Dragon Tail Assassin Build for Diablo 2 Resurrected

The Dragon Tail Assassin is a high Physical and Fire Damage build utilizing Dragon Tail and Blades of Ice to clear any area in the game. With Mosaic it gains even more power than ever before seen by the Assassin in Diablo 2: Resurrected!

You can check the viability of this build in PvM by consulting our PvM Tier List.

The following section shows the default skill build for the Dragon Tail Assassin. For a detailed breakdown of all core and optional skills as well as the recommended order for allocating skill points, refer to the Skills page of this guide.

1. 1 point to all prerequisites
2. 20 points to Dragon Tail — Main Damage Skill/Finisher, required
3. 20 points to Tiger Strike — Charge Up Skill, required
4. 20 points to Cobra Strike — Charge Up Skill, required
5. 20 points to Blades of Ice — Charge Up Skill, required
6. 1 point to Dragon Flight — Useful for teleporting and repositioning Mercenary, required
7. 1 point to Cloak of Shadows — Useful for crowd control, required
8. 1 point to Mind Blast — Useful for crowd control, required
9. 1 point to Burst of Speed — Buffs movement and attack speed, required
10. 1 point to Fade — Buffs damage reduction and Resistances, required
11. 1 point to Weapon Block — If running two claws, make sure to place a single point into this skill, optional

Strength	Dexterity	Vitality	Energy
Enough for gear; generally needed for claws or Spirit Shield	Enough for gear, generally needed for claws	Everything else	None

You can read more details about the Stats and Attribute requirements for this build on our Skills page.

The following section shows some of the most important Items for the Dragon Tail Assassin . For a detailed per-slot breakdown of all items and alternative builds, refer to the Gear page of this guide.

• Weapons: 2x +3 Dragon Tail Mosaic Claws. Any base will work as both 3 frame and 4 frame attacks have their own advantages due to how Next Hit Delay works in the game.
• Weapon Swap: Call to Arms and Spirit
• Body Armor: Chains of Honor or Enigma
• Helm: Flickering Flame
• Gloves: +3 Martial Arts Skiller Gloves
• Boots: Upped Gore Rider Myrmidon Greaves
• Belt: Arachnid Mesh
• Ring 1: Raven Frost
• Ring 2: The Stone of Jordan or Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band
• Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope
• Charm 1: Assassin Hellfire Torch
• Charm 2: Annihilus
• Charm 3: 8x Martial Arts Skiller Grand Charms with Life or enough % Faster Hit Recovery to hit 86%
• Charm 4: 1x Fire Sunder Charm
• Charm 5: 10 Small Charms with Life, Resistances, Mana, or Faster Hit Recovery, depending on needs

In Diablo 2, stats that affect action speed (known as frames) for attacking, casting, blocking, and recovering from a hit can almost never be taken literally. For example, gaining 10% Increased Attack Speed from an item will not necessarily translate into 10% faster attacks. To achieve faster actions, certain breakpoints must be reached, which vary for every class. The tables below list how much of a given stat is required to actually improve the action speed of the class for the stated action.

Hit Recovery Breakpoints
Frames to perform action	9	8	7	6	5	4	3
Faster Hit Recovery required to reach frame	0%	7%	15%	27%	48%	86%	200%

Faster Cast Rate Breakpoints
Frames to perform action	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9
Faster Cast Rate required to reach frame	0%	8%	16%	27%	42%	65%	102%	174%

Faster Block Rate Breakpoints
Frames to perform action	5	4	3	2
Faster Block Rate required to reach frame	0%	13%	32%	86%

You can either hire a Defensive ( Holy Freeze) or Offensive ( Might) Desert Guard Mercenary in Act 2, Nightmare difficulty, depending on whether you want to slow monsters for added safety or improve the overall damage of your Mercenary.

• Weapon: Ethereal Infinity
• Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude
• Helm: Andariel's Visage socketed with a Ral Rune

The following section features a generic Dragon Tail Strike Assassin early leveling guide.

1. 1 Point to Dragon Talon
2. 1 Point to Claw Mastery
3. 3 Points to Tiger Strike at Level 3-5
4. 3 Points to Burst of Speed at Level 6-8
5. All Remaining Points to Tiger Strike until Level 17. If you want to also put some points into Cobra Strike during this time you can.
6. 1 Point to Dragon Claw at Level 17
7. Max Dragon Tail
8. Finish maxing out Tiger Strike afterwards

For more comprehensive leveling advice, please refer to our Assassin Fastest Leveling Build.