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Maximizing DPS with Shadow Weaver Set
almostsk8trx
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
In a dungeon, what skills do you have on Tab QER?
This question is addressed to those with a full shadow weaver set.
What skills do you use to max out the 4 piece bonus?
This question is addressed to those with a full shadow weaver set.
What skills do you use to max out the 4 piece bonus?
Post edited by almostsk8trx on
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You may not have Icy Rays (I don't), but it's benefit is pretty negligible since it only gets 2 "hits" per cast anyway. RoE is great anyway so I use it regardless. That leaves me with SS, CoI, Steal Time, and RoE. The other 2 major spells are Shield and Chill Strike. To maximize the buff you'd want SS and CoI. I prefer SS in tab in this set up because of the DoT it gains (CoI just stacks chill when tabbed).
Sudden Storm is really the best skill to stack the bonus because it has no target cap. CoI is the only other real AOE spell that stacks the buff, but it's capped at ~7 targets (or whatever it is). The only issue is SS is probably the most bugged spell we have - it can't crit, it's hitting weaker than it should, it doesn't benefit from AOE increasing feats and abilities, and it won't hit targets during Arcane Singularities. Hopefully they will fix it one day, and if they do it would be a staple on my tab slot.
The absolutely best way to stack the crit severity on large packs is using Icy Terrain, it has no target cap afaik. Throw in a CoI as well to add more stacks (2nd best skill to use for stacks) and if you are specced into the middle paragon feats (i dont remember the name) you get the "ultimate" feat that lowers enemies mitigation by 15% when using CoI as well.
Steal Time does not give crit severity stacks, it gives the lifesteal stacks. Depending on the dungeon I would use RoE or Repel in my tab slot (repel if there's a lot of knocking mobs off cliffs, RoE for dps and party dps). A tabbed Chill Strike may give you personally some more damage but it's inferior to RoE in a party setting.
All in all it depends on your play style and the dungeon you are running. In my opinion the best way to go for a CW is to control, support and buff your party, this will increase the party's effectiveness more than you personally doing more DPS. My rogue friend in my party can get over 100k crits when playing with me. I still do quite decent damage, I'm usually 2nd after the rogue.
As for the merits of Sudden Storm, I only use it on large packs which is why I made a point to mention it doesn't have a target cap. The spell has a super short cooldown and in CN when you can pull groups of 20-30 enemies at a time it does a great job at stacking the buff. Furthermore, in such situations like this even though SS is bugged to hell it still ends up doing more damage than other options just because it has no target cap. If Icy Terrain does add to Crit Severity though, then that is likely a better choice and adds control in the form of a stacking chill effect and eventual freeze.
Finally, I never said Steal Time gave crit severity (in fact, in the opening paragraph I listed the only 4 abilities that gave crit severity, although it seems Icy Terrain may need to be added to that list) - but I will never take this off my bar regardless. The utility of this spell in stacking Arcane Mastery, slowing mobs and procing affects during its cast (including building life steal stacks), and doing an AOE stun are too important for me to give up.
Not true, but either way, you're usually pretty close to the mobs in the higher end t2's anyways, since you should be using both shield and steal time.
I'm a 12k cw that has cleared CN, and i use the 4 piece shadow weaver set.
For most trash, i use: Chill Strike on Tab, Icy Terrain, Steal Time, Shield
For bosses were I need to do heavy amounts of CC (Dracolich, 3rd boss of Castle Never, etc): Entangling Force on Tab, Icy Terrain, Steal Time, Shield.
For bosses with a large health pool were CC is either very easy to do, or not as important (last boss of spider, last boss of frozen heart, etc): Ray of Enfeeblement on Tab, Icy Terrain, Steal Time Shield.
And for knocking mobs, on the last boss of Spellplague for example, if I'm the lone CW I'll use Repel in Tab to make things easier, or if there's another CW i might use Enfeeblement in tab.
You need to be using Icy Terrain as much as humanly possible, it is the spell that makes Shadow Weaver shine.
