Grp, Rd, Solo, and PVP.

[Whatyastarinat]

Whats the best AA line. I hear so much saying that reaver is, then I hear it is not. Please elaborate. Thanks.

[Dragon]

It depends on what you do... for pvp and solo, reaving is the best because it provides extra healing abilities.  It is also useful in groups and raids, but usually the amount you heal through these means is not enough when you are fighting very difficult encounters.  Still, any means to mitigate more damage is very useful.  The actual "Reaver" AA is controversial because it provides good HP regen while casting spells and abilities, but at the cost of a constant HP drain (similar to the skeleton form in EQ1 for necros... except everything is in HP not mana).The hate line is good for grouping and raids only.  It does very little if at all for soloing and pvp.  Not much to say about it... it makes you better at keeping aggro.The other line, Decay, is mostly for utility and support.  Each AA here is either good for groups, solo, or even pvp... but overall, it doesn't do as much to increase survivability as the reaving line does.  It mostly just provides extra buffs or decreases reuse time on misc abilities (like FD and siphon str).

[SeraphSeph]

 Be careful with Reaver. I find in pvp unless a person stands toe to toe and fights you(rarely ever) then turn reaver OFF or it will kill you. So many people try to kite/joust etc reaver's just not worth it.

[MaCloud1032]

<p>Personaly the best al around speck for a SK is to be Str to the end  Wis at least battle leadership and spell crits.  That is for the cursader spec.  There is no reason that current SKs should not have all 3 abilities to the EoF tree.</p><p>The only reason iam not specked this way is due to being our pickup tank for raiding.  As soon as i get a AA swaper ill be changing out for other stuff.When i run iam always the tank for my group weather there is a gaurd or zerker there.  In PvP having the extra distruption and othe skills make it so we hit more accuretly and harder.   Having the end of the str line means we cast 10% faster and items refresh 10% faster.ALso having the end of the wis line right off the top you hit 2% harder no matter what.raiding much the same for the most part the mobs are almost always ahigher level than you are.  So increase your distruption and you dmg by the wis line.  This also makes it so your troub/dirge wont need there skill song up freeing up a slot for a better song.Grouping still the same you buff that witch you probly loose by being in def stance(ifrequred) and also buff the group.solo is still the same</p><p>I do all of that group, raid, solo, and pvp(both group&solo)  The best general spec for a sk is 4-8-8-2-2 str  4-4-8-6-2 wis  4-1 sta  4-4-8 int.  In the SK tree make sure for pvp you reduce the reuse on doom judgment/aura/rays reduce the reuse on tap veins and reduce the deathmarch timer.  This is a very well rounded setup that i will be specked when i have the AA swaper.  </p>

[Whatyastarinat]

Thanks for all input.

[cephastri]

Question about Divine Aura in PVE - if you're tanking in a group and pop this, do you lose aggro for the duration? Or will they keep attacking you despite the fact that you're immune?

[MaCloud1032]

<cite>Skiizt@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>Question about Divine Aura in PVE - if you're tanking in a group and pop this, do you lose aggro for the duration? Or will they keep attacking you despite the fact that you're immune?</blockquote>you keep agro

[SeraphSeph]

 Granted I have not experimented with the WIS line... I think STA line is invaluable. Divine Aura 10 sec invincibility. 10 secs in pvp is a long time. It saves my [I cannot control my vocabulary] many many times in both pve and pvp. Especially when you're pveing and some ranger (they all only attack you while fightin mobs heh) sniper shots you...DA and get to em fast usually comes out with a win. 23% melee crit and 3% hp ain't bad either. My pvp spec is 448 int, 48842STR, 44862 STA. Rest in SK stuff like tap veins, doom aura etc. I think the STA drain on siphon might line is a good thing, as well as extra disease debuff on your taunts.

[CHIMPNOODLE.]

