New ALt SK

[flutiebootie]

I have a lvl 40 zerker, and I really enjoy the DPS they can do. Seeing an SK today and his sweet armor, I decided I want to make one. I was wondering if Sk have a good DPS, and soe of thier strong points as well as weakness

[Wendingo]

<P>Sk do have good DPS.  Not as good as a zerker one-on-one, but still good.  You actually will find once you start leveling and have a few AoE DoT's that you do your best DPS against groups of targets.  Also, you should know that most of your damage output comes from your spells so int is probably your most important stat for the damage boost to those.   Avoidance is less important than for other tank classes too because you build aggro by being hit.  </P> <P>The SK's strongpoint is balance.  Good DPS, solo, and tank class.  Your life taps also are a nice thing you do not get with other classes.</P> <P>Biggest drawback is we are not as sturdy as the other tank classes.  This is partially from a need to put effort into getting that int up and partially we just do not have the stats of a guardian or zerker.   We also do not have quite the range of taunt abilities, but I find that I do not have trouble holding aggro unless a wiz or assassin is being stupid so I do not consider that a drawback.   I will say if we happen to lose aggro that it is harder for us to get it back than it is for other tank classes. </P>

[Norrsken]

Our weak point is probably that its hard for us to retain aggro once we lose it. And we need a second or two to lock it down so we wont lose it. Combine that with triggerhappy scouts and you will know what its like. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Other than that, we have slightly less mit than the warriors, and less health. We do however make up for that with our lifetaps. Now, we are at our lifetaps. that is our strong point. We self heal and do damage with them. And its sufficient for tanking in groups and soloing. You can pretty much get by in a group without a healer if you are well geared. and if you have a necro or someone else that can drop some poor heals on you, the two of you will actually pick up the slack a missing healer is. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Lamprey_02]

<DIV>I agree with the posters above me. Pure tanking stats, a sk is not as good as a guardian or a zerker. But the sk can tank, DPS, solo, group or duo with just about anybody (duoing with a healer you can DPS, duoing with a DPS you can lifetap). A guardian makes a better tank, but it's not that he needs a full or nearly so group to shine - he practically needs it to play. And as far as stats go, they're a much smaller factor than brains are in a tank. If you know how to play a tank you'll be better than most other tanks, including guards, to begin with.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As far as agro goes, yeah, not as good as guard/zerker. But it's not sufficiently worse to warrant real complaint, either. You keep agro in groups just fine unless someone does something stupid, simple as that. Just like any other tank. And if you can't get a mob off a caster in time, you always have the option of FDing them (what other tank has THAT?).</DIV>

[RaunII]

<P>well, my experience as a lvl 69 zerker is that SK's outparse me....by ALOT.  granted my AA paths arent maxed yet, and i dont have alot of masters yet, but even so, the crappiest outfitted SK in my guild at 69 is outparsing me,lol. </P> <P> </P> <P>I can keep aggro better than SK's because of Insolent Gibe (AOE taunt) and my 3 AOE combat arts, group mobs its nearly impossible to pull off of my zerker, but I have to hand the DPS off to SK's, cause they outparse me with ease.</P>