Perz' Reave Shadow

This is a small guide to my Shadow Reaver providing high survivability and damage output along with an awsome gameplay and the ability to play most maps with ease. Before that I had a cyclone marauder which was really fast already. But when I killed Piety on merciless with this Shadow in under 2 seconds I really started to like it. On merciless I reach over:

- 50k dps
- 30-50% crit chance (depends on base crit chance of the claw)
- 6-10 attacks/second (depends on base attack speed of the claw)
- 4 frenzy charges, 3 power charges, 3 endurances charges up most of the time
- 25-28% life leech (crafting a terror claw is the best idea)
- 5k es
- 50% evasion
- 40% block
- 75% all res (100% chaos)
- high movement speed
- cannot be frozen
- cannot be chilled

Important passive nodes:

Mind Drinker: Provides enough mana leech for us in order to attack.
Ghost Reaver: Allows us to leech energy shield instead of life.
Chaos Inoculation: We are immune to chaos damage.
Ondar's Guilde: Doubles the chance to evade projectiles.
Vaal Pact: Immediate life leech.
Crystal Skin + Chill Avoidance: Immunity to chill and freeze with alpha's howl.

Here are passive trees for lvl 69, lvl 75, lvl 81, lvl 87 and lvl 93.

If you like to use Ondar's Guile (which is nice against projectiles) you have to sacrifice 3 dmg nodes.

Kill all on normal and merciless, help Kraityn on cruel to gain attack speed. I go for attack speed instead of damage for 3 reasons:

1) Our Reave charges will load up faster,
2) we leech more smoothly and
3) there will be lower damage peaks which can be important vs physical reflect mobs.

We get Frenzy Charges from killing enemies by Blood Rage, Power Charges from Whirling Blades and from Ice Spear linked to Power Charge on Crit and Cast when Damage taken, Endurance Charges from Whirling Blades linked to Endurance Charge on Stun and from Enduring Cry linked to Cast when Damage taken. So we have 4+3+3=10 charges up most of the time, which rocks! ;)
First of all here are the skill gems and support skill gems and how you can link them:

This is a possible choice of gear you can aim for. The helm (Alpha's Howl) and the amulet (Eye of Chayula) are mandatory for this build. What you should aim for gear-wise:

- claw: crit chance > pdps > accuaracy (i.eg. 8% base crit 300 dps 350 accuracy terrow claw)
- shield: we use a shield for es mostly, so both pure es and eva/es shields are nice
- high eva/es on all armor and misc pieces (int adds mana and es, which we both need)
- high accuracy rating and phys dmg won't hurt
- maybe some armor on the belt (400 armor = 6% phys reduction, which is nice vs reflect)
- 75% all res without purity (a little more might be nice vs elemental weakness)

If you cannot afford a 6l, get a 5l and remove concentrated effect or melee phys dmg.
If you want to play more defensive, get a rare es/eva armor with 500+ es.



The perfect claw could look like this:

fast Piety kill
fast Dominus kill
clearing a lvl 73 Canyon map
clearing a lvl 75 plateau map as armor-based
clearing a lvl 75 bazaar map with cyclone for fun

This char can also be played life-based with Acrobatics going for massive evasion. If you have a full respec left you can easily try it. Similar items as the es based, just aim for life instead of es on your gear. With the new Lightning Coil armor we can make up for the loss of physical damage reduction if we use Purity of Lightning along with Grace. Since we can now use a 2k evasion life shield, we gain much more evasion ontop of Acrobatics, which makes Ondar's Guile even more amazing. We still use Vaal Pact since imo it's mandatory for melees with high dmg. We don't really need Eye of Chayula anymore so we can use a rare life-based amu with phys dmg, accuracy, crit and res. As for the boots, we use life-based evasion boots with high movement speed and res. Although now we have to aim for some chaos res on our gear since we don't use CI anymore. Furthermore we don't use Blood Rage anymore since the chaos dmg would kill us. Of course we rescue Oak on normal for the life bonus. Here is a passive tree for lvl 88.


I quickly respecced my ranger (which you can use as well) and made a video about how amazing it dodges (ranged) attack which you can see below. I have to admit it's pretty tanky with 40% dodge (30% vs spells), 85% evade vs projectiles, 60% evade vs rest at 3.6k life (with non-ideal gear -> you could easily reach 4k+ life) and still does 33k dps, which is awsome for these kind of defenses.

Picture of offensive stats
Picture of defensive stats
Video of dodging (ranged) attacks

At this moment I'm testing this build armor based, which is pretty awsome. You'll get lower physical damage peaks due to the armor damage reduction, which counts for reflect damage as well. Also those gems linked to Cast When Damage Taken will proc more constantly because we don't evade attacks anymore. Be warned that projectiles won't hit us way more often now thus you'll be way more vulnerable to those kind of attacks. I use Iron Reflexes with Unwavering Stance which means the spot for a new amulet is free. I've lost some damage nodes but I gained an endurance charge with more duration and like this I run 4+4+3=11 charges most of the time along with discipline and hatred or grace. Reflect maps are fun to play because the gems linked to Cast When Damage Taken proc all the time. This is what I came up with:

I recommend going to this version at lvl 89.

With the gear I managed to find I reach more energy shield and damage than on the evasion build because I can use another amulet. This is what I use now:



This is what my character looks like most of the time in maps, all charges up and on full es




The offensive stats are with hatred an all charges up, the defensive stats are with grace and all charges up. If I do maps I have way higher damage to due all the auras (it goes up to 80k) but this kind of damage isn't needed at all. You'll be fine with ~30k already.

"

Perz wrote:

just to make it clear: this build is focused on es! i just added the life build because i was asked to do so countless times. imo the es build is stronger than the life build. more dps, more es than life, just less evasion. although i cannot be 100% sure because i haven't the same quality of life-based items as i have much better es-based items.

if you want to be sure to make a strong char, go for the es build.
if you want to experiment a bit, you can go for the life build.


also i've been asked a lot why claws are better than daggers.
the answer is: they are better, because of a) the fact that the dmg output from claws doesn't peak as much as from daggers and b) the much higher leech (12% from nodes + 3-6% from claw itself).

i.eg. if you compare an imperial skean to an imperial claw, the difference from min to max dmg on the dagger is 50 as where the difference on the claw is only 29. meaning a claw does constant "good" dmg as where the dagger sometimes does low and sometimes high dmg. on the low dmg attacks you might not leech enough to recover your es/life and on the high dmg attacks you risk dying to reflect mobs, especially when you crit with high crit multiplier. for claws on the other hand you constantly leech enough and your dmg doesn't spike that high which makes it much safer vs reflect mobs. this way you can run safely through reflect maps without having to worry about high crit dmg being reflected to yourself from time to time.

nonetheless it's up to you what weapon you decide to use but if you build your char, remember to think about reflect mobs before you do.

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Perz wrote:

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Phantasam wrote:

This build looks good. I'm just curious, why no power charge on crit? I have a similar build using cyclone but the desynch is horrible and I keep dying from it, so I was looking to change my build into something like this or just switch claw to dagger and use reave as well. Also why armor instead and just evasion? I might give this a try.

before that char i also had a cyclone but i made this because i died due to cyclone desync :(
well i tried using charges but i found it annoying to wait for the charges being loaded and to keep them up at all times. so i just went for the conc effect gem instead. also you can easily switch iir + iiq for conc effect + melee phys dmg if you don't need the high dmg and want some mf instead. also the charges nodes from witch+templar are really far away. isn't worth spending points just for 2*50% crit chance imo.
i like evasion because this char can get frozen/chilled/shocked/burned. so i aim for high evasion along with ondar's guile and crystal skin and we get these elemental ailments much less. also if we went for armor instead, we wouldn't get any bonus on it from the 300+ dexterity this char can get.

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Clow wrote:

Sorry to bother you Perz, but is there any way you could explain how you first leveled up with this build? Maybe have a kind of progression section? Like where to put points in the first 10-20 levels then 20-30 etc?

Suggestions on which gems to pick up and abilities to use while leveling as well would be awesome!

I am relatively new to the world and could use some pointers :)

i won't go into detail as finding out this stuff is part of the fun of the game and i won't ruin that for you.. :)

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RIPnRhyme wrote:

Any particular reason why you say this can't be run on hc?

simply just because i already died with my char since i am no hardcore player and i cannot garantuee immortality. i'm sure with less dmg and more passive nodes you could make it hc viable, but i don't have enough hc experience to tell you.

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XtraSalty wrote:

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Clow wrote:

Sorry to bother you Perz, but is there any way you could explain how you first leveled up with this build? Maybe have a kind of progression section? Like where to put points in the first 10-20 levels then 20-30 etc?

Suggestions on which gems to pick up and abilities to use while leveling as well would be awesome!

I am relatively new to the world and could use some pointers :)

I was actually wondering this too. You build looks like a lot of fun. I am currently level 39 shadow and am having alot of fun but some difficulty. Mainly due to gear being bad. But i am not sure what level to get VP, IC or Ghost Reaver. I imagine i would get IC in Merc difficulty. But what level do you think would be a good idea to get VP. Or maybe should i get it when i have more ES?

Also, Did you always use a shield and a claw? Or did you use 2 claws to a certain part of the game?

vaal pact is the last route to take imo, somewhere in merciless. before that you want to take ci+ghost reaver approx. at the same time after act1 merciless, before chaos dmg starts to hurt in act 2. aim for at least 2k es before you go ci.

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Vindu wrote:

I'm actually making a derivated version of your build, so a big TY for it and all information you gave me.

I just want to go with dual welding.
Have you already try it and is it viable? (If you know, else I will try to find it :) )

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Feoras wrote:

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Vindu wrote:

I'm actually making a derivated version of your build, so a big TY for it and all information you gave me.

I just want to go with dual welding.
Have you already try it and is it viable? (If you know, else I will try to find it :) )

I'm really curious about this too! This build seems amazing and I kinda liked Reave already when I started a Shadow. But dual welding would be just outstanding (sadly I don't really like the shield). I'm still considering playing it anyway. Thanks a ton for this!

i tried dual weil but imo it's not worth it. dmg will be slightly higher but:

a) you'll lose your main source of es and lots of evasion,
b) block is not needed but rly nice to have,
c) you'll need to pick up even more dual wield nodes.

if you can manage to get enough es without a shield, it might be viable. although running <4k es without shield is suicide in high lvl maps. most bosses will even 1-hit you.

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Adrianmx wrote:

Sad this isnt for hc..

actually you could adapt this build to be viable in hc. simply get a high es/eva armor, a high es circlet and try to reach 8k+ es with more passive nodes.

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SaoDiSeng wrote:

questions:

1. how do you tackle phy reflection?
2. how do you choose for bandit quests?

1. 25-28% life leech and not getting over 40k dmg in reflect maps (i usually replace melee phys dmg and conc effect with IIR and IIQ)
2. kill, dmg/as, kill

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Feoras wrote:

One further question, is this build heavily gear dependent? Thanks :)

i'd say no. there are many ways you can build this char item-wise. most important items on this char are a good claw with high crit, enough eva/es armor and shield so that you reach 50% eva and 4k+ es and eye of chayula. also alpha's howl is a really good choice. imo you can build a good reaver with less than 10 exalts.

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buttseckz wrote:

Perz,

I've been playing this build a while and find it a lot of fun.

I couldn't get to your dps, tho. How much difference does those small physical dmg bonus on your ring and other items, make on you overall dps?

I managed to reach 20k dps on level 70, and while I didn't expected to get too close to your dps, as my itens are worse than yours, I imagine I would be dealing more dmg by now. What are the most important contributors to our final dps?

you gain a huge dmg boost from rings if you also have high accuracy rating on them. +phys dmg will be more effective if you have a fast claw, i.eg. an imperial claw. also the base crit is really important on your claw since that's the value that's being multiplicated by your crit chance nodes. anyways 20k dps on lvl 70 is plenty. you should be able to clear maps easily with this dps.

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Fearmonger wrote:

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DamageIncorporated wrote:

It's a hard decision when it's a permanent reward, and there doesnt seem to be real numbers crunched on 8% ias vs 18% physical.

http://wolfr.am/1agygIQ

That compares the percent damage increase between the two rewards with 69% attack speed from passives (which is how much the final build link in the OP has), 4 frenzy charges, and 44% attack speed from a level 20 Faster Attacks. The break-even point is 424.25% increased Physical damage; if you have less than that the Phys Damage is more DPS, if you have more the attack speed is more DPS.

So with 292% increased physical damage from passives and 76% from level 20 Reave, the physical damage is about 18% more effective than the attack speed.

Edit: That doesn't account for flat ele damage bonuses, but it does account for ele damage via physical conversion (eg Hatred). It also doesn't account for armor curving (bigger slow hits do more damage than faster smaller ones).

Difference is probably small enough that you can pick either without worrying about it too much. As mentioned before, phys has the benefit of more effectively increasing your leech, while attack speed is a tiny bit safer against reflect and gives a little smoother damage.

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Fearmonger wrote:

So I've read through pretty much every post in this thread, and I don't think anyone's mentioned this. It seems most people run 1 granite and 0 jade flasks, I take it this is for mitigating physical reflect? The lots of very fast small hits you reflect to yourself would definitely be mitigated very well by the 6k armor but aside from that it seems quite useless (as a evasion Jade which be much much more effective at total damage reduction, especially when you're fighting a big number of mobs).

granite flasks are only needed for reflect, yes.
although fast reflect hits don't bother us. the problem is when i deal huge dmg in 1 hit (i.eg. a high crit vs multiple enemies in 1 aoe reave attack). so before i run into a horde of phys reflect, i pop a grantite flask and kill them safely.

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Fenric wrote:

I'm curious if anyone is running the life based version of this build in maps.

I have not used Vaal Pact before and am not sure how it can stand up to reflect map mods or auras.

I have a 85 shadow with passives reset. Used to be Ethereal Knives with Iron Reflexes and Grace and life leech to deal with physical reflect, and even then if there was a very large pack of monsters killing yourself was possible.

Not sure what to do with the character now and looking for ideas.

I would go CI but I really have no ES gear at all.

by using vaal pact you don't have to wait for the leech regen effect to occur.
here a math example with vaal pact:

let's say you do 10k dmg on a 18% reflect mob with 25% life leech and 0 armor. then you would lose 10000*0,18 life/es yourself but also heal 10000*0,25 life/es in the same moment, which heals you in a total of 10000*0,07 = 700 life/es.

although if you hit a larger group of mobs with reflect, the dmg reflected will ofc be higher. that's why in reflect maps i either:
a) use granite flasks
AND/OR
b) lower my dps a bit by putting iir/iiq gems instead of incr aoe/melee dmg

this works pretty well and i'm not scared of reflect mobs, not even in reflect maps, anymore.