Heart of Shadow & Vipers Defense

Anybody else think the teleport on them sucks?

I mean..yeah it's nice to have that quick heal buff from HoS, and VD is a real nice way to send out a poison- in those aspects they are usefull; but I just find them to be underpowered because of the short teleporting leash.

Do you think they are fine the way they are?

I've found them to be pretty good if used properly, more as something to get out of the heat than to actually inflict conditions on people, just an alternative to some of the others.

Are you kidding? Heart of Shadow is my assassin's favorite skill. I've incorporated it when I was considering playing in Aspenwood as an actual assassin rather than a "fake" Ritualist (which is how I beat all missions except the last one), and I've taken it everywhere since then. I don't know any other skills that can teleport you out of melee and give you a headstart over a warrior chasing you and let you survive a turtle blast when running amber and let your health refill quickly after Shadow Form wears off. I've had Shadow Form expire multiple times to trigger a precast Heart of Shadow for 122 points of healing, and then recast it again for a headstart to get out of a dangerous position and insurance against an errant blast or arrow or spell that might come my way.

My assassin likes Heart of Shadow so much now that I never even bother with Shadow Refuge any more. I'll take an instant 20% heal with a secondary effect over a midcombat regen spell any day.

Heart of shadow rocks, don't know the recharge on viper's, can't comment on that!

Don't ever use them in tightly packed PvE though or it's aggro heaven

Aggro heaven is correct. It doesnt always teleport you to the safest place. Ive had experience being teleporetd further into the enemies backline which was not so good. Ive stayed away from those. Might have to try them out again. dont know

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I think the short teleports could be "smarter," same distance, but putting you into minimum aggro available.

If you watch the spells being cast by the assassin hench, one of them casts Viper's Defense as soon as she makes contact with the target, thus poisoning the target.

Return seems to work better for me. If it is still recharging, doubleclicking on a party member's name will make your run towards them. This works well most of the time.

And off subject a bit, but in PvE, especially with henchies, remember your longbow! Never leave home without it! No attrib point required longbows have a max of about 8-11 and work just fine. With the henchies aggroed, break target, switch to your daggers, and get to work.

I guess this skill's usefullness really depends on your combat style. I prefer the old "in and out" ^_- but they definitly could be usefull in other techniques, such as the HOS+Dash, props to that great idea.

instead of longbow. you could use

ctrl + shift + space

I am targeting X!

henchies rush in without you even moving a muscle

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I love HoS so I do not think it sucks.