Shadowknight SPAs and Stacking

I have parsed this and played with all of our defensives in a controlled situation - same mob, sitting to get max hits, blah blah blah. Below is what I found the order of how hits were absorbed.

Vizat’s skin (100% - 5613 hit)> Cascading Theft of Defense (100% - 4600 hit) > Repel (90%)> Mantle (35%) > Carapace/Impudent (20%)> SB/Vie (10%) > Aura of the Reverent (4%)

On a mob that was hitting for 9334 sitting without abilities running this is the hits with abilities running:
Skin + Repel = 3721 (9334 - 5613)
Casc def = 4734 (9334 - 4600)
Skin + casc def = 3721 (9334 - 5613)
Repel = 934 (9334 - 8400)

While Repel was up with 6 charges, they were being stripped before the 6th charge was firing. (sorry, I'd have to pull logs again to see what the spare hit was on the leftover when it dropped - Math indicates it was 7342)

omg why is this thread even here?

This crap is not new... don't try to read a book if you don't understand the language its written in.

Like warriors have to make choice on what ability to use depending on how hard the mob hits, there is no reason that it should not happen to SK too and that things would be changed so that everything stacks perfectly.

Looking into this more, I think the implementation is as the other person described

There is a difference in picking what ability to use based on the mob and having to drop and reapply buffs that are designed to stay up for a long time. Vizats should not have to be removed and reapplied constantly based on if you are tanking or not since that's another spell gem gone to buffs. Cascading theft should not have to be blocked to improve tanking. No AA should need to be blocked and unblocked constantly.

Cascading Theft of Defense we can not "pick". Happens about 10% on a cast of terror spell (have to cast to keep aggro).

Here is a summary so far for this thread: (plus new info)

Absorb melee damage: SPA 162 -- in order of % (game priority?).

Armor of Experience: 100% (decays to 25%), 40 hits, slot 3 -- I use in place of Deflect (if it is down).

Vizat's Skin 100%, 5091 limit, 2-3 hits, slot 6
-- bad with Mantle vs mobs hitting >15k or Carapace vs mobs hitting > 25k.
-- side note: only processes on light blue or greater mobs.

Cascading Theft of Defense XII 100%, 4600 limit, 34k max, 5 hits, slot 8
-- bad with Mantle vs mobs hitting >13k or Carapace vs mobs hitting > 23k.
-- I agree that Cascading Theft of Defense is uncommon (~10%? trigger on cast of terror, based on short test).
-- 4600 x 5 hits = 23000 (not even close to listed max of 34k) - limit should be fixed to 6800 (5 x 6800 = 34k)
-- We can block the buff, but I think we should push to have it moved to SPA 55 (rune like effect).

Repellence 90%, no limit, 32283 max, 2-3 hits (up to 6 hits with AA), slot 9
-- We should have Repel looked at also -- make it just block a single hit for 90-100% damage and make it faster reuse (12s).
-- The new AA to spread Repellence over 6 hits should be refunded as it is pointless in many instances.
-- Move to SPA 55 (rune) would be best solution to allow it to work without issues and AA would be useful.

Bard: Requiem for the Lost 50%, ~4k max, trigger on death of group member, slot 2
-- bad with Mantle vs mobs hitting >6k or Carapace vs mobs hitting > 10k.

Doomscale Mantle 35%, slot 5
-- all below is ignored? as % is lower than 35%.

Diplomatic Immunity 25%, 5000 limit, 50k max, slot 7 (clicky)
-- bad with Carapace vs mobs hitting > 25k.

Impudent Influence/Carapace 20%, slot 5
-- all below is ignored? as % is lower than 20%.

Paladin: Protective Proclamation 15%, 42k max, no limit, slot 1

Cleric: Greater Ward of Vie 10%, 45k max, slot 1 (Pal buff is better)

Bard: Dirge 7-9%, ~1k max., slot 2

Fabled Ball of Golem Clay 5%, 215 limit, ~85k max, 395 hits, slot 7 (clicky) = really <1% in current content, it can still snare!
-- Hit counters will go away even under vie disc... (it is not completely ignored).
-- Parse likely needed to see what exactly is happening on all items listed here.

Familiar Steamwork Flier / Protective Mimic 1%, no limit, slot 6 - skin conflict

Everything in Orange you don't really want active with Mantle, and only vs some mobs that don't hit over 23-25k with Carapace.


