This build revolves around the Bladestorm skill, a whirlwind of spinning shurikens that obliterate anything in their path. It's fast, effective, and surprisingly tanky for a Rogue, offering excellent defense while melting through enemies with Last Epoch gold insane single-target damage.

I originally started this build in Hardcore mode, and while I did lose my character due to a bug (I was rank one on the Rogue ladder at the time), I still had a blast with it. Even in high corruption levels (close to 400), the Bladestorm Rogue felt incredibly strong. Leveling was smooth, and I breezed through monoliths starting from level 30 without any real issues.

For those of you looking to build this from the ground up, I've based my progression on Lizard's Bladesong guide from Maxroll, but I've tweaked it to fit my playstyle. If you're looking for an easy-to-follow filter that works from level 1 to 100, I've included one in the description.

Leveling: Early Game to Mid-Game

The journey begins by leveling up with Shadow Daggers. This sub-skill works wonders early on, and you'll pair it with your Bladestorm to maximize damage. Shadow Daggers trigger off other skills, including Bladestorm, and deal tons of damage as you stack physical damage, added melee damage, and crit multi.

In the beginning, you'll be using skills like Umblades to stack those Shadow Daggers, helping you deal with enemies until you hit level 70 or so. During this period, you won't be focusing on shurikens, but once you hit the later levels, you'll transition into the Shuriken DPS build.

By the time you hit level 70, you'll swap over to focusing heavily on Shurikens, which will be your primary source of damage. With the right nodes, shurikens can stack up quickly, creating a swirling vortex of blades around you that decimates enemies. The transition to this setup is seamless and allows you to keep scaling your damage throughout the game.

Endgame: Maximizing Damage

Once you hit the endgame, your focus shifts toward scaling Shurikens for massive AoE damage and single-target destruction. To achieve this, you'll need to focus on Crit Chance, Crit Multi, and Throwing Damage. As you upgrade your shurikens, you'll unlock abilities like the Bladed Shield and Piercing Shurikens, which keep the shurikens spinning and hitting enemies for much longer.

The key to ramping up damage is skill ranks and synergies. The more points you invest in your Shuriken tree, the stronger your blades become. For instance, Blade Storm casts Shurikens, and by investing in these skill nodes, you can make the Shurikens hit harder and more frequently.

Additionally, Crit Multi is a crucial part of scaling your damage. The higher your crit multi, the more explosive your shuriken tornado becomes, allowing you to melt through enemies with ease.

Defensive Strategy

While this build is focused on offensive power, defense is also an important consideration. One of the best ways to boost survivability is by using the Architects of Astral Blood chest, a primordial unique item that grants substantial defense, low life, and ward bonuses. This item alone boosts your effective health by a huge margin, making it possible to charge into packs of enemies without fear of dying.

Combining this with Death's Door for more damage reduction and crit multi allows you to take full advantage of being at low life while also dealing immense damage.

Another key defensive feature is Parry. The Traitor's Tongue weapon adds both skill ranks and parry, which offers extra defense against incoming hits.

Itemization: Gear and Stats

For items, throwing damage is the key to scaling your shurikens. You'll want to aim for Flat Throwing Damage on your rings, relics, and amulet. Adding these modifiers can drastically increase your damage output, with some players effectively doubling their shuriken damage just through proper itemization.

One of the unique features of the build is that melee damage doesn't affect shurikens. Instead, you'll focus on adding throwing damage, which scales directly with your shuriken attacks. Relics and rings with high flat throwing damage are your best bet here, and you'll also want to prioritize crit multi and pierce for buy Last Epoch gold extra synergy.