Gimped shade?

[Lessurl]

For a laugh i started to level a shade and am gonna spec NO points in crit strike. Gimped? I think prolly, what do you guys think? May have been done before i dunno.

Reasons. Pa misses a lot on casters that know what they are doing (keep moving, turn a lot, strafe, don't run in a straight line, anything but sit or stand still ) also now that u can't remain stealthed after one shotting people cs is not as essential really. (i mean as it was, don't flame me on this point i know it's still good)

Main point is i wanted to be different (damn u anyone who's tried it before!! ) and thought it would be fun to play him in the bg, who knows maybe go all the way with him if he does ok in thid. And there's always the respec comin to fix him with if he does turn out gimped anyway. (probably more when than if )

Also pointers from other shades on specs would be nice. I don't really know much about shades not having levelled one very high.

Was thinking a lvl 50 end spec of Env 39 (look for + items to get lifebane) pierce 50 ste 38 CD 29 or maybe switch the stealth around with the CD as i wont be needing to sneak all the way up to people, can afford to be spotted b4 strike.
Oh yes, that's where my other noob shade question comes in, are the stealth abilities like climbin based on how much u have in stealth or on your level? If on spec then what do you get and when (will help to decide how far to take stealth) I have tried lookin on my char builder site and it neglects to mention this as far as i can see.

My thid spec which is what i'm mainly makin him for at the moment (only decided a 50 spec to make sure i didn't take any skills too far) will atm be
Ste 21 (look for +items) Env 22 (unless i can get a lowbie + item for that, but i really want the str/con debuff) CD 12 Pierce 11

Comments will be greatfully read, flames on how stupid this is etc. will be ignored as i'm only speccin this way for a laugh.

Cheers

 

[Whandall]

1) thats stoopid
2) noooooob
3) Stealth abilities are based on your base stealth
stealth 5(or so) danger sense
steatlh 10(think so) detect hidden
steatlh 20 safe fall 1
steatlh 25 climb walls
steatlh 30 safe fall 2
steatlh 40 safe fall 3
stealth 50 safe fall 4(not needed)
Im quite sure i mixed things up here so plz correct me
4)
5) Youll gonna die without the pa and cd chain - dont think you can oneshot in rvr without so you wouldnt get away from teh zerg fast enough
6)Dont play alts - better help me exp
7)Good luck with that try m8ty

 

[Lessurl]

OK a few useful replys there, thanks whan m8.

Stealth 25 is the min i want then, so either of my spec ideas have that (which u didn't discuss btw ).

Other point, he's not meant to one shot people, he's gonna be a mini stealth bm with poison.
Another point is he wont have to jump people to be at full potential, so long as i keep daggers poisoned even if someone spots me and hits me i can go straight into melee and beat the crap outta him (hopefully)
I think with correct ra's he may work, but then again i'm a shade noob and know nothing.

 

[Whandall]

hehe i didnt discuss your specc cause its not bad(for what you plan)

Btw we are stilll recruiting *cough*

Ohh and i just found a post about that speccidea on ign nightshade class board.......

IGN CS less Shade

 

[Chameleon]

Interesting spec idea. Imho though, the way I find most fights go is ...... 'PA chain+dot+stat debuff' gets the enemy down to about 40% of their health, the remaining 40% is made considerably easier by the fact that you have stunned them for a few seconds. By the time they come out of stun, they dont have enough health to get away, let alone fight back and win. Without PA, I'm not sure you will do enough initial damage and avoid taking damage (due to stun) enough to win fights, but I could be wrong.
My own unmodified end spec will be:

Pierc 37
CS 44
Stealth 40
Envenom 38

Pierc, Stealth and Env can be modified to 50 each, with CS 44 giving complete PA chain, plus 4th evade style. These both give you the stuns you need to win fights.

Interesting to test out your spec tho, and as u say, u can always respec.

Zen

 

[Whandall]

Soloing will get hard i think without pa-cd cause your evade sucks till lvl 30 and you wont get a high dodger too soon

 

[Alkoran]

I would advise putting only 25 into stealth, maybe letting it autotrain a bit first, since you won't really be very reliant on it. This spec will not make a great scout assasin or other solo type, but will be very useful in groups. With good CD and weapon spec. you'll provide some serious high speed damage, without requiring stealth.
In large keep raids, you don't need high stealth to climb walls and beat on those inside (once climed a wall, attacked someone, fell off the wall inside, ran around maddly amongst the albs in the courtyard until I reallised no-one was trying to kill me, wandered up the steps, stabbed someone on the way past and jumped off the wall, all without stealth )
Also with 25 stealth you can scout forces without being seen as long as you have a good distance between you (because you're immune to that wonderful RA ) at my lvl I can watch the mile gates pretty easily(not that many pay heed to my reports ) oh and it's enough stealth to evade a zerg on occasions.
Pierce 50 might be a bit high, and more in CD might have a larger effect on your damage output.

 

[angrysquirrel]

keep lots of spare pre poisoned weaps in your inventory for mid battle changes and more poisons etc..dunno if it works but it may help

 

[censi]

Im far from a shade expert but have dabbled with a lvl 42 NS my m8 plays.

Far as I can tell a shade without PA chain is a bit like a ranger without a bow.

You arnt gonna kill much with just lifebane and pierce styles.

