Heather's Guide to the Shadow Knight

Introduction: What is a Shadow Knight and why should I make one?

Hi, my name is Heather, and I am an Assassin addict. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/style_emoticons/default/shuriken.gif

Back in the summer of 2004, after playing around with a Passion phase blade and taking a look at the non-paladin zeal breakpoint tables, I developed a build that I dubbed the "Shadow Knight" -- an assassin, largely focused in the Shadow Discipline skills, who uses the Zeal oskill granted by the "Passion" runeword as her main attack. I expected it to be a relatively underpowered variant, and decided to solo Hell as a challenge to see how viable the build actually was.

As it turned out, Knight_Shadow's success blew me away. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

I've now decided to condense my experiences with my favourite character of all time into a build guide.

There are many reasons to want to try a Shadow Knight.

• She can go anywhere and kill anything. Soloing hell up to the Chaos Sanctuary was easy going, and even after that point it was quite manageable.
• She can go anywhere and kill anything more safely than just about any other melee build. With the sheer number of tools at her disposal, there is no situation that a well built Shadow Knight cannot handle, with the possible exception of the dreaded Lag Monster.
• And most importantly, she is, hands down, one of THE most fun characters to play, ever. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/style_emoticons/default/w00t.gif (Don't believe me? Try one and see.)
• Oh, and she gets mad style points. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif

Much ado about breakpoints and base weapon speed (or, let's get the technical mumbo-jumbo out of the way)

The tables look a bit ugly, but the information is useful.

General assassin breakpoints for easy reference

Assassin Hit Recovery Breakpoints

FHR	Hit Recovery Speed in frames
0	9
7	8
15	7
27	6
48	5
86	4
200	3

Assassin Blocking Breakpoints

FBR	Block Speed in frames
0	5
14	4
32	3
86	2
600	1

(The information for both of these is pretty widely available, but I happened to take it from diabloii.net's tables.)

Zeal speed

I am not going to list every possible breakpoint for every possible base weapon speed here, because I am going to assume that you are sensible and want a sensible zeal speed and are planning on making your runeword in something with a sensible base speed. If you want to make "Passion" in a legendary mallet or thunder maul, be my guest, but you can work out the math yourself since you're no doubt going to be using BoS.

How to do the math yourself

1. Use the tables below to figure out what EIAS you need to reach your desired breakpoint.
2. Take that number, and add your weapon speed modifier as it appears on the Arreat Summit. For instance, if you are using a Legendary Mallet, add 20 to your number from step 1. If you are using a Phase blade, subtract 30 (okay, add -30 if you still want to call it addition).
3. Take your number from step two, and subtract any IAS you are getting from Burst of Speed, Fanaticism, etc. For instance, if you are running level 7 BoS, (which gives a 41% attack speed bonus) subtract 41 from your total. If the result is zero or negative, you've already reached your breakpoint.
4. If the result from step three is positive, look it up here in the EIAS to IAS conversion table. This will tell you how much IAS you need from equipment to reach your breakpoint.
5. Since "Passion" comes with 25 IAS already, subtract 25 from your total from step 4 to see how much more you need.

Example:

I want to zeal with a Legendary Mallet, a one handed swinging weapon.

I need 75 EIAS to reach a 4-frame zeal attack. I take 75 and add 20 for the Legendary Mallet's base speed. (running total: 95)

I will be running level 11 BoS. I subtract 46 from my total. (running total: 49)

I look up 49 in the EIAS to IAS conversion table, and discover that I need 83 IAS to reach my goal. I subtract 25 from 83 and find that I need 58 more IAS from elsewhere in my gear even running BoS.

I decide to use a Phase Blade instead. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif

Zeal attack speed tables

As I said, I'm not going to include every possible breakpoint. Zeal is a multi-hit attack and therefore needs to be reasonably fast, so I'm only going to include base weapon speeds that you're actually likely to want to use. I'm also only going to give you numbers that are useful. If you need 175% IAS on top of what you get from the runeword, you're not going to want to do it, so I'm not going to bother listing it.

All information here is taken from this post in the "Amazon Zeal Attack Speed" thread in the tech archives, one of the most useful threads ever. If you really want to know how fast you would zeal with -20 EIAS or with one handed thrusting weapons (none of which can get four sockets so it's kind of irrelevant), look here.

These lists assume you are not running BoS and have no handly source of fanaticism, and tell you how much IAS you need on top of the 25% you already get from the "Passion" runeword in order to reach a given breakpoint for zeal "follow-up" speed (i.e. the rate at which the zeal attacks happen, not the starting/ending animations).

1-handed swinging weapons

Any one handed weapon that can get four sockets falls into this category, so unless

you are making a two handed Knight, this is the information you want.

Base speed -30 (phase blade)

• 5 frame zeal out of the box
• 4 frame zeal with 47 additional IAS

Base speed -10 (war spike, scourge, caduceus, cryptic sword)

• 6 frame zeal out of the box
• 5 frame zeal with 17 additional IAS
• 4 frame zeal with 117 additional IAS (approaching the limits of feasability here)

Base speed 0 (berserker axe, conquest sword)

• 6 frame zeal out of the box
• 5 frame zeal with 38 additional IAS

Base speed 10 (small crescent, ettin axe)

• 7 frame zeal out of the box
• 6 frame zeal with 10 additional IAS
• 5 frame zeal with 64 additional IAS

2-handed swords

Base speed -10 (champion sword)

• 9 frame zeal out of the box
• 8 frame zeal with 12 additional IAS
• 7 frame zeal with 55 additional IAS
• 7 frame zeal with fastest start/end animation with 77 additional IAS

Base speed -5 (highland blade)

• 9 frame zeal out of the box
• 8 frame zeal with 21 additional IAS
• 7 frame zeal with 70 additional IAS
• 7 frame zeal with fastest start/end animation with 90 additional IAS

Base speed 0 (balrog blade)

• 10 frame zeal out of the box
• 9 frame zeal with 4 additional IAS
• 8 frame zeal with 31 additional IAS
• 7 frame zeal with 88 additional IAS
• 7 frame zeal with fastest start/end animation with 117 additional IAS

Base speed 5 (colossus blade)

• 10 frame zeal out of the box
• 9 frame zeal with 12 additional IAS
• 8 frame zeal with 43 additioanl IAS
• 7 frame zeal with 108 additioanl IAS

Base speed 10 (colossus sword)

• 11 frame zeal out of the box
• 10 frame zeal with 2 additioanl IAS
• 9 frame zeal with 21 additioanl IAS
• 8 frame zeal with 55 additioanl IAS

Spears

Base speed -20 (mancatcher)

• 8 frame zeal out of the box
• 7 frame zeal with 4 additional IAS
• 6 frame zeal with 53 additioanl IAS

Base speed 0 (stygian pike, ghost spear)

• 9 frame zeal out of the box
• 8 frame zeal with 7 additional IAS
• 7 frame zeal with 43 additional IAS
• 6 frame zeal with 127 additioanl IAS (really stretching possibility here)

Base speed 20 (war pike)

• 10 frame zeal out of the box
• 9 frame zeal with 19 additional IAS
• 8 frame zeal with 47 additioanl IAS
• 7 frame zeal with 108 additional IAS

All other two-handed weapons

Base speed -15 (feral axe)

