5.0 stance experience

With the ongoing wait for 5.0 I have taken to trolling sGE for useful information, so behold my impressions of shadow sting, and death chopping.

Death Chopping(all debuffs last full duration even after death)

AutoAttack: 4hit cycle each hit slightly less than arnis, but in total does more dmg than arnis. arnis has a modifier of 150% but is 3hit, death chopping has a modifier of 125% but is 4hit, 450 by arnis vs 500 by death chopping. and cath has better stats than any arnis user, so just way better.

Death Cut: fairly low dmg skill, lvl12 debuff is very effective in draining HP, however you can pot. It has great potential for knockdown spam, and slightly longer range than volition. This plus the stat reduction gives this skill enormous potential, and a great set up to killing those pesky scouts and CON based tanks. even effective on crusaders if you can get past their block. hits 3targets in a small area, so great for closely knit opponents. Lvl 12 debuff reduces DR, def, max hp and mspd

Death Stunt: slightly less dmg that death cut, drains SP around 100 or so per second, possibly scaled according to max sp so potentially alot more(i had only 500sp), 15second CD makes it not as effective as death cut in knockdown spam, however has much better range and much larger AoE. Has a special effect of dealing same damage to BOTH leather and metal, not sure how the mechanic works but has been tested. Obvious counter to flyers, gives great map control in 1v1 pvp, and decent crowd control in group pvp. lvl12 debuff reduces DR, max hp, max sp, mspd aswell as the already discussed sp drain, ALSO increases casting time, so generally awesome vs casters. if they don't have alot of SP the sp drain and the reduction will lock out almost ALL skills.

Present: Preposterously overpowered summons. Potential max ar/dr of 70, hit me for 20k per shot. still does great damage on masters, if fighting cath and you have aoe's take em out. for raids, if they can survive with their low hp, a good boost to her already awesome dps. Even so they are VERY effective, even on elb users, and particularly on soft armour users.
*Update: IF used when invisible(personal skill) invisibility doesn't dissappear, however when summoning, you will have a aura of light from the animation that reveals your location. You can summon all 4 lloyds while invisible, then skill to hit someone.

Dance of Death: Decent skill, debuff is similar at lvl11 and lvl12 and the aditional skill lvl only boosts total skill multiplyer be 90%, making this the skill of choice not to max. Stops potting, skilling, reduces immunity and mspd. Highly effective on elb/eln users with high immunity, aka scouts and romina's. Finisher on people with not super armour. Still decent on metal.

Chopping: Where to start, the skill it self hurts like nobodies business, it has ALOT of hits, so ele atk on your daggers will help, not that you need it. Drains HP like, well, i couldn't pot faster than it could drain.
*Update: debuff adds 200 defence to target, also increases all res by 50. obviously an attempt to balance the insane HP drain. Furthermore you can't move, skill OR attack, so basically you are useless, and dead.





Shadow sting

Autoattack: 2hit cycle, each hit does more dmg than Saggita, when unbuffed(so not considering the additional pene from hawkseye) each cycle does exactly 2.5times more than Saggita. Easy to crit and aspd cap, probably enough to kill most softies with spacebar in a few seconds, even if they try to pot.

Eagle eye: pretty basic buff, gives AR(lvl11 or higher) and % boost to pene, very nice skill, doesn't last very long though.

HeartBreaker: possibly one of the scarier skills of the stance, does low inital damage, BUT has 100% chance to cast drain, drains hp according to max hp and skill lvl, cannot pot while debuffed, aka without valeria's awesome hp regen skills, ur dead. Cannot kill directly(will drain to 1hp but not kill), but still *quite* effective. Debuff lasts 10seconds regardless of lvl, and at lvl9 drains FULL hp in 9seconds.

Stepback Inferno: slightly smaller radius that its sister skill bust shot, but it hits harder and ignores defence. Can be considered a finisher on most people in avg gear.

Bolt Sequence: High dmg AoE, doesn't KD, can be considered a finisher, with caly's pene and its innate ignore defence it is much more effective than submachine, AND it has a higher multiplier.

Shadow Dawn: 3hits VERY powerful, super effective on metal, and if you cast it while invisible(invis now stays even if you change stance), numbers will be purple, and does additonal dmg according to skill lvl of invis. 50% more at lvl10 silent move. A good bow should pretty much 1hko anything, even ELN scouts.


I will update with videos when i work out how to sensor my friends name, and edit.

update: http://www.2shared.com/video/TOr06IBU/compression_try_2.html

raw video, still editing. Don't Pm him for any reason. Thanks