In this post, you will find a handy Diablo 2 Resurrected Phoenix Strike Assassin Build cheat sheet. There are skills, attributes, important breakpoints, equipment, mercenary, and farming locations suitable for the Phoenix Strike Assassin Build.
For your convenience, we have made a table of contents with links to navigate this page.
Skills
Maxing Skill order (reaching skill level 20):
Phoenix Strike > Dragon Talon > Claws of Thunder > Tiger Strike > Fists of Fire
Useful skills (put at least 1 point here):
Burst of Speed, Cloak of Shadows, Mind Blast, Fade, Claw Mastery and Weapon Block.
Attributes
- Strength: Allows you to wear heavy weapons and armor, and increases the damage you deal with equipped weapon.
- Around 30-50 points for equipping gear.
- Dexterity: Affects Attack Rating (your chance to hit) and Defense Rating (monster’s chance to hit player with physical attack). It also increases chance to block, allows to equip certain weapons (javelins, daggers, claws, and ranged) and their damage.
- Around 30-50 points for equipping gear.
- Vitality: Increases the amount of Life and Stamina (yellow bar, energy for running) your character has.
- All other points (350+), for extra Life points.
- Energy: Determines the amount of Mana your character has.
- None, you’ll get enough mana from equipment.
Important Breakpoints
Breakpoints are the values at which spells, attacks and other animations become a frame faster or slower. Values must meet or exceed numbers to achieve that breakpoint or will cause no change until you meet or exceed the next breakpoint.
- Faster Cast Rate (FCR): 42% (12 Frames) for Teleport (Enigma Runeword)
- Increased Attack Speed (IAS): 18% or 48% with Greater Talons/Runic Talons
- Faster Hit Recovery (FHR): 27% (6 Frames) or 48% (5 Frames)
- Faster Block Rate (FBR): 0%
Equipment
Weapon
Greater Talons/Runic Talons with + X to Phoenix Strike/Claws of Thunder
Alternatives:
Bartuc’s Cut-Throat
Plague Runeword
Magic/Rare Katar with +X to Assassin/Martial Arts Skill Levels
Shield
Greater Talons/Runic Talons with + X to Phoenix Strike/Claws of Thunder
Alternatives:
Bartuc’s Cut-Throat
Plague Runeword
Magic/Rare Katar with +X to Assassin/Martial Arts Skill Levels
Helm
Alternatives:
Magic/Rare Circlet with +X to Martial Arts/Assassin Skill Levels and Resistances, Life
Harlequin Crest
Crown of Ages
Lore Runeword (Starter)
Tarnhelm (MF)
Body Armor
Mage Plate / Archon Plate
Alternatives:
Chains of Honor Runeword
Duress Runeword
Skullder’s Ire (MF)
Belt
Alternatives:
Rare Belt with Resistances
String of Ears
Verdungo’s Hearty Cord
Goldwrap (MF)
Gloves
Alternatives:
Magic/Rare/Crafted Gloves with +X to Martial Arts and Resistances, Life
Dracul’s Grasp
Chance Guards (MF)
Boots
Alternatives:
Natalya’s Soul
Aldur’s Advance
War Traveler (MF)
Amulet
Alternatives:
Rare/Crafted Amulet with +X to Martial Arts/Assassin Skill Levels and Resistances, Life
Highlord’s Wrath
Rings
Alternatives:
Rare Rings with Attack Rating, Resistances, Life
Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band
Nagelring (MF)
Sockets
Alternatives:
Ist Rune (MF)
Perfect Topaz (MF)
Charms
Additional:
Grand Charms with +1 to Martial Arts (extra stat as Life / Faster Hit Recovery is a great bonus)
Small Charms with Resistances (extra stat as Life / Better Chance of Getting Magic Items is a great bonus)
Gheed’s Fortune (MF)
For swap weapon setup use Call To Arms Runeword Weapon with Spirit Runeword Shield for Battle Command and Battle Orders buffs, but don’t forget to recast them.
Mercenary
A player can hire NPCs as mercenaries to fight alongside them. Only one mercenary can be active at a time and hiring a new one results in the dismissal of the current one. Weapons (related to merc type), body armor, and headgear can be equipped on the mercenaries, and they become much more useful with proper gear.
Important note: Ethereal items (have better base stats, such as damage or defense and lower requirements) do not lose durability when equipped on a Mercenary, greatly boosting their stats.
Mercenary: Desert Mercenary (Act 2), Offense: Might Aura.
- Weapon
- Best: Infinity Runeword (Ethereal Giant Thresher)
- Alternatives: Insight Runeword (Ethereal Giant Thresher or any other Polearm for starter)
- Body Armor
- Best: Fortitude Runeword (Ethereal Sacred Armor)
- Alternatives: Any armor with high Defense and Resistances/Life
- Helm
- Best: Andariel’s Visage (Ethereal, with Increased Attack Speed jewel)
- Alternatives: Any helm with high Defense, Life Stolen Per Hit and Resistances/Life
Farming Locations
Below are mentioned good farming zones for this build, with less (or none) monsters’ immunity to main skills damage.
- Act I
- Mausoleum
- The Countess
- The Pit
- Andariel
- The Secret Cow Level
- Act II
- Stony Tombs
- Ancient Tunnels
- Summoner
- Act III
- Arachnid Lair
- Lower Kurast
- Travincal
- Mephisto
- Act IV
- City of the Damned
- River of Flame
- Chaos Sanctuary
- Diablo
- Act V
- Eldritch the Rectifier
- Shenk the Overseer
- Pindleskin
- Drifter Cavern
- Nihlathak
- Icy Cellar
- Worldstone Keep
- Throne of Destruction (Baal)
We hope this post was useful to you and found the best ways to build your Phoenix Strike Assassin.