• 7 frame zeal out of the box
• 6 frame zeal with 25 additional IAS
• 6 frame zeal with faster start/end animation with 45 additioanl IAS
• 6 frame zeal with fastest star/end animation with 92 additional IAS

Base speed -10 (champion axe, thresher, giant thresher)

• 7 frame zeal out of the box
• 6 frame zeal with 35 additional IAS
• 6 frame zeal with faster start/end animation with 58 additioanl IAS
• 6 frame zeal with fastest star/end animation with 113 additional IAS

Base speed 0 (silver-edged axe, shillelagh, great poleaxe)

• 8 frame zeal out of the box
• 7 frame zeal with 14 additional IAS
• 6 frame zeal with 61 additional IAS
• 6 frame zeal with faster start/end animation with 92 additioanl IAS

Base speed 10 (ogre maul, decapitator, glorious axe, elder staff, archon staff, cryptic axe, colossus voulge)

• 9 frame zeal out of the box
• 8 frame zeal with 4 additional IAS
• 7 frame zeal with 33 additioanl IAS
• 6 frame zeal with 95 additional IAS

Building a Shadow Knight

Well, here's the quick and dirty version: take one assassin, add a "Passion" runeword melee weapon, and there you go.

If you want some tips on making an effective, zealot-optimized build, though, please read on.

Stats

Here's the easy part. Build her like you'd build most characters.

Strength: enough for gear. If you play softcore, be careful that you're not "strength tiering" so much that you can't equip your corpse properly.
Dexterity: enough to maintain max block with your end game shield of choice. This will also help your AR. This assumes you are using a shield of course. If you decide to go two-handed, then only enough to equip your gear, and be prepared to work hard to raise your chance to hit in other ways.
Vitality: everything else.
Energy: huh?

Skill choices

Well, your main attack skill, Zeal, and one of your backup skills, Berserk, are both coming as an oskill on your weapon. This leaves a lot of points to devote to crowd control and utility skills. And that, of course, is a Good Thing, because an assassin has all sorts of fun and deadly tricks in her arsenal. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif

Recommended must-haves

From the Martial Arts Tree:

Dragon Flight - 1 point
This is a utility skill all melee assassins should have. Its label of finishing move is kind of a misnomer, since you really use it to begin a series of attacks, not end one, but whatever (yeah I know it's because it releases charge-ups, it's still silly). Besides the fun and style points of telekicking into a mob, it can be a valuable safety tactic for closing the gap with ranged attackers, or for a quick escape option if you leave a few live critters behind you. It's also nice for mobility if you're in an area full of archers or quill rats and you want to walk to maintain your max block rate.

From the Traps Tree:

Blade Fury - 1 point
This gives you what most other melee builds would kill for: a ranged attack for when you don't want to get up close and personal with no need for a weapon change.

Death Sentry - 1-20 points
Because blowing stuff up is fun and helps take down groups quickly. At least one point here is a must especially if you plan on playing with Nihlathak on anything like a regular basis. Add more points to increase the corpse explosion radius. If you really want, you can rely on a shadow master to cast it for you, but you've got the points to spend so cast it yourself to spam before and during an engagement with a mob.

From the Shadow Disciplines Tree:

Shadow Master/Warrior - to taste
It's nice to have a friend to pack a bit of punch and distract nasty things that would otherwise be attacking you. I like the Master, but others enjoy the more controllable Warrior. I won't attempt to make any arguments either way, just pick your minion of choice and build her to a sufficient level that you're happy with her. I personally prefer a maxed, level 30+ master, but YMMV.

Fade - 1-20 points
This keeps your resists up and gives you 1% of physical damage reduction per level for whatever level it is cast at. Even if you decide to skimp on points and use Treachery, at least 1 point plus adders is nice to get that initial Fade up before the chance to cast kicks in. Personally I recommend 5-15 hard points, to cast at a level of at least 15-20 after +skills, but if you really want to max your safety with the %damage reduction, max it. You have the points to spare with this build.

Cloak of Shadows - 1 or more points
For shutting down enemy AI. The -defense properties are also nice. You probably won't need to use it in a party, and your kill speed should be fast enough unless soloing in a high player count game that you probably don't want to increase the duration too high lest you be constantly outpacing your CoS timer, but if you're one of those who likes a high level of CoS, don't let me try to dissuade you. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

Mind Blast - 1 or more points
Crowd control, crowd control, crowd control. Need I say more? At least one point is a must unless you really really hate the monster conversion property, and pump it higher for a better stun duration.

Optional but useful

From the Traps Tree:

Lightning Sentry - 1 point prerequisite, or max
If you're spamming death sentries anyway, you can use light sentries as well for an additional type of damage. Or pump LS just for the synergy to DS so that DS does something useful with its shots when there isn't a corpse to blow up. Or on a related note, you could try investing in the fire traps, if you want something a little off the beaten path to do with your extra skillpoints.

Blade Shield - 1 point or more (for duration)
Sadly, it's not really good for much. But it sure looks cool, and it only costs 1 point if you've already got blade fury.

Fire Blast - any multiple of 3 hard points
This is a prereq for Blade Fury and Death Sentry, and you won't actually be using it, but if you have points to burn, add a couple of extra to give Death sentry an extra shot per trap.

From the Shadow Disciplines Tree:

Burst of Speed - 1 point
You already have a point here as a prerequisite to Fade, but I'm putting it on the list becaues it's nice to have hotkeyed for getting where you want to go quickly. More than one point is not recommended even if you want to keep it running for the IAS boost, since 1 plus adders should still be sufficient for that.

Venom - 1 point or max
Its usefulness is debated, but unless you are worried about monster regen and don't have a handy source of Open Wounds, it doesn't hurt to at least throw a token point in for that extra bit of damage against non poison immunes. Max it if you like or leave it at one point plus adders or leave it alone altogether, there really isn't much point to anything in between.

Psychic Hammer - 1 point
I've never really used it myself, but many people swear by it to keep particularly nasty critters knocked back to a safe distance while minions or ranged party members do the killing. You've got it as a prereq anyway, so it might be worth a hotkey.

Miscellaneous

One point plus adders in all skills
For beefing up your shadow minion's skill levels and/or for Shadow Warrior control.

Honorable mention prereq skills for early levels

From the Traps Tree

Blade Sentinel - 1 point
The frisbee is fun, reasonably effective at low levels, and a prerequisite to blade fury anyway, so it's worth a hotkey while you don't yet have all your skills using up all that valuable keyboard real estate.

Wake of Fire - 1 point
You'll never use it once you get Death Sentry (or probably for the last few levels before you get it either), but it owns the first few acts. Wonderful for the act 3 jungles in Normal.

Not very helpful

Any of the martial arts skills except for Dragon Flight
Unless you're putting points here to beef up or control your shadow, these aren't very useful to this build. If you want, you can use your 1 point shadow minion buffers/remote control buttons to help with leveling until you are able to weild your Passion, but other than that, the MA skills aren't very helpful to or even compatible with a zealing or berserking assassin's play style.

Claw Mastery and Weapon Block
Well it's pretty obvious, but since I want to be thorough here it is. You can't make the "Passion" runeword in a claw, so get your prereq points and move on. The only claws you'll be using are +skills claws for buffing your fade/venom/shadow.

Whichever shadow minion you don't use
Pick one and go with it, don't waste points in the other. There is one situation where it is helpful to use the warrior even if your main minion is the master, but even there you don't need more than 1 plus adders to cast her.

