Physical Crit Shuriken Bladedancer Build Guide

Very Fast

Great AoE

Great Single Target

High Sustain

Need to learn to manage Mana

Altough not really Unique reliant, the gloves makes it feel really good

Mechanics

So as previously mentioned, we are abusing Shuriken's Entry Points node, and there's multiple ways we can achieve the threshold required.

Firstly, we have to take into account that the way we are speccing Shuriken's tree is to let them "shotgun" a single target by throwing them in a single line rather than being spread out. This means that every use of Shurikens will apply multiple instances of an ailment with each throw.

At baseline, Shurikens throws 3 projectiles, then by speccing into Flip of a Coin or Fan of Blades we get extra projectiles and then Li'raka's Claws adds another set of 2, for a potential total of 11 projectiles that is then cut in half and rounded up by the Deadly Aim node (which allows the skill to shotgun). With this setup we get:

11 projectiles / 2 = 5.5, which is rounded up to 6 projectiles per throw.

So with all this in mind, if we spec into being able to throw 4-5 Shurikens PER use and have AT LEAST 100% Bleed and 100% Poison chance, we would only need 3 uses of Shurikens to max Entry Points 3/3 cap and get to the 261% MORE damage threshold.

Skill Rotations

• Single Target

Try to get Synchronized Strike hit the enemy to get the buff from Art of the Blade 5/5, but even if you don't hit the enemy you get the buff from Crimson Storm 3/3 on use, which grants 3 Crimson Shroud stacks so 150% bleed chance for free. Then proceed to spam Shurikens. Also remember to use Shift to execute enemies with Consumed by Shadow 4/4 at 15% or less health.

• General Clearing

Main combo would be to use Synchronized Strike and then either:

1. For small/medium trash and faster pathing, use Shift to proc Dancing Shadows which will trigger Shadow Cascade that apart from it's circular AoE will throw daggers from Dagger Dance 4/4. Also since we are using Umbral Remnant node from Umbral Blades after we proc Shadow Cascade each shadow will leave behind a spinning blade which follows enemies. NOTE: Optionally you can also manually use Shadow Cascade in order to execute the combo while Shift is on Cooldown.
2. For bigger threats like a pack of tougher monsters, use Umbral Blades which will send up to 3 spinning blades to the enemies with a big AoE and then explode but also Shadows created after using Synchronized Strike will leave another set of spinning blades.

In between both of these you can use Umbral Blades or Shurikens to regain mana, and also Shadow Cascade will passively recover your mana on use.

Defenses

For this we do four things:

1. We stack health as normal, and really, as required by any build.
2. Cap Glancing Blow Chance, for this we use Apostacy and gearing up with SuffixDodge Rating and SuffixDodge Rating affixes/blessings or even idols to cap this defense layer.
3. Cap Endurance % and try to squeeze in Endurance Threshold, mainly through Grand Vigor of Jormun blessing from "The Age of Winter" Monolith Timeline.
4. Get reliable leech by using Grand Wrath of Rahyeh and the increased Leech Rate from an Antidote Vial

For leveling I would recommend going Bleed specing into Lethal Cadence 3/5 and Disembowel 5/5 using Flurry and Puncture using melee weapons or Bows whichever you prefer, or later you can use Umbral Blades also.

While leveling remember to specialize into Shurikens even if its not your main skill and work towards pathing to Deadly Aim and once you get to Entry Points 1/3 you can switch to a full throw build.

At this stage you can specialize into Shurikens for single target and Umbral Blades for general clearing. After that the order I would specialize the other skills is: Shadow Cascade, Shift and finally Synchronized Strike.

Disregarding the suggested early passive points explained above, the order for passive points I would suggest if you don't want to respec anything is:

1. Swift Assassin 8/8
2. (If you are leveling dual wielding) Twin Blade 1/1 if not max Swift Assassin and spec into this when you feel like it but is needed to get to Bladedancer Mastery tree.
3. Steady Hand 1/8
4. Dodge and Parry 5/5
5. Sapping Strikes 4/4
6. 1 Point into whichever to get to 20 and get access to Bladedancer's passives
7. Cloak of Shadows 8/8
8. Once 8/8
9. Pursuit 5/8
10. Shroud of Dusk 1/8
11. Apostacy 1/1
12. Shroud of Dusk 3/8
13. Flash of Steel 5/8
14. Weapons of Choice 5/8
15. Argent Veil 1/10
16. Focus Fire 4/8
17. Assassin's Quiver 1/5
18. Missile Mastery 4/10
19. Concentration 1/8
20. Wound Maker 5/10

After this fill out the rest of the passives as you see fit according to the "Passives" section.

Endgame you should focus on capping your defensive layers, that means Endurance, stacking Health, capping all resistances.

In between gearwise and prioritywise would be getting a pair of decently rolled Li'raka's Claws, then getting a good set of weapons and rings.

You can export a base lootfilter using the showcased gear as a guide directly from the build planner using the Loot Filter option.