First off, this isn't complete. The two main sections yet to be done are the strategy and the bug/features. But these parts are reasonably complete enough for review. It's also evolving on a semi-regular basis, and isn't really my guide so much as a collection of data many assassin players have found.

[b]Phoenix Strike/Martial Artist Assassin Guide, v 0.05 [/b]

[b]08/28/01
0 Prologue, Interesting Bits
0.1 Acknowledgements and Links[/b]
Thanks to the gang at Amazon Basin and [URL=http://lurkerlounge.com/]Lurker Lounge[/URL]. 
[URL=http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/]Arreat Summit[/URL], source of a lot of stats and stuff.
All skill stats referenced from [URL=http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~cbradfor/diablo2/skills.html]Chippydip's[/URL] amazing site.
[URL=http://sirian.warpcore.org/diablo2/beta/d2xbeta.html]Sirian's report on assassins[/URL], occasionally referenced - specifically, pages 11 1 through 3. 

[b]0.2 Revision History[/b]
[b]0.05:[/b] Cleaned things up. Am mad at self for talking like a Valley girl. Still am talking like a Valley girl, but at least she's in high school now. Fixed some outdated info based on 1.09 munging poison, crafting, Mind Blast, etc. Added speed caps and clarified some speed issues. 
[b]0.04:[/b] Corrected statement about things equipping based on Gobo's and Tharn's experience. Corrected shield blocking.
[b]0.03:[/b] Revised a lot based on comments, rereading, and checking out other info. Haven't added strategy, because I'm not satisfied with it yet. :) Added C/C vs. C/S, cleaned up some of the ordering. Added start of IAS section - further calculations to follow.
[b]0.02:[/b] Corrected speed statements with claws. Corrected some silly errors here and there. Added Raging Debate section. Cleaned up beginning some. Cleaned up kick calculation (thanks, Seraph). Added some other equipment choices.
[b]0.01:[/b] Added Stats, Skills, Items sections.

[b]0.3 Synopsis[/b]
This guide is heavily focused on making a predominantly melee-based assassin, specifically a Phoenix Strike melee-based assassin. All the skills will be mentioned, though some will be focused on more than others. This guide is focuses primarily on Realms multiplayer play, and while Single Player/Open will be mentioned, it'll not be emphasized. The Personal Recommendation will list what the author(s) would do if they were making an ideal Phoenix Strike-focused assassin.

[b]0.4 Abbreviations Commonly Used[/b]
-DR: Damage Reduced – a mod on items
-MDR: Magic Damage Reduced – a mod on items
AR: Attack Rating
BS: Blade Shield
BoI: Blades of Ice
BoS: Burst of Speed
C/C: Claw/Claw – dual wielding claws
C/S: Claw/Shield – using a claw and shield
CS: Cobra Strike
CoS: Cloak of Shadows
CoT: Claws of Thunder
DC: Dragon Claw
DF: Dragon Flight
DR: Defense Rating
DS: Death Sentry
DT: Dragon Tail
FoF: Fists of Fire
IAS: Increased Attack Speed
LS: Lightning Sentry
MA: Martial Arts, usually referring to the Martial Arts skill tree
PS: Phoenix Strike
SD: Shadow Discipline skill tree
SM: Shadow Master
SW: Shadow Warrior
TS: Tiger Strike
WoF: Wake of Fire
WoI: Wake of Inferno

[b]0.5 The Raging Debate – Dual Claws vs. Claw/Shield[/b]
This debate will last until the end of time, and there's no perfect answer to it. It's very dependent on your build, your equipment, and your play style, but I'll try and sum up some of the basic arguments for C/S and C/C, as well as give some basic mechanics of C/C.

On normal attacks with C/C, you alternate claws, and the speed is primarily based on the weapon in the right side. IE for the fastest normal attacks, put the faster claw in the right hand slot. 

On strike charge-ups with C/C (TS, CS, PS) you use the left-equipped claw only, and use an average of the two claws' speed.

On claw charge-ups with C/C (FoF, CoT, BoI) you use the right-equipped claw as the primary attack, and average the two claws' speed. You can hit with both claws, in which case you'll do damage with the left-equipped claw and apply any elemental and leech effects to the attack. You won't, however, get benefits on the left claw such as blindness, monster flee, crushing blow, etc – basically the same things that Blade Shield transfers. Dragon Claw acts exactly the same as claw charge-ups. 

On claw charge-ups with C/S, the attack is [i]slow[/i]. The base frame rate appears to be 18. Or, it may simply be that there is an inherent speed penalty for claw charge-ups. Regardless, it's about 50% slower than a strike charge-up.

When using Weapon Block, C/C deteriorates durability from the right claw as if it were a shield. This can be very expensive with claws that add bonuses to skills, as the repair costs get pretty hefty. On the claw charge-ups and Dragon Claw, you will lose durability on both claws – which makes sense, since you're attacking with both.

C/S allows you to use a shield. Duh. This means you can have a 76% resist all shield (a monarch with 4 perfect diamonds), faster blocking speed, increased block rate, %Damage reduced, high defense, and a whole host of other mods you can't find at all on a claw. You can get bonuses to skills, -DR, -MDR, stat bonuses, damage bonuses, all sorts of things that are hard to find on a claw.

Furthermore, you will always be using one claw. You can count on that claw's speed and damage and effects.

In order to keep the same blocking percentage, you need to put points into dex. It works out that you basically have to put 2 points into dex for the character's lifetime, every level, to sustain the blocking percentage. That can be painful, and while you don't need the highest block percentge possible for a shield, it does mean in practice that you'll be adding points to dex often. Again, depending on the build this isn't a bad thing necessarily.

C/C gives, in general, higher skill bonuses. It gives you Weapon Block, which gives a blocking percentage that is independent of dex. Weapon Block however cannot be improved by +% blocking items or block speed, so it can result in block lock. The animation for an assassin's blocking is close enough to the shield's base blocking that they're pretty interchangeable.

If you're going to be making an assassin that uses charge-ups as their main damage, or doesn't focus on claw damage so much (traps, Venom, PS, TS/DT in order of least to most), the only real great reason to use dual claws is to get higher bonuses to skills. You won't be hitting with that second claw except with normal attacks (or Dragon Claw, possibly), it won't give any speed up to the attack, it'll not allow you to charge up any faster. This shouldn't discount the bonus to skills that claws can give – particularly for non-melee-based assassins and Venom assassins, higher skills give significant boosts on a damage scale, similar to how a sorc works.

If you're going for maximum physical damage with claws, dual claw is most optimal. You can effectively double your damage by either attacking with Dragon Claw regularly or using a claw charge-up as your normal attack. However, unless you have two very good claws (each being 150+ damage and reasonably fast) you'll not begin to approach the damage you'd do with a good 2h weapon.

I've personally found it very difficult to find two good claws that I'd want to use. Especially ones with bonuses to all assassin skills or PS. Keep this in mind when planning on dual wielding – it can be hard to get really nice claws.

Finally, an assassin looks somewhat wrong with a shield. She doesn't run right and it looks goofy. She looks "correct" with dual claws – which is a shame, since dual claws often aren't the best thing.

[b]1. Stats
1.1 Strength[/b] 
For a melee assassin, there's one point that always stands out - 118. This is the STR requirement to use scissors suwayyah. While that's not the best claw in terms of max damage or of speed, it does happen to be the type that Natalya's Mark uses, and all assassins dream of using that claw. 118 STR isn't bad to stop at.

However, the best PS weapon is all about speed, not raw damage - which means Bartuc's Cut-Throat, version 1.08. It requires a 79 STR, easy to meet. 

There are a couple other boundaries of STR that are good. 103 STR is archon plate - the highest defense elite light armor you can get. 149 is the strength req on the Natalya's Shaow; the set armor is okay, particularly good for a Venom-based assassin, but not great otherwise. 156 STR is a monarch shield that can have 4 sockets – something to consider if you need resistances. 165 STR is Arkaine's Valor, a heavy armor that is still so amazing that if you have it, you shouldn't be reading this guide. Above that isn't highly recommended, unless you have some specific uber-armor you're going to use, or you're going for extra kick damage and don't want to up Dex. There's actually another reason to boost str – and that's to use some huge two-handed weapon to deliver massive damage with TS. Finally, STR also improves damage of claws in the same way that dex does (claw class weapons are 75/75 str/dex). 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] 118 STR is good to stop at. This gives you access to all sorts of exceptional armor, increases your claw damage some, and lets you use any claw you might come across. I do not recommend going for the Natalya's set if you're primarily melee-based, though socketing the armor with a –requirements jewel or Hel rune may make it a bit more palatable. If you're going for kick damage, having higher str to make up for the missing vit is a decent idea, just to allow you to wear better armors.

[b]1.2 Dexterity[/b] 
Dex very much depends on what kind of build you'll be going for. 118 is again a magic number for Natalya's Mark. 79 is a magic number for Bartuc's. If you use shields, you may want to continue to pump dex for a decent part of your life, in order to keep your blocking% reasonably high. The AR bonus is nice, particularly if you plan on using normal attacks as your finisher, since Claw Mastery will improve the to-hit of a normal attack. Dex does improve damage of kicks and damage of claws; for an elemental charge-up-based assassin this isn't as important, however. If you're not using a shield, dex isn't nearly as important, though it's still nice to have at least 118 for use of any claw.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] A shield is so nice for a PS assassin; it's hard not to use one. Nevertheless, it's more optimal damage-wise if you use two claws for the bonuses to skills. If you're going to use a shield, I would continually put points into dex so that whatever shield you're using gives you at least 50% block. If you're not using a shield, put in enough points to use whatever claws you have - 118 being the upper limit.

[b]1.3 Vitality[/b] 
Bonuses: 3 HP/point, 1.5 Stamina/point. Vit is king for any melee-based assassin. She doesn't have skills that improve her DR, hit points, or let her get free physical resistance (like a zon has) - she has Weapon Block and Fade, and that's basically it. Fade isn't optimal, and only affects resistances and curses, which are made up for by items. Weapon Block lets you function decently without a shield, using two claws - which gains you only a little bit - it replaces but doesn't add to blocking. Thus, she's somewhat vulnerable in the thick of things. Pump vitality whenever you can. It should be your top priority after around lvl 25 - when your other stats are reasonably high to allow you to use whatever armor/weapons you have. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] Vit can't go high enough.

[b]1.4 Energy[/b] 
Bonuses: 1.5 mana/point. Kind of sad. Add to that she has very low mana costs for anything, and she really doesn't need a huge amount of mana. The big exception to this is a trap-focused assassin, who needs to be able to at least do five 20-point traps quickly. This doesn't mean you need a lot of mana though - just a lot of mana regeneration. For melee-based assassins, mana is a very low priority.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] Leave it at the base.

1.5 Other stats
Per level bonuses:
+2 life, +1.5 mana, +1 stamina

Kick damage is determined by this formula: (Thanks to Seraph)
Min = (str + dex -20)/4
Max = (str + dex -20)/3

Claws are 75 str/75 dex weapons. For every point into str or dex, you will gain 0.75% damage. This is nice and all until you realize how low claws are in the damage department. Still good to know.

[b]2. Skills
2.1 Martial Arts[/b]

[b]2.1.1 Tiger Strike[/b] 
Tiger Strike is a great skill. Nice linear progression as you increase skill levels, increase of usefulness as the damage of your claw goes up, cheap to use (1 mana), has potential to combo well with cobra strike and all the charge-ups. It's also not really the best for an assassin in a lot of ways. TS doesn't do any area of effect damage unless comboed with Dragon Tail, which means an assassin with TS will normally have to hit each and every monster individually. As mentioned above, this can be somewhat dangerous. Furthermore, assassins have one of the lowest damage weapons in the game. The 50% physical resistance in Hell cuts the power of this skill in half there. Nevertheless, TS remains one of the melee assassin's better skills. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) or (10-20) As a secondary skill to Phoenix, it's pretty good. It does take down bosses very well, even with mid-damage claws. It's [i]very[/i] dependent on what kind of weapons you use, however, so if you know you're not going to have high-damage claws (like you're using Bartuc's), or if you're not using DT, I would put the minimum amount of points into it. If you have good high-damage claws or want to switch to some huge cruel weapon for maximum damage, put some points into it.

[b]2.1.2 Dragon Talon[/b] 
The first finisher you can get, and it shows. It really doesn't do enough damage at any lvl to be particularly taken seriously, even with slvl-20 TS. If you do get it high enough, the second and third kick look like little stomps. It also only discharges the charges on the first kick. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) It's a prereq skill, and not even necessary if you don't want to put one point into Dragon Flight. Put one in. 

[b]2.1.3 Fists of Fire[/b] 
It's bad. It's really bad. It does okay in A1, is halfway decent in A2 and becomes quickly useless afterwards. It has one interesting quirk - you can use it with your fists, appropriately enough, as well as with claws. You can't use it with any other kinds of weapons. It has a very low damage increase per level, doesn't do much damage at any level, and fire is the singly most resisted thing in the game. If you are using claw/shield, it's slower than a strike or a normal attack as well. If you're using two claws, you get a chance to get two charges per swing, but it's still pretty bad.
[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) - Prereq status only

[b]2.1.4 Dragon Claw[/b]
For a pure physical damage assassin, it's a necessity. It's one of two skills that requires two claws equipped (the other is Weapon Block), so if you know you're going to be using a shield, it's pointless. It's slow - it has a base speed of 23 frames apparently, just like claw charge-ups do with two claws. It doesn't add the charge-up bonuses to both claws - just the left slot claw. It does add it's damage bonus to both claws, however. It doesn't always hit with both claws either - it makes a to-hit roll with both claws separately, so there's a chance to hit with 0, left, right, or both claws. 

If you're going for max damage, max Claw Mastery and TS first. Dragon Claw only gives returns on the finishing move, whereas Claw Mastery improves every attack you have.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) - Prerequisite. Normal attack is faster for finishing, shield is usually better for a PS assassin. If you are determined to use two claws (especially for two + to skill claws with PS) Dragon Claw is a worthy alternative to a normal attack, though it's slower than a normal for this purpose. Still go with 1.

[b]2.1.5 Cobra Strike[/b] 
It's great. This will get you through most of normal without leech items. It leeches based on the physical damage dealt, regardless of source - so it combines with TS so that the damage leeched is based on the total damage done, and it's the only way to leech using a kick - life leech/mana leech items do not. That being said, it doesn't increase your damage output in any way, only the ability to survive. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) - Regardless of what kind of build of assassin you're using, this should get one point. It's that good with one point. It doesn't need more, really. 

[b]2.1.6 Claws of Thunder[/b]
CoT only works with claw attacks - appropriate. It's actually pretty damaging at higher lvl - far better damage per hit than the lightning of Phoenix Strike. However, Phoenix Strike's chain lightning hits more, and in general is more effective of a killer. It's a claw charge-up, which means it's slow compared to strikes/normal attacks when using a single claw, but gets two charges quickly when using dual claws. The third charge is almost always the best - it does a very damaging charged bolt ring [i]and[/i] does a very high minimum damage lightning hit to the target. This skill does [i]not[/i] produce lightning bolts - the first charge is similar to a lightning damage add on a weapon. Good as a backup elemental attack for a physical damage assassin - since it takes only a prereq point and works best with dual claws.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) - Prerequisite. If you didn't want to use Phoenix Strike and wanted some other kind of elemental attack as backup, this would be a good choice. As we're planning on using PS, however, it's not that great. 

[b]2.1.7 Dragon Tail[/b]
Dragon Tail is a very fast finishing move. The knockback is great for dealing with crowds, the damage is good with TS, it does elemental damage. It also costs 10 mana, which is somewhat painful, though it only uses mana on an actual hit - if you miss, it costs nothing. It only uses kick damage, so if you've minimized str/dex you'll not be doing much with it. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) - Prerequisite. One can do a TS/DT build and then do PS, but the amount of points you need in skills for all of this to be effective in Hell is somewhat daunting. If you max TS it can be decent, but will most likely not be as good as PS is for you (unless you've maxed both TS and DT). 

