Is SK the "joke" class of the game?

[IronCoff]

New EQ player, first post here, hello everyone. I was interested in playing a SK (lv15 Crusader and going strong!) however my recent discoveries left me disappointed. My concerns are about the cosmetic side of things, I'll leave worrying about the game mechanics to more experienced players. But...our pets are a goo ball and a white dove? What's up with the "Unholy Steed"? Am I missing something here? I was expecting a succubus (it's on the EQ2 homepage, looks very eeevil) or some sort of wraith or... at least a black bird with glowing red eyes? Why is the ride of a SK a "fluff" spell? Why can't we pay several plats for an upgrade scroll to make our unholy steeds go faster? The horse is one of the defining aspects of the SK concept. Why does the unholy steed look like an overweight mule painted black instead of an awe inspiring wraith-like warhorse with a burning mane? Selling videogames is like selling dreams, visions, or in short, "cool stuff". Why did the art & design teams make such tasteless decisions? (Obviously the game has a lot of hp under the hood, why waste it like this?)

Message Edited by IronCoffin on 08-20-2005 01:42 AM

[Kagatoey]

Shadowknights are gimped. That's all I'm gunna say.

[Sasaki Koji]

Saying this as a lvl50SK, we are really the fluff class of the game. It seems to me that SOE really doest belive we should even exist anymore. I heard in beta is was really hard for us to tank. They're robbing us of all but 2 debuffs, stripping our DPS, really didnt make us any better tanks, and still have gimped buffs for the group... i mean, we in acuality get downgraded in DoF. It seems to me that everyone has to quit playing SK all together for them to get a clue.

They can say that we have a 'Role' they want us to continue following, but right now our role is just to try to look good in our armor. Even the though of making one architype 'more capable' than the other is rediculous. I really didnt pick my class for the skills, i love being a Shadowknight, and I love to tank, and i love to hurt things. right now they slashed both of those abilities down and its just not right. Ive looked at the Paladins skill Revamps, and it really looks to me that they can do just as much damage as SK, if not more, with greater tanking ability and the ability to res and get wards that own and heal themselves and others in a mere 5 second... i mean really what gives. it appears our whole class is being focused around Harm touch. I really never used it anyways, now i guess i will... whatever. This was the only upgrade we got besides siphon strength taping and giving more str and Devour Vitae giving more life back, despite still being one a silly 20s recast wich makes it not a main form of life regain (Remember pld 5s heal for alot more..) And i really dont agree with taking out a melee attack and turning it into an offensive stance. That should have been a completely new line of skills, not a replacement of another.

Right now, our combat skills at 50 are:

Pariah's Mark (bleh), Soulrend, Agonizing Cry (needs a 2h and no longer has the potential to AOE or reduce agi), and Destructive slam (needs a shield), and Disease cloud (finally looks like a real pain attack). ive seen alot more on the paladin, and i hope we had new CA's added that we arent getting any feedback on...

And our Magic skills are:

Baelful smite (lost encounter hit, lowered damage, increased power cost), Sickening anger (Lost damage, increased power cost), Dreadful wrath (recast increased to 60s [bleh] and interupt lost) Devour Vitae (increased life tap, but still unresonable 20s recast). Still would like to know if anything was added to this list.

Buffs:

Molevolent Circle (better than before, good. however Paladins seem to get 2 main resists and SK get one, that needs a change.) Plague sword (Seems to increase stats just for magic damage, but STR has been the SK's main skill forever, dont know why they suddenly changed to INT... Hopefully they add some increased STR to help all our combat arts.) Unholy Aura (made into a Life tap proc buff for self, last seen at 8% proc. Looks promising if it doesnt get resisted alot like it does now ) Unholy Strength (Now a group spell but striped of the agi buff..). Calculated Evasion (Works differently now, and doesnt add agi to caster or mit to target anymore, now parry to caster only.). Insatible Hunger (lost the combat skills and Disease mit, Increased proc rate. looks good i suppose ). Unholy Blessing (better be self castable, couterpart of Paladin ward if it is). Gift of Armorment (never used it, prolly never will =)).

Taunts:

Destructive slam (yea its a taunt too =) glad its 20s now and works on epics). Insideous whisper (Heard it was changed to around 500 hate ever 3 secs for 9 secs. this is really good imo.)

Saying this as a lvl50SK, we are really the fluff class of the game. It seems to me that SOE really doest belive we should even exist anymore. I heard in beta is was really hard for us to tank. They're robbing us of all but 2 debuffs, stripping our DPS, really didnt make us any better tanks, and still have gimped buffs for the group... i mean, we in acuality get downgraded in DoF. It seems to me that everyone has to quit playing SK all together for them to get a clue.

