Yeah, that’s a beefy node at first, trust me is tested it a lot, but comes with 100% extra mana cost, and sync strike is not cheap. You can of course remove the shadows inwards (-10 mana cost), but making focus, is a lot harder that way, still there’s the mana problem. You also need to trade 3 points elsewhere, probably the ones that gives the buff for less damage against dots, but beware DoTs can get very scary and there’s no protection outside that effect and a amulet base.
You get 4 +1 from shift with it, without it, you get 2+1, and 4 anyways if a second rotation is needed, thanks to the extra shadow from dancing strikes.
You can fix it, with more mana regen, and some sync strike efficiency, and maybe some extra area to get an easier time hitting with the 5 shadows if you remove shadow inwards. but usually is not worth the trouble, in bosses is just an extra shadow, and with passives alone you even don’t need mana regen.
To me is not worth the trouble for an extra shadow when really matters, unless you get good gear with that efficiency on sync strike, and lots of mana regen in items you have for other affixes (usually the suffixes).
Just curious, would the unique sword gladiator’s oath be viable in any way for this build? The 100% crit strike chance allows you to stack crit multiplier and not have to worry about crit chance in the build anymore. Though I haven’t played with this build yet, so I’m probably wrong, would love your feedback
The item base is quite poor compared with a katana, also the arena is something you cannot rely on having in place all the time, not to mention if the enemy or you move into another place.
With some CDR you can have full uptime of arena, but that’s only if you stand in the same place, the moment you are moving (doing an echo) or moving out of danger, or the enemy moves, you lose that uptime.
I think the crimson storm node for sync strikes is bugged atm, such that I’m able to get 3 seconds of crimson shroud with only one point allocated. I don’t believe it can just be a UI issue, right?
I believe the buff was always 3 or 4 seconds, each point investment gives you an extra stack of the buff, that gives 5% less damage taken from DoTs each stack.
The description is wrong, not sure if it was changed recently, I just tested it briefly, is just that: each point: one extra stack.
Edit: Now that I remember, you wanted some CDR of the old shift (3 secs) for full uptime in crimson shroud, so certainly was 3 seconds.
I just tested it out, and with only one point in it, I am able to get 3 stacks of crimson shroud, each lasting 3 seconds. I’m not really sure how useful the 3 stacks are, though, since if I try to get 3 stacks at a time it eats up my mana even if I try to shift between the sync strikes.
Hah, not only the description is wrong, also behaves differently on offline/online… I tested it out in offline.
If that is the case, you have 2 free points until they fix it.
The build is not mana hungry, you need either one mana regen in any place, or 4-5 points the passive Spellbreaker, and you can sustain the rotation without issues.
For less mana, you have 30% efficiency in sync strike (Dynamics), and 48% efficiency in shift (Velocity) plus 12 mana back (3 points in Swift Recovery), and very important, two points down in the shadow cascade to get back 6 mana per shadow (Fight in the Shadows).
Yeah, the mana isn’t normally an issue, if I at most only use synchronized strike twice before I shift, it’s only an issue if I try to get the aforementioned 3 stacks of crimson shade at the same time, which I wouldn’t ever normally do anyway. Right now, I put a few points into harmony of death for some crit vuln, cuz I’m not capped on crit for cascade yet. Though, I do mean to try out dark allies, which is possible by having 2 points in razor strikes and one in crimson storm, I’ll let you know how it goes. Definitely a fun build so far!
Edit: Just tried dark allies, and it most definitely does not work without any extra mana lol, though it looks like having points in foreshadowing might be pretty good, with each point being 40% increased damage for basically your main damage source
Maybe we are not understanding each other: with three points in Crimson storm, you get 3 crimson shroud stacks in one sync strike cast.
The uptime comes itself, you should have shift under 3 seconds cooldown, and you cast shift after sync strike as trigger for cascade. You refresh all crimson stacks in each sync strike cast. Crimson shroud is a side bonus because BD has very limited access to DoT mitigation (like most classes).
Foreshadowing extra damage is much less that you may think, is just increased damage, you get 400-600% going on already without investing into it.
The two extra shadows yeah, makes you build quite mana hungry, specially you want regen and sync strike mana efficiency to make up for it, also you can drop the shadow from dancing strikes.
The build is the best version I came with, after a lot of experimentation, but by all means feel free to experiment with different variations, the build has plenty of room for it and the game is not PoE levels of oppression against sub-optimal choices.
Ah I see, the misunderstanding definitely stems from differences between online and offline lol, since for me, the text says each stack gives 1 extra second of the buff, and max stacks is 3, which led me to believe that it’s bugged in the sense that I will always get 1 stack which lasts 3 seconds. However, I realized that functionally the node behaves the same in online as in offline, as when I put 3 points into it, it gave me 3 stacks every cast. Now that that’s cleared up, I understand that the node is definitely worth taking for the persistent 15% dot reduction. Thanks for the replies!
Edit: I do wonder if the behavior of getting only 1 stack which lasts 3 seconds when you have 3 points in the node is the intended behavior according to the description tho (it says “grants crimson shroud”, and “stacks up to 3 times”), since if that’s the case, the node is much less potent
Well, up to you to decide! DoTs can get very scary in this game. Unlike hits, armor is useless, all you have is resistances, and many cannot be dodged. Those wengari spires…
Unlike block, if the dot comes from a hit that also has DoT chances, can be dodged
Yes, 3 is max stacks for the buff type anyways. The thing is, the tooltip with each point investment says 1/2/3 seconds of crimson shroud, but is 1/2/3 stacks with always 3 seconds duration. It has been already reported into the bugs section (the behavior is correct compared as before, is the tooltip that changed).
Just to make this topic not close!
Been a good year and planning on playing this build on release. This stil viable or have some things changed since then?
Well, they nerfed shadow daggers, but is not the core damage, as it comes from Shadow Cascade, and nerfed the flat armor blessing, but this affects all characters, not only this build, as it was an easy pick. Both nerfs are about 30% in value, not a big deal.
Yeah, anything else remains exactly as the guide tells you. Fully playable.
Felt the need to share because I keep reading everywhere that only SD bladedancer is viable, but I built this again on cycle online and have been cruising past 400 corruption. It feels as good as always, and some of the new/changed item bases add some new options for gearing. It won’t be as easy to level or gear as SD and likely won’t push as high, but like you say - fully playable.
