Christhemiss
Maker of Builds
What Is Shadar-Kai?
Shadar-Kai (SDK) is one of the many playable races in ddo. SDK is an iconic character originally featured in the Shadowfell Conspiracy. Being an iconic, SDK starts at level 15 (0 ranks in) regardless of how many past lives you have (1,050,000 xp on first 4 lives, 1,575,000 xp on 5th-8th lives, and 2,100,000 xp on more than 8 lives). Before I talk about SDK, id like to clear up some iconic mechanics (pulled from the wiki) NOTE: if you understand how iconics work, skip ahead to the Race Specifics section.Character Creation
- All Iconics start with an initial level of a designated (and Free to Play) class, according to their race, e.g. all Purple Dragon Knight characters will always start with Fighter as their Level 1 class, all Shadar-kai will always start with Rogue as their Level 1 class, etc. These classes are listed in the "Overview" of the article for each race (and the above table).
- Iconic Characters cannot select an Archetype for their fixed class - this means no Tiefling Scoundrel Stormsingers, no Aasimar Scourge Dark Hunters, etc. They are, however, free to select archetypes for other classes when taking future levels. An Iconic character can take an archetype incompatible with their starting class by undergoing Lesser Reincarnation.
- By contrast, an Iconic Character that starts with a level in an Archetype may not take levels in the associated base class without Lesser Reincarnation (for example, an Eladrin Chaosmancer must start with a level in Wild Mage and must reincarnate to become a standard Sorcerer.)
- Players starting Iconics have several sets of decisions to make. First, they can either:
- Enter standard character creation process, where they "customize" their character's abilities, feats, skills, and alignment. (This is the default, and does not need to be specifically selected.)
- or, they can choose to take a predefined path, with predetermined abilities, and starting feats and skills. You still determine your character's sex, name and appearance, but all other variables (including alignment) are pre-selected for you.
- From there, the Iconic enters a special area as a Level 1 character and speaks with Elminster (or a different powerful figure, depending on the race). Here, the player has their second choice, to either:
- If you chose the Path, you can "Accept <class> Training", which applies the rest of the Feats and Skills from the standard path for that race, continuing as a "pure" build of their initial class.
- You can either do all 15 levels automatically, or you can see what each level of that class offers, level by level, stopping when you wish. Once you refuse to take an additional level as presented, you cannot re-enter the automatic sequence.
- If you chose to "customize" your character in step 1, this will always be done level-by-level, continuing to customize the character as that class as long as you wish.
- You can also "Reject training", leaving the area as a Level 1 with 1,050,000 XP and level 15 "banked". You can then either...
- train normally with heroic trainers (including multiclassing options), to level 15
- or begin questing immediately as a Level 1 character.
- or some combination of those, taking some but not all of your levels and questing at whatever level you choose.
- Note that, due to the rules of banking XP, you will not (usually) earn any additional XP from quests until you take Level 14.
- If you chose the Path, you can "Accept <class> Training", which applies the rest of the Feats and Skills from the standard path for that race, continuing as a "pure" build of their initial class.
- Regardless which of these choices are made, Iconics receive their own set of starter equipment upon taking Level 15.
Reincarnation
- Lesser Reincarnation:
- Iconic characters can lesser reincarnate as normal. With a Lesser Heart of Wood that is +1 or better, you may choose to remove the default first level in your given class (assuming the new class meets restrictions - see Lesser Reincarnation for full discussion).
- Heroic True Reincarnation:
- Heroic True Reincarnation (at Level 20) is not available for characters currently on any Iconic life. You must level to 30 for any form of Reincarnation (except Lesser Reincarnation).
- Iconic True Reincarnation:
- Iconic True Reincarnation is only available for characters currently on an Iconic life.
- You must be at least Level 30 to Iconic True Reincarnate.
- An Iconic True Reincarnation rewards both the Iconic PL and full Class PL benefits.
- Epic Reincarnation:
- Epic Reincarnation is available to Iconic characters.
