Starting stats for troll SK?

[paladin1118]

The wiki says to either spend 20 points in STA or INT for a troll SK. Which would be best? I'm sure it's always a good idea to raise stamina first on a tank... but trolls have such terrible starting INT (52). Should I ignore INT anyway and put all points in Stamina? I have little experience with SK's so I'm not sure how necessary their mana pool is at higher levels.

Thanks for the help.

[SCB]

Hybrid mana problems in later levels are easily solved with even Clarity 1, much less C2. Meditating will fill your bar lickity split even without C. I wouldn't put points into Int as a TSK. Melee stats will always be more valuable imo.

[Swish]

I went all STA back in the day, your main aggro spell for many levels is disease cloud (like 5 or 10 mana tops), so you'll get plenty of use out of it.

Better that than having a erudite SK with a massive mana pool that can't tank too good :P

[webrunner5]

I would put most in Sta and some in Strength. Maybe 5 in Int. They are made to be beat on and do damage. Int, unless solo, has not much to do with that other than Disease Cloud for agro. And that is a low mana spell higher up.

Tanks are just good to be beat on in groups. Trolls are the only one maybe that can solo a bit higher up. But in the long run you will HAVE to group most of the time. So your job is to slowly kill mobs and take the brunt of the damage, or best case all of it. That takes high AC, Sta, Str, HP stats. Not a lot of int.

[Weekapaug]

The one thing I remember about Troll SKs from live was they had a hard time with FD for the first couple levels after they got the spell because of the low mana pool. I want to even say they couldn't cast it until they were a level or two past the level they get it. Not sure how it is here.

For the record, my main from mid kunark till early mid POP was a human sk and I put all my points in STA. Never regretted it.

[Yinikren]

As a troll, I split my stats between INT, STA and STR fairly evenly. Most of the decent SK gear (Noct Blade, Atra Shield, etc) has either raw hp/mana or INT on it. My SK, at 39, has 140 STR, 120ish STA and 102 INT unbuffed and its been more than plenty to tank for groups and solo when needed. If I have mana problems during a fight, I know I am tapping too much and I should find easier mobs. The smaller manapool (1100 at 39, 1550hp and 800ac for reference) means that with meditate, my manabar fills in under 5 minutes from a bad pull. Also, as far as soloing goes, fear kite all the way - undead if you can, the undead fear costs almost no mana and has a much shorter cast time than standard fear.

Also, I've never had mana issues with feign death. I probably had almost 700 mana when I got the spell, so mana was never the issue - the issue was fizzles because your abjuration is going to suck unless you REALLY LOVE casting endure cold on everyone you pass to help skill up.

[Lune]

The only correct answer is 20 points into stamina.

Why you don't do:

Strength: Not only is your agro not based on damage, and your damage pathetic, but strength is one of the easiest stats to get up past the softcap.

Intelligence: This is not a decisive stat. The mana cost of your staple agro spells is paltry, and what you're doing during a solo or group session is either sustainable or it isn't, and that's determined by mana regeneration. Having a larger reserve of mana might let you use another lifetap or two in a limited number of emergency situations, but ultimately intelligence is much easier to find on gear than stamina is.

Maximum mana as an attribute only matters when you dump your entire pool from 100 to 0. How often are you doing that as a shadow knight? Is it worth sacrificing the more coveted, more generally applicable points in stamina? no

Also keep in mind if a fungi tunic is in your future, 83 agility will put you below 75 if you aren't getting a little agility somewhere. If this is a twink character, plan your gear accordingly.

[Yinikren]

It still depends what he really wants to do. If he's going to solo or group mostly as an alt character (read: not high-end), sure, more well-rounded stats will help him achieve that better. He will never be high enough to achieve the affects of putting 20 points into STA. If he's going to raid... sure, 76 extra hp at 60 (from going full STA) might somehow, when the planets align, save him.

Clearly I'm a skeptic, but to each their own. I'd much rather have more well-rounded stats. 10 int, 10 STA is 38 HP at level 60.. so your 20 STA SK will only have 38 HP more than mine given the same gear. That might just equal the damage of a bash from a drolvarg in DL. However, the INT gives him more throughput in an exp group without a chanter, especially if he is also pulling and can't med constantly. It also gives him more throughput soloing, if that's his piece of pie.

We need to know more about his playstyle to decide for sure, but yes, I think 20 STA is fairly laughable when it comes down to it.

[JayN]

DEX DEX DEX

[dali_lb]

group or solo, doesn't matter.
Starting stats doesn't really matter either, even in the early expansions P99 covers.

Since we don't ever get crazy stats equipment with the 2 expansions P99 will cover I would go for some of the secondary stats.
20 sta is still only gonna save your butt once in a blue moon.
Str is fairly high for a Troll.
Int is really low but will get decent with equipment later on.
My choice would prolly be to go for eg Dex just for the better chance at raising many melee skills and the benefit when using a proccing weapon

[webrunner5]

DEX DEX DEX

That should get a few people thinking.

[webrunner5]

DEX DEX DEX

Yours is not a bad idea either. Harder to raise with gear than most people think. They only start at 75 Dex. Nothing to write home to mother about.

[eskimospy]

The one thing I remember about Troll SKs from live was they had a hard time with FD for the first couple levels after they got the spell because of the low mana pool.

Trolls couldn't cast the first pet spell at the level it was received without points into INT at the start. IIRC it was Lvl9 and it would take like Lvl11 to cast it, what you are thinking of.

[Nirgon]

The wiki told me to play with downed power lines

[Raavak]

I think with even Velious gear you would have trouble getting to 255 sta. I guess I would personally concentrate on sta, maybe 5 into int.

[Lune]

However, the INT gives him more throughput in an exp group without a chanter, especially if he is also pulling and can't med constantly. It also gives him more throughput soloing, if that's his piece of pie.

It doesn't give him more "throughput" though, because it doesn't increase the rate of mana regeneration. If he is pulling and can't med constantly, he is still going to run oom, it's just going to take about 1 or 2 more spells and then the group will be waiting for him to med just the same.

Maximum mana is a pretty poor stat even for many spellcasting classes.

[Brut]

Dex all the way! You get varying proc toys, you got your crappy Vamp Embrace, you wont rage as much wasting the newbie areas with OT hammer. Think it affects double attack checks or something, not sure on that?

Str will cap very easily and doesn't improve your dps all that much. Don't worry about it. Endgame ogre SK will hit 255str unbuffed without even trying.

Sta is pretty much the same story - at early levels 20sta isnt a big deal, healers wont be chealing you much until 50+ anyway, higher lvls you'll get Sta up high with gear/buffs easy enough. Think difference between all-points-sta and none-sta SK at 60 is like mere hundred hp, and once a shm buffs them, there's barely any difference since both will be high 200s.

Imo forget Int, SK is 90% warrior / 10% necro not vice versa. Your healer will run oom long before you do casting that 10mana Disease Cloud. If you're bonkers and plan to fear kite solo, maybe then, but there's clicky snare gaunts and clicky fear boots and fear proc axe to solve these problems. Would avoid soloing as SK anyway since groups are just better in every way.

Agi idunno. Get it 75+ so you wont get the AC penalty. Think only ogre SK has to worry about that since they have 70 without points in it.

[Swish]

Imo forget Int, SK is 90% warrior / 10% necro not vice versa.

[Nirgon]

Take a look at what the sky items give, then tell me what you think

[Brut]

Take a look at what