Help Needed for SB

[old.Jagang]

I have trawled through loads of forums, guides & templates and I would appreciate advice on my template for a shadowblade.

3 Templates I have come up with are:

CS 39
Venom 40
Stealth 40
Axe 29
LA 29

slight tweak depending on availability of envenom items

CS 39
Venom 45
Stealth 39
Axe 25
LA 25

or to go the 2h route

CS 39
Venom 45
Stealth 40
Axe 34

The first 2 i prefer as i want to be able to instantly add the dot & debuff poisons with equally good damage from both axes. But many have been saying how gimped LA is for us mids, so would the uber 2h backstab be a better option?

I guess i just need some clearing up on a few issues:
1) Availability of items to up envenom (aiming for Lifebane)
2) Is there any point in LA for dual wielding?
3) Fast dual or high dmg 2h?
IMO sb's should not try to pose as stealthed tanks by going for the zerkblade - hence the first 2 templates for dual-wield poison.

Please please can people help me on this.

 

[Killgorde]

Try this thread Jag m8

http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=26084754&replies=11

Regards

 

[old.Jagang]

Hehe still confused - im gonna ditch LA methinks, go for high CS / Axe with also high venom & stealth.

Maybe in a years time i might have actually got there

 

[old.anubis]

you should definitely burst your weapon, 25 is far too low, i would say 39 is the absolute minimum. you can sacrifice anything (for venom or whatever else) but not you weapon.
if you ever consider go for LA, go stright to 34 or even 39 (very nice styles there).

one more thing - stealth 36 is more than enough, at 50lvl with RR4 you will max it. and it is quite possible to have +9 envenom on items, so you dont need venom more than 38. i would skip lifebane though and put venom to 32 at max, you're not infiltrator

 

[old.Runolas]

As a SB I think you can choose 3 paths as the CritBlade, ZerkBlade or SoulBlade. What you choose is a matter preference.

There are two skills that does not do you any thing over 50+ that is envenom and stealth. Speccing more than 39 in those skill are imo a waist of skill points. Bringing stealth to 36 will probably do it as +stealth items are easy to find. This will give you a stealth of 47 at lvl 50 and that is good enough.

- Take stealth to 36
- Take envenom to 29 or 39

Imo 29 is enough, you can get 40 with realm ranks and items

A CritBlade would go: 44cs, 40sw, st36,en39 or 50cs, 41sw, st36, en29
A Zerkblade would go: 44la, 40ax, st36, en39 or 50la, 41ax, 36st, 29en
A SoulBlade would go: 39cs, 39la, 34ax, 36st, 29en

If you keep stealth and envenom as written you can specc la/ax and cs/sw as you like.

I’m going for the SoulBlade myself I have first specced it up to a CritBlade to lvl 40. At lvl 43.5 I will have la 34.

 

[old.Grymshadow]

I plan to enable lvl50 lifebane..PA/CD+480dmg..should kill most people off, and you can run away while they're under the 6sec stun

 

[old.igguk SZ]

Another good VN post for Shadowblades, more specificly shadowzerkers:

http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=30478849&page=1

do read page 2 aswell, some good tips there.

 

[old.stabba]

the creation guide was made during 1.48, keep that in mind. the + to envenom will be 9 after 1.49, it is not 9 atm, and as anubis pointed out 40 stewalth is too high id say 34-36, unlesss there is an opp cost that you dont want to have. LA is currently the best dual wield, and will be the most damaging combat line until 1.50. but ive read alot of posts saying that the CS line was nerfed aswell (directly or indrirectly people reporty alot more more misses on perf) if you go for a 2h with env template id say take CS to 44, since that style is to be our next and will prolly be something you want (especiallyas a 2h) further more i think id go wityh swords rather than axes since stay stealthed one-shots is out anyway, and swords do have a faster 2h speed than axes.
regarding you weapon specc id agree with anubis, as for LA id say 39 if you plan for the future (assuming dodger). but if i was you id leave LA alone, cause our CS styles is more likely to become a defining trait than LA (assuming mythic actually whould want classess to be distinguished from eachother) and thus be a better thing to pray for than LA fixes

 

[old.anubis]

as for me, i'll probably go like this:
stealth 36
envenom 33 (to get 45 DOT - the only poison to apply)
CS 39 (eventually will be around 50 - not bad cap)
axe 50 (<-- more important than CS)
(based on 2.2 pts and some autotrain in stealth)
mostly stick to 2h but in some cases switching to 1h/shield

after all the changes in 1.50 seems to be not bad as others
have not yet decided though, have only 1.5 lvl left to think where to go

[edit]
all those infiltrators eventually will switch to smth like this:
stealth 36
envenom 39 (lifebane )
CS 39
thrust 50 (dragonfang )
DW 20

 

[Zill]

I went down the path of the Critblade, as I believe this brings out the best in your SB. My current spec reads (with items in brackets) :-

Sword 29 (30) Stealth 37 (44) Crit Strike 45 (47) Envenom 18 (21)

I believe it's best to concentrate on 4 skills rather than 5 so you have a better chance of maximising your chosen skills.

 

[old.o'mally]

thx

havin just started an SB all the info was great

 

[old.Crategus]

yepp, same here, nice post...

<Bloody blows a kiss to you>