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deathwacker

03-14-2010, 04:53 PM

Hello, recently came back from one of my many and frequent breaks (Ususally get a slew of characters to rank 30 then poop out for a year) and decided I wanted to give the shadowknight a serious go this time around. And I have a few dumb questions.1) Should I be soloing with a sword and board or should I be swinging a two hander? Have seen most with the sword and shield but am not sure if that is a strictly grouping thing.2) I assume our main role in groups is tanking, but where does the threat come from on a SK? Melee Attacks, Spells? Seems a dumb question but I figured I would ask anyway.3) When picking gear which stats should I focus on? Is there a different set of stats for soloing/grouping?4) I should still have a bit of coin rolling around from my previous attempts at finding a character I like. Are there any must have items I should buy for my little SK, or any starting character in general?5) This one is a bit unrelated but my goal is to make a Froglok SK. What is the recommended rank (and strategy I suppose) of going about the betrayal to freeport? (Feel free to skip this one, my guess was I would go around 20 or so but advice is appreciated).Oops- forgot to add this one. Which diety should be chosen for the SK when the time comes?Thanks a ton. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" />

Levatino

03-15-2010, 07:09 AM

<cite>deathwacker wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hello, recently came back from one of my many and frequent breaks (Ususally get a slew of characters to rank 30 then poop out for a year) and decided I wanted to give the shadowknight a serious go this time around. And I have a few dumb questions.1) Should I be soloing with a sword and board or should I be swinging a two hander? Have seen most with the sword and shield but am not sure if that is a strictly grouping thing.Use a sword and board you do more damage, also cause the Sk has an attack with uses the board; shield slam2) I assume our main role in groups is tanking, but where does the threat come from on a SK? Melee Attacks, Spells? Seems a dumb question but I figured I would ask anyway.After the update our threat comes from the taunts3) When picking gear which stats should I focus on? Is there a different set of stats for soloing/grouping?All fighters are now STR orientated so STR is the first you're looking for. STA for surviving and AGI for crits. Wisdom is for lowering spelldamage done on us. INT does nothing anymore. So focus on STR, STA and AGI.4) I should still have a bit of coin rolling around from my previous attempts at finding a character I like. Are there any must have items I should buy for my little SK, or any starting character in general?Depends on what you want to do. I made <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=439000" target="_blank">a guide</a> for people who love to "slow play" It makes full use of the possibility to gain lots of AA on an early level. If you love that style of play follow this guide.If you like to finally make it to end game, find big bags and go to TD and follow the golden path5) This one is a bit unrelated but my goal is to make a Froglok SK. What is the recommended rank (and strategy I suppose) of going about the betrayal to freeport? (Feel free to skip this one, my guess was I would go around 20 or so but advice is appreciated).I always wanted to do this one myself as well but never came to it. Since Haven gates are in TS and Nek Forest, lvl 20 is the safest it can been done earlierOops- forgot to add this one. Which diety should be chosen for the SK when the time comes?Diety isn't as important as it was before, but for roleplaying i think Bertoloxxus is the one for usThanks a ton. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>

DwarvesR

03-17-2010, 02:31 AM

<cite>deathwacker wrote:</cite><blockquote>1) Should I be soloing with a sword and board or should I be swinging a two hander? Have seen most with the sword and shield but am not sure if that is a strictly grouping thing.As the other guy stated, we have an extra attack that requires the use of a shield. This attack also includes a taunt component. Beyond that, 2H weapons in EQ2 are a joke so you never want to use them anyway. Add in that the shield makes you more survivable and can be adorned to do damage whenever you're hit, and it becomes a nice additional damage item. And then once you eventually have 125 AA's you have bumped your sword-n-board auto-attack damage by 25% as well.... Definitely sword and board.2) I assume our main role in groups is tanking, but where does the threat come from on a SK? Melee Attacks, Spells? Seems a dumb question but I figured I would ask anyway.The Caress line of spells tosses a (small) taunt whenever we are hit. Our taunts increase hate by a lot. Our Hateful Slam shield attack includes a taunt. Grave Sacrament includes a taunt. Cavalier's Cry AA procs a taunt. I'm constantly watching the new yellow taunt numbers fly when I'm playing my SK. And of course, we gain hate from any dps done as well, so do as much as you can <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />3) When picking gear which stats should I focus on? Is there a different set of stats for soloing/grouping?We used to focus on STR for our melee damage, INT for our spell damage, STA for HP, AGI for avoidance, and WIS for resists.Now we focus on STR for all damage, STA for HP, AGI for avoidance and critical mitigation, WIS for resists, and INT means absolutely nothing. All stats at level 90 except STR have their effects capped at 1200, and though STR is not capped, one needs to gain 30% (approx 400 points) to gain an additional 10% damage. Frankly, I'd rather look for a 10% potency item than try to gain another 400 stat points, so take that for what you will. More STR will be good, but not as good as other things, IMO.4) I should still have a bit of coin rolling around from my previous attempts at finding a character I like. Are there any must have items I should buy for my little SK, or any starting character in general?Life is easy of you have each tier's mastercrafted gear and all your spells/CA's to Expert (formerly Adept III) . But are these "must have" items? Not really. "Must have" isn't something you really worry about until you're at the level cap anyway, and even then, everything's still more or less replaceable unless/until you're getting the uber raid gear with red adornment slots. And even that's going to be eventually replaced at some point, though perhaps not until another expansion rolls around.5) This one is a bit unrelated but my goal is to make a Froglok SK. What is the recommended rank (and strategy I suppose) of going about the betrayal to freeport? (Feel free to skip this one, my guess was I would go around 20 or so but advice is appreciated).Don't betray to Freeport. Betray to Neriak. I did it with a high elf swashbuckler at about level 12 and it was easy peasy. Once you've betrayed to Neriak, it's a vary simple matter to swap citizenship to Freeport.6) Which diety should be chosen for the SK when the time comes?I'm with Bertoxxulous. The pet is useless since it gives INT, but there are 2 lovely damage increasing blessings and miracles that I like to have on hand. One increases all spell damage by 50% for a minute, the other increases all disease damage (which we do) by 50% for 10 minutes. I only use them if I try to solo a named and fail but it was kinda close... then after I come back, I'll pop those and try again, and I haven't failed on a 2nd attempt yet. . . .That said, Rallos Zek and Innoruuk aren't bad either, and their pets increase STR (well.. STR and INT for Inny, but STR is still there. . .). But that said, if you aren't using the miracles and blessings then any deity is as good as the other -- they bestow no benefits other than the pet and the miracles and blessings, after all.</blockquote>