I would suggest pulling 20 times with different 3 different terror each and casting a spell from someone else with something known to generate over 50 hate from another class. theory says the mob should come to the sk every time. this will rule out that the hate override isnt working and then shift the matter into proximity aggro since the mob is only being impacted largey on short pulls. I had a group in valley yesterday. I didnt really use my terror at all. confrontation of power by my dots was usually sufficient to keep aggro. we had a bard pulling and chanter on slows. with a pally cleric, and a rogue outside the group. We had the bard go down once. that was probably my fault or the bards and the chanter went down once which was probably user error. proximity aggro played a factor in both. in one instance the chanter had ran out to put in an early slow and the other the bard ran into the group and i was slow on the challenge. I had my dps lineup because i thought the pally would be tanking and we switched but there really wasnt any issues that required me to load up my tank set (lazy)
I pull with Terror line and sometimes I see a flash of like 600 for a split second on aggro meter, then it's right to 100 again.
Well its been 6 weeks since I started my SK journey. Thanks to the advice found in this thread, and various other sources, my SK is now level 100, approaching 9000AA, has full cotf group gear (including all AC augs), epic 2.0, CoA BP, and various other fun items. Using an SK as my tank with my box crew is way more fun than using a mage pet and can be much more effective for a lot of fights. I no longer worry about adds... just pop Imp Explosion of Hatred and all mobs are comfortably swinging away at me and not the soft squishy casters. Thanks again guys.
Could someone give a bit of insight into weapon augs? I am only 82, but weapon augs are empty, not sure if I hunt for one or wait or if there even is one at my level. And what is the "Rune" mentioned above? Thanks!
Jade Ether at your level, but I would probably wait if you don't "need" one or get a dmg one until you can get one to your liking, much better ones at 92+
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=99989 Good example of a blessed rune proc weapon near your level. It's main function is for passive aggro. You proc a rune and you get like 2 points of aggro for every point of rune for every mob that has you on it's hate list. The actual damage absorbtion isn't a big deal since a straight-up heal proc will help you mitigate incoming damage better so long as you're not 100% hp.
1. Get your AC up. I tell a lot of Sks this, but AC AC AC AC. Hit points will come with gear, but AC is king in my humble opinion and our strength. The result of the above mentioned is less spikey damage and for you sustainability. An example good example of this is raid tanking. I hadn't bought raid gear with dkp (but raid every week) in years. Jan 2013 we took a rag tag team to CToV and I was tanking in ROF T2 group gear, but I also had every high AC HAgi, HStr and HDex aug in game, minus 1 or 2. I was able to tank every dragon in CToV, except vulak (we didn't try him) in group gear due to this with only 2 clerics and 4 spam healers pretty easily and not tapping my behind off with all discs down. I have since started filling all my slots with raid gear but that is more due to boredom from lack of content then anything. 2. Where can I get AC from? - Form of Defense Clickies - Metal Power Source (do soltaris if you want to buy them from a vendor, if not I think everyone can use them now but you have to get from a seller or make them yourself). - AC Food and Drink, keep them in the top slot of your first backpack and click to consume other food/drink. - Random other clickies, like the Gnoll one from Anniversary PoWar mission. Takes 1-4 hours to evolve depending on how you do it, though I find level 5 and qeynos starter area to be effective. There is also an eyepatch for completing COTF merc/partisan/hero tasks, you can click off the illusion and hps buff to keep the AC one and like the Gnoll buff, it stacks with everything. - Tribute. Personal tribute and Trophies. There are many AC trophies from previous content, get them. They only provide a few hundred AC combined, but to me they are worth it to use on harder mobs. - AC Augments. Whether your a heroic character or not, there are tons of AC augments. I would go with ones with HAgi and HStr, when you run out of those go with HDex and HSta in that order. There is no reason in the end you cant have a full set of 40AC + augments. - Tank gear. The last few expansions they have been putting All/All on most gear, find and get the stuff that is "recommended" for a tank. It has the heroic stats on it you need the most + the AC and HPs you will need. Many say that you can't tank a lot of "group" content in group gear. This is not true, I have 3 tanks, 2 Sks and 1 Paladin. Only 1 is in raid gear, the other two have tanked all COTF content with one healer merc on balanced except the Tower of Rot and that is because I haven't tried yet. I believe this to be due to their crazy high AC due to the above mentioned. - I'm sure there is more I am forgetting about. 3. Where / What to kill - This game isn't solo friendly anymore, if you don't know anyone it can be rough to start. Since this is a free game now I would suggest to anyone starting to 2 or 3 box. With a Sk it is really easy, even with older computers (make 2 everquest directories, cut/paste) and put your box on lowest setting and in stick figure mode. One of the best classes to box with a Sk is a Shaman, though some might debate that. The benefit is, you can have 2 mercs up, which can be a mixture of heals + dps or all dps if you don't mind healing with your shaman (I mainly use mine for AE heals + Talisman + dots, but I dislike healing). - Level 1-20, starter zones and those adjacent to them. - Level 21-92 Hot Zones, get your epic somewhere in here and start working on those AC augments, AA as you go and keep your defensive AA maxed. - Level 93. By this point you should be in the best gear you can find, ROF T1 group gear is good. Start doing ROF Partisan tasks (skip mercenary ones for now). I've used this "trick" a few times now on alts. Do all Tier 1 - Tier 4 Partisan tasks, by the time you are done you will be level 100 or very close to it (like 80-99 % into 99). Then go back and do T1 and T2 merc tasks + missions, get help with missions, farm you Charm Augment in Shards Landing and have the best charm aug in game. - Swarm kiting is great while leveling up. We experienced some nerfs in this area, but not anything major. I find that it limits me on the number that I can pull, but as your gear gets better you can pull more and more often. Getting our mortal coil AA for this is just as essential as our epic. Also visage of death helps tons as you mow mobs down faster causing mortal coil to proc. - Get Shaman buffs. In ROF T1 gear + AC augs you can tank T4 ROF named and trash. This is where shaman buffs come into play. Without them you will have a bit of trouble tanking 2-3 trash mobs in T4 content, with them and depending on your AA of course, you can tank 2-3 with ease and more as you progress. My group geared Sk without shaman buffs fell into this category, but with Shaman Buffs he has tanked 8 level 100+ in T4 while wearing T1 gear. - If you are going to 3 box, I would suggest getting a nuker type. I prefer mages myself, they provide DPS, CoTH pulls, Back up tanks, DSes and a few other things. I have used a Wizard with this set up as well and it works pretty good.
the only reason to pull with challenge is for the ac boost... who should happen on really bad mob (pow fr example where you want every little bit of ac you can get and aggro is so bad you will need to taunt mob back anyway) you better to pull with terror / def / HT for guaranteed aggro/giving your slower the time to slow wo bothering with his aggro for really bad named ) (if you pull with HT you get summoned and that can be bad .sometimes ) .... beware def do not work on some mob in pow again
