I brought my shadow skills up high enough to unlock the final skill thinking it would make a great pet and help take groups off me. Well, after the first time using it I felt so let down. He does virtually no damage, and the second an AoE or my strife healed him all the enemies ignored him and came after me.

I was using a bow at the time and decided to tinker around with how it works. Here are some things I found:

-Stay hidden and cast the shade at a target. All the enemies will get that little red halo indicating they see him and attack him. I think he has infinite health so he never dies. When his timer is up the mobs will go back to where they were as if nothing happened.

-Do this again and fire a shot at one of the other enemies (you can tell which ones he isn't attacking because his target will have a shadow around their nameplate indicating 15% less damage dealing) That single enemy will then make his way over to you but the others will keep swatting at the shadow giving you a nice one on one situation. Enemy healers will still heal your target but they won't actually come after you, and if you pull him far enough away the don't even try to heal.

-I was using Sneak>shade on a target> snipe crit>light attack>venom arrow>light attack>strife>light attack etc until the one target was dead then repeat.

-Watch out for the heal allies morph of strife because if you are close enough, it will heal your shade (even though I don't think he has health) drawing all the enemies to you.

I decided to push the limit and see if I could melee each one at a time and still stay hidden using Sneak>shade on a target> concealed weapon> exploit heavy attack> strife> killers blade. After the first kill I crouched down and saw I was still detected so I figured it was too much to hope for but then found if you crouch after the first kill and sneak a little ways away you go hidden again and can get a second concealed weapon sneak attack from behind without having to use shadowy disguise!

I feel that using the shades with this strategy you can take on a group of any size one by one with almost no risk and gaining back health from strife and killers blade, magic from the assassination passive, and stamina regen from the shadow passive. Also the soul harvest assassination ultimate can sneak crit and charges up super quick.

I felt a lot stronger doing this than how I was playing 1-50 and hope some people give it a try instead of giving up on shades or never bothering with them in the first place.

notes:
- aoe attacks will ruin everything so no 2 handed splash passive, healing staff heavy hit heal ally passive and the like should be used.
- make sure everyone in the group gets that little red aggro halo before attacking
- I'm doing this will full medium armour and with sneaking passives which may determine how far away you have to walk from the combat after the first kill to go hidden again.
- keep an eye on how long the shade will last and don't be close when he vanishes.
- remember to be behind the target to get maximum sneaking crits.