Question on Shadow Warrior buffs...

[Coercion 0]

ok, I am playing on the 360 version now with some RL friends, rolled SW, playing with an HE and a SE.

 

ive gone with..

tactics lore

dual weild

Death warrior focus

armor love

constitution

malev warrior focus

combat discipline

toughess

and combat reflexes

 

but now I am considering dropping combat reflexes for astral lord focus, I am planning on putting in 9 or so points to max out the nether allegiance, so I have 4 soldiers. (im planning on using all 3 buffs)

 

then I will use as many runes as possible to make them stronger

 

is this a good idea? to me it seems better than combat reflexes, I am going to be doing boss runs, campaign, and pvp, it seems like a good idea, could use some opinions.

 

(I havnt put a point into either skill yet)

[Knuckles 904]

If you want the Skeletons to be effective you'll have to invest a lot more than 9 points in Astral Focus. Otherwise you'll have to read a huge amount of runes to offset the CA level penalty. Putting points in Astral Focus is the only way to increase it's level higher before hitting the penalty.

 

Since you already are using Death Warrior and Malevolent - are you using the buffs from those 2 aspects?. If you are planning on using them you'll also need to have Concentration. You need this skill just to have 2 buffs active at once, and will need it at level 75 to have 3.

 

Without knowing exactly what Combat Arts/buffs you are planning to use from Death Warrior and Malevolent Champion it's a little hard to offer advice. Having a 3 Aspect build is doable, but it is one of the harder builds to make work.

 

I would go with Combat Reflexes, or Concentration (if you want more than one buff active).

[Coercion 0]

If you want the Skeletons to be effective you'll have to invest a lot more than 9 points in Astral Focus. Otherwise you'll have to read a huge amount of runes to offset the CA level penalty. Putting points in Astral Focus is the only way to increase it's level higher before hitting the penalty.

 

Since you already are using Death Warrior and Malevolent - are you using the buffs from those 2 aspects?. If you are planning on using them you'll also need to have Concentration. You need this skill just to have 2 buffs active at once, and will need it at level 75 to have 3.

 

Without knowing exactly what Combat Arts/buffs you are planning to use from Death Warrior and Malevolent Champion it's a little hard to offer advice. Having a 3 Aspect build is doable, but it is one of the harder builds to make work.

 

I would go with Combat Reflexes, or Concentration (if you want more than one buff active).

 

well I have concentration, so I am using the 2 other buffs as of now. yeah I know I need 75 to get to use 3

 

If you want the Skeletons to be effective you'll have to invest a lot more than 9 points in Astral Focus. Otherwise you'll have to read a huge amount of runes to offset the CA level penalty. Putting points in Astral Focus is the only way to increase it's level higher before hitting the penalty.

 

Since you already are using Death Warrior and Malevolent - are you using the buffs from those 2 aspects?. If you are planning on using them you'll also need to have Concentration. You need this skill just to have 2 buffs active at once, and will need it at level 75 to have 3.

 

Without knowing exactly what Combat Arts/buffs you are planning to use from Death Warrior and Malevolent Champion it's a little hard to offer advice. Having a 3 Aspect build is doable, but it is one of the harder builds to make work.

 

I would go with Combat Reflexes, or Concentration (if you want more than one buff active).

well, I have concentration now, heres the skills I am planning on getting, if I drop combat reflex's for astral lord focus

 

Tactics

Armour lore

Dualwield

DW focus

MV focus

Combat Discipline

Concentration

constitution

toughness

Astral lord focus

 

I am not planning on using any other astral lord skills, besides the buff, so can I just read a massive amount of runes to give them a high level? is there a limit, I dont care how it effects my other cool downs. it sucks cuz in this game you cant respec your points lol.

 

basically what I want is a strong SW, but I also want 4 strong minions as well, was it a mistake taking both other focus's? can I salvage this charactor? im only 39 so I am not above restarting him, but if I can make it work I want to.

 

could you post a build of what you think I am going for?

 

thanks for all your help

[Knuckles 904]

The build is definitely salvageable

 

You can run 3 Aspects and buffs....just that this will take awhile to really get going.

 

Having 3 buffs running will have a big impact on your attack Combat Arts regen. So if you want strong Skeletons, then you want to keep putting points in Astral Focus. The good thing about this is the other 2 buffs really make you into a tank so you can assign more points to your Focuses instead of Defensive skills. Don't know which 'Attack CA' you are using but Frenzied Rampage works well with Dual Wield. It has a longer regen (compared to DB or SS), plus several hits. This makes the mod " regen per hit +x.x secs" very useful.

 

So if I was making this build I would invest the majority of my points into Tactics and the 3 Focuses. Also getting Constitution to level 75 will really help. I usually try to get Const to level 75 fairly quickly then I won't put more points into for awhile. I would use FR as my attack and only increase it's level thru socketing or equip. On FR slect the mods for 'double hit'.

