Regarding AA lines...

[LagerYerba]

<div></div>I've been reading some of the posts about AA lines and was kind of confused as to see that nobody really supports the heal crit ability.  I personally have my AA specs as such: INT: 4/8/8/8 and Wis: 4/4/8/6... while i can agree that the in-combat health regen may be a little useless, i think the group buff increasing everyone's combat potential helps out alot.  I, personally have myself as a high resist tank with alot of wis and int.  my avg resists are no lower than 5k (mental and divine are around 4.5k) and obviously the disease is way up there around 7.5k-8k.  when i am in def. stance, i have about 500 wis. When i'm in off. stance, i have 500 int. (obviously with group buffs).  In raids, im normally the last person in line to tank when the other tanks go down.  Our MT is a zerker, and the backup tank is also a zerker.  If they go down, i pick up the slack long enough to get the MT back up and running and hand him over the job, all thanks to my heal crits to alieviate a nice heal load from the healers in raid.  Mind you, Drain Vitae, Fetid Smite, Tap Veins, Everlasting Hunger: all mastered. Alot of you fellow SKs say we can MT just as good as the next warrior, and i can agree with that.  However, my view of a SK had gotten me to make some unreal decisions that have me to believe i'm a rare case.  For example, i chose the Dragonhide Pauldrons (cleric shoulders) for the reward in claymore line. How many of you guys chose that? I'm not looking to be flamed at my choices but constructive critism i can tolerate. i would like to see my peers' (shadowknights) opinions based off my decisions at what i'm better at (or worse at) compared to you all.  <div></div><p>Message Edited by LagerYerba on <span class=date_text>09-25-2006</span> <span class=time_text>01:56 PM</span>

[AziBam]

<DIV>Can't comment on the pauldrons as I haven't gotten there myself yet but from what I've seen...man that shield is pretty nice. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The bad news is that as of now your 8 points in heal crits aren't helping you.  We don't have any "heals" just lifetaps.  All of our taps crit their heal off of the spell function not the heal function.  So, cast Tap Veins, crit on the damage = crit on the heal.  Pallys would get the benefit from the heal AA...not us.  This is why you don't see anyone mention putting the points into that ability from the SK community.  The good news on your AAs is that you now get a free 8 AAs to redistribute.     :smileywink:</DIV>

[Nicholai24]

Wrong. The heal criticals allow you to critical heal, even if the damage portion doesn't critical.Still, with so many different lifetaps, and a 68% chance to critical anyway, most people don't bother.<div></div>

[LagerYerba]

Yea, you are wrong with the lifetaps not being effected by heal crits.  I knew about all that, I was just wondering why I see that nobody puts them into use.  Like i said in my experience, my ward reactive and lifetaps crit alot of the time and i heal for like 400+ on reactive and 500-600 between drain vitae and fetid smite, and 692 crit with tap veins.  Effectively keeping myself up alongside healers' heals.  Some may say it's good for soloing and grouping, but in my eyes, that helps alot in raids when for example i mentioned above.  When the job falls on me for tanking, not all healers will transition that quick and i may take a few blows.  Also, for those of us that plan on getting that fitzpitzle's misty protector.  The life tap proc on that is INSANE.  Can you imagine critting both spells AND heals on that sexy toy? Healing range i think i remember was around 700-1000-ish+.  Crit that and it's game over baddies.  When you folks mention life taps, I see that if i want to make them more effective, i gotta upgrade both effects of what it does.  Just doing crit spells isn't enough for me to do.  I want to make sure i hurt that mofo badly and suck as much life out of him as possible.  Only upping the crits in spells and not heals is like wiping only your left buttcheek after taking a dump, doesn't quite make much sense to me.  However, it's different views how we see our SKs and i'd like to see more of others' responses.<div></div>

[Ultimatum]

<div></div><div></div><div><blockquote><hr>LagerYerba wrote:Only upping the crits in spells and not heals is like wiping only your left buttcheek after taking a dump, doesn't quite make much sense to me.  However, it's different views how we see our SKs and i'd like to see more of others' responses.<div></div><hr></blockquote>What doesnt make sense to me is wiping either of your buttcheeks after taking a dump unless you are one messy person...I don't know about you, but I usually wipe the hole.  That said, 8 points in heal crits is pretty much a complete waste.  I'm not going to get into the math figures, but, as far as I can remember, 8 points into heal crits gives you a 34% chance, correct?  Spell crits gives you a 68% chance to crit spells AND heals, but they do not add together to give you a straight 104% chance to crit heals...the % chance of not critting your lifetap but critting your heal is so much more slim than the given 34% due to the fact that there is a separate 68% chance to crit both.  The actual 'advantage' that the 34% chance to crit heals gives you is more like a 12% chance due to the fact that your spell crit chance will usually fire.  Also of note is the fact that straight heal crits are much better off when you can crit casting them on another player, like a pally can, and the %crit heal chance will NOT work if you cast Blessing on someone as it associates with them and would fire off their %crit heal chance.  You are better off using the 8 points for something more reasonable such as melee crits to maximize DPS.</div><p>Message Edited by Razerblaze on <span class=date_text>09-26-2006</span> <span class=time_text>10:19 AM</span>

