Dragon Tail Assassin Guide

Dragon Tail* is your Primary Damage Skill. It is a Finishing Move that adds Charge-up Skill bonus damage to its explosive AoE Fire Damage Kick. The more active Charges from a Charge-up Skill, the more damage Dragon Tail does. Dragon Tail also has a Physical Damage component, and thus benefits from sources of -x% to Enemy Physical Resistance (e.g. Amplify Damage and Decrepify).

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 Dragon Tail Assassin, building up 3 Charges of Tiger Strike massively boosts the power of Dragon Tail.

Death Sentry* 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.

Dragon Talon* can be used to kill monsters that are Immune to Fire. It is a Finishing Move that Kicks a target multiple times in rapid succession, dealing Physical Damage to them (number of times based on Skill Level). Charging up Tiger Strike makes Dragon Talon stronger.

* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)

Claw Mastery* 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.

Burst of Speed* passively provides you with a massive Movement Speed and Attack Speed buff. This increases your mobility, your Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike, and Dragon Tail 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).

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.

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.

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.

Shadow Master* summons a mini-Assassin AI that uses Skills independently of your own. It mostly serves as a damage sponge and distraction. Shadow Master is tankier than Shadow Warrior against most monster types.

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).

* 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 for a Weapon Speed Modifier of -30 or -20. This allows you to reach maximum Attack Speed on the Dragon Talon Assassin with only Burst of Speed (no additional IAS on gear).
2) Bone Break and the Amplify Damage procs from Lacerator, Amplify Damage Claws, or Atma's Scarab allow this build to more easily farm areas with monsters that are Immune to Physical.
3) Wizardspike is used for the Faster Cast Rate it provides on Weapon-Swap if Barbarian-granted Battle Orders is available.
4) Only use Naj's Puzzler or a Staff of Teleportation on Weapon-Swap for Teleport Charges before acquiring Enigma.
5) Use a Lower Resist Charge Wand on Weapon-Swap to deal additional damage against Bosses and break select Fire 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 Build Variant.

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

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.

Act 2 Desert Mercenary

Infinity, Might

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 Fire.

Mercenary Gear Options

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. Mercenary Types and 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.

General

• Before each Magic Find/Experience run, cast Burst of Speed and either Shadow Warrior or Shadow Master on your Weapon-Swap with more + to Skills. Refresh Burst of Speed as soon as it expires; re-summon your Shadow if it dies.
• Use Dragon Flight to jump directly into Elite Packs. Dragon Flight is a great source of mobility before acquiring Enigma.
• Attacking with Cobra Strike gains Charges that provide you with significant Life and Mana Leech. Dual-wielding Mosaics allows you to perpetually maintain this sustain.
• Lead with 1-3 Death Sentry Traps prior to using your Martial abilities. When there are corpses, the Corpse Explosions produced by Death Sentry deal significant damage to surrounding mobs in a large Area of Effect. It is especially effective in High Player Count games.
• Attack with Tiger Strike to gain Charges against enemies. Upon reaching 3 Charges (max), use Dragon Tail against Elites or Bosses. If not using Mosaics, recharge Tiger Strike before using Dragon Tail for maximum effectiveness.
• Cast Cloak of Shadows to temporarily Blind dangerous ranged enemies as needed (Dark Archers, Burning Souls, etc.).
• You can also use Mind Blast to Stun and Convert nearby threats.
• Strategically re-summoning Shadow Warrior or Shadow Master in front of scary mobs is an effective survival tactic.
• Fade increases your Damage Reduction, Resistances, and Curse Duration Reduction at the expense of the Attack Speed and Movement Speed provided by Burst of Speed.

Immunities

• For Fire Immune Monsters: Flame Rift sets all Immune to Fire monsters to 95% Fire Resistance, allowing any sources of -x% to Enemy Fire Resistance (including Conviction or Lower Resist) to take full effect.
• 1-Point Dragon Talon with fully-charged Tiger Strike can also comfortably deal with monsters that are Immune to Fire.
• For Physical Immune Monsters: Bone Break sets all Immune to Physical monsters to 95% Physical Resistance, allowing any sources of -x% to Enemy Physical Resistance (i.e. Amplify Damage or Decrepify) to take full effect. Bone Break in addition to Lacerator, Atma's Scarab, or Amplify Damage Proc Claws (or The Reaper's Toll or Lawbringer on the Mercenary) allows you to deal damage to Physical Immune mobs.
• Also, using Dragon Tail on mobs next to Immune to Physical mobs can kill them with its AoE Fire Damage.
• Skip Unique mobs that are Fire and Physical Immune or highly resistant to both.

Late-Game

• Before each Magic Find/Experience run, first cast Battle Command 2 times and then Battle Orders once using Call to Arms.
• Use Enigma Teleport to travel to your Farming Spot and between Elite Packs. "Telestomp" Elite Packs into a follow-up Dragon Tail.

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 (FCR)

Faster Cast Rate speeds up your casting animation for spells. Aim for at least the 65% FCR Breakpoint on either the main weapon loadout or Weapon-Swap for Enigma Teleport cast speed (The Standard Build achieves 102% FCR on Weapon-Swap). Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal Cooldowns spells have.

