Tier List/Shark3143/Shadow

Portrait	Name	Tier	Role	Preference	Notes
	Ieyasu	S	Attacker	All	Ieyasu has very high damage output thanks to his natural strength, great choice of elemental weapon, and bleed. Applying bleed makes his S1 do absurdly high damage when it procs, dealing almost as much damage over time as the initial use of the skill at one stack, and easily exceeds it with multiple stacks. He has increases to both critical rate and critical damage to augment his damage, and the self regen from his S2 helps him maintain High HP = Crit, which is important since even his bleeds can crit. Ieyasu is only held back by the absurdly lengthy 4.1 second animation on his S1, but the skill is still crucial since so much of his damage output is through bleeds.
	Natalie	S	Attacker	Mercurial Gauntlet	Natalie’s potential is extremely high at low health. Her S1 scales its damage up to double power based on how little health is remaining, and her HP Below 30 = Strength & Attack Rate passive is a huge DPS increase in its own right. Natalie is also capable of reaching low health efficiently without wasting time taking damage, as her S2 will reduce her to 20% health if she’s not already in low health. Natalie’s functionality is theoretically awkward, since she has anti-synergy with healers, her S1 can send her careening out of position, and remaining at low health may not be viable in future content. However, the shadow element currently lacks permanent endgame content, and these potential problems have yet to be an issue, so it’s mostly worth noting that she is extremely strong in Mercurial Gauntlet, where it’s safe and reasonable to avoid all incoming damage, and she even sees use off-element since her damage is so incredibly high.
	Yaten	A+	Attacker Support	All	Yaten’s kit is entirely built around energy synergy⁠—he’s able to quickly generate huge stacks of energy, and his passives give him massive benefits from doing so. His Energy = Strength & Critical Rate as well as his Energized: Strength passive give Yaten numerous strong buffs with which to deal large amounts of burst damage from his boosted S1. His S2 charges very quickly and generates two stacks of energy for the team, so he’s able to energize his teammates as well as himself. Yaten’s kit performs well enough solo, but he also synergizes strongly with additional Yatens in co-op rooms.
	Botan	A+	Attacker Support	All	Her S1 does incredible damage thanks to bleed, and she has access to a team-wide 15% strength buff on her S2 to further her contribution to team DPS, as well as access to a great damage skill from the 5.3 shadow lance. Her damage contribution is so high that it makes up for her lacking passive skills, with a useless Bane outside of raid and a disappointing 50% resistance.
	Sazanka	A+	Attacker	All	She has a powerful AoE S1 that can apply a potent bleed, which alone gives her very high damage output. Her sleep based kit helps add extra utility and damage, but can be invalidated by sleep immune content such as raids. She has a Gauge Accelerator passive to help break bosses faster, which is convenient since she’s going to be using force strikes anyway to apply sleep if possible. Sazanka currently doesn’t have good choice of weaponry since she lacks a good critical rate with which to utilize the 5.3 shadow axe’s critical damage boost.
	Curran	A+	Attacker	All	Curran’s kit is basic, but effective. His skills have great base damage and he also applies the occasional defense down, so his overall damage contribution is higher than nearly all shadow adventurers without bleed. It’s unrealistic to get optimal value out of Last Offense, but Curran performs well regardless, and his damage output isn’t far behind that of the bleed adventurers.
	Veronica	A+	Attacker	All	It’s not entirely realistic to evaluate Veronica on her highest possible damage output, since that requires her to be as low health as possible to make use of her boosted S1. However, even without making maximum usage of low hp, her damage output is very respectable, she has good AoE coverage, and her 100% Skill Prep helps end short quests faster. On top of that, due to how common High HP passives are, many characters fall off in damage output if they become wounded, while Veronica can become more powerful. It’s not overly risky to dip her health low to boost her S1, since she has a decent amount of self sustain between the healing on her S2 and potentially her 5.3’s weapon skill as well. As a side note, it’s difficult to optimize wyrmprints for Veronica if you plan on taking damage, so prints without health-related passives like Flash of Genius perform well, or Tough Love if you want to try a Last Offense print.
	Kleimann	A	Attacker	Imperial Onslaught	He has a Skill Damage passive and two attack skills to increase his damage output, as well as access to sleep from his S2 to increase his utility value. Sadly, his force strike passive isn’t too exciting since the wand force strike isn’t very good. Despite his multiple attack skills and skill damage, his damage potential is held back by the below-average charge rate on his S2, and the self heal from the 5.3 shadow wand doesn’t help him exceed at his role as much as a damage skill would have.
