Claude frequently uses Art of Thievery to maintain attack speed stacks and Battle Mirror Image to poke or escape, rapidly draining his Mana. Demon Boots solves this early lane weakness by restoring Mana whenever enemy minions are slain. Eliminating his resource constraint allows Claude to stay in the Gold Lane longer, farming continuously toward his core power spikes without needing frequent recalls.
In-game passive Unique Passive - Mysticism: Getting a kill or assist on an enemy Minion will restore 4% Mana. (An assist occurs when a Minion dies within 2s after taking damage from the hero.)
This is Claude's ultimate power spike item. Because Dexter assists on every Basic Attack via Battle Side-by-side and Blazing Duet hits count as Basic Attacks, the current HP physical damage from Devour triggers repeatedly. Equipping this item drastically enhances his burst damage against tanks and squishies alike during Blazing Duet, turning his ultimate into a deadly area-of-effect execution tool.
In-game passive Unique Passive - Devour: Basic Attacks deal 8% of the target's current HP as extra Physical Damage (capped at 60 against minions).
Golden Staff converts unnecessary critical chance into raw attack speed, perfectly fitting Claude's preference for frequent attack triggers over critical hits. It dramatically accelerates how fast Dexter attacks alongside him through Battle Side-by-side and maximizes the hit count during Blazing Duet. Once completed, Claude reaches peak attack speed, allowing him to stack Art of Thievery faster and unleash overwhelming sustained output.
In-game passive Unique Passive - Swift: Every 1% extra Crit Chance gained is converted into 1% extra Attack Speed.
Corrosion Scythe adds flat extra physical damage to Basic Attacks while applying a slowing effect that makes escaping Claude nearly impossible. When combined with the movement speed steal from Art of Thievery and the double attacks from Battle Side-by-side, Claude easily sticks to targets. It ensures enemies remain trapped inside the radius of Blazing Duet while boosting his own attack speed stacks even further.
In-game passive Unique Passive - Corrosion: Basic Attacks gain 80 extra Physical Damage and slow the target by 8% (halved for ranged Basic Attacks) for 1.5s. Stacks up to 5 times.
In late-game scenarios, enemy frontliners stack heavy armor to mitigate Claude's continuous physical damage. Malefic Roar solves this by scaling extra physical penetration against high physical defense targets. This ensures that Dexter's follow-up strikes from Battle Side-by-side and every bullet from Blazing Duet slice straight through tanky opponents, preventing his mid-to-late game damage output from falling off.
In-game passive Unique Passive - Armor Buster: When attacking an enemy, gains 0.125% extra Physical Penetration for each point of the enemy's Physical Defense, capped at 40%.
Diving into the enemy team with Battle Mirror Image to channel Blazing Duet exposes Claude to focused burst damage and crowd control. Immortality covers this risk by offering a second chance at life upon taking fatal damage. The resurrection shield buys crucial time for Battle Mirror Image to come off cooldown or allows Claude to swap back to safety, guaranteeing maximum aggressive potential without feed risk.
In-game passive Unique Passive - Immortal: Revives 2.5s after death, gaining 16% Max HP and a 220-1200 shield (scales with level) that lasts 3s (210s cooldown).
