Assassin Build Guide Diablo 2 Resurrected | Lightning Trap Assassin

Assassin Build Guide for Diablo 2 Resurrected Lightning Trap Assassin. This is an End Game Assassin Build that can get you through Nightmare and even Hell Difficulty in Diablo 2 Resurrected. If you are looking for an End Game Assassin Build, then this Guide is for you.

Class: Assassin
Skill Line Focus: Traps
Build Focus: DPS
Main Attribute: Vitality
Difficulty Level: Hell
Level: 40 – 90+

Diablo 2 Resurrected Assassin Build | Lightning Trap

While playing the Lightning Trap Assassin in Diablo 2 Resurrected, your objective will be to move around the battlefield quickly laying traps that will destroy your enemies for you. You’ll be using the Lightning Sentry Trap, which shoots lightning bolts that pierce through enemies and deal very high damage, and the Death Sentry Trap, which explodes enemy corpses as well as firing lightning bolts.

This Diablo 2 Assassin Build is intended to be used for Nightmare and Hell difficulties starting around around Lvl 40. You can start the game with this build, but I personally recommend you use our Fire Trapper Build instead, and then respec into this one. If you are already playing and want to respec into this build though, the easiest way to do it is by claiming the Den of Evil reward from Akara at the Rogue Encampment. You’ll get 3 respecs (1 for each difficulty) and you’ll need to be on the same difficulty to reclaim them.

Assassin Build Guide Stats | Lightning Trap

Like most Builds in Diablo 2 Resurrected, our Stats distribution will focus on assigning enough points into Strength to meet equipment requirements, and then assigning everything else into Vitality to gain as much Life as possible.

Strength: Just enough to use your equipment. This will greatly depend on the gear that you are using, and the +Strength that you get from the rest of your equipment.
Dexterity: No points required here. Since traps attack on their own, you can move around the battlefield to stay away from enemies.
Vitality: All remaining points should be spent here.
Energy: No points required

Having a Hellfire Torch and an Annihilus will greatly reduce your stat investment into Strength. These unique charms provide between +10-20 to all Attributes and +10-20 to all Elemental Resistances. Having both in your inventory will save you between 20 and 40 stats points that you can spend into Vitality, greatly increasing your health pool. The additional passive resistances will also allow you to depend less on +All Resistances equipment, opening up more options.

If you don’t have a Hellfire Torch or an Annihilus yet, I strongly recommend that you get them as soon as you can. Perfect rolled ones are very expensive, but you can get bad rolled ones for very affordable prices. Make sure to get a low roll when you are starting off and then upgrade it when you have enough money.

Assassin Build Guide Skills | Lightning Trap

The Lightning Trap Assassin focuses on the Trap Skill Tree, but you’ll also need to spend some points into the Shadow Disciplines Tree. You’ll use the following Skills when playing this Diablo 2 Resurrected Assassin Build:

Lightning Sentry

This Sentry periodically fires lightning bolts that pierce through enemies in a straight line dealing very high lightning damage. It can shoot up to 10 times, at which point it will explode.

You can only have 5 traps of any type active at the same time, so ideally, you’ll want to cast 4x Lightning Sentry and 1x Death Sentry per battle. Be aware that you might need to re-cast them if they ran out of shots.

Death Sentry

Similar to Lightning Sentry, this trap periodically fire Lightning Bolts, but additionally, it will explode nearby enemy corpses dealing 40% to 80% of the corpse life as both physical and fire damage in a large AoE.

This trap usually creates a chain reaction where as soon as an enemy dies and explodes, all enemies start dying to subsequent explosions. Since enemy’ health pools are greatly increased with each difficulty, the corpse explosion only gets better as you progress further into the game.

Burst of Speed

This Spell increases both your Movement Speed and Attack Speed. Different to other Skills, traps are not affected by Faster Cast Rate but their cast speed is affected by Attack Speed instead. This means that a higher Attack Speed will mean more traps laid in less amount of time. The extra movement speed provided by this skill is very useful as well, allowing you to quickly travel through the map, or run in circles while enemies die to your traps.

You might have noticed that I didn’t assign any points into Fade for this guide. The reason for this is that you can’t use Fade in combination with Burst of Speed. Since you need the Attack Speed, this is the best option.

Mind Blast

This is one of the best crowd control skills in the game. When used, it stuns enemies around a medium AoE and has a chance to convert them into your allies.

