Which skills to focus on?

feintdemise

I'm one of those people who don't like experimenting much. I'm one of those people who has to know everything about the task at hand before attempting it. I always intensely read up on the class guides that are usually stickied at the top of each of the respective class' sub forum before playing a class.

That being said; Which skills should I focus on as I level up?

Currently I'm level 35, up to date on Culti (29).

So far I have maxed for my level:
Motionless Move (8), Night Owl (7), Reaper form (2), Dual Accordance (5), Galemark (4), Everlasting Ode (4), Winged Dragon (2), and Saber Mastery (2).

Everything else is not learned, besides Relentless Drift (1).
I decided to it keep at level 1. I use it more for the jump because I'm lazy, rather than the Stun and damage. Also, it uses less mana this way. Upon hovering over the "lev" next to the up arrow to level up skills, it doesn't show that leveling up increases range (Unless it increases every other level).

As the class is new, I'm afraid to level up useless skills or to level up useful skills that might necessarily need to be leveled up past 1.

Derressh - Dreamweaver

I only have a 61 Dusk, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Personally I feel like Relentless Drift, Divine Moonlight, Blinking Movement, In Silence, Dread, and Destiny Hunter can be kept at 1 while leveling. Lunar Grace is up to you. I personally leveled it for the reduced CD for resetting Blinking Movement and in case I want to do a duel or two.

Everything else I try to keep as leveled as possible.

Euthymius - Heavens Tear

This is just my opinion/how I see the skills:

Relentless Drift
-Leveled this because the more damage it deals, the easier it becomes to N.Owl/Dual>Motionless a regular wraith to death in a single combo

Motionless Move
-Basic skill. Its damage is decent when N.Owl/Dual's used before it, so it can easily finish off targets with those two. Leveled regularly to increase the odds of a target dying from its boosted version

Night Owl
-First real combo skill. Boosts Motionless Move's base damage and increases movement speed briefly. You probably won't be scoring too many crits early on, so leveling this isn't a bad idea for raw damage

Dual Accordance
-Second Motionless Move combo skill. Personally I found it to be worthwhile to level. It hits harder than Night Owl and can either heal a little (Target HP being higher than yours after the hit) or deal additional damage, and it even gives Motionless an additional crit boost.

If you're just killing regular wraiths, you can jump from one to another, alternating with Drift Dual/Owl>Motionless on each one's brief cooldown.

Reaper Form
-Our transformation skill, letting certain skills have a cooldown of 1 second (Night Owl, Motionless, Galewind, Everlasting Ode, Winged Dragon), while reducing incoming ranged damage. Leveling increases the duration you stay transformed. Level as you can.

Galemark
-Our first AoE and AoE combo starting skill. Leveling increases the damage it deals. Cooldown dropped to one second in Reaper form. Personally I'd say to level it when you can - you'll be using this pretty often in setting up AoEs or some of your single target strikes.

Everlasting Ode
-Second AoE combo skill that follows after Gale. Leveling increases the damage it deals. Has one second CD in Reaper Form. I'd recommend leveling this when you can, but if you dont find yourself AoEing too often, you can do so gradually.

Divine Moonlight
-Our ranged sleep skill, accompanied by a Telekinesis styled mark (deals earth damage a few seconds later). Leveling increases the damage the damage of the DoT, but not range/cooldown. Level at your leisure

Blinking Movement
-Two second paralyze-teleport, much like Drift but bypassing anti-stuns. Leveling increases its range. I'd recommend leveling this as you get it, if only to have two 25m ranged teleport skills

Winged Dragon
-First combo string finish from Gale>Ode. Has one second CD in Reaper form. Leveling increases the rectangular range, and damage dealt. I'd recommend leveling it as you get it if you're AoEing frequently.

Destiny Hunter
-Ranged marking skill that will deal damage and stun a few seconds after if the target doesn't act. Most regular targets die pretty quickly PvE wise, and most bosses aren't affected/able to be controlled this way. Genie skills break this in PvP for some reason. Leveling increases the damage dealt as it stuns Would recommend keeping it at Lv1.

Saber Mastery
-Passively boosts your damage from skills using your saber. Level asap.

