This series serves as a spiteful testament to the unwavering power of Sevagoth's Helminth subsume: Gloom.

Shards:

As always, shards are a luxury and are not mandatory.

• R: 2 + DUR
• Y: 1 + Cast Speed
• B: 2 + Energy Maximum

Ability Breakdown:

1: Shuriken (augmented)
Utilizing Shuriken with its augment, [Seeking Shuriken], lets you strip armor, should the need arise. The issue is that it is a single target strip, which means you are limited in how many targets you can churn through. Because of this, I would recommend Shuriken for getting the first few kills to turn on any "On Kill" effects, just to get the ball rolling. Shuriken is also useful for stripping strong, single targets, like demolishers or some bosses.

2: Smoke Screen (augmented)
Smoke Screen, despite being an annoyingly short invisibility ability, can be nice to have in case you feel like changing the color of your damage number from time to time. [Smoke Shadow], the augment, lets Smoke Screen provide you with a critical chance buff (one of many similar augments). It can also serve as a 10 second respite for you to get your bearings before returning to battle.

3: Gloom
Gloom, the entire reason this series was created.
For [Ash], throwing your 2 can cause enemies to fumble; the animation extended by Gloom's slow factor. Other than that, Gloom really acts the same in almost all builds featured in this series.

4: Blade Storm
There is not really much to discuss about Blade Storm, really. Just cast and let the backstabs speak for themselves.

Stats:

• = DUR: I would have liked more duration, but I wanted to include the augments to provide some utility. Options to sub in more duration include over Primed Flow (if you are comfortable with the energy pool/drain) or any of the augments, if you do not plan on using them. Outside of that, Seeking Shuriken should be fine as long as you do not dump duration.
• + EFF: Because Ash really wants to keep duration, I could not justify using Fleeting Expertise. This is to maintain Gloom and Bladestorm.
• + RNG: Gloom wants range.
• + STR: As much as I wanted to hit the sweet cap of 95%, doing so would kill some other aspects, like efficiency (slotting Blind Rage) or other opportunity costs. Being close to 80% should be enough, the enemies are only moving at 1/5th the speed.