Dark Age Of Camelot: Shadowblade TL report 1.66

Taken from VN Boards

Overview

Shadowblades continue to look for a niche in assassin makeup, whether it be utility (more spec pts, RA's) or raw damage (previous higher LA growth rates). The current community feeling remains that there is little to no reason to choose a Shadowblade over a Nightshade or Infiltrator. Many consider Shadowblades nearly a subset of one of the other 2 assassin classes at this point.

New Concerns

ToA and the stealth class - Overall, ToA seems to have weakened the effectiveness of the stealth classes. For a class such as the Shadowblade, who is by definition supposed to engage opponents via stealth using our crit strike line, this affects the core mechanics and methodology of our class. Unfortunately, in both the cases of Artifacts and Master Level abilities, there is not an ability/counterability present, or when there is, the ability to attain the stealth reduction ability/item is far easier than the counterability/item, in time, number of people required, or level at which is it attained.

ToA and the group - ToA, being a PVE expansion, only exacerbates the groupability issues Shadowblades have had since DAOC launch.

ToA and Shadowblade - many encounters, both group and solo, negate core Shadowblade abilties such as stealth, evade defense, and the critical strike line. More often than not, Shadowblades are pigeonholed into the "berserker-lite" role in these circumstances. The inability to spec a different damage type other than slash also causes problems in several encounters.

Specline issues

Left Axe - Left Axe mechanics continue to be a primary concern. Polls and dialogue continue to show that a move to CD/DW mechanics is wanted if the issues with Left Axe mechanics continue to be unaddressed.

Envenom - The inequality in the str/con debuff poison remains a concern.

Other issues

Weapon choice vs armor vulnerabilities - This continues to remain a concern since we cannot spec a weapon type aligned with armor vulnerabilities the other assassins have, yet they can to ours.

Keep changes - The keep layout changes have had a detrimental effect on assassin contributions to keep sieging, as it has created situations where wall climbing does nothing towards removing defenders dug in hiding in now unreachable areas.

Weaponskill - The paradigm of a dex based class still being force to used str based weapons while our counterparts do not still remains an issue.

Race choice - Choosing a kobold as a race choice, though indicated as the better choice in creation, is poorer choice than Norse. There is little to no reason to play a race other than Norse other than roleplay reasons given current Shadowblade mechanics.

Morale - The morale of the Shadowblade community is at an all time low. At this point, any word on anything being acted on, or slated to be acted on would go a long way.

Two handed weapons - Currently due to issues including poison aplication, evade rates, spellcrafting slots, and CS mechanics, 2 handed weapons, while an option, are typically an inferior choice for Shadowblades. This may be a good route choice towards giving Shadowblades that "one thing" they are looking for. Would like to see CS opener mechanics adjusted to allow 2h weapons to be more beneficial to Critblades (ie factor in weapon speed for 2h's).

Items

With items and artifacts still being found in ToA daily, the only main concern at this point is offhand axe speeds. Stealth lore artifacts have been addressed in regards to stealth above.