Guide written by Firestorm on the DiabloII.Net Single Player Forums.
The Blade Mistress specialises in spells from the blade tree. Well, there isn't a specialised tab for blade skills, its in the Traps tree. To further enhance the "blade" effect, the Blade Mistress also uses a thorns merc that helps "deflect" damage back to enemies.
However, this guide will show you how to become a pure Blade Mistress.
Blade Sentinel Skill Points: 1
This skills is only a preq. Leave it at 1.
Blade Fury Skill Points: 1-20
BF is your main...erm...injuring skill. Even at lv20, it lacks the damage to kill monsters in hell mode. Using a list of equipment listed below, it is possible to boost this skill to lv31.
Blade Shield Skill Points: 20
This is another must-max skill, for this build at least. So that in the heat of battle, even the monsters currently not being attacked are constantly taking damage. Basically: Every bit of damage counts, and it adds to the "blade" look.
Note: Put 1 point in all prequisites.
Claw Mastery Skill Points: 20
Boosts your damage, adds to critical strike. No reason why you shouldn't max this skill.
Burst of Speed Skill Points: 1-10
1 would be enough since you will be equipping dual Batucs, which will boost this skill's level to 5.
Weapon Block Skill Points: 1
Since you will be dual wielding, this skill will come in handy. Its sort of a 1 point wonder. Let +skills boost this skill to substantial amounts
Mind Blast Skill Points: 0-1
This skill is really your call. Having one point in it gives you Plan B...or so to speak. In case of emergency, once your thorns merc is down and you need a quick route to escape, use Mind Blast. Some monsters will get distracted, and start clobbering each other. This is when you run for it. Best not to use this skill when your merc is still around and the thorns aura active. Reason being, once the monsters are "unconverted", they will still have the thorns aura on them.
Shadow Master Skill Points: 20
Besides being a threat by itself, the Shadow Master also provides another thorn aura fodder. Max this skill.
Dragon Claw Skill Points: 1-20
This will be your main attack. Since skill points isn't a problem with this build, you might consider maxing this skill.
Blades of Ice Skill Points: 0-20
If you consider this to be a "blade" skill too. Max it. Works wonders in the not-secret-anymore cow level.
Vampire Gaze Grim Helm Since you will be in the heat of battle, some PDR will come in handy. The dual leech helps a lot too. However, this clashes with the build. With PDR, the damage returned by thorns will be reduced. Since your sassy will also be covered by Blade Shield, you might consider maxing out your pdr (75% pdr - physical damage reduce) and let your blade shield deal the "return" damage.
Shaftstop Mesh Armour
For those going the max PDR route, as this armour provides another 30% PDR boost.
Skin of the Flayed One Demonhide Armour A little unorthodox and VERY rarely used, but it might be worthwhile for this build. Main reason: life leech. Rarely do you find life leech on an armour. With sufficient leech, the Blade Mistress can stand in the midst of her enemies and drain enough life to cover what she loses.
Bartuc's Cutthroat Greater Talons The best overall choice for an assassin. The +skills and life leech will prove extremely useful.
String of Ears Demonhide Sash
This item gives PDR and life leech, an excellent choice for most (or is that all?) melee fighters.
Wilhelm's Pride Battle Belt (from the Orphan's Call set), which provides dual leech.
Crafted Blood Gloves
By crafting, the glove will have some preset mods, of which two of them stand out from the rest. Life leech and Crushing Blow. Life leech is especially important in this build since assassins tend to be rather fragile. Crushing blow is just gravy.
Immortal King War Gauntlets
Dual +20 str and dex, means an extra 40 points into vitality.
Its your call as to which glove is better. I prefer the crafted gloves though...life leech is always good IMO.
War Traveler's Battle Boots Gives a huge boost to your damage, and has dual stats. A great pair of boots to use.
Raven Frost Ring
The Cannot be Frozen mod is the main reason why most melee chars (all pvp chars actually) use the Raven Frost Ring. You won't want to be "clawing" enemies at a snail's speed would you?
Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band
This ring provides to important mods: life leech and +skills. This would certainly come in handy.
Manald Heal Ring
Throughout the entire equipment listing, mana leech has been left out. Unless you have a source of mana leech somewhere (like a Vex rune in the Batucs lol), its recommened that you equip one of these.
Dual Leech Rare Rings This is the rich man's version of the Manald Heal ring. Since a Blade Mistress won't need that much mana leech to survive (about 5% is more than enough), a ring with an additional life leech mod will be good. Note that these rings are pretty difficult to find. If you play Diablo II in single player mode, you can revert back to D2 1.00 (up to about 1.06 I think), and try your hand at gambling for duel leech rings. If you aren't you can always try to trade for one. Though I'm not sure why you would want to do that just to build a char like this.
Almost any amulet goes well with the Blade Mistress, but one type stands out from the rest.
Crafted Blood Amulet
A good amulet to have is a +2 assassin skills and dual leech crafted one. This is possible using the crafting recipe since the mana leech mod can appear on an ammy. The recipe is: Any magic Amulet, any magic Jewel, Amn rune, Perfect Ruby.
With the right equipment, the Blade Mistress can survive pretty well in hell mode. Physical immune monsters are the main threat to the Blade Mistress, since she isn't exactly equipped to deal with such monsters. A quick way to deal with them is to either a bow with 6 Tal runes (for a poison damage kill), or two claws (any type will do since they are PI anyway) socketed with Ort runes. The best way of course, is to run. Even with high life leech, a bunch of PI monsters will certainly make a meal out of the Blade Mistress.