Not Going Reaver ... Anyone Else?

[Witchcraft]

<p>I am going for a pure MT/group build ... not DPS/solo.</p><p>I have maxed out Sta and 448 Int and now I am working on the SK tree.</p><p>For Shadow Knight Tree I am thinking:</p><p>Dark Caress -> Shriek of Terror -> Insidious Whisper (by passing Rescue) -> Destructive Slam (does anyone know what Death March Hate does?) -> Siphon Hate.</p><p>Has anyone gone this route and love your feedback ... thinking with a good healer which I always have in my Teams reaver may not be as important and I have an opportunity of working on my hate/tuant skills?</p><p>Fen</p>

[Dead Knight]

If you're raiding with a competent bunch, Reaver is weaksauce and not worth a [Removed for Content], the only reason I still have it is soloing/duoing stuff outside of raids. Death March is a group buff with +DPS mod, immunity to all negative states and a ton of INT, it also has a lot of snap aggro attached to it. Drop STA line IMO, you give up too much DPS/efficiency for a tiny bit of extra HP. The extra HP will come with gear, using STA just makes you gimpsauce and you pretty much waste the time of the other 23 people in the raid so that your HP number is prettier to look at by a few hundred.

[MaCloud1032]

<p>The other items in the reaver line make up for the nerf it took 2months ago.  It is still by far one of the best skills you can get for a T7 sk.  It alows for alot of leway in group make up or healers not on the ball.  Doing easy zones like the nest or ackawhatever I have come out healing more than my healer.  Yes its uncommon but can be done.  In raids i have parsed 3rd on the heal pars under the dief and the inqis as MT.</p><p>Like my bleed pool its is something i couldnt part with at this stage.  When you milk an ability for all its worth you miss it when its gone trustme.</p>

[Witchcraft]

<p>Appreciate the response:</p><p> In dropping Stamina you would then recommend full Str I presume?</p><p>Savannah what other Reaver skills are you suggesting and does this warrant not having the incresaed hate/taunt abilities in the SK Tree?</p><p> Thank you both,</p><p> Fen</p>

[Dead Knight]

Yes, full STR. The Reaver skill itself isn't all that, but the line is great. The Blessing increase for example, and the Tap Veins timer.

[MaCloud1032]

The ones that add heals to spells that dont have them already.  Like coil and HT.  Also reducing the resuse on tap veins and drain vietel.Heals attached to our life taps also add to our hate gain.  You will also see our life taps and reaver regen wards from healers(if they have them)  Also upping the proc rate on unholy weapon is very nice.  That can be as much a 10% dps for a zone.  sence it is still a strait % and not x times a min.  Means its unaffected by how fast we swing.  Actualy swinging faster is good for that buff

[Witchcraft]

<p>Would you mind savanah sharing in the exact Reaver path you have taken in the SK starting with your first point to the last?</p><p>I have done already on respec. and want to make sure I get this right this time and seems to me you are both suggesting not to put points into hate/tuant lines in SK Tree?</p><p>Fen</p>

[MaCloud1032]

<p>My eof line goes like this   5pts in unholy weapon  5pts in grim  5pts in HT 5pts in tap veins 1pt in reaver.</p><p>From the coil i went and put 3 in promis and 5 in deathmarch thats all i have in hate line.</p><p> In pools i have 5 in resists 5 in cleave 5 in dispiol and 5 in doom judgment and 1 in pools</p><p>I have this for playing on a pvp server.  I use my coil the most out of all of my spells and when someone is running the dot stays on and ticks the ehal for me.</p><p>My kos line is 4-4-8 int full str line 4sta 1 hammer.  </p>

[Dead Knight]

Get the Hate and Reaver line. What we're saying is the end ability in Reaver isn't all that great.

[Witchcraft]

Really appreciate Dark and Dread ... so go actually 2 lines in SK Tree (Hate and Reaver) and 2 lines in Crusader (Str and Int.)?

