Do we have anyone on these forums that can take the time to put a heroic guide together for SK's. Tearsin Rain and other veteren SK's, we would greatly appreciate some insight as to what 12 spells are a must for buffing and what 12 spells are good for molo'ing and then a decent explaination of the spells and AA's that we should have on a HOT bar around level 85. Also, a decent rotation for killing mobs both pre/post epic. Thanks for the help.
The basics were done by Tearsin in his tanking info dump for the commonwealth. For more specifics I would head over to Evilgamer.net and go through the posts on there. Use search, it is your friend. Everything that you could want to know is dumped over there. If you have specific questions please ask them, and I'm sure your will get an answer.
Sojero thanks for the reply. I have read tanking for the commonwealth and it is an excellent guide on the basics of tanking and kiting and such. I am looking for more specifics and I have seached Evil Gamer and these forums for a heoric guide for SK's. I see other classes have in depth guides with the information stated in my OP. If you can post a link to either forum referencing these items, that would be a huge help. I may not be savy enough in my search to find them.
Hold aggro. Don't die. Get Moar Ac. Get 2.0 and COA chest asap. The rest experience and trying new things will teach you.
Buffsfor 85: grim aura banshee aura Mindshear Horror Shroud of the Blightborn bobbing corpse Minion of Sebilis Gift of Sathir Venril's Covenant Drape of Korafax update as you gain levels with newer spells new ds line stack with banshee aura - so keep that even after 86 add call line (atk buff) when you get it, it also stacks with grim aura Soloing spells are the same as we have for grouping, you will find that in many many threads throughout the tank forum basic from 85 up Touch of Tharoff Touch of Kildrukaun Dire Implication Touch of Lanys Terror of Jelvalak Charge for Power Malarian Spear Malarian Skin Steely Stance Dire Constriction Blood of Laarthik Plague of the Karanas switch out dots with what you need for the situation Withstand - disc to use often If you have a questions about a spell or disc that isnt explained in game description, ask.
Tearsin's comprehensive writeup can be found here: https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/...o-tanking-info-dump-for-the-commonwealth.180/
okay i may take the time to make a proper writeup, i may not - but here at least is something to get new out-of-the-gate players going with their heroic toons. i'm not going to write a "this is what you should mem" list because there are plenty of those already and it's a subjective thing and i don't want to start yet another fight over what spells are or are not worth using, so this is just a guide to stuff that exists to help make sense of it. Spells: SKs are a class that heavily utilize current and past expansion spells, so instead of talking about every specific spell you should mem i'm going to broadly discuss 'spell lines', since in some instances you're memming what is technically the same spell, just from an older expansion. BOLD means you can load multiple versions of essentially the same spell from previous expansions. anything not bold either has your standard shared lockout/refresh with older versions, or newer overwrites older. The relevant spells for an SK (both heroic and just of whatever level but i'm limiting this list to lines you get at 85) for TANKING are: terror of X (hate spell) spite/loathing/abhorrence/etc (AE hate) touch of X (smaller damage quicker recast lifetap) dire X (bigger damage longer recast lifetap) spear of X (direct damage spell) XX for power (hate-over-time on mob, AC buff on SK) touch of YY (this is a small nuke/heal that isn't a lifetap, it puts an HP buff/hate mod on you for 5m) dire YY (this is a disease dot that also has an ac and str debuff component) bite of XX (this is a small DD that casts a group heal and gives the group mana) The relevant spells for an SK (both heroic and just of whatever level but i'm limiting this list to lines you get at 85) for FULL ON DPSING are: blood of XX (short duration poison dot) - mem 3 of these plague of XX (medium duration corruption dot) - mem 3 of these dire YY (this is a disease dot that also has an ac and str debuff component) XX darkness (this is a snare spell, but has a reasonably decent dot as well) bond of XX (this is technically a heal-over-time buff as well as dot, but the heal is so abysmally awful it's a waste of a spell slot to use for heals, but it can be an extra dot in a full burn situation) spear of X (direct damage spell) The relevant spells for an SK in terms self-buffing are: shroud of the XX (this buff gives you a lifetap proc) XX's horror (this buff gives you a DD proc that puts a 10ish hit counter buff on you that heals you for 10% of your melee damage) cloak of XX (this buff gives AC, HP, and a damage shield - it does NOT stack with the ranger 'cloak' line of buffs) XX skin (this is a defensive proc that fires when you get hit, gives you a big rune) call of XX (this is an atk buff, it doesn't stack with the ranger 'predator' line, it gives more raw atk than a predator buff of the same level, it does not give the double-attack bonus of predator) XX's covenant (this is a mana regen buff, it does not stack with enchanter mana regen or mana regen pots) as you get higher in level there are a few new spells that are worth loading: XX audacity (a hate-over-time and disease resist debuff, very useful for getting dire YY to land) insidious deflection (an ae lifetap spell) torrent of agony (group AC buff) coming soon, or at least later at some point... AAs and discs.
