[1.0.6] CI Crit Dagger Shadow (30k DPS Flicker Ninja) [OB video up!]

I posted this on the CI/Daggers thread on the forums, it didn't get much attention, so I'll also post it here and maybe it will get more. My hope is that you guys can read it, benefit from it and maybe even add it to the build it self. Who knows. This information is aimed for people that are running around 75+ looking to be hitting 72+ maps or so, where things start to get a bit nasty and more importantly when you start to play in a party. The guide and feed back is great on how to get there, now this information is for people that have gotten there and now need to a U-turn and change what they were doing to keep up to the challenges that high end maps present.

The playstyle suggested in the guide and what I see a lot of people talking about is completely solo play, even so far as to expect end game to be about soloing maps. So I think it's important to remember that the game is better played in a group and if you are struggling then look for PUGs and play as a team. There is no need to try and solo the world, unless that is specifically your aim.

One of the key examples of "the guide" suggesting solo play is the fact that 6links are used on LS rather than Double Strike. In group play I rarely if ever use LS, even if it didn't drop me down to 10 FPS it's damage it poor at best compared to the other abilities you have. So using 5/6L items I would suggest using them on Double Strike rather than Lightning Strike.

LS is good for solo and the AoE is decent in pairs or groups of 3, but beyond that with GMP and Faster Attacks the spam becomes too much for a lot of players and FPS lag becomes and issue, so spending a lot of currency and sockets on LS is wasted as your rarely use it, atleast not no where near at much as your use Double Strike.

The second is to assume that you will be using warlords curse in groups, I highly doubt that you will ever be able to use it in a group so you can't assume that you will have that leach. And have the endurance charges,so I would suggest when heading towards the top end and when you have VP to get at least 1 piece of get with 2% leach, because without Blood Rage up and Warlords mark you have no natural leach. Recently I've completely stopped using Warlords and have swapped over to Crit. Vulrability, this boosts your crits. massively and when your aiming to burst down key targets this is perfect. Also the DPS increase mixed with Vaals Pack I'm fairly sure you will Leach more life back.

The other thing that I often read and feel needs to be mentioned is peoples belief in the importance of Dream Fragments and the immune to stun neck. Both of which cost a lot. I strongly advise against getting either of these items, the neck in particular, until you have got at least 5K ES and capped resists. Within the guide itself it even lists them as being situational, don't waste all your money on a Dream Fragments, spend it on a ES shield. The ability to remove Freeze can easily be achieved with the use of Flasks, both Granite and Mana. Personally I used 2 Flasks "of Heat" until I had my own Dream Fragments and while DF is better, it should not be held in such high regard, it is a luxury at best and what is far more important is obtaining a good ES Shield. So how do you find these amazing items, well easiest place is http://poe.xyz.is/, it's a 3rd party site that allows you to search the POE trade forums for specific items, so go use that!

Mentioning Dream Fragments this ring is completely situational, sometimes you don't need it and in these cases I swap it out for a DPS ring with another 2% Life Leach.

Within the same frame it's also important to have at least 1 flask that removes curses, in high end maps and even low maps if you randomly spike and don't understand why it will often be due to having Vulnerability or some similar curse on you, being able to remove these is key to surviving. It's also useful to carry around a 1 Detonate Undead, often in high end maps your find yourself up again 3-4 Necros and you can't pick them all off, so stand back a bit and just blow all the corpses up so no resummons. It's a green gem, easy to use so I generally swap it for my Whirling Blades.

The final point I'll make is to remind people of the importance of resists, have 75% in all resists is a must for any level of map play, if that means you use Purity, use Purity. To that extent I would also suggest swapping the suggest Quick Silver Flask for a Surgeons Topaz Flask, because of the way shock stacks work and the nature of the mobs lightning damage is the most dangerous element that we face as CI/Daggers. If you don't have 75% to all, use Purity. Currently I run Discipline, Haste and Wrath as default and then swap Hate to Purity in maps that give me resist penalties.



Note: That's the important stuff, this following is my own personal ideas and thoughts about leach pre and post VP and can be mostly ignored as it's minor improvements but may be of interest to some players.

