-I searched for this already I dont know where to look.
Where, specifically can I spec to get shadows.
I must be missing something. I am level 26, and I found a piece of gear that is lvl 14 and it has
“37 Ward when you create a shadow”. Could I really had shadows at lvl 14?
I’m using cinder strike, smokebomb and decoy as my 3 levelable skills
various skills can create shadows
smokebomb in the lower left branch, shift in the lower right branch, synchronized strike creates 2 by default and can be spec’d into more, shadow cascade has a chance to create shadows on kill in the bottom middle node
i think you could potentially reach shadow nodes within one skill by level 14 but i don’t know. most of them require several points investment to reach.
Great ty 
Can you tell me how I get synchronized strikes?
It requires 10 points into Bladedancer passive tree.
alright, one more
So I specced–Got some shadows to come out.
And they just stand there, aren’t they supposed to do something? Or do I have to sped into that to?
I think it’s because you aren’t using any abilities the skill wants. The shadow description is as follows:
Create a Shadow of yourself that persists for up to 5 seconds and will imitate your next Shadow Cascade, Shurikens, or Acid Flask. Up to 3 shadows can be active at once.
Some skills can create shadows, some skills can interact with them.
There is a node for Cinder Strike for example (Umbral Conflagration) where all your shadows start throwing burning daggers.
The easiest way to test it without spending any points into skills is casting synchronized strike and then attack with one of the skills Zage mentioned, that you can see in the Bladedancer description aswell.
One of the most common rotations for shadows is to use the Shift skill to create shadows, when you specialize in lasting presence, followed by using shadow cascade use shadows for extra damage. This can get very complicated and @boardman21 is probably the best one to ask for more help.
There’s a long list of things that can make them anywhere from shifting to dancing, letting smoke bomb make 1 per seconds or in my favorite way using synchronized strike to get 4 of them.
Once you have made shadows they will copy the next attack you do that is on there “allowed to use” list
Off the top i think its 4 or 5 skills, i dont know which ones precisely but the most popular is Shadow cascade and having them either use it as a melee attack or throwing daggers and proc’n shadow daggers.
You can get alot of secondary and … um… Thirdinary? procs out of its interactions Such as
Shift (with shadow and cascade node taken) → Creates Shadow → Shadow uses shadow cascade → shadow cascade throws daggers → daggers apply shadow daggers → 4 shadow daggers do a CRIT plunge (affected by effect)
^^ all of that can be done just by shifting around.
Thank you and everyone here that pitched in with the info
I am trying to follow a build that Thyworm put up. Shadow Dancer
I don’t think it’s really going to come together until later levels.
Thanks
The word you were looking for would be tertiary ^^
For some more interactions with Shadows:
There are some skill that use shadows as an interaction without making them imitate a given skill.
Lethal Mirage for example can “consume” shadows do deal extra damage.
Or there are other skills that have conditional stuff like “if you at least have X Shadows”
The irony of a German teaching an American English.
I Could use a hand pronunciating it as well…
To be fair. The German word is veeeery similar 
“Tertiär”
You and Llama are best friends right xD
But I am faster than Llama 
“ˈtərSHēˌerē”
Not if I start bugging him on all the words he doesn’t pronounce correctly.
That’s because Llama has a job.
So now I am in to bladedancer. I just don’t think shadows at this level are very good. I don’t have access to all the traits(Idk what to call them, the skill trees that level up abilities)
I don’t have synchronized strikes yet. Blade dancer is meh atm–and the shadows that do it rarely hit anything as the npcs are on me and shadows are all over the place. I can stay alive, kill loads of mobs, I am just not terribly impressed with blade dancer (w/e that skill is called, I am not in game and my memory is meh)
Is there a way I can show you my build that I am currently using?
I am not even really sure what to grab for stats. +damage, crit, dodge, and Im not even prioritizing resists atm.
That’s called Skill Specialisation Tree
Sync strike is definitely a very strong way to spawn shadows, but’s it’s not mandatory, most skills that do spawn shadows are very deterministic.
There is alot of skill involved in using shadows to their full potential.
Depending on your build you eitehr want to use shadows to do alot of damage to a single target
or
you want to increase your effective AoE, by spreading out shadows.
Shadows basically deal the same dmg as you baseline, which can be increased,so they deal even more damage than you.
Yes, you can upload your character into Dammitt’s Build Planner using the import button top left.
There is no answer to this, since it really depends on what you want to achieve.
There is rarely a clear “best” thing to go for.
TL:DR: If you don’t like shadows, that’s fine, using them is not mandatory. But they can be incredible powerful.
Not completely related to this thread, but I cant find the folder that is needed for the build planner. I have looked and looked.
AppData is a system folder so its hidden by default.
View hidden files and folders in Windows 10
Edit: It’s then found in C:\Users{your user name here}\AppData