Nightshade Basics
Death and Dying
How to Spec a Combat Nightshade - More or Less
Spec Rationale
Evade
The Nightshade DD
Styles and Weapons
Poisons
Realm Abilities Overview
     Passive Realm Abilities
     Active Realm Abilities
     Sample Realm Abilities Spec
Equipment
RvR Tactics and Strategies
     Stealther Combat
     Group on Group Meeting Engagements
     Keep Defense
Author Information

Your initial 30 attribute points should focus on enhancing your melee damage and surviving melee combat:

          Strength 10
          Constitution 10
          Dexterity 10

If your combat Shade is going Blades, you might want to put 15 in Strength and none in Dex. It's a loss, but it matters later because Strength will be your primary attack attribute. Hit Points are the only defense you have besides Evade, so you must put 10 points in Con either way.

Given the role that we've chosen to play, your training focus is on melee damage and poisons. A combat Nightshade is a prime candidate for auto-training Stealth -- if I had known about it when I started I would have done it, and the extra 77 points would have come in real handy. However, not having much information on how to play the character I wanted to play, I ended up feeling my way through my levels and spec lines, beefing up each one as it seemed to weaken. Your spec should be optimized for Realm Rank 5, because that is the final level of advancement except for Realm Abilities. My final spec pre-1.62:

          30 Stealth
          41 Piercing
          1 Blades
          1 Critical Strike
          49 Celtic Dual
          37 Envenom
          7 points left over

If I had to do it again, I'd auto-train Stealth as much as possible (which with my current spec would have gotten me 3 more levels!), drop Envenom by 2 to 35, raise CD to 50, and put the remaining points into Pierce. This would have allowed me to check out the top CD styles and evaluate them - as it was, I only could see a portion of the top CD chain.

Post-1.62, this is my current spec:

          30 Stealth
          50 Piercing
          1 Blades
          1 Critical Strike
          39 Celtic Dual
          37 Envenom
          38 points left over

The 38 points is left for a future respec of Envenom down to 35 or 34, depending on the realm rank I have when I respec. Those points will go back into Celtic Dual. I thought about going even lower, and still haven't decided whether I want to keep Lifebane or not. Currently, I am leaning towards keeping it due to improved criticals, but it is awfully expensive for what you get out of it.

The results of this spec are not immediately clear to me. I like the top-end Pierce styles and I seem to do more damage; I can't tell any difference on the number of Celtic Dual hits, although I do occasionally have to wait for the second poison now. See Styles and Weapons for complete details.

The reasoning behind the low Stealth spec is fairly simple. A combat Shade's styles and damage do not depend on Stealth, so auto-training is easy and gains you 77 points. Stealth is heavily influenced by character level; it is more important to be level 50 than to have a 50 Stealth skill. I've found that 30 Stealth is adequate for spotting other stealthers and avoiding non-Stealth classes, especially with the skill boosted by items up into the 40's. (With Spellcrafting in play, there is no reason why your skill buffs cannot be maxed out.) Also note that the Herald has stated that going past 50 Stealth is beneficial, but barely noticeable. The difference between most stealthers and a combat Shade is generally 6-8 points of Stealth, which does not have an appreciable effect on spotting or dealing with enemy stealth -- and that's all that matters to us.

The Envenom spec is also straightforward. At 35 it gives you Lifebane at RR5 (all skills +4) with items. Insidious is almost as good as Lifebane, and the other poisons are all accessible by level 48 Envenom., so there really isn't much reason to waste the points. Also, there is no current reason to go past level 50 in Envenom, since there are no poisons higher than level 50. The only possible reason to boost Envenom would relate to resists and actually landing poisons; there is no information at this time that 51+ Envenom has any appreciable effect. Do note that to use any of the new poisons, you must have 50 Envenom skill.

Piercing (or Blades) is more complicated. According to the Herald, you want to place your weapon skill at 2/3rds of our level for 75-125% damage. If you train your weapon skill up to your level, you hit for 100-150% , which is quite a difference. Buffs and bonuses are included in this calculation as far as I know. It is unclear whether or not pushing your skills past your level makes a difference, especially at 50; the only thing I can say here is that your displayed weapon skill DOES go up if you boost Pierce past 50, so higher Pierce does seem to equal higher damage. On the other hand, I know there are many Infiltrators out there with level 50 Thrust, yet they seem to pretty much hit me as hard as I hit them with a single blow (in one-on-one, unbuffed combat). UPDATE: What very high Pierce seems to do is top out your average damage. My experience with my post-1.62 spec is that I do slightly harder hits, but the hits fall in the high end of the range much more often.

Celtic Dual is also a little opaque. It is fairly well known that the chance to dual-hit increases by .5% per level of Celtic Dual, with a base to-hit of 25% (used to be 15%?). Boosting Celtic Dual past 50 does appear to boost your percentage and give you more offhand hits. However, it is extremely hard to quantify since your percentage is not directly observable. Celtic Dual is also affected by level, with fewer dual-hits being scored on opponents who are of higher level than you. Finally with Celtic Dual, you'll see a lot of older guides recommend that you should have two fast weapons (2.5 second delay or less). This is no longer the case. What you really want with Celtic Dual is two weapons with similar speeds, preferably the slowest weapons you can find. I generally carry a guarded rapier (3.5 second delay) and an angled dagger in my offhand (3.0 second delay). See Styles and Weapons for a complete explanation.

Pre-1.62, The deciding factor for me in running CD all the way up was that the level 50 Celtic Dual style Supernova is accessible, as part of a three-move side-attack chain. The level 50 Piercing style requires an evade, which makes it less useful in group combat, and the Piercing chain also has two bleeds instead of a bleed and an attack-speed reduction. Currently, either path is quite valid, and I would be interested to hear how effective the level 50 Piercing style is. In any case, Celtic Dual is the combat Shade's combat edge. The dual hits are strong, fast, and have a synergistic effect with other Nightshade skills (see Realm Abilities and Poisons).

My post-1.62 spec reflects my desire to hit harder, and lessen enemy Evade occurences (hopefully). With a future respec of Envenom to 35 or 34, I plan on pushing Celtic Dual back up to 41 or 42, which leaves me 23 or 30 points (which would have been a third level of Stealth had I auto-trained!). I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these points; I may leave them to be a future re-spec cushion, or dump them into CS to see if the Eviscerate attack-speed debuff is useful.  

