The devs didn’t intend for Shadow Dagger effectiveness to reduce the number of hits required to proc damage, that was what was fixed, then they doubled the damage to make part of the loss up & make it significantly more powerful at the low end.
Thats not true, you probably missuderstood me and you are speaking about different build.
#3 build what i mentioned is Sync. Strike SD / Crit Cascade.
In #3 build from my list (SD Mono meta build) you activate shadows with Sync. Strike, not with Cascade or Shift (Dancing Shadows). You spend 5 mana per 1 shadow (SS → Wave of Darkness), you dont want to activate shadows by using Cascade or Shift (SS → Umbral Assassination, SS → Shadow Infusion), so you activate shadows by second Sync. Strike = 40 more mana cost (4x shadow from SS, 5 mana each, x2) which you have to regen if you want to spam Sync. Strike more frequently.
My issue is the nerf was so bad, that the build plumits in comparison to already existing rogue builds, when it was just slightly better, as far as dps is conserned. Now I agree, the mobility is completely broken and that’s my argument. Nerfing the DPS in order to bring back the build in check was dumb, because the part that made it broken is still broken.
Maybe I’m mistaken. I’m currently doing 400 corruption on Sync Strike, Crit Cascade and I have only the 20% mana regen from the talent tree.
Ah, so we are playing very similar builds, we just use different activation for Cascade, but our damage scaling is the same. I tried it and I very quickly realized I need mana regen for it xD .
I wouldnt say, that those builds are very similar. They look similar at first sigh, cause both builds use similar skills, but in different way, also playstyle is different.
At first i was playing pure Sync. Strike / Crit Cascade / Shifter, then i saw damage numbers of second build + ward generation, i had to relevel skills, completely change gear, change passives.
Sync. Strike / Crit cascade, damage relies mainly from Cascade, gear is specialized around melee damage and damage from shadows. You use Sync. Strike and Shift away to proc Cascade - dont have to be all the time on melee range. Needs Shift reduced cooldown - probably using 2 Smoke Weavers.
Sync. Strike Shadow Dagger / Crit cascade, damage relies mainly from Sync. Strike Shadow Daggers and Damage from Cascade, gear is specialized around mana regen, damage from shadows, Sync. Strike mana eff. You use only Sync. Strike and have to be on melee range. Doesnt need Shift reduced cooldown - rare weapons, no Smoke Weaver, cause this build doesnt use Shift to activate shadows.
Anyway, good luck hunting!
I would like to see your build planner, if possible. 
I don’t use Smoke Weavers though, the dps is too low with them. Instead I have a t6 attack speed/t5 mele phys damage Obsidian daggers and I manually cast Cascade after Sync Strike for the 100% more damage with 4 shadows (using shift makes more shadows than requiered and the effect doesn’t take place). Also my main scaling is Attack speed, through 0.6% more damage per point, crit multi and phys damage with +3 and +2 to Cascade on my chest/helm (still can’t use the helm, because I have too much crit chance on it and I don’t know where to compensate for the loss). However I’m using the idols, you probably thought off. Although I drop deffence and mobility, the damage is so bonkers, I’m only in danger of getting offscreened by Crystal Elementals. I have a planner on my home PC, if you are interested.
Im using modified version of this build:
FYI, i was testing Cascade (Careful Assault) and it works even with Shift 5th shadow, it seems that it counts 4 shadows from Sync. Strike and ignores 5th shadow from Shift cause its spawned after activating those 4 shadows. Without that skill node i was doing 20-30k crits after shifting, with that node 40-60k. Maybe it isnt intended this way, but it works.
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@OP:
If you leave some blatant stuff untouched the remaining 99% other builds will look abysmally shit. Now I don’t know how much “dead” the nerfed builds are, my guess is that it’s hyperbole and they now are probably just like the 99% other builds.
This is something that will keep happening past LE, we get tunnel visioned into 2 builds thinking they are “norm” and ignore the issue of 1928471057 other builds that are neutered by those 2
WB EQ doesn’t function anymore. It’s dead dead. The other 2 builds can still “function”, but they are heavily outperformed by archetypes within their own specializations. The effective damage nerfs are within in the 70% for both.
The explanation we got was:
I feel there is an internal issue with how a build’s performance is deemed overpowered, due to tunnel visioning on the arena ladder.
Yeah, I’ve also noticed that the damage buff is kept for an additional cascade cast, after the initial 4 shadow one. It does seem like a bug though.
Sync strike SD is still fine.
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what are you even responding to? use some quotes my dude because this post is days old now.
You can click on the symbol on the top right to jump to the post, he’s responding to.
oh sweet, let’s give it a look
#themoreyouknow
Guys, chill before the devs have to step in?
YEAH! Relax 
Hey for every OP build there’s another one right next to it or coming in next balance (aka nerf) so relax, find the next OP build, play the living CRAP out of it until next patch, rinse, repeat.
Game’s more fun not agonizing over the past, just move on to new build, takes what? 2 days?
PEACE!
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Gee, time like this I wish there are active forum moderations that can ban people, temporary ot not
Please keep posts on topic and respectful.
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Yeah, it takes 2 days for an avarage t15 gear for a build. However, when you minmax a build with like t18-21 items on every slot and then that build gets slashed, the feeling is not very pleasent .
For example I really want to push my holy trail Javelin, but since I know that build will get hammered into the ground, to a point where it won’t do any damage (because that’s how the devs see balancing), I’m not even gonna bother. You see how big nerfs can demoralize players? And I know it’s gonna be a big nerf, because devs already admited they don’t know if a build should get 40% or 70% nerf. So just to play it safe, they are gonna remove it from the meta entirely.
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This was only example so you can put there 5% to 10% or even 100% to 200%.
How much of a nerf do you think Holy trail will recieve?
I have no idea and game is in beta state so we can expect most of balance changes even unpopular ones.
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