My SK is slowly hitting a wall

Ronte · 04-29-2006, 05:07 PM

OK this is NOT a bash my class thread. I dont want to hear about how we are gyped/ignored/gimped/screwwed by SOE. I dont care if we are the best DPS, best tanks, best off tanks, worst raid tanks, etc.

*whew*

OK so far I love this class but now I'm lvl 39 and for the past 3 levels or so, I have been hitting a wall of sorts. Suddenly I am struggling with light blues and greens. If I take on a few adds, I will die.

I am a solo SK, almost no grouping. Actually it is sortof embarassing to group since a necro pet makes a better tank than me.

Am I doing something wrong here? I think it may be my gear which is almost exculsively player made or treasured. The only legendary gear I have is HQ gear.

When choosing gear, I go STR first, INT second, STA third, WIS 4th and dont care much about agility. MY AA has gone solely to STR line.

All of my CAs and Spells are at Adept 1 rarely better, I get the occasional master here and there.

Right now I use a SBH or PGT and shield. (I use the PGT on easy mobs to get more chances to proc essences)

Any suggestions?

blynchehaun · 04-29-2006, 05:11 PM

When you say you're struggling with "Light blues and greens", are you talking about Heroic mobs?

Jebaris · 04-29-2006, 06:04 PM

Rontero wrote:

I'm lvl 39 and I think it may be my gear which is almost exculsively player made or treasured. Any suggestions?

It is a combination of your gear and your level. At 39 your gear is almost outdated for the tier you are in. You could wear a suit of ebon at 40 and if you do you will find everything gets a LOT easier. Then by 45 things will be normal, and by lvl 49 you'll hit another wall. At lvl 50 get some Cobalt and you will enjoy another 5 levels of uberness.

This happened to me in the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's... because i always get legendary gear upgrades that peak out mid tier

Ronte · 04-29-2006, 06:44 PM

blynchehaun wrote:
When you say you're struggling with "Light blues and greens", are you talking about Heroic mobs?

Heroics own me. I can only take down lvl 29 Heroics now. When I say "struggle" I dont mean they win, rather two light blue adds and I am toast.

SonnyA · 04-29-2006, 07:24 PM

When soloing your items means a lot. Get high mitigation items and don't neglegt agility. It means a lot for your avoidance.

Upgrade the sacrament pet, blessing, smite, vitae lines and defensive stance to at least adept 3. Tank in defensive stance and keep your health up using the reactive lifetap, smite and vitae line. Use the pet as dps and the shield bash to buy you the time necessary to cast blessing/pet. One pet cast per fight should be plenty. That's your core survival package. Once you master that you'll notice that you win fights easily, but they seem to take forever. That's when you start tweaking towards a more offensive strategy. Maybe tank in offensive stance or start using some of the other spells/CAs more often.

When you hit level 40 switch to a full set of ebon armor and imbued ruby rings, if you can afford it. Strength and agility are your most important stats. A good shield is paramount, and remember not to use shield bash and kick at the same time. They both stun, so wait for one to expire before using the other.

That's my advice to solo success.

Alevyan · 04-29-2006, 10:36 PM

RE: Op.Ok, chumb, listen up and listen well, I've been playing my SK since launch, I'm officially an old school SK player in THIS game, and I've solo'd my way entirely to where I am, since level 40 I've had nothing but crafted legendary armor and jewelry and weaponry too, but you know what? I wouldn't have needed them anyway, if I had to use common-crafted or drop gear, I'm sure I'd get by just fine the same way. For soloing as an SK, you want to efficiently be able to move from one mob to the next with minimal amounts of rest time, the only thing that should be DOWN when you're done with a mob is your mana. I don't use ADEPT IIIs on ANY of my skills, they're all APP IV or ADEPT I, and I can safely say I don't have any trouble.So, what should you be doing? Well, for one, you're paying too much attention to strength, if a shadowknight has 10 skills, only 3 of them will actually be effected by STR, the others? Intelligence. While you may not want to follow the road of the battlemage, it's a road which makes you a highly powerful soloer, and an excellent off-tank, capable of dealing damage with some ability to absorb it. Agility? Once again, this is really a secondary stat to an SK, if you want the real truth, the SKs stat values goes based on this simple equasion:Soloing/Battlemage build = INT > STR > WIS > STA > AGI.Tanking build = WIS > STA > INT > STR > AGI.Agility should always, really, honestly, be your last priority as an SK, it really should, and while you might not believe me.. Trust me, I really do know what I'm talking about here, why might you ask- should I ignore my agility? First and foremost, in any decently constructed group the Tank has no worries about his health pool, his only job is gto keep the enemy fixed on the TANK and nowhere else as long as the healer is doing his or her job, theres no need to worry about AVOIDING damage, because you can take the hits. While it is useful to have AGI, keep in mind that SKs have a harder time maintaining aggro than most tanks, our taunts are weaker because we also have additional effects entwined within our taunts, we must maintain aggro by complimenting our taunts with our DPS, as a result- Even in tanking built SKs INT and STR still overpower AGI because they help deal damage which helps keep aggro on YOU.

