Initial thoughts...

[Adoede]

Hey Cynaidh, thanks for the detailed response. That confirms what I've been noticing.

Something else I've observed that might be interesting:
Spectral touch without Chilling Aura = ~28% - 30% drain per hit.
Spectral touch with Chilling Aura = ~30% - 35% drain per hit.
Not much of a difference if you ask me.

I just realized that this difference might just be because the glad using chilling aura is a Spite. Maybe the difference is due to the spite critical effects bonus instead of chilling aura boost.

[crow]

Just want to throw my 2 cents on the shadow skills. I have uncanny dodge and riposte on one of my glads and either of these skills rarely go off. And Riposte does not do much except block the incoming strike, the return counter strike does not occur most of the time. I have ran with several different strategies to see if a particular fighting style helps them trigger more, but nothing looks any different.

So for my other 2 shadow builds I am ignoring those 2 skills all together. Another thing to note, I don't have chilling aura but I do have shadow form and I have seen a good jump in damage per strike with it from my glad that has it.

[Zel]

Just want to throw my 2 cents on the shadow skills. I have uncanny dodge and riposte on one of my glads and either of these skills rarely go off. And Riposte does not do much except block the incoming strike, the return counter strike does not occur most of the time. I have ran with several different strategies to see if a particular fighting style helps them trigger more, but nothing looks any different.

So for my other 2 shadow builds I am ignoring those 2 skills all together. Another thing to note, I don't have chilling aura but I do have shadow form and I have seen a good jump in damage per strike with it from my glad that has it.

Are both Riposte and Uncanny dodge at 10?

[Zel]

Just want to throw my 2 cents on the shadow skills. I have uncanny dodge and riposte on one of my glads and either of these skills rarely go off. And Riposte does not do much except block the incoming strike, the return counter strike does not occur most of the time. I have ran with several different strategies to see if a particular fighting style helps them trigger more, but nothing looks any different.

So for my other 2 shadow builds I am ignoring those 2 skills all together. Another thing to note, I don't have chilling aura but I do have shadow form and I have seen a good jump in damage per strike with it from my glad that has it.

Are both Riposte and Uncanny dodge at 10?

[Pit Lord]

I think shadow skill tree has similarity with theatric skill tree. The skills look somewhat stronger then theatrics skills while the ability to use medium armor/shield is lost for balance. The idea of light armored theatric that some had tried in the past but with no great success has come alive.

[Cynaidh]

Ya i know i am not particularly impressed with Chilling Aura on Drayn, it just doesn't seem to help much at all. I have a feeling Drayn might be getting retired soon as he hits 1000 fights, not sure if this build is anything i want to try to get to level 55.

Speaking of level 55, Zynaidh is now in the leveling hell of going from 50 to 55, I am finding this to be the most unfun aspect of pit of war currently, i don't get what the point of having months of leveling time where you are matched up with people at level 55 and the new level 55 gear (that's just insainly better stats, talk about gear inflation) really is for, its not fun, i don't see how it serves any purpose except as a time gate of 3-4 months, where you have nothing to do but tavern missions to try and speed it up a bit, before you can be competitive. Its the most boring wait i've ever seen in the pits. He isn't even halfway threw this god forsaken exp grind so still probably a couple of months before I'll be able to see how he can do against level 55 glads on an even playing field.

[Adoede]

Ya i know i am not particularly impressed with Chilling Aura on Drayn, it just doesn't seem to help much at all. I have a feeling Drayn might be getting retired soon as he hits 1000 fights, not sure if this build is anything i want to try to get to level 55.

So what have you noticed in terms of how Chilling Aura works? Other than slowing down opponent's initiative, does it do anything else?

[Cynaidh]

So what have you noticed in terms of how Chilling Aura works? Other than slowing down opponent's initiative, does it do anything else?

I have yet to figure out what it does, it's just too vague of a description, and since its not an active proc there isn't really any way to know what it does for certain.

[oedi]

took me about 5 months to catch up, and get all my old glads to lvl 55. So for 5 months the only thing i did was log into the game to keep my glads active, just didnt see any point in doing any of the other stuff.

[Adoede]

Here's the missing description of Whirlwind:

When using Whirlwind you will spin and jump around at great speed turning into a moving blender of death and destruction!

I tried attacking the same glad with Shadow Dance, Lunge and then with Whirlwind and this is what happened:
Shadow Dance - 3 attacks/round
Lunge - 4 attacks/round
Whirlwind - 5 attacks/round

Obviously, Shadow dance trades offense for balanced defense. But Whirlwind seems to boost initiative quite a bit.

Also, I like how shadows can switch between full-on offense and good dodging defense just by using strategies. This is better than the Rage class where you have to build them either as Total Carnage offensive beasts OR as Evasive Hit'n'Run specialists. It would be nice if Rages could also switch between offense and defense just by switching strategies instead of it being built into their skill trees to be one or the other.