New 50 SB - Phoenix Freeshard

Can anyone give me some recommendations on what to do for a fresh 50 Shadowblade? I'll be RR3 with a few kills or task completion. What RRs should I focus on getting in order of leveling up? LW/tireless, vanish, and purge 2 will leave me with 2 points remaining. Should I save those?

Gear - should I spend feather on a chest? Which one? Or would it be better to craft a chest? I heard the TG sword with str/con debuff is best to use, is this accurate? What should the speed on my offhand be?

Spec and skills - what is the best progression of skills to use? Open with PA then CD and use an anytime after that or use LA skills?

Another misc question - how does RR work in regards to composite levels? Should I be going +11 on equipment everytime no matter RR. Is there a cap to +skills when factoring in RR?

What potions/charges will I need ?

Fri 3 May 2019 7:20 AM by Lanfear

purge 4 is next. saving points up will just save you the respeccs. so either save those points or invest into the respecc stones.

TG vest for the heal procc. TG sword is fine, if you are an sword user.
off-hand should be as fast as possible. there are 2.4 hand axe drops, you find them in the market. bad stats, sometimes good proccs worth using.

specc depending on preferences. if you have high CS skill, you want to use PA/CS. if you have low CS, i wouldnt bother to try to PA.

+11 from equipment. RR bonus to skills is RR-1. so as a RR3 you will have +2 to your Skills. there is no cap for the bonus to the skill, but the bonus from the skill has a cap. 51 for most, 52 for the weapon skill, LA has no cap. so you want to have 51 comp for stealth, and maybe CS or Envenom and 52 for sword or axe.

combined forces and reinvirogation is the standard, you can use haste charge, damage add charge, direct damage charge and such stuff. every use costs 10g of those item charges. welcome to "pay to win". except you pay with gold, which is farming time. i hate it. its not what i want to do with my time.

Fri 3 May 2019 10:03 AM by Sepplord

stealth 51?
isn't comp 50 the cap?

Also enveneom has no benefits over comp50

besides that agree on your good summary

Fri 3 May 2019 10:48 AM by Saroi

I recommend Tireless/LW and then go purge 5. I am not a fan of vanish, but if you wish to take vanish get atleast purge 2, vanish and then upgrade to purge 5.

If you want to go sword, Str/Con debuff sword is your best option, but you also need crafted 4.0 swords for dot/dd proc once your str/con debuff landed but your Mainhand will do a little less damage then because it is faster. I highly recommend axes, in my opinion far better.

Dragonmight Mainhand, crafted 2.9 Leftaxe and Lifebane poison can leave 3 dots on an enemy. Axes also has an anytime haste debuff which is nice to use at the start of a fight. A 100% 2.4 Offhand would probably be better to attack faster, but they are really rare and expensiv, especially the one with a Lifetap proc.

Chest - TG Vest with Healproc is a must.

As for the spec. I always was high LA. With rr3 50 LA is not possible, unless you drop poison really low so max 44 LA if you want Shadowzerk right away. Stealth/Env comp 50, weapon comp 52. If you want PA/CD atleast 34 in CS, as critblade probably higher to 39 or 44, rest LA. I am not really a big fan of Critblade though but that is up to you and your playstyle.

If you hit RR4 later I recommend:

36 Stealth, 38 weapon, 50 LA, 10 CS, 34 Poison(You will only miss lifebane)

As soon as you hit rr5 you can go 35 poison get your Lifebane.

Skills depend on your Spec. As Shadowzerk you will want to try to get your Backchain off, otherwise in 1v1 face fights Doublefrost and Comeback/Frosty Gaze. If you are sneaky enough you can try to run through enemy and hit backstyle before the enemy turns around duo to stick. That takes some practice and timing though.

If you play with high CS - PA then CD, if you got it Stunning Stab and then probably Garotte / Achilles and by evade Harmstring chain.

As a Shadowzerk it sucks a bit to not have PA/CD vs casters, you just have Backstab to get through Bubble. You my sometimes need to purge if you get mezz/stun, not really a problem though if you get purge 5 as quick as possible but you are way better of to deal with other Assassins.

As for charges. AF Charge and then Str/Con charge. I do not use d/q charge because I leave my 3 charge open to use damage add charge. The damage gain from that is much higher. Some also have Legion heal charge, but I do not use that too.

Pots: Instant healing, combined Forces, combined regeneration, 17% haste, damage shield.

Fri 3 May 2019 11:37 AM by Vennedra

Great post Saroi, thank you !

Fri 3 May 2019 12:16 PM by lionsfan616

Awesome write up, thanks to the both of you.

