Play Trouble

[hondo]

<DIV>Good Afternoon,</DIV> <DIV>I am new to EQII and I am playing a DE shadowknight. I am having trouble defeating enemies at my level. I am only level 5 so I would not think i would have any trouble. I am using a store bought 2hand claymore. Anyone have any suggestions? I start a battle using, kick, smite, and painful swing. Am i missing something?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thank you,</DIV> <DIV>Confused Dark Elf</DIV><p>Message Edited by hondo77 on <span class=date_text>05-10-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:40 AM</span>

[Strah]

What level oponents are you fighting? At the early levels you should not be having any trouble unless you managed to get to level 5 without getting yoiur skills upo which would give you some trouble untill they catch up to your level. Have you recently switched weapon types (from sword to spear or club or something like that) or did you maybe not take hits before now (say, grouped with another tank most of the time). Either way, this is all I see that can be the problem. Even a weapon upgrade, as much as it would help, would not be necesary at level 5. <div></div>

[hondo]

No, i have soloed (and plan to solo) all of the time. I have been using a 2hand claymore since level 2. Maybe I dont have all the spells yet? I keep reading about drain life type spells but I do not believe I have any of those. All i have are 2 stances, a smite, kick, and painful swing. I have been stead doing quests for my experience. Should I slow down and do some raw leveling for a bit? Right now I am on the quest to kill the mob that lives in a tree. Any thoughts?

[Ultimatum]

You won't have a full array of attacks and buffs until about lvl 25-30, and even then there are a few more lines that open up in your 40s, 50s, and 60s.  Don't get disheartened at lvl 5 hehe you have a few more levels to go until you start feeling more like an SK.  Especially ones you get your first Blessing upgrade in your teens...if you can get the adept 1 or adept 3 of it you can mostly just cast that, attack an enemy, and stand there auto attacking and recasting your ward when it wears off and still kill most things your level.<div></div>

[hondo]

Ah. Many thanks everyone. I will keep at it.

[Strah]

I also sugest chosing blessing as your master 2 choice at 14, especialy if you solo a lot. It enables me to kill things few of my other characters could kill. It is a great spell, and you won't be finding much use for the other choices, as you will outlevel them soon enough and they are mostly oriented at grouping. <div></div>

[Lord Montague]

One thing I'll add is although we do indeed having great solo potential, you won't see it as much in the lower levels.  This is indeed due to not having more of an array of skills to use.  One good example is the blessing line of course, which even if you don't get Master II it still greatly enhances solo capabilities.

[hondo]

wow thanks for the great response. Another quick question. How does a shadowknight heal himself? By potions alone? or the use of spells? <div></div>

[mikeyswizz]

<P>lifetaps</P> <P>we drain health from enemies</P>

[hondo]

Ah, that would help a bunch. When do I get these wonderful spell? Probably not till 20 or so right? <div></div>

[Strah]

The blessing line we were refering to begins at level 12 I believe, which is very very good for self healing. At level 9 we get our first wepon proc buff (group one) which lets you have an 8% chance to drain some life from an enemy. At level 10 you get the same thing but a self only buff, so esentialy you will have a 16% chance (not quite but close enough) to proc a lifetap. The self only one does a bit more damage/drain than the group one. At 11 you get a melee attack which lets you drain some life if succesfull (if it hits). And then at 12 you get a blessing, a spell you cast on a target (just cast it when fighting a mob and if the mob is fighting you it will cast on yourself, you can cast this on other players also though). With the blessing on, any enemy that hits you will get a lifedrain cast on them, healing you for a fair amount (at master 2 it's around 40 heal) and it lasts for 5 hits or 20 seconds whichever comes sooner. Later on you get a few more lifedrain lines, including an AE lifedrain. <div></div>

[hondo]

So would I be correct in assuming that a sword / shield style of play would be more beneficial for soloing? A 1h sword would swing more often therefore having a greater chance of procing vs a 2h sword. Also most of the shadowknight damage is done by our spells anyway correct? Am i off base on this? <div></div>

[Impetus]

I personally prefer using 1h + shield for soloing, but mostly for the blocking chances that the shield gives (plus as you said, a lot of our damage comes from spells and abilities, not autoattack).However, proc rates do not go up with faster weapons, because proc rates are normalized according to weapon delay. So you'll proc the same amount per minute with a fast 1h sword as you will with a big slow 2h warhammer.

[Zabumt]

<DIV>I'm having the same problem as hondo at this point.  And I'm NOT an inexperienced player.  I've gotten my SK alt up to level 9.  But at times it's been real hard.  Harder than any of the other classes I've played.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The main problem for me is that I only have 3 or so abilities I can use besides autoattack.  I'm decent quested armor and wielding a two-hander.  My abilities are at app 2 and while that is definitely sub-par I've been able to solo other new alts with app1 and app2 spells no problem.  I do so because the early levels go by fast and there's no sense in spending coin on adepts.  Well, I guess there is since soloing is such a pain.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm using all my buffs and my offensive stance with my freeportian claymore (2-handed slasher quest reward from the cave on newbie island) or whatever it's called.  Trying to fight a one-arrow even solo earlier, I got it to about half health and I was near death so had to break encounter and run.  Like I say, I've never had that problem with other new chars soloing with app2s.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Guess I'll spend some money and try to find pre teen upgrades.  Or just skip this quest I'm working on.  I've played a dirge and monk into their 20s.  And my wizard and templar well into t6/t7.  I know how to play the game.  But, wow, SKs are another game altogether.  I find myself burning all my abilities in the first few seconds of the fight then just standing around autoattacking while I wait for recast timers.  Maybe things will get easier when I have lifetaps.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I love the idea of an SK but the early game is pretty frustrating.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV><p>Message Edited by Zabumtik on <span class=date_text>05-12-2006</span> <span class=time_text>01:12 AM</span>

[Strah]

I didn't have this problem but then again I don't think I fought much at level 9 and if I did it was greens to complete quests. Maybe consider doing that, going to all the racial villages (longshadow, scale yard, big bend etc) and grabing all the quests and then completing them in bunches. The sprawl and the graveyard ones will be easy oponents so won't be hard at all. Also, do the city FedeEx quests as they are called, the ones that ask you to deliver stuff. The reason I say this is, at 12, when you get blessing ... SK becomes a whole new beast. I can solo two heroic encounters (green but still) without a problem, and I have  basic questing gear and App1 to Adept 1 spells. <div></div>

[Ceruline]

<DIV>One thing which you guys may or may not be forgetting is to use your HOs.  I know that nowadays I often totally forget to use them, since they're much more of a drop in the bucket at 70, but they can make a huge difference in soloing at the very low levels which you are talking about.</DIV>

[Firguss99]

<P>Another option to explore is to go see the SK trainer in West Freeport (if I recall correctly).  App2's of everything you have are available at a pretty cheap price, and the improvements, though not huge, are there.</P> <P> </P>

[Zabumt]

<DIV>Here's what I did at level 10 and it made a huge difference for me.  I decided to buy vendor armor.  Yeah, I know no stats at all and not the best around but after buying a full set of iron platemail my mitigation just about tripled.  I also picked up a two-hander that nearly tripled my damage rating.  After a couple levels, I had that much needed lifetap damage shield thingy and wow what a difference.  At app 1 it lets me solo just about anything I want solo-wise with ease.  So, I guess pre-level 10 life is a little hard but after that and some gear upgrades I finally feel like my other early alts felt like.  I guess I'm just use to characters where gear is, yes, important but in the early game not all that important.  With a plate tank, you really have to keep up with your armor even if it means buying vendor stuff because you can't find any good plate on the brokers at those levels.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[hondo]

Just an update on this for anyone who is following this thread. I am now level 18 (almost 19) and I am doing much better. I still use a    1h shash and a shield and I can take 3 whites at the same time. With little down time. The one problem I am experiencing is upgrading my armor, but I have another post going about that. At level 11 my character turn the corner. The 16% chance to "drain life" as well as the healing buff makes most encounters winnable. <div></div>

[Coica]

high mitigation is your friend. get ya a high mit shield to go with a good 1 hander . I usually whip out the big two hand near the end of a battle if its going good for that extra damage.<div></div>

[hondo]

If I find a piece of armor that has slightly better mitigiation but the stats bonuses are not as good, should I still upgrade? I am not sure how big stat bonuses play into our ability to solo. <div></div>

[Coica]

depends IMO. I wanted to go with as much INT as possible so I tend to go for that in things that arent armor, after 20 stick with the best MIT plate you can get regardless of stats unless you are gonna do nothing but solo.. even then I would suggest the high mit 1h and shield route. the few groups I get in appreciate me having good mit if Im MT, but if Im just another damage member of group I whip out the 2 hander and switch some items around for better strenght for example.<div></div>