Is that any good? I like the idea of having a druid for buffs and evacs, dps and off heals if needed. Plan on cleric merc and caster merc. What you guys think of that?
Druid debuffs for ATK and fire, their Skin to <plants> line combined with SK slaying plants is amazing. If the SK is Epiced and well AA'd you can use two caster mercs for most everything as the SK's self healing will make any healing easily done by the Druid
Until 6 months ago I used to play a shammy and grouped with a shadowknight (all group gear only), I got bored and switched to a Druid. I find the druid is an excellent partner especially combined with 2 wiz mercs on burn (my SK friend has few problems keeping agro). Druid Aura, Skin to seedlings and group black wolf really helps with DPS and for healing I find reptile (every little helps) and remote sunfire is all thats needed. We also have a Mage friend that joins in and the Druid boosts them as well. For harder content we swap a wiz merc for a healer merc.
I tried many different combos but SK DRU ENC is hands down my fav. You have everything you could ever want with this combo. Even the dps is surprisingly good. Add a few wizzy mercs and you blow through mobs.
I'm assuming I'm just missing the sarcasm here? SK's, depending on group, can do around 100dps extra to plants.
Shadowknights work best with bards, shaman, and necros - in that order. I'd say druid is close to necro for 3rd place. 1.) Bard effectively doubles DPS and therefore doubles ALL of the SK's self healing abilities. They also add about 1k AC and add a whole lot of DS. My SK is currently running 11-15k DPS in group gear with my bard. 2.) Shaman will boost survivability with triggered slows, decent heals, and they add an extra boost in DPS from their own DoTs. Cripple is nice, Feralization is meh. Combine AE slows with your carapace/mantle and it's hard to kill you. 3.) Necros add a decent off tank with their pets and a whole lot of DPS. They can also heal with a 4 minute activated AA (crits up to 14k per DoT cast) as well as turn all mobs to undead for about 10 seconds for the SK to use their Slow/Debuff AA. The SK AA is better than Shaman cripple for taking the edge off of a nasty mob. 4.) I tried druid.... I guess the ports would be nice, heals are near-cleric-like, but my Top 3 compliment an SKs abilities much better... mostly bard though. Bards are amazing if you use them right.
Yeah I was being a bit sarcastic. I play a Bard and usually group with a Druid and SK while boxing a wizard. I'll slow as needed and druid debuffs are very very nice...but the plant thing ....
You forgot Cleric, Wizard, and Chanter... Cleric > shaman if you have a bard/necro in the group. The extra oomph from the cleric allows outlandish pulls, and handles "OOPS I SHOULD HAVE"'s far superior to the Shaman. Also shaman epic is only really boosting the SK, and meh, the gain in healing during epic is outweighed by the gain in healing from Shining/Retort/DI/Aura/Etc. As far as slow goes? Bard slow is more then enough with a cleric on point. Wizard > necro... The point about the back up tank: your already planning to fail if you "need" a back up tank. Wizards out burn necros as a box and are far easier to achieve that DPS. The throughput on a necro is really dependent on class knowledge and good timing. Chanter... pull 6 to 8 at a time and lock em down, they allow for alot more brute force tactics (the type that save oodles of time) to be employed. Also runes/haste/illusions of grandeur/etc However yeh bards are godly for SK's. Shaman/Necro ? Not so much these days.
It all depends on your skill with boxing. If you're min/maxing, yeah, bring a cleric. However, I think it's fair to mention this in case he has the same issues as I do: I have trouble switching windows effectively and doing critical things for 3 toons, so I rely on a cleric merc to do 60% of the healing and my taps / shammy waves can fill in the rest when needed. Triggered slows followed up by a counter bias or AE slow is so nice. Shaman buffs can't be cast by a merc, but I get Rk II certitude and damage mitigation from my cleric merc. I said Necro pet is for OFF tanking, not backup. There's no way a necro pet is taking over for me longer than it's enrage lasts. Sometimes I pull 3 mobs and a roaming 4th can ruin my day, but a necro pet can intercept it and hold it's own so I can down one and fold it in with Hate's Attraction. Also, if you can time the big nuke abilities of some mobs, as an SK you can FD and let the pet take it at full HP and pop back up and still have aggro lock. Necro swarm pets are godly for mitigation via stuns as well. It helps nearly as much as dance of blades. I pop two swarm pets and army of the dead and my sustained damage goes down by a large margin. 14 pets all bashing... I don't count the shammy pet... it's garbage lol. Toss in cacaphony and you nearly have the mob stun-locked and fighting with a wet noodle. Toss in some macro'd swifts and you're cooking. Bard slow is a joke. Not the effectiveness, but the rate at which it lands, the cast time, the duration, the single target nature, and the refresh time if it doesn't land. As group geared tank, I need the added AC from songs on tough pulls, and slowing with a bard will drop 1 or 2 AC songs in a twist and that nice smooth hp decrease turns into a roller-coaster. Shaman counter-bias lines is a non-pro boxer's dream spell as is AE/viral slow. Even if the counter-bias slow doesn't hit, you just healed for 30-40k and it pops right back up. If I was a super-wicked boxer, I'd definitely go with a cleric for DI and patch things up with my bard, but I'm just not quick enough to swap 3 instances of that crappy EQ Client to make myself the main healer. Chanter.... I'm on the fence with that one. Aside from runes, the bard does most of what a Chanter does to a lesser effectiveness... and I'm not giving up my bard
Bard slow > Use your tash clicky as you run back to camp and pop boastful bellow. Blam Requiem lands erry time. Reapply every 1 minute + change (cant remember how long it lasts its about 1 minute?) As far as Chanter V bard... Thats a personal preference I have both. When I need dominant CC and severe debuffing ill pop her on. She also outdpses my bard by a mile (that might be operator error, but i doubt it) However if your having a rough go of it tanking... Mental contortion, Diminishing Helix, Deep Sleep >>>> Sonata/Spiteful lyric