<p>You are immune to the dammage, but are still attcking and procc'in on them. Aggro is the same, and you can still cast and attack.</p><p>Its the warrior safety (dragoon reflexes...12 sec parry) that has the elevated risk of aggro loss from not being able to use their abilities (taunts, CAs etc..).</p>

[Incur]

<p>Gotta love the DA for soloing as well, fight a mob till your down to 10% health DM + DA then 10 seconds to lifetap yourself back to full hp! Easy, and the fight continues! </p><p>Or being incredibly lazy and training hordes of hard hitting mobs for 10seconds.</p><p> It may not be the "Best" AA line, but i love my stamina line, hammer ground is a lifesaver especially with 5 points in (enough time to get tap arteries off) but as always choose the AA lines that suit your playstyle.</p><p>With the Class specific, i agree with the previous posters that theres no exscuse to not have all 3 bottom lines now really </p>

[Whatyastarinat]

I agree the bottom line, should have all 3. For beginners like myself, I have 15 poinyts right now. I want to know what line i should start off with. What is the single most beneficial line for a young SK coming up. I am leaning towards reaver, then get the others later. When i hit like 60 or 70 AA. Thanks for all input.

[Condar Tarsonia]

<p>It seems to be the general recommendation that all of your initial points be spent in the Crusader INT line, at a 4-4-8 distribution.  This gives you something like 63% critical chance on hostile spells - a huge bonus.  After that, it seems for SKs mostly soloing (and even those grouping), the next points should be spent in the Reaving line until Reaver is obtained.</p><p>After that, go with what suits you!</p>

[tynion]

just wondering on this myself i started putting points into the sk tree AA have 2 points in unholy to start it off wondering if i could top this one off and then move over toward the crusader side and still be viable to group later on in the game

[Incur]

<p>First handfull of aa's come nice and fast especially if you can get some collections done, another agreement.. 4/4/8 int is imho the most usefull aa line by far, you get more aggro, more damage, more healing and makes everything generally easier</p>

[Dragon]

<cite>Dorlant@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>First handfull of aa's come nice and fast especially if you can get some collections done, another agreement.. 4/4/8 int is imho the most usefull aa line by far, you get more aggro, more damage, more healing and makes everything generally easier</p></blockquote>You only get extra healing if you go 4-4-8-x.  Where x is extra heal crit.  For soloing, I use 4-4-7-8-2 in Stamina and 4-4-8-8 for Int.  When I get 20 more points available from dinging 71, I'm probably going to mix them up between wis and str.  End game, I'm probably going to take out those 8 points from heal critting, and put them in wis for the group buff at the end.I may also respec my shadowknight AA to more hate based at first, then work on the rest for group/raid viability (although, you could probably still get a decent amount of some reaving AA once you hit the cap for AA).

[Beldin_]

<cite>Dragonae@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>You only get extra healing if you go 4-4-8-x.  Where x is extra heal crit.  </blockquote>Sorry.. but thats nonsense. We don't have heals .. we only have lifetaps that are combined with our damage spells, and the heal portion of the lifetaps crits when the spell crits. Every point in heal crits is wasted.

[Dragon]

<cite>Shalla@Valor wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dragonae@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>You only get extra healing if you go 4-4-8-x.  Where x is extra heal crit.  </blockquote>Sorry.. but thats nonsense. We don't have heals .. we only have lifetaps that are combined with our damage spells, and the heal portion of the lifetaps crits when the spell crits. Every point in heal crits is wasted.</blockquote>Not sure what you're talking about... SKs don't have life taps in the sense of life taps (I don't even think they exist in EQ2).  A true life tap is a damage spell that gives you that amount of damage back to you in HP.  The EQ2 "life tap" is not the same as these, and isn't affected by anything in the damage spell portion of the attack.I have gotten many a crit from the normal damage portion of the spell, but none on the healing portion of the spell (or vs.).  And you can check on this in game if you'd like (ie, check combat log), the SK "life tap" is just a heal that is attached to a damage spell.  It crits independently of the damage spell portion of the ability... and is not affected by str or int, which normal life taps would have been.In EQ1 and some other games, life taps work differently.  Maybe they work this way on necros or something (don't have enough experience with them to know)... but definately not for SKs.Besides, why would they have an entire line just for heal crits if SKs didn't have any heal spells??  Makes no sense, and everyone would be asking for it to be changed.