I use conduit of ice on spell mastery, time steal, sudden storm and ray of enfeeblement for most fights.
When I don't need to fight adds, I switch to icy rays in spell mastery (ray of enfeeblement sucks in spell mastery due to the bug that prevent recovery from working with charges), chill strike, conduit of ice and sudden storm for the rest. I might use steal time instead of sudden storm if it can be of use in the fight.
Obviously, there is fights where some skills become mandatory (like repel in spell plague and shield in castle never).
The problem is that it disappears as soon as a monster that is immune to CC lands on it or when ANY monster walks/pushed away from it.
Go test it on dummies to see the exact duration and then watch closely when doing pve.
It's not considered as your ability (act confirms that, and also damage meter in game), which is probably the reason why it cant crit.
Back on topic though. Conduit of Ice i find the best ability on tab for bosses, with thaumaturge final feat, it provides 15% mitigation, and with shadow weaver 4set bonus it gives 1 stack crit dmg, every tick for every target it hits. On spell mastery it ticks 7 times (6 is normal) and its range is quite big. Combined with Ice Terrain is really nice, except that mobs don't always get frozen as they are supposed to, so better to keep CoI and IT away from each other.
But those two abilities provides stacks for rogue on boss, and also for you on adds.
First of all, Icy Terrain is worthless by far. Its a wasted spell regardless of the slot you put it in. If your clerics need peels, they are bad clerics.
Ray of Enfeeble on your tab is also worthless. Giving it two charges takes out the benefit of your recovery, meaning you get 1 cast every 14 seconds or 2 every 28 seconds. The only way this is viable is if you are coordinating with two rogues who are using SE when you put them up. Even then still not really worth it.
The best way to build stacks is Sudden Storm. Regardless of if the mobs are singularity glitched(It does no damage to mobs in Singularity)they will still provide one stack per mob hit. The buff lasts 10 seconds, its cooldown is less than 7. You end up with a lot of extra stacks.
Ice Terrain is really garbage if you missed me say that before. Steal time is a great spell, but you wont get the benefit of the stacks of your 4pc past the initial casting of it.
You are wrong and if you aren't using Icy Terrain with the Shadow Weave set you are doing it wrong.
300% is 300%, Can't imagine I'm doing it wrong when I have capped severity for every Ice Knife. Show me your 80-100k Knives
Not to mention Terrain offers little to nothing in any dungeon. If you can still keep your stacks without it, its a wasted spell slot. Clerics shouldn't need more peels than Singularity can offer.
I also like being top damage in almost any dungeon before you even factor in pulsing mobs off of something(Which often gives you damage equal to the monsters current hp) Terrain doesnt help that
Sorry but I don't believe you. To get 300% crit severity, you'd need something like 55 stacks, which you just aren't getting.
I've got it up to 150 stacks before, where it seemed to cap. But more importantly, the crit severity in my character screen was also capped at 200% regardless of the stacks we had so I don't know what to make of either of these posts.
Edit--
I think the cap is a hard cap on the number of targets. Each target seems to be capable of granting 3 stacks of the debuff, which is why you see it capping at 9 stacks on the target dummies. When I got it to 150 it was during a test in a Foundry mission that had exactly 50 ogres, which is why I noticed it capping at 150.
TLDR; you need to hit each mob 3 times to cap it per mob. CoI will do this in smaller groups (due to the AOE cap). Icy Terrain does this in larger groups (no AOE cap). Sudden Storm also works on larger groups. I believe it gives 2 stacks on cast (not sure of the DoT on tab procs additional stacks), but the cooldown is also shorter than the buff duration, so you can keep the stacks permanently refreshed as well.
From the moment you first hit an enemy, the set skill "activates" and you can stack buffs for the next 1m 30s.
After this time, the skill enters cooldown and will remain inactive until another 1m 30s has passed, preventing you from getting ANY stacks.
This is something that should be described in the set description. Its not fun to spend 40+ hours grinding a set just to find that its not working like you expect it to.