[MaCloud1032]

<p>Ya from a PvE stand point my AA set up is useless.  there is no need in pve to inhance doom judgment.  Or the dispoil for that matter.  </p><p>Having the bleed pool makes up for not having perfect group make up as i can only group with freeport toons.  </p>

[Dead Knight]

<cite>Witchcraft wrote:</cite><blockquote>Really appreciate Dark and Dread ... so go actually 2 lines in SK Tree (Hate and Reaver) and 2 lines in Crusader (Str and Int.)?</blockquote>Yes.

[MaCloud1032]

<p>For Kos having 4-4-8 int  and say 4-8-8-6-2 str this alone will increase hate gain quite a bit.</p><p>and ripz is saying do something like my reaver line but insteasd of coil take the blessing and then go down the hate line.  LIke 5 in first slot 3 in taunts and shield bash 5 and deathmarch 5</p>

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote>If you're raiding with a competent bunch, Reaver is weaksauce and not worth a [I cannot control my vocabulary], the only reason I still have it is soloing/duoing stuff outside of raids. Death March is a group buff with +DPS mod, immunity to all negative states and a ton of INT, it also has a lot of snap aggro attached to it. Drop STA line IMO, you give up too much DPS/efficiency for a tiny bit of extra HP. The extra HP will come with gear, using STA just makes you gimpsauce and you pretty much waste the time of the other 23 people in the raid so that your HP number is prettier to look at by a few hundred.</blockquote>Tiny bit of extra HP?  Try about 500HP.  That isn't tiny, by any means.  Divine Aura is one of the greatest [Removed for Content]-savers a Shadowknight can get.

[Coica]

I must add, its your toon, not someone elses, so experiment and take what people say is "weaksauce" with a grain of salt  and think for yourself. I appreciate the comments from everyone, but I always go test it myself and dont base that on someone elses opinion or so called fact. one thing to keep in mind is reaver is also based off a percentage of your health, so the higher health, the greater portion of healing in return for reaver. I actually have tried other things and always go back to the STA line. I disagree that your group or its healers suk , as has been stated, if you use DA. IMHO, it is an awesome ability. that being said... I am testing out the STR line again VS full STA.  what has changed is the group I have been rolling with has gotten better and is pushing my DPS to a limit  and I can now pull mass quantities of tough mobs with less need for something like DA so the increase cast time and recast reduction might be better for this SK finally. but again. test what works well for your character. dont take my word or anyone else here's word for the be-all, end-all of how to spec your toon. no offense to any others that post here.

[Hugsnkissums]

<cite>Coica@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote> test what works well for your character. dont take my word or anyone else here's word for the be-all, end-all of how to spec your toon.</blockquote><p>I can't agree with this more...I've tried a lot of defferent specs here and found something that fits me for now. There isn't a wrong way to spec an SK really. Your spec should follow your play style, whatever that is. Some will swear there is only one way to spec your charater, but they may not play like you nor do they have to put up with some of the same stuff you have to. Respeccing your AAs has become so rediculously easy, you'd be cheating yourself if you didn't at least try the different AA trees out there to see what was right for you. I think the only thing you'll hear people totally agree on is go 4-4-8 INT line. That has been the only consistant thing I hear people say time and time again, everything else is based on playstyle so have fun and just play with it.  </p>

[Dead Knight]

<cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote>If you're raiding with a competent bunch, Reaver is weaksauce and not worth a [I cannot control my vocabulary], the only reason I still have it is soloing/duoing stuff outside of raids. Death March is a group buff with +DPS mod, immunity to all negative states and a ton of INT, it also has a lot of snap aggro attached to it. Drop STA line IMO, you give up too much DPS/efficiency for a tiny bit of extra HP. The extra HP will come with gear, using STA just makes you gimpsauce and you pretty much waste the time of the other 23 people in the raid so that your HP number is prettier to look at by a few hundred.</blockquote>Tiny bit of extra HP?  Try about 500HP.  That isn't tiny, by any means.  Divine Aura is one of the greatest [I cannot control my vocabulary]-savers a Shadowknight can get.</blockquote>If you're a raider, you know 500 HP is nothing at the top end of the spectrum. You also know that any given mob worth a [Removed for Content] will hit you for much more than that. Furthermore you know that on a raid you are there to make yourself as useful as possible and contribute as much as you can. Speccing utility for WIS isn't the way - because it doesn't provide enough of a boost to the group for anyone to care ( maybe if it had crits or DPS mod ). Speccing STA doesn't do much either. You give up up to 500 DPS by speccing for STA, that's 500 less raid wide. That's a little bit longer it takes to kill the mob. Believe me, your healers won't care about 500 HP, and your RL would much rather have 500 more DPS, the whole raid would. The faster it's over, the faster you can go do other stuff - and if you spec so that you look more uber when you're posing in EFP with a wee bit of extra HP - you're wasting the time of 23 other people. DA, what can I say? It's stoneskin - it's useful. However, it only lasts for 10 seconds, and is on a 10 minute recast, it requires too many points for such a trivial thing. Perhaps if its timer were reduced, or it wasn't an end ability of a fairly weak line in comparison to STR and INT. When we have 70 AA, speccing all the way down STA will be much more viable for raiding, until then - it really doesn't make that much of a difference.

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote>If you're raiding with a competent bunch, Reaver is weaksauce and not worth a [I cannot control my vocabulary], the only reason I still have it is soloing/duoing stuff outside of raids. Death March is a group buff with +DPS mod, immunity to all negative states and a ton of INT, it also has a lot of snap aggro attached to it. Drop STA line IMO, you give up too much DPS/efficiency for a tiny bit of extra HP. The extra HP will come with gear, using STA just makes you gimpsauce and you pretty much waste the time of the other 23 people in the raid so that your HP number is prettier to look at by a few hundred.</blockquote>Tiny bit of extra HP?  Try about 500HP.  That isn't tiny, by any means.  Divine Aura is one of the greatest [I cannot control my vocabulary]-savers a Shadowknight can get.</blockquote>If you're a raider, you know 500 HP is nothing at the top end of the spectrum. You also know that any given mob worth a [I cannot control my vocabulary] will hit you for much more than that. Furthermore you know that on a raid you are there to make yourself as useful as possible and contribute as much as you can. Speccing utility for WIS isn't the way - because it doesn't provide enough of a boost to the group for anyone to care ( maybe if it had crits or DPS mod ). Speccing STA doesn't do much either. You give up up to 500 DPS by speccing for STA, that's 500 less raid wide. That's a little bit longer it takes to kill the mob. Believe me, your healers won't care about 500 HP, and your RL would much rather have 500 more DPS, the whole raid would. The faster it's over, the faster you can go do other stuff - and if you spec so that you look more uber when you're posing in EFP with a wee bit of extra HP - you're wasting the time of 23 other people. DA, what can I say? It's stoneskin - it's useful. However, it only lasts for 10 seconds, and is on a 10 minute recast, it requires too many points for such a trivial thing. Perhaps if its timer were reduced, or it wasn't an end ability of a fairly weak line in comparison to STR and INT. When we have 70 AA, speccing all the way down STA will be much more viable for raiding, until then - it really doesn't make that much of a difference.</blockquote>We'll have to agree to disagree.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  You have a good argument, but it doesn't really fit my experience, if that makes any sense.  I started out in the str line, and simply didn't find it to be really all that useful.  I prefer the melee crit in the stamina line, over the haste of the strength line.  I can get haste items that give good haste.  I don't know of any items that up crit chances by more than 1 or 2%.  So spending points to get haste seems somewhat wasteful to me.  Then again though, I probably have a very different playstyle compared to most SK's.  Having played a paladin for 69 levels (although I betrayed well over a year ago), I tend to think in terms of defense.  It's my job to hold agro and stay alive.  My tools are selected with survivability in mind, moreso than dps.  This is largely because I <i>don't</i> have the greatest of gear on my SK, and have really had to do what I could to squeeze the most survivability out of him.  If I had great armor and jewelry, then sure, I'd probably go down the STR line.  But as it stands, I'd be sitting at about 7.2k hp, if I didn't have the STA line maxed out.  Believe you me, the extra few hundred points of HP, along with Divine Aura, has saved my butt no few times.  I see greater value in the extra hp and Divine Aura, than I do in a bit of haste and marginally-improved reuse timers.

