It would be, if you could get the aeon to stick, which is harder than you'd think. I'd probably get more kills if I was a mugwump and had the speed to do it properly, but I don't want to sacrifice Laysus' RP just so I can kill.

Edit: Also, dark is a 5p (when targetted) skill which does nice defense stripping with a focus spirit cure, but no real synergy with the abilities that an MD can use.

Razing can also be helpful.

Mhmm, point. Forget that.

Aeon's fairly easy to stick for a decent amount of time if you have hexes, it’s not an unbalancing amount of time for a moondancer as you have to pick between keeping them aeon locked or movingly to actively drain the mana down giving them time to break out, on the other hand one who had aeon and hexes with succumb would be an easy victory. Moondancers have an easy time locking people but have a hard time capitalising on it, Shaodwdancers have an exceptionally hard time locking people but an easy time taking advantage of it. Targeted dark isn't that bad due to the cure its the untargeted room defence strip that I find powerful and interesting and it does provide good synergy when combined with lowmagic and hexes.

uhh shadowdancers have a much easier time to lock people because of that whole uncurable aeon thing called choke. A shadowdancer would be my ideal class and I'd actually be able to fight some against some of the better people if I had choke. I went in and toaded Forren in choke this one time in faethorn. he didn't seem to have metawake up I don't think though or maybe he just didn't expect me to fight him at all.

I was reading forums, sitting in choke. That was mistake #1. Number 2 was not having metawake up. Number three was opening up Zmud after I was already afflicted .

If you can't see the strengths of your own class that's not chokes problem. And as you point out choke is very effective for the majority of classes to fight in, more so for some classes than shadowdancers themselves.

Do not know if succumb was changed, but I have a log somewhere of myself testing with Diamante. He did nothing other than spam Succumb as fast as possible on me with only the banshee on me. I did nothing but sip + eat sparkle and cure succumb as soon as it hit. If I remember right, it outpaced my mana recovery rate significantly. I also have a level 2 or 3 mana regen, can't remember which.

Don't know what you guys are talking about, I just tested and it definitely doesn't double tick anymore (which it isn't supposed to, per my recent envoy report).

sweet, it was double ticking after that envoy, glad it's fixed.

@caoilfhin i see the strenghts of my guild and of the shadowdancers, I see my own strengths and weaknesses. Based on those I'd be a better shadowdancer than a moondancer fighting wise is what I said. well actually I said I'd be at my best as a shadowdancer. And I wonder why you just popped up as some shadowdancer if the moondancers are so good.

And same to you, why did you pop up as a moondancer if shadowdancers were so good?

I didn't know at the time. That was said to when she first made herself noticeable to Seren lots thought of her as some alt and we had fun trying to guess who.

and back when I didn't know how to fight, like the 40s and earlier, I thought the moondancers were awesome! only guild skills I knew of back then, since I was one. and that's cause even though i didn't know how to fight really I didn't have to cause there was that allhex/hexaura combo and that anorexia/asthma lock so if I through in paralyse/impatience it took everyone around my might at the time out.

@krellan, particularly with the way you fight, you would suffer significantly as a shadowdancer. You're a very mobile fighter who likes to move around the field, which is the largest hinderance a shadowdancer has. Atop from that, likely the two best wiccans, shadowdancer or otherwise to play lusternia were tuek and narsrim, both whom were exceedingly good at their professions, and both had very similar fighting styles, which to date no other moondancer possesses. Most moondancers these days look at choke simply as uncurable aeon, and waning as cureable aeon.

What they fail to do these days is look at sleep locks, the primary tactic for defeating an opponent, and how it is -better- with waning once you have them aeoned for a couple of reasons. One, yes waning cures on its own and can be cured by the victim. But waning does not cost power, nor does it hinder the caster. In a sleep lock, assuming you can see the victim waking up, it takes the shadowdancer at least a second longer to react to the opponent waking up, because of the choke aeon. Particularly with sleep locks and waning, becuase you yourself are not aeoned, you can make much better use of hexes, throwing in a waning every once in a while (since it resets the timer) and once an opponent is sleep locked, even with metawake you can make a much stronger use of your hexen abilities.

With choke, you're limited, for the most part, to the first six hexes you start with, then are vastly hindered in your offence. Now that succumb's chance of double tick at the start is fixed, I personally feel that the wiccan classes are well balanced. Moon has both nice utility as well as support, resurgem also being a very nice boon.

Shadowdancers get shafted in the coven department, ressurection abilities.

They do get steal (10% damage boost for about a minute against target, which works for only 1 person, targets do not have multiple shadows)

Why succumb is a coven ability I'll never know :/ ranged mana drain vs ranged aeon..meh

Shadowdancers d o not work well with other shadowdancers (succumb cannot be stacked, choke is the same no matter how many people are there, as opposed to having a single waner keeping a target aeoned while the other afflicts) Our abilities are stationary, our choke costs power (limiting us in the use of dwhammies -if- going for a mana kill)

Mosts tests done show that shadowdancers do only a bit more than a moondancer when it comes to damage. At least as of a few months ago once moonburst was included to be more effected by int.

Fae... with the downgrade of redcap, and the change to hearing/blindness defences, barghest being left lacking against half-minded opponents, I don't feel that there is much more boon to shadowdancer fae, they are more offensive, while moon fae are more defensive. Redcap was downgraded in bleeding by a third, and crone afflictions rock the house against slaugh afflictions (though rigor is nice, and yes I understand the nice crone afflictions have a less chance of hitting on average).

Now that succumb has been changed, and that choke cannot (at least was envoyed) be cast from the air, it is my personal opinion that the two classes are evenly balanced, both with strengths and weaknesses. But that's my 2 cents, and even though I had Moon as a skillset for over a year, the fact I have Night will make me seem biased. (Which to some extent all people are, but almost anyone in lusternia could agree I like as fair a game as possible)

And he shall thus be known as Diamante, the Threadslayer.

Lisarel got a new axe?

I sort of think I'd do well in choke. I like to move around cause just about everyone has better healing than me, so with all the spam it's hard to keep up with everything. In choke, our actions are on the same page speed-wise. course I only have ideas of what I'd do as a shadowdancer not being one. Likely I'd actually refrain from whammying and throw maybe a double whammy a regular hex and then succumb and more regular hexes. But that would just be me assuming that by throwing and unmasked hex a persons system will try to cure it right away seeing the message and interrupt them from curing something more important. I'm gonna have to disagree a bit with your sleeplock being better with waning, but this is probably because most of my sleeplock tactics involve sleep first then the waning since I have a harder time getting aeon to stick without sleeping them. I guess it sort of comes right after one another, but the sleep comes right before the waning for me. I think it's actually easier to get the sleeplock in aeon. you said it yourself your offense is slowed by about nothing if you time up the next attack before you recover equilibrium. i mean simply throwing a sleep hex will make them take a second to put back insomnia. if you doublewhammy it they fall asleep and have to wake and then insomnia for two seconds and then another one to stand and by that time you can just start casting regular hexes with fae or doublewhammy other things and then succumb, which is better at draining mana than lash is. You're right that both classes have their strenghts and weaknesses though, that's just me imagining all the fun i'd have with choke.