DMIstar · 04-29-2006, 11:00 PM

As previously stated, a good part of the problem is spells and gear.. I was in that range around the time of the revamps came around and had a lot of complaints spell wise, since the spells where lacking to keep up with the mobs...

Your gear is outdated in one lvl which makes it worse.... Does this mean the class is not going to pickup again ? No, the class picks straight up backin the mid 40s and pretty well maintains that way there after.. But you just have to struggle on it.. I did everything in my power to get to 40 back then.. and once reached everything was smooth sailing again..

Alevyan · 04-29-2006, 11:26 PM

I'm afraid all classes experience this lul in their power as they reach the end of a teir regardless of their skills. Wizards gain all of their heavy nukes in the first 5 levels of a teir, after that it can be very grueling grinding out experience on a wizard.

Ronte · 04-30-2006, 12:22 AM

This is all great info.

So combo of two things...

1. our spells/ca's dip in power due to age at this level.

2. end of tier is tough due to fading gear, etc.

I like the comment about gettting more INT. I may try that.

It also sounds like this will pass and I will be rolling again.

I didnt want to invest in legendary gear until post lvl 50. Same goes for spells and Adept IIIs. I would rather just limp through a few levels than blow plat on a spell that will become useless in a few levels.

Alevyan · 04-30-2006, 01:15 AM

Cobalt is in abundance right now, so it might be good to grab some cobalt later on, it's excellent great which will comfortably see you to 70, believe it or not. Though I would upgrade to xegonite later on, heh.

verydanger · 04-30-2006, 01:16 AM

Not only is your gear due for an upgrade at lvl 39, but so is also the Infernal Pact spell line, which will get an upgrade at lvl 40. Using a lvl 40 selfheal vs lvl 40 mobs will be a LOT better than lvl 26 heal vs lvl 39 mobs.

Huevos · 04-30-2006, 07:52 AM

I feel your question has all ready been answered, but it's worth restating the solution to your problem: new gear, spell updates, leveling up. I've recently hit level 42. I'm not rich - this is my first character after a long break - but I can still afford a fabled sword, adept iiis and a few pieces of ebon armor. I went through til level 40 without upgrading much - I made sure I had handcrafted/treasured armor that was appropriate to my level, but I rarely had anything legendary. If you group or solo to level up, you find items, you occasionally find legendary pieces of armor. In your 30s you should at least have Hammers Headguard from Runnyeye, and Gorehorn Sword of Butchery - any group in RE for an hour will find both of these items. You don't need to do anything special to get good gear/spells, and you don't need to have a rich friend feeding you platinum. A few hours of harvesting will nab you rares for either a) rare crafted armor/weapons b) adept iii upgrades. Up until level 40 I would sell these on the broker and then use my earning to buy lower quality items - but I'd have a full suit of them. By this stage I had 2pp, enough to buy some ebon, buy some rubies, and get tier 5 rare armor/rings/adepts made. Just analyze what you need. Do you want to main tank? Buy/harvest ebon, find an armorer. Do you want to DPS (the path I went, mostly)? Then buy a fabled sword, upgrade your offensive skills/offensive stance. If you're an avid soloer, do a bit of both. Download Advanced Combat Tracker and find out which of your skills do most of your damage. You'll find at our level that the majority of your damage is roughly in this order: Voracious Soul line, melee, Caress are all about equal, depending on the number of mobs you're fighting. Next come grim coil, disease cloud (single target taunt/dot line) especially if you're versing solo mobs. Find out which skills do your damage, and which ones keep you alive. As previously stated, I've just been through the level range you describe, and I've recently hit level 42. I outdamage a lot of DPS classes while tanking with a sheild and defensive stance simply because I have chosen to upgrade 2-3 items and 3-4 main skills, and they have not. Next time you're soloing, look at the different between buffing and not buffing - your stances, proc buffs and caress lines help you out A LOT. That large difference is not dissimiliar to the difference found between upgraded skill lines versus apprentice skill lines.