[Dead Knight]

<cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote>If you're raiding with a competent bunch, Reaver is weaksauce and not worth a [I cannot control my vocabulary], the only reason I still have it is soloing/duoing stuff outside of raids. Death March is a group buff with +DPS mod, immunity to all negative states and a ton of INT, it also has a lot of snap aggro attached to it. Drop STA line IMO, you give up too much DPS/efficiency for a tiny bit of extra HP. The extra HP will come with gear, using STA just makes you gimpsauce and you pretty much waste the time of the other 23 people in the raid so that your HP number is prettier to look at by a few hundred.</blockquote>Tiny bit of extra HP?  Try about 500HP.  That isn't tiny, by any means.  Divine Aura is one of the greatest [I cannot control my vocabulary]-savers a Shadowknight can get.</blockquote>If you're a raider, you know 500 HP is nothing at the top end of the spectrum. You also know that any given mob worth a [I cannot control my vocabulary] will hit you for much more than that. Furthermore you know that on a raid you are there to make yourself as useful as possible and contribute as much as you can. Speccing utility for WIS isn't the way - because it doesn't provide enough of a boost to the group for anyone to care ( maybe if it had crits or DPS mod ). Speccing STA doesn't do much either. You give up up to 500 DPS by speccing for STA, that's 500 less raid wide. That's a little bit longer it takes to kill the mob. Believe me, your healers won't care about 500 HP, and your RL would much rather have 500 more DPS, the whole raid would. The faster it's over, the faster you can go do other stuff - and if you spec so that you look more uber when you're posing in EFP with a wee bit of extra HP - you're wasting the time of 23 other people. DA, what can I say? It's stoneskin - it's useful. However, it only lasts for 10 seconds, and is on a 10 minute recast, it requires too many points for such a trivial thing. Perhaps if its timer were reduced, or it wasn't an end ability of a fairly weak line in comparison to STR and INT. When we have 70 AA, speccing all the way down STA will be much more viable for raiding, until then - it really doesn't make that much of a difference.</blockquote>We'll have to agree to disagree.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" />  You have a good argument, but it doesn't really fit my experience, if that makes any sense.  I started out in the str line, and simply didn't find it to be really all that useful.  I prefer the melee crit in the stamina line, over the haste of the strength line.  I can get haste items that give good haste.  I don't know of any items that up crit chances by more than 1 or 2%.  So spending points to get haste seems somewhat wasteful to me.  Then again though, I probably have a very different playstyle compared to most SK's.  Having played a paladin for 69 levels (although I betrayed well over a year ago), I tend to think in terms of defense.  It's my job to hold agro and stay alive.  My tools are selected with survivability in mind, moreso than dps.  This is largely because I <i>don't</i> have the greatest of gear on my SK, and have really had to do what I could to squeeze the most survivability out of him.  If I had great armor and jewelry, then sure, I'd probably go down the STR line.  But as it stands, I'd be sitting at about 7.2k hp, if I didn't have the STA line maxed out.  Believe you me, the extra few hundred points of HP, along with Divine Aura, has saved my butt no few times.  I see greater value in the extra hp and Divine Aura, than I do in a bit of haste and marginally-improved reuse timers.</blockquote>I see where you're coming from, and everyone plays an SK differently I guess. Although the STR line isn't for Haste. Anyone that picked STR just for 448 is wasting points, since they could just grab one of the multitude of classes that buffs it or get a haste item, not to mention it's not as much of a DPS increaser as DPS, unless you're using something with 5+ delay. The STR line is about the 10% spell haste, nothing else. Everything else is just filler.

