Shadowblade Assassin Guide Essentials

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Question: How is Shadowblade (Gao Changgong) in Honor of Kings, how do you play him, and what about his crowd control, plant flag, and other mechanics?

Answer:

Shadowblade (Gao Changgong) — Complete Guide

Who Is Shadowblade?

Shadowblade (暗影刀锋) is the title of Gao Changgong, also historically known as the Prince of Lanling. Originally a fallen prince of the Golden City, he trained under a mysterious hermit and became a fearsome assassin. In Honor of Kings, he is a Jungler/Assassin hero. His current win rate sits around 48.81%, placing him in Tier B.

Overall Assessment

Shadowblade is a high-risk, high-reward assassin best suited for players who can snowball early. His strength is in the early game — if he hasn’t gained an advantage early, he becomes useless and will be crushed in the late game. Finish the game as quickly as you can. If everyone enters the late game, Gao Changgong will be in an awkward position where his attacks aren’t powerful enough to kill enemies before they kill him, and his defense isn’t high enough to tank damage.

Skills Breakdown

Shadowblade’s skill set consists of:

Passive — Secret Skill: Rush — When an enemy is within a certain range, moving toward them grants him increased Movement Speed.
Skill 1 — Secret Skill: Split — Deals damage to enemies within a certain range, and deals a second strike of damage to a random enemy in range.
Skill 2 — Secret Skill: Sling — Throws a dagger that damages, slows, and marks the first enemy in its path. When attacking marked targets, he stuns them and recovers Health. Marks deal grievous damage when disappearing.
Skill 3 — Secret Skill: Strike — Exits stealth mode and dashes in the target direction, dealing damage to enemies in his path.
Ultimate — Secret Skill: Shadow — Enters stealth after a short delay, increasing Movement Speed. Leaving stealth increases Attack Speed.

Crowd Control (CC) Explained

Shadowblade has one CC ability — it’s embedded in Skill 2 (Secret Skill: Sling).

Skill 2 throws a dagger that damages, slows, and marks the first enemy hit. When he then attacks a marked target, it stuns them and recovers his Health. The mark also deals grievous (bonus) damage when it disappears.

So the CC flow is:

Throw Skill 2 → enemy is slowed + marked
Follow up with a basic attack or Skill 1 → enemy is stunned
This window is your kill window

Shadowblade is not a heavy CC hero — he has no AoE CC, no knock-up, and no silence. His single-target slow + stun combo is purely for assassination setups, not team-wide crowd control.

Best Skill Combo

The most common skill combo is Skill 2 → Ultimate → Skill 1. Use his Ultimate to approach the enemy while in stealth mode. Then, after Skill 2 connects, quickly follow through with the skill combo to kill the enemy.

The full assassination chain:

Ult (Shadow) — enter stealth, close the gap invisibly
Skill 2 (Sling) — throw dagger to slow + mark enemy
Basic attack — stun the marked enemy
Skill 1 (Split) — burst damage while they’re stunned
Skill 3 (Strike) — dash through to deal more damage / escape

Using the Ultimate (Stealth / “Shadow”)

The Ultimate (Secret Skill — Shadow) enters a 20-second cooldown after use, and can expire if he doesn’t reveal himself or get revealed by the enemies. However, he can reactivate the skill before it expires. Leaving stealth also increases his Attack Speed.

Key stealth usage tips:

Use stealth to rotate to a lane without being tracked on the minimap
Play with the enemies’ vision effectively — you can pretend to walk toward one lane when enemies have vision on you, then after activating the Ultimate and breaking their vision, change direction to gank a different lane entirely.
Use stealth to position before a fight, not just to initiate — enter from an unexpected angle

About “Plant Flag” (Crowd Positioning / Vision)

The question about “plant flag” in Honor of Kings most likely refers to vision/ward placement or territory control. Shadowblade benefits greatly from ward (vision) control:

Place wards in the enemy jungle so you know where the enemy jungler is
Use the information to time your gank entries while you’re in stealth, since enemies lose track of you when you enter Shadow mode
This is critical because Shadowblade’s entire kit revolves around attacking unaware or unsuspecting enemies

There is also the Shadow Overlord objective in the map:

After a hero deals the final blow to the Shadow Overlord, the next 2 minion waves in all 3 lanes will be replaced with Overlord Vanguards that take 50% less damage from towers. The hero who deals the killing blow also gains an active skill, Summon Shadow Vanguard, which can be used anywhere on the map to sweep down a lane of your choice, dealing large fixed damage to enemy minions and leaving a Shadow Path that grants teammates 10% damage reduction and 10% increased damage to structures for 60 seconds. Shadowblade is a good candidate for taking this objective due to his damage and stealth for safe setup.

Recommended Build

A common recommended item build is: Relentless Blade → Boots of Deftness → Axe of Torment → Rapacious Bite → Master Sword → Overlord’s Might. For Arcana: 10 Mutation, 10 Stealth, 10 Eagle Eye.

Strengths and Weaknesses Summary

Strengths	Weaknesses
Strong early-game snowball	Very weak if behind
Built-in stealth (great for ganks)	No sustained or late-game damage
Stun + slow CC combo	Only single-target CC
Self-heal on CC combo	Falls off hard in late game
High burst potential	Squishy, easily punished

Key Tips

Gank aggressively in the early to mid game — don’t wait
Always prioritize Skill 2 first in a fight to set up the stun
Use Ultimate proactively to rotate between lanes, not just for fights
He is very effective at countering late-game carries like Luban No.7 — target them before they scale up
Avoid long games — force objectives and end early

References:

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