Dagger spiking build - advice appreciated

Someone in my guild was looking for a themed Mantis-based build, but that got me thinking a bit and actually led me to dust off my poor neglected A/Me He's only lvl 16, so I haven't gotten to test this as thoroughly as I'd like, nor do I have the perfect armor & weapons to support this yet (if it even deserves supporting). Commentary appreciated.

Profession: A/x (prefer a secondary with good cover hexes)
Name: ???
Type: PvE so far... not sure it's up to snuff for PvP of any type
Category: Spiker?/Damage
Attributes:
Dagger Mastery: 12 + ...
Critical Strikes: 11 + ...
Secondary attribute linked to hexes: 6 + ...

Skills Set
1. Mark of Instability (none)
2. (cover hex)
3. Black Mantis Thrust (Dagger Mastery)
4. Jungle Strike (Dagger Mastery)
5. Death Blossom (Dagger Mastery)
6. Falling Spider (Dagger Mastery)
7. Blades of Steel (Dagger Mastery)
8. rez

Yes, this build has no elite!

Summary:
I suppose the goal is to do a quick damage spike, inflicting Crippled (handy if you can catch kiters off-guard) and Poison on the way. Blades of Steel takes advantage of the long chain set up beforehand. The optional Hex slot provides some flexibility for further disabling the target.

The build itself is pretty easy to use.. select your target, cast your two Hexes (1,2), then wade in with your daggers (3,4,5,6,7).

Concerns:
* The usual anti-melee weaknesses will still be in effect here. You will probably have to rely on your team to keep you out of trouble.
* No self heal and no shadow stepping to get the heck of out Dodge.
* The recharge on Jungle Strike can be a pain if you want to rip the chain out two times in quick succession...
* Hex removal on MoI could make the Falling Spider bit useless.

Notes:
*It just occurred to me that the Mesmer skill Fevered Dreams {elite} could make a handy addition in slot #2. You'd then be spreading Crippled and Poison to nearby foes, as well as hitting them all with the "splash" damage from Death Blossom. In that case, adding other status-inducing attacks might be helpful, too.

*If energy management is an issue, Black Lotus Strike (Critical Strikes) could be subbed in for slot #4, but that recharge may be a problem...

Credit: Um. Myself? Unless it's been done before. ^^;


As mentioned above, any advice is appreciated; please be kind to the newbish 'Sin

Thanks Saphatorael, that's some good food for thought
....And after thinking about it, what about something along these lines:

Profession: A/R
Attributes:
Dagger Mastery: 12 + ...
Critical Strikes: 10 + ...
Shadow Arts: 6 + ...
Beast Mastery: 6 + ...

Skills Set
1. Tiger's Fury (Beast Mastery)
2. Leaping Mantis Strike (Dagger Mastery)
3. Jungle Strike (Dagger Mastery)
4. Death Blossom (Dagger Mastery)
5. Palm Strike {Elite} (Critical Strikes)
6. Blades of Steel (Dagger Mastery)
7. Feigned Neutrality (Shadow Arts)
8. rez


After fiddling with this, I'm starting to see that 5-hit chains may be impractical for common use... Must turn off "Tekken" mindset...

TF is bad, use flurry

Ahh, thanks, now I feel like a doof for not reading the full notes for Flurry -- it only subtracts base weapon damage, not skill bonus damage. Annnd it takes no attribute. Thanks, Skuld

So now, revision 3..

Profession: A/W
Attributes:
Dagger Mastery: 11 + ...
Critical Strikes: 10 + ...
Shadow Arts: 10 + ...

Skills Set
1. Flurry (none)
2. Leaping Mantis Strike (Dagger Mastery)
3. Jungle Strike (Dagger Mastery)
4. Death Blossom (Dagger Mastery)
5. Palm Strike {Elite} (Critical Strikes)
6. Blades of Steel (Dagger Mastery)
7. Feigned Neutrality (Shadow Arts)
8. rez

And I imagine Vampiric daggers would be sweet with this.

Can I ask why he need a mantis theme?

[skill]Leaping Mantis Sting[/skill][skill]Exhausting Assault[/skill][skill]Moebius Strike[/skill][skill]Death Blossom[/skill] and you fill in the rest. ( [skill]Impale[/skill][skill]Siphon Speed[/skill] )

Oh and you'd want 13+ CS, and zealous daggers.

Not to say anything is wrong with your current build or anything but you are slowly moving into moebius striker territory with each revision (edit: as yanman.be pointed out.) You may really want to consider a moebius setup or if you want to go back to hexes, black mantis thrust (whichever the cripple is) and jungle strike with a hex to get into the black line if you must keep jungle strike as well. If they aren't crippled for sure, jungle strike isn't all that great. "Spiking" also implies deep wound in my opinion.

There is a fevered dream sin build floating around out there. I know of one that used to be on guildwiki as well as a team version with a temple strike sin as the second sin to spread daze and blind to make it fairly deadly as long as you can capitalize on the condition spam while it lasts. However, it may be simply handled better by seperate classes bringing different utility as opposed to a sin which is... more or less a one trick pony at the moment. People may disagree with my opinions here so take whatever I say with a grain of salt.

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