[3.6] Dual Strike crit assassin with claws

Cool looking build, I might give this a whirl soon as I have quite a stash of daggers from an alching spree trying to gear my Reaver and CI Flicker. So many builds, so little time....

One of my main characters was a RT Duelist Dual Striker but I recently switched to Cleave in 2.0. Still unsure which setup was stronger, maybe Cleave but only because I could slot in Conc. Effect which didn't really work out on Dual Strike - Splash.

1) So Hypothermia is basically for more dps against bosses rares right? You need to initiate a second attack to get the bonus multiplier, as in a whole new click? Like with multistrike it repeats two more times but would the Hypo bonus apply to the 2nd and 3rd hit of the multistrike since it's technically the same instance of attack? Sorry if that sounds confusing, I don't know how to word it.

2) Is Unwavering Stance that valuable? I have a few Evasion melee characters and they all take the Heart of Oak node instead. 30% is much less than 100%, but I don't know if that's really what gets me killed. I think it's likely my positioning / reaction time but getting stunned obviously wouldn't help with that. Do you think it's better to have Unwavering than putting those travel points to life or block in the Ranger area?

3) I know you use Bino's, I only have one and it's in my Reave character's hands right now and won't be relinquished. The regen basically lets you ignore the downside of Blood Rage, especially since you have almost none from passives, but without that regen is Blood Rage really a good risk/reward, especially with Abyssus? On my Abyssus character I have 3.8% regen and with Blood Rage on I tend to lose about 1/4 to 1/3 of my health getting between mobs. It's quite a pain to have to turn off only to turn on again 3 seconds later and in front of a pack no less where you're casting it and taking damage. Comments on Abyssus + Blood Rage combo please?

Thanks for those impressions!

1) Since I am using Hatred every hit chills which means that it will work after the first hit, yes. Usually you don't need that extra damage for the first hit because
#1 if you kill something that fast it is no problem anyways
#2 your multistrike hits 3 times and yes it works, I have tested it which means that the 2nd and 3rd hit gets buffed

If you want to use added fire damage that works well too and applies already on the first hit, personally I just experienced hypo to work better.

2) The only big problem I always experienced with previous builds was the weakness against stuns (I used Heart of Oak).
I know that evasion is very strong and if you add acrobatics you are almost immune to damage but thats not what I want to play.
First you can't use a low level cwdt set-up because it will cast rarely due to the evasion / dodge etc.
Additionally there is still the danger to get hit sometimes and if that happens you will have to pray that you don't get stunned and killed.

I think it is possible to go for Heart of Oak and it will work too, but imo Unwavering is better.

Abyssus shouldn't be a problem, big hits that might kill you with 1 attack (for example Voll) can be dodged with whirling blades and smaller hits will activate IC and you won't die.

3) Blood Rage is very strong thanks to the extra attack speed, life leech and gaining frenzy charges.
Also you should note that I use Blood Rage on a weapon slot so that I can stop the degen.

Bino's is too good for this build but it should be possible to use smething else, im not quite sure on that.

Actually I use it on self-cast, so I can decide when I want to activate it. If I activate it I usually clear the map with 1 swing and collect the items after that.

Additionally I cast EC before fighting mobs so the life I lost thanks to degen from Blood rage will get restored.

If you don't want to clear maps that way you can skip using Blood Rage, but you won't be able to gain Frenzy charges and lose a lot of damage.

All in all it is possible to play without but if you use Blood Rage the way I described it is more an improvement than a disadvantage.

I am not sure what Abyssus + Blood Rage combo you mean but if you mean the disadvantages from both: that is not a big problem if you remember the previous things I mentioned about the usage of Blood Rage.


Thanks for the comments, keep in mind that I only can improve my build with new impressions.

Wow, very interesting info about Hypothermia! That means it's likely better than added fire for any physical build using Hatred. The added crowd control and boss safety is nice too! I'll have to try it on some of my characters.

As for Blood Rage, ya I was referring to the interaction with Abyssus where you take (4% * 1.4 = 5.6%) degen. Thinking about it more, my issue is specific to my one character with 0 mobility (no movespeed on boots, no FA on Leap Slam) but should be fine for this and other high mobiliy characters. I also keep it on weapon 3L to swap it off if I need to as well as self cast enduring cry an initiating with Fortify. The problem is that it takes me so long to reach a new pack that I'm noticeably down on life compared to my other Blood Rage using characters. It's also not the fastest skill to turn on/off and doing it repeatedly in maps is tedious at best and dangerous at worst. It is easy to keep up and clear the map in one cast though, kinda like a mini-game!

Your CwDT setup is quite interesting. What does the arctic breath achieve? The low level seems like it won't do much against end game mobs or bosses and the chilled ground doesn't seem worth it. I was thinking how you could change around gem slot to fit in some counter skills. Like remove AB-GMP, put Ice Golem in that level 1, then use Enduring Cry / Vaal skill in the free CwDT slot (but you would use high level and not proc, just use the slot) and put the other EC / Vaal in the aura link. Then the 3L could be Blood Rage-Vengeance-Riposte or since your block is only 15% change Riposte for ECoMS or Mana/Life Leech. Food for thought.

My Dual Strike / Cleave Duelist has a 4L Vengeance-Riposte-ECoMS-Mana Leech and it's pretty handy

EDIT: My take on your tree

Yeah somebody told me that Hypothermia works that way so I had to test it.

I thought that degen doesn't count as damage directly so that Abyssus doesn't increase that. If it does you are right but I think it is still strong so not using it would be kinda weird.
The clear in one cast is awesome anyways and I never had problems if I didn't use Blood Rage so it is awesome for rushing through maps but not needed to be used if you don't want to.

About the CwDT set-up, I found Hege using that. Since I won't use Blood rage on that level 1 CwDT I need to find something else, Enduring cry doesn't work too.

That is very interesting since I take every hit. Does vengeance stun always? That would be an awesome add-on, I also feel that Arctic Breath isn't worth it the afford of 2 gem slots...

Thanks for your tree, I will post that one in my guide since it seems to work fine aswell.

If you crit with Vengeance (highly likely with daggers) then it will almost always stun, except maybe bosses. Apparently the skill only uses the offhand weapon (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1186371) but that shouldn't matter much. I find it very useful for keeping up end charges if I have the free slots for it.

On the tree I linked, I realized that I forgot the Spirit Void cluster. Usually I only need the first node, especially if I have some leech from a ring or gloves already, but I do need all 3 on some characters. Points could be taken away from the Ranger or Duelist DW clusters as needed.

Do you think cwdt + assassins mark and vengeance + endurance charge on melee stun or vengeance + Endurance charge on melee stun + curse on hit + assassins mark is stronger? Assassins mark could be at a very high level on the second version.

My gut says CwDT would be stronger because you can curse more enemies with it. Vengeance only has a 30% chance to proc when hit, while CwDT has 100%. Also, while Vengeance is an AoE attack, it is only close around you, while CwDT will use the curse AoE around the damage point making it more likely to affect more monsters. It might not be much of a difference in game though, sounds like an interesting test

Just tested Vengeance a bit and it seemed to work pretty well, I just don't feel that endurance charge on melee stun works that well (in addition i generate end charges very well with enduring cry).

I though about testing some other stuff, Blind came to my mind at the first point, any other ideas?

Knockback sounds interesting too, I will test that.

I also tested Power charge on crit but nothing of the used support gems seems to work as good as it should do. It doesn't feel as if I can rely on it, kinda disappointing...probably won't keep testing it.