Shadowmeld Opinions?

Have you found it useful? I see it as a 'this might be a challenge, so I should use it' type of power. rather than a regular use type of power. This observation is based on the 3 sec cast timer and 15 sec duration.

SM, BU, AS, take alpha and have about 5 seconds of SM left to burn.

That's how I usually use MoG, so I would agree with that assessment. Note that this can depend somewhat on how durable you are compared to something that's beating on you. If you can see things going south at a dangerous speed, but still have time to get to your "oh crap" power, then popping powers Shadow Meld or MoG becomes a bit more "regular use". Given the relative fragility of Stalker HPs, though, it's hard to fault a proactive, early activation.

i have yet to really try shadowmeld, but i am a /nin afficiando. i use caltrops and blinding powder for oh **** moments. ^^

I took shadowmeld on my DM/Regen stalker and it was quite nice. Basically I used it as a mini-MoG with the added advantage that it was up about twice as often. Now, if you have softcapped SR or Ninjitsu I would expect that shadow meld is not going to be as usefull but for a regen, any of the resistance based secondaries or a non-softcapped ninjistu/sr it is a huge survival boost.

Instead of using Shadowmeld (or MoG) as oh-**** powers I would recommend using them as alpha soakers. On hard targets I would move in for the AS, fire of Shadowmeld/MoG, build up then AS. Between the secondary effects of AS and the def of Shadow meld / MoG I basically ignored the alpha. I would use SM for bosses and MoG for EB's or hard bosses. On a ninjitsu or SR stalker you could probably save SM/MoG as an emergency button but regen has so many emergency buttons already that I found that I got more mileage out of the powers this way.

When shadow meld was announced, the first thought in my mind was "Choppa (my claw/DA stalker) lives!" This power helps out a lot. I mostly use it for "oh crap!" Shadow meld + dark regen then shock wave. Made Cim wall farming a lot less painfull (It still hurts though).

I have a softcapped /Nin that uses it. Ninjitsu has mediocre defense debuff resistance, so what I do is monitor my positions and pop Shadow Meld when cascade failure starts to occur. It works wonders.

Ok Ive been wondering how I monitor my defenses. I tried diggin thru the options menu but couldnt find it. Do you have a small window somewhere that shows it all the time?

dm/nin here with around 35% defense (i.e. not an expensive build). I use Shadow Meld to take alphas and to boost defense against EBs. I love the power.

click powers, combat attributes, and then right click on anything you want to monitor, it'll come up with a dropdown list when you right click just selec "monitor... x" x being what it is you want to monitor.

Shadowmeld works well with regens. When i had it, i switched between shadowmeld and mog

I would also like to confirm that Shadow Meld is awesome!

How would it mesh with Willpower? Anyone know?

Pointless on a softcapped stalker. The only folks who get use out of it are those who dont use defense sets, and you really should not be doing that in the first place you want to be the best stalker you can be. Personally I have always seen the patron powers as a huge waste. In all of the sets from all the villain ATs there is only one power in the whole thing worth getting and thats Mu guardian for doms. Which isnt available to stalkers so to hell with patron powers.

I certainly find it very nice on my claws/nin that, though 50, I haven't made an IO build for yet.

Personally, I struggled to figure out the timing of when to use it.

15 second duration
3 second cast time

BU + AS = .73 + 3 for activation time means there's only about 11 seconds of SM left, or almost 1/3 is used up while you're hidden and safe. On the other hand, BU + AS + SM exposes you to 3 seconds of retaliation, usually mitigated by the Fear effect though. I use it after the AS.

Once I do soft cap I expect to keep it for the debuffing mentioned above.

All in all, I think it's a great power that I'd use on probably most of my non-stalker characters if I could take it.

Wouldn't it be awesome if shadowmeld auto hid you?

my opinion of shadowmeld is that fireball is the only thing worth picking up in pve.

My only experience on Shadowmeld in on my old Elec/Will Stalker who starts the fight with BU + Lightning Rod which means I waste less time during Shadowmeld. Willpower doesn't have that high S/L defense so the +defense is really useful to take alpha for the team.

My old Nin/SR may have Shadowmeld too but I think that's overkill on defense.

I can see Shadowmeld being better on Scrappers because they don't waste time on setting on Assassin Strike. They can hit Shadow and just run in.

My My Dark/Nin Stalker has soloed multiple EBs and AVs with a build that is roughly 80% SOs, and it's done so because of Shadow Meld. I haven't NEEDED to slot in more IO enhancements.

I slotted Dark Blast as an attack, and use it as part of his regular attack chain to fill in any gaps or finish off runners. It's not Blaze, but the damage is definitely solid, and I haven't had a complaint about it. It takes the place of Shadow Punch in my Stalker's build. You could do a lot worse when it comes to a prerequisite Patron power.

It works well for non-defense secondaries. I'd personally rather have Waterspout and Hibernate from Leviathan, though, especially on a Stalker.