 

I would set the Skeletons to 'medium-range' at first and if you're comfortable with the amount of enemies they draw in, then you could increase to 'Spread out'. Also have them 'attack individually'. This will allow them to draw aggro on the most enemies. Also letting them range in front of you and engage enemy first will help keep enemy aggro off you.

 

I probably wouldn't go for a special mount as FR animation is sooo slow while mounted. If you want to increase his run speed you can easily find gear with that mod.

[Coercion 0]

The build is definitely salvageable

 

You can run 3 Aspects and buffs....just that this will take awhile to really get going.

 

Having 3 buffs running will have a big impact on your attack Combat Arts regen. So if you want strong Skeletons, then you want to keep putting points in Astral Focus. The good thing about this is the other 2 buffs really make you into a tank so you can assign more points to your Focuses instead of Defensive skills. Don't know which 'Attack CA' you are using but Frenzied Rampage works well with Dual Wield. It has a longer regen (compared to DB or SS), plus several hits. This makes the mod " regen per hit +x.x secs" very useful.

 

So if I was making this build I would invest the majority of my points into Tactics and the 3 Focuses. Also getting Constitution to level 75 will really help. I usually try to get Const to level 75 fairly quickly then I won't put more points into for awhile. I would use FR as my attack and only increase it's level thru socketing or equip. On FR slect the mods for 'double hit'.

 

I would set the Skeletons to 'medium-range' at first and if you're comfortable with the amount of enemies they draw in, then you could increase to 'Spread out'. Also have them 'attack individually'. This will allow them to draw aggro on the most enemies. Also letting them range in front of you and engage enemy first will help keep enemy aggro off you.

 

I probably wouldn't go for a special mount as FR animation is sooo slow while mounted. If you want to increase his run speed you can easily find gear with that mod.

 

if im just gonna use FR, shouldnt I just do a build without DW focus, since im not really gonna spam a skill from that tree? that way I can put more points into other places?

 

in other games ive played its usually better not to spread yourself thin between 2 different aspects, so would it be better to put alot into malev, and not do death war focus, so I can have an extremely short cool down for FR?

Edited July 6, 2009 by Coercion

[Knuckles 904]

DWF is worth it just for Grim Resilience. You can go without it but if you do I would suggest get Spell Resistance in it's place.

[Coercion 0]

DWF is worth it just for Grim Resilience. You can go without it but if you do I would suggest get Spell Resistance in it's place.

well, should I put just enough into it to get grim resil maxed out, and just enough into astral lord to max out that buff, then I can have tons of points for my other aspects, and still get the really good buffs?

 

 

since im not using any other skills in that tree besides grim resil, and in astral lord other than that minion buff, does that mean I can just read alot of runes for those 2 buffs? like, what is the limit on that, it wont effect the cool downs of other trees right?

 

that way my only attack is FR, and I can put many points into it, and have a really short cool down, that way I dont need to waste points in the other 2 trees

 

then I can stack all those saved points into dual weild, tactics, and malev

Edited July 6, 2009 by Coercion

[Knuckles 904]

Any active buffs will effect regens on any CA you execute. So without having Death and Astral focuses at a reasonably high level, you will incur a regen malus much sooner and more severe with GR and NA going. So even though you're only going to use buffs, they still have have an impact on FR. It really just is a matter of managing you skill point allotment.

 

I hesitate to say you must have this Buff at a certain level or this CA at a certain regen. Your play style may be much different than mine. Typically if a particular Buff is central to my build than that Aspect Focus will be one of my highest skills. The higher the focus, the higher the level buff without penalty, thus less runes read and also less regen malus to my other Combat Arts

[nilihanth 0]

This whole build puzzles me, honestly, no offense. It probably only puzzles me because our playing styles are much different.

 

It sounds like you're more interested in having the minions do the fighting than your toon is, which makes me wonder why even bother with Dual Wield which is pure offense. You said you'd probably just use one attack, FR, which does work very well with Dual Wield, but I wonder if just skipping DWield and going for the more defensive approach would be more efficient.

 

As far as the way you're going, there's nothing wrong with it at all, so don't get me wrong. What I see you doing with your build is being mostly defensive, letting yourself be a bit of a tank while still fighting and letting your minions do the most damage. You definitely should be focusing on all 3 aspects the way you're going with this, which does seem to sort of spread yourself thin, but what Knuckles has been saying has been right on point too. You'll be a decent party member with that build I imagine, being a quasi-tank, quasi-minion master. Not terribly strong in any aspect or play-style but being a sort of all-around guy.

 

Almost no build is a "bad" build, as the game really allows you to play the way you like to play. I like how Shadow Warrior class has the ability to be an offensive beast, Party support defensive tank, and even a spellcaster with minions.

[Coercion 0]

Any active buffs will effect regens on any CA you execute. So without having Death and Astral focuses at a reasonably high level, you will incur a regen malus much sooner and more severe with GR and NA going. So even though you're only going to use buffs, they still have have an impact on FR. It really just is a matter of managing you skill point allotment.

