Charge-Up Skill Consecutive hits add damage bonuses to finishing moves. Must use a dragon finishing move or normal attack to release charges.

Cast Delay: None

This skill is good for single targets. Each of the successive charges magnifies the damage potential, so that with 3 charges going the damage, when released, can become quite impressive. It shines especially in normal and nightmare when physical damage is not reduced, however with a high damage weapon (or weapons) it can also be formidable in hell. It is one of the charge up skills that does NOT require claws, which has inspired some Tiger Strike builds to use high damage two handed weapons. Using one or more claws, however, it will get the attack rating and damage bonuses from claw mastery if skilled.

Finishing Move Kick your enemies out of your way. Addas charged-up bonuses to the kick

Cast Delay: None

For this skill, an initial kick is what you get with one point, progressive skill levels will grant a followup kick on multiples of 6.

Charge-Up Skill Consecutive hits add fire to finishing moves. Can only be used with claw-class weapons. Mus use a dragon finishing move or normal attack to release charges.

Cast Delay: None

Releasing one charge of Fist of Fire results in a small fire damage explosion effect 1m or less in diameter. Releasing two charges of Fist of Fire results in a short lived (half a second or less) aoe group of explosions about 5m in diameter. Releasing three charges of Fist of Fire results in a (5m diameter) aoe of 9 patches of fire that remain on the ground for approximately 3 seconds. (The amount of damage per second listed in the skill description for the third charge is only that of 2 of the 9 patches of fire.)

Finishing Move Slice and dice your enemies with your dual claw-class weapons. Adds charged-up bonuses to both claw attacks

Cast Delay: None

Charge-Up Skill Consecutive hits add life and Mana stealing to finishing moves. Must use a dragon finishing move or normal attack to release charges.

Cast Delay: None

Cobra Strike is a charge up that allows the assassin to lifesteal with the one charge, lifesteal and manasteal with two charges, and lifesteal and manasteal moreso with three charges. As such, if an assassin has a good physical damage and attack rating, Cobra Strike can sustain life and mana fairly dependably. However, since lifesteal and manasteal are reduced by 1/2 in nightmare and 2/3 in hellmode, and since monster damage resistances go up in hell (and in nm as well for some cases), the result is that Cobra Strike works best in normal.

Charge-Up Skill Consecutive hits add lightning damage to finishing moves. Can only be used with claw-class weapons. Must use a dragon finishing move or normal attack to release charges.

Cast Delay: None

Lightning is perhaps the most powerful element in Hell mode both because of its high damage and because most lightning resistance can be removed with runeword infinity equipped on a merc. This being the case, Claws of Thunder can be an amazing skill at high skill level, synergized, and using infinity.

Finishing Move Knock back your enemies with an explosive kick. Adds Charged-Up bonuses to the kick.

Cast Delay: None

Charge-Up Skill Consecutive hits add Cold damage to finishing moves. Can only be used with claw-class weapons. Must use a dragon finishing move or normal attack to release charges.

Cast Delay: None

Releasing one charge of Blades of Ice results in a small cold damage effect 1m or less in diameter that will damage only the mob it was released on. Releasing two charges of Blades of Ice results in a short lived (half a second or less) aoe; the aoe consists of a group of 7-9 ice damage patches about 7m in diameter total. Mobs in the aoe(that are not immune to cold) will take damage and become chilled (appear blue and attack and move more slowly). Releasing three charges results in the same aoe effect, but the mob that the charges were released on will become frozen in place; the duration depends on the skill level. Special mobs can't be frozen.

Finishing Move Teleport to your enemies and destroy them with a kick. Adds Charged-up bonuses to the kick.

Cast Delay: 1 Second

Dragon flight allows you to teleport to mobs that are in your line of site. You can't telport through walls, however you can teleport across rivers or over some other physical boundaries (stairs or other levels of a structure) as long as there is a mob there that you have site of. The animation is slow (23 frames) and it is easily interupted.

Charged-Up Skill Add elemental noveas to finishing moves. Must use a dragon finishing move or normal attack to release charges.

Cast Delay: None

Phoenix Strike launches the active charge, not all three charges at once. So if you have it built up to Charge 2, Chaos Lightning will be released.

Passive Effect: Improves your skill with claw-class Weapons.

Cast Delay: None

Claw Mastery functions like the barbarians weapon masteries by providing a passive bonus to all attacks made by the Assassin if she wields a claw weapon. The skill is great to have in that case, though whether or not to spend 20 points into it is another matter. Possibly there are other skills worth more investing in.

Use the power of your mind to create a psychic blast to crush and knock back your enemies.

Cast Delay: None

Psychic Hammer is close to useless. It does close to no damage, scales badly and has no synergies. It doesn't even give any synergistic effects to any other skills either. There is no way this skill will ever be useful past normal, and even before then it isn't of much use. In the early acts when it can provide decent damage, monsters are often relatively easy to kill simply by just hitting them, and there are other skills here that provide better damage and are better investments for higher levels there as well.

Increases Attack And Movement Speed For A Period Of Time

Cast Delay: None

Burst of Speed and Fade will not work at the same time.

Passive Effect: Chance to block when you are using dual Claw-Class Weapons.

Cast Delay: None

Weapon Block allows Assassins to use two Katar (or Claw Weapons) while still having Blocking. Assassins that use two Katars will want to invest heavily in this skill. Even a 1% Increase in Blocking will provide a great amount of protection.

Cast a Shadow to Blind nearby enemies lowering their defenses for a period of time.

Cast Delay: None

Darkness covers the area, forcing all monsters to stop their attacks and casts unless they are in melee range. Also lowers monsters' defense and increases your defense.

Raise all resistances and resist curses for a period of time.

Cast Delay: None

Summon a Shadow of yourself that mimics your skills and fights by your side.

Cast Delay: 6 seconds

Using the power of your mind stun a group of enemies and convert the Feedle-minded.

Cast Delay: None

Summon a Powerful Shadow of yourself to fight by your side.

Cast Delay: 6 Seconds

The Shadow Master has Resistances when compared to the Shadow Warrior. Most players choose the Shadow Master for play past level 30 although the Shadow Warrior offers more control over which skills and spells she casts.

Throw a Fire Bomb to blast your enemies to bits.

Cast Delay: None

Throw a Web of Lightning to shock your enemies to bits.

Cast Delay: None

Set a Spinning Blade to patrol between you and target point.

Cast Delay: 2 seconds

Blade sentinel will not trigger % chance to cast on striking nor % chance to cast on attack effects, and will not apply open wounds.

A trap that emits charged bolts at enemies that pass near.

Cast Delay: None

A trap that emits waves of fire.

Cast Delay: None

Throw spinning blades to slice up your enemies.

Cast Delay: None

Blade Fury doesn't use up durability of weapons, thus qualifies for ethereal weapons.

A trap that shoots lightning to scorch passing enemies.

Cast Delay: None

Trap that sprays fire at passing enemies.

Cast Delay: None

Trap that shoots lightning at your enemies or explodes nearby corpses laying waste to more enemies.

Cast Delay: None

Spinning blades slice enemies who stray too close.

Cast Delay: None

Using Blade Shield will reduce the durability of your weapon.