susmitds wrote: »

Shadow is better since you are already at 50% crit.

I second this in case your still unsure @Wrecking_Blow_Spam

Cheers for the answers but ended up going serpent. I really needed that sustain, It helped a ton.

As I said I needed the sustain. I tried both but serpent helped more. When I get better gear and more familiar with spawns I'll drop the serpent.

The_Outsider wrote: »

Amdar_Godkiller wrote: »

Haha. Serpent was by far the best answer! Solo Trials are not as influenced by crit because nobody is blasting warhorn and other buffs on you. thnk PVP Stam DK DPS, not PVE for VMA.

Ya, noo. Think PVE. vMA is PVE content best beaten by using PVE DPS and mechanics.

Wrecking_Blow_Spam wrote: »

Cheers for the answers but ended up going serpent. I really needed that sustain, It helped a ton.

My Stamblade runs vMA with ~1100 Stamina recovery. Try Shadow, the DPS will indirectly help with sustain.

Stamblades have much higher crit bonuses though. You'ld be a fool to not enhance those with the shadow. DK has less crit and less recovery than any class—especially Nightblade, but more weapon damage, stronger single target attacks, and a bit more spell resistance.

IzakiBrotheSs wrote: »

Shadow is only better than Thief if you can get more than 70% critical chance without the Thief (aka pretty much never).
50% critical chance is very low in PvE. You need as much as you can get. Even without Warhorns Thief out performs Shadow in pretty much any scenario.
I'm guessing you're not wearing VO if you're having sustain issues in vMA?

This, all the way. 50% crit chance is very low for pve content, and while there are some underlying similarities (in terms of playstyle) between small-scale pvp and vMA, it's still pve content. Superior crit chance trumps crit damage (at least when it comes to assembling the build) in almost every case in pve. I would speak to the contrary if this were for small-scale pvp, but it's not. The majority of vMA is mechanic-based and highly scripted, so your burst damage should stem from more conventional means, i.e. crit chance. One obvious exception to this "general rule" is when TBS is used, in which case both Thief and Shadow are used.

As for sustain, my best recommendation to you is to use Vicious Ophidian, as suggested in the quote above. It is a night and day difference. Couple this with Bloodthirst (Flurry) and Blood Craze (Twin Slashes), and there is little else to do but learn kill priorities and boss mechanics, aside from maintaining buffs, of course.

Ran with warrior fine. Does shadow out burst warrior? In 5 med 2 hev, dreugh and hundings 5 pce (might run nm > hr)