DPS... SK... OMG YES

[grypho]

Ok made an interesting discovery a couple nights back while grouping in EL. A person in our party had a damage parser running that tallied damage done, damage taken, damage per second.

 

I was lvl 39 at the time, we had a 38 bruiser, 35 inquisiter, 37 wizard, 33 guardian, and 36 illusionist. We decided to do Shakeys farm... not really a hard place for my lvl.

 

Well anyways the damage parser gave me a nice little suprise. I was in the #1 spot 9/10 fights, at some fights i hit in the mid 90's in dps... followed by the wizard then the bruiser, then the inquisiter... a few of the fights the wizard managed to edge me out by a little bit, and I think the bruiser beat me in one fight.

 

After awhile we replaced the illusionist for a dirge... and there wasnt much change in the top 3 rankings in the parser.

 

Then we replaced the bruiser for a warlock. And nothing really changed... al

though i noticed my dps went up a bit b/c of the warlock... at one point i actually hit 104.6 or so dps.

 

Ok there were a couple advantages I had... I was using my 2hd sword... not too often a tank can get to use it..and yes I do use them when I feel the healer can keep up with the dmg. I had some buffs on me from the inquisiter that did dmg when I was hit, and that had to account for part of it. But Sk's are tanks, i never expected to outpace a bruiser or a wizard even if they were 1-2 lvls below me. And before you say it must be b/c the others were not doing thier job right or the others just suck. No they were doing wonderful jobs thier dps was high... usually very close to mine.

 

We'll in the end this did lots for buffing my ego as I'm sure you will understand. I would be interested to here other examples of people using dps's and how you faired.

 

For awhile I felt sk's were a bit of an underdog when it came to some of the other tanks, but after that group my love for them grew, Now I go back and continue my exp grind.

 

BTW, ding lvl 40 sk.

[Bannon]

You were also levels higher than the others.

 

Give that wizard 2 more levels and you would be outdamaged.

 

Not to mention you have to account for all the skill uprades...those things definately change opinions.

 

for example, My righteous anger at adept 1 was doing more damage than a priest's smite spell...we were both same level and he was a bit angry that his only attack spell did less damage.  Basically mine was adept 1 and his was app1...big difference.  Soon as we got him adept1 he was doing much better than I.

 

And SKs arent specifically Tanks.  We are the versatile tank.  Of the 3 fighter branches...you have monk/bruiser, guard/zerk, SK/pal.

 

The monk/bruiser is meant as a DPS tank.  They can tank really well when paired with a shaman and mobs of equal level to themselves.

 

Guard/zerk  well they kind of split.  They are both agro holders, however, one is for DPS the other is for taking damage.  They have pretty set and defined rolls.

 

Now we come to SK/pal.  Primarily...I consider myself a secondary tank.  I can tank very well and hold agro without a problem usually...but I will turn it over to a guardian given the chance.  Our versatility allows us to switch from tank to DPS.  We can drop the shield and go for two handed weapon to significantly increase our DPS with our skills.  Not to mention we can change our buffs(remove knights stance) and buff up the maintank with vigor of trust and our wards.

 

 

Anyway...thats my view on the class.  Not a must have in the group if you have another tank...but we can be MT and if not MT...we can make the MT hella stronger.

[R.Dane]

Yea but how much of your power pool were you blowing every fight to get that DPS? We can do some damage but it comes at the cost of a ton of down time. Also, as you mentioned, if you are MT you aren't going to be able to play the offense role.Grats on 40 btw.

[grypho]

My power pool was being used at about the same rate as the others... Granted we had an illusionist for the first part of the group so I didnt have to conserve power.

 

Even if I was 1-2 lvls above the other party members I still chalk this one up for why I love sk's. The bruiser was only 1 lvl below me... and they are generaly considered a Dps job... and that they do, I had never dreamed that I would beat him in damage. But I did.

 

Now I'm sure this post won't do much in the way of promoting sk's to the sk haters, but if your an sk, it should help buff your impression of the job.

 

As for skill upgrades, my skills are mostly app3/adept1 with a couple masters/adept 3. I know the wizard in the group has most his skills at adept 3. The only advanage I had on the wizard was 2 lvls. Granted 2 lvls is a big advantage, but it shouldn't make me that much better over a job thats a pure dps.

Message Edited by gryphonv on 01-05-2005 10:37 AM

[OverlordM]

uh hmm you only had one DPS class in the group and they were 2 lvls under you and are an AOE dps class really..

 

Im not sure I understand the excitment ..but yay!

[Kanfo]

I've been quite impressed by the DPS put out by SK's. Even when I'm doing the MT thing, Fetid Grasp, Decrepit Slam, Sorrow, and the other low cost diseased snowball attack (whatever the name) put out a fairly decent amount of damage in a short amount of time! As for power usage, look at our powers! If you're using Grim Sword, shame on you. If you're using those 4 I named though, it's minimal cost for a very impressive amount of damage. Usually, I'm looking at anywhere between 3:1 to 5:1 damage/power.

[Exmortis_MT]

Well there alot of factors that could cause this to happen and not be repeated.  But it is nice to know SKs can put soem nice numbers up in the DPS department.  There is no question at my 25th level I am almost as good a tank as a guardian with spellsl to offer more functionality and utility.

 

I will always be of course on the low end of DPS, I always choose better tanking skill or items then DPS.  Its a style choice, Id rather allow the cleric a few DPS spells becasue he has to heal me less then have him heal me then the opposite. 

 

This is an interesting post and hope the author does a few more group tests to really get a feel how we fit it.  A perfect world woudl be we all same level and all using app3 abilties (since it is easier to standardize on a purchasable level then a dropped one), and see where we fit in.

 

In my case any rare ink i can make for myself for adept 3s goes to aggro/tank abilites not DPS, again its a style choice, not necissarily the rigth choice.

 

[hatefullinte]

This is a bit of subject but how do you bring up the ingame damage parser?..Ive been trying to find out for ages

[reakshav]

Stop raining on the guys parade, if he is satisfied thats all that matters.