[2.0] Ayron's Static Strike Crit-Dagger Shadow

First of all, I'm really sorry for such a long delay after 2.0.0 launch. I had some difficulties with adjusting the build, but here it is - enjoy :).

Some of the sections of the build are in progress.

Screenshots from 2.0.0 stats soon.

dps: 80.6k
dps on charges and blood rage: 140k
life: 4k


2.0 changes:

•Frenzy charges became much more powerful so I've decided to implicate them to my build.
•Auras and Reduced Mana changes caused that I've gave up Herald of Ice.
•The tree includes 2 jewels slots which well rolled can increadibly boost damage.
•Despite using one herald less, the overall dps and clearspeed seems to be even better than in 1.3.
•No CwDT combo - Casting Endurning Cry manually or not nearly.

Introduction

This build is designed for players who love incredibly dynamic gameplay, frantic jumping from pack to pack and pleasing to the eye skills effects. If you look for an insane clear-speed which is a result of massive melee DPS and crits, that build should be your goal. The main idea is to use Static Strike as a primary skill and gathering dodge with evasion which works very well here. I guarantee that you will take delight in shattering everything on your path!

Pros:

+ Insane clear speed
+ Single target burst
+ High mobility
+ Can farm Atziri (potentially Uber capable)
+ Cheap
+ Flexible (easily fits in your needs)
+ Fun to play
+ Easy to upgrade
+ Some uniques are recommended, but not necessary
+ 7 Frenzy Charges

Cons:

- Sometimes it’s difficult to get proper sockets
- May suffer from lack of STR / INT
- Can’t run Elemental Reflect maps (single packs are nothing at all though)





LvL 90 - 110 points:

Passive Tree

Notes:

1. Grab Cloath and Chain if you cannot cap resitances.
2. Why jewels? Jewels are OP, that's why :
Leveling Process:

Bandits:

• Oak - 40 Life
• Oak - +16% Physical Damage
• Kraityn - Frenzy Charge



Main Skill:

4L: Static Strike + Melee Physical Damage + Multistrike + Physical To Lightning

Physical to Lightning scales much better with Static Strike what provides us much more DPS. What is more, at some point, convertion to lightning damage equals 100%, so we don't have to pay attention to physical reflect anymore. But the main drawback is that either Physical Damage Leeched as Life or Mana mods don't affect us anymore.

5L: Weapon Elemental Damage

6L: Increased Area of Effect / Increased Critical Strikes

Once we got 6L we can easily switch between two blue skill gems. The Increased AoE gem rapidly boosts youe clear speed. For the single target (e.g. Atziri, Daresso), you can use Increased Critical Strike. You can also try other blue gems like Lightning Penetration or Conc Effect for different effects.

Buffs and Auras:

3L: Hatred + Summon Ice Golem + Enlighten (QoL) or Minion Life

3L: Herald of Thunder + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark

Other options: Replace Hatred with Grace for additional evasion. Use Warlord's Mark to sacrifice additional crit for leech and automatic Endurance Charges.

Utility:

4L: Whirling Blades + Faster Attacks + Blood Magic + Fortify

4L: Blood Rage + Vaal Haste + Vaal Grace + Increased Duration

The tree includes 3.6% life regeneration and Blood Rage causes 4% degen. That means that 0.4% degen is present during runs which you have to maintain with potions from time to time.

4L: Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 4) + Immortal Call (lvl 6) + Endurning Cry (max) + Increased Duration (max)



Weapon:

Armor:

Jewellery:

Flasks:

Flasks are a part of equipment often marginalized by many players. Quite the opposite, proper setup is very important for our safety. I've described a perfect combination, to my mind, below.

• Life Flasks - For the prefix I'd aim to get Remove Bleeding on Use (...of Staunching) . Either Corrupting Blood or regular bleedings are very dangerous, especially for the Abyssus users.

• Mana Flask - Helps a lot! Particularly when fighitng single mobs without mana leech. Feel free to choose any suffix you need. If you don't have mana problems, take another life flask to maintain blood rage.

• Atziri's Promise - Firstly it's awesome damage boost which helps to kill most of the bosses in less than no time. The other benefit is convertion to chaos damage. Use it always before assaulting reflect packs! Read more about dealing with reflect in Tips and Tricks section.

