The end of SK's

I loved my SK. How fun is it to run through the middle of a zone like Skyfire with the SI drakes and wurms without a care in the world because you have FD? Let's face it SK's have their drawbacks, their dps is lackluster at best and they don't have a single buff to hand out, which might actually be a good thing. I grew my SK from lvl 1 all the while focusing on AC, I wanted to be able to tank. Not tank a whole zone like a high end raider but, a solid named mob tank. When I logged on, my guildies typically called out, Heff get out here we have a named up but, the calls have silenced as of late. You see, SK are half the tank they use to be and things just got worse with the latest patch. I expect with top tier group gear, the best group shield, the absolute best group augs in the game and throwing in my discs should be able to tank about 90% of the content in an expansion. This is no longer the case. My SK has just passed his 12th EQ birthday and my SK is able to tank about 1/2 the content in the three most recent expansions, that's disappointing. I am not paying 1/2 price for my account. I don't get those guildie calls to "come tank this named for us" because Mage's are all the rage. Don't get me wrong, Mage's are an excellent class but, how can a pet that is brought up with a spell out tank my SK that I've spent 12 years developing? Let's not compare the Mage's dps to the SK, we all know where that will end up. So, let's recap, dps sucks and a Mage pet can out tank an SK. Let's talk about when you are in a group with a Mage, you steal aggro from the pet! Great! My dps sucks and I can't tank anymore but, I can steal aggro from the Mage pet... so, I spend 20% of the fight in FD mode. I also used to love getting rogues and wizzys to join my group, they would grin with giddy anticipation that they wouldn't have to be watching their aggro like a hawk. Not anymore, SK's have to throw the kitchen sink at a mob to get aggro off a lousy rogue mercs two level lower than the SK. That's right, Hates Attraction, Power spell, Taunt, DD blast, Insidious Rejection and Terror line spells and maybe even some AE hate spells to save the crappy dps merc set on balanced. What else did I love about my SK, mana. While the rest of the group was sitting, I could scout the next pull, not anymore. With the newest patch, your SK will be sitting after every two mobs... My shammy, who guzzles mana like a drunken sailor downs his rum can play for hours but, my SK now has to med up, really? This wouldn't be so bad IF my dps was good or I could tank... So, who wants an SK in their group? Can't dps, can't tank. Can't help heal myself anymore because I don't have any mana... Hey I can aggro from a Mage's pet but, not from a dps merc... I guess I'll just spend my time FD.

A lot of reading, but, just to be clear. Your points are:

1. Mage pets are better tanks than sks
2. You cannot hold agro from a rogue Merc
3. Sks run out of resources too fast

I run with two mages in my group typically, this is just not true. I've grouped with pugs (and also guildmates sadly), who don't click discs and just think they can hold agro and not die with auto attack. Maybe a mage pet is better if you just are auto attacking and clicking no abilities, I have a group sk and pally and they both have great control of mobs (the edge goes to the sk) and have tanked everything in current content with no issues. Not a single mob has given me trouble, provided I'm clicking my discs, if I do not actively play my tank my group will die immediately.

Everyone has trouble holding agro from rogue mercs, monks, rangers, and beastlords in burn mode.

Hit thought leech and don't cast dots, I don't know that dots really have a purpose, as far as I'm concerned, sk dots could be removed from the game and I wouldn't notice, because they do not keep me alive and thus do not make it on my spell bar. Maybe occasionally I'll throw on the tap dot.

Sad to hear anyone who has truly invested time and effort into any class feeling this way. A labour of love where the shine is not quite what it was.

I would echo much of dubblestacks comments though.

The merc rogue is an issue. They are nuts until they get a shed load of aa,s It's just a "feature"! So dont let that be a judge for you.

Every day is a school day!. Perhaps have a rethink about your spell lineups and approach. I also dont use dots. Rarely do I have mana issues .

12 years is a long time to let yourself get jaded without putting up a fight to remedy the situation.

Good luck I hope you find the love for the class again.

Edited your spacing, so everyone can properly understand you.

Back on topic:
I'll only speak about the recent changes... the dot consolidation.

I agree that it changes our playstile a lot since some of us used Dire DoT line on each mob to debuff AC and now that isn't possible because that would mean we would get out of mana, like you mentioned, before your groupmates.
I enjoy the dot consolidation since it opens the gap to land more passive dps under certain cirstumstances, that's really good... but being forced to change my playstyle because the Dire dot got into the Consolidation sucks...
But hey... nothing we can't fix... eh? It isn't the end of the worlf.

its unfortunate you feel that way. the dot change for sks isent an improvement as far as i can tell. atleast it a Gift of mana proc dump

as far as sks and tanking goes your veiw of things seesm jaded the game is faster pace now you no longer can get away with casting a spell here and there and expect to function. Sks can tank everything in the game from group content to the biggest bosses the raid games has to offer.

