Most Viable Shadow Build

Can anyone point me in the right direction of current powerful shadow pvp builds and why?

Thanks

There's really a wide variety of stuff you can get to work, but here's a bit of info on some broad types.

CI Caster using Freezing Pulse or EK (or switching between the 2). This type of build generally will look something like this, dropping the elemental/cold stuff if you're EK (EK is better vs all the Aegis Aurora blockers so its likely the superior option). This build isn't really much in favor right now. You can also do a Pain Attunement version if you have a Shavs.

With melee, you can either do swords or daggers, and do either CI or HP. Daggers are more DPS in general, but swords have passives which allow you to bypass enemy block to some extent, and since block is so prevalent in PvP this is extremely valuable. CI makes you immune to Viper Strike which is very nice, plus if you can disengage combat long enough you can regen your ES. However you're very easy to chill, and since you can't Blood Magic your skills managing mana can be very tricky. HP lets you regen life all the time, do Blood Magic skills, and be resistant to stunning and status effects.

Rough CI dagger build.
Rough HP swords

Again you notice the investment in block. Any shadow build will want a lot of block, and having a Saffels Frame and/or Rathpith Globe to swap into will also let you block spells.

The good points about melee shadow are fairly high DPS, high mobility and chasing ability with Whirl/Leap and flicker, and decent survival. Your main attack will be Double Strike, with Puncture and/or Viper as an alternate attack. Doublestrike will have all the usual melee damage supports, and I highly recommend including multistrike whatever you do, as the autotargeting is very useful sometimes.

There's a huge amount of room to play around with here, but hopefully that's a start.

crit dagger shadows are one of the best pvp builds you can make but they are also the most expensive build in the game(mirrored dagger 100+ ex, 6L 900+ es chest 30-40 ex, high es helm and shield will also run you around 10 exalted if you get high end gear)

but once you get that gear, with the right strategy, you have a chance to beat almost everyone.

Hi, I'm pretty new to the game but looking at the dagger set up there is way more than 100% crit chance. Can anyone explain why please?

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Grim254 wrote:

Hi, I'm pretty new to the game but looking at the dagger set up there is way more than 100% crit chance. Can anyone explain why please?

It modifies your base crit chance. So if you have a dagger with 8% base crit chance (it says on the weapon), +100% crit chance gives you +100% of your base, so 8% additional crit chance.

Further example, if you have +400% crit chance from everything and your dagger is 8% crit chance base, you will have 40% crit on attacks with that weapon.

Ok, I understand. Thank you very much. Another question, whats the significance of chaos damage that I would sacrifice all but 1 hp to be immune to it?

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Grim254 wrote:

Ok, I understand. Thank you very much. Another question, whats the significance of chaos damage that I would sacrifice all but 1 hp to be immune to it?

Chaos damage ignores your energy shield, which is your main form of defense. A well geared CI character might have 9000 ES before taking CI, and only 700 HP! So taking CI which gives you 12% more ES, you get +1000 ES in exchange for losing that 700 HP.

Also Viper Strike is a very annoying skill that does chaos damage, and its nice to be immune to it.

Awesome thanks

Thanks guys i'll look into it

So Crit Daggers looks like the most viable shadow builds in pvp atm?

The EK and dagger crit CI builds. Anyway they can be viable going through HC at the same time? I like the HP shadow with swords build but I also more than enjoy making crits. Although HP shadow build has tons of sword damage and att. speed nodes. Could that give more dps output than a crit build?

And one more question. EK. Does this skill ignores enemy block or it goes as spell through spell block chance?

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Thanks guys i'll look into it

So Crit Daggers looks like the most viable shadow builds in pvp atm?

I think you would have problems facing people with a lot of block chance.