Shadow Warriors - Done!

- By Mystriss and Calafalas .. longtime uberskeeled SW's

The Shadow Warrior's tragic history can be traced all the way back to Aenarion,

the first Phoenix King, who unleashed a powerful curse on his entire bloodline.

His son would become their prince and shatter the unification of the Elves with

his murderous desire to possess the crown. While most of their countrymen

declared loyalty to The Witch King, eventually becoming the Dark Elves, the

Shadow Warriors remained faithful to The Phoenix King. Under the circumstances

it comes as little surprise that many of the High Elves questioned their true loyalty.

The Shadow Warrior paints a much darker picture of the High Elves; although they

are probably the most devoted, their never ending Shadow War has left many elves

to think them as brutal as their Dark Elf cousins. They believe that the only way they

can restore trust in the eyes of the Asur is by eradicating the Dark Elves, and they

utilize any and all opportunities to fulfill their oath to do so. Far removed from the

scholarly music loving High Elves, the Shadow Warriors are vengeful masters of

ambush and guerilla warfare.

I am Mystriss Freya on the Badlands server here to talk to you about our class

and hopefully help people better understand our strengths and dispel some of

the misunderstandings about shadow warriors.

Intro to Shadow Warriors

I have a saying when it comes to Shadow Warriors; "Trying to fit a round peg into a

square hole." This statement applies to a great majority of complaints you might

have heard. We are not Bright Wizards, Squig Herders, nor Sorceresses with bows;

we are Shadow Warriors, a unique hybrid class. If you demand to top damage

charts all the time, you will be disenchanted, if you expect to find an equal mirror on

the enemy side, you will find only frustration, and if you expect to find anything

even remotely resembling an easy button on our action bar, you will be

disappointed.

Unfortunately many of the people who have quit Shadow Warrior are "trying to fit a

round peg into a square hole." They jump in haphazardly, throwing their points into

their trees with very little thought and experimentation, and then they attempt to

button mash; and fail, repeatedly. In fact, some people's experiences are so horrible

that it scar's them for life and they will rage against the class with unexpected hatred.

They complain about damage, they grumble about survivability, and so on.

A Shadow Warrior should not be approached with preconceived notions of glory, for

we are a more subtle class. Our strength cannot be measured by raw damage output,

but rather by the efficient application of damage; quality over quantity. Our survivability

cannot be measured by our ability to stand toe to toe with the enemy, but rather by our

ability to outsmart the enemy; brains before brawn. Our skill set as players must rise

above button mashing and embrace the whole of our class mechanic to be successful.

Shadow Warriors Come in Many Shapes and Forms

I like to think of the Shadow Warrior as a hard-core pleasure class because our

mechanics allows us a flexibility that no other class can offer. At first glance

Shadow Warrior's follow three basic paths:

- Standing in the back raining death upon your enemy

- Running around strafing the enemy

- Getting up close and personal

However, your Shadow Warrior should not be restricted to forcing yourself to play one of

those three play styles; you do not have to force your round peg self into a square hole.

I have played with no less than ten successful Shadow Warriors who each had radically

different play styles.

Stance bonuses, the ability to stance dance on the fly, and the fact that many of our abilities

can be used in multiple stances, offers a unique opportunity to customize your Shadow

Warrior to suit the way you enjoy playing, rather than forcing you to modify your play style

to fit the class. I can rain death down upon my enemies on the horizon and, with the simple

push of a button, open up on mid-ranged targets with softening aoe, and with another push

of a button, I can finish them off with my blade. No other Order class can offer such

immense flexibility and be so easily molded to fit your particular play style.

This flexibility does come at a price though; the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none"

might come to mind. I will not deny that Bright Wizards have more burst power than Shadow

Warriors. However, I can honestly tell you that we have more than enough power to

have a major impact on the battlefield, a well played Shadow Warrior can give Bright Wizards

more than a run for their money. Be warned that you will be a far better player for mastering

a Shadow Warrior and you may find that no other class truly challenges you anymore.

