Looking for few tips from experienced players on how to Shade

[Poebat]

Please only answer in this thread if the least difficulty you play is cata and you are not a stranger to cata twitch.

I have few questions:

1. S&D vs DD?
2. Cloak of Pain vs Shimmer Strike?
3. Cruelty vs Exquisite Huntress?
4. How to reliably proc Blur?
5. Which thp regen you prefer?

Feel free to add your own tips if you're feeling generous.

Thanks :)

[catgirl (male)]

Elf?
a bullet to the back of its head

[inquiziptor]

1.DD, they might be a bit harder to master but after doing so you will be able to faster eliminate elites and bosses than with S&D
2.Cloak of pain, shimmer is useless against monsters and shade is already capable of quickly killing elites
3.Depends on your playstyle, I prefer cruelty for more consistensy but if you are capable of getting used to hitting hedshots instead of relying on backstabs exquisite huntress offers more damage
4.Get used to parrying enemy attacks, it comes with practice so not much can be said here, using pushes resets parrying timer, sometimes this trick can be usefull
5.The one that gives you thp based on enemy health, as a shade you kill a lot of elites and offen finish off bosses which grants you a significant amount of thp

Practice is the key to improvement, it doesn't matter how hopeless and pathetic your skill level is at the current moment of time as long as you are capable of learning on your mistakes and eager to improve you will be able to achive greater highs

[wano.]

I would say DD is better overall once you get the hang of the weapon. Also both Shimmer Strike and Cloak of Pain are good. They're useful for different things. Shimmer can be useful for man sized patrols and is a pretty good clutch talent. Cloak of Pain is much better for things like Chaos Warrior patrols and monsters/lords.

[Poebat]

Originally posted by catgirl (male):

Elf?
a bullet to the back of its head

least dedicated Sigmar's servant be like

[Poebat]

Originally posted by inquiziptor:

1.DD, they might be a bit harder to master but after doing so you will be able to faster eliminate elites and bosses than with S&D
2.Cloak of pain, shimmer is useless against monsters and shade is already capable of quickly killing elites
3.Depends on your playstyle, I prefer cruelty for more consistensy but if you are capable of getting used to hitting hedshots instead of relying on backstabs exquisite huntress offers more damage
4.Get used to parrying enemy attacks, it comes with practice so not much can be said here, using pushes resets parrying timer, sometimes this trick can be usefull
5.The one that gives you thp based on enemy health, as a shade you kill a lot of elites and offen finish off bosses which grants you a significant amount of thp

Practice is the key to improvement, it doesn't matter how hopeless and pathetic your skill level is at the current moment of time as long as you are capable of learning on your mistakes and eager to improve you will be able to achive greater highs

Thanks for detailed reply!

[Runvald]

Originally posted by inquiziptor:

1.DD, they might be a bit harder to master but after doing so you will be able to faster eliminate elites and bosses than with S&D
2.Cloak of pain, shimmer is useless against monsters and shade is already capable of quickly killing elites
3.Depends on your playstyle, I prefer cruelty for more consistensy but if you are capable of getting used to hitting hedshots instead of relying on backstabs exquisite huntress offers more damage
4.Get used to parrying enemy attacks, it comes with practice so not much can be said here, using pushes resets parrying timer, sometimes this trick can be usefull
5.The one that gives you thp based on enemy health, as a shade you kill a lot of elites and offen finish off bosses which grants you a significant amount of thp

Practice is the key to improvement, it doesn't matter how hopeless and pathetic your skill level is at the current moment of time as long as you are capable of learning on your mistakes and eager to improve you will be able to achive greater highs

1. Agree, but preferably when ur hosting cause they have low cleave and stagger and you are very close to the enemys. So you need to push more.
Put atleast +2 Stamina on them for 3 shields imo.

2. Depends, I prefer Cloak, but Ive seen people do crazy stuff in solos with "Focused slaying" and "Shimmer".

4. Agree

3. Huntress all the way imo, they nerfed the crit dmg bonus multiplier hard, after the shimmer talent rework.

5. Depends, in harder content Khane's thirst begins to come out on top.
In Cata 1/2/3 DWONS etc. Khane's thirst.

[pet the cat]

Originally posted by inquiziptor:

1.DD, they might be a bit harder to master but after doing so you will be able to faster eliminate elites and bosses than with S&D
2.Cloak of pain, shimmer is useless against monsters and shade is already capable of quickly killing elites
3.Depends on your playstyle, I prefer cruelty for more consistensy but if you are capable of getting used to hitting hedshots instead of relying on backstabs exquisite huntress offers more damage
4.Get used to parrying enemy attacks, it comes with practice so not much can be said here, using pushes resets parrying timer, sometimes this trick can be usefull
5.The one that gives you thp based on enemy health, as a shade you kill a lot of elites and offen finish off bosses which grants you a significant amount of thp

Practice is the key to improvement, it doesn't matter how hopeless and pathetic your skill level is at the current moment of time as long as you are capable of learning on your mistakes and eager to improve you will be able to achive greater highs

Wanted to amend some of the points made in this post

1. Sword and Dagger is the most flexible / highest skill cap, even after recent buffs to dual daggers. For examples, see Ortega on YouTube.
2. Pain good
3. Exquisite huntress will pretty much always be more damage and better breakpoints, unfortunately.
4. A potential practice route: load up modded realm. Use creature spawner to spawn enemies in the keep (who cant kill you, because in the keep you cant take damage). Then practice parrying and dodging to proc blur.
5. On official realm thp on kill is probably better. On modded realm thp on crit/headshot is probably better (balance mods buff this option)

[Resplendant Hue]

Originally posted by catgirl (male):

Elf?
a bullet to the back of its head

but they're so aspie, dont you have a soul?

