This guide is intended to assist in making character development decisions. This is my opinion, and I don't claim that this is the only viable build. However, I do claim that this build is extremely effective and can easily defeat every enemy in the game.

Before I begin reviewing skills individually, a statement of design philosophy and some perspective.

My goal is to beat the game efficiently. This build is designed to win fights quickly and easily, not to do so with any particular style in mind. The things I value are power and consistency. Power means big numbers. Consistency means there's nothing your enemy can do to prevent you from using your strategy.

With that in mind, I will make the case that the Electric path is by far the best approach to building this character. Specifically that Shock Therapy is the best attack available to this character.

Finally, keep in mind the role of your team-mates. Roald is useless and the best job he can do is distract the enemy. Sometimes he grows a brain and uses a well timed stun or silence, and these are wonderful abilities if only he would use them at the right time more reliably. His damage will never be better than mediocre. Veradux on the other hand is a key player. His healing is the main thing that keeps you alive and you should keep him on defensive or phalanx stance at all times and work primarily on boosting his healing powers (it seems to scale primarily with Strength).

Here is the detailed review of each skill:

Starting Skills

Dark Infusion - This is extremely bad. You may need to use it at the beginning of the came to regen some focus (before you have access to Electric Storm). The damage is totally mediocre and having to deal with giving your enemy free focus is annoying. Using it on yourself is unacceptable except when you have no choice.

Corruption - this actually does very good damage during the early game, before you've developed a better attack. Its not unreasonable to set it up with a Dark Echoes or something. It does however, eat up Focus very quickly and should be dropped when better alternatives are available.

Dark Echoes - This is a reasonable attack but its damage never gets to be particularly good. The best thing about it is the low focus cost and the low cooldown, its a good set-up for stronger Shadow damage abilities. Ultimately you'll stop using this at some point in zone 2 when you switch to full electric and no longer use Shadow attacks.

Placebo - useless. low damage, weak debuff, nothing to see here.

Nerve Shock - same as Placebo. skip it.

Terrify - the damage is mediocre but the heal-over-time is moderately useful. However...Veradux is your healer, you shouldn't need any other healing if you're doing it right.

Free Will - One of the best abilities for the class. Recommend maxing this one. The dispelling abilities are critically useful and the damage shield will bail you out on a regular basis since sometimes Veradux falls a little bit behind. The heal-over-time is just bonus, it isn't the real reason you use this ability but its still nice.

Traumatize- Another extremely good ability and a low point commitment to max it as well, so its quite good. This is good for stalling for time to put hard hitting enemies out of the fight while Veradux catches up on healing. This is also very useful for managing cooldowns and ability durations. For example, you can stun enemies with short duration buffs on them so they miss their window of opportunity. The focus drain component is just gravy, though it is critically useful in the Baron fight.

Destruction - this can only be used on allies, not yourself. neither of your allies has good damage, not even Roald wearing full Strength gear. you're the damage dealer of the party. skip this one.

Betrayal - pure garbage. This only works when its set up ahead of time with Retrograde. If something goes wrong you either wasted two turns or perhaps you even just nailed one of your allies for a large amount. Way too tricky. Way too inconsistent. Leave it alone.

Retrograde - also garbage. way too inconsistent. yes i know this has funny combos with Nightmare and Betrayal and whatever else you can think of. Thats all tricky non-sense and you don't need to waste your time doing that. at 2 points you can also use this on enemies. there are no fights in the game that require you to do so though so you can safely ignore that tactic.

Confinement - this is actually quite useful against enemies that heal alot. however...you can view healing prevented as some form of damage dealt, in the end they're totally equivalent. if you can use the skill points (and slots on your ability wheel) to do more damage than the equivalent healing prevented than you should. i was always able to find a more effective damage increase compared to the healing decrease. damage increase is also generically useful against all enemies, even one that don't heal.

Shock Therapy - This is the best attack the class has. Max this, put 3 copies of it on your ability wheel, zap the crap out of every enemy you see. the 330% instinct co-efficient is superb, basically unmatched. the fact that this is ALSO a buff dispelling ability makes this unparalleled in its level of utility. Simply the best thing going and the focal point of this build.

Salvation - this is an extremely worthwhile buff. once you max this, you should find that Veradux no longer has any problems keeping pace with incoming damage. It also keeps him alive longer and boosts his focus regen. Really you couldn't ask for anything better. This is mandatory and the reason why you can trust Veradux to do all of your healing.

Insecurity - this would be an important skill if we were attempting to use Shadow damage. We're not though, so you can ignore it completely.