Equipment

Ah, what build guide would be complete without the list of Phat Lewt with which to adorn your creation? (Well, maybe a "totally-n00d" guide, but it was meant to be a rhetorical question.) Before I get into the obligatory dropping of item names though, I'd like to cover some basic considerations.

The 5 S's

1. Speed. Consider the base speed of your weapon, and how much IAS you will need from your gear to reach the speed you want.
2. Skills. In order to get a five-strike zeal attack, you need at least slvl 4 zeal, which means getting at least +3 all skills (not +assassin skills, not +paladin skills) from your items. Theoretically you could make your "Passion" runeword in an item with a +zeal staffmod, but good luck getting that to happen. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif
3. Safety. As useful as the assassin's skills are at managing the battlefield, this is still a melee class, and so glass cannon couture is not "the in thing" on a build like this, even in softcore. Resists, blocking, fast hit recovery, life, damage reduction, leech, elemental absorb if you have it, all are important things to have.
4. Strike. A bit of a silly word for it, but I needed something that started with "S" to go with the theme. What I mean is having damage to deliver (of various kinds), and being able to deliver it (i.e. chance to hit). If you've played a character before that didn't have much in the way of skill-based AR boosts, you know that it will take some work to be able to hit things in hell.
5. Style. Different people place different emphasis on this. If you're one of those people willing to be seen pairing a dusk shroud with Guillaume's Toaster Face on an assassin, then this probably isn't much of a priority. To many of us though, it is a very important consideration.

1-handed vs. 2-handed and other base weapon considerations

"Passion" is a very versatile runeword, able to be made in any weapon that can get four sockets. (You can even put it in missile weapons but that renders the oskills unusable.) In theory this means you have a very wide range of base weapon choices. However in practical terms the selection is more limited, at least for the assassin who wants to run Fade and not have to devote every possible gear slot to IAS.

Your first major decision is this: one-handed or two? Choosing a two-handed base weapon certainly gives you bonus points for chutzpah, and it also frees up a lot of points for vitality that would have been earmarked for dex to maintain blocking. It would make for much more of a challenge however, at least once you reach hell, and a two-handed build will look very different from a one-handed one.

That said, if you have an extra lem burning a hole in your pocket, there's nothing to say you can't make a two-handed "Passion" to play with in nightmare where the resist penalty is lighter and the monsters are less scary, even if you plan to switch to a one-handed/shield combo for hell and build your Shadow Knight accordingly.

One-handed options: phase blades vs. everything else

If you want that magical four-frame zeal, there is only one realistic choice for the Faded assassin: the Phase Blade. You need only an easily attainable 47 additional IAS on top of what comes with the runeword to reach that wonderful breakpoint, compared with 117 for the next fastest base speed. It also has another major advantage: you never need to repair it (unless you use the Heart of Wolverine charges), which dramatically cuts down on your need for town trips. It also passes muster in the aesthetics department -- the big blue sword looks really cool as she zeals, and I love the look of an enchanted phase blade. The damage is a little low compared to other elites, but it's not hard to guess why this tends to be the top choice for this runeword.

If you're willing to settle for a five frame zeal and make repair trips, however, you can pretty much pick any one-hander you like. Here is some information for comparison. I'm going to leave out anything with less than 30 durability from my list though, since I figure you probably will find that too annoying (plus assassins look goofy with one-handed axes). All information is taken from the Arreat Summit, so there are fairly likely to be errors. Please correct me if necessary on any of the numbers.

Since "Passion" has a variable enhanced damage mod, I have put in a rough calculation of the minimum and maximum average damage you can get for a given weapon.

One-handed weapon information

Weapon	Str Req	Dex Req	Lvl Req	Avg Dam	Avg Dam (final)	Durability	IAS for 5 frames
Phase Blade	25	136	54	33	85.8-102.3	n/a	47*
Cryptic Sword	99	109	61	41	106.6-127.1	44	17
Caduceus**	97	70	54	40	104-124	70	17
Scourge	77	77	57	41.5	107.9-128.65	65	17
Conquest Sword	142	142	112	45	117-139.5	32	38

* IAS given is for 4 frame zeal not 5
** staffmods will drive your repair costs up a lot and they don't do you any good, so avoid them

As far as aesthetics go, I'd recommend shopping the normal-quality versions of these weapons and equipping them for a while to see how you like the look of them on your Knight. In my view swords are the coolest and most thematically appropriate for the build, scourges are a close runner up (and have great range and durability), but big scepters and one-handed axes look very goofy on an assassin (and axes have absurdly low durability too).

Two-handed options

As we saw in the zeal speed section, two-handed swords can't get faster than a 7-frame zeal at all, which is a shame, since assassins look awesome with two-handed swords. If you can stand losing a frame of zeal you can give it a try though, since they have mad style points and good damage.

I'm excluding the spear family from contention altogether, since the only one that can realistically reach 6 frames is the mancatcher, which has puny average damage and extremely low durability.

A special nod should be given to the Feral Axe as a two-handed weapon for nightmare even if you are planning to use a one-handed one for hell (or change to a better two-hander). It is available at level 42, so you can use it as soon as you can use a Lem rune (43), and spend the whole difficulty level with it since leveling to 43 in normal isn't too arduous if you Baal run. The low durability of 30 is annoying, but acceptable given that it is a transitional weapon, and While its strength requirement of 196 is kind of steep if nothing you will use later requires anything so high, you can reach that with 102 base strength with an IK belt and gloves and a Griswold armor socketed with 3 perfect amethysts (level 45 required), or you could use a "Lionheart" armor (25 str), IK Belt and gloves (45 str between the two), and some jewelry with nice bonuses and/or amethysts in your hat. In either case equip the armor first so you can put on the belt and gloves if you don't have 110 base strength.

It is also the fastest of the two-handers, requiring only 25 additional IAS (coincidentally what you get from the IK belt/glove combo) for a 12/6 zeal, 45 for an 11/6, and 92 for a 10/6.

I'm not going to make a table for two-handed weapons since there are so many to choose from, but here are some basic ratings, ranked according to my completely subjective evaluation of their aesthetic appeal (I figured that was the most appropriate order because hey, if you're not making a two-handed assassin zealot for the style points, why bother at all?).

2-handed swords:

• poor speed (fastest possible is 7 frame zeal)
• good damage
• good durability (mostly in the 50 range)
• high strength, medium dex
• awesome style points

2-handed axes:

• moderate to good speed (some are slower but all can reach 6 frames)
• faster ones have relatively low damage but slower ones have great damage
• poor to good durability (some are in the 30s but Champ and Glorious axes have 50)
• high strength, low dex
• great style points

Non-scythe polearms:

• moderate to good speed (some are slower but all can reach 6 frames)
• good damage (range from moderate to great)
• good durability (none lower than 50)
• high to very high strength, medium to high dex
• great style points

Scythe-type polearms (thresher and giant thresher):

• good speed (can reach 10/6 with high but not absurd amounts of IAS)
• low-ish damage compared to others
• good durability
• high strength, medium to high dex
• okay style points but I'm not sure how well it fits the "Knight" look

Ogre mauls:

• okay speed (can reach 6 frames but takes a fairly high amount of IAS to get there)
• great damage but low range (range 2)
• good durability (60)
• very high strength (225!) but no dex requirement
• again, okay style points but I'm not sure how "Knightly" it looks

Staves:

• middling speed (all need a fair to high amount of IAS to reach 6 frames)
• great damage
• poor to good durability (range frm 35-50)
• low strength, low dex
• for the love of Pete don't put one of these on your Shadow Knight no matter how tempting the "bang for your stat point buck" factor is. They look ridiculous. The archon staff at least doesn't have a goofy knob on the end, but it still doesn't look like something you should be caught dead zealing with.

