Gameplay
The gameplay and skill rotation is very rewarding and fun to use. Depending on the situation and enemies you either dash into or away from combat with Shift following up with Synchronized Strike to generate 5 Shadows. After that you click Shurikens (Chakrams) once. While the Chakrams are flying around dealing dmg to the enemies you immediately follow up with another Synchronized Strike. This will bring you down to negative mana. Spamming Shurikens with Sapping Strikes 4/4 will bring your mana back up to repeat the combo.
While doing Monolith Echoes most of the time you only need one rotation since the damage is already so strong that you can (oneshot) enemy packs or bosses with the returning Chakram mechanic.
On high HP monsters or Bosses you have to repeat the rotation to have a high uptime of Shadows. Spamming Chakrams by yourself without Shadows will not grant you the big damage that you can see from the gameplay footage.
In Monolith use Smoke Bomb whenever it is off cooldown to get a guaranteed Silver Shroud. While doing boss fights you have to time it correctly for the guaranteed dodge on potential one-shot mechanics.
Offensive Playstyle
Use Shift and Synchronized Strike into enemies for the attack speed bonus on Art of the Blade 5/5. The close combat situation allows Umbral Blades to explode quicker from nearby enemies. Spam Shurikens and Synchronized Strike directly on top of a high HP monster before another upcoming dangerous attack where you start to reposition.
Defensive Playstyle
For content like Arena it is recommended to kite away from enemies abusing the returning Chakram mechanic while having high Movement Speed. Also Shadow Rush 5/5 can always heal you next to the strong leech we get from the Grand Wrath of Rahyeh Blessing. Shadow Rush can help you out while losing all health potions.
Mechanics
The Shurikens skilltree provides alot of strong mechanics. First of all we try to get as many Shurikens (3) as possible from Li'raka's Claws (+2), Fan of Blades (+2) & Flip of a Coin (+2) getting a total of 9 Shurikens. Chakram will only let you throw one projectile but with Keen Throw we get up to 108% more dmg for a single projectile.
Jagged Edges 4/4 allows us to get another 4% base crit chance. Combining that while dual wielding Fulgurite Shard we reach a base crit chance of 17% making it very easy to reach an effective crit rate of over 80% together with Critical Vulnerability stacks.
Entry Points 3/3 is the strongest mechanic within the skilltree. For single target damage we focus on stacking Poison chance from Li'raka's Claws and Bleed chance from Disembowel 5/5 being able to have a permanent uptime of 15 stacks each to reach a brutal 180% more multiplier!
Mana Sustain
By default Shurikens cost 3 Mana. Synchronized Strike is a very mana intensive skill. Sapping Strikes 4/4 can help us out to get mana back quicker with the amount of throwing attack speed that we scale. Therefore we only need one PrefixThrowing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost affix on a ring. Tier 1-5 already provides us with -3 Mana Cost to sustain Shurikens. If you can manage to seal a T4 you have more room for prefixes like Dexterity to scale more flat dodge, Throwing Attack Speed, Lightning Dmg, Crit Chance etc.
Technically you could also use Scintillant Steel 3/3 but then we miss alot of strong dmg multipliers in the tree.
If you manage to get T6 and T7 exalted rings to get a total of -9 Mana Cost you could abuse Ricochet 1/2 for additional 100% Crit Multiplier. Chakrams will not lose their piercing ability.
Defense
Dual wielding is always a risky playstyle, especially in endgame content. You won't be able to fully facetank every monster in the game. Knowing boss or monster abilities while also being able to kite a lot will greatly improve your survivability.
Mechanically we trust our HP pool (up to 2.5k+), capped Resistances, 100% Crit Avoidance, Leech, 60% Endurance, Movement Speed & high Glancing Blow uptime from Apostacy. With additional Dexterity and SuffixDodge Rating if Hit Recently from Once 8/8 + Dusk Shroud stacks from Shroud of Dusk 8/8 while being in close combat we are able to reach 100% Glancing Blow quicker with all the added Flat Dodge that we convert. Shadow Rush 5/5 will permanently make it possible to refresh 1k Life whenever you need it, even when running out of health potions.
A good player can mostly survive using Silver Shroud at the right time. Rogue is pretty much vulnerable to one-shots. The guaranteed dodge can help you out.
Your playstyle and game knowledge is responsible for you survivability at the end.
Defensive Ailments like Frailty, Chill & Slow all come from Skills or Passives, therefore we don't have to use it on gear.
Never underestimate the power of Stun provided by Shock and lightning builds in general!
