/// The Shadowblade \\\

The Shadowblade
The Shadowblade works similar to the popular one of the most popular classes called Dankrunner, Darkrunner but with more CC resistance. Also The Shadowblade tends to be squishier than a Darkrunner.
Let me start by telling you the pros and cons of The Shadowblade before I tell you their combos/tactics

Pros
- A lot of CC
- CC Resistance
- High burst damage
- Master of 1v1, Almost counters all classes
- High Mobility

Cons

- Kinda Squishy
- One of the hardest classes to master
- If blocked, You need more dps
- If they CC first you are basicly dead

/// Weapons \\\

The main stats of The Shadowblade are Strength (DMG) and Agility (Crit).
So usally The Shadowblades wear lightning type of gear.

Weapons

Since normally you go with a leather lightning armor.
You can either go with a 2h weapon or dual wield if you want.
Which 2-handed weapon you use is up to you, but I'll tell you the advantages of using one.

2h Choice
My personal choice is the Kraken Longspear as it hits very hard and has a lot of Strength on it plus the Pull/Lasso Skill
Another choice is the Nodachi. It comes with a lightning type (so strength + agility is available) and it has nice attack speed - the passive effect also gives you a higher crit chance. The Flame (Strength) and Gale (Agility) types are easier to get as the lightening type is the one available for upgrading.

You could also go for the 2h Axe. It comes with a lighting type as well and can make the enemy bleed.
Bleeding gives Precision Strike +37% damage so it's a good choice.

All other weapon types don't come with a lightning type so you should choose one of the above!

For starters: I suggest you get the Hasla 2h Axe and then aim for getting an epherium nodachi (or better).

Dual Wield Choice

If you go dual wield you should go with a Katana in the Main hand (Fast weapon + higher crit chance).
Katanas come with a lightening type as well.
Or you can go dual wield with daggers and be able to attack faster plus it will apply bleed to the enemy (using it while the enemy is stunned/tripped will not break the CC (same goes for the Banshee's Wail fear). P.S. bleed will increase the damage of Precision Strike by 37%!

/// Armor \\\

You will go with a leather armor as your main armor. The crafted leather armor has a lightning type so everything is good.
The set bonus even gives you more movement!
The leather armor gives you a higher critical chance so everything is good here as well.

Also there are 3 intersting Auroria leather items:
Auroria Beldame Belt - 1m more range for Banshee Wail. A good one. I personally use it.
Auroria Beldame Guards - removes 50% of the delay for the sleep of Lassitude. This one will make Lassitude much stronger. I can highly recommend it!
Auroria Promise Boots - 3m more range for Shadowstep. useful against ranged classes.

Keep in mind that your strength will be pretty low if you use all three Auroria parts so you might consider using flame chest/pants.

There are also tow other really strong items (hard to get).
The gloves from a worldboss called "Meina" (you will need 1-2 raids to kill it) - they give you more damage for Precision Strike and are leather!

The head piece from the 10 Person Sea of Drowned Love - backstab damage +4% is nice and the cmbo effect will increase ur movement speed and critical rate.

/// Jewelry \\\

For the earrings go with the crafted flame type. It gives you strength (more damage) and evasion (helpful in larger group PvP) and the gale type that will icnrease your parry rate (use those if you skilled Deflect and Retaliate)

The necklace allows you two choices:
Either the flame type with strength which will increase your health or the gale type with agility which will heal you for 4% of the damage you take.
Also the Halcyona one is a strong chocie as well.

The rings have three intersting types as well. Again it's up to you:
Gale - agility + armor ignore
Flame - strength + attack speed
Life - spirit + skill damage

Just keep in mind that the attack speed of the falme rings are only stacking partwise so you should wear only one flame ring. Never two.

If you have the chance to get the Dream Ring. It's one of the best you can get. But very hard to become.

Additional note


As you are at least 33% a mage and are using spells you might also want tog et your spirit up so you will hit more of the stuns - if you fail one of them u are msot likely dead. So aim for a high magic accuracy (for example get yourself a Nodachi with Spirit and take a Lighting or Flame Bow for the stats)

/// Lunastone \\\

Head: Honorbold Intuitive Lunafrost - +20% Stealth detection (bought from the honor merchant)
Chest: Honorbold Warrior's Lunafrost - 3% recieved damage - from the honor merchant
Hands: Honorbold Precision Lunafrost - 24% Critical Damage (24% of you normal 50% - so real 12%) - also from the honor merchant.
2h Weapon: Honorbold Ruler's Lunafrost - +3% Skill Damage - from the honor merchant
Feet: Flawless Assassin's Lunafrost - +5% Movement speed - crafted (alchemy)

For all other Armor/weapons simply sue the ones with stat improvments like +7 Strength/Agility/Spirit.