The Keys to Success

I believe that one of the key skills of a successful Shadow Warrior is their willingness and

desire to study and learn. It is not enough to simply push buttons in the right order; to be

a competent Shadow Warrior you must also learn more subtle gaming skills like:

- battlefield awareness

- proactive playing

- reading the enemy.

These are the things you will learn mostly from firsthand experience; study the ebb and flow

of every battle, know your enemy and learn who must be hassled and who can be saved for

last. Know the terrain around you, know your escape routes, and keep an eye on where the

enemy might flank you.

These skills are useful for any class, but for a Shadow Warrior they can make a tremendous

difference. Here's an example:

If a healer is rez'ing you they are unable to move and unable to heal others. This process

takes roughly 3-5 seconds and when they are able to another average of 3 additional seconds

healing you up, and possibly much longer if they are being hit. This is an eternity on the

battlefield. To put this into perspective, in 3.5 seconds I can take out nearly any light or

medium armored target within 110' and in 8 seconds and I can often take out two healers.

Imagine what destro uber dps can do with that time. (This is one of my strategies; kill

one healer then take out a second when they try to rez the first one).

You can easily see how a reckless Shadow Warrior that is constantly dying becomes a bit

of a hindrance .. make survival a priority. My goal is always to be the last one standing.

The Crossroads

Unlike many classes in the game, there are no cookie cutter builds for the Shadow Warrior.

No two Shadow Warriors in my guild are the same, in either play style or build. In fact, I have

little doubt that if you were to talk to every successful Shadow Warrior in the game, you would

find a staggering variety of builds. Unfortunately, all this variety does make it a bit difficult to

help someone else build their unique Shadow Warrior. Personally, I believe that your build

should be based entirely on how you play your Shadow Warrior, rather than on anyone else's

build - regardless of how successful that build might be for them.

To get started I recommend throwing all your points into each tree and playing with all the

different mastery abilities and mastery tactics. You might want to have a notebook handy to

keep track of the pros and cons of the different abilities, tactic sets, as well as logging the builds

you try. This can be a long process, but in the end I think it is well worth the effort. I have 27

different builds in my notebook for the "mostly Scout tree" alone and I believe my last full rebuild

took nearly 2 hours to complete. (I am not satisfied with simply changing my mastery tree, I also

change my renown training, talis, gear, etc. to get the most out of each build).

Once you have a good understanding of the abilities that fit into your play style you can start by

putting your points into the tree that encompasses the majority of those abilities, then go back

and experiment with getting other favorite abilities out of other mastery trees. Never be afraid to

try out different things no matter how odd your thoughts might initially sound, you may find it fits

perfectly into your play style. I do not believe within reason there is any such thing as a "wrong"

build with this class (and yes, I do know a few awesome melee Shadow Warriors).

The Stance Dance

When speaking to Shadow Warriors you will often hear them refer to themselves as "Scout/Skirmish,"

"Skirmish/Assault," "Scout/Assault," etc. This is the language of the stance dancers. I firmly believe

that if you want to get the most out of your Shadow Warrior you must learn to stance dance, for

that is the only way you can fully utilize all of your available debuffs, silences, snares, etc. I highly

recommend that you bind the stances you will be using to keys so you can switch back and

forth with ease (point & click stance dancing often results in finding yourself stanceless and in

trouble). Of course, stance dancing also means spending Mastery points in multiple trees which is

where your testing of all the trees and abilities will help you decide where to put your points.

This is where my guidance ends, from here on out it is up to you to create the unique Shadow Warrior

that fits your play style! Next I'll discuss the mastery trees with a few hints and tips for specializations.

May vengeance guide your arrows!

The Path of the Scout

- by Mystriss Freya

The Scout tree is your "standing in the back raining death upon your enemies" specialization. Here

you will find long range, slower casting, non-mobile, abilities that can seriously hurt your prey.

The Scout Shadow Warrior can fill a supportive role by debuffing and silencing the enemies' forces,

an offensive role by focusing on single targets, or a combination of both.

It is important to keep in mind when working on Scout Mastery that your points in this tree will increase

the effectiveness of both your armor/block debuff and your silence.

