new-ish SK. What am i doing wrong?

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by Mattnaik, Dec 14, 2016.

  1. Mattnaik Lorekeeper

    Just a little background, I returned to EQ about 2 months ago (after about a 12 year break) and bought a heroic SK to box with my ranger and eventually added on a shammy. Both the SK and ranger are all-access accounts with auto-granted AA's up to their current levels. I run 2 J5 healer mercs and a A5 melee DPS merc. I have trouble on my SK tanking anymore than 1 yellow-con in a TBM HA. The burst DPS (even with slows) is too much for my 2 healers and spot heals from the shammy, to keep up. Is this normal?

    Current level of toons: SK - 101, Ranger - 98, Shammy - 98

    Just to give some ideas on my stats: with all buffs (including shammy) i am at around 110kHP and about 8.5k AC. Combat abilities I keep up are rotating between my mantle and carapace. I keep my "skin" buff up and try to keep the anger/AC buff up as well. my hDex and hAgi are around the mid 200's range I believe.

    I do have parses of a number of fights so if there is something specific to look for as to why im taking too much burst damage I can do that as well.

    I'm not sure what more to do other than keep grinding for gear. I am obviously new to the class and feel like im missing something critical that might be causing my lack of ability to tank. I'd like to be able to tank 2-3 yellows at a time but not sure if my expectations are just too much.
  2. moogs Augur

    Have you spent much time collecting AC augs? What kind of gear are you using? That AC value appears to be quite low for TBM content.

    Are you using Mortal Coil? Have you completed your Epic 2.0?
  3. Tamaden Elder

    Expecting 2-3 yellows tanking is fine, do you have defensive AAs max? do you have 2.0 epic done? AC bit low for 101. SK's are excellent pullers, keep down to 1 for now but your class can solo yellow con NP just keep at it and learn your skills grind AAs. I also recommend taking with SKs on your server. Also keep 1 merc Reactive 1 Balanced. Invest in your agro spell AAs to proc runes and taps lines. SK dose a lot self heals from attacks and can Tap. in Future you will only need 1 Merc on 1-2 Yellows and can survive even if healer merc dies, also use wizard merc for dps. Don't give up you got bright future ahead as SK, imo they are best group tank possible.
    moogs likes this.
  4. Lorewood Lorekeeper

    Not an SK here but id say get your ac over 10k asap gear wise and get your combat agility and combat stability aa's maxed. Then read the forums and see what the other sk's say ...It looks to me from your description you are not using your self healing/tapping capabilities like those swarming sk's do and that may just be an AA thing time will fix. TBM up is kind of high end,, casters in decent group gear are over 10k Ac at least mine are so you are a bit underpowered for multiple mobs at this point in time. And like moog said get augs every little bit helps. Growing a tank is more about survivability then dps so work on gear and AC and your AA''s along the line of Planar Power, shield block etc ...
  5. Gruco Apprentice

    Getting those alts to 100+ will help. When I first started I had no idea about discs. Discs weren't a thing when I played and I discovered them at level 95... You will have 3 tank discs to help with adds. I cannot remember the xact numbers but you have 2 that do 35% and 1 does 25% over a few minutes. Also, you should have tank profenecenies when using a 1 hand and a shield that is like an auto 35% mitigation. If your using a 2 hander then you will probably get rocked often until you get that AC and AAs up.

    If I get more than one mob I deflect(actually shield flash), epic and then Unholy Guardian Disc. When your bard is 100+ he can mez the add before Shield Flash comes down. Also the bard has some songs that increase AC and help the mercy heal 10% better or 20% crit heal more often I roll the exact crew you have.

    Lastly a quarter of your mitigation is life taps. Cast them often and save dicho for big heals because it uses a lot of mana.
    moogs likes this.
  6. Mattnaik Lorekeeper

    Thanks for the advice. I do not have any of the epics done yet. I assume the clicky on the 2.0 is still userful? Maybe I'll focus on that. I could use a break from the DH HA grind.

    I am not familiar with mortal coil. is this an AA?

    All augs I have are at least 25 AC each. Most of them have around 30. My gear is a mix of T1 and T2 COTF group gear with a couple ROF peices left to upgrade. I have 2 non-visible peices and a sheild from TBM all with lvl 100 augs focusing AC and balancing hDex and hAgi. My jewelry is in need of some attention as its all around the 1500HP range.

    I don't use a whole lot of taps and have been mostly focusing on DoT's for my DPS rotation. I do use the AoE tap when I pull mulitples.

    As far as merc DPS, I was previously using the wizard but since the DPS merc is on my F2P account he was running out of mana all the time and was near worthless. I played around with a J5 wizard merc and had some issues with maintaining agro cause they would nuke before I could build up hate. but man do they do some damage!
  7. Tamaden Elder

    Mind me asking what server you on? And do you own EoK x-pack? On Luclin I can help out. And about SK 2.0 you will be UN-killable for duration of epic click (depending on your buff duration AA and having attack on) hehe
  8. moogs Augur

    Sorry, not Mortal Coil. I think that's a Necromancer DoT.

    I would suggest using the COTF currency - if you have some left from doing so many HAs - to upgrade your gear. Should have something like 2300 HP per slot before augs. I know that the vendors in West Karana sell some very nice augs. Target your lowest AC augs for replacement. At 100+ they should be more like 35 AC minimum. Put your highest AC aug in your shield.

    As gruco mentioned, use the defensive stance. You enable it once and forget about it. Work lifetaps into your rotation as much as you can. Do you use spell blocking to block your mercs from casting Complete Heal and Promised Heals on you?

