Shadowknight QuestionFollow

I'm a level 30 Shadowknight. And I'm looking to find out a few answers to these questions. (I'm also new to EQ2)

I understand that my class is mainly a tanking class (What I enjoy). What stats should I be looking into? Currently I'm using the full AQ Armour(Level 20) with the HQ Boot's (Level 23 Antonica).

Should I be looking into HP+ and STA+?

also

For the cost. Should I have my main tanking skill's (Shield Bash, Taunt, Decree of Decay) Upgraded to atleast Adept I or Master I?

Well, although I've been out of the game for a while (insert 17 month deployment to Afghanistan, courtesy of uncle sam) I've kept up on the game via ogaming and a few other websites. Although I tried a few other classes, I will be playing SKs exclusively in the future. My main is a LVL 55 Ogre SK on Guk named Gerkin. I also have a few LVL 20ish SKs. I consider myself to be extremely knowledgeable about the class.

With that out of the way, let me address your questions. Although a lot of peeps will argue with me, I think INT is your most important stat versus STR, which is what most people will tell you. I believe STR to be next most important, followed by STA. After that, WIS would get the nod from me over AGI, which I feel is the least important stat for SKs. Here's my reasoning behind my opinions. Our power/mana pool is derived from STR & INT with STR contributing roughly 70% and INT the other 30%. However, spells contribute roughly 70 to 80% to our total damage output. Only about 30% of our damage comes from melee damage. INT is the main stat for increasing your spell damage. So, go for INT first to slightly increase your power pool and greatly increase your spell damage. Go with STR next to greatly increase your power pool & increase your melee damage. Some spells also use your STR stat to calculate damage, but most rely on INT. Next go for STA to get more hit points since you are still a tank and need to be able to take hits. Wis would be next for resists, followed by AGI for avoidance. You would think that avoidance would need to be high, but this is not the case for us. Your plate armor is already going to lower your avoidance some. A few spells require you to get hit to work. If you get hit way less, your spells will be less efective. To make up for your lack of avoidance, focus on getting armor and other gear/skills that increase your damage mitigation. The higher mitigation you have, the less damage you'll take when you are hit. The little bit of damage that does seep through can easily be dealt with by having all of your life taps upgraded as high as possible, having the buttons for them in your hotbar, and using them often.

I solo a lot, although I'm in a guild. My guild was small and didn't raid. I'm assuming you don't raid much. In this scenario you should be striving to get a new set of rare player made armor made every 10 levels. Harvest the rares yourself and look for good deals on them on the broker and buy them up. When you get two or three rares, contact an armorer and have them make you devout plate pieces for that tier of armor. Devout is one of the three or four flavors of player made rare armor that are available at pretty much every level. Devout armor will evenly raise your STR, INT, & STA. You wear seven pieces of armor, so this will greatly help your stats. Next I would focus on getting all player made rare jewelry for casters. It evenly improves your INT, STA, & WIS. You also will want to have two rare INT hex dolls made for your MISC. slots. Go with a symbol that increases your INT for your ranged slot. There are several of those player made and loot drops. Lastly, go with a good quality legendary or better quality 1-handed slashing & a legendary or better quality 1-handed blunt weapon. You should go for a weapon that has better stats and procs over one that does more damage or has a fast swing rate. You also want to always carry and use the highest armor class tower or kite shield you can find. I also mainly focus on killing named green heroic mobs while soloing for the thrill of the fights and the nice loot that I don't have to share with a group. You will be able to use some of these loot drops and sell most of the rest to other players for more coin to get other useful stuff for yourself. Don't be afraid to solo any and all green heroics you see, except for epic ones. Although I haven't done it, I have heard of some SKs killing lower level blue heroic mobs, but this would take excellent gear, player ability, and a decent amount of luck to pull off, and may be impossible due to recent combat changes.

