Shadow Starter Gems revamp please for racing.

Hello, I am Rithz. I'm one of the racers that usually races on shadow as my main class, but have neglected to do so lately because of how "weak" some of the shadow starter gems are.

Right now shadow is probably the worst class in a race, but the best class in endless ledge due to the other gems it has access to. I'd really like to see some more spell gems awarded to shadow early on to make the class more race viable.

Some spells that are great for racing are: Ice nova, Firestorm, Spark, Flameblast, Fire trap.

Shadow is awarded one of these gems in act 1 (fire trap), another in act 2 (flameblast) and the other 3 are gems that you hope to find. Flameblast is a level 10 gem and really interferes with racing as it is always underleveled since you get it so late in act 2.

I'd really like to see flameblast awarded after brutus on shadow, spark awarded after hailrake, and firestorm possibly from the glyph wall quest.


Another possibility is giving shadows hatred earlier on. The spell is a dex/int spell and the definition of the shadow class, yet they are the only class that gets it really late. This spell synergizes with EK really well, but since most races usually end in act 3 normal docks, shadows are never given a chance to receive this aura. It would be really nice if this skill could possibly be added for shadows in act 2 "Intruders in black" quest. Added fire is another support gem that scales with EK, but obviously since this is a strength skill it might not really follow the "shadow's definition" These gems could possibly make EK shadows viable in racing and make the class more "playable"

I would normally post this in the race feed back thread (I think I actually have in the past) but I feel like this is also a general gameplay issue. Please consider these suggestions.

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

big fat kick in the teeth.

...

It's a Normal Hillock quest reward.

You know it's a Normal Hillock quest reward.

...

Wow.

glacial cascade is pretty good though

It's not just the starter gems. There's a lot wrong with the shadow as a class

The big surprise for me was no good spells for descent champions race. At least from what I remember. Witch gets tons and shadow gets freezing pulse. Yay. He is god damn spellcaster as well, come on:) That flameblast in act 2, haha. Silly Scion gets it from Brutus.

searing bond act 3 cruel.
either hand the gem out leveled or available earlier.

All the gems they decide to "buff" or new gems that are actually good are given to shadows later than they should be or not given at all. I would really like it if they did something that would benefit shadows not only for racing but general gameplay.

More and more I am feeling that the gem rewards need a complete rehaul.

They should have ALL gem rewards available across all classes.

Something simple like "Recommended gems" which are the current rewards

But also you can access other classes rewards, so shadow can access the marauders 'hillock' reward, witch can get RM from the act 3 reward, etc.

Would make it much nicer to play a templar and get LMP, or play a shadow and get molten, or play a marauder and get faster casting, ANY number of combinations that at the moment are just painful

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Real_Wolf wrote:

More and more I am feeling that the gem rewards need a complete rehaul.

They should have ALL gem rewards available across all classes.

When it comes to the earliest gem rewards — Normal Hillock in particular — I emphatically disagree with this. Starting with an alternate class, getting to Lioneye's Watch, and muling a gem over only takes a couple minutes, but can be a solid race strategy with an interesting drawback. (As we saw earlier, I have zero sympathy for the "every class should have Molten Strike" argument.)

On the other hand, the idea of rerolling to gain access to, say, Melee Physical Damage as a quest reward is patently absurd. So I don't think your point is completely invalid.

What we should see is a steadily increasing diversity of gem rewards as characters progress. The earliest gem rewards should either be class exclusives or really close to it, with a limited number of options; the Merciless gem rewards should be fairly uniform across all classes, with a large number of options available.

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Legatus1982 wrote:

It's not just the starter gems. There's a lot wrong with the shadow as a class

As topic starter said shadow does really good in endless ledge. Apart from the quest rewards shadow is fine.