Lunar Grace
-First "reset" skill, allowing you to use Blink again without a cooldown once while giving you an anti-stun effect. Leveling increases the duration of the anti-stun and reduces its cooldown. I'd recommend leveling it slowly, but if you use Blink often or PvP a lot, it should be a priority.

Constellation Arc
-Second AoE combo finisher from Ode. Debuffs PDef up to 40% at level 10. Not too amazing compared to other PDef debuffs from other classes (unless Demon), but decent against stronger enemies you're fighting alone. Level very slowly or leave it at level 1

Grief
-Third combo finisher from Ode, and your first multi-hitting skill. Hits three times with the third strike paralyzing the target briefly. You don't take damage during its cast. Leveling increases its damage. If you don't PvP, you can level this slowly/leave at level 1 imo

Moon Chant
-Self/Party buff. Boosts skill damage against Wraiths and reduces incoming Critical strike damage. Level asap

Slash of Pride
-One of two "charge" skills. Can disarm surrounding targets for a certain duration depending on the charge up before use (up to 9 seconds) while also stunning them for a moment. Disarm only really works in PvP, so if that's your thing, it should be leveled regularly (or left at lv1 if you don't care for it). Still, it can be cast without a charge up for an additional AoE with a double click/held down hotkey.

Dragon Trap
-Second "charge" and multi-hitting skill. The longer its charged, the more hits it'll dish out at one target. Can paralyze up to 4 seconds and doubles the damage of your next auto attack briefly. I'd recommend leveling this regularly if possible as it hits pretty hard.

Distant Cloud
-Second "reset" skill. Deals damage while also boosting critical rate and resetting Relentless Drift in the same manner of Lunar Grace. It also paralyzes for 2 seconds, though its not stated. Leveling increases the damage dealt. Can be left at level 1 or leveled at your discretion.

Strigimorphic Dive
-Second combo skill from Galemark. Deals damage while Paralyzing the enemy for two seconds, while like Grief, you are invulnerable to damage during its cast. Hits fairly hard, can be leveled regularly.

In Silence Dread
-Brief Stealth Run. Leveling reduces the Cooldown and increases Stealth level. Can leave at Lv 1 if you don't care to PvP, though it does have some PvE applications...


Settling Ripple
-Third multi hit strike. A Radial AoE that deals incredible damage while also reducing the damage you take as its cast. Inflicts a brief Paralyze at the end. Great for AoEing without Reaper form and can have some use in PvP should you find yourself in a crowd of enemies. Level at your discretion.

Eternity
-Another followup option from Galemark. A radial AoE that can hit anything up to 8 meters around you, and guarantees either a 2 second stun or freeze. Moderately hard hitting and good for stopping multiple enemies (or a single one if Strigi's on CD) from running away from you after a Galemark momentarily.

Shadow Prey
-Reel In with a twist of hitting hard and Paralyzing your target for one second. Leveling increases damage. Can be left at Lv1 unless you PvP on the regular.

Blood of the Nightshade
-Another passive that reduces ranged damage received. Not sure if it works on Magic attacks, but it'll weaken damage dealt from archers/archer type wraiths. Level at your discretion.
-If it did work on magic, then yeah, level it when able

Reflection in the Moon
-Copies a class skill. No reason not to learn this as soon as the option presents itself if you PvP.
-If it really works on allies after the Sage/Demon skills patch, then it'll become an even greater priority to obtain it!
Hope that helps.

iperen

I'd recommand to focus :

Moonchant, Reaper form and the 2 passives. They are handy no matter what.

Night Owl and Motionless Move. Mainly for the questing part.

Relentless Drift (yay lazy mode) and Divine Moonlight (nice to lure) at level 1 at least, but if you use them a lot, better level when you got the chance.

The combo of : Galemark, Everlasting Ode and Winged Dragon. For the AoE purpose, I'd say it's the basic chain.

By leveling that, you are pretty well around for quests, BH and pv. If you can/want to solo PV, I'd recommend to level the other AoE skills, like Slash of Pride. If you're more into quests, go for the higher 1 target spells (adding Dual Accordance for instance). If you're more into BH, focus more on the effects like debuff and paralyse. On the long run, you'll be able to level everything anyway. Personally, I focus more on the AoE part, as PV is my main exp gain.

ToyMaker_NOT - Raging Tide

Euthymius - Heavens Tear wrote: »

In Silence Dread
-Brief Stealth Run. Leveling reduces the Cooldown and increases Stealth level. Can leave at Lv 1 if you don't care to PvP, though it does have some PvE applications...

