Claws of Thunder* is your Primary Charge-up Skill (main source of damage). It is a Lightning Charge-up Skill that grants up to 3 Charges. Charge 1 adds Lightning Damage to your attack, Charge 2 is an AoE Nova, and Charge 3 is an AoE Lightning attack that releases Charged Bolts in all directions.

Blades of Ice* is your Secondary Charge-up Skill (secondary source of damage). It is a Cold Charge-up Skill that grants up to 3 Charges. Charge 1 adds Cold Damage to your attack, Charge 2 makes the Cold Damage from Charge 1 AoE damage, and Charge 3 adds a Freezing effect to your attacks.

Dragon Talon* is your Primary Finishing Move. It Kicks a target multiple times in rapid succession, dealing Physical Damage to them (number of times based on Skill Level). On the Claws of Thunder Assassin, this ability is used to detonate your Claws of Thunder and Blades of Ice Charges. Charging up Tiger Strike makes Dragon Talon stronger as well.

Dragon Claw* is a Secondary Finishing Move. It is a dual-claw attack that expends 2 charges. On the Claws of Thunder Assassin, this ability is used to more rapidly recover from detonating Claws of Thunder and Blades of Ice Charges than otherwise by using Dragon Talon. However, because this Finisher deals less damage, it is often more effective on Low Player Counts. It naturally grants Attack Rating, but always hits if you have multiple Charges.

Death Sentry* is an Optional Damage Skill that uses Corpse Explosion which causes nearby corpses to explode for a 50/50 mix of Fire and Physical Damage. If there are no bodies to target, it fires off a weak Lightning Bolt if it’s close enough to a target.

Phoenix Strike* is an Optional Damage Skill. It gains up to 3 Charge orbs from successful melee hits. Charge 1 drops a Fiery Meteor, Charge 2 gives a Chain Lightning effect dealing Lightning Damage, and charge 3 releases a circular patterned Cold Damage attack that Freezes Monsters. Unlike with Claws of Thunder or Blades of Ice, Dragon Talon or Dragon Claw only detonates a single Phoenix Strike effect based on the number of Charges. You can choose which Phoenix Strike Charge to use and how; however, It is usually most effective to use Charge 2 of Phoenix Strike (Chain Lightning) on this build for increased AoE.

* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)

Tiger Strike* is a Physical Damage Charge-up Skill that grants up to 3 Charges with successful strikes. Each Charge adds progressively higher Physical Damage to your Finishing Moves. On the Claws of Thunder Assassin, building up 3 Charges of Tiger Strike mainly helps with the Life and Mana Leech from Cobra Strike.

Cobra Strike* is a Charge-up Skill that grants up to 3 Charges with successful strikes. Each Charge adds progressively higher Life and Mana Leech bonuses to your Finishing Moves.

d2planner-skill]Claw Mastery[/d2planner-skill]* passively provides Attack Rating, additional Damage, and Critical Strike Chance when wielding Claw Weapons.

Weapon Block* passively provides a Chance to Block when dual-wielding Claw Weapons.

Fade* provides you with a large amount of +x All Resistance, Damage Reduction, and Curse Duration Reduction when cast. Each Soft Point grants 1% Damage Reduction. (Soft Points include + to Skills from gear and buffs).

Burst of Speed* provides you with a massive Movement Speed and Attack Speed buff. This increases your mobility, your Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike, Claws of Thunder, Blades of Ice, and Dragon Claw Attack Speed, and the rate at which you lay Death Sentry Traps.

Dragon Flight* is a Finishing Move that Teleports you and your Mercenary to a target and attempts a Kick attack. It naturally grants Attack Rating, but always hits if you have any Charges. This Skill is great for mobility as a pseudo Teleport on a Starter or Budget setup (see Build Variants).

Shadow Warrior* summons a mini-Assassin that mimics your Skills on your Right-Click. On this build it mostly serves as a damage sponge and distraction.

Mind Blast* briefly Stuns your enemies in a small squared shape area around your cursor and has a % Chance To Convert enemies hit. Converted enemies fight alongside you for a short period of time.

Cloak of Shadows* temporarily Blinds enemies around the Assassin. This drastically decreases their aggro range and their Defense. It is an incredibly useful Skill to use when facing dangerous ranged enemies such as Burning Souls and Dark Archers.

* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)
* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)
* Skills that do NOT utilize either FCR or IAS

While every Stat in the Desirable Stats column is useful for this build, we highlighted the Priority Stats in Teal so you can easily identify the Most Important Stats on them.

Hover over any Item to see a pop-out with the full Item description.

Gear/Base Notes: Any Items with specialized or niche uses have a superscript that refers here.
1) Preferably use Runic Talon or Feral Claw Base Claws (Weapon Speed Modifier of -30 or -20) on your Main-Hand weapon slot.
2) Wizardspike is used for the Faster Cast Rate it provides on Weapon-Swap if Barbarian-granted Battle Orders is available. Stormshield on the Off-Hand Swap can provide Chance to Block and Damage Reduction. With Wizardspike and Spirit Monarch it is possible to achieve the 174% Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint on your Weapon-Swap.
3) Only use Naj's Puzzler or a Staff of Teleportation on Weapon-Swap for Teleport Charges before acquiring Enigma.
4) Use a Lower Resist Charge Wand on Weapon-Swap to deal additional damage against Bosses and break Lightning Immunity before acquiring an Infinity on the Mercenary.

The areas below are efficient farming locations that make use of the build’s strengths. Other farming spots might not be as effective due to Immunities or bad layouts.

Anything that has a ✔ in the "Starter" column can be farmed with the Starter or Budget Build Variant.

Your Mercenary serves an incredibly important role to the overall success of your build. They can be a front line tank, provide a pivotal Aura, and/or deal Physical Damage to kill enemies with Immunity to your Skill set.

Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to deal with enemies that are Immune to your main damage source. Equip him with Infinity to reduce enemy Resistances and Defense with its Conviction Aura, drastically boosting damage and Chance to Hit. This Aura is also capable of breaking monster Immunities, including Lightning.

Your Mercenary needs maximum Resistances, Life Leech, a high damage Weapon, and high Defense and/or Damage Reduction to stay alive reliably. Cannot Be Frozen is also a great stat for maintaining Mercenary DPS and leech. Ethereal gear is preferred since it doesn't lose durability. Gear Options at each Gear Level perform equally well in different situations; choose based on Farming Spots and/or personal preference.

The Mercenary is hard to keep alive until you have the minimum gear recommended in this guide. Remember you can drag Healing Potions onto the portrait, or shift + 1/2/3/4 to directly feed them a Healing Potion from your Belt. The Mercenary also gains bonus Resistances from Thawing Potions and Antidote Potions.

If your Mercenary dies in battle, you can revive them from any of the Mercenary NPCs in each Act. This does come with an increasing cost, capping at 50,000 Gold. Keep that in mind and decide if the Mercenary is currently worth the cost.

Breakpoints in Diablo 2 are the minimum values required to reduce the frames of an action. Below are the important breakpoints considered for this build. For more information on the mechanics involved, check out our in-depth Resource: Breakpoints.

Faster Cast Rate speeds up your casting animation for spells. Aim for at least the 102% FCR Breakpoint on the Standard Build for Enigma Teleport casting speed. Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal Cooldowns spells have.

Increased Attack Speed speeds up your attack animations. Weapon bases have different IAS breakpoints. Values for recommended weapon options provided below. Consult the d2planner for other bases.
Note: Optimal IAS Breakpoints depend on whether you are using Fade and Dragon Talon, or Burst of Speed when building up Charges or using Dragon Claw.

Faster Hit Recovery increases survivability. Aim for the 27% FHR Breakpoint on the Standard Build.

For all Hardcore gameplay, your primary focus is increasing your Resistances, Damage Reduction, Chance to Block and Maximum Life. This can mean sacrificing overall power level for a more secure playstyle.

The Claws of Thunder Assassin can become Hardcore viable with key changes to Gear. Review the changes below before building this character in Hardcore, as some of these changes differ significantly from the Standard Build.

Patch 2.7 made the Next Hit Delay mechanic only apply to damage particles from a single cast of a Skill. This also means that NHD no longer applies to different Martial Arts Charges; damage particles from separate Charge-up Skills can no longer cancel each other out like before. As a result, now you only want to use fast claw bases on your Main Hand weapon slot such as Mosaic on the Claws of Thunder Assassin. This allows you to reach 3-Frame Dragon Talon for maximum damage output.

The Lightning Sentry part will only be used, if there are no corpses in the sentries' awareness range (10 2/3 yards).

The Corpse Explosion is used when there are corpses within its Awareness Range (10 2/3 yards) with the following mechanics: