[3.5] Say_Ten's Melee Shadow - Murder Everything Cheaply

With a couple of crazy aurabot buddies from the Essence League...got a screen shot for shits and giggles

This is an example. You can customize how you see fit. Generally speaking, you can get rid of some less important DPS nodes and grab life instead if you want more survivability.

If you want to grab Acrobatics/Phase Acrobatics, the tree is easily modified for that and you can take Heartseeker while you're over there.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.5.0/AAAABAYBAAAGAQkB3AOHBLEFLQX5Bx4Mcw2NDkgQkhGWEdUUIBXwFfYV_Ra_F7AbrSM2I_YmlSgqKgsuUzIyNZI2PUMxRfRHfklRSn1Ki0z_TZJOKlBHUxBVS1eXW69b013yXz9gQWHiYetieWKsY3Bkr2VNbIxtbG87b1dwUnTtdf1343gNeBl5aHpTexR9dYRvhNmHdonTijiLT4w2jYGSgJOQlS6VZpXMl3maF5smnaqi2aOKpn-pbrDYsbO0xbVItfK42bxvvTa9Xb6nwBrBBMGgz3rTb9N-1ELWB9i92Ybawd1I36DkUed06NbtP-1B7g7vDvDV-WP8xf66

This was in Talisman while I was still leveling. Facetanking a double Jungle Valley Boss, which, for you newer exiles, used to be one of the harder bosses in the game in a mid-tier map.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfAtuU-YITw



Whirl through volatiles to trigger them



Sweep the floor with all that stupid shit



Get the jump on those fuckers



Rage, Curse, Whirlify and start stabbing that son of a bitch

I start this build as a Shadow and, as such, went with the Assassin sub-class. You could also start as a Ranger and go with the Raider sub-class for even crazier attack speed or as a Champion for the tankier perma-fortify version. However, I like the crit from the assassin tree as I believe that drives the damage sky-high.

You're going to use Dual Strike and Lightning Strike (or Frost Blades) as your main attacks throughout the entire game. The synergy of these skills is excellent since you can hit enemies at range with Lightning Strike and kite them or get up close and personal and tear faces off with Dual Strike. Lightning Strike is great for open areas, clearing trash, and physical reflect monsters or volatile monsters you can't get close to (because GGG hates us melee guys). Dual Strike is major DPS and you can clear most trash faster than LS with it in a lot of cases, especially when your gems are 20/20 and you have serious AOE. I have also been using Frost Blades and carrying the skill gem with me to swap in place of Lightning Strike since the mechanics of each skill make them better for certain scenarios/map layouts.

Since this is a life-based build, your end-game survivability comes from having a decent life pool, some block, and killing shit before the game even spawns it. Your life pool should be at least 5000 in the end game and your block chance should be a bare minimum of 25% without Rumi's flask.

You will use Whirling Blades to dart around from pack to pack and/or to evade bad situations. It will also fortify you as you move into combat territory. If you feel the need for an alternate movement skill, like Leap Slam, you can put Brightbeak and a defensive shield in your alternate weapon slots, but fuck that shit.

To level this build, you can do whatever you choose (like most characters) but I personally enjoy starting with Dual Strike and Lightning Strike (or Frost Blades) from the get-go.

As you begin to level, link support gems to your attacks, and attack fast as fuck, you will invariably wonder "Say_Ten, what do you do about this mana crap?!" If the league is new and you don't have access to Elreon jewelry, you should pick up a Wurm's Molt to assist with mana problems. If between that and mana flasks you are still having mana problems, pick up mana regen on jewelry, find something with Mana-On-Hit, or simply don't run certain auras that reserve your mana. You will deal less damage but it will also be less annoying. All other leveling gear, including a Tabula Rasa will work, provided you deal with the mana problem first.

As with any character, try to keep your resists high enough to minimize...well...dying. Goldrim is an excellent helm to start for this. Your jewelry can provide flat physical damage and life (and resists if you're lucky or rich) and you can run Jade and Granite flasks for additional defense. All of your gear will essentially look the same in the end game, just with better stats. See my gear below for reference.

Some people have asked which weapons are good to level with and the answer is: all of them. There are some nice unique swords, axes, claws...really anything with good damage that you can dual wield is fine. Lakishu's Blade gets a shoutout for the free Multistrike built in.

As mentioned above:

The only staple gear piece for this build is the Bringer of Rain, which you can now get relatively easily and cheaply.



Don't focus all your attention on the ARM/EVA...just try to get a decent life roll. You can always get a cheap one to get you mapping/leveling and then buy another down the road. This is also useful for Uber Lab enchants. Let's say you get something like Blade Flurry Damage on your BoR. Ok, now you've got an expensive item. Sell that for a million dollars and put your spare BoR on.

FWIW a Dual Strike enchant is going to be the best for this build but pierce on Lightning Strike is also great for clearing maps and if you are using Frost Blades, then that'll work too.

As of the Legacy league (March, 2017), a new threshold jewel was added that we can take advantage of. It's called Might and Influence and may completely negate the need for the Melee Splash gem. A 20/20 AOE gem will have a greater AOE but IMO the damage from an additional gem in place of Melee Splash outweighs it. This jewel will go in the socket to the right of the Ranger start point, above the frenzy charge node.



I also dual-wield claws in this build since the attack speed is very high and I am benefiting from hitting many things at once and the Life Gain on Hit mechanic. The build can also scale Life Leech well. Or you can use both...it is a matter of preference and what gear you have at the time of your decision.

Claws are quite a bit cheaper than daggers and used to be seriously cheap until Mathil ruined that shit for us. To be fair, GGG finally buffed them (while nerfing daggers), so there's that.

For endgame starters, Wasp Nest is where it's at. They are dirt cheap, have high attack speed, high crit chance, high life on hit, good damage, accuracy, poison, and they look really cute too. Get two of them and piss excellence.



Touch of Anguish is also very good but they have gotten more expensive. The free chain makes Lightning Strike better.

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Touch_of_Anguish


If you are hurting for mana, or want to try out some additional auras (reserving the vast majority of your mana) with the help of some passives, Gemini Claws are good for their Mana Gain on Hit too. Other options for mana are Mana Regeneration or Mana Leech on your gear (jewelry or gloves).

While leveling, get enough life and resistances on your armor, boots and helm to help you survive. I can't stress this enough. With a unique helm and no chest armor, you will have some trouble capping your resists AND getting enough INT and DPS at the same time. Don't rush...focus on defense first. Good resists and high life rolls.

You can pick DPS gloves and jewelry to kill stuff fast eventually.

To focus on the resistances, try to find items that help this category significantly. For instance, I used Goldrim one season until I could put on the BoR. Hard to beat those resistances. I also used a Tabula Rasa, Wurm's Molt, and Elreon jewelry until I could put on the BoR...if you have leveling gear like this, the leveling experience becomes trivial.

Eventually, you will want to optimize life and resists more on all your equipment. I look for + physical damage and/or attack speed on gloves and + movement speed on boots. You can use Whirling Blades to get around very quickly, so the movement speed isn't too important, but I do often find it useful. I prefer to look for flat physical damage and life on jewelery as a rule of thumb.

Shoot for an absolute bare minimum of 5000 life. A low life pool is the symptom of the most deaths people are asking me to help them solve. The lower your life pool, the more you get stunned. The more you get stunned, the less you attack and gain your life back.

Shoot for 75/75/75 resists. If you can overcap them, it will be useful in maps with an Elemental Weakness curse. Don't worry about chaos resistance. It's a luxury and would make the build a lot more expensive.

For flasks, I advise to use at least one life flask with instant recovery and the rest of the flasks can be whatever you want. The ideal flask setup is a single Divine Life Flask with instant recovery (or half instant/half fast) and anti-freeze (since generally you don't get frozen often and in quick succession), a Basalt Flask that removes and immunizes from bleeding and also has a chance to gain a charge on crit (because you are critting 24/7), Rumi's Concoction, Taste of Hate and Atziri's Promise. ToH is very expensive and Rumi's can be expensive, so if you don't want to shell out the cash for those or happen to find them, you can instead use any others you like, such as an additional life flask, a granite flask, a stibnite flask, etc. I have tried Silver Flasks and while they are fine if you don't have anything else useful, they don't seem to provide enough of a benefit on their own...FYI.

To focus on DPS, you will find the highest physical dps 1H weapon possible and just use that to start. Don't spec into claw nodes until/unless you are wearing two good ones already. When you finally do spec into claws, you should like for ones with at least 240 pdps (there are cheap unique options, such as Izaro's Dilemma, Allure, Rive, etc). As previously mentioned, I like Touch of Anguish. If they are Life Gain on Hit and/or Mana Gain on Hit claws, then high attack speed (1.75+ APS) is useful but not required since you are getting a ton of attack speed from the tree.

