The Dragon Tail Assassin utilizes the extremly powerfull Dragon Tail kick to decimate enemies in Diablo 2 Resurrected. This build guide covers gear, stats, skills, mercenaries, gamplay tips, and farming strategies to help you master this deadly martial arts assassin.
Powerful Dragon Tail Assassin Build Guide for Diablo 2 Resurrected
- Ideal Skill and Stat Build
- Essential Gear for All Stages
- Mercenary and Aura Considerations
- Death Sentry and Corpse Explosion Mechanics
- Teleport Mobility and Charging Up Skills
- Handling Immunities and Breakpoints
- Leveling and End Game Farming Strategies
Ideal Skill and Stat Build
This Dragon Tail Assassin prioritizes Dragon Tail, Tiger Strike, and Death Sentry skills. Tiger Strike charges up the damage of Dragon Tail kicks. Death Sentry provides excellent AoE corpse explosion damage. Other utility skills like Burst of Speed, Shadow Master, and Cloak of Shadows boost mobility, tanking, and survival.
In terms of stats, enough Strength and Dexterity should be invested to equip gear, with all remaining points into Vitality for life. Skills like Fade and gear stats boost resistances as needed.
Essential Gear for All Stages
While the build scales incredibly well with top-tier gear like Infinity and Enigma, it can still perform decently at early stages. Prioritize kick damage stats, resistances, faster cast rate, and cannot be frozen. Upgraded Goblin Toe boots are great budget options. The end game, look for -enemy fire resistance from Phoenix Shield, dual Mosaic Jade Claws, and charms like Flame Rift.
According to Arreat Summit and Diablo Wiki sites, some especially powerful but rare runeword weapons for this build include Hand of Justice, Death, and Last Wish.
Mercenary and Aura Considerations
An Act 2 Might mercenary with Infinity helps significantly by breaking immunities with Conviction aura. Other solid merc gear includes Treachery armor for attack speed and durability, Guillaume’s Face helmet for Crushing Blow, and Insight or Reaper’s Toll weapons for meditation or decertify curses.
An alternative is an Act 5 Frenzy mercenary wielding Lawbringer swords, according to Icy Veins and Maxroll guides. The decrepify proc helps boost physical damage against bosses.
Death Sentry and Corpse Explosion Mechanics
Understanding how Death Sentry alternates between lightning bolts and corpse explosions is key to maximizing its damage output. Pay attention to the range, charge up time, target corpses first, and combo it with other skills like Cloak of Shadows to wipe out packs.
According to the Arreat Summit mechanics guide, corpse explosion damage is based on the corpse’s life and splits physical/fire damage in an area.
Teleport Mobility and Charging Up Skills
Teleport from Enigma provides swift mobility between packs and allows “telescoping” to land max charged-up Dragon Tail kicks. Before Enigma, rely on Dragon Flight charges and Burst of Speed.
Maximize damage by ensuring 3 Tiger Strike charges before unleashing Dragon Tail. Dual Claw setups with Mosaic Jade Claws allow perpetual charge upkeep.
Handling Immunities and Breakpoints
Certain skills and gear help significantly against immunities. According to the best d2r items, Conviction lowers resistances and the Flame Rift Sunder charm breaks fire immunes. Hard points in Dragon Talon provide physical damage against dual immunes.
Faster cast rate and hit recovery breakpoints boost mobility, defense, and damage uptime. Prioritize reaching the 105% FCR, 86% FHR, and 32% FBR thresholds.
Leveling and End Game Farming Strategies
When leveling and farming key areas like The Pit, Ancient Tunnels, and Cow Level, engage packs with charged skills and Death Sentry traps. Teleport directly onto elites then unleash Dragon Tail.
Chaos Sanctuary, Worldstone Keep and Baal runs challenge this build more with extra fire/physical immunes according to Maximum Rolls tier list. But the damage potential scales immensely in the late game.