… just not the right ones apparently. But I managed to defeat Diablo anyway.

My assassin was not developed very well, but I think that’s something most first timers experience. Diablo is not someone you go after with melee attacks and well, that’s all I’ve got. I developed the Shadow Discipline tree exclusively; putting most of my points into Cloak of Shadows which is great against many enemies, but not against one gigantic one. From some of the online reading I’ve done, it turns out that Assassin is the one class that works best with a variety of skills working together, rather than focusing on one skill set. I also dumped too many points into Shadow Warrior instead of saving them for when I was able to add Shadow Master so my Shadow Master was weak. It didn’t matter too much against Diablo since both my minion and my mercenary would get wiped out in a matter of seconds by either his fire or lightening attack.

I was able to defeat Diablo by taking advantage of the fact that he doesn’t leave the center of the Sanctuary. I hung out just outside his territory and pounded him over and over and over with Psychic Hammer, a skill that I had developed early in the game (as it was the only Shadow Discipline available) but had not found useful most of the time. I still had to dodge his ranged fire and lightening attacks, use health potions any time I got to half empty, and town portal about 7 times to restock on potions and catch my breath. His hit points were going down so slow that there was no perceivable change if I watched his health bar. If I died, his health would go back to full and I got a hair’s breadth away a few times. The whole battle took close to an hour.

On to Act V, the bonus expansion act!