Shades are spectral clones of you. Enemies cannot distinguish between you and your Shades, and will target a Shade as if it were you.

Shades cannot move and will not act on their own, but Ambushing with a Melee Attack will cause your Shades to also peform that Attack if they are in range of a target.

When a Shade peforms your Skill, their portion deals 50% less damage, but is otherwise identical to the portion you peform and is part of the same Skill use. Any damage dealt is dealt by you, not the Shade. The damage penalty only applies to Skills you are also performing.

Shades have a default duration of 6 seconds (unless killed faster), affected by modifiers to Skill Effect Duration. You have a default Shade Limit of 3.