- You must be at the level cap (level 30) to Epic Reincarnate.
Race Specifics
Shadar-Kai are humans born in thje shadowfell who emerged when the Spellplague awakened their shadow energy (source). TLDR you are a ****** shdow corrupted goth baddie who goes around murdering and getting murdered because its the only way you can you can feel emotion and sensation. Being corrupted by shadow, SDH have dampaned sense and emotions, which is why they often pierce themselves and have crazy hair and tatoos. Sadly, the ddo race has very limited customization options, but you can get your whole face covered, get an awesome haircut, and have scars everywhere. so cool. Luckily, Shadar-Kai, being mostly grey in skin color with skinny bodies and human proportions, make for some of the best cosmetic displaying races in the game. one of the many reasons for SDK being the best race is it looks absolutely godlike with correct cosmetics. and lets face it, DDO's endgame is cosmetics, not whatever i do to flex like raid solos and pushes. This guide ignores the need/lack of racial comp, but I talk about builds and abilities assuming racial comp. racial comp makes SDK much better due to getting greater chain for free, therefore SDK is on my Racial Comp Required Race list. the guide still applies without racial comp, you just need to be more creative with builds.Now, lets talk stats and abilities...
Initially, SDK looks like a bad race. it gets 1 feat lmao. it gets the Spiked Chain Attack, +2 dex -2 charisma as starting stats, and treated as human for the purposes of... literately nothing as this is a relic from a bygone era. So to start, SDK looks good for dex builds and bad for charisma builds. SDK also is forced to start with 1 level of rogue at level 1 (unless you use a +1 heart, see above). this comes together to make SDK seem like a decent rogue race. and it is. maybe even the best. but no one is here to read a SDK guide and talk about pure rogue. that would be so boring. lets take a deeper look into the chain attack
Chain Attack specifics
SDK gets 2 chain attacks. Spiked Chain Attack and Greater Spiked Chain attack (t4 racial). these abilities are what make SDK my favorite race. Here i will talk about their stats and mechanics.Both Chain Attacks Characteristics
- require a light weapon to use (finessable weapons but not rapiers. rapiers are NOT light weapons even if they are finessable)
- hit 3 times in a massive 360 degree aoe around the character
- +10% damage per hit
- can be used while mounted
- Vicious Chain (t1), Forceful Chain (t2) Ghastly Chain (t3), and Assassin's Mark (t4) apply to both attacks
Spiked Chain Attack Specifics
- +1 critical threat range
- +1 critical damage multiplier
- 12 second cooldown
Greater Spiked Chain Attack Specifics
- +2 critical threat range
- +2 critical damage multiplier
- 18 second cooldown
- vorpal hits knock non-boss enemies down with no save for 6 seconds. Every 2 seconds, they make a Balance save of (17 + Dexterity Modifier + Trip DCs) to get up again. (stacks with Forceful Chain as they are seperate procs)
The Tree
(I will only cover the important stuff)- Cores: +1 int dex or wis, a long cooldown dash that makes you ethereal for 6 seconds, and a clicky to give you 6 seconds of ethereal. ethereal allows you to move through monsters.
- Tier 1:
- Vicious chain, while the damage is useless, can be useful in some quests for making invisible/hiding/sneaking monsters visible after the initial tick. good example is Irk in just business who will go sneak after teleporting. if you apply the bleed, he will take damage after teleporting and become visible. this works with any dot ability.