[b]2.1.8 Blades of Ice[/b]
If this skill froze, it might be decent. It does decent average damage at high lvls - 230+ - and has a great high AR bonus. But it doesn't freeze at all. The third charge is there for pretty snowflakes, and while it's a cool effect it's not worth any points. It's, like CoT and FoF, a claw skill, which means that you must use a claw to use it, it's slower than a strike/normal attack when using one claw, and it gets double charges possibly when using dual claws. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) - If I could put 0 in it, I would, but sadly it's a prereq for PS. 

[b]2.1.9 Dragon Flight[/b]
This is one of the best PvP skills for an assassin there is. It's also pretty dang nifty for anyone else. It does require a target to use, so you can't use it like Leap Attack and shift-click to go anywhere. It has a 2-second casting delay, which means you can't really use it well for a finisher all the time. It also costs a hefty 15 mana. But it gets you (and your mercs and shadows) right into the thick of things. I find that it misses a large amount of the time as well. Great for jumping over to help out a party member in distress, or getting out of it yourself. Also good for going around obstacles assuming you have a target.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) It's useful enough to get around, but beyond that it's not worth much, particularly for a PS-focused assassin. 

[b]2.1.10 Phoenix Strike[/b]
Ah, finally. Well, you know I'm going to recommend maxing it, so here's where I say why. Actually, that's not true - some builds shouldn't max it, or even put a point into it. First, some facts about it.

Phoenix Strike increases nonlinearly and progressively as you get higher skill levels. The boundaries are 1/9/17. This is similar to the progression that sorceresses have on their skills. This means that putting 10 points into it's basically a waste. It means that skill level 15 PS does nearly half damage of slvl-20 PS. 

The flame effect of the meteor, the ones that stick around for a while - they have a duration based on the lvl of PS. At slvl-20, these flames do 250 damage/second for 12 seconds. At slvl-25, they do 350 damage/second for 15 seconds. The flames do trigger LEBs, even if they're fire immune.

Meteor has no casting delays, unlike the sorc Meteor spell. This means with practice and a faster claw you can reliably get two meteors a second. 

The freeze duration of the Chaos Ice Bolt increases with higher levels. How much hasn't been determined yet. What this means is that the freeze effect in Hell is only 1 second at slvl-1 - decent, but not really great. Thus if you're planning on using it for the freeze effect and nothing else, you might consider not putting any points into it or the prereqs, and upping Mind Blast instead, since the Mind Blast stunning will last a lot longer than slvl-1 PS freeze does.

The lightning bolts do low minimum damage, but like Chain Lightning, they tend to hit targets more than once. It shoots out 3 bolts, each having a 5-chain ability. In practice, the CL charge can be the most damaging of all of them. 

Some disadvantages are the delay of the meteor - it acts just like a meteor on a sorc, so there's a 2 second delay before it lands. It's also sometimes hard to get the knack of finishing when you have one or two charges, and not going to three. It'sn't a brainless skill to use - you need to know how many charges you have up, what kind of resistances and immunities your foes face. 

It's the most versatile elemental attack the assassin can use. It's weak against fire/lightning immunes, but strong against any kind of single-immune monster. It also has very good damage over time, and can happily do well in multiplayer-8 Hell, solo or partied. Your party members will love you freezing the Minions of Destruction with the Chaos Bolt - while they can't be converted, they can be frozen. They'll love that you're not spamming Mind Blast to stun things, or can help out with some meteor cooking while they're pounding on 'em. It combines very well with Burst of Speed - the faster you can charge and release, the faster you'll be doing damage.

Don't be a loser and spam meteors against fire immunes. Or lightning against lightning immunes. [i]Really[/i] don't be a loser and drop meteors on LEB fire immunes – it'll do no damage [i]and[/i] trigger the LEB. At best it makes you ineffective in a party or by yourself, and at worst it can get lots of people killed. Pay attention. Think.

Finally, PS improves tremendously with +skills. Skill level 25 does 50%-100% more damage than slvl-20 depending on what the damage type is, and it only gets better after that. That's a good reason alone to use dual claws, though if you can get away with it, try not to. Having 5-7 martial art adders are good here. This alone makes 1.09 Bartuc's a good choice for PS assassins - +3 to PS does an extra 100 damage.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (20) At this point, PS is one of the few ways to go for a melee assassin. It's almost a necessity to deal with physical immunes or highly resistant monsters. The only real other choice is Venom, and losing Burst of Speed is painful. TS/Dragon Tail works somewhat okay but is weak vs. physical and fire immunes. CoT may be a decent alternate for a dual-claw user. Traps are great, but not everyone wants to use traps (why, I'm not sure...). For me, any assassin I make that doesn't plan on using it'll be either a variant melee user or a trap user. 

[b]2.2 Shadow Disciplines[/b]

[b]2.2.1 Claw Mastery[/b]
Claw Mastery isn't essential. I need to say this now, because there are too many D2 players trained on Barbarians and their uber masteries, that believe "if it has Mastery in the name, I must [i]max[/i] it". 

For one, you are not supposed to get any critical strike chance. Eep. For another, you don't need a lot of AR. You'll be having AR aplenty from reasonably high dex, charge-ups, and bonuses from various items. 

However, as of 1.09 it's bugged. Claw Mastery adds the AR bonus listed as damage, not the damage bonus. Or it adds the damage bonus twice. Hard to say right now. The point is, that it adds about double the damage that it says it does. Not only does it do this, but it adds 100% critical strike, as of 1.09. This means that Claw Mastery at lvl 20 adds 200% damage, and on top of that doubles whatever damage you do. Wow. Ouch. 

Also, if you're using a normal attack for a finisher, this is the only skill that adds AR to that attack. That's awfully nice. If you're going for the most physical damage possible with a claw, max it, just after TS. If you're going for the most physical damage possible, max TS instead, and use another kind of weapon. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (10) These points can be put in through the life of your assassin. Putting 10 in early won't help out a lot. When you notice that your normal attack is dipping below 80% to hit, put in a point to Claw Mastery. 

[b]2.2.2 Psychic Hammer[/b]
Eh. It's okay. It does push things back, it does a vaguely decent amount of damage at lower levels, it doesn't cost a great deal, though at higher levels it costs nearly as much as Mind Blast and does less damage. It's an aptly set lvl-1 skill. If you want a really tough time as a variant, max it. One good use is to keep bosses stunned at a cheap price – knock them into a corner and hit them for low mana. Not a bad idea, though hardly something you'll use often, and definitely not worth more than a point for. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) It's a prereq for a couple useful things - shadows and Mind Blast - so you need to put a point in. But you'll very very rarely use it. 

[b]2.2.3 Burst of Speed[/b]
This is the skill that will make you not want to play another class for as long as you live. And every time you do, you'll wonder why you're going so slow. It'sn't something to max - it has diminishing returns - but getting it to slvl-5 or 6 should be a good priority early on. It increases attack speed, run/walk speed, and the speed of trap casting(which is based on attack speed for some reason). With high levels of this and a 30-40% faster run/walk boots, you will move faster than anything out there. You can outrun Guided Arrows and run almost as fast as lightning. It's only disadvantage is that you cannot have it and Fade/Venom going at the same time. If you could, it would be frightening. It's worth one point in no matter what kind of assassin you're playing, and probably worth more no matter what. It's a good skill that represents the assassin - [i]speed[/i]. 

Also makes a cool 6-million-dollar-man sound effect. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (6) I like to naturally have +45 r/w and +39 attack speed. With +skills you'll have a lot more than this. After slvl-6 you really hit the diminishing returns. At slvl-10 for instance, you have a whopping 7% increase in run/walk and a 6% increase in attack speed. Not worth the 4 more points for me. Furthermore, with fast claws and IAS gear, you'll soon hit that 7 frame strike attack with a claw - the fastest you'll be able to reach.

[b]2.2.4 Weapon Block[/b]
If you know you're not going to use two claws, don't put points here. If you are going to use two claws, you need some Weapon Block, but how much is debatable. Like BoS, it's a diminishing return skill. It'sn't improved by +Weapon Block items like Twitchthroe. It doesn't improve blocking speed, which means that you will have problems with block lock later in life. It does, however, not depend at all on dex. It also uses your right claw as a shield, which means it'll take durability hits - which can be expensive. It's slightly faster than a normal shield's blocking.

The one big thing that it has over blocking is that, apparently (again, thanks to Seraph) you do not have 1/3 blocking while running using Weapon Block. This seems true for me as well, as I often get into block lock while running with claws, much more than with a shield.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) Even with a dual-claw setup, I'd choose one point. With just +3 total skills you get this to slvl-4, and 39% blocking. This is good enough for me. Six more points brings you to 50% - and that gain isn't worth it for me. If you aren't going to use a lot of +skill items, I'd recommend upping it to get to slvl-4. Block lock is deadly later in life - having this at high levels with two claws and the slower block speed may mean a death sentence.

[b]2.2.5 Cloak of Shadows[/b]
The poor maligned Cloak of Shadows. Most party members [i]hate[/i] it. Heck, many assassins hate it. When you're doing solo games, however, it can be a lifesaver. It's great for separating out monsters, and even better for closing gaps between you and ranged attackers. Works well to stop imp firing or teleporting. Works really well against flayers, who will stand there dumbfounded. Also works well to keep mobs sitting in traps. Has a great range too - 20 yards. Only lasts 8 seconds - good to combine it with BoS or DF to get to where you want to go fast without getting hit. 

Did I mention that party members hate it? It acts just like the A2 quest that turns the screen dark. In a dungeon it does nothing, really, but outside or in Arcane, it'll be a nice dark cloud. Very annoying.

It also shows where monsters are, similar to how Inner Sight works. Can be nice to find those hidden flayers. 

The DR penalty to mobs is negligible, and more points doesn't increase the duration or range.

It doesn't work on bosses, champs, or Oblivion Knights - the latter would be the most useful against it. Sigh.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) You'll use it and your shadow will use it, but pumping it isn't really useful. Good skill though.

[b]2.2.6 Fade[/b]
Fade isn't bad, but when you get it and start using it after BoS, you'll feel like you stepped in molasses. It does have a couple of very nice things going for it - it lowers curse time, and it's very cheap. It has diminishing returns similar to BoS, so don't put too many points into it. If you're a trapper, it can be very good, as you'll most likely not have a shield and don't care so much about speed. For a melee assassin, BoS is just too useful to give up. If you could have BoS and Fade going, great, but you can't. It's good against Conviction bosses that lower your resists from time to time.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) With +skills it'll be at a decent level. I rarely use it, except when fighting Conviction-enhanced LEBs that kill in two bolts. A shield with high resists beats it hands down. For that matter, so does Smoke, or good resist rings/amulets, etc. Make up the resists in equipment, and put the points elsewhere.

[b]2.2.7 Shadow Warrior[/b]
Shadow Warrior uses only the skills that are selected on your left and right mouse button. This is a good and bad thing. Good because you can control essentially what the SW uses, whether it be traps, Mind Blast, charge-ups, finishers, etc. Bad because, well, you have no independence on the minion. At later levels the Shadow Warrior won't be doing enough damage for it to warrant charge-ups, nor does it attack particularly fast (even with BoS going). It will happily spam Mind Blast however, and it'll lay down traps; both are nice touches. The believed skill level for a Shadow Warrior for their skills is the slvl/2(round down)+1. This is believed to be true for Shadow Master as well. Not heavily tested, however. Shadow Warrior's cost increases with slvl. The HP of a Shadow Warrior increases with the number of players in a game - so if you play a lot of single player, you may want to pump this a bit to avoid recasting. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) For a melee build you don't want to have to micromanage your minion. Let them do their own thing. You'll be busy enough switching skills, counting charges, running in and out - let them do whatever. For that reason the Shadow Master is a better choice.

For a trapper, you can get five extra traps with a Warrior, so it's probably better for them. However, those traps are at best around slvl-15 (with Shadow Warrior at slvl-30 no less).  For a mind cheese assassin, a warrior is a free Mind Blast trap. Mmmm...cheese. For a PSer, you've got enough to worry about.

[b]2.2.8 Mind Blast[/b]
Mind Blast is great. It's one of the better skills the assassin has. The stun length appears to increase per level (at a whopping 0.2 seconds/slvl), the conversion rate has a diminishingly higher chance to convert per level, the cost doesn't go up. It's pretty cheap and casts quickly, and has a decently large radius. The damage isn't so hot, but no one uses it for the damage alone. It pushes things back, stuns them, and converts them - how cool is that?

And as of 1.09, it no longer leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you use it. 

It might be a good alternate for freezing things if you're not going with Phoenix Strike, though you'd have to put in a few points to make it useful that way.

A [i]lot[/i] of people get annoyed when this is used in parties, usually because the party kills fast enough as it's and doesn't want to wait out the 6-10 seconds it takes to unconvert. Ask first and use it sparingly.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) It's a good skill. It's a great skill. You really don't need more than one with +skills, since it doesn't improve significantly with points. 

[b]2.2.9 Venom[/b]
Venom is something of a variant skill, in that you really need to max it or not put anything into it. One point doesn't do much, unlike the other two auras. Furthermore, it doesn't work with BoS or Fade, another knock against it. 
It's however quite damaging, especially at higher levels. It's probably the only way to make a poison anything character viable. Each level after slvl-16 increases the poison damage by 12.5 damage/second, which is quite good - the best poison damage in the game, actually. It's a pretty good alternate for doing elemental damage, though poison gets hit hard by resistances - both duration [i]and[/i] damage go down with added resist, so something with 50% poison resist takes effectively 1/4 damage from a poison attack. It also can take a [i]long[/i] time to do the full damage. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (0) With PS you don't need any other elemental damage types, and a good Venom assassin takes a decent amount of specialized gear that isn't necessarily what you want. It's a good skill but not necessary with a focus on PS.

As of 1.09, poison damage has changed for the worse (as far as the Venom assassin's concerned). It still does a lot of damage, but isn't really as good a build for variants as it was before, due to the nerfing of the long duration.

[b]2.2.10 Shadow Master[/b]
Shadow Masters are often better assassins than you are. They'll remember to do things like CoS, traps, Fade, Venom, various charge-ups, various finishers, etc. They use all three trees, and use them reasonably well. The HP of SM increases with number of players, so again, if you play single player you may want to pump this to allow some survivability. The SM's cost is a fixed 40 - nice for recasting purposes. It has a higher base HP and defense than the SW. It's pretty hard to control what the Master will do - sometimes it's just not useful, though this is less true than a Valkyrie. 

She will cast Mind Blast and CoS, pretty often actually, which means that you might consider not casting her when in a party.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (3-5) Depending on how much you play solo, slvl-5 is a good limit. You don't have to recast her that much with that many points, even if you're playing alone. If you play in parties or in multiplayer games more often, then one might be enough. Don't max it - the gains aren't really worth the cost in skill points.

[b]2.3 Traps[/b]
Note - all of the recommendations assume you plan on using [i]some[/i] traps, specifically Death Sentry. If you've decided that you're not going to, you can ignore the recommendations here. Duh. Traps aren't necessary, but can be very good.

[b]2.3.1 Fire Blast[/b]
I'll say this right now, I've never ever used this skill. It's another lvl 1 skill that sat idly by as I saved for BoS. The first time I put a point into it was when I was clvl-47, and that was to get Death Sentry. So, I can't comment on it very well experience-wise.

Stat-wise it looks, well, eh. It's like a throwing potion - you can hurl it over obstacles, which could be cool. The radius isn't bad. The mana isn't bad. The damage isn't great but good at lower levels. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) Purely prereq to both DS and Blade Shield 

[b]2.3.2 Shock Web[/b]
Another skill I've never used. Sirian has a good report on the problems with Shock Web - because of desynch on Realms, it'll very rarely hit often or at all. The damage is low. It doesn't stack. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) Prereq for Death Sentry.

[b]2.3.3 Blade Sentinel[/b]
Again, one I've never used, and one that Sirian has covered far more in depth than anyone has the right to. Fun skill, nice variant material, low damage, bad AI. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (0-1) If you want to use Blade Shield, put a point in as a prereq. If you don't, don't. Most folks won't put a point here, and won't miss it.

[b]2.3.4 Charged Bolt Sentry[/b]
This is actually a decent skill at lower skill levels, particularly if you're not twinking. It doesn't increase the number of bolts with slvl though, which kills the usefulness of it quickly compared to LS. Still, it's a great way to add damage without getting too mixed up in normal...but it doesn't compare well to Wake of Fire.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (1) For Death Sentry. 