The Nightshade dd is normally dismissed as useless. However, a combat Nightshade can use it in several very useful ways. The dd never runs out of ammo -- it is excellent for pulling in PvE and is an always-available tool for RvR. Make sure any Mentalists you have with you know that you need Power regen, and stick around when you need a recharge. The amount of damage the dd does is small but not trivial. Even against resists, I can usually get in 60-80 damage on a target. Repeated fire can help kill a target or drive them back to get healed, and your naturally high Dex lets you cast very quickly. Remember that Strength is the attribute your casting is based on, so have your Strength maxed out (which you should anyway). Items with +Power are nice, but you will have a hard enough time getting all the other skills and resists in order -- don't bother with +Power.

Post-1.62, I have not been able to see any damage increases or stat increases due to the Augmented Acuity change. They said that Augmented Acuity affects our casting stat now. Since my Int did not go up, I'm assuming they mean that it affects Strength, but I didn't see any effect there either. I don't know if this is broken or if they made a "behind the scenes" change. If it is a Strength buff, that is good news for Blades users, as it means a bit more damage.

Do some damage before they get to you. In a one-on-one engagement, it is very helpful to do a bit of damage before someone reaches you. Conventional stealthers close for the PA; you can close as well, or start hitting from range. This is helpful against any target with minimal ranged abilities (tanks, healers), as it usually takes a couple seconds for them to realize what is going on, which allows you to get in 200 or 300 damage without danger to yourself.

If you time it right, you can move while casting. This is very tricky and takes practice. There is a short period just before the end of your cast and before the start of the next cast where your spell is no longer interruptable, and you can move without causing a problem. This allows you to edge slowly towards your target while keeping the dd on them, with the purpose of closing enough to use your shout, then move into melee. Not too useful, but occassionally handy.

The dd is very useful for interrupting a target. Because of our extremely high Dexterity, Nightshades cast very quickly -- quickly enough to beat most casters, healers, and archers to the punch. Use that speed to disrupt enemy casters from the walls, keep healers from doing their job, and to assist your nukers with finishing someone off. There are few experiences more satisfying than interrupting a gtaoe caster and then watching him get bolted from two different directions. Interruption is useful in many different scenarios -- keep it in the back of your mind as an option.

Assisting with keep attacks even when damaged. If you're hurt, going up or down the wall is too dangerous to contemplate. Thus, while you are waiting for a heal, throw your dd into the fight on the side walls or at the climb points. You can also assist with suppression of wall defenders from the ground if your side is on the attack. Remember, though, that you don't want to attract attention, so fire a few dd's at one target and make them back off, then move and choose another target. You can't run out of ammo, and your power is useless for anything else -- make it count.

Keeping enemy archers down in keep combat. Whether you are on the wall or attacking, keeping enemy archers down is a very helpful action. On the attack, stealth and move in relatively close to the wall. When a stealthed enemy archer moves up to try for a Crit Shot, dd or shout him to unmask him. This prevents the Crit Shot through interruption, and will likely get the archer killed unless he is on the ball and immediately drops off the wall. On the defense, keep an eye out for archers who are moving around the side in stealth mode, and dd them to prevent them from assisting with the climb point battles.

You'll find a lot of style and damage information out there, with all kinds of charts and tests and number crunching. Most of that is, quite frankly, bullshit. The problem is that style chains are very tough to pull off in the chaos of RvR combat. You can sometimes get in a two-move chain, and if the battle is small you might luck out with a three-move chain, but that's really the limit of what you can do. The real test of a weapon spec is: how strong is the anytime style? How strong is the follow-up move for that style?. The answer to those two questions covers 90% of the weapon spec's value in combat. As a weapon spec Celtic Dual rates about in the middle of the pack by this measure -- Hurricane/Solar Flare is a decent anytime combo. I don't have enough experience with Blades to be sure, but it appears that Blades is also in the middle of the pack by this measure (Fire Blade/Spectrum Blade). Pierce, on the other hand, is pretty low on the scale, and so we use the Celtic Dual styles most of the time. Combat Shades also have one other useful move -- reactive evade styles, specifically the Piercing style Diamondback and the related chain. The rest of this section assumes that you are specced in Pierce and Celtic Dual.

Diamondback is one of the cornerstones of my melee. When you first read about it, it seems good but not great - reactive evade, procs a stun for around 5 seconds, and does medium bonus damage. The medium damage rating is a lie. A level 25 style, it does roughly equivalent damage to Solar Flare (CD, 39) and Cobra's Bite (Pierce, 39), both of which are follow-up styles with High damage ratings. Combined with Evade VII and naturally high Dex, Diamondback becomes a low Endurance, high damage, dependable style -- as long as whatever it is you are fighting is trying to hit you or someone else with high Evade. It is most useful in soloing and tanking for a group, where the 5-second stun gives you some breathing room against powerful monsters. The stun is also repeatable with diminishing returns on mobs, so in reality it turns into a 7-9 second stun (effect does not work in RvR). An excellent PvE set of moves is three Diamondbacks in a row, or a Diamondback, something else, and then another two Diamondbacks.

UPDATE: using the level 50 pierce chain can substantially enhance this tactic. DB-DS-DB-DS-WB is a very strong 5-move PvE chain, as is the DB-DS-WB for later when the stun doesn't work any more.

The next key style is Hurricane, the level 21 Celtic Dual use-anytime style. This is the backup for Diamondback if DB doesn't go off. It's not a great style because of its high End usage, but it does decent damage. It's also the best use-anytime style the combat Shade has available, so we use it. Fortunately it leads into Solar Flare. Solar Flare is a level 39 CD style that is quite powerful, and relatively End efficient. In normal crazy RvR combat, Hurricane/Solar Flare is your dependable hit.

