User:Rastamon/buildarchive/Build:N/W Death's Shadow

This gimmick arena build combines life drainage and armor-ignoring spiking to devastate any foe. This build should not be used for any serious purpose.

Equipment

 * Players should equip a sword that deals additional damage when enchanted to maximize your damage output, and has a crippling hilt and either an of Defense, of Shelter or of Enchanting pommel
 * Carry a Blood Magic offhand that enhances the recharge/casting time of Blood Magic spells
 * Have a Tormentor's/Necrotic tunic and leggings, at least, to improve your naturally low armor. Going pure-Tormentor's/Necrotic is viable, but you'll be leaving yourself very vulnerable to Holy damage

Usage

 * The usual casting order for a Death's Shadow:
 * Aura of the Lich
 * Dark Aura
 * Blood Renewal
 * Touch of Agony
 * Barbed Signet


 * If executed properly you should almost always have the health regeneration, and occasional heal, from Blood Renewal, and area-affected Shadow damage, which makes this a "survivor"
 * While this build can take on any class, targeting the monk (as usual) is particularly effective. Hamstring will aid your warrior allies, and the near-unstoppable amount of Shadow damage will make the healer or protector monk quite "selfish", as they'll suddenly focus on (desperately) healing themselves. This also goes for enemy Priest
 * Be careful not to cast Aura of the Lich when your health is particularly low. The same goes for Blood Renewal
 * While Blood Renewal seems out of place at first, it makes for an amazing self-heal if combined with Aura of the Lich. You'll only sacrifice 12.5% health, as Aura of the Lich "quarters" damage from sacrifices. In addition, you can cast it after Dark Aura for a spiking prelude

Variants

 * Touch of Agony could be replaced with Dark Pact for less melee range dependency
 * Order of Pain and Flurry would make for a great melee damage combo, particularly in PvE or Alliance Battles
 * Life Siphon could replace Blood Renewal to lower the dependency upon enchantments
 * Wallow's Bite could replace Barbed Signet for more spammable damage, though this causes more constant and possibly riskier health sacrifice.
 * Demonic Flesh mixes well with Aura of the Lich, boosting your low health with no increase in damage taken from outside sources. However, this makes you more dependent on enchantments and causes you to sacrifice more health.
 * For ABs, replace Resurrection Signet with Plague Touch or Plague Sending.
 * Blood of the Aggressor may also be substituted for Barbed Signet for a quickly recharging skill with a very small health sacrifice.

Counters
This mainly will include in Random Arena's a Touch Ranger.
 * Remove or interrupt the enchantments upon which this build depends.
 * Crippling, as with any melee-range attacker, makes this build difficult to be efficient.
 * Health degeneration and Deep Wound work well due to this build's low health.
 * Life stealing does not count as damage in the usual sense and thus will completely ignore the damage-reducing effects of Aura of the Lich. Life stealing skills such as Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Gaze are therefore very dangerous to this build due to its low health.