Discs: XX carapace (20% damage reduction, doesn't stack with vie, gives you a defensive lifetap proc) XX mantle (35% damage reduction, doesn't stack with vie) deflection (must have shield equipped, 100% shield block chance) unholy aura (increase damage of lifetaps by up to 100%, stacks with worn focus effects) defy/renounce/reprove (gives a 90% damage reduction for 2-3 hits [2 hits for rk2, 3 hits for rk3]) respite/reprieve/rest (increase endurance regeneration, can only be used under 30% endurance, will only regen up to 25%/29% total endurance for ranks 2 and 3) rigor mortis (FD disc, has a 10% chance for instant memwipe, only situationally useful) final breath/final gasp (FD disc, has a 25% chance to heal you, almost never used by anyone) at higher levels you get several new relevant discs: unholy guardian (36% DI reduction, making it a "mini" warrior defensive, stacks with vie, causes a lifetap proc to go off when you bash, reduces melee damage output) spite of ronak (offensive proc, puts a dot on the target that heals you for the amount of the dot damage) gouging/gashing blade (3x strikes for high damage) crimson/scarlet blade (3x strikes for high damage, gives a damage enhancing buff that also adds a set amount of damage to each DD spell cast)
For shame I believe a call to figure out how to use Search was in order for the OP, and you went and coddled =(
Thanks Tearsin and Sojero for the help and making an excellent guides. It has helped a bunch and I believe it will help others. To those who want to poke fun at me or insult me, you are only driving me and those away from the class and from posting for help in the future. Personally if it is a class that you love or a class you want others to play, then encourage and help them to understand what makes it great. If I have a limited amount of time to play and have to spend most of that time on forums searching through a bunch of threads to figure out how to play one character, then why play. My point is it is nice that the veterans like Tearsin, Sojero, Crystilla and others have been very kind to show love for their class in creating guides. Thanks to Tearsin and Sojero for taking the time to explain things. This is a good start for me to jump in and now if I have more questions I know the basics to build upon. In the future I will not ask for help as I see doing so gets you trolled and referenced to threads that shouldn't apply to these forums. I mainly search these forums because a lot of it is geared to the newer player base. Thanks again for the help veterans.
Don't not ask for help, if you are gonna play an sk, one of the top things you'll need is a skin that sheds pointed comments rapidly. These forums are a bit nicer than the ones over at egn as well.
Welcome to the SK community. The post I referenced applies to our community and how we answer questions generally and is not specific to any specific forum - there are a lot of important lessons in the thread I linked. I linked SK community 101. My link also explained how to get answers to the questions that you asked (maybe you just saw the title and shrugged it off as irrelevant, but I promise it is not).
I started an sk myself, and have no idea what I'm doing. Thanks Tearsin for taking the time to explain things a bit. Antimode, I wouldn't let people like that bother you, I would have asked the same thing, as I prefer to actually converse with human beings who love their class enough to help out a new person, and I'm pretty sure last time I checked, that's kinda what this forum is for. I will be absolutely delighted to share anything I learn with you, although I'm not sure I will be continuing my sk past 71, very negative around here, and I prefer the land of Clerics, where everything smells of sugar cookies.
You'll find that there are many elitists who think that you should know immediately how to find things on your own, but there are also many kind individuals who will help you. Tearsin up there gave you most of the information you need to get started, but you're also going to have to try it out for yourself to have it make sense. Don't be afraid to ask, and don't be afraid to click names that are jerks then click 'ignore.'
i'll take 20 minutes out of my day to write a guide to help new people to encourage them to play over stroking my ego for the sake of elitism and having people not play because they can't figure out the game and get frustrated with it. WTF is the point of having knowledge if you don't share it with those that need it?
AAs: Active: bobbing corpse (levitate) cloak of shadows (fixed duration invis) enroaching darkness (snare, also adds hate, is useful to hit immediately after having cast a spell since AAs can casting during your 'spell gem lockout' period immediately after casting) improved death peace (FD) death's effigy (FD and instant aggro wipe) first spire of the reavers (primary 'burn' AAs, makes dots and DDs do more damage) second spire of the reavers (adds 128 damage to all hits) third spire of the reavers (increase to AC, chance to be missed, chance to parry) leech curse (huge lifetap) scourge skin (big DS for 100 hits) explosion of hatred (targeted AE hate) explosion of spite (PBAE hate) hate's attraction (fling the mob to you) hate step (big jump forward in the direction you are facing) chattering bones (3x swarm pets) viscous bite of chaos (AA version of the bite of XX spell) visage of death (big melee damage bonus) summon remains (summons all the target's corpses from any zone to the target's feet) passive (most of this is auto-granted, just mentioning it so you know what it is) touch of the cursed (innate proc of a large lifetap) soul abrasion (increases the damage of all proc buff spells and touch of the cursed) theft of life (chance to double the healing portion of any lifetap or get critical heals on heal spells such as PR or weapon procs) mortal coil (on killing an LB or higher con, chance to get a buff that gives 80% lifeleech from melee and AC) intense hatred (innate +3 damage shield bonus per rank)
I made two mistakes when I created my SK, the first was I thought a SK was a warrior with some spell abilities, so I ignored healing AA's and got all his tanking AA's first. Boy was I wrong a SK without his healing AA's takes more damage than a range does. My second mistake was saving my life taps for emergencies when tanking with a merc cleric healing. You will die a lot less if you use your life taps all the time, and ignore trying to time them. As for discs, I save deflection and mantle for names for the most part, but the rest I use as soon as they refresh to allow me to tank multiple mobs at a time.
Tearsin is right. I sure as hades don't know everything about clerics or the best ways to do everything, but there are some things I can help with and try. Returning players, new players, players who switch mains all are opportunities for us to show why EQ is still around after all these years (imparting knowledge, making friends through helping each other, the community bond, and so on). However I will say yeah, SK's tend to be one of the bluntest, non PC classes (in terms of posting) so just look past that, remember you can always put someone on ignore on these forums if it gets bad, and look to those who are willing to help.
