LLD101

[krajee]

Level 9 TS/Kicker Guide v1.0



Table of Contents
Introduction
Stats
Skills
Equipment
Things to Know
My Kicker

Introduction
TS/Kickers (henceforth refered to as 'kicker') are one of the more fun vllds to play with. Sometimes you'll be able to pull off a string of kicks with three globes and bring a 600life opponent to death in seconds, and other times you won't get a single crushing blow proc and you'll die horribly. Being able to proc amplify damage, proc crushing blow, have high attack rating, and have an uninterruptable attack are strengths of the kicker. Kickers also have a relatively easy time placing opponents in hit recovery. Also note that this is merely my interpretation of the kicker; there are other ways to do it.

Stats
Starting Stats
Strength- 20
Dexterity- 20
Vitality- 20
Energy- 25

Hit Points- 50
Stamina- 95
Mana- 25

Per level
Life +2
Stamina +1
Mana +1.5

Stat Bonuses
1 Vitality point gives 3 Life
1 Vitality point gives 1.5 Stamina
1 Energy point gives 1.5 Mana

Placing Stats
This should be pretty straightforward. As with 90% of other characters, you'll want to stat strength until you can wear all of your equipment, stat dexterity until you can wear all of your equipment and have max block, and put the remainder into vitality. Although statting strength will increase kick damage, and statting dexterity will increase both kick damage and attack rating, the benefits of those are outweighed by the extra life from vitality.

Skills
Claw Mastery - passive skill that increases damage, attack rating, and deadly strike (deadly strike does not work with kicks) when using a claw class weapon.
Burst of Speed - buff skill that adds eIAS and eFRW.
Tiger Strike - charge up attack that increases damage and attack rating.
Dragon Talon - finishing move.

Claw Mastery - 1
Burst of Speed - 2
Tiger Strike - 9
Dragon Talon - 8

Equipment
Helm/Gloves/Belt
Sigon's Visor, Bloodfist, Sigon's Wrap
With this setup, the first thing you'll notice is you have less IAS. You'll have to compensate by either putting one more point into BoS while removing one from DT and using a Sigon's Guard, or by putting two more points into BoS while removing two from DT. The only good point would be more about this setup is more FHR. I don't recommend doing this.

Sigon's Visor, Sigon's Gage, Rare Belt
This will be the choice for most people. Useful mods on the rare belt would be up to 17%fhr, +15 to attack rating, up to +10 life, up to +10 mana, up to +5 to strength, up to 20%cold resist, and up to +5 replenish life. Obviously you can't get all of those, but try to get something like one of the following:


Socketed or Rare Crown, Sigon's Gage, Sigon's Wrap
If you have a lot of amazing jewels, this will be the best option. For a rare crown, you'd want one with high defense, FHR, and two sockets. I'd only suggest using such a crown in conjunction with a high defense ancient armor.


Amulet
As with most other VLLDs, you'll want some combination of up to +5 to strength, up to +5 to dexterity, up to +10 life, up to +10 mana, up to +6 energy, up to +5 replenish life, up to 12% damage taken goes to mana, up to +35 to attack rating, and half freeze duration on your amulet.

Weapon
Crushflange/The Gnasher
You'll want one of these on one weapon switch. Remember that the other weapon switch won't have +strength from the weapon, so don't include the +strength from whichever weapon you choose. Against characters you'll tend to hit less often such as jabbers, the open wounds on The Gnasher could help more than the extra crushing blow on Crushflange.

Silver Blade Talons of Amplify Damage
Go with whatever you can get, but ideally, you'll have +80 to attack rating, two sockets, and 5%chance to cast amplify damage on striking, unless you can get some sort of impossible rare. Don't worry about weapon damage, as you aren't looking to kill with your TS swipes or normal attack finisher.

Armor
Socketed Gothic Plate
This is the cheaper option. You could socket this with a combination of flawed rubies (+17 to life) and flawed diamonds (+40 to attack rating). If you have good jewels, they are better used for other things.

