Mangler - SK or BST soloability 1-65

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Typhus, Sep 17, 2020.

  1. Typhus Lorekeeper

    Hey guys trying to decide on which class to play Sk or Beastlord.

    Looking for insight on these points of interest, as I have never played these two classes before.

    1. Soloability as far as lvlng goes and doing old school raid targets.
    2. Raid spot. Which of the two has a chance in getting into raids?
    3. Overall fun of the class.
    4. Grouping from 1-65 ( I dont want a plvl )

    Any insight will help, thanks.
  2. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    Beast will solo significantly easier than the SK due to pet carry assuming you aren't twinking them. Neither is going to be particularly enjoyable to play without a group past like level 33 at the most though Beast will be leaps less aggravating.

    SK geared will be able to solo older raid targets much easier, they become actual gods starting in Omens+ content once geared/AAed. Being able to DA->FD is not something to overlook when you consider how much trash is in a lot of older raid zones

    A nongeared SK is pretty much dead weight for a raid guild in current content and there is a night and day difference between group and raid gear at this point in the server. I'm sure there's some guild out there that would invite a fresh 65+ SK but you'll probably feel worthless for a bit depending on how their gear system works. Beastlord needs about 30 AA to start contributing to a raid, other than that just has to stay alive.

    I would say both classes have overall similar amounts of "fun", being Melee hybrids so you have a lot of stuff you can do in combat. Beastlord can be a drag to raid on if melee expect you to maintain ferocity rotations but that's probably not an issue for most mid-tier guilds. SK are just kind of there, useful for tanking trash but pretty much anyone can do that. Most guilds will use warriors for every real raid encounter by this point (knights will still pick up adds), the tradeoff is that all that gear you soak up on raids makes group content a breeze and your snap aggro makes dps happy.

    Groups at this stage (if you can find them) will probably take literally any warm body to fill slots. Group XP bonus is such that there's pretty much never a reason (min/max wise) to not invite someone if you have open slots in the group. Beasts provide good utility (slow, mana regen) and decent damage while SKs obviously fill a tank role. Undergeared SK will feel worse than undergeared bst.
  3. Boze TLP complaint factory

    1. Both solo really well. Beast has an edge because of the pet but pet tanking doesn't start getting reliable until TSS+. On Phinny, as a beast, I started being able to kill Kunark dragons during GoD.
    2. Bobby summed this up well. As a Beast your important tasks are buffing, paragon, and ferocity.
    3. I played both classes up to TDS content, enjoyed the Beast way more. This is more of a personal preference thing though.
    4. Tanks are always limiting, beast gives a lot of utility (and can tank really well if you know what you're doing, or can pet tank in later eras.).
  4. Healiez Augur

    I have played both and had a ton of fun on both, Bobby pretty much summed everything up.

    I will say, SK feels pretty meh at first, then you get raid gear and AA and you turn into a literal god.

    Mangler is at the stage of the game now where a non AA'd non raid geared tank is more of a hinderance in raids, not to mention even group tanking the tougher content will not be very much fun for your healer.

    It is also at the point where SK main tank viability in raids starts to falter. We used SK's as the main tank all through PoP, except a few fights (emp, time RZTWL). In GoD onwards tanking most raid mobs without defensive just doesnt work. There are a few exceptions, warden hanvar, the Jeldin even in Anguish...

    IMO the SK was more fun ONCE I was sporting a lot of AA and raid gear.

    To answer your questions.
    1)beastlord at first, SK once raid geared/AA'd out
    2) Beastlord by a long shot, for a raid guild beastlords are like bards almost. You want enough to have fero on every single melee dps (IIRC a competent beastlord can keep fero maintained on 4 people or maybe its 3). SK is one of the more popular classes,it usually isnt hard to find one.
    3) I give this to SK overall, however if you cant put in the time to get raid geared and A LOT of AA, Beastlord will win out
    4)Beastlord will easily edge out the SK if you have to solo all the way up, however soloing any class to 65 will be pretty miserable.
  5. WaitingforMoreEQ WaitingforTBC

    What Bobby said is correct for the most part, with one exception. The Beastlord pet is actually complete trash from like level 26 to 54. You don't get a pet haste spell till the mid 40s and you pet doesn't quad till level 46. To put this in perspective SKs get pet haste at 29 and the pet starts quading at 30.

    If you're twinking at all the SK will be much easier to level.
  6. Healiez Augur


    The sk pet however, is low level and misses a lot as you get levels. Not to mention beastlords get the pet proc line fairly early which is quite a bit of damage.
  7. Bewts Augur

    Pets kinda stink on old school raid targets because the AE damage and fears that accompany many of them
    aren’t particularly kind to pets. In Luclin though, pets do very well and in PoP raids... meh.

    As for soloing... I’ve leveled a few BL 1-65. Ya can solo pretty easily though 60. 61+ things as solo are a bit difficult as you enter PoP and beyond and you’re much better off grouping 61-65.

    Access to raid gear does make soloing things a lot easier, and twinking surely speeds up soloing and I don’t have much of a view soloing at 65 and beyond... but I did a lot of duo’s in PoP: DRU SHM CLR are great partners. Interestingly BL/SK is a serviceable duo at PoValor Fiends once ya stick the BL slow and they tap tank and you hit em with paragons.

    Things I recommend keeping an eye out early on for:
    Snagging DS items that stack help immensely when soloing where you’re solo tanking.
    I’ve tended to go for high AC items to lower the amount of damage taken when I do get hit. Besides, ya gotta dump more mana or sit and regen longer if ya go HP first ;)
    Flowing thought items are going to help immensely lower downtime. Burning hard drains your mana quickly, and if you’re tanking ya ain’t medding so things like the solstice earring or anything else with FT is super helpful.
    Weapon wise... epics can be done early with help and it’s worth having 40% worn haste even if it’s a horrible 13/22 ratio for OH. I preferred higher base damage OH into PoP and pre-time drops.

    Speaking of raiding... folks chasing top 5 DPS are gonna be asking for your savagery/ferocity line. You’ll spend a lot of time / mana peeling to keep those up on rogues, monks and yes even rangers. BL are a welcome addition for that and MGB Paragon. You won’t be topping any parses at 65 though, but that’s okay because your class really isn’t designed to do that sharing the shaman support buffing role. Ya can always play suicide slower for kicks and try to preslow mobs on incoming before all MR debuffs are in. Always a fun game of roulette!
  8. WaitingforMoreEQ WaitingforTBC

    Not saying the SK pet is better... A lot of people seem to think that Beastlord pets are Mage/Necro tier. Which is true when you're max level. But for a very large chunk of the leveling process the Beastlord pet is trash.
  9. Healiez Augur


    This is more fair.

    The beastlord pet does do a fair bit of damage, but you are correct, it isnt a mage or necro pet, and honestly doesnt even approach them for quite a while.

    The other issue with beastlords, at least when I played mine, was against motm agro management is huge. That pet proc has added threat to it (for a while, think it eventually goes away) and just feeds agro into the beastlord.
  10. Typhus Lorekeeper

    Thanks for all the insight guys, much appreciated.


    I am going to buy about 10 krono from the store. This way I'll be able to twink my toon up. Is their any class that can solo 1-70 fairly easy if super twinked?

    Was thinking Iksar necro maybe. But then I hear necros are almost never wanted in groups and there are not alot of spots on raids for them
  11. Healiez Augur

    Soloing sucks hard, just cause of how exp works. Some classes are certainly better but exp overall is meh.

    If you are twinking basically any high dps works well