[OUTDATED] In Darkness | A Comprehensive Shade Guide

 As the pain of exile continues to fester within Kerillian, a new voice introduced itself in hushed tones in her dreams. The whispers promised purpose and meaning and Kerillian, being sick to death of the world of men, listened. The voice belonged to Khaine, the God of War and Murder. Having accepted to heed his call, Kerillian embarked on a sinister journey to find her true self.

 In battle, the Shade is a master of stealth, a deadly assassin striking from the dark, able to outmaneuver any foe with fleet-footed movement and otherworldly agility. Devoted to her new faith, the Shade prefers weapons favored by Khaine to do her bloody work.

                                                       - Official Vermintide 2 Shade Description

- IMPORTANT! READ THIS -

As of the Big Balance beta several parts of this guide (mainly the weapon and talents sections) are out-dated. I don't really have it in me to keep playing and updating these guides anymore, use them at your own risk. Sorry for the inconvenience. ):

Some quick notes: HP on kill is still the best talent choice for that row. Glaive kind of sucks now. Dual daggers with max crit/aspeed & swift slaying are insanely powerful. Don't use the hagbane bow, or do i'm not your mother you can make your own decisions.

Other outdated info includes :
Sword & Dagger
One-Handed Axe
Two-Handed Sword
Glaive
Equipment Loadouts
Talents

Intro

 As of writing this, Shade is one of the most misunderstood and underplayed classed in Vermintide 2. My hope is that this guide will help people figure out how to optimally utilize her mechanics and skills while playing at a Champion or Legend level.

 Despite not being a meta class, Shade is still quite powerful. When played correctly Shade will oneshot chaos warriors and output thousands of damage to bosses in mere seconds.

           

Your Role

  Dual Daggers & Longbow are by far Shade's most versatile weapons. While the dagger's short range may open up the player to taking more damage, their massive damage output allows daggers to outperform every other melee weapon, if you can stay alive. With practice, you will be able to effortlessly decimate hordes, oneshot chaos warriors with Infiltrate, kill distant specials with longbow headshots, and snipe stormvermin before they can even become a threat. Your job is to kill as many stormvermin, specials, and chaos warriors as possible before they can get anywhere near your allies, as well as putting out high boss damage with your class ability, Infiltrate.

 Position yourself slightly ahead of your group while advancing through levels. Pick off unalerted stormvermin with longbow headshots, focusing on shieldvermin first. If stormvermin get in melee range, you can quickly kill them with charge attacks, or Infiltrate if the situation calls for it. Prioritize killing chaos warriors and shieldvermin with your ult above all else.

 During hordes, position yourself to the side of your teammates and focus on killing flanking enemies in particular. This will effectively funnel enemies in to your teammates, making hordes much easier to deal with. If a disabler special shows up at a bad time, it may be a good idea to use Infiltrate to quickly deal with it. Hookrats in particular are very dangerous during hordes.

 Do not take grimoires unless it is absolutely necessary. The nature of the class and her playstyle leads to Shade being frequently targeted by elites, specials, and bosses. Furthermore, you may need to put yourself in to bad positions to use your ult effectively. This can lead to a lost grimoire very quickly on Legend difficulty if you slip up and make a mistake.

General Tips :

• It is worth going for headshots while under the effects of Infiltrate, as they massively buff the abilities damage output. However, this opens the player up to being hit by bosses, don't rush in during the middle of an attack!
  
  
• Take any concentration potions you may come across; when combined with decanter and a full CDR build you can get off up to 7 ults on a boss and output massive amounts of damage.
  
  
• Block. A lot. Infiltrate isn't a perfect defense, and enemies will often hit you through it. Stray trash mobs tend to attack you from behind for half of your HP out of nowhere if you are not constantly keeping track of your surroundings.
  
  
• Shove should be used very often, particularly during hordes, it will save you a lot of HP for almost zero effort. Ideally you should be shoving when enemies are beginning to stack on eachother and starting attack animations
  
  
• Don't go out of your way to backstab. Shade can kill everything effectively without any form of damage buffs. Stay close to your team just as you would with any other class. That said, it can be beneficial to farm backstab kills at drop-downs or near the end of hordes to regain ammo with the 'Bloodfletcher' talent.
  
  
• It can be a good idea to fire off a few ranged shots in to densely-packed hordes if you have a lot of arrows left. If you use the Conservative Shooter trait then you can get off the majority of these shots at no ammunition cost at all! As a general rule, start saving your arrows solely for specials when you have <10 left.

