What is the best heroic stat for an sk, currently at level 99 and will only be used for group content.
Disagree. Agility increases Avoidance meaning less damage. Although a check of the top SKs on Magelo shows some going either way. I stack for Agility but don't neglect dex.
Dex. Stack it, as high as you can. Don’t try to mix + match 50/50 or even 80/20. This is a super summarized explanation, but based on how the calculation occurs for whether you riposte / dodge / parry / etc. — you are at a disadvantage if you have two stats at 60% of potential versus one stat at 100% of potential.
Depends on what your goal is - if you are making an SK for group game, then DEX is the obvious choice. However, if you plan to raid frequently Drakang is correct. There are other post in the forums with the evidence, but I will leave it to you to find them.
The SKs you see on Magelo are probably stacking HAgi for 2 reasons: Raiders (all the top players on Magelo) supposedly do not benefit from HDex quite as much as group players, because raid mobs tend to have very high Strikethru amounts, causing them to ignore a lot of the defensive benefits of HDex. "Magelo Padding". Magelo ranks tanks by AC first, and HAgi gives a slight increase to AC. For many raiders, who usually only see tanks as meat shields, the offensive benefits of HDex are not as valued as the AC and defensive abilities of HAgi. However, for SKs specifically, I still wonder if the increased DPS (which means increased self-healing) from HDex doesn't still outweigh the defensive loss from Strikethru, even on raids. Testing defensive stats is very difficult in EQ. Subjectively, I have not noticed any difference in combat from favoring one over the other. Survivability is dependent on using the right abilities at the right time and having good communication with your healer.
Let's say you created 3 SK toons that were identical, except on one of the SK toons you maxed out their HDex, and on one of the toons you maxed HAgi, and the last toon you gave full "Harmonious" augs (balanced stats). Now let's say you tested 3 players doing various tanky-things with each of the 3 SK toons, for a total of 9 tests. I predict that the results would be ranked by player (the best player would have the top 3 results, 2nd best player would have the next 3 results, and the worst player would have the bottom 3 results). More specifically, I predict the results would NOT be ranked by Heroic stat. I think the effective difference is just that small. EDIT: I'm not saying Heroic stats aren't important: Equip the best you can find! I'm just saying that I wouldn't strain your brain too much trying to figure out which stat is the most important
From a raiding SK perspective, once I found out that raid mobs were negating the defensive aspects of hDEX, I went hSTA and never looked back. But, for grouping, there is no contest with hDEX. The combination of defense and offense puts it far ahead of the other options.
There is already threads that answer this question with parses from EoK and below (most from TBM). In regards to raids, AGI is the way to go when multi tanking. DEX made little difference DPS on current raids (nothing really done for non current raids). Some people choose to go STA for group (if you are under geared this may help assuming you decent AC). My opinion, stick with DEX unless you are a hardcore raider.
Unless you're raiding, there's no point going HAgi. The reason that the raiding shadowknights are stacking HAgi is because raid mobs completely ignore the defensive aspects of HDex, so stacking HAgi has a purpose there.
fair points in this thread, i've personally always gone split on dex/agi. I tend to stack dex higher but it's always worked for me in grp or raid.
Fair points. I do remember the old detailed parses the dex does help more in the group game and less in raids.
With raid trash mob negating every avoidance skill provided by HDex and Hagi, and also hitting nearly all time (miss %), like raid bosses, I would say that Hsta is probably the best stat for raid knights, like warriors.
OP clearly said the shadowknight will be used only for group content. There's no need for him to concern himself with raid mobs negating the defensive aspects of HDex.
