[2.5] Breach - Flurry: Claw Trickster - Atziri viable

Hello Folks,

this Guide will give you a quick Overview how to successfully have some Levelling Fun with Claws and Blade Flurry. I am now at Lvl 74 and doing first Maps. Right now it feels solid for endgame.

So how does it all start?
I wanted to make a Claw Build and wanted to try Blade Flurry. I choosed Trickster for the new League and started therefore with a shodow.
I picked Frostblades and it took me all the way to BladeFlurry very quick and it was fun too.
For the Normal and Cruel Content I just headed for the DMG Nodes. Claws alway gave enough Leech or LoH for levelling and my first Death was on Cruel in a Breach. Well ...
I also bought Unique Claws whenever I could afford to and met the requirements. Last Resort I did found to start with. Nice.

Transferring to Merciless
At Merci Lvl it slowed down a bit. I had to adjust the other gear and get some Res. Otherwise Deaths would occur to often. So I took some Res Nodes in the SkillTree and crafted some Gear.
I do had the luck of a Binos drop and I sold it for a good amount of cash. So from this point on I could afford my aimed Gear. (see below).

Right now I feel like having a good clear speed mapper and a good servivalist.

Here are the Facts:

Bandits: Oak - Kraityn - Kill em all

Skilltree:
Normal: you go COORDINATION - WILL OF BLADES - FANG OF THE VIPER straight to the Claw Rondell
then down to Claws of the Pride
Cruel: go up for Claws of the Falcon and Written in Blood, the Pick Harrier and Studious Combatant
Merci: pick some more Life and Resis
Skilltree atm:
After that I will go and pick some more Life and Crit Nodes.

Ascendencies:
I choosed Trickster. Here the Keystones are:
Ghost Dance - Shade Form - Weave the Arcane
Now it depends on Playstyle. See also "Which Weapon to choose". I will pick Patient Reaper.

Gear:
I choose to play Life / ES Mix. Not LowLife!! I see that this brings me some nice extra Power with Ascend Nodes and good Tankiness. Merciless Itzaro was no deal as a result.
Here is my Gear atm:

Recommended is Carcass Jack for the AOE Boosts.

But: "which Weapon to choose?". I first used Essentia Sanguis which gives Ghost Reaver and is very good for Defense. But now I switched to Rive which gives me more DPS. The Leech is enough to stay alive even in very crowded Breaches. I use as Defense Option also the Fortress Claw. So I have the Pros of Dual Wielding and a good Defense as well.

I changed now to Rive AND Essentia. The reduced Block is acceptable and the GhostReaver for free gives a Huge bump to Defense together with Rive.


Gems:
I still play with a 4 Link!! and it is enough to rush through T1-3 Maps atm.
Main Attack: Blade Flurry - Incr. Phys Melee Dmg - Add. Fire - Crit Chance/Crit DMG
Auras: HAtred, Arctic Armour, HoIce. We also use HoI to apply our Curse: Assassins Mark. This means we use Hatred, HoI, Curse on Hit and AM in Alphas Howl.
Mobility: Whirling Blade, FasterAttack, IncDuration on AdvFortress, so we also have Fortify.
Defense: CWDT Lvl2, ImmortalCry, MoltenShell and IceGolem
Utility: Reposte with FasterAttacks, AddCold, Flee or whatever Colours you have. ;) Also I use Rallying Cry to Buff Damage.

Did I miss something? Just ask.

I am open for Help and suggestions. This Build is probably not there where I want it to be in endgame. But League is still long.

I just tested the Weapon Combi: Essentia and Rive. Feels good. Will test it more ...

Now at Lvl 77. Levelling is really easy. Doing T3-6 Maps now with no problems.
Next doing Malachai and UberLab. As soon as I get my hands on a Midnight I will try Atziri also.

nice build, not overpriced! any tips for leveling? gear, claws?

Armourwise I took whatever I found.

Claws I used: LAst Resort - Al Dhih - Mortem Morsu - Advancing Fortress and the final Claws.
All very affordable

Thanks

Update: I did kill Malachai in Merciless deathless. Taken into account that I am a rather bad player and normaly die at Malachai, this is really noteable. ;)

Also I easily farm now Merc Lab. (Not able to test Uber Lab though).

And I did go on Atziri today. Including a breach which was very easy to do. Double Vaal: no problem. Trio: (should be no Problem) I died once due to bad movement.
Atziri: I could not finish but mainly because I am so bad player. Lol. Others would have no problems with this build to kill her for sure. It was also only the split phase which was hard and took my portals. And I got her down on just around 10% Life left. SO it was really close.


All in all I am very satisfied with this build. Levelled to 81 and be fairly sure to get this build to 90 in less than one more week.


Some more Data: Gems are all at Lvl 18. No quality. Therefor the DMG is at 3k unbuffed (with Aura) and at 5k with Flasks and Cry and 3 PowerCharges up.
Eva is at 8300 and 18k with Flask. Which is very often enough.
Block Chance is at 23% and ES at 1.3k. Resis are capped. ES LEech is at 3.6 and Mana Leech at 0.8. Life on Hit is 31.

One last Note: if you follow this build make sure to use one Leech and one LoH Claw when using Esentia and GhostReaver. Otherwise you have to drink LifeFlasks too often!

Hey, short update:

I have had an Atziri kill. Mange to kill one Breach Lord so far and did most of the T1-8 Maps. Up to T11 it seems quite easy and still fast Map clearing speed.

I did some changes to Gear and added 4 Jewels with Life and 2 DMG mods. I still use a 5 link but will try to get a 6 Link asap.

With HoI, Artic Armour, and Hatred, you have 100% of your mana reserved and can't use any abilities. Am I missing something?

Alphas Howl will reduce reserved Mana at a rate of 8%. ;) The Mana left then is enough for your Attack.

But in the meantime I swapped the Essentia for Scourge and Dropped AA because I use a Bone Helmet now.


My Gear at the Moment: