Beautiful people,

Sneak was my first skill to hit 100, yet I held off getting Shadow Warrior right away because I had just started obsessing over Enchanting. Still had an absolute blast sneaking, though. Then I happened across http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO7Ch2sk1AA. Boy, that well blew my mind. It's tough leveling up once you're over level 60, but I worked at it and was rather pleased when I hit 62. Now that I had Shadow Warrior, I donned my shrouded gloves and equipped a Daedric dagger (Legendary) and a Blade of Woe (also Legendary). I then performed a sneak attack on an unsuspecting guard to initiate combat. Turns out that I'm not at all able to move from sneak attack to sneak attack like in the video: when I crouch in combat I do turn invisible but my foes mostly just carry on attacking me, and when do they stop attacking it's still a regular hit no matter from what direction. Am I doing something wrong? If so, what? Or is this a known bug?

I'd tremendously appreciate some http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU7JjJJZi1Q here. Thank you.

I really hope you don't mind a bump as I'm getting a touch desperate here.

The buff from shadow warrior is only 1-2 seconds... you need to crouch and immediately attack.

Best to try and get behind, then crouch, so you can get the full kill sync, but as you see he attacks the front side for 15x by ducking and immediately attacking.

I've tried this innumerable times, but perhaps I was indeed too slow. Thank you. Will update once tested.

You just need to get your timing right. Have to tap sneak and land your attack within a second or so. Also, it doesn't always work I probably get the 15x sneak attack bonus about half the time. You will only get the kill animations if you are doing a one handed attack. If you do a dual attack, you can get two 15x attacks in but no throat slit animation.

I quit playing this way because it was two easy. Went back to dual wielding swords and rarely use Shadow Warrior anymore. It is kinda cool in the beginning but the novelty wears off quickly.

I didn't watch the video but I can tell you that you have to be fast. I usually bash the enemy then crouch and attack. In some instances I am not able to get the attack off. For example the other day I was trying to kill a Falmer Shadowmaster or something and it would just not proc for me.

LOL nvm I watched the video. You can cleary seeing him trying over and over to get the sneak attack off. Try my way. A shield works better for this. Bash the enemy, then crouch, and attack. Finishing move looks even better against draugr.

I use it to run away for a second, crouching and uncrouching until I stay "unseen", then back into the fray. Look at it this way: You are disappearing for a second. If you stay where you would otherwise be seen... right in front of your enemy, he'll see you. Use the opportunity to get out of line of sight to reestablish "hidden".

That's how its supposed to work. I think the fact that you can land a quick 15x sneak attack during the brief moment of "invisibility" is a bug that should be fixed with a patch.

Thank you all loads! Seriously.


By this you mean that I can dual wield and get the hot throat slitting action, so as long as I only use one both weapons, right?

Reminds me of ME 2 where you could blast an enemy with your shotgun, bash him, then fire again before the gun reloading animation finished. People argued it was skill to pull it off, others called it a bug. The Devs came out and said they left it like that for the skilled players to use.

I think the same of Shadow Warrior. It almost takes a certain setup to even use it all the time anyway. Remember, the whole time one is trying to pull the sneak attack off, they are getting hit in the process. If something is hitting me and I am not worried about dying, then it doesn't matter how I kill it anyway. If a draugr deathlord can kill you in two hits and you decide to use shadow warrior and you pull it off and live, do you feel over powered, skillfull, lucky? I would feel skillfull and lucky. If a draugr deathlord can kill you in 20 hits and you decide to use shadow warrior and you pull it off and live, do you feel over powered, skillfull, lucky or was it just another way to kill that enemy?

I feel empowered. Spent 320 odd hours getting to that point, and it shows.

YES! I agree. I love the perk. I'm telling you try it against a draugr or bear. Coming out of stealth and finishing off an enemy is probably the coolest thing I've seen in this game. I use the perk a lot, when it makes sense to. Trying to use it against a level 50 briarheart....well there are better ways of dealing with those.

