Shadowhunter​

Community Guide
LAST EDIT: 2 Feb 2025

Editors
Sekwah

T3 Archive

General Information
This document is created by community members as a compilation of class related information. This is not
meant as a new player guide, if you are a new player we suggest reading Maxroll’s Build Guides instead. If
you have any feedback or want to help with class discussions, join our Discord!

How do the two builds compare?

Demonic Impulse Perfect Suppression

 Focuses on the Demonic state Focuses on human skills and resource
Summary (transformation). management.

●​ Easy to play
●​ Build diversity
●​ High survivability
●​ Easy to play
Pros ●​ Paralysis Immunity on Demonic state
●​ Non Positional OR Positional
●​ Few tripods required
playstyles
●​ Non Positional

●​ Small melee-range hitboxes ●​ Mana hungry

Cons ●​ High uptime required to do decent ●​ Lack of paralysis immunity on most
damage skills

How does my identity work?

Shadowhunter utilizes a Shadowburst gauge, this gauge is filled by using your skills and
the amount of gauge generation is based on the Specialization stat. Demonic Impulse
heavily relies on this for entering transformation state, once the gauge is full they can
transform, once they de-transform they generate a full gauge again and repeat. For
Perfect Suppression certain skills can utilize the built up gauge for more damage
increase since you are unable to utilize the transformation state. ​

Chaos Dungeon
 2 3 2 3 3 2

Grind Chain Galewind Cruel Cutter Bleed

1 1 2 3 2 2

Howl Wealth Decimate Galewind

2 2 2 3 2 1

Piercing Thorn Galewind Demon’s Grip Wealth

3 3 2 1

Demonic Clone Galewind Demonic Slash Poison

Awakening Engravings

Gate of Eruption
 Demonic
Impulse
Ark Passives
Standard Build
Evolution Enlightenment Leap

Critical​ Specialization​ Demonic Unleashed [1] Release

(10/30) (30/30) Impulse Power Potential
(1/1) (5/5) (5/5)

​
Keen Sense​ Limit Break​ Instinct Enhancement Hell's Frenzy​
(2/2) (1/3) (3/3) (3/3)
 Zealous Smite​ Chaos Enhancement
(2/2) (3/3)

[2] Corrosion Bloody

Blunt Thorn​
​ Piercing
(2/2)
(1/5) (3/3)

Evolution Sequence
1.​ 80 Points: Specialization (30/30) & Crit (10/30), Limit Break (2/3) and Zealous Smite (2/2)
a.​ Critical is preferred but the difference is minimal.
2.​ 95 Points: Blunt Thorn (1/2), switch to Master.
3.​ 105 Points: Limit Break (3/3).
4.​ 120 Points: Blunt Thorn (2/2), Keen Sense (2/2) & Limit Break (1/3)

Notes
●​ [1] Transcendent Power is also an option in specific cases:
○​ The fight is long enough to have it up, but short enough to not gain a significant amount of casts on
Blood Marsh (so 3~8 mins long).
○​ Your support is bad at buffing your Blood Marsh .
○​ Pushing a lot of HP quickly is better than having more overall dmg (Echidna G2 Snakes, Thaemine
G4 x175, etc)
●​ [2] Chaos Training is an alternative option to Corrosion, providing less damage but having no penalty.
You should learn to avoid getting knocked down or CC’d tho.
●​ Blunt Thorn can be overcapped (>119.28%):
○​ Chaos Enhancement (30%) + Crit Stat (~24%) + Zealous Smite (24%) + Master (7%) +
Keen Sense (8%) + Adrenaline (14% ~ 20%) = 107% ~ 113% Crit Rate.
 ○​ There’s additional sources of Crit Rate that you can obtain such as Bracelets (up to 5%), T4
Ring rolls (up to 3.1%), Crit Synergies (10%), etc. You can adjust accordingly by moving Keen
Sense points into Limit Break.
●​ Master is the preferred elixir set for this build.

Standing Striker Build

Evolution Enlightenment Leap

Critical​ Specialization​ Demonic Unleashed [1] Release

(10/30) (30/30) Impulse Power Potential
(1/1) (5/5) (5/5)

​
Limit Break​ Instinct Enhancement Hell's Frenzy​
(3/3) (3/3) (3/3)

Zealous
Chaos Enhancement
Smite​
(3/3)
(2/2)
 Standing [2] Corrosion Bloody
Striker​ ​ Piercing
(2/2) (1/5) (3/3)

Evolution Sequence
5.​ 80 Points: Specialization (30/30) & Crit (10/30), Limit Break (2/3) and Zealous Smite (2/2).
6.​ 95 Points: Standing Striker (1/2).
7.​ 105 Points: Limit Break (3/3).
8.​ 120 Points: Standing Striker (2/2).

Notes
●​ [1] Transcendent Power is also an option in specific cases:
○​ The fight is long enough to have it up, but short enough to not gain a significant amount of casts on
Blood Marsh (so 3~8 mins long).
○​ Your support is bad at buffing your Blood Marsh .
○​ Pushing a lot of HP quickly is better than having more overall dmg (Echidna G2 Snakes, Thaemine
G4 x175, etc)
●​ [2] Chaos Training is an alternative option to Corrosion, providing less damage but having no penalty.
You should learn to avoid getting knocked down or CC’d tho.
●​ This build is slightly weaker (assuming perfect Standing Striker uptime) than the standard Blunt Thorn build,
but it lowers the Crit Rate variance induced by Blunt Thorn capping crit at 80%. Play it if you hate white
numbers I guess.
○​ At 90% uptime, it’s ~1% weaker. At 80%, 2.2% weaker. At 70%, 3.45% weaker and so on..
○​ You are at 91% Crit Rate with Legendary Adrenaline. If you have a crit synergy, this setup is even
weaker than Blunt Thorn.
●​ Critical is the preferred elixir set for this build.

Engravings
Core Engravings Pick One
 Grudge Adrenaline KBW Cursed Doll Raid Captain Hit Master

Notes
●​ Raid Captain is worth approximately 12.08% (14.5% at max relic books) damage during transformation and
including a support’s Goddess of Blessing Ark Passive effect and 70 Swiftness stat (from horizontals). It has
the potential to scale further if you add other sources of move speed like:
○​ Vernese Wine (3%) from Peyto/Fermata Islands (13.28% / 15.94%)
○​ Event Feast (5%) (14.08% / 16.9%), or Regular Feast (3.5%) (13.48% / 16.18%).
○​ Both Wine and Feast (8% = 15.28% / 18.34% or 6.5% = 14.68% / 17.62%).
●​ Hit Master is worth approximately 13.3% (16.15% at max relic books) damage. It doesn’t affect Bleed/Poison
runes, your Awakening and some human form skills.

Skills
Human Skills
1

3 Mobility Skill, Destruction

10 ●​ Can be used to quickly apply synergy before going into
transformation if your cycle got interrupted
Demonic Slash 1
[Normal]

Backup Gauge generator

10 3
Lacks paralysis immunity
Thrust Impact
[Normal]
1
 2

3 Main Gauge generator

10 ●​ Quick Release can be used to speed up the
animation but requires higher Specialization stat.
Demon Vision 1 Wealth
[Intrude]

3
Main Gauge generator, Destruction
10 ●​ Rune usage depends on your Specialization stat.
Demonic Clone 1 Wealth*
[Intrude]

2
Secondary Gauge generator
10 Lacks paralysis immunity
Demon’s Grip 2
[Intrude]

3
Main Gauge generator, Destruction
Lacks paralysis immunity
10 2 ●​ Applies synergy for 16 seconds, which gives you
enough time to do a full cycle of transformation skills
Howl Wealth before having to reapply.
[Intrude]
2
 2

1 Secondary Gauge generator

10 ●​ Does decent damage.
●​ Full gauge generation is slightly delayed.
Decimate 1
[Intrude]

1 Counter Skill, Destruction

10 ●​ The explosion can also counter.
●​ Generates a bit of gauge.
Rising Claw 2
[Intrude]

Demonic Skills

Mobility Skill, Synergy

Generates 8 stacks
●​ Rune can be changed to any other low-impact rune such
as Rage, Quick Recharge, Purify, Poison.
Ruining Rush Bleed
[Demon]

