Guide on Shadow Warriors

Post By MrMuffles
Hello Current and Future Shadow Warriors -- Welcome to the epic guide on Shadow Warriors. I apologize for the extremely long post, but at the same time, it's better to be overwhelmed with information than underwhelmed. I took the liberty of trying to ease your read by highlighting some key points. If you read the point and the topic interests you, step back and read the paragraph. Or, if you're very interested in everything that this class represents, recline in your chair, light a candle to set the mood, and enjoy the read.



*Added 9/21/08: The Concept and Mindset of a Shadow Warrior (IMPORTANT!)

It has become apparent to me that many people on the forums seem to want to out-dps other classes, and that is all they care about. Our ranged damage is compared and inferior to that of a Bright Wizard's, and our melee damage is compared and inferior to that of a Witch Hunter. Those seem to be the two comparison classes of choice.

Before you read any further, and before you level your Shadow Warrior any more so than you already have, you must pause and think it over long and hard. The key concept that this class offers, is that you aren't a BW and you aren't a WH. You are BOTH but to a lesser degree. As a witch hunter, you MUST take your lightly armored butt into the thick of battle in order to deal any significant damage. You do not have any "free damage from a distance" skills that compare to any ranged DPS class. Following the same pattern, as a Bright Wizard, you MUST keep your lightly armored butt OUT of the thick of battle, you must always avoid confrontation, even if it is 1v1, if you can help it. You have no choice, unless you have godly heals and/or you enjoy dying. Yes, the two mentioned classes excel more so at their one role than we do at the specified role.

The true beauty of the Shadow Warrior, is while we deal less damage overall (Keyword: less, not necessarily insignificant like most people say it is), we have the OPTION to play both roles. We can freely deal damage from a distance, and we can have substantial burst in a melee confrontation. We can pick our roles, and shift our roles, very frequently. Thus, making us a Hybrid class. We do not pack the punch of a BW or Witch Hunter in either category and with good reason, but we can pack BOTH punches. If this doesn't sound appealing to you, and you wish to excel in one field, then I'd suggest not picking a hybrid class, in any game for that matter. It would be simply overpowered if we could do multiple tasks AS EFFECTIVELY as a class with only one key role. With that discrepancy hopefully cleared up, read on.



A little information about me:
I started this game at the first preview weekend with the intention of playing a Rune Priest. When I found out my guild already had an insanely large amount of Healers and Tanks, I decided to help out our DPS and roll a DPS class. Reading up on the Shadow Warriors, this forum gave and still gives false impressions on this class, throwing around statements which, after experience at rank 20+, I've found to be utterly incorrect. I will do my absolute best to keep this a purely OBJECTIVE and MATURE post, so I ask in return that the responders do the same. Not to brag, but I consider myself an elitist and theorizer. I always compute numbers, test numbers, and test skill rotations. I go by numbers, because numbers are absolute and fact. Opinions are nothing more than opinions.

*Added 9/25/08:
Due to a handful of people asking me in a PM what my build is, I'm posting it here. But please keep in mind that a build is based around your personal playstyle. Don't spec the build unless you AGREE with it, not because someone else is doing it.
My end-game build.

In this thread, I wish to address some bogus claims, false statements, bad mindsets and views, as well as shed light on some mysterious topics and information. I came to these forums in the past searching for answers, only to later find out those answers were incorrect or simply not there.


For starters, I wish to point on the most useful information, and then later in the post I'll dive deeper into each Stance, and point out their Pros/Cons and some information the general public might not even know.

So you're thinking about becoming a Shadow Warrior?
A first glance at the class and what it brings to the table:

- Dedicated to everyone who feels compelled to ask the silliest, yet most common question, "Which is the best stance/tree?" Just about every single person will actually answer this with a single answer, their reasons for it, and then they'll put down the other two stances. The dead truth is, there isn't a single best stance. No matter how you swing it. If there was a single best stance, everyone and their grandma would be it, and there'd be no need to be the other two. While yes, you can get all the way to r40/rr80 in a single stance, you will not be the most effective Shadow Warrior you can be. All three stances are essential, no matter what mastery you choose to specialize in. For reasons I will state later, just because you're Scout-spec'd does NOT mean you can ignore the wonderful benefits of the other two stances completely. Well, you can, but you shouldn't. If you're looking for a class where you can stand still, spam dps, and get top numbers, I'd recommend looking into a Bright Wizard or Sorceress. Once again since I cannot stress this enough, no matter what you end up specializing in, if you stick to only one stance, you're not going to enjoy a Shadow Warrior nor should you become one.

