Shadowknight Diversity

[Saethkept]

<p>I recently leveled to 72 and changed out armor, jewelry, charms, etc. Half of my new armor is spec'd for agility and half for int/spell damage-- same for jewelry. The increase in spell damage while in offensive stance is unbelieveable. I can kill mobs (even con and yellow with dot and direct damage spells ... alone. This discovery renews my belief in the SK class as one of if not the strongest overall classes in the game --- massive spell damage in addition to excellent melee capability.</p><p> A well known guild leader on my server recently commented that SK's epic weapon should be a mining a pick, seeing as SK's raid role is harvesting while the rest of the guild raids. I still do not understand the game wide malise toward the Shadowknight ... we are simply misunderstood-- and that is a serious understatement. </p><p>Other tanking/fighter classes are expected to auto-attack for Dps ... Shadowknights bring so much more to a group/raid. While grouped as off-tank in Hof the other night with a Paladin tank I was told to swing my scythe more and cast spells less -- I just rolled my eyes. While off-tanking I always buff/de-buff, heal, dot, direct damage with spells, and swing a blade. I believe this is why SK's are despised or considered useless. </p><p>Personally, I immensely enjoy the "Battlemage" capability of the SK, which when fully exploited enables us to accomplish some truly amazing feats. I for one plan to remain silent and smile in the face of SK bigotry and let the more popular classes destroy themselves in groups where this SK is not permitted to be a Knight of Shadow. </p>

[ganng]

I think our strongest suite is our ability to AoE.  We can siphon MIT/DM/AoE allowing us to run any swarm based encounter.  The problem is that a lot of the game is single mob V tank and we are about 4th in that list so we have a bad rep.

[Hugsnkissums]

<p>I can see where your guild leader is comming from. Yes, its true "most" SKs find it difficult to find a spot in raids since an SK's luster fades as groups around them get larger. We're awesome solo, and most content in RoK is geared just for that sort of thing, but when you start getting to heroic content you'll be lucky to do any of it without some sort of help from a group. Heroic mobs were given a HUGE boost in RoK so killing them solo really isn't an option anymore unless you can kite efficiently like rangers. Just like Pallys, our strength lies around multiple mob encounters (linked or not) and we can dish out some impressive damage for a "tank" class, but scouts or mages still way out do us as far as DPS so you'll hardly ever get group or raid invites for that sort of thing. </p><p> We're hybrids first, but as tanks we're alright...we're not the first choice, but we'll do in a pinch. With 4 stats to buff and most armor having 3 decent stat increases on it, something usually suffers...namely AGI which in turn makes our mitigation and avoidence low so we take more punishment then most other tanks. Pallys are in the same boat as us, but still have a solid way into a group. They have more group utility that give them a leg up on us. Guardians and Zerkers have 3 stats to worry about...gear and group buffage are easier to come by for them, not to mention if they're not tanking then they are just as easily replaced as we are for DPS. </p><p>Our group utility isn't terrible, but isn't as useful as the other tank classes so it's no wonder people look for clases that best suit THEM and help out THEIR damage, or help THEM do their job better. If we did that sort of thing, the group would have to be designed around us as a tank...not impossible but certainly more high maintenace then other tanks. </p><p>Dispite all this, it isn't a bad class to play. I still enjoy running around as my SK occationally, but we do have our limitations. It just really sucks to see first hand that someone less geared out, with less support, can still do the job as good if not better then you can. There is a lot we can do, but given our class nature I don't see us being more then a great solo and small group tank. There are exceptions out there, but for most SKs this is what we are. </p>