While stunned, enemies won’t attack and will remain still. Additionally, converted enemies will lure enemy attention, allowing you to lay down traps from safety.

If you find yourself having trouble with an area at any point in the game, just swap to this skill and constantly cast it over your enemies while your traps finish them off.

Shadow Master

This skill summons a Shadow Ally that will randomly use Assassin skills to buff itself or to help you fight against enemies. Similar to other summons, you can cast it as many times as you want.

The most relevant thing about this summon, is that its Elemental Resistances are not affected by difficulty level and they don’t have a 75% cap as players do. Because it can cast Assassin’s abilities, when your Shadow uses the Fade Skill it might end up with more than 100% elemental resistances, making it immune to all elemental damage types. This makes it into one of the tankiest summons in the game, making it a perfect meat shield for this build.

Level 40 Assassin Skill Distribution

Since this guide begins at Lvl 40, you’ll want to first focus on your Lightning Sentry and Death Sentry, and then work towards completing Charged Bolt Sentry and Shock Web as each of them increases your Lightning Sentry damage. Once those are maxed, you can then spend the rest of your points into Shadow Master.

You should have around 43 skill points at lvl 40 (39 from levels, and 4 from Quests). You should have your Skills placed in the following manner:

LEVEL 40 ASSASSIN SKILLS
Skill	Points Spent
Fire Blast (Pre-Requisite)	1
Shock Web (Pre-Requisite)	5
Charged Bolt Sentry (Pre-Requisite)	1
Lightning Sentry	17
Death Sentry	11
Claw Mastery (Pre-Requisite)	1
Psychic Hammer (Pre-Requisite)	1
Burst of Speed	1
Weapon Block (Pre-Requisite)	1
Cloak of Shadows (Pre-Requisite)	1
Shadow Warrior (Pre-Requisite)	1
Mind Blast	1
Shadow Master	1

Level 90 Assassin Skill Distribution

At level 90 you should have 101 skill points to distribute, 89 from Levels and 12 from Quests, and they should look like this:

LEVEL 90 ASSASSIN SKILLS
Skill	Points Spent
Fire Blast (Pre-Requisite)	1
Shock Web (Pre-Requisite)	20
Charged Bolt Sentry (Pre-Requisite)	20
Lightning Sentry	20
Death Sentry	20
Claw Mastery (Pre-Requisite)	1
Psychic Hammer (Pre-Requisite)	1
Burst of Speed	1
Weapon Block (Pre-Requisite)	1
Cloak of Shadows (Pre-Requisite)	1
Shadow Warrior (Pre-Requisite)	1
Mind Blast	1
Shadow Master	13

Budget Equipment | Lightning Trap Assassin

It’s important to note that Traps act as separate entities from the Assassin, meaning that equipment that provide +Damage, +Lightning Damage, -Resistances and any other category won’t have any kind of effect on your traps.

For this reason, you’ll want to get as much as +Skills as possible, as it’s the best way to increase your trap damage. For the rest of your equipment you’ll want to focus on maxing out resistances.

When you are starting off you’ll obviously have less gear, so here are some cheap Runewords and Unique items that you can use while you search for better gear.

Helmets

Lore (Runeword): This helmet provides +1 to all Skills as well as +30% lightning resistance. You can farm the runes by completing Nightmare Countess.
Uniques: Any other helmet that provides +Skills works great here. For example Tarnhelm, Peasant Crown, etc.

Weapons

Spirit (Runeword): This Runeword provides +2 To All Skills and +25-35% FCR. It also increases your defense, thanks to Faster Hit Recovery and Vitality. The additional mana is also great. Finding a 4 socketed weapon can be a little tricky, but stay on the lookout for Crystal Swords, Longswords and Broadswords. If you happen to play the Secret Cow Level, if you find any unsocketed of these types of Weapons, you can get a guaranteed 4 sockets from Larzuk by completing the Siege on Harrogath quest
Katars (All Rarities): Katars might be a great option to get +Skills early on as you can get them from shops. Remember that you can equip 2 of them at the same time, so try to aim for +Traps and Increased Attack Speed.

Shield

Ancient’s Pledge (Runeword): This shield doesn’t provide +Skills but compensates by granting a huge boost to resistances allowing you to survive early Hell.