Ideal Gear Stats



Endgame Gear for The Wealthy:



Lastly, Elder mods on claws can open up some new opportunities. For example, if you pick up an elder claw with built-in multistrike, you can use it to support your secondary attack. This frees up a jewel socket for *something*. What I have done a couple of times is 4L Whirling Blades with the normal gem setup and Blood Magic. This lets you spam that shit all day long without worries about mana.

These skills and support gems are listed from left to right in order of importance/use. Sometimes you might have one before the other and sometimes you might prefer a defensive gem over an offensive one so the ultimate combination can be your choice.

Dual Strike - Melee Physical Damage - Multistrike - Faster Attacks or Maim - Increased Critical Damage - Ruthless

When you finally put the BoR on, use Dual Strike - Multistrike - Increased Critical Damage - Ruthless
In certain scenarios where you are facing monsters with high physical damage reduction (think of the Oak clone boss), you may want to swap Ruthless for Elemental Damage with Attacks or Added Fire Damage.

Another utility option I tried is swapping a red gem for Ancestral Warchief. The totem will benefit from the BoR buffs and do massive AOE damage while simultaneously buffing you and taking some aggro off you. I carry this gem around but don't use it too often because I can kill most bosses very quickly and putting up a totem is fucking boring.

*Your tooltip DPS with Added Fire Damage might be a little higher than with the Crit Damage gem, but keep in mind that monsters have an inherently higher elemental resistance so Crit Damage is more useful.

Your main attack for close-quarters combat. Serious DPS.

Lightning Strike (or Frost Blades) - Multistrike - Curse on Hit - Assassin's Mark

If you are keeping power charges up with the Assassin tree, you may want to swap to Warlord's Mark, or just buff the damage of LS with Crit Chance and Crit Damage. I generally just keep Assassin's Mark on unless the map is hexproof...then I may consider the two crit gems (chance and damage). You'll kill everything so fast it won't matter anyway. Don't worry too much about micromanaging.

Your Pseudo-Ranged/Area of Effect attack. Also very good DPS and kiting ability.

Cast when Damage Taken (low level, 5-7) - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Enfeeble/Temporal Chains/Warlord's Mark (your choice of curse...I recommend Enfeeble for newer players).

You can get ID to max level (because its a support gem) but IC and the curse have to be equal or lower to the required level shown on the CWDT gem. For example, at level 7 CWDT, it will support gems up to level 50 (Immortall Call lvl9, Enfeeble lvl10). You can also swap the curse or IC for Phase Run, which is a nice offensive boost.

More survivability.

Hatred and Herald of Purity - Summon Ice Golem

Your aura(s) and buddy. Excellent DPS increases across the board.

Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Your mobility skill which doubles as a way to get Fortify.

I also use two Unset Rings to manually cast Blood Rage and Vaal Haste. If you are having trouble finding two good unset rings, you can ditch the vaal skill and run any other ring you want in place of the 2nd unset ring.

Help Alira

Reasoning:

The mana regen early on is really nice (and even later when you can spam whirling blades 840 times per second), the resistances are a big help if you continue to wear the BoR and the crit multi is a rare luxury.

Helping Oak would be ok but the only thing I like about his reward is the life regen, which isn't much anyway. Kraityn is even less appealing with those dogshit buffs.

You COULD take the 2 extra skill points by killing them all. In the end game/at high level, 2 points only really gets you 10% max life. However, if you push yourself to level more and you have 3 extra points to use at any given time, you would have access to a jewel socket, a power charge, or a few different extra crit/accuracy type nodes.

Go for Ambush/Assassinate first, then Opportunist, then go for Unstable/Deadly Infusion

Brine King and Yugul

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.5.0/AAAABAYBAAOHBLEF-QxzFfAWvxutJpUqCzY9VUtb013yYeJsjG1scFJ1_XsUfXWEb4nTjDaVZpsmnaqi2aOKpn-w2LGztUi9XdN-1ELfoOd06NbtQflj_ro=

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.5.0/AAAABAYBAAAGA4cEsQX5DHMNjRXwFfYV_Ra_G60jNiP2JpUqCzY9RfRNklMQVUtb013yYeJieWKsZK9sjG1sb1dwUnX9eBl7FH11hG-J04o4jDaNgZVmmyadqqLZo4qmf7DYsbO0xbVIvV3BoNN-1ELWB9-g53To1u1B7g75Y_zF_ro=

This is probably the question I get asked most often. Here is an in-depth response!

