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Shadow Warrior - The Knight (1H-Wep & Shield)


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Shadow Warrior - The Knight (1H-Wep & Shield)

*Updated (02/02/14) - recommended gear & interesting fact about using this build in the expansion
Introduction:

This is an Shadow Warrior build for HC and done in Single Player with 15+ days worth of game time. Rayearth, plowed through the campaigns fast and hard. *Warning* Even the the gameplay is simple and generic. This type of character is fairly expensive/gear-dependent, building him made me detour into fully maturing my niob smith/shopper TE and my niob EP Pyromancer HE.

When you talk Shadow Warrior melee, there are FOUR things to be considered:
1. how hard you hit
2. how often you hit, what you wanna' hit
3. how often you get hit
4. how hard you get hit.

Skill Structure and Gear addresses priority 3 & 4. Your Combat Arts, the way they are modded plus the jewelry your shoppers get you will determine how hard you hit... but it is especially true with "how often you hit." - - this will be explained further along the guide.


Skill Selection:

FIRST PRIORITY (Skills that need to reach Mastery Level A.S.A.P.)

Level 2: Death Warrior Focus.pngDeath Warrior Focus - 75pts max

keep to your charlvl until you get Demonic Blow 2-3 secs regen, then increase accordingly

Level 3: Tactics Lore.pngTactics Lore - 100+ (100-125) pts
keep to your charlvl until level 75, enemies level with you and your damage needs to increase along with it. From experience, damage is only satisfactory at low levels and will take you long to kill champions from random trash mobs. Keep it 100, further pts added (if necessary) at the end for least priority.

Level 5: Armor Lore.pngArmor Lore - 75 pts
no brainer, any melee lass needs it. At level 75, DW focus, Tactics and this are the only skills recieving pts. Thus, they are the first 3 skills reaching Mastery level, except for Malevolent Focus (see below for details). Keep it 75, further pts added (if necessary) at the end for least priority.

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Level 8: Concentration.pngConcentration - 1pt Only

MC Focus & DW Focus at mastery + "+skills" will take care of the regen times, you only need this for 2 buffs. Any leftover pts. at the end can be invested here if you feel your regen is not to your liking. **personally, I doubt you'll need it.**

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SECOND PRIORITY

Level 12: Malevolent Champion Focus.pngMalevolent Champion Focus - 75 pts max.

up until the "level 75 grind," you only need enough points on here to fully mod 1-skill of your choice...that being Frenzied Rampage. Once the first priority skills are mastered build this up to make Frenzied Rampage spammable.


Level 18: Constitution.pngConstitution - 100+ (100-125) pts.
increase this according to your gut instinct, if you feel like you are getting overwhelmed by mobs or if your gonna be up against a really nasty boss then go ahead and increase it by all means. EVEN IF IT MEANS MESSING UP THE POINT ALLOCATION for the 1st priority skills. After all, there is no use building up a HC build, if you are gonna end up dead.


Level 25: Combat Discipline.pngCombat Discipline - 75 pts max
at mastery level we gain -20% regen + chunky damage goodness from any skill/skills in a combo. Master this before even touching skill 8, 9 and 10 (which should all be at 1pt up until Combat Discipline is mastered)

THIRD PRIORITY (What Makes a Tank, a Tank...)

Level 35, 50 & 65:
**There is no real order, this will be up to your preference. Whether you gradually increase all 3 skills to mastery, or you prioritize one over the other is up to you as a player**

Toughness.pngToughness - 150+ (150-200) pts

You're a melee toon built to be tough so go crazy on this. I personally maxed mine at end game but I got it to 75 first, and mastered the last 2 skills before adding on to it

**I don't think I can provide a reasoning as sensible and more convincing as Kaiden's, which is why I'm gonna quote this passage from his guide.**



Combat Reflexes.pngCombat Reflexes - 75pts
Serious Damage mitigation. At 75 pts, not only do you have a 48.3% Evade chance, but a 64.3% chance to avoid critical hits from weapons. There's a 12% evade jump from 74 to 75pts, and then diminishing returns start to kick in, where as the avoid critical hit chance seems to remain steadily decreasing from 50+pts without any significant jump. Granted, Maxing this will bump the critical hit avoidance up about 15% and the evade chance up 13%, this can be raised via +skills items. If I have the points, I may take this to 100pts for 53.4% evade and 70.9% avoid Criticals.


