Shadowknight vs. Zerker (solo, molo, group)

Discussion in 'Fighters' started by Sargran, Sep 22, 2014.

  1. Sargran Member

    I have been staring at AAs and spells for a day now trying to decide between Sk and Zerker to continue playing. I have a mid 80's SK who I do enjoy and a lower level zerker but would like to focus on one at this point to start working on specific questlines. Does one or the other have any advantages (or is just plain easier) when it comes to soloing, moloing, light grouping?

    Thanks for any feedback!
  2. Tharrakor Well-Known Member

    Honestly i dont know really between zerk or SK those are both pretty OP atm. I play a zerker tho and I like him, with a lot of health they get very powerful. I barely need a healer in the fabled zones. I guess it comes down to your own liking. I wish I could be of more help but I just don't know between those two tanks since I don't play sk myself.
  3. Azian Well-Known Member

    Both are good. Zerks are probably a bit stronger at heroic tanking atm. I can't speak to their raid tanking although others I've read don't put either of them at the top for raids.

    That said, you specifically mentioned solo, molo, and light grouping. I personally would probably lean to the SK for that. Feign Death, evac, some self curing and a (very limited) ability to help heal others are nice for the play style you described.

    I can probably pull a larger mass of mobs on my zerk than I can on my SK because the zerk just won't die in some cases with their passive heals combined with their long duration saves. However, the SK has a more active set of quick refresh self healing abilities that make them quite durable in the content you described as well. I haven't tested this but I suspect the SK has a higher top threshold for dps output if you are playing that style too.
    Sargran likes this.
  4. Axterix Active Member

    For smaller groups, solo, and molo, the SK does have one big perk: access to two group cures. Comes in handy for certain encounters, and it means I don't have to bother with a priest merc or potions (which wouldn't work on my merc anyway).
    Sargran likes this.
  5. Avahlynn Well-Known Member

    I play a zerker, bff plays an sk, both 350 95s. They're different.

    The sk is more like a sleek, sexy killing machine. The zerker is like a wall. Of iron and self heals, Now the sk has life tap, and zerks have some health tricks, too, but when you absolutely have to hold the horde back and survive, the zerkers and guardians are hard to beat. On the other hand, sometimes it feels like I'm fighting with plastic swords compared to the bff's sk damage abilities. SKs just are killers. There's no other way to put it. It's like hammer slam emote or two, a cloud of green gas, and on to the next pack of mobs. I would say it would be hard for me to out dps her sk, no matter what I did to aa's. Tanks are on a continuum, and zerkers are closer to the 'brick wall' end than they are to the canon end.

    I've had to save the sk's life a few times, very few, and it was due to accidents on pulls. The bff overpulled, it was the first time in that dungeon, and we were fine until....bam... and mobs started erupting through walls, the floor, etc. And I couldn't even see her chara amid all the mobs. I did however see a lot of green clouds, moving bodies, and an sk health bar drifting south at a faster pace than one might like. Over skype I heard 'Um......uh oh'. :p

    I waded in, and managed to peel the aggro to me, and where the healer had a chance to keep me alive, the healer couldn't quite get the sk through that much mobs.

    Long story short, I took aggro, sk retreated a moment to get some heals and rejoined killing stuff left and right. Now this was a small group, three as I recall. Us +fury.

    So we go with our strengths. I spec as a more tanky tank, bff puts emphasis on more dps, and she's my sword, I'm her shield, even thought we're both tanks, technically.

    Can I solo? Sure. Am I flying through at level content like a rocket? Well, no, my wizard 'kills' stuff faster, but then again, she dies faster, too. I feel the berserker fits me because I am a take charge, bull by the horns person, I can rush in and tackle stuff, which is fun for me.

    I'll further say we tend to solo/molo/3 man group in our guild, and we aren't anywhere near to raid gear. We play from a place of advanced solo/duo for the most part, so I can't answer about 'normal' six man groups, or spec'ing for that. I gear and aa my zerker to benefit our guild style. (I might totally wipe in a six man, lol, I dunno, never tried it), but I hope that answered at least some of your questions about the two classes and their 'feel'. I like going toe to toe with stuff, the bff, she likes making things break out in boils and disease. So we're both happy with our roles.

    Good luck to ya, and I'm curious to see which class you decide to make your main.

    Ava
    Mongo91, zen_7, Treiko and 1 other person like this.
  6. Droll Active Member

    ^ that is a pretty good account of it.

    SKs die too easy... you need a good healer if you hope to pull lots of mobs all at once.

    Zerks like adds. The more the merrier. ad-infinitum. There is no limit to the number of mobs a zerk can pull... I mean that.