To trech or not to trech

"Treachery" or "trech" as it is sometimes called, is a lovely little runeword introduced in 1.11 that costs a relatively modest shael-thul-lem. It gives +2 assassin skills as well as some other tasty mods, most notably 45 IAS and chance to cast level 15 Fade when struck.

Could a Shadow Knight use it? Sure. The IAS boost is great for zeal, and the chance to cast fade and venom would free up skill points for other things. But it's not necessarily the best choice for this build. It's godly for a non-assassin melee or ranger build, and awesome for a skill-point-starved assassin build like an MA sin or a trapper, but my view is that the Shadow Knight has the skills to spare that she might as well put in the points and use an armor that has more helpful melee mods like crushing blow, open wounds, stat boosts, etc.

My opinion only of course, though -- your proverbial mileage may vary. Feel free to try Treachery with your Shadow Knight, but be conscious of how choosing it will affect your skill point distribution, which is why I made a special note of it here (no reason to invest more than one point in Fade, for instance).

The Itamz List (some recommended options)

Sets and partial sets worth looking at

Iratha's Finery - full set: hat, gloves, belt, amulet This is one of those twink sets that make me exult when I find all four pieces, and I hate to take it off any character that I've put it on. It's arguably end-game worthy, though the lack of a fourth belt row is unfortunate. Main Features: nice resists, 10% max all resists, 75% poison length reduction, some IAS and faster run, available at level 15 Drawbacks: belt has only three rows, crowns are oogly, low defense, no +skills, uses up amulet slot

The Disciple - full set: armor, amulet, gloves, belt, shoes An often overlooked set, with skill bonuses nicely suited to an oskill build. My wolfhowl barb uses it and loves it. Main features: The gloves and belt are great on their own, and paired up they get a so-so bonus of +150 defense. The set all together gives a bucketload of resists and your necessary +3 all skills. Drawbacks: Does not give any crushing blow or open wounds, and uses up nearly all of the possible places to get them. Boot damage doesn't do much for Dragon Flight. Also, dusk shrouds make faded assassins look like they forgot me AR, life bonuses, dual leech, a handsome bonus to strength with the whole set, and some resists. The blocking on the shield is second to none, and a belt with dual leech is very very handy. Also, none of the pieces are particularly rare, and it still leaves you with your armor, boot, and jewelry slots free. Drawbacks: Guillaume's Horrbly Ooogly Toaster Face. Also, no +skills. But it's Guillaume's Horribly Ooogly Toaster Face that does it for me. Well, I guess it doesn't really look that bad as long as you're wearing full armor and a Aldur's Watchtower - armor and boots Main features: Armor and boots together give a 150% bonus to AR. Drawbacks: there's not much else that's really useful going for this combination.

Immortal King - belt, boots, gloves, armor The belt/glove combo is great for reaching stat requirements and giving a nice IAS bonus, and adding more pieces just makes it get better. As for the armor, it's hard to come by and the stat requirements are steep, but if you can get your hands on it, there are few things as stylish as an assassin in charcoal gray sacred armor. wub.gif Main features: IAS, stat bonuses, FHR, nice resists and mad style points if you have the armor. Drawbacks: armor is hard to get and requires massive strength (though if you are going two-handed you're probably close with your weapon requirements, and you can socket a -req rare or magical jewel with nice secondary mods if you have one to take the edge off), no crushing blow or open wounds and eats most of the possible places to get them -- though if you're using a two-handed weapon you are probably doing enough physical damage that those are less of a necessity.

M'avina's Battle Hymn - belt, gloves, armor, hat There's not much "Shadow" to the look of your Knight if you wear the armor, but at least the hat doesn't give you toaster-head. The hat, gloves, and belt make a decent ensemble as well, or the hat with any other piece. Main features: IAS, stat bonuses, +1 all skills for the hat with any other piece Drawbacks: the armor and hat are hard to come by, you only get +1 skills, and there are better outfits out there. But if you're hurting for IAS, the hat does give a tasty 30% and you can still socket it with a fervor jewel.

Natalya's Odium - armor, hat, boots Main features: The armor looks extremely stylish on a sin, the sockets are nice, and the bonus to Shadow Disciplines is welcome. The resists and MDR don't hurt either. Drawbacks: The look of the hat just isn't very thematically appropriate, and the boot damage is kind of puny. No +all skills. And again, no crushing blow/open wounds, although it does leave the belt and glove slots open for blood crafts.

Trang-Oul's Avatar - armor, gloves, belt (not the hat though -- it's ooogly) Main Features: poison skill damage bonus on the gloves does nice things for Venom, cannot be frozen on the belt is nice, and some nice resist and life bonuses. Plus, put a few pieces together and play with fire! Drawbacks: no IAS, no +skills, and the belt is hard to find.

Individual pieces to consider

This is not an exaustive list, just some of the things I would consider nice for this build.

Headgear

My favourites:

Harlequin Crest (aka "shako") - +2 all skills, scaling life and mana, 10% dr, some unnecessary but nice MF, and space for a socket to round out whatever you need. And a cap style hat on an assassin doesn't give the stupid brown bag look - rather, it is almost invisible. "Delirium" runeword tiara or diadem - +2 all skills and some supremely nice crowd control curse procs. Yes, confuse overwrites Cloak, but it also overwrites the occasionally annoying monster flee property on your weapon. I've never used the Attract charges but I can see how they could be useful. I soloed most of hell wearing this and the doll effect wasn't really a problem since I was already engaging in melee anyway. Just be warned: going doll when there are OK's around can be hazardous. And the confuse effect is very dangerous in Baal's Throne Room since Baal thinks that confused or converted minions are gone and will then spawn the next wave. And if you have a necro around, it would be polite to change to something different. I still switch between my "delirium" and my shako depending on whether I am soloing and where I am.

Rare but nice (or at least nice to consider):

Crown of Ages - +1 skills and other very tasty mods. Steep stat and level requirements though. Kira's Guardian - No skills, but cannot be frozen, a bucketload of resists, and some FHR, plus it's aesthetically pleasing. M'avina's hat - Not the best hat, but it has a very nice 30% IAS bonus, and +1 all skills if you add another piece of the set. And it's a circlet and so therefore passes the style test. "Dream" runeword tiara or diadem - If you're lucky enough to stumble upon a Jah and can't think of anything else to do with it, slap this on and increase the "I wish I was a paladin" factor by toting your own aura! (Please don't take this as a serious suggestion unless you're just messing around in modded single player - there are much better places for a genuine Dream hat, like a melee sorc with maxed lightning mastery.)