Ronte · 04-30-2006, 03:36 PM

Huevos wrote:
I feel your question has all ready been answered, but it's worth restating the solution to your problem: new gear, spell updates, leveling up.

I've recently hit level 42. I'm not rich - this is my first character after a long break - but I can still afford a fabled sword, adept iiis and a few pieces of ebon armor. I went through til level 40 without upgrading much - I made sure I had handcrafted/treasured armor that was appropriate to my level, but I rarely had anything legendary. If you group or solo to level up, you find items, you occasionally find legendary pieces of armor. In your 30s you should at least have Hammers Headguard from Runnyeye, and Gorehorn Sword of Butchery - any group in RE for an hour will find both of these items.

You don't need to do anything special to get good gear/spells, and you don't need to have a rich friend feeding you platinum. A few hours of harvesting will nab you rares for either a) rare crafted armor/weapons b) adept iii upgrades. Up until level 40 I would sell these on the broker and then use my earning to buy lower quality items - but I'd have a full suit of them. By this stage I had 2pp, enough to buy some ebon, buy some rubies, and get tier 5 rare armor/rings/adepts made.

Just analyze what you need. Do you want to main tank? Buy/harvest ebon, find an armorer. Do you want to DPS (the path I went, mostly)? Then buy a fabled sword, upgrade your offensive skills/offensive stance. If you're an avid soloer, do a bit of both. Download Advanced Combat Tracker and find out which of your skills do most of your damage. You'll find at our level that the majority of your damage is roughly in this order: Voracious Soul line, melee, Caress are all about equal, depending on the number of mobs you're fighting. Next come grim coil, disease cloud (single target taunt/dot line) especially if you're versing solo mobs. Find out which skills do your damage, and which ones keep you alive.

As previously stated, I've just been through the level range you describe, and I've recently hit level 42. I outdamage a lot of DPS classes while tanking with a sheild and defensive stance simply because I have chosen to upgrade 2-3 items and 3-4 main skills, and they have not. Next time you're soloing, look at the different between buffing and not buffing - your stances, proc buffs and caress lines help you out A LOT. That large difference is not dissimiliar to the difference found between upgraded skill lines versus apprentice skill lines.

Thanks! I was looking for a good parser last year and couldnt find anything! I didnt even bother recently. This will help a bit.

Diern · 05-02-2006, 02:06 AM

Alevyan wrote:
RE: Op.

Ok, chumb, listen up and listen well, I've been playing my SK since launch, I'm officially an old school SK player in THIS game, and I've solo'd my way entirely to where I am, since level 40 I've had nothing but crafted legendary armor and jewelry and weaponry too, but you know what? I wouldn't have needed them anyway, if I had to use common-crafted or drop gear, I'm sure I'd get by just fine the same way.

For soloing as an SK, you want to efficiently be able to move from one mob to the next with minimal amounts of rest time, the only thing that should be DOWN when you're done with a mob is your mana. I don't use ADEPT IIIs on ANY of my skills, they're all APP IV or ADEPT I, and I can safely say I don't have any trouble.

So, what should you be doing? Well, for one, you're paying too much attention to strength, if a shadowknight has 10 skills, only 3 of them will actually be effected by STR, the others? Intelligence. While you may not want to follow the road of the battlemage, it's a road which makes you a highly powerful soloer, and an excellent off-tank, capable of dealing damage with some ability to absorb it.

Agility? Once again, this is really a secondary stat to an SK, if you want the real truth, the SKs stat values goes based on this simple equasion:

Soloing/Battlemage build = INT > STR > WIS > STA > AGI.

Tanking build = WIS > STA > INT > STR > AGI.

Agility should always, really, honestly, be your last priority as an SK, it really should, and while you might not believe me.. Trust me, I really do know what I'm talking about here, why might you ask- should I ignore my agility?