They can say that we have a 'Role' they want us to continue following, but right now our role is just to try to look good in our armor. Even the though of making one architype 'more capable' than the other is rediculous. I really didnt pick my class for the skills, i love being a Shadowknight, and I love to tank, and i love to hurt things. right now they slashed both of those abilities down and its just not right. Ive looked at the Paladins skill Revamps, and it really looks to me that they can do just as much damage as SK, if not more, with greater tanking ability and the ability to res and get wards that own and heal themselves and others in a mere 5 second... i mean really what gives. it appears our whole class is being focused around Harm touch. I really never used it anyways, now i guess i will... whatever. This was the only upgrade we got besides siphon strength taping and giving more str and Devour Vitae giving more life back, despite still being one a silly 20s recast wich makes it not a main form of life regain (Remember pld 5s heal for alot more..) And i really dont agree with taking out a melee attack and turning it into an offensive stance. That should have been a completely new line of skills, not a replacement of another.

Right now, our combat skills at 50 are:

Pariah's Mark (bleh), Soulrend, Agonizing Cry (needs a 2h and no longer has the potential to AOE or reduce agi), and Destructive slam (needs a shield), and Disease cloud (finally looks like a real pain attack). ive seen alot more on the paladin, and i hope we had new CA's added that we arent getting any feedback on...

And our Magic skills are:

Baelful smite (lost encounter hit, lowered damage, increased power cost), Sickening anger (Lost damage, increased power cost), Dreadful wrath (recast increased to 60s [bleh] and interupt lost) Devour Vitae (increased life tap, but still unresonable 20s recast). Still would like to know if anything was added to this list.

Buffs:

Molevolent Circle (better than before, good. however Paladins seem to get 2 main resists and SK get one, that needs a change.) Plague sword (Seems to increase stats just for magic damage, but STR has been the SK's main skill forever, dont know why they suddenly changed to INT... Hopefully they add some increased STR to help all our combat arts.) Unholy Aura (made into a Life tap proc buff for self, last seen at 8% proc. Looks promising if it doesnt get resisted alot like it does now ) Unholy Strength (Now a group spell but striped of the agi buff..). Calculated Evasion (Works differently now, and doesnt add agi to caster or mit to target anymore, now parry to caster only.). Insatible Hunger (lost the combat skills and Disease mit, Increased proc rate. looks good i suppose ). Unholy Blessing (Really hope this is self castble soon, Good rival of paladin ward if it is). Cursed Caress (Now we have to tank to get essences... yay.. this makes us like berzerkers in tanking DPS. we dont tank, we cant cast bird that does more damage..)

Taunts:

Destructive Slam (yea its a taunt, glad its 20s now ). Insideous whisper (Lost the damage and -dps but heard its now around 500 hate every 3 seconds for 9 seconds, making it a main taunt yet again =)). Blashpemy (more hate and more disease mit debuff and now 20s too, great change =)). Cursed Caress (adds a bit of hate when you get hit.. hmm)

 

However with all these that seem to be great changes, I have looked at guardian, Zerker, and paladin Skills, and i see that they are way better in pretty much every aspect. Monks and Bruisers seem to be getting smashed too...

Im wondering what the SK's on beta and test are doing. I havent seen but one outdated screenshot of our skills, then they seem to have vanished. i understand you prolly have work and other rl issues, but other sk's, if you exist, try to ease the suffering from our curiosity . I rarely see any Shadowknights on test, and i hope theres more than 1 on beta. btw im a 17 crusader on test working towards SK to try to help uncover mysteries .

[vorek]

You people just whine and cry no matter what.

There have been no "nerfs".

You play the class as they design it or you reroll. Period.

Like it or not, this is how it is....long-winded posts that are basic whining about the class (Check as see...there is some cry baby like this in every subclass forum) do nothing but make the poster look like a [Removed for Content].

 

Suck it up and reroll or stop crying about it.

[PhozFa]

I agree Vorek, if you don't like the class don't play it. there is no use bringing others down who do enjoy thier class. Maybe it isn't for you. If you wanna be main tank all the time be a gaurd. If you wanna do dps be a scout/mage. And hes right every board has posts saying how useless thier class is which makes the class itself look bad cause the people who are happy are too busy playing and feel they don't need to waste a thread saying "[expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] I'm having fun"

[Giral]

i love my sk mainly the posts  right now are about test and whats giong on with SK',  we don't know much and as stated many times here people just dont know how to explain what its like

2 things     1st      Sazaki wrote             " However with all these that seem to be great changes, I have looked at guardian, Zerker, and paladin Skills, and i see that they are way better in pretty much every aspect. Monks and Bruisers seem to be getting smashed too..."

