D2V Ghost Assassin Guide V1.0

Hey It's Ellie here, I've been playing D2 LOD for awhile now and My specialty is in Ghost assassins.

This first Sin is my Alopecia Ghost sin designed for Ghost vs Ghost



Alopecia

STATS

Str:None
Dex:None
Vita:ALL
Mana:None

It's a complete vita build, the items will make it easy for you so you won't need to waste any points in it.
If built correctly, this sin can reach higher than 5.7k life. You can also make Variations of this build
and increase it above 6.1k life, you in the end you will lose overall dueling benefits.

EQUIPMENT

Helmet:08 Shako + Ruby Jewel of Hope(40%ed/20+ life)
Armour:Enigma Wyrmhide
Belt:Arachnid mesh
Gloves:Trang ouls
Boots:Shadow Dancers
Amulet:Crafted Assassin Amulet (+2 Sin skills, 20%fcr, +30+str, +60 life)*Yes its legit lol
Ring #1:Raven Frost
Ring #2:Pain band

Claw #1 on left:Chaos Warfist (From vendor)
I like Chaos warfist better than a personally rolled Scissors suyawah because I figured that poison damage works better than physical.

Claw #2 on right : Soul Crusher (From Vendor) with Lo/Um
You could either go Um/Um or Lo/Um, its your choice.

INVENTORY

Torch
Anni
2x Shadow Gc's(FHR 12%)
7X Shadow Gc's (50+ Life)
4 x 20/5
Rest 3/20/20, you could also slip in some 70/15 if you hate to constantly pot during duels.


People ask why all Gc's and not 3/20/20, Basically for each level of shadow discipline, your poison damage and claw mastery is increased.
Surely 3/20/20 gives you some max damage and also more life, but overall you lose the damage and/fade benefit, which is what i personally use.

IAS AND TRAP SPEED BP's

Faster Cast Rate

I use 65% Fcr BP, because it gives you the speed you need to teleport/mind blast/psychic hammer, it's the best overall speed in mobility in the core.

Faster Hit Recovery

Use 48% fhr, why?, simply because the frame between 48% and 86% is not much different, and you'll have more life overall which is more important

Skills:

Maxed Claw mastery/Venom
Enough pts into weapon block for 63% block
Enough pts into fade to get 50% dr (each level of fade=1% dr)
1 in Each shadow Discipline/prerequisites
1 in Each Trap skill
1 pt into Dragon Talon
1 pt into Dragon claw
You can split the left over points between cloak of shadows/mind blast/Shadow master, its your choice
I personally put the rest of the points into mind blast

HOTKEYS

These are my personally used hotkeys, other people have mass variations but I'd like to call this the F-Row Hotkey set

F-Row Hotkey Set

F1:Teleport
F2:Wake of Fire/Lightning sentry
F3:Mind blast
F4:Whirlwind
F5:Psychic Hammer
F6:Cloak of Shadows
F7:Battle Command
F8:Battle Orders
Z:Venom
X:Blade Shield
V:Fade
B:Shadow master
N:Blade fury(Left click)
[/b][/u]

Warfist
ITEMS

Remember all items have to be eth glitched.

Helmet: Demon Thirst (2 X Ruby jewel of life "40% ed/+20 life)
Amulet:08 Highlords
Ring#1: Raven frost
Ring#2 Pain band
Belt:Arachnid Mesh
Gloves:Trang ouls
Boots:Shadow dancers
Armour:Enigma

Claw#1 (LHS)
Chaos Warfist - WSM bugging will allow this claw to be used

Claw#2 (RHS)

Soul Crusher Runic Talons
Either um/um or Lo/Um

Inventory:

9 x Shadow Gc's (trust me it rapes, this is a ghost vs ALL build as GC's will equalize venom and physical damage)

Rest 3/20/20 or some 70/15 if you have potting problems

Skill Allocation:

1 In each trap skill

Max Claw mastery
Max Venom
Enough pts for 63% weapon block with battle command
1 in each Shadow prerequisite
Enough pts into fade for 50% dr (level 41) without BC
With mind blast, either go level 20 or level 40.
Rest is distributed between Cloak of shadows and shadow master

STRATEGY SECTION

The Idea behind a ghost is to utilize your skills (Yes that means lots of hotkeys) in order to stun your opponent and use your high whirlwind damage to cause damage. I've dueled many ghosts and a big flaw in some ghosts i've dueled is that they just namelock mind blast, set a few traps and TELESTOMP right away.
So personally I don't think telestomping is the best idea, but its efficient enough against most duelers.
In my opinion, telestomping is only good against Char's like Druids, Sorc's, Necros, basically because they are caster and don't have a mobile melee attack to counter with.
Also, some guides say that psychic hammer is a waste, I disagree, I believe psychic hammer is a great tool to use.
Mind blast requires you to atleast be in radius of the opponent to hit them with mind blast, Psychic hammer on the other hand you only have to aim it in the opponents direction. I use psychic hammer as a starting tool before I use mind blast as the overall effect is great.