	Rodrigo	A	Attacker	All	Rodrigo has multiple attack skills and a decent passive, but his real strength lies hidden in his frame data. He has the fastest S1 in the game, which completes its animation even faster than buff skills, allowing him to quickly resume attacking afterwards. He also has a fast animation speed on his S2, and his DPS is augmented a bit further by his High HP = Strength passive. Unfortunately he has a poor choice of weaponry in the 5.3 shadow sword, which has a low impact self defense buff, so his good damage isn’t enough to keep up with the bleed characters ranked higher than him.
	Zace	A	Attacker	All	A strong 3* adventurer with good strength, two attack skills, and an increased Skill Damage passive, which is valuable since he also has access to a 3rd attack skill from the 5.3 shadow lance. However, his skills are held back slightly by their lower base damage. He does have a bit of utility value since his S1 can apply blinds.
	Erik	A	Attacker	Imperial Onslaught	Erik has good strength, two good attack skills, and a passive that increases force strike damage. 75% blindness res and his AoE coverage makes him a good pick for Light IO. His damage output is solid, but he’s slightly held back since he can’t utilize the critical damage boost from the 5.3 shadow axe very well, as he doesn’t have increases to his critical rate built into his kit.
	Norwin	A	Attacker Support	Imperial Onslaught	Norwin possesses a kit that leans entirely into the blind affliction in a manner comparable to Nefaria. His Blindness = Team Strength passive sets him apart, which allows him to buff the entire team's strength for 10 seconds when he successfully inflicts blind. His own damage is high for a bow adventurer, since he has access to three attack skills between his own kit and the 5.3 Shadow bow, plus he gets large amounts of boosted damage versus blinded enemies thanks to his Blind Punisher passive and boosted S2. His whole kit is easily invalidated by enemies who resist the blind affliction, but he performs well if it works. When comparing him to the very similar Nefaria, Norwin’s damage has an edge over her thanks to his team-wide strength buffs, but Nefaria would be better suited to carrying allies much weaker than her since she focuses entirely on her own damage.
	Nefaria	B+	Attacker	None	Nefaria’s kit is based entirely around inflicting blind and increasing her damage against blinded enemies. Applying blind has some utility value, and she does get to fight safely from range, but her damage output isn’t impressive and her contribution can be invalidated in content with blind-immune enemies such as raid battles. Blind Punisher could be theoretically very powerful on the break through synergy with dragon transformations, but it’s quite hard to justify using Nidhogg to apply blind if better choices are available.
	Alex	B+	Attacker	Imperial Onslaught	Alex has good damage output considering that daggers are usually underpowered, but is held back by the difficulty of maintaining Full HP = Skill Damage. This is frustrating in Imperial Onslaughts, which she would otherwise shine in thanks to her 100% resistance to blind. Her skills don’t have very high base damage, so her damage isn’t very impressive if she’s not at full health, and her defense down lacks potency and has a low 40% chance to apply. However, if you manage to maintain full health, she will reward your good play with solid damage.
	Althemia	B+	Attacker	All	She has fast animation speeds on her two attack skills, and her Full HP = 30% Skill Damage allows her to perform well when she’s topped off, but she's rather mediocre without it. Theoretically, the self heal off the 5.3 shadow wand would help keep her HP maxed, but the lengthy charge time on weapon skills leaves her high and dry for most of the quest if she gets tapped by anything.
	Berserker	B	Attacker	Imperial Onslaught	Berserker is mostly focused on self survival with a terrible S2, and the 5.3 shadow sword offers only a self defense buff, neither of which benefit from his Striker’s Skill. Despite his obvious weaknesses, he’s well prepared for Light IO thanks to his blind immunity, and the circular AoE on his S1 is great at sweeping up adds. In general, he offers lower damage than most shadow adventurers, so he isn’t worth using in other content.
	Vice	B	Attacker	Imperial Onslaught	He lacks natural strength and base skill damage, but he does have access to multiple attack skills and Broken Punisher to help salvage his low damage output, and he might occasionally put a target to sleep.
	Taro	B	Attacker	None	His two attack skills give good coverage for hitting multiple targets and access to the 5.3 shadow blade is a great perk since it gives an additional attack skill. However, the slow animation speed on his S1 and poor passives hold Taro back, and his damage output isn’t as high as it could be.
	Orion	B	Attacker	None	He has a coherent kit for damage thanks to Flurry Devastation, two attack skills, 50% Skill Prep, and access to a 3rd damage skill through the 5.3 shadow dagger. Unfortunately for Orion, his skills have very low base damage, and in general it’s hard for a dagger character to do high damage since their regular combo is weak.
	Vida	C	Attacker	None	Vida’s damage output is painfully low, but she does at least have some level of utility value through blind applications.