Elite Sets and Set Items

Elite sets are any sets that have an elite item as its highest piece, or any set item with a level requirement higher than 47; these can be considered the cream of the crop. There are two completed elite sets for the assassin — one is class-specific. There are comparatively few elite sets for the assassin, even less than the exceptionals. Like the exceptional sets, it was expected that there would be an infinitely larger assortment of alternatives like rares, crafted items, rune words, and magical items.

For more information on sets, please refer to the Horadrim Library and the Set Items section of the Arreat Summit.

Natalya's Odium

Natalya's Odium, the assassin set in LOD, isn't the strongest assassin setup in game, but it's certainly one of the most enjoyable. The set bonuses of Natalay's Odium are: +3 assassin skills, +350 defense, 14% life stolen per hit, 14% mana stolen per hit, all resistances 50%, damage reduced by 30%, magic damage reduced by 15, and an ethereal appearance that shows other players that you've completed the set. Because Natalya's Mark is an assassin-specific weapon, only an assassin can complete this set. Its bonuses render it one of the best martial artist setups in the game. It takes incredible advantage of the assassin's basic strengths very well: it has decent overall damage, speed, leech, the potential for great mobility, and physical resistance.

A further write-up for the v1.09 Natalya's Odium can be found at the Horadrim Library. The set hasn't changed much, really.

• Natalya's Mark Scissors Suwayyah: 120-153 damage (136.5 avg), +200% enhanced damage, +200% damage to undead, +200% damage to demons, adds 12-17 fire damage, ignores target's defense, 40% increased attack speed, +50 cold damage (duration: 4 sec), rlvl-79.
• Natalya's Shadow Loricated Mail: 540-721 defense, +150-225 defense, +(1/clvl) life, poison length reduced by 75%, poison resist 25%, +2 shadow disciplines skills (assassin only), socketed (1-3), rlvl-73.
• Natalya's Soul Mesh Boots: 112-169 defense, 23-52 kick damage, +75-125 defense, 40% faster run/walk, heal stamina plus +(0.25/clvl), cold resist 15-25%, lightning resist 15-25%, rlvl-25. These boots are great for general use, as it has decent resists, 40% faster run/walk, and a low level requirement. If they have any weaknesses for the melee assassin, it's their low kick damage.
• Natalya's Totem Grim Helm: 195-300 defense, +135-175 defense, all resistances 10-20%, +20-30 dexterity, +10-20 strength, magic damage reduced by 3, rlvl-59. Natlaya's Totem v1.10 doesn't have any fancy mods like leeching or physical resistance, but it does have some excellent attribute boosts and resists. Overall, it's a good all-purpose helm to use when there're no other alternatives.

The Disciple

The set bonuses of the Disciple are: +150 defense, 22 poison damage over 3 seconds, +10 strength, +2 skills, all resistances 50%, +100 mana. This set can be worn by any class, but its primary advantages to the assassin are its low strength requirements, light weight, attribute bonuses, and resists — a total fire resist 115%, cold resist 83%, poison resist 100-105%, and lightning resist 65%, in addition to reduced cold and poison duration. Its weaknesses are none of the pieces are of any use to the assassin by themselves (except Laying of Hands), severely limited modification potential, no damage reduction, no leech, and the absence of an AR bonus, elemental damage, MDR/DR and added damage. The Disciple leaves the assassin with two open weapon, helm, and ring slots. The rlvl of this set is clvl-77.

A further write-up can be found at the Horadrim Library.

