Introduction
Shadowhunters have two viable raid builds that center around their two Class Engravings: Perfect Suppression and Demonic Impulse. This article focuses on the former, the Perfect Suppression Shadowhunter.
Shadowhunters have an Identity Gauge called Shadowburst Meter. You charge it by using skills in Human Form. While the main focus for Demonic Impulse is to Demonize once their Shadowburst Meter is full for big burst damage; Perfect Suppression Shadowhunters focus on using their Shadowburst Meter to empower their Human Form skills. With their two spender skills, Cruel Cutter and Demolition, they deal significantly extra damage when consuming Shadowburst Meter gauge.
Perfect Suppression Shadowhunters have a straightforward playstyle; generate enough Shadowburst Meter to then unload all 7 Human Form skills in order. If done correctly and all skills hit, they never run out of Shadowburst Meter and sustain their DPS.
Perfect Suppression Shadowhunters might feel sluggish when they're starting out. Without sufficient Swiftness, the cooldowns on your skills are long, forcing you to auto attack while they recharge. Their Spacebar is quite lacking compared to what other classes have. This negative is amplified because their only basic mobility skill has the same move distance.
This build guide assumes you have a Character at Level 50 before transitioning to it. Check out the Shadowhunter Leveling Guide and 1-50 Leveling Guide to reach Level 50.
Check out the Demonic Impulse Shadowhunter for an alternative Shadowhunter playstyle.
Check out the Guardian Raids and Abyssal Dungeons guides for an introduction to their content.
Raid Skill Build
General:
- Howl and Demonic Clone provides massive Shadowburst meter but Demonic Clone is not usually used by the Entropy Set build because it requires additional skill points while Howl can be left at Level 7.
- Rising Claw is used by both build as their Counter Attack skill because of it's versatility of being able to increase the Stagger Damage it does or general damage done by the skill or reduces it's cooldown for easier Adrenaline management and having option to give it Paralysis Immunity Superarmor.
- Decimate is a all round decent damage and decent generator skill that is used by both build.
Classic Entropy Skills:
- Demonic Slash provides mobility skill for the build to better position to the back of bosses easier.
- Cruel Cutter, Demolition and Thrust Impact are your highest burst skills in this build, prioritize them in small burst windows.
- Sharpened Cut is a strong filler damage skill that benefits from the engraving.
3 Spenders Skills:
- Cruel Cutter is used in this build as well but this time with the Double-Edged Stike to compensate Crit Rate and removes the need to Back Attack. Then Spinning Weapon and Grind Chain are the other 2 of your spenders, these are your main damage skills for this build.
- Piercing Thorn is a strong filler damage skill use on this build that compliment with the Hit Master playstyle.
Awakening :
Gate of Eruption is your only available Awakening skill due to Perfect Suppression locking your Demon Form. Regardless, it is still taken for the high Shadowburst Meter gain that lets you use spenders right off the bat. The downside is that it deals damage over multiple hits. If the target moves out of the zone of Gate of Eruption, then you won't generate as much Shadowburst Meter.
Gameplay
- Try to always be behind the boss to get the greatest benefit from your skills and the +10% Crit Rate modifier from back attacks.
- Use Gate of Eruption every time it comes up to quickly generate Shadowburst Meter to spend Cruel Cutter and Demolition as soon as possible.
- Perfect Suppression Shadowhunters rely on good skill rotations between Howl and Demonic Slash for it's synergy Skill Tree Damage Amplification. Use these skills to debuff the target before using your main damage skills.
- Keep generating Shadowburst Meter so you always have enough for your spenders(e.g. Cruel Cutter and Demolition).
- Your spenders deal the most Stagger and sometimes need to be used during boss Stagger phases. Save your high Stagger skills if these boss mechanics are approaching soon. This requires you to understand the boss's patterns ahead of time.
Skill Rotations
Always use Gate of Eruption at the beginning of the fight and off cooldown. This helps you generate enough Shadowburst Meter to last the entire fight if you land all your skills with no cooldown modifiers.