First and foremost, in any decently constructed group the Tank has no worries about his health pool, his only job is gto keep the enemy fixed on the TANK and nowhere else as long as the healer is doing his or her job, theres no need to worry about AVOIDING damage, because you can take the hits. While it is useful to have AGI, keep in mind that SKs have a harder time maintaining aggro than most tanks, our taunts are weaker because we also have additional effects entwined within our taunts, we must maintain aggro by complimenting our taunts with our DPS, as a result- Even in tanking built SKs INT and STR still overpower AGI because they help deal damage which helps keep aggro on YOU.

I find myself agreeing with alot of what you are saying. Personally however, being on a PVP server, while taking the role as tank alot as well, I am taking a very balanced stat pool (excluding agility as I agree its practically worthless as a shadowknight and even harms your performance. We are built to take hits and when we get hit it increases our agro)

04-29-2006, 05:07 PM	#1
Ronte Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 14	OK this is NOT a bash my class thread. I dont want to hear about how we are gyped/ignored/gimped/screwwed by SOE. I dont care if we are the best DPS, best tanks, best off tanks, worst raid tanks, etc. whew OK so far I love this class but now I'm lvl 39 and for the past 3 levels or so, I have been hitting a wall of sorts. Suddenly I am struggling with light blues and greens. If I take on a few adds, I will die. I am a solo SK, almost no grouping. Actually it is sortof embarassing to group since a necro pet makes a better tank than me. Am I doing something wrong here? I think it may be my gear which is almost exculsively player made or treasured. The only legendary gear I have is HQ gear. When choosing gear, I go STR first, INT second, STA third, WIS 4th and dont care much about agility. MY AA has gone solely to STR line. All of my CAs and Spells are at Adept 1 rarely better, I get the occasional master here and there. Right now I use a SBH or PGT and shield. (I use the PGT on easy mobs to get more chances to proc essences) Any suggestions? __________________ System Specs: Athlon64 Venice 3000+, 1.8GHz, 512Kb cache, Single Core, Socket 939 Foxcon nForce4 mobo (Not SLI, Not SLI16X) 2GB PC3200 DDR RAM dual Channel ATI X800XL 256MB PCIx Video 2 Internal SATA hard drives NEC 3500 DVD Burner Stock on board sound nVidia Onboard Codecs On Board nVidia Ethernet Dell 2005FPW 20" Widescreen WXGA+ (1680X1050) monitor Dell 1801FP Ultrasharp 18" monitor 1280X1024 monitor

04-29-2006, 06:04 PM	#3
Jebaris Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 142	Rontero wrote: I'm lvl 39 and I think it may be my gear which is almost exculsively player made or treasured. Any suggestions? It is a combination of your gear and your level. At 39 your gear is almost outdated for the tier you are in. You could wear a suit of ebon at 40 and if you do you will find everything gets a LOT easier. Then by 45 things will be normal, and by lvl 49 you'll hit another wall. At lvl 50 get some Cobalt and you will enjoy another 5 levels of uberness. This happened to me in the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's... because i always get legendary gear upgrades that peak out mid tier

04-29-2006, 06:44 PM	#4
Ronte Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 14	blynchehaun wrote: When you say you're struggling with "Light blues and greens", are you talking about Heroic mobs? Heroics own me. I can only take down lvl 29 Heroics now. When I say "struggle" I dont mean they win, rather two light blue adds and I am toast. __________________ System Specs: Athlon64 Venice 3000+, 1.8GHz, 512Kb cache, Single Core, Socket 939 Foxcon nForce4 mobo (Not SLI, Not SLI16X) 2GB PC3200 DDR RAM dual Channel ATI X800XL 256MB PCIx Video 2 Internal SATA hard drives NEC 3500 DVD Burner Stock on board sound nVidia Onboard Codecs On Board nVidia Ethernet Dell 2005FPW 20" Widescreen WXGA+ (1680X1050) monitor Dell 1801FP Ultrasharp 18" monitor 1280X1024 monitor

