Skills
Trap Tree:
well, this part is pretty obvious.
1 Fire Blast
20 Shock Web
20 Charged Bolt Sentry
20 Lightning sentry
20 Death sentry
This ensures that you will have the highest possible trap damage for your Assasin, which is crucial for beating the holy snot out of people.
Shadow Disciplines Tree:
now for those other skill points you have
1 Claw mastery
1 Psychic hammer
1-5 Burst of Speed
1 Weapon Block
1 Cloak of Shadows
1-5 Fade
1-20 Mind blast
Martial Arts Tree:
What? Like you expected there to be skill allocations in this tree?
Stat Allocation
like it has to be said... str/dex high enough to wear eq with the rest going into vita
Equipment
Optimal equipment:
Weapons:
On your primary Weapon switch you should have 2 +3 trap claws, with preferrably +to light sentry secondary skills on them.
Your primary weapon should have of swiftness (+30IAS) or quickness (+40IAS) on the suffix, with shael runes adorning the two sockets you get from a socket quest.
Your secondary weapon should be another + to light sentry claw, but this one with fhr/hp/ias jewels in the two sockets.
On your secondary weapon switch you should have HoTO and Lidless wall with UM rune or Pdiamond in the socket.
Helm:
High defense Shako with UM rune in the socket
OR
High to near perfect CoA with 2 UM runes or 1 UM rune and 1 shael rune in the sockets
Armor:
High def Dusk Shroud enigma. This gives you the 45% run/walk and the juicy +2 to skills. The teleport is gravy, really. I only use it to get back to town quickly after a duel or in a pubby where you dont want to deal with the townguarders.
Belt:
Arachnid Mesh. +1 to skills on a belt, yes please?
Rings:
soj+bk is really the catch-all setup for entering a game, but keep raven frosts, wisp projectors, and dwarf stars handy when dealing with other elemntal characters in pubbies.
Ammy:
high to perfect Mara's, +2 assasin skills with fcr/resist/hp, or a +3 trap ammy with other good mods
Gloves:
Laying of hands is pretty much the best choice here, unless you have a rare/crafted set of gloves with better mods.
Boots:
High ED Shadow dancers.
Charms:
10xTrap GCs with good mods, like 12fhr, high life, run/walk, etc.
Anihullis, the best small charm since the hex.
9xAll Res small charms
Budget equipment:
Weapons:
Primary weapon switch:
two +3 trap claws, one with shael runes, and the other with decent mod jewels in them.
Secondary weapon switch:
Wizardspike with res jewel, and Lidless wall with Pdiamond in it.
Helm:
Lore runeword, or Shako with shael in it.
Armor:
Arkaines Valor, Upped Que-Haegens wisdom (if youre on ladder), or upped Skin of the Vipermagi. (assuming you're on ladder) Put in jewels or runes at your leisure and disgresion
Belt:
Tgods, for the run/walk and +to vitality, or Verdungos Heary Coil.
Rings:
Raven frost and rare ring with decent resist or fcr on it
Gloves:
Magnus' skin (orphans call set gloves) or any other 20ias gloves
Boots:
Natalya's set boots, or rare/crafted boots with r/w and resist.