Melee Weapons

 This list is based on a combination of dummy testing, in-game testing, and personal feelings. I will update it once actual stats are data-mined. Please note that all of these stats are derived from unbuffed melee weapons. No backstab damage bonus, no potions, no offensive talents.

 Weapon choice is very important to consider in Vermintide 2. I recommend avoiding weaker weapons unless you have a good feel for the game and know how to make those weapons work. Try to use weapons and builds that complement each other. Dual swords, for example, are amazing against hordes but mediocre against armor. A cooldown reduction build and longbow make up for this shortcoming with their very powerful anti-armor capabilities. That said, it's just a game. Use what you enjoy using, nearly everything can work on higher difficulties with practice.

Dual Daggers

 With a proper build, the dual daggers are capable of quickly dealing with every enemy type in the game, excelling particularly against hordes. Their short range leaves their user very open to counter-attacks, but with practice this becomes a non-issue due to the daggers sheer killing power.

Damage	Very Low
Effectiveness vs Hordes	Low
Effectiveness vs Armor	High
Speed	Very High
Cleave	Very Low
Stagger	Horrible
Shove	Very Low
Crit Rate	Very High
Range	Very Low

 Notes :
  As of v1.081 it is possible to oneshot chaos warriors with Infiltrate charged attacks without stat boosts. With 10% armor or chaos damage it is possible to kill them with frontal Infiltrate light attacks as well.
  Both charge attacks are full power.
  Work great with max aspeed and crit builds.
  Highest base critical chance in the game.
  Damage over time effect on light and push attacks.
  Very high Infiltrate damage, particularly on headshots.

Sword & Dagger

 I have not used these since the big balance update. Will update this section soon hopefully!

Damage	Low
Effectiveness vs Hordes	Average
Effectiveness vs Armor	Very Low
Speed	High
Cleave	Average
Stagger	Low
Shove	Average
Crit Rate	Average
Range	Average

 Notes :
  As of v1.06, sword & dagger can now oneshot chaos warriors with charged Infiltrate bodyshots.
  May benefit from block-canceling after three attacks.
  Only the second charge attack will be full power.

Sword

 Well, something has to make the other weapons look good.

Damage	Average
Effectiveness vs Hordes	Average
Effectiveness vs Armor	Low
Speed	Average
Cleave	High
Stagger	Low
Shove	Average
Crit Rate	Very Low
Range	Average

 Notes :
  Oneshots chaos warriors on charged ult headshots.
  Can continuously cleave with push attack > light attack > charge attack combos.         

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1363394723

Dual Swords

 Dual Swords have amazing horde-clearing capabilities, even on Legend difficulty. While their effectiveness against armor is very much lacking, Infiltrate and well-placed longbow headshots are more than enough to cover for this weakness. Overall a very underrated and fun weapon.

Damage	Average
Effectiveness vs Hordes	Very High
Effectiveness vs Armor	Very Low
Speed	High
Cleave	High
Stagger	High
Shove	High
Crit Rate	Average
Range	Average

 Notes :
  As of v1.06, dual swords can now oneshot chaos warriors with charged Infiltrate bodyshots.
  While chaos warrior oneshots are very consistent, they may survive in rare instances. Power vs Chaos or any other kind of damage buffing negates this.
  Greatly benefit from +% damage vs Chaos.
  Awkward charged attack hitboxes can make it difficult to headshot without practice.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1358904722

 

Melee Weapons (continued)

Two-Handed Sword

 While the two-handed sword has good overall stats and animations, its damage can be lacking at times. Combined with its very high stagger and knockdown chance, this can lead to a lot of enemies appearing to be dead, only to unexpectedly hit you from behind for half of your HP. The 2H sword has fairly good damage against armor, but the horrible charged attack animations cripple it to some degree. I really wanted to like this weapon but ultimately its quirks became too annoying to deal with.

Damage	Average
Effectiveness vs Hordes	High
Effectiveness vs Armor	Very low
Speed	High
Cleave	Very High
Stagger	Very High
Shove	Average
Crit Rate	Very Low
Range	High

 Notes :
  Oneshots chaos warriors with charged ult attacks.
  Both charge attacks are full power.
  Benefits immensely from block canceling after every charged attack.
  Occasionally knocks down trash mobs instead of outright killing them.
  Has a delay on starting and ending blocks.

Glaive

  Formerly one of Shade's strongest weapons, the glaive now barely worth considering. The Glaive's slow attack speed leaves you open to taking a lot of damage, it is now a lot harder to play aggressively with this weapon. The boss-killing power of the glaive is significantly worse than any of Shade's other weapons. Because of these two factors, attack speed, monster damage, and crit power are the best stats for this weapon.

