Shadow Warrior

When Nagarythe was riven by civil war, most of the Elves there sided with the Witch King, later becoming Dark Elves. Those faithful to the Phoenix King swore to fight Malekith and his treacherous forces. These ill-fated Elves became the Shadow Warriors. The darkest, most sinister and brutal of all the High Elves. The Shadow Warriors are masters of ambush and guerrilla warfare. They strike swiftly and noiselessly with deadly accurate volleys from their longbows, before charging forth to slay any survivors with a flurry of blades.

Shadow Warrior Specialty

The Shadow Warriors of Nagarythe persue their Shadow War against the Dark Elves with a single- minded focus. In order to excel at his lonely and thankless task, the Shadow Warrior trains endlessly, perfecting techniques specifically suited to one aspect or strategy of combat. These "strategic maneuvers" can be divided into three major groups: Scouting, Skirmish, and Assault. Scouting maneuvers focus on moving into territory ahead of the vanguard and striking out at critical locations from long range. Skirmish maneuvers focus on hit-and-run tactics using powerful short range bow attacks that can be unleashed on the run. Assault maneuvers focus on slaying their opponents at close range with quick, graceful strikes of a longsword. These strategies, when combined with the Shadow Warrior's burning desire for vengeance, result in a potent offensive warrior capable of acting alone or as the scout for a larger group.

Playing as a Shadow Warrior

To excel as a Shadow Warrior you must carefully observe the flow of the battle and choose the best strategy for the situation at hand. A Shadow Warrior must always be aware of his opponent's location. This is critical to making the most of his maneuvers and the abilities associated with them. A Shadow Warrior should also fight with a cool head and understand that his vengeance should only be unleashed at the most ideal moment on a weakened opponent. This boiling rage will add power to many of his attacks allowing him to quickly kill a properly weakened foe.

Fighting against a Shadow Warrior

When fighting a Shadow Warrior you must always be aware of his mobility, and reduce or eliminate it entirely. If a melee career does not do so, the Shadow Warrior will constantly be moving and harassing you from range, making it difficult to catch him. Ranged attackers should attempt to keep the Shadow Warrior at a reasonable distance. They will still take a beating from his long range archery, but a Shadow Warrior poses a much more significant threat if they are allowed to come into short range. It is only then that they can unleash abilities that are suited for interrupting spells.

Career Masteries

The oldest class in High Elf history, the Shadow Warrior came to be while the High Elves were warring with one another and with outside invaders at the beginnings of time. They strike from the shadows using bows and daggers to inflict killing blows before they are ever seen. Shadow warriors use a hit-and-run technique, flanking their enemies and killing them quickly, often without ever being detected. Though Shadow Warriors lack the civility that other classes of the High Elves boast, they do contain a certain measure of grace that few other elves can attain.

The Shadow Warrior is another ranged damage for the high elves. He is also capable of striking from the shadows quickly and quietly without remorse.

Path of The Scout

The Path Of The Scout focuses on delivering devastating attacks from a great distance. A Master of this path will prepare patiently and then strike swiftly, unleashing a deadly hail of arrows with grim results. A Shadow Warrior specializing in this strategy will prefer to stand his ground as far away from his enemies as he can, and force them to come to him.

Path of Assault

The Path Of Assault teaches Shadow Warriors to augment their bow attacks with blades as well. Someone who adopts this strategy will prefer to first cripple their target with bow fire, and will then bring the fight to the enemy instead of remaining back at a distance. While even a specialist in this path will still place their trust in their longbow, they will be able to easily throw an enemy off-balance by charging in to the fight instead of trying to keep their distance.

Path of The Skirmisher

The Path Of The Skirmisher is a strategy for close-quarters combat. Focused on short-distance bow attacks, someone who specializes in this path will still remain mobile while drawing their shots. These nimble attacks grant deadly flexibility to the Shadow Warrior - while he must get much closer to his enemies, he does not have to remain stationary and is able to draw his targets out into bloody ambushes.

Class Changes

• Guerrilla Training is Scout 7pt

• Enchanted Arrows is Scout 11pt and causes all attacks from the Path of the Scout to inflict Corporeal damage. Festering Arrow and Flame Arrow will also bypass 50% of your opponent's resistances.

• Outrider Patrol morale 2 reduced to 30ft (link)

• New 15pt Assault ability, Shadowstep is a 2s cast, 20s cooldown, 65ft range ability that works as a gap closer. Upon use, it grants a 10s buff to increase parry, dodge, and disrupt by 25% and increase autoattack speed by 25%. (link)
  • Whirling Rage, the former 15pt Assault m4 is moved to core (req level 40). Using this ability will put all other morales on a 5min cooldown.

• Wrist Slash tactic now has a 25% chance to apply the stat steal, rather than 100% (link)

• Leading Shots tactic critical hit rate reduced from 15% to 8%

• Assault stance grants +10% Parry (link), converts Dodge Strikethrough from gear to Parry Strikethrough (link), increases melee autoattack damage by 65% (link), has ranged autoattacks disabled (link), and melee attacks will have a 25% chance to increase autoattack speed by 33% for 5 seconds (link).

• Morale 2 ability Unshakeable Focus now removes and ignores all taunts and detaunts on you for 7 seconds (link)

• Swift Strikes will grant a movement speed bonus while being channeled (link)

• Merciless Soldier has had the AP reduction benefit removed and now grants a 50% critical damage increase to these abilities: Opportunistic Strike, Grim Slash, Exploit Weakness, Counterstrike, Brutal Assault, and Sweeping Slash; it will also grant a 25% critical chance increase to these abilities: Draw Blood and Swift Strikes. (link)

• Flanking Shot from the Skirmish tree is now a core ability (link)

• Barrage is the 5pt ability in the Skirmish tree (link)

• Shadow Sting is the 9pt ability in the Skirmish tree (link)

• Eye Shot is the 13pt ability in the Skirmish tree (link)

• Fell the Weak gains its increased damage modifier at 30% target hp, up from 20% (link)

• Reduced the AP cost of the No Quarter tactic to 13, down from 20 (link)