    SK heals are casted abilities... go pull a full floor in fabled vaults and see how long an sk can live... his 2 cures will not allow him to cast even 1 heal. The zerk on the other hand, doesnt care if he's stifled or stunned, his heals are innate, or require 1 button every 30 seconds (for harder hitting mobs).
    Avahlynn likes this.
  7. Sargran Member

    Thank you all for the amazing amount of information. I decided to go with Zerker due to the fact that I have a tendency to pull rooms (if not floors) and the zerker seems to have the edge on that one.

    Now to try to find a solo build!
    Avahlynn likes this.
  8. petier Active Member

    dunno about the low dps from a zerker, mine tends to do very well when aa's are set for it. I love my zerker.. that is until my buddy on his SK says " Kneel at the feet of your master" in raid and then feigns me =/
  9. Tharrakor Well-Known Member

    Zerk dps is far from bad. Mythbuff will put ur AE auto on 100% wich enables amazing reforging opportunities!
    Zerk buffs DPS mod, Zerk will go berserk and further enhance autoattack dps! Get ur critbonus up! Specc right side prestige for almost all zones (except the hardest ones). Open wounds will now add 25% WDB while up and it can reset whenever u use CAs, Saga will provide more CB! Click Juggernaut to piff up ur CB by even more and follow with the CB buff from the draconic aggressor line in the dragon tree! Your WDB is increased and ur CB is going above the roof and ur autoattack is looking very sexy! Dont get +mit cloak and belt unless u have to! Get ur flurry up! Dont forget to use Acceleration strike from the warrior tree to get more haste for even more flurry! Acc strike+berserk is a lot of xtra haste! I left my haste sitting on 220ish but while in combat and using my stuff i can get it up to 340 while soloing.

    Its all a matter on how u try to DPS with ur toon, zerker is screaming autoattack dps just becuz of all the enhancements they get and the 100% free AE autoattack. SKs might have stronger spells/CAs but ur autoattack should own the SKs autoattack so keep working on that in put a lill less focus on ur CAs. CB, DPS mod, Haste and sum multiattack is what u want to focus on!
  10. Gregore Active Member

    SK's that pull large amounts of mobs and die aren't doing it right! SK's should be buffing pre-pull with unholy blessing. They can spec for divine aura for up to 16 seconds of "You can't hurt me at all!", and the other buff that heals them when the group does damage. Plus you can convert several more spells to life taps with AA's. SK's are nothing more than casters in plate armor. If you treat them like a traditional fighter, you're not tapping into their max potential. SK's need as much potency as you can get, 100% reuse speed, 100% casting speed, and as much ability mod as you can get. A good set of AOE proccing jewelry is nice too! I have over 45,000 ability mod on one of my SK's! Combine that with the AOE harm touch AA ability and being able to insta-cast all of my big AOE's in a row, and you're melting the face off of a lot of mobs really quick. The more health you get, the better divine aura is to. It's really only DOM and raid zones where you see divine aura not working. It's boss for all the other zones though. Another thing I do is DPS in defensive stance with sword and board. I used to love reckless stance, until SOE nerfed it to being useless. Offensive stance sucks and you give up to much surviveability for the little bit of offense you get. So even when I'm in DPS mode, I still have really good surviveability. I don't worry about DPS mod, haste, or multi-attack over 116 (exactly one extra attack). I don't time my auto-attacks. I'm trying to cast as many spells and combat arts as I can, because SK's are casters in plate armor!

    I don't know much about Serkers, other than they're supposed to be able to pull whole rooms without dying, and they're "over powered"! I think the term OVER POWERED is a load of crap. Every class should have their moment in the sun. You will never see me complain about a class being overpowered cause' I crave every bit of killing power for all five of the classes that I play.

    Why not level them both up and continue to play them? I know the end game SK has a lot to offer. I'm almost certain the Serker does to. Why limit yourself?
  11. Naneel Member

    Ava has it pretty much spot on.

    I've soloed/grouped/raided on both as recently as ToV.

    They are both great. Zerks have more survivability than SKs and SKs have more dps than zerks. But, the differences won't be noticeable unless you're doing harder content.
  12. Eclipsed Member

    Currently playing both in AoM. Gear is fairly similar between the two. The SK is struggling in AoM. The lack of mitigation and inability to cap block along with the poor design and lack of SK temps causes him to get 1 shotted constantly on bosses. Even wearing 4/4 blue mit/block armor and full heroic jewelry. My zerk is still steamrolling content same as he always did.
  13. Kayas Member

    I was only aware of the one group cure, the one that damages encounter and cures the group, it is a prestige or AA line thing, what is the second group cure?