Techniques

1) Stunning

Okay, so you've seen some hybrids and ghosts in action and you wonder, what ACTUALLY stuns during a duel.
Heres a little tester, go lay some Wake of fire on a friend to test on and ask him to run around.
You'll notice that he finds it easy to run through traps, no stun HMM

Okay this time lay some Wake of fire around him and mind blast him ONCE
You'll notice that each time he takes a step, the wake of fire stuns him.
THATS how the stun is created, from mind blast and the swirl on top of the opponents head.

Knowing how stunning works actually gives you a better idea of how to moderate between mind blast and traps

2)Laying traps

I like to use a few type of trapping techniques and here are my favourites

-The Triangle Sentry

Triangle sentry is simply 3 Lightning sentry traps placed on the top of your screen, left and right of the screen.
The idea of Triangle sentry is to lay the triangle and keep half screen distance while holding psychic hammer in front of you,
as the opponent follows into your traps, the psychic hammer will knock them back and you immedietly cast 1 mind blast.
Now that the stun is in play, you can easily throw some blade fury or sneak a few whirls.

- Trap defense

This works really well against other ghost players, simply you want to teleport away as far as you can
As you teleport, Cast 2 lightning sentries to the top corners of your direction, this will hit your opponent as they follow you
its a good defensive strategy as it quickly makes the opponent change strategy giving you time to initialise a new attack.

- The Wake of Fire Namelock

WoF namelock is simply to spam a namelocked mindblast on your opponent, this will force them to either follow you or run away.
If they follow you, you cast Wof in front of you and then hold mind blast on your opponent
If they run away, make sure you get 3-4 mind blasts on them, then hold a namelock of WoF on your opponent until they are offscreen
basically now that they are running away, assuming they are not using a mobile melee attack like whirlwind, you can easily telestomp and
give a few whirls. This works great against aggressive players because you will lead them into an ambush, or they'll run away into an open attack.

3)Whirling

- Edging

Edging is the biggest underated whirlwind technique a ghost can use. It's very powerful and is very useful against other Ghosts/Ww barbs
The technique to edging is to teleport near your opponent and whirlwind into the opponent on an angle, then get away.
Edging is my favourite technique and has brought me large success in the PvP world.

4) Desynching

You didn't know you could desynch?!
Haha, guess what you Can!
If you have ever dueled a ghost and hit them accuratly hard but notice they didn't lose life, is because they desynched!

How do you desynch?
It will require 2 skills and left click running

First teleport in the spot you want to desynch, the MOMENT you land, click whirlwind
This will create a swirl around you, next immediatly run in a straight line, if dont correctly, you'll see the whirwind animation as you run.
This causes Desynch and will throw your opponent off guard easily!

Heres abit of a demonstration, i did it during a Mirror match!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yETFW3kB-4

5) Weapon Speeds

- WSM Glitching

I learned this from another guide
If you built the build correctly, you'll notice one thing.
You'll have slow trap speed and shit attack rating
That;s why most sins use Chaos on the secondary hand(right side) and Mod claw on the left.
However there is a technique that will utilise trap speed and Attack rating

Its called Weapon Speed modifying.

Try this, load up your character screen and look at your initial attack rating
It'll say like 5K ar, now this time go into your inventory, take off your chaos and place it back on
Look at your Attack rating again

WOW it boosted up to 15k+!, but isn't that the same as placing the chaos in the right hand?
Well guess what else, you will gain an extra 5% ias(40% in total from soul crusher instead of 35% from chaos), so you'll lay traps even faster!
This will allow you to use a slow claw on the primary side(left side) and in the end
Weapon speed modifying will enhance your dueling dramatically!
Also the speed of your whirlwind will always be the same, no matter what your ias/fcr is.

