ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I cannot spare you to proudly present the first Shadowblade win on Nightmare !

http://te4.org/characters/5446/tome/a54 ... 097739a2d8

This should prove the potential of a stealtbuild with shadowblade.
Especially as i had some bad luck with equipment:
>no stealth buff item, (serpentscloak, deathembrace etc.)
>no edensguile or speed buff item or ring of focus
>no burning star
>no ring of warmaster, dakhthun gauntlets
>no mandible of ungolmor,

So i missed quite a few of my favorite items, still i had a ton of thrill and fun ( i entered the prides with just the life left i still have;)

Few comments:
-Equpiment egos are better on nightmare then on normal, making game less difficult to the end
-Track is a key skill.
-Illuminate is great lvl 10-25 so i juggled points out of after shining time.
-Ambuscade is so useful with Stealth shadwowstrikes.
Difference to former stealthbuilds:
>no cornac as i just couldnt get one alive through the first lvls, halfing is decent, especially with the luck prodigy.
category order was stealth>stealth>Ambush>heroism
>tried cripple, which really proved useful, its good for its dmg alone.
>i encountered bosses with around 240 armour, you need some points to fully skill deadly strikes and precision, if you want to be able to kill them
>With shadowstrike i saw shadowsteps with nearly 5000dmg. with better equipment 7000 should be possible.

Final fight looked really grim in the beginning as the caster had mad spells hitting for 1000dmg each and high speed, so after i retreated to heal, the paladin was nearly dead while both casters uninjured. after one ambuscade i sucessfully crippled and stunned the caster and he died fast, as the other one was focussing on the paladin who merily kept himself alive it was easy from then. i Didnt close any portals, i believe i would have lost if i did, as the Paladin would have died.

Have Fun all playing this great game and play more stealthblades

Congrats. I"ve never had much luck with these.

Hey, congrats on the winner.
I just tried something similar and failed miserably
Can You tell, how did you start, the first 20 levels? which infusions/runes stat allocation and talents?

Thanks:)

@MisiuPysiu
You can find some tips here too: http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=4 ... 39&start=0

I try to keep the points in all spells fluid the first 10 lvls and tend to exchange runes with infusions as soon as money/equip allows it to get the chance to get track from an Anorithil escort betrayal. you can do that as sb if you have no spells skiiled and no runes on. If you dont GET a Track/arcane Eye item.

I try to give a summary of my development till lvl 20.
But its suited to my playstyle and there might be safer ways. All in all i play sbs as Glasscannon following the rule to "kill it before it can harm you" or if a fast kill isnt possible i use guerilia tactics. I combine this attitude with the "best defense possible with low-till medium investment".

All in all if you play on Nightmare the first levls are really hard, you need to play very carefully and retreat fastly or even skip some rares and come back t hunt them back later.

The stat development till lvl 20 is depending on skills i want to skill and therefore on the euipment i find/buy. As i consider the "tricks of the Trade" prodigy mandatory for this build i dont need to save money. In the first 20 lvls, when the itempool is bad i buy many items to fullfill skill-conditions faster and to extend survivability.
- Stats are distributed in dependence of skillaims till lvl20
- Juggle points acording to your needs, taking points from illuminate to dualwepaons or deadlystrikes if needed

Race is Halfling:
lvl1 +3 con, +1 combat acuracy +1 dirty fighting +1 rush
lvl2 +1 cun +2 con 1dagger mastery +1 shadow combat for early dmg (remove the point later)
at lvl 4 i want 20 dex to skill dual defense and flurry. most of the rest goes to con
other class points go to dual weapon fighting
The next step is the troll treasureboss: you should be lvl5-6
if i found some equip boosting Dex/cun/con: try to fulfill one or if lucky all of this. (tabellary sorted by importance)
-i defintly try to skill backstab and deadlystrike for this fight if my cun is allowing!
-dex to 22 to get another point of dagger mastery
-con 23 Thick skin
- other points go to acuracy, dual wepaon f. shadowcombat

Tactic for this fight:
If you found some early def equip, you can try to stand a open fight using def depending on his acuracy.
In all other cases you need to lure him to the stairs (no rush for him and posibility to flee for you)
try to permastun him and use infusion regen to survive the time between stun. if your stuns dont hit stairdance and try again. if he is near dead you can risk to use phase door to port in the treasureroom, dispatch the trolls there and rest before finishing him. If you cant kill him this way go to derth and buy a better dagger.
After this you are lvl7-8 things will getting easier now for a while.

