Assassin Leveling Guide

Playstyle & Progression

• Enter Lut Gholein and pick up a Belt from Farah.
• Continue to keep up your Burst of Speed.
• Kill Radament first, then continue with the story progression through Act 2. Wake of Fire struggles a little in the Maggot Lair and Arcane Sanctuary. Try to place Wake of Fire Traps in the middle of the narrow corridors and use Fire Blast on the stairs.
• Create and equip your Stealth Runeword at Level 17.
• Check Farah for a 3 Socketed Large Shield or Kite Shield whenever you are in town.
• Proceed through Act 3 and create your Leaf Short Staff when you hit Level 19. Put additional Ral Runes into your helmet, if you have some.
• Your target for the end of Act 3 is at least Level 19.8.
• Hire an Act 2 Mercenary after you enter Act 4 and equip him with a Pike from Halbu. You'll need him to kill Grandvizier of Chaos in the Chaos Sanctuary and Colenzo the Annihilator on the first Wave in the Throne of Destruction.
• When you reach Level 20, go to Act 3 and shop for a Battle Staff of Teleportation at Ormus. Use a Waypoint you pick up along the way and re-enter Kurast Docks through a Town Portal to reset his inventory. You only need to check Staves with a red background because the Level required for it is 24, meaning you can't equip it right now.
• Continue your progress all the way to Baal. Kill Izual for the extra Skill Points before killing Diablo. Finish Quest 1 and 2 in Act 5 for the Socket reward and the Runes required for Ancient's Pledge. Create the Runeword as soon as you have them and put it into your stash. You won't use it until you have your Spirit.
• After killing Baal, open up The Secret Cow Level and look for a Crystal Sword or Broad Sword while Leveling up to 25. Equip the Battle Staff of Teleportation when you hit Level 24. Once you have a Sword Base for Spirit, use your Act 5 Quest 1 reward to socket it. Then kill the Waves in the Throne of Destruction to reach Level 26 before entering Nightmare difficulty. Wave 5 might be a bit tricky. Skip them and fill up on Potions from Malah, then enter Nightmare. You'll reach Level 26 by the time you need to refill on them.

Gear Checklist

Playstyle & Progression

• Start the Nightmare difficulty by shopping for Heavy Gloves of Readiness, a Coral Belt of the Mammoth and Russet Heavy Boots of Haste (or similar).
• Complete Quest 1 for the Skill Point and continue to the Black Marsh Waypoint.
• Farm The Countess until you acquired the Runes mentioned from the checklist below. Create Spirit Crystal Sword and Lore Cap. Equip them as soon as you can.
• Shop a Wand of Lower Resistance from Akara or Drognan between Levels 30 and 35. You only need to check Wands with a red background again. Keep it in your inventory and use Lower Resist against all Act bosses starting at Level 36.
• You have acquired the final item with this purchase. Continue with the Wake of Fire build until you enter Act 4. At this point you have to use your respec from Akara to switch to Lightning Sentry.

Gear Checklist

The respec assumes that you are Level 38. This is the earliest Level at which you should do it.

Playstyle & Progression

• Before you head into Act 4, respec into Lightning Sentry and Death Sentry as shown above. Place down 5 Lightning Sentry Traps in the same spot. This causes them to focus fire onto the same target. When the first enemies die to them place down 2-3 death sentry Traps. Their Corpse Explosions deal massive Area of Effect damage.
• Use Cloak of Shadows and/or Mind Blast to Crowd Control (CC) your enemies with Blinding, Stunning or Converting effects.
• Continue to keep Burst of Speed up at all times.
• Curse tanky and/or Immune to Lightning enemies with Lower Resist until you have your first corpses. If they don't die to Death Sentry, simply skip them by running or Teleporting past them. The latter is especially required in Act 2's Maggot Lair and some parts of Act 3.
• The Chaos Sanctuary can be an annoying place. While Grandvizier the Chaos is always Immune to Lightning, the other 2 Seal bosses may also be. If they are, you can still kill them by preparing a bunch of corpses, dragging them on top of them and use Death Sentry to blow them up. If this is unsuccessful, you might have to reset the area.
• The biggest challenge lies with the Ancients in Act 5. Before you start this fight, drop 1-2 inventories worth of Life and Mana Potions inside the arena. Repair your Wand of Lower Resistance to ensure that you have enough Charges. Madawc is always Immune to Lightning, and even after his Immunity is broken, he still has a lot of remaining Lightning Resist. Make sure none of the Ancients have Elite modifiers that increase their Resistances (Magic Resistant, Lightning Enchanted, Spectral Hit) as this makes this fight harder than it needs to be. Use Town Portals to reset them if they do. Check Madawc for the "Teleport" modifier as well - It makes killing him even more annoying. Keep running in circles while laying Lightning Sentry Traps until Talic and Korlic are dead. Lure Madawc close to a pillar and move to the opposite side of it so that his attacks are blocked by the terrain. Place the Lightning Sentry Traps in a place they can hit him and cast Lower Resist to break his immunity constantly. Slowly but surely this will knock him out. If the angle between Madawc and your Character allows it, add in some Fire Blast throws to increase your damage output.