Spell Resistance.pngSpell Resistance - 75pts
This is essentially "Combat Reflexes" for spell damage. At 75 p At skill level 75, this skill adds another bonus, it reduces "Detrimental Effects" of spells. Extra points may find their way here, but 75pts is a definite, leaving the only vulnerability on this character in the form of ranged damage and criticals. Several threads seem to dismiss Spell Resistance for a Shadow Warrior because of Grim Resilience and it's willpower bonus which increases Spell Resistance. What Willpower does not do, and the skill Spell Resistance does, is reduce the chance for spell criticals by 64.3% and reduces the detrimental effects of spells by 35.6% at level 75. Think "35.6% Less weaken effects, 35.6% less hold/stun/root time, 35.6% more Hitpoints when that scorpion boss digs in and ruins all your HC living fun" Also remember, ALL Combat Arts are "Spells".

Stat Allocation:

50/50 ratio Vitality.pngVitality and Strength.pngStrength . However the way you increase your stats will vary, especially at lower lvls. You might want to invest your first 20-25 pts in STR first for +dmg & atk val%.

Combat Arts:

Demonic Blow.pngDemonic Blow - wounding > poisoning > trauma

1. This is your boss killer/champion killer, not your crowd control skill. It is designed to take out the highest threat opponent immediately in case you are overwhelmed at early levels, while waning down the rest of the mob.
2. We don't need to reduce the armor, because we are already "ignoring it" in the first place
3. personal preference... I'm a potion chugger, I don't need life leech at early levels. At level 140+, you don't even need to use a potion or life leech. this mod is useful for spikes


Scything Sweep.pngScything Sweep - force > intent > rage
1. Damage - we don't need mobs getting knocked back and out of reach of Frenzied Rampage, we just wanna soften them up.
2. Damage - stun? lol, we want them dead... period.
3. Hurl isn't really effective simply because SS is used in a combo with Frenzied Rampage. SS's purpose is to soften up the mobs HP, FR finishes everything within range.


Rousing Command.pngRousing Command - persistence > spur > surge
good buff for boss fights. This is GOLDEN during lower levels when you still don't have access to -opponent's chance to evade items. You will almost always not need this outside of a boss fight.

Grim Resilience.pngGrim Resilience - rejuv > discipline > safeguard

1. you don't need more hitpoints... you have more than enough.
2. -regen goodness, spamming DB and FR is your key to victory.
3. this was chosen because the most efficient way of lvling up was the Orc Cave, due to the lack of Area of Effect and to avoid carpal tunnel by clicking too much


Frenzied Rampage.pngFrenzied Rampage - 2x attack > 2x strike > envenom
1. crowd control - as this is used in combo with SS, it's main purpose is to finish off those weakened by SS...the way I kill mobs is like farming in Guild Wars or WoW, walk around grab 10-15, then Spike. More hits = more enemies dead.
2. crowd control - as this is used in combo with SS, it's main purpose is to finish off those weakened by SS...the way I kill mobs is like farming in Guild Wars or WoW, walk around grab 10-15, then Spike. More hits = more enemies dead.
3. I don't need life leech, thus more damage, even if it's DoT is better.


Augmenting Guidon.pngAugmenting Guidon - elite > tutor or healing > fear
good buff for boss fights... I barely use it outside of a boss fight.

Belligerent Vault.pngBelligerent Vault - reach > unaware
2 applications of this skill. Taking short cuts when your cross countrying and is a great way to start a boss fight

Killing Spree.pngKilling Spree - control > perseverance > sway
good buff for boss fights... I barely use it outside of a boss fight. When used in conjunction with Rousing Command, this will solve all your chance to hit problems at low-level/mid-level boss fights.

Reflective Emanation.pngReflective Emanation - backlash > antimagic > riposte
1 & 2. are modded so that you have this 1 buff reflecting close combat, ranged attacks, amd enemy spells and Combat Arts (since Combat Arts are counted as "spells") all at the same time.
3. damage - who doesn't like damage



Booster Slots:

Slot 1 - Allocate Combo 1. At low levels Combo 1 will just be Demonic Blow to enjoy the high -regen% of DW Focus (putting FR w/ in the combo will only hider it since the the -regen% on the Malevolent Champ tree is still low). At high levels, Combo 1 will be Demonic Blow + Frenzied Rampage.

Uses: Spam for Boss Killing, or champion instant kill in case of a mob rushdown (combo assumed to be 1-2.5 secs regen)

Slot 2 - Allocate Combo 2. Scything Sweep + Frenzied Rampage.

Uses: CROWD CONTROL (combo assumed to be 1-2.5 secs regen)

Slot 3 - Allocate Combo 3. At low levels Combo 3 will just be "Rousing Command + Augmenting Guidon + Killing Spree." Upon Mastery of Combat Discipline, Combo 3 will be "Beligerent Vault + Rousing Command + Augmenting Guidon + Killing Spree."

Uses: Boss Debuff & Player Buff (combo assumed to be 1-2.5 secs regen)

Slot 4 - Beligerent Vault - Utility for short-cutting during your cross country walking throughout Ancaria.