The Scout Mastery Tree

Mastery Tactics

No Quarter (decreases the build time of Eagle Eye but increases the AP cost)

Enchanted Arrows (Bypasses enemy resists on Flame Arrow and Festering Arrow)

Guerrilla Training (reduces the AP cost of Scout abilities by 35%)

Scout Tips:

- There is a flight time on arrows before they hit their target. You can use this

time to ramp up your damage with Vengeance or Unshakeable Focus. For

example, trigger Unshakeable Focus immediately after firing Festering

Arrow rather than the other way around - the results are the same, but this

technique gives you better reaction time for moving targets. An added bonus is

that if the target looks like it might go down from the base damage of Festering

Arrow you can skip UF and not waste any second of your UF timer.

- Despite the longer cast times and generally non-mobile scout abilities, it is

possible to kite melee in Scout Stance; Flame Arrow & Fell the Weak can

both be used while moving and with the availability of the additional mobile abilities

Whirling Pin, Distracting Shot, Broadhead Arrow, and Take Down, you should be

able to keep enough distance on your enemy to occasionally get off an Acid Arrow,

Eagle Eye, or Throat Shot.

Suggested mastery picks for specializing in Scout:

- Fell the Weak for a mobile, instant cast, 50% incoming heal debuff and burst

dps finisher. Enchanted Arrows + Festering Arrow for massive burst damage

that bypasses all resistances

- No Quarter + Guerrilla Training to offset AP drain while utilizing rapid fire burst

damage of Eagle Eye

The Path of the Skirmisher

- by Calafalas

The Skirmisher tree is your "running around strafing the enemy" specialization. Here

you will find quick casting, highly mobile, shorter-ranged abilities that will do

moderate damage. It is important to remember that as a Shadow Warrior you're

often a guerrilla fighter, but this is most important for people who spec full skirmish.

Skirmish is best used to pick out the weaknesses in an enemy group and there

are many abilities to soften up targets and help beat down groups; make sure

you experiment with them to see which ones are best for you. I prefer to think of

skirmish not as a tree that helps you do good damage, but as one that allows you

to manipulate the enemy better than the other stances. I have personally had healers

break from healing their tanks just to try and kill me, only to end up dead because their

"guard bot" suddenly died from a lack of heals.

The Skirmisher Mastery Tree

Mastery Tactics

Split Arrows (converts Spiral-Fletched arrow into an aoe that does 30% less damage)

Keen Arrowheads (increases the dot duration of Eye Shot and Takedown and increases the duration of takedowns stun by 5s)

Charge Forth (Increases the chance to critically hit with skirmish abilities by 20% but decreases their max range by 20')

Skirmish Tips:

- Never stay in a single spot too long as skirmish, use your mobility to draw out

your opponents, instead of thinking of it as killing them, think instead of simply

annoying them to no end. The rest generally falls into place after that.

- I suggest beginning a fight with dots and debuffs first, then any CC that can

be used wisely. A good example is starting with Broadhead Arrow, Shadow Sting,

and Eye Shot. If they try to chase you then you use Takedown to keep the distance

between you, or go into assault for a chance to disarm and root them. However, use

your own discretion, if the target is nearly dead then go for the kill, dots won't do much

good if the target dies before they're useful.

Suggested mastery picks for specializing in Skirmish:

- I consider Shadow Sting too useful to ever go without. Also, flanking shot can

be a very useful ability to work into a string of shots when flanking opponents or finishing

off a group of fleeing Destro. Barrage can be useful on groups as well, but its cooldown

can limit its usefulness at times. Penetrating Arrow is very deadly when used right.

Being instant cast it can be a good way to deal the finishing blow to those low on health.

- For tactics split arrows can be useful, but most of the tactics in this tree are up to

personal opinion. If you consider the damage reduction a worthy sacrifice then by all

means go ahead. The same can be said for the other two tactics, you must weigh the

overall usefulness of them before you dedicate yourself to them, but do remember to

experiment.

For instance, I personally do not take Charge Forth, while it is very useful, and

when used with the Expert Skirmisher tactic it can make close combat lethal,

I do not like the range reduction it gives, not to mention the damage reduction

at long ranges.