DPS Skills Priority Rotation
Howl > Cruel Cutter > Demolition > Thrust Impact > Sharpened Cut > Decimate
You can use Demonic Slash at the beginning, if you have Nimble Movement and Raid Captain.
Stats Priority
Perfect Suppression Shadowhunters aim for high Crit and Swiftness. Since you don't care about quickly turning into Demon Form like Demonic Impulse Shadowhunters, you don't invest into Specialization at all.
High Crit Build: Aim for Crit on all accessories and Swiftness only from necklace, bracelet and a ring, This gives you more consistent burst damage every rotation. For more Attack Speed, Movement Speed and Cooldown Reduction.
High Swiftness Build: Aim for Swiftness on all accessories and Crit only from necklace. This is usually use for the 3 Spenders build to keep your skill spamming going while still able to manage Shadowburst Meter with all the cooldown reduction provided by Swiftness.
Bracelet
Bracelets provide beneficial effects to yourself or to your party members depending on the rolls.
Note: Bracelets should not be your top priority to optimize since it'll be much more efficient to optimize your other gear first. Bracelets are costly! So slowly build towards a Main Stat and a Sub Stat. Anything else is extra!
Check out the Bracelet Guide for more details.
Possible Special Effects to Roll:
Optimal
Combat Stats(Swiftness + Crit)
Circulate
Fervor
Hammer
Wedge
Precise
Ambush(For Entropy Set build)
Alternatives
Basic Effect(Dexterity)
Assail
Superiority
Sawtooth Blade
Weapon Power
Harvest
Expose Weakness
Dagger
Engravings
Class Engravings provide powerful stat boosts that dictate the playstyle of a class. Battle Engravings are generally used to increase damage. Below are the recommended Engravings for this build.
Check out the Engraving Guide for more details.
Starter Engravings
- Perfect Suppression should be kept at level 1 for Tier 1. The efficiency of the engraving falls off past level 1, adding only 5% extra damage each level. It also makes up for the lack of Specialization, increasing the Shadowburst Meter generation of your skills by a flat 50% at all levels.
- Master of Ambush is a great Engraving as most of your skills have Back Attack modifiers.
Add-On Endgame Engravings
- Keen Blunt Weapon* requires a high Crit stat to make use of its bonus. Thankfully, you are trying to go for a high Crit Rate build.
- Raid Captain is a decent engraving if you have high Swiftness or when self-buffing with Nimble Movement Skill Tree on Demonic Slash. At 140% Movement Speed, Raid Captain provides 18% increased damage.
- Cursed Doll* is a significant Attack Power increase at the cost of 25% healing penalty. The healing penalty can be punishing for inexperienced players not familiar with boss mechanics.
- Grudge* increases damage done while also increasing damage received. The engraving is a highly effective damage increase without needing specific positioning, making it worthwhile even with the penalty.
- Increases Mass* is a decent alternative option for Cursed Doll if you going for high Swiftness build.
- Precise Dagger* helps to boost your Crit Rate if you are going for a high Swiftness build.
- Adrenaline provides an additional source of Crit and Attack Power. It is a great engraving when you have lower cooldowns.
- Hit Master can be an alternative option of Cursed Doll for the 3 Spender build.
(*)These Engravings should only be used at Engraving Level 3.
Optimal Setups
Engravings are listed in order of priority from left to right.
Classic Entropy
*
(*) Have it at Level 2 when you are still at Relic grade accessories.
3 Spenders
You swap Level 3s between Perfect Suppression and Adrenaline, but keep Perfect Suppression at Level 1 while Adrenaline Level 2 during Pre-Ancient grade accessories optimization.
Gear Sets
These are the specific gear sets for each tier.
Check out the Gear Set Guide for more details.
Early Game
250-1100 gearscore
Providence Set
1250-1340 gearscore
Dimensional Set
Early Tier 3
1340 -1414 gearscore
Erupting Waves Set
Piercing Gaze Set
Craft any combination of the legendary gear sets listed above and try to push to 1415 as soon as possible.