There are multiple basic ways to get mana:

- Mana Flask
- Leech
- Mana Gain on Hit
- Mana on Kill
- Mana Regen

...these can be on gear or from passives.

There are multiple basic ways to spend or reserve mana:

- Using Active Skills (IE: Dual Strike and Lightning Strike)
- Using Auras (IE: Hatred)
- Using Heralds (IE: Herald of Ash)

Auras and Heralds reserve mana and reduce the mana pool you may draw from to use skills. Active skills spend the mana and their expenditure of mana is based on a base rate which is modified based on the support gems you have attached to it.

When you first start out playing, you will need to use mana flasks unless you are wearing Elreon's "-X mana cost" rings. I prefer mana flasks that deliver their effect over longer periods of time. The Grand flasks have a 10-second delivery time, which is good, because this build usually doesn't have hundreds of mana that need to be replenished instantly. The slow and steady replenishment means that you have to use flasks less often.

As you begin to level your character, you may notice that this mana shit is really getting annoying. See the above list for possible ways to rectify the solution. My personal favorite way to deal with the mana issue is get some mana leech, and then maybe even some mana regen if possible.

Wurm's Molt is a unique belt that is cheap and can last you a long time for this build. See below:



If you happen to find or buy this belt, it will solve your mana problems for a long time with a couple caveats:

1) Your physical damage (not damage per second or even physical damage per second) has to be high enough to create good leeching mechanics.

2) Your attack speed can't be so insane that you are spending mana faster than you can leech based on #1.

Also keep in mind that if you are hitting multiple enemies at the same time (such as with Lightning Strike) your leech efficiency will be higher. So you may notice it is easier to sustain mana with LS but when it comes to single targets with DS, you are running out. Without getting into the mechanics of leech here, you can take my word for it.

Another player choice while leveling comes in the form of use of Auras and Heralds. With most of your maximum mana reserved, you will generally run out of mana faster. You can simply elect to turn off one of these mana-reserving situations if it is really annoying for you until you figure out a better way to address the situation. Ask yourself: "Self, if it means I have to use mana potions, would I like a lot more DPS? Should I use Hatred? ...or should I just leave it off for now until I find some better items?"

Should you be out of options on the mana forefront, you can always spec into some mana-based nodes on the passive tree, such as Mind Drinker. Then you can eventually refund those points and put them to use elsewhere.

Lastly, I would like to add that once you get to the mana leech under the Duelist area and/or get the leech from Soul Raker, you will not need any more mana leech, period.

This build's damage is based on physical damage. That means that any increase in physical damage not only helps, but scales greatly based on the passive tree and the skill/support gems we use. The main contributors to non-physical damage that I suggest you study on are Hatred, Herald of Ash and Added Fire Damage to start. These gems take your physical damage and add a percentage of that as extra elemental damage. This makes us stronger and more well-rounded as far as damage output and dealing with various physical or elemental reflect enemies. Once your crit chance is high enough, you will notice the Critical Damage gem is a much better choice (and you will subsequently have to watch for reflect).

Thie is not an elemental-based build. Though having elemental damage (on weapons, say) is nice, it doesn't help nearly as much as having more physical damage.

Assuming you read the above paragraphs, then you just need to make sure that you are using the right gear and gems.

My recommended Claw stats for the endgame are:

- 300+ PDPS (physical damage per second)
- 1.75+ APS
- 7.5+ base crit chance percentage
- Capable of absolute mayhem

Go for life (or life and mana) on hit vs. leech since it pairs well with the attack speed. If you go Vaal Pact, you might want to try a combination of the two or two leech-based claws.

You can, technically, though the tree becomes a bit different.

Vaal Pact will let leech faster, which can be very good for survivability.

The downsides of going VP are as follows:

- No life regen
- Recently nerfed (used to be insta-leech)
- No life regen means no Blood Rage, unless you want to micromanage turning it on and off, or deal with the serious degen
- No Blood Rage means no Frenzy Charges, which means less damage, less movement and attack speed, and no leech benefits from the skill either

To run Vaal Pact and still get frenzy charges, you would need to run Poacher's Mark in one of your curse sockets or rely on a unique item to get them.

BoR, especially a legacy one, is very powerful. You can get a ton of life on it, negating this argument for the most part. You also get decent block chance from it and the armor and evasion you get from the helm are pretty good as well. If you don't have access to a legacy one, you still get block and life, but less of it. However, one thing you can't get from a 6L rare armor is 20-30 flat physical damage, which is huge. Additionally, the BoR gives you "free" Blind, which is pretty useful as a melee character.

