Questions regarding the grind from 51-60

[SibunaSehkm]

<DIV>My SK, Ssssssssssinner (10 s'es), is currently level 51. I am trying to find someplace that I can grind out 51-60 relatively quickly. My only real problem is that most of my gear is beginning to grey out, and unless I get a decent drop, I am just SOL. The next item I expect to grey out is my chest. Currently, I am using a Sootfoot Forged Cuirass, and it has served me well. I would like to see a few suggestions on a nice dropped chest item, as I am a poor SK who cannot afford cobalt armor. </DIV> <DIV>Also, I have a questions about aggro. When I am tanking the warroom in Clefts,  I have no aggro issues, until we get a monk (you know who you are) in the group. If I am not constantly queing aggro generators, he steasls aggro, and unless HT or rescue is up, I cannot taunt off of him. Even when I FD him (his reactions are hilarious, try it), the mob wont let him go.  So, how can I keep aggro, other than not letting the monk join? My usual group has a Coercer, Necro, Guardian, and a Fury, and none of them can take aggro from me, on a normal night. Any suggestions?</DIV>

[Nicholai24]

<P>In regards to the situation on your armor, <EM>ouch</EM>. You need to work towards around 2,700 or so mitigation at that level, as well as around 4,400ish health, in order to be at a reasonable point for tanking. Just conserve your money, and purchase a little bit of Cobalt at a time. Also, spend a lot of time in the Living Tombs -- there're quite a few common plate armor drops with plenty of stamina and health on them, and they're only 40 or so points of mit. shy of being on par with Cobalt.</P> <P>On maintaining aggro., here are a few things you should work on. You need to establish a 'system' for pulls as a shadowknight if you want to never have to concern yourself over folks stealing aggro., and for me, it works like this.</P> <P>1. Pull with a Coil spell, and queue a Heroic Opportunity starter.</P> <P>2. Complete the Heroic Op. with an Anger spell, and your Group Taunt.</P> <P>3. Launch your single target taunt, and a shield bash.</P> <P>4. Fire your lifetap combat art, and your wisdom-drainer combat art.</P> <P>5. Start and complete a second heroic op. with Pariah's Mark + Insidious Whisper.</P> <P>6. Fire AE Taunt and Single Target Taunts and Shield Bashes whenever the three reload.</P> <P> </P> <P>Once the second. op lands, I don't think you'll have much issue with people dragging aggro. off of you, unless the dumb monk doesn't turn off his taunt proc., 'Dragon Advance'. If he doesn't, tell him to, or let him tank. It fires too frequently to out-taunt without burning 90% of your power. </P>

[AziBam]

<DIV>Excluding fabled gear, cobalt is about the best you can get for T6.  My advice is to harvest, harvest, harvest, and harvest some more.  My understanding is that cobalt is soon to be nerfed for new made items (LU24?) but that existing gear will be unchanged.  If this turns out to be correct you will want it made asap.  I harvested all but 1-2 pieces of my T6 gear.  The other benefit is that you are also going to be harvesting in the same area as the rocks that can give vanadium and pearls (can't recall correct name of the nodes at this time.)  You can use these either to sell for cash, use for jewelry, use for A3s, or trade for cobalt.  If you get a full suit of cobalt gear you will be amazed at the upgrade.  This would carry you well into T7 before you would really feel compelled to upgrade.      </DIV>

[Jebaris]

<P>at lvl 51 if you are too poor to buy proper gear (full suit of cobalt + all playermade weapons + rings etc) then you need to take some time off adventuring</P> <P>LU24 is just around the corner so spend the next two weeks harvesting only. AfterLU24 level your tradeskill  into T7 and you will have money, rares, and a full suit of cobalt - if you work hard you can get the cobalt made before LU24</P> <P>then lvls 51-55 will go by so fast you wont have time to blink (AKA you will catch up to where you would have been with old gear) </P> <P>Sounds like right now you are just playing 1/2 of the game</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Archill]

I'd actually wait til the changes come around before getting cobalt. The extra stats will help a lot for solo'ing, and when you are grouping your mit gets buffed anyhow.<div></div>

[Beldin_]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> SibunaSehkmet wrote:<BR> <DIV>Also, I have a questions about aggro. When I am tanking the warroom in Clefts,  I have no aggro issues, until we get a monk (you know who you are) in the group. If I am not constantly queing aggro generators, he steasls aggro, and unless HT or rescue is up, I cannot taunt off of him. Even when I FD him (his reactions are hilarious, try it), the mob wont let him go.  So, how can I keep aggro, other than not letting the monk join? My usual group has a Coercer, Necro, Guardian, and a Fury, and none of them can take aggro from me, on a normal night. Any suggestions?</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Tell him to turn of Dragon Stance <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR>

[Rylight]

