Reave , perma power/frenzy/endurance charge shadow

i have been playing shadow since starto of OP and ever since the clunky mechanic of generating charges bothered me to no end. well, the new OP Cast on Damage Taken gem made the pain go away.

i see many builds around but most of them have the little disclamer that the folowing build will work 90% of the time depending on map mods, etc etc (you either switch skills or gear or gems). well i really do not like this kind of approach. i aim to have the most robust build possible while maintaining high dps. and 1.0 patch in my opinion made it easyer then ever. it does take some good gear to shine, and you might want to stick to high risk/high reward builds early on.

now the following explanation is for people familiar with base shadow melee builds, so i will not go in to much detail about the rational behind, but rather why i took some unorthodox decisions.

i have a claw build because the seemingly little life leech it offers makes a world of difference in higher maps with some insane mods. dagger is a possibility and certainly offers more dps, but i am not inclined to make the switch any time soon (as even with my dps and lifeleech and higher defenses then some of the dagger builds here claiming to be able to handle the most insane mods i faced situations where i would 1 shot myself and therefore had to lower my dps actually at times. not to mention abyssus based builds..)


my lvl 87 build below

to briefly explain some of the not so common decisions: i opted for some defensive nodes like bonus armor, and bonus evasion to justify iron reflexes. also that 24 evasion node gives me 7% movespeed. i took some block as u can see, that 6% block chance is hard to pass by imho. also the 2 chill resistance nodes make you 55% less likely to get chilled, and in real life situations chill has a great impact on dps and survivability. i could have gone with auxium to be honest, and i would advise in most cases to do so whenever possible, but i am really picky and need to have my 100% freeze immunity at all times, even though auxium offers close to that. oh, and i have 4 mana leech with gear so i did not take the mana leech, but if you dont have it on gear (preferably auxium) then it is a must.


my gear (since the patch i cant link dream fragments and my 12 allres prismatic ring)


how it works:

chest links are self explanatory (increased crit can be swapped for more dps with concentrated effect or increased aoe)

helm links : gmp + ice spear + power charge on crit + cast on damge taken
i find this is the best combo i have discovered so far for generating power charges. i have tried many other spells, this seems to be best by miles.

Shoes links : cast when dmg taken + enduring cry + enfeebe + molten shell (need to color it right though) this is the main combo in use right now, so no point to elaborate. i go with enfeebe because it keeps me out of danger. other curses are ok too. using a curse in this combo curses a big area aroud u, so is perfect for melee

Weapon : cast on dmg taken + blood rage (you can cast it separately, but this is just more comfortable

shield: eventually i might eveither run a higher lvl cast on dmg taken with immortal call or just immortal call

i try to pollute the least possible with useless text as i find most of it fairly simple to understand. in short you run with 4/4/3 charges all the time (you can have 5 frenzy charges instead of 3 if you reroute the tree a little, but i find they are not that good) and then por immortal call with increased duration , or you micht also work in discharge instead in the shield.
for auras i run grace and hatred btw.

(the tree can easily be altered for more damage by either dropping a few points and spending 8 points to get + 140 crit chance with melee on your left (next to templar tree, by the side) or more crit multi, or actually go with the dagger instead and take the usual dagger crit nodes.)

why i find this build so good?
it suits me personally because it is fairly straightforward once it is put together and does not rely on quirky mechanics like flicker for example. it has 75 all res and obviously chaos imunity. it has 10k armor before granite flask (50 reduction) and 75 reduction with flask (most ci builds aim for less, even with flask). 6k ES. the charges provide signifficand defensive and offensive stats. 40 block.
basically it is the best all around build i could come up with to date

Sharing my link setup

Creative build, I like it!

Try this vs thorns and your screen will lock up for 10 seconds before being greeted with a resurrection screen.