[3.5] Say_Ten's Melee Shadow - Murder Everything Cheaply

Uber Elder Video, enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xWmQ7My6d4

Combat notes:
1) Pantheon: Solaris and Yugul (for 5% cold reduction)
2) Must Have: Kaom's Roots for stun immune and Bloodseeker for facetanking
3) Purity of Ice and Arctic Armor (need enlighten lvl 4)
4) Best variant enchant on boots - 10% penetration, helmet - Hatred / Arctic Armor / Purity of Ice mana reservation (this will allow you to use a curse, i prefer punishment, but i dont have enchant)
5) Vigilant Strike better than Fortify
6) I think, for next kill i'll drop CWDT Setup and run with:
Helmet: Enlighten 4 - Hatred - Purity of Ice - Arctic Armor
Chest: Dual strike (or Reave) setup, i think reave maybe good vs portals
Gloves: Frost Blades (but probably Reave), FB look very weak vs portals
Weapon 1: Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Blood Magic
Weapon 2: Ancestral Protector / Punishment - Blood Rage - Vigilant Strike

SO I switched out DS for Reave and damage on full life for Ruthless.
Tooltip DPS is 113k in hideout.

The AOE clear speed is quite insane, better than DS, However the solo damage doesn't seem to be higher than my DS.

Maybe my off hand is the problem?
I bought a OH sword with 40 % phys to fire dmg and 26% phys to cold damage. Also has extra crit chance (27%) and crit multi (25%).
http://poe.trade/search/ayahusahokimit

Is this good enough or is a "stat stick" as in an axe or sceptre better?
Reave doesn't seem to take into account their dmg so i'm not sure what the formula here is.

Your sword is not a stat stick with reave because reave works with swords. You need your off hand to be a weapon that reave cannot use, otherwise it will alternate instead of just using the main hand.

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Fillmore wrote:

Your sword is not a stat stick with reave because reave works with swords. You need your off hand to be a weapon that reave cannot use, otherwise it will alternate instead of just using the main hand.

Thank you, that was the answer I needed.

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PrimusLightNova wrote:

"

Fillmore wrote:

Your sword is not a stat stick with reave because reave works with swords. You need your off hand to be a weapon that reave cannot use, otherwise it will alternate instead of just using the main hand.

Thank you, that was the answer I needed.

Try to get at least 50% extra element damage plus 20% area damage and whatever other global stats, it is pretty cheap now. It makes reave and blade flurry totally OP vs all other melee skills.

Also blood seeker is a must IMO, the "if you don't one shot me I am always full life" thing is too OP compared to any DPS loss.

The biggest problem I have with assassin reave/blade flurry/dual strike is . . . I should just re-roll juggernaut/champion with the same exact gear/tree and be a lot stronger. Our class doesn't really bring anything special to the table for melee beyond high damage. Damage is easy to get, defense is not. The experience loss is too punishing.

Thanks to the build of the week, I found out how OP molten strike with poison is and moved on. This tree is pretty close to the build of the week recently and I get to spend all of my points on defense because molten strike + poison is just too OP on sustained damage. It is also truly unique to our class.

Thank you Say_Ten for creating a great build and Smoker Hell for playing it to perfection this league and clearing all the contents! I will keep an eye on this and be back later.

WHy is bloodseeker a must? the Pdps is pretty low and it doesn't bring that much else to the table.
Am I missing something?

Went for this build after a long break and was not disappointed. Leveling was smooth and mapping is decent.

My biggest problem atm is that I still die too often, although I'm sitting at 5,4k hp and ~130% elemental res each. Most of the time it is because Whirling Blades does not work or some unique/red monster kills me with 1-2 hits.

Could you take a look at my gear and give me some hints on what to improve? Especially what gems to use for my helmet, currently it is only a placeholder with no use...

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ProV4 wrote:

Went for this build after a long break and was not disappointed. Leveling was smooth and mapping is decent.

My biggest problem atm is that I still die too often, although I'm sitting at 5,4k hp and ~130% elemental res each. Most of the time it is because Whirling Blades does not work or some unique/red monster kills me with 1-2 hits.

Could you take a look at my gear and give me some hints on what to improve? Especially what gems to use for my helmet, currently it is only a placeholder with no use...

I would probably put in Ancestral Protector for the helmet and link it with whatever. As for dying, I'd probably replace the Sulphur flask with another defensive flask, Stibnite for example. You should be relatively beefy with 5k+ life, a chest plate, and defensive flasks running. You may need to use flasks more preemptively in higher / harder map content, having them running before you leap into a pack etc. Even more so for people using BoR but still true for 6L chest users.

Also get accuracy somewhere, from brief look I did it looks like nothing is giving you much accuracy. You might even want to compare Wasp Nest to that off hand claw you have currently, since despite the high physical damage and attack speed it's missing crit and you have lower accuracy.

i think i have pretty much finished my gear for this build. just need to upgrade the ami but im sitting pretty with 1.75 mil Dps Non shaper, 1.25 shaper Dps. not to bad hehehehe, thank for the build man!
tell me what ya think good sir!

https://pastebin.com/KMTzC1vC

I completely switched my items to match the reave build, honestly I would never want to go back to dual strike again.
I love being melee but the aoe range was too small to run maps efficiently.
Reave does the same but so much better.
Granted my tree is still probably bad for reave but I'm still doing much better than ds. Especially for bosses.