At this point I should mention how I actually use these styles. Some folks have trouble with figuring out when to use a follow-up style, especially in RvR combat when it is hard to tell whether you hit or missed with your style. The best way to do this involves the backup style code introduced somewhere back in the early 1.5x patches. This code lets you set up a backup style to use if your first style doesn't apply. Thus, when you're fighting, you very quickly hit Diamondback-Hurricane (I bind them to 7 and 8 on the quick bar). If Diamondback can't be done, Hurricane will automatically be performed. The next sequence you hit is either Solar Flare-Hurricane (if Hurricane hit) or Diamondback-Hurricane again (If Diamondback hit, or default if you can't tell). In this way you always ensure you get a bonus to your hit, and will use Diamondback, your most efficient style, if at all possible. It also guards against mistakes -- the worse case scenario is that you perform Hurricane again.

UPDATE: with the level 50 Pierce chain, I just added the two extra styles. When Diamondback goes off, I move to the chain instead (DS at position 5, WB at position 4). If the chain fails, I go back to DB-Hurricane.

All the other styles are conditional, and can be used in different situations. The Ice Storm -> Tempest -> Supernova Celtic Dual chain is very useful against mobs, especially high-level ones; the only type of damage not capped, blocked, or resisted by these monsters is bleed damage, and the attack-speed reduction saves your tanks a lot of heartache and your healers a lot of mana. Over the course of a 10 minute fight, 7-8 bleed damage every few seconds really adds up (note that this will draw aggro, so be prepared). Copperhead/Viper's Bite is another useful chain that slows the target and does good damage for low Endurance. Play around with all of your styles and figure out what is useful where, and use them for variety and fun. You've got plenty of flexibility, since your weapon choice is more key to long-term damage than your styles. Just make sure you get a style off on every hit to get a bonus in RvR.

UPDATE: Bleeds do seem to be capped somehow, but I haven't figured this out yet. It's still a nice bit of extra damage. I don't use Icestorm-Tempest any more, preferring Copperhead or Copperhead-Viper's Bite for the attack-speed debuff (now that it really works).

Choosing Blades or Pierce is tough. I chose Pierce because I wanted fast hits to disrupt casters and less vulnerability to debuffs. Pierce depends equally on Strength and Dexterity, which is helpful for Shades because their Dex is naturally high. This also helps immensely against debuffs -- you must be debuffed for Strength and Dexterity in order to really be hurt, and that takes a coordination that is difficult to manage in RvR. On the other hand, Blades offers slower, stronger hits, and thus more damage in combat. The downside is that Blades depends only on Strength. Strength is a Nightshade's tertiary attribute, starts low for both Lurikeen and Elves, and is easily debuffed by opposing stealthers -- some serious disadvantages. I think both paths are viable, and the Shades I know seem about evenly split between the two.

So which actual weapons should you use? Until the attack-speed cap was implemented, super-fast piercers were the way to go. Once the attack-speed cap was in place, the pedulum swung to the opposite end. For a Pierce specced combat Shade you definitely want to go with the slowest weapons you can find. For a Blades specced combat Shade you should delve a little more, and may need to switch weapons based on whether or not you have a haste buff. Also, you want to get your offhand weapon as close as possible in speed to your primary weapon.

Why is this? Weapons do damage based on their dps rating and speed -- slower weapons thus hit harder. Theoretically, this evens out over the course of a fight - a 16.5 dps weapon is a 16.5 dps weapon. Realistically, harder hits are better unless the fight goes on a long time. How hard can a particular weapon hit? Weapon speed is held constant; each weapon's damage calculation is based on its fixed speed, not how fast you actually swing the weapon. So, we want the slowest weapon possible because of the Nightshade's inherent high Quickness. The high Quickness lets us swing a weapon that should be a 3.5 second delay at 2.5 seconds or less actual delay, increasing total damage per hit (which is better) and leaving room for buffs to speed us up still further. Fully buffed, you should just barely hit the attack-speed cap -- maximizing the damage you can do and making sure your attacks are as fast as possible.

According to the best information we have, with Celtic Dual you have an even chance to swing either weapon, and then a chance to swing the other weapon -- if you do not use a style. Whichever weapon swung "first" is the one used to figure out the delay before the next swing. So, without using styles, your damage would average out properly over time; sometimes the quick weapon is gimped by a long delay, sometimes the slow weapon is improved by a short delay.

When you use a style, the calculation is done differently (unfortunately). With a style the main weapon is always the one that swings "first". Then you have a chance to swing the offhand weapon based on your CD skill. This means the delay is always the long one from the slower main weapon; thus, the faster offhand weapon does less damage than it should over time, because the faster offhand weapon still calculates damage on the assumption that it is being swung at its own fast speed. Thus, you really, really need to get your offhand weapon to be as slow as possible (without sacrificing quality). Angled Daggers are a major help, but I'm still on the endless search for a 99-100 Quality, 3.5-4.0 second delay, offhand piercer with +4 to Pierce and +4 to Celtic Dual (and a non-Matter DoT proc -- more on that later).
 

Envenom is a specific strength of the combat Shade. Because of your ability to hit reliably with both weapons, you can count on having both poisons delivered in the first couple of hits. It also means that if you switch weapons to your backup, you can deliver three poisons in two or three swings. This is much more useful and gives you more control than the conventional Shade's technique of delivering one poison, switching to deliver the second poison, and then hoping the third poison happens at some point in the fight. Conventional Shades are also not particularly enamored of switching to their backup right away, as it might screw up their PA chain. The extra poison leaves you room to maneuver; you can hold off on a backup debuff until your target Purges, for example, or exploit the synergy of the Str/Con debuff plus your DoT, then hit them with disease to degrade their ability to heal. Finally, in a situation where you *know* that someone has heavy Body resist, you can stack up one kind of poison to make sure it gets through (usually debuff).

I also ensure that poisons are always available to me. Because a combat Shade doesn't rely on Stealth as much, he also doesn't usually get a chance to stop, let the combat timer run out, and re-poison. Thus, I carry four pairs of "bench" weapons in my backpack, for a total of eleven weapons. During combat, I simply swap weapons and move on to the next target. And yes, getting eleven player-made 98+ quality weapons was horrifically expensive. (I found that 3 pairs of bench weapons was not enough.)