Damage	High
Effectiveness vs Hordes	Very High
Effectiveness vs Armor	Very High
Speed	Very Low
Cleave	Very High
Stagger	Very High
Shove	Very High
Crit Rate	Very Low
Range	High

 Notes :
  Must charge attack twice to oneshot chaos warriors. Aim the first attack wherever, use your ult, then do the follow-up attack. Be careful with the timing, if you ult at the end of the charge attack that hits an enemy it will consume your ult and do no additional damage.
 Doing a charge attack followed by a quick attack will do a downwards slash combo that deals massive damage, this will oneshot most specials and oneshot stormvermin if you hit them in the head. It will quite frequently oneshot with bodyshots as well, but this is not as consistent.
  Rarely knocks down trash mobs instead of outright killing them.
  Will oneshot Fanatics (chaos horde enemies) with +26.5% power. (Chaos, Infantry, Hekarti's Bounty)
  Benefits from block canceling after 1 attack.
  Has a very fast push attack combo (hold RMB, then hold LMB, then quick attack.)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1361523941

Spear

 The spear is a very popular weapon for good reason. Sporting the best range of any of Kerillian's weapons and a very quick attack speed, the spear excels at clearing hordes with little risk to the player. Awkward to use effectively against stormvermin, but again, infiltrate and longbow will help you overcome this.

Damage	High
Effectiveness vs Hordes	Very High
Effectiveness vs Armor	Low
Speed	High
Cleave	Very High
Stagger	High
Shove	Very High
Crit Rate	Very Low
Range	Very High

 Notes :
  Has the largest Push/Block angle out of any of Kerillian's weapons.
  Must charge attack twice to oneshot chaos warriors. Aim the first attack wherever, use your ult, then do the follow-up attack. Be careful with the timing, if you ult at the end of the charge attack that hits an enemy it will consume your ult and do no additional damage.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1361632622

Ranged Weapons

Longbow

 Being Shade's strongest ranged option by far, the longbow will oneshot anything short of chaos warriors and bosses and maulers. This is instrumental to your role of killing as many specials and elites as possible. Fantastic ammo economy with the Conservative Shooter trait and blood fletcher. Personally, I like to fire off a couple of shots in to the middle of hordes to thin them out.

	Fast	Aimed
Damage	Low	Very High
Effectiveness vs Hordes	Low	Average
Effectiveness vs Armor	Average	Very High
Speed	Average	Very Low
Stagger	Average	High
Crit Rate	Low	Average

 Notes :
  Can be shot twice in quick succession by doing an aimed shot, then quickly releasing RMB and firing again.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1362017082

Swiftbow

 All of Shade's melee weapons can clear hordes well, but only two of her ranged options are capable of quickly killing armored targets. The swiftbow is not one of them. While It may have the ability to quickly clear out hordes and specials, but the swiftbow's damage versus armor is incredibly mediocre, forcing you to use the glaive to make up for its shortcoming.

	Fast	Aimed
Damage	Low	Average
Effectiveness vs Hordes	High	High
Effectiveness vs Armor	Very Low	Low
Speed	Very High	High
Stagger	Very Low	Very Low
Crit Rate	Average	High

 Notes :
  May work well with the glaive due to its strong anti-armor capabilities

Repeater Crossbow

 While not as strong as the longbow, the repeater crossbow is a viable sidegrade to it with the 'Shadowhunter' talent. A proper shadowhunter build will allow you to deal massive damage to bosses from the safety of infiltrate, this is especially powerful against stormfiends. While the ammunition economy leaves a lot to be desired, the repeater crossbow is still one of Shade's best ranged options, especially for players who struggle to consistently land headshots.

	Fast	Aimed
Damage	Average	Very High
Effectiveness vs Hordes	Average	Average
Effectiveness vs Armor	Average	Average
Speed	High	Very High
Stagger	High	High
Crit Rate	Low	Very Low

 Notes :
  Poor ammo economy
  Aimed crit procs affect all three arrows.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1363546036

Hagbane Bow

 I believe that no matter how bad they may seem, every single weapon in Vermintide 2 has some redeeming quality to it. This is not the case for the hagbane bow; despite my best attempts I still have no idea what it is supposed to be good at. A very unique ranged weapon choice that is sure to make your teammates notice you.

