Life Leech/Ghost Reaver/CI Claw Build

Having never played a shadow before, I thought I would give this a shot.

I'm sure it has been thought of before, but here is my plan anyway.

Plan is to use life leech claws, and all ES gear. I prefer ES playstyle.

First 20 levels I plan on going in this direction:



Taking the one handed nodes because I'll be using an es shield, and the strenght node for the little bit of damage and hp until I get more ES.



Then grabbing the es and claw nodes to the right.

Now at this stage I may or may not get ghost reaver, depending on my damage, es level, and my survivability against chaos damage. I may just get ghost reaver before the es and claw nodes to see if it suites my playstyle. This is assuming life leech regens es when es has been depleted.



At this stage, I get the claw nodes up from GR. If I REALLY need the es boost, and have enough es, I'll go straight to CI from the top path, and respect after to save points. But It'll end up looking like this.

End game build:



LAAAAATE end game build:



I'll go for Vaal pact to tank end game mobs that hit a bit harder, but otherwise I'll either go for more es or go for more damage.


I forgot to add it in, but at some stage I'll get the claw nodes to the south of the start point.

Oh, and I'll be playing HC, so this was made in mind with survivability and damage scaling pretty much side by side.

Skills using:

double strike
whirling blades (utility)


TBH I haven't had any experience with dex skills, so Imma just wing the skills as I go along.

I'll go for resistance bonus from kraityn, and I got the 3 resistance nodes on the tree, but other than that, my gear is gunna have to have some good resistance on it. I guess i'll be swapping rings a lot.

Thoughts? Or am I just going to die pitifully?

You will have 43% allres from your passives only (67% with questrewards), I don't think you will have to switch your rings a lot ;-). Consider taking passive skillpoints instead or changing your passives.

Speaking of the passive tree:

- what is ES recovery supposed to do for you with ES-Leech+Vaal Pact?
- what do you need buff duration for?
- what do you need power charges for?

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQYBNrhKMGPyeo-dZRiliAlmJS-jDIP7PiOocKt4krdArboakGuPMOlmEuTogyOHnkkHi78K3w3wYAXHH2EfTPtiQYwqiHb3IyC5T0NZfbuM9OdZdN6qOZaWa8g5MAHoba8Xu1XlSLAcRl6pvwdiQkzWvGM6v8jF21VCNjtw7ksMhrrzEG73HAEBnU0zvqvZCR3Z64dD7JzFRM2AzTfQN0Qfu-PsvFhKVpKAP55fTXcAFgkL6q9zWrEOw3xtYhT1clBIDB3Gr70hu1YanVm0XrL43AUrMvv5QxxVyrwxPM3KZmNnYnq6q_aQwklHOJxKxdMKcR00_gcmypZHPIy5Cvwqrxhg2UndI1F4k2i1aJy8wxcXh5WHLJLz_oTXHBLKjpiIg17vB4feJZNMr_VDluRM9JjiHBw=

I switched some stuff around without changing the idea behind your build too much:

- 2x 6% ES instead of ES-Recovery + 8%ES near Arcane focus (if you even need them)
- 2 INT nodes instead of powercharges
- 30 STR node instead of 2x buff duration
- returned the points you spent for ES-Recovery

I would have done my passivetree differently in some other regards as well, but yours will do (and you now have 5 more points to spend for other things).
You could for example pick up the 10% melee phys.dmg. node after the eledamage nodes in the middle of the tree. You could also spend 3 points into the crit cluster instead of 2 INT nodes for the pathing to Ghost Reaver.
Those two were obvious, but I think you can find more improvements yourself :-).

Consider using Blood Rage as it is a free buff for CI-users.
You will get frozen pretty badly as a melee CI-user, consider picking up crystal skin or the "cannot be frozen" jewelry.
Remember that Leech from sources other than support gems only works with physical damage, don't prefer elemental damage over physical damage (reconsider spending your passives for elemental damage-nodes depending on your gear).
You are short on dexterity, you will need an onyx-amulet and a piece of armor with +DEX to wear highlevel-claws (up to 131 DEX required) with your current passives.

I got the power charge just because it would be quicker to get to the claw nodes. So I'll refund those nodes once I don't need em.

The ES recovery was in case I want to retreat, but if I'm getting ES leech, then I should be offensive in the first place.

I'll probably add more dex as I need it.

Thanks for the feedback.

Hi i like your build, i have been playing around with Claw build also. heres my version.

Focus is ofc claw dps, crit chance, Energy shield, Avoid freeze, to keep me attacking for the unkillable ES ill hopefully achive.

