Rolled a barbarian SK last night

[Tholo Span]

<DIV>I'm at lvl 10.  It's fun to start over again! I'm not sure how to play this cat.  Am I MT? Don't know where to start and the spells are a bit confusing - Dark Blade? Defensive Pact? Intervene?  Don't know where to start...weapons? shield or dual wield...</DIV>

[Wargod1968]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Tholo Spanda wrote:<BR> <DIV>I'm at lvl 10.  It's fun to start over again! I'm not sure how to play this cat.  Am I MT? Don't know where to start and the spells are a bit confusing - Dark Blade? Defensive Pact? Intervene?  Don't know where to start...weapons? shield or dual wield...</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Let's see...</P> <P>SKs are able to MT or DPS. Or both. At level 10 you don't have a very good array of tools to do so, but by level 20 you should be feeling a bit more capable as MT.</P> <P>Best way to get comfy with your spells and arts is to read them in detail. You get a lot of buffs which give you life back and/or deal damage, and many of your combat arts/spells do the same thing. In simple terms:</P> <P>- Offensive Spells. The ones you use to kill things. </P> <P>- Your Stances. You get one offensive and one defensive stance at lower levels. Tank with the defensive one up, Solo or dps with the offensive one up.</P> <P>- Your buffs. You get a few, all of them very good for improving dps. Keep them up at all times. Your best buff is a short term lifetap shield that will be your bread and butter as you level.</P> <P>- Your Taunts. You get taunts to help you keep aggro. You get a single-target taunt, a group/encoutner taunt, and some other abilities that have taunt components (like shield bash).  If you MT cycle through these. Make sure to pull with the encounter-wide taunt. SOlo, only use them to complete an HO, if you bother with HOs while solo (not everyone does). Some of your taunts have a damage component or debuff, however, and you will find them useful all the time even if you are solo.</P> <P>SKs cannot dual wield. You can either go 1-hander and shield, or 2-hander. With AAs you have other options (like 1-hander and symbol). Best to go with 1-hander and shield while MT, and 2-hander if you get a good one, while soloiong (opt for 1-hand and shield if your 2-hander isn't that good... )</P> <P>That's the penny tour. Enjoy, SKs are a fun class. </P>