- Yet another myth that gets thrown around quite frequently, "Shadow Warriors are weak and/or have absolutely no survivability." This is NOT the case. This simply means you're using the wrong stances and skills at the wrong time. Positioning, stances, targets, and snares have to be under constant regard at all times. If you're dying, you're not playing the class the way it is intended in order to reach full potential. Now, this does not mean I'm calling you all bad players. There's always time to improve and change your understanding of the class. That being said, you will not have the armor of a tank, you will never get any healing skills, and you get no speed boosts setting aside Flee - so try to avoid "zergs" and keep distances from sketchy situations. Your numbers aren't as high as a BW/Sorc, but you have a MUCH better chance of survival against classes that absolutely tear BW/Sorcs to pieces. If you Stance Dance correctly, you should have absolutely no hard counters to your class. Meaning, no single class will ever be the rock to your scissors. On the contrary, I do wish to point out that you are also not a Rock to anyone else's scissors. There will be no class that you can encounter and have them screaming uncle in under 3 seconds flat. If you were looking forward to such an event, you will also suffer having a hard counter. So keep that in mind when picking the Shadow Warrior.

- Yet another common newbie question, "Can Shadow Warriors get top damage and/or kills?" The answer to that, for anyone new and old to this game, is every class has the potential for top damage. (With the assumption your class' role is damage-focused.) Now I'll admit, since players always seem to compare all damage to that of a BW/Sorc's, we have to try much harder to hit the top damage charts, assuming we're comparing an equally geared, skilled, and ranked BW/Sorc to a Shadow Warrior. However, if damage is really your passion, as opposed to focusing on the objectives and supporting fellow players, if you master Scout stance and spam as many AoEs, DoTs, and AoE DoTs as possible -- it's very easy to become top damage in a scenario. This doesn't guarantee a high amount of killing blows, but you can get a decent amount of renown and sense of pride being on top in the damage dealin', if that's what floats your boat.

- And the last common myth I wish to address, "_______ Stance deals more/less damage than _______ Stance." Not only is this absolutely not true, and that all 3 stances have an equal opportunity to deal an equal amount of damage, as stated earlier in so many words, the single, most determining factor on which stance can deal the most damage is the situation and setting. This is a good way to transition to my next topic, which is on Stances.

Going down the Rabbit Hole.
An in-depth look at all three stances:

If any of you are a number nerd like me, I'm sure you've figured out by now that certain stances deal more damage than other stances, except not all the time, but some of the time. While leveling, I came across an interesting discovery, which actually led me to writing this guide. The sole reason being, people don't understand the full potential of the stances. The discovery was that I found when I used Eagle Eye (our bread-and-butter Ranged DPS Skill), Assault Stance actually hit harder than Scout Stance. Except there was one, even weirder twist. I realized that this was only the case some of the time, meaning Scout Stance's Eagle Eye sometimes did do more damage than Assault Stance's Eagle Eye. How could this be? I researched this for quite a while before coming to a final conclusion. The short answer, for those of you who don't like reading, is that in some cases, the armor penetration bonus from Weapon Skill (Assault) outweighs the DPS bonus from Ballistic Skill (Scout).


*Added 9/28/08:
As for which stats, being a die-hard theorist, I use the point equivalency system. How I do this is simple, I value each stat as 1 EP (Equivalency Point):

1.25 Ballistic = 1 EP
1 Toughness = 1 EP
0.75 Weapon Skill = 1 EP
0.75 Wounds = 1 EP
0.50 Initiative = 1 EP
10 Resistance = 1 EP

Then, I take the item or items in consideration, and tally up their EP Totals, and that will decide which item I prefer for me. You can and should adjust the above numbers to your own personal desires and needs. If you find you rarely go in close-combat, maybe more weapon skill less toughness? Its all up to you. That's how I rate my stats, but I'd advise you make your own chart, as well as amending it after you see which stats you feel are lacking or too heavy on.

--------------- * Important * ---------------
While I could discuss the Stances way more than I'm going to, I feel the biggest learning tool is experience. Every minute you spend playing a Shadow Warrior, you will understand more and more about the benefits and details of each Stance for each situation. I encourage you aspiring Shadow Warriors to kill every monster differently, with different skill rotations. Switch up your stances often, even when it isn't even necessary, merely for the sake of getting a feel for each stance. Get use to which stance can use which skills. Get a feel for what each stance's main damage rotations are, as well as their escape techniques. No, Skirmish Stance isn't necessarily always the best escape Stance. The above mentioned technique is the best advice I can give you all. Practice always has and always will be the best way to reach full potential.
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If I have left you unsatisfied, then this next part is for you. I won't evaluate and discuss every skill that every stance has. I will simply point out some good-to-know information that you'd probably figure out on your own. However, some things are good to note. Let's go in order based on the Mastery list, and start with...

