April 2015 patch message - - Shadowknight - Your Damage over Time spells at or above level 71 have been adjusted so that they no longer stack with themselves, but now do more damage and cost more mana. - Shadowknight - The Bond of Inruku line starting at level 66 has been modified to use resource taps rather than a separate recourse spell to return health to you. Lower level spells were not changed. I have played a SK since July 2000. The re-balance of spell mana cost in the last patch (for SK) has adversely effected them. Why did Daybreak & Darkpaw nurf SK's. It was fun before now I spend all my time OOM. I don't get it why would you break a class so much with so little care? Are you really trying to lose customers? Changes like this just suck the joy out of the game. Daybreak & Darkpaw need to fix this.
These spells are all much much much better spells than they were last week. If you're losing mana now casting the same spells you did pre-patch then I congratulate all your friends on the sudden, crazy upgrade to their group. Wow they must be s t o k e d at how much more productive they are now out of the blue.
You deeply, deeply, deeply misunderstand what happened - and it's worrisome that you've played a class continuously for 20 years and understand the mechanics of it this poorly. This was a significant buff to your overall DPS.
If this was for the better or for the worse, why was it chosen only at the mid to high levels and not from the bottom up? Also how does removing stacking make it any better? The damage done by the one spell now, is better than the two or three stacked from before?
71+ Shadowknight spells are unique to shadowknights. A lot of Shadowknight spells below 71 are, as I understand it, shared spells that both Necromancers & Shadowknights used. And that's why. Necromancer dots are being consolidated this year, probably in several stages, what level that consolidation works backwards to is not currently known, it may only be for 71+ Necromancer spells to begin with and it might address spells lower that that later on. Or it may stick to just the higher level ones. A few Necromancer spells are shared with Shaman, and those already saw consolidation as part of the DoT revamp for Shaman.
"SK Nurf " ROFL "I have played a SK since July 2000. The re-balance of spell mana cost in the last patch (for SK) has adversely effected them. Why did Daybreak & Darkpaw nurf SK's." They would never hurt their OP chosen class. All the patch did was make them stronger
Honestly, the speed of mana depletion feels like our spells are actually broken and not merely "boosted". The 5x mana cost is atrocious even as a raid-geared SK, and the dmg/mana ratio is so poor that Necros are posting on the boards saying "no thanks, we're fine" for their own revamp, fearing a similar (or worse) hammering of ratios, and I don't blame them. I haven't done the math on what mana costs of 3x, 3.5x, and 4x would do instead of the 5x, but I'm telling you, Gift of Mana isn't going to save any SK's mana bar from 5x DoT costs. At this time, just like Overseer, they have over-corrected and more adjustments need to be made. I've wanted this DoT revamp for a long time, and now that it's here it really does feel like a nerf. I thought the idea was to get us to use spells that we weren't using, now we go OOM in a couple minutes. Please don't ruin a good change with monstrous mana costs. We're not demanding 3x damage @ 3x mana cost, just nowhere near 5x cost please.
If you used the dots at all before they were changed, you were making a mistake. The dots were not worth casting, you were doubly handicapping yourself by 1) ever loading them onto your spell bar 2) spending 1.5s global cool down putting them on mobs. That they didn't cost mana before is a complete red herring as their true cost was in making your character less effective. If they are at all of usable quality now (and they definitely are. they are very strong now), that's an div/0 error infinite upgrade can't be numerically evaluated. The new dots are not upgrades or even changes (let alone nerfs) to old dots. "Old dots" didn't exist to good players of the SK class. New dots are a whole-cloth gift to good players of the SK class, something totally new and powerful to put on top of everything they were capable of already.