Equipment (end game):

**since this is a very gear dependent build, I will be as thorough as I can be on this, put forth what I personally used. I made various changes as I progressed to higher levels, and obviously as my farmer/shopper found better stuff**

1. Damage Mitigation - you should be looking for something ranging from 60-80% damage mitigation to all types of damage, depending on how many Darwargon's Circlets and Tanit's Collar you have to socket your your stuff with. At low to mid-level game, your only damage mitigation sources will only come from Glacial Defender/Armatin's Shoulder pads.


AT END GAME:
- Get your shopper/EP farmer and hunt for a 1-2 socket Torso Armor & Shoulder Plates with damage mitigation mod on it.
**The one I am currently wearing is a godly 2 socket Torso Armor (+15% dam miti, 4x% deathblow), socketed with Tanit & Darwagon, 2 socket Shoulder Armor (+15% dam miti, -2x% DW regen) socketed with Tanit & Darwagon.**
- level 190+ Glacial Defender, socketed w/ Tanit
- optional: If you feel like wasting more Tanits/Darwagons, Bust out your level 190+ Armatin's Belt and socket them, this will take you to 71-80% total damage miti

comment: combine this damage mitigation w/ max toughness, 50% vit, 100+ constitution, spell resistance & combat reflexes mastery. you'll be a "God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals." You can literally leave your Shadow Warrior on a boss on Niob and take a nap, and you'll wake up seeing the same thing going on (unless of course, you turned on Reflective Emanation, which would've killed the poor thing)

2. +chance your opponent cannot evade/-opponent's chance to evade - this is where this build suffers. you have godly defense and damage, but you can't progress if you can't hit for s***...this is where jewelries come into play. At low levels, you'll probably just Flame Smiter/Ronuil's Tears plus some jewelry assistance but at mid to end game this is when you'll depend on your shopper mostly. you'll need dual modded jewelries w/ this mod and another...

Consider using Armatin's Battle Gauntlet's socketted w/ 1 Rare Duo modded ring (+chance your opponent cannot evade/-opponent's chance to evade), both items are a fairly easy find for someone with a mature Shopper and EP farmer. For early game until late game Flame Smiter is a very good source of this mod.

3. +chance to disregard opponent's armor % - This is a very under appreciated mod, but this one really shines at high levels. At 50+% you will be hitting anything as if they didn't even have armor on and will be taking the max damage possible (by the way I understand it). Well, regardless... your REAL DPS increases as opposed to the written DPS on your character screen. Sources are usually shopped rings or the rare Silala's Ring. Braise your shopper and go lose yourself. you'll need dual modded jewelries w/ this mod and another...

consider using 1-2 Silala's Rings + Stradal's Hammer, both Legendary items though.


4. "Another" Being.... (anything that will boost your damage lvls or improve you overall), such as -
+ All Skills
+ All Combat Arts
+ Critical Hit Chance % - anything over 30% is good. **mine is at 48%** (30 is easily reachable with the 2 silala's prescribed + Armatin's Elbow Protector)
+ Death Blow % - should be 65-70% (jewelry in sockets)
+ damage % - I personally use + physical (at 157%), since my weapon is majority physical

comment: unlike some character builds that require a lot of +skills and +combat arts (100+), this build with the prescribed gear does well at +40-60 all skills and Combat Art, which is pretty low by level 160+ standards. Primarily because, defense is boosted by the damage miti gear, while damage is boosted by the base damage, + damage and the constant proc'ing of crits, deathblow and armor ignore. My Shadow Warrior is in no way a 1 combo shot Boss Killer like a BFG+revered tech Serra, but it can kill all bosses I faced under a minute in niob.

5. Optional - If you still have jewelry space, 1 Artamak's Star would be a great addition.

6. Your Weapon of Choice, since all you jewelry slots and equipment sockets are now full to address the mods, your 1h-weapon should be all about damage. So get the highest base damage 1h-wep you can find w/ at least 2 sockets (silver or higher). Then find two rings with +50 (or higher) base damage w/ another useful mod. Ice Flash (sword) comes to mind. If you want something rarer, Stradal's Hammer (blunt) or probably the best choice.

At end-game consider using a weapon with + x% life leech for bosses like Kaldur's Legacy. The leech simply beats out a pure flat-damage weapon. 2 Gold Sockets to so you can just replicate your setup with the Stradal's Hammer.


x% life leech is allways from the maximal and not the actual hitpoints of your target.
2% of a 1000hp beast is just 20, but 2% of a 100.000hp boss is 2000.

It's always 2000 even if the boss is close to death, because it is calculate from the full health.



Levelling Up:

It's sad, but you'll spend most of your time in this cave levelling up. I am ASSUMING you have played this game through before at least until Plat, and you should know what level your at a certain point of the campaign.

