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

Also, Flicker Strike is great for mopping up spread-out enemies, jumping into packs with precision (that Whirling Blades lacks) to kill troublesome enemies first, greater mobility in general (if I don't missclick - easily possible with both FS and WB - I can move much faster across the battlefield with FS than WB), dodging troublesome attacks, moving up and down ledges or even across gaps to attack enemies I can't easily reach otherwise, and probably a few more things I've forgotten.

As to the new nodes behind CI: that sounds absolute fantastic! A 20% multiplicative bonus!? I'll gladly respec out of 4 plain old 8% ES nodes to get that. I can't quite get the ES math to work out right (I'm off by ~.2% from what is displayed in game O.o), but I should go from ~3880 ES to over 4.5k ES via this respec.

updated the skill trees.

Try out cyclone and let me know what you guys think.

Suggested links:

Cyclone - Melee Damage on Full Life - Melee Physical Damage - Faster Attacks - Increased Crit Damage - Increased Crit Chance

not sure if conc. effect would work

edit: increased aoe should be used in place of increased crit chance/conc. effect if you want more aoe

Im going to try cyclone out, but are there any adjustments to passive skill tree that have to be made?

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freeze46 wrote:

Im going to try cyclone out, but are there any adjustments to passive skill tree that have to be made?

It might be worth the 6 passive points that it would take to hit the 4 increased AoE nodes just above the Witch start. Or possibly just 4 the four to get Blast Radius.

I don't have the regrets to check this out, though, particularly not with how much trouble I am having making Cyclone 'fit in' to the build. I need to play with it more, though, and probably on other characters.

Edit: I just saw a quality Cyclone linked in chat. Quality increases the AoE by 1% per 1% quality; quite a good boost.

I don't know if I'm the only one who does this or not, but you guys don't have to have a 5L or 6L to use LS. I actually only have a 4L chest, and I link hatred/reduced mana/wrath in the slots (crit strikes is in there, just to level it for when I do get 5L or 6L) and my shield is linked RM/disc/grace, but my boots are my double strike, gloves double strike and helm flicker.

Gloves I link LMP/Faster Proj/LS/additional accuracy

My LS does 4.1k without any frenzies up (but with my aura's) and my double strike is at 7.5k with no frenzies up (but with aura's) and I got to say I enjoy playing with this. Usually I use LS for the big crowds and with additional accuracy I get a lot of life steal from it. I suggest using it if you don't have an end game 6L chest or something, it's pretty useful to link it how I did.

Just a tip, love the guide Invalesco :).

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Invalesco wrote:

updated the skill trees.

Try out cyclone and let me know what you guys think.

Suggested links:

Cyclone - Melee Damage on Full Life - Melee Physical Damage - Faster Attacks - Increased Crit Damage - Increased Crit Chance

not sure if conc. effect would work

edit: increased aoe should be used in place of increased crit chance/conc. effect if you want more aoe

these are the supports im running. people have been suggesting weapon elemental damage with all 3 auras

what's your dps so far and how do you like it?

personally i love it much more than LS, it gives mobility so you don't have to stand there and facetank. also opens up a neck slot since u can't get kb'd or stunned while cycloning.

my only gripe so far are the mana costs.

level 10 is 33 mana with 3 support gems = near 70. imagine max level & a 6L..

So we can remove chayula since cyclone makes you inmune to stuns. :)

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Xenrail wrote:

my only gripe so far are the mana costs.

level 10 is 33 mana with 3 support gems = near 70. imagine max level & a 6L..

That is an insane mana cost. I'll stick with lightning strike, despite the obstruction problems it suffers it's still far superior to me.

Do you guys think Cyclone can work well with a build focused on Physical Damage and Life leech anyway?
I still didn't even start my CI Shadow so I can't test myself (playing HC, wanna have all my gear ready before I actually start leveling it), but I don't know, I kinda thought it wouldn't fit in the build because of the 35% damage effectivity to begin with.

So I respec'd 4 points to pick up the new energy shield node. I dropped 2x 8% max ES nodes, picked up the 3x 8% es nodes and the 20% multiplier, leaving me at a net gain of 8% max energy shield / 20% ES multiplier. I went from 5200 ES to 6400 ES. I'm missing the last 6 offensive nodes on the top left portion of the tree, and have 12,000 Double Strike DPS, over 15k Flicker, and just shy of 10k DPS on my lightning strike.

Also tried out cyclone. I'm sorely disappointed with it, because the biggest factor in the damage you deal seems to be move speed. I linked it with lvl 20 melee dmg/melee dmg full life/faster attacks/increased crit dmg and got the skill up to lvl 8 while playing. The end result with anger/wrath up was ~3500 DPS - which sounds low, but is actually pretty potent. That being said, the skill is fickle. Sometimes I'll roll through a rare mob in the docks and kill it with one cast, other times I do zero damage on cast, or hit once, leading me into 15 Cyclones before it drops.

When I took off my boots (30% move speed), my killing ability at LEAST doubled. I was sitting on mobs for slightly longer periods, getting off multiple additional attacks, and seldom ran into the issue of driving right by and doing zero damage. Add into that being snared, and my effective damage went up ten fold. If GGG can find a way to balance the skill outside of movement speed, along with working out the kinks in dealing damage, it will easily be a strong replacement for lightning strike. In the mean time, Cleave is a better option.

At the end of the day, being melee just flat out sucks. I've tried everything I can think of to accommodate some form of AoE or ranged ability, but it always comes up short. I think the safest way of farming at end game is to use your five or six linked chest to buff up double strike even more, 3-link a skele totem with faster casting on your shield, then use the newly opened four sockets to tack on additional curses. Having the option of using Warlord's Mark, Critical Weakness, Temporal Chains or Enfeeble instead of committing to one will give you another layer of defense/group utility.