[Cajetans]

Actually we're sharing the Crusader-Lines with Paladins. Therefor, +healcrit only increases direct heals, benefitting Paladins. SKs gain healcrits through spellcrit.

[Dragon]

I'll post up some combat logs of getting a heal crit and no spell crit and vice versa.  If heals on spell attacks were set up that way, this should not be possible.

[Dragon]

LoLoLoL... well it seems I'm wrong this time hehe.  I was fairly certain that I've seen my heals crit without the spell portion critting as well.  I may have accidentally mistook it for a heal proc from a weapon aug or the lLambent imbued armor proc or some other reactive heal.Anywhoo, yeah, points into Legionnaire's Mercy seem to be wasted on SKs... maybe they should change that so that it works for both classes, or take that out completely or something.  It's just kind of weird that these SK "life taps" aren't affected by int in this case.My apologizes for any confusion my nubness may have cause :p.

[Beldin_]

<cite>Dragonae@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>Not sure what you're talking about... <p>My apologizes for any confusion my nubness may have cause :p.</p></blockquote>Ok .. so i hope you are now sure about what i was talking about <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[MaCloud1032]

<cite>Dragonae@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>LoLoLoL... well it seems I'm wrong this time hehe.  I was fairly certain that I've seen my heals crit without the spell portion critting as well.  I may have accidentally mistook it for a heal proc from a weapon aug or the lLambent imbued armor proc or some other reactive heal.Anywhoo, yeah, points into Legionnaire's Mercy seem to be wasted on SKs... maybe they should change that so that it works for both classes, or take that out completely or something.  It's just kind of weird that these SK "life taps" aren't affected by int in this case.My apologizes for any confusion my nubness may have cause :p.</blockquote>Actualy out life taps are affected by int.  The harder our spells hit the more of a heal we get from them.  If normal range for spell is 500-700 and a heal of 300-400  if it crits and hits for 1k the heal will crit for 600.  We dont need the heal crits only the spell crits.  What you wont see is a crit from reaver because that is a set % of your health that you get back.

[Dragon]

<cite>Darksavanna@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Dragonae@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>LoLoLoL... well it seems I'm wrong this time hehe.  I was fairly certain that I've seen my heals crit without the spell portion critting as well.  I may have accidentally mistook it for a heal proc from a weapon aug or the lLambent imbued armor proc or some other reactive heal.Anywhoo, yeah, points into Legionnaire's Mercy seem to be wasted on SKs... maybe they should change that so that it works for both classes, or take that out completely or something.  It's just kind of weird that these SK "life taps" aren't affected by int in this case.My apologizes for any confusion my nubness may have cause :p.</blockquote>Actualy out life taps are affected by int.  The harder our spells hit the more of a heal we get from them.  If normal range for spell is 500-700 and a heal of 300-400  if it crits and hits for 1k the heal will crit for 600.  We dont need the heal crits only the spell crits.  What you wont see is a crit from reaver because that is a set % of your health that you get back.</blockquote>Hmm, that's interesting... I could be wrong again here (lol?) but I'm pretty certain that int doesn't affect the heal portion of the "taps."  It would make a lot of sense if it did, but from what I've seen it doesn't <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" />.  According to <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=93485" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...?topic_id=93485</a> , this seems to be the case as well... but I don't know if there were any changes between the time that was done and now.  I remember when I was crafting, and I had taken my gear off... the damage portion of the life tap spells went down, but the heal portion stayed the same.  Again, I could be mistaken :p.Unless of course, int affects spell critical hit chance as well (which I haven't found any documentation on this), then the int would actually benefit the heal portion indirectly by causing it to crit more.

[Beldin_]

<cite>Dragonae@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hmm, that's interesting... I could be wrong again here (lol?) but I'm pretty certain that int doesn't affect the heal portion of the "taps."  </blockquote>Correct, INT only affects the damage of the spells, the heal amount is a fixed value that is unaffected from INT.

[Nulgara]

yep far as I know the only thing that we can possibly do to increase our heal amounts on taps is through aa's and +heal on gear, and im not 100% sure on the +heal since every piece that has +heal doesnt exactly have stats on it that are friendly to SK so I havent tried it yet heh.