04-30-2006, 12:22 AM	#9
Ronte Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 14	This is all great info. So combo of two things... 1. our spells/ca's dip in power due to age at this level. 2. end of tier is tough due to fading gear, etc. I like the comment about gettting more INT. I may try that. It also sounds like this will pass and I will be rolling again. I didnt want to invest in legendary gear until post lvl 50. Same goes for spells and Adept IIIs. I would rather just limp through a few levels than blow plat on a spell that will become useless in a few levels. __________________ System Specs: Athlon64 Venice 3000+, 1.8GHz, 512Kb cache, Single Core, Socket 939 Foxcon nForce4 mobo (Not SLI, Not SLI16X) 2GB PC3200 DDR RAM dual Channel ATI X800XL 256MB PCIx Video 2 Internal SATA hard drives NEC 3500 DVD Burner Stock on board sound nVidia Onboard Codecs On Board nVidia Ethernet Dell 2005FPW 20" Widescreen WXGA+ (1680X1050) monitor Dell 1801FP Ultrasharp 18" monitor 1280X1024 monitor

04-30-2006, 01:16 AM	#11
verydanger Loremaster Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 220	Not only is your gear due for an upgrade at lvl 39, but so is also the Infernal Pact spell line, which will get an upgrade at lvl 40. Using a lvl 40 selfheal vs lvl 40 mobs will be a LOT better than lvl 26 heal vs lvl 39 mobs. __________________ Chik, troubador of United Kingdoms (Splitpaw)

04-29-2006, 05:11 PM	#2
blynchehaun Loremaster Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Vancouver, Canada (formerly Ireland) Posts: 213	When you say you're struggling with "Light blues and greens", are you talking about Heroic mobs?

04-29-2006, 07:24 PM	#5
SonnyA Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 578	When soloing your items means a lot. Get high mitigation items and don't neglegt agility. It means a lot for your avoidance. Upgrade the sacrament pet, blessing, smite, vitae lines and defensive stance to at least adept 3. Tank in defensive stance and keep your health up using the reactive lifetap, smite and vitae line. Use the pet as dps and the shield bash to buy you the time necessary to cast blessing/pet. One pet cast per fight should be plenty. That's your core survival package. Once you master that you'll notice that you win fights easily, but they seem to take forever. That's when you start tweaking towards a more offensive strategy. Maybe tank in offensive stance or start using some of the other spells/CAs more often. When you hit level 40 switch to a full set of ebon armor and imbued ruby rings, if you can afford it. Strength and agility are your most important stats. A good shield is paramount, and remember not to use shield bash and kick at the same time. They both stun, so wait for one to expire before using the other. That's my advice to solo success.

04-29-2006, 10:36 PM	#6
Alevyan Loremaster Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 122	RE: Op.Ok, chumb, listen up and listen well, I've been playing my SK since launch, I'm officially an old school SK player in THIS game, and I've solo'd my way entirely to where I am, since level 40 I've had nothing but crafted legendary armor and jewelry and weaponry too, but you know what? I wouldn't have needed them anyway, if I had to use common-crafted or drop gear, I'm sure I'd get by just fine the same way. For soloing as an SK, you want to efficiently be able to move from one mob to the next with minimal amounts of rest time, the only thing that should be DOWN when you're done with a mob is your mana. I don't use ADEPT IIIs on ANY of my skills, they're all APP IV or ADEPT I, and I can safely say I don't have any trouble.So, what should you be doing? Well, for one, you're paying too much attention to strength, if a shadowknight has 10 skills, only 3 of them will actually be effected by STR, the others? Intelligence. While you may not want to follow the road of the battlemage, it's a road which makes you a highly powerful soloer, and an excellent off-tank, capable of dealing damage with some ability to absorb it. Agility? Once again, this is really a secondary stat to an SK, if you want the real truth, the SKs stat values goes based on this simple equasion:Soloing/Battlemage build = INT > STR > WIS > STA > AGI.Tanking build = WIS > STA > INT > STR > AGI.Agility should always, really, honestly, be your last priority as an SK, it really should, and while you might not believe me.. Trust me, I really do know what I'm talking about here, why might you ask- should I ignore my agility? First and foremost, in any decently constructed group the Tank has no worries about his health pool, his only job is gto keep the enemy fixed on the TANK and nowhere else as long as the healer is doing his or her job, theres no need to worry about AVOIDING damage, because you can take the hits. While it is useful to have AGI, keep in mind that SKs have a harder time maintaining aggro than most tanks, our taunts are weaker because we also have additional effects entwined within our taunts, we must maintain aggro by complimenting our taunts with our DPS, as a result- Even in tanking built SKs INT and STR still overpower AGI because they help deal damage which helps keep aggro on YOU.

