Fastest route to level Assassin to level 75

Hi guys,

I’m thinking of starting Assassin (my 3rd char and first time trying out this class). Assuming no limits on access to gears and runes, what’s the fastest possible route to level to 75?

Something kicking off the discussion:

Martial Arts Assassin (

Dragon Talon Kicksin Focus)

Core Idea:
• Abuse

Dragon Talon for insane attack speed + Crushing Blow from gear.
• Use Enigma for mobility and

Life Tap to face-tank bosses.
• Add

Death Sentry for AoE clear (

Corpse Explosion).
• Transition into

Phoenix Strike if prefer elemental martial arts later.

⸻

Skill Plan

Levels 1–30:
• 1pt

Dragon Talon
• Max

Death Sentry ASAP
• 1pt

Fade,

Burst of Speed,

Cloak of Shadows,

Mind Blast
• Extra points into

Dragon Talon and prerequisites

Use

Wake of Fire to get to level 18–24 fast (then respec)

Post-30:
• Max

Dragon Talon (requires only 18–24 points including +skills for 5 kicks)
• Max

Death Sentry
• Optionally max Venom for more kick damage
• Optionally invest in

Phoenix Strike + synergies

⸻

Gear Setup (Fastest Possible)

Main Build:

Dragon Talon Kicksin
• Weapon: Last Wish

Phase Blade
• High Crushing Blow +

Life Tap
• Shield:

Stormshield (

Ber’d) or Phoenix for damage
•

Helm: Guillaume’s Face (

Um or ias jewel)
• Armor: Enigma — for

Teleport and MF
• Gloves: Dracul’s Grasp (

Life Tap)
•

Belt: Verdungo’s or

String of Ears (PDR)
•

Boots:

Gore Rider (Crushing Blow, Open Wounds)
• Rings:

Raven Frost + BK Ring or Dual Leech Rare
• Amulet: Highlord’s Wrath or Mara’s Kaleidoscope
• Inventory: Torch, Anni, maxed res charms, AR/dmg/life charms

Weapon Swap:
• CTA + Spirit for BO

Merc:
• Might Merc with:
• Infinity (for -res vs elemental)
• Fortitude
•

Andariel’s Visage

Wake of Fire + synergies can be used until you finished nm. With one point in

Death Sentry and a decent Merc you won't have big problems with fire immunes. Also, leveling at nm cow with

Wake of Fire is very efficient.

I would respecc into Lightning and one point

Mind Blast when you get into hell, got Crescent Moon Runeword and are around lvl 60. But you can also skip it completely and do baalruns nm until lvl 75 and go straight to your final setup

Leveling up with melee without having Mosaic is slower and more cumbersome than going traps imo

Traps are also quiet gear-independent, maybe having perfect gear for the current level get melee on par with it, but i never tried

ohptsh wrote: 1 month ago

Something kicking off the discussion

^_^

I'll add that

Dragon Tail is nice and quick in later normal because of its large fire splash damage and almost complete lack of immunes, while being quite decent in Nightmare as well as long as you have something for the phys and fire immunes.

Especially if you have something that triggers amp damage( or

Decrepify to a lesser extent). Then only the fire immunes slows you down.
(which can be dealt with by ltng sentry)

If you have Mosaic, adding maxed

Tiger Strike makes

Dragon Tail do absolutely hilarious levels of damage.

It's an option that few seems to remember. And while i haven't run one in D2R yet, the last one i did in D2X went through normal and Nightmare almost literally like hot knife through warm butter.

Just a thought.

My personal fast levelling is to use 3 socket armor and

Helm each with three 20/2 psn jewels in, a

Raven Claw with a

Flawless Ruby, cow kings

Boots(for the big chunk of fire damage that adds to the

Raven Claw splash),

Bloodfist gloves and as many +fire damage charms that fits inventory, again to up the splash damage.

The huge advantage is that you can then use manahungry skills without issue, because you're constantly throwing around explosive

Arrows with lots of splash damage on taking out everything that doesn't

Resist Fire.

And for anything with more HP, you're also doing 120/2 poison damage to anything you hit, which in Normal difficulty is extremely effective.

At lvl 28 switch armor to 4 socket one that gives about 50 extra fire damage, +15% IAS and +8 to both min and max damage.

Switch to

Kuko Shakaku with

Ral or

Shael plus

Razortail at lvl 33.

At that point, you begin to have access to good skills regardless of class. And every arrow by now does several hundred explosion splash damage.

Just to give some ideas...

Thanks guys @Blubbalutsch @FULCRUM75

I'm just seated down clearing my stash for this new char. Will try them out

Not sure if anyone has come across this:



Let's Play Diablo 2 - Trap Assassin [Normal] | Guided Playthrough
By Mr LlamaSC

I haven’t watch it yet; looks good though!

Hi guys,

Just reporting back how to level fast towards lvl 75.

Per Mr LlamaSC YouTube guide,

Wake of Fire traps is the way to go until before Act 4 NM. It's absolutely super fast to level using WoF traps, you can just fire and forget. Once u've Stealth, Lore, it's fast. And even faster once u've dual Spirit.