 As of recent patches, the hagbane bow is a capable horde-killing weapon, and can output high boss DPS with the right build. For boss killing this bow should be rolled for monster & chaos damage, as well as the barrage trait and a strength potion. Despite its strengths, the hagbane struggles to kill special and elite enemies and still suffers from poor ammunition economy, which can be offset by the Bloodfletcher talent and ammo regen traits.

	Fast	Aimed
Damage	Very Low	Very Low
Effectiveness vs Hordes	Low	High
Effectiveness vs Armor	Very Low	Very Low
Speed	Very High	High
Stagger	High	Very High
Crit Rate	Low	Very Low

 Notes :
  Very poor ammo economy
  Damage over time effect on all attacks.
  Higher DoT on charged attacks.

Equipment

 Gear is not as important as most people would have you to believe. Practice and experience will take you farther than items ever will, as cliché as it may sound. You do not need reds to do legend. You do not need 600 hero power to start playing champion. Keep in mind that weapon stats are personal preference. Very few of them will reach meaningful breakpoints from gear or talents.

There are two ways to build gear for Shade :

1. General-Purpose build
   
2. Shadowhunter Build

 Weapon choices are fairly subjective, but the longbow combined with glaive or dual swords will make doing well much easier. These are gear set-ups that I found to work best on high difficulties; they may not work well for your playstyle, use what you enjoy.

                 My personal gear

 

 

                       General-Purpose Build

 


 

                       Shadowhunter Build

 

Notes

• The 'Boon of Shallya' legendary necklace trait can be preferable to heal dupe/share if you find yourself in need of extra temporary HP.

Talents

 

                        ᠎ ᠎ Recommended Talents

 

         Shadowhunter                     My Personal Talents

 

 

 

 

 

 

Passives

 



 A common misconception about Shade is that her passives are risky to use and that they generally put the player in a bad position. This is wrong, the truth is that her passives should be ignored entirely. Utilizing Shade's passives open her up to taking lots of unnecessary damage and can potentially lead to your team wiping on later difficulties.

There are a few exceptions to this rule :

• When there are a few enemies left near the end of a horde wave and they are aggro'd on your teammates
  
• When elite mobs are aggro'd on your teammates
  
• During a Troll's regen phase if you cannot reach its head for any reason
  
• Any time an Ironbreaker taunts

Infiltrate Usage

 


 Shade's ult can be used for a lot more than just offense. Knowing when to use infiltrate outside of oneshotting enemies can help your team out quite a lot, and will make the difference between just being a good Shade or an amazing one.

Escaping bad situations

 Sometimes things just don't go down as planned. An ally may slip up and die during a horde. You may be too far away from your team when an ambush happens. Maybe there's a gutter runner close to you and you have no way to deal with it. If you're in a bad spot you can always use your ult as an 'oh ♥♥♥♥' button to regroup with your team. Or to run away from an impending wipe.

Clutching

 Sometimes when things are not going well, the best solution is to run away. Obviously, you shouldn't ditch your team and run as soon as things seem like they aren't going well, but if there is absolutely no way that your teammates are going to survive an encounter: pop your ult and get as far away as possible. The 10 seconds your ult buys you will usually give you enough space to drop aggro from all of the previous enemies. This isn't always true, however, hordes will sometimes re-aggro on you as soon as infiltrate expires, and bosses will never ever stop chasing you unless they get stuck, or you put an elevator between you and them. Keep in mind that the bile troll and stormfiend bosses will create impassable walls until they are killed on most levels. In this case, kite as far away from the wipe as possible and pray nothing else followed you wait for the boss to show up. From here it is a matter of circle strafing the boss and ulting its weakpoint until it dies. As long as the boss is alive, hordes and specials should not spawn. Usually.

 Do not attack anything unless absolutely necessary while you are running towards your respawned teammates to revive them. The longer you stick around in one area, the more likely it is for specials or hordes to spawn. So long as you keep pushing ahead as quickly as possible you should only run in to wandering enemies. However, leeches and gutter runners have an annoying tendency to follow you regardless of how far away you get. Block as you move past enemies and use your ult if you have too many things chasing you, no amount of clutching can save you if half of a map's worth of enemies is following.

Reviving Downed Teammates

 If a teammate goes down and doesn't die instantly, you can usually get them back up without either of you taking any damage. To do this; use Infiltrate, hold down block, position yourself on the edge of your downed teammate but out of range of most enemies' attacks, and start reviving. Once the revive castbar is done, spam shoves on all of the enemies around your ally so they aren't killed during the standing up animation. Keep in mind that moving out of position to revive downed players can potentially cause more of your teammates to getting killed if they are relying on you to watch their back.