Tier 3 Legion Raid Set
1415-1490-1580+ gearscore
Entropy Set
2 Nightmare Pieces
+
4 Dominion Pieces
(3 Spenders build)
The name of your set will change with every higher tier gearset you acquire, but the set effect will remain the same. Look for the keyword of your set when recrafting it so you don't easily get lost.(e.g Entropy, Hallucination etc)
Sidereal Weapon
Recommended Sidereal Unity Effects for your Flowing Thunderous Wings are Thirain and Balthorr.
Check out the Sidereal Weapon Guide for more details.
Runes
Runes enhance skills by providing bonuses such as Attack Speed or Cooldown Reduction. Runes have limited availability, and you cannot acquire them from the same source twice. For some runes there are 2 sources and as such, you can acquire two of the same rune rarity. Therefore, it's important to place your Runes on skills wisely. Below are the recommend rune placements for Perfect Suppression Shadowhunters.
Check the Rune Guide for more details.
| Skills | Runes |
| Demonic Slash | Rage Conviction Quick Recharge Purify |
| Cruel Cutter | Conviction Judgment Galewind Overwhelm |
| Thrust Impact | Overwhelm |
| Demolition | Galewind |
| Sharpened Cut | Judgment Galewind |
| Rising Claw | Galewind Bleed |
| Howl* | Wealth |
| Decimate | Wealth |
- Conviction and Judgment combo is used to help with managing mana issues while also provide 15% cooldown reduction benefits to skills cast during Judgment buff that includes Awakening skill to help with managing Dominion Set effect.
- Wealth is to increase the amount of identity gauge gained to maintain consistent damage burst with your spenders.
- Quick Recharge helps reduce the overall cooldown of skills.
- Purify can be slotted on any skill for the chance to remove a debuff.
- Galewind helps to reduce the cast time of your skills.
- Rage can be paired with your lowest Cooldown skill Demonic Slash to increase the proc chance.
Gear Skill Tree
While Gems add benefits to skills, you can also increase the effects of Skill Tree themselves. Skill Tree levels go up to 5 and each level can increase the damage, cooldown reduction or buff that they provide.
For more information on how to add equipment Skill Tree and how to get them, please visit our Skill Tree System Guide.
| Cruel Cutter | Earth Attack Encroachment Release |
| Thrust Impact | Enhanced Explosion or Deep Thrust Spectral Explosion |
| Demolition | Weak Point Detection Wave Attack Encroachment Release |
| Sharpened Cut | Enhanced Slash Vertical Slash Critical Cut |
| Howl | Encroaching Power |
| Decimate | Quick Preparation Weak Point Detection or Encroachment Discharge Cruel Hand |
| Rising Claw | Weak Point Detection Critical Blow Grasp of Death |
| Demonic Slash | Nimble Movement |
Gems
Gems grant bonus damage and cooldown reduction to specific skills. You can only equip 11 of these Gems at a time so it is recommended that you prioritize the Gems for your most important skills.
Please visit our Gem System Guide for more information like how to create higher tier Gems.
Attack Gems
Cruel Cutter
Thrust Impact
Decimate
Demolition
Sharpened Cut
Cooldown Gems
Cruel Cutter
Thrust Impact
Decimate
Demolition
Sharpened Cut
Howl
Card Sets
Cards are an endgame system for maximizing your character. Below are the recommend sets for this class.
Check out the Card Guide for more details on how to obtain them.
Budget Card Set
Budget Card Set 2
This card set does not replace Light of Salvation set or Kazero's Legion Commanders set, but it can be use if you're new to the game and has set to get your Light of Salvation/Kazero's Legion Commanders set +18 or +30 yet.
Optional Card Set
Optimal Damage vs Kayangel Gate2-4 and Sonavel
Optimal Damage Set
Summary
- Perfect Suppression Shadowhunters spend their Shadowburst Meter gauge to deal extra damage with their spender skills Cruel Cutter and Demolition.
- Always cast Gate of Eruption at the beginning of the fight so that you generate the necessary amount of Shadowburst Meter for your spenders.
- Perfect Suppression Shadowhunters use all of their skills one after another. You will never run out of Shadowburst Meter if you use them in the correct order.
- Spacebar dodge covers only a short distance.
Credits
Written by Rei
Edited by Yaen
Reviewed by Starlast