Overdrive - this is broken and bugged and totally malfunctioning. don't waste your time. even if it worked as advertise, you simply don't need to accept a life-loss penalty to get good damage. this is never a good trade-off. the risk/reward calculus fails on this one.

High Voltage - less damage than Shock Therapy without the dispel, and in fact it buffs your enemy. Super Awful. 1 point for pre-requisite advancement but never use this.

Tenacity - its very powerful but its usefulness is totally related to whether or not you're actually dying. You can use this as a place to dump extra skill points but if you're doing things correctly you'll kill so fast that the extra survivability of this ability isn't especially important. I usually just put 1 point in here.

Epiphany - this is an actually good Shadow damage ability but its so far down the tree and requires so many points wasted in other garbage abilities that I can't justify building around this.

Electron Charge - same as High Voltage. less damage and overall just worse than Shock Therapy. don't bother.

Electrical Storm - another core ability of this build. it does respectable damage (though noticeably less than Shock Therapy) but ITS TOTALLY FREE and it regens 40 focus. Max it, love it, lean on it, it drives the build.

Charged Blood - the damage passive that makes this build truly deadly. max it, no explanation should be necessary. this is what makes your crits gigantic.

Wraith Form - this is a very powerful ability but strictly speaking you don't need it. I use it because the Speed increase is gigantic and usually gives you 4 turns in a row of guaranteed massive crits. that kind of burst damage is devastating and most opponents can't withstand it. the focus regen from this is convenient but not that important since you've got Electrical Storm. 

Nightmare - more tricky garbage. you can try to use this as a finisher or you can try to combine this with Retrograde and hit yourself with it, but in either case thats an inconsistent situation and you don't ever need this. Skip it.

Haunt - re-spec and get this 2/2 for the Baron fight. thats the only time in the whole game you need this. skip it otherwise.

Psychopath Form - this is exceptionally powerful but requires you to be invested in garbage like Betrayal, Retrograde, and Overdrive. If you could get this without having to take Garbage it would be ridiculously awesome. As is this is like the consolation prize for playing a bad build. It doesn't make up for the weakness of the rest of the Shadow Damage stuff.

Shock Coma - this is cute and mildly useful. Its versatile, as you can use it to crowd control an enemy for a long time or to recover your own stuff. However...you have better options for both crowd control and recover so really this is second rate at either task and thus should not be used.

Ultimatum - pure trash.

Sacrifice - this is funny. sometimes you might REALLY want to just eat Roald. ultimately though you may as well keep him around to absorb hits and save yourself the wasted skill points and ability wheel slot.

Implosion - i've yet to find a situation where this would matter. waste of points/slots. another one of those tricky Shadow abilities that requires way too much set up.

So if you've stayed with me this whole time, thanks for reading. I hope you found this useful. Before I finish I'll leave you with my most typical equipment choices and ability load-outs.

Ability Wheel Load-Out
1. Shock Therapy
2. Shock Therapy
3. Shock Therapy
4. Electric Storm
5. Traumatize
6. Free Will
7. Salvation
8. Wraith Form

Equipment Choices
Primary Stats: Instinct and Lightning Piercing
Secondary Stats: Vitality and Speed
Tertiary Stats: whatever miscellaneous defense you can find

the Electric Armor set from Zone 4 (the Tunnel) is actually extremely useful. You can equip it starting at level 18 and is good enough to last through the end-game. If you're especially lucky you'll find a really good weapon with high Lightning Piercing like Poseidon's Trident (or whatever its called).

With this build its typical to crit for 3500+ with your Shock Therapy. More or less depending on buffs/debuffs and the Lightning Defense level of your opponent.

In Wraith Form you can go on Offensive kill streaks where you unload 4 attacks in a row for a total of about 14,000 damage in 4 turns (3 Shock Therapy crits, and 1 Electric Storm crit). This is enough damage to blow away any regular enemy in the game. Only bosses can survive a round of this. Bosses usually die in the 2nd round of Wraith Form though.

Thanks! This ought to help out with the psychological character I'm using. It's struggling.

Great guide.  I'm just starting out as a Psych and have been hating Shadow.

Nightmare is actually a pretty good attack. Fully maxed, it does 520% intellect! That's the most straight damage a Psycho can do with one attack. Now what I suggest you do with this is to chain it with Wraith Form, then use Nightmare, and then let loose with Corruption. Corruption works with any shadow buff or debuff with no cooldown, so the damage you do with corruption overrides any damage they recover at all. Nightmare's health recovery is actually not very great.