Scout Stance
- Ideal for situations where you can find yourself a safe and distant spot to perch and spam. Elevate yourself. Use the landscape to Line of Sight enemy ranged DPS. Always keep an eye out for incoming melee dps, as Scout Stance is not an ideal stance to get caught in. Needless to say, you can still use both your aoe snare and ranged snare, as well as your detaunt.
- Potential for most damage overall, in terms of scenarios. When it comes to your ranged AoE DoT's, nothing deals more numbers faster. Note that if you choose to obtain Glass Arrow in the Scout Mastery, it can be used in any stance. Flame Arrow requires Scout Stance. Note their max range of 80ft, versus the typical 100ft or 65ft ranges for our class.
- Can obtain the class' hardest hitting nuke, Festering Arrow. While it appears that the number is indeed higher than the BW/Sorc equivalent, since BW/Sorcs can crit quite often and for double the crit damage of a normal crit, it tips in their favor. A good thing to note is that it is Corporeal damage, so it bypasses standard armor but is affected by Corp Resistance instead.
- Has the class' silence, so use it wisely and whenever it is up!
- Also contains a potential, but not so frequent, Healing Reduction ability. (Only while Vengeful.) I wouldn't make that such a deciding factor, as it is deep in the Mastery and only has the Healing Reduction effect when vengeful once every 3 minutes.

Assault Stance
- Based off the forum posts, this stance clearly gets the least amount of love. As to why it is liked the least is beyond me, as it has the highest burst potential of the three stances.
- Due to the fact that most of the Stance's melee abilities being instant, you can pump out the most damage the quickest. Coupled with vengeful and/or your Morale Rank 2 ability Unshakable Focus (+100% damage for 7 seconds), you can get an array of quite impressive numbers in a seemingly instant amount of time. Needless to say, they won't be nearly as high if you're trying to out-burst a tank in hand-to-hand combat.
- Very effective against low armored targets and casters. When you're hitting more, you're knocking their spells back more in the process. Having a ranged battle with a sorceress will leave you losing almost every single time. The key is to charge them quickly and spam in their face. Couple that with being extra annoying and strafing in circles around them, having them try to keep up their line of sight with you, gives you a heavy advantage.
- Can still use many ranged shots. Don't be afraid to shoot all of the ranged skills you can use in assault. Break free of that mindset that "scout is for ranged, assault is for melee." You can, should, and will be using many ranged shots in assault stance. Make a note of which ones can be used. As mentioned, in some cases, you'll even hit harder with ranged shots than Scout Stance.
- Assault Stance brings your armor class from Light armor to Medium armor. Almost too obvious to point out, but it had to be done. Use it when fighting Squig Herders and other ranged physical dps, as well as when you're being assaulted by melee dps.
- Has the class' disarm, use it whenever it is up!

Skirmish Stance
- This is the forum's favorite stance, with many reasons as to why. It brings your class all the transitional skills that you can use when entering/exiting battle.
- This stance arguably has the most utility of the three stances. Most of your shots in this tree are either instant or can be done while moving. Strictly from my personal tastes, I usually travel in Skirmish Stance. It has all the tools I need to enter a battle and escape a battle, making it the most useful when on the move. Should I encounter someone, I have all the necessary skills to counter any type of situation and assess it further.
- Provides toughness, which further elevates the usefulness of this Stance when escaping non-physical dps. Meaning, if you're losing a battle against a Sorceress, swap to this stance, shoot a snare and/or detaunt, and run like a rabbit during rabbit season. The toughness reduces the magic damage, so keep that in mind.
- Has the class' only true Healing Reduction ability, low in the Skirmish Mastery. Very easy to apply, everyone can always use an extra, instant, no-cooldown DoT that also has a 50% reduced healing effect. Out of personal opinion, I'd say that most specializations should pick up this skill. There is no right way to eat a Reese's, as they say, and if you disagree with me, I'm not forcing you to get the skill. It's simply a very useful and easy-to-obtain skill, and something to bring to the table in terms of group-pvp. Note that you can even have multiple targets affected with this, so long as both targets were ailing beforehand. It only lasts 9 seconds, but can be reapplied endlessly, making this skill a treasured one.
- The Shadow Warrior's rank 40 skill can only be used in Skirmish Stance, and it appears to be one very useful and amazing skill. So keep that in mind. This was clearly done to keep you switching stances constantly to get the most "bang for your buck".


Alright, enough reading, go kill stuff!
The Conclusion to this informative guide:
In conclusion, I hope you've come to terms that each stance has many great uses that you may or may not have realized. Please be more thoughtful when thinking about the stances in terms of "which is best", but more as "what would be best right now". They are all wonderful, and all have many uses. As stated before, this guide is more of a way to get you on the right path and mindset, and not so much teach you how to play. Take everything I said with a grain of salt, and trust in your own abilities more so than the class' potential. The potential will always be there. The developer gods are watching. If there is true imbalance, and you feel this class is clearly too weak no matter how hard you try, by all means, give the developers constructive feedback.

If you've felt this guide was helpful and wish to comment, please do so. It'll let me know my effort didn't go unnoticed. If you wish to give me feedback, or state something that I said was an error, you're more than entitled to do so, and I encourage it. I just ask that you all try to keep this thread as mature and objective as possible.

Thanks in advance guys, and enjoy the mysterious class, the Shadow Master!