Basic SK questions (been away from the game for almost 2 years and considering coming back)

[Typhonian]

<DIV>(Forgive me if my questions seem a bit grand in scope, but I've been away from EQ2 for a *long, long* time and I feel like I've missed out on a *lot*).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Back in early 2005 (in the days when the fish in Nekultos forest swam in mid-air!), I levelled a Shadowknight to lvl 28, mainly through solo play. I then quit EQ2 for WoW, due to external circumstances. But now, with WoW going up its own [Removed for Content] (I had a 60 orc warrior, and was tired of the continous and blatant nerfs), I'm considering coming back to EQ2, mainly for the solo and small group content, which appears to be much, much better than WoW. I still have the account details, so I would be coming back to my Shadowknight as my main character.</DIV> <DIV><BR>I vaguely recall my time playing EQ2 (its almost two years ago!), and the closest I can equate playing a shadowknight to is the WoW Paladin (I'm sure there are *many* differences though), but with many more instants and debuffs available. I've been reading the boards for a bit now, but I'm mainly interested in answers to the following questions. I would be most grateful if anyone can help.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1) Nowadays, what is the main role of Shadowknights in the game?  (i.e. in small groups and in raids)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2) What have been the biggest changes in Shadowknights since the early days?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3) What different talent specs are available for Shadowknights?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4) How well do Shadowknights and Necromancers duo? My gf has a dark elf necromancer and a lot of my time would be spent online with her.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5) Does SoE have a history of nerfing SKs?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>and one final question:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>6) Is Carpentry still as crap as it was before?</DIV>

[EQranja]

<FONT color=#ff0000></FONT><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Typhonian wrote:<BR> <DIV>(Forgive me if my questions seem a bit grand in scope, but I've been away from EQ2 for a *long, long* time and I feel like I've missed out on a *lot*).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Back in early 2005 (in the days when the fish in Nekultos forest swam in mid-air!), I levelled a Shadowknight to lvl 28, mainly through solo play. I then quit EQ2 for WoW, due to external circumstances. But now, with WoW going up its own [Removed for Content] (I had a 60 orc warrior, and was tired of the continous and blatant nerfs), I'm considering coming back to EQ2, mainly for the solo and small group content, which appears to be much, much better than WoW. I still have the account details, so I would be coming back to my Shadowknight as my main character.</DIV> <DIV><BR>I vaguely recall my time playing EQ2 (its almost two years ago!), and the closest I can equate playing a shadowknight to is the WoW Paladin (I'm sure there are *many* differences though), but with many more instants and debuffs available. I've been reading the boards for a bit now, but I'm mainly interested in answers to the following questions. I would be most grateful if anyone can help.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1) Nowadays, what is the main role of Shadowknights in the game?  (i.e. in small groups and in raids)</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Mainly MT or Off-Tanking in small groups. In Raids, shadowknights make decent DPS, but they are known to tank every now and then.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>2) What have been the biggest changes in Shadowknights since the early days?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>I'm not sure on the big changes, because i did not play a SK in the early game.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>3) What different talent specs are available for Shadowknights?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Various lifetap abilities were implemented. You can add a lifetap to one of the dots we have, you can put a lifetap on our harmtouch, we can increase the heal amount of our reactive damage shield heal, you can increase crit chance of our spells which actually provides increased crit chance to our lifetap heals.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>4) How well do Shadowknights and Necromancers duo? My gf has a dark elf necromancer and a lot of my time would be spent online with her.</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Shadowknights and necromancers should be able to duo pretty well. I believe necromancers can help heal, and the shadowknights lifetaps also help keep your health up. I can currently duo with my monk friend tripple ^s that are a level or so below us. It's incredible experiance, and you should easily be able to do this with a necro partner.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>5) Does SoE have a history of nerfing SKs?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Not that i know of</FONT></DIV> <DIV>and one final question:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>6) Is Carpentry still as crap as it was before?</DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>All i know about carpentry from before is that you make furnuture, and now you can make strongboxes, as well as salesman crates, which are extremely useful, and great cash, if you can find the rare woods to make the salesman crates. (Salesman crates enable players to sell items from their rooms for a discounted price (Ignoring the broker's commision if you go to the player's room.)</FONT> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>

[Naelael]