This will be the summary of your Shadow Warrior HC life, should you be like me who wants to get to niob ASAP:

Start Silver until Orc Region > Do some questing for gear upgrade> Orc Cave > Finish Silver > Start Gold until Orc Region > Orc Cave > Finish Gold > Start Plat until Orc Region > Orc Cave > Finish Plat > Now PLAY Sacred 2, the way it should be played, have fun, explore and kill them mini-bosses...


Build Rating (personal opinion):
Survivability (Early & Late Game) - 5/5
Damage (Early Game) - 3/5
Damage (End Game) - 4 to 4.5/5
Game Progression - 3/5
level'ing grind - 2/5... yah, you'll get sick of the Orc Cave.
Equipment Dependancy - 1/5... to get to the desired damage mitigation level (60-80), deathblow (65-70+), crits (30-40), ignore armor (70-90), +all skills & Combat Art's (40-60) and still have slots on your weapon of choice to socket +base weapon damage w/ +damage% type rings. It takes a long hours of niob shopping, EP Farming.


Interesting Note in Ice and Blood + CM Patch:
If'you have the CM patch installed, there is an item there called "Gruma's Talisman" that has a higher possible max dmg miti than Tanit's. 60% is still the optimal damage mitigation, 70% for the paranoid, 80% for the one's with a god complex, 90% for the mentally insane (I did this on mine after I got mine to level 200). But with this item it is now possible to hit the 100% damage mitigation w/o sacrificing the necessary mods for this build (3 socketed Tanit's = 12.5% dmg miti vs. 3 socketed Gruma's = 21% dmg miti... big difference). Add this to the new shield item in Ice and Blood "Kira's Wall" that sports a 20+% dmg mitigation to all @ level 200s, which will replace the Fallen Angel's "Glacial Defender", and achieving a 100% dmg mitigation SW that can still deal a truck-load of dmg is now possible.

This will free up slot's from your equipment so you can you can use it to improve the build further (not that it needs it).
Is this really practical? No, not really... finding uniques even with a "acceptably generous" alteration in your balance.txt, is hard enough. Even with a ridiculously gimped drop rate, finding a Legendary is already a chore. Just saying that the possibility is now available, but you're just gonna have to grind it out if you really want the 100% dmg miti w/o losing damage, deathblow, crit, disregard armor, +skills and + CA.
Edited by gasconron
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Having no weapon lore seems strange, you will have great defenses but your chance to hit will suffer. I guess it might work for party play but alone it would be a slow grind.

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Having no weapon lore seems strange, you will have great defenses but your chance to hit will suffer. I guess it might work for party play but alone it would be a slow grind.

 

soz, I'm doing the guide in parts... and there is a reason for that and a way around it. This will be a very gear dependent build, since mine was well pampered by my niob shopper and EP Pyromancer farmer.

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Only way around a weapon lore as I see it is to fill up tons of sockets with attack & casting speed and use lower level weapons.

 

But I'm still curious to read your workaround.

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Guide is now complete more or less. Comments and criticisms are very welcome, and do say if there is another aspect which I must address in the guide.

 

I know it's a fairly expensive and gear dependent/demanding build. But with 2 EP farmers,a Niob Shopper, and a lot of unused Shadow Warrior gear. It was something my Shadow Warrior evolved into, eventually. I originally played Shadow Warrior until Gold and parked him there while making my Utility Char and playing other Farmer potential chars like EP High Elf and Dryad. My Dryad got him the good gear he needed at late Silver - late gold, while my niob High Elf got him the stuff he need playing through Early Plat till Niob.

 

Then, I suddenly realized he just became self sufficient on his own and got pretty good equipment on his own, except for the jewelry (provided most of the stuff he is wearing are yellows, with the exception of the Glacial Def, the Weapon and Armatin Belt)

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I still don't see any explanation on what to do regarding attack/casting speed.

 

The regen mod on Grim Resilience is not needed at all since the regen penalty is so low, going for more defense is always a good idea, lowering the penalty on a buff that gives so little is not.

 

Just my opinion though.

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I still don't see any explanation on what to do regarding attack/casting speed.

 

The regen mod on Grim Resilience is not needed at all since the regen penalty is so low, going for more defense is always a good idea, lowering the penalty on a buff that gives so little is not.

 

Just my opinion though.

 

1. attack speed/casting speed isn't an issue. At regular attack/cast speed... each hit that reaches the target hurts a whole lot, what matters it we we hit what we intend to hit. This build is not a DW Serra, with insane number of swings per second. Think of him as swinging his weapon or doing a Combat Art at regular speed, but each hit hurts like a ten-ton truck. "Big Damage+%chance to hit" vs. mediocre benefit from increased attack/cast speed.