Ooooogly but functional:

Nightwing's Veil - I don't know why you'd put this on a Shadow Knight instead of a cold-focused character, but the +2 all skills is nice. Andariel's Visage - +2 all skills, 20%IAS, and other nice mods. Vampire Gaze - No skills but all the mods are great, if you can stand how ridiculous it looks. Guillaume's Face - Ooogly toaster-head look. But the crushing blow is nice. Tal Rasha's Ooogly Ooooogly Oooogly Hat - It's hideous, but 10% dual leech is nothing to sneeze at.

Honorable mentions:

Peasant Crown, Tarnhelm, "Lore" runeword - all give +1 all skills Stealskull - No skills, but IAS, FHR, dual leech, and an insane defense bonus. Upgrade it to elite if you want the defense to get just silly Rockstopper - No skills, but very nice resists, FHR, and damage reduction A nice rare gambled circlet type hat with resists, leech, etc. - If you don't need +skills from your hat slot

Armor

My favourite:

"Duress" runeword - This is just about the ideal armor for this build. Crushing Blow, open wounds, extra damage, nice defense, great FHR, some resists, and some added cold damage, what's not to like? Plus you can put it in whatever base type you like best -- mine is in a boneweave but I think diamond mail looks nicer. Archon plate and wire fleece are light armor and still give the "pants" look.

Other good choices:

"Treachery" runeword - IAS, free fade and venom saving you skillpoints, and +2 assassin skills. "Lionheart" runeword - Some nice resists and great stat bonuses "Smoke" runeword - Nice if you're short on resists Guardian Angel - Increased maximum resists and blocking Duriel's Shell - Great resists, cannot be frozen, but unfortunately no pants. Anything with +all skills if you need it

Honorable mentions:

"Chains of Honor" and "Fortitude" runewords - Both involve very rare runes, but if you're lucky enough to find them, the mods are great for a melee character IK armor - It's rare and the stat requirements are high, but it looks wicked cool and it gets very nice resist bonuses when accompanied by other parts of the set.

Alternate weapons

My favourite:

+3 Shadow skills claw class weapons - Put two of these on your weaponswitch slot and use them to buff your fade, venom, and shadow minion. They're shoppable and so helpful I can't imagine having anything else here.

Other options:

Demon Limb - Level 23 enchant does happy things to your AR, so keeping one of these in your stash can be handy.

Shield

My favourites:

Stormshield - Huge strength bonus and damage reduction, good blocking, and needs no repairs. And the kite shield look is hands down my favourite for a Shadow Knight, since it's the closest you get to the "holy shield" look. Moser's Blessed Circle - with two perfect diamonds it gives very handsome resists, and upgraded to elite it has very respectable blocking.

Other great choices:

Gerke's Sanctuary - It's a heavy shield so it doesn't quite make my favourites list, but it looks respectable and the mods are great. "Sanctuary" runeword - Not much different from an upgraded Moser's, but the charges of slow missiles are nice, and you can make it in a Monarch for style points "Rhyme" runeword - Good blocking, some decent resists, cannot be frozen... wonderful bang for your buck Whitstan's Guard - The best blocking in the game

Honorable mentions:

"Spirit" runeword - The lack of a blocking bonus makes it less than ideal, but if you are desperate for +2 all skills, it's a cheap way to get there The good old "chromatic of deflecting" shield socketed with diamonds

Gloves

My favourites:

Blood Crafts - Crushing blow, life leech, and the potential for IAS and all sorts of other tasty mods. These have the potential to be the best you can get. Lava Gout - IAS and chance to cast level 10 enchant, which does very nice things to your chance to hit. You can use these until the enchant kicks in and then switch to something else if you like.

Other good choices:

Laying of Hands - IAS, damage to demons, and a bucketload of fire resist. I used these until I got lucky with a blood craft and finally got a pair with IAS. Magnus' Skin - Not as good as LoH, but still has IAS and some fire res Trang-Oul's gloves - Nice for the bonus to poison damage, but no IAS. You can put them on to cast Venom, then switch to something better if you like. Dracul's Grasp - Open wounds and life tap, but the tap will overwrite your Cloak or other effects, and there's no IAS. Immortal King's gloves - Gives a great stat bonus, and pair them with another piece of the set for 25% IAS. Rares with IAS and other nice mods - Rare gloves can be awesome, ID any yellow ones that drop and gamble for them.

Belt

My favourites:

Wilhelm's Pride - 5% dual leech is the main attraction here, and it gives my Shadow Knight her only source of mana leech. There are better belts out there but this is what suits my particular setup best. Thundergod's Vigor - This is what I keep in my stash to bring out in Gloam country. An extra 10% lightning res and some absorb makes those scary critters much less scary.

Other good choices:

Verdungo's Hearty Cord - If you haven't maxed out your damage reduction, this is a nice choice. Nosferatu's Coil - Life leech, IAS, and a nice strength bonus. String of Ears - Like Verdungo's, but minus the vit bonuses and with life leech and some lovely MDR instead. Always a great option. I'd probably use it if I didn't already have maxed out physical damage reduction and a need for mana leech somewhere on my gear (you don't need much but it's good to have at least a little). Blood Crafts - If you don't have a source of open wounds elsewhere, do some crafting. You're guaranteed 5-10% open wounds, some life and life leech, and you have a chance at all sorts of other rare mods. Immortal King's belt - Great stat bonuses and some nice resists, and goes well with other pieces of the set. Credendum - 15 res all on a belt ain't nothing to sneeze at.

Honorable mentions:

Goldwrap - If you don't have a Nos Coil and are really hurting for IAS, this is pretty much your only alternative. Upgrade it to exceptional for four rows. Nightsmoke - Like a poor man's Credendum with benefits. Upgrade it to exceptional for four rows. 10 res all and a lovely damage to mana bonus makes for a very nice belt. Hwanin's Blessing - Doesn't have much else going for it, and it can't be upgraded for four rows, but prevent monster heal sure can be handy. Rares - these can be wonderful, filling any needs you have for FHR and resistances. ID them when they drop, and gamble. Don't worry if they're only normal level, you can always upgrade them to exceptional to get four rows.

Footwear

My favourites:

Shadow Dancer - My favourite assassin footwear. What I lose in crushing blow and open wounds by taking off my Gores, I make up for in boot damage (my Gores are unupgraded), FHR, and Shadow skills. The Dex bonus is nice for blocking and AR, too. Gore Rider - I hope I don't need to explain why these are awesome for any melee character. I wore them until I got my Dancers. And if you upgrade them to elite, it does wonderful things to your dragon flight damage, while the -req mod keeps the strength requirement in check.

Other good choices:

War Traveler - The MF is gravy -- the main attraction is the +15-25 damage, which really helps if you use a low damage weapon like a Phase Blade. The strength bonus doesn't hurt either. Immortal King boots - great run speed, life bonus, decent kick damage, and nice if you have any other parts of the set on. Goblin Toe - Nothing much on these except Crushing Blow, but Crushing Blow is a nice thing to have. You can upgrade them once if you want a bit of a boost to your DF damage, or twice if you want a big boost to your DF damage.

Honorable mentions:

Tearhaunch - If you're hurting for resists. Infernostrides - They're more of a novelty choice, but they're one of my favourite items so I had to put in a nod to them. My Knight wore them until she could put on her Gores. Rares and blood or safety crafts - ID, craft, and gamble, and you may get something great.

Jewelry

Amulets

My favourite:

Highlord's Wrath - +1 all skills, IAS, deadly strike, light res, can't get much better than that.