Increase melee mitigation: SPA 168
Defensive Proficiency 30%
Unholy Guardian 36%

Other:
Reaver's Bargain 75%


I made 2 buttons to fix the Vizat Skin issues with Mantle/Carapace (SPA 162):

Def. 35%
/band Activate Tanking (1h+Shield)
/timer 9000, /disc Doomscale Mantle
/disc Repel
/rsay Tanking %T
/alt act 865 (Presence of Fear) - removes Vizat's Skin

Def. 20%
/band Activate Tanking (1h+Shield)
/timer 9000, /disc Vizat's Carapace
/disc Repel
/rsay Tanking %T
/useitem 24 11 (Soul-Hewn Plate Breastplate) - removes Vizat's Skin, 1s cast
-- note: Putrid Skin is not SPA 162

The bard song Requiem for the Lost and Cascading Theft of Defense would still have to be blocked.

ID 16101 Cascading Theft of Defense
ID 43700 Vizat's Skin
ID 18087 Requiem for the Lost Effect -- full time spell block maybe on this one.

Block hotkey: I click after Deflect, before vie Disc.

/blockspell add me 16101
/blockspell add me 43695
/blockspell add me 18087
/pause 18, /cast 12 (Stance) << optional
/useitem 24 8 (CoP item) << optional

Re-Skin (Unblock) hotkey: I click after I activate Unholy Guardian.

/blockspell remove me 16101
/blockspell remove me 43695
/blockspell remove me 18087
/pause 32, /cast 12 (Stance) << optional
/cast 11 (Skin) << optional

Note: you need to make sure you have not max'd your blocked buffs (remove stuff you don't need to block anymore as needed).


If I missed any other SPA 162 that can affect SKs, please post.

Not being critical, just pointing out a couple cleric/bard things.

I don't think Requiem for the Lost is likely to be used frequently by anyone. Someone in your group has to die for you to get a 4k, 12s 50% Vie? Super good.

I'm guessing Dirge = Dirge of the Fallen Rathe; these songs don't age well and I don't think anyone uses them. 1k dmg absorb every 12 seconds is a drop in the bucket. You don't have to worry about blocking those.

One thing clerics do use is Shining Bulwark - although the Paladin thing is better, we tend to keep SB up on all tanks for the heal proc and the Vie as a backup, when your other stuff isn't up. I don't use the actual Vie spell that often, but some people might.

Not sure if you're interested, but also this:

[48581/16374] Third Spire of Divinity IV

Classes: CLR/254

Target: Caster Group, MGB: No

AE Range: 100'

Resist: Beneficial, Blockable: Yes

Duration: 90s (15 ticks), Extendable: No, Dispelable: Yes

2: Increase Melee Mitigation by 5%

4: Absorb Melee Damage: 4%

5: Absorb Spell Damage: 4%

11: Increase AC by 120

Good stuff, Sirene. I completely "spaced out" on cleric SB and yes I agree on the bard song that is very unlikely to be used. Cleric 3rd Spire I know about, but heard was not used. Good to add to list.

-- does not do much, but another effect on both SPA 162 and 168.


SB as you said is a great SPA 162 "filler" between discs.

Shining Defense (Bulwark) - Cleric/104
SlotDescription
12: Mitigate Melee Damage by 10%, 0 total, 3200 hits (no limit)

I found more SPA 162 buffs that can affect SKs (and other tanks)

(Shaman BP clickies) - I listed the lowest ID for each version

ID 22434 Soothing Visions -- weakest version.
ID 22438 Ethereal Soothing
ID 22442 Visions of Placation
ID 22446 Phantasmal Visions -- best version
-- each of these have 3 versions of the clicky group buff.
-- I did a search on EQResource on Soothing Visions to find all these.

Shaman BP Clickies: Ethereal Soothing, Soothing Visions, Visions of Placation, Phantasmal Visions
Absorb Melee Damage: 50%, 1500 to 6k max, 5 ticks to 1 min duration.
-- All are bad vs most everything when using Mantle/Carapace.
-- The good news is that all of these last at most 1 hit, so not blocking them should have little impact as reuse of the clickies are 10 min.

Whatever became of this issue with stacking? Please don't make me read through 17 months of patch notes to find out if some of these problems were fixed!

I am teaching myself a bit about playing the SK in a group mode and would like the short version of how to handle this when encountering a groupable named. I have access to a max AA 105 SK with a mixture of EoK Raid and EoK T2 group gear.

I'm not looking for perfection but I'm also usually boxing the healer and I'd prefer not to have to spend much time switching to the healer's screen and working feverishly to keep the SK alive.

Specifically, should the SK click off VIE, Shining Bastion, and Vizat before engaging a named and using self-mitigation?

It now will use the buff that would save the most HP. So no management needed by the players now.

Thank you!

Patch Notes (august-17-2016) -- The Fix

-- All defensive SPAs seem to be working as intended and there is no longer a need to block/unblock/etc.

I was surprised it only took a few months for this to be fixed after this was hashed over here back in mid 2016. Props to the OP and the Devs.

Dzarn probably realized he didn't want to manage this on his SHD