[3.6] Dual Strike crit assassin with claws

Similar to the 1.2 build this build is nothing you can tank or survive with for a long time if you are careless. The idea is to kill everything faster than it can kill you, which may sound a little trivial but works quite well. Please note that I do not want to give the impression that this build is very rippy - you will not die (or at least very rarely) if you use the defences and gimmicks this build offers.

With 2.2 there are some new things to consider, especially the new ascendancy classes. Personally I think that the slayer duelist class may be stronger than the assassin shadow class thanks to the melee splash and stun immunity while leeching.

Dual Strike:
Note that this is without adding the damage of charges etc. to it, it should be at least 160k with them.

+imo a lot of fun to play, does not get boring
+fast killing
+good survivability if used properly
+awesome dps

-not the cheapest build
-you need to play with attention since 2.0, since 2.1 maybe a little bit less
-reflect is the most common reason to rip since desyncs are gone
-it is hard to take very big hits

Outdated trees

The new dagger Goredrill is a really amazing thing for leveling, if you can afford to get 1 or even 2 you shouldn't have any problems in the early stages, although any other dagger with good early damage should be fine (I never experienced big problems in early).

Ungil's Gauche can be used when reaching level 20, other daggers should also work well, I guess even Goredrill might work on that level.

At level 35 you should get Mightflay, back in the days when I was leveling this character I used them until level 60 without having problems, so yeah :D

You can get Mark of the Doubting Knight as a transition but it's not really necessary. Your aim for the endgame should be Bino's, until you can afford that you should use rare daggers with enough damage to kill enemies fast enough or stick with Mightflay until you need more damage.

For the rest of your gear I recommend rare items with life, resis and damage or good leveling uniques.

For skill gems I recommend Dual Strike only for big, single targets in early stages (rare monsters or bosses). You can either use Frost Blades or Reave, both should work well (I used Frost Blades until level 35).
I recommend to start combining Dual Strike with Melee Splash at the moment when you still can kill the big targets with Dual Strike, otherwise Frost Blades or Reave can be used until the endgame (level 35 aswell, in my case I linked dual strike, melee splash, melee phys and mana leech).
The reason behind that is that Dual Strike is originally more a single-target hit than an AoE. You should keep that in mind and only start using it with Melee Splash when you still get enough damage on the bosses.
Try to get Whirling Blades as soon as possible, it is a quite important skill for this build.
Add other gems like Hatred and some defence set-up when you have the links and gems.

((Since I realized that mana problems are a real thing until your damage outperforms that you should use 1 mana potion, I like the Hallowed one very much.
In addition to that you can use Clarity instead of Hatred if you get oom 24/7. As already mentioned mana leech (support gem) is a good option aswell.))
With 2.1 mana is almost no problem anymore, I didn't even take mana leech on the passive tree.

I have chosen 40 life from Oak in Normal, a passive point in cruel and +1 frenzy charge in merciless. Taking the attack speed or physical damage in cruel works also very well.

Weapons
Chest piece
Helmet
Gloves
Boots
Belt
Amulet
Flasks
Rings
Jewels

As I already told there are so many different ways to play dual strike. I will show how I play it right now.

Main skill dual strike: dual strike + multistrike + melee physical damage + melee splash + physical to lightning + weapon elemental damage
If you are using 4l or 5l you should check different combinations to find the best one, phys to light works perfectly well together with herald of thunder and bypasses lots of risks of phys reflect.

1st 4l: Whirling blades + blood magic + fortify + faster attacks
Fortify is a very strong add-on to this build, I recommend using it. I have skipped Flicker strike for blood magic to be able to use whirling blades without going oom (3l is possible aswell if you are able to manage it without blood magic).

2nd 4l: CwDt (level 4) + Immortal Call (level 6) + Enfeeble (level 7) + Increased Duration
This is the main defence you will use, arctic breath did not work that great so I decided against it for now. Immortal call will safe you against any dangerous damage if you keep the endurance charges with enduring cry up. Enfeeble seems to be stronger than temporal chains since I am not using US anymore.

3rd 4l: Hatred + Herald of Thunder + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark
Hatred gives a lot of extra dmg and allows to freeze / shatter enemies because of crits.
Herald of Thunder doesn't give as much damage as Herald of Ash, but it is the best way to keep up power charges very steady if you use another curse on the CwDT set-up. If you calculate the extra damage from the power charges to the damage you gain from Herald of Thunder, it should be more than Herald of Ash.

1st 3l: Blood Rage + Enduring Cry + faster casting
Blood rage is very nice to use thanks to its frenzy charges, attack speed and some extra life leech. It should be on a weapon slot so that you can deactivate it by switching weapons while faster casting allows you to activate it fast enough. Enduring cry can't be triggered by Cast when damage taken anymore so you should use it by self-casting.

2nd 3l: Increased Duration + Vaal Haste + Vaal Grace
Vaal Haste and Grace work very well and you will be able to keep them up for about 10 seconds with increased duration.

Logically the passive things like hatred etc. should be active before / when joining areas. Try to get some endurance charges with enduring cry before jumping / while standing in big monster packs, otherwise immortal call may not last long enough to keep you alive. Enter monster packs by using mainly whirling blades (if you use flicker strike that works too, but it is riskier / less predictable) which gives you fortify.
Try not to stay too long at the same point, otherwise this might cost you your life.
I usually only use flasks when I really need them but it is safer to use them whenever you see something that possibly could kill you.

1st Map recorded: "New" Waste Pool (level 74) with ele equibrilium and only ranged monsters as mods: http://plays.tv/video/55ae4e77793d30b08c

2nd map recorded: Level 77 "Old" Shipyard fast run with Blood Rage: http://plays.tv/video/55d732aa573ad508a9?section=feed

1st Atziri attempt: http://plays.tv/video/55f87cd982176ea5e5/first-atziri-run-pathofexile?section=feed