage, so don't bother trying to get large amounts of enhanced damage: none of them have base damage ranges high enough to make a significant difference between 40-80% enhanced damage, which is about as high as you can expect with these. Instead, use jewels and runes with bonuses to minimum and maximum damage, as these raise damage faster. A more expedient solution would be to concentrate on elemental damage. The goal in Basic is to have the 55 strength and dexterity needed to use the highest of the normal katars, the scissors katar.

All that's really needed for a magical katar are two good affixes and two sockets. A rare katar is different: a lot of factors go into what can be deemed perfect; a truly good rare will have at least five attributes, two of which will be dedicated to damage (optimally, Knight's and Merciless) and speed, leaving one prefix and two suffixes open. IMHO, the most important things on a katar are (in order):

1. Enhanced Damage: When you're at this level, enhanced damage doesn't count for much because, it's all a matter of proportion: 500% of a low number is still a low number. At this point in time, it's better to go for straight +min/max bonuses. Still, keep an eye out for weapons between +85-150% ED; this is about as high as you can expect to get below level 30.
2. Increased Attack Speed
3. Bonuses to Attack Rating: In Basic, your chances to hit anything are actually pretty decent, but the more AR you have, the better: because your assassin's leech is low and hard to come by, her mana reserves are low enough that even a couple of traps or a single finisher can drain at least half a bulb, and her physical damage isn't outstanding, you need to make every strike count when using charge-ups. At this level, the best you can expect is +150-230 AR from a weapon.
4. Mana/Life Leech: Leeching on katars is good, and if it's dual leech, even better. You should be able to find weapons with up to 7-9% leech at this level. Sure, martial artists get Cobra Strike, but the damage from claws is low enough that it has to be combined with a fully-charged Tiger Strike just to refill the mana bulb...not that this is a bad habit to develop, but having a source of leech that doesn't need to be charged up is always nice.
5. Chance to Cast: Because every little bit of damage counts at the lower levels, claws that cast damaging spells on striking are always nice to have.
6. Elemental Damage: Because significant amounts of physical damage are relatively difficult to come by, elemental damage counts for a lot in Basic — after all, elemental strikes are your most potent weapon. No, you can't leech from it, but that's what Tiger Strike and Cobra Strike are for. It can mean the difference between looting the corpses of many, many monsters and a sudden urgent need for a town portal. See Elemental Damage.
7. Mana per Kill: At this level, mana per kill items aren't too bad. Your traps will cost a relatively high chunk of mana, but it's easy for traps to kill stuff.
8. Bonuses to Skills: Don't even bother looking for these: except for the scissors katar, most normal katars don't have bonuses to skills.
9. Other Assorted Crap: Light radius, resists. In normal, there really aren't too many useless modifiers, but once in awhile, you'll wish that this one mod could've been something else, which is when you find assorted crap.

Basic Rune Word Weapons

More information on runes and rune words can be found at the Runes and Rune Word sections of the Arreat Summit.

• Malice 3-socket weapon (Ith + El + Eth): +33% enhanced damage, +9 maximum damage, 100% chance of open wounds, -25% target defense, -100 monster defense per hit, prevent monster heal, +50 attack rating, drain life -5, rlvl-15. I...love this toy. Sure, I've got to find items that'll counteract the slow life drain or keep them tucked away until something really big and nasty comes up, but it's a beautiful claw to pack when you've got to take on big bosses like Andariel or Duriel.
• Strength 2-socket weapon (Amn + Tir): +35% enhanced damage, 25% chance of crushing blow, 7% life stolen per hit, +2 mana after each kill, +20 strength, +10 vitality, rlvl-25.

Alternative Solutions for the Assassin on a Budget

For assassin players who can't seem to turn up a good rare claw, make a rune word, or complete a set, life might seem to be nothing but a succession of increasingly featureless and boring blue claws. Fortunately, there's an out with your Horadric cube. With a Cube, you can make a ton of weapons, but in Basic, you really won't need to dig too deep into your bag of tricks — we can save those for NM and Hell.

• 6 perfect skulls + rare = random low quality rare of the same type: I've never had to use this formula myself on anything but the most hopeless rares (like imbues and Anya quest rewards), but it gives you another chance at a rare item of the same type. I tend to reserve this formula for the absolute worst rares I can find in the hopes of turning up something usable. The level of the item and the character's level do matter, so don't expect to get anything spectacular.
• 3 perfect gems (of any type) + magic item = new random magic item of the same type: You can use this formula to get another chance at a magic item of the same type. The ilvl = ilvl; this means to use 100% of the ilvl of the input item. That means anything you find in normal will only turn up attributes that are appropriate for the item's level, at the point it was found in the game. The further you advance in the game and the later you pick up items (for example, a grand charm found in hell, rather than a grand charm found in normal), the greater the chance you'll cube up something useful. You can also use this on charms and jewels, so expect to use this formula a lot. Rare items cannot be used with this formula to create new rare items.
• 3 normal gems + socketed weapon (any type) = socketed magic weapon (of same type): This takes a socketed weapon and makes it a magical socketed weapon. The original weapon properties will be removed (rerolled) when the new weapon is created. It gets 1-2 sockets, and the item level never rises above 30, making this ideal for a young assassin.
• 3 chipped gems + magic weapon = socketed magic weapon: This adds 1-2 sockets to a magic weapon: the original properties will be removed (rerolled) when the new weapon is created and the item level will be 25.
• 3 flawless gems + magic weapon = socketed magic weapon: A superior version of the previous formula, this adds 1-2 sockets to a magic weapon: the original properties will be removed (rerolled) when the new weapon is created and the item level will be 30.
• Ral rune + Amn rune + perfect amethyst + normal weapon = socketed weapon of same type: This is basically a free socket quest, giving a random number of sockets (one to maximum) to a normal quality weapon. Low-quality items and superior items won't work.