Getting in to a better position to kill specials

 Warpfire throwers and rattling gunners, for example, have a tendency to show up during hordes, when your team is out in the open, or otherwise in a bad spot. If this happens it can be a smart idea to use infiltrate to move through the horde and take out the special.

Completing objectives

 While uncommon, it can sometimes be beneficial to do map objectives from the safety of Infiltrate. This is mainly useful for quickly igniting the cart near the end of 'Empire in Flames', but can be situationally useful on other maps as well.

Infiltrate Cooldown

 As of v1.05, Shade's class skill has a cooldown time of 60 seconds. Ideally you will build for as much cooldown reduction as possible to lower this even further and put out as much damage as possible.

CDR	Reduction	Time
Shadespirit	30%	18 seconds
Trinket	10%	6 seconds
Resourceful Combatant	2% / crit	1.2 seconds
Taking Damage	Scales with damage	Varies

 As you can see, talents and gear alone will bring the cooldown time on Infiltrate down to 36 seconds, nearly half of its original time. This becomes especially important on Legend difficulty, as armored enemies are everywhere and there is a very high chance of bosses spawning regardless of what map you are playing.

 It should also be noted that Infiltrate crits do affect the legendary melee trait 'Resourceful Combatant' (as well as 'Swift Slaying'). With dual weapon charge attacks, Infiltrate will have a 33.6 second cooldown with maximum cooldown reduction.

Multikills

 It is actually possible to hit multiple enemies with Infiltrate attacks if they are grouped up. While difficult to pull off, there are also no downsides to trying to kill multiple elites at once. The two grouped up training dummies in the castle keep are a great way to get a feel for weapons hitboxes to do this more consistently.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1358992163

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1361626263

Other Tips

• It should be noted that infiltrate does not give you any form of defense or safety beyond dropping aggro. Enemies will still hit you with attacks that were started prior to you going invisible. You can still be hit by attacks aimed at allies. This is still somewhat broken as of v1.06's invisibility fixes.
  
  
• Don't go out of your way to backstab with Infiltrate
  Shade's ult will oneshot every non-boss without damage buffs. Taking the time to flank is inefficient, puts a lot more enemies in your blind spot, and makes you more likely to take unnecessary damage. For bosses it is much more important to land all seven of your Infiltrate attacks while the boss is still debuffed by shrapnel.

Infiltrate Usage (continued)

 

Infiltrate Damage Buffing

 As of v1.081, Infiltrate damage boosting is working as intended. Unless you have a concentration potion, it is important to do what you can to buff Infiltrate's damage. While backstabs add very little damage, headshots offer a massive ~35% damage bonus. This is mainly useful for quickly bursting down Trolls after they stand up from their first regen phase.
 

Attack Type	Damage	Increase
Frontal Bodyshot	354
Backstab	364	2.8%
Headshot	475	34.2%
Backstab Headshot	484	36.7%

 

Stat	Damage	Increase
10% Monster Dam. ᠎	389	9.9%
20% Crit Power	410	15.8%

 
Note : The data from these tables is derived from testing with the spear's secondary charge attack during Infiltrate. The numbers vary by weapon but for the most part the damage bonus percentages will remain the same.
 

Elites

 Aside from chaos warriors and maulers, every elite mob can be dispatched with a single aimed longbow headshot. Take care when blocking or dodging their attacks, as elite mobs have massive damage output.

    Stormvermin

• Dodge left or right, a lot of their attacks have very long range and will still hit you if you dodge backwards.
  
• Headshoting unalerted stormvermin from far away generally won't alert any nearby enemies.
   
   
   
   
   
   

 

    Shieldvermin

• Focus on killing Shieldvermin if they are unalerted, they are much harder to deal with once they raise their shield.
  
• Headshot unalerted shieldvermin from far away generally won't alert any nearby enemies.
  
• Light melee attack until they drop their shield, then attack their head.
  
• Try to backstab them if there are no other enemies close to you.
  
• High priority Infiltrate target.
   

 

    Plague Monk

• Hold block if they target you.
  
• Don't stop blocking, let your teammates deal with these if they are aggro'd on you.
  
• Spam charged ranged attacks at them from a distance if possible.
  
• Avoid cornering yourself if these aggro on you, they can easily chip down your HP if there are other enemies helping.
   
   
   

 

      Mauler

• Dodge left or right, a lot of their attacks have very long range and will still hit you if you dodge backwards.
  
• Avoid wasting your arrows on these if possible, they take three longbow shots to kill on Legend.
  
• These don't seem to have any unique audio cues and can easily oneshot you from behind if you are not attentive.
  
• Medium priority Infiltrate target.
   
   
   

 

      Savage

• These have a deceptively long attack range, be careful!
  
• Hold block if they target you.
  
• Don't stop blocking, let your teammates deal with these if they are aggro'd on you.
  
• If there are not many enemies around, position yourself on the other side of the Savage so that your teammates can safely melee him.
  
• Spam charged ranged attacks at them from a distance if possible.
  
• Avoid cornering yourself if these aggro on you, they can easily chip down your HP if there are other enemies helping.

 

    Chaos Warrior

• Dodge left or right, a lot of their attacks have very long range and will still hit you if you dodge backwards.
  
• Ult and use charged attacks to oneshot.
  
• Highest priority Infiltrate target.
   
   
   
   
   
   

 

Specials

 Specials can be very dangerous and wipe entire teams if not quickly taken care of. It is very important to learn every special mob's audio cue, and how to deal with their attacks. A single aimed longbow headshot will suffice to kill any kind of special. Taking damage will generally prevent any special aside from packmasters from attacking.

    Blightstormer

• Blightstormers will not cast their storm until they get line of sight on a player.
  
• Their storm has a deceptively long range, be careful!
  
• Will teleport away ~3 seconds after taking damage.
  
• Infiltrate will make the storm stop targeting you, very useful if you are cornered.

 
 
 
 

 

      Leech

• Fires a projectile that will incapacitate you half a second after teleporting.
  
• These make a distinctive sound when they teleport, wait for this and sidestep the projectile, then headshot him with your ranged weapon.
  
• Will generally teleport behind the player or group.
  
• If the leech takes any damage while grabbing a player they will drop them.
  
• If the leech takes any damage before trying to grab a player they will teleport away without attacking.

 

     Globadier

• Move away if you see a gas projectile, the impact damage is very high.
  
• Fairly awkward to headshot, more often than not you will have to bodyshot them to death.
  
• Will charge at players and attempt to suicide bomb them at low HP.
  
• Their suicide attack can hurt you through walls, be very careful if you hear the low HP audio cue.

 
 

 

    Packmaster

• Very high stagger resistance.
  
• Do not dodge backwards against these, you will almost always be grabbed.
  
• Dodge left or right when they are about ~2m away to avoid the hook, you can also watch for the Packmaster to start his grab animation if he is not in a horde.
  
• Packmasters are much more likely to grab you during dodges if you are on stairs, a ramp, or if there is any sort of elevation difference.

 
 

 

    Gutter Runner

• Don't waste arrows on these unless you have a good shot lined up or if they are moving predictably.
  
• Shooting them in midair will stop their leap, assuming it does not outright kill them.
  
• Gutter Runner's spawning audio cue will make it seem as if they are behind you, don't let this fool you.
  
• Will try to stay out of the players field of view until they can leap.
  
• It can be a situationally useful to Infiltrate to avoid being targeted by gutters, especially if you are out in the open.

 

    Ratling Gunner

• Damaging them in any way will interrupt their firing.
  
• They will sometimes keep firing at your last known location if you use Infiltrate and no other targets presents itself.
  
• Ratling Gunners tend to shoot through wooden objects or clutter at times.

 
 
 
 
 

 

   Warpfire Thrower

• Damaging them in any way will interrupt their firing.
  
• They will keep firing at your last known location if you use Infiltrate and no other targets presents itself.

 
 
 
 
 
 
  

 

     Sack Rat

• Infiltrate will keep them from sighting you and running away
  
• Ult and oneshot them if possible.
  
• Shoot at their legs with your ranged weapon if they are running away, their bag seems to stop damage.

  
 
  
 
 
 

 

Bosses

 Shade excels at dealing massive amounts of damage to bosses in the very little time you have before your entire team dies. You should always be taking item pickups with the assumption that you will have to deal with a boss later on. Take note of the most common bomb and potion pickup locations on maps and try to find a concentration potion and any kind of bomb as soon as possible.
 
An ideal boss kill will look similar to this :

 

                         Bile Troll

         

• Regens health over time, very tedious to solo.
  
• Some regen phases can be skipped if enough damage is dealt quickly enough.
  
• A lot of his attacks pierce blocking, be sure to dodge them! The downwards smashes & puke attacks should be dodged by moving left or right, never backwards.
  
• You can turn away from the boss to avoid being blinded by puke attacks.
  
• Attack the bosses head during regen phases, or go for his back if you are unable to reach his face
  
• Stays invulnerable for a few seconds after regen phases end, watch for his HP bar to take damage before ulting (or pay attention to his animation state!)

 

                         Stormfiend

         

• Well-armored. Every weapon aside from the glaive should use charge attacks for dealing damage to the boss, unless you are hitting his weak point.
  
• Ult headshots deal reduced damage to this boss.
  
• Weak point is the small rat attached to his back.
  
• Always aim low while attacking his weak point, the metal hood near the top of it is armored and will significantly reduce your damage if you hit it.
  
• Headshotting stormfiends with ranged weapons is also fairly effective.
  
• Generally alternates warpfire thrower bursts and a melee attack at his target

                         Rat Ogre

         

• Difficult to headshot ults due to high move speed, turn rate and animations.
  
• Take turns dodge tanking the boss with teammates. To do this, enter his attack range and backstep as attack animations start. Repeat this until the boss aggros on someone else or dies.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1361524112

 

                        Chaos Spawn

         

• Very high movespeed.
  
• Arguably the most dangerous boss, try to kill it ASAP.
  
• Will generally alternate a triple attack burst, and a wide-reaching grab.
  
• Dodge backwards to avoid the grab. Please note that the grab attack has a deceptively long range!
  
• The only way for Shade to interrupt successful grabs is by hitting the boss with a bomb.
  
• Save bombs for the sole purpose of interrupting successful grabs.
  
• Can be dodge tanked similarly to rat ogres.

Map Bosses

                    Burblespew ᠎ Halescourge

         

• This is usually an endurance fight. Don't get greedy trying to damage the boss, it is best to play things safe.
  
• Avoid the outer edges of the map during his teleport phase, if he teleports on to you, there will be very little space to dodge his ranged attacks.
  
• Go for bow headshots on the boss if he is far away from you, chasing him down is rarely productive.
  
• Save your concentration potion until the boss teleports on to the second floor then go nuts. Make sure to block between ults, enemies will sometimes aggro on you and attack in this time.
  
• Don't be afraid to use your ult on any chaos warriors that may spawn, killing them will relieve a lot of pressure for you and your teammates.
  
• Infiltrate can be very useful for assisting downed teammates or anyone who has respawned inside of the arena.
  
• Stay near your team during mob phases, burblespew's flies can quickly wipe the entire team if people split up.
  
• It is possible to kill fly swarms with your ranged weapon in an emergency, otherwise stick near a friend and save your arrows.

                     Skarrik Spinemangler

         

• Well-armored. Every weapon aside from the glaive should use charge attacks for dealing damage to the boss.
  
• Focus on quickly killing the trash mobs as they spawn, but stick near your teammates at the same time.
  
• Move backwards and hold block if he starts charging a polearm attack.
  
• Try to avoid outright tanking him, some of Spinemangler's attacks will damage you through blocks.

                     Bödvarr Ribspreader

         

• Well-armored. Every weapon aside from the glaive should use charge attacks for dealing damage to the boss.
  
• Most of his attacks can be avoided by dodging left or right, the one exception is his AOE knockback, which must be blocked or avoided entirely.
  
• Don't be afraid to use your ult on any chaos warriors that spawn, killing them will relieve a lot of pressure for you and your teammates.

Gatekeeper Naglfahr

• Well-armored. Every weapon aside from the glaive should use charge attacks for dealing damage to the boss.
  
• Bomb him at the start and focus on dealing as much damage as possible while ulting off cooldown.
  
• Once Naglfahr transforms he can be treated as a regular chaos spawn.
  
• The arena gate will open as soon as the boss transforms, allowing specials and other mobs to enter.

                          Deathrattler

         

• This boss has the same weak points as a conventional stormfiend.
  
• Well-armored. Every weapon aside from the glaive should use charge attacks for dealing damage to the boss, unless you are hitting his weak point.
  
• Stay near the pillars unless he has recently aggro'd on a new target. Being caught out in the open by his miniguns is a death sentence.
  
• Infiltrate will not stop Deathrattler from targeting you with his miniguns.
  
• If you save your concentration potion until he has <50% hp, you can sometimes put out enough damage to kill both Deathrattler AND Rasknitt.
  
• That said, it is almost always safer to use your concentration potion to kill Deathrattler as soon as possible. Having both bosses in the arena at once can be very painful if they are not managed properly.

Rasknitt

• Keep hitting him with ranged attacks if he is far away. This is especially important if teammates are not attacking him, as it will stop Rasknitt from using any of his ranged attacks.
  
• Always go for headshots when attacking the boss with Infiltrate, it will deal massive amounts of damage.
  