<div><blockquote><hr>Typhonian wrote:<div></div> <div>(Forgive me if my questions seem a bit grand in scope, but I've been away from EQ2 for a *long, long* time and I feel like I've missed out on a *lot*).</div> <div> </div> <div>Back in early 2005 (in the days when the fish in Nekultos forest swam in mid-air!), I levelled a Shadowknight to lvl 28, mainly through solo play. I then quit EQ2 for WoW, due to external circumstances. But now, with WoW going up its own [Removed for Content] (I had a 60 orc warrior, and was tired of the continous and blatant nerfs), I'm considering coming back to EQ2, mainly for the solo and small group content, which appears to be much, much better than WoW. I still have the account details, so I would be coming back to my Shadowknight as my main character.</div> <div>I vaguely recall my time playing EQ2 (its almost two years ago!), and the closest I can equate playing a shadowknight to is the WoW Paladin (I'm sure there are *many* differences though), but with many more instants and debuffs available. I've been reading the boards for a bit now, but I'm mainly interested in answers to the following questions. I would be most grateful if anyone can help.</div> <div> </div> <div>1) Nowadays, what is the main role of Shadowknights in the game?  (i.e. in small groups and in raids)<font color="#663399"><font size="5">I am all about small groups in EQ2 or duoing, but there is a lot of raiding to be done as well. </font></font></div> <div> </div> <div>2) What have been the biggest changes in Shadowknights since the early days?</div> <div> <font color="#663399"><font size="5">Well this is hard to answer. I started playing eq2 in BETA_1 though the DoF expansion. It was close to comming out when I quit, I was doing beta for that as well. The class has been completley revamped since you were last in the game. It will take some getting used to. The skills are different, and combat flows entirley differently. A lot faster paced now. </font></font></div> <div>3) What different talent specs are available for Shadowknights?<font color="#663399"><font size="5">This has already been answered. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font></font></div> <div> </div> <div>4) How well do Shadowknights and Necromancers duo? My gf has a dark elf necromancer and a lot of my time would be spent online with her.<font color="#663399"><font size="5">Duoing as a SK will be fine. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I do it all the time. </font></font></div> <div> </div> <div>5) Does SoE have a history of nerfing SKs?<font color="#663399"><font size="5">I don't know how many real old school people are left. By old school, I mean people who played early EQ1 as a SK. I must say... Yes, yes they do. Maybe not in EQ2, but they loved to swing the nerf bat at EQ1 SKs to be sure. </font></font></div> <div> </div> <div>and one final question:</div> <div> </div> <div>6) Is Carpentry still as crap as it was before?<font color="#663399"><font size="5">Its a good thing others do trade skills, because I Sure as hell don't. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font></font></div><hr></blockquote></div>