[LagerYerba]

<div></div><hr size="2" width="100%"><a href="../view_profile?user.id=1442" target="_blank"><span></span></a>I'm not going to get into the math figures, but, as far as I can remember, 8 points into heal crits gives you a 34% chance, correct?  Spell crits gives you a 68% chance to crit spells AND heals, but they do not add together to give you a straight 104% chance to crit heals...the % chance of not critting your lifetap but critting your heal is so much more slim than the given 34% due to the fact that there is a separate 68% chance to crit both.<hr size="2" width="100%">To my knowledge, unless they changed it in a patch or whatever.  The crit heal chance stands at 62%.  Yes i am aware that the ward reactive fires off a crit based on my targets' ability to crit heal, which is obviously less effective on a warrior for example.  I am also not saying that heal crit and spell crits stack together to make a 100% crit heal.  That is rediculous for anyone to say it does.  From what i've seen,  even if i crit a lifetap, theres still a chance that i dont get a heal crit.  So what you said up there for spell crits give heal crit on lifetap is something hard for me to understand.  Unless i'm bugged and it's not working properly then whatever.  I will respec and test it out for myself when i get home from work.<hr size="2" width="100%">What doesnt make sense to me is wiping either of your buttcheeks after taking a dump unless you are one messy person...I don't know about you, but I usually wipe the hole.<hr size="2" width="100%">As for that comment, i wipe all 3 (not using same TP) =P<div></div>

[Ultimatum]

<div><blockquote><hr>LagerYerba wrote:<div></div>To my knowledge, unless they changed it in a patch or whatever.  The crit heal chance stands at 62%.  Yes i am aware that the ward reactive fires off a crit based on my targets' ability to crit heal, which is obviously less effective on a warrior for example.  I am also not saying that heal crit and spell crits stack together to make a 100% crit heal.  That is rediculous for anyone to say it does.  From what i've seen,  even if i crit a lifetap, theres still a chance that i dont get a heal crit.  So what you said up there for spell crits give heal crit on lifetap is something hard for me to understand.  Unless i'm bugged and it's not working properly then whatever.  I will respec and test it out for myself when i get home from work.<hr size="2" width="100%">As for that comment, i wipe all 3 (not using same TP) =P<div></div><font color="#cc0000">AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I don't know why but I found that really humorous <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font><hr></blockquote>As for Heal crits and such, I don't remember what the crit chance for heals was since I never took it, but I thought it was significantly lower than the spell crits for some reason.  Regarding Spell crits, however, if you crit a lifetap spell such as Absorb Vitae, Tap Veins, Blessing, etc, you will crit the heal from it 100% I can assure you <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  I would imagine it's a bug that is somewhat difficult to fix, but will eventually be fixed, but as of now you might as well take advantage of it hehe.</div>

[Xanoth]

can't find the post i wanted as its at least a few months old...anyway a guy that was a SK in EQ1, posted regarding how the old AAs worked there for life taps and crit chances. as the ones in EQ2 just dont really stack very well, hopefully things might change for EoF and class specific AAs, but at the moment i dont think heal crits work too well for a SK.i'll not try and explain the eq1 system (as i didnt play eq1), but it would be worth the points if it worked like that <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[LagerYerba]

Well, i'll take your word for it and check it out tonight before my raid.  In all honesty, i really thought my heals crit from the AA line.  Doesn't hurt to check it out and test it.  I'm really trying to make my SK build as a "last line of defense" tank with still nice nuke capability and back in noobville level 60ish, when i first got my heal crit aa, i had the impression that it also worked for the reactive on my targets, but i learned that the hard way when i saw the MTs not critting the heals and after reading the logs, it would come to say:  "MT's Grave Blessing heals him for X." I was like uh.... [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn]! Come to think about it, should i just completely remove my Aura of leadership and put more points into somewhere else? removing crit heals and AoL would give me 14 points to dump (no pun intended from above posts) I'd like to keep my combat leadership because 38 to all combat skills and casting seems to help with attack ratings.  I've played my SK since january 6, 2005 and i know it's ins and outs, but now i'm beginning to feel like i have no fooking clue about AAs<div></div>

[Coica]

ya, Im about to redo my AA for the third time because I wanted to test some things. currently have 4 str,2 agi and the rest in INT 4/4/7/6 i think.  Ive read so much about this that I feel kinda confused also. guess I'll keep playing around and testing myself to see what works best for me, good discussions in these threads though, especially the TP part <span>:smileytongue:</span><div></div>

[Ultimatum]