With a 6L body armor, you miss out on a support gem, such as Blind, but you also potentially gain more defense, both in main stats (ARM/EVA) and in resistances. The high resistances you can get on the armor (and the helm I may add) would free up some mods on your jewelry and gloves to max out on DPS, making it a little easier to balance your character. Sometimes it can be hard to cap resists with the BoR on and still have max movement speed, damage on everything, etc. It's a little more work to min/max with the BoR. Also, since you can use a helm and have an additional 4L setup, you could do some interesting things, like add another Vaal skill, or use Ancestral Protector/Warchief or Decoy Totem. Really up to you and how much crap you want to manage.

If you want my opinion, and you probably know it already, I would take the BoR all day, every day. I keep my builds simple and cheap.

In an ideal world with no costs, you could spring for a 6L Belly of the Beast and either a really good rare helm or a unique one. Abyssus would be maximum DPS, Rat's Nest is generally good for a crit character and Starkonja's Head is probably in the right spot with some crit and a decent life roll on it. This all would let you probably out-DPS a BoR with 5 support gems at 20/20 and some extra crit on the helm...plus you'd have a lot more life. You would just be spending about 15 times the cost of the original build.

Yes.

More damage, less survivability. Bino's would be a decent weapon for the life regen but the same rules apply (GG rare > anything else). Some nodes swapped around to get dagger nodes, mana leech and life leech.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.1.1/AAAABAYBAAAGAdwDhwSxBS0FfQX5DHMNjQ3RDkgQkhEvEZYR1RQgFfAV9haqFr8XsButG8gjNiP2JpUoKioLKwos4S5TMjI1kjY9PdFDMUcGR35KfUqLTP9Nkk4qUEdR2VMQVUtW9VeXW69d8l8_YEFh4mHrYnljQ2NwZU1sjG1sbztwUnBWdO11_XfjeA15aHpTeu97FH11feOEb4TZh3aJ04tPjDaNfY6KlWaVzJd5l9CaE5smnaqi2aOKpn-pbqxmsJKw2LGztUi18rk-vG-9Nr6nwBrBBM96z93Tb9N-1ELYdti92Ybawdtu29TjhORR53To1u0_7UHuDu8O8Yry4flj_MX-uv-T

I have been keeping it at Level 1 for a long time. I like the ability to have it cast Immortal Call often. It prevents you from being two shot by stupid crap, like porcupines that explode in packs. You could experiment with a higher level CWDT (maybe level 10 or so) but you would have to make your own call on whether or not it's better. Make an educated decision based on how much damage you are taking frequently. Level 5-7 may be the sweet spot for activation frequency with a little bit of a boost to your curse effectiveness.

Because you suck.

But seriously...gear won't fix ALL of the problems but here are some suggestions:

1) Make sure your resistances are capped at 75% in whatever difficulty you are in. More than that is ok since maps with the Elemental Weakness curse will decrease that overcapped number...and if that number is high enough, you will still be at 75% with the curse on.

2) Make sure you have enough life. The less life you have, the more often you will get stunned. The more you get stunned, the less you can attack and/or be alive.

3) Keep fortify up. After GGG made the game harder, this is a necessity for melee builds. Whirl through enemies every so often to reset the timer.

4) Kill shit fast. That's what this build does best. The faster you can kill shit, the less time it has to know what just violently megafucked it.

5) Play smart. Reference all of the above. Get to know the game...know the limits of your character and the limits of your own skill. For example, you will learn to hit physical reflect enemies with Lightning Strike rather than Dual Strike and vice versa. You will learn what you can and cannot faceroll. Take your time.

Look, motherfuckers. If you have any amount of experience with this game, you know that's a borderline retarded question. Here's the short answer: Yes.

Here's the longer answer: This build is meant to be fast, fun, and powerful, yet on a budget. The more currency you spend, the stronger your build can be. However, that doesn't fix shitty playing or namelock-blades-ing into a double Uber Atziri flameblast. You need to really know the game mechanics and really know your character to do well. Timing of attacks, movements and flask use is critical.

If you are stuck on a specific boss fight, feel free to contact me and I can tell you whether you suck or whether you went into the wrong map without realizing it.

I sure as fuck can. Make sure you go into your account options on the forum and uncheck the box that says "hide all characters". This will let me see your passive tree and gear. A quick post or direct message once you have done this is fine. I will get back to you as soon as I can. Until then: murder everything.

I also have a discord channel if you understand New Jersey English.