Synergy
Generates 5 stacks
●​ Rune can be changed to any other low-impact rune such
as Rage, Quick Recharge, Purify, Bleed.
Death Claw Poison
[Demon]
 Secondary Damage skill
Generates 3 stacks
●​ Quick animation.
●​ Rune usage depends on your Specialization stat and
Destruction Overwhelm* gauge skill choices.
[Demon]

Main Damage skill

Generates 8 stacks
●​ Low-cooldown.
●​ Multiple hits
Gore Bleeding Galewind ●​ Usually your second most damaging skill.
[Demon]

Secondary Damage skill

Generates 3 stacks
●​ Gap-closer.
●​ Usually your third most damaging skill.
Leaping Blow Galewind
[Demon]

Main Damage skill

Generates 1 stack
●​ Long animation, relatively small hitbox.
●​ Usually your most damaging skill.
Blood Massacre Galewind
[Demon]

T Skill and Awakening

Combo skill by default. Does decent damage and hits 4 times (on impact + 3 big hits), but lacks push
immunity so be careful. Generates 4 stacks.
Blood Marsh

Main awakening as it does more damage and it’s much faster than Gate of Eruption. Hitbox is a bit
wonky, so aim properly. Only usable in Demonic Form.
Fallen Ruin
Ray of Ruin

Gem Priority
Gems are listed in order of most to least important from left to right. Grayed out icons are optional gems.

DMG

CDR

Notes
●​ Additional gems are now a requirement since they provide global Attack Power. The higher the gems, the more
attack power you get. Fill all 11 slots.
●​ You can use other class gems for the Attack Power buff, they don’t need to be Shadowhunter gems.

Tripod Priorities
This shows which Tripods are the most important for you to level in order. You will eventually want to level all Tripods.

Demon Howl Demonic Demon’s

Vision Clone Grip

Encroaching Encroaching Enh. Release Encroaching

Power Power Encroach. Power
 Notes
Those are the most important tripods due to
the additional gauge generation to allow faster
transformations.

Rotations

Exact order of skills can vary slightly depending on boss movement or downtime. Exact skills used for
transformation depend on your spec, tripod levels and preferences. More info:
Shadowhunter Community Guide

The general idea behind this rotation is to use skills in order based on damage and
animation, at least twice per rotation. Always keeping up synergy with Death Claw
when necessary.

You start with the hardest hitting skills ( Blood Massacre → Leaping Blow →
Destruction (shorter animation) → Gore Bleeding → Death Claw → Ruining
Rush).

During cooldown downtime, you should auto-attack as it generates stacks and does
decent damage. If Blood Marsh is available, use it instead.
Once you reach 60 Chaos Sliver stacks, use Bloody Piercing (x), keep going until
your Blood Massacre and Leaping Blow come back, use them and
Detransform (z). Rinse and repeat.

DPS Distribution
Pre-Brel 2.0 | Blunt Thorn | Trixion 8 Cycles

FAQ
 How many Wealth Runes are required?
The tables show the minimum specialization required to fill the Shadowburst gauge and
enter into Demon Mode for each sequence of Intrude Skills, using different
combinations of wealth runes and tripods. The highest quality wealth rune needs to be
placed on the Intrude Skill with the highest gauge generation.

Wealth Priority (In Order)

> > > >

Concentrated Release Demon
Vision Variants

1141 1176 1255

1481 1529 1629

1555 1605 1711

Quick Release
Demon Vision Variant

1360 1406 1496

1767 1825 N/A

The specialization breakpoints in this table require the following tripods at level 5:
-​ Encroaching Power: on Demon Vision, Howl, Demon’s Grip, and
-​ Enhanced Release Encroachment: on Demonic Clone.
 To calculate breakpoints based on your specific setup, use the following calculator:
https://lostark.nexus/sh/spec-calc

Perfect
Suppression

Ark Passives
Standard Build
Evolution Enlightenment Leap

[1]Critical​ [1]Swiftness​ Perfect Unleashed Release

(22/30) (18/30) Suppression​ Power Potential
(3/3) (5/5) (4/5)

[2] Keen Optimized​ Instant

Shadowburst Control​
Sense​ Training​ Spell
(3/3)
(2/2) (1/2) (2/3)
 ​
Weapon Shadowburst Nether
Strike
Training​ Absorption​ Infusion​
(2/2)
(3/3) (1/5) (3/3)