Other good choices:

Any of the uniques or set amulets with +all skills - There are several of varying degrees of rarity, and most of them have other mods that are very useful on top of being one of the best ways to get your Zeal skill level up to where it needs to be. Mahim-Oak Curio - No skills, but a very nice amulet nonetheless. The Cat's Eye - No skills, but IAS and a nice dex boost. Safety Crafts - Gives you a blocking bonus as well as a chance for other great mods. Rares - These can be exactly what you need.

Rings

My favourites:

Raven Frost - Dex, AR, and cannot be frozen all in one happy little package. Carrion Wind - Life leech and some fun chance to cast effects. Possibly my favourite ring in the game.

Other good choices:

Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band - It's not exactly easy to come by, but life leech, scaling life per level, and +1 all skills is a pretty nice package especially if you're having trouble getting those +skills elsewhere. Dwarf Star - Fire absorb and MDR, and the gold find doesn't hurt, especially combined with the Lem in your weapon and if you have a Rhyme shield. Manald Heal - A good old standby if you need some mana leech. Rares and Crafts - These can fill whatever shortcomings the rest of your gear has.

Charms

Annihilus - If you have one, it's an easy way to get +1 all skills and some stat and resist bonuses. Just don't rely on charms to reach your gear requirements if you don't want it to look invisible to your team-mates. It doesn't matter if you're wearing that sexy IK armor if no one else can see it!

Hellfire Torch - The skills won't help your Zeal or Berserk levels, but they'll help everything else, and the other mods are great too. I don't know any build that wouldn't benefit from one of these.

What else to look for - AR is a really big one here. Iron/steel, sharp, and fine charms are all very helpful. Resists and life are great too, and FHR can be nice if you're close to a breakpoint from the rest of your gear. Basically, use charms to fill any gaps.

Your faithful retainer: merc choices

Honestly, this is a matter of personal preference. Any type can work. My favourite is an act I Rogue (with bonus style points for one named Heather of course http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) since they provide ranged backup, and elemental attack, and they survive quite well even when you dragonflight them into the fray. And do not underestimate the value of a high level Inner Sight for an AR-starved build like a Shadow Knight. Immunity to IM is another nice feature. Give her a nice bow (a Harmony would be great for some elemental damage and a foot speed bonus), max her resists, and give her some life leech if you like (but she'll probably survive fine without).

Act II mercs tend to be a bit on the high-maintenance side and need lots of leech and babysitting to survive, but their auras are handy. Blessed Aim is an obvious choice, but you can make arguments for Defiance, Holy Freeze, Might, and Prayer. Thorns is probably the only one that really isn't very useful for this build.

Act III iron wolves get points for style, and are fun to have around. The cold ones probably aren't a good choice since they'll shatter too many corpses that you'd otherwise like to blow up with Death Sentry, but the lightning and fire ones can be nice. Give them a "Spirit" sword and other decent gear and they'll give you some elemental backup and stay mostly out from underfoot.

As for the Act V barbarian, what Shadow Knight wouldn't like a big brawny fellow following her around? As with the ACt II guys, they need a fair amount of leech and babysitting to survive, and their aggressiveness tends to bring in monsters from off-screen, so be prepared for that.

With all of the mercs, if you have gear that procs curses, you probably want to avoid giving them any so you're not overwriting each other. Slows target is nice though. Take care of your mercs, equip them well, and they'll make a good part of your team.

A sample build: Knight_Shadow

Matriarch Knight_Shadow Level 86, USWest Softcore Non-Ladder (was created in Ladder Season 1)

Stats: Base (with adders) Strength: 150 (200) (220 with TGods) Dex: 160 (228) Vit: 190 (220) En: 25 (45)

Skills:

Base (with adders)

Oskills:

Zeal/Berserk: (5)

Traps:

Fire Blast: 3 (7)(for synergy to Death Sentry) Death Sentry: 11 (15) Blade Shield: 2 (6) (the second point was a misclick) All others: 1 (5)

Martial Arts:

All skills: 1 (5)

Shadow Disciplines:

Fade: 10 (23 with weapon switch prebuff) Mind Blast: 8 (15) Shadow Master: 20 (35 with weapon switch prebuff and +3 shadow skills ammy in stash) Venom: 20 (33 with weapon switch prebuff) All others: 1 (8)

Hotkeys

Left click:

F2: Zeal F3: Blade Fury F4: Berserk

Right click:

F1: Shadow Master

F8: Fade F7: Venom F6: Burst of Speed F5: Blade Shield

Q: Dragon Flight A: Death Sentry S: Cloak of Shadows D: Mind Blast

Equipment

If more than one is listed, the first one given is what is what she was wearing for the stats listed above.

Hat: "Delirium" diadem or Harlequin Crest (fervor jewel) Weapon: "Passion" phase blade, 188% enhanced damage Shield: Stormshield (17% fire res/fervor jewel) Weapon Switch: Dual +3 Shadow skills blade talons Armor: "Duress" boneweave, 1260 defense, 14% enhanced damage Belt: Wilhelm's Pride or Thundergod's Vigor Gloves: Blood Crafted gloves with 20% IAS, 10% crushing blow, 3% life leech, 20% lightning res, and assorted other mods or Lava Gouts (these days I put on the lava gouts when I first go out, then switch to blood gloves once the enchant kicks in) Boots: Shadow Dancers (with Gore Riders in stash if I feel I need more crushing blow) Amulet: Highlord's Wrath (with +3 shadow skills ammy in stash for prebuffing shadow master) Rings: Raven Frost (20 dex, 247 AR), Carrion Wind (7% life leech) (also have Dwarf Star in stash) Charms: Annihilus (20 stat/11 resist), 1 Shadow skills Grand Charm, and assorted life, resist, and AR/damage charms

Vitals

Life: 963 (1068 with harlequin crest) Mana: 227

Resists in Hell with Fade up: 75/75/75/75 (75/75/85/75 with TGods), plus cold %absorb from Raven Frost Defense: 2322 (3041 with level 8 Cloak of Shadows up) Chance to block: max (75%), 3 frame block speed Physical damage reduction with Fade up: max (50%) Faster hit recovery: 75 (5 frames)

Zeal speed: 8/4 frames Zeal Attack Rating: 4344, 6321 with Lava Gout enchant Zeal Damage according to character screen with no elemental damage skills active: 391-749 Zeal Damage according to character screen, with venom and Lava Gout enchant up: 1199-1588 Crushing Blow: 25% (40% with Gore Riders) Open Wounds: 33% (43% with Gore Riders) Deadly Strike: 32% (47% with Gore Riders)

Life leech: 15% Mana leech: 5%

Mercenary

Heather, cold arrow rogue, level 86 Twitchthroe (unsocketed), Tal's Fugly (unsocketed), Goldstrike Arch (unsocketed) Resists in hell: 59/59/59/59 Life: 1530, listed damage 234-690

What I might change, given the option

I think her gear setup is pretty darn solid. There are other configurations that could work, of course, but this works quite nicely. I'd use a diamond mail rather than a boneweave for her "Duress" though, because I've decided I don't like the oversized shoulder plates that boneweave gives and diamond mail is my current favourite look that has reasonable stat requirements.