Oh yeah, different tactics for different situations, naturally. You'd have to be profoundly, depressingly unimaginative to play through a whole game with this amount of freedom with only one strategy (or lack thereof) rather than slowly but surely honing your unique own style.

Yeah, you can have a weapon in both hands and still get the animation, as long as you only attack with one of the weapons. Or, you can do a dual wield attack by hitting both left and right button simultaneously, in which case you can do twice as much damage (dual 15x) but you won't get an animation.

Well, you gotta be quick on your feet when you use it, that's for sure. I don't recall ever using it against a draugr deathlord but I dropped a Dwarven Centurian in two or three hits with an elven dagger and one shotted a Falmer Shadowmaster with it. Haven't used it in a while though. It won't bother me if they do not patch it since it is easy enough to avoid abusing it, but I don't think it was an intended effect.

Be careful though if you are going for the animations and there are multiple enemies about. You can get hit by other enemies during the animations. I have gotten killed or seriously wounded that way. The animations do not seem to stop the action, so they are kind of dangerous to use in groups. Cool, but dangerous.

I use the shadow-warrior restealth-kill pretty often, and there's a couple of tricks to it.

1) Have some fortify stealth gear. You do need to be hidden to your target to bring off the sneak attack, and even at 100 sneak and 1 point in Stealth, many tougher enemies will still be able to spot you if you're right in front of them.

2) Timing is important. As others have said, you have only a moment to bring off the attack. Also, if you go to early, your stealth buff may not have applied yet. Keep playing with the timing til you get it right.

3) Position is also important. I get the most success when I'm bumping into the target and pressing forward on the walk key, while tapping the attack button on my main hand. Do not attack with both weapons. Do not hold the attack button, you'll try for a power attack instead.

Sometimes it just doesn't work. Remember when you get these youtube videos, you're getting a montage of succcessful attempts.

Exactly, during those fights you probably weren't too worried about dying or you would have gone another attack route. If you're sneak skill is high enough to get the perk, I do not even see how you could abuse it. Think about it. If you are in a dangerous situation, you're not going to just use shadow warrior or you're going to run the risk of getting hit too much and dying. One shotting a Shadowmaster? You don't need shadow warrior to pull that off. Assassin's blade and a dagger that does 50 damage is enough. Or DB gloves and a dagger that does 50 damage. What's the difference between one shotting an enemy and re-entering stealth to take out his buddies OR instead of running or invisiblity (an effect easy to get by spell or potion) you skillfully evade attack and slit throats where you stand? Convienence. Play style. Much like every other 100 skill level perk.

I disagree with your view on the perks intended effect. Look at the perk. It's called Shadow Warrior. When you use it in melee, it's very warrior like. You're taking melee damage and inflicting melee damage. Now if the perk was called Shadow Master, then I would agree with you.

The in game description says "Crouching stops combat for a moment and forces distant opponents to search for a target." It doesn't say "couching lets you get in a quick sneak attack."

Yeah, search for a target, not search for you, the player.

Shadow warrior is a poor man's invisibility.

Invisiblity is a poor man's Shadow Warrior!

I have both though. I like to start with invisiblity and end with Shadow Warrior when facing multiple enemies. Actually, at this point, I really only use invisiblity when I need to run away for whatever reason, usually something happens I didn't expect.

Actually, I perked that character to be tough as nails in a stand up fight with points into Armsmen, light armor, smithing (only up the light side to Scale Armor) and plenty of health, so he's either going in sneaking with dual daggers or going in guns ablaze with dual swords. His tactics don't change much depending on the opponent, other than needing to figure out a way to close distance quickly with certain mages and archers. Shadow Warrior just lets him land easy 6x hits with swords or 15x hits with daggers, without having to acquire a specialty item or worry about sneaking.

Not sure I understand what you are saying here.