[Qua2ar]

The best way to play Shade is to become so edgy that the Rats will be cut down just by your presence alone.

[Xaphnir]

As far as weapons, I'd say dual daggers are what you'd use if your sole purpose on your team is to damage monsters/bosses and elites (and even then SnD can be better due to Vanish+heavy1) SnD are far, far more versatile, though, while still capable of dealing high damage to elites and monsters/bosses. If your teammates aren't always going to be there to take care of hordes/other large waves of enemies, SnD is almost always the better option.

For Cruelty vs. Exquisite Huntress, this is another reason I prefer SnD over DD. It's easier to hit headshots with SnD heavy1, allowing you to stack up Exquisite Huntress quickly and maintain it. And as long as you can keep it up a reasonable amount of time, Exquisite Huntress will be a lot more damage.

[Sotanaht]

Originally posted by Bodvar:

5. Depends, in harder content Khane's thirst begins to come out on top.
In Cata 1/2/3 DWONS etc. Khane's thirst.

Note that THP "based on enemy health" is not in fact based on enemy health. It's loosely correlated to the base HP of an enemy type, before any difficulty modifiers. A Chaos Warrior for example will always give the same THP, regardless of whether you are on Recruit or Cataclysm. This is somewhat balanced by the increased number of enemies, but that also affects all other THP boons.

THP on Crit/Headshot, or Stagger, or Cleave of course will get stronger the more times you need hit enemies. Stagger especially gets MUCH stronger on harder difficulties (not that that applies to shade ofc) because you get 0 THP if the enemy dies to your attack.

Still, I would argue that THP on Kill is ALWAYS superior to THP on Crit, at least in all non-modded difficulties and without specific Chaos Wastes boons. You would need to average >1 crit/headshot per enemy slain (including weak enemies like skavenslaves) for THP on Crit/HS to ever outperform THP on Kill, and you simply don't have a high enough crit chance or need to hit a single enemy enough times for that to happen.

[Demon1Ce]

a (not so) little tips if you would be using Dual Daggers on Shade.

If you want to use Swift Slaying trait, you don't really need Crit Chance properties. Shade has 10% base Crit Chance (most careers start with 5%), plus DD's 3rd and 4th light attack has 10% extra Crit Chance, with that and DD's high attack speed you can trigger Swift Slaying consistently already without Crit Chance bonus from any other source. Also, once you mastered Shade's playstyle, you will be constantly land Crit backstab with stealth from blur you're abusing anyway, no need to rely on Ranald any longer :D

On the topic of weapon's trait for Dual Daggers, a player once argue that DD already have very high base attack speed that the bonus from Swift Slaying is unnecessary (personally I like it for faster heavy attack charge speed though), Parry can be good alternative if your playstyle mainly focus on abusing Blur perk, Resourceful Combatant also have an interesting synergy with Focus Slaying talent for insane cooldown reduction. Not saying you shouldn't be using Swift Slaying, but here there's more variety of options available for weapon trait that might sound interesting for you to try out.

[InfernoX250]

In my experience..

Shade is sort of an all or nothing class. Its main purpose being to do high target elimination.

The pros- you are absolutely a boss and monster killer. You can also kill anything up to the size of a chaos warrior from the back regardless of your build.

The cons- you are facing enemies from the front 95% of the time, if no monster shows up in said level your main selling point is kind of moot, some talents require a specific leaning for other weapons, and your main thriving point is getting benefits off crits. The parry and dodge into stealth passive is a bit tricky to pull off.

So to say what to recommend?

Any of the dual weapons due to their 10% built in higher crit chance on light attacks.

My personal setup is rather...

You need to forget trying to be an assassin most of the time and only act like it when the chance presents itself, be it a monster or patrol is to be engaged.

What I chose was dual daggers, hag bane bow, enemies take more damage when bleeding or posioned, extra defense from crits, special modifer, the one that lets you stab twice, its perfect due to your purpose vs monsters but can also let you chain stab a patrol when in the back and coming out before they notice you.

I consider the shade the weakest of Krellians classes though due to the fact others like the Grail knight can get similar results but without needing a specific situation to unleash the attack.

[Ol'Chum]

Originally posted by catgirl (male):

Elf?
a bullet to the back of its head

This should have been the pinned thread response. You got robbed.
This post was made by dawi gang

[Chronic]

For Sigmar I shall trial this heretic Elf via my own blade