Cold Brew Shinobi - Cold Conversion Acid Flask Bladedancer Build Guide

Comfy boss killer and mono farmer

Smooth, fast gameplay

Scales well with gear investment into higher tiers of corruption

Cold conversion provides great defensive ailments in Slow, Chill and freeze

Shadows provide higher uptime on Dusk Shroud and Acid Flask through throwing traps

Great defensive layers, having high dodge rating and glancing blows cap from Dusk Shroud, on top of having ward

T7 PrefixThrowing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost on rings are a must for mana, as before then this build is very mana hungry

Relies on many late game uniques and legendaries to fully optimize both the offense and the defense of the build

Your PC might hate you and you may drop several frames

The gameplay of this build is simple, as for the most part it's all centered around outputting as many Explosive Traps as possible. However, I want to go in depth as to how we use each skill and why.

Acid Flask is the primary skill the build. and there are 3 important nodes we take to scale its damage:

• Explosive Flask 1/1 doubles our hit damage at the cost of poison synergies; the damage conversion of this node gets overwritten by Vial of Volatile Ice
• Piercing Debris 4/4 gives us a lot of necessary crit scaling, removing the need for PrefixCritical Strike Chance as an affix on gear
• Knowledge of Immunity 3/3 provides us with a lot PrefixCold Penetration through scaling SuffixCold Resistance for even more damage; this node converts from poison to cold via Vial of Volatile Ice

Explosive Trap is the most used skill of the build, and how we trigger Acid Flask:

• The combo of Instrument of the Alchemist 1/1, Trap Sprinkler 3/3, and Automated Bombardment 1/1 grants us guaranteed Acid Flasks
• With Trapas 1/1 and Clustered Explosives 2/2, we are granted 5 traps that will fling/drop and throw another 5 traps
• Automated Bombardment 1/1 limits Acid Flask to only happen on the first set of 5 traps
• Traps can grant us several stacks of Dusk Shroud through the node Smoke Traps 1/1, bolstering our defenses

Shift is our movement skill, and it does quite a lot for the build:

• It gives us a big chunk of mana back through Swift Recovery 4/4
• Has an execute through Unseen Strike 1/1 and Consumed by Shadow 4/4
• Grants us flask uptime via Lasting Presence 1/1 and Parting Gift 2/2

Smoke Bomb serves several purposes:

• Increasing our shadow uptime with Umbral Assault 4/4
• Accelerating our Dusk Shroud stacking with Rapid Concealment 4/4
• Giving us extra throwing damage with Smoke Blades 5/5
• Cleanses negative ailments with Cleansing Steam 1/1

Decoy provides us with a lot of benefits apart from serving as a taunt:

• We get a nice chunk of PrefixCritical Strike Multiplier for a short time via Ambush 1/1,
• Through Frostfire Powder 1/1 we get the benefits of chill and freeze from its detonation.
• It supplements our shadow creation with the combination of Grand Diversion 2/2 and Shrouded Core 1/1

We actually have an open slot on our hotbar since we don't manually cast Acid Flask. My suggestion would be to have this slot as a skill already on your hotbar like Decoy or Smoke Bomb

With that being said, here's the gameplay loop I tend to follow:

• Start by casting Smoke Bomb and throwing Explosive Trap
• Use Shift when mana is about 40 below max to refill it via Swift Recovery 4/4
• Once you hit about 50-60 stacks of Dusk Shroud, use Decoy to proc Ambush 1/1 for more PrefixCritical Strike Multiplier
• Repeat throwing traps while mixing in Smoke Bombs and Decoys as long as your mana allows you to. If you end up tight on mana, slow down your trap throwing slightly, using Shift to refill it.

If you want to play this build as your first build, I would suggest starting out as an Shadow Daggers Bladedancer. It’s super easy to get going, requires very little gear, and can transition easily into this build provided we have the required gear. Leveling as an Acid Flask Explosive Trap build is a bit rough until you get some sort of mana cost reduction through exalted affixes, and I would steer away from starting as this build unless you have some rings with the affix at minimum T6.

Assuming you have the gear, however, I would still start as Shadow Daggers until you're able to equip your mana cost rings and take the Instrument of the Alchemist 1/1 node in Explosive Trap. Once you meet those conditions, it's relatively smooth sailing from there.

With proper investment, this build is capable of scaling into high levels of corruption relatively comfortably. The ability to get guaranteed crits on Acid Flask with no PrefixCritical Strike Chance investment on gear opens the window for more damage scaling affixes.

The synergy between Frostbite Shackles and Knowledge of Immunity 3/3 allows for both defensive and offensive scaling for the build with just a single affix in SuffixCold Resistance.

Additionally, through stacking Dusk Shroud via Smoke Traps 1/1, we get access to a great amount of defense in high dodge chance and capped glancing blows that drastically improve the builds survivability.

Currently I myself have gotten this build to just shy of 500 corruption with what I would consider mid-tier investment, as there are many gear upgrades I have room to make. However, with time, I have no doubt that I can push even further.