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Post by aeriun on Apr 10, 2008 23:28:53 GMT -8
OK, take this with a grain of salt, I dont play my SK much, and he is only level 55.
1st - Regardles of what people tell you, take the time to summon your pet and get him some gear from your friendly neighborhood mage (it makes a difference). Yes, SK pets are kinda weak, but they aren't meant to be tanks, that is why you are wearing Platemail after all!!!!
2nd - Now that your pet has his gear, use him to your full advantage (which means like a permanent DOT).
3rd - Make sure you get the pet AA's asap so he dont run off and try to hit something when you are FD splitting pulls!
4th - We are not a DPS class, we are an agro holding class. Our main purpose is to take abuse and keep the mobs attention so that our group can dps and never worry about agro. If your caster ever gets agro, you better die from the other 12 things beating on you before that silk wearing caster goes down!
5th - The lower level snare/DOT spells create just as much agro as the higher level ones, but with a lower mana cost. SOOO, if you are chain pulling and dont want to worry about 00m, use your low level snare/dot spells.
6th - Learn to split mobs early. This is mostly important when you want to clear areas around a named mob, otherwise you should be able to handle a bunch a mobs on you on a regular basis.
7th - IF you cant handle multiple mobs hitting on you, it is time to upgrade and work some AA's. Dont get too far ahead of yourself in levels if you cant take the abuse those higher levels dish out (ie mobs that quad for 2k+).
OK, like I said, limited info from a lowby SK. Im sure people who have SKs as their main will be able to give much better info, but these will help a new player get started for their first 50 levels! Have fun, why else are you playing the game??
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Post by Naturezkiss Portalbeauty on Apr 11, 2008 6:28:56 GMT -8
thank you for posting aeri your awesome
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Post by Marsda on May 11, 2008 21:46:50 GMT -8
Ok I have played a Shadowknigth for 7 Years. I have been asked lots of times how i do so well and never had an answer. Most of what you will learn will come from lisening from other and doing what you have learned. but out of all that this is what I can tell you about Shadowknights.
First off Your a tank. Infact if played right you can keep agro from even a Necro 5 lvls over you. Hate spells are very important. buy them use them love them.
Learn to FD pull. Unlike the monks you can snare the mob then FD keeping one in place. Thats always helpfull.
Your pet at lower lvls isnt worth summoning. BUT if you want to have an easy time summoning the higher lvl ones SUMMON YOU PET. Never use your pet in raids for thay can cause alot of problems.
Learn 2hs 1hs and 1hb you will probly use them all. still have yet to use 2hb but there are some nice ones out there , if you can get your hands on one.
First AAs you should get are Defence AAs. Thay will help you cleric keep mana and you stay alive. You are not DPS dont worry about your Damage AAs tell you got as many Defence AAs as you can get.
Take Chances when you solo. you might learn that you can do more then you thought and might learn something new about yoru toon. This may cause you to die more but its the best way to learn what you can and can not do.
Work you Undead nukes i made the mistake of not and now i cant use them at lvl 74. dont do the same
Use your Spear line of spells for DPS. more and Likely the mob will be dead before your dot finishes. dont waste mana. you will probly be pulling alot.
Learn your Snare spell. you can kite very well for a group that dont want to tank. your Snare and hate spells will work great on keeping agro. toss in the bow and arrows and some DDs and your not going to lose it. then you can tell the 2 Mages to NUKE AT WILL!!!!!!!!!!!!
As far as the 1.0 for the Shadowknight. I would say dont do it but each to there own. it was very long and strung out. Some drops took weeks to get while some mobs were almost too hard to get to. Want the challange go for it. if not do the prequest but bring a raid force with you the mob AoE slows and is a pain to take down.
Just because Shadowknights are Evil dont mean you cant work with Paladins<cringe> In fact the best duo you can have is a SK paladin. Heals from paladin SK wont lose agro what more can ya ask for. But still have to give the paladins hell<grins>
Well thats about it for now if i think of any other info ill add it later. Good luck to you all and besafe.