[Hugsnkissums]

<blockquote>The STR line is about the 10% spell haste, nothing else. Everything else is just filler.</blockquote>Yeah, my experience has shown that this is the only real reason to dump points into the STR line. At first glance, 10% doesn't seem like much, but it refreshes all your abilites faster, including your spells (which is where the brunt of our damage is comming from anyway). Because your abilities come back faster, you do more damage, things die faster, and you don't get hit as much. I wish it were possible to get both the refresh rate in the STR line, Divine Aura in STA, and still get the 68% spel crit in INT, but it's just not possible.

[Dead Knight]

<cite>Gutan@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><blockquote>The STR line is about the 10% spell haste, nothing else. Everything else is just filler.</blockquote>Yeah, my experience has shown that this is the only real reason to dump points into the STR line. At first glance, 10% doesn't seem like much, but it refreshes all your abilites faster, including your spells (which is where the brunt of our damage is comming from anyway). Because your abilities come back faster, you do more damage, things die faster, and you don't get hit as much. I wish it were possible to get both the refresh rate in the STR line, Divine Aura in STA, and still get the 68% spel crit in INT, but it's just not possible. </blockquote>With the 20 more AA in KoS tree at RoK it will be.

[Hamervelder]

Maybe I missed something, but didn't the developers say that we <i>aren't</i> getting any more AA's?  I was under the impression that we're going to still be capped 50/50 in each tree.

[Dead Knight]

<cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Maybe I missed something, but didn't the developers say that we <i>aren't</i> getting any more AA's?  I was under the impression that we're going to still be capped 50/50 in each tree.</blockquote>We get 40 more AAs, and no new trees. So the assumption is that it will be 20 more in KoS and 20 more in EoF. <a href="http://www.eq2flames.com/general-gameplay/12780-so-we-getting-20-extra-aa-points-spend-rok-what.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.eq2flames.com/general-ga...d-rok-what.html</a>But yeah, it's been confirmed by devs.

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Maybe I missed something, but didn't the developers say that we <i>aren't</i> getting any more AA's?  I was under the impression that we're going to still be capped 50/50 in each tree.</blockquote>We get 40 more AAs, and no new trees. So the assumption is that it will be 20 more in KoS and 20 more in EoF. <a rel="nofollow" href="Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-gameplay/12780-so-we-getting-20-extra-aa-points-spend-rok-what.html" target="_blank">Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-g...d-rok-what.html</a>Too lazy to clicky it <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" />. But yeah, it's been confirmed by devs.</blockquote>Righteous.  For some reason, that excites me more for my swashy than my SK though, lol.  Str/Agi/Wis swashy=uber ownage.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Dead Knight]

<cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Maybe I missed something, but didn't the developers say that we <i>aren't</i> getting any more AA's?  I was under the impression that we're going to still be capped 50/50 in each tree.</blockquote>We get 40 more AAs, and no new trees. So the assumption is that it will be 20 more in KoS and 20 more in EoF. <a rel="nofollow" href="Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-gameplay/12780-so-we-getting-20-extra-aa-points-spend-rok-what.html" target="_blank">Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-g...d-rok-what.html</a>Too lazy to clicky it <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" />. But yeah, it's been confirmed by devs.</blockquote>Righteous.  For some reason, that excites me more for my swashy than my SK though, lol.  Str/Agi/Wis swashy=uber ownage.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" /></blockquote>Tell me about it. Shame it will suck for some classes, though. Brawlers come to mind, not much more for them to get out of their EoF or KoS trees, lol.

[Norrsken]

<cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Maybe I missed something, but didn't the developers say that we <i>aren't</i> getting any more AA's?  I was under the impression that we're going to still be capped 50/50 in each tree.</blockquote>We get 40 more AAs, and no new trees. So the assumption is that it will be 20 more in KoS and 20 more in EoF. <a rel="nofollow" href="Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-gameplay/12780-so-we-getting-20-extra-aa-points-spend-rok-what.html" target="_blank">Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-g...d-rok-what.html</a>Too lazy to clicky it <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" />. But yeah, it's been confirmed by devs.</blockquote>Righteous.  For some reason, that excites me more for my swashy than my SK though, lol.  Str/Agi/Wis swashy=uber ownage.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" /></blockquote>Tell me about it. Shame it will suck for some classes, though. Brawlers come to mind, not much more for them to get out of their EoF or KoS trees, lol.</blockquote>I dont think they will leave the trees untouched if they are adding 20 aas to each of them. I reckon we'll see some more rebalancing if that is the case.