6) Offscreen casting

Whats that? its basically loading up your character/inventory, holding a skill down and aiming it passed your Character/inventory screen.
This will increase the range of the skill, and for ghosts, this is a great technique to increase the range of your traps.

7) Restricts

A restrict is when you have stunned your opponent and they are trying to escape, as they are escaping you will hit them with blade fury and gain distance.
This will tickle off life from your opponent, and is a great tool to use if you are quick enough

These Are general techniques as techniques are different against different classes, these techniques I have developed and learned from other ghost players.

Lets start with
Ghost vs Barb

Claw suggestion : Lo/Um claw

This is a tough one for most sins, basically because they lack experience and strategy against barbs.
The best way to beat a barb is to keep distance, also to really focus on getting them stunned before hitting them.
Some people ask me

Should I be using WoF or LS against barbs?

I personally use LS when i'm in far range, basically you should be using LS to stun them from far, the moment you notice the stun, mind blast some more set some WoF on top of them. Once they are stunned, teleport in and Tri whirl then get out of there.

Lo/Um or Um/Um claws will work fine, if you want to hit and run go Um/um as the Ow will slowly drain them.
Remember to keep highly mobile, always keep moving because you don't wanna give the barb a chance to telestomp/whirl you, since their damage greatly exceeds yours.

Heres a video of my assassin "Alopecia" dueling a Double wielded WW barb that has massive damage/life.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbECGxUVvnA

Ghost vs Sorcerer

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw

Sorc's should be easy, not even a challenge but however, there are some sorc's that have maxblock/Dr which is a nuisance especially if their blizzard.
How do you deal with that? thankfully assassins are blessed with a special skill called Psychic hammer!

Almost any sorc you duel, will teleport frantically and cast an attack, against ghosts they are defensive, they'll never be offensive, unless their an idiot.

This is what you will want to do.

Teleport to 1 screen range away from them, you will want to keep on staying in that range and spamming them with psychic hammer.
I honestly believe that if you try to trap a sorc, they'll either WSG and run away so getting a whirl in initially will be a better outcome.

First, Psychic hammer the Sorc, this will PUSH them back, which is essential just incase they cast their spell in their general area.
Once they have been pushed back enough, try to telestomp a ww on them then run away, hopefully open wounds kicked in now their in panic.
This time you'll psychic hammer again, and once their knocked back enough, mind blast them once, it'll create the swirl, and you can namelock WoF on them.
Keep rinsing and repeating the psychic hammer cycle and whirling.
At around Half life, they'll be more sloppy, this is where your safe to trap and once their trapped inside stunned, you can Tri whirl them to death with no problem.

Ghost vs Druid

Claw suggestion : Lo/um
Ghosts are the ultimate death dealer to a druid, their FHR/block is pathetic which makes traps their deadliest nuisance.
Although I have rarely lost to a druid, some druids are smart and teleport behind you and sneak a few attacks in.
How to avoid that?
Psychic hammer!, most wind druids, wolf druids, bear druids, will have companions which will nullify 1/2 of your whirlwind.

The strategy to get them away from the companions is simply to get in range, mind blast them once, lay a few traps and hold psychic hammer down.
They'll be stunned but still surrounded by minions, so use psychic hammer to knock them back from the minions.
Once the druid is seperated, telestomp and tri whirl till they die, or get away and repeat the sequence.

Ghost vs Necromancer

Necromancers will most likely be your biggest challenge because their magic damage and curses will be a big challenge.
In reality, most necromancers beat ghosts, because most ghosts cannot come up with a strategy to beat them.

How to beat them?
You will need 3 things

-Burst of speed
-Dragon claw/Normal attack/whirlwind
-Stun

Since most necromancers you will duel will be PnB, Burst of speed is all you need.
Dragon claw will be your main attack, simply because alot of necros will have Max block against you, and while you whirl their bone attacks
(bone spirit,bone spear) will crumble you down. Dragon claw however is stationary melee, so will have a better effect.

The biggest rule against a necromancer, is to ALWAYS KEEP MOVING.
Never keep to one spot, or they'll have a mass attack on you.

How to approach a Necromancer?

Try and utilise burst of speed by constantly moving in zig zags towards a necro, now most necros will be be casting bone spirit so try your best
to teleport around Bone spirit.