04-29-2006, 11:00 PM	#7
DMIstar Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 787	As previously stated, a good part of the problem is spells and gear.. I was in that range around the time of the revamps came around and had a lot of complaints spell wise, since the spells where lacking to keep up with the mobs... Your gear is outdated in one lvl which makes it worse.... Does this mean the class is not going to pickup again ? No, the class picks straight up backin the mid 40s and pretty well maintains that way there after.. But you just have to struggle on it.. I did everything in my power to get to 40 back then.. and once reached everything was smooth sailing again..

04-29-2006, 11:26 PM	#8
Alevyan Loremaster Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 122	I'm afraid all classes experience this lul in their power as they reach the end of a teir regardless of their skills. Wizards gain all of their heavy nukes in the first 5 levels of a teir, after that it can be very grueling grinding out experience on a wizard.

04-30-2006, 01:15 AM	#10
Alevyan Loremaster Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 122	Cobalt is in abundance right now, so it might be good to grab some cobalt later on, it's excellent great which will comfortably see you to 70, believe it or not. Though I would upgrade to xegonite later on, heh.

04-30-2006, 07:52 AM	#12
Huevos Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 21	I feel your question has all ready been answered, but it's worth restating the solution to your problem: new gear, spell updates, leveling up. I've recently hit level 42. I'm not rich - this is my first character after a long break - but I can still afford a fabled sword, adept iiis and a few pieces of ebon armor. I went through til level 40 without upgrading much - I made sure I had handcrafted/treasured armor that was appropriate to my level, but I rarely had anything legendary. If you group or solo to level up, you find items, you occasionally find legendary pieces of armor. In your 30s you should at least have Hammers Headguard from Runnyeye, and Gorehorn Sword of Butchery - any group in RE for an hour will find both of these items. You don't need to do anything special to get good gear/spells, and you don't need to have a rich friend feeding you platinum. A few hours of harvesting will nab you rares for either a) rare crafted armor/weapons b) adept iii upgrades. Up until level 40 I would sell these on the broker and then use my earning to buy lower quality items - but I'd have a full suit of them. By this stage I had 2pp, enough to buy some ebon, buy some rubies, and get tier 5 rare armor/rings/adepts made. Just analyze what you need. Do you want to main tank? Buy/harvest ebon, find an armorer. Do you want to DPS (the path I went, mostly)? Then buy a fabled sword, upgrade your offensive skills/offensive stance. If you're an avid soloer, do a bit of both. Download Advanced Combat Tracker and find out which of your skills do most of your damage. You'll find at our level that the majority of your damage is roughly in this order: Voracious Soul line, melee, Caress are all about equal, depending on the number of mobs you're fighting. Next come grim coil, disease cloud (single target taunt/dot line) especially if you're versing solo mobs. Find out which skills do your damage, and which ones keep you alive. As previously stated, I've just been through the level range you describe, and I've recently hit level 42. I outdamage a lot of DPS classes while tanking with a sheild and defensive stance simply because I have chosen to upgrade 2-3 items and 3-4 main skills, and they have not. Next time you're soloing, look at the different between buffing and not buffing - your stances, proc buffs and caress lines help you out A LOT. That large difference is not dissimiliar to the difference found between upgraded skill lines versus apprentice skill lines.

