After playing for some time as Shade I can’t disagree more. But this isn’t topic about Shade.
On note about Maiden - as I said before I love her with Kruber at side. I can hold horde(2x; 3x you name it) at choke point for ever.
Waystalker is great for taking down specials and elites before they reach the group.
She is also great at countering them while the rest of the team fights a wave and hardly if ever goes out of ammo.
Shade has an awesome range weapon that does a ton of dmg.
Can instantly take out critical targets .
Her ult is so versatile its basicly an “Oh sh*t” button.
Does a ton of dmg on bosses.
Handmaiden can help clear a wave while the focus is on “help” she is not the best option to do it alone.
She can help tanking while the focus is on “help” she is not the best option to do it alone.
She can help dmg to bosses while the focus is on… well you guessed it…
I would have no problem with this if she at least would provide a more viable aura.
She needs an aura that represents the “Jack of all Trades” aspect of her and supports her teammates better because of right now I feel like she is an wasted slot.
30% stamina regen…i have trinket with 28% stamina regen on me…
Also both bardin and kruber have 100% cost reduction on her abilities while she doesnt.
We should have a topic just for Shade.
Her passive is bad and thus everything she has that’s built around it. There’s nothing she does that another career doesn’t do better.
She has an unique weapon and a bad ammo recovery mechanic.
Handmaiden is okayish. Fun and playable, but it feels she is missing something to help mitigate just a little more damage. Or bump her health to 150. Maybe giving her extra stamina like Foot Knight/Ironbreaker.
We should. I started playing her recently and of all kerillian careers I’m doing best on this one. Her crossbow is absolutely superb(if not for the bug that prevents you swapping weapons when you use alt fire), getting behind elites and bosses is super easy with 10% dodge range,which compliments her passive. With the ammo recovery trait I always have a few bolts to kill specials and during a boss fight I usually recover at least 11 bolts. Infiltrate is great for picking people up and disengaging(although it’s buggy too-sometimes a few enemies chase after me despite using the skill).
Since I started playing her I very often have top scores on everything,with least damage taken and most revives. Even in games with pyromancer Sienna with beam staff and an ironbreaker Beardin(and I’m mostly playing in a supportive way too,still getting top stats)
I liked handmaiden, but when I finally decided to try shade(haven’t played her at all,even during beta) I find her extremely strong. Especially the crossbow - I mean,who else can kill a stormvermin patrol on champion, with 15/30 bolts and in less than 5 seconds?
i really tried to play the shade but the main problem is that i can’t shoot single bolts out of her repeater, it shoots in a 3 round burst which is REALLY wasteful if 1 bolt can do the job
Erm what? Just press left click? You either shoot 1 with left click, or 3 with right click aiming first, I don’t get how you do not figure that out.
Keep in mind weapons also effect dodge range. I assume you’re a shade with daggers vs handmaide with spear. The daggers have a longer dodge range than the two handed spear
yeah … ironically if you aim the damn thing you get the high recoil 3 round burst, left click will fire one round. I wish the extra weapon button it would toggle single / burst like on most other assault rifles.
oh. i must not have remembered correctly, my bad. either way, i won’t be able to conserve ammo with the aimed shot.
this would be nice
If RMB just toggled between fire modes (no animation) everything would be better, including weapon swap problems.
It’s not like that ADS is actually helping to aim or anything.
Agreed. I think if they were to buff her, they would need to increase her stam regen aura range. I do think that the regen is noticeable, but nothing amazing. It would probably allow for an extra shove here and there. But the current range for that buff is incredibly small - especially since she is mainly focused on being a melee support that specializes in repositioning.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…
She felt meh for quite a while until I had all talents unlocked and used the +3 seconds invisibility. That really changed the utility of her ult and made her wayyy more enjoyable. Before the +3 seconds, I preferred waystalker by far.
IMO it’s a bias.
People usually remember how well they did with the already-famous halber Krubers or glaive-Kerillians since most everyone simply says so, as well as having the appeal of killing things easily – but whenever they fail with such configurations, they usually simply contribute that fact to the failure of the team, or a mistake someone made, or simply bad luck … instead of noticing the implications that it might be due to a drawback of their weapons’ capabilities – or lack there of.
The Handmaiden excels in engaging very, very large number of mobs, with the capability to engage more of them at a time, even in much wider/disadvantageous spaces, without moving around too much. If you need someone to hold ground and keep a large number of mobs occupied whenever the bad luck of waves hitting the team at bad terrain happens, then the HM will see it done.
Sure, such a role may not be needed when the team always finds an optimal position to funnel mobs. In an ideal environment, the level of defensive tanking HM dishes out may seem like a waste. But in reality, there are always “oh shi*” moments, and its those “oh shi*” moments where careers like the HM and weapons like spear, Krubey’s shield-and-sword, etc… really shine.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the bias prevents people from thinking “ahh… a HM in the team would have held the position” when the Shade or Waystalker gets overwhelmed and that causes the defenses to falter, leading to a team wipe. Instead, they simply think it was bad luck, or the Shade/WS player was bad, and then quickly forget about it.
There are benefits to choosing HM over WS and Shade.
- HM is Kerillian’s most reliable melee front line (stam regen)
- can kill CW, specials, bosses and hordes whilst invisible from her talent
- can mow down and stagger hordes with her ult (and has the stamina to get back into a good position after)
- can reposition, avoid and go for pickups with her ult
- has enough stamina regen to constantly push during hordes with push-attacks
As with any melee focused tanky class, to top damage or to feel like you’re having a presence, you need to constantly push for melee combat and hold points when needed. I’d recommend running 10% attack speed and Swift Slaying. I’m using 30% Chaos, 10% attack speed - Glaive/LB. It’s possible to top damage with this build.
Positioning and knowing your role as HM and tanky classes in general is the main bulk of the skill in playing them. It’s your job to protect your team and take out elites in melee. With LB you can off most specials quickly, but don’t spend too much time spam shooting. If you notice someone else is good with specials, then ignore them and go for constant melee as it’s your main role.
Once you get confident with surviving alone and pushing out of hordes, you can start using your ult really offensively to bleed/stagger hordes in choke points.