Spell wise, you should be focusing on getting all of your lifetaps, your group taunt that lowers disease resistance, harm touch, your temporary pet, your offensive mode, & all other important spells upgraded as high as possible. Those spells should really be at adept III level or higher if you can manage it. The rest of your spells should be at adept I level or higher. Look for good deals on these spells on the broker and snatch any up you find. After a few searches on the broker, you'll develope a knack for finding the good deals. Try to harvest rares that you can have an alchemist make into adept III's. You can also look for deals on those same rares on the broker. You can also trade rare spells that you don't need for SK ones that other players don't need. Just advertise once in a while on the /auction and similar channels.

I recommend always fighting in offensive mode with a 1-handed weapon and shield equiped. This will max your damage dealing as much as possible, but still give you good defense. I never use or buy any 2-handed weapons. I sell all 2-handed weapon drops that I get from mobs. I also never use piercing weapons because I personally think they suck. Almost all mobs that are immune/resistant to slashing weapons will be hurt by blunt ones and vice versa. I just keep slashing and blunt skills up. Use your shield bash and kick attacks to keep your foes stunned as much as possible. Keep your group spells/melee attacks upgraded and use them often when soloing groups of mobs. Do the HQ quest to get the manastone. Low mana is one of our worst problems as a class and the manastone will help combat this. The little bit of damage that the manastone does to you will be more than offset by your lifetap abilities. Also, only use player made high quality drink to increase the rate at which you regain mana. I usually cheap out on the food, but some high quality player made food can increase certain stats temporarily depending on the type of food. Mana totems and potions are also useful, but not necessary. I never use those and I almost never have any downtime. Learn how to work the heroic oportunity wheel efficiently and use it to maximize damage.

All the above will enable you to kick *** while soloing and allow you to outfit your toon pretty good without relying on raiding. You can pretty much do the same thing in groups, but you'll want to be used as the off-tank or as damage per second, if possible. You could still tank, but you wouldn't be as effective as if you let somebody else tank. When the tank, switch to defensive stance to help keep yourself alive and save your healers from running out of mana. Always use a 1-hander and shield in a group. NEVER go 2-handed weapon style in a group. We SKs supposedly have a hard time holding agro when the tank in groups. I have never had problems with this. Spam your group taunt, single mob taunt, shield bash, kick, your damage shield (to help out your healers), and your two best lifetaps/damage spells. Do your part to complete the group heroic opportunities. Do this with good gear and upgraded spells and you'll almost never have problems getting and keeping agro. There will be those occassional times where an overeager mage or thief class will go DPS/nuke happy to early in the fight, before you have agro firmly established, and steal agro from you. To get the agro back, continue to do the above tactics after using either harm touch or rescue. You should be able to get the agro back. Also insure that your group members know before hand that if they steal agro, for them to stand still and stop attacking the mob, so you can easily get agro back. When the tank and pulling mobs to fight, always position the mob so it's back is towards the rest of your group. If the mob has an area of affect attack, only you will be damaged this way. This will also make it easier for your rogues in the group to back stab to their heart's content.

Although my main toon doesn't have a single achievement point due to my deployment, I have kept up on this area pretty well. I've spent a lot of time reading about the KOS achievement abilities. I don't know very much about the EOF ones yet though. I would love to see the EOF AP ability tree posted on here somewhere if somebody has that info. In the KOS AP tree, I would highly recommend going down the INT path first followed by the STA path. I would go 8-4-8 in INT & 5-8-8-8 in STA. This will be the way I go if I ever get back from this damn deployment. This KOS build will allow you to do maximum spell damage/DPS and give you melee crits and some more surviveability.

Lastly, try taking up a tradeskill that will either allow you to make a lot of your own rare gear or allow you to make in game coin from making it for others to help finance your gear purchases. Every time I have to call to freeport to sell, I check the broker for good deals on gear, spells, and harvesting rares. Good luck with your SK. It's the best class in the game for me to play. I find the class to be fun to play, it suits my play style, and it allows me to enjoy the game solo or in groups.