The Path of Assault

Assault as a secondary tree by Calafalas

Assault as a primary tree by Mystriss Freya

The Assault tree is your "up close and personal" specialization. It is important to understand

that switching into assault stance will not turn you into an mdps class. I find this tree slightly

disappointing for primarily ranged Shadow Warriors; unless you are willing to fully commit to

a melee Shadow Warrior you will probably find the damage sub-par, the mortality rate extremely

high, and the majority of your points better spent in your ranged trees. However, if you have a

good group a full melee Shadow Warrior is a viable option, though I still feel that a Shadow

Warrior is far more effective with their ranged skills. (If you are interested in the results of

Mystriss Freya's extensive Assault testing, feel free to visit the Assault Shadow Warrior page.)

The Assault Mastery Tree

Mastery Tactics

- No Respite (increases chance to parry by 10% and each time you parry your chance to critically

hit increases by 10%)

- Sinister Assault (Allows Brutal Assault to bypass victims armor)

- Merciless Soldier (Reduces AP cost of Assault abilities by 35%)

Assault Tips:

- With Assault as your secondary tree, going into melee should only be done after

you have already softened the target up from a distance with your dots and

debuffs. Ideally, your target should already have a good portion of his health drained by

the time you get into melee. My advice is dots and debuffs first, then crowd control.

However, once in melee I prefer to use Opportunistic Strike up front to prevent them

from using any of their melee abilities (if the target is indeed a melee opponent). In

some cases that ability alone will send them running for help (exposing their backside

for you skirmishers.)

- With Assault as your primary tree, do not forget to also utilize your ranged abilities;

Acid Arrow, Broadhead Arrow, Spiral-Fletched Arrow, and Eagle Eye are all

available in assault stance and are especially useful if the enemy that tries to run away.

I suggest opening up with Exploit Weakness then get position for Brutal Assault.

Of course, melee fighting is extremely situational, sometimes I saved my Opportunistic

Strike and Counterstrike for if things started getting hairy and sometimes I used them

in rotation to keep the enemy on his heels. Just keep in mind that there are occasions

where you are better off getting some distance and using your ranged abilities to soften

them up more.

Suggested mastery picks for specializing in Assault:

- For Assault as a secondary tree it might be worth it to pick up Sinister Assault and

perhaps Swift Strikes if you can spare the mastery points, but other than that the core

abilities of assault should be all you need to finish your enemies off.

- By far my favorite mastery pick for Assault as your primary tree has to be Exploit

Weakness, I also highly suggest picking up Sinister Assault. Sweeping Slash is nice

for putting out a bit more damage and I felt Swift Strikes was rather handy for enemies with

high parry rates.

Expert Skirmisher and Wrist Slash are highly recommended as tactic picks and I

would play around with Bullseye, Pierce Defenses, Discerning Offense, and No Respite

to see what works for your melee Shadow Warrior.

Her sultry whisper floated on the breeze as she cornered her prey, "Tis a shame you must die

so quickly, there are so many things I would like to do to you." A feeble lash of dark magic

caught her as the young sorceress reacted with lightning reflexes. "Oho! You like to play rough,

hmm? Are you sure that's a good idea?" she chuckled, twanging her bowstring with her fingertips.

"Someday you will be punished for your insolence and I shall laugh from my grave" the Druchii

spat; grunting indignantly as another arrow pierced her. "Must you tease me so?" she giggled

as the sorceress rubbed the wound on her shapely rear end.

She listened to the sound of the approaching troops; "Alas our time is up, have you any last

requests?" she sighed with feigned sympathy. "I wish to see the face of my assailant so I

know what coward to haunt" the sorceress snapped snidely. "There are no cowards in war"

she laughed coldly as the tip of her sword pierced the startled Druchii's stomach. Pale blue

eyes glowing with sinister pleasure she pulled her into a deadly embrace; slowly burying her

sword to the hilt. She ran her tongue up the doomed sorceress' neck and whispered in

delicately pointed ear; "there are only the clever and the dead love."

Dwooid Note: If there are more shadow warrior subjects you'd

like to be covered, or comments you'd like to pass on, feel

free to contact mystriss or calafalas directly or send it to me

through the "Contact Dwooid" address on the sidebar and I'll

send it on :).