For RvR combat I generally alternate between two poison modes, depending on the situation. Mode 1 is Max Damage, with a debuff (Enervating) on my primary weapon, a DoT on my offhand, and a backup DoT. Mode 2 is Prevention, with a debuff on my primary, a disease on my offhand, and a DoT or debuff on backup. My bench weapons are typically debuff/DoT for each pair. I use the snare poison only in specific situations where I need to keep someone from running, applying it just before use (see RvR Tactics). I don't have any experience with the Alchemy poisons, but both of the new ones sound useful; one is an attack-speed debuff, the other reduces enemy Endurance (or increases their End usage, I can't really tell). I'll add information here when I try them out.

Why does the debuff poison figure so prominently in my poison layout? Well, there are two reasons, one that involves game mechanics and one that has to do with people's reaction to being hit with a DoT. The debuff poison is by far the most powerful debuff in the game -- at the highest level, it reduces Strength and Constitution by 118 points. Try this little exercise:

1. Look at your hit points.
2. Look at your Constitution, noting how HP is boosted by +75 Con and +200 HP from items.
3. Now remove all your items.
4. Now look at your hit points again.

That's a rough estimate of what the debuff poison does, and that doesn't even bring in the strength half of the debuff. If an RvR enemy isn't maxed out on Con and HP, then they are that much worse off. If the poison criticals (see Wild Arcana in Realm Abilities) it can do up to 150% as much of a debuff, for up to 177 Con and Strength removed from the target. This is enormously powerful, even against mobs and even through heavy resists. This is also why Shades are reluctant to carry things -- in the middle of a stealther fight you can lose most of your Strength, and if you are lugging a ram it stops you in your tracks and generally gets you immediately killed. UPDATE: with 1.62 this is supposed to be fixed (the Encumbrance effect was removed), so Shades can carry stuff. Yay! Just don't die inside keep before you deploy your ram.

The second reason I rely on the debuff is that people don't notice it. There is very little indication of what has happened except in one line on the status display, and one "debuff" icon at the top in the middle of all their buff icons. The enemy's health bar does not go down, and the only other indication of reduced strength is the target's movement reduction due to being encumbered. Without the DoT damage ticks, enemies who have been debuffed generally think they are okay. (Conversely, enemies who have been DoTed tend to run away and get healed.) Best of all, the debuff stays with the target through Ignore Pain -- this "hitting" the enemy twice, and rendering IP much less effective than would otherwise be the case. Other classes be warned: if you have the debuff on you, use Purge and IP together -- it'll save you a lot of heartache.

Finally, many Shades use the quickbar to poison their weapons. I drag and drop. I do this for four reasons. One, it makes sure that you always have what you want, and there is never any confusion about what poison is on each weapon (which happens with the quickbar). Two, it gets you used to switching poisons just before combat, which is a very handy skill. Three, you have to change your weapons around anyway to re-poison your bench weapons, so using the quickbar doesn't really gain you that much. Four, sometimes with the quickbar it is hard to tell if the poison actually took or not due to the combat timer -- which is a really important thing to know. Your mileage may vary, but this has worked out very well for me.

There are a broad range of realm abilities available to the combat Nightshade, and many paths of specialization that could be taken. When planning your realm abilities, I think the initial plan should cover 40 points (RR5, the last level of advancement). Note carefully that the higher levels of each realm ability are exponentially more expensive. The combat Nightshade has an advantage here, because many of the skills are useful at low level and are enhanced by other low-level skills, creating a beneficial synergy. For example, Mastery of Pain (increase in % critical hit) is enhanced by Dualist's Reflexes (% increase in dual-hit) -- more hits total gives you more chances for critical hits.

The next key consideration is Passive (always-on) abilities versus Active (timer-based) abilities. Passive abilities give less of a bonus but in the long run are more helpful, and don't need to be activated (a problem in the chaos of combat). I've found that timer-based abilities I've tried (with one or two exceptions) are pretty useless for me as a Combat Nightshade. For this reason, I chose to spread my points out across many Passive abilities to get the most bang for my RP buck. Finally, my goal in choosing realm abilities was to give myself bonuses that no one else in the game can provide -- thus, I am at my strongest when buffed and teamed with other skilled players.

You get two respecs for realm abilities. Don't waste them. You should have what you want planned out by the time you start RvRing. The only time a respec should be needed would be to switch from soloing-enhancing abilities to something else at level 50 (and you might not even want to do that). Plan ahead, and use your respecs to explore abilities that you're not sure about and can't find information on. The temptation to respec is very, very strong -- resist it until you are absolutely sure you need it.

Buy your expensive realm abilities first, when you are up and coming and the realm skill points are coming in fast. If you wait until you are 5L0 before going for Viper, chances are it will take months to get it. Buy it up front and early, and get your 1 point skills later on -- it gives you something to look forward to.

Here are my recommendations by ability. Unique means that no one else can give you this bonus, and the bonus is not eclipsed by another type of buff or ability from another player.
 

Augmented Strength (unique) -- boosts encumbrance, boosts your weapon skill for Blade and Piercing weapons, and adds a bit to your damage (synergy with Aug Dex if you are Piercing). I'd only put one point in this ability unless you are a Blades Shade -- in that case, level 3 (10 points, +18 Strength) is probably as far as you'll want to go.

Augmented Dexterity (unique) -- boosts your weapon skill with Piercing weapons, improves your Evade, and helps deal with Dex debuffs. Synergy with Aug Str when it comes to Piercing damage, as the two have to be used together to work. As a Nightshade you really don't need more Dex. Unfortunately, Augmented Dex is required for Mastery of Pain and Dualist's Reflexes, as well as several timer-based melee abilities. If you don't want any of these abilities, don't bother with Augmented Dexterity. If you do want those abilities, get the minimum required level of Aug Dex and leave it at that.

Augmented Constitution (unique) -- increases your hit points. Required for Avoid Pain and Second Wind, both timer-based abilities. Aug Con is a must-have for the combat Shade, even if it is only at level 1. Has an excellent synergy with Toughness, so get both of them; one point in each ability will net you somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 hit points, and it gets better from there.

Augmented Quickness (unique) -- increases your weapon swing speed slightly and helps with Evade. Also not high on the list of necessary abilities, except for the fact that it is required for Dodger, an always-on evade enhancement. Get the minimum required to get Dodger and no more. Also required for Mastery of Stealth.