• Jade Flask - I'd recommend Increased Evasion suffix (...of Reflexes). Lightning Coil users may consider Topaz Flask instead.

• Quicksilver Flask - It's good to improve your clearspeed with additional movement speed. The best possible suffix is Increased Movement Speed (...of Adrenaline).

Although, suffixes are different for each flask, a demanded affix is one: Recharges 1 Charge When You Deal A Critical Strike (Surgeon's...). With 50%+ critical strike chance it's almost impossible to run out of charges.

Also make sure that you have Removes Freeze And Chill On Use (...of Heat) mod on one of your flasks. I recommend to choose a mana flask for it, since it has a free suffix slot. Have in mind then that Immunity To Freeze And Chill works only during the flask effect, so you won't be active for more than a split second.

Uniques Synergy:

● Abyssus - It's certainly the best item to boost your DPS (double it, in my case!). Flat phys damage and crit multiplier mods scale very well with this build and additional STR and INT is also a good thing to have. However, using it is tantamount to being more vulnerable to physical damage. More about dangers in the Tips and Tricks section. I recommend not to equip weak rolls (>43% increased Physical Damage taken)

● Lightning Coil - One of unique chests to choose from. The main advantage of using it is softening the Abyssus downside. Additional life and lightning damage are also worth considering, though it may be difficult to cap resists. The decision is up to you.

● Daresso's Defiance - Another chest to give some thought to. Although we don't have physical damage, so we cannot leech, (if you use Physical to Lightning) is still has an efficient deffensive mechanism. What is more, you don't have to cast Endurning Cry manually to get Endurance Charges which are vital to support Immortal Call.

● Carcass Jack - The last option which I thought over. There might be different usage depending on the general setup. Combined with Abyssus it turns us into a kind of glass cannon - the clear speed will rapidly increase, but any hit may be lethal. To soften it, you can go for Life Leech gem and Vaal Pact version. Another option is to leave Abyssus and try to compensate the DMG with Replacing Increased AoE with DPS boosting gems. The biggest problem here would be to get 4R2B though.

● Bino's Kitchen Knife - An alternative to rare daggers. The physical DPS is rather avarage, but the poison proliferation may efficiently enhance DoT with Herald of Fire. I've never used it myself, but many people have, so it must be somehow attractive. I'd appreciate any feedback concerning that unique.

● Atziri's Step - Next item which I find usefull, but is not essential to choose. It's not a big deal to find better, rare boots with some tempting resists, but additional dodge chance for spells is worth to be considered. Again, the choice is up to you.

● Physical Doryani's Invitation - Again an item which works better to use without Physical to Lightning due to its Life Leech mod. Tri res is the best thing here, though it don't have any life which might be crucial. It's an alternative for those who cannot afford any better rare belt.

My Setup:






Dealing with Reflect:

Jump Trick:



Videos:


Screenshots:



My IGN: IronLayMay

I gladly answer every quiestons, so feel free to ask about all you uncertainties. If you need a promt advice, I highly recommend to write me an in-game massage, because I don't visit forum everyday. I'm not on-line? - add me to the friend list, so you could catch me later :)

Thanks for reading! Please, leave a comment below. I appreciate any feedback!

Hi there!

Sounds interesting, myself I started playing similar Shadow crit build on Torment.

But I chose to play pure lightining damage using new Physical to Lightining support gem. It converts dmg and adds extra dmg. Becoming purely elemental allows me to pick some extra ele/weapon ele dmg nodes. You might want to try it as well, as an alternative.

As for your build, it is definitely viable and I more or less though of the same gems but I would change the power charge generation system. What I use is Herald of Thunder + Curse on hit + Assasin Mark - works like a charm most of the times. As long as you fight and kill monsters you keep getting charges. The higher the lvl of curse on hit and assasin mark, the higher the chance to get charges. Obviously this will not work for curse immune locations. Another way would be to use whirling blades + power charge on crit (+ faster attacks for more movement speed and if you have another slot then critical chance).

Another thing I would maybe change is Faster Attacks, you might want to try Multistrike. Faster attacks might be better once you get them for lvl 20 with 20 quality but Multistrike seems slightly better choice to me. And it works with Statik Strike mechanics, for one Multistrike hit you get multiple Statik Strike charges hence you increase your AoE.