[Dead Knight]

<cite>Ulvhamne@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Maybe I missed something, but didn't the developers say that we <i>aren't</i> getting any more AA's?  I was under the impression that we're going to still be capped 50/50 in each tree.</blockquote>We get 40 more AAs, and no new trees. So the assumption is that it will be 20 more in KoS and 20 more in EoF. <a rel="nofollow" href="Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-gameplay/12780-so-we-getting-20-extra-aa-points-spend-rok-what.html" target="_blank">Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-g...d-rok-what.html</a>Too lazy to clicky it <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" />. But yeah, it's been confirmed by devs.</blockquote>Righteous.  For some reason, that excites me more for my swashy than my SK though, lol.  Str/Agi/Wis swashy=uber ownage.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" /></blockquote>Tell me about it. Shame it will suck for some classes, though. Brawlers come to mind, not much more for them to get out of their EoF or KoS trees, lol.</blockquote>I dont think they will leave the trees untouched if they are adding 20 aas to each of them. I reckon we'll see some more rebalancing if that is the case.</blockquote>For some reason, I don't like seeing the word 'balance' and SoE in the same context.

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ulvhamne@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Maybe I missed something, but didn't the developers say that we <i>aren't</i> getting any more AA's?  I was under the impression that we're going to still be capped 50/50 in each tree.</blockquote>We get 40 more AAs, and no new trees. So the assumption is that it will be 20 more in KoS and 20 more in EoF. <a rel="nofollow" href="Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-gameplay/12780-so-we-getting-20-extra-aa-points-spend-rok-what.html" target="_blank">Ihttp://www.eq2flames.com/general-g...d-rok-what.html</a>Too lazy to clicky it <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" />. But yeah, it's been confirmed by devs.</blockquote>Righteous.  For some reason, that excites me more for my swashy than my SK though, lol.  Str/Agi/Wis swashy=uber ownage.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" /></blockquote>Tell me about it. Shame it will suck for some classes, though. Brawlers come to mind, not much more for them to get out of their EoF or KoS trees, lol.</blockquote>I dont think they will leave the trees untouched if they are adding 20 aas to each of them. I reckon we'll see some more rebalancing if that is the case.</blockquote>For some reason, I don't like seeing the word 'balance' and SoE in the same context.</blockquote>[Removed for Content]!

[CHIMPNOODLE.]

<p>I'm set up Heavy STA down to Divine Aura, INT to full crits. EoF full on Hate (rescue only 1 increase), reaver line down to full touch (small emergency heal), and Decay down to full Syphon Armament.</p><p>Hate is solid, and holding up under fire is not an issue. I wouldn't change anything.</p><p>Reaver is more of a solo/grouping AA imo. Limited use for a DPSing raid SK to take a little more self healing responsibility as well.</p>

[Hamervelder]

<cite>CHIMPNOODLE. wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I'm set up Heavy STA down to Divine Aura, INT to full crits. EoF full on Hate (rescue only 1 increase), reaver line down to full touch (small emergency heal), and Decay down to full Syphon Armament.</p><p>Hate is solid, and holding up under fire is not an issue. I wouldn't change anything.</p><p>Reaver is more of a solo/grouping AA imo. Limited use for a DPSing raid SK to take a little more self healing responsibility as well.</p></blockquote>I haven't tried much of the hate line (slapped all my points in Reaving).  How do you like it?  Do you feel like it makes a huge difference in agro control?

[CHIMPNOODLE.]