As stated earlier in the thread without VP you are capped at how much HP/Shield you can leach per second and as Invalesco correctly stated this is a complex art of balancing your Damage along with your max HP/Shields. It goes without saying that when you are in the "grey" area of moving into CI you should only spec for Ghost Reaver when your Shields are larger than your HP pool, this will hopefully happen before you move into CI.

The next point to look at is the attack speed of the dagger you are using, a slower dagger will create more spikes of damage, which pre-VP is bad as it's more likely to take your crits/damage over the leach cap, if you have a very fast dagger with the same DPS the numbers will be smaller and your crits will create less "wasted" damage. With that in mind I would also advice against taking gear with crit multipler Pre-VP as this again will make the spikes higher and create more "waste". Pre-VP you want to look for fast daggers with a constantly stream of DPS, Post-VP you want slow ones that maximize the crit. multipliers you have from your gear and spec and the fact that Double Strike crits twice within the same second, give yourself large jumps in leach, which is why you specced VP in the first place.



Essay over. Again, give love to Invalesco and all CI/Dagger shadows, there is a light at the end of the tunnel just keep on trucking. At lvl 79 this is my talent spec, as you notice I have Vaals Pack, my DPS with double strike sits at around 14K but with the crits is makes a massive difference: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYB_5MeGjBUmVcoKrVIsbPtQaZ_h9sWv_PqcFJw1cBR62OZmrb3ES-IaxnX44QOSKc0EZZW6gV96f65fOywjAtHBsLsX2q0xSsKwQDbGhB79Uu-OpfQVvW5PttufeOdo_yrf8YnqX5ZwcUsv4hCkBtwVpoT29R3_axm2HYs4Y6KXMaio8HzbRk74bvWEVDi96cri3oc3JMnN2YspqbrN4PqurQMRnGVIILHQYd6uGz2rpMqOCj66-64kwx9EH_Gng==

Hello fellow Shadows, I have read over the last couple of weeks many posts in this forum that cast doubt upon the ability of this build to achieve end game worthiness; whether it be in survivability or damage to just general usefulness.

Granted, it isn't an easy build to learn or acquire the necessary pieces of gear to succeed but I continued on, encouraging others to do so as well. I want to take the time today to show you what the end game CI Crit Shadow can look like as of right now in the 0.10.4 patch if you are determined enough to get there.

I was first inspired by Invalesco when I was new to this game, downloading the Open Beta after having heard so much about it while playing Diablo 3. Before the release of Open Beta I had no prior experience on Path of Exile but I was a big fan of the idea that you could use your skills as gems that leveled and progressed on their own and the skill tree while massive looked intriguing for the enormity of it all.

First I'd like to give all credit to this build to Invalesco, and thank him for his response to my many inquires over the last couple of months. When I read the title "30K DPS Flicker Strike Ninja" I thought to myself not only did it sound powerful, but a lot of fun at the same time!

As many of you probably were allured by the same promise, it was not an easy road to achieve such power and I honestly feel I would have been bored of playing the Shadow class had it been easy.

So I told myself once I hit level 85 I would post a progress report of sorts in this thread for others to see that the build does in fact still work well, and in many ways is still quite strong. This is meant to encourage those who are still having a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and to be compare with my peers to see where I stack up amongst them, so here we go!









So why not more auras? Because when running map groups, I often find that we have every aura available, sometimes multiple copies of such. I could obviously drop my Skel-bro totem from my headgear in place of at least Clairity+Grace but I still haven't found the need to yet, honestly. Hatred and Blood Rage are more than enough to kill anything I am doing solo, and as previously mentioned there's an abundance of auras to go around when mapping in a full party.

Although I have Eye of Chayula, I don't find it necessary at all to wear unless I am solo grinding purely for the MF it provides. Dream Fragments are one thing I haven't bothered picking up yet, since the economy has valued them far too highly in my opinion I'll simply wait until I am determined to PvP enough to merit the use of one. These are not necessary in order to be effective with this build, and as Invalesco sorted them into situational gear, that is how they should be used, situationally.

Hopefully this will generate a few responses, I'd like to see some of the other high level Shadows post their stats and inspire the lower level guys who are struggling to get through the rough patch of the build to keep on going, as it's not the end result that always counts but the journey you take to get there.