Melee Shadow what's the appeal

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arclordz wrote:

i build a dual wield life leecher-claw shadow, pretty stuck at lvl 29 now. with decent DPS (about 200) but lack of defence (4% dmg reduction 250hp/150es 24% chance evade). i can handle mob with swirling blade with cold support gem.
the trouble is i cant handle boss or rare monster ( one hit 3/4 hp ). i take soul raker, increase damage & speed for claw, and critical chance.
my question is..what nodes should i take for defence?
should i take iron reflexes? (but the path is way too long). or should i take acrobatic, which increase dodge but remove ar and es. i think its risky. or should i take es nodes?
until right now im focusing on dex nodes.


would you all take suggestion for me?:D

I'm not one to talk about DPS but 200 seems a bit low for level 29. I'd say your defences are spread too thin, as well -- you've got armour, energy shield AND evasion. Pick one or two and work on that. I recommend, for you, going all evasion and getting Iron Reflexes. It'll convert all that chance to evade into damage reduction.

It's worth the path. I don't LIKE the skill personally but for a relative newcomer to the Melee Shadow it's probably not a bad idea.

or you can focus on Energy Shield and get Chaos Innoculation.

Or go all life and evasion -- I think that's a trickier way, though.

The key to a good Melee shadow build (and maybe any PoE build) is to focus on precisely what makes your character work, and ignore everything else.

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side1985 wrote:

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Qarl wrote:

Thanks for your feedback.

You are not the only person with survivability issues with the Shadow, and it is something we are trying to work on.

The Shadow does explicitly have a magic possibility to them, and is presented somewhat as a mage/assassin kind of character.

Ethereal Knives does has some issues we want to resolve.

Please make Ethereal Knives a physical skill It would fit better on melee shadow builds.

That spell is so beautiful.

Yes! I would love to see some tweaks for Ethereal Knives. It would be a fun skill to build around.

The sound it makes when you cast it could use a little work though...

Well, I'm back.
I actually made another thread saying what I'm about to say, so I'll keep it short.
I no doubt got flamed for a few pages,I'm not gonna bother reading them for fear of starting a back and forth or one upping contest :P

My Shadow is 51 now, and generally doing just fine.
3k dps with frenzy charges, Chaos innoc, Flickerstrike primary, dagger and shield.

I have to say there are some <really> scary moments, but atm, I can't say the class is flawed.
Evasion is... well, it is what it is. Bad RNG can get you killed, but you should never be standing in one spot long enough to take a string of hits.

I'm a little concerned about Chaos difficulty, or otherwise lvl 60+ ( how ever that turns out after they tune number of difficulties and number of acts)

I've heard Shadow can, and does get straight up one shotted.
Guess I'll find out.

I must apologize for jumping the gun there starting this thread.
Missing key gems, wearing crappy gear, and lack of knowledge was my fault.

ES, ES recharge, and evasion synergize very well. + fleet of feet :P

But GGG, I hope you do tune down the damage if all things considered it's possible to get one shotted, even with ok gear, and Enfeeble up.

And yes, please make Etherial knives more of a melee skill? and perhaps benefiting from ele damage of course :P
ATM it's this odd ball....spell, that looks like a melee skill, but it's not. It's damage is just not worth bothering with as physical/ele dmg melee :(

It LOOKS like it would be an amazing ranged kiting skill for shadow. But it's not.

Arclordz, try Flickerstrike, and/or Viperstrike.
And try and get your hands on added weapon ele dmg support gem. ( that is assuming you're going ele dmg)
One shotting everything zipping around the room is pretty dang fun.

As for your survivability question, I went for ES/Chaos Innoculation. Be ready to GTFO, and react quickly, dont stay in one spot, but generally have fun 1-2 shotting everything, and not- very- many shotting bosses.
You'll find your way, gl.

No one flamed you, Damage, just some people tried to justify the Melee Shadow, myself included. :)

Hey guys,

Maybe I am not the one talk in this issue as I am new, however I started shadow 2 days ago and currently I am level 23.

I use dual claw and got all the passives that boosts claw, so far no defensive passives yet. I currently took down bandit boss no1.

It is working great so far, my damage is high for my level, my attack speed is very fast, I use dual strike instead of double strike and I usually 1-2 shot things also takedown unique bosses very fast. Even the quest bosses are no problem.

Of course I am squishy but thats why I have Whirling Blades as a getaway tool or initiation tool (to catch necromancers)

I agree Etheral knifes are a bit useless, they got high mana cost, I only use them if I am low and need to kite some group, other then that the cast speed and recovery is very slow. I would suggest making it scale with attack speed to fix this problem.

Flickering Strike seems to be a fun skill to use but I avoid using it in large groups as I get hit hard sometimes, but even on single target or catching range monsters it works wonders.

Also one thing to note is that playing shadow is about positioning also, I don't jump in things, I usually try to seperate stronger monsters from groups and take them down when they are alone. Usually I do this by making weaker monsters follow me away from stronger one and pass through them towards stronger monster with whirling blade.

Overall its fun class to play.

Here is my current skill tree, I am open to suggestions :)