Exceptional Katars (clvl-21 to 42)

By the time you get to A4, obtaining an exceptional claw would be a good idea. The "target weapon" for most assassins are greater talons, as this is the base item of Bartuc's Cut-Throat, but if your luck isn't so good, then you'll be mostly depending on rares and magical claws, as there are no other ready-mades or rune word claws for the assassin at this stage in the game.

• Quhab (exceptional katar): 57 strength/dexterity, 11-24 damage (17.5 avg), very fast attack speed (0); sockets: 3; rlvl-21.
• Wrist Spike (exceptional wrist blade): 66 strength/dexterity, 13-27 damage (20 avg), very fast attack speed (-10); sockets: 2; rlvl-24.
• Fascia (exceptional hatchet hands): 69 strength/dexterity, 8-37 damage (22.5 avg), fast attack speed (10); sockets: 2; rlvl-27. This is something you should've known in Basic, so it's a delayed lesson, but take careful note of the fascia and the hand scythe series of weapons because they look so alike: do not get these two mixed up. (If you do, the experience will not be unlike the scene in Pulp Fiction when Uma Thurman found out the hard way that while heroin looks a lot like coke, you do not ever snort heroin.) The former is the slowest katar an assassin can get, the latter is slightly faster than usual. Personal experience is at work here: if you want speed and don't feel like working to much for a fast attack, you go from cestus to hand scythe to battle cestus and avoid the hatchet hands, fascia, and war fist like the plague. And for God's sake, remember to test your drugs before putting them in your body.
• Hand Scythe (exceptional cestus): 73 strength/dexterity, 16-37 damage (26.5 avg), very fast attack speed (-10); sockets: 2; rlvl-30. This weapon is a useful landmark: after this, all katars will be capable of spawning bonuses to skills.
• Greater Claws (exceptional claws): 76 strength/dexterity, 18-37 damage (27.5 avg), very fast attack speed (-20); sockets: 3; rlvl-33.
• Greater Talons (exceptional blade talons): 79 strength/dexterity, 21-35 damage (28 avg), very fast attack speed (-30); sockets: 3; rlvl-37. Greater talons are by far the fastest execptional katar-class weapons the assassin can get her hands on. If you need a lot of speed, these are the toys to go for. Incidentally, this is the base item for Bartuc's Cut-Throat.
• Scissors Quhab (exceptional scissors katar): 82 strength/dexterity, 19-40 damage (29.5 avg), very fast attack speed (0); sockets: 3; rlvl-40.

A lot of factors go into the perfect katar, and while damage is the most important thing about a weapon, damage is not the only thing. A truly good weapon will have at least five attributes, two of which will be dedicated to damage, leaving one prefix and three suffixes open. IMHO, the most important things on a bow are (in order):

1. Enhanced Damage: This is the most important property, but not the only property. A decent rare or magical katar has at least +150-265% enhanced damage; the more your character relies on elemental damage, the less she'll need +ED%. Two special prefixes to keep an eye out for are Fool's (+[16.5/clvl] AR, +[0.5/clvl] to maximum damage) and Grinding (+[0.75/clvl] maximum damage), as these raise maximum damage by clvl.
2. Increased Attack Speed: Assassins are heavily dependent on speed: the faster you attack, the faster your charges build up, and the more damage you cause per second. Increased attack speed is available in 10-40% on katars.
3. Bonuses to Attack Rating: In most rares, this will be included with enhanced damage. At this level, you should be able to find weapons with AR bonuses ranging from +101-320 AR. Claws can also spawn with Hawkeye, which gives (+[1.5/clvl]) to AR.
4. Bonuses to Skills: At the exceptional level, katars past the hand scythe can have bonuses to up to three individual skills, +3 to a single skill tree, or +2 to all skills. If you're playing a character who's highly dependent on skills like a trapper, then skill bonuses in the traps tree and the traps of your choice take the highest priority. In this case, a magical scissors katar can serve just as well as a rare scissors quhab.
5. 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 5-7% leech at this level.
6. Chance to Cast:
7. Elemental Damage: See Elemental Damage.
8. Reduced Requirements:
9. Other Assorted Crap: Light radius, resists, life replenishment, each kill regenerates mana, HCMTF, sockets.

The more properties a claw can satisfy on the top five of this list, the more satisfying it will be; a god-like 150% is much better than a featureless 250%. Again, the most important attribute on a katar is damage. Personal playing style will dictate what kind of weapon you want.

Remember, the formula for upgrading a normal rare katar to an exceptional rare katar is Ort + Amn + perfect sapphire + normal rare weapon.

Unique Exceptional Claws

Assassins don't suffer from an overabundance of choices: they get one unique exceptional katar, but oh, what a katar it is.

More information on Bartuc's Cut-Throat can be found at the Horadrim Library.

• Bartuc's Cut-Throat Greater Talons: 88-155 damage (121.5 avg), +150-200% enhanced damage, adds 25-50 damage, 30% faster hit recovery, 20% bonus to attack rating, 5-9% life stolen per hit, +20 strength, +20 dexterity, +2 assassin skills, +1 martial arts skills, rlvl-42. With an impressive +2 skills, extremely high damage, life leech, faster hit recovery, and a heavy bonus to AR, these claws were tailor-made for the melee assassin. The gold standard by which all other rare and unique claws are judged, it's a fair bet that an assassin with one of these won't be letting it go for quite some time.