/// Luna Gems \\\

Bow and Flute/Lute: Vivid Fire Lunagem: Strong Blow - +3 Physical Attack - crafted (Handicrafts)
Chest - Lucid Gale Lunagem: Flexibility - +320 Resilience - honor merchant
Hands: Vivid Earth Lunagem: Esoteric - +1.5% Parry rate - crafted (handicrafts)
Legs - Lucid Earth lunagem: Mastery - +235 Toughness - honor merchant
Feet Vivid Earth Lunagem: Celerity - +2% Movement Speed - crafted (Handicrafts)
2h Weapon - Lucid Gale Lunagem: Fidelity - +280 Focus - honor merchant

For all other slots usethe +50 p-def or m-def lunagems (handicrafts).

/// Skills \\\

In this part I'll explain my skill choice:
We will go with the "autoattack" from Battlerage Triple Slash because it can trip the enemy if they are snared. Charge snares and you will use it often so these two skills are a must-have!

I don't use Whirlwind Slash because it doesn't give that much damage (AoE dmg but still not much).
Sunder Earth gives you buffs if you stand at the area. You will be moving constantly so skip this skill!

Lasso: You could use this one instead of frenzy.

Terrifying Roar: just no.

Bondbreaker gives a CC break. Take it.

Precision Strike: our MAIN damage output.

Frenzy good for 1v1 fights. Not so good in open PvP. But you can skip the animation of Triple Slash with it. Take it!

Battle Focus: As I said fast damage. This skill will increase it. So a good choice.

Tiger Strike a good gap closer in 1v1 and nice damage in group fights.

We don't deal magic damage so skip all the damage skills.

Purge. Can remove a debuff and give you more magic resistance.
If used after Shadowsmite it will silence the enemy - that means 4sec a mage can't do anything!

Courageous Action: Makes you immune against sleep and fear. One of the mainreasons for the witchcraft tree.

Lassitude: Sleep your enemy. Just in case you failed some of your important skills this can make up some time to either escape with Stealth or to wait the extra few seconds for a cooldown!

Banshee Wail: AoE fear and stun? OP!

Focal Concussion: short stun and then a buff remove (note: removes ONLY 1 buff!!!) - take it.


Overwhelm: stun. Not much else to say. Can be blocked by the enemy with Focal Concussion.
Take it anyways and use it after you stunned him with Focal Concussion or if he got no Focal Concussion.

Drop Back good for a quick escape.

Wallop takes to long for using and gives no CC. Not needed.

Stalker's Mark even if you are not an archer this will give a 21% damage boost, also has a range of 25m! So you can easily use it before charging in!

Stealth: selfexplaining.

Toxic Shot/Pin Down: no...

Shadowsmite: Another good damage source if used properly. Can initiate the silence combo for Purge.

Freerunner: movement. You want to reach these archers don't you?

Shadow Step: Gap closer and teleport in one skill. Good for starting or leaving a fight!
Also it gives a quick movement increase!

Now to start with the passives. We got only 4 points left so we can use only 1 passive skilltree.
We will go with the battlerage:

Dual-Wield Proficiency even if we don't dual wield this will still give a 8% higher crit chance! We need the crit.

Most people go with Deflect and Retaliate and it's a good choice. In msot fights you will not see this trigger unless u have a good parry rate. I personally use a lot of parry so it's a strong choice. You can use it instead of Reckless Charge.

Reckless Charge. The cc decrease is useful but not really that important.
The movement speed is! Take this or Deflect and Retaliate.

Puncture: We are trying to crit the enemy very often so this will be up most of the time. -2000 armor isn't that much but still helpful.

Weapon Mastery: 15% more damage is self explaining.
Combos
The most important combos are:
Charge >>> Triple Slash: Trip (keep in mind that the defence tree has a buff that prevents tripping)

Focal Concussion/Overwhelm >>> Shadowsmite: More damage and again a trip!

Banshee Wail >>> Lassitude: If not immune to sleep and fear this will give you time for the sleep to start.

Shadowsmite >>> Purge: Silence the enemy

A good way to initate a 1v1 fight to nuke the enemy down is:

Stalker's Mark (debuff) >>> Shadow Step (gap close) >>>(Banshee Wail fear to be save >) Focal Concussion (fast stun + buff remove) >>> Overwhelm (increase the stun time) >>> Shadowsmite (first damage) >>> Precision Strike (Main damage)

This will most likely take 50-100% of the enemys health. Now you could continue with Purge to remove another buff (can be used before Shadowsmite as well if you need to remove a buff first). Then if you need a bit time: Lassitude.
But if the enemy is almost dead take him down with for example Charge >>> Triple Slash (and trip him to keep cc up) or just Tiger Strike as it can't be dodged.
Some tanks will still be alive after this but the redoubt buff should be removed so keep CCing him with trip to buy time for the cd of you skills or take him down with Triple Slash!

But this is just one possible combo. I recommend you to test a bit around to find others.
This one is risky as well as you would use all of your CC skills so if the enemy is still alive he has free roam for a few seconds.