Socketed Ancient Armor
This is the best option for most people. Since there are four sockets to use, you can fill most of the holes (+mana, damage taken goes to mana, etc.) here. Just remember to have two jewels with -requirements.

Ethereal Rare Ancient Armor
With defense approaching 500, your chance to be hit will be lowered by roughly 7-12% against most builds. The tradeoff is that you'll lose two sockets.

Shield
Pelta Lunata
The primary choice. The stats vary, but the final defense is constant so you don't have to worry about that. You will need one for each weapon switch.

Sigon's Guard
Used for prebuff if needed.

Boots
Sigon's Sabot
Try to get a pair with 15 defense.

Rings
Just like with the amulet, you're looking for the standard vLLD rings for this build.

Optional Equipment
Against some smiters, you may need a gear switch to be effective. I suggest having the following stashed:
4x flawed skull gothic plate
3x flawed skull crown
2x high attack rating rings with damage reduced by 1
Hsarus' Fist
enough 12ar/3stat lcs to make up for lost stats on rings

Sockets
Starting off, you can rely on flawed amethysts, flawed rubies, and flawed diamonds, but eventually you'll want to move up to jewels with some combination of attack rating, life, mana, energy, damage taken goes to mana, dexterity, cold resist, and in some cases, -requirements.


If you put jewels with +dexterity on one weapon switch, you need to make sure you have that same amount of +dexterity on the other side or use the dexterity for attack rating instead of life.

Charms
Your charms are an excellent place to get more mana if needed. You can also stash a grand charm with mana and cold damage and a small charm with up to +4 to attack rating and +1 to strength or dexterity for certain opponents.

Things to Know
How to Duel
The best way to duel is to start off swiping with your Blade Talons until you have three Tiger Strike charges, then switch to your Crushflange and kick away. When the opponent is at around 60% health, it is usually better to use the Blade Talons over Crushflange as your weapon. Others will open off with kicks because crushing blow's effectiveness decreases as the opponent's life decreases.

Breakpoints
IAS% Required for 7 frame Dragon Talon initial kick

[Roy]

Can't really say anything except: Amazing guide, as usual.

[Torrent]

Just sticky it krajee, you know you want to.

[krajee]

[Jerkazoid]

is good

i often recommended starting out the duel with about 3-5 kicking volleys using the crush weapon. kicks are quick, can keep interruptable opponents busy, and its nice to get a lucky crush out quicker.

with decent dtm spending 1/3 your mana bulb before they even get a hit on you is taking advantage of the kickers strengths.


and (not that i recommend it, but think its cool) bare-fist the sin can TS at 6 frames
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=229326
bos 4 + 30ias (though AR will be an issue)

[Aqua]

[billy25]

Does the passive + damage, + attack rating, +% critical strike from claw mastery all work with dragon talon?? The last lvl 9 assasin I had the same skills u recommended here, and it worked gr8 ! But I noticed i was having more luck gettin hits in with the dragon talon. And by the time i hit them enuf times with tiger strike I could have finished em off with dragon talon! So i ws thinkin'.. Maybe this time I'll transfer most of the points from tiger strike into claw mastery ( and add 1 to weapon block). So, i can just str8 up use dragon talon, and only have to bust out my 2+3 skill point tiger strike for hier lvl or dueler characters. ( that is to say for pk the dragon talon would work faster so might as well pump up the dt eh?
AS long as claw mastery does work well with dragon talon I should have a gr8 pker and a goo vlldueler eh?
p.s. im going all the way up to lvl 12 this time (to put one in weapon block)
SO, does anyone have any advice for me to maximize my builds damage etc if i go mostly claw master. instead of mostly tiger strike?
lots of crush blow i guess . ..If i go up to lvl 15 i can make one of my 15%ed claws into malice for 100% open wounds?!

[D jr]

Does on weapon AR boost Dragon Talon's AR? The char screen says no but does it tell the truth?

I'm making a lvl 9 kicker atm, it's gonna be my first after a tiger assa last ladder