I won't denny any of your ideas but allow me to place my experience with «Shadow Strike» in both PvP and PvE.
For PvE during the lvling I've been using 4 skill rotations to kill my targets:
Hide -> Shadow Strike -> Double Attack * 2 -> Shadow Explosion
Shadow Armor -> Hide -> Dark Illusion -> Double Attack * 4 -> Deadly Blow
Hide -> Shadow Strike -> Double Attack * 2 -> Shadow Explosion
Hide -> Dark Illusion -> Double Attack runs away from target -> Dagger Throw -> Grimtooth -> Shadow Assault -> Double Attack -> Deadly Blow
repeats (btw, its one per mob, and fighting isolated targets)
Last one is my favorite, using this rotation has allowed me to kill up to 20 targets without taking breaks to rest (or resting no more than once), minimizing damange and taking account of the cooldowns.
The problem is that now I have too much food and I'm not even a chef (heck I rarely even use pots).
Sometimes to ensure my safety I use this one:
Hide -> Shadow Strike -> Shadow Assault -> Double Attack * 2 -> Shadow Explosion
Shadow Armor -> Hide -> Dark Illusion -> Double Attack * 4 -> Deadly Blow
Hide -> Dark Illusion -> Double Attack * 4 -> Deadly Blow
repeats
And when fighting minibosses I use this one:
Hide -> Dark Illusion -> Double Attack -> Shadow Strike -> Shadow Explosion -> Shadow Armor -> Double Attack * 5 -> Deadly Blow -> Double Attack * 3 -> Shadow Assault -> Double Attack * 2 -> Deadly Blow -> Double Attack * 2 -> Shadow Strike -> Shadow Explosion
Most minibosses end up dead with that and I didnt even spend 1/3 of HP.
On PvP I like this combo:
Hide -> Shadow Strike -> Shadow Assalut -> Double Attack * 2 -> Shadow Explosion
During hide «Shadow Strike» can proc 2k damange if not crit, almost 4 if the 3 strikes proc the critical hit (I chunked half the life of a target with that), is a very good KS tool or starting hit, it might stop you in place but unlike «Moonlight Drive» from Rogues the animation is fairly short, you can do it during hide no problem, damange is specially considerable from hide, it guarantees the gain of 3 combo points without having to chace a running target for 3, 4 seconds to «Double Attack» 3 times, you can close the gap with «Shadow Assault» right after and allows for a quick finisher.
I don't see anything bad with it at all, it also has a chance to proc «Shadow Fiend» which if during hide it might also have a double damange which would race up to 4.5k!! and 2/3 of that damange is almost instant!! animation is not 2 seconds at that, is a little shorter, maybe 1 and half.
The only cases I see a waste with it is when the target is unmoving and there is no need to have 5 combo points anyway («Shadow Explosion» is in cool down).
Another of my favorite combos on half lived isolated targets:
Hide -> Dark Illusion -> Shadow Strike -> Shadow Assault -> Double Attack * 3 (cuz «Shadow Assault» allows it) -> Shadow Explosion
Just for the note, «Dark Illusion» 1/5 «Shadow Form» means 1~1.3k damange on squishy targets, which is misserable compared to «Shadow Strike» potential, but unlike «Shadow Strike» it is instant and you dont have to be beside the target.
Edit: Rewritten skills because it was confusing with only the acronyms...
Edited by Leinzan, 20 August 2013 - 07:45 AM.