While this was only tested on practice dummies, i think it should be made known via some sort of tooltip that backstab damage increase for shade does not apply to ranged weapons. With the talents involving ranged weaponry being there (ammo regen , no stealth break) i assumed and devoted crafting resources to make a build tuned to ranged burst damage backstabbing only to find out that it was in vaine
I’m not sure if the backstab talents are even displayed as extra damage on the dummies since they’re not coded as regular enemies, but you do have to take into consideration that a backstab is generally meant to be a melee strike e.g. ‘‘stab’’ so that should make sense…
Either way, in stealth all your strikes critical hit, thats why without the no-stealth-break talent you’ll exit stealth on the first strike, I’m pretty sure this should be the case in actual games too. This is also why you’ll want to be behind something to not only get the crit but add the extra backstab damage (to your melee weapons)
To clarify; I’m pretty sure your ranged weapon will always crit in stealth if you have that talent; pair this with ammo-on-crit and you should do pretty well perhaps? I don’t play much shade anymore.
Nevermind, went and tested for you, but yea the backstab part is still important to remember for this, I can imagine your frustration however.
Kool, thanks for the test, noticed that it was always crit on the melle strikes, but after playin more with her i like it just fine. Back stab increase theoretically applies all the time while outside of stealth so i use it more as utility after boss aggros on me or as team save. Haf sweet moment where last man standing, stealthed right as assassin pouned at me and used the stealth to revive team. Shade for the win 
Why’s backstab or stealth damage supposed to be applied to ranged weapons? I don’t get it.
It was the wording of the passive skill that kinda threw me. (50% increased damage when “attacking” enemies from behind) that made me think it would apply to any attack. No biggie though, im likin her with the mellee only build