Which AA line to tank?

[ironheartthefirst]

<p>Just rolled a SK, hes about level 20 now and wodnering which AA i should go down to tank.</p><p>The STR line has  nice hate modifier at the bottom</p><p>The STA line has a good health increse among other things</p><p>But the Siphon Hate line in shadowknight tree looks quite useful aswell.</p><p>Which would be more best at first?</p><p>I dont want to go INT right away, i have been talking to a few high level SKs and that seams quite a foolish option for my first AA tree is i plan on tanking</p><p>Also</p><p>i'm cheap, i mean VERY cheap</p><p>and i really dont wanna spend 5 days harvesting feysteel (wanna be 45+ before expansion, cool AA's), is it posible to tank zones if i have a 2h to use of agro controll and just really reli on healers to help stay alive?</p><p>Thanks very much <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Norrsken]

<p><cite>Toramir@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Just rolled a SK, hes about level 20 now and wodnering which AA i should go down to tank.</p><p>The STR line has  nice hate modifier at the bottom</p><p>The STA line has a good health increse among other things</p><p>But the Siphon Hate line in shadowknight tree looks quite useful aswell.</p><p>Which would be more best at first?</p><p>I dont want to go INT right away, i have been talking to a few high level SKs and that seams quite a foolish option for my first AA tree is i plan on tanking</p><p>Thanks very much <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Did some high level SKs tell you that the int line is foolish for tanking? Odd.</p><p>The int line will give you a substantially higher dps, which help you hold aggro.It will also, thanks to the crits, increase the amount your lifetaps heal you, thus increasing your survivability a substantial amount.</p>

[t0iletduck]

<p>You talked to some dumb high level sk's then. 4-4-8 INT is the first thing any SK should have. As stated, 4-4-8 INT will give you spell crits, which in turn makes your lifetaps crit. This means more damage, more hate, and more survivability.</p><p>Siphon hate in the SK tree is mediocre at best. This is what I think you should do first.</p><p>4-4-8 INT</p><p>Unholy Arms 3 points followed by 5 points in Life Pact. Life Pact will increase the heal amount of your Blessing line, thus increasing survivability. Especially good for solo. Unholy Arms is meh, but you want to be in the Reaver tree for later.</p><p>4-4-8 STA for melee crits. More dps and hate</p><p>4-4-8 STR for haste</p><p>4-4-8 AGI for AE auto attack. As a newer SK progressing through old content, you will likely be pulling massive amounts of mobs. This will give more dps and hate in those scenarios. Much further down the line in ROK where almost everything is single target, this isnt as useful.</p><p>Obviously there are plenty of useful combinations, mostly in the Crusader tree. Maxing the STR line later on is handy for the passive hate and reuse, recast, and recovery bonuses. Once you are maxed on Crusader AA points, then start working on the SK reaver tree. A lot of the best goodies in the SK tree buff spellls you don't get until 50+, so definitely a low priority for a new SK.</p><p>You mentioned that you are cheap. Obviously mastercrafted armor will make leveling much faster and fun, but it is true that you will likely progress through levels fast enough to not make the investement worthwhile. If anything, you want Master1 or Adept3 of your Blessing spell. Lower tier loams should be fairly cheap, so make friends with an alchemist and at least upgrade important spells like Blessing and taunts.</p>

[gatrm]

<p>Honestly, with the boost to handcrafted, it's not THAT much worse than mastercrafted, considering it's far cheaper.  As quickly as you will level, go with handcrafted and the odd piece of good treasured, or cheap mastercrafted you see on the broker, and if you happen to harvest a rare, get it turned into a piece of armor that will help you along.  You will have a harder time soloing heroics, but if you just want to tank stuff in a group, you will be ok. </p><p>For AAs, you want to start in int line, 4-4-8, then I'd switch to SK line to get reaver.  After you have reaver, I'd go str line to the end- the reuse and such is nice, plus it's gonna get a boost with the expansion from what I have seen (oddly the NDA is down and I haven't seen much of an influx of information on the expansion), and after str line work on sta for melee crits and the extra hps; nice because it increases the amount that reaver will heal you for.  Agi line looks really nice with the aoe autoattack, and will boost your dps quite a bit for pre-RoK content, but it's really not necessary and you won't have enough AAs for it if you want the end of the str line, the sta melee crits, and the int line (a must, however DO NOT put points in heal crit, as we don't benefit)</p><p>Your remaining AAs in the SK line are no biggie, but you will eventually most likely have all three end abilities- siphon hate isn't entirely useless, but close to it, and it's not going to help you keep aggro from a character that's far better equipped than you, or who have big nukes/burst damage....</p>

[Harvash]

