Why does everyone recommend Shadowzerker spec to SBs?

Does it get better later on?

I was speccing LA equal to my level, with rest in weapon and then left overs in Envenom.

I was barely surviving fights with yellow mobs. I had to run if they resisted my poison.

I respecced into high CS (with no LA), and I can solo yellows perfectly fine without even backstabbing them.

I can kill orange mobs easily if I backstab them.

It doesn't seem like my damage is any lower since speccing out of LA.

Why do people go Shadowzerker? Is it for the styles alone?

Mon 28 Jan 2019 2:41 AM by MacPrior

SB is the only assassin able to use skilled 2H weapon. And has best WA on it as a Norse, together with CS it is very strong combination.
I had on live server to classic times a kobold SB using staff full CS skilled. In all BGs and in PvE killed easy red con enemies.

Mon 28 Jan 2019 3:50 AM by Tenny

I think its one of those things where someone said it and its echoed through the ages now. Also it looks right on paper. I agree with u though, op. I found it best to go full sword and env at lower levels, then around 34 I went CS spec for caledonia and never looked back - well I did once and went quickly back to CS. Hamstring and leaper are frankly life savers at higher level.

Mon 28 Jan 2019 9:41 AM by dudis

Trick is to not go full LA/weapon, that just makes you a weak berserker.

Go high envenom, keep your + envenom from gear capped and let dots do most of your damage. If you have multiple weapons, you can reaply dots every swing and use it as a very large damage add.

If it works like Live, debuffing Con on mobs increases your damage done on them rather than decrease their HP pool, which helps groups too.

I think people recommending SZ basically are saying dont go stealth+CS while leveling.

Mon 28 Jan 2019 10:34 AM by inoeth

Specing LA increases rhe dmg of LA AND maindhand weapon spec.
You start at around 77% dmg with no la skill and end up at around 98% with 50 la and rr1.
Also you benefit from high WS of 50 skill LA which decreases the evade chance of other assassins agains you.

See:
https://sites.google.com/site/daoctests/home/la-damage

The thing is when phoenix started the beta they used the old formula which let you start at 62% dmg on both hands. Bit they changed that to the new formula which divides mh and oh, letting you start at 77% mh and 52% oh. So when you look closely you can see that the difference betwen 39 la and 50 is only 3% dmg with mh and 5% oh.
Also you come close to 100% mh dmg.
That gives you the opportunity to get another spec.
Imo specing la to 39 is enough.
My recommondatio for sb spec would be:

44 cs 36 stealth 34 sword 39 la 24 envenom

Although this is a rr4 spec i think you can reach that very fast on phoenix therefore you dont have to rly care about composite spec beyond that

Mon 28 Jan 2019 3:10 PM by Calconious

I hit 38 on my SB last night and have tried both specs. I had no issues with either. I went back to LA until a little higher level because I wanted 34 CS and high enough stealth to make use of the Perf chain, while keeping my axe and envenom high. I'm going to revisit CS mid 40's and probably stay for good.

I'm thinking of like a 5 spec: RR3 37 stealth, 37 axe/sword, 37 envenom, 34 crit, 34 CS type of thing. Possibly drop envenom lower and up CS or LA higher.

Mon 28 Jan 2019 3:20 PM by inoeth

Calconious wrote: ↑
Mon 28 Jan 2019 3:10 PM
I hit 38 on my SB last night and have tried both specs. I had no issues with either. I went back to LA until a little higher level because I wanted 34 CS and high enough stealth to make use of the Perf chain, while keeping my axe and envenom high. I'm going to revisit CS mid 40's and probably stay for good.

I'm thinking of like a 5 spec: RR3 37 stealth, 37 axe/sword, 37 envenom, 34 crit, 34 CS type of thing. Possibly drop envenom lower and up CS or LA higher.

get sword spec and tg skald 1h sword it has str/con debuff on it and stacks with debuff poison.... no need for lvl 47 debuff, as sb you dont have the points

Tue 29 Jan 2019 2:41 PM by Sepplord

inoeth wrote: ↑
Mon 28 Jan 2019 3:20 PM
Calconious wrote: ↑
Mon 28 Jan 2019 3:10 PM
I hit 38 on my SB last night and have tried both specs. I had no issues with either. I went back to LA until a little higher level because I wanted 34 CS and high enough stealth to make use of the Perf chain, while keeping my axe and envenom high. I'm going to revisit CS mid 40's and probably stay for good.

I'm thinking of like a 5 spec: RR3 37 stealth, 37 axe/sword, 37 envenom, 34 crit, 34 CS type of thing. Possibly drop envenom lower and up CS or LA higher.

get sword spec and tg skald 1h sword it has str/con debuff on it and stacks with debuff poison.... no need for lvl 47 debuff, as sb you dont have the points

is it procc or charge?

Also if it stacks with poison, how does it change the specc?

Wed 30 Jan 2019 8:02 AM by inoeth

its a proc
well the lvl 37 debuff+ proc is still more powerfull than the lvl 47 debuff

ofc the lvl 47 debuff+proc is even more powerfull but tbh i can live without that and boost other abilities

http://camelot.allakhazam.com/item.html?citem=6290

Mon 4 Feb 2019 3:04 PM by ctm99

New SB here. Looking to use 44 cs 36 stealth 34 sword 39 la 24 envenom as mentioned above. My assumption is I should rely on the LA evade style to stun (w/ CS anytime) or should I just stick to CS styles altogether?

Mon 4 Feb 2019 11:02 PM by Pirhana7

After reading a lot of info on these forum of how the current LA system seems to be working here I am going to try the basic NS spec of 44CS , 28 offhand. It seems like LA use to have a big jump on all your attacks by going high in LA and big drop by going low in LA. But here it seems to stay in the medium and going high doesn't really give you much of an increase and going low doesn't drop you very much at all.
I will let you know how it goes.

Wed 6 Feb 2019 5:34 PM by Fjordin

I was high WS/Enven for leveling, but in Thid, I have found the shadowzerk spec very strong. I went back to high CS because I found even at LA 21, my offhand attacks missed a little too much for my taste. On a side note, why do all my styles miss when strafing?

Tue 12 Feb 2019 10:28 PM by theslaughter

Fjordin wrote: ↑
Wed 6 Feb 2019 5:34 PM
On a side note, why do all my styles miss when strafing?