I would, however, have reworked her stat points. She has way more base strength than she needs, and I could quite easily pull 30 points or so out and put them in vit instead. She probably has a bit more dex than she needs as well since I added her Shadow Dancers quite late giving her a nice boost when she already had maxed blocking, but I'm less concerned with overshooting dex. It shows how solid the build is though that she, a melee character with less than 1K life, only died four times while questing in hell.

Skill-wise, I think I might try skipping Venom or leaving it at one point in favor of maxing Death Sentry and pumping Mind Blast higher. And I wouldn't have put that accidental second point into blade shield, for sure.

I think I'd still stick with a Heather merc, but I'd probably give her some better gear... twitchy and the Fugly are still nice but I might give her a "Harmony" runeword bow which wasn't available when I first made the build.

I'm also tempted on my next Shadow Knight to try a two-handed version, in which case I will definitely be tweaking both build and equipment.

Raising a Shadow Knight

Cleglaw is your friend: some notes on twink gear

Many experienced players have their favourite setups of partial sets and other twink pieces. Here is mine for a young assassin, that will last through all of normal and into early Nightmare.

• Cleglaw's Sword (a jewel with a -15% req mod on it will allow you to equip it earlier - if you are lucky enough to have so godly a twink jewel as a -15% req, 20 poison damage rare, Cleg's sword is a great place for it)
• Cleglaw's Gloves
• Cleglaw's Shield (if you have two, socket a perfect diamond in one to use at level 18)
• Hsaru's Belt
• Hsaru's Boots
• Angelic Armor
• Angelic Amulet
• Angelic Ring (x2, or use one and another ring of your choice)
• A hat of your choice (I like a lore circlet when I reach the level requirement)

This gives you scaling damage, absolutely absurd amounts of scaling AR, nice fast attack speed, and a very nice life boost. The resists aren't as high as some other combos, but a Faded assassin does very well. Eventually you may find the low blocking on the shield an issue, but it will still last you a good long time.

I like a "Rhyme" runeword shield as a transitional shield after I outgrow Cleg's set, although "Rhyme" is also quite viable as an end game shield if you don't have anything better and if you put it in the right base item (*cough*Monarchforstylepoints*cough*)

Care and feeding of a young Knight

• To begin with, I recommend getting together with a bunch of friends and having a baby game. It's lots of fun, and if you can get a nice big game, you can easily get through most or all of act 1 and get a good dozen or more levels under your belt in an hour or two.

• At level 12, put a point in Wake of Fire and assign it a hotkey (preferably the same one you will use for Death Sentry later so your fingers have "spam trap" on autopilot). Congratulations, you now rock the first three acts or so. Drop WoF, smack anything with your weapon that doesn't fall down right away, rinse, repeat. You may want to equip a few mana boosting items so you can use it lots, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem even without. Around act 4, especially in a higher player count game, your WoF will start really running out of killing power. If you like, you can switch to Charged Bolt Sentry or Lightning Sentry (if you've reached 24) to tide you over, although a one point CBS or LS isn't that much better than a one point WoF. But once you reach 30 and have death sentry, you'll be glad you've been practicing the art of trap spamming as you melee. SPLAT!!!!

• At level 18 you can make a new friend. Don't forget to hotkey your shadow minion (and don't forget to switch your hotkey to shadow master at 30 if you're using her).

• If you have a nice twink setup that gives a good life boost (like partial angelic) you can get away with starving your vit stat quite a bit early on even in hardcore, so that you can start equipping your mid and end game items as soon as you reach the level requirements for them. I usually start out pumping strength to between 75 and 100 (and dex to the level I need to equip my twink weapon), then start working on dex and vit and any additional base strength I might need (though in hardcore I would put a few points in vit here and there while pumping strength if necessary to maintain around 10 life per level after +life items).

• +1 Shadow Disciplines claws are shoppable and can be equipped at level 15. Throw them on your weapon switch and use them to buff your Fade, shadow minion, and Venom if you use it. You can change to +2 and +3 shadow claws when you reach the level requirements for them. And if you ever find or shop anything as godly as a +3 Shadow claw with a staffmod for Venom, Fade, or Shadow Master/Warrior, equip it, cherish it forever, and take screenshots to gloat about it to the rest of us in the Picture Pages tongue.gif)

• Once you reach Nightmare, a nice place to level up to 45 or so is the Nightmare Countess tower. This will allow you to stock up on those always useful crafting runes AND let you practice your stair trap pwnz0ring skills.

• My preferred skill point allocation order:

• • 5 points in Fade as soon as I am able, while building my prereqs and other skills.
  • Once I have at least one point in all the skills I actually use, I like to alternate between Shadow Master and Death Sentry until DS is level 5.
  • Split points between and Shadow Master and Venom (if I'm maxing it - in the future I may not) until both are maxed.
  • After shadow minion is maxed (and Venom if applicable), I raise Fade to whatever final level I want it at (typically 10 hard points), then throw another 5 points in Death Sentry to bring it to 10.
  • At this point I may put a point in all the skills that don't have one yet, to boost my shadow's skill levels, then another 2 points in Fire Blast if I feel like it to give DS another shot.
  • Additional points after this go into Mind Blast and/or Death Sentry.

• For other tidbits regarding leveling up a Shadow Knight, check out the chronicles of Knight_Shadow's younger days starting here.

Playing strategies: the art of Knighthood

The Shadow Knight is fun, durable, and a very capable killer, but you can't play her like she's a paladin or melee barb. She is still an assassin, and on her own doesn't have the skill-based life boosts of a barb or druid, or defense boosts of a barb or paladin or even sorc except for a temporary and rather unimpressive boost when Cloak is up, and neither does she have the blocking bonuses of a pally so needs to divert more points to dex that would otherwise go to vit. Her durability lies in crowd management, mobility, and sneak attacks, not in being able to take vast amounts of pummeling.

You will need to do a fair amount of hotkey switching between Cloak, Mind Blast, Death Sentry, and Dragon Flight, so make sure those are close together on your keyboard. As shown above in my profile of Knight_Shadow, I use QASD for these four skills which puts me close to both my potion hotkeys (1-4) and the reveal items button (alt). I put my left click hotkeys -- zeal, berserk, and blade fury -- and my buffs and minion summon on the F keys since I don't need to access them as often. Use whatever is comfortable for you, just try to avoid having to range all over the keyboard to switch between your commonly used hotkeys.

I am considering rearranging my hotkeys, however, and might decide on a different setup, putting DF on the left button and zeal on the right. This is how I have my whirlwind assassin set up (with WW instead of zeal of course) and I don't think it would take too much getting used to. You'd need to take care not to accidentally DF into mobs when you don't want to either by changing between left click hotkeys (maybe between DF and berserk), or by moving around steering with right click with zeal on the right mouse button, which will let you auto-attack any critter within your weapon's range (a handy trick much envied by aura-bearing paladins who have to leave zeal on the left side). The only real drawback to this setup is that in order to read boss mods you would have to remember to let go of the button and hover over the monster, and it would involve even more hotkey switching, so it could be difficult if your finger dexterity isn't up to the task.

Anyway, the key to this build is crowd control, crowd control, crowd control. If you are playing in a lower difficulty level or in a strong party or with exceptionally good gear, you may be able to get away with just running (or DFing) up to things and smacking the heck out of them, and that is plenty of fun, but for the most part you will need to make monster management key. Luckily, assassins in general shine at this.