• Will always teleport in to one of the four "corners" of the arena after being attacked for long enough.

Bugs

v1.05

• Using Infiltrate at the end of a swing that has hit an enemy will instantly consume it with no additional damage added to the strike.
  

   Solution : Slow down double charge attack infiltrate combos, or avoid hitting enemies with the first strike entirely.

  Patched as of v1.081
  
  
• If multiple instances of infilrate are stacked with a concentration potion then expire naturally it will leave shadow particles on-screen for the duration of the mission.
  

   Solution : Avoid stacking ults.

  
  
• Enemies will sometimes follow and attack the player while infiltrate is active.
  

   Solution : Keep track of your surroundings and block at the start of infiltrate.

  
  
• Globadiers will constantly target and attack the player while infiltrate is active.
  

   Solution : Be attentive of globadier's gas cloud and distrinctive audio cue, don't stop moving.

  
  
• Rarely when Infiltrate is used the players screen will turn nearly pitch black for its full duration.
  

   Solution : Pray.

  Patched.

v1.082

• Bloodfletcher no longer works.
  

   Solution : Cry a lot.

  Patched as of v1.101

Final Thoughts

 Hopefully after reading this guide you have a much more thorough knowledge of Shade's mechanics and how to play her optimally. This is my first time writing a guide so apologies if anything was misleading or incorrect. Critique is more than welcome, if you notice any mistakes in this guide please be sure to let me know so that I may correct them.

Thank you, and happy rat slaying!
 

[Pandaperfect]

uPDATE FOR 2.0 PLS

[Ursarcadius]

Hagbane is a baffling weapon, and there's way to much to say about exactly how it works here. But, I would say that it's far from useless if you play to it's strengths. With Barrage and finger roll, you can do a lot of interesting things with it. With strength pot, it absolutely melts bosses and patrols. You can manipulate the AI by shooting on the ground near them, they'll run over to check it out. The stagger it causes can be utilized. With the correct breakpoints, it can efficiently kill specials and hordes. I personally use 20% skaven, 10% armored, hekarti's bounty talent, and Barrage. This let's you one shot hordes, two shot specials, and three shot anything that isn't a chaos warrior (unless you have strength pot.)

Edit: to clarify on finger roll, it's very similar to the technique you mention on long bow, where you right click, then fire the arrow, and let go of right click immediately after. You can chain this sequence of motions together to get a faster fire rate.

[Ursarcadius]

Hey there, wanted to drop in and give some advice for things to try. I would spend some time with the Sword and Dagger, as I think it is currently her best weapon. SnD and DD have slightly different play-styles, but they do much the same thing. DD struggles to clean hordes efficiently, and excels at dropping single bosses and elites rapidly with Heavy 1. SnD cleans hordes fantastically, can abuse Infiltrate with Heavy 1 to the back of multiple elites, and drops bosses and any single targets with Heavy 2. The only thing is, to get to heavy 2, you need to either whiff heavy 1/push attack, and then get heavy 2. On bosses, you have to train yourself to whiff, start charging heavy 2, activate infiltrate, then land heavy 2. Because of the time pulling off the combo takes, you have to rely on conc pot decanter to delete bosses as opposed to concoction with any pot on DD. It certainly requires slighty more mechanics than DD, but I think the pros far outweigh the cons for a skilled player.

[0ptimistPrime (the Gray)]

"Don't use the hagbane bow, or do i'm not your mother you can make your own decisions."
Aaaaand upvote the guide.

[Selkie]

I'm not sure how I never noticed that, thank you for the correction!

[Johnson]

melee weapon can't roll monster damage

[Selkie]

it isn't, the weapons and talents sections are outdated. Sorry ):

[Captain]

Is this updated for 1.4 ?:)

[Selkie]

@EtRnitY
To be perfectly honest, I haven't been playing the game a whole lot lately, so this is more of a personal opinion than an objective fact. I found that using Khaine's Thirst along with a Boon of Shallya necklace will keep your HP topped off for entire games due to the sheer number of elites and specials shade kills.

Bleak vigour was good with high crit weapons like the dual daggers and dual swords from what I remember, but I prefer using thirst.


@Koos a la Goop a Goop
Again, personal opinion here, but dual daggers already have the highest attack speed in the game, and in my opinion benefit more from utility stats such as stamina or parry than additional attack speed.

[Wilk]

"Do not benefit from attackspeed. Should be built for crit or utility stats." Are you sure that any % attack speed from traits, propeteries and skill is totally useless when using dual daggers?