<p>Well I went down that line from the beginning, so it's hard to say what it would be like without it. I can say that I never really felt lacking for aggro with it, so yes, I feel it has a nice effect.</p>

[morningmists]

<cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite> You give up up to 500 DPS by speccing for STA, that's 500 less raid wide. That's a little bit longer it takes to kill the mob. </blockquote><p>WEEE bit of an exaggeration there huh?</p><p>10% cast/recast is NO WHERE Near 500 dps, and the haste bonuses(that can come from elsewhere) are probably less dps than the melee crit on a decent weapon</p>

[Coica]

and heres the kicker... do a controlled parse ( same mob, same environment, same spells,etc.) with full STR line.  then do one with full STA line. then do the math. but for me its not all about that.  I have tried STR line three times now, and each time I go back to STA. If all I cared about was DPS then maybe I would change, but my role is MT, I get and maintain agro. period.  oh yeah.. and try and stay alive during all this.  I do pretty good at it for what we are raiding so far so sticking with it. but good discussion.

[Dead Knight]

<cite>morningmists wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dead Knight wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite> You give up up to 500 DPS by speccing for STA, that's 500 less raid wide. That's a little bit longer it takes to kill the mob. </blockquote><p>WEEE bit of an exaggeration there huh?</p><p>10% cast/recast is NO WHERE Near 500 dps, and the haste bonuses(that can come from elsewhere) are probably less dps than the melee crit on a decent weapon</p></blockquote>Yes, it was an exaggeration, 500 is just an easy number to work with. As for DPS, the more DPS you can do while not compromising the raid, the more useful you are. The one complaint I always see about SK's is that we're useless. If you're lazy and don't do more DPS than you currently are when you know full well that you can with no or little compromise to tanking ability, then that is selfish and a waste of 23 other people's time. Just my 2 cents.

[MaCloud1032]

<p>I can say for a fact that if i didnt play on a PvP server i would have battle leadership.  +34 to all skills to your wholr group is the best thing we can offer imo.</p><p>In PvP casting speed is the single best thing you can get.</p>

[Hamervelder]

I have to wonder which would actually provide more benefit:  10% faster casting, or the 20-odd% melee crits from the stamina line. ---Some food for thought:  We know that wards and heals generate agro.  But does Divine Aura also generate agro?  It seems like it would, given that it's basically a ward, correct?  If that is the case, then Divine Aura would have the secondary benefit of generating <i>massive</i> agro in a very short period of time.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[morningmists]

divine aura is stoneskin and does not generate agro

[Hamervelder]

<cite>morningmists wrote:</cite><blockquote>divine aura is stoneskin and does not generate agro</blockquote>Well that's a bummer. 

[MaCloud1032]

<cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>I have to wonder which would actually provide more benefit:  10% faster casting, or the 20-odd% melee crits from the stamina line. ---Some food for thought:  We know that wards and heals generate agro.  But does Divine Aura also generate agro?  It seems like it would, given that it's basically a ward, correct?  If that is the case, then Divine Aura would have the secondary benefit of generating <i>massive</i> agro in a very short period of time.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /></blockquote>To just take the sta line for the 22% crit will handycap you.  That is more of a bonus on your way to DA.  Unless you build your self more as a melee SK.  With our CA/Spell ratio casting ushaly wins out.Not to say you cant do it but it highly unlikly.

[Hamervelder]

<cite>Darksavanna@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Atelos@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>I have to wonder which would actually provide more benefit:  10% faster casting, or the 20-odd% melee crits from the stamina line. ---Some food for thought:  We know that wards and heals generate agro.  But does Divine Aura also generate agro?  It seems like it would, given that it's basically a ward, correct?  If that is the case, then Divine Aura would have the secondary benefit of generating <i>massive</i> agro in a very short period of time.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />" width="15" height="15" /></blockquote>To just take the sta line for the 22% crit will handycap you.  That is more of a bonus on your way to DA.  Unless you build your self more as a melee SK.  With our CA/Spell ratio casting ushaly wins out.Not to say you cant do it but it highly unlikly.</blockquote>Perhaps so.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Then again, I'm not really one to care so much how much DPS I do on my SK.  As long as I hold agro, I'm happy.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  *huggles his Divine Aura*

[Margen]

<p>I use reaver myself, in the SK tree after doing the hate line, I figured reaver would be of more value then pools of blood.  Plus alot of the prerequiste abilitys are pretty nice.  When I tank in raids it does help, is it going to keep me up on damage spike no, but it does help a bit, and the extra healing adds a little bit to aggro.</p><p> But some people like other abilties, to each their own.</p>

[Nocifer Deathblade]

Since we will get 20 more AA into SK tree, it would be VERY hard to avoid reaver now so why not get it while at it heh.