2nd Phozfate wrote "If you wanna be main tank all the time be a gaurd. If you wanna do dps be a scout/mage"

now anybody who is a level 35 + sk knows knows we are a great fun class to play we can pretty much succed at any roll right   now  except (healer) now on Live we can MT we Can defintly MA we can do good dps and we can ward and grant armours to help a groupmate that has serious agro we can also grant them agility and intervene to take some of there hits

the problem is most players don't know what an SK is capable of and what we do "WE" know we kick some serious Buttocks and also MT all game content even END game .

we are all voicing are fears about the Test changes becuase we have worked hard with are SK's on live to be the best SK we can be and now there is a possibility that we might be worse off than befor and if we don't voice are opinions NOW when these changes Are taking place on Test so that we can get the most out of are character then when are we suppose to ????

i could really care less about what my damned pet looks like as long as it was useful i can care less about what the other tanks can do BUT i want to be just as useful in my own way .If theres a chance to make us great we need to take it wyle its available

alot of are skills that are broken or useless now on live is the reason for all the complaining WE dont want to wait another year to get changes done when they are working on FIGHTER combat revamp Right now . We want to unsure are future in EQ2 for all parties all Raids and still solo decently

 there are alot of ligitamate questions and fears And yes compared to most of the other forums there isnt much to go on here "as stated above    Sazaki          has only seen a few other sk on test

thats kind of scary to think are whole combat revamp test game changes might rest on the shoulders of a few Sk's (no pressure guys : )

but yeah i don't know i love my sk i think it's a class that Hardcore gamers should love to play we are a well rounded tank so we have to work harder at being MT and use all are available skills to are advantage rather than be a Guard and Just buff out the wazzu and with group buffs there pretty much invinsible "Whats fun about that?" i want to earn my way with my skill not let my buffs earn them for me

 

 

 

Message Edited by Giralus on 08-21-2005 01:48 PM

[Evo]

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IronCoffin wrote:
New EQ player, first post here, hello everyone.
I was interested in playing a SK (lv15 Crusader and going strong!) however my recent discoveries left me disappointed.
My concerns are about the cosmetic side of things, I'll leave worrying about the game mechanics to more experienced players.

But...our pets are a goo ball and a white dove?
What's up with the "Unholy Steed"?
Am I missing something here?

 

Message Edited by IronCoffin on 08-20-2005 01:42 AM

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Our pet has now changed to a skeleton (" a cursed soul") on dof beta so that might please you.

[Sasaki Koji]

I love my sk too, and thats why i havent, nor will i ever, create a guardian . It still doesnt excuse the fact that theyve put a totally wrong picture on the shadowknight. i mean, giving us a blob and a bird in the first place should tell you were there to be funny =) I even rember that post of 'what do you name your Tainted Soul'. I named mine Pidgeotto of course haha... but anyways. we are a pretty funny class. even tho i do out-do most guardians at the heroic lvl, prolly soon to be epic lvl =). I am glad at some of the changes, tho alot do make 3 out of the 4 plate tanks better. I am on test constantly feedbacking and bugging what they break so dont get me wrong, in not just here complaining and whining, i complain and whine in feedbacks and bugs too .

I do remember my days of fireing paladins and guardians from tanking because they were so stupid. they seem to get hit alot more and take more damage than I do most of the time, they just got more hp - big whoop . I just hope that our epic tanking will be more on an even par.

Well, just letting you all know that I too love my class. but i dont love how SOE is drowning our passed abilities.

[vTenebr]

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Evoga wrote: 

Our pet has now changed to a skeleton (" a cursed soul") on dof beta so that might please you.

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Bah, how dull As for those who talk about how much SK suck.. I can understand their point of view.  It takes a bit more effort, intuition, and skill to play an SK.  Too many SK lack that, and to them the class is gimped and lame.  They should reroll a less complicated class. :/ Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying the class is perfect.  It does have it's issues and we do have a combat revamp coming up.  I look forward to seeing the changes and how they work.  However, even with the problems we have now, I would never say we're "gimped".  That just gives up on the class as totally worthless.  We're not worthless by a long shot.

Message Edited by vTenebrae on 08-22-2005 12:12 AM

[timboi]

We ARE not a [Removed for Content] class.  We are a hard class to play and if your not geared right or dont know how to play your class then its not going to be usefull/fun.  I am always the offtank in raids and when im not im in the maintank group buffing the mt.  just my 2 cents