General Tip #1: Don't play alone. This doesn't mean you can't solo. In fact the Shadow Knight, like most assassin builds, is great at soloing. But don't leave town without your merc and shadow minion. They are very helpful for helping kill monsters and taking the heat off of you. I love my rogue merc: she gives me ranged backup and her Inner Sight does wonderful things for my chance to hit.

General Tip #2: Speed kills (monsters that is). Get yourself to the fastest zeal you are able to. The faster your attack, the less likely it is that monsters can get a hit in. And a fast zeal is fun too.

General Tip #3: If it can't see you, it can't hurt you. Cloak of Shadows is great for shutting down a mob. Then you can sneak up, drop a couple of Death Sentries, and DF into their midst, giggling maniacally as you proceed to merrily zeal away. (The giggling is optional.)

General Tip #4: If it's stunned or converted, it can't hurt you. If you start to get swarmed, spam Mind Blast. This should make things much more manageable. Bosses can't be converted or stunned, but their minions sure can be, and that can make a big difference. While taking on whole packs at a time is fun and in fact works very well since zeal hits multiple targets and Death Sentry works best when monsters are pretty close together and near other dead monsters, you still don't want too many things hitting you at once, so use mind blast as needed to keep those packs manageable.

General Tip #5: A cold, stupid, blind, scared, bleeding monster is a good monster. Special effects are your friend. Cold damage will cause some critters to shatter, but you should still have plenty left over to blow up. The monster flee on the "Passion" runeword can occasionally be annoying, but the flee can also help keep you from getting too swarmed, and if a monster flees too far you can always DF onto it.

Handling anything the game can throw at you: the Shadow Knight soloing in Hell

Stair traps

No well-prepared assassin should need to fear visiting the Countess tower, Ruined Temple, or any other "high risk of ambush" location. The secret to surviving stair traps is to stun everything before your screen even loads. How do you do this? Easy!

Remember how earlier I said there was a situation where the shadow warrior could be useful even for those who normally use the master? This is that situation. If you put mind blast on your right mouse button and take a shadow warrior down the stairs with you, she will immediately spam it at anything lying in wait, before you can even see what's there. Cloak of shadows also works nicely for this. Shadow masters are pretty good at spamming mind blast as well, but if you really don't want to run the risk of your minion getting bored of crowd control and switching to something silly like shock web while you're still stuck in load lag, take a warrior down the stairs with you instead. The warrior doesn't need to be a high level -- 1+adders if you have a decent number of +skills should be fine -- as she only needs to survive long enough for you to get your control and bearings back -- once any potential ambush hazards are taken care of, you can switch back to the master.

This trick, incidentally, makes an assassin the ideal party member to be the first to enter a potentially trapped area. And it is incredibly useful for people like me -- I play on a three-year-old laptop that sometimes gets cranky about loading new areas and leaves me blind and helpless for several seconds at a time.

It's also a trick that I can take no credit for whatsoever. As I said at the top of this section, I poached it shamelessly from the Strats, Tips, and Dirty Tricks thread. (And if you haven't read that yet, shame on you! tongue.gif)

Ranged Attackers

In most areas, cloak of shadows will be all that's necessary to shut down the AI of ranged critters. In large open regions with high densities of spread-out monsters, though, like the siege areas of act V when they are crawling with quill rats and burning dead archers, this may not be sufficient as you will no doubt constantly be waking up more attackers at the edges of your cloak radius.

To deal with this, turn off run. When you are walking, you have full blocking. If you don't have a shield... well you might want to consider using one here if you have enough dex to give you even a halfway decent chance to block. Use dragon flight frequently to close the gap with those annoying ranged mobs. And do use CoS when you are able. A shadow warrior (rather than master) will help keep it cast if you put CoS on the right mouse button.

Oblivion Knights

Who says you can't melee in the Chaos Sanctuary?

Don't forget that Zeal is not the only oskill. The Runeword Fairies gave you Berserk as well -- don't forget to use it when the situation warrants it! This happy little skills converts all your physical damage to magic damage, allowing you to take no damage returned when under the influence of Iron Maiden, so you can melee away to your heart's content. Switch your attack button from zeal to zerk as soon as you are approaching the Chaos Sanctuary and before going down the stairs to WSK 3 and the Throne of Destruction (you can always change it back if the level doesn't spawn with OKs).

A few cautions are in order, however.

   * Trying to zerk when your blue ball is empty will make you default to normal attack, so beware of mana burn and those doom caster critters with their mana drain attack. If you are using a phase blade and have decent damage reduction, your physical damage should be low enough that you should be able to survive an accidental normal attack or two under IM, but still be carful. And be especially careful if you are using a higher damage weapon like a two-hander.
   * Since you have 0 defense while zerking, damage reduction and/or a high block percentage is good to have.
   * You probably want to take off your shoes if you want to use Dragon Flight in areas with OKs.
   * And if you are feeling particularly paranoid, there is always Blade Fury.

It's true that if you are toe-to-toe with an OK, it will consistently cast Decrep on you instead of IM. But other OK's can sneak up on you and curse you, and since a zerking Shadow Knight can completely ignore IM as long as she doesn't get mana burned, there is no reason not play it safe rather than sorry.

Physical Immunes

I always remember to switch to Berserk in OK country, but you can still find me zealing away for several seconds at a PI boss relying on Open Wounds and assorted elemental damage before remembering to change hotkeys. whistling.gif

To be fair, against weak, low HP critters like ghosts zealing away with OW and whatever elemental damage you have on you works just fine. But stone skin bosses, those Frenzytaur guys in the Throne Room, and assorted other physical immune or highly resistant beasties are much better zerked to death.

Dolls and FE's

Some creatures are just meant to be handled from a safe distance -- nasty explosive death-pops are not the bane of melee fighters for nothing. Happily, the Shadow Knight has no need to melee if she does not wish to. Cloak and mind blast to stop those scary little ankle biters from rushing, and pick them off at your leisure with blade fury, smug in the knowledge that most other zealots would give an arm and a leg for a ranged attack that only costs a hotkey and four skill points (including prereqs) instead of a weapon switch. biggrin.gif

Gloams, Black Souls, etc.

As with most other character builds, the best defense against these nasty lightning-shooting bad guys is gear-based. 85% lightning res + direct absorb makes these guys a lot less of a danger. However, just saying "Get TGods n00b" seems a bit inadequate, so I'm going to add some actual strategy advice as well.

Cloak of Shadows will shut down any non-boss non-champ gloams within its radius. Their attack range is very long so you may still get some shooting you from off-screen but Cloaking should give you some breathing room to gather your wits. CoS is much better against these monsters than mind blast, confuse, or anything else except a Necro spamming Dim, since blinded monsters sit quietly without shooting but confused and converted ones still make for a lot of chaos and a high probability that you'll get hit with a stray bolt.

Against bosses and champs, the best defense is a good offense. Use Dragon Flight to close to melee range, since they will stop shooting and use their much less hazardous mana drain pnysical attack. This is especially true with conviction aura enchanted bosses or other horrible mods. If you see a particularly nasty boss mod spawn, throw a Cloak to blind the minions, duck behind a corner to get your bearings, and then jump out and get toe-to-toe as quickly as possible. Fortunately, these guys are glass cannons -- they sure can dish it out, but they can't take much punishment.

Credits

Heather Fleming, July 2006. Some information taken from this thread in the Assassin Forum, May-July 2004.