...either the most useless, unreliable, random, gimmicky ability in the game...or it's stunningly amazing and I'm just doing it wrong.

I leveled a sneak character almost entirely for the purpose of playing around with shadow warrior after watching a vid online about it. Now I'm sitting on 100 sneak, perked to shadow warrior, and it's maybe, maybe, 10% of the time that I use that ability, attack, and actually get the backstab bonus.

What I'm looking for in this thread is either venting from fellow discontented whiners like me or perhaps some advice on how you real gamers out there manage to get the sneak attack bonus consistently via shadow warrior. Thanks for your input either way.

No, no, no, no, nnooooo...

Shadow Warrior being a free backstab is ludacrous.

Shadow Warrior is more about being able to hide easier.

Sneak doesn't need much help, sorry.

Shadow Warrior is about being able to enter combat, then quickly exit it again by entering stealth and turning invisible.

to quote omega,
"Can't add anything more to what Zyghart stated except.
Leave nothing to chance, Kill them and kill them dead."

Rapidly press the sneak button and it will be like using Chameleon in Oblivion.

HACKS!

No, seriously...

Shadow Warrior is absolutely ridiculous when spammed.

Just don't use Shadowcloak with it...

Hmmm ok fair enough. After watching that video and then occasionally getting another backstab (sneak attack) after getting caught, vanishing, and attacking, I thought maybe that was the intention of the ability. i.e., it was the intention and it wasn't working well...or it was the intention and I wasn't doing it just right.

It use to work a lot for me when I would spam it, but now its rare when the sneak attack bonus does happen. Not going to complain tho, makes it more challenging and fun IMO

Shadow warrior bugs the eyes on my characters in my game.

Not sure if that bug is still present after the 1.4 patch. I haven't used that perk since I found out it was bugged, and I haven't missed it.

I agree with the OP, it is a disappointing perk. I don't bother with it.

nonono youre doing it wrong!
Shadow Warrior is more about being able to run in front of your enemies, press sneak button and get the 30x sneak bonus almost every time

I looked at the description for this, thought "that is silly and OP" and didn't even try to get it.

The problem with that perk and my playstyle is, I can't afford to take a hit. Spamming sneak and trying to get a sneak attack and get hit...or...just sneak attack right off the bat and take em out the first time? I'm going to take them out the first time. There's always invisibility to fall back on if something goes wrong, or calm if you have it. I thought about using the perk on my warrior, but it was just easier to stand up and use sword and board then keep getting hit as I spammed the sneak button over and over. And it just looked silly to stand, crouch, stand, crouch etc until I got a sneak attack.