he Order of Mage Slayers was formed after the Vizjerei survived the tragedy brought on by Bartuc and Horazon. Their purpose was to watch for rogue magi that may become corrupted by the forces of Evil. To be effective at this task they were trained in abilities that were not conducive to Demonic corruption. Living as rumor and myth to the general population, even other magi knew very little about this mysterious order. Their reputation was shrouded in mystery and the simple fear of their retribution almost ensured steadfast vigilance against corruption amongst those who knew they were real.

Assassins do not employ the magical arts directly; rather, they use enchanted items that mimic elemental powers and can be used autonomously. To further avoid potential corruption, they focus on the natural abilities of the mortal body - powers of the mind and unarmed combat.

With the Assassin, Blizzard North are aiming at a mix of the Sorceress's projectile attacks with the Barbarian's melee attacks, the Traps allowing her to be more tactical when dealing with larger groups of monsters at once where the Barbarian can't.  A fighter-mage combination, though she lacks the massive destructive powers of a Barbarian with Whirlwind her Martial Arts tree allows her to be a formidable hand to hand fighter.

As Diablo II and LoD rounds down figures displayed so you will see a discrepancy at times. With the example above with Mana reserves rising by 1.5 points each time the Assassin levels up, you will only see the figure rise by one but the 1.5 points of mana are applied in the game, it just rounds the display down.

Special Equipment:  The new class of weapons that is expressly for the Assassin are the "Hand to Hand" weapons.  These are claw-like weapons that she wears on her hands, and can dual wield.  They can only be worn by the Assassin, have very fast attack rate for her but not very high damage, and can be dual wielded or she can use one with a shield.

She is the only character that does not require keys to open locked chests.

As you'd expect from the title of this tree, these will allow her to perform various styles of combat kicks, as well as power-ups to augment her finishing moves.

This tree is divided into 2 areas. There are six Charge Up skills and four Finishing Moves, although you can use your regular plain attack.

A Charge Up skill can be charged up to three times, each charge will either  increase the bonus in some way or alter the bonus. You must hit your target to register a charge.  Once charged its bonuses can be released by using a Finishing Move {or Attack}.  The Finishing Move will also apply a bonus of its own.

An example combination of Charge Up and Finishing Move would be:

Taking the example above...attack with the left mouse button {Fist of Fire} once and your finishing move will apply 6-10 fire damage, charge it a second time and your finishing move will apply 6-10 fire damage over a 2 yard radius, charge it a third and final time and your finishing move will apply 6-10 fire damage, over a 2 yard radius and will burn for 2.5 seconds.

Finishing moves can be used on their own but of course they're not going to be as powerful without the Charge Ups.

Three of the four finishing moves use the feet, Dragon Claw uses the claws and then only when they are dual wielded. No claw plus shield set ups can be used if you're wanting your Assassin to use Dragon Claw.  Also, charge ups are released on the first claw to successfully strike a foe only, not twice, once on the first claw then again on the second claw.  The character screen displays it as if the Assassin will release a charge up when the left and right claw strike and that is not the case.

Check the ID Sheet to quickly identify the Martial Art charge ups.

Check Assassin FAQ for weapons that can be used with Martial Arts. 

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Here we see a tree similar to the Amazon's Passive and Magic Tree, though there are many more combat type skills here, things that actually do damage, rather than just boosting your other attributes.

The left branch of the tree {Burst of Speed, Fade and Venom} should be treated as the Paladin's auras in as much as only one can be active at a time, casting another will cancel out the first.

It is worth pointing out that there are situations where the more limited Shadow Warrior is sometimes preferable to the Shadow Master.  You may wish to have your Shadow use the skills you have active at that moment.  The Master will use any of her 26 skills {not including Claw Mastery, Weapon Block & the two Shadow skills}.  You may want her to use a certain trap or a certain martial Arts combination.  The Master, while pretty intelligent, isn't as clever as you {one would hope} and she has full reign over all skills {regardless if you have a point in it} so there's a chance she'll not use exactly what you'd like her to.  Warrior on the other hand is limited to the two skills you have readied and therefore there's a greater chance she will use those.  This level of control is offset by the higher life and consistent  mana consumption {20} of the Master.

Neither Shadow can cast any Shadow skills and they do not level up should they stay alive long enough.  You will not benefit from any aura type skills {Burst of Speed, Fade & Venom} your Shadow casts and vise versa.

