Whirlwind Assassin (Whirlwindsin) Build Skills for Diablo 2 Resurrected

1. 1 point to all prerequisites
2. 20 points to Venom — Adds a lot of poison damage to your attacks, required
3. 20 points to Claw Mastery — Increase damage and Attack Rating, required
4. 1 point to Weapon Block — Can block all types of damage including elemental, required
5. 1+ points to Burst of Speed — Great for movement and a prerequisite for Fade, required
6. 1+ points to Fade — Great Resistances and damage reduction, required
7. 1 point to Cloak of Shadows — Can help in scary times, required
8. 1 point to Mind Blast — Can stun enemies for great crowd control, required
9. 1 point to Dragon Flight — Teleports you to monsters, required
10. 1+ points to Fire Blast — Synergy and prerequisite for Lightning Sentry, required
11. 1+ points to Shock Web — Synergy and prerequisite for Lightning Sentry, required
12. 1+ points to Charged Bolt Sentry — Synergy and prerequisite for Lightning Sentry, required
13. 20 points to Death Sentry — Invest skills here first when maxing Traps, required
14. 20 points to Lightning Sentry — Invest skills here for solid damage, required

The Whirlwind Assassin does not exist until you obtain Chaos. Typically, once you are in the position to use this item, you have already completed the game, so the Whirlwind Assassin is purely an endgame build.

She is definitely an expensive character to create since Chaos requires both Ohm Rune and Um Rune. Further, she needs other relatively expensive gear choices to really boost her melee damage or successfully hybridise her build to kill as fast as other melee builds.

Typical Whirlwind Assassin gameplay has her place Traps to provide ranged supplemental damage while using Whirlwind around monsters during the time period traps are actively casting. The Whirlwind animation caveat applies to the Assassin more strongly since she is less resilient than the Barbarian, so care should be taken when whirlwinding through large or dangerous packs of monsters. Using the "tri-ww" method of whirlwinding (short Whirlwind bursts in a triangle around a target) is the most effective way of using the skill without staying in the animation for too long and taking too much damage. It should be noted that once a Whirlwind animation starts, it cannot be stopped by any means. You also cannot drink Potions during the animation.

To maximise both the speed of Whirlwind and that of Trap laying, Chaos should always be created into Runic Talons and equipped in the glove-side hand. Ideally, the boots-side weapon will also be Runic Talons. With Runic Talons, both hands will hit at maximum speed while whirlwinding; 42% total Increased Attack Speed will then be required to lay Traps at maximum speed.

As a build dependent upon Increased Attack Speed, Cannot Be Frozen is a must-have attribute. Raven Frost is the best way to obtain this.

This build is not a fast build, and it should not be thought of as an endgame build. It is inferior to both Whirlwind Barbarians and Trap Assassins///LINK HERE TO TRAP GUIDE -oxy///. But if you are tired of the standard meta builds, this build is certainly an interesting alternative.

The following section discusses how many attribute points should be allocated to each of the primary stats.

Enough for gear — Runic Talons require 105 Strength. This number may change based on the gear you are using, though, so make sure to always double check the requirements for each piece of gear you have as well as how much Strength each piece will provide once equipped.

Enough for Gear — Runic Talons require 105 Dexterity. More or less may be required depending on your weapon of choice. Otherwise, Dexterity is best invested into Vitality; the Attack Rating and Defense return per point is too low to be worth considering seriously.

Everything else into Vitality — 250+ points. Every excess attribute point should be allocated to Vitality, as long as you can meet the Strength and Dexterity requirements of your items by the time you wish to equip them. Not only does this increase your Life total, but this also increases the chance for Healing Potions to crit, doubling their healing output. Further, additional Life reduces the chance that you will be put into hit recovery.

Nothing — Allocating attribute points to Energy in a final build is universally considered sub-par for almost every character due to the widespread availability of Mana Potions. While leveling, if you find yourself struggling with Mana you can allocate a few points to Energy that you can then remove with a respec later on.