[CHIMPNOODLE.]

I sooo can't wait for the extra points. Haven't decided where I want them yet, but I still doubt they'll end up in reaver....we shall see though, after I play around with em a bit.

[MaCloud1032]

well this sk will either be str/ctits/sta or str/crits/wis   probly sta for pvp and wis for raids.

[seamus]

<cite>CHIMPNOODLE. wrote:</cite><blockquote>I sooo can't wait for the extra points. Haven't decided where I want them yet, but I still doubt they'll end up in reaver....we shall see though, after I play around with em a bit.</blockquote><p>At the moment I'm using 47882 str 488 int for KOS while I chose Hate and Reaver for EoF. I just don't see much benefit in Decay especially considering mit diminishing returns. Yeah the reaver ability itself isn't very good but for a point why not get it?</p><p>Now with 20 more AA's to spend I'll probably try 44862 str 44862 sta and 488 int. Basically, these 20 points will give tanking sk's more dps and dps sk's more tanking ability.</p>

[CHIMPNOODLE.]

<p>Preference really. With Decay line armament, I run offensive and still end up right where I want to be on the Dim Ret curve. In offensive, I sit around 5600-5800 Mit (depending on what I'm gearing for). Works well for me actually. </p><p>Reaver is lowest on my list of finals to have, I likely won't have enough points to nab it actually, even for fluff.</p>

[seamus]

<cite>CHIMPNOODLE. wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Preference really. With Decay line armament, I run offensive and still end up right where I want to be on the Dim Ret curve. In offensive, I sit around 5600-5800 Mit (depending on what I'm gearing for). Works well for me actually. </p><p>Reaver is lowest on my list of finals to have, I likely won't have enough points to nab it actually, even for fluff.</p></blockquote><p>I'm getting dense in my old age, nice move on your part. Guess where my additional 20 points are going?  I'll say it again, these points will simply make us better tanks and better at dps. This is a 'big deal', my zerker will pretty much get no benefit from the additional points, certainly no benefit at all in the EOF tree.</p><p>Now only if SOE gives SK's some nice shiny new abilities that will help our image as raiders, but that's another thread.</p>

[CHIMPNOODLE.]

<p>Oh yes, I agree that current tank specc'd will move toward more DPS, and DPS specc'd will improve their tanking side. I'm really looking forward to it <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>My DPS is going to jump up a good amount. I'm so going to love finally shooting down the STR line in KoS, and popping some points into all the timer reductions I can for EoF.</p>

[Vaelaen]

<p>ive noticed that noone gets the crit heals, but to me that would seem like a big advantage with all of our lifetaps.</p><p>how would the crit heals affect the reaver ability?</p>

[Dead Knight]

<cite>Vaelaen wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>ive noticed that noone gets the crit heals, but to me that would seem like a big advantage with all of our lifetaps.</p><p>how would the crit heals affect the reaver ability?</p></blockquote>Reaver cannot crit, period. Lifetaps are considered spells not heals. Grave Blessing crits off spell crits. Therefore heal crits are useless, respec immediately.

[Vaelaen]

<p>oh, i havent speced yet. im only 42 atm, and i was just doing research.</p><p>how exactly does reaver work?</p>

[Miele]

<cite>Vaelaen wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>oh, i havent speced yet. im only 42 atm, and i was just doing research.</p><p>how exactly does reaver work?</p></blockquote>Every time you cast a spell (and not a combat art) you gain 2% of your total HP pool as a heal, also you lose 1% of your HP pool every tick, aka 6 seconds.