Augmented Acuity (unique) -- increases Intelligence. Completely useless by itself, since our casting is based on Strength. May be fixed at some point, but Mythic looked at this and set it aside. HOWEVER, its required for Wild Arcana, which is one of the most useful abilities you can have. Get the minimum required for Wild Arcana and then leave it.

Long Wind -- reduces the cost per tick of sprinting. I have no direct experience with this ability, since having a bard is far better. Likely has a synergy with Tireless to really improve the amount of time you can sprint. Might be useful if you solo a lot on your way to 50, in combination with Tireless and and Regeneration -- just respec out of it when you are done. Made redundant by Bard End song.

Tireless -- boosts your Endurance regeneration, and allows End regeneration while running, fighting, or sprinting. Essentially, it keeps you topped off on Endurance until you get into a fight, which can mean the difference between life and death. It also helps ease soloing by reducing downtime. I would recommend level 1 just to break the block on End regen while moving -- anything else is probably not worth it, as it still does not remove the need for a Bard as far as I can tell. Synergy with Long Wind to allow better sprinting, and synergy with Regeneration to sharply reduce soloing downtime in PvE. Made redundant by Bard End song.

Regeneration -- boosts your healing rate. The regeneration is fairly slow -- essentially what this does is enhance your ability to heal while not in combat. I also had this at level 1 for a while. It helps with soloing by reducing downtime, so it is worth it until you get to 50. I would recommend level 1 or level 2 until you get to 50. Synergy with Tireless to reduce downtime in PvE. Made redundant by Mentalist HoT and anyone who can heal.

Toughness (unique) -- boosts your hit points by 3% per spec level and helps you deal with Con debuffs. This is a must-have ability for combat Shades, since hit points are very important. I would recommend at least level 1. I'm pretty sure this works on base hit points, not buffed hit points; however, it does increase the buff cap as well, so it doesn't stop any buffage. Synergy with Augmented Constitution.

Mastery of Water -- increases your swim speed. If the percentage of water surface area was larger and water figured more prominently in RvR combat, this might be useful. Unfortunately, water is almost non-existent in the Frontier, and the percentage increase in speed is only 5% per level (check the Herald 1.50 notes, the page is still wrong). I do not recommend getting this ability at all. Made redudant by Bard speed song, Hasteners, and the Warden/Enchanter speed chants.

Avoidance of Magic (unique) -- increases your magic resists (NOT melee resists) across the board, ignoring the resist caps. Essentially a permanent low-level resist buff. Get up to level 3 if you can, but at least get level 1. Synergy with Toughness and Aug Con when surviving nukes and stacks with other resist buffs.

Lifter (unique) -- increases your Encumbrance directly by 20% per level. Helps deal with Strength debuffs (UPDATE: no longer necessary), and helps you carry things. Everyone in the game should get at least level 1 to help with seige work or to carry something heavy in a pinch. Anything after that is up to you, but be aware that Nightshades are poor carriers -- there is nothing worse than having your ram beak on your Nightshade ... who happens to be dead inside the keep. UPDATE: You may want to consider higher levels of this if you're interested in seige weapons. The recent seige weapon changes have made them more effective, and a Nightshade has the advantage of being able to ground-target for themselves.

Veil Recovery -- reduces rez sick duration. Not really worth it, since the duration is only a couple of minutes and you can still fight while rez sick (poisons are also not affected by rez sickness). I recommend against getting this ability. Made redundant by Purge, and the Druid realm ability Group Purge.

Dodger (unique) -- increases your ability to Evade by 3% per level. Even after the Evade cap implemented in the 1.56 patch, Dodger continues to be highly useful. Dodger helps you stay at the 50% Evade cap even when fighting high-level mobs/guards or when debuffed in RvR. This is critical for survival on the battlefield. I recommend at least level 2. Requires Aug Quick 2. UPDATE: I respecced out of Dodger a while back with the intent of getting it back. I now believe that being buffed is more effective and getting Dodger is expensive, so I'm changing my recommendation on this. Dodger is now nice to have but not critical.

Mastery of Pain (unique) -- increases your chance of getting a critical hit when you hit with a melee attack. Very useful for the combat Nightshade, since we hit quite a bit and get critical chances on both strikes. I recommend at least level 2. Synergy with Dualist's Reflexes (more hits total + higher chance of critical = many more critical hits). Requires Aug Dex 2.

Wild Arcana (unique) -- gives you the ability to critical with any duration-based debuff or DoT that you fire. This includes your Enervating debuff, the Strength debuff component of the disease poison (at least), your DoT poison, and any charged or procced DoTs or debuffs you might have on your equipment. It should also work with the two new Alchemy poisons as well, since they are duration based. Another must-have ability for combat Nightshades. I recommend level 1 at the very least, just to get the chance of a critical. Requires Aug Acuity 2.

Mastery of Stealth (unique) -- increases your speed while stealthed. The speed increase is minimal (15% at level 3) and not very useful, while the cost is very high (19 points at level 3, assuming you have Aug Quick already). I recommend against getting this ability. Requires Aug Quick 2.

Dualist's Reflexes (unique) -- adds to your percentage to dual-hit. Since Celtic Dual is heavily level-based, this helps quite a bit against high-level mobs, and boosts your damage considerably against RvR opponents. When you have Aug Dex already (for Mastery of Pain), the lower levels of this ability are very cheap. Synergy with Mastery of Pain (more hits total + higher chance of critical hit = many more critical hits). I recommend at least level 2.

See Hidden (unique) -- allows you to see all non-assassin stealthers much more easily. Can be defeated by Camouflage, which is available to most if not all of the non-assassin Stealth classes. Non-assassin stealth classes also have the option of True Sight, and most of them get it. I recommend against this ability for the combat Nightshade, since it is expensive and only gives you a slight advantage in certain limited circumstances. It does nothing to assist your normal detection (although there are rumors to the contrary) and does nothing to help you in combat. UPDATE: This ability was altered in the 1.62 patch to lower the range at which you can see enemy non-assassins. The higher their Stealth, the closer you have to be to see them. Now I *really* don't recommend it.
 

First Aid -- allows you a non-combat instant heal every 15 minutes. The heal is limited, but gets better as you go up in ability levels. I recommend against this ability -- it is too expensive and is hard to use in a fight (where you need it most). Made redundant by any friend with healing ability.