Psychos are very hard in the starting game, but once you get their abilities down, they are extremely powerful. I agree with your guidelines, but I have a little different view on Retrograde. Normally, it's trash. Use the slot for something else. However, during the Baron fight, it will save your ***. Before the Baron fight, re-spec and get Traumatize and Retrograde specifically, I beg all psychos.

Okay, here are my moves:

Shock Therapy
Shock Therapy
Shock Therapy
Wraith Form
Haunt
Electrical Storm
Electrical Storm
Salvation

How do I use those moves the beat the Baron?
I try using haunt, but it depletes the Baron's focus too slowly and it isn't until after quite a while before he hurts himself and recovers focus. And in the meantime, he keeps using tick tock and kills us. Our attacks don't seem to have much effect either, even in wraith form.

Hmmm....

maybe I should try using traumatize.

i think you've already figured it out Firetail.

Traumatize is the key to beating Baron. Not only will it rapidly deplete his Focus (causing him to damage himself severely once it reaches 0), it will keep him locked down for quite a long time which will limit his ability to hose your team with the Tic Toc debuff.

Generally, Veradux has no problem keeping 1 person alive through a Tic Toc. Its only a bad situation if 2 (or God forbid all 3) people are debuffed.

Its a kinda long fight but just stay on top of him with Traumatize, and make sure Haunt is running the whole time. You should be able to get him down to 1/3rd life and still be in good shape. Once he gets to 1/3rd life (about 31,000 health) he'll start getting debuffed automatically with Holy Scars, which makes him take alot more damage. Once he gets to this stage you want to pop Wraith Form and just hammer him, should be able to kill him in just 2 or 3 shots if you get the timing right.

in case you're wondering...

Anti-Baron Skill Build

3/3 Shock Therapy
at least 1/4 Electrical Storm
1 Wraith Form
2/2 Haunt
2/2 Traumatize

those are all 100% necessary, whatever you do with the rest of your skill points is up to you.

Loadout
1. Shock Therapy
2. Shock Therapy
3. Electrical Storm
4. Traumatize
5. Traumatize
6. Haunt
7. Free Will
8. Wraith Form

you've got one less Shock Therapy than normal, but its ok since the fight is more about pacing and controlling him with Traumatize than it is about pure damage output.

i recommend being at least level 13 as well, maybe need level 14 or 15 depending on how good your equipment is.

Generally, Veradux has no problem keeping 1 person alive through a Tic Toc. Its only a bad situation if 2 (or God forbid all 3) people are debuffed.

Unfortunately, that's what happened.
We were all tick-tocked.
And just when the tick tock almost happened to be over, he used it again and started at 10.

3/3 Shock Therapy
at least 1/4 Electrical Storm
1 Wraith Form
2/2 Haunt
2/2 Traumatize

I have 4/4 Electrical Storm, but I didn't use Traumatize, so I guess....

7. Free Will

Is Free Will necessary?
If it is, when and to who should I use it on?

I think you guys really need to think again about the shadow psyco. Its reliable enough that you don't need teammates as part of your strategy. overdrive is the KEY to being completely independent from your teammates. this will give you more turns because you wont have to keep your guys alive. you HAVE to have terrify in order for this to work, because it completely negates (if not heals you every turn) the harmful effects of overdrive. After that, you hit the target with Epiphany, then hammer it with Dark Infusion (it stacks). This will cause MAJOR damage over time. It is definitely wise to get Tenacity, because is a very risky setup, but once you get the Law Binder (instinct +141) for $2887 at the pawn shop in Hew, how can do some real damage. (thanks to the binder, I've got 430 instinct, and using the above strategy will make them lose 1200+ in damage over time alone). So far, you've only needed 3 slots, so this leaves room for Free Will (makes it a little less risky) and you can put some straight forward attacks as well. Shock therapy is really useful (pretty much the only thing we agree on), Terrify can be used as a good attack as well as just a overdrive negator, with Dark Echoes Echoes and Insecurity you can actually have the 2 step attack from the other strategy in  your arsenal (as long as you remember to keep your health up with Terrify), and psychopath form will make all of these attack 30% more powerful. Basically, after you've got the basic 3 necessary for this to work, you can customize it to fit your play style. try it out, here my lvl 25 shadow psyco.

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If you actually use my strategy above, maybe youll see what im talking about

Free will is amazing at defending against tick tock. It shields you for 500% of your instinct (main stat as a psycho class), and heals you for a good bit too.

I would put on at least 2 free wills on the skill pallet and take off one of the shock therapy. Face it, the only time it's really beneficial to attack the Baron is when he has holy scars, which lasts only for like 2 rounds at a time. Getting his focus down to zero is much more important than doing insignificant attacks in the face of his 95k health (in heroic mode).