Armor

Stealth (Runeword): This is by far the best armor that you can get early on. The 25% Faster Cast Rate is nice, while the poison resistance and Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) provides more survivability.
Uniques: Any unique armor with +Skills is also great for this build, like for example The Spirit Shroud, Skin of the Vipermagi, Que-Hegan’s Wisdom, etc.

Gloves

When it comes to gloves you’ll want to focus on defensive stats such as Life and Resistances.

Belt

For the belt you’ll want something with Life and Resistances.

Boots

You’ll want to search for Faster Run/Walk speed on your boots as well as Resistances and Life.

Rings

You’ll want to search for rings that have life, stats and resistances.

Amulet

Try to find an amulet that provides Stats, Health, resistances or +Assassin Skills or +Traps.

Charms

For charm’s you’ll mainly want to look for +Life, +Mana and +Trap Skills.

Optional Equipment | Lightning Trap Assassin

Once you are reaching max level you’ll want to start searching for the following equipment to complete your character.

Helmets

Harlequin Crest (Unique): The +2 to all skills is great for our damage output and the extra life, mana, and the damage reductions it provides helps with survivability. If you can afford a Cham rune, then you can socket it here to avoid being Frozen.

Weapon

Heart of the Oak (Runeword): This weapon provides +3 to all skills as well as +All Resistances. If you have Enigma equipped, the Faster Cast Rate will greatly increase the speed at which you can use Teleport.

Shield

Spirit (Runeword): This shield provides +2 to all skills and +25-35% FCR. It also provides many defensive stats such as Elemental Resistances, Faster Hit Recovery and Vitality.

If you are having trouble finding a 4 slot shield, just find a Monarch Shield which can usually be found at the start of Hell Difficulty, and take it to Larzuk after completing the Siege on Harrogath quest.

Offhand

Call To Arms (Runeword) + Spirit Shield (Runeword) – The Call to Arms Runeword provides you with the Battle Command and Battle Order shouts which are great buffs.

Armor

Enigma (Runeword): This armor provides +2 to all Skills as well as a lot of strength and life. In addition, it provides you with the Teleport spell which allows you to quickly navigate through the map.

Gloves

Magefist (Unique): These gloves are a great option, as they provide FCR and a good amount of defense.
Frostburn (Unique): If you are having mana issues, then these gloves are a great option as they provide a massive 40% maximum mana increase.

Belt

Arachnid Mesh (Unique): This belt provides and +1 to all skills increasing our damage output. The additional mana and FCR come very handy as well.

Boots

When it comes to boots you have a few of different options:

Sandstorm (Unique): These boots provide +20% Faster Hit Recovery, Strength and Vitality. The FHR will help avoid getting Stun-locked by most enemies.
Waterwalk (Unique): These boots provide a lot of life as well as Dexterity and +Fire Resistance.
War Traveler (Unique): If you are comfortable with your build’s efficiency and want to maximize Magic Find, then these are perfect for you.

Rings

2x Stone of Jordan: These rings provide +Skills as well as increasing your maximum mana.

Amulet

Mara’s Kaleidoscope: This amulet provide +2 to all Skills as well as +20-30 to all resistances and +5 to all attributes.
Crafted Amulet: You can search for a crafted amulet with +Skills, Stats, Life or Resistances.

Charms

For charm’s you’ll mainly want to look for +Life, +Mana and + Skills.

What Mercenary to Select & Gear to Use

You’ll want to get the Act 2 Holy Freeze Mercenary (from Act 2 Nightmare) for this build. The Holy Freeze Aura is great for dealing with large crowds of enemies.

When it comes to equipment, you’ll want to get an Infinty Runeword for the weapon, a Fortitude Runeword for the Armor and Andarie’s Visage for the helmet.

The Infinity Runeword is very important for this build, as it greatly Reduces enemy’s lightning resistances, allowing you to even kill lightning immune enemies.

Final Tips

When fighting in smaller spaces, you might have difficulties staying away from your enemies while your traps finish them off. If this happens, just use Mind Blast to stun them as enemies tend to be together during these situations.

Make sure to keep casting your traps during fights as they can quickly run out of ammo and explode. The Death Sentry has only 5 shots so keep an eye on it at all times.

Try to cast your traps close together to maximize damage and lure your enemies close to them. If your traps are far away from each other they’ll take much longer to kill enemies

Remember to use Mind Blast against enemies that are giving you trouble or against large crowds.

If you cast your Shadow Master in town it will usually buff itself, making it much tankier during fights.