I build the char with following aims in mind, in dependance of equip.

- get halfling evasion at lvl 8
- Get Stealth at lvl 10 and put 2 in stealth and 1 in shadowstrikes and +1 heighted senses
- Max Phase door as soon as your items allow, and get teleport (mag 20) dont put more then 1-2 points in magic to reach this goal.
- Get shadowstep at lvl 12 or as soon as your cun (cun 36) allows. this with shadowstrike is your main dmg, (buy dwarven steel dagger to use) its awesome with track/arcane eye allowing you to jump over walls/doors and attack out of nowhere.
- Get dagger mastery as high as possible
-Always try to skill thickskin if possible with items, add some points to con regulary if you dont work or can reach he other goals
-max Dual weapon fighting as soon as possible or first skill illuminate for its great dmg with shadowstirkes in the mid era
-if you have reached the dex get 1 sweep and 1whirlwind.

I usualy divide the statpoints this way +1cun+1con+1dex. Acording to he skill i aim for i very in this and generally prefer cun over dex (for stealth)and cun and dex over con if thickskin is maxed

Normal attack scheme on single Track>Shadowstep>deadly strikes(using no turn)>dirty fighting(stun or free too)>flurry. Rush/phasedoor

At lvl 15 (22 class points/16 generics (including the 2 from derth) you char could look like this:

Shadow Magic: 1 1 1 2
Combat techniques: 1
Stealth: 2 1 1
Dual techniques: 1 1 1
Lethatlity: 1 1
Dirty Fighting: 1
Dual Weapons:5 1 /1 1 and Phantasm 4 (illuminate not needed later so juglle hem in and out every lvl)

Halfling 1 1
Combat Training 2 0 2 0 3
Survival 1
conveyance 5 1

The next cat point goes to stealth, so the goal is to have maxed unseen actions at lvl 20.
Other aims are Thick skin/ dagger mastery/halfling evasion 3 and shadowstep and 1 Whirlwind and max dual weapons.
I usualy get shadowstep to 4 fastly

All this time iam using the following infusions:
Wild physical /or phys and ment/mag
Regeneration
Shield /or healing if you dont find a shield rune

I have Luck of little folk and sometimes shield on autouse if next to enemy. as i my first attack is always illmiante/shadowstep i don use stealth form using regulary

As you can see the build is very agressive: focusiing on stealth. but stealth is proteting you too making the enemies miss or dont target you. and you have shadowstep and phasedoor to get in and out without beeing hit too much.
>main def is stealth/halfling evasion and phase door and track/arcane eye to know what you are dealing with.

Dam this is quite a textwall, as iam followin this scheme automatically, i didnt know how much experience was in it

Anyway hope it helps

Wow O.O

Thanks a lot for the detailed guide
This will really help. I love the shadowblade theme and would like to make one successful.
With these tips i hope to get better at this class. I see now where my mistakes in the early game were. I invested to much in dex/cun, neglecting con for the first 15 levels. And I also forgot to skill phase door to lev 5. After this, in diakarta i was swarmed with enemies with no means of escape. The fact, that You can shadowstep throu walls is also new to me, this will help a lot later on.

Once again, thanks :)

I like the combo ShadowAmbush+Snap+ShadowAmbush in the very endgame, it gives you 16 turn "silence" enough time to kill anything included the final boss, it is almost like cheating.
Yes stealth+Illuminate with ShadowStrikes is great at low level, with a critical Illuminate you can kill the whole screen which helps a lot to pass those hard times.