If you would like any more info on how I play my full lightning dmg shadow, lemme know :-)

Hi!

First of all, thanks for the answer. It motivates me to check other combinations and upgrade my guide in the future.

As I mentioned before, it is very fresh build. Elemental way sounds pretty cool and to be honest I haven't considered it. Lightning tendrils and curse on hit is also great, however the mana pool is limited and I would have to make changes in whole auras combo. Anyway I will try it, due to posibility of changing unique armor for something better! And the multistrike. I am using it, but I thought about replacing faster attacks. I will have more time to check things out in a week so I will let you know about my conclusion.

Thanks for the reply, mate :)

Hi,

thanks for this build. I start in torment atm.

Hi,

good luck then, but please have in mind that I will certainly change some parts of the build. I still experiment to make it better!

After discovering how powerful static strike is on my melee ranger, I tried building a crit dagger Shadow for it. This is what I thought of doing. It is very different from your build of course, going into witch and templar instead of ranger. With more levels this tree can go into the lightning damage nodes for witch and some good life nodes I skipped along the way to templar area. This character is hybrid ES/life and I really wanted to get the increased AoE nodes. Your thoughts on this version?

Also, I was wondering when looking at your build: You take phys dmg life leech nodes, but do those really do much for you? Static strike converts 60% of your phys dmg to lightning anyway. Since you also take Vaal Pact, this means that your life leech from physical is only 16% effective. My thought was simply to skip taking life leech nodes and use a gem in later levels.

Euploid, your ideas is certainly different and there is no point to campare it. My aim was to create life based shadow with very fast clear speed. Maybe it is not the best solution, only time will tell, but I like the way it is going.

As to life leech notes, please notice that I am using life leech gem in addition to notes. The reason is that I have low level static strike and I need sufficiently sustaining abilities. I am 71 for the moment and many things will change when I get let's say 80 and lvl 20 primary ability. I might replace them with more profitable.

I am testing meny things and the build above is only my conspect. Only since yesterday I tested some different combination and I will describe my final conclusion and update the guide. Probably at the weekend, so keep abreast of updates.

Nevertheless, thank you so much for your opinion. I will take it into consideration, however I won't change the basis :)

I've changed the skill tree idea and some mechanics a bit. Have a look guys.

I'll hit 80 lvl to record some videos and check an end game potential. Then I'd like to start my build in Torment I think. Peace out guys!

"

I've changed the skill tree idea and some mechanics a bit. Have a look guys.

I'll hit 80 lvl to record some videos and check an end game potential. Then I'd like to start my build in Torment I think. Peace out guys!

i looked at it and i saw that you took thick skin next to ondars not sure if a particular reason but what you could do different is go through herbal ism to ondars and then take hired killer and harrier for the same amount of points u lose 2% hp but gain harrier and on kill hp which is a better get imo unless you value the 8% chance to avoid an ailment which isn't that great for the same amount of points.

heres the new tree

"

Onslaughts wrote:

i looked at it and i saw that you took thick skin next to ondars not sure if a particular reason but what you could do different is go through herbal ism to ondars and then take hired killer and harrier for the same amount of points u lose 2% hp but gain harrier and on kill hp which is a better get imo unless you value the 8% chance to avoid an ailment which isn't that great for the same amount of points.
heres the new tree

Spoiler

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgYA9W_IFKLZsNjtQbGzFr9qjLVIpn-J03BSKgvz6l3ycNVh4iaVjDZVSwdjy70OSBnXrTOTlRGWcFaQG5oT29TPerIZMgGbJujWbWw6Qkt43agwcdQjBbVsjJ2qNj20xWKsfeMs4axmuT7YdkcG2-eOipfQ225W9WND-WOjiu4OPs-95hXwBflNkiP2BX3p_i1V0All8bt8IQMi6u2DGY4AXtN-73r-un11CC6VZgSxTGCsR1FMykrDOpu1KjipbrXybqpKyD8nKk19W9i9NZLrFM3qwuyNfTB8fyvWim-ewONLV_Gzgwk=

You are totally right! I have no idea why I have overlooked that. Thanks!