Avoid Pain (unique) -- gives you a melee damage absorption boost for 60 seconds, depending on level, every 15 minutes. One of the few timer-based abilities I would actually consider, but I have no direct experience with ability. However, since our absorption starts so low (10% for leather), you would have to max this out in order for it to have a noticeable effect -- which is really, really expensive. I recommend against this ability. Requires Aug Con 3. This is a unique ability, but the Warden Bladeturn is more effective and fills the same role. Also, enhancing your Evade gives a better return at all levels. UPDATE: Two of my fellow Nightshades have tested this ability. They recommend at least level 2 of the ability to see a noticeable effect, and the ability does help somewhat.

Whirling Dervish (unique) -- boosts your dual-hit percentage by 5% per level for 60 seconds every 15 minutes. I have no direct experience with this ability. It appears to be essentially worthless since you can get a cheaper, almost equivalent boost from Dualist's Reflexes that works all the time. You might consider this ability if for some reason you need to hit with both weapons 100% of the time, but the cost and limited usage puts this ability in the "not recommended" category. Requires Aug Dex 3.

Bladedance (unique) -- gives you a pbaoe every 30 minutes. I have no experience with this ability. There is no information that I know of on what kind of damage it does (physical or magical), nor how much damage it does (apparently it scales by level), nor whether it pulses or is a single blast. Given the cost and the timer, my guess is that it is pretty strong. Bladedance was apparently tweaked in the 1.50 timeframe to make it more effective. I would consider this at high realm level (RR 7 or above). Requires Aug Dex 3.

Hail of Blows -- this ability boosts attack speed for 60 seconds every 15 minutes, while still obeying the attack-speed cap. I have no direct experience with this ability. However, it seems really, really unnecessary for a Piercing Nightshade -- a Blades Shade might consider it. Its limited usage also lowers its value even further. I recommend against this ability. Made redundant by the Druid Haste buff, which enables a Piercing Shade to pretty much cap out anyway even with the slowest weapons. Requires Aug Dex 3.

Second Wind -- gives you a 100% Endurance recharge every 15 minutes. I have no direct experience with this ability. While it appears useful, it is quite expensive and requires Aug Con 3 (although you should have some Aug Con already). I'm on the fence on this one -- perhaps at high realm level. Synergy with Tireless and Long Wind will make you a world champion runner. Made redundant by the Bard End song.

Rain of Fire/Ice/Annihilation (unique) -- adds 5% magical damage per level (2dps?) for 60 (?) seconds every 15 minutes (see the 1.50C patch notes). There is very little information on these abilities, and I have no experience with them. It is fairly certain that they are subject to resists, however, which limits their usefulness. The best approach would seem to be to get all three at the same level and use them one at a time (they apparently do not stack), or pump one all the way up. Overall, I think the expense is too high for the return. I recommend against getting any of these three skills.

The Empty Mind (unique) -- a 10% per level across the board magic resist buff that lasts for 60 seconds and is on a 30 minute timer. I have no experience with this ability. Extremely expensive, but it could keep you alive when it is absolutely critical that you do something under fire. It is unclear whether or not this buff is subject to resist caps or not. My guess is that it is not, since it would then be mostly useless.

Purge (partially unique) -- clears your character of all harmful effects, up to and including rez sickness, mez, poison, and stun. Highly useful in critical situations, it is on a 30 minute timer. This is the only timer-based ability that I consider a must-have for combat Nightshades. Get it as soon as you can, and bind it to a key that is easy to reach. Made partially redundant by the Druid Group Purge realm ability and the various de-mez spells, cure poison, cure disease, etc. However, since Purge removes all effects instantly and is under your control, it is much more effective at keeping you alive.

Viper (unique) -- doubles your DoT poison damage for 30 seconds. This is our class-specific realm ability. It affects ALL DoTs procced in the time frame. Viper is very powerful, and can turn the tables on the strongest opponent, particularly if you get a DoT crit from Wild Arcana. Even so, the ability is expensive and is on a 30-minute timer. A note -- don't trip Viper until you have a DoT actually running. This avoids Viper wastage if the poison is resisted.

An example balanced realm ability spec would look like this (in order):

          Purge (10 points)
          Aug Acuity II (4 points)
          Wild Arcana II (4 points)
          Avoid Magic II (4 points)
          Aug Dex II (4 points)
          Mastery of Pain II (4 points)
          Dualist's Reflexes II (4 points)
          Aug Quick II (4 points)
          Dodger I (1 point)
          Toughness I (1 point)
          Aug Con I (1 point) (5L1)

An all-out offense spec might look like this:

          Viper (14 points)
          Aug Acuity II (4 points)
          Wild Arcana II (4 points)
          Aug Dex II (4 points)
          Mastery of Pain II (4 points)
          Dualist's Reflexes II (4 points)
          Aug Str II (4 points)
          Toughness I (1 point)
          Aug Con I (1 point)

An all-out defensive spec might look like this:

          Purge (10 points)
          Avoid Magic III (10 points)
          Aug Con II (4 points)
          Toughness II (4 points)
          Aug Quick II (4 points)
          Dodger II (4 points)
          Aug Str II (4 points)

With the advent of Spellcrafting, most discussion of weapon and equipment drops is pretty academic. However, there are still some things that will give you and edge and make your life a little bit easier.

Having Spellcrafted equipment is almost always better, even at 98 or 99 Quality. The major advantage of Spellcrafting is that it allows you to choose your own buffs and tweak them to your satisfaction. It doesn't really matter that much if the equipment is not 100 Quality, especially since 100 Quality items are enormously expensive (they generally require a large number of retries). 98 or 99 Quality is generally adequate, and you can eventually get 100 Quality equipment as you make more money over time in the game. Spellcrafting is cheap (especially at normal levels), so don't worry about having to re-do your equipment -- just get the money together and get the best you can.

The flip side of this is that a few drop items in the game are better than even the most overcharged SC item. When you get a new drop, check it out and put it through one of the various SC calculators available. If it is a way-overcharged item and is not a weapon, hang on to it and see if you can work your other items around to compensate, even if it means getting new player-made items (which gives you another chance at a 100 Quality...). If it is a weapon, check and see what the proc is and decide if you want to use it, keeping in mind that only DoT procs benefit from your Wild Arcana realm ability. With the new random items, you can always hold out the hope that your perfect weapon is out there.

