In & Out strategy suggestions?

So I play a CI Shadow, but I have difficulties. That's largely due to my lack of gear to support such a build, but regardless, I like its concept.

I feel that the best way to utilize having high ES over hp would be by having a strong in & out style of attack. Go in quickly, hit hard (preferably a good aoe option here as well), and then get out and have that shield recharge quickly before rinse & repeating. To me, that's the whole point of having massive ES by design.

So my question is... Right now, I've been going with Flicker Strike, feeding it with Frenzy (which I have 5 max charges of). When necessary I'll Cyclone as well, which can provide a good burst of life leech into my ES. But I find myself going more and more towards wanting more life leech to sustain a fight. I think it's because I do not know of what skills I should be using for the described strategy above. Flicker spamming has some great evasive qualities to it, and Cycloning is good for when you're just not gonna evade the damage and need to leech. But at this route, why am I not just some massive hp brute, ya know?

Any words of advise here? Am I indeed better off with the life steal route, or is there some good skills I'm not taking advantage of that will help my ideal strategy?

Oh, and I'm physical damage, rather than elemental.

Hello ShadyC,

Hard to give good advice, without knowing your actual build, equipment etc.

BUT, being CI and using Flicker Strike - DO USE Blood Rage:

It will do several things:
1. Life leech, in addition to what you have from tree or items. I suppose you have the Ghost Reaver Keystone to leech ES instead of life? If not, get it on the Tree :D
2. It will gain you a frenzy charge on kill. So no need to use Frenzy.
3. The downside of Blood Rage is the constant Chaos Damage you take. But since you have CI, no need to worry, because you are immune to Chaos Damage.

"

ShadyC wrote:

Oh, and I'm physical damage, rather than elemental.

That's good, since it will make leeching a lot easier. Also make sure to get weapons with a lot physical damage.

Regarding Flicker Strike:
Most commonly, Flicker Strikers link the gem to Melee Splash and Multi Strike.
This will make sure that you hit a lot of enemies, rather than one, and also one use of FLicker Strike with Multi Strike will let you Flicker THRICE for ONE Frenzy Charge.

Do not neglect Mana Leech, in order to fuel your Mana, get some Mana Leech too.
In most cases, with enough Physical Damage, 1% or 2% Mana Leech should be ok.
You can get it on equipment, or from the Tree (e.g. Mind Drinker notable near the Shadow start)

If you link your Tree and equipment, we could dig deeper into your concerns and see what could be done about it.

Cheers
-ROTEREVOULTION_

P.S.
Feel free to contact me ingame or PM me anytime.

Frenzy stray creeps safely to build up charges, flicker until all out of charges, whirl blades out until ES recharges, repeat.

Edit: Focus on dps, and not on life leech. 5k dps and 8% leech is worse than 15k dps and 5% leech.