This skill turns daggers into projectiles that boost your bladestorms. You want to take Cold Conversion to synergize with your cold Bladestorm. Then, focus on maximizing Dagger Throws and Critical Strike Damage to Last Epoch gold get the most out of this skill. Dusk Shroud is also essential for extra survivability.
Smoke Bomb
Smoke Bomb provides mobility and a damage boost, and it's crucial for defense. The Cleanse node helps you remove debuffs, while Shadows creates additional copies of Umbrell Blades, giving you more projectiles for your bladestorms.
Explosive Trap
A fully automated skill that synergizes well with your cold conversion. The Trap Sprinkler node increases damage and adds more traps. It's a great way to boost your overall DPS while not having to focus on micromanaging traps.
Passive Tree and Focus
At level 95, my passives are mainly focused on Dexterity, which is crucial for increasing cold damage and enhancing survivability. Here's the breakdown:
Rogue Tree: Prioritize Dexterity, Evasion, and Agility for defense and damage. We are dual-wielding to maximize our throwing and damage output.
Falconer: Allocate 5 points into Raptor Wings for Explosive Trap.
Marksman: Focus on Concentration for Dodge Rating and damage mitigation. Focus Fire is also essential for maximizing Damage Output.
Blade Dancer: Key nodes include Throwing Speed, Movement Speed, Critical Strike Multiplier, and Critical Strike Chance. This increases your damage and attack speed, which are vital for maintaining high DPS in fast-paced fights.
Gear and Itemization
Your gear is what helps elevate this build to its highest potential. I've compiled a set of items that help maximize damage, survivability, and efficiency:
Relic: The new Bladestorm Relic is a must. It causes Explosive Traps to automatically activate when enemies are within range of your Bladestorm. This is crucial for automation and maintaining serious damage output.
Body Armor: Astral Blood is the go-to chest for survivability. It turns the build into a low-life setup and provides crucial Critical Strike Multiplier and Damage Reduction when at low life.
Weapons: Peak of the Mountain with T7 Bladestorm and Dual-Wielding Trader's Tongue are great for increasing your damage output. Cold damage and Cold Penetration will make your attacks even more potent.
Belt: Jungle Queens for +10 Dexterity and T7 Throwing is a great choice to boost your damage further.
Gloves: Use Claws for Critical Strike Multiplier. Hybrid Health adds survivability, which is essential for surviving endgame bosses.
Rings: Last Nomads are perfect for high Life and Triple Resistances. You can always upgrade these later into Red Rings for more Resistances.
Idols: I use Percent Health and Armor Shred Duration idols. You can also opt for Elemental Resistances to shore up any weak resistances.
Leveling
When leveling, use Umbrell Blades as your main skill. You'll maintain this skill into the endgame, making the leveling process smoother. Blade Dancer excels at quick leveling, and you'll be ready for cheap Last Epoch gold high-level content as soon as you finish the campaign.