Shadow Bind (What's the point)

[Erwing]

There isn't much of a point, lol.

The skill purpose is only one: Bind enemy so that you can run away.

Otherwise it plain sucks, don't get me wrong..the damage is pretty decent..but the stamina consumption is pretty high, definitely not worth. There are better skills to spend your points on, and supposing you play in parties a lot, you don't really have to bother.

Bolded for emphasis. Shadowbind is a solo utility skill; it has virtually no use in parties except stopping fleeing levelquest targets.

I play almost exclusively solo and I keep Shadowbind on hand all the time. Aside from using it against fleeing levequest targets it's also great for putting distance between yourself and an enemy for damage mitigation and to set up a powerful Multishot (boosted, of course) to WS combo, or re-buff, or heal, or any other thing you may need to do mid-fight.

[Belial]

Bolded for emphasis. Shadowbind is a solo utility skill; it has virtually no use in parties except stopping fleeing levelquest targets.

I play almost exclusively solo and I keep Shadowbind on hand all the time. Aside from using it against fleeing levequest targets it's also great for putting distance between yourself and an enemy for damage mitigation and to set up a powerful Multishot (boosted, of course) to WS combo, or re-buff, or heal, or any other thing you may need to do mid-fight.

I personally hope they make this skill more beneficial/useful after the battle changes, but at this point once you rise above 30 and have Multi-Shot/Trifurcate, it becomes rare that the mob reaches you before dying, so Shadowbind does indeed become useless, even playing solo. Trust me, Archer was my very first 50 and the one I generally play with/plan to rank once cap is raised, and after 30 once I started doing leves in Broken Water I have not used Shadowbind since, however early on it is an amazing skill to utilize.