Theres a CS stun move thats essential to. But the PA 3 combo chain is a must....

best asking aeiedel iziz ebonn etc....

but I would defintly not specc like that...

bad time to roll characters now what with the pvp server coming.

And there wont be to many shades on that when you compare them to inf's and SB's..... still dont understand why they didnt give shades 2.5 level points and the inf's those crappy dd's....

all 3 assasin classes should be equallly effective. but their not.

 

[saltymcpepper]

id call this spec a "shado zerker" rofl

dont rely on cd cos the styles suck big pants.
if you want to play a non cs assasin make a la, stealth and evenom shadowblade aka shadow zerker.

 

[old.Charonel]

i agree with censi about all three assassins not being equal, as iziz said not long back "shades aren't gimped, they're a very balenced class, it's just infs and shadowblades that are overpowered that's all"

 

[Aeiedil]

so many points

i dont think this is a good idea, i use 1 non-CS move, and that is diamondback, the others i use are pa-chain, bsII-chain, garrotte-chain, and hamstring-chain. unlike the middie version you do not double-swing every time, even with a max spec in pierce. your extra 20% evade over a bm dosent compare with the parry and reinforced armour the bm gets, although the envenom would help a lot.

now that out the way, if i *was* to do one of these sorts of shades i would probably spec like this :

Race : 'keen, midgets rule full stop.
Stats : +10 dex\con\str

Stealth 30
only 30 spec is nessercary for climb walls and safe fall III, other than that there is not that much point to it because it will be a tool more than a weapon. the climb will let you annoy casters etc on walls, and the safe fall will let you jump off without getting hurt

Pierce 45
pierce is better than blades for this purpose because of the reaction styles. blades cant block parry etc (at least not if using 2 weapons, they can use a small shield but that negates the point of speccing CD). 44 spec will give you a 2-move med-stunning evade chain, and a 3-move anytime chain, aswell as great base damage

Envenom 37
minimum nessecary for lifebane based on rr4. +3 rr, +3 epic gem, +5 epic gloves, +2 master assassins pendant (old version). if nessacary can use +5 DF gem instead of the assassins pendant and epic gem, due to not needing the +3 CS that is on the epic gem (epic gem stats added in future patch)

CD 45
whatever, swingsalot

CS 5
leftovers, gives 2-move from-hidden BS chain

guess thats about it thoughts

 

[Kobold]

Umm, asassin without PA = dude without dick

I understand you're points about this wierdo shade, but leaving out CS and stealth ruins the whole point with the char imo

Sure will be better in groups though, could go for this spec to 50 and respec it when that comes

 

[Aeiedil]

i aint so sure eternal. it would require a different playstyle but should be viable, although personally you won't see me respeccing this way because i like my playstyle as it is, and i double-swing plenty

 

[Kobold]

Might be fun to try yeh.
Mainly it's BM (without the 3rd sword thingy) with crap armor, poison, bad stealth, climb wall, safe fall, less hp and a bit better evade. And ofcourse see hidden witch can be useful for a wannabe tank

Indeed nice idea, but donno if I would use the time to lvl a maybe uber gimped char to 50 though hehe

 

[Lessurl]

Originally posted by old.Eternal[EW]
Might be fun to try yeh.
Mainly it's BM (without the 3rd sword thingy) with crap armor, poison, bad stealth, climb wall, safe fall, less hp and a bit better evade. And ofcourse see hidden witch can be useful for a wannabe tank

Indeed nice idea, but donno if I would use the time to lvl a maybe uber gimped char to 50 though hehe

Don't know if i could be bothered levelling any char to 50 again.

So he will probably be just for a laugh in the bg, i think he'd be good vs assasins if you spot them too late to pa, but soon enough to turn so that they miss pa too, then would be a straight 1vs1 fight and he should come out on top as he is highly melee specced. And in a big pitched rvr battle he can muck in as he wont have to restealth to reach his max damage, just pause a sec to repoison or switch to some other prepoisoned blades.

p.s. thanks for the spec ideas aeiedil, can't remember why iwas gonna take pierce to 50, havin pierce and cd high is probably a better plan.

 

[Aeiedil]

the level 50 pierce style is a chain off a block, but if your dualing you have no shield to block with and 44 is plenty, with that you can easily get it to 54+

i might give the spec a try when 1.52 is testing

 

[censi]

just thought, one big big disadvantage of this type of spec.

Keep raids....

Assasins seem to rely on a hit and run (or hit and run and jump i should say) tactic.

You wouldnt have much impact hitting someone with lifebane on a pierce move alone...

One of the gr8 things about playing an assasin is climbing up those keeps and whacking people....

You would be rendering yourself near to useless on keep raids....

This spec makes you a bit stronger in a general toe to toe scrap, but severly hampers your ability to "assasinate" something... and as assasins you were born to assinate more than tank.

Think it would be a good grouping RvR specc though...

so as always this spec may work depending on what you want out of the game...

refreshing idea.

 

[Aeiedil]

i will probably respec on gorre to this spec to give it a go, hopefully people will be dueling ill also change my ra a little to reflect the changes, maybe by removing MoP 3, in favour of Dualists Reflexes 2, and maybe something else

 

[Lessurl]

Originally posted by Aeiedil
i will probably respec on gorre to this spec to give it a go, hopefully people will be dueling ill also change my ra a little to reflect the changes, maybe by removing MoP 3, in favour of Dualists Reflexes 2, and maybe something else

Let me know how it works out.