04-30-2006, 03:36 PM	#13
Ronte Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 14	Huevos wrote: I feel your question has all ready been answered, but it's worth restating the solution to your problem: new gear, spell updates, leveling up. I've recently hit level 42. I'm not rich - this is my first character after a long break - but I can still afford a fabled sword, adept iiis and a few pieces of ebon armor. I went through til level 40 without upgrading much - I made sure I had handcrafted/treasured armor that was appropriate to my level, but I rarely had anything legendary. If you group or solo to level up, you find items, you occasionally find legendary pieces of armor. In your 30s you should at least have Hammers Headguard from Runnyeye, and Gorehorn Sword of Butchery - any group in RE for an hour will find both of these items. You don't need to do anything special to get good gear/spells, and you don't need to have a rich friend feeding you platinum. A few hours of harvesting will nab you rares for either a) rare crafted armor/weapons b) adept iii upgrades. Up until level 40 I would sell these on the broker and then use my earning to buy lower quality items - but I'd have a full suit of them. By this stage I had 2pp, enough to buy some ebon, buy some rubies, and get tier 5 rare armor/rings/adepts made. Just analyze what you need. Do you want to main tank? Buy/harvest ebon, find an armorer. Do you want to DPS (the path I went, mostly)? Then buy a fabled sword, upgrade your offensive skills/offensive stance. If you're an avid soloer, do a bit of both. Download Advanced Combat Tracker and find out which of your skills do most of your damage. You'll find at our level that the majority of your damage is roughly in this order: Voracious Soul line, melee, Caress are all about equal, depending on the number of mobs you're fighting. Next come grim coil, disease cloud (single target taunt/dot line) especially if you're versing solo mobs. Find out which skills do your damage, and which ones keep you alive. As previously stated, I've just been through the level range you describe, and I've recently hit level 42. I outdamage a lot of DPS classes while tanking with a sheild and defensive stance simply because I have chosen to upgrade 2-3 items and 3-4 main skills, and they have not. Next time you're soloing, look at the different between buffing and not buffing - your stances, proc buffs and caress lines help you out A LOT. That large difference is not dissimiliar to the difference found between upgraded skill lines versus apprentice skill lines. Thanks! I was looking for a good parser last year and couldnt find anything! I didnt even bother recently. This will help a bit. __________________ System Specs: Athlon64 Venice 3000+, 1.8GHz, 512Kb cache, Single Core, Socket 939 Foxcon nForce4 mobo (Not SLI, Not SLI16X) 2GB PC3200 DDR RAM dual Channel ATI X800XL 256MB PCIx Video 2 Internal SATA hard drives NEC 3500 DVD Burner Stock on board sound nVidia Onboard Codecs On Board nVidia Ethernet Dell 2005FPW 20" Widescreen WXGA+ (1680X1050) monitor Dell 1801FP Ultrasharp 18" monitor 1280X1024 monitor

05-02-2006, 02:06 AM	#14
Diern General Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 408	Alevyan wrote: RE: Op. Ok, chumb, listen up and listen well, I've been playing my SK since launch, I'm officially an old school SK player in THIS game, and I've solo'd my way entirely to where I am, since level 40 I've had nothing but crafted legendary armor and jewelry and weaponry too, but you know what? I wouldn't have needed them anyway, if I had to use common-crafted or drop gear, I'm sure I'd get by just fine the same way. For soloing as an SK, you want to efficiently be able to move from one mob to the next with minimal amounts of rest time, the only thing that should be DOWN when you're done with a mob is your mana. I don't use ADEPT IIIs on ANY of my skills, they're all APP IV or ADEPT I, and I can safely say I don't have any trouble. So, what should you be doing? Well, for one, you're paying too much attention to strength, if a shadowknight has 10 skills, only 3 of them will actually be effected by STR, the others? Intelligence. While you may not want to follow the road of the battlemage, it's a road which makes you a highly powerful soloer, and an excellent off-tank, capable of dealing damage with some ability to absorb it. Agility? Once again, this is really a secondary stat to an SK, if you want the real truth, the SKs stat values goes based on this simple equasion: Soloing/Battlemage build = INT > STR > WIS > STA > AGI. Tanking build = WIS > STA > INT > STR > AGI. Agility should always, really, honestly, be your last priority as an SK, it really should, and while you might not believe me.. Trust me, I really do know what I'm talking about here, why might you ask- should I ignore my agility? First and foremost, in any decently constructed group the Tank has no worries about his health pool, his only job is gto keep the enemy fixed on the TANK and nowhere else as long as the healer is doing his or her job, theres no need to worry about AVOIDING damage, because you can take the hits. While it is useful to have AGI, keep in mind that SKs have a harder time maintaining aggro than most tanks, our taunts are weaker because we also have additional effects entwined within our taunts, we must maintain aggro by complimenting our taunts with our DPS, as a result- Even in tanking built SKs INT and STR still overpower AGI because they help deal damage which helps keep aggro on YOU. I find myself agreeing with alot of what you are saying. Personally however, being on a PVP server, while taking the role as tank alot as well, I am taking a very balanced stat pool (excluding agility as I agree its practically worthless as a shadowknight and even harms your performance. We are built to take hits and when we get hit it increases our agro)