[b]2.3.5 Wake of Fire[/b]
Ah, this skill I've actually seen used. It looks decent, especially at high lvls, and the graphic effect is tres cool. As with all traps, it doesn't do a huge amount of damage, but can be stacked nicely and hits a good area of effect. There's a pretty fair debate out there on WoF vs. WoI - I'm not going to add my uneducated opinion on it, aside to say that it's similar to sorc skills, in that you should not put a couple points in. Put 20, or put 1, or put 0, but don't drop 5 in. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (0-1) I recommend Death/Lightning Sentry for an alternate damage for a PS assassin - thus this part of the tree isn't necessary. I'd recommend WoI ahead of it anyway. Prereq for Blade Shield otherwise.

[b]2.3.6 Blade Fury[/b]
Never used. The SM uses it on occasion, flinging one mighty star at someone. Great. I've seen it used against Lister. It made him giggle. It looks amazingly cool, but doesn't appear to do a lot of damage, and uses a lot of mana. It's like a physical version of the Inferno/Arctic Blast skill. That being said, it gets cut in half in Hell due to the global 50% physical resistance, so it's actually less useful than those skills most of the time. It does appear to get abilities like crushing blow, which could make it at least a bit useful. If you do end up using it, do short controlled bursts - 3 stars come out for 3 mana, and afterwards it's highly draining in mana.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (0-1) Prereq for Blade Shield.

[b]2.3.7 Lightning Sentry[/b]
Ah, finally, a good lightning trap. And by good, I mean best. Death Sentry blows up corpses, but if you want the best lightning damage over time for your mana, Lightning Sentry can't be beat. There's a big argument over maxing this or death sentry. Both cost 20, both do similar lightning damage, Death Sentry explodes corpses...when it feels like it, LS shoots 10 times vs. DS's 5. For a dedicated trapper, I would probably max LS and put a few points into DS, but I can see some arguments for maxing DS. Lightning Sentry has a longer bolt than DS does - that increases per level as well, so if you have a very long line of congaing monsters, it'll hit them all.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b](1) Prereq for DS. If you want more support in damage with a trap and don't like DS for some reason, I'd recommend maxing it, but for me the cost in skill points is too high relative to DS for the effect you get. 

[b]2.3.8 Wake of Inferno[/b]
Considered by a lot of trappers to be the best trap. Certainly does the most damage over time. It's like a mini-Inferno sorc. Or a flayer shaman. It works best when you can keep mobs in one place for a decent period. It can do huge amounts of damage, provided the mobs don't move much. Otherwise it doesn't do much at all. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (0) I can see this being a decent supporting trap for a PS assassin, but because it's fire damage and the PS's best damage is fire via meteor, it's not so great to overlap. I'd rather have some coverage of all elements, than concentrating on one. YMMV.

[b]2.3.9 Blade Shield[/b]
So by now you're wondering, why would I recommend one point so you can get this skill? Well, because as of 1.08 Blade Shield is bugged. Or it's got a cool hidden feature, take your pick. That feature is that certain abilities that can be given to weapons are given to Blade Shield. These are (and thanks to Homer the Simpson for this):
Crushing Blow 
Freezes Target 
Hit Blinds Target 
Hit Causes Monster to Flee 
Knockback 
Slows Target by x% 
x% Chance to Cast Level y {Insert Spell) on Attack 
I'm not sure if these can be on the weapon or must be on other equipment for this to work with BS - further testing is necessary. It can be very amusing to watch a Blade Shielded assassin wade into a pack and have them all run away blinded. Or have mobs get near her and fly back. It can be the best defense, provided that you tailor some of your equipment around it, and you put a few points into it. The only thing that added skill points gets you for this is duration. The damage is pitiful for all levels. It also has one of the coolest looking effects in the game.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (0 or 1) Even with duration being low, having one point with +skills will bump it to a reasonably high slvl. Putting more points in won't make it that much better. You don't need it, but if you have knockback and blindness, it can be great. 

[b]2.3.10 Death Sentry[/b]
Death Sentry is really given a hard time, mostly by folks who haven't tested it well or don't know enough history of Diablo II. We've already talked about the lightning damage of Death Sentry, now it's time to talk about the Corpse Explosion.

The Corpse Explosion effect acts almost identically to the necromancer's version of it - the increase in radius/slvl is the same, for instance. It does 50% physical, 50% fire damage, same as CE. Also the same is the non-scaling of a CE as the number of players in a game increases. It will always do 40-80% of the base HP of the mob, [i]not[/i] the scaled HP. Thus it'll be taking off 1/8 as much life bar in a 8-player game as it does in a solo-1 game. 

However, it's [i]still doing the same damage[/i]. I can't emphasize this enough. If you have something that can do 1,000 points of damage to everything in a 6 yard radius, 5 times, for 20 mana, you'd use it, right? Regardless of difficulty or number of things on the screen, this is a good amount of damage. And this is the low end of damage - the high end is something like 4,000 on A5 Hell creatures. It doesn't kill things as fast as in solo-8, but man, in solo-1 it's simply ungodly. Meteor something to death, drop a DS, everything else dies. 

The trap also has a bit of a quirk - the range at which it explodes corpses is huge. Like 1 1/2 screens huge. Very odd. Perhaps good against Nihlathak.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] (5) The utility of destroying corpses makes it worth a point alone. A few more points ups the range of the corpse explosion to reasonably high levels, and with +skills it'll be good. I don't recommend using it for the lightning damage, though if you need an alternate form of damage this is a good one. Sadly, it requires 4 prereq skills, so if you want to put in any points, it'll cost you at least 5. Still, it's worth it. Just don't use it while a necro is around. If you're looking to max a trap, I'd recommend maxing LS instead. However, a few points in DS can make a world of difference in kill speeds and utility – and it really only needs a few points.

[b]3. Items[/b]

Note: You'll notice I'm not talking about Magic Find here much. The Arreat Summit has a far better summation of MF on equipment than I am willing to do here; but it's good to know that the assassin is a fair magic finder; particularly a PS assassin, as she's not so item dependent as a lot of other builds. Still, if you want to farm cows, make a sorc. :)

[b]3.0 – Increased Attack Speed[/b]
This needed to be listed in some way, because thousands of folks raised on blinding speeds of bowazons and zealadins want to know – how fast can an assassin go?

The weapon speed thread is sadly gone, due to [URL=http://lurkerlounge.com/]Lurker Lounge[/URL] going away. I can't point you there, so check around elsewhere for the mechanics of speed in D2X. 

The base speeds for claws appear to be the following:
with a strike charge-up: 13 frames.
with a claw charge-up and one claw only: 18 frames (though this isn't quite right - it's a 13 frame attack with a penalty)
with two claws and Dragon Claw/claw charge-up: 23 frames (again, with a penalty)
With normal attacks, single claw: 13.5 frames.

Burst of speed adds much like the weapon speed does, not like IAS. What this means is that, with a -30 base speed weapon and 45+ burst, you'll be hitting max speed without ANY IAS items. Thus, burst is good. 

You need 75 effective IAS to hit the 7-frame cap on a single claw strike. That's the mark to aim for - that's what will allow 2 meteors per second. 10 frames appears to be the cap on the dual claw attacks.

[b]3.1 Weapons[/b]

A melee assassin is very dependent on their weapon, no matter what kind of melee they'll be doing. If you're going to be heavy on physical damage, having a high damage weapon is key. If you'll be doing PS, high speed is key. 

The best damaging claw one could get is a cruel war fist of evisceration. It will also be the slowest. The second best would be a suwayyah or scissors suwayyah with the above magic mods. It'll be the second slowest. Personally, I would recommend going with a faster base weapon - like runic talons or feral claws - and attempting to get cruel on those. The -30 base speed on a runic talon allows a lot faster charge-up and thus a lot faster release of TS, which is far more important. The damage is only slightly less - 34 avg for a runic talon, 45 avg for a suwayyah. 

Natalya's Mark would probably be ideal damage-wise. IAS, high damage by itself, huge bonuses vs. demons & undead, cold damage. It's great. Also very [i]very[/i] hard to come by. Shopping for a cruel weapon in A5 Hell is merely time-consuming. 

Finally, using something like the Fury rune word might be the best – 200% enhanced damage, 40% IAS, 66% Deadly Strike and ITD - though finding the Jah and Gul runes for it may take a bit longer than you like.

However, we're going the PS route here, so no namby-pamby damage, we need [i]Speed[/i]. The two fastest things an assassin can use are: their fists, and 1.08 Bartuc's Cut-Throat. This only requires a mighty 30% IAS (not effective, actual) to hit the cap, or about slvl-2 BoS. 1.09 Bartucs is great for the +3 Martial Art skills and still fast speed (it's as fast as Natalya's Mark). Fists are actually the fastest possible, but they don't do much damage and don't leech much, so you need to do other things in order to continue the pain. Bartuc's does decent enough damage to allow mana leech items to work well, has great secondary properties such as ITD, is insanely fast, costs nothing to repair, and has +2 assassin skills. Really, what more could anyone possibly want?

Rune words such as Malice or Steel are good cheap alternatives. Especially Malice, for the -defense mod on it.The main problem with all rune words is that they cannot be further customized – thus you can't make Malice any faster with a Shael rune for instance.

In general, look for the following: bonuses to assassin skills or the Martial Art tree. That is by far the most important stat - skills define damage for PS. An example - +3 skills on an already-maxed PS increases meteor damage by around 100 points per meteor, and increases flame damage by around 75 points a second. This is [i]huge[/i]. Life/mana leech is good, IAS is good, ITD is good, crushing blow is good. Anything that does a decent lvl "Cast Amplify Damage on Strike" is good, especially in Hell - it effectively triples your physical damage there. Resists are bad, enhanced damage isn't so important (unless you're using TS as a supplement), elemental damage isn't particularly useful at all, Deadly Strike isn't great (again, unless you're going with TS or a high-damage claw). –Defense% is nice too, such as the Malice rune word – but not necessary if you have a high AR to begin with. Good for low AR builds however. 

If you're going for two claws, two Bartuc's are pretty nice. The second claw doesn't matter so much, as you'll not be using it often - strikes only use the left claw, so the second claw will be there for basically skill boosts and to occasionally hit with a normal attack. However, having two Bartuc's is asking a lot for most people in terms of obtainability.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] One Bartuc's, 1.09. Barring that, Bartuc's 108. In theory, a rare runic talon of quickness, +2 skills, with +3 Phoenix Strike would be ideal, or barring that a +3 Martial Art 40% IAS runic talon with +3 to PS, but chances are you won't see that for a while.

[b]3.2 Shield[/b]
A number of readers just bailed on me right here. I recommend it because a shield gets a lot of things claws don't. The best of which is increased blocking speed. Block lock is sadly a very big deal now, and without increased blocking speed block lock will on occasion kill you dead. A way to avoid this is to have a lower blocking percentage - but then you're trading block lock for stunlock, and stunlock gets you dead faster. Shields however can get around this. In addition to having -Damage reduced, -MDR, resists, magic find, gold find, resists, defense, elemental damages...did I mention resists?

A shield does look ugly, bar none, on an assassin. It's also a better blocking tool than Weapon Block due to the increased block speed alone. And upping dex a bit above 118 isn't the worst thing an assassin can do. 

Do remember that a tower and gothic shield slow an assassin (by 10%) and cause higher stamina drain - so go with something like a kite or bone shield instead of a tower shield. You'll move faster and not look like a TIE fighter.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] A troll nest with the Rhyme rune word. Rhyme has basically everything you might want in a shield. If you need more resists, having something like Moser's Blessed Circle is great. Whitstan's Guard is pretty incredible for the high speed blocking, though no resists - but it has such a huge bonus to block that you don't need a particularly high dex to get high blocking on it. Blackoak Shield is good as well, though much harder to find. A safety crafted kite shield is good, and cheap to make. For the str-inclined uber chars, Stormshield is nuts. It requires 219 str for the 1.08 version, 156 for the 1.09 version, but is worth it if you have one. Tiamat's Rebuke is also a very good shield - high defense, good blocking percentage, lots of elemental damage, though no increased blocking speed. Finally, a 4-diamond socketed monarch shield or a 3-diamond other shield is good in a lot of ways, and is a nice weapon switch item to have.

[b]3.3 Helm[/b]
If Vampiregaze and Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest didn't exist, this would be a tough one. As it stands, those are the clear winners in 1-2 order. Both take care of all your leech needs, really. Vampiregaze has that juicy - Damage% reduced, Tal's has resists and a lot of stat bonuses. Tal's is a lot easier to get, though both are hard. 

If you can't find those, try and get a rare circlet with bonuses to assassin skills or martial arts, leeches, and resists. Gambling is the easiest way here. In general, the mods you'll be looking for here are + assassin skills/+martial arts, resists, leeching, -DR. Defense is nice but not essential. 

A good rune word here is Lore - +1 skills, mana/kill (great for Venom assassins), high resist, other good stats, all for the easy runes "Ort Sol". Beware the repair costs however.

The set helm for Natalya's isn't too hot by itself. Just know that before trading for it. It's nice in terms of Nat's Shadow, as the stat bonuses make it easier to equip the thing.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] Vampiregaze is really hard to beat. The only thing that might beat is a +2 assassin skills, high resist dual leech circlet, and that's MIGHT. Guillaume's hat is decent because of the insane crushing blow mod, though does no resists, +skills, or leech. For the bargain hunter, safety crowns aren't so bad either, though they look dumb.

[b]3.4 Armor[/b]
This is a tough one, and very dependent on what kind of assassin you want to play. If you're going dual claw, something with reasonably high resists is almost necessary. 

In general, armor should be light. Heavy and medium armors slow you down - which is why Natalya's armor pisses me off so much. Loricated mail. Grrr. It looks good on you, but man...what were they thinking. Having resists is good. Having -DR is good. +life is good - great even. High defense is okay, but not essential. Faster hit recovery is nice. If you're going the route of TS/DT, having str/dex bonuses is very helpful. 

Rare/rune word armor-wise, go for archon/mage plate. It looks pretty keen too. Smoke is really nice, though the repair costs can be high. Lionheart is also good, especially if you're concentrating on TS/DT. Smoke isn't too hideously hard to get, and basically takes care of 1/3 of all the resists you'll need Stealth isn't a bad one to start with, with the increased speed and other nice bonuses, and the fact that it's trivial to do. The safety craft armor is pretty decent too - the half freeze is a nice mod. 

Unique-wise, Shaftstop and Skin of the Vipermagi (1.09) are two high picks. Shaftstop is great for the physical resist, Skin for the +1 skills and resists. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] Armor is really where you make up for lack of other things in other items. Shaftstop is most likely the best armor overall for any melee character, though the physical resist isn't as necessary for the PS assassin due to her great crowd control skills. 

[b]3.5 Belt[/b]
Belts should basically be the same as armor. There's not a lot a belt can have than armor can't. It really should be at least a plated belt - having less than 16 potion slots hurts. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] Goldwrap used to be king because of the 10%IAS. That is such a drop in the bucket now, it's really not worth giving up 16 potions and the rest of the great mods. String of Ears is almost perfect - leech, high defense, 16 slots, -MDR, -Damage%. If you need resists go with a good rare belt with two high resists - they seem to be pretty prevalent. Wilhelm's Pride is a pretty nice belt as well, with dual leech. 

[b]3.6 Gloves[/b]
Gloves are a real tough choice, because, well, there's a [i]ton[/i] of great gloves out there. Taking the unique/set items aside, you have gloves with IAS, leech, +martial arts, resists, elemental damage...and usually you'll not find all of these on one set of gloves. IAS is a bit overrated for the assassin though, since usually you'll have plenty between BoS and the very fast weapons used. It shouldn't be too hard to find a decent set of gloves for you. Again, defense is nice but not absolutely necessary. If you can't get an amazing unique, get +2 martial art gloves (preferably rare) early on - again, every + to skills adds a lot to your overall damage.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] Magnus' Skin is a good set glove. Laying of Hands is incredible for a physical damage assassin, but not so essential for a PS one - though getting them may turn you into wanting to become a physical damage one. :) All of the exceptional unique gloves are pretty great. Heck, even the Hand of Broc is good. Sander's gloves aren't so bad either. +2 martial art gloves blow pretty much all of these away, save perhaps Laying of Hands (and only if you have a good damage claw in the first place).