• Credendum Mithril Coil: 108-115 defense, +50 defense, all resistances 15%, +10 dexterity, +10 strength, rlvl-65. There's really nothing wrong with this belt: it has defense, prismatic resists, and good bonuses to dexterity and strength, but there's nothing special about this belt either.
• Dark Adherent Dusk Shroud: 666-882 defense, +305-415 defense, fire resist 24%, 25% chance to cast slvl-3 nova when struck, adds 24-34 poison damage over 2 seconds, rlvl-77. This armor features great defense and decent fire resist but the nova and low poison damage are useless. Socketing suggestions include Um, Ort, Shael, or a 30% lightning resist jewel with a good suffix.
• Laying of Hands Bramble Mitts: 79-87 defense, +25 defense, 20% increased attack speed, +350% damage to demons, fire resist 50%, 10% chance to cast slvl-3 holy bolt on attack, rlvl-63. Laying of Hands offers an incredible +350% bonus to demons, which includes all act bosses; the bonus applies only to base weapon damage — it's not affected by dexterity, skills, or enhanced damage bonuses on the weapon itself. (This damage is not displayed on the character screen.) These are one of the better ready-made gloves for the assassin: in addition to its bonus damage, it gives 20% IAS and high resist to fire.
• Rite of Passage Demonhide Boots: 53-60 defense, +25 defense, 30% faster run/walk, +15-25 maximum stamina, half freeze duration, rlvl-29. The weakest part of the set, these boots have no attributes that cannot already be found on rare boots. What ultimately sucks is that because this set uses up almost every slot of any piece of equipment that could possibly FR/W, you're going to have to use charms if you want to move any faster. Fortunately, the armor's light.
• Telling of Beads Amulet: +1 skills, poison resist 35-50%, cold resist 18%, attacker takes damage of 8-10, rlvl-30. With +skills and two decent resists, this item is decent. Besides the potentially high poison resist, there are no attributes that cannot be found on a rare amulet.

According to the Arreat Summit, if you have any other sources of poison damage (including the damage on the Dark Adherent), the partial/complete set bonus will show some other, inaccurate value.

Partial Set Bonuses

There are certain combinations of set items that could prove very beneficial to the assassin; while certain pieces can prove somewhat useful (or of no use at all) on their own, it's only when they are combined with certain other pieces of their sets do they truly begin to shine.

Tal Rasha's Wrappings

The partial bonuses to this elite set are: replenish life +10, 65% better chance of getting magic items. While this may not seem like much, keep in mind that these bonuses are stacked on the already-considerable attributes of the three pieces (the only pieces that are of any use to everybody else). Though Tal Rasha's is a sorceress's set, the options that just these pieces offer are just too good to pass up. Dual leech, magic find, extra dexterity, resists, magic damage reduction…there is absolutely nothing to not like about this setup, except that its lack of offensive options — elemental damage, non-elemental effects, AR, +skills and IAS — means that the remaining item slots will have to be strong to compensate.

• Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth Mesh Belt: 35-40 defense, requirements -20%, 37% damage taken goes mana, +30 mana, +20 dexterity, 10-15% better chance of magic items, rlvl-53. A decent belt, it has a very high dexterity bonus and is the only belt besides Goldwrap with %MF.
• Tal Rasha's Guardianship Lacquered Plate: 833-941 defense, +400 defense, requirements -60%, magic damage reduced by 15, cold resist 40%, lightning resist 40%, fire resist 40%, 88% better chance of getting magic items, rlvl-71. One of the best ready-made armors available, Tal Rasha's is almost perfect for just about anything the assassin is trying to do. If you're going to go looking for magical items, this armor has less %MF than Wealth or Skullder's, but more than makes up for it with higher defense and hefty resists. It can be compared to Lionheart, trading offense for defense and magic find. Its only weakness is availability: lacquered plates are comparatively rare.
• Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest Death Mask: 99-131 defense, 10% life stolen per hit, 10% mana stolen per hit, all resistances 15%, +45 defense, +30 mana, +60 life, rlvl-66. This is one of the best ready-made helmets an assassin can get: it's prismatic, has a substantial bonus to life and its 10% dual leech is higher than any helmet in the game. However, with luck, you should be able to find a circlet that has better attributes; the leech might be less, but a circlet can have up to 20% prismatic, +skills and more. This is also an ideal hireling helm, as it has a relatively low trading value and is easy to equip.

While an improved version of Tal Rasha's Wrappings came out for v1.10 with even more partial set bonuses, these improvements are, for the most part, meaningless to the assassin: just faster cast rate and increased defense, that's all. For an assassin, it makes little difference.

Individual Set Items

Exceptional set items that are useful in and of themselves (that were not mentioned before) include:

• Naj's Light Plate Hellforge Plate: 721-830 defense +300 defense, requirements -60%, 45% damage taken goes to mana, +1 skills, all resistances 25%, +65 life, rlvl-71. Hellforge plate is heavy armor with an additional 10% stamina drain, but the attributes on this armor are worth it: it has +skills, prismatic resists, and the one of the highest "damage goes to mana" attributes of any item. As an added bonus, its strength requirement is a relatively low 71.