[AziBam]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Typhonian wrote:<BR> <DIV>(Forgive me if my questions seem a bit grand in scope, but I've been away from EQ2 for a *long, long* time and I feel like I've missed out on a *lot*).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Back in early 2005 (in the days when the fish in Nekultos forest swam in mid-air!), I levelled a Shadowknight to lvl 28, mainly through solo play. I then quit EQ2 for WoW, due to external circumstances. But now, with WoW going up its own [Removed for Content] (I had a 60 orc warrior, and was tired of the continous and blatant nerfs), I'm considering coming back to EQ2, mainly for the solo and small group content, which appears to be much, much better than WoW. I still have the account details, so I would be coming back to my Shadowknight as my main character.</DIV> <DIV><BR>I vaguely recall my time playing EQ2 (its almost two years ago!), and the closest I can equate playing a shadowknight to is the WoW Paladin (I'm sure there are *many* differences though), but with many more instants and debuffs available. I've been reading the boards for a bit now, but I'm mainly interested in answers to the following questions. I would be most grateful if anyone can help.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1) Nowadays, what is the main role of Shadowknights in the game?  (i.e. in small groups and in raids)</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>As said above we do just fine as MT or off tank in groups.  We solo very well.  Probably the best of the plate tanks solo and competitive solo with brawlers.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV>2) What have been the biggest changes in Shadowknights since the early days?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff3300>Single biggest change that comes to my mind is our crappy old ward is now a very nice lifetap that procs for 5 hits.  Much better than the old style IMHO.  Don't expect your horse to be of any value now.  (Purely fluff and basically never used anymore).  Our single target taunt now has a taunt over time component that most of us consider to be weaker than the old way and all around a bad idea.  We recently received the ability to use bows and a while back were able to use some piercing weaps, neither of which were available to us at the start.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3) What different talent specs are available for Shadowknights?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Numerous threads and various opinions on this.  Easiest would be to spend some time browsing to get a feel for what you prefer.  In general terms you have a crusader AA tree and an SK AA tree.  Each of which can have up to 50 points spent.  Once a point is spent in one you can respec within that tree but not from one tree to the other.  (The AAs came first with the KoS Kingdom of Sky expansion and grew with the latest EoF Echoes of Faydwer...btw my understanding is that buying the retail version of EoF will include the KoS and DoF expansions as well.)  </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4) How well do Shadowknights and Necromancers duo? My gf has a dark elf necromancer and a lot of my time would be spent online with her.</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>I think SK/Necro is an absolutely outstanding duo.  Guildmate and I have been very successful with this setup. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5) Does SoE have a history of nerfing SKs?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>If anything, they have recently tried to make up for some of our weaknesses.  Don't get me wrong, nothing is ever perfect but I can't say that the SK class has been targeted for nerfs any more than any other class and less than many.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>and one final question:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>6) Is Carpentry still as crap as it was before?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>LOL! Reminds me of how bad it used to be for guildmate carpenter.  You truly were at the early part of the game.  If you browse the tradeskill forums you'll see that many people are not overly happy with how tradeskilling in general has been changed over time.  It seems to be harder to really make a decent income with it than it used to be.  Specifically for carpentry though, you would probably find it is more viable than it used to be because more people have status homes now that use furnishings to reduce their status cost.  People also have more disposable plat than they used to.  More than just boxes to make for a carpenter these days.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>SKs are lots of fun and I think overall you'll enjoy the changes.  Go through your spells and CAs very carefully to find what is new/changed and reorganize your hotbars accordingly.  Practice in a newb zone like the graveyard to get things in order.   GL</FONT></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>

[Typhonian]

<P>EQranja, Naelael, Dkel - thank you very, very much for your detailed answers - they've been very, very helpful.</P> <P>It seems like SKs play a similar part in EQ2 as DPS/OT warriors do in WoW. And my main in WoW was a DPS/OT warrior *grins* (I'm never been keen on playing casters in MMORPGs). It also appears the solo part of the game has been buffed a *lot*, which is good news, as after doing the whole Molten Chore/BWL experience in WoW, I'm not all that keen on raiding.</P> <P>I think I will probably return to EQ2 :smileyhappy:</P> <P>Once again, thanks.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Incur]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1) Nowadays, what is the main role of Shadowknights in the game?  (i.e. in small groups and in raids)</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cccc00>Mostly tanking in groups, small groups.. But we are also quite adept Named hunters and can do quite good DPS especially when specced for it, on Raids you tank, off tank, or blow things up! Battlemage is a build a lot of raiding sk's do nowdays, ditch the plate, strap on the cloth and blow things up while cleaving away with a huge twohander ((or 1 + symbol ))</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2) What have been the biggest changes in Shadowknights since the early days?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cccc00>Heh! Biggist change, they changed us from being a warrior with a bit of 4hp, or 15hp heals to a lifesucking vampiric leech! I LOVE the changes, the pet has been given gorgeous new graphics especially the high end one in full plate, and we excel at AoE encounters now.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3) What different talent specs are available for Shadowknights?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cccc00>Basically theres different ways of doing it, but your two primary different specs are either DPS or Tankage, theres some good AA writeups around on this board somewhere</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4) How well do Shadowknights and Necromancers duo? My gf has a dark elf necromancer and a lot of my time would be spent online with her.</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cccc00>Very well, our AoE Taunt makes there spells do more damage, there debuff makes us do more damage, and they can top up our health, or if there using tank pet you can just FD let there pet tank, stand back up tap your health back up and rescue the aggro back! Good fun and a good laugh also! You'll be impressed at what you can handle with that duo</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5) Does SoE have a history of nerfing SKs?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#cccc00>So far pretty much buffed us all the way in EQ2... i wont mention eq1</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>and one final question:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>6) Is Carpentry still as crap as it was before?</DIV><FONT color=#cccc00>I have no clue! but i am constantly buying new bits and pieces for my house, you could however always waste thousands of plat and take up Tinkering or Transmuting as well =)</FONT><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV>