Kerillian All Base Game Careers Mechanic Guide

Guide for all Kerillian base game careers mechanic/talent and some build theory.

---Waystalker----

Career General Overview

Career Orientation

A range focus career with high versatile options.

Pros: Versatile builds/weapons options. Consistent damage at all distance. Good sustain.
Cons: Low Health and no Damage Reduction. Fairly low mobility. No escape tools.

Basic Stats

Base HP: 100
Career Skill Cooldown: 80 sec
Has 5% base Critical Strike chance
Unusable Weapons: Spear and Shield, Volley Crossbow, Deepwood Staff

Perks

Arrow-storm	Increases ammo capacity by 100%. Doubles the ammo capacity along with ammo related Traits/Talents. Does not work with Moonfire Bow.
Waywatcher's Bow	Double effective range for ranged weapons. Doubles both the drop off range and max range.
Asrai Vigil	Ranged weapon zoom. Bound to weapon special by default. Also works on all versions of Career Skill.

Career Skill & Passive

Trueshot Volley	Kerillian shoots a volley of arrows that seek out enemies in her path.	Shoots out 3 enemy seeking arrows. All arrows roll critical hits together. These arrows damage through shield and bypass Shield Enemies Cleave Resistance in Cleave calculation. Can ricochet at most twice when hitting the environment. If Kerillian can pull out her range weapon before the arrows land on the target, they can trigger all range weapon Traits, except Conservative Shooter. When pressing the Career Skill key, an enemy will be outlined with red color. After releasing the key, all arrows will try to hit the head of the red outline target. You can change which enemy is outlined by holding the Career Skill key and moving your crosshair. Although all arrows will try to hit one enemy’s head and have limited ability to curve in the air, it can still hit other targets/bodyparts due to distance and angles. In order to avoid this as best as you can, after locking onto the target you want, move the crosshair to the sky and then release the Career Skill key, so the arrows can come down from above, avoiding most ground-level enemies and obstacles.
Amaranthe	Kerillian regenerates 3 health every 10 seconds when below half health.	While below 50% permanent health(green HP), this Passive will always be active. That means sometimes it can heal the player 1 or 2 HP beyond half health. When the player has both permanent health and temporary health while Amarathe is activated, the generated permanent health will replace the same amount of temporary health instead of adding on top of that.

Trueshot Volley Dodge Data/Damage & Stagger Cleave

Name	Dodge Data	Damage Cleave	Stagger Cleave	Special Properties
Baseline/Loaded Bow/Kurnous' Reward	3 Dodge Count, 100% Dodge Distance	7.46 (per arrow)	7.46 (per arrow)	Damage Through Shield Bypass Shield Enemies Cleave Resistance in Cleave calculation
Piercing Shot	3 Dodge Count, 100% Dodge Distance	29.84	29.84	Damage Through Shield Bypass Shield Enemies Cleave Resistance in Cleave calculation

*All with 650 Hero Power

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part I)

LeveL 5 Row

Sting	Melee strike restores 0.5 temporary health. Melee Critical Strikes and Headshots instead restore 2. Critical Headshots restores 4.	Can only be triggered once per weapon swing. Dual wield attacks can trigger twice. Should only be used with Sword and Dagger/Dual Daggers/Axe when you have extremely high headshot rate and have high melee uptime at the same time.
Carve	Damaging multiple enemies in one Melee Attack grants Temporary Health.	Provide 1 THP when hitting one unit. First 5 units you hit grants 1 THP per unit per hit. Next 5 units grants 0.5 THP per unit per hit. Caps out at 10 unit per hit/7.5 THP per swing. Dual wield attacks can trigger twice. Should be used most of the time.
Execute	Killing an enemy with Melee Attack restores Temporary Health. Killing more dangerous enemies grants more Temporary Health.	Can be triggered multiple times per attack. Does not include melee explosion kills or melee DoT kills. Should be avoided most of the time as Waystalker is a range focused career.

LeveL 10 Row

Blood Shot	After killing an enemy with a melee attack Kerillian fires an additional arrow with her next ranged attack made within 10 seconds.	Extra damage/resource for semi hybrid playstyle The buff is only consumed when the range attacks land on a unit. Attacks that missed/only hit environment still fire the additional arrow but do not consume the buff. Add one extra arrow to all versions of Trueshot Volley too, except Piercing Shot . For sniping weapons/builds, this talent can be used to turn some two shots breakpoints into one shot. In a few cases, it can even turn three shots into one shot, since the first arrow may be able to stagger the target, allowing the second arrow to deal more damage. And for weapons/builds with limited ammo/energy, this talent essentially provides a form of ammo regen. However, the effectiveness of this talent heavily depends on your play style. In order to maximize it, the player needs to actively killing low health enemies with melee attacks, and then use the range weapon/career skill on valuable enemies as soon as possible.
Serrated Shots	Regular arrows cause enemies to bleed for extra damage.	Consistent pure range DPS boost The bleed last 2 sec, can stack up to 3 times, has a base tickrate of per 0.75 sec(average tickrate). Does not work with Hagbane Shortbow and Moonfire Bow. In a few cases, just 1 stack of the bleed is enough to provide better breakpoints on specials/elites, reducing the amount of hits required to take them down. At the same time, it also just consistent extra damage on weapons that can benefit from it, while not consuming additional resource or requiring extra micromanagement.
Drakira's Alacrity	Ranged headshots increases attack speed by 15.0% for 5 seconds.	High DPS boost that requires good executions and specific builds Can be triggered by both range weapons and career skill. Can be activated from hitting either the head or the neck of an enemy. The attack speed increase is universal, increasing both melee and range DPS, and reduce career skill animation speed. It technically provides the best DPS boost in this row, even if only counting the range DPS portion. However, it requires the player to land a decent amount of range headshot at first place, and also need extra ammo/energy to sustain the extra arrows you can shoot, making it fairly situational.

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part II)

LeveL 15 Row

Maystay	Deal 40% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 60% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.	Increases your horde clear DPS. However, Waystalker is a range focus career that does not need strong melee horde clear in her build. Should be avoided most of the time.
Assassin	Deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Headshots and critical hits instead inflict 40% bonus damage, as do strikes against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.	Increase your melee single target DPS and a bit horde clear. Good synergy with Blood Shot as it can help you to get that one melee kill faster. Most importantly, it can help you with Super Armour damage that most of Waystalker builds lack. Should be picked if Enhanced Power is not required for breakpoints.
Enhanced Power	Increases total Power Level by 7%. This is calculated before other buffs are applied.	Increases power level by 7.5%. As a power boost, it increases your damage/stagger/cleave. For certain Waystalker builds, you rely on Enhanced Power to provide certain important breakpoints, plus on some other builds your range weapon or DoT are most of your damage and/or for most of your single target DPS. Otherwise, pick Assassin to boost your melee damage against important targets.

LeveL 20 Row

Isha’s Embrace	Increases Kerillian's health regenerated from Amaranthe by 50.0%.	Low use case defensive utility Increases Amaranthe regen from 3HP/10 sec to 4.5HP/10 sec. From a team perspective, Rejuvenating Locus provides more regen most of the time, and it is still limited to half health. Use it if you need it to survive, or the extra health regen allows you to hit trade enough to gain more cooldown than Spirit Arrows .
Spirit Arrows	Amaranthe reduces the cooldown of Trueflight Volley by 5.0% every tick. No longer restores health.	Consistent low value utility Tick every 10 seconds, doesn't matter how much HP Kerillian has. Refund 4 seconds/5% of max Cooldown each time. Kerillian no longer regen HP from Amaranthe . The amount of cooldown it provides is pretty low. And since it's time based, the more cooldown you get from other methods like hit trade/hitting enemies, the less valuable this talent become. Even still, more career skill cooldown is still useful, especially if you are playing a hyper range focus playstyle where you are more ammo hungry than usual and don't generate a lot of cooldown from hitting enemies with melee or hit trade.
Rejuvenating Locus	Amaranthe also affects the other members of the party.	High use case defensive utility As long as the individual team member's permanent health is below 50%, and Kerillian is present on that map(alive/downed/waiting for rescue), the team member will regain 3 permanent health every 10 second. The amount of total regen this talent provides will always surpass Isha’s Embrace as long as any 2 team members have less than 50% permanent HP, where Isha’s Embrace only works on Kerillian herself. Recommended being used most of the time, as long as there isn't a Victor Saltzpyre Zealot in the team.

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part III)

LeveL 25 Row

Fervent Huntress	Killing a special or elite enemy increases movement speed by 15.0% for 10 seconds.	Low use case mobility Provides movement speed after killing an elite/special. Does not need to be a range kill. Movement speed gives you an easier time at evading enemy attacks, as you can move out of their hitbox. And more importantly for a backline career, it allows you to move to a more favorable fighting position easier where you can use your range weapon safely. However, it is directly competing against Asrai Focus , which is a much more consistent boost to your damage and ammo/energy management. Low floor, high ceiling. Unless you are using a build that can ignore the damage and ammo/energy regen that Asrai Focus provides, should be avoided most of the time.
Ricochet	Kerillian's arrows now ricochet, each bouncing up to 3 times or until it hits an enemy.	Inconsistent case utility Allows your range weapons/career skills projectile to ricochet and/or ricochet 3 more times. The ricochet follows projectile/environment geometry. Does not track enemies unless the projectile itself has the property at first place. On Hagbane Shotbow charged arrow, every time it ricochets it triggers the AoE poison explosion. It is a fun over practical usage talent. Since the end goal is actually hitting an enemy, this talent has close to no synergy with the ideal gameplay loop, as usually it's more efficient to just aim at the target. Because of that, even if you miss, the ricochet will rarely help you to hit another target, as it just simply following geometry without actually tracking the enemy. And for Hagbane Shotbow, the charged arrows deal most of its damage with direct poison instead of the AoE poison, making it very unlikely to deal more damage by trading direct hit for multiple AoE poison. Should be avoided most of the time.
Asrai Focus	Reduces the cooldown of Trueshot Volley by 20.0%.	High skill floor consistent damage Reduces career skill cooldown by 16 seconds. Consistently boost your damage as you can use more career skill. For builds that use Kurnous’ Reward , this also helps with ammo/energy sustain. And since it's normal cooldown reduction, its value won't be diminished by other factors, unlike Spirit Arrows . Should be used most of the time.

LeveL 30 Row

Piercing Shot	Trueshot Volley fires one piercing shot dealing heavy damage. Headshot refunds 100.0% cooldown.	Extreme high skill requirement talent Trueshot Volley no longer tracks enemies. Can still ricochet at most twice when hitting the environment. Damage through shield. Bypass Shield Enemies Cleave Resistance in Cleave calculation. Cooldown is refunded from hitting either the head or the neck of an enemy. But only hitting the head deals proper headshot damage. The projectile base damage is fairly low, worth about two arrows from regular Trueshot Voelly . However, it has the highest finesse value of 7.0 in the entire game, able to headshot oneshot every single elites in the game with the right build except Shielded Chaos Warrior on Cataclysm. Combine all these factors, including the opportunity cost of not picking Kurnous’ Reward for ammo sustain, Piercing Shot Waystalker has one of the biggest skill floor and ceiling gap in the game. When landing headshot consistently, it's arguably the best Waystalker build. But if you miss fairly often, you are essentially playing without a level 30 talent. Extremely low floor and extremely high ceiling. If picked, requires the player to tailor the whole build around this talent.
Loaded Bow	Trueshot Volley fires an additional arrow.	Consistent low damage boost Increase the number of projectiles from Trueshot Volley from 3 to 4. With Blood Shot activated it become 5. Essentially increases your career skill damage by 33% or 25%. For most of the builds, the amount of additional damage this talent provides can easily be outmatched by shooting your range weapons with the ammo you get from Kurnous’ Reward . Only when the weapons you are using cannot fully utilize extra ammo/energy, this talent can outmatch others.
Kurnous’ Reward	Killing a special or elite enemy with Trueflight Volley restores 30.0% ammunition.	Consistent overall DPS boost Grants the player ammo/energy when killing elites/specials with career skill. This effect can be triggered multiple time with one usage of Trueshot Volley . One of the best ammo regen talent in the entire game, especially when combined with Asrai Focus . This combo allows Waystalker to run none ammo regen traits on all of her weapons for even more damage, or playing an almost pure range play style with ammo regen traits for extremely high range uptime. Used on most of Waystalker builds that focus on using her range weapons.

---Handmaiden---

Career General Overview

Career Orientation

A melee focus career with extremely high mobility and clutchbility.

Pros: Versatile weapons options. Some of the highest mobility and clutchbility in the game. Ok damage.
Cons: Low burst damage. Lacks Damage Reduction, purely rely on mobility/block to survive.

Basic Stats

Base HP: 125
Career Skill Cooldown: 20 sec
Has 5% base Critical Strike chance
Has extra 1 Stamina/0.5 Shield on all weapons
Unusable Weapons: Volley Crossbow, Deepwood Staff

Perks

Renewal	Aura that increases stamina regeneration speed by 100%. Has range of 5 units. Stacks additive with other forms of Stamina Regen. Increasing stamina regeneration speed and reduce stamina regeneration delay
Ariel's Benison	Increase Kerillian's revive speed by 50%. When Kerillian revives allies, she heals them for 20 health. Heals the ally for 20 Permanent Health(green HP). Does not clear wound. The revive speed stacks additive with Trinket property.

Career Skill & Passive

Dash	Kerillian swiftly dashes forward, moving through enemies.	Can be initiated from midair. During this career skill, you can switch weapons/items, attack/charge with melee weapons, fire/charge/reload range weapons, use items. Use this career skill will not interrupt interactions, including reviving teammates. However, most of the objective interactions on the map have distance limit. Can be canceled mid-charge by pressing block(default key: Mouse 2). The player is not invincible during this career skill. To help to avoid taking damage, hold block(default key: Mouse 2) before starting the career skill to keep blocking during this. You can still cancel your career skill by releasing and pressing block again. Holding the career skill key(default key: F) will show you the patching and destination of the career skill. Handmaiden's Dash has a width of 1.5 units. Can dash through all units.
The Dance of Seasons	Increased dodge distance by 15%.	Increase both dodge distance and dodge speed by 15%.

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part I)

LeveL 5 Row

Carve	Damaging multiple enemies in one Melee Attack grants Temporary Health.	Provide 1 THP when hitting one unit. First 5 units you hit grants 1 THP per unit per hit. Next 5 units grants 0.5 THP per unit per hit. Caps out at 10 unit per hit/7.5 THP per swing. Dual wield attacks can trigger twice. The overall most consistent option for Handmaiden. Should be used most of the time.
Execute	Killing an enemy with Melee Attack restores Temporary Health. Killing more dangerous enemies grants more Temporary Health.	Can be triggered multiple times per attack. Does not include melee explosion kills or melee DoT kills. Should only be used if you build focus on killing elites and there are no other careers competing for elites kill heavily.
Second Wind	Staggering enemies with a Melee Attack grants up to 2 Temporary Health determined by the Stagger Strength. Killing blows instead restore 0.25 THP.	Melee attack grants 0.25/1/2 THP per unit. Push grants 0.5/1 THP per unit. Both can only be triggered on 5 units. Dual wield attacks can trigger twice. Melee killing blows grant 0.25 per unit without limit. Should mostly be used with Spear and Shield, as its strong push can help you generate THP with this talent very quickly.

LeveL 10 Row

Focused Spirit	After not taking damage for 10 seconds, increases power level by 15%. Reset upon taking damage.	Inconsistent damage boost As a power boost, it increases your damage/stagger/cleave. Any form of damage will reset this buff, including environmental damage/self damage/friendly fire. Because of the strict condition to maintain the power level, this talent is way too inconsistent most of the time to be useful, even though the power boost is very good numeric wise. Should only be used if the player is confident at using this talent with high uptime.
Oak Stance	Increases critical strike chance by 5.0%.	Consistent low damage boost Although consistent, the damage increase you get from this talent is one of the lowest in the game. Should be avoided as long as you can use other two talents semi consistently.
Asrai Alacrity	Blocking an attack or pushing grants Kerillian's next two strikes 30.0% attack speed and 10.0% power.	High uptime good DPS boost Gain two stacks(maximum two) of buff upon landing a push on enemies or blocking an attack. While having any number of stack of the buff, gain 10% power level and 30% attack speed. Increase damage/stagger/cleave/speed of all attacks. Each melee/range attack that connects consumes one stack of the buff, regardless how many units being cleaved or if the attack deals damage or not. Thanks to Renewal , Handmaiden has an extremely high stamina regen rate, making spending stamina on pushing to maintain a high uptime on this talent extremely easy. Should be used most of the time.

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part II)

LeveL 15 Row

Smiter	The first enemy hit always counts as staggered. Deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 40% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.	Increases your single target DPS. Should be picked most of the time.
Mainstay	Deal 40% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 60% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.	Increases your horde clear DPS. However, Handmaiden already has enough horde clear capability from her weapons and other talents but lacks single target burst. Should avoid most of the time.
Enhanced Power	Increases total Power Level by 7%. This is calculated before other buffs are applied.	Increases power level by 7.5%. As a power boost, it increases your damage/stagger/cleave. Increase both your melee and range damage. Does not benefit a melee focus career as much as other talents. Should be avoided.

LeveL 20 Row

Willow Stance	Dodging grants 5.0% attack speed for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.	High consistency DPS boost Provide up to 15% extra attack speed. Thanks to most elf weapons have good dodge counts, you can easily get 100% uptime on this talent, making it the overall best DPS option on this row. Should be picked most of the time for DPS purpose.
Dance of Blades	Dodging while blocking increases dodge range by 20%. Dodging while not blocking increase the power of Kerillian's next strike by 10%.	Excessive mobility and medium consistency DPS While holding block, dodging grants Kerillian 20% extra dodge distance and speed. While not holding block, dodge grants Kerillian 10% power level for 2 seconds. The dodge distance/speed portion of this talent is totally overkill, as most elf weapons already have very good dodge status, plus Handmaiden already has the passive The Dance of Seasons . The power level portion on paper is decent, in terms of pure DPS performance it's similar to Willow Stance . However, the 2 sec duration means you need to spam dodge none stop to have a good uptime on this, which is not ideal as you want to time your dodge for actual threatening attacks. Usually outperformed by other two options for either utility or DPS purpose.
Wraith-Walk	Kerillian's dodges can now pass through enemies.	Extremely strong but niche utility Mechanically, one of the most broken talents in the game. Combine with the low cooldown Dash , high stamina regen from Renewal , and block cost reduction from items and Birch Stance , they make Handmaiden pretty much unkillable except disablers, and even for them, she can still pick Gift of Ladrielle to greatly reduce their threat. This combo makes Handmaiden one of the best career in the game to clutch, survive and finish the objective on some extremely high difficulty settings. However, all other pieces in this high survivability combo are either passive/perk or talents that don't have too many competitions in the row. In addition, the full combo is really overkill for most difficulties in the game, making Wraith-Walk less attractive in most of the game modes.

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part III)

LeveL 25 Row

Heart of Oak	Increases max health by 15.0%.	Low use case defensive talent Stack multiplicatively with the Health property on necklace and Warrior Priest talent Prayer of Hardiness . Due to fairly low base HP and lack of damage reduction, this talent only provides 18.75-22.5 effective HP most of the time. The best argument for this talent is that it allows you to tank one elite overhead in Cataclysm or Legend with two Grimores and 33% curse resistance, but only when you are full HP. This is an very edge case, and makes it usually worse than other defensive talent on this row.
Birch Stance	Reduces block cost by 30.0%.	High use case defensive talent Same effect as the block cost reduction property on melee weapon/necklace. Stack additively. Allowing Handmaiden to achieve staggering 90% BCR, basically makes it impossible to be guard broken. With 90% BCR, once you hold block, pretty much the only way to be damaged is from specials and pushed by a bunch of elites. Even if you are not going for the unbreakable block route, you can still trade a defensive property on your weapon for an offensive one, as this talent provides the same value as the BCR property. Overall most valuable talent on this row.
Quiver of Plenty	Increases ammunition amount by 40.0%.	Low use case utility talent The increased ammo capacity works with all ammo related Traits. Does not work with Moonfire Bow. Since Handmaiden is a melee focus career with no innate ammo regen talents/mechanics, she should only use range weapons to help with special snipe. Usually running Conservative Shooter is enough to cover those usages plus the existence of ammo crate on the map, but this talent can still help when the player is still in the process of riding off the over shooting habit. This by itself should be something solved by improving play style, plus the existence of two infinite ammo range weapons - Javelin and Moonfire Bow, making the use case of this talent extremely niche.

LeveL 30 Row

Gift of Ladrielle	Kerillian disappears from enemy perception for 2 seconds after using Dash.	Utility and higher combat uptime During the 2 seconds of invisibility, Kerillian can also walk/dodge through enemies. No actions will break the invisibility. Beside the obvious function of getting away from enemies easily, Gift of Ladrielle has a lot of other usage. It makes dash-revive much safer, other enemies won't be swinging at you and revived teammates. You can dash and use range weapon to snipe specials without worrying about getting hit while you can't block. And lastly, since you are invisible, this is basically just a 2 second window for you to use the melee weapon freely, like hunting down an elite/special inside horde or doing some safe and easy damage during a patrol fight. Because of that, this talent also turns Concentration potion into a damage increase item by increasing your melee uptime. Overall, the default choice for this talent row. Provide tons of utilities and options during your gameplay.
Bladedancer	Dashing through an enemy causes them to bleed for significant damage over time.	Pure horde focus damage boost The bleed last 4 sec, can only have 1 stack, has a base tickrate of per 0.25 sec(average tickrate). Cannot apply bleed to armoured enemies unless Handmaiden has Strength potion effect. The damage potential of this talent is amazing. However, Handmaiden career skill hitbox is fairly small, making it quite hard to hit a lot of units. At the same time, in order to maximize this talent you are encouraged to dash through as many enemies as possible, which can expose you to unfavourable positions. And lastly, not being able to damage armoured units without a potion makes the use case of this talent even more limited.
Power from Pain	Each enemy hit with Dash grants 5.0% critical strike chance for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.	High uptime all around DPS boost When using career skill again before previous buff stacks expire, buff duration will be refreshed and new gained buff stacks will be added on top of old stacks. Since the crit duration is only 5 sec shorter than base career skill cooldown, and Handmaiden has access to a lot of high cleave weapons to farm cooldown on hit easily, this talent can permanently provide crit chance to you if you are willing to use your career skill on cooldown. Compare to Bladedancer , you only need to dash through 5 enemies to get max value, and crit chance increase DPS on all types of enemies including armoured elites, it is usually the preferred option for DPS purpose on this row.

---Shade----

Career General Overview

Career Orientation

A melee focus career with strong melee burst damage.

Pros: High melee burst damage. Has escape tool that does not use resource built-in.
Cons: Low crowd control ability as a melee focus career. Low Health/Damage Reduction as a melee focus career.

Basic Stats

Base HP: 100
Career Skill Cooldown: 70 sec
Has 10% base Critical Strike chance
Unusable Weapons: Spear and Shield, Deepwood Staff

Perks

Dagger in the Dark	Melee Attacks from stealth are always critical. Works with all types of stealth, including Chaos Waste Potion of Stealth effect.
Blur	Parrying an Attack and quickly Dodging grants Kerillian Stealth for a short period. After blocking an attack with Timed Block, dodge within 1.5 sec grants you stealth for 1.5 sec. You can walk through enemies during stealth. The extended stealth will instantly break after one attack.
Murderous Prowess	Charged Critical Backstabs instantly slay man-sized enemies. Javelin charged melee attack also counted. Man-sized enemies include all enemies without health bar except Chaos Warrior and Wargor.

Career Skill & Passive

Infiltrate	Kerillian becomes undetectable, gain bonus damage and can pass through enemies. Lasts for 5 seconds, or until she attacks.	Landing an attack on enemy breaks the stealth. Only melee attacks benefit from the bonus damage. For dual-wield melee attacks, both attacks receive a damage bonus. The bonus damage can be boosted/stack with all types of buff like Strength Potion/lvl15 talents/Headshot, except her passive Assassin's Blade . The bonus damage amount is dependent on which melee attack it is applied to. The stronger the original attack is, the higher bonus damage will be applied.
Assassin's Blade	Double damage when attacking enemies from behind with melee attacks.	Providing 100% additional damage when backstabing. Damage increase is only related with attack base damage. It is not affected by Headshot/Critical Strike/Strength Potion/Infiltrate

Weapon Infiltrate Damage Tier List(Against Monster Enemies)

Damage Rank	Weapon/Attack
1	Dual Daggers - Heavy Attacks Sword & Dagger - Heavy Attack 2
2	Elven Axe - Heavy Attacks Sword - Heavy Attacks
3	Elven Spear - Heavy Attack 2
4	Javelin - Heavy Attack
5	Dual Swords - Heavy Attacks
6	Great Sword - Heavy Attack 1
7	Glaive - Heavy Attack 2

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part I)

LeveL 5 Row

Sting	Melee strike restores 0.5 temporary health. Melee Critical Strikes and Headshots instead restore 2. Critical Headshots restores 4.	Can only be triggered once per weapon swing. Dual wield attacks can trigger twice. Should only be used with Sword and Dagger/Dual Daggers/Axe when you have extremely high headshot rate but can't get enough melee elites kill at the same time.
Execute	Killing an enemy with Melee Attack restores Temporary Health. Killing more dangerous enemies grants more Temporary Health.	Can be triggered multiple times per attack. Does not include melee explosion kills or melee DoT kills. Shade is one of the best elite killer in the game, Should pick this talent most of the time.
Carve	Damaging multiple enemies in one Melee Attack grants Temporary Health.	Provide 1 THP when hitting one unit. First 5 units you hit grants 1 THP per unit per hit. Next 5 units grants 0.5 THP per unit per hit. Caps out at 10 unit per hit/7.5 THP per swing. Dual wield attacks can trigger twice. Should only be used when you can't get enough melee elites kill.

LeveL 10 Row

Cruelty	Increases critical strike damage bonus by 50%.	Consistent boost for Infiltrate Same as 50% Crit Power. Increases extra damage you deal when landing a critical hit, not total critical hit damage. Works for both melee and range attacks. Since Infiltrate grants first attack 100% Critical Chance, it is a very good consistent damage boost for Boss bursting purpose. And thanks to Elf weapons' high average base crit damage, it also provides a decent DPS increase in other situations.
Exploit Weakness	Increases damage by 20% to poisoned or bleeding enemies.	Consistent damage boost for few builds with specific weapon choices The attack that applies the Poison/Bleed effect also benefits from Exploit Weakness. The poison/bleed effect on the enemies does not need to be applied by Shade. But only Shade benefits from the damage boost. The 20% damage boost can increase Infiltrate damage similar amount compares to Cruelty . However, due to the nature of Infiltrate, it requires the player to apply Poison/Bleed effect before using Infiltrate, as all strong melee attacks that receive the most amount of Infiltrate damage do not apply bleed/poison by themselves. Overall only builds that utilize Dual Daggers and/or Hagbane Shortbow can benefit from this talent consistently.
Exquisite Huntress	Headshots increases headshot damage bonus by 10.0% for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 10 times.	Extremely high damage boost that requires good executions Stacks can be acquired from hitting either the head or the neck of an enemy. The damage bonus is applied to both melee attacks and range attacks, but does not work on neck hit. Both melee attacks and range attacks can refresh this talent's duration. Scoring multiple headshots with one attack grants multiple stacks. For dual-wielded attacks, each individual attack can score stacks. Since Elf weapons have high average base headshot damage, with a decent headshot rate, this talent can provide the overall highest amount of DPS in all situations on the level 10 row. However, it can be hard to set up 10 stacks and then land a headshot while using Infiltrate, so even though its Boss burst potential is the highest, it is also the hardest to pull off.

LeveL 15 Row

Smiter	The first enemy hit always counts as staggered. Deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 40% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.	Increase your melee single target DPS. However, with a high base Critical Strike chance & decent headshot rate, it is inferior to Assassin most of the time. Plus, Assassin provides a much higher horde damage boost and Infiltrate damage boost. Should be avoided most of the time.
Assassin	Deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Headshots and critical hits instead inflict 40% bonus damage, as do strikes against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.	Increase your melee single target DPS greatly and a bit horde clear. With a high base Critical Strike chance & decent headshot rate, it is better than Smiter most of the time. Plus Assassin provides a much higher horde damage boost as the critical strike damage boost work on all enemies you cleaved instead of the first one. It also gives a higher boost to Infiltrate, as the first strike after Infiltrate is always a Critical Strike. Should be picked mosf of the time.
Enhanced Power	Increases total Power Level by 7%. This is calculated before other buffs are applied.	Increases power level by 7.5%. As a power boost, it increases your damage/stagger/cleave. Increase both your melee and range damage. Does not benefit a melee focus career as much as other talents. Should be avoided.

Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part II)

LeveL 20 Row

Chain Killer	Successive Charged Backstabs increase Backstab Damage by 25% for 5 seconds. This effect can stack up to 2 times.	Low use case damage boost The Backstab Damage increase does not work with the charged backstab that triggers it. Can only get 1 stack per attack, even with dual-wield attacks. Due to the nature of enemy agro, it is hard to pull off backstabs except during pacing or horde fighting. Even if trying to use backstab from stealth or with Shimmer Strike , Shade can already instant kill man-sized enemy with her perk. Plus this talent doesn't provide any meaningful backstab kill breakpoints, this talent is only useful for long last single target fights, like Boss and Lord.
Focused Slaying	Killing an enemy with a Backstab grants Cooldown reduction for 3 seconds.	High use case utility After killing an enemy with melee backstab, grants 100% of cooldown regen for 3 seconds. Duration can be refreshed. Regenerate an extra 3 sec of cooldown during that 3 seconds window. A good cooldown talent to increase both your damage output and survivability, especially when paring with Shimmer Strike .
Bloodfletcher	Backstabs return 1 bolt or arrow. Can trigger once every 2 seconds.	Good ammo sustain for special sniping purpose Does not work with Moonfire Bow. Can farm ammo fairly consistently during pacing/Boss fight, or when paring it with Shimmer Strike . Dual wield attacks like Dual Daggers heavy attacks cannot refund 2 ammo. Enough to farm ammo to sustain for special sniping weapons like Longbow or reduce the recall pressure on Javelin. But it doesn't give enough range resources to spam some horde clear weapons like Volley Crossbow/Hagbane Shortbow.

