Assassins: Burst of Speed or Fade?

Assassin was the last class I started exploring in D2r, and it’s an odd one.

I knew for a while that “Treachery” was great for a lot of reasons, but primarily the

Fade proc. Then when Hustle came out I was like: “damn

Burst of Speed is crazy, maybe those assassins aren’t a pet class after all”

Then i found out she could only have 1 of the 2 active.

Initially i though a maxed

Fade would be best, but on all my assassin play-throughs i maxed

Burst of Speed and have never looked back - it’s just sooo strong (not that it needs nerfing).

I just got my Venom assassin through hell, and I’ll probably respec her to a bladesin to try out.

What do you use and why?

Fade is one of the best skills in the game in my opinion. Depends on your needs I would argue. If you are rich / lucky you can reach max trap laying speed without bos - and you might

Teleport more than walk anyway. 30++ % phy DMG reduction+ 60++% all res is hard to come by with items.

xigua wrote: 2 months ago

Fade is one of the best skills in the game in my opinion. Depends on your needs I would argue. If you are rich / lucky you can reach max trap laying speed without bos - and you might

Teleport more than walk anyway. 30++ % phy DMG reduction+ 60++% all res is hard to come by with items.

True, but then again not many item slots can have IAS boosts while res is all around deal (not to mention that in dire need you can fill inventory with res SCs which you can't really for the IAS part)... I definitely agree on the fact that it depends on a build. Aaaaand I somehow feel like

Fade has much more effect when used as proc on some other class anyway (or a Merc). I won't vote however because even tho I played a very little with 'sin (played some more on legacy back in the days but that was loooong time ago and on some earlier version), anyway, either way it's 50-50 split for me between the two. But yes, what

Fade brings to the table IS massive boost.

From my point of view:
If you can reach max desired speed (trap laying/ hitting...) without BoS go

Fade.
If not, go BoS and fill res otherwise, switch to

Fade as 1 point Wonder when needed (e.g. fighting Uber Meph).

It can also be situation dependent. Like, when you start ladder fresh as a sin, and when trying to rush through areas you'd obviously prefer BoS (except when going through areas with lots of dangerous elemental projectiles, like

Willowisp filled areas), but when you do have to fight, and you're likely quite a bit undergeared,

Fade is a massive boon. Overall, I prefer BoS unless I need the added safety of

Fade, but they both have their uses.

Yea i guess i should have put a third option “or both”!

I use both, it depends on the situation. If I need the res, then

Fade. Otherwise, I mainly use

Burst of Speed.

Necrarch wrote: 2 months ago

From my point of view:
If you can reach max desired speed (trap laying/ hitting...) without BoS go

Fade.
If not, go BoS and fill res otherwise, switch to

Fade as 1 point Wonder when needed (e.g. fighting Uber Meph).

This.

BoS and

Fade are both brilliant at what they do, even as 1pt wonders. But generally speaking, there's a clear trade-off moving from one to the other that can easily be calculated. Not reaching the desired IAS breakpoints just isn't an option imo. Neither is not capping res. Using BoS typically makes reaching IAS BPs quite easy across the board but will require extra res from gear as you're not using

Fade. Not using BoS on the other hand makes res far easier thanks to

Fade but then requires (typically quite a bit) more IAS from gear. The cost is easy to quantify on either side.

Personally, I end up using BoS on pretty much all sin builds as res tends to be easy enough to

Cap anyways, the bit of extra DR typically isn't needed/noticeable, BoS ease of reaching IAS breakpoints is quite hard to beat and the extra run speed is actually quite a nice addition, even for teleporting builds.