[b]3.7 Boots[/b]
Speed. 30% or 40% run/walk is just wonderful with BoS. There are diminishing returns - it's very hard to notice any difference between 30% and 40% when BoS is going, but it's there. Aside from that, the normal - resists, life, stats, hit recovery, etc.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] Wow, for the first time a Natalya's set item actually gets a nod here. The 40% FR/W is great, add to that two decent resists and it's really nice. Goblin Toe is good for the crushing blow. Infernostride is a good unique. Probably the best would be a rare boot with two high resists, 30 R/W, fast hit recovery and something else, perhaps stats. 

[b]3.8 Rings[/b]
Rings are predominantly for resists, leech, and, well, resists. Life is nice too. Mana is gravy. Not a lot else there for rare rings. However, there are plenty of unique rings that will beat it hands down. Dwarf Star is good for the fire absorb and MDR. Raven Frost (stop giggling) is good because of the high cold resist, cold absorb, and cannot be frozen mods. Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band is good if you really want to max your skills out - but the lack of resists and other useful stats make it not insane. SoJ is somewhat useful, but not worth sacrificing resists for, since the only bonus is the +1 all skills.

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] Rings are really where you can make up a lot of resists, and possibly life leech if your weapon/helm/gloves/belt doesn't have enough. Since rare rings are for the most part weaker now, unique rings are okay but not amazing, and other categories of items are so incredible, rings really can be used for just resists and nothing else.

[b]3.9 Amulets[/b]
Again, really tough choices. We've got rare amulets with +2 assassin skills, +2 martial arts, prismatic resists, mana leech, life bonuses. Then we have [u]magic[/u] amulets with +3 martial arts, huge life gains, huge -damage and -magic damage. Then we have the insane amulets like Highlord's Wrath, Saracen's Chance, Cat's Eye. Gambling amulets is [i]very[/i] lucrative. 

Anything that adds Amplify Damage is a good thing (as stated in the weapon part) and thus Saracen's Chance (1.08) stands out. Anything that adds Deadly Strike (doubles overall damage) also stands out - thus Highlord's Wrath. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] In practice, you can have a magic amulet that adds +3 martial arts and does -10 to -25 damage taken. +100 life would be pretty good too. Highlord's Wrath is pretty incredible. I would go with the same kind of strategy that rings have - amulets can't get truly astounding abilities most of the time, so use them to boost resists. Crafting a blood amulet is a good bet too - easy runes to get, chances of dual leech, adds Faster Run/Walk, pretty nice for an assassin.

[b]3.10 Charms[/b]
I hesitated putting this in, but wanted to make the comment that +1 Martial Art charms are nice, but not totally insane (like they are for trappers). It's far better to get better resists through charms than the skill charms, and then concentrate on getting +skills in other equipment. Charms that add huge mana/life are also good, life especially. In general, right now the +skill charms are overpriced, and you can trade them for far more useful things.

[b]3.11 Socketing[/b]
This kind of deserves its own category, since with runes, jewels, gems, and socketable everything, it gets pretty nuts. That being said, there's not a huge amount for an assassin to socket. If you're going full physical damage, adding enhanced damage is good - though know that for the most part a +max damage jewel will add more damage than a 35% enhanced damage jewel will. IAS isn't as critical due to the high speed and BoS anyway, though if you have a slow claw that does huge damage, IAS can be nice. Having some kind of backup weapon with elemental damage sockets is good as well on occasion. 

[b]Personal Recommendation:[/b] Too many variables. I do think if you get something like Vampiregaze or Shaftstop you should socket it and put in something decent, perhaps a resist jewel or rune of some kind. For a PS assassin, speed is usually taken care of elsewhere, damage isn't as important, and after that...what else is there? -Requirement runes/jewels are good to allow more vitality.

-

Here's the first part of the new guide. It's too big to fit into one post, and has quite a bit of information the other was lacking - since it's basically an all-pervasive guide on the assassin. Parts 1 and 2 are done. Part 3 will most likely be a listing of the various odd bits of the assassin that have been done, some speed calculations/tables, and other useful info. Part 4 would be equipment, though that's somewhat redundant to me, and in general I don't think most folks want to know specific items, more like what all in general they should look for. Anyway, here it goes...
Chinese Buffet assassin guide, v 0.3
03/10/02
[b]0: Prologue, interesting bits[/b]

[b]0.1: Acknowledgements and links[/b]
Thanks to the gang at Amazon Basin and Lurker Lounge. 
Arreat summit, source of a lot of stats and stuff:
[URL=http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/]http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/[/URL]
All skill stats referenced from Chippydip's amazing site:
[URL=http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~cbradfor/diablo2/skills.html]http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~cbradfor/diablo2/skills.html[/URL]
Sirian's report on assassins, occasionally referenced:
[URL=http://sirian.warpcore.org/diablo2/beta/d2xbeta.html]http://sirian.warpcore.org/diablo2/beta/d2xbeta.html[/URL] - specifically, pages 11 1 through 3. 

[b]0.2: Revision history[/b]
0.1:Spawned from previous guide. 
0.3: Correction of links, correction of speeds. Added speed calculations.
[b]0.3: Synopsis[/b]
This is a guide for hopefully all PvM, softcore assassins. Some work will be given to address PvP and hardcore, but this is not the experience of this assassin player. The idea behind this guide is a Chinese Buffet-style character workup, as the assassin has quite a few ways to become very good, but no clear-cut way that is "best". Furthermore, there is a great deal of synergy in the skill choices an assassin can make; this makes the assassin one of the best characters in the game to play, as her play style can be molded heavily to the preferences of the player without compromising the ability of the character. This guide isn't aimed at heavy variants - if you really want to prove that Blade Sentinel is l33t, or that max weapon block is all that, by all means, go for it.

[b]0.4: Abbreviations commonly used[/b]
-DR: Damage Reduced – a mod on items
-MDR: Magic Damage Reduced – a mod on items
AR: Attack Rating
BoI: Blades of Ice
BoS: Burst of Speed
BF: Blade Fury
BS: Blade Shield
C/C: Claw/Claw – dual wielding claws
C/S: Claw/Shield – using a claw and shield
CoS: Cloak of Shadows
CoT: Claws of Thunder
CS: Cobra Strike
DC: Dragon Claw
DF: Dragon Flight
DR: Defense Rating
DS: Death Sentry
DT: Dragon Tail
FoF: Fists of Fire
FHR: Faster Hit Recovery
FR/W: Faster Run/Walk
IAS: increased attack speed
LS: Lightning Sentry
MA: Martial Arts, usually referring to the Martial Arts skill tree
PS: Phoenix Strike
SD: Shadow Discipline Skill tree
SM: Shadow Master
SW: Shadow Warrior
TS: Tiger strike
WoF: Wake of Fire
WoI: Wake of Inferno
WB: Weapon Block

[b]1: The many paths of an assassin - or pick one from column A, two from B[/b]

[b]1.1: Optimal skills vs. optimal skill choices[/b]
First off, this guide isn't going to tell you to pick this skill, that skill, etc. Nor will it give you a skill spending chart for every level. It is my belief that assassins can do well with a large variety of combinations, and pigeonholing assassins into types only limits what you can do with that character. That being said, there are clearly skills that the assassin has that are more effective than others, and I can say with some confidence that it will be a larger challenge to vanquish hell Baal using Blade Fury than it is using Lightning sentry. We'll address all the skills, but here we need to talk about which skills are pretty good.

So, what are the better skills? In the Martial art tree, you have Tiger strike, Cobra strike, Phoenix strike, Claws of Thunder, Dragon Claw, Dragon Tail, Dragon Flight. In the Shadow Disciplines, you have Claw Mastery, Burst of Speed, Weapon Block, Mind Blast, and Shadow Master. In the traps tree, there is Wake of Inferno, Lightning Sentry, and Death Sentry. Not all of these are skills one should max, but we'll talk about that later. These are the skills that will be focused on. 

Skills that are borderline are Blade Fury, Blade Shield, Wake of Fire, Fade, Cloak of Shadows, Venom, and Dragon Talon. These are skills that you might consider taking, but would not be particularly hurt if no points were ever spent in them. 

The rest of the skills are, well, pretty much relegated to the realm of heavy Sirian-esque variants. Please, someone max out Fire Blast, Fists of Fire, Wake of Fire, and use tons of equipment with adders to fire skills, and tell me it rules. 

[b] 1.2: The basic skill package - all meals come with tea, rice, and fortune cookie[/b]
There are some skills that basically every assassin should have, at certain levels. You can compromise on the levels of these skills, but the basic truth is this: all assassins should have these skills, simply because they are so useful in so many stages of the game. This is similar to the passive/magic skills that Amazons have.

Shadow Disciplines
1 Claw Mastery
1 Psychic Hammer
1 Burst of Speed
1 Weapon Block
1 Cloak of Shadows
0-1 Fade
1 Shadow Warrior
1 Mind Blast
1 Shadow Master
Total: 8-9

The one skill many choose to take out here is fade - depending on equipment, many assassins never use this skill or even think about using it. If you do hardcore, I recommend it strongly, as the boss with conviction sometimes needs to die, and this is a way to get around that boss. It is also excellent vs. Oblivion Knights and their elemental attacks and curses.

Many of these aren't ever to be used - weapon block will never be used by a claw/shield assassin, for instance, and shadow warrior is often less effective than shadow master - but are prereqs for the more important ones. 

The 8 points spent should be done reasonably early in your career. Claw mastery is the best first point you can ever spend; putting a point in BoS, MB, and SM as soon as you can is advised as well. The rest can be spent somewhere in between. 

[b] 1.3: The skill buffet[/b]

Okay, here's how this works. For every 20 levels after lvl 10, you have 1 pick on the menu. This is a huge generalization, but does basically work out. Any numbers by the skills are the numbers of "picks" it requires - otherwise, 1 is assumed. There are no restrictions, though some things, err, taste better in combination with others. None of this includes the basic package.

MA Tree:(hot n' spicy)
TS (includes sample of CS)
DT (2) - (includes TS, sample of CS)
DC
CoT
PS
SD Tree: (good foundations)
CM (1/2 or 1)
WB (1/4 to 1/2 - more causes upset stomach)
MB
SM (1/2 to 1)
Traps: (exotic, flavorful)
WoI
LS (includes sample of DS)
DS (1/2 or 1)
Combo Plates:
Martial Combo Plate: 1/2 (4 points BoS, 1 point in all finishing moves, a few points in CM or WB (your choice) and 1 point in TS&CS if desired)

No substitutions are allowed.

Example: Let's say you're planning on playing til around lvl 80 or so. That gives you 3 1/2 picks. You're wanting to do a variety assassin - you want to try a few from all the groups. So you choose PS, SM, LS, and the Martial combo plate. That would give an assassin this build:
20 in PS
1 in all other skills in MA tree
20 in SM
5 in Burst
5 in CM
1 in all SD skills except Venom
20 in LS
1 in DS
1 in prereqs for LS

Total: 89 skill points, which is achievable by lvl 78, assuming all skill quests are completed.

The explanations of how specific skills work will be addressed below.

[b]1.4: The raging debate of Claw/Claw vs. Claw/Shield - chopsticks and forks[/b]
This debate will last until the end of time, and there’s no perfect answer to it. It’s very dependent on your build, your equipment, and your play style, but I’ll try and sum up some of the basic arguments for C/S and C/C, as well as give some basic mechanics of C/C. 

On normal attacks with C/C, you alternate claws, and the speed is primarily based on the weapon in the right side. IE for the fastest normal attacks, put the faster claw in the right hand slot. Durability is as you'd expect - you'll lose some on each claw as you alternate.
On strike chargeups with C/C (TS, CS, PS) you use the left-equipped claw only, and use an average of the two claws' speed. Durability is lost on the left-equipped claw only.
On claw chargeups with C/C (FoF, CoT, BoI) you use the right-equipped claw as the primary attack, and average the two claws' speed. You can hit with both claws, in which case you’ll do damage with the left-equipped claw and apply any elemental and leech effects to the attack. You will not, however, get benefits on the left claw such as blindness, monster flee, Crushing blow, etc – basically the same things that Blade shield transfers. Dragon claw acts exactly the same as claw chargeups. You will lose durability only on the right claw - an interesting idea if you can pull it off is to put an ethereal bartucs in your left slot and never worry about it. The speed of dual claw attacks are kinda weird. The base speed is 17 frames. There is a 25 weapon speed modifier in addition to whatever you're already using, and you average the two weapon's WSMs. So, if you're using two bartucs, your weapon speed modifier is around -5. If you're using two Nat's Marks, it's 25. Ouch.

On claw chargeups with C/S, the base speed is modified by a WSM penality of 25. Thus, whatever weapon you're using, add 25 to it's weapon speed for the table. You can get around it, but that's a hefty penalty. 

When using weapon block, you do not lose durability. 

C/S allows you to use a shield. Duh. This means you can have a 76% resist all shield (a monarch with 4 Perfect diamonds), faster blocking speed, increased block rate, %Damage reduced, high defense, and a whole host of other mods you can’t find at all on a claw. You can get bonuses to skills, -DR, -MDR, stat bonuses, damage bonuses, all sorts of things that are hard to find on a claw. Furthermore, you will always be using one claw. You can count on that claw’s speed and damage and effects. In order to keep the same blocking % you need to put points into dex. It works out that you basically have to put 2 points into dex for the character’s lifetime, every level, to sustain the blocking %. That can be painful, and while you don’t need the highest block % possible for a shield, it does mean in practice that you’ll be adding points to dex often. Again, depending on the build this isn’t a bad thing necessarily. 

C/C gives, in general, higher skill bonuses. It gives you weapon block, which gives a blocking % that is independent of dex. Weapon block however cannot be improved by +% blocking items or block speed. The block speed of weapon block is based on the base speed of the claws being used. For example, if you're using two greater/runic talons(base speed: -30), you'll be blocking ridiculously fast. If you use two scissors suwayyah (base speed: 0), it'll be painfully slow. Finally, C/C allows dual Bartuc's, and that is an amazing overall bonus - +4 all skills, +6 MA total, +40 str, +40 dex, 60% FHR. 

An assassin looks somewhat wrong with a shield. She doesn’t run right and it looks goofy. She looks “correct’ with dual claws - which is a shame, since dual claws often aren’t the best thing. Again, sort of like using a fork at a Chinese restaurant - it works, often better than chopsticks, but it still looks out of place. 

Some of the skills/dishes are better with C/S, some are better with C/C, and some, well, don't really matter. The skill discussions will mention how they go with C/S or C/C.

[b]1.5: Stats - or how spicy do you want that?[/b]
Because this guide is so unfocused, it's impossible to sum this up in any real definitive way. An assassin that focuses on MA skills will have profoundly different stat decisions than one that works on traps. However, there are some breakpoints that are important,that all assassins should be aware of. Otherwise, stats will be discussed with the skills - the "recommended spicyness". 
[b]1.5.1 Strength breakpoints[/b]
79: Greater Talons, the fastest claw in the game.
103: Archon plate - the best elite light armor
118: Scissors Suwayyah - Natalya's Mark falls here
149: Loricated Mail: Natalya's armor
156: Monarch Shield: 1.09 version of Stormshield
165: Balrog Skin: for Arkaine's Valor
170: Ornate Plate
[b]1.5.2 Dexterity[/b]
79: Greater Talons, the fastest claw in the game.
118: Scissors Suwayyah - Natalya's Mark falls here
174: The amount of dex necessary to maintain the stated blocking % of a shield at lvl 80. 
[b]1.5.3 Vitality [/b]
Bonuses: 3 HP/point, 1.5 Stamina/point. Pump vitality whenever you can. Vitality can't go high enough, no matter what kind of assassin you choose. 
[b]1.4 Energy [/b]
Bonuses: 1.5 mana/point. Kind of sad. Add to that that she has very low mana costs for anything, and she really doesn't need a huge amount of energy. 
[b]1.5.5 Other stats[/b]
Per level bonuses:
+2 life, +1.5 mana, +1 stamina
Kick damage is determined by this formula:
Min=(str + dex -20)/4, Max=(str + dex -20)/3
Claws are 75str/75dex weapons. For every point into str or dex, you will gain .75% damage. 