 

If I was to force the issue and replaced all the damage mitigation jewelry to increase atk speed/cast speed significantly to make a phenomenal increase in my damage numbers, it would hurt me more than benefit me. Afterall, Hardcore is still Hardcore. +10-15% dam miti to all types of damage is way more valuable than an increased 500-2.5k damage; especially, when youre already hitting 50-80k damage per demonic blow, and 9-18k damage per Frenzied Rampage hit on a NIOB boss. Not to mention that you can spam this combo ever 1-3 secs, depending on how many runes you read.

 

2. With 5 skills, majority of the gear and jewelry, overkill Grim Resilience and overkill Reflective Emanation all devoted to defense, damage mitigation, chance to evade and +armor to all types, reflect all damage types, avoid wep & spell/Combat Art crits, etc; I felt that there was no more need for that certain mod. That is especially true, since you want to be able to spam demonic and FR as much as possible in the early stages of the build development, and for me all little things add up. You have no access to -Combat Art regen at early game except for your DW Focus and MC Focus...that much you can sacrifice.

 

***However, if you feel that your killing speed is respectable at early game and have no need for spamming demonic blows, then by all means you can take the defense mod. Although, it's overkill. Not that I have a right to complain, because the concept of this build itself is overkill. :)

Edited by gasconron
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nice guide you got there with only one problem :P ......

 

spell resistance is useless :) ..................... you have grim resilience that boosts willpower which is the same like spell resistance

Edited by azamantes
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nice guide you got there with only one problem :P ......

 

spell resistance is useless :) ..................... you have grim resilience that boosts willpower which is the same like spell resistance

 

spell resistance was not taken for its spell resist... but for it's Mastery Bonus - - - %chance to evade Spell/Combat Arts Criticals.

Combat Reflex - unfortunately, I am led to believe only protects you against Weapon Crits/non-Combat Art attacks, which are mediocre to begin with.

 

We have some very nasty bosses in niob that can crit a big chunk of your life, despite having 50-80k hitpoints. It doesn't happen too often, but it does. Funny thing is that I lost my evade/hitpoint regen HC HE Pyromancer that way after being critted 2x in a row, despite having godly evade. This is especially dangerous for this build at Mid-game (early niob) at 110-130's when our damage mitigation is swimming mediocrely around high 20's-35%.

 

again, let me quote Kaiden as he sums it up beautifully:

 

So, why choose a skill that reduces incoming damage over a skill that reduces the chances of even being hit? For an HC character, it's nice not to get hit at all. That's wonderfull, but it does happen. Even with this skill, it can and will happen. When you're fighting numerous enemies all 20+ levels above you, and you do get hit, it can hurt, especially if it's a Boss. I'd rather a Boss hit me consistantly for 40% of my health than to hit me once in 100 shots for 80% of my health.

 

 

"He won't get 100 shots with my super-duper-dynomite-1-hit-kills-everything build though", you say. Well that might be true, but face that boss 1000 times and he'll get 100 shots in and one of those shots just might be a critical hit that will have you hitting the space bar fast enough to complete the works of Shakespeare in morse code. Or worse, it might be a critical hit that does enough damage to one-shot you.

 

 

Defense keeps the hits outside

Chance to Evade keeps the hits out

Chance to avoid critical lowers the chance that you'll be hit for insane damage

Resistances/Armor lower the damage based on damage type

Toughness (and damage miti) lowers the amount of damage that actually makes it through.

And your HP soak up whatever gets past all of that.

Edited by gasconron
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You are exaggerating how powerful bosses are in Niob, I have never taken Spell Resistance on my Shadow Warrior's and I can't remember any boss that hit me for more than 5K.

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You are exaggerating how powerful bosses are in Niob, I have never taken Spell Resistance on my Shadow Warrior's and I can't remember any boss that hit me for more than 5K.

 

there were 2 instances that I can remember, wherein my Shadow Warrior almost died and both times were at the Great Machine bosses, when my Damage Miti gear was still was only 30ish%. It was nothing special, just running the boss for some spankin new gear upgrades. It only took my 3-5 sec from full life to critical level hp. Of course I wasn't really expecting that to happen, given that this setup was made designed to take hits anyways. 3-5 seconds is an awfully long/slow to react to your situation before mashing the SPACE BAR for pots, but like I said I wasn't expecting it to happen having ran those bosses multiple times. Spikes that usually lead to a HC char's death almost always happen during unguarded moments.

 

The build is designed to take stress of your shoulders and give you lee-way making a lot of room for error and time to respond. If you were fully alert all the time playing, despite the many hours of grinding for xp and gear, then ~50% damage miti should be more than enough. But this is designed for certain groups of people.

 

1. has a lot of gear, unique/rare jewelry to spare

2. play and forget, minimizing "micro managing" (if you even consider healing yourself as micromanagement :) )

3. or those who have a god complex... taking almost no damage but at the same time capable of dishing out a truckload of damage.

