What is Backstab? (explanation).

[Aelynn]

There's alot of discussion about this right now. I'm also getting alot of tells about this. so i'll make an attempt to describe it to you all.


Backstab is an additional attack gained from the Sneak Attack skill.
It can only be used from behind and while the target fights someone esle. This means you can only use it in a team.

Backstab is NOT a perk special, Do not mistake this for the Stab perk special you gain with Piercing Mastery 1, they are entirely diffrent.

Blackmane said i could quote his post from beta about Backstab.

Originally posted by Blackmane
Shades and adventurers receive a new special attack based off Sneak Attack called Backstab. A weapon that can perform a sneak attack special can perform a Backstab, *provided that you have earned the Backstab ability*.

The Backstab ability is not enabled by default on your character. It will become enabled when you have invested a certain number of points in your Sneak Attack skill. When you have done that, you will get a message that you can now perform a Backstab attack, and you will get a new icon in the GUI for this attack. The Backstab attack is not related in any manner to the perk special attacks.

Backstab locks the Sneak Attack skill. So you cannot use both a Backstab and Sneak Attack - you need to decide which one you want to use.

How does Backstab differ from Sneak Attack?
Backstab is not related to concealment in any way, so you can backstab a monster that is aware of your presence, you don't have to be concealed.

However, to perform a Backstab attack, you must be behind the monster and the monster must be fighting someone else. This means that you cannot perform a backstab if you are the only person fighting that monster.


Backstab also has 2 different power steps in its development. When you first enable the Backstab attack, it is very weak, because it doesn't yet have the increased critical chance of damage multipliers that are applied to a sneak attack. Once you have put enough IP into the sneak attack skill, you will first unlock the damage multiplier, and finally the critical increase.

So there are essentially 3 stages in the progression of the Backstab attack: enabled but weak, enabled and now with damage multipliers, fully enabled with damage multipliers and critical increase.


Remember - backstab becomes enabled and the second and third tiers enabled based on your unbuffed sneak attack skill, not your buffed skill.


The Shades are the masters of the Backstab, so while adventurers can also get Backstab, they must invest more points into sneak attack first of all to enable it, and secondly to reach the second and third tiers.

The skill levels are: (BASE Skill in Sneak attack).
Enabled: 100
Multipler: 235
Crit bonus: 420

You have to get above these levels for it to take affect.
You will also have to use a weapon capable of Sneak Attack.




As of today, 12th Sept -03. The Backstab icon is Bugged/has no icon.

If you use new GUI you will have to switch back to the old one, and open the action-tab. Find the noname icon and put it on your hotkey bar. Try it on some mob to find out if it's the right one. Should give an error message saying "Target must be fighting someone else". Once you have it on your hotkey bar. switch back to new GUI if you want to, and you're set to go.

[Moonmasta]

Thanks for the post, for awhile there I was under the impression you had to use sneak attack or be sneaking for backstab. I kept seeing all these newbie shades sneaking in the backyard lol.

[Quartzz]

From my experience, I'd say the newbie shades sneaking around were trying (probably unsuccessfully) to use sneak attack.

Man, that's hard to get working outdoors...

Ugh :P

[Nova]

Ok, i just did reise my sneak attack over 100, it is now 140+

I got message at window:
Congratulations! you have received a new special attack: backstab!
ERROR: addspecialAction action 10810 already exist! (icon won't show up)
ERROR: addspecialAction action 10690 already exist! (icon won't show up)

I found sneak attack icon, but dont bacstab icon.

bugged?

[Aelynn]

*points to her first message*

[Nova]

hmm...so it is not a new Icon?
it just depende how you use it?

[Aelynn]

Originally posted by Aelynn
As of today, 12th Sept -03. The Backstab icon is Bugged/has no icon.

If you use new GUI you will have to switch back to the old one, and open the action-tab. Find the noname icon and put it on your hotkey bar. Try it on some mob to find out if it's the right one. Should give an error message saying "Target must be fighting someone else". Once you have it on your hotkey bar. switch back to new GUI if you want to, and you're set to go.

[Nova]

Thanks

[Sanati]

So is there any reason to put points in sneak attack if you plan to solo most of the time?

I've been keeping it maxed and I'm now at lvl 15. But I was under the impresion that I could walk behind a mob and then use backstab, to like start the fight off with some high damage. I didn't realize it had to actually be fighting another person.

[Niomay]

When huting outdoors like in SL sneak attack will be useless unless you spend a huge amount of IP in concealment. So i would not recommend using sneak attack and thus backstab till around or after lvl 100.

However you must play your character the way you want it and not what I think is the best way.

[Aelynn]

If you really plan to solo most of the time, i don't think the Shade might be the profession of choise. I'd by design a team profession. Might try a crat or a Martial Artist.