[b]1.6: Equipment suggestions[/b]
Again, because of the scope of the guide it's impossible to say what is optimal. Each skill will state whether it is predominantly physical or magical oriented. Physically oriented equipment has increased damage, increases str/dex, has physical damage reduced bonuses, to-hit bonuses, IAS gear, faster hit recovery, life/mana leech. Magically oriented equipment increases skill levels, mana and energy, cast rate, mana regeneration, etc. Neutral equipment includes anything that has resistances, vitality/life, faster run/walk, magic/gold finding. Note that because triumphant-type modifiers do not work with traps (the +to mana per kill mods), they aren't recommended to be pursued after. Except against physical immunes, +mana per kill items lose badly to mana leech items. 

If desired, an equipment guide will be forthcoming. There are two things all assassins should be looking for, every single day they play - Natalya's Mark ,and 1.09 Bartuc's Cutthroat.

1.7: How to calculate the speed of strike and claw chargeups, with one exception

1) Find out your weapon's weapon speed modifier and the base speed for the type of attack you're using. For claws using strike chargeups - what most people care about - use a base speed of 13 and WSM of whatever you're using, per Arreat Summit. For claw chargeups (claw/shield), use a base speed of 13 with the WSM being 25+ the WSM of your weapon. For claw chargeups (dual claw) or using Dragon Claw use a base speed of 17, then average the two claws' WSMs and add that result to 25. 

Example: For a strike chargeup with a Scissors Suwayyah, the base speed is 13 and the WSM is 0. For a claw chargeup with a SS, the base speed is 13, the WSM is 25 + 0. For a claw chargeup with two SS, the base speed is 17, the WSM is 25 + ((0+0)/2) = 25. 

For a strike chargeup with a Greater Talon, the base speed is 13, the WSM is -30. For a claw chargeup (single claw) with a GT, the base speed is 13, the WSM is 25 + (-30) = 0. For a claw chargeup(dual claw) or DC using two GTs, the base speed is 17, the WSM is 25 + ((-30 -30)/2) = -5. 

2) Calculate the Effective IAS bonus from Burst of Speed. To do this, take the stated run/walk bonus at the level of BoS you desire. Add 5 to that value. 

Example: At lvl 5, BoS provides 42% Run/walk. Add 5 to this value. We get 47 EIAS. 

3) Calculate the overall weapon speed modifier. To do this, subtract the value calculated in 2) from the WSM figured in 1). 

4) Use this value as the WSM in the calculator found at stats.diabloii.net. Use the calculator to determine how much IAS you would need to get to wherever breakpoints you might want. 

Example: Say you're using a Greater Talon and want to figure out much IAS you need for a 7-frame strike chargeup. A greater talon has a -30 WSM. We have lvl 5 BoS. Lvl 5 BoS provides a total of 47 EIAS. Subtract the 47 from the WSM, giving us -77. Using the calculator, we realize we're at the fastest speed (7 frames) and don't need any more IAS. 

Second example: How much IAS will I need with a SS to get a 7-frame strike chargeup? Well, SS has a WSM of 0. If we have, say, lvl 5 BoS, this gives us 47 EIAS. Using the value of -47 in the calculator, we see that we need 37 IAS to get a 7-frame strike. If we had, say, lvl 4 BoS, we get 44 EIAS. This means we need 42 IAS to get a 7-frame strike. 

The one exception? The only thing that doesn't fit this is with lvl 1 BoS and Scissors Suwayyah. This theory predicted that you should have a 10-frame strike, where my data shows it's actually 11 frames. This is, as far as I've seen, the _only_ point that doesn't fit. Everything else works. Furthermore, this accounts for the wackiness of dual-claw attacks to an absolute T. 

It so far fits the data best. Far better than the clay-sak idea or my previous idea. It's dumb, and if someone else can figure out a better algorithm, go for it. Until then, use this, as above everything, it actually _WORKS_.

Edited to change some incorrect statements. 

And here's part two - skills and sample builds.

[b]2. Skills - what's on the menu, what's not, and why. [/b]

[b]2.1 Martial Arts[/b]
Note: With basically every single skill in the MA tree (except, maybe, DF), having BoS going at a decent lvl (5 or better) makes things MUCH better. Thus, it's assumed that if you're using physical chargeups, you're using BoS, or "the Martial Arts Combo" choice from the menu.
[b]2.1.1 Tiger Strike [/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Tiger strike is a great skill. Nice linear progression as you increase skill levels, increase of usefulness as the damage of your claw goes up, cheap to use (1 mana), has potential to combo well with cobra strike and all the chargeups. TS is a very good way of doing a large amount of damage to a single target (unless used with DT, see below). At lvl 20, it does a huge 1440% damage boost when fully charged up. This is additive with other damage boosts such as str and dex boosts, so don't expect the displayed damage to increase by 14 times. It is okay in PvP, though it is hard to get charges reliably in PvP. Because of the low cost, one can easily use this as their main attack all the time. Can be used with any weapon.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] using only TS, you have to kill each monster individually, which is slow and dangerous. You have to get into combat with monsters, so they'll get to clobber you as well. Charging up is inherently dangerous, as it takes at least 1 hit before you become effective. Alone it has no way of crowd control. In Hell difficulty, all monsters have 50% physical resistance, which hurts TS as well. It cannot deal with physical immunes, and highly physically resistant monsters make it almost useless. It is dependent on what weapon you use for a finisher - either claws or kicks - so having low-damage weapons is a big drawback. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i]You will want to get to at least 79 str/dex, for Bartuc's Cutthroat. More isn't a bad thing either. Having 118 for the possibility of Natalya's Mark is a good stopping point. Having more than that is good if you plan on using kicks as your finishers. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i]Almost totally physical. TS doesn't increase ridiculously with skill bonuses by itself, so it is not as necessary to boost skills. Mana is unimportant. Defensive physical equipment is key - because you will be using TS in close combat, you need to survive. Items that have -PDR% are very good for this sort of thing. Obviously, IAS is important here as well - you want to be able to chargeup and finish as fast as humanly possible. Life/mana leech is highly important, though more the former than the latter, as TS is so ridiculously cheap. Nat's Mark and Bartuc's (1.09) are ideal in most every way. High damage weapons are key.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Use C/S - the higher blocking % and other bonuses from a shield are more important than skill boosts from a second claw. 
[i]Strategy: [/i]you will need to either have a way to separate out the crowd or keep crowds from overwhelming you. Usually you can work by killing one thing with chargeup attacks, then releasing and killing a second target. For finishing moves, use a normal attack unless focused on kicks (use DT) or going C/C (use DC); if you use a normal attack, consider putting a few points in CM to increase your AR bonus on normal attacks.Traditionally, MB, PS and DT are used for crowd control here in one form or another. Traps are great for TSers, as they allow extra damage that you don't have to think about that hurts secondary targets while you work. DC does not do so well, because TS dwarfs the bonus of DC. CM is decent here, since you will need to chargeup a lot first. TS is one of the easiest strategies to use - there's no timing of charging/releasing involved, no worries about grouping monsters optimally, no running out of mana. 
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] TS is king on bosses, combos well with other skills, and does ridiculous amounts of damage. It's also one of the few skills the assassin has that has a linear progression that's worth anything.
[b]2.1.2 Dragon Talon [/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Not many. It is cheap to use and comes off fast, faster than normal attacks do. It also can be used quickly one after the other. No knockback. Decent in PvP.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Low damage. Single target only. It also only discharges the charges on the first kick. No knockback. Compared to a weapon, it's pretty pitiful.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Because kick damage is only based on str/dex, the higher the better. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i]Primarily physical, specifically anything that boosts str/dex. Bartuc's is good here. The per lvl increase is garbage. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Pretty neutral here. Dual Bartucs would be great here, but it's not really an important thing.
[i]Strategy: [/i] TS strategy is pretty close to this - if you wanted to use it, you'd need to have some crowd control. Skyro's written an excellent guide on using Dragon Talon in PvP - the strategy there is to DF into close combat, likely miss, and then nail 'em with Dragon Talon. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] The first finisher you can get, and it shows. It really doesn't do enough damage at any lvl to be particularly taken seriously, even with lvl 20 TS. If you do get it high enough, the second and third kick look like little stomps. It's a prereq skill. 
[b]2.1.3 Fists of Fire [/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i]Cumulative charges. Cheap to use. Usable bare-fisted. Gets two attacks/charges with C/C. Weird bug with it - see the bug reports. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Low damage at any lvl. Fire is the singly most resisted element in the game. No crowd control. The fire doesn't last particularly long either, nor does it cover a big range. Slow with C/S.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Not really necessary here. You'll want good hitting claws, but they need not be high damage ones. Mana isn't that important.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i]Physical helps, but if you really want to large damage you'll need +s to skills. Mana isn't a factor. Having manaleech is good. IAS is real key here. High-damage claws are secondary to high speed and accurate ones. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C. C/S is slow and painful. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] You will want to release only after getting all the charges, and you'll want to wait until the monsters are very closely clumped, as the range is very small. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i]It's bad. It's really bad. It does okay in A1, is halfway decent in A2 and becomes quickly useless afterwards. You can't use it with any other kinds of weapons than claws and fists. It has a very low damage increase per level, doesn't do much damage at any level. It is easily the worst of the three claw chargeups. 
[b]2.1.4 Dragon Claw[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Uses claws instead of kicks for finishing means potentially high damage. Hits with both claws. Cheap to use - just 2 mana. Gives double the chances to hit on a finishing move. Decent return on damage bonus/lvl. This is one of the ways that an assassin can do the maximum physical damage possible. One can use DC as the main attack and not worry about charging up anything - this can do more damage than using TS with DC. Has a nice AR bonus.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Slower than a normal attack - dual claw attacks have a base speed of 23 frames. Only affects a single target. Only does physical damage. Can only be used when wielding dual claws. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Again, enough to use high-damage claws, since this is almost entirely a weapon-dependent skill. Str/Dex is important; NRG is not. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Primarily physical. The highest damage claws you can find, and then clone them. Skill bonuses don't really matter. Str/dex bonuses are okay, but not a big deal. Having high to-hit is also important here - ITD claws are great, but again, damage is key. Lifeleech and manaleech are important. IAS is highly important, as are fast base claws.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Duh. DC is useless, literally, if you go C/S. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] There's two ways to go with it. One is to use it as the finishing move, and do a bit more physical damage than you might otherwise. This has the advantage of hitting more because of two chances to hit and the built in AR bonus. If that's how it's used, follow the strategy associated with whatever you're charging up with.
The other way is to simply use DC as your attack. If both claws are close to being equal in damage, this actually does more damage than charging up with TS and releasing with DC, no matter what. If used this way, the strategy of TS is pretty much the same - you have to isolate or control opponents and have some way of controlling the crowd. This is even easier than using TS, since all you're doing is attacking, and attacking...and attacking...until things die. 
It works great with CM, as you get to add that damage on each dual swing. Doesn't combo really well with anything else, however - having one point in DC is fine if you're focusing on TS, CoT, or PS. It would be...weird with traps, but it makes a certain amount of sense, since traps benefit so much from bonus skills on claws. Pointless if you use DT.
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] For sheer maximum physical damage over time, there's no real beating it. It is kinda boring, and doesn't use a lot of the assassin's versatility, but it's great for smashmouth styles.
[b]2.1.5 Cobra Strike [/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Huge leech ability without any kind of item dependence whatsoever, even at lvl 1. Combos nicely with TS, as the leech is based on the total damage done. It is the only way to leech using a kick. Very cheap. Can be used with any weapon.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Doesn't directly increase damage dealt, only the survivability of the assassin. There's virtually no point to increasing the lvl of this skill past one, since lvl 1 is more than adequate when decent damage is done. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Not really applicable. Stats don't improve it one way or another, aside from damage done.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Physical. Obviously leech items aren't a big deal. High speed and high damage weapons are good. Again, with all chargeups you'll need to be in close combat, so protection is good.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] There's absolutely no reason to go C/C here - skill boosts aren't a big deal, stat boosts aren't a big deal, and defense will be better.
[i]Strategy: [/i] Not a lot of strategy to offer - this is primarily a support skill. Use with TS for large gains of life. Against bosses it's great to do a couple TS charges, then a couple CS charges, then finish - this for the most part will ensure you can't ever die. It's great to throw this in with kicks as well, since a fully TS-charged up DT gives back an absurd amount of life/mana with CS. It'll be a life-saver early on, when you don't do a huge amount of damage and don't have access to leech items. As with all leech abilities, you cannot leech off of skeletons and physical immunes. Use a normal attack for finishing, or DC if you go C/C.
[i]Why it's on the menu (sorta):[/i] It is great. This will get you through most of normal without leech items. That being said, it doesn't increase your damage output in any way, only the ability to survive. 1 point in this skill is stellar, but that's all that's necessary. It's certainly not something you'd want to max, or even really put any kind of investment in.
[b]2.1.6 Claws of Thunder[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] This is the highest damaging elemental chargeup available in terms of raw numbers - higher even than PS, though that's somewhat misleading. Gets up to three charges very quickly when going dual claw. Lightning damage isn't resisted very much in A5, the best part of the game to get experience. Reasonably priced for the attack. Also does well as a single source of damage, since the lightning damage to the initial target has a very high average damage and is done on all three charge levels. Does good work in crowds, in theory. Very good returns at higher lvls of skills. Lower amount of prereqs than PS has, which means for a lot of folks it's better as a backup source of elemental damage. Costs a decent amount (4), requiring some sort of mana leech
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Claws of Thunder only works with claw attacks - appropriate. Sadly, the third charge is really the best - the nova charge doesn't do that much, which is a shame since that's the easiest one to get. Somewhat unreliable as a way to hit crowds - damage avg is okay but the min/max is huge, and the pattern of bolts is a bit sporadic. Only really good with C/C. Very hard to hit fast moving targets with it. Only usable with claws. Not all that great early on. Non-cumulative charges, so the nova and the charged bolts don't go off at the same time. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Only enough to use good claws are essential. Bartuc's is about godly for this, so 79/79 str/dex is fine. No NRG is required.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Partially physical, partially magical. Mana leech is important here, since CoT costs 4. IAS is important. However, skill items are huge for CoT - each +to skills over 16 gives 60 more max damage! AR boosting/ITD items are great. As with all chargeups, you'll be getting in there, so defensive physical items are important - PDR, FHR, etc. High damage claws are nice but not essential. Because of the skill boosts and the speed of the claws, dual Bartucs are just about perfect.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C is essential for CoT - C/S is too slow, and the skills you can get on two claws makes up for any lack.
[i]Strategy: [/i] CoT is a decent enough crowd damaging skill that you don't need a lot else, save a good amount of clumps of monsters. Having something that slows monsters is important, as the bolts from CoT's third charge move very very slowly. The nova charge - the second charge - is too low in damage to be usable past nightmare or with a large amounts of players. Using MB or even PS to slow/freeze monsters is good. Using one of the suggested traps is particularly good - LS is always a good choice, DS is great because CoT does not damage corpses (and thus allows them to explode), and WoI is excellent as a different source of elemental damage. With two high damage claws, you can find yourself killing things with physical damage faster than you can chargeup and release. CM is excellent as it increases the chargeup physical damage heavily. The only thing that makes it potentially not as good as PS is that it has no way of freezing the opponents.
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] CoT is most likely the best elemental damage skill for any physically-oriented assassins that want to use C/C for whatever reason over C/S. It has excellent damage, great increases/lvl, and really thrives amongst the non-lightning immune, slow moving folks of A5 hell. 
[b]2.1.7 Dragon Tail[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] DT is a fast finishing move. Knockback is great against crowds. It comboes amazingly well with TS. It does do elemental damage, which can be an advantage in Hell. The multiplicative effect with TS makes it an excellent source of both crowd control and single target damage. Doesn't require any high-damage equipment to do well - as Seraph has stated, you're just as deadly naked. Nice exponential improvement with skill and stat adders. Stunlock possibilities due to fast speed, high damage and knockback. Good range. Just damn fun, too.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] High (10) mana cost, and the only way to leech that back is with CS. Is largely ineffective or counterproductive with chargeups other than TS - the knockback screws up a LOT of the other elemental chargeups. The knockback can be detrimental. Very dependent on high stats. Because it does both physical and fire damage, both physical and fire immunes cause big problems.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] DT is very stat dependent, and does a LOT more damage with higher str/dex. Most likely folks will boost str to around 156 (for armor purposes) and then pump dex the rest of the way, as raising str has no real benefit over dex at that point. If you have high str armor that you'd rather use, pump str more. I recommend doing a 5/5/5 str/dex/vitality mix for the lifetime of the assassin until str is where you want it, then going to 1/1 dex/vit - you can't neglect vit, but having high str/dex is really important. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Physical. Bartucs was MADE for the TS/DT assassin. +20 str, +20 dex, +3 MA skills adds about 20% more damage by itself. Wow. Otherwise, follow the rules for TS equipment. In addition, because your life will likely be low, look for charms and items that add vitality and life. Mana leech is important. High-damage claws is not absolutely important, but it helps a lot with the leech and getting back the mana. Because TS/DTers really desire tight crowds, you'll want excellent defense, especially in the form of PDR. IAS is good for both the charging and the release.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] This is a toughy. C/S is great because of something like stormshield and it's high PDR. Shields are great because of blocking%, resists, etc, and that's necessary since TS/DTers tend to be lighter in life. However, the benefits of having two Bartucs are huge. It is largely dependent on what other skills you choose, and how available two good claws are to you. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] First off, how TS/DT works. What DT does is it takes all the physical damage that is done to the target, after all modifiers/resistances/etc, and multiplies it by the DT multiplier (at lvl 20, 240%). It then applies this damage in a 4-yard radius around the target as fire damage, and knocks anyone in this area back. Because it isn't additive, high lvls of TS and DT mean huge, multiplicative damages. 
Now, the strategy. Get in there. Get monsters in close, get a bunch of them, and go to town. You don't want to pick them apart separately, you want a nice clump all around the target, which means really, all around you. MB can be great for this, because they'll clump monsters around the converted guy, saving you a bit. SM is also good here for the same reasons. DC is really pointless here. CM isn't as useful, since the majority of the damage done is from the kicks, not the claws (at least most of the time). LS and DS work well as a combo, as the other form of elemental damage along with background damage adds a lot to the kill rate; DS especially since nothing is frozen. Watch out for the knockback power - sometimes this will disperse the crowd enough to make it less effective. Against physical immune groups, try to lure in a non-physical immune to the bunch and hit him - the explosion will damage the physical immunes, since they're getting hit with fire damage. Against fire immunes, you're largely hosed. Finally, for parties it can be a real lifesaver - jumping in and DTing a crowd around someone can really be the difference. 
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] It's fun. It's very effective through NM, and reasonably effective afterwards. TS by itself is also a good skill, so those points aren't wasted. It's very non-equipment dependent, so being D2 poor won't be a problem. Finally, it's a very assassiny kind of skill - you're kicking, you're doing this cute kii-yah sound, and it makes you feel like a real assassin. 
[b]2.1.8 Blades of Ice[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Errr. It chills? It has a high AR bonus. It has quirky bugged effects - see the bug list. It does decent average damage, though not as much as CoT does by a long shot. Charges quickly using C/C. Because the third charge is USELESS, one can charge and release quickly.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] IT DOESN'T FREEZE. For this it will be punished severely. Low overall damage, low radius of effect. Bizarre non-predictable radius of effect. Because it's cold damage, it means it is largely ineffective in a big portion of A5 Hell. Shatters corpses often. Very slow with C/S. Only usable with claws.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Bah. It's too depressing. If you use BoI, you must only max NRG, and not put a point into anything else. Oh yeah, and you have to play hardcore. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Two starting katars. Get the second one from another assassin. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Use a spoon, it's duller you twit, it'll hurt more.
[i]Strategy: [/i] I can't say one good thing about this, except the bizarre combo of spreading huge poison damage due to it's bugginess. It is a way to leech with kicks, but really, why would you bother? This skill is an excellent example of why Blizzard will not be allowed to do anything important, such as design a building, make missiles, etc. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] This skill makes me physically angry. That they didn't test it, and didn't correct it after it was found to be broken, that baffles me. This is the item that gives folks food poisoning. I'd recommend never putting a point in it, but unfortunately you need it for PS. 
[b]2.1.9 Dragon Flight[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Great teleportation skill. Good for PvP because of this. Transports you and all your minions/hirelings with you instantaneously. Good damage progression - a hefty 500%+ at lvl 20. Great for getting to magic-users of all types. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] 15 mana cost. 2 second casting delay kills it. It is highly unreliable in terms of hitting a target, and very often whiffs. Only does damage to a single target. Requires a target, which means you can't jump over obstacles like leap attack can. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] As with all kicking skills, having higher str/dex is important if you plan on attacking with this skill a lot. Most of the time, however, I use it for transport, not attacking, so stats aren't as important then.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Physical - you'll be jumping into the arms of a monster, after all. Stat boosts are great, but mostly you need to worry about defense.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Pretty neutral here - I'd go with a shield if I were doing this all the time, as I'd want more defense. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] Want to chase down that oblivion knight? Boom. Want to hit that boss with your merc and you and your shadow? Boom. Want to get across the river of flame? Boom. Want to get out of that pack? Boom. Use it as you would teleport, assuming there's someone around. It is a nice utility skill. It's good in PvP for closing immediately, especially against annoying teleporting sorcs. Beware of the casting cost, beware of the delay, and most importantly beware of jumping into situations that you can't get out of.
[i]Why it's on the menu (albeit in small doses):[/i] Simply because any ability that allows you to teleport is worth a point. It isn't worth more, due to the casting delay and the fact that it misses all the time. It's pretty lousy as a finishing move, but excellent as a move.
[b]2.1.10 Phoenix Strike[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Quite a few. Has three different elemental effects, each of which is excellent by itself. Amazing progression past lvl 16, especially in non-displayed attributes like flame duration and freeze time. Can be used with any weapon. Check out the strategy for all the lowdown on this skill.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Low levels aren't very good, for any of the effects. The cold damage charge doesn't do much damage. It can be hard to get the hang of releasing the specific charge you want. Not so good for taking out farther foes. High cost of charges means mana leech is pretty much required. The cold damage means a lot of things will be frozen, and shatter. Meteor charge has a 2-second delay from release to landing of meteor.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Speed is key here, so you want at least enough str/dex to use greater talons - 79/79. Past that isn't necessary, and it can be nice to have all those points in vit. No need for NRG here. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Physical mostly, with skill adders (similar to CoT). You want to get a 7-frame strike chargeup, which is achievable pretty easily actually. So, don't overdo it with IAS gear - it's more important to get a decent claw with a high base speed (such as greater talons) over high-damage claws. ITD/AR is great here. Skill bonuses are huge - +3 to MA skills does 100 more damage with meteors, for instance. Because of it's excellent crowd control PDR isn't as necessary, but is nice to have. Mana leech is very necessary. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] If you have two Bartucs, I'd think about going C/C. If you have two claws that give high skill bonuses to PS or to MA skills in general, C/C may be for you. Otherwise there's not a really great reason to go C/C, as the chargeup (and most likely the finisher) will never use the off-claw. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] Because PS is pretty complicated, it gets a nice chunk on how it works. 
Phoenix strike increases nonlinearly and progressively as you get higher skill levels. The boundaries are 1/9/17. This is similar to the progression that sorceresses have on their skills. This means that putting 10 points into it is basically a waste. It means that skill level 15 PS does nearly half damage of slvl 20 PS. The flame effect of the meteor, the ones that stick around for a while - they have a duration based on the lvl of PS. At slvl 20, these flames do 250 damage/second for 12 seconds. At slvl 25, they do 350 damage/second for 15 seconds. The flames do trigger LEBs,even if they're fire immune. This non-documented effect is a good reason why PS is so good. Meteor has no casting delays, unlike the sorc meteor spell. This means with practice and a faster claw you can reliably get two meteors a second. The freeze duration of the Chaos ice bolt increases with higher levels, by about 1 second per lvl on normal difficulty. What this means is that the freeze effect in hell is only 1 second at slvl 1- decent, but not really great. Thus if you're planning on using it for the freeze effect and nothing else, you might consider not putting any points into it or the prereqs, and upping mind blast instead, since the mind blast stunning will last a lot longer than lvl 1 PS freeze does. The lightning bolts do low minimum damage, but like Chain Lightning, they tend to hit targets more than once. It shoots out 3 bolts, each having a 5-chain ability. In practice, the CL charge can be the most damaging of all of them, as the bolts will arc back and forth between monsters quite a bit, and lightning is not resisted all that much. 

