It’s all happening for Assassins as Diablo 2 Resurrected Season 3 kicks off, with the Elemental Martial Arts Assassin proving to be one of the most powerful builds in the classic RPG thanks to the new Mosaic runeword. Meanwhile, an update to Diablo 2 Resurrected has fixed a bug affecting Trap Assassins, and Blizzard has updated its recent patch notes to reflect a fix for online play that will be applied to offline players at a later date.
The arrival of Diablo 2 Resurrected’s new runewords in patch 2.6 was always likely to cause changes to the metagame, and so far it looks like Martial Arts Assassins is as exciting as originally anticipated. Mosaic Runeword actually got a buff after PTR testing, meaning everyone now applies a 50% chance to not consume charges on finishers.
So you can run one to get this bonus, or use two for a guaranteed 100% chance of not using your charges. On top of that, Blizzard made a change so that when finalizers are run this way, it will now update the expiration timer on the stack. This combines into a huge advantage for the class, allowing them to spam finishing moves non-stop for huge bursts of damage.
Diablo 2 Resurrected Twitch streamer and YouTuber Alex ‘MrLlamaSC’ Sementelli shows such a build in action in the video below, initially starting with a steady stream of meteors on enemies, followed by floods of lightning with every kick. He then piles all of his finishing moves on top of each other and can’t contain a delighted smile. “Finally, there’s another S-level version, but oh my, it’s not the Path of Exile Assassin!” he exclaims.
“Put on your sunglasses, everyone: it’s level S, players: eight (difficulty), Martial Arts Assassin.” MrLlamaSC explains how all charges continuously refresh, as long as you manage to kick them once before they disappear. Although he played the toughest scene, he laughs, “this character isn’t even maxed out and it’s disgusting.”
If you’d rather play a Trap Diablo 2 Resurrected Assassin build instead, you’ll be pleased to hear that Blizzard has rolled out a hotfix that addresses an unwanted nerf. Trap abilities were supposed to benefit from gear that applied negative enemy resistances, but it wasn’t working properly. Blizzard says “the bug fix went live with patch 2.6, but ran into an unexpected issue,” but a patch has now changed it for online play. A patch for offline play is coming “at a later date”.
If you haven’t jumped on it yet, a Blizzard sale is currently offering a chance to get into Diablo at a steep discount. Take a look at the best classes in Diablo 2 Resurrected as we enter the new season, plus more of the best old PC games if you can’t get enough of the classics.