- Student of Pain gives you extra AC when you get hit. In before the "AC is uselsss!" crowd or the "Never get hit!" crowd arrive. if you get hit and live, you get 10 extra AC which means you might not get hit on the next hit. also hilarious for leveling since 10 is insane in heroics
- Keen Senses gives extra seach and spot, very useful for trapping characters. SDK also starts with 1 rogue level so inherently has a trapping class if you decide to trap
- Tier 2:
- forceful chain gives a low chance to knockdown targets. even if you arent dex based, this still lands sometimes so definitely worth taking
- ghostly essence gives you extra defense on lower reaper when you get below 50% hp. super useful for low reaper raids where very few things have incorp bypass
- guile gives +1 sneak attack die, one of the most important stats for endgame damage
- improved dodge is more dodge in light or cloth armor. take if you need
- Tier 3:
- Ghostly chain gives free 5% uncapped stacking dodge for 6 seconds after every chain use. free 5% dodge is as good as it sounds
- displacement SLA is one of the most cracked things ever to appear in any race. it has no cost and 6 second cooldown, meaning it can always be active. assuming monsters dont have true seeing (some champs, most bosses, all raid bosses, etc), monsters have a 50% chance to miss you. thats so much that it doesnt even get reduced to 0 on r10. and its completely free just for playing sdk. Eladrin gets their displacement sla in t4, yet sdk is t3. absolutely insane
- did i mention sneak attack dice being cracked for endgame? well you get a 2nd one
- Tier 4:
- Greater spiked chain attack is normal chain attack, but better. and you can use them both as they dont share cooldowns. unsurprisingly, this is good
- nothing is hidden gives you a trap auto stop. very expensive compared to other races as its in t4, so i never take it but its definitely a good ability
Race Summary
so ive given lots of stats and abilities and have blabbered a lot, so ill cuz to the chase. heres the quick summary of SDK racial abilities:- double spiked chain attack with light weapons for absolutely crazy AOE, both for endgame and leveling
- free displacement on any build for free
- 2 SA dice
- bonus incorporality to survive even more
- more ac when getting hit
- dash abilities
- free dodge
- free crowd control
Shadar-Kai is Vistani Knife Fighter And Vistani Knife Fighter is Shadar-Kai
ok this probably is a weird thing to say, but its true. do you hate druid? want to skip on playing caster bard? maybe you want to play melee warlock and you realize enlightened spirit is a total trash tree for melee. what do you do? i got 1 word for you: kukri. by playing SDK, putting 41 points in Vistani Knife Fighter (VKF), and equipping a kukri (or dagger if you need a favored weapon), you quite literately can play any class, any build, any split. it does not matter. take single-weapon fighting feat line (requires 7 ranks of balance for GSWF) and improved critical slashing (piercing for daggers). the crazy thing is t5 and capstone VKF with sdk and kukri can and WILL get you to level cap regardless of your entire character. just make sure you have a good stat to hit and damage and you will zoom to cap. there are cringelords who play cringequisitive on every class for all their heroic past lives, but thats such a terrible, slow, and boring way to level, maybe you should try SDK VKF. VKF is also one of the best trees in the game, but this isnt a VKF guide, so just know that the 41 points in VKF is all you need. the rest of the points can be unspent if you have a stat to hit/damage lmao. SDK is the salt to VKF's pepper. VKF is the kobold to SDK's waterworks. once you have tried SDK VKF, you can never play the game the same way againWhat Weapon?
obviously, kukri or dagger if you are using VKF. if you arent using VKF, well thats a tougher choice. if you are playing tempest with SDK, go scimitar as tempest makes scimitars light weapons. for more general use, id recommend kukris or shortswords for leveling since they have better crit range than the rest (shortswords technically dont, but you can get some crazy named shortswords like the cutthroats small blade or tiefling assassins dagger. daggers also have some insane weapons). If you play a swashbuckler, then you can get some pretty bannanas synergies. by playing a Super Crit Handaxe build (such as Super Crit Dragonlord). this is also a fun fact, but you can use chains with handwraps. im not sure why, but handwraps are a light weapon. so if you want fist monk to feel even more OP, play SDK.What Style?