 

all three of this I happen to be when playing melee in a hack-&-slash RPG. "Leave care and caution to smooshies and casters..." is my general RPG motto.

Edited by gasconron
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I don't play HC as I don't want to lose gear if my character dies. SB is enough reason to not die anyway. That aside, I am not really concerned about attack speed so much, more attack rating. Not having a weapon skill is probably easy to deal with at later levels, but for the 1st 50 or so you will notice it.

 

Sword + shield is low damage also, it might be safe but game will take longer to complete, no matter how long you sit in that cave (almost glad it doesn't work in SP as it sounds dull to me). I have tried all the Shadow Warrior weapon combos and you might be safe from damage, but its dead slow.

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I would say it's getter worse at later levels without a weapon lore as when you find a weapon you need and want to equip only to find out it gives you -30% attack speed penalty, just think of it; attack speed is lowered to 70% and also is casting speed...

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weapon lore is very important to a melee char, from my point of view......

 

if you're playing, let's say a high elf mage, it really doesn't matter what u have in your hand...... all that matters are your Combat Art's (to have a high level and low regeneration)

 

but if you want to get close and personal you need to survive (with your guide u can do that very well), but also deal damage.

 

the problem is some enemies will regen health and some will even fully heal themselves and if your dps isn't high enough you will have problems with some enemies

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the problem is some enemies will regen health and some will even fully heal themselves and if your dps isn't high enough you will have problems with some enemies

 

Forest guardian would be a long fight, as both of you would last forever. I expect you would fall asleep before he does. But if you play in a party, it would work if this game had something called agro, as a tank could sponge up the damage while everyone else attacks. Alas, it doesn't, so you would have a tough time keeping anything on you, not that many of the classes are glass cannons, so they all do well by themselves.

 

Shadow Warrior don't need to use shields, our buffs are generally good enough. I am playing a pole arm user currently and don't really miss being able to hide behind a shield.

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@ Colif and Spunky:

 

I won't lie... Silver and early Gold were not completed in a jiffy. It was a grind getting from 1-75. However, from that point onward playing through the campaign and levelling became faster. I was never concerned with atk/cast speed to begin with, but I did mention that the build itself suffer from chance to hit (or attack rating). And you will have to rely a lot on items to address that issue. With enough -opponent's chance to evade%/+chance opponent cannot evade attack, socketted on your gear, you will be able to hit the opponents you want to hit.

 

As for killing speed at early levels, it was never an issue. Trash mobs and champs were cleaned up fast primarily because I was always (IMHO) over levelled going into an area due to excessive Orc Cave farming, especially during Silver. This guide was designed to the Shadow Warrior from Silver to Niob quickly mainly by playing the necessary Campaign and lvlling in the cave. Which is cleared pretty fast especially when your setup is really designed for it.

 

Early game campaign bosses (Silver-early Gold), were dealt with the "Wiki-way" assuming you've cleared then campaign before, you should be knowledgable which type of damage they are most vulnerable. I don't care how much HP regen or life leech they have, but spam demonic blow with your hardest hitting 1h, elementally modded against them and they go down all the same.

 

note: yah this actually an SP char. But I have a habbit of playing SP chars solo on a LAN game free-play when lvlling. Thus, explaining the Orc cave. It may be boring as heck, but it sure beats running around Ancaria killing things one at a time, at least in terms of levelling efficiency. It's also more carpal tunnel friendly.

 

@ Colif:

once again... this was designed to endure any kind of beating an Shadow Warrior can handle in the end-game for Hardcore. Now, if you start building up defensively, it's obvious your damage will suffer early on.

 

@ azamantes:

Weapon Lore has 3 uses: atk value, atk speed & enabling you to equip higher level weapons.

1. atk value/"chance to hit" - like I've already stated several times THIS is the ONLY fall point of this build, I stand by this statement until now. But it is easily remedied, by overlevelling yourself at early stages, and equipping yourself with the right jewelries at mid to late stages of gameplay.

2. atk speed - was never a concern for me. I got by silver and gold just fine without much of it. By late Gold until level 194, my DPS never really needed to get any higher or faster.

3. equip higher level weapons - this is probably the only reason why I considered weapon lore, and was tempted to get it instead combat discipline. But that was something that only mattered at the early stages of gameplay, when you need more damage. However, the damage you gain at mid-game to late-game by having your Combat Art's assigned to a combo slot is BIG! also considering that you gain a whopping -20% regen to Combat Art's at mastery, freeing up precious jewelry slots/equipment options or resorting to putting attributes to Stamina...

 

summary: let the gear handle the "chance to hit" problem. keep Combat Art regen fairly low to spam DB and FR. Trivial matters like atk speed immediately get thrown out of the window.