Unless the stealth GREATLY increases at max level (i.e. 105+) this is a PvE skill only. The reason being is that every class has a detect level equal to level of their character. The 22 stealth level this skill gives at level 1 is not going to help in PvP.

In PvE, if you get overwhelmed by mobs this skill can be casted while in attack mode and will cause mobs to reset. I've used it a few times to stealth past exploding mobs in 39.

Derressh - Dreamweaver

ToyMaker_NOT - Raging Tide wrote: »

Unless the stealth GREATLY increases at max level (i.e. 105+) this is a PvE skill only. The reason being is that every class has a detect level equal to level of their character. The 22 stealth level this skill gives at level 1 is not going to help in PvP.

In PvE, if you get overwhelmed by mobs this skill can be casted while in attack mode and will cause mobs to reset. I've used it a few times to stealth past exploding mobs in 39.

You do realize that it's +22 stealth levels, right? As in, Your level + 22. Meaning you can hide from people 22 levels above you assuming they don't use an awareness pot or skill to increase their awareness above that.

ToyMaker_NOT - Raging Tide

Derressh - Dreamweaver wrote: »

You do realize that it's +22 stealth levels, right? As in, Your level + 22. Meaning you can hide from people 22 levels above you assuming they don't use an awareness pot or skill to increase their awareness above that.

I do realize that but do you realize the skill states it increases your stealth level by 22. A Duskblade's base stealth level is ZERO!!! Casting this skill at level 1 puts your stealth at level 22 meaning that any class that is a level 22+ will see you. As I posted earlier, unless the advance skills (AEU or Primal) do something to increase the stealth to 105, this will be nothing more than a PvE skill, PERIOD.

Poopinpanto - Heavens Tear

I just lvl all my skill to current lvl.Game isnt hard to get spirit anymore and im not short on coin so its easy as pie to just lvl all them as i go.

Derressh - Dreamweaver

ToyMaker_NOT - Raging Tide wrote: »

I do realize that but do you realize the skill states it increases your stealth level by 22. A Duskblade's base stealth level is ZERO!!! Casting this skill at level 1 puts your stealth at level 22 meaning that any class that is a level 22+ will see you. As I posted earlier, unless the advance skills (AEU or Primal) do something to increase the stealth to 105, this will be nothing more than a PvE skill, PERIOD.

(Click)

If they truly only had 22 stealth levels at any level, you wouldn't be able to stealth from those mobs in 39 like you said you have before. Stealth works the same way in PvE as it does in PvP.

You have a base of 0 stealth levels because that's when you're not in stealth.

CapnK - Sanctuary

I recommend concentrating on the chain skills (Galemark->whatever) and ignoring the charge skills and the 2 spark you get at 59.

Fei_Lung - Sanctuary

Just in General: Start at the top and make your way down, keeping most skills maxed, just grab level 1 of everything higher level than Moon Chant while you save spirit for Reflection of the Moon, if you want that skill at level.

In my specific experience:

Most of the time in PVE, your cast order will be Relentless Drift>Night Owl>Motionless Move>Next Mob, tossing in Dual Accordance on occasion to mix things up or whittle down some extra HP.

Destiny Hunter, Divine Moonlight, Lunar Grace, and Blinking Moment are all interesting skills, but aren't super important to getting ahead level-wise, the most useful of these while levelling is Divine Moonlight, but all of these can be left at level 1.

After you get those initial skills up, definitely want to focus on Moon Chant and your passives, with the exception of Blood of the Nightshade, in PVE levelling situations, you will not often be at range from your targets, even when fighting multiple mobs. So first level will work fine for you, then start levelling it after you get to a higher level and PVP more.

I do recommend levelling your AOE combos at least moderately, they hit very hard, cast quickly, and some have some fantastic utility...snares, nice chunks of Chi (not that you'll need much of it) and Constellation Arc acts as a mini -HF for some of the tougher mobs, just be mindful of tossing AOEs in the wrong place, no need to pull more mobs than you need.

In Silence Dread has its moments, but it shouldn't be a priority when levelling. It is your drop aggro skill in PVE, so level 1 will work just fine. PVP sees its potential slightly more.