Hello guys I'm somewhat new to the game. I'm an everquest 1 player just checking out Everquest 2. I have a shadow knight that I play and I was around level 30ish till I was given a free lvl 95 character upgrade. So as you can imagine there is a lot to take in with this upgrade and I'm lost and confused as to what to do now. I can't figure out exactly what abilities I should be using to kill things and what buffs etc to use. I haven't even looked at the AA stuff yet. What else is there I need to work out? I could really use some help and advice on some basics if anyone has the time to explain it to me. I plan to just solo play. Just minutes ago I purchased the merc feature so hopefully this was a good idea.
yes merc's are good you want to get a healer merc. for general stats you want 100 reuse and cast speed 600dps 200 haste 120 ma after that its 100% ae chance and flurry and around the 20k mit for what you should be casting i can not help with that as i dont play a sk i am sure others will help thou
As a fellow noob SK player thanks for posting. Answers some questions for me as well. I'm duoing with a Wiz friend and we do not use mercs and are complete noobs. We're playing because to us the games new... never played it. So I would ask is the AA default server solo build adequate while leveling? Most stuff we face in normal content seems to get rekt as a duo anyway, just don't want to end up gimped. Many thanks. -Sark
Sarkonis, the short answer is yes. It will certainly get you by as you level. If you're fresh to the game, just take your time learning different sections of the game as you go. You'll soon enough get a handle on your class to be able to build your own personalised AA. The beauty of this game is that there are no real cookie cutter specs. There are preferred things but generally things are flexible. The most important thing though is to enjoy it!
As a really rough guide, skills are for the most part color coded. This was a massive penny dropping for me when I realised. This is what I've worked out, but I'm sure someone can put me right if I'm off: Beneficial spells that are yellow are to be cast on oneself, orange can be placed individually on others (and can often be used on oneself depending on the buff), and purple are group or raid wide. Reading the text will tell you which are temporary buffs or skills (for example on my warden, group heals/wards/rezs are purple, st heals/wards/rezs are orange) and which last until cancelled - I keep all my 'until cancelled' buffs on a separate sidebar for simplicity. AoE offensive skills are often blue, and single targets red. I am aware of green skills, I *think* they are encounter wide (so more than ST but not a true AoE) but I haven't really seen a lot to fathom that one out. I find a good way to work out what to use and what not is to sort everything in my spellbook to only show highest level spells, then place everything on bars and group by type, so my AoE will go together in one place, and single target another. Then I read the tooltips and go from there. I hope that helps!
Have fun, find a good guild that will help you learn and practice tanking. PuGs can be very unforgiving if you get unlucky, even if you warn them you are new to tanking. There is usually a shortage for tanks for PuGs but not as much with larger guilds and raiding. However, have fun and kill lots of mobs! You can do dps as a SK but be warned, most PuGs will not take you as DPS. You WILL do damage, but not enough, by their standards. I wont comment on that anymore.
Mercs are probably the first thing I'd tell a friend starting the game to consider buying. They're excellent for the money. I've never played an sk, so I cannot offer advice really. I've played in a duo extensively with an sk, at all levels of the game, pretty much. Sks are fun, aoes that are pretty awesome, just remember sometimes mobs jump through walls and ceilings and floors. It can be easy to accumulate a lot of mobs inadvertently. Tanking for an sk is doable, absolutely. If you like tanking, do yourself a big favor and research a bit on dungeon strategy, and what to do when that cute halfling mage rips aggro off you. (It happens.) The biggest good tanks can do for themselves is joining a like minded guild, pugs can be brutally snarky and the comments and 'advice' is often just flat out wrong. You're better off with a guild that is going to nurture and teach members until they get on their feet. Some folks prefer not to tank and to do dps. Also doable. Of course it all can vary depending on the expansion and what classes are flavors of the month, but I'd consider an sk one of the better solo classes. Hard to kill and does good damage. It's no glass cannon.
Don't listen to this poster. It never happens. Why? Because there are no cute halflings. It's an oxymoron. There are tasty halflings, but the only cute thing about them is the wiggling of their toes as I swallow them.
Honestly, you won't need mercs unless DBG finally fixes SK. I have a capped SK and never needed a healer - SK functions off of percentage heals, so you have definite self healing. My first recommendation is to get good spells. Every single one that heals you should be AT LEAST adept. Early AA points should go into the Shadowknight tree adding lifetaps onto single target attacks. Reaver is also excellent. Once you have your health selection of Devour Vitae, Siphon Strike, Painbringer and Shadow Coil, you'll appreciate the survival capabilities much more. Duoing with a wizard is great! Since you have a DPS buddy, stay in Lucan's Pact. You should never let him have agro. In the Shadows tree, you can allocate points to "Knights Stance," which will skyrolskyrolcket your DPS while using a shield. Get it. After that, focus on buffs in the crusader tree. (Fearless Morale, Divine Aura, etc.) SKs are best at one role especially - pulling entire dungeons at once. Once you have Tap Veins (~lvl50), this will become laughably easy. Check the tooltips of your attacks to find skills that increase threat and put them all together so that you always know where they are. Doing that will save your wizzy-little friend's life. Sorry for the VERY scattered list, I'm not super organized. Hope this helps you!
If you want to really learn to play your SK. Leave the mercs behind. Its the only way you'll learn what the limitations of your class actually are. Just start playing it. Also if you are level 30 and you haven't assigned AA's? You are gimping yourself. You can save 3 builds. What I do on new classes is spend all but 1 point in the AA's when I hit level 10, then save & "commit" to the build then add AA points as I level up.
I am leveling up a baby SK too. Level locked at 22 and working thru Stormhold and other 20-30 dungeons. I haven't invested AA points in the Shadowknight tree, putting points in Crusader for quicker damage instead. But when I get big pulls, even against a bunch of ^^^ greens or several, but not as many, blue heroics in Blackburrow I can't kill quick enough to survive. After reading your recommendation I played around with the AA calculator and saw all the life leach benefits in the SK tree. I am gonna go that route with to add life leach to buffs and spells and get Reaver. Then go back to Crusader tree. That should help survivability with big pulls. I intend to run through these Newby dungeons until I get bored with them. But looking back at previous toons Stormhold was maybe my favorite in the early to mid-20s with my Paladin. Should be fun again.
