I only played rogues and shadowblades so far and was kind of obsessed with the Stealthtree.
Here is my beloved concept for a Stealth specced Shadowblade, which i believe is by far the best stealthbuild. I had incredible fun with it and played dozens of stealth toons before this concept evolved.
In short it combines extraordinary mobility (Shadowstep, teleport, prohabilitytravel, movement infusion, stealth) with incredible high dmg,(shadowstep, flurry,whirlwind with shadowstrike) and a really decent summoned shadow thx to shadowstrike, with high flexibilty (2 stuns, disarm, daze and silence)
I used the Shadowstrikeaddon, which was quite helpful. it felt strong but not overpowered,
Iam sure it is not necessary for this build, you just have to concentrate on cun dex and physicalpower instead of critmultiplyer for dmg. (played another toon to lvl40 without addon then i decided to start a new because i misskilled a bit)
You find lot more words concerning my tactics and experience after the buildpost
http://te4.org/characters/5446/tome/3ca ... a42b4cb8f2
A few/lot more Words to the build:
Shadowstrke
This is the reason i played a cornac.
Shadowstrike is the key skill for this build, so its full specced, using the second category point at lvl 10 to improve stealth.
It has a great synergy with the high dmg Shadowstep, (which is the main atack and also full specced)and flurry and whirlwind of course. It also has a great synergy with the ambuscade shade, which has high stealth and will use shadowstrikes efficiently. (often my shade killed the bosses instead of soften it up.)
As i used the shadowstrike addon i prefered equipment enhancing the crit multiplyer and skilled lethality( which is otherwise a waste as 90% of your dmg is stealthdmg)
Stealth and Mobility
Stealth is a great protection from spells and arrows and simialiar unwanted attention. a room full of casters is no problem with his build, you are well protected and flexible.
With prohabilty Travel Stealth creates an unique gamefeeling apart from the obvious tactical possibilities: you float like Ghost, gliding through the walls, invisible to the eyes of your enemies, deliver your deadly strike, withdraw through the wall and send your Shadow to finish the rest...
As a stealth based build u have to recover often if your stealth brakes, so u need to be mobile:
The build is unbelievable flexible and mobile and for sure its more than a classical rogue:
The most used combo was Prohability travel and movement infusion. You can just vanish though the wall or using ur build in Teleport if things turn out dirty.
In parts of flexibility u have stealth, the infamous Shadowstep, u have disarm and silence form the great ambushtree, and 2 stuns of course.
As a stealth char beeing that mobile u can always withdraw and reequip , this way u can always prepare yourself, adjust your tactics to the needs and plan yor assault very acuratly.
Ambuscade
With Shadowstrikes your Shadow really brings some dmg to the table, i often killed weaker bosses only with one shadow and without doing something myself.
The Shadow really shines in bossfights and when u have withdrawn through the wall with prohability travel
just hit ambuscade and send your Shadow through the wall to soften up the enemies or kill what is left.
The shadow makes a great combo with the otherwise dangerous shadow Veil: with the resistances granted the shadow will survive quite long dealing a lot of dmg. Of course it comes handy for scouting and testing the abilities of dangerous bosses.
You can even siege really dangerous bosses u would otherwise have fled, by sending shadow after shadow attacking them, without puting yourself in danger.
By the way your shadow does only darkness dmg as your main attack so is wise to boost it if u can. (eternal-Set or early on the moon and star dagger set or example) and u always have a decent dmgsource apart from physical dmg.
Shadowstep
This is the main attack. Its just great. fully skilled it has a reach of 11 a cooldown of 6 and dazes for 8. this means u can perma daze a dangerous opponent 1vs1. Damagewise its just as awesome: u attack with both weapons for 234% dmg, combine this with 268% full skilled Shadostrikecrits (add lethality and crit multiplyer from equip if playing with the addon). You can assasinate many nonboss enemies with this. I sometimes saw hits for over 3000 dmg on soft armored enemies in the late game.
Shadow Veil
A dangerous skill, but very useful if u prepare and just great to let your shadow use it.
Later on with the apropiate protection shadowveil is really strong for u too, but you got to prepare: using Shield, sacrifice dagger, wild infusion, juggernaut buff and premonition and of course insatible daggers or life drinker. it clears the rooms for you. if u use it together with essence of speed, you will get turns in between where u can use heals or activate another shield. I dont know if that is intended.
Protection
Beeing stealthy and deadly mobile doesnt mean u dont need protection, consider Con your third main stat, get thick skin as soon as possible, get premonition (best from escort) if not you have to consider living with only 3 infusions/runes. Put points in dex and skill dual defense. choose your equipment not only in dmg concerns, +life is great early and defense and resistances are important.
With lvl 50 i put the category point of the secondary boss in the sandworm lair in the temporaltree for essence of speed. To be honest i mostly used it for bosses or in cases i couldnt flee(couldnt afford the mana for premonition, prohability travel and essence), premonition is mandatory, so if u havnt the luck to get it through the escort quest get this instead.
Finally i say : Praise the Darklord for this great Game!
And it would be nice to see more Stealthblades and Shadowcrawlers out there soon! I hope you will have as much fun as i did. Experiences, ideas, suggestions for further improvement and questions are welcome...
Tagedieb