There are a lot of ways to use it, but the typical way is to get three charges quickly, freeze a crowd, then use meteors or lightning depending on the resistances of the crowd and how you're doing. The third charge alone is amazing for crowd control, as the freeze effect at higher lvls is very long - 5 seconds in hell at lvl 20 - and a lot of PS users just use the third charge and then switch to TS/DT or traps or all manner of other fun things. However, the real trick is to get the timing down. There's plenty of ways to do this, but most assassins I know do their finger drill with hotkeys - holding down one mousebutton while switching between PS and normal attack(the best finishing move IMO) with hotkeys. In the thick of battle, it's very hard to tell how many charges you have built up, which means you need a lot of timing down. The three different effects have very differing characteristics. With meteors, you want a nice tight clump of monsters directly in front of you. With CL, you want a pattern similar to DT - surrounding you for the most part, and normally a medium size group of monsters. With the ice bolts, it can hit a number of times, but only at a larger range - so having sparse groups is good.
Be careful of immunities - there's nothing more annoying than watching an assassin hit a bunch of fire immunes with meteors over and over. There's nothing worse than having someone drop meteors on fire immune, LEB bosses, causing sparks to fly and doing nothing helpful. 
With the freeze effect it does well with traps, as the traps don't have to worry about tracking. Because of this, WoI can be much better than it would otherwise. It's also good for getting nice clumps for TS/DT. CM is good at least in small doses for the AR boost, as the normal attack will generally be the way to discharge, and having a AR boost for that normal attack is great. DC isn't all that helpful. SM can be good for grouping targets, and MB can replace the initial third chargeup. DS tends to suffer a bit, because of the corpses' tendency to shatter. Using BoS is absolutely essential.
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] It is the most versatile skill in the game, for any class. It is a quick answer to physical immunes, crowd control, high damage, party support, world hunger, and so much more. There's a reason most folks consider PS to be the foundation of the "generic" assassin, though it wasn't always that way. It improves tremendously with skill adders. And it makes the assassin very dynamic to play - the various comboing, hotkey switching and attention to what's going on makes it pretty interesting to play.

[b]2.2 Shadow Disciplines[/b]