<p><cite>Ulvhamne@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Toramir@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><p>It will also, thanks to the crits, increase the amount your lifetaps heal you, thus increasing your survivability a substantial amount.</p></blockquote><p>When was this changed?  The crit never affected the heals before because they are a multi component, only applied to Pally direct heals last I knew.</p><p>Been gone from game for about 6 months though, maybe changed now?</p>

[DwarvesR]

<p><cite>Genryl@Permafrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Ulvhamne@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Toramir@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><p>It will also, thanks to the crits, increase the amount your lifetaps heal you, thus increasing your survivability a substantial amount.</p></blockquote><p>When was this changed?  The crit never affected the heals before because they are a multi component, only applied to Pally direct heals last I knew.</p><p>Been gone from game for about 6 months though, maybe changed now?</p></blockquote><p>Spell Crit also makes the lifetap crit, which is what he's talking about and correct about.</p><p>Heal crit is still useless for an SK, which is what you're talking about and correct about.</p><p>But you're not talking about the same thing <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Nakash]

<p><cite>Nevermind already every thing has been said.</cite></p>

[Mogzilla]

<p>KOS tanking tree:</p><p>4-5-8-8-2 str</p><p>4-4-8-8-2 sta</p><p>4-4-8 int</p><p>Cant go wrong with that build</p>

[Lord Hackenslash]

<p><cite>Mogzilla wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>KOS tanking tree:</p><p>4-5-8-8-2 str</p><p>4-4-8-8-2 sta</p><p>4-4-8 int</p><p>Cant go wrong with that build</p></blockquote><p>Personally I found I prefer:</p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana; font-size: 11px;"><p>KOS tanking tree:</p><p>4-8-8-2-2 str</p><p>4-1 agi</p><p>4-4-8-6-2 sta</p><p>4-4-8 int</p><p>The addition of Joust is handy if a mob steps out of reach to run after that Wizard who Just double attacked a Fission</p><p>I would build int first, then reaver in our EoF tree, then str and sta</p></span></p>

[Mogzilla]

<p><cite>Melina@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Personally I found I prefer:<p><span style="font-size: 11px; color: #444444; font-family: verdana;"><p>KOS tanking tree:</p><p>4-8-8-2-2 str</p><font face="verdana" color="#444444"></font></span></p></blockquote><p>For tanking why would you not go 4-4-8-8-2.</p><p>The hate gain mod will do more the little bit of temporary haste you gain the 2nd ability in that line.</p><p>The hate gain modifies everything, auto attack, spell & CA damage, taunts, etc and most SK damage is their spells and CA damage.</p>

[Tamo]

<p><cite>Mogzilla wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Melina@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Personally I found I prefer:<p><span style="font-size: 11px; color: #444444; font-family: verdana;"><p>KOS tanking tree:</p><p>4-8-8-2-2 str</p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p></blockquote><p>For tanking why would you not go 4-4-8-8-2.</p><p>The hate gain mod will do more the little bit of temporary haste you gain the 2nd ability in that line.</p><p>The hate gain modifies everything, auto attack, spell & CA damage, taunts, etc and most SK damage is their spells and CA damage.</p></blockquote><p>Because some of these lucky SKs get to group with a coercer and a dirge which basically nullifies the +hate mod since they will be well over cap with just those two classes</p>

[Tiberuis]

<p><cite>Mogzilla wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>KOS tanking tree:</p><p>4-5-8-8-2 str</p><p>4-4-8-8-2 sta</p><p>4-4-8 int</p><p>Cant go wrong with that build</p></blockquote><p>Yep.</p><p>INT first for spell crits.  Most important.</p><p>STA next for melee crits.</p><p>STR next for attack speed/hate.  </p><p>Looks good, nice typical build for SK tanking types.</p><p>Can't wait the the new X-pac AA lines, they look great for our class     /drool</p><p><img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Lord Hackenslash]

<p><cite>Mogzilla wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Melina@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Personally I found I prefer:<p>KOS tanking tree:</p><p>4-8-8-2-2 str</p><span style="font-family: verdana; color: #444444;"></span></blockquote><p>For tanking why would you not go 4-4-8-8-2.</p><p>The hate gain mod will do more the little bit of temporary haste you gain the 2nd ability in that line.</p><p>The hate gain modifies everything, auto attack, spell & CA damage, taunts, etc and most SK damage is their spells and CA damage.</p></blockquote><p>The reason i went 8 in the Ca was not because I wanted more haste but because of the long casting times of our spells Ifeel I need more solid CAs. Combat arts help me get and hold aggro and I use them almost exclusively these days due to interrupts. It's not how our class was envisioned but with liited access to combat arts and each interrupt extending our cast time and lowering our dps, this approach has improved my aggro more than a few points in the aggro ability. Yes I do often have a coercer in group and almost always a dirge so the hate would be ineffective and for a while i specd 6/8/8/0/2 but decided to take the 2 points into the aggro for grouping.</p><p>This may not work for everyone but thats my reasoning.</p>