Build

SHADOWKNIGHT GUIDE
Note: This build is still a work in progress






Listen to this while reading if you'd like!

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Table of Contents
I. About
II. Info on Each Skill
III. Gear and Stat Priority
IV. Rotations
V. Keybinds
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NOTE
The skills will keep swapping around until I permanently decide on what the build is. The build and a build video will probably be done by Christmas ish.

I plan on going very in depth with this Shadowknight build (PVP) from its philosophy, to gear and stat priority to leveling. However much of the build content will not come until 3.0 and the freshstart servers arrive on the 10th. I will add what I can/have time for until then. Also I will be making a build video and gameplay. I will link my youtube then.

I AM ON VENGEANCE SERVER FYI

I. ABOUT

Shadowknight is a stealthy tank build. I had tested with many different rogue (rogue as in uncommon) builds in AA in preparation for the 3.0 release. Of them all I found Shadowknight to be the funniest even though it wasn't necessarily the best of all the ones I tried even though it was somewhat up there. Other builds I tried where Inquisitor, Death Warden and a few others. As you can see I wanted a build with self healing and tankiness. Inquisitor was fun and seemed a decent class but of course it had no tankiness and I wanted to play a tank this XPac. Death Warden is good and still a viable choice however I wanted to wear full plate and Witchcraft's magic defense skills can help offset that imbalance of phys and magic defense. So Shadowknight it was. Also I played Shadowplay only over or in addition to Battlerage in builds because I wanted stealth for World PVP.

This build has really Good CC, DPS and Tankiness. Whilst having decent CC resistance, Mobility and Sustain.

Our CC stems from Shield Slam Bull Rush Shield Edge Overwhelm Wallop Shadowsmite Throw Dagger Purge Lassitude Boastful Roar.

Our DPS stems mainly from Rapid Strike and Wallop spam. And our biggest burst comes from Shadowsmite Pin Down Shield Slam and Bull Rush.

Our CC resistance comes from Invincibility Courageous Action and Redoubt

And our Tankiness comes from Refreshment Boastful Roar Toughen Revitalizing Cheer Redoubt Invincibility Supplemental Block Shield of Steel(If Run) Bear's Vigor Purge



II. INFO ON EACH SKILL INDIVIDUALLY

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Shadowplay - Main DPS Tree
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|Rapid Strike| - Our main DPS tool and our auto attack. This skill is pretty lack luster when it hits from the front against non-trip targets. When its from behind we get a 50% crit-chance increase on it which will likely proc Piercing for even more crit that we can then use on other skills like Shadowsmite Wallop etc. I'll say more about Rapid Strike in the rotation section. Rapid Strike also inflicts distressed when used enough which decreases the target's movement speed by 45%, damage and attack speed by 20% and healing received by 50%... Also you should rapidly press this skill rather than holding down the key as holding down is slower.

|Overwhelm| - Good damage. 2~ sec stun. Combo's with Shadowsmite and Bull Rush for a trip which we love in this build.

|Drop Back| - Mobility. Often this will be used out of Invincibility in addition to Stealth for an escape or something. Most important thing is it combos with Earthen Grip to instant cast. So we can catch up with targets.

|Wallop| - Our Main DPS other than Rapid Strike. Defense penetration that we lost for not running Battlerage and interrupts spell casting on first hit. Spam this when you have nothing else to do. Also does more damage on distressed targets. I.E targets we hit with Boastful Roar.

|Stalker's Mark| - Decreases Healing effectiveness. Also increases Overwhelm stun duration and damage. When the skill ends in 15~sec it will deal 80 times the amount of times you hit them in damage. This works well with Rapid Strike since it is a fast skill. Think of Stalker's Mark as just adding 80 damage to each Rapid Strike and every other attack you do. In a build where you do a bunch of little hits this fits well. Also since we are a tank, fights will surely last the 15 sec the mark needs to go off.

|Pin Down| - Good DPS on Shackled targets from Shadowsmite. Also always hit this from behing as with every other skill. (Adds bleeding). You can run this if you want but I can't find a skill point for it with how I want to run this build personally.

|Shadowsmite| - Our highest~ burst skill. Try to build some bloodlust before you use it but if you don't it is fine. Also trips stunned targets and does more damage. Try to enter stealth before hitting a stunned target as it does 98% more damage.

|Freerunner| - Does a bunch of good stuff. Just put it up before going in for more attack speed, crit, and move speed

|Shadow Step| - Mobility. Often followed up with a Lassitude then go behind them and start CC chain. (CC chain is said later.)

|Throw Dagger| - Ranged DPS and bloodlust. Also has nice but short slow effect.

|Piercing| - Nice DPS Passive. Very easy to proc whilst hitting from behind with Rapid Strike. Which we are always doing, so this is definitely worth a point.