this is an interesting topic, because SDK only makes sense with light weapons. because of this, you cannot use THF at all. there is no two-handed light weapon in the game (titan sickle doesnt count), meaning you have to choose between TWF and SWF. As the games biggest TWF hater, i always go for SWF, but the choice is really yours. TWF is more boss dps with bad active attack animations, while SWF is worse boss dps but better active attack animations (chain animation is the same regardless of style. you also dont hit with your offhand when using chains)Multiclass Tips
there is a million things i can put here, so ill keep the list short- since SDK starts with 1 rogue level, taking 2 rogue gets you evasion, 3 imbue dice, an imbue, and 1 SA dice for 9 points in assassin. 3 rogue can get you dex to hit/damage with daggers and kukris, or any finessable weapon if you have the weapon finesse feat
- SDK is very good for tempest due to tempest wanting to use scimitars and light weapons
- SDK is good on tanky melee builds like barb, fighter, and pally even without light weapons due to displacement, SA dice, and extra ac/incorp
- since chains works with handwraps, SDK is a very prime canidate for twf wraps monk builds to obliterate the endgame
- chains works in animal form, so its a good way to skip those sucky druid lives (druid sucks, fight me)
- if you go the VKF route, you can play centered class like SF and monk with kukris and daggers because VKF makes you centered with those weapons
- the only class that SDK isnt super great (IE not optimal. it will still get you to cap) is acolyte of the skin because none of the 3 trees have any melee support. AOTS trees also dont have any support for anything at all because the whole class is garbage, but thats not my point in this thread
- since SDK is a melee race, try playing classes that are missing loads of aoe abilities like alchemist, rogue, wizard, sorc, cleric, favored, soul, and warlock. obviously the AOE works on any build, but SDK is best on low AOE builds. still funny to get like 5 aoe abilities and just scream through quests at mach 5
- since SDK is a speed killing demon for questing, playing high movement speed builds like monk, rogue, bard, dragonlord, barb, and druid (wofl form) makes sense because your goal is to finish quests without your party members seeing you
Why SDK?
here is the central thesis of my argument. I think that SDK is the best race in all of DDO. that is a lofty claim to be sure, but i think SDK has what it takes. I will evaluate SDK based on 3 criteria: Niche Strength, Replaceability, and Fun Factor. I will then compare it to some of the other "best" races (aasimar, eladrin, tabaxi) for comparison.SDK
- Niche:
- SDK has the niche of being a giga hyper speed aoe god that makes the whole game look like a joke. its boss dps, at least compared to the "best" dps races, that being eladrin and aasimar, is basically non existant. you get 2 SA dice and nothing else. the chains give good burst, but it doesnt compare to 10 mp/mp of aasimar or 9 SA dice of eladrin (what in gods name were the devs smoking when they did this)
- Replaceability
- there is no other race that fills SDK's niche. the closest would be tabaxi, which gives a single frontal cleave thats kinda just junk, and instead gets 30% move speed. ok, yeah i know that the 30% move speed will technically make you level faster, but the build needs aoe built in, unlike SDK
- Fun Factor
- you are a hot goth baddie that is basically a whirlwind of death and you laugh in the face of fear, death, Steelstar's Toes, and basically anything else. you are the definition of aoe. you redefined the meta for light weapons, and you exist to show those poor normal fleshlings how awesome a race can be. there is no scale to rank the fun factor here. its (at least for me), the most fun race to play by a mile. the only thing that comes close for me is playing a Furry (tabaxi) because its funny having 190% move speed 5 tumbles and 3 sec cooldown dash on monk.
Conclusion
I know ive talked a lot about a single race in a game nobody has heard or cares about, but I think SDK deserves more time in the limelight. the most I hear about SDK is inexperienced players who dont know how the game works asking for SDK to be nerfed in various "I hate fun, so lets nerf the fun stuff" forum threads. its really quite a shame, because aasimar and eladrin is far, FAR more overpowered than shadar-kai. you kill trash in r10s really fast. big woop. so does any other non caster build with quick cutter or ranged aoes, except in your case you have much worse boss dps. anyways, I think SDK has what it takes to be DDO's "best" race, and while thats an opinion that probably I alone share, I think you should try SDK sometime the next time you dont know what to play. its loads of fun, and maybe, just maybe, you will percieve it similarly to me.(in case you are wondering, some highly questionable people in the community think playing SDK is an "abuse" of mechanics. If you understand how the game works, you would see this is not the case)
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