/// Group Fights \\\

5v5 / Group fights
There are certain things you need to know about playing a Shadowblade in 5v5 Arena or other group fight situations:
The Shadowblade MUSN'T engage - you are way to squishy to engage a fight and even if you can succeed with Banshee Wail you'll most likly have enemys with Courageous Action! So do NOT engage.
It's your primary role to continue the CC-Chain your group starts and "remove" one enemy.
You will jump in (most likely with Shadow Step) then cast Banshee Wail and vaporize your primary target (for example a healer with cloth armor) and then quickly escape either with Drop Back or Shadow Step.
You could also go for Kamikaze - jump in cast all your skills and then simply die. This will force your enemy to focus you and gives your team the edge.
Also you could Stealth upon people who stand slightly outside of the group and kill those - but be careful you might be spotted!

There is not much you can/should change your skills.
You could remove Tiger Strike as it will make you jump from enemy to enemy and your position will be completly random. You are unlikely to survive this skill.
Also Frenzy will kill you once the stun kicks in so use it with care - or simply switch it.
Skills that could be useful are:
Whirlwind Slash - AoE Damage
Reckless Charge - stronger movement and hence you are more likely to survive
Lasso - take one enemy away from the group and quickly kill him

After you engaged your target the combos are the same as in 1v1 situations as it's your duty to force one of the enemys into one of these situations.

/// Counters for 1v1 \\\

Counter Measures
In this section I'll give you hints on how to fight certain commonly seen classes.
(This section is solely for 1v1 situations!)

Primeval


Fighting a Primeval is pretty easy. At least if you got your Auroria gear mentioned in the Equipment section. Simply buff yourself with Freerunner then use Stalker's Mark (more damage!) Bondbreaker (to reduce the damage of the Primevals attacks), Shadow Step behind him and use Lassitude. Only Primevals that outgear a lot will be able to win in the around 3.5seconds this combo takes until it kicks in.
After the Primeval is sleeping simply kill him with the common damage combo:
Overwhelm >>> Shadowsmite >>> Precision Strike >>> Tiger Strike

Stone Arrow


Fighting a stone arrow is similar to fighting the primeval.
It's just a bit harder 'cause you need to pay attention for Redoubt. If the stone arrow uses redoubt either try to remove it with Focal Concussion or Purge or simply escape the fight and go stealth until redoubt runs out.

Darkrunner


You have two ways of fighting a Darkrunner:
Either you engage and stunlock him (Focal Concussion >>> Overwhelm | Banshee Wail >>> Lassitude) or you wait for him to engage and then stun him with Banshee Wail the moment the uses Charge/Tiger Strike/Shadow Step. The later of the two way is a certain stun if you get the timing right. Again don't forget Bondbreaker as it will reduce all physical damage for 4sec (and keep an eye out if the enemy uses it! If so you need to delay him with stuns like Banshee Wail)

Blighter


To win against a BLighter you need to stunlock him (same way as you would go against a Darkrunner), but keep in mind that you might be force to get 2 como rotations done to kill a Blighter (hence use stealth at the end of the first combo - also don't use Stalker's Mark if you aren't sure if you can kill the enemy with one rotation as it will end your stealth with the 1 damage the enemy takes once it's effect ends)

Abolisher


Very similar to fighting the Blighter, just keep in mind that the Abolisher is slower and you can escape Redoubt by simply keeping a distance! Also you will need two combo rotations if you don't outgear the Abolisher a lot. Also keep in mind that Shrug-it-off makes it impossible to stun the ABolisher (don't even try Banshee Wail if Shrug-it-off is used).

Dreambreaker


You will have a very hard time against Dreambreaker.
First of all: if you engage you need to end it so take measures that the Dreambreaker will be stunned immediately! (Focal Concussion will NOT allow you a permanent CC-Chain start).
A good start is to use Freerunner >>> Stalker's Mark >>> Drop Back >>> Stealth and then sneak up on behind and use Overwhelm - then chain your CC as usual. YOu can also try a risky engage with Stalker's Mark >>> Focal Concussion >>> Purge >>> Banshee Wail - if you get the feeling of this combo you can use this to win 95% of the fights with the right setup of enemy buffs (just try it and you'll get the hang of it!)
Tip: use Frenzy to increase your damage (the Dreambreaker will start hand-to-hand combat and hence hit you with white hits and Defence skills. Also it will decrease the damage you take from the spells.
Also getting a quick Shadowsmite >>> Purge combo will win the fight for you.
Fighting Dreambreaker requires quite a lot of training.

Daggerspell (and similar mage builds)


To fight daggerspells you need to get quite a bunch of Buffs on you to decrease the chance of getting Courageous Action removed - winning once it's removed is nearly impossible.
Again the Shadowsmite >>> Purge combo will win this fight if you see a good chance to use it. Don't use Overwhelm before the Daggerspell used Focal Concussion as it will simply deny it's used if used in the right moment.

/// Last words \\\

I'm still working on this build so feedback is appreciated :)
If you need some more advice feel free to ask me here at arche-base or ingame (Server: Lucius, Faction: Nuia, Name: Archthious) as I'm online alot :P
If I'm on your enemy faction (most likely): U can still send a mail to the enemies and you can whisper every faction while you are in the arena (as long as the other person is not).