[b]2.2.1 Claw Mastery[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Bugged: adds 100% Critical strike. Bugged: adds the listed AR bonus to damage, so 10% damage boost per level. Improves any attack with a claw, making it great for anyone that, well, attacks with claws. Good AR boost in any case.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] If it worked the way it says it does, the damage boost would be low, there'd be no critical strike chance, and it'd be a lot weaker. It doesn't help with any non-claw weapons. Because there's a lot of assassin strategies that don't focus heavily on high physical damage, CM doesn't help out anything (unlike, say, a barbarian, who predominantly does physical damage). 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Not really applicable, since it's a passive skill. If you're going this route, you'll most likely want to boost str/dex to increase even further the damage done, though there isn't much in the way of synergy.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Physical, entirely. There's no reason to focus on skill adders, mana, cast rate, or anything like that. Especially focus on high-damage claws. That's really the most important thing. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] If you want to maximize the utility of CM, C/C is best. This doesn't mean it's bad with C/S, though, especially if you're focusing on something like TS.
[i]Strategy: [/i] Well, there's not a lot to it. Hit things, often. Something to be said is that if you use a normal attack as a finishing move (very common with PS and TS), CM is one of the only ways to boost AR. Otherwise, the best combo CM has is with DC. Claw mastery is not essential. I need to say this now, because there are too many D2 players trained on Barbarians and their uber masteries, that believe "if it has mastery in the name, I must MAX it". 
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] It's a good skill, and doesn't suffer from bad returns. One point is absolutely essential, but more isn't too big a deal, and with the right equipment you don't need to have a bunch of points in this at all. If you're going for max physical damage, well, this is essential.
[b]2.2.2 Psychic Hammer[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Cheap to use. Causes knockback, stunlock, and does physical damage. Possibly decent in PvP, though that's entirely subjective.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Horrible progression of a skill. Low damage. Low stun time. Only affects one target. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Errr...if you were to use this a ton, I suppose putting a few points into NRG would be okay, but it's honestly so cheap that's not an issue. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical. Specifically, fast cast rate is great for stunlock purposes. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Not really important either way. Whatever gives fast cast rate, I suppose - something like Wizardspike can be good for this, so I suppose you can use a "spoon" or something like it.
[i]Strategy: [/i] It's great for keeping one target immobile - so bosses apply here. Cheaper than MB for this purpose. Other than that...not really very usable, especially compared to MB. Only other advantage, of a sort, is that it doesn't convert, which means it might not annoy your party members so much. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i]  Mostly because MB is simply so much better in so many ways.
[b]2.2.3 Burst of Speed[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] IT OWNS J00. Okay, seriously. IAS that isn't subjective to diminishing returns like IAS on items is. Very high amounts of FR/W. Cheap to cast, lasts a long time. Awesome sound effect. Great at lower levels. Bugged: BoS currently adds the stated FR/W % as the IAS% +5, making it even more effective than normal. Aids the speed of trap casting as well (which is based on weapon speed for some bizarre reason). 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i]  After slvl 6 you really hit the diminishing returns. At slvl 10 for instance, you have a whopping 7% increase in run/walk and a 6% increase in attack speed.  It's one of the assassin "auras", meaning it can't be used while fade or venom is going. Can be a bit problematic to remember to recast it during the thick of things. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Not really an issue here. Because BoS works so well with every other skill of note the assassin has, any stats work. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Again, not so much an issue. Physical or Magical equipment works well, either way. The diminishing returns hurt having skill adders, there's no physical equipment that "helps" BoS. Possibly focusing on even more IAS and FR/W is good, but that's as a rule a good thing anyway. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Not an issue - either work just fine. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] When you load up the game, this is the first thing you cast. Then recast it every 90 seconds to 120 seconds, depending on the skill level. Then go nuts. For physical based assassins of any sort, it's essential. At least a total of lvl 5 is essential, as that's the level of BoS that gives a 7-frame attack with TS/PS using a greater talon or Nat's Mark (because of the 40%IAS on the Mark) Past that can be okay, but 5 is a great point to stop. This allows you to define what the battlefield will look like. Try not to outdistance your party members or inadvertently put them into a trap situation. Speaking of traps, it's great with them - it increases the casting speed, and allows you to escape problems while having the traps blast the heck out of anything that tries to get to you.
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i]  This is the skill that will make you not want to play another class for as long as you live. And every time you do, you'll wonder why you're going so slow. If only it was available on charged items. Then again, if it were, no one would play the assassin...
[b]2.2.4 Weapon Block[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Not based on dex. Speed of blocking based on the base speed of claws being used - greater/runic talon blocking speed is as fast as anything in the game. Reasonable blocking % at lower levels. No loss of durability.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Horrifying diminishing returns - slvl 5 is 42%, slvl 20 is 57%. Not improvable with blocking % items, so it's tough to increase. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Not really applicable, though WB lends itself toward the physical assassin over the magical one. The main thing to consider here is that you don't have to pump dex to keep the blocking % up, which lends itself more to those who are either using a lot of elemental chargeups, or are trappers - anyone who doesn't have a great reason to boost dex. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] The only thing you really need here is high base-speed claws. Greater/Runic talons are ideal here. Otherwise, focus on whatever other strategies you use. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Duh. WB isn't even usable with C/S.
[i]Strategy: [/i] Not a lot of strategy per se. Don't pump it too high though. Lvl 5 gives 42%, lvl 10 50%. Past that, it really starts to hurt. It's essential at some level if you're going C/C, but how much is something of a personal preference. If you know you're going C/S, don't put anything here. 
[i]Why it's on the menu, in limited amounts:[/i]  Because of the block speed depending on the (high speed) claws,  and the total lack of dex reliance, WB is a decent skill. Just don't max it - you'll likely regret it.
[b]2.2.5 Cloak of Shadows[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] It's great for separating out monsters, and even better for stopping non-oblivion knight ranged attackers from firing on you. Cheap to cast. Reveals hidden creatures - similar to how inner sight illuminates monsters. Huge range. Truly amazing for keeping monsters sitting in traps and not pursuing you. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Garbage for progression. Defense modifier is largely useless. Party members hate it, utterly. The effect it creates is similar to the Act 2 quest 4 that turns the world dark - for 8 seconds. Doesn't work on bosses, champs, or possibly the most useful target - Oblivion Knights. Sigh.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Not really important.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Again, not really important, though the folks that use it tend to go for the Magical set. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Not applicable, works equally well either way.
[i]Strategy: [/i] This is good for revealing hidden attackers (like flayers) and paralyzing them from attacking you for a short time. Then all you have to do is pop over with DF and nail them before they wake up. CoS doesn't work if the monsters are right next to a target, and they'll not stop coming towards your last position - the AI will continue to do whatever its last order is. Trappers occasionally sing the virtues of it, since monsters will happily bathe in a WoI while CoS goes on, and you laugh at them. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] Did I mention party members hate it? This is easily the singly most complained about skill used by a non-sorceress. In addition it has no progression to speak of. However, it's worth a point, because it's a prereq for MB.   
[b]2.2.6 Fade[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Increases resistances significantly. Lasts for a long long time. Doesn't cost much of anything to cast. Reduces curse duration decently (and is the only thing in the game that does so). Works well with one point in it. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Horrible diminishing returns. Replaces BoS as the active aura. Between those, it doesn't really need more to make it suck.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Not really important - works with anyone.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] In general, fade is used to shore up folks with equipment deficiencies, mostly in resistances. Other than that, not a lot here.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Because of lack of resists, C/C tends to use this a bit more than C/S does. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] This is most useful when you're short on resists for whatever reason, or more likely, you're facing some evil conviction-auraed boss. Not to be used in the thick of things, since usually BoS is generally better. With skill adders it is generally good enough for when you need it, but you won't use it often, because you'll be addicted to BoS.
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] Fade isn't bad, but when you get it and start using it after BoS, you'll feel like you stepped in molasses. A shield with high resists beats it hands down. For that matter, so does smoke, or good resist rings/amulets, or possibly the best answer, a load of resist charms. 
[b]2.2.7 Shadow Warrior[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Shadow Warrior uses only the skills that are selected on your left and right mouse button, and thus you can control what SW uses. Reasonably cheap to cast. Increased HP with difficulty level and # of players in a game. Skill level of SW's skills are totally independent of the slvl of your assassin. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Shadow Warrior uses only the skills that are selected on your left and right mouse button. That means you have to worry about what the SW is using, in addition to the hotkey you have to deal with already. Doesn't have good resists. Mana cost goes up with level. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Not really important here. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Not really important here - both physical and magical based assassins use them well. Skill adders don't appreciably improve SW all that much.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C has a slight advantage, as they can copy things like CoT and DC more effectively. Otherwise it doesn't really matter. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] The skill level of SW and SM's skills is:slvl/2(round down)+1. SW spawns with similar looking armor to what you have, but random equipment based on the skill level of the SW. You can get some very cool effects (Amp damage is a favorite) and some really horrible ones (monster flee is very annoying). Recast if you get a particularly horrible one. In general, SW is used as a meat shield and a distraction, though having 5 extra traps cast can be kind of cool. So is having, in effect, a mind blast trap. Thus, SW tends to be better for trappers than physically-oriented folks. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] Shadow Warrior uses only the skills that are selected on your left and right mouse button. This is a good and bad thing. Good because you can control essentially what the SW uses, whether it be traps, mind blast, chargeups, finishers, etc. Bad because, well, you have no independence on the minion. At later levels the shadow warrior will not be doing enough damage for it to warrant chargeups, nor does it attack particularly fast (even with BoS going). It will happily spam mind blast however, and it will lay down traps; both are nice touches..For a melee build you don't want to have to micromanage your minion, and the slvl of the traps cast are too low for a trap-oriented assassin to rely on. 
[b]2.2.8 Mind Blast[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Very cheap, and no increase in cost per lvl. Good chance of conversion, in a radius of effect, that lasts for 6-10 seconds. Neat looking puddle effect. Knockback and stunning all in one package. Easily the best and cheesiest PvP skill in the game, with enough fast cast items. Stunning increases per lvl decently as well. It does physical damage, which can be a good or bad thing. Awesome for crowd control.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Costs 8 mana, which with fast cast items can quickly drain a mana pool. Conversion can be VERY annoying to other party members. Conversion chance has heavy diminishing returns. Doesn't convert champs/bosses/Oblivion Knights.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Some points into NRG are good to think about if you're planning on casting this a lot, but because of the low return rate on NRG for mana, it's somewhat of a mixed bag. You'd be better off concentrating on items with mana boosts. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical mostly. Especially concentrate on fast cast items if you're going to use MB for PvP purposes. Otherwise, it's not that big a deal if you use it once or twice in a mob situation.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Not really important, though using things like wizardspike can be most helpful here.
[i]Strategy: [/i] MB is great for any type of assassin. It works for clumping, separating (it lifts AND separates!), dealing with a few folks at a time or simply not dealing with them at all. The general rule of thumb is to spam MB as soon as you run into a mob, and continue doing so until at least one monster is converted. Then wade in, or put down traps, or whatever. This can help out party members tremendously, though it also can be miserable tracking down the few stragglers that were immune to the hellstorm your party laid down earlier. 
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] For one point, its utility is ridiculous. But that's really all you need in it. The damage isn't significant enough for pumping it and the conversion rate isn't a big deal. If you don't have PS, you'll likely use this all the time. 
[b]2.2.9 Venom[/b] 
[i]Advantages:[/i] Best poison skill in the game. Low cost to use, with long duration. Good progressive returns per lvl - 12.5 points of damage/second after lvl 16. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Poison is resisted heavily by many things, and is probably the worst elemental attack there is. Requires a LOT of specialized equipment to become really good. Doesn't work with BoS or fade.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Strangely, you'll want a good amount of dex, since you'll likely be using a bow of some kind if you use this. Find the best 5-socket bow you can, and aim your dex towards that. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Physical in a way, but the most important thing is to emphasize poison damage items. Charms are good here, as are a few uniques and set items. Furthermore, getting skill adders is very useful - this is one place where Natalya's armor actually works well. Piercing items, such as Razortail, are great for bow users here.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Because it benefits from high poison damage, chances are something like a bow is your best bet. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] Gone are the days where you can play "tag" - hit something once, move on, 20 seconds later it dies. Instead, you'll most likely have to hit your targets a few times over a few seconds. So you'll need ways to tie them up. She plays a lot like a bowazon in this respect - you use SM to delay, or MB to group, and let fly. Ideally you want either a fast bow, or possibly a piercing bow. Try and get groups into tight clusters and let fly. Another option is to use the weirdness of BoI with elemental effects to deliver poison in a 4-yard radius. It seems very fringeworthy, but could be good, I suppose - if anyone goes down this path, let me know.
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] Two reasons. The first is that both duration AND damage go down with added resist, so something with 50% poison resist takes effectively 1/4 damage from a poison attack. Second, as of 1.09, poison damage has changed for the worse (as far as the venom assassin's concerned). It still does a lot of damage, but isn't really as good a build for variants as it was before, due to the nerfing of the long duration. It's now a very variant skill, as the assassin has far better ways of doing elemental damage. And you don't want to give up BoS, do you?
[b]2.2.10 Shadow Master[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Has access to all assassin skills, and in general uses the best ones out there. Flat mana cost of 40. Resists increase per level pretty well. Decent attack strength at higher levels. Great HP at higher levels. Fairly decent AI (at least compared to a lot of the other minions out there). Random equipment per spawn, which can give some great or poor mods depending on your luck and your SM's lvl. Very good and annoying in PvP.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Still dumb. Can use some very annoying skills now and then, such as CoS and MB (when you don't want it). Horribly annoying sound when she dies. Cannot be relied on to tank all the time - she may hang back.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Errr, well, none really. She goes well with any build. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Her equipment is spawned randomly, so really not applicable. The mana cost is sufficiently low enough for Physical or Magical builds.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Take your pick, works equally well. She'll always spawn with C/C, so if you want to confuse anyone in PvP, go with C/C.
[i]Strategy: [/i] Because she's so cheap, I tend to cast her into the mob I want her to hold up, instead of waiting for her to do her thing. She tends to do the following when encountering a mob: mind blast, lay down a trap or two, then engage and finish using chargeups or DF. Occasionally depending on the sparseness of the mob she'll do CoS - she does this all the time in the Bloody Foothills, for instance. She has pretty good AI, in terms of choosing what to do when, and is often a more well-developed assassin than you are - she'll use a big variety of her skills. Her skill lvl is (slvl/2(round down))+1. Don't expect her to spam meteors all the time - she tends to build up a lot of charges before finishing, and no matter what she does this very slowly. 
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] In PvP, having a big tank that takes huge amounts of damage to kill while having high resists is a godsend. Even better, she looks like you. Still, most folks can get by with her having only a couple points, or even one, in SM. More is only really necessary if you do PvP a lot, or play single-player a lot and don't want to bother recasting her. She does rule, but chances are you'd rule more if you put the points in more offensively oriented skills.

[b]2.3 Traps[/b]

[b]2.3.1 Fire Blast[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] It's cheap? It goes over obstacles that might otherwise block targetting. Decent radius. Okay damage early on.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Horrible damage progression. Fire is a highly resisted element. Just low damage in general.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Errr...not really worth it. Not even NRG here - even with fast casting items, it'd still not drain you all that much.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical, I suppose - specifically skill adders, fast cast items, and mana, in about that order.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C would be best for the skill bonuses, since this is a ranged move. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] I'll say this right now, I've never ever used this skill. It is another lvl 1 skill that sat idly by as I saved for Burst of Speed. I've seen others use it, and it's okay in early A1, but quickly becomes eclipsed by other skills. So, I'm not really qualified to comment on how to use it.
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] It's truly just a prereq skill. The few advantages it has over sentry traps - it being more of a fireball attack, than a trap - are destroyed when you see it's horrible damage over time.
[b]2.3.2 Shock Web[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Cheap, I suppose. Not a sentry, so you can put it and other traps down. Kinda neat effect.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Check out Sirian's site for it - basically, desynch and low damage along with quirks in the damage system kill this skill utterly. And it's not even stackable!
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Not really applicable - it's cheap enough not to worry about.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical - it appears to be affected with IAS like other traps are in terms of casting speed, but other than that, mana and skill adders. Maybe knockback items with a bow, to send folks back into the shockweb. Sigh.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C, since skill adders will help. But if you're using this, nothing's going to save you. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] Another skill I've never used. Sirian has a good report on the problems with Shock Web - because of desynch on realms, it will very rarely hit often or at all. The damage is low. It doesn't stack. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] This is one of those skills that blizzard came up with as filler - it is there because they needed a 10th skill in the traps tree. It's horrible. 
[b]2.3.3 Blade Sentinel[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] You get to be Krull! Or, not. Interesting pathing allows you to get it around obstacles. Has the potential to hit multiple times. Really fun to use. Reasonable, non-increasing cost (7).
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Low, physically based damage. Pathing quirks make it sometimes very annoying to use. Not particularly good skill progression - it's 3/4/5 damage at 1/9/17. 2 second casting delay!
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] If you're going to use it, consider putting points into NRG. Otherwise not really applicable.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical, though it's not really all that big a deal - nothing helps it one way or another.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C works better for chrome reasons, but it's not all that important - neither benefits you hugely.
[i]Strategy: [/i] Sirian and Jonathan Spectre covered this in far more detail than anyone else did, and I'm not going to even try to go for that kind of depth on a skill that's purely variant material. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] The low damage and frustrating pathfinding AI makes it a nightmare to use.  
[b]2.3.4 Charged Bolt Sentry[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Good early damage. No increasing cost. Early levels are great for the number of bolts fired. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Will immediately make party members wonder where the LEB is. Poor progression on bolt damage, and no progression on the number of bolts. Only fires 5 times. With all sentry traps, you can only have 5 active.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Even in normal, the low cost of this won't kill you. No real suggestions here.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical for skill adders mostly.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C for skill adders.
[i]Strategy: [/i] This is a great early trap, though WoF is much better at the level you get it. It can make going through normal difficulty through, oh, around A4, a total breeze. It's good for picking off stragglers, weakening hordes, hitting nice tight groups with good damage several times, and in general is just a decent guy. Drop a couple in front of you before getting into the thick of things, drop them in doorways and stand around the corner, lead folks into boxes of them that will hit multiple times. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] It is the worst of the sentry traps, but that doesn't mean it's not okay. Mostly the thing that hurts it is the lack of extra bolts fired. Because of that and the low damage, LS and DS quickly overcome it in usefulness, and WoF is generally better at the same level.    
[b]2.3.5 Wake of Fire[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Awesome looking effect. Fast acting trap, in a good area of effect. Good damage early and good damage progression. Low, non-increasing mana cost. Early skill to get with only one prereq. Very fast to go through the 5 charges it has. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Lower damage than the big three traps, by a fair margin, at any level. Fire is a bad element in general for resistance purposes. Shorter range of effect means fast monsters can get out of range without being hit much, if at all. Like with all sentry traps, you can only have 5 active.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] Some NRG is nice if you plan on using this a lot, but it's cheap enough that it won't kill you. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical, focusing on skill adders and mana regeneration. Bows can also be good as a weapon switch after casting the traps, as it's a way to plunk at your opponent some more. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C, for the skill adders. Using this you might get into the thick of things, but it's more likely that you'll be standing back away from it all, meaning the defense of a shield isn't so critical.
[i]Strategy: [/i] This isn't a high-lvl skill, but lots of folks use it and love it. It's used a lot like all other traps - get monsters into nice, tight clumps and plop down the trap. Like WoI, the attack itself comes directly out of the trap and doesn't go far, so you need to have the trap laid nearby the monsters you're using it against, so you'll need them to be grouped - use MB and SM and perhaps your own bod for this. It's more forgiving than WoI, as it doesn't hit per second - monsters are instantly hit. And the area of effect is greater, meaning you're more likely to hit moving targets. It can stun, but tends not to because of the low damage. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] If it had comparable damage to WoI, it would be right there. But it doesn't. It's almost as good anyway, as it's easier to use and tends to effect more monsters than WoI can, but it's not quite good enough, and that low damage is too costly.   
[b]2.3.6 Blade Fury[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] With short, controlled bursts, it's cheap to use - only 3 mana for 3 stars. Works with effects like crushing blow (see strategy), similar to Blade Shield. Very cool thematic effect. Kinda fun to use. Good progression at higher levels - 3/5/8 at 1/9/17. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Using it as intended, in streams of stars, costs huge amounts of mana. Physical damage based, meaning it gets cut in half in hell difficulty. Low damage at any level regardless. Apparently not effected by casting speed of any kind. Only effects one target. Pierce doesn't help it.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] NRG will be important even with short controlled bursts. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical, focusing on mana regen and mana. Skill adders are nice but not critical.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C, for two things - the effects a claw can get and the skill adders. 
[i]Strategy: [/i] Blade fury gets the non-elemental weapon effects that you currently have going. Those are: Crushing Blow, Freezes Target, Hit Blinds Target, Hit Causes Monster to Flee, Knockback, Slows Target by x%, x% Chance to Cast Level y {Insert Spell) on Attack, and possibly a couple I missed. Crushing blow is key here - having 3 chances to cause crushing blow for 3 mana is pretty good. It can cause stun from damage, but this isn't generally common. You'll want to use something to control the crowd while you hose them down - MB with conversion is great here, SM/SW is okay. Otherwise, it'll often be a running retreat. It can be good as a way for a dedicated trapper to do some ranged damage while their traps take effect - just drop whatever traps you normally have, and then go to town. The advantage of this is that you get the benefit of the skill adders all in one tree. The disadvantage is that, most of the time you'd be better off switching to something like a poison bow or other weapon and simply shooting monsters - because BF benefits more from specialized equipment, you may have to sacrifice other areas to get this, and that's generally not so good for a mediocre skill.
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] It's too quirky and costly. If only it were a cooler skill, because it looks great. 
[b]2.3.7 Lightning Sentry[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] The most efficient mana/damage trap that exists, at least most of the time (DS can occasionally beat it with the CE effect). Non-increasing mana cost. Casting speed based on IAS, meaning BoS helps. Good damage progression - 5/7/10 at 1/9/17. Great speed on release of trap charge, able to track moving targets very well. Huge range of effect - can easily hit things more than a screen away. Piercing effect of bolts will hit tons of monsters, similar to the sorceress' lightning skill. Very nice average damage. Lightning is a great element for elemental damage - A5 is full of things that have no lightning resistance. The bolt length increases per level as well, meaning you're more likely to hit stragglers. It does often cause stun animation due to the higher damage.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Somewhat costly - 20 mana is high. Somewhat low damage per bolt. Because it's a bolt, it tends to hit tightly clumped groups somewhat poorly compared to lines or sparser groups. Like with all sentry traps, you can only have five total active.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] NRG is good here, since you'll likely be casting traps early and often, and recasting them for better effect. If LS is the only mana-intensive skill you use, you'll likely be able to get away with not having anything in NRG, but it is nice as a backup, particularly if you don't rely on mana leech items.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical. If you go with physical , go heavy on mana leech. Otherwise, go for +skills, mana regen, and extra mana in order of importance. +3 trap circlets, amulets, and claws are especially valuable. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C, because of the skill bonus possible - having a potential +6 to LS makes it a no brainer - that's 60 points of damage per bolt extra!
[i]Strategy: [/i] LS is generally considered to be the most useful overall trap, in almost any situation. Because of it's range, piercing ability, quick rate of fire, good damage, it's most trapper's best friend, and a good choice for an alternate elemental damage source. It's much like a sorceress' hydra, save that it's much faster to react - there's virtually no delay between time of attack and time of hit. 
Use it as a scout around corners. Use it to hit things while you're off-screen, and the monsters are across a barrier and won't come to you (this is AWESOME in places like flayer jungle and river of flame). Use them in clumps together, so they'll all fire on the same target over and over - grouping fire with traps is a good thing most of the time. Use MB, SM, or PS to freeze the crowds in a spot or two, and let LS do your work for you. Plop it down when you wade into combat with DC and TS and TS/DT, allowing you to do extra damage and soften guys up while you concentrate on beating people up. Because it does not do ridiculous damage (like a sorc's firewall), it is generally best to play lower-player games when concentrating on LS as your primary source of damage - it does great in 1-4 games, and bogs down quickly thereafter. Be careful around LEBs - this will trigger bolts and trigger them quickly, and will likely do little to no damage to them.
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] Ah, finally, a good lightning trap. And by good, I mean best. Death Sentry blows up corpses, but if you want the best lightning damage over time for your mana, Lightning sentry can't be beat. Because it's more mana efficient and slightly better damage wise than DS, LS is often maxed over DS. Both are excellent skills. LS is an easy way to get a highly non-resisted source of elemental damage in your arsenal. 