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Post by Uomanrotyr/Soman on May 12, 2008 8:47:27 GMT -8
You overlook one thing Marsda. Most of an SK's offensive aas also transfer over VERY well into defensive. More often than not anything to improve damage also transfers perfectly into mitigation. I'll update it when I get online later, but there's an aa that gives you a permanent life tap proc that stacks w/ you proc line. Spell Casting Fury gives you a chance for crit blasts on your nukes, ht, taps, procs, and Leech Touch. As well as double damage, that's double healing on the later three. There's also the Critical Affliction line of spells. Personally, I don't generally use my dots unless there's no one in the group to cast any sort of debuff if needed, in which case I would use the Asystole line plus whatever taps I also use as debuffs. Back to the fact at hand, we get 1min+ duration dot taps. Not big damage initially, but consider 164 per tick dmg to the mob as well as healing you, Critical affliction doubles this, doing 328 per tick, add on the other aas that increase the dmg of Critical affliction and you're casting a self heal over time for around 400 in the early 70's, stacking with all hots cast on youas this is considered a "Recourse." My sk kills faster, more efficiently, and at a non-stop pace as compared to my mage who is quite compareable statistically and aa wise and often has to stop and rest. Not to mention my sk can solo in places my mage only wishes he could. An SK's goal should be balance. Considering they nerfed SK's Spear line so that they all work on the same timer, I don't even load one any more. Primarily because why should I bother loading a spell that uses mana when I melee for harder? That allows me to use my mana to mitigate any damage as compared having to cast to add some dps. By not having to have a spell up to add dmg, this means I'm able to have a group hp/mana tap up, which not only heals me for 350ish hps, but also gives roughly the same amount of mana to the healer in my group. That means an extra ch for a cleric, so not only does it slightly help my mitigation, it helps any healer I'm with keep me alive. I gladly give up a 1kish nuke for the healers ability to cast an extra heal on my arse. It uses 1% of my mana to give a cleric the chance to cast a 7500hp heal just to put that in scope for you. By my sk being balanced offensively and defensively it allows me to play passively, waiting for the moment the healer calls oom in a fight and then I still have it in me to step up to burn a mob down all the while keeping myself alive. A very large chunk of a SK's defensive ability translates through his offensive prowess. The average warrior around my lvl, if he blows a disc, will crit 5-6 times per round for between 2-300 each which means he'll do 1800 dmg in that given round. One, unbuffed, crit from me will do 1213dmg and if say I crit on even 2 out of 3 of those hits, that's 2426 just from my crits, not to mention most of my melee non-crit damage is 4-500, or a possible, though unlike scenary, of 3639 dmg in one round compared to the warriors 1800ish. Toss in Leech Curse disc and not only is that my dmg output, but that's also self heals. Biggest draw back to playing an SK vs a paladin is a paladin can play an effective support role where for an SK to be most effective he's gotta be the one taking the hits, otherwise most of our skills are just wasted. BTW, this means I'll generally out-parse an equal lvl/aa'd warrior, monk or paladin except vs undead, all the while be able to do more to keep myself up than any of these said classes while only adding to my parsed dps. Not to mention my cast tap proc, my innate tap proc, and my weapon tap proc, all of which proc for over 100dmg/healing w/o exception or crit blasts. At least one of these will fire off almost every round. If an SK doesn't take advantage of these aas, then we're paladins w/o heals and stuns, meaning we're basically a warrior using generally a 2h weapon w/o the defensive skills. I'll repeat myself once more, for a SK offense works out to be defense. If you overlook the offense you never meet your full potential, if you overlook the defense, we're dead. Through balance only will an SK meet it's true potential. Always must we strive to destroy if for no more than self-preservation. Destroy to live, live to destroy, it's a beautiful, ironic life.
P.S. Btw, my primary weapon is a 2hb. Generally 1hb weapons are quick, but lack damage that a 1hs will have. A hybrid can easily get ahold of a Blade of Disruption which will beat any non-raid dropped 1hb. 1h weapons are a good idea when you're taking, 2h weapons can be used at any time though if your defense is strong enough. We get alot of aas strictly for when we're using 2h weapons which help alot.
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Post by Marsda on May 12, 2008 16:26:19 GMT -8
OK this is for the new player not for the ones with weapons that hit for 2k+. If my SK hit for that much id be out doing things i only dream of right now. but my max crit sofar has been for 800 or so. and most New people to the SK class isnt look at high dmg like that tell about lvl 70+ unless thay get really luck and get the Epic at lvl 65. so Loading up that one Spear spell <my lvl 72 one does 1k+ dmg> is alot more then my avrage hit. you need to rember that lower lvls dont get all the things we get at lvl 74+ like us. and yes some of the attack AAs do let you heal yourself better and more but if it dont proc or you dont get that extra heal you have to relay on the cleric and with the Defence AAs it always is working and helping out and lets the cleric do a better job Healing you and keep healing you. dont get me wrong them attack AAs are really great to have. infact if i was still lvl 65 id be staying there tell i got all my defence AAs and Attack AAs done but im not anymore cant solo at all so i depend on a cleric like most of them will tell thay do get that great gear you got and i have some of. If everyone could just go buy the items that let you solo MPG and all them zones i would have stated that alot diff but you cant you have to raid. you have to get in a Raiding guild you have to Lisen and wait and work and this is for learning at for new players. And a SK with out the Defence AAs will waste alot of the clerics mana. Maybe i should have stated that this was for someone under lvl 65 because before then you arnt that great as DPS and you do depend on you Defence to get you thought the fight because most your really good Attack AAs dont go high enuph for them to be relayed apon tell your over lvl 65 or even 70 And like you said skip the defence your dead so go for them first i never said never get the Attack ones because what DPS you do do is always welcome. and yes with enuph AAs and Lvls you will be a very deadly class and you will make alot of other class's look bad by doing things thay cant. My warrior is lvl 65 and does more DPS right now then my 74 SK. now if i can ever get the morugecaller that will change. And leach curse isnt always up you canr use it every fight so even thought it heals the hell out of you for all the dmg you do to mobs and you will make sure one mobs is dead by the time you get to second your not doing that and i dont think a group wants to wait for you to get that back up to tank another mob. but Like i said this if for the lower lvl SKs that are learning there toons dont expect that a group will look at any SK and say WOW DPS GET THAT PERSON because thats not happeneing they see eather a puller or a tank so you might as well become that tank first then work on the DPS so you can keep getting groups because you are a good tank then thay will want you more because your doing more and more dmg.