There is a trick you can pull with Envenom that will help with your SC template. It turns out that you need 50 Envenom to add a level 50 poison to a weapon, but you do not need your Envenom skill at level 50 in order for the poison to proc (only your character apparently needs to be level 50). This means two things: a) you can poison any weapon that you can equip, including your friend's weapons and staves; and b) you do not need +Envenom items -- simply make two cloth armor pieces (cheap and light) and SC them with +6 and +5 Envenom, then swap them on when you need to re-poison. Relatively easy to use, and frees up SC slots on your armor for resists.


Get Alchemist DoT procs on your weapons. DoT procs are the best choice for your weapons -- they have unlimited ammo, proc relatively often (with two weapons you will generally get one proc per fight), and can get criticals if you spec in the Wild Arcana realm ability. They will also re-proc if the proc fires again, because they reset the timer of the proc. The re-proc will only fail if the new proc is less powerful than the old, which is exactly the behavior you want. Unfortunately, the only DoT proc available from Alchemists is Matter-based, so be on the lookout for good dropped weapons with different types of DoT.

Get a high-quality round shield and tune it up with resists and a charged dd proc. There are times where you absolutely need the highest defense available, so you switch to your shield on your off hand. With the right resists and a ranged dd proc, a shield can turn you into a ranged light-fighter. I started doing this with the the diamond-bought round shield from DF. This allows you to hang out on the ramparts and nuke for a bit, get some damage in on someone you can't immediately reach, or kill a wounded stealther as he's trying to drop off the wall and retreat. The dd proc should be a kind of damage that you don't normally do, like Fire or Energy. The only caveat is that you have to be quick; you only get one shot every couple of minutes with the dd, and you can't have fired another charged item in the last two minutes.

Put a charged DoT on some other item so you can use it in combat. Sometimes you absolutely need the second DoT running, like in a one-on-one fight against a class that can self-heal or use Ignore Pain. You should practice closing in on an enemy, firing the DoT, and then attacking. Again, you benefit from the chance of a Wild Arcana critical hit, and will be almost certain to have at least one DoT running unless your target Purges at exactly the right time (just after your poison DoT hits). I was lucky enough to get a Spellcrafted cloak before that particular hole was closed, so I have an Alchemy Matter-based DoT on my cloak that I use. It could just as easily be any other item, and a dropped item might have a different damage type, giving you the possibility of three DoTs running at once -- your charged DoT, a proc from your weapon, and your poison.

Find items with charged buffs and utilize them. When you are alone, it always helps to be buffed. There are several items in the game that provide charged 10 minute buffs -- very useful in a pinch, though they are expensive. Get them and keep them around for when you need them -- the buff sticks even though you remove the item. An example is the Song of Speed ring obtained from the Ixthiar Creepers in the Vale of Balor -- it has a 5 charge +75 Dex/Qui buff. Your Epic chest armor also has a useful shield buff.
 

This type of action usually occurs at landmarks or chokepoints like milegates or gaps where roads go through. The objective is to control the scouting on the chokepoint so that enemy forces can be picked up as they leave their entry points. Risk in these fights is high, but the reward is also high. There are several techniques that you can use to keep yourself alive in these fights and gain realm points.

Don't go out unbuffed. There is a lot of disagreement on this, but it really boils down to this: your opponents are buffed, and you need to be too. That's really all there is to say. If you are not buffed by a friend or don't like buffbotting, go into combat with the realization that you fight at a serious disadvantage. Your critical Druid buffs are Dex/Qui, Str/Con, and Haste. Base buff priority is Con, Dex, Str.

Don't go at an enemy stealther head-on. Always try for the side attack and avoid his PA. Move around with your strafe keys instead of running straight forward, and constantly alter your direction of travel while stealthed. You will usually have a second or two warning when you run across an enemy stealther -- either be ready to hit them with your shout, or better yet /stick them and unmask them with your shout while swinging around to their flank. As an emergency maneuver you can simply turn sharply to the side, wait for them to swing, then /stick and commence combat. The important thing is to bust the PA and deny them their heavy hit.

Avoid fighting if there is any indication you are outnumbered. In stealther fights, numbers matter more than anywhere else. If it is two-on-one against you, you are almost certain to die, regardless of class. You might take someone with you, but overall there is no benefit to going into a fight outnumbered. Also remember that your stealth isn't that good as a combat Nightshade -- if you can see them, they can see you. The second half of this rule is that if you are alone, you are usually outnumbered, so ...

Don't go into stealther combat alone. All you are doing when you are out by yourself is handing the other Realms more points. You can be fairly certain that their stealthers will not be out alone, and that you will die if you get involved in a fight. A Bard, one or two Nightshades, and one or two Rangers makes an excellent stealth force. The Nightshades are your tanks, the Rangers are your firepower, and the Bard allows you to move quickly, get End song, get heals, and be rezzed when dead.

If you must be out alone (scouting or whatever), don't fight unless you are absolutely positive your opponent is by himself, or you don't have a choice. If you do manage to win a one-on-one fight (which you generally will, as a combat Nightshade), you must remember the need to ...

Keep moving, especially after a fight. You must keep moving. A static target is a dead target. If you have just fought, everyone on the other side knows exactly where you are, and someone is probably headed your way. This is not a survivable situation regardless of how good you are. Get out, run away, move, skedaddle, vamoose. Move to the other side of the milegate, across the road, to the opposite hill, anywhere but where you fought. Don't go back for some time -- in fact, you may want to keep an eye on your old position to see who shows up and relay that information to any friendly groups roaming your zone. Even if you must stay in one location to scout, move around and keep moving; this makes it much harder for an enemy stealther to line you up and PA you. Remember the old saying abouting being lost in the woods and staying in one place so you can be found? You don't want to be found! Keep moving! In fact, you want to keep moving even in combat.

Stick to cover when you can. There are several ways in the game to detect a stealthed character, so keep to the woods and bushes when you can to reduce LOS to your position. On hills, you can use the branches of the trees to shield yourself from view. In short, when you are stealthed act like you are not and don't want to be seen -- it will keep True Sight from being effective, and make it harder for other stealthers to find you.

