| Rena (Shadow Dancer) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Basic Information | |
| Name |
Rena (Shadow Dancer) |
| Style |
Assassin |
| Health |
100 HP, 0 AP |
| Weapons |
Twin Swords |
| Starter Skills |
Shadow Decoy, Shadow Dance |
Behind every major assassination by the Brotherhood is an unseen Shadow Dancer stealing away into the darkness. Proficient in the use of dual daggers and twin pistols, Shadow Dancers strike in swift silence, leaving little trace of their presence save for their victim's corpse.
Rena the Shadow Dancer is one of two playable members of the Children of Georr band of assassins. Befitting her title, her combat thrives in close-quarters, and she can use her stealth and full acrobatic range to get there, then employ her Twin Swords and Submachine Guns to do reliable bursts of damage either by themselves or in knockdown combos. She sets herself apart from the Silent Avenger by trading long range viability for close-up prowess, including the unique ability to follow her enemies into the air during her melee uppercut to perform aerial combos and an inexpensive starter skill which lets her briefly create a perfect decoy of herself and turn completely invisible and invulnerable for a moment.
Weapons[]
Shadow Dancer weapon Stat Page
- Twin Swords are a melee category unique to the Shadow Dancer. They boast the fastest attack speed of melee weapons in the game, however they have a somewhat narrower strike, especially in the last hits of Rena's ground combo which can be easily missed, leaving her vulnerable. Like Longswords and blunt weapons, wielding Twin Swords grants the ability to wall hang.
- The Shadow Dancer has unique aerial launches that allow her to follow-up on the launch for an aerial combo. At any time during Rena's left click ground combo she can launch the opponent airborne and perform a follow-up aerial combo by repeatedly right clicking.
- Submachine Guns is a ranged, hitscan weapon category the Shadow Dancer shares with the Silent Avenger. They fire a spray of bullets with decent power, and a high rate of fire, making them ideal for close range combat. Continued fire increases weapon spread and reticule size. At minimum spread, they are close to perfectly accurate, but at maximum spread, they fire in a very large area making them weak at longer ranges. They have no secondary function. They can be burst fired for slightly greater effectiveness at medium range.
- Twin Pistols are a ranged, hitscan weapon type currently unique to the Shadow Dancer. They fire on full-auto at a slower rate of fire and worse accuracy but do increased bullet damage over Submachine Guns. Like SMGs, they quickly lose accuracy on automatic fire, making them better suited for close range engagements. Twin Pistols have a secondary function activated by right clicking. This will cause Rena to shift her grip and has a slight zoom effect which increases accuracy slightly while also doubling the rate of fire of the weapon. However, movement is reduced to a walking pace only. This secondary function is useful for quickly dispatching someone in close quarters who is occupied by teammates or is off-guard, such as from a knockdown off of a melee combo.
Skills[]
| 1 | 
|
Shadow Dance | Full gauge | ||
| A combination of strikes ending with a killing blow. Animation can not be stopped until finished. Rena is immune to stuns, staggers, and blocks while attacking. She is not immune to damage | |||||
|
Shadow Decoy | One Bar | |||
| Create an immoble replica of the Shadow Dancer. Enemies will be able to perform normal attacks and combos on the decoy, but it will explode after a couple seconds, dealing damage in the immediate area. While using the decoy, Rena becomes invisible and immune to damage until the decoy explodes or Rena attacks. The Shadow Dancer is not immune to her own decoy's explosion. | |||||
| 3 | 
|
Parry | One bar | ||
| Press both attack buttons at once when an enemy strikes to avoid its damage and push the enemy backwards and away from you along the ground. This is useful for breaking out of staggering melee combos, but not for incapacitating your enemies, since the recovery time for both yourself and the enemy affected is the same. There is no penalty for spamming both the attack buttons until successfully parrying instead of trying to time it. | |||||
| 5 | 
|
Aerial Dodge | One bar, Launched into air | ||
| Press the jump key to recover from helplessness and dash. The direction of the dash can be controlled with the movement keys. | |||||
|
Rising Attack | Knocked onto ground | |||
| Press the main attack key to recover more quickly than otherwise and perform a melee attack. Hold a movement key while pressing the melee attack to roll before attacking. | |||||
| 8 | 
|
Enhanced Decoy | |||
| An improved Shadow Decoy that provides greater security. Increases invincibility duration by 0.5 seconds. | |||||
| 10 | 
|
Shadow Rush | Melee Equipped | ||
| Swiftly pierce through enemies. | |||||
| 15 | 
|
Rapid Reload | Full Z Gauge | ||
| Reload quicker in one smooth, silky motion. | |||||
| 20 | 
|
Honed Razor | Full Z Gauge | ||
| Concentrate Optimite energy into your sword's blade to increase critical rate. Melee critical rate increased 10%. | |||||
PVP Strategy[]
The Shadow Dancer excels at close range combat and is perhaps the strongest melee class in the game. Utilizing both her Decoying and Shadow Rush abilities, she is extremely mobile and slippery in close range combat while being capable of extended melee combos and juggles thanks to her unique launch type. Combined with her close range firearms, Rena is in her element up close and personal but suffers at a distance. Try not to engage at range and look for a path to close the distance while staying away from open spaces.
- Try to use your abilities to confuse and disorient the enemy and leave them vulnerable. Decoy can be used in melee fights to trick players into attacking it, allowing Rena to reposition behind them and unleash her own flurry of melee attacks while the Decoy explodes in front of them. Be careful that the decoy can also damage Rena. It can also be used preemptively as a stealth ability to allow you to move unnoticed or ambush other players.
- Shadow Rush can be used to slash through a blocking player, setting up the Shadow Dancer for a follow-up combo behind them.
- Shadow Dance is a powerful ability that attacks in wide sweeping motions and allows Rena to potentially travel a great distance while performing the move, using this in tight spaces is an almost guaranteed kill. However, it is telegraphed and easy to avoid unless the enemy is unable to maneuver vertically.
PVE Strategies[]
Melee and CQC is not as effective in PvE, consequently the Shadow Dancer is one of the weaker classes in this game mode. The nature of the AI melee attacks and their stagger effects can lead to situations where one hit will trigger a chain that you will be unable to escape from and will result in your death either through fire from other NPCs or a melee stagger chain which can be accomplished by only 2 melee NPCs. As such, melee combat is extremely risky and is not recommended in PvE except for finishing off small numbers, and instead it is advised to rely on your firearms as much as possible. Additionally, Rena's Decoy does not seem to confuse the AI currently making it a half-useless ability since the only thing of effect will be its detonation. The AI is even capable of tracking Rena while she is invisible, making the ability mostly useless. Shadow Rush, however, retains usefulness as it can be used to cut through groups of NPCs and be at enough of a distance to avoid retaliation.
However, Rena's large ammunition count is very good in PvE. Using the zoom in on her pistols to aim for head shots will save bullets as well. If confident enough, use your guns to take out the ranged units and dash and attack the melee units.