Storm
Blunt Thorn​
Grinding​
(2/2)
(3/3)

Evolution Sequence
1.​ 80 Points: Crit (x/30) & Swiftness (x/30), Optimized Training (2/2) and Strike (2/2).
a.​ You should aim to have ~80% Crit Rate (~39% from Stats, 1090 Crit) so spenders don’t overcap.
2.​ 95 Points: Blunt Thorn (1/2). Crit (x/30) & Swiftness (x/30), Keen Sense (2/2) (remove from
Optimized Training).
a.​ Aim to have ~95% Crit Rate (~46% from Stats, 1285 Crit) so spenders sit at ~115%.
3.​ 105 Points: Optimized Training (1/3).
4.​ 120 Points: Blunt Thorn (2/2). Get Crit (22/30) & Swiftness (18/30) so that you have ~100% Crit
Rate (120% on Spenders).

Notes
●​ [1] The exact stat split is based on different factors. There’s a few things you should consider:
○​ Blunt Thorn: you can “overcap” Crit Rate up to 119.28% before reaching the point in which Blunt
Thorn won’t give any more evolution damage.
■​ This depends on multiple factors: Adrenaline level, Synergies, Bracelet stats, Back Attack
affix, etc.
■​ At ~1405 Crit you have ~99.3% Crit Rate with this setup, while Grind Chain and
Spinning Weapon have max Blunt Thorn efficiency. You can opt for more Crit (~1680) to gain
~5% damage from Blunt Thorn in the rest of your skills, but reducing your CDR and Attack
Speed by roughly the same amount.
 ■​ [2] If you get a Crit Synergy (10%) in your party, you can move points off Keen Sense to
other nodes, such as Optimized Training or Limit Break.
●​ Strike provides CDMG to ~65% of our damage, as well as only slightly less Crit Rate than Zealous
Smite. It’s a damage gain even if you don’t back attack at all, but it’s still recommended to try and back
attack as much as possible for the extra 5% DMG and 10% Crit Rate in ~65% of your damage.
●​ Encroachment Absorb can be maxed if you’re lacking gauge due to tripods or if you want safer meter
generation, but provides less damage than the alternative.
●​ If you have fewer than 80 Enlightenment points, the Supersonic Breakthrough Build is recommended
because you don’t have access to Storm Grinding. See below for details.
●​ Master is the preferred elixir set for this build. Your pet should be set to Crit.

Supersonic Breakthrough Build

Evolution Enlightenment Leap

Critical​ Swiftness​ Perfect Unleashed Release

(10/30)* (30/30)* Suppression​ Power Potential
(3/3) (5/5) (4/5)

Keen Limit Instant

Shadowburst Control​
Sense​ Break​ Spell
(3/3)
(2/2) (1/3) (2/3)
 ​
Unlimited​ Zealous Weapon Shadowburst
Nether Infusion​
Magick Smite​ Training​ Absorption​
(3/3)
(1/2) (1/2) (3/3) (1/5)

Supersonic Storm
Breakthrough​ Grinding​
(2/2) (3/3)

Evolution Sequence
5.​ 80 Points: Crit (18*/30) & Swiftness (22*/30), Keen Sense (2/2) and Unlimited Magick (1/2)
& Zealous Smite (1/2).
a.​ You should aim to have ~80% Crit Rate (~39% from Stats, 1090 Crit, if you use Keen Sense 2) so
spenders don’t overcap.
6.​ 95 Points: Supersonic Breakthrough (1/2). Crit (x/30) & Swiftness (x/30)
a.​ Aim to have at least 40.01% Attack Speed (including support’s 9% buff from Goddess of
Blessings). This will lower your Crit Rate to ~64% (Spenders 84%, etc)
7.​ 105 Points: Limit Break (1/3).
8.​ 120 Points: Supersonic Breakthrough (2/2).