All classes is a constant ability useage workload . for anybody who casts spells you follow the A, B, C of spell casting (Allways Be Casting) multibinds helps alot.

For sks id make atleast 2, one for your life taps and one for your terrors and asorted pure aggro spells. and almost every class needs a social macro for discs or aas that you want to trigger inbetween spell casts.

its alot more work now to do your job, gone are the days where u have time to type in group chat with your freinds wile your killing mobs . now you need that finger dexterity to push bottons and fire off aas.

explore useing a voice chat client with your freinds as you push all the bottons

i suggest you go the tank section looks for sk guides and ask Q:ns there if you dont know how to set up multibinds or social keys or just need help with spell line ups and disc useage theres plenty of resorces to take part off. It takes a bit of effort and dedication and some humbling to relise that you need to change with the game as the game wont change for you.

i hope you will find your way and once again have fun in the game.

It's certainly not the end of SK, far from it.
If your SK cannot tank and DPS, then the problem is coming from you, not the class.
As said above, seek for assistance on how to play the class.

1. Can I get VoT please?

2. What in the last patch reduced your ability to tank? Several patches ago, riposte dmg was nerfed and affected warriors and paladins disproportionately compared to SKs. On this line, do you have your epic 2.0, blood drinkers coating, anguish bp?

3. No one is bypassing an SK tank for a mage pet tank, clearly this issue revolves around SK skill.

4. Why are you FD, can't tank or dps while FD...

5. SKs can parse well, even from a position of no adps, they can tank as far as survival is concerned better than any of the tanks and swinging heals you, maybe don't FD because you "pulled aggro" from a mage pet. Mortal coil and SK epic are your friends, as are your self buffs. Many have already stated, use GoM to cast dots, SKs don't have mana issues. You aren't using the tools to manage your mana, because you never had to prior to this past patch.

I'm sure if you hit up Drogbaa or Sithsonn they'd show you the path of darkness my young padiwan...

I have a 115 SK on test, group geared who has had this patch you just received for a while, I am able to use dire on every mob with no issue on mana heck if there was spire+ thought leech is your friend and would be ready again by the time you got even close to low mana

As far as tanking? Seriously? … cant think of a better response, love the Drama though .. "End of the SK"

Rogue mercs are generating to much agro as was already pointed out.

Best group obtainable gear and only half the mobs In the past 3 expansions you can tank? Exaggerate much or are you just that bad?

Y'all gettin trolled.

Looks that way. Can't SK solo every TOV group mission? The End of SKs is nigh!

I wonder if anyone actually prefers this playstyle, or they just put up with it/do what must be done in order to keep playing.

What was changed? I must have missed it and looked at the last few patch notes but nothing jumped out at me about it (either I missed it skimming through them or they didn't explicitly mention the change).

September 10, 2019
- You can no longer block, parry, dodge, or riposte an attack that would have missed.

You previously could riposte a miss, especially important on multiple mobs. This was both a dps and tanking survival nerf to tanks.

Thanks, that one I knew about. That's just further back than I thought you were referring to.

Coming from someone who fishes like myself, that has got to be a troll job.

Probably our SK dev.

As someone that actively plays a mage, and groups with SKs, you are mistaken....
mage pets are durableish but they cannot hold/manage agro nearly as well if your group is going ham and they are def not equipped to be a tank for high end fights... (name 1 TOV raid that uses mage pets to tank...ill wait).

SKS can hold agro through any number of burns and keep groups of mobs in check if you play them right. I do agree they are not doing as well as they used to in terms of pulling and managing whole zones but that's a different issue, many mobs cast debuffs in newer zones that nerf your stats etc, those debuffs dont affect mage pets the same...that doesn't make you a worse tank....if you are getting out tanked by mage pets consistently, you are probably missing AAs, good gear (or augments), or 2.0 or you are not using your skills properly....I think the luck stat is also relevant for tanks?...

Mage pets have a crazy amount of dodge and damage reduction compared to other pet classes, and take less investment compared to a real tank to be good, but that's literally our class identity.....we don't do nearly as much damage as other classes because we rely on our pets to stay alive and deal a large portion of our damage...without them we cannot level on our own at all....as a solo mage the most i can fight is 2-3 mobs at a time no matter what zone i am in, an sk can run and solo entire maps

SK so far are the best tank in the game. SK > pally > Warrior

I generally prefer it, at least to the alternative. I absolutely can't stand playing on early TLPs because of how many classes have next to nothing to do at all times. With that said, I don't love the "multibind" design of spam casting.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I wish multibinding would go away, or they'd design classes in a way that didn't encourage it. I like to be constantly doing something, but I do wish that something consistently required thinking and not just spamming the same button over and over again.

well , i am a raiding shaman and doing all 4 TOV missions a lot with guildies , either raiding warrior ~~ SK , or pallies.

and the less heals i need to cast is usually when i am grouping with a SK ( a ** good one** )