Wake of Fire Assassin is a very chill and straight forward build. She has great mobility and clears density with ease.
The Wake of Fire / Death Sentry Assassin aka "Fire-Trapsin" lays down Traps that auto attack from a distance. As of Patches 2.6 and 2.7, both +x% Elemental Skill Damage and -% Enemy Fire Resistance apply on Trap attacks.
Her Fire and Physical Damage Skills are supported by Lightning Sentry as well, making Immunes easy to deal with. Death Sentry's Corpse Explosion deals massive area damage as soon as a corpse is around, starting a domino effect. This allows the Assassin to clear areas like The Secret Cow Level effectively.
Burst of Speed and Teleport provide high mobility that makes the Fire-Trapsin a real joy to play.
This build guide assumes you have a Character at Level 75 before transitioning to it. Check out our Assassin Leveling Guide and our General Leveling Strategies to reach Level 75.
Very Tanky ✔
High Mobility ✔
Beginner Friendly ✔
Low Entry Budget Option ✔
❌ Best in Slot Is Expensive
❌ Slow Build Up For Damage
❌ Bad Act Boss Farmer Early On
❌ Requires Infinity For High Damage
Sunder Charm Setup
Patch 2.5 introduces a new way of breaking Immunities: Sunder Charms. Any enemy that would be Immune to your damage type is instead reduced to 95% Resistance, before any other Resistance reductions apply. (e.g. Conviction, Lower Resist) The Charm also reduces YOUR Resistance against the sundered damage type! Check out our post on Sunder Charms to learn more about these new Charms. The following setup uses Flame Rift, allowing you to farm anywhere you want.
Gear Changes
To optimize this Sunder Charm you need Conviction and Lower Resist. Equip a Wand of Lower Resistance and an Infinity Giant Thresher on your Mercenary.
Counteract the negative effect of Flame Rift with a Rare Ring or Fade.
Terror Zones
The new Terror Zone mechanic combined with Sunder Charms open up a wide range of farmable areas. The following list highlights the best and worst Terror Zones for this build on the Starter or Budget setup. With the Sunder Charm Setup, more Terror Zones become accessible. Learn more about Terror Zones here and see how they stack up in our Terror Zone Tier List.
Best
✔ The Secret Cow Level - High Density, Easy Mobility, No Immunities
✔ Tal Rasha's Tombs - High Density, Many Elite Groups, Quick Access
✔ Flayer Jungle + Flayer Dungeon - High Density, Quick Access
✔ Stony Tomb ONLY - Many Elite Groups, No Immunities
✔ Far Oasis - Easy Mobility, No Immunities, Quick Access
Worst
❌ Chaos Sanctuary - Immunities, High Elemental Damage
❌ Travincal - Immunities, High Elemental Damage
❌ Durance of Hate - Immunities, High Physical Damage, High Elemental Damage
❌ Cathedral + Catacombs - Trash Mobility, Immunities
❌ Arreat Plateau - Low Density, Few Elite Groups
Skills
Put 1 Skill Point into each of the following Skills:
1. Death Sentry
2. Cloak of Shadows
3. Mindblast
4. Shadow Master
5. Burst of speed
6. Fade
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. Wake of Fire
2. Fireblast
3. Wake of Inferno
4. Death Sentry
5. Lightning Sentry
Damage
Utility
Attributes
Note: This section provides you with the standard Stat Point allocation. Build Variants can require a different allocation!
Strength
Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to equip all of your gear. Take into account how much Strength your gear provides when equipped.
Dexterity
Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to equip all of your gear. Take into account how much Dexterity your gear provides when equipped.
Vitality
Allocate any remaining Stat Points into Vitality after meeting Strength, Dexterity and Energy requirements.
Energy
Don't allocate any Stat Points into Energy. This build gets enough Mana from gear, buffs, Charms, and Mana Potions.
Essentials
Gear Options
Farming Spots
Mercenary
Playstyle
Breakpoints
Hardcore
Build Variants
Setup
The Starter Variant of the Wake of Fire Assassin relies heavily on +x to Skills to deal damage. Shop Anya in Act 5 for Cunning Greater Talons. Lore, Stealth, Spirit Crystal Sword, and Ancients' Pledge are easily obtainable sources of Life, Resistances, and Faster Hit Recovery. A rhyme provides Cannot Be Frozen. Being frozen reduces your trap laying speed, so this feels very comfortable.
Mercenary
Skills
Put 1 Skill Point into each of the following Skills:
1. Death Sentry
2. Cloak of Shadows
3. Mindblast
4.Shadow Master
5. Fade
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. Wake of Fire
2. Fireblast
3. Wake of Inferno
4. Burst of speed
Attributes
Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength and Dexterity to equip your gear. Put remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
Mechanics
Death Sentry
Burst of Speed
Teleport
Summary
- Spread out your 5 Wake of Fire Traps to maximize your damage’s surface area.
- Place 1-2 Death Sentrys after the first monster dies to blow up the surrounding mobs with Corpse Explosion.
- Keep your Mercenary close to enemies to apply his Conviction Aura.
- Utilize Death Sentry is used for Fire Immune monsters.
- Use Fire Blast to increase damage output after your Traps are deployed.
- Keep up Burst of Speed at all times on Softcore Characters.
- Use Fade instead of Burst of Speed if you want to cap your Resistances and Physical Damage Reduction.
- Cloak of Shadows and Mindblast are great sources of Crowd Control.
Wake of Fire is one of the coolest looking Skills in the game and is incredibly satisfying to pilot when combined with Death Sentry. The easy access to powerful Crowd Control and high damage output rewards a highly mobile playstyle.
Good luck!
Credits
Updated by Teo1904
Original Author BTNeandertha1
Reviewed by MacroBioBoi and Teo1904
Changelog
- 3 May 2023
Updated to Patch 2.7 - 13 February 2023
Updated to Patch 2.6 - 21 September 2022
Updated to Patch 2.5 - Added Sunder and Terror Zone sections - Added Gear Options - Added Sunder to Playstyle - Added Sunder Charm Suggestion in variants - 24 April 2022
Updated to Patch 2.4 - Reworded Introduction - Reworked Skills section - Added Gear Options - Added Farming Spots - Playstyle adjustment for new skill usages - Reworked all Build Varients - Reworked Summary