My SK is part of a box team, so I am quite sure I am not running my SK to anywhere near her potential and I don't claim to be anywhere near a 'good' SK.That said, what I was able to be previously worked for me and now it doesn't. For context: I typically 3 box. My SK and enchanter are 110 in T2 EOK gear (I know I am behind the curve). My third rotates between bard, wiz or rogue (all between 105 and 110) and a newer shaman that I am leveling.I tank with the SK and throw dots to help some but the SK is not the DPS part of the box equation. With the set up I have, EOK or RoS T1 zones, it takes about a minute or so per kill. With the change, while the SK DoT's may be stronger, if there was a difference between pre- and post-DOT change in the rate of killing, it wasn't enough that I really noticed it. What I did notice is that while I never needed to consider mana with the SK previously, I was really surprised to be OOM in < 10 minutes just running my typical DoT hotkeys (bond, dire strangulation dot, dire coarctation dot, blood and plague). And without a decent mana regen ability, it was really slow to try to build it back up without just sitting and waiting for OOC regen. I have thoughts about what type of player will be detrimentally affected by this change and what type of player won't notice the difference or maybe even benefit... But for the purposes of this thread: Teach me. If I can't throw these DoT's like I did previously (and if that was a waste of my time anyway), do you have suggestions on what I can be doing with my box SK to help my team?.
haha. I have no idea what happened with the different font sizes in my post but that was not on purpose.
Let's at least get the spelling right It's "nerf". As in the original Nerf balls, Nerf guns, etc. Taking something that's dangerous and painful (a gun) and making no longer dangerous and painful. To at least some degree
I've done that quite a bit myself. As well as some quotes from others will be really dark, while others not. And for some odd reason I can not always copy and paste sentences, like I literally can not click and drag to make stuff blue half the time. And apparently I guess this new turn of events for Shadow Knights does not hamper me in the least as I am still of groveling status to most others. But I hope someone can answer your question meaningfully and maybe others will learn as well.
Why not just use 1-2 of the dots instead of all 5? I'm betting using just 1 dot is more dps than all 5 were before the revamp was done. For me, I've been using 1 to 3 of the dots to test out what works for me in different situations. And before the revamp I didn't use any dots at all because they were completely useless.
Lifetapping, my man! Full Time Casting is available with a line up of: Spear of Tylix Dire Testimony Insidious Denial Touch of T'Vem Touch of Lutzen Dissident Fang Xalgoz's Bite
Yes if the SK is his main in the box group, otherwise dots can be favored for AFK dps by many players. I think AFK dps/aggro is where this change really helps boxers. Either way If someone is going to AFK box an Sk then you want (for dots) or need (for nukes) a spell casting macro. The basic macro idea is: /pause <cast time + 15 for rest time [+2 for lag]>, /cast 1; spell name comment /pause <cast time + 15 for rest time [+2 for lag]>, /cast 2; spell name comment etc. A vocal example using quoted spells: /pause 19, /cast 1; Spear of Tylix (0.2s, recast 24s) /pause 27, /cast 2; Dire Testimony (1s, recast 24s) /pause 22, /cast 3; Insidious Denial (0.5s, recast 6s) /pause 181, /cast 4; Touch of T'Vem (1s, recast 12.5s) /vtell <main player name> 7; help (or /vplay 7) after longest recast timer Note: 181 = 240 - 27 - 22 - 10, so you can tab back and press the macro again when it's ready.
1) Dire refreshes in 18s, Touches in 6.5s 2) this whole thing would be ... really, really bad. So bad. Baddy McBadson. Just the pits. A three ticks break in spell casting is what broken mercenaries do that sends players screaming to the boards about EverQuest being unplayable. How in the world do you experience EQ that recommending an SK not cast spells for 3 ticks is even a thing you can type? IS THIS HOW SKs PLAY THAT THINK DOTS ARE BEING NERFED? THIS IS HORRIFYING
I used base recast times. Of course ones adjusts for AA reductions and lag. Lol, I think I described a boxer's scenario simply enough. A macro like that lets you tab away from the character for 30-60 seconds and still have it taking actions. Tell us how you AFK box an SK or any class then why don't you? Without using external programs too.