Circle Strafe in combat to disrupt your opponent and nullify his Evade and other front-arc defenses. Many players still do not realize this, but you can use your "Strafe" keys to circle a target without losing your /stick. Those that do realize it remember that they tried it when they were low level and it made them miss all the time. However, strafing-misses in combat are just like many other detrimental effects in the game -- it happens less often as you move up in level and skill. In fact, by level 50 it happens so infrequently that it can be essentially discounted, especially compared against the benefits you gain.

You see, all melee attacks and many spells require you to be able to see your target. If you are circle strafing and they aren't /stuck to you (common with healers and casters), you can always see them but they can't always see you -- a very nice position to be in. If you are circle-strafing and your target IS /stuck to you, you can manipulate them into facing away from your Rangers and casters, thus removing their Evade and any other defenses that only work in the forward arc (of course you lose yours as well, if there are any of their support classes behind you). If you are both circle-strafing, it's hard to target both of you and no one really gains an advantage. Also try to time your circle strafe to avoid strafing at the exact moment you attack, which will further reduce any misses due to maneuvering.
 

Delay your attack slightly and use Stealth to avoid being targeted. In the typical group-level meeting engagement, swing wide out to the right or left, pause for a heartbeat or two, then go into Stealth. What you are trying to do is a) attract targeting from enemy casters and archers, and then b) ruin that targeting by going into Stealth, forcing them to waste time re-targeting someone else. It also helps you avoid being mezzed if you are separated from the group gaggle at the moment of contact. Of course, this requires that you ...

Pay attention while your group is on the move. Use your camera to scan around the group at all times, and stay alert. About half the time, groups get killed because they simply aren't paying attention -- an enemy group closes in from behind or the side, surprises them, and kills them quickly. As the scout, part of your job is to keep an eye on all approaches, swinging wide to look for stealthers and keeping the group from being ambushed.

Target priority is healer, stealther, caster, tank. If you are not assisting someone, swing wide, go into Stealth, spot the enemy healer and go kill him. Most groups have only one primary healer, and even if you die you occupy his time and stop him from healing his teammates. Healers are priority targets because they are also usually the primary buffers -- kill them and the whole group is sharply reduced in effectiveness.

How do you find the healer? Look for the fighter-looking type who hangs back and has a small or medium shield -- that's your healer, more than likely. Healing spells are also bright and very noticeable, so learn what they look like and attack the guy making them happen. If you don't want to get close for whatever reason, use your Nightshade dd to disrupt the healer from a safe distance. If you must use your dd, it is helpful if you hide behind a low hill, tree, or some other bit of terrain (including a Firbolg); this hides your tell-tale casting effect, which is very distinctive and very visible.

If you can't find a healer or don't want to risk attacking the enemy flank, your next target is incoming enemy stealthers. Your job in this case is to de-stealth your targets so they can't one-shot your casters or distract your healers. Don't worry about killing them so much, just make them visible -- your casters and defensive tanks can take care of them easily as long as they can see them. Marking an enemy stealther with your shout is a good way to draw attention to them.

Your last priority targets are casters and tanks. Attracting the attention of these classes in a group-on-group meeting engagement is a recipe for suicide, so avoid them and keep a low profile if you can. Since you generally initiate combat a bit after the fight has started, you can usually avoid them for a few seconds while they are busy with the rest of your group. If the fight is going your way you can then sit on a caster and dd him to take him out fo the fight, or move on the tanks to help your tanks kill them more quickly.

If you are assisting someone, none of this applies -- they are choosing the targets, you just follow and use the /assist command to help them kill their target. Side attack styles and debuffs are very useful when assisting someone. To make this easy, build a macro like this:

       /macro Problum /assist Problum

Every time you hit that, your target will be changed to your lead tank's target (in this case, Problum). That way, all melee is hitting the same target, substantially decreasing the kill time.
 

Stand back and to the side of the climb points when guarding them. In short, don't get PAed defending the climb point. Move to the side and wait for them to come up, then strike with Copperhead from the side or another style that has a slow effect. They must face the wall until they are all the way up, so they can't face you to PA.

Team with a nuker or a Ranger to kill enemy stealthers. By yourself you don't have the firepower to take out one climber -- they just drop off the wall and run away, where you can't follow. Find yourself a Ranger (preferred) or nuker to team with. The Ranger stands on the wall a bit away from the climb point, Stealthed so that he is difficult to see. When you pop the attacker's stealth with a snare, the ranger begins firing. He should be able to get off 2-3 arrows, which is generally enough to kill the guy. With a nuker, they have to stand back and run up onto the wall after the initial hit -- normally, that means they have time for only one bolt or DoT -- still effective, but sometimes not enough. A pbaoe caster is also helpful, but it takes some careful coordination to get real damage on the target, as the other side of the wall is far enough away that the pbaoe is substantially reduced in effect.

Use your nuke to drive off and interrupt casters. Stealth, get on the wall, and move to an unexpected position. When a AoE DoT caster or a enemy nuker approaches, nuke them a couple of times to drive them back and then quickly drop off the wall. You aren't trying to kill them, just render them ineffective and push them out of range. 3 or 4 Nightshades together can make a go of killing a caster, but it is tough; usually it's best to nuke and drop off quickly, then come back up for another try.

Use your nuke to add that last bit of damage to assist one of your casters. You can tilt the balance of a caster shootout by nuking at just the right moment. The enemy caster on the ground may think he has a chance one-on-one against your caster; let him think that long enough to get into a fight and then add your nuke to finish him. Remember, if there are several attackers nuke a couple of times and then bail -- otherwise, you're just an AoE DoT target.

Don't defend at the keep Lord. You would be shocked at how many juicy targets get left undefended when attackers rush the Lord. If the door is going down and your folks aren't defending the walls, drop down outside in the rear of the keep and swing around to the gate. This works best with multiple Nightshades so that you can kill resting or damaged people very quickly. If you are very successful, you can even regroup and attack the rear of the Lord assault team, going for healers and rezzers. Otherwise, kill what you can outside and in the courtyard, then retreat and head for a rally point. There is no point in dying at the Lord when you are way outnumbered, but with a little sense you can still get some good realm points and live to fight again.
 

Ainise
 

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