 

@ all:

1h + shield Shadow Warrior vs. Dual Wielding Shadow Warrior -

I will openly admit that DW hands down beats 1h+shield in terms of DPS early, mid or late... I have a DW Serra, and I am not blind not to see it, this fact is especially obvious at early stage gameplay.

 

However, it does not make 1h+shield Shadow Warrior weak. It is a late bloomer and equipment-dependent, which I already stated in the Introduction of the guide. Patience is required during Silver and early Gold, from there it get easier. Given time to mature, and with a nice investment on gear the DPS lvls can easily come close - - if not equal, a Dual Wielder.

 

In return for sacrificing a bit more time in the early stage of gameplay... you are rewarded with a whopping bonus to your survivability. It goes by the name of "Stalwart Defender" (early game) and "Glacial Defender" (mid to late game). Using Stalwart Defender in early game when damage mitigation bonuses from low level Glacial Defenders are almost negligable. Glacial Defenders at mid to end game is priceless because it reduces 1000's+ worth of damage from anything that actually manages to get through your defense, armor and evade. Believe me if you are playing alone and SP, and didn't jack the xp lvls in your balance.txt getting to level 190+ takes a long time, a really long time. After so many orc cave/boss runs in niob... something hard is bound to hit you. And when that happens you'll be thankful for the damage mitigation you have, and not the humungous DPS that Dual Wielders "oh, so proudly wear..."

 

comment: if a certain player is like me and get's easily bored grinding lvls and tends to get careless this build is designed for the user to have a lot of leeway and a LOT OF ROOM for error in Hardcore gameplay. The defensive measure taken in this guide, (yah, I am aware) are in the extremes. But nothing sucks more having a level 150+ HC with a lot of nice gear (a lot of HOURS invested on jewelry shopping and EP farming) on it die just cuz you: afk'd in a dangerous area, wasn't really paying attention to the health bar or just being plain complacent. It's stupid I know, but I am sure we all agree FECAL MATTER! happens...

 

That and I've always been biased towards 1h+shield melee chars vs. DPS monster chars in RPG games... case in point

 

1. Diablo 2 - preferred Smiter and HS + Zeal Pally vs. Barbs

2. Titan Quest - preferred Aionios + 1h wep Conquerors vs. Dual Wield Conquerors

 

Heck, I could've made a 1h+shield Seraphim, if I really wanted to and make it work. but that would be really stupid, since:

 

primary "damage mitigation vs. all" sources (Shadow Warrior vs. Seraphim):

Shadow Warrior - Torso Armor, Shoulder Armor, and Glacial Defender... anything else is supplemented by how much Tanit's and Darwagon's you are willing to waste.

Seraphim - Torso Armor, Shoulder Armor, and Edijian's Wings... putting Glacial Defender on top of that is just pure folly, easily enabling you to hit the high 90's% damage mitigation level, should you have all 200+ level items and a couple of Tanit's and Darwagon's you are willing to waste. Not mentioning the fact that you have the Warding Energy buff, that soaks up additional damage too.

Edited by gasconron
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wow, that was a very long reply with a lot of arguments :D

 

I agree with you on the combat discipline skill, there are no diminishing returns there.

 

in the end I can see why you have constructed this char, I guess everyone has their personal preferences when role playing

 

offtopic : in diablo 2 and titan quest (as in other action rpg's) I always liked playing mages.

 

in sacred 1 and 2 I just couldn't do it. I mean I can't cast spells as often as I like ? :D higher level spells means looonger regeneration times ? the better the armor the longer the regen time ? the better the buff the longer regen time ?

 

that was and still is the only thing I hate about sacred:(

Edited by azamantes
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A thing often overlooked is that most weapon-Combat Art's seem to get some base x attack value for each combat art level. The AddOn brought regeneration per hit. So by going high Combat Art-levels and recharge them with RpH you get a nice hit chance. The spidergirl dryads do weaponless kungfu attacks and don't have a weapon skill obviously. But they play with a shield. And a shield adds to the defense in a way you won't believe it on niob. The scalable block chance of yellow shields scales not only with shield lore but also with difficulty level. So the same shield blocks better in niob than in bronze.

Also the dryad has combat arts boosting the defense. So if you take a shield with scalable base defense you will get really high defense values. If shield lore is at mastery even the stalwort will get a block chance. I think zthe shadow warrior has some Combat Art's which boost base defense too.

 

The only skill a weapon(-skill-)less character needs is bargaining (best on another character).

 

I started a weapon-less-Inquisitor this weekend and by optimizing its combat I was amazed what equipping him with a polearm did. It's damage exploded. But playing weaponless is a good teacher in optimizing. A year back I would never thought that a weaponless dryad will play without ever dying in niob.

 

And look at the other advantages a weapon-skill-less design has:

You can use a x% life leech shuriken at bosses and high damage shaft weapons for leveling. Hit chance is same.

