Newplayer SK Questions

[LordMacbe]

<div>Hi all,</div><div>I have done a search on the forums but coulndn't find recent information on SK.</div><div> </div><div>I am wondering how they are as a class solo and groupwise?</div><div> </div><div>How do they compare to their paladin counterpart solo and groupwise?</div><div> </div><div>How do they compare to brawlers (both monk and bruiser)?</div><div> </div><div>What do they do well and what aren't they great at?</div><div> </div><div>What do you like about the class?</div><div> </div><div>Thank so much!</div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div>

[Mathe]

<div>1) One of the best solo classes. Like all Fighters they are competent group tanks.</div><div> </div><div>2) Shadowknight edges out Paladin soloing, though Paladin fighting undead has some advantages. They both make decent group tanks if played right. Though they have functional differences.</div><div> </div><div>3) Brawlers involve a lot more luck. Even a great Brawler will die a few times just from poor luck. However, they will barely get touched just from good luck at times. Shadowknights are more consistent.</div><div> </div><div>4) They are probably my favorite soloer. The Harm Touch line is incredibly useful when soloing. They have a consistent hate shield. They can heal quite a bit and dish out good damage. Not to mention they get Feign Death (SK Feign can be cast on any group member) and Escape. They aren't great raid tanks. Shadowknights burn power a lot faster to hold hate than other Fighters. Holding hate without burning power is important in raids. Shadowknights can tank raids, I've seen it done perfectly fine, but they aren't the best suited for it. Even so a good Shadowknight will outperform a horrible Guardian.</div><div> </div><div>5) I mostly use mine for soloing. Shadowknights have a lot of utility and power if used right. However, in my opinion they are the hardest Fighters to play well (I have played every other Fighter subclass to at least level 20, so I'm not guessing based on watching them played). I have no intention of raid tanking, so the power inefficiency in raids isn't a big deal for me.</div>

[Thelkin]

<div></div><p>Matheau pretty much knocked it on the head. Sk is a lot of fun to play. I mainly solo with mine and it is the only class I have played that I can be sure to survive against some ^^^ mobs solo.</p><p>Proper play can see you survive most encounters, however their main disadvantage is power. Not enough <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Or as Matheau put it poor efficiency.</p><p>All up a good class to play with some neat CAs. I am currenlty duoing with a dirge, and that combo is going very well.</p>

[Valandur1975]

<div></div><div></div>I have a 50 Paladin as my main, and will ding 30 with an alt SK tonight, so just a few thoughts/comparisons between the two classes from my perspective:1)At the mid-40 level, I upgraded a boatload of spells/CAs on my Paladin to Masters. He can deal some respectable damage now - almost night and day from where he was in the late 30s. Up to that point, however, the damage output was getting pretty frustrating; and this is from a player who specifically built his Paladin for offense (as best as can be done given the game mechanics) and is/was outfitted in all legendary gear.Throughout my 20s with the SK, I have been really impressed at the rate of damage he can lay down. Even without the "Harm Touch" line (which is on a 15 minute timer, so it is really only useful in a limited, "Oh $hit!", capacity) the lifetaps, dots and regular CA/spell damage is pretty impressive for a fighter class. I also have a 35 Berzerker, and don't remember him doing as much damage throughout his 20s (I understand that this changes significantly at the higher levels). And other than Legendary Swords, I have kept the SK in pretty crappy gear thus far.2)The Paladin is definitely better at generating hate (partially thanks to the Amends line) and keeping himself alive with his heals and wards. However, because of the focus on heals/wards as opposed to nukes/lifetaps, this tends to make soloing a bit longer than with the SK.3)I never recall the Paladin sucking so much power (at this level) while soloing. This can be because of the reduced ability to buff strength, but it can be problematic.Other than those main differences, playstyle is pretty similar. You can't really go wrong either way. Crusaders are a unique class - having one foot in the "mystical" world with their spells, and the other in the blood-and-guts melee world of the traditional fighter. It lends itself to some cool RP aspects if you are into that.The last thing I will leave you with is the concept of being in an overplayed class. As much as I love my Paladin, there is no denying that they are FAR overplayed in this game. It seems like every second player you run across is one. Everyone wants to be Sir Lancelot in this game. So if being fairly unique (if such a thing exists in a game like this) is your goal - Paladin will leave you wanting. SKs are nowhere near as overplayed. True, in Freeport, you'll see quite a bit of the population being SKs, but once you start mingling with the Qeynos bunch, you'll see the population thin out significantly. Though, to be fair, I understand Pallies are much more desirable in the end-game because of their aggro-holding abilities, healing, and rezzes.<div></div><p>Message Edited by Valandur1975 on <span class="date_text">03-14-2006</span><span class="time_text">07:36 AM</span></p>

[Uggli]

With the most recent aggro changes,  even that issue has just about disapeared.    Was grouped up with a guardian(55), SK(56 me), Mystic(51), necro(55) taking down clops in Pillars of Flame.   I told the necro, him being a friend of mine, to do what he could to either get aggro on his pet or him self.  He was unable to do so the entire night. (30% of a level)    And I didn't have to burn that much power to get it done either, or spam the taunts except at the very start of the encounter.Pull with STR tap,  start HO running back,  complete with master2 AE taunt,  shield slam, normal taunt, kick,  do some DPS, and reclick normal taunt if I felt like it.The recent changes seem to of helped more than I thought they would just looking at the numbers.Another group in Living Tombs... The warlock would  only sometimes pull aggro on an AE.  I would never lose the main target, and only 1 of the mobs out of the AE would turn to him.  So we still have some weeakness on the AE aggro lock down.   Once I explained how SK aggro was over time, he paced him self a bit differantly and never gained aggro again, with minimal loss of DPS.Aggro is much less of an issue now than it used to be.<div></div>

[Mathe]

<div></div><p>Power inefficiency really isn't an issue outside of raids. Instead of using 7% of your power in a fight to hold hate, like a Guardian, you might be using 10%, overally not a huge deal, less than a tick of power. However, in a raid that means you will run out of power a minute or more before a Guardian. This can make a huge difference. Not to mention that Shadowknights passive hate generation (meaning no power used) from the damage shield isn't as potentially good as a Guardian's purely threat generating shield or Paladin's Amends line. It isn't undoable. Taking a bit more time with making the raid group to throw a class with an incombat power regeneration buff into the main tank group can be a big help.</p><p>Even so, mitigation boosts make a lot more difference in raids than self healing. You heal the same amount irregardless of whether it is a solo, heroic, or epic mob. This in effect, makes Shadowknight far superior to surviving solo and heroic mobs than a Guardian. However, with the massive increase in epic damage, mitigation boosts removing a percentage of damage makes a lot more difference. However, those mitigation boosts are near worthless when soloing because solo mobs hit for a lot less damage. 10% of 1000 damage is 100 damage off. However, 10% of 10 damage is 1 damage. Still the same proportion, but being able to heal 50 damage in all situations amounts to a whole lot better survivability when soloing (since you would heal the equivalent for 50 hits each time you used it), but worse in raids, where 50 hits would amount to 5000 damage mitigated, requiring 100 casts of a 50 heal. Those are just made up numbers to illustrate a point, they aren't intended to have any meaningful proportion.</p>