However if you do intend to solo a Shade, then sneak attack is not the skill of choise probably be better of using brawl, but if you do team, you'll be missing out.
Sneak Attack is a skill which you either use, and max it. or don't and leave it alone.

[Sanati]

Well I'm set in making this shade, it's a very different style of play from what I'm used to, and it's really the main reason I even bought the expansion and started playing this game again (after not playing for many months). And I'm just a solo type of person, I prefer going at my own pace, not concerned about anyone but me. So a solo shade is my plan. As for sneak attack, I decided to put points in it since many of the good weapons have it as a req, and this way for those rare occasions I do party up, I will be able to use back stab.

[_______________Rynna]

I start up my shade and immediately start pouring ip's into all my new green skills -including Conceal.

I've notice in this thread how others have said it's very hard to sneak outdoors, but that wasn't the case for me when I was max'ing the skill.

I'd walk up to the creatures face (I think sneak failed more often this way), hit the sneak, and launch the attack before I could be discovered (which sometimes happened 1 sec too late for the mob or sometime it didn't discover me at all before my attack hit), then I Fast Attack right behind it, and last my first regular attack hits. I was knocking 1/3 health off yellow mobs with just those first 3 attacks.

I'll just have to see if the skill holds up outside the backyard. For now I'm going with a pure piercer with no MA skills and trying to max my Health, evades, PM, and SI.

What do you guys think we need to max on our base skills? Obviously AGI and SEN, but we need STR for higher piercing damage, yes? Currently, I'm only doing enough PSY to keep my Melee Init max'd.

Other thoughts on SL. For me, that slider bar is a biggy. I do great against yellows, hardly taking damage at all if I keep the slider centered. But for oranges i have to go full def. to hold my own. And since my char is still rather new and not buffed much, the reds just kill me if I try them solo.

[Aelynn]

Conceal will fail for you evetually since you cannot buff it.

Strength will give you a few more points in Piercing skill which yields more AR and thus more damage. It's a small part of Piercing skill tho.


Psychic you will need to use the Spirit Siphons.

And for the aggdef slider. Consdier that more def make you do less damage. Question is: Do you get hit that less often that the loss of attacks makes up for it?

[_______________Rynna]

Thanks for the info on piercing. Sounds like I may want to keep STR max'd if I can. But I may try letting it slide a little to balance other things.

My Shade is lvl 20 now and I have some new insights. I got the Piercing 1 perk w/ the Stab attack. For it to work, it also requires that I be behind the target. Sometimes I can get it to fire while facing the target but I suspect that it's only because the server has the mob facing away from me. But in cases like this, the mob almost always evades my Stab attack. Right now I'm hitting for 20-50 points, but the Stab attack hits for about 100-120. Very nice.

And the slider bar still seems to make a huge difference for me. If I'm full agg a mob can really rip into me and the hits seem to be for more damage. If my bar is centered my attacks drop a little but the mob's ability to hit me falls way off -unless I'm trying to run away. Even on full def hits to my back seem to get through much more often.

My biggest shock with going dual piercer has been learning I can't use
dimach -and I'd been pumping points into this skill. Dimach can only be used after a successful MA attack. Oops! I'd been able to use it in the backyards because my starter weapons must have had no MA requirement.

But even my old ql10 silvertail daggers have like a combined MA req of 100 -if I remember right. I'm not sure I can afford that even if I'd get back ma attacks and Dimach both. For others that have gone down that path, is it working for you? Perhaps I can afford it if I stop adding to my Dodge, and Duck. But then my char would not have the option to venture back to RK, the land of ranged weapons.

[Sanati]

Dimach has nothing to do with MA attacks. Just look for some piercers that have a dimach req on them, many of them do. Just equiping one will allow you to use it, and it's very helpful even with its 5 min timer.

[Nova]

yeah, and many shade wepons use dimach.

heh, and some of them use parry and riposte too

[Damger]

Just for the record, I have been succesful using backstab in RK missions. Just run through the target and hit the hotkey. Probably 25% or so success rate but worth the damage. Makes it easy to solo 80% missions if you know how to pull multiple mobs.

Onta - RK2 Shade

[Ritualblood]

Originally posted by Damger
Just for the record, I have been succesful using backstab in RK missions. Just run through the target and hit the hotkey. Probably 25% or so success rate but worth the damage. Makes it easy to solo 80% missions if you know how to pull multiple mobs.

Onta - RK2 Shade

That isn't backstab, that's the "Stab" perk skill...

[_______________Laque]

My Sneak attack skill is aprox 140, and I still dont have the Backstab Icon from my action list.

I am running Sigd III knife which at least have Sneak attack as a requirement.

What do I do wrong ?

Laque