Hello. I'm wondering some things about the MA Assassin build and have some general Assassin questions too.
To clearify, I've been playing D2 from now and then quite casually. I've not continued from normal into nightmare, but cleared normal two times (both times as frenzy barb).

My current lvl is 19, I got 51str, 44dex, 50vit, 30en.

In the MA tree I got 3 in tiger; 1 in cobra, D talon and D claw, and 2 in dragon tail.
In the SD tree I got 4 in claw mastery, 5 in Burst of speed, 1 in hammer and 1 in cloak of shadow.
I got one point in blade sentinel.

Im goin for claw weapons seeing as they seem to have the best speed for assassins (dunno really about anything better, tell me), currently Cestus, and then shield seeing as the assassin seems quite fragile, currently a spike shield with some really nice blockrate and blockchange.

I got myself a merc from act 2 tanking for me.


1) Tiger strike + Dragon tail.
I'm thinking of maxing out these. The damage on both of these seems brutal to me, plus they got nice synergi. Besides, I like the knockback on several enemies.
I'm wondering how the area of effect damage of Dragon tail is calculated, is only the fire damage affecting nearby enemies other than your target? How does Tiger strike affect the area of effect damage?
To me it seems Tiger buffs the area damage quite a bit, but I want some clearification.

2) How worthwhile is Cobrastrike?
Cobra seems hard to fit in if you're not using it as your main chargeup. I'm using Tiger allmost exclusively, If I where to use both it seems to me that I'm taking too long to release my charges.
Even though I feel a bit squishy, I think Cloak of shadow and my merc have been helping me avoiding damage quite good this far. Is it just a point sink if I'm goin for both tiger and cobra?

3) How wortwhile is Phoenixstrike?
I've read that it can be quite weak if you're not speccing into the other elemental charges, and I'm not, is this true.

4) More points into Cloak of shadows?
I know this one is kind of a one point wonder, but it would be nice with some longer duration on this skill. When facing though packs of monsters I feel the need to use this several times, and I don't really have the biggest manapool. Besides, the +/- def could be a nice addition?

5) Burst of speed vs Fade.
I've been spending quite some points into Burst of speed this far and I think it have been great. It got nice synergi with chargeups imo, and makes clearing weaker monsters a breeze. I know it has lesser payoff the more you level it though.
How well do you ''need'' fade later on? It seems like a really great skill, but I like Burst of speed so much.
Would fade be better in a cobra kinda tankier build?
Can I use venom alongside these two, one or the other, btw?

6) Blade traps.
Is Bladefury and Bladeshield nice additions to a MA build? I can Imagine the shiled not too hard to take advantage of.

7)...
Well, that's all :P. Tell me your own view on these matters.