Immediatly get your first mind blast in, so you can focus on getting traps in.
Necros get rocked by traps, even if they WSG simply because your attack will be to quick to escape

After you have gotten your mind blast then, immediatly get distance and namelock them with WoF and mind blast.
Only attack once they are stunned, and the moment they are halted in stun, telestomp in and with LEFT CLICK
hold down dragon claw, if they are max block, it'll take about 3 sequences of trapping to kill them.
If they are vita, it'll take 3 seconds for the necromancer to die.

Same sequencing applies to Poison Necromancers too, avoid their poison attacks, stun them and dragon claw to death!

Ghost vs Amazon

Claw suggestion : Lo/Um Claw

Amazons can either be really good, or really bad against you, depending of the skill of the opponent.

-Javazons

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw

Against Javazons, the best thing to do is to stun them first otherwise their high CS damage will rip you apart, especially if they are good at
legit farcasting, so what you want to do is cast Lightning sentry (Triangle technique) around them and cast mind blast, once they are stunned.
Immediatly go in for a tri whirl, if they are max block, do a Hit and Run, and come back by trapping etc, they'll die

-Bowazons

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw

Bowzons have Crappy Dr/Life, your goal is to avoid being hit by guided arrow/multishot.
I personally believe that stunning isn't as effective as constant telestomping with whirlwind, why?

An instant try whirl can kill a bowazon in 1 triwhirl, Bowzons have no block and rely on dodge/evade/avoid.
Telebowazons are a tricky lot to beat, and trying to stun them will give them time to spam arrows at you, so best to telestomp/namelock with mindblast and whirlwind.

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw

-Poison Javazon

Poison Javazons will be the hardest amazon you'll ever face. A good poison javazon will be VERY offensive.
First they'll run away from you and throw a poison javelin in the direction they are running.
It is foolish to follow them, so what do you do?

First teleport FAR out of range, now you will have to sneak in from the side, because if 1 poison cloud hits you, you will lose.
Sneak in from the side and Cast Shadow Master next to the amazon.
IMMEDIATLY the amazon will think its you(LOL) and will cast poison jav and run.
THIS is the time you will come in and trap/stun/telestomp.

If you can avoid the poison javs, you'll will 100%, if you can't, you'll have a slim chance of winning.

Ghost vs Paladin

Paladins are a formidable character class, they are well rounded and can may be your toughest challenge.

-Hammerdins

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw

Oh spammerdins gotta hate/love them.

Nearly any good hammerdin will utilise the time you take to whirlwind by spamming hammers everywhere to trick you.
How do you beat a spammerdin?
thankfully, Hammers are casted at the blindspot of a paladin, your best chance is to constantly spam psychic hammer and mind blast on the paladin
Since they will be Desynching against you!

How to telestomp a Hammerdin?

Okay keep spamming mind blast, now Everytime you teleport on top, aim the whirlwind to the top left corner of your screen, if positioned correctly, it'll hit exactly at the blind spot of the Hammerdin, and they'll have no damage on you!

-Smiters

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw

A noob ghost will lose to a noob smiter.
A pro Ghost will beat a Pro smiter.

Smiters are very dangerous, because they will always hit, if you are too close.
How to beat a smiter?

ANNOY THEM with Mind blast/ psychic hammer, and teleport around them to cause confusion, if they are a telesmiter, even better.
This will definitly piss off the smiter, so basically, annoy the hell out of them, get a swirly on top of their head.
Now the smiter will follow you, so Whirlwind AWAY from them in a straight line, this will avoid their smites and your whirlwind change, will slowly
drain them to death!

-V/T

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw

Vindicator/Templars are definitly hard to beat if you are inexperienced.
The best way to beat a V/T is to stun them with Lightning sentry, because they'll try to use FoH to make you play more aggresive,
your best bet is to annoy them with constant spamming of mind blast/psychic hammer/Lightning sentry.
This is when they'll try to telesmite you, and you will simply whirlwind away from them.
And if open wounds connects, you will definitly win as Most V/T have bad block!

- Fist of Heavens Paladin

Claw suggestion : Lo/Um Claw

These have to be the easiest paladin to duel, simply get in 1 screen range, spam psychic hammer, mind blast and a few sentry.
I can almost guarantee that FoH pallies will have barely any block! so telestomp right away and tri whirl them, I guarantee you'll win.

