soloing

[Travera]

<p>I am new to being a ShadowKnight usually I play a pet class. I was wondering does it get easier to solo later on in lvls because it seems for the first 19 lvl I could solo easy but once I hit Butcherblock I can barely take yellows downs where my Necro can take oranges with ease. Am I doing something wrong. Granted my toon isnt twinked or anything but I am wearing plate and not cloth.</p>

[Levatino]

<p>how much aa do you have? Cause aa is helping your solo capacity a lot.</p><p>Advice your first aa's should go into INT line until you have 4 4 8. Then go after reaverline in SK tree.</p><p>Btw also on what you wear, INT is a must have. Yes you are a melee class but you do a lot of magical damage so INT which ups both power and damage you do with magical damage is a number one priority.</p><p>I recommend getting mastercrafted armor at 22, you can keep it at least until 30, 32 even then you get your next set of mc armor. If you are guilded, just harvest for raws and ask your guild armorer to make it for you. Or buy from broker ofcourse (can be expensive)</p>

[Zacarus]

<p>My 30 sk is by far my easiest class to solo.  Content +5 levels is a joke.  He's fully m/c, fully adorned, and about half expert and half master spells.  U r doing something wrong cuz sk is basically a warlock in plate.</p>

[Travera]

<p>I have 10 AA 4,4,2 in int tree, right now I think my issue might be with my weapon and gear. Which would you recomend 2handed weapon or weapon and shield.</p>

[yzyh]

<p>Sword and board if you have problems at soloing.</p><p>Later on ocne you will have your epic sword and board out damage almost every 2hander in the game I heard.</p>

[Klive]

<p>I use a MC claymore. 2 hander with INT.  /blush, I like the look of it hanging on my back. I do quite well soloing, can take down crowds of yellows with no problem. Can even do one up yellow nameds. But all my gear and spells are mastercrafted.</p>

[Levatino]

<p><cite>Dravela wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I have 10 AA 4,4,2 in int tree, right now I think my issue might be with my weapon and gear. Which would you recomend 2handed weapon or weapon and shield.</p></blockquote><p>I use a one hander + shield. Statwise both will give more bonus then a two-hander. Plus with a shield you can use the extra attack you get; Shield Slam</p>

[Harduc]

<p>I found Butcherblock to be quite a bit harder in general, than say Thundering steppes or Nektolus forrest on all toons i have had through. Try to do TS or Nek and see how you Fare. Also use your Ward/dmgshield before pull and refresh whenever it is used up (not nessesarily when it refreshes). get it at least to expert level and no spells/ca's under adept level. If you have friends to help you with a quest series, go do the class armor from East freeport. Good quests and the armor is pretty decent for the level (and it looks pretty cool too). </p>

[gatrm]

<p>One thing to keep in mind as a melee class, especially if you are used to playing a caster.....  </p><p>Keep yourself in armor that is close to your level and pay attention to the mitigation- A caster can keep gear that is 10-20 levels below them cause all they really care about are the stats/effects.  For melee you'll need to make sure you upgrade your armor- preferrably to mastercrafted of the appropriate tier.  You indicated that you aren't twinked...you probably should be. </p><p>Where a summoner really just needs to have a pet upgraded to perform well, the melee classes need current level gear...mitigation works on a curve where 100 mitigation on a level 12 item only protects as well as say 80 mitigation by the time you are level 22....random numbers, but keeping gear level current is important when you are taking a lot of hits from the mobs. So if you are still using stuff from timorous deep, you've way outleveled it and it's giving you as much protection as cloth would be.</p><p>You'll do very well in mastercrafted/master (or at least adept 3) spells and you'll be able to solo blue/white ^^^ mobs, or at the very least greens.  The solo quests will be a breeze as well.</p><p>If you are having trouble hitting stuff to kill it, use offensive stance.  I found, especially while leveling, that it was easier to kill stuff in offensive.  I was often able to kill stuff in offensive where I died..or had to fd.. when in defensive.</p>