 

I hesitate to say you must have this Buff at a certain level or this CA at a certain regen. Your play style may be much different than mine. Typically if a particular Buff is central to my build than that Aspect Focus will be one of my highest skills. The higher the focus, the higher the level buff without penalty, thus less runes read and also less regen malus to my other Combat Arts

 

hmm, ok, but...having high death war focus, doesnt help FR right? I know that if I put alot of runes on grim resil, it will hurt FR, but I dont think that stacking points into DWF will help any malev skills

 

 

 

ok I tested it and it does...BUT it seems that just stacking those same points into malev would help more than spreading them between the three

 

 

also, can you explain the limitations on the amount of runes you can use on 1 skill?

 

 

This whole build puzzles me, honestly, no offense. It probably only puzzles me because our playing styles are much different.

 

It sounds like you're more interested in having the minions do the fighting than your toon is, which makes me wonder why even bother with Dual Wield which is pure offense. You said you'd probably just use one attack, FR, which does work very well with Dual Wield, but I wonder if just skipping DWield and going for the more defensive approach would be more efficient.

 

As far as the way you're going, there's nothing wrong with it at all, so don't get me wrong. What I see you doing with your build is being mostly defensive, letting yourself be a bit of a tank while still fighting and letting your minions do the most damage. You definitely should be focusing on all 3 aspects the way you're going with this, which does seem to sort of spread yourself thin, but what Knuckles has been saying has been right on point too. You'll be a decent party member with that build I imagine, being a quasi-tank, quasi-minion master. Not terribly strong in any aspect or play-style but being a sort of all-around guy.

 

Almost no build is a "bad" build, as the game really allows you to play the way you like to play. I like how Shadow Warrior class has the ability to be an offensive beast, Party support defensive tank, and even a spellcaster with minions.

well, its not that at all really, I want to get the most out of my build as possible, if this idea goes how I want it to, ill have strong fast melee, really strong buffs, and minions for crowd control, with no wasted points

Edited July 6, 2009 by Coercion

[Knuckles 904]

Putting points in DWF will reduce GR's "regen penalty to all other Combat Arts" stat, but other than than it will not affect FR or any other Malevolent Combat Arts. If you are not going to use GR as a primary part of your build then you could put more points into Malevolent.

 

As far as limitations on one skill. AFAIK the is no limit on how many runes can be read for any of the SW Combat Arts. Biggest factor would be finding the runes/cost of coverting and max level of CA without penalty

[Coercion 0]

Putting points in DWF will reduce GR's "regen penalty to all other Combat Arts" stat, but other than than it will not affect FR or any other Malevolent Combat Arts. If you are not going to use GR as a primary part of your build then you could put more points into Malevolent.

 

As far as limitations on one skill. AFAIK the is no limit on how many runes can be read for any of the SW Combat Arts. Biggest factor would be finding the runes/cost of coverting and max level of CA without penalty

 

so maybe I want some points in there, that way I can put more runes into it without penalty?

 

also,how should I modify nether allegiance, I know I want to do, +1 soldier, +1 soldier, but what about the last point? should I go health regen or armor, I was thinking regen, but I dont know whats better at higher lvls.

 

 

ah, and 1 more thing, how should I do my attributes, I want to go 100% strength, BUT ive seen alot of high level SW's with a whole lot of will power, is it all from gear or what?

Edited July 6, 2009 by Coercion

[Knuckles 904]

The only way to increase CA level before hitting penalty is by increasing it's Aspect Focus. You can keep reading runes into that CA past the penalty level but you will only get a partial level increase for each one read.

 

I've only used NA for aggro or a 'meat shield' so I'm not sure which mod is best. But just thinking on it I would take Armor mod...if they die they resurrect anyways after a short time. (p.s. skeletons continue to draw aggro while 'dead', very handy when fighting bosses)

 

The high Willpower you see on many SW's is from the GR buff. It gives a huge bonus to it. I typically go all Str until I get 2 Attribute points per level. Then depending on build I'll put one point in Str and the other in Vit or Sta (or Int if making a pure Astral build)

[Coercion 0]

The only way to increase CA level before hitting penalty is by increasing it's Aspect Focus. You can keep reading runes into that CA past the penalty level but you will only get a partial level increase for each one read.

 

I've only used NA for aggro or a 'meat shield' so I'm not sure which mod is best. But just thinking on it I would take Armor mod...if they die they resurrect anyways after a short time. (p.s. skeletons continue to draw aggro while 'dead', very handy when fighting bosses)

 

The high Willpower you see on many SW's is from the GR buff. It gives a huge bonus to it. I typically go all Str until I get 2 Attribute points per level. Then depending on build I'll put one point in Str and the other in Vit or Sta (or Int if making a pure Astral build)

 

 

ok, you have been extremely helpful, thanks alot

 

I am going to just add points to DWF and ALF as needed to increase those combat arts, and mainly focus on malev focus