Valor

When to use it

The one affix every launch-week guide agrees on, across Mercenary, Blackarrow and Withered Knight builds. The figures survived a check: a 2025 playtest panel gives Lv5 as Attack +10% with 2.5% penetration, the 5 August live panel gives the numbers recorded here, and the affix was rebalanced between the two — the older table is not a correction. The panel shows why level five specifically: it is the exact step where Defense Penetration unlocks, which is what a leaderboard Blackarrow meant by calling five the breakpoint. Levels six and seven buy attack only, so five is where the affix stops being a damage stat and starts ignoring armour.

Builds using this

• Withered Knight — Greatsword PvP — Soulgrot explains it at 16:47
  Damage alongside the budget core. Its allocation changes by tier; the catalogue link names the affix, not a command to buy the linked record’s tier.
• Withered Knight — Polearm & Shield — Legacy Gaming explains it at 20:14
  Attack and defensive penetration after its level threshold, rounding out the damage side of the set.
• Mercenary — Parry Sword & Shield, solo — Master Deemo explains it at 21:30
  Flat attack, and at level five the passive defensive penetration. Rounds out what the creator calls the three best solo affixes for any class.
• Blackarrow — full-draw ranged — Legacy Gaming explains it at 16:00
  Called a no-brainer for overall attack, and at level five it starts granting defensive penetration.
• Shadowstrix — dual blades, wound explosion — Master Deemo explains it at 16:30
  Flat attack and defence penetration. Maxed after Fervor on the blue kit.
• Shadowstrix bait-and-stun — Swanifier explains it at 03:00
  The floor on the purple kit, before anything else is considered.
• Seer — Reverent catalyst, ranged support — LichKArthus explains it at 13:00
  Five, and part of the four he restates as the floor at the end: Valor, Eloquence, Elusive, Stoic. That restatement is the one place the video gives a priority order rather than a list.
• Blackarrow — PvP Kiting — thelorr explains it at 08:22
  Target 7 for the lower-tier damage plan. The creator prefers its less conditional damage over range- or action-dependent alternatives.
• Mercenary — Skullcrusher hammer, PvP — Firebox explains it at 01:30
  Damage.
• Sorcerer — Fire and Ice, PvP — Toonchie explains it at 00:24
  The only damage affix he keeps. "I think the only damage you need to run is Valor" — everything else went defensive.

Where this comes from

Master Deemo — Best Shadowstrix Solo Build and Affix Guide — opens at 16:40, where the affix is explained.

2 further sources describe it independently:

• Legacy Gaming — Ultimate Blackarrow Class Guide
• Rebrrth — The Ultimate Guide to Black Arrow — at 14:30