As for auras im curently useing Wrath for dps boost + Dicipline for more Es. My build has 231% more Es, like tis ill prop end up with 2.500-4000 Energy shield. with +20% life steal.

Gear vice ill get psysical dps over elemental, Lifesteal on rings and atleast +6 Ls on claws.
High ES armor, As for Support gems i like to get crit damage Gems for my Dual attack main attack, would work nicely with my incresed crit chance. High crit = high steal. :)

Please comment if you like.

Forgot to link my build:

Here it is.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQYBABBXxADOa0gDOSvMBSsy-wcmypYLT7xHC-qvcwwdxq8N8GAFEQ7oyxN7lvkakGuPGp1ZtBwBAZ0dbqjiJrf_ByoRdGYs18ILL6MMgzDpZhI2O3DuNrhKMDdEH7s5lpZrP55fTUJM1rxFlwF1SUc4nEpWkoBLDIa6TK_1Q0zjNAlM-2JBTTO-q05ijCdPQ1l9UY1KKlbSYmpXPsnzWSPBrVl03qpasQ7DXJ9o1149JoBesvjcX5u5iGK76pRjOr_IY_J6j2dierpnwpenb0BPh3CreJJxHTT-c21hxXcAFgl7wtC2fG1iFH3oSTidZRiliAlmJfs-I6i3QK26sKYR7OhAdO2MKoh2wxUH0LtV5UjzEG739yMgubuM9OfDlV__iEUxTrAcRl7KvDE8yDkwAZzFRM3gS2y2vSG7Vs3KZmPoba8XxdtVQoDNN9Cr9pDC4-y8WPVyUEj5QxxVqb8HYvTkamaJLEgPsYq4eo-7lnXk6IMjh55JB4u_Ct_HH2EfrVqs6-wIgTyW0RwE9zxve50wuNfZCR3Zh94lk4xZPu-uc3EDj7sKnYUORe_rgAcC3eLIJv78fw6DLUJ9

"

double strike
whirling blades (utility)

I really don't like claws as you have no AoE skill ( other then retarded dps whirling blades ) So what you plan to use as AoE?

"

Struyk wrote:

I really don't like claws as you have no AoE skill ( other then retarded dps whirling blades ) So what you plan to use as AoE?

I am currently playing DW claws and found that Frenzy+Flicker is quite a interesting semi-AoE combo. The thing (seems like) is that Frenzy get bonus IAS per frenzy charge on top of IAS bonus from frenzy charges.
Frenzy DW Claws
In theory you can Flicker 6 times in a row then get frenzy charges stupidly fast and flicker again. The problems for my 41 lvl shadow are:
1) Frenzy is quite mana-hungry, currently it requires 22 mana and I have crappy gear so I'm drinking mana potions like drug addict.
2) Desynch - it doesn't like 6 flickers in a row and strikes in very frequently.

"

Pyotr wrote:

"

Struyk wrote:

I really don't like claws as you have no AoE skill ( other then retarded dps whirling blades ) So what you plan to use as AoE?

I am currently playing DW claws and found that Frenzy+Flicker is quite a interesting semi-AoE combo. The thing (seems like) is that Frenzy get bonus IAS per frenzy charge on top of IAS bonus from frenzy charges.
Frenzy DW Claws
In theory you can Flicker 6 times in a row then get frenzy charges stupidly fast and flicker again. The problems for my 41 lvl shadow are:
1) Frenzy is quite mana-hungry, currently it requires 22 mana and I have crappy gear so I'm drinking mana potions like drug addict.
2) Desynch - it doesn't like 6 flickers in a row and strikes in very frequently.

Desync also an issue with whirling blades..

Lightning Strike not work in claws?

"

Pyotr wrote:

"

Struyk wrote:

I really don't like claws as you have no AoE skill ( other then retarded dps whirling blades ) So what you plan to use as AoE?

I am currently playing DW claws and found that Frenzy+Flicker is quite a interesting semi-AoE combo. The thing (seems like) is that Frenzy get bonus IAS per frenzy charge on top of IAS bonus from frenzy charges.
Frenzy DW Claws
In theory you can Flicker 6 times in a row then get frenzy charges stupidly fast and flicker again. The problems for my 41 lvl shadow are:
1) Frenzy is quite mana-hungry, currently it requires 22 mana and I have crappy gear so I'm drinking mana potions like drug addict.
2) Desynch - it doesn't like 6 flickers in a row and strikes in very frequently.

If u want flicker more times is good to use blood rage becouse if u kill somebody u will gain another one and flicker again with my shadow Dual Claws Ci shadow i simtimes flicker till they are targets. Blood rage is less Mana-need way to get frenzy charge