As an avid Diablo 4 player with over 100 hours logged, I‘ve experimented extensively to determine the optimal assassin build focusing on high damage output and mobility. After testing various skill combinations, here is the build I‘ve settled on for quickly eliminating targets while remaining elusive.
Active Skills
Blade Shift (Rank 1) – Your bread-and-butter mobility skill. Lets you dash through enemies while dealing damage. Use it to reposition and build combo points.
Twisting Blades (Rank 1) – Single target damage dealer. Impales an enemy, dealing damage over time. Damage scales with combo points.
Shadow Step (Rank 1) – Gap closing skill for catching fleeing enemies or enemies out of range. Can also be used defensively.
Dark Shroud (Rank 3) – Defensive skill that reduces incoming damage. Consumes a charge whenever you take damage.
Shadow Imbuement (Rank 5) – Imbues your attacks with shadow damage. Infected enemies explode on death spreading damage.
Shadow Clone (Rank 1) – Ultimate skill that creates a shadow clone dealing 60% of your damage. Use it to burst down elite enemies.
Passive Skills
Momentum (Rank 1) – Key passive for defense and mobility. Triggers on hitting enemies from behind or attacking crowd controlled enemies.
Stutter Step (Rank 2) – Movement speed boost on landing critical strikes. Good for chasing down enemies.
Siphoning Strikes (Rank 3) – Heals based on critical strikes. Helps sustain during long fights.
Trick Attacks (Rank 3) – Can knock down enemies when critting, synergizes well with Blade Shift and Twisting Blades.
Concussive (Rank 3) – Boosts critical strike chance against knocked down enemies. Works very well with Trick Attacks.
Rapid Gambits (Rank 3) – Reduces evade skill cooldown on dazing enemies. Allows for quicker repositioning.
Malice (Rank 2) – Vulnerable enemies take additional damage, increasing overall damage output.
Precision Imbuement (Rank 3) – Boosts critical strike chance of imbued skills like Twisting Blades and Shadow Imbuement.
Shadow Crash (Rank 3) – Adds shadow damage and can stun enemies. Works very well with Shadow Imbuement spreads.
Sturdy (Rank 3) – Flat damage reduction, improves survivability during intense fights.
Legendary Aspects
Cheat‘s Aspect – Take less damage from crowd controlled enemies. Excellent defensive boost.
Aspect of Unstable Imbuements – Causes imbued explosions on death with shadow imbue. Great for spreading damage.
Ravenous Aspect – Restores energy on killing vulnerable enemies. Helps sustain energy intensive skills.
Bladedancer‘s Aspect – Extends range and damage of Twisting Blades. Makes it easier to hit fleeing enemies.
Aspect of Corruption – Further damage boost against vulnerable enemies from imbued skills.
Specialization: Combo Points
The combo points specialization causes your basic attack to generate combo points which power up skills like Twisting Blades. The additional movement speed also synergizes extremely well with the overall mobility focused build.
Gems
- Weapon – Emerald for increased critical strike damage against vulnerable enemies
- Armor – Ruby for flat life boost
- Jewelry – Skull for increased armor
The added damage reduction from ruby and skull gems offset the slightly lower defensive nature of this spec while still allowing you to deal high damage.
Paragon Board
I focus my paragon points primarily into Dexterity for increased critical strike chance and damage followed by strength for physical damage boosts and extra health and defense nodes. Some key notable passives are:
- Damage vs Vulnerable Enemies – Excellent damage boost against enemies afflicted by Malice
- Dexterity Synergy Node – Further pushes dexterity providing even more critical strike chance
- Strength Synergy Node – Provides flat life and armor boosts to compensate for lower vigor
My Experience With the Build
Through countless hours of gameplay, this nimble assassin build has become my personal favorite for quickly hunting down elite enemies and demolishing them before they can react.
The combination of high burst damage and mobility allows you to surgically remove key threats from any engagement while avoiding taking much damage yourself. while Blade Shift and Shadow Step enable impressive battlefield mobility for chasing down distant enemies or escaping dangerous situations.
Against bosses the immense single target damage really shines. By unleashing your full combo of Twisting Blades, Shadow Imbuement, Shadow Clone and spamming blade shifts you can melt bosses before most of their abilities even trigger.
While group combat can sometimes be tricky due to lower durability, proper use of stealth skills like Shadow Step and Dark Shroud enables you to attack from the flanks unseen, bursting down enemies before they realize what‘s happening.
Overall this build provides an immensely fun hit-and-run playstyle with some of the highest potential single target damage in Diablo 4. If quickly eliminating key targets is your goal then the assassin is without peer.
I hope this guide has given you some ideas on how to build an effective assassin in Diablo 4. Let me know in the comments if you have any other skill combinations I should try out!