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Post by Uomanrotyr/Soman on May 12, 2008 21:57:48 GMT -8
I'm not going to get into it, I know what my toons can do, as well as my friends who are in raid guilds. I didn't have to raid to put my toons in the position they're in, that came due to persistence and determination. All my toons are more defensive than offensive, my whole point here was that an sks offense, if played correctly, is a very big part of their mitigation. I can pull off xp like I do solo because I research everything and I constantly test out new theories. I can farm pp and still get decent xp because I do research, yet I know where I can go to get fast xp as well. You'll notice, I'll hunt in hotzones less than I do non-hotzones and still pull in xp faster than those who only hunt in the hotzones. I constantly test my toons and see where they need to improve for my sk this meant coming to the realization that I needed to kick up the dps to do what I want him to be able to do. Most of my sks aas are doable to a certainn extent in the mid 50's. I do have some of the higher lvl aas that they couldn't do, but since lvl 51 my sk has followed the same rules. Due to the gear I have, things are a bit easier, but it was the aas that removed my need to use the Spear spells. It's my aas that allow my sk to be more group oriented and self sufficient. It was my hard head that made me grind those aas. My biggest foley in a group situation is I expect others to play their toons how I would play them, which means I expect them to do everything in their power to be as efficient as possible, to put the work into getting the gear they need, and to focus on what's going on. Finally, in every way you tried to shoot down my suggestions, there's a way to fix. There's aas to lower reuse timers, there's aas to increase the chances and frequency of procs, but know that a 2h weapon always has a higher proc rate than a 1h weapon. Research and persistence will get you where ever you want to go in EQ. My friends that are actually in my lvl range know I bring a well rounded, and still very strong defensive, toon to the table when I play w/ them. Two of my toons could easily be 80 by now if I didn't grind aas, but considering you often have to solo or box in EQ these days, I chose to make sure I can solo. Every one of my toons in the 60s+, minus the rogue, can solo dark blues. Though doing so is far from the most efficient course of action. Here's some more information for people that may need it: The Everfrost LDoN merchants have Dodge skill mod augs, but these are for slot 3. Items w/ Dodge I are easily attainable by the mid 50s, and by lvl 60 you can have farmed up enough pp to get a Dodge II aug. AC augs are always a plus, and there's a large number of them spread out through the old hotzones and the new ones, but the best you will see from the hotzones is 10ac, which is the same as the LDoN and DoN augs. For those that play a tank class seriously, there's quests and MMs that will give 20+ ac augs, and just something I've found is the dropped 20+ ac augs are very rare and hard to come by, but you can get augs just as good and have more fun doing the quests or MMs to get them. The first Lich type spell a SK gets is at 56, and it is a rare drop off of a very rare mob. I've seen it for sale once in the last year in the bazaar. Some people think that this means it's time to start dropping ac and just grab regen items, but again, there's augs and good common items you can pick up w/ a little work or pp that will be an upgrade for most people. As a troll, I don't worry too much about regen, and once you hit 65 you should never have to worry about a sks Lich spells draining hps. The gear available at lvl 65 often has hp regen on it to some degree and the lvl 68 Lich drains 27hps per tick, but this is mitigated as all PC cast dmg is, not to mention everyone has some degree of innate regen, plus any regen you get from items. Now, some people believe hps are where it's at, but personally I'm an ac freak. A toon can have 20k hps, but if they don't have the ac to back it up they might as well have 5k hp. The higher your ac is the better chance you have of getting hit for minimum dmg as well as completely avoiding the attack. Some people will go after those 45hp/mana augs just so they can hit 10k hp by lvl 65, but are often left w/ some where around 1.5k ac and at that point, it just won't cut it. In this day and age it's a good goal, and reasonable, to aim for no less than 2k ac and 10k hp by lvl 65, and I mean base, not buffed. As far as defensive aas go, you won't notice any real difference until you have at least 10 of each, and even then not much of one. The aa cost goes 2,4,6 for the first three ranks, 3aas until you reach the 8th rank, and then 5aas. Once you reach the 8th rank grinding defensives gets a bit tedious, so I found this a good time to toss in a rank or two into some of your offensives between each defensive aa. This is the point where your defensives begin to become noticable and I found it a good time to start rounding my toon. Offensively, Combat Fury is a flashy and the most commonly worked aa. The most crits you will ever see is when you get this to the sixth rank before you put anything into Veterans Wrath, once you start VW your crit rate noticeably drops. Veterans Wrath is the best aa to increase your overall dps. Spell Casting Fury is the first real aa you can do to increase your self-healing issues. For whatever reason I don't get as many crit blasts as I do exceptional heals w/ the same ranks in both, but that may have been done to stop sks and necros from constantly popping off heals 4x what the spell was to begin w/, but it still happens and it can turn a fight that you "know" you're going to lose in your favor. Critical Affliction can't be touched until 65, and hopefully by then you'll have at least 12-14 ranks into both major defensives. Early on the tap-dot spells aren't useful as they use alot of mana and just don't offer the healing. This one isn't really all that vital right away, but before long working these aas and casting this line of spell becomes much more efficient than just casting your dd taps. For aas, a good goal at before going past lvl 65 would be at least 12 into each defensive, 5 into Planar Power, 3 into melee crits, spell crits, exceptional heals, and critical affliction. A couple of flashy aas won't hurt you at this point either. This means you would have in the range of 140-180 aas, which at this point isn't hard to do. At this point it would be a good time to start gathering Elaborate armor, though you don't HAVE to have it until 70. At 70+ you'll want to upgrade any of the Eminent augs you put into the Elaborate to Exalted as they nearly triple the hp/mana per aug as compared to the Eminent. At this point ideally you'll be wrapping up your defensives and have tossed 1-2 ranks more into each offensive. A good goal is 500 aas by 75 as it's said, minus uber raid gear, that 500 is the bare minimum to transition into SoF zones while maintaining usefulness. At 75 Warped Steel armor is an awesome idea as most of the focuses are targeted for the SK class. We're the only plate wearing class that can make any use out of 2 of the focuses, and all the while we still make use of all the other focuses from the gear as well. The stuff is very expensive, but cheaper than the Elegant and Sublime upgrade in cultural. At this point, start looking for Steam Cores to tune the gear even better towards your toon. These days it's very reasonable to have a balanced toon. Cultural is getting more expensive while value of the ingredients goes down, so it could be in your favor if you're farming pp and aas to work your smithing a bit and make your own gear. This is the last time you can do so w/o having to raid to do the cultural quest. There's a few places, mainly in SoF, that you can farm for the ores and loams for the gear, but also Paw drops the cobalt ore and soluble loam which you'll need, bleh, as does HoH, but only in the hero shrine and I really hate killing giant humans all day. Ideal weapon at lvl 65 is the Wirlem Archblade. You lose a couple pts of dmg compared to the Blade of Disruption, but you gain 2 or 3 magic damage, like 10ac and a load of hps. Also, by 70 the damage of the Wirlems is better than the BoD. Your best bet on a shield is either the Time shield or the one from the Dains. At 70 a number of better options open up, mainly being from DoDh as these have great ac/hp and focuses in-tune for SKs and shamans. Once you reach 70 start watching for any CoA raids, pick-up or any you're invited to as the quest armor, jewelry, and my personal favorite, the Morguecaller all drop there. The goal of any game is to have fun, but it's hard to have fun when group members begin to feel you're dragging them down. Especially if you have a person who isn't afraid to let you know about it. I'd say a strong goal at 70 statistically would be 11khp and 2.3k ac. It will cost you a load of pp to reach this, even if you make your own gear, but it's completely doable. For a final note on this subject, keep all five weapon skills close to max as you never know when you may run into an event in which you may get some weapon. Often times, for whatever reason, I've noticed when weapons are won in events they're blunt or piercing, maybe because sks and paladins both are given 1hs weapons that are just nasty, plus our epics are 2hs. SoE likes to throw curve balls.
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Post by Brawlgin Skulforge on May 13, 2008 7:40:10 GMT -8
Very Great advice yall ty ty /kneel now i wanna play seph. =P
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