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Defense - Main Tank Tree - Secondary DPS Tree
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|Shield Slam| - Good damage, 2~ sec stun combo's with Bull Rush and Shadowsmite for a trip. Also combos with Earthen Grip to deal 31% more damage.

|Refreshment| - Gives mettle and more health combo's with Bear's Vigor.

|Bull Rush| - 4~ sec silence. Trips stunned targets also does 42% more damage when to them on stun. Our highest~ burst skill. Also you can follow up at the end of the trip with a Purge to keep a melee target silenced

|Boastful Roar| - Rarely used for the DPS portion of the skill however it can be. Toughen can be used to combo here but we usually would rather use Toughen in tandem with Revitalizing Cheer our main heal if we had to choose between the two. The main aspect of this skill that we care about is the 6 sec Distressed Debuff. Which decreases the target's movement speed by 45%, damage and attack speed by 20% and healing received by 50%. Great for bursting down targets receiving healing.

|Toughen| - A 20 sec buff that increases active regen by 160. The healing portion of the skill is okay but we mainly use this for the mettle it gives us when hit. Combo's with Boastful Roar and Revitalizing Cheer instead of Shrug it Off.

|Revitalizing Cheer| - A great Mettle consumer that heals big. When combo'd with Toughen this can heal around ~6k HP when geared correctly.

|Redoubt| - Bread and butter skill that does EVERYTHING. If you run defense you run this skill. This skill with supplemental block will increase our block rate drastically it also grants an instant 1,500 Mettle. In addition this prevents trip.

|Ollo's Hammer| - A combo EXTENDER not STARTER because this skill really can't hit moving targets. Decent damage as well, especially when combo'd with Throw Dagger's slow.

|Invincibility| - Requires good timing to be used effectively. You want to use this when an opponent is about to burst you or you want to interrupt their combo in between their CC.

|Fortress| - Can be used for mettle stacking and push effect. If this were taken I would probably take out Invincibility

|Supplemental Block| - More blocks, nuff said.

|Shield Edge| - The cd was buffed recently from 20 sec to 12 and in testing this seems to proc very often when you block an attack. In tandem with Redoubt this passive is actually very good. I'd definetly say its better than Shield of Steel especially since we are already in plate.

|Shield of Steel| - You can take this if you think you are undergeared to accommodate for that or if you fight a lot of melees otherwise you want Shield's Edge instead.

|Bear's Vigor| - More HP and Regen on Refreshment and Toughen. Also adds 900 HP on its own.

|Ursine Roar| - Since I plan on using a bit of Aurorian armor I figured the skill is quite nice. Even without aurorian armor that give Defense CD reduction to stack with Ursine Roar I'd still use the passive. With Auroria gear, Shield Slam is on a 12-sec CD and Bull Rush is on a 21 sec CD. Also this gives Toughen and Redoubt ~50% up times. Also in 3.0 this adds continuous regen when hit below 30% HP range.

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Witchcraft - Gives Magic Defense and CC
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|Earthen Grip| - In this build this reminds me of a DK's grasp in WoW. While this doesn't bring them to us it stops them in their tracks quite effectively. As a Shadowknight we have little mobility outside of Shadow Step and Freerunner. So either we get more or remove our opponents mobility. Combo this skill with Drop Back for mobility towards your target and an instant cast. Also this combo's with Shield Slam against snared targets

|Purge| - A blanket silence against silence'd or shackled targets. Remove's an enemy's buff. When used on ourselves it gives 1600 magic defense which equates to ~8% magic def increase.

|Courageous Action| - A sleep immune. Good against leech if it doesn't steal the buff. We do run other buffs like Mettle, Purge, Redoubt, Toughen etc... so they could steal one of those instead.

|Lassitude| - Replacement for leech since we don't run Auramancy. It gives a slow effect before sleep which combos well with Ollo's Hammer.

|Banshee Wail| - I use this over Lassitude because it's an AoE which we lack and it is instant CC with no delay.

|Fiend's Knell| - Damage doesn't scale of Magic Attack so we can use it, but if you don't like the 3 sec cast or pets you can take Lassitude Banshee Wail Stalker's Mark etc.


III. GEAR AND STAT PRIORITY

Stamina>Strength>Agility>Spirit>Intelligence

Screenshots of some of my Gear and Stats:





I will be using Auroria Swordbane Helm, Vambraces, Tassets, and Sabatons. Auroria gear is cheap and the Tassets and Vambraces stack CD reduction with Ursine Roar. For the Greaves and Hands I will use Obsidian for crit damage and Magic Defense. For the weapons I will use Hungering Blade(As high a Tier as you can get it) for the critical damage and Mystic Ward for the Magic Defense(because we are in plate of course). The bow and lute are obsidian as well. They both stack stamina and the lute gives magic defense. All the trinkets for now will be the Earth and the necklace is the Halc honor medal one.

When you hit max this is how I would go about gearing:

Get all the gear, starting with obsidian sword and shield. Keep all the obsidian gear at T1 for now and regrade your sword and shield to celestial (or at least unique if you aren't patient) then regrade 4 of your armor to Heroic and the other 3 to rare so you can get a Heroic buff. Then upgrade your shield and sword to T4. Sword first probably because it is where all your damage comes from. (Remember DONT take T4 sword that gives HP on equip we want the critical damage, I will explain more in build video.) Then upgrade your obsidian gauntlets and greaves to T4 as well so as to get rid of the useless agility stat from T1 to T3. Then you wanna lunafrost all of your obsidian armor with the honor stuff (remember lunafrosts disappear on upgrading between obsidian tiers).
At any point you can lunafrost your Auroria gear and lunagem/scale ETC. You should be able to figure out how to gear from here. (Oh also do your costume whenever you can/want)


IV. Rotations
This would be the basic rotation more or less. All depends on situation and what you are fighting.

Typically you'd Stalker's Mark>Overwhelm>Walk Behind while Rapid Strike or Wallop(Remember the stun is 3 sec so don't immediately Shadowsmite unless they have Shrug it off)>Stealth>Shadowsmite>Rapid Strike>Shield Slam>Bull Rush>Rapid Strike>Throw Dagger>Ollo's Hammer...etc Just keep em stun/trip locked. while you Rapid Strike from behind.

V. Keybinds

I made this for myself but figured I'd share it for anyone that cares. (Smaller icons mean you press Shift + That Keybind).