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Here we see the Assassin dealing with packs before they get the chance to deal with her. A combination of projectile and remote devices to ensnare her foe.  Three branches, lighting, fire and blades.  All can attack multiple enemies at once, even the early grenade types such as Fire Blast and Shock Web have an area effect, albeit relatively small.  Level 12 it gets more inventive, and in some ways easier, as she can set remote sentries to attack whilst she's also attacking with a martial arts skill for example.  These sentries will attack up to 5 or 10 times, depending on the sentry, before disappearing. 

"The Assassin places the traps on the ground and then focuses on either luring or driving enemies into her snare. Some are direct traps and others act to spray out numerous smaller traps. Very deadly."

She has a number of Telekinesis sort of skills {Shadow Disciplines} where she can push foe back {Psychic Hammer} into a trapped area or confuse {Cloak of Shadows} them so they do not move from the area she has placed traps.  Up to five Sentries {mixed or of the same type} can be active at one time, casting a sixth will destroy the first one cast.  This number does not include Sentries set by her Shadows, they too can place up to five although you have no control over how many they cast, that decision is down to the wonders of AI.

The best thing about traps is once set, she can concentrate on other attacks, melee or otherwise.  While she's fighting hand to hand she can have five {never more} traps applying damage at the same time.   Five Lightning Sentries firing a total of 10 streams of lightning each - 50 streams of lightning just as back up! Pop up a Shadow Warrior {Shadow Disciplines tree} so she's casting the same traps and you could potentially have 10 traps and 100 streams of lighting.  That's quite unlikely though as the Shadow Warrior doesn't seem to go for maximum output with the old traps.

All sentries/grenades/blades can be thrown/set across rivers and over small walls, basically anywhere within the line of sight. Her Sentries are visible to other players, even hostile players. They disappear should she leave the level, whether voluntary or involuntary {death}.  However they will not disappear if she stays put on the level after she dies, they will continue firing until they have used all their charges.

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Patch 1.10 altered the following:

Martial Arts Skills

• Dragon Talon - Increased Attack Rating.

• Fists of Fire - Added skill synergy bonuses.

• Claws of Thunder - Added skill synergy bonuses.

• Blades of Ice - Added skill synergy bonuses.

• All kick skills - Increased Attack Rating bonus.

Shadow Disciplines

• Venom - Fixed duration at 0.4 seconds regardless of poison items
  equipped.

• Shadow Warrior - Increased the Life and resistances.

Traps Skills

• Fire Blast - Added skill synergy bonuses.

• Shock Web - Added skill synergy bonuses.

• Charged Bolt Sentry - Added skill synergy bonuses.

• Wake of Fire - Slight increase to Damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.

• Lightning Sentry - Added skill synergy bonuses.

• Wake of Inferno - Added skill synergy bonuses.

• Death Sentry - Added skill synergy bonuses.

General

• Terminated the casting of 'absentee' skills such as the Sorceress' Meteor, Firewall, Blaze, Hydra; the Assassin's Sentries; the Druid's Volcano; etc. when the player enters town. This prevents declaring Hostility and doing immediate damage to the unsuspecting.

• Barbarians and Assassins who are dual-wielding potions are no longer prevented from entering a game.

• When the Assassin has two Claws equipped and is using the Weapon Block
  skill, the Chance to Block percentage properly appears in the hover text
  of the Defense stat in the character screen.

Patch 1.08 altered the following:

• Dragon Tail now has an attack bonus.

• Increased Fist of Fire damage.

• Increased Claws of Thunder damage.

• Increased Phoenix Strike damage.

• Fixed various bugs with skills that use two claws.

• Dragon Tail does not cost mana or knockback when it misses.
    

• The durability for all claw class weapons is now doubled. (This will not affect existing items.)

• Adjusted attribute requirements for all claw class weapons.

Patch 1.46 altered the following:

• Dragon Tail does not cost mana or knockback when it misses.

• Dragon Tail now has an attack bonus.

• We now average the speed of your two weapons when you do two-handed attacks - Dragon Claw, etc...

Patch 1.45 altered the following:

• Increased Fist of Fire damage.

• Increased Claws of Thunder damage.

• Increased Pheonix Strike damage.

• Fixed various bugs with skills that use two claws.