Shadow Strike

Dual Wield. Stab your foe, then shadowstep away and shoot them. Unlock Repeater at reduced initiative cost for a short time. — In-game description

Shadow Strike

Profession

Thief (skill list)

Weapon

Main hand pistol
Off hand dagger

Type

Dual Wield

Movement

Shadowstep

Sequence

 → 

Game link

API

13010

“

4  

Shadow Strike

Dual Wield. Stab your foe, then shadowstep away and shoot them. Unlock Repeater at reduced initiative cost for a short time.

 Damage: 116 (0.315)^?

 Shot Damage: 481 (1.3125)^?

₄ Torment (6s): 528 Damage, 763 Damage if Foe Is Stationary

₂ Torment (6s): 264 Damage, 382 Damage if Foe Is Stationary

₃ Repeater (10s): Now has access to the Repeater skill.

₂ Repeater (5s): Now has access to the Repeater skill.

 Distance: 600

 Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile

— In-game description

Mechanics

Bug:

Camera angle and directional input effect the shadowstep range; aiming the camera downward and moving forward will significantly shorten the range.

• Activating this skill initiates a sequence of four actions:

1. Stabs the foe with a dagger attack, dealing damage and applying two stacks of torment.
2. If an enemy was hit, the player shadowsteps 600 units directly away from them.
3. Fires a projectile at a foe within a range of 1300 units.
4. Flips over the icon and enables Repeater, usable for 5 or 10 seconds in PvP/WvW and PvE, respectively.

• Repeater can be used (repeatedly) as long as the skill is enabled; during this time, however, Shadow Strike is unusable.
• Jumping while activating this skill will prevent the shot from firing, but still teleport the player and enable Repeater.
• The following traits interact with the skill in specific ways:
  • Dagger Training only affects the dagger attack.
  • Deadly Aim (trait) only affects the projectile attack.
  • Deadly Ambition affects both attacks.

Related traits

Deadly Arts

• Dagger Training — Gain bonus power, which is increased when wielding a dagger.
• Deadly Ambition — Inflict poison when striking a foe with a dual wield attack. Gain increased condition damage. Applies poison once per attack use.
• Exposed Weakness — Deal increased strike damage to your target for each unique condition on them.

Critical Strikes

• Deadly Aim — Your pistol and harpoon gun attacks now pierce and have increased strike damage.

Acrobatics

• Hard to Catch — Gain endurance when you shadowstep.
• Fluid Strikes — Gain increased strike damage for a period of time when you shadowstep or use a movement skill.
• Assassin's Reward — Heal yourself whenever you use a skill that uses initiative. Heal yourself for each point of initiative spent.

Trickery

• Lead Attacks — Increases all damage dealt per initiative spent. Steal gains reduced recharge time.

Specter

• Larcenous Torment — Steal health and gain shadow force when you torment a foe. Does not grant shadow force while in shroud.
• Traversing Dusk — Heal allies in the area around you when you shadowstep. Gain shadow force for each ally in the radius. Wells grant resistance on their initial impact.
• Strength of Shadows — Gain expertise based on a percentage of your vitality. Torment you inflict deals increased damage.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
November 28, 2023	Increased the torment stacks from 2 to 4 in PvE only. Increased the Repeater effect duration from 4 seconds to 10 seconds in PvE, and from 4 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP and WvW. Increased the Repeater effect stacks from 1 to 3 in PvE and from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW. The effect now causes the Repeater skill to cost one less initiative, and one stack of the effect is consumed when using Repeater.
May 25, 2021	Reduced applied torment from 4 stacks to 2 stacks in PvE only. This now matches the number of stacks currently in PvP and WvW.
July 07, 2020	Repeater availability duration has been reduced from 4 to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW.
May 26, 2020	Reduced the number of torment stacks from 4 to 2 in PvP and WvW.
March 05, 2019	This skill now grants access to Repeater for 4 seconds upon landing a successful melee hit.
May 08, 2018	The torment this skill inflicts is no longer split between game modes and will now use the higher 4-stack torment in all modes.
December 12, 2017	Increased applied torment from 2 stacks for 5 seconds to 2 stacks for 6 seconds.
December 13, 2016	The amount of torment applied by this ability has been increased from 2 stacks to 4 stacks in PvP only.
January 26, 2016	This skill will now trigger Assassin's Reward correctly, even if it misses.
June 23, 2015	Specialization update: All skills categorized as dual-wield have received a 5% damage increase.
April 15, 2014	Updated the damage skill fact for the second strike to display the correct damage amount.
October 15, 2013	This ability now has a distance skill fact that represents the distance retreated.
July 23, 2013	This skill now applies 2 stacks of torment for 5 seconds.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Shadow Strike has been added to the game.

Trivia

• A Guild Wars skill bears the same name as this skill.