Increased Attack Speed (IAS)

This build solely relies upon the Increased Attack Speed from Burst of Speed for faster attack and trap setting animations using Weapons with a Weapon Speed Modifier of -20 or -30. Consult the d2planner for Breakpoints with IAS on gear and/or different Bases.

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery increases survivability. Aim for at least the 27% FHR Breakpoint.

Faster Block Rate (FBR)

Faster Block Rate increases survivability on certain Build Variants. Aim for the 32% Faster Block Rate Breakpoint where applicable.

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 Dragon Tail Assassin can become Hardcore viable with key changes to Gear, Stats, and Skill Point allocation. Review the changes below before building this character in Hardcore, as some of these changes differ significantly from the Standard Build.

Gear Changes

• Damage Reduction: There are several gear options for achieving a high amount of % Damage Reduction on a Hardcore Dragon Tail Assassin. Stormshield is the best overall option for survivability. A combination of Crown of Ages and either String of Ears or Verdungo's Hearty Cord also works well if you are dual-wielding Claws.
• Stacking Resistances: Stack your Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistances beyond the default maximum values of 75 each (175 total in Hell). Stacking 85 additional Resistances in Hell completely negates the Conviction Aura of any Elite Boss or the Oblivion Knight's Lower Resist Curse. Beware of encountering both at the same time! Consider the primary damage type(s) of the monsters in the area you want to farm. Chains of Honor is a possible Body Armor option if you are willing to forgo Enigma. Um Runes socketed into gear, Jewelry, and Charms are also ideal sources of Resistances.
• Faster Hit Recovery: Achieve the 48% Faster Hit Recovery Breakpoint on your main weapon loadout with your Boots and Charms. Faster Hit Recovery is not as important when going for maximum Chance to Block (75%). You mainly rely on the 32% Faster Block Rate Breakpoint you achieve with Stormshield.
• Lightning Absorb: Equip Thundergod's Vigor when farming or Teleporting through an area where Burning Souls are able to spawn such as Worldstone Keep/Throne of Destruction.

Stat Point Changes

• Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to wear Stormshield.
• Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to achieve maximum Chance to Block (75%) while having Stormshield equipped.
• Allocate all remaining Stat Points into Vitality.

Skill Point Changes

• Investing Skill Points into Shadow Master instead of Shadow Warrior provides the Hardcore Dragon Tail Assassin with a more reliable tank.
• You can use Fade instead of Burst of Speed, sacrificing Attack Speed for Damage Reduction, Resistances, and Curse Duration Reduction. If you choose to do this, additional Skill Points into Fade can further improve your Damage Reduction.
  
  See the "Hardcore" Build Variant below for additional suggestions and visuals.

• Teleport instantly moves you to a selected square on the visible screen in which you can stand. The game tries to to place you within a small radius around your cursor even if it would be impeded normally.
• Teleport is not obstructed by walls or other impediments but can fail if your cursor is not completely passed those impediments when cast. Your Mercenary and Shadow Warrior or Shadow Master travel with you.
• Summons in large quantities can become “stuck” in position after Teleporting. Move/walk away from that position to give them the chance to spread out.
• You can “extend” the visible screen by opening UI-windows like the Inventory or the Character screen. Continuously cast Teleport and drag your mouse to the edge of your screen.
• The Mana cost of Teleport decreases with additional Skill Levels down to 1 Mana per cast.
• You can use “ESC” to open the menu in Single Player to pause the game after a Teleport to determine if you are safe.
• Teleport casting speed is affected by the Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint that you achieve with your gear.

Death Sentry is in the unique situation in which it combines 2 Skills (Lightning Sentry and Corpse Explosion). Both Skill effects have certain conditions in which they occur and use up remaining shots from the maximum shot count. This means that a Death Sentry with a maximum of 7 Shots can use, for example, 5 x Lightning and 2x Corpse Explosion).

• Base amount of available shots is 5, which can be increased by putting Skill Points into Fire Blast. Every 3rd Skill Point, Death Sentry gain +1 shot to a maximum of 11 (with Fire Blast Base Skill Level 18).

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

• The lightning beam behaves exactly as Lightning Sentry:
  • Monsters are pierced.
  • Travels in a straight line.
  • Every monster on the travel path takes Lightning Damage.
• Death Sentry shoots at a rate of 31 Frames per cast (Every 1.24 seconds) before they expire. This rate cannot be influenced.

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

• Death Sentry shoots at a rate of 31 Frames per cast (Every 1.24 seconds) before they expire. This rate cannot be influenced.
• The Corpse Explosion is weaker than its Necromancer counterpart, dealing only 40 - 80% of the monster's regular base Life.
• Damage does not increase with higher player count.
• Its damage is split into 50% Physical Damage and 50% Fire Damage.
• When the corpse's Monster Level > Character Level the damage is multiplied by Character Level / Monster Level.
• Within the Area of Effect, the damage is always afflicted. It cannot be blocked by any means.