- Zealot

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw

Zealers are very easy to beat if you apply good strategy, basically, zealers will come to you so set a few lightning sentry, mind blast them constantly until they reach your traps, once they are getting close to you, whirlwind AWAY from them, because of the range of whirlwind and moblity, they'll die easily.
The same strategy will work against Telezealers because whirling away will pick them apart.

Ghost vs Assassin

These will be some of the best duels you'll ever have, especially if your dueling a ghost.

- Trapsin

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw

Trapsins are VERY deadly against ghosts, because if they even manage to stun you once, their traps will pick you apart.
But trappers can be defeated by a good ghost player, your best idea is to avoid traps, spamming psychic hammer and telestomping the trapper.
Always keep in mind the range of the traps the trapsins will use against you.
If they namelock mind blast on you, get out ASAP!

- Hybrid Assassin

Claw suggestion : Lo/Um claw

Hybrid assassins have around 6-8k Lightning sentry trap damage, and low trap damage compared to you.
Hybrid assassins are a very formidable opponent, and a smart HA will utilise their trap damage by playing defensive.

Their biggest weakness will be trading whirlwinds against you, so don't give them to lay traps and sit back, get in right away and stomp them with a whirlwind.
Oh and use Lightning sentry against them, Sentry has more range than WoF and will have a better effect.
Since the HA will try not to trade WW's against you, Force them too by being AGGESIVE by avoiding their traps while constantly whirling them.
If you a successful at getting in close, you'll win, if they manage to keep distance with traps, you'll lose.

- Ghost Assassin

Claw suggestion : Um/Um claw(Hit and run)
Claw suggestion : Lo/Um claw(Hit and trade)

This is your mirror match and will be the most FUN and BEST duels you'll ever have by playing against another ghost.
Ghost vs Ghost is definitly my favourite type of dueling as it requires you to have intense strategy and of course Luck.

RANGE will definitly be an important part of dueling against a ghost, if they are a good ghost, you'll have a great duel.
When trapping against a ghost, never trap while they are close, because they'll whirl you and it'll hurt.
Keep 1 screen distance away while casting traps (LS or WoF) and never teleport into a ghost.
Use your traps as keypoints and teleport around your traps.

The biggest flaw you can make against another ghost, is to telestomp them.
Telestomping will leave you vulnerable, Why?

Because a Good ghost will Whirlwind in zig zags AWAY from you, and you telestomping on top will destroy your HP quick.
This is the rule, ONLY telestomp if the other ghost is completly stunned and is trying to Run out of the traps.
If they are whirling, keep your distance.

How to Whirl against a Ghost?

It will require a technique a good friend taught me

EDGING and TIMING

Now, the best way to get better at ghosts is to practice against ghosts.
Whats edging?

Edging is teleport near you opponent and whirlwinding into them from an angle, it is way more effective than telestomping and will be your key to victory.
Timing is very crucial, if you edge at the start of the opponents whirl, they'll give you equal damage
When timing the Edge, Whirlwind at the End of the opponents whirl, if you can do that sucessfully, you'll take 1/4 damage, they'll take full damage from you.

There are usually 3 Types of Ghosts you'll face.

-Aggresive
-Defensive
-Campers

There are certain strategies that you can use to beat them.

Aggressive ghosts are very fun to duel since they'll constantly keep traps on you and edging whirls into you.
A good way to beat an Aggressive ghost is to SCOPE them.
Watch how they play, once you notice a pattern, break the pattern with a counter.
If their going to edge you, whirlwind away from them.

Defensive ghosts are tough to beat, they'll lure you into traps and hit with whirls and run away.
The best chance to beat a defensive ghost is to SCOPE them and stun them and edge them as much as possible

Campers are the most gayest ghosts to duel, they lack skill and they'll just cast traps on themselves and whirlwind like an idiot.
Thankfully theres a solution to beat a camper!
Theres 2 skills you can use to knock a camper away from the traps
Psychic hammer and blade fury.

Psychic hammer will knock them back and Blade fury can land a few hits and scare the camper away. You could also teleport to the corner and offscreen cast some traps or even mind blast to scare them off.
The moment you see a camper run away, cast some traps on top of them and mind blast and edge as quick as you can, then run away.
Let them camp again, and repeat, you'll never lose!

Wow I finally updated the guide, the more time I have i'll update the guide and go more indepth with character class dueling
Hope you like the guide!
Flame on!
I could make it better organised but whatever this will do for now.

- Ellie (Alopecia)

wow i might make a ghost now