Notes
●​ Supersonic Breakthrough requires you to overcap both Attack and Move speed for it to be comparable
to other options. The max Evolution Damage this node can provide is 24%, when the sum of both is 40% over the
cap (for example, 40% Attack Speed and 80% Move Speed).
○​ Move Speed is easy, since Nimble Movement provides up to 30%, and support’s Goddess of
Blessings provides 9%, with your Swiftness stat providing the rest.
○​ Attack Speed is a bit tricky. Goddess of Blessings provides 9%, so the rest must come from
other sources. At 1805 Swiftness, you have 31.01% extra Attack Speed.
■​ You can opt for other sources of Attack Speed such as Ealyn's Blessing (Peyto/Fermata
ships) which provide 3%, and Stronghold Feast which provides up to 5%. This allows you to
move some points back to Crit. 3% Attack Speed is 175 Swiftness, 5% is 291 Swiftness, 8% is 466
Swiftness.
 ○​ My recommendation is to stay above 30% Atk/Move speed overcap combined. (Above 40% bonus
on both, then +30% from any combination of the two). This is roughly 22% damage from this node.
●​ Unlimited Magick helps alleviate mana problems and provides some cooldown reduction on all skills
except Storm Grinding. If you’re not having mana problems and want to opt for other nodes, you can
take:
○​ Zealous Smite (2/2) to further boost your Crit Rate. This would place your spenders at near
100% Crit Rate and your Back Attack skills at around 90%.
○​ Destruction Charger (1/2) for additional Attack Speed and extra value from Supersonic
Breakthrough.
○​ Dominion Timing (1/2) provides the same Evolution Damage, and less Cooldown Reduction but
it affects Storm Grinding.
●​ This build is recommended if you have fewer than 80 Enlightenment points and cannot enable Storm
Grinding. Without Storm Grinding, it plays almost identically to the 4Dom2Nm build in Tier 3 and you
can take mana nodes in rows 2 and 3 with the following modifications.
○​ T1: Crit (10/30) & Swiftness (30/30)
○​ T2: Illicit Spell (1) & Keen Sense (2)
○​ T3: Unlimited Magick (2)
○​ T4: Supersonic Breakthrough (2)
●​ Master is the preferred elixir set for this build. Your pet should be set to Swiftness.

Engravings
Core Engravings

Grudge Raid Captain KBW Adrenaline Cursed Doll

 Skills
Core Skills
1

Main Damage Skill, Spender

3 Lacks paralysis immunity
14 ●​ Hitbox spawns slightly away so it can miss if casted at
point-blank range in small enemies.
Spin. Weapon 2 Focus ●​ Gains 20% Crit Rate from Encroachment Release.
[Normal]

2 Main Damage Skill, Spender

14 ●​ Supersonic Breakthrough: Pick Double-Edged
Strike instead.
Cruel Cutter 2 Poison
[Normal]

3 Main Damage Skill, Spender

Lacks paralysis immunity
14 ●​ Pushes you back slightly.

Grind Chain ●​ Gains 20% Crit Rate from Encroachment Release.

1 Galewind
[Normal]
 3
Secondary Damage Skill, Small Gauge generator
●​ Encroachment Discharge provides ~53% more
1 damage but also removes all meter generation from the
Wealth
14 skill. Equip a Focus rune if you run this tripod.
●​ Try to always Back Attack this skill as it gains additional
Decimate
1 damage from the affix and from Blunt Thorn.
[Intrude]

Focus

2
Secondary Damage Skill
14 Lacks paralysis immunity
Piercing Thorn 1 Focus
[Intrude]

2
Synergy, Move Speed Self buff
Lacks paralysis immunity

1 ●​ Using Slasher on cooldown consumes a lot of

7
Bleed mana. If you find yourself running out of mana, you can
-
10 run a legendary Focus rune on this skill and
Slasher 1
[Normal] downgrade Focus on Spinning Weapon or
Piercing Thorn to epic.
Focus

Pick One (7th)

3

Main Gauge generator, Destruction

10 ●​ Highest gauge per second due to low cooldown.
3 ●​ High mana consumption.
Demonic Clone Wealth
[Intrude]
 1

Main Gauge generator

●​ Generates a lot of gauge, but has a longer cooldown.
This can be both a good and a bad thing:
2* ○​ If you miss it, you will have no gauge for a long
time
○​ If you consistently hit it, you will consume less
mana to generate enough gauge.
3
●​ First-row tripods are personal preference.
10
○​ Quick Release provides a faster beam but
Demon Vision ~23% less gauge gain.
1 Wealth
[Intrude] ○​ Concentrated Release is the best option for
gauge but comes with a long animation lock.
○​ Magick Control reduces MP consumption
and provides roughly the same gauge as Quick
Release.