For those of you who are interested, here's the clipped part of the second part of the guide. Apparently Ikonboard doesn't really like REALLY REALLY LONG guides and stuff.

[b]2.3.8 Wake of Inferno[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] The most damaging trap in the game (aside from occasionally DS). Great progression on damage - 7.5/9.5/12.5 at 1/9/17. Highly mana efficient for damage done. Piercing effect hits mana stationary monsters hard. Excellent against single monsters or stationary groups of monsters. Fewer prereqs than LS/DS. 
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Short range means many monsters will be out of range. Does not track well, so things won't be hit often - WoI relies on damage dealt per second. Fire based, a poor element that is highly resisted. Low rate of fire compared to LS/DS. Very bad in PvP.  Like with all sentry traps, you can only have five total active.
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] NRG is very important, as you will most likely be recasting this trap often - moreso than LS or even DS. One can get away with no investment in NRG if you're careful, but it's not a bad choice. 
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical, particularly skill adders, mana regen, and mana. Mana leech is nice, but skill adders are critical. +3 trap items are great here.
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/C is best, because of the potential for skill adders - +6 to WoI gives 75 damage/second!
[i]Strategy: [/i] WoI is generally the secondary trap for most folks, or is used as a backup source of damage for physically-focused assassins. It is very poor against anything that is mobile, and is slow to boot. This means you need crowd control big time, or need to be going up against single targets. For this reason, it tends to be great against bosses while you pound on them with TS/PS/DC, or keep them occupied with SM/MB. Against groups, it can work well with PS, as PS gives great crowd control and produces a ton of stationary targets. However, the overlap of elemental damage types (meteor and WoI) make it somewhat less desirous to many than LS is. It tends not to be as good as LS in scouting situations because of the low range. It's virtually pointless in PvP. Above all, stack these - the overlap of fire is what makes WoI really effective. 
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i] It is a good trap, highly damaging, and is not lightning based. As such, it's almost essential for a trap-focused assassin as a secondary source of elemental damage, and can be in many situations better than LS. Overall, I believe LS to be better, but LS or WoI make excellent choices as a single trap depending on your playstyle. 
[b]2.3.9 Blade Shield[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i]  Works with effects like crushing blow (see strategy), similar to Blade Fury. A truly cool looking effect.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Low damage, applied per second. High mana cost. Horrible, HORRIBLE duration. Bad prereqs. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] You'll need NRG, and plenty of it. Otherwise, whatever requirements that equipment has that has the desired effects.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical, with some provisos. Mostly you want mana and mana regen items. Monster flee and crushing blow items are great here, and you can get really goofy effects going on with something like Hellmouth (casts firestorm and meteor on striking). 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] Because you're close in all the time, C/S is most likely better if you're going to make this work.
[i]Strategy: [/i] This wouldn't be on here at all were it not for the weird quirk, similar to blade fury. BS gets the non-elemental weapon effects that you currently have going. Those are: Crushing Blow, Freezes Target, Hit Blinds Target, Hit Causes Monster to Flee, Knockback, Slows Target by x%, x% Chance to Cast Level y {Insert Spell) on Attack, and possibly a couple I missed. This is often used with monster flee as a trapper, giving you another method of defense against foes as they run away. Blindness combined with this is great, as they'll run away and then stand there, bewildered. Knockback is hilarious to watch. It very much depends on what kind of assassin you have. Crushing blow could be good if you're in there mixing it up, especially if you're focused more on DC/CM and don't have a lot of area of effect weapons. Knockback and flee are great for trappers. 
[i]Why it's not on the menu:[/i] The duration and damage are so bad, especially for what it costs, that it's not worth it. The quirk doesn't make up for this. A fun skill, a good variant skill, but definitely not A-material.
[b]2.3.10 Death Sentry[/b]
[i]Advantages:[/i] Non-increasing mana cost. Good damage on lightning bolts, with similar advantages to LS. Amazing effect with Corpse explosion, doing huge damage to surrounding targets and consuming corpses. Hugely efficient in low player-count games. Only range increases per lvl on the CE. Lightning damage less than that of LS, and worse progression - 4/5/8 at 1/9/17.
[i]Drawbacks:[/i] Only shoots five times. Corpse Explosion effect does not scale with # of players, so you'll be doing much less % damage per corpse with more players. Relatively mana-inefficient.  Like with all sentry traps, you can only have five total active. 50% physical component of the damage means it gets cut slightly in hell. Depends on corpses for higher damage ratio. 
[i]Stat suggestions:[/i] NRG is nice, especially if this is your only trap. Not huge though, as using just a couple of these can be enough - the CE effect is the primary issue here.
[i]Equipment suggestions: [/i] Magical, though not so much. Skill adders are good but not absolutely critical, as the damage of the CE does not increase per lvl of the trap, only the range. This is a trap that is complementary to others, and as such really should be defined by what equipment your other skills dictate. 
[i]Chopsticks or Forks?[/i] C/S or C/C is okay here, as skills aren't as important. Furthermore, DS naturally lends itself to physically-oriented assassins, thus C/S users tend to use it more. But it's pretty neutral.
[i]Strategy: [/i] Kill something. Then BLOW THINGS UP. With just a few skill points this becomes one of the best skills in the game. DS gets a hard time from a lot of people, mostly by folks who haven't tested it well or don't know enough history of Diablo II. We've already talked about the lightning damage of Death Sentry, now it's time to talk about the Corpse Explosion. The Corpse Explosion effect acts almost identically to the Necro's version of it - the increase in radius/level is the same, for instance. It does 50% physical, 50% fire damage, same as CE. Also the same is the non-scaling of a CE as the number of players in a game increases. It will always do 40-80% of the base HP of the mob, NOT the scaled HP. Thus it will be taking off 1/8th as much life bar in a 8 player game as it does in a solo-1 game. However, it is STILL DOING THE SAME DAMAGE. I can't emphasize this enough. If you have something that can do 1000 points of damage to everything in a 6 yard radius, 5 times, for 20 mana, you'd use it, right? Regardless of difficulty or number of things on the screen, this is a good amount of damage. And this is the low end of damage - the high end is something like 4000 on A5 hell creatures.PS doesn't work so well with DS, as the freezing effects of PS tend to hamper the number of corpses obtained. Because it works so well with a solitary corpse, it's great for users of TS/DC/CM, as they tend to have less in the way of AoE effects. It is great against huge crowds of tightly-packed monsters - cow level anyone? Also a great secondary trap - drop 4 LS or 4 WoI and one DS, and watch the fun.
The range of targetting on DS is huge - it can blow a corpse up 1 1/2 screens away. It will only blow up a corpse if there is a monster near that corpse such that that monster would be in the explosion range. If there are no such corpses, it'll fire lightning. Thus, the usual better placement of DS is whereever it has a lot of line of sight on the monsters involved. Be polite when other corpse users are around, as they might want to call dibs. 
[i]Why it's on the menu:[/i]  It doesn't kill things as fast as in solo-1, but man, in solo-1 it is simply ungodly. It's fun, it's highly effective in big groups, extraordinary in single player play. Does good damage in any event, and eats corpses, which can be good. 

[b] 3: Sample builds, or suggested platters [/b]

These are all builds that I've either tried personally and found to be fun and effective, or have been shown by folks I know to be great. They are not all that is good in the world, merely a sample of some of the things out there.

[b] 3.1: The pure MA build - real hot & spicy! [/b]
[i]Picks[/i]: DT, PS, Martial combo
Skill layout:
20 TS
20 DT
20 PS
1 in all other MA skills
5 BoS
5 CM
1 in all other SD skills save venom
No traps
Total: 84 points, achievable at lvl 73. 
[i]Stats:[/i]
150 str
180 dex
all other points in vit
no points in nrg
[i]Equipment[/i]
Nat's set if possible. Otherwise Bartuc's or dual Bartuc's. Otherwise fast claw - damage does not matter so much. The rest is focused on physical things - particularly str/dex boosts, leech, and PDR, though skill boosts are often lusted after. 
[i]Strategy: [/i]You own close in. Use PS and MB to control crowds, TS/DT to do major crowd damage with PS meteors and lightning added for flavor. Against physical immunes you rain meteors and/or lightning down on their heads, or kick a non-physical immune monster. Against bosses you use TS and either kick him to death or finish with a normal claw. Burst runs all the time, unless you're really hurting from a pack of oblivion knights or some horrible boss. You're constantly looking for better equipment, particularly better claws and stat boosts. Charms with resists are your friend. Big advantage is that martial art skill adders are hugely beneficial to you - they're just like +s to all skills as far as you're concerned. That focus helps a lot in some ways. 
[i]Alternates: [/i]Replace PS with CoT, especially good with dual Bartuc's. 
[b] 3.2 The MA hybrid build - something from column C. Or, the Leonidas/Oksanna build[/b]
[i]Picks[/i] TS, PS, WoI, Martial combo
Skill layout:
20 TS
20 PS
1 in all other MA skills
5 BoS
5 CM
1 in all other SD skills save venom
20 WoI
1 in prereqs for WoI
no other traps
Total: 87 points, achievable at lvl 76
[i]Stats:[/i]
118 str
140ish dex (depending on shield blocking %)
all other points in vit
[i]Equipment[/i] Nat's mark, Bartuc's Cutthroat, or any high-damage claw. Speed isn't as important compared to damage - you live and die by the damage of the claw. Skill adders are very good here, but not critical - damage is paramount.
[i]Strategy[/i] Use PS, MB, and SM for crowd control and delay. Clump groups together, drop several WoI, and lay into them. You'll suffer against fast moving foes and flanking ones, so you need to be a lot more careful than the freewheeling pure MA build. TS is the predominant skill - PS is used for freezing and dealing with occasional immunities more than meteor spamming. PvP you suffer a bit but could do okay. Finishing move is always a normal attack, and because of this having high AR or ITD is somewhat important. Nat's mark is truly ideal for this build. C/S is your normal mode, since there isn't much you have that benefits highly from C/C - even something amazing like dual Bartuc's. 
[i]Alternates: [/i] Replace WoI with LS or DS, particularly DS. 
[b]3.3: The trapper - a rich, deep flavor - or the Jon Spectre build[/b]
[i]Picks[/i] LS, WoI, 1/2 DS, Martial Combo, 1/2 SM
Skill layout:
1 in all finishing moves
1 in TS
1 in CS
no other MA skills
5 BoS
10 SM
5 WB (chosen over CM)
1 in all other SD skills save venom
20 LS
20 WoI
10 DS
1 in all prereqs for above
no blade skills
total: 87 skill points, achievable at lvl 76
[i]Stats:[/i]
79 str
79 dex
100 nrg
rest in vit
[i]Equipment[/i] Bartuc's 1.09 is still good here, and two of them is great. What is better is a claw with +3 trap skills and +s to individual trap skills. All other equipment should hopefully have bonuses to skills - +3 trap circlets, +3 trap amulets are great, as are +1 trap charms. Ideally you would have +10 to trap skills total, with some generic adders thrown in. Mana regen, higher mana are good here, as you'll most likely not have a great way short of potions of regaining mana quickly.
[i]Strategy[/i] Dang, you're sneaky. You don't have to go into rooms, you can lay a trap down first. Or five. Use MB to paralyze crowds, then use the trap that works best. You always drop a DS, because that is simply a ridiculous amount of damage, and you can do math. You rarely see bosses, except occasionally as they die and leave you great loot. Your biggest fear is the moon lord with LE and fanaticism and extra fast - blowing past your merc, your SM, and nailing you. That's when you leave. Bosses occasionally take a while but in general die, and you've never been safer. With all the HP you have, you think about doing Hardcore. Occasionally you run up against something you simply can't kill - it's both fire and lightning immune, in which case you park it or let your merc handle it, or switch to the poison bow and plink at him slowly. Because you're going C/C, you run fade more often than you like, but it's better than waking up naked. 
[i]Alternates: [/i] Replace Martial combo with another 1/2 DS or 1/2 SM. 
[b]3.4: Dual claw mania - the new skool build, or the Loschonorg "that can't possibly work" build[/b]
[i]Picks[/i]CoT, CM, WoI, Martial Combo
Skill layout:
20 CoT
1 in all other MAskills save BoI and PS
5 BoS
20 CM
5 WB
1 in all other SD skills save venom
20 WoI
1 in prereqs for WoI
no other trap skills
total: 85, achievable at lvl 74
[i]Stats:[/i]
118 str
118 dex
rest in vit
[i]Equipment[/i] Dual Bartuc's rules here. If not that, two high-speed, good damage claws with AR boosts are great. Shopping for ferocious/cruel greater/runic talons can be fine. Skill adders are awesome here as well. IAS is somewhat useful because of the higher requirements of C/C for caps. Mana/life leech is great. PDR is good. 
[i]Strategy[/i] You're tired of PS, and tired of everyone saying that C/S is the only way to go, and you set out to prove them wrong....and boy do you ever! CoT mows down things like there's no tomorrow, either from the physical damage of the attack or the resulting charge release. Early on you don't even bother discharging CoT all the time - you just attack with it and do huge damage. Later on you get WoI to add yet another angle of attack, and relish it whenever you run into something that isn't resistant to fire, lightning, and physical - those die like no tomorrow, and that happens to be bosses most of the time. You end up using MB and SM a lot, and your PS friends admire your hotkey skills as you switch between 6 skills without worry. Mana is occasionally a problem until you get that +60 to mana grand charm. And when you get those dual Bartuc's, it's all over. 
[i]Alternates: [/i] Replace CM with DC (and attack with it more as a "normal" attack). Replace WoI with LS or DS and cringe when you run into lightning/physical immunes.