<div></div>What exactly is confusing to you guys about the AA lines?  What is best for DPS, or what the deal is with airplane peanuts?  Errr...I mean with the Crit AAs hehe.1) 4-4-8 is all you effectively need in the Int line as far as reliable crits go without wasting unnecessary AAs because as the game mechanics work now, when a lifetap crits, the heal crits.  If you max out the heal crits, all that does for you is makes it so that for the 32% of the time your lifetaps DON'T crit, you have an extra 62% chance to crit JUST THE HEAL portion of the lifetap, so it basically gives you an extra 19.84% chance to crit your heal for 8 AA points.  The ONLY other useful thing it does is allows you the 62% chance to crit a reactive that a healer puts on you, which imo is not worth the 8 AA points you could better spend elsewhere.2) If you are on a pvp server, Battle Leadership is definately a decent choice because of high resists in T7.  If you are on a pve server, however, the + to skills will only marginally increase your chance to hit yellow con mobs, and moderately increase your chance to hit orange con mobs (Which at 70 there are what, 2 contested orange mobs?)  Hardly worth it imo.3) If you are going for DPS, my recommendation would be to also take 4-4-8 in STA for max Melee crits, and 4-4-8 in AGI for Trample.  Even while unmounted, the 18% chance to autoattack up to 4 targets is a huge boost to DPS, especially when combined with melee crits and a high damage rating 2h weapon, and if you are fighting in overland zones or instances where mounts are allowed, it doubles to 36% which should boost your autoattack damage by at least 2x if you are fighting large groups.  This AA choice is also a good idea for group pvp since you will almost always be mounted, and being able to autoattack multiple Qs has a big effect when you account for the ability to interrupt and proc melee procs on them.That's just my 2cp though.<div></div><p>Message Edited by Razerblaze on <span class=date_text>09-26-2006</span> <span class=time_text>12:55 PM</span>

[Kryptonix]

<div><blockquote><hr>LagerYerba wrote:<div></div>I've been reading some of the posts about AA lines and was kind of confused as to see that nobody really supports the heal crit ability.  I personally have my AA specs as such: INT: 4/8/8/8 and Wis: 4/4/8/6... while i can agree that the in-combat health regen may be a little useless, i think the group buff increasing everyone's combat potential helps out alot.  I, personally have myself as a high resist tank with alot of wis and int.  my avg resists are no lower than 5k (mental and divine are around 4.5k) and obviously the disease is way up there around 7.5k-8k.  when i am in def. stance, i have about 500 wis. When i'm in off. stance, i have 500 int. (obviously with group buffs).  In raids, im normally the last person in line to tank when the other tanks go down.  Our MT is a zerker, and the backup tank is also a zerker.  If they go down, i pick up the slack long enough to get the MT back up and running and hand him over the job, all thanks to my heal crits to alieviate a nice heal load from the healers in raid.  Mind you, Drain Vitae, Fetid Smite, Tap Veins, Everlasting Hunger: all mastered. Alot of you fellow SKs say we can MT just as good as the next warrior, and i can agree with that.  However, my view of a SK had gotten me to make some unreal decisions that have me to believe i'm a rare case.  For example, i chose the Dragonhide Pauldrons (cleric shoulders) for the reward in claymore line. How many of you guys chose that? I'm not looking to be flamed at my choices but constructive critism i can tolerate. i would like to see my peers' (shadowknights) opinions based off my decisions at what i'm better at (or worse at) compared to you all.  <div></div><p>Message Edited by LagerYerba on <span class="date_text">09-25-2006</span> <span class="time_text">01:56 PM</span></p><hr></blockquote>Heal crits, I dont touch for the same reasons that others dont, I feel there are better things to put points into. Right now I am running INT:4/4/8 STR:4/4/4/8 WIS:4/4/4. With the new death march I can pull agro easily during raids if I dont watch it, and if both the MT and back up tank go down I can usually pull the adds by casting the 3 taunts and death march (all done AFTER I switch to def stance). I am not an uber DPS SK, but I have been in the top 10 more than a few times, so I am happy with that.Regarding the cleric shoulders, I didnt choose that but I was tempted too. I wouldve chosen that if the mit wasnt so low. To me the only stats that matter to me is INT and WIS. Too bad I rarely have both at a good number. STA and STR to me are secondary, my INT takes care of the loss of HP by raising my lifetaps it also ups my DPS way more than STR would. Being in a guild that raids often, its pretty easy to get a good amount of HP with the right group, so I dont really worry about it all that much. WIS to me helps a lot for dealing with mob AEs. Ib def stance I am able to max out my heat and disease res. While others are at 60% - 70% res.</div>

[Zanix]

<P>I experimented, parsed, redid, experimented, parsed, read up, respec'd, parsed...</P> <P> </P> <P>If you want best possible DPS:</P> <P>int 4/4/8 (for spell crit max)</P> <P>sta 4/4/8 (for melee crit max)</P> <P>str 4/4/8 (atk speed buff)</P> <P>drop the left overs wherever. doesnt matter</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P>