Pick One (8th)

3

Main Gauge generator, Synergy, Destruction

7 Lacks paralysis immunity
2 ●​ Highest gauge per cast.
Howl Wealth
[Intrude]

1 Mobility Skill, Destruction

●​ Can be used to fill the gaps with your Synergy and

Self-Buff from Slasher, or to upkeep Adrenaline

3 while repositioning.
7 ●​ Third tripod is preference. You can opt for:
-
○​ Chain Charge for more Destruction and
10 Quick
Demonic Slash mobility
1
[Normal] Recharge ○​ Ambush Charge to phase through bosses
and reposition to back attack.
○​ Or neither, and run it at lv7.

T Skill and Awakening

 Only T skill usable in Human Form.

Wild Slash

Gate of Eruption Only awakening usable in Human Form.

Generates Gauge.

Darkness Blast

Gem Priority
Gems are listed in order of most to least important from left to right. Grayed out icons are optional gems.

DMG

CDR + /

Tripod Priorities
This shows which Tripods are the most important for you to level in order. You will eventually want to level all Tripods.

Gauge SelfBuff Damage

Demonic Demon Howl Slasher Spin. Cruel Cruel Spin. Grind Grind
Clone Vision Weapon Cutter Cutter Weapon Chain Chain

Encroach. Encroaching Encroaching Nimble Bleed Bleed Double-Edg Instant Chain Encroach.
Release Power Power Movement Effect Effect ed Strike Disposal Attack Release

Notes
Prioritize tripod leveling based on skill damage share and skill usage.

Rotations
There’s no strict rotation for Perfect Suppression, it’s more of a Priority System:

1.​ Have enough Shadowburst Gauge & pre-stack Adrenaline/Master.

2.​ Apply Synergy and Self-buff with Slasher
3.​ Use your Spenders Grind Chain → Spinning Weapon → Cruel Cutter
a.​ Storm Grinding with Encroachment Injection
4.​ Use your filler damage skills Wild Slash → Piercing Thorn → Decimate
5.​ Use your gauge generators Howl → Demonic Clone

DPS Distribution
Pre-Brel 2.0 | Non-Positional Blunt Thorn | Trixion 3 Minutes
 FAQ

Which build is the best?

It’s hard to say. All builds have their pros and cons. All of them are heavily subjective
since people have different tastes. There’s also many alternative paths you can take
(that aren’t mentioned in the guide) but their effectiveness varies from raid to raid, and
are highly dependent on player uptime or skill.

Instead, you should look at them from a complexity and tradeoff standpoint:
-​ Non-Pos is the most versatile, easiest to play. It lacks paralysis immunity on two
spender skills, and 3 filler/gauge skills.
-​ Hybrid can do more damage, but requires you to back attack. It shares the same
 skill setup so you also have those downsides.
-​ Back-Attack is viable for those who prefer that playstyle, having more paralysis
immunity but requiring better positioning.
-​ Supersonic Breakthrough is a different playstyle, focused on uptime rather than
damage per cycle. It plays similar to old Boundless/Dominion PS.

I’d recommend trying them yourself in some raids to get a better feel of each one, and
then try to optimize them further and adjust to your own preferences.

Where Back Attack?

Read the disclaimer. T4 Back Attack Perfect Suppression Shadowhunter

Why no MP nodes?

Revision History
Date Change
●​ WIP Release
○​ This guide is a work in progress. As we progress through Tier 4 it will
Sep 28, 2024
receive several modifications, additions and corrections. Check
regularly to see if anything new has appeared.

●​ Added alternative Demonic Impulse Ark Passive build

Nov 4, 2024
○​ White numbers bad ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nov 11, 2024 ●​ Added back-attack and hybrid Perfect Suppression information.
 ●​ Moved BA PS to a new document since it won’t receive the love it deserves
Nov 22, 2024
from me. Added Swiftness zoomy zoomy setup.

●​ Added recommendation for Supersonic Breakthrough build for Perfect

Jan 5, 2025 Suppression characters with less than 80 Enlightenment points. Added
additional Focus rune options for Perfect Suppression.