Shadow Strike

Acquisition
Skill Quests: Skill Trainers:
 * Casualty Report (Piken Square)
 * Captain Osric (Yak's Bend)
 * Dakk (Ember Light Camp)

Usage

 * Like Deathly Chill, beware of relying too heavily on this skill as a primary source of damage. Though effective initially, once your foe's health becomes lower, this skill becomes far less useful.
 * This skill deals less average damage over time than Vampiric Gaze, but costs less energy over time. At 12 Blood Magic Vampiric Gaze does an average of ~8.7 damage per second if cast continuously. Under the same conditions, Shadow Strike deals only 8.2 damage per second against a foe with greater than 50% health, and once that foe's health drops, the damage drops to just 4.1 damage per second.   Vampiric Gaze costs ~1.7 Energy per second if cast continuously, while Shadow Strike costs 1.0 Energy per second.
 * At 12 Blood Magic, Vampiric Gaze steals 5.2 life per energy, and Shadow Strike offers 8.2 damage per energy against a healthy foe and 4.1 damage per energy against a weak foe.
 * At 16 Blood Magic, Vampiric Gaze steals 6.3 life per energy, and Shadow Strike offers 10.0 damage per energy against a healthy foe and 5.0 damage per energy against a weakened foe.
 * Because this skill deals a large amount of armor-ignoring damage, especially to healthy targets, many Necromancers find it primarily useful as a spike skill.