    Your DPS merc has a "Call Assist" button. If you learn to use that, it will not engage something until you specifically tell it to assist you.
  9. moogs Augur

    Pretty much the definition of useful.
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  10. fenamkin New Member

    my spell line up is as follows, just change the spells to match your lvl, change gem 3 for your snare atm , gem 2 and gem 12 lines give you extra ac,. also since your an heroic sk hve you done all heroic ac augs? all at least 30 ac. at lvl 100+ you want to be in at least latent or castaway gear
    or since your all access try get cultural only TBS t2+ , TBM and EOK beats it.



    Gem1=Terror of Narus Rk. II
    Gem2=Impose for Power Rk. II
    Gem3=Dichotomic Fang
    Gem4=Dire Declaration Rk. II
    Gem5=Touch of Lutzen Rk. II
    Gem6=Touch of Holmein Rk. II
    Gem7=Bond of Bonemaw Rk. II
    Gem8=Harmonious Disruption
    Gem9=Spear of Vizat Rk. II
    Gem10=Staunch Stance Rk. II
    Gem11=Vizat's Skin Rk. II
    Gem12=Torrent of Misery Rk. II
  11. Mattnaik Lorekeeper

    Yeah I've been in the process of doing this. I'm probably going to keep grinding DH HA's and set AA XP to 100% till my other toons catch up to me. I wish the COTF currency was tradable. My F2P account has some 7000 and cant do anything with them as almost all the gear is prestige.

    No but this sounds incredibly useful! I didnt even know this was a thing. How do I do this? Are these the only spells I should be blocking?
  12. moogs Augur

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  13. Mattnaik Lorekeeper

    Yes, Fatigue and Counterbias are cast on every pull (well not Fatigue since it lasts a bit longer bit its always up).
  14. moogs Augur

    Same boat. :(

    You can find it by using the EQ button. Er, I don't know where it is, maybe under Character? It should say Blocked Buffs/Spells, something like that. You have to get the name exactly right. Anyway this will ensure that the mercs only cast fast heals on you. Speaking of which, mercenaries get huge boosts in power every 5 levels (i.e. 91, 96, 101) so it will help to get your alts leveled up just to have stronger mercs.
  15. Mattnaik Lorekeeper

    I have done the entire Feerott The Dream and HoThule-lower progression to get the Heroic augs. I didn't go any further in the progression. Are there any more heroic augs past HoT-lower?

    Forgive my ignorance but what is "cultural only TBS t2+"? Currently working on getting manifested ether or better by grinding in DH. I do also have the Crypt-Hunters BP I got from a rot in TBM.
  16. Rowlen Journeyman

    I just dicovered that some, maybe all (?) EWK augments are not prestige. And the latent etheric armor you could by for marks of valor should be not prestige too, cause it is t1. You can use it when youre alts hit 100.
  17. moogs Augur

    Another system that newer players are not often familiar with is Tribute. Each home city has a Tribute Master NPC. You can turn in old junk gear for tribute points which can be used for all sorts of cool effects (such as increased AC, HP...). The default hotkey to bring up this window is Alt+U. I farm Bastion of Thunder and other zones for tribute drops but you can also buy those bows in the bazaar that are worth 50k points each.

    Get a mount that has a stat bonus. Summon it, then dismount, and the buff will remain with you. Same with most familiars. Check /claim or /market if you have some Daybreak coins to spend. (Do you claim your 500 free Daybreak Cash each month?) There is also stat food that you can make yourself or purchase from other players.

    Since you did some stuff in the House of Thule expansion, you might have a couple of trophies.

    This all doesn't look like much but adds up.
  18. fenamkin New Member

    only the feeroot and house give augs, one for each slot . alth there are some nice prestige augs drop in some of the other zones.




    sorry should read Cultural, only TBS T2 + TBM and EOK beat it stat wise. Cultural is player made armor, it is prestige after lvl 80 I think so only gold access can use. even in the broken mirror expac the cultural chest and legs are still better than the T1 items. BUT you either need to do your own smithing upto 300 plus trophy and scribe the appropriate books or find someone of your race to make them for you.

    you can also get pretty decent stats player made rings, ears, belt, neck and face items useually reasonably cheap which are a good stop gap till you get TBM drops.

    you can also buy latent etheric gear on one toon and give it to another BEFORE its transmuted into class specific armor, same goes for castaway gear alth you can actualy do that after its been transmuted but before its been attuned.
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  19. NameAlreadyInUse #CactusGate

    I think you should just buy remnants from the /baz and buy TBM gear. Even the T1 TBM gear (and the level-appropriate TBM vendor augs) should give you better stats than anything from the earlier expansions. Yeah, there are a couple of exceptions, but nothing worth worrying about. For the most part, everything prior to TBM isn't worth the time after level 100.

    I would definitely look at the other suggestions here (especially the slot 7 augs, those might just take some time to get). The epic is indispensable. Tribute/trophies can provide huge bonuses. Doing older progressions (starting around RoF and later) can also increase your stats (look at the /achievement awards). They look small, but they add up.

    And be sure to use your Disciplines: Vizat's Carapace, Doomscale Mantle, Unholy Guardian, or their level-appropriate equivalents. Go ahead and use them for all the pulls (one at a time). I use Carapace first because of it's shortest cooldown. I set up audio triggers (gina) to let me know when they wear off.
    moogs likes this.
  20. Connundrum Lorekeeper

    Shadowknights have stances? I dont see any kind of stance in the spell list, and I am not at home at the moment, are they AA's you get at higher levels?

    I am starting a SK / DRU / BRD box group and my tank also cannot handle more than one mob at a time in the DH HA's. My characters are all heroic as I didnt feel like starting all over, so no augs on any of them. I suspect that is my problem, so I need to search out information on how to get lots of augments quickly for my characters.