New Shadow Knight looking to be a tank.

[Steve11418]

<p>I am looking for some advice on making a tank Shadow Knight.</p><p>I have a 74 Guard who tanked T7 before I switched to a Swashbuckler for T8 raiding due to time commitments. Now I am levelling my SK (level 70 in the Fens) as an option to switch to in the next expansion (just to keep things interesting).</p><p>Anyway here are the questions I have.</p><p>Does "Death March" scale up? I have noticed that it is less effective as I level... I am wondering if the level cap ever went to 100 would this spell become useless as a aggro tool as it seems to generate a fixed amount of aggro (which was awesome in DOF groups) Do you use this spell at 80 just to establish initial aggro or as a rescue?</p><p>"Tap Veins" is another spell I like and consider (along with Death March) class defining. The problem I have with it is that I did not use it once in the Kylong Plains 66-70. This can mainly be attributed to content design? At Level 80 in ROK to any of you regularly use this spell?</p><p>What sort of self buffed HP can be attained in Instance gear by an SK? 13k?</p><p>Everyone I have talked to says the spell Crit on the Int AA line is mandatory. However the wis line skills increase seems to be more effective due to the spell resist rates that I encounter in defensive stance. And a higher hit rate is more important than crit as crit does not reaver?</p><p>My crusader AA plan is currently Str 4 6 4 8 2, Sta 6 4 4 8 2 Wis 4 4 8 Int 5 1  </p><p>I am focusing around HP and landing reaver as often as possible.</p><p>Assumptions: </p><p>Int line second ability will trigger reaver?Reaver heal generates heal aggro?Larger base HP pool means bigger reaver heals?</p><p>Thanks for your time.</p>

[Soefje]

A few comments:Death March does not scale up.  It is a spell that should be replaced, but for some reason is not part of the T8 replacements.  Tap Veins is replaced in T8 with Tap Arteries.  I use it sometimes, but the T8 content does not change significantly to make it that worthwhile.  It tends to be my "Oh crap" spell.  It is also good for holding aggro on adds.  However, since it is a blue AOE, you have to be very careful where you use it.  In instance zones, it can be deadly, because I have pulled the whole room with it b/c of the social aggro of the mobs.  I will use it when I am sure I have the room and need a solid boost in health.  The realities of T8 tanking, is that if the healers can't keep me up, Tap Arteries is not gonna do it, and if the healers aren't having trouble, then usually don't need it.At lvl 80, with instance gear (non-raid), and adornments, as many + STA and + health jewelery I can find, I have just under 11K health.  SK have the lowest health, but are supposed to make up for it with lifetaps.  Now if you throw in Bloodletter (lvl 80 spell) then it effectively doubles your health.INT is mandatory because the amount of damage a SK does if heavily weighted to the spell side.  You will hold aggro better and survive longer if you max out the spell crit.  Also, Reaver only fires on a spell cast and the lifetap is spell based, so if you crit the spell, you will usually crit the lifetap.  Heck, I have even seen the spell do regular damage and the lifetap crit.  So it is to your advantage to max out spell crit.WIS, although it appears nice, does not added enough to offset the gains from the AA abilities of INT, STA and STR.  AGI line is better than WIS.  I have tried several specs including WIS line and always end up speccing out of WIS for one of the others.You will find that, unlike Gaurd, SK has to work harder to hold aggro.  I have a low level Guard and have more taunts (including the aggro generating CA) at lvl 10 than I do at lvl 80 as a SK.  SKs have to use spells, CA and the few taunts we do get just to keep up.  Even then it can sometimes be difficult to keep up with DPSers in raid equipped gear.    At T8 tanking, we have so many issues, itemization, decreased DPS, lack of scaling of Death March, fewer taunts, long cast times (relative to other tanks) and the list goes on.  If you truly want to tank, stick with the Guard.