Perma Shadow Form
From Guild Wars Wiki
These builds are based around permanently maintaining Shadow Form, protecting the user from attacks and spells. There are a number of variations, since the core of the build requires only 3 skills.
Contents |
[edit] Setup
There are 4 major variants of this build:
[edit] Assassin/Elementalist
Glyph of Swiftness
Deadly Paradox
Shadow Form
High Shadow Arts, 16 is recommended. A 20% enchanting weapon is needed (15% is ok too but it is a little harder to maintain). Runes of Attunement and Radiant Insignias are needed, as 30 energy is needed before casting.
Use Glyph of Swiftness and Deadly Paradox before casting Shadow Form.
[edit] Assassin/Ritualist
Ghostly Haste
Deadly Paradox
Shadow Form
Destruction
High Shadow Arts, 16 is recommended. A 20% enchanting weapon is needed. Runes of Attunement and Radiant Insignias are needed, as 40 energy is needed before casting.
Use Destruction, Ghostly Haste, and Deadly Paradox before casting Shadow Form.
[edit] Assassin/Mesmer
Arcane Echo
Deadly Paradox
Shadow Form
High Shadow Arts, 16 is recommended. A 20% enchanting weapon is also recommended. Runes of attunement and radiant Insignias are needed, as 40 energy is needed before casting.
Use Deadly Paradox and then Arcane Echo before casting Shadow Form. Before the echoed copy of Shadow Form expires, cast it. (This method requires almost the full amount energy that assassins gain through energy regeneration. Consider using energy management skills if other skills will be used.)
[edit] Assassin/any + Consumables
Deadly Paradox
Shadow Form
High Shadow Arts, 16 is recommended. A 20% enchanting weapon is also recommended. Essence of Celerity essentially replaces Glyph of Swiftness, opening up the secondary.
[edit] Assassin/Ranger + Consumables
Dwarven Stability
Serpent's Quickness
Shadow Form
If you don't need specific secondary profession, this setup allows to spam attack skills with reduced recharges that Deadly Paradox would disable otherwise.
[edit] Variants
[edit] Daggers
Frequently utilizes Death Blossom because of the AoE damage and fast recharge. Also, skills that require an enchantment can be easily utilized. However, this variant is hurt by the recharge to attack skills caused by Deadly Paradox.
[edit] Degeneration
Degeneration isn't hurt by Shadow Form's damage reduction, giving this variant some extra punch. Can utilize burning, AoE hexes, or wards.
[edit] Tanking
Perma SF sins can make effective tanks, as very little damages them. In some cases there can be multiple perma SF sins, so that one can hold aggro for the rest of the group to kill, while the other starts aggroing the next mob.
[edit] Earth Magic
Earth magic is mainly used for Sliver Armor. This is a good skill for boss farming, and can be quite successful in mob farming. It's advised to get air magic to 4, so Glyph of Swiftness can reduce Sliver Armor as well as SF.
[edit] Nuking
This is just a fire elementalist, with Fire Storm and other high damaging AoE skills.
[edit] Duration analysis
Note: Casting reduction from various sources was not calculated in this table.
[edit] Assassin/Elementalist
Using Deadly Paradox, Glyph of Swiftness, and Shadow Form + 20% Enchant Mod
- Shadow form lasts 23.5 seconds and costs 30e.
| Upkeep | |
|---|---|
|
Recast Buffer Cost1
|
14
24
0.5
1.25
15
25.2
1.7
1.19
16
26.4
2.9
1.14
17
27.6
4.1
1.09
18
28.8
5.3
1.04
|
1Cost in Energy/Second. 4 Energy regeneration is 1.33 per second.
Casting on recharge costs 1.28 energy/second.
[edit] Assassin/Mesmer
Using Deadly Paradox, Arcane Echo, and Shadow Form + 20% Enchant Mod
- Arcane Echo can be cast every 42 seconds and Shadow Form can be cast every 31 seconds.
- One cycle costs 50e
| Upkeep | |
|---|---|
|
Recast Buffer Cost
|
14
43
1
1.16
15
44.2
2.2
1.13
16
45.4
3.4
1.10
|
[edit] Assassin/Ranger
Using Quickening Zephyr (Does not stack with Deadly Paradox)
- Shadow form recharges every 22.5 seconds and costs 13 energy.
| Upkeep | |
|---|---|
|
Recast Buffer Cost1
|
13
22.8
0.3
0.57
14
24
1.5
0.54
15
25.2
2.7
0.52
16
26.4
3.9
0.49
17
27.6
5.1
0.47
18
28.8
6.3
0.45
|
Casting on recharge costs 0.58 energy/second.
[edit] Elementalist/Assassin
[edit] Mesmer/Assassin
[edit] Any/Assassin
[edit] Essence of Celerity
Using Deadly Paradox - stacks to 53% (capped at 50%) recharge. Similar to Quickening Zephyr but better for the energy.
- Shadow form recharges every 22.5 seconds and costs 25 energy.
| Upkeep | |
|---|---|
|
Recast Buffer Cost1
|
13
22.8
0.3
1.10
14
24
1.5
1.04
15
25.2
2.7
0.99
16
26.4
3.9
0.95
17
27.6
5.1
0.91
18
28.8
6.3
0.87
|
Casting on recharge costs 1.11 energy/second.
[edit] See also
PvXwiki's guide to Permanent Shadow Form. There's a list of their builds at the bottom of the guide.