LeveL 25 Row

Blood Drinker	Critical hits reduces damage taken by 20% for 5 seconds.	High consistency damage reduction during engage Due to Shade high base crit chance and fast Elf weaponry, this talent has basically 100% coverage during fights. Damage reduction gives you more leverage when fighting horde and tanking special damage like gas/blight. However, even with this talent activated Shade is still very squishy, still cannot tank an Elite overhead with full health on Cataclysm. High floor, low ceiling. Good for complicated fighting scenario.
Spring-Heeled Assassin	Critical hits increases movement speed by 20% for 5 seconds.	High consistency movbility during engage Due to Shade high base crit chance and fast Elf weaponry, this talent has basically 100% coverage during fights. Movement speed gives you an easier time at evading enemy attacks, as you can move out of their hitbox or move to a more favourable fighting position easier. It also allows you to backstab elites easier during Shimmer Strike since you need to catch up elites while they are running away due to the lack of agro. However, if the fight does not allow you to move around easily, or you fail to evade attacks, this talent's value drops severely. Low floor, high ceiling. Good for fighting in the open area and experienced players to evade & position better.
Gladerunner	Increases movement speed by 10%.	All time consistent movbility Like Spring-Heeled Assassin , it's a talent made for mobility. However, it has a lower movement speed bonus but 100% uptime, making it worse at evading enemy attacks during massive fights or back during Shimmer Strike , but better at finding backstab/items during pacing or speed run. This talent can also bring the side effect of being out of position/far away from your team too easily when there are no horde fights.

LeveL 30 Row

Shimmer Strike	Leaving Infiltrate grants Kerillian Stealth for 3 seconds. Killing an elite or a special enemy extends this effect by 1 second.	Mass man-sized elites/mass special focus Stealth can be extended by melee/range/bomb killing special or elite enemies. As long as the attack from stealth killed a special or elite, even if it hits other units simultaneously and fails to kill those units, you will still be in stealth and stealth duration is extended. The extended stealth will instantly break if the next attack that lands on an enemy fails to extend the stealth duration. With the perk Dagger in the Dark and Murderous Prowess , this talent allows Shade to execute as many man-sized elites or specials as possible in its duration. Combine with talent Focused Slaying , you can do it very often on high difficulties. You can also use this talent to snipe multiple specials from safety, but it requires you to oneshot kill them.
Hungry Wind	Leaving Infiltrate grants Kerillian 10% movement speed and 15% Power with the ability to pass through enemies for 10 seconds. Infiltrate no longer grants bonus damage.	Horde focus As a power boost, it increases your damage/stagger/cleave. The power boost also increases the damage of the stealth attack that triggers it. Provides good horde clear DPS boost. The movement speed and phase walk also allow you to evade enemy attacks, move to favourable horde fighting position or pick up elites inside horde without dropping agro easier.
Cloak of Pain	When the initial Infiltrate ends, a second(and final) Infiltrate is triggered.	Boss and Chaos Warrior focus Allows two attacks being buffed by Infiltrate damage bonus. Can deal huge Boss/Lord damage, or delete at least two Chaos Warriors with ease.

Appendix 1: Career Skill Cooldown and Cooldown On Hit/Damage Taken Table

Career	Career Skill Cooldown (seconds)	Cooldown on hit (seconds per hit)	Cooldown on damage taken (seconds per damage taken)
Mercenary	90	0.5	0.5
Huntsman	90	0.3	0.4
Foot Knight	30	0.25	0.5
Grail Knight	60	0.25	0.25
Ranger Veteran	120	0.3	0.3
Ironbreaker	120	0.25	0.5
Slayer	40	0.5	0.1
Outcast Engineer	60/90	0	0
Waystalker	80	0.35	0.3
Handmaiden	20	0.25	0.5
Shade	70	0.5	0.2
Sister of the Thorns	40	0.3	0.4
Witch Hunter Captain	90	0.5	0.2
Bounty Hunter	70	0.25	0.3
Zealot	50	0.5	0.2
Warrior Priest of Sigmar	70	0.25	0.25
Battle Wizard	50	0.25	0.5
Pyromancer	50	0.25	0.3
Unchained	120	0.25	0.5
Necromancer	110	0.25	0.25

Appendix 2: Execute Temporary Health Table

Enemy	Temporary Health gain
Skaven Slave	1
Clan Rat/Explosive Loot Rat	2
Storm Vermin/Plague Monk/Skaven Specials/Loot Rat	8
Fanatic/Ungor	1.5
Marauder/Gor/Ethereal Skeleton (Shield)	3
Life Leech/Blight Stormer	10
Mauler/Savage/Bestigor/Wargor/Ethereal Skeleton (Hammer)	15
Chaos Warrior	30
Chaos Warrior with Shield	35
Boss/Lord	50

Sample Builds - Legend

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2034609078

Sample Builds - Cataclysm

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1833337461

DLC Careers Guides

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2139200953
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2292294726
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2488049991
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2664977356
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3052042094

[johnjik9]

Thanks for continuing to makes these guides. I wouldn't be able to play twitch cata 300 without them.