Is it just me, or does Duelist/Shadow/Ranger seem like the same class?

I'm not saying they can't be played differently, but seriously, other than using the bow as a Ranger, I'm not seeing much of a difference in playstyle. Maybe I'm just too new, can someone enlighten me?

I get that Duelist is more of a speedy/evasion Marauder, while the ranger relies less on those hard-hitting/crit properties, and that the shadow is more of a speedy/evasion mage, but those properties are so miniscule in my opinion, I practically play them the same except for small 5% of the time I'm using a different spell/skill.

They usually lead to very different endgame builds. Duelist is pretty much only used for melee focused or dualwield builds.

Shadow is an excellent start for many spellbased builds including physical spells(shockwave totem, EK). Also a great start for crit builds. Ranger tends to be bow builds and CoC builds. Ranger is versatile so it can easily lead to melee builds as well.

I am generalizing but their starting areas have clear biases. Shadow and duelist are especially different so it's strange you related them at all. I don't even recall any shadow or duelist build that went to eachother's starting nodes.

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kasub wrote:

I am generalizing but their starting areas have clear biases. Shadow and duelist are especially different so it's strange you related them at all.

I suppose I'm generalizing too, it just seemed to me that although the ranger typically focuses on bows, they all practically focus on evasion/dexterity/attack speed. BUt like you said, the endgame builds are probably where their differences truly shine, I have awhile before I get there.

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kasub wrote:

They usually lead to very different endgame builds. Duelist is pretty much only used for melee focused or dualwield builds.

Shadow is an excellent start for many spellbased builds including physical spells(shockwave totem, EK).

1. For most builds, only the first 5 nodes are different
2. Witch is better for EVERY caster build than shadow (except maybe burn builds and for thattemplar is better than shadow)
the 5 starting points of the with tree give more incresed dmg than the first 5 ele nodes (elemental spells) and more incresed dmg than the first 5 shadow phys dmg nodes (EK).

Besides that the witch has access to a very nice 40% mana regen node wich is even more important than the bit more increases spell dmg.

3. Duellist is always better for a life based melee build than shadow.
The first 5 points on the left side give you nice life and even a bit phys dmg, so that you can concentrate on those nice effective dmg nodes outside of the starting trees.
And the right side gives you a lot of dualwield attackspeed wich will usually give you more dps than those 5 phys dmg nodes from shadow tree since it is so easy to stack increased phys dmg...

4. Shadow is only better for ES based melee builds, but even there a witch is much better because you get a lot of ES from the first 5 points and can concentrate on nice dmg nodes outside of the starting tree.


=> Shadow is literally the worst class for almost every build...
But in most cases there isnt a really big difference anyway...

Not all casters go to the witch start so that's a pretty narrow view of things. I'm currently playing a caster that doesn't go to witch at all.

I also have an EK build that doesn't go near witch yet starts at shadow. You're narrowing down builds far too much. Some builds may even start at shadow and only go through the middle witch section.

is it me or the Scion seems like every other class?

For melee, even hp meleee..Shadow is better if you going for claw build than dualist .. ( Just saying )

each class base attribute, and first 5 start nodes make big diference at end-game.

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azraelb wrote:

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kasub wrote:

They usually lead to very different endgame builds. Duelist is pretty much only used for melee focused or dualwield builds.

Shadow is an excellent start for many spellbased builds including physical spells(shockwave totem, EK).

4. Shadow is only better for ES based melee builds, but even there a witch is much better because you get a lot of ES from the first 5 points and can concentrate on nice dmg nodes outside of the starting tree.


=> Shadow is literally the worst class for almost every build...
But in most cases there isnt a really big difference anyway...

As someone who plays almost exclusively shadow, you're completely clueless.