Shadowzerk seems like they rely less on the RNG of skills hitting/missing and also less actions needing to be taken, if I read that correctly.

This will help big time to figure out what to do next.

Fri 3 May 2019 1:19 PM by Kappu

Saroi wrote: ↑
Fri 3 May 2019 10:48 AM
As for charges. AF Charge and then Str/Con charge. I do not use d/q charge because I leave my 3 charges open to use damage add charge. The damage gain from that is much higher. Some also have Legion heal charge, but I do not use that too.

Pots: Instant healing, combined Forces, combined regeneration, 17% haste, damage shield.

Just remember they have changes lined up on these charges so don't go buy them immediately. I'd also say you better be willing to do work to play this class and that going Shadowzerker and assuming you can just Doublefrost to victory is not going to bode too well for you. Shadowblades are inherently skill and play intensively.

I think for weapon choice you just need to decide which style you want to play debuff or DoT.

Spec is going to be a try it and see how you do, but Crit styles shouldn't be dismissed since they have great growth rates.

Look at what crafted weapons are available on the merchant because finding someone to craft multiple 99/MP weapons can be difficult sometimes.

Fri 3 May 2019 1:47 PM by Saroi

lionsfan616 wrote: ↑
Fri 3 May 2019 12:16 PM
Awesome write up, thanks to the both of you.

Shadowzerk seems like they rely less on the RNG of skills hitting/missing and also less actions needing to be taken, if I read that correctly.

This will help big time to figure out what to do next.

Exactly. You can just bash their heads with Doublefrost right out of stealth. No need to try and get PA off. You only have 1 Anytimer instead of the double Garotte/Achilles and long ass chain from Harmstring (If you go 44 cs).

Sun 5 May 2019 12:13 PM by Vennedra

Saroi wrote: ↑
Fri 3 May 2019 10:48 AM
Dragonmight Mainhand, crafted 2.9 Leftaxe and Lifebane poison can leave 3 dots on an enemy.

I will certainly spec early LA just like you describe.
I undestand 1 dot from lifebane, and 1 from Dragonmight proc ; what is the 3rd dot you are talking about ?

Thanks !

Sun 5 May 2019 12:19 PM by Saroi

Vennedra wrote: ↑
Sun 5 May 2019 12:13 PM
Saroi wrote: ↑
Fri 3 May 2019 10:48 AM
Dragonmight Mainhand, crafted 2.9 Leftaxe and Lifebane poison can leave 3 dots on an enemy.

I will certainly spec early LA just like you describe.
I undestand 1 dot from lifebane, and 1 drom Dragonmight proc ; what is the 3rd dot you are talking about ?

Thanks !

Alchemy proc for your crafted Left axe weapon.

Mon 6 May 2019 4:47 PM by inchaii

The crafted dot and dragon might and kvasir all delve as body damage, is this bugged or intended to stack ?

Mon 6 May 2019 8:40 PM by Kappu

inchaii wrote: ↑
Mon 6 May 2019 4:47 PM
The crafted dot and dragon might and kvasir all delve as body damage, is this bugged or intended to stack?

The crafted Volatile Eroding Arcanium Weapon Tincture is Matter.

Lifebane is Body.

I thought when I looked the other day the axes they spoke of were Spirit. I could be incorrect on the drop Axe though I was skimming the merchants pretty quickly.

Mon 6 May 2019 8:51 PM by Saroi

Yes crafted is matter.

Dragonmight is body though. Not sure if it is intended or not but anyways atm they do stack with Assassin poison.

Tue 7 May 2019 9:55 PM by gotwqqd

I played a CS infy
But I more enjoyed my NS DW with low CS
I found hitting the side attack from CD was easier and more likely and the damage was superior.
Left me lots of points for envenom

That said is a low CS(backstab 2?) high LA spec Any good ?
How do people find it compares to CS?

Wed 8 May 2019 7:53 PM by marcs723

May be silly coming from someone that barely played a SB, but was the 2h SB just a fad for a while on live? Is it not viable here? Seems like everyone here is generally dw swords rather than 2h.

Wed 8 May 2019 9:15 PM by Mavella

marcs723 wrote: ↑
Wed 8 May 2019 7:53 PM
May be silly coming from someone that barely played a SB, but was the 2h SB just a fad for a while on live? Is it not viable here? Seems like everyone here is generally dw swords rather than 2h.

Early in the same if you 1shot someone with perf you wouldn't leave stealth but that was removed. I think changes later on in live may have made 2h more vialable/desirable but it definitely wasn't at this patch level.