Shadow Bind (What's the point)

[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.