Past lvl 42, you can choose to respec to do Lightning +

Death Sentry traps per Mr L guide in this play through for NM + Hell or choose something different:

Dual Bartuc +

Phoenix Strike (PS). No doubt u'll lose charges as u do a Dragon finisher, but it's still super easy and OP.

1. 3 clicks (or more if misses) to pre

Charge 3 PS
2.

Dragon Claw (finish)
3. 1 or 2 clicks to go back to 3 charges
4.

Dragon Claw (finish)
5. Go to step 3.

You can just level easy in NM.
Even w/o Mosaic it's extremely easy. I've only do 1 point wonder:
-

Claw Mastery
-

Fade
-

Burst of Speed
-

Weapon Block
-

Dragon Talon
-

Dragon Claw

Max PS first
Then points to Fist of Fire for synergy

Extremely fast clearing NM.
One point to note, as this is my 3rd char, I do have access to quite a good number of gear so your mileage might vary.

The reason I didn't put any more points in finishing move is because PS (3 charges) is already OP as it is.
Without dual Mosaic, for ease of play, didn't really bother to build up Claw of thunder/

Blades of Ice etc...

Have fun!

I recently leveling an Assassin using the Martial Arts tree, but just use

Dragon Talon as a finisher attack.

Phoenix Strike was really good pre-Mosaic
With

Dragon Talon with enough levels to do 3 kicks you will release the 3 charges, each time you do a

Dragon Talon (since last patches Finisher attacks just consume 1

Charge now)
(get 3 charges,

Dragon Talon, repeat)

And before that

Claws of Thunder, with 2 kicks

Dragon Talon (you don't need to release the 1st charge as it is not an area effect)
(get 3 charges,

Dragon Talon, repeat)

ohptsh wrote: 4 weeks ago

Hi guys,

Just reporting back how to level fast towards lvl 75.

Per Mr LlamaSC YouTube guide,

Wake of Fire traps is the way to go until before Act 4 NM. It's absolutely super fast to level using WoF traps, you can just fire and forget. Once u've Stealth, Lore, it's fast. And even faster once u've dual Spirit.

Past lvl 42, you can choose to respec to do Lightning +

Death Sentry traps per Mr L guide in this play through for NM + Hell or choose something different:

Dual Bartuc +

Phoenix Strike (PS). No doubt u'll lose charges as u do a Dragon finisher, but it's still super easy and OP.

1. 3 clicks (or more if misses) to pre

Charge 3 PS
2.

Dragon Claw (finish)
3. 1 or 2 clicks to go back to 3 charges
4.

Dragon Claw (finish)
5. Go to step 3.

You can just level easy in NM.
Even w/o Mosaic it's extremely easy. I've only do 1 point wonder:
-

Claw Mastery
-

Fade
-

Burst of Speed
-

Weapon Block
-

Dragon Talon
-

Dragon Claw

Max PS first
Then points to Fist of Fire for synergy

Extremely fast clearing NM.
One point to note, as this is my 3rd char, I do have access to quite a good number of gear so your mileage might vary.

The reason I didn't put any more points in finishing move is because PS (3 charges) is already OP as it is.
Without dual Mosaic, for ease of play, didn't really bother to build up Claw of thunder/

Blades of Ice etc...

Have fun!

Do you need bartucs? I have 2 of them

ohptsh wrote: 1 month ago

Assuming no limits on access to gears and runes, what’s the fastest possible route to level to 75?

Fastest? Pay with those unlimited runes for rushing/powerleveling. Then set up your endgame build.

Spectie wrote: 4 weeks ago

Do you need bartucs? I have 2 of them

Lol, unfortunately I already have 2 pre Mosaic
It's my 3rd char so I actually prep all the gears I intend to wield towards end game even before started playing.

Apologies for not being clear in my description. I meant instead of clearing NM (lvl 42 to 60, before wielding Mosaic) like Mr LlamaSC guide using trapsin all the way, I started using 2 x Bartuc and playing MA tree in NM to level 60 to wield Mosaic then. Then I proceed to Hell.

Cheers!

Trang Oul wrote: 4 weeks ago

ohptsh wrote: 1 month ago

Assuming no limits on access to gears and runes, what’s the fastest possible route to level to 75?

Fastest? Pay with those unlimited runes for rushing/powerleveling. Then set up your endgame build.

Lol no no no. That would kill the fun
To sandbox and scope to question; I guess I should say no external help/rush other than access to gears
And of course enjoy the playing journey leveling and playing the char with those gears bis corresponding the the current level of char

ohptsh wrote: 3 weeks ago

Trang Oul wrote: 4 weeks ago

Fastest? Pay with those unlimited runes for rushing/powerleveling. Then set up your endgame build.

Lol no no no. That would kill the fun

True, but so does twinking. :Ь Both take away all the challenge.

I Agree.

And have no problem in leveling my Assassin using the Martial Arts tree (no traps) recently.

ohptsh wrote: 3 weeks ago

To sandbox and scope to question; I guess I should say no external help/rush other than access to gears
And of course enjoy the playing journey leveling and playing the char with those gears bis corresponding the the current level of char