NS Spec with style change - Phoenix Freeshard

Hi,

With the change of styleI’m trying to optimize the spec of my shade. But I have to say that I have a number of questions, and perhaps some of you can give me some answers.

currently I turn with the classic spec :

50 CS +18
34 piercing +18
22 CD +18
50Stealth/venom compo

I must say that I did not often use the stun on evade 5sec in a duel, so that my poisons were not purged. But with the recent change, a 8 sec stun get more interesting.

I’d like to go to something like

45 CS
44 Pierce
22 CD

or

50 Pierc
44 CS
4 CD

or maybe

50 CS
44 Pierc
4 CD

After testing the damage is more or less equivalent, but I catch on the use of styles. The style at 50 pierce, with a 30% is really so interesting to lose so much on CD, while I have a 21% debuff on evade in CS, or at 30 on evade in piercing? It is sure that with 50 piercing I win a better anytime in damage than with Garrot, but I lose a lot in CD.

Do you have any suggestions, made any attempts in this direction? I am looking forward to any opinion, Thank you in advance.

Thu 1 Jul 2021 8:09 PM by Bradekes

People keep saying 50 pierce is unbeatable right now

Thu 1 Jul 2021 8:54 PM by cyberkirby

Bradekes wrote: ↑
Thu 1 Jul 2021 8:09 PM
People keep saying 50 pierce is unbeatable right now

Yes, but why ? fore the damage, or the 30% asr ? As we can have the same debuff on the evade chain.. :/ Just because this is a anytime ?

Thu 1 Jul 2021 9:48 PM by Saroi

It is a combination of all. The anytime chain has high damage. 34 + 50 pierce combo will do more damage than 2x lv 34 CD anytimer. Garotte+followup isn't really good anytimer, garotte still has medium defense penalty but only low to hit now and the damage is lower than the pierce combo. The gap will also be higher with RR, because the 50 pierce style has a bonus of 6 damage per point. lv 34 anytimer only have 2 per point and garotte followup has 3.

34 in pierce has medium defense bonus. So your enemies have a constant miss chance of 25ish %. This may get lower from their to hit bonus from styles but only for the Mainhand if they are dual wield class. In some cases SB use a 15.0 DPS weapon to have 2.4 speed which only has 30% bonus. So in this case they even have a 30ish% miss chance with their offhand.

Afaik If you fight light tanks, Reflex Attack 5 counts as unstyled attack, so those attacks also have a 25ish% miss chance.

So enemies having a high miss chance vs. you + your evade + the slower attack from the 30% ASR is a deadly combo.

Pierce after evade also has a 20 bleed, easy for bleed stacking and the stun followup is 1 sec longer than CD.

If you go 50 Pierce, you do not go high in CS. You practically play like a Shadowzerk. Breaking points are either 2(BS 1), 10(BS2) or 21(PA) in CS. With RR 10 you can try 34 CS too. Mostly 10 is enough for backstab 2 as this would be your opener vs. any visible enemy. PA is only useful vs. stealthers since you fight heads up.

So spec would be rather something like:

50 pierce,
32 env/stealth
10 CS (or 21)
43 CD (If 21 CS, then 38 in CD)

But it really depends on your playstyle.

Fri 2 Jul 2021 4:25 PM by Turano

What to do with a bladeshade though? Pierce has ugly disadvantages against SB's and Infils

Fri 2 Jul 2021 4:32 PM by ExcretusMaximus

Turano wrote: ↑
Fri 2 Jul 2021 4:25 PM
What to do with a bladeshade though? Pierce has ugly disadvantages against SB's and Infils

Stop exaggerating, it's 5%.

Fri 2 Jul 2021 5:19 PM by Saroi

ExcretusMaximus wrote: ↑
Fri 2 Jul 2021 4:32 PM
Stop exaggerating, it's 5%.

5% is only vs. vulnerable. Resistant is still at 10%.

So in case of Inf, the difference is 10% (from neutral to resistant). Against SB it is 15% (From Vulnerable to resistant)

Turano wrote: ↑
Fri 2 Jul 2021 4:25 PM
What to do with a bladeshade though? Pierce has ugly disadvantages against SB's and Infils

The disadvantages pretty much get neglected by the advantages. Def bonus has a big impact on fights, since there is no hit bonus on weapon here. The damage difference is also not that huge, if you consider the 50 style.

With my Inf and NS I hit for 103-105 dmg using anytimers with 132 dmg on lv 65. The 50 pierce hits for 131 dmg. That would be 92 anytimer dmg and 117 followup against resistant.
Slash anytimer is a bit higher, so probably something like 110 on neutral. So vs. vulnerable it will be 115ish damage.

As pierce you gain the advantage of having your higher dex be considered in your weapon skill. Pierce also gives you the option of using double dot weapons with good attack speed. 2.6 feather offhand with 3.9 crafted alchemy Main. This will make you do more damage than blades.

Even before the style changes, there were more pierce Nightshades than Blade because pierce gained more popularity with changes like the Dot buff.

You can still go Blades, the advantage would be you only need 44 in weapon, having a bit more CD. I was hoping 50 CD would finally be viable, but sadly both anytimers in Blades and Pierce outshine the CD one. Tornado as after evade has no effect, while both pierce and blades get a 20 bleed tick. So having to spec higher in weaponline for the styles is still better than CD.