 

You won't get the doublehits and a few modifiers which have to be unlocked, but you can play with more weapon types.

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You won't get the doublehits and a few modifiers which have to be unlocked, but you can play with more weapon types.

 

Also 1 more reason why I didn't get a weapon lore.

 

I am constantly upgrading weapons especially when levelling up. You really have no control on what 1-hand weapon drops for you or your farmers. The best weapon available for you at one point may be a sword or a shafted weapon.

 

At mid-game, I was using Ice flash for its big-base damage & 2 sockets, the modifiers on it was only satifactory though. A couple of weeks later, the game gave me a Stradal's Hammer (which gave me better combat art range, life leech and a generous bonus to one of my favorite modifiers in the game: disregard)...

 

Now had I chosen a 1-h weapon lore early game, either I would not have been able to equip the Ice Flash earlier or not been able to upgrade to Stradal's hammer later on.

 

DW is out of the question, since it completely goes against the concept of this build, and I would lose a potential +18-20% damage miti at the end-game play.

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A good read. I have a question. Why does this build level up in the orc cave? Is it because it is fast or because it would get killed elsewhere in Ancaria. I would probably play this build all over Ancaria I try to get as much mapped as possible. But I don't understand how dangerous niob is and I wondered if the orc cave was for time efficiency or for safety in HC.

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I've always preferred grinding the Orc Cave on my Shadow Warriors simply because they tend to manage the high damage potential of the orc champs very well and with the constant supply of mentor pots being dropped in that cave the xp rate is quite satisfactory. It's a bit tedious but for me, after grinding untold levels in MMOs(especially EQ), I find it very fast and it requires little focus simply because the only thing you have to pay attention to is your health, as opposed to where your character is moving and what's around. In the orc cave you know what's there, you kill it, reset and repeat and the next thing you know you've gained a level.

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  • 4 months later...

Well, Orc Caves are designed to char builds that kill fairly slowly. Since this build is fairly suffers in DPS eary stages of the game this place gives you pound-for-pound value for your gametime. More xp then running around killing critters. This build does not have the luxury of a hoarding skill like HE's flame wave. Not to mention the fact that while most classes are fairly vulnerable against the uber-damage dealing orc, this build does not need to fear big damage.

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  • 3 years later...

I have been away from the forum for a long time, but I'll update it regardless
For some reason, I don't have the option to "EDIT" the post even though it's a post I made, I'm not really sure why, but I'll just put this here.


Minor Update to Equipment:


Recommended Gear

Quote
2. +chance your opponent cannot evade/-opponent's chance to evade - this is where this build suffers. you have godly defense and damage, but you can't progress if you can't hit for s***...this is where jewelries come into play. At low levels, you'll probably just Flame Smiter/Ronuil's Tears plus some jewelry assistance but at mid to end game this is when you'll depend on your shopper mostly. you'll need dual modded jewelries w/ this mod and another...

 

Consider using Armatin's Battle Gauntlet's socketted w/ 1 Rare Duo modded ring (+chance your opponent cannot evade/-opponent's chance to evade), both items are a fairly easy find for someone with a mature Shopper and EP farmer.

 

Quote
6. Your Weapon of Choice, since all you jewelry slots and equipment sockets are now full to address the mods, your 1h-weapon should be all about damage. So get the highest base damage 1h-wep you can find w/ at least 2 sockets (silver or higher). Then find two rings with +50 (or higher) base damage w/ another useful mod. Ice Flash (sword) comes to mind. If you want something rarer, Stradal's Hammer (blunt)

 

At end-game consider using a weapon with + x% life leech for bosses like Kaldur's Legacy. The leech simply beats out a pure flat-damage weapon. 2 Gold Sockets to so you can just replicate your setup with the Stradal's Hammer.


* Update for Ice & Blood -


If'you have the CM patch installed, there is an item there called "Gruma's Talisman" that has a higher possible max dmg miti than Tanit's. 60% is still the optimal damage mitigation, 70% for the paranoid, 80% for the one's with a god complex, 90% for the mentally insane (I did this on mine after I got mine to level 200). But with this item it is now possible to hit the 100% damage mitigation w/o sacrificing the necessary mods for this build (3 socketed Tanit's = 12.5% dmg miti vs. 3 socketed Gruma's = 21% dmg miti... big difference).


This will free up slot's from your equipment so you can you can use it to improve the build further (not that it needs it).
Is this really practical? No, not really... finding uniques even with a "acceptably generous" alteration in your balance.txt, is hard enough. Even with a ridiculously gimped drop rate, finding a Legendary is already a chore. Just saying that the possibility is now available, but you're just gonna have to grind it out if you really want the 100% dmg miti w/o losing damage, deathblow, crit, disregard armor, +skills and + CA.

Edited by gasconron
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