WAR Guide on Shadow Warriors Part 4

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

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