<P>I agree with most posters here, if you want better armor harvest for 1-3 days, you can have full cobalt within that time, and as for the monk stealing aggro, tell him to turn it down a notch, or......DONT GROUP WITH HIM</P> <P>at first this seems kinda mean, but sadly im dead serious! I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT BECAUSE I GROUPED WITH A MONK IN THE WAR ROOM/CLEFTS AS WELL, it sucks, it really sucks and its totally embarrasing, and after a couple of screw ups like this guess what I decided to do......BE THE ONLY TANK IN THE GROUP!</P> <P>seriously, as the sk I am the MT and I have the power to start groups, and when I start groups and become the leader, I pick who does and doesnt join the group, and guess what, I RARELY INVITE OTHER FIGHTERS, why? well,,,,,I simply dont need them. I am the MT, and the only MT, I dont need a zerker or brawler to try to play the dps role (not to say they cant) and end up stealing aggro from me, I just aviod the situation all together.</P> <P>if you can find a way to group with a brawler without problems, more power to you, but remember, as a plate tank you have the power to lead the group into battle however you want, so exercise that power.</P> <P>and as I said before I harbor no hatred to other fighters, but I do what I do for my benifit and the benifit of the group.</P>

[Mythicman]

<div></div>I've grouped with a lot of folks.  I am not too proud to join a pickup group.  In fact, my experience with pickup groups has mostly been positive.  I've also never had any problems holding aggro from other fighters in a group unles they're actively taunting.  If you fire your single-target taunt, AE taunt, and hit your shield bash EVERY time they refresh, you shouldn't lose aggro to anyone.  I regularly group with an assassin, and he tells me he doesn't really have to hold back.  The main thing is to GRAB AS MUCH AGGRO in the first couple of second as you possibly can.  Unless I really need the extra 5 meters of range, I pull with a taunt (pull with the group taunt for groups, solo taunt for solo mobs) then stack my shout and my shield-bash right on top of that.  I play with a Fury, who used to nail a mob with his big nuke before I was able to do anything but the initial taunt, and, invariably, I had to blow my rescue right at the beginning of the fight.I've had situations where another fighter will join up, and we establish that I'm still MT, yet I still see the other guy actively taunting.  I've booted guys from groups for that, or, occasionally, relinquished MT duties and fired p my offensive stance and a 2-hander and gone offensive (only if i had an extraordinary time getting the group together in the first place).  I have more trouble with a Necro's assassin pet than anything.  It's hard to get them to dial it down...lol.I guess some of it would also depend on the quality of your spells, too.  I have some guildies that have unhealthy addictions to the game, so all of my spells are at least app4, and my single-target taunt is a Master.  Plus, I have another good SK to talk to in my guild, so I had a mentor.Tell the group to give you 2 seconds to get your 3 big hate generators off, and you shouldn't be able to loose aggro unless the other guy's taunting.<div></div>

[Beldin_]

Just to explain it a little more to people that maybe are not so familiar with the Monk skills ... dragon stance is a conc buff that has a taunt proc .. and i know a lot monks that constantly forget to turn it off if they are not tanking .. so really if you have a problem with a monk .. ask him if he maybe forgot to turn it off.

[Jebaris]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Rylight wrote:<BR> <P> I am the MT, and the only MT<BR> <HR> <P></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>/Cheer Rylight</P> <P>I share the same philosophy. When I happen to be LFG im not interested in anything but MT and there is no room for other fighters. If you invite one anyway then I'll be FDing them every pull until they leave the group. This is a sign of a true Shadowknight. You need at least <FONT color=#ffff66>Legendary</FONT> maybe <FONT color=#ff0000>Fabled</FONT>, as well as the Adept III's & Master I's to back it up. </P>

[dj_krztoff]

So you want to have crap gear AND fast levelling?  ebay dood ... If you're not willing to put the time into piecing together a set of cobalt, then you shouldn't expect fast xp, ESPECIALLY as a plate tank.  This can be challenging, but it is a necessary part of the game, and one that I find to be very fun and rewarding.<div></div>

[hammong]

<P>I definitely agree with the person who said take a little break from adventuring.... and get some cash.   At 51 you can farm Lavastorm goblins and sell the Sootfoot armor and treasure items they drop for 2-5 gold each.   It doesn't take a long time to get enough cash to buy upgrades, AND the mobs are still green or higher at 51 so you'll be getting XP at the same time. </P> <P>The single fastest way to make plat in this game is to harvest tradeskill resources, and harvest ? marks on the ground.     Sell the excess on the broker, and you can easily find your money for upgrades. </P> <P>Grey armor does nobody good.   If you are the main tank in a group, I think you are doing them a dis-service by making them work significantly harder to keep you alive.   Get your upgrades, skip the hardcore leveling for a week or so. </P>

[Kryptonix]

If your still having troubles with the harvesting thing, if you are in a guild where they really watch out for their own, try asking to see if they have any that they are willing to give you or at least willing to sell to you at a discount price. Its awesome to do things solo and stuff but, the guild is there to offer support if you need it. <div></div>

[Beldin_]

<DIV>A good thing to make mony and exp at that level is also to do all the 3 faction quests on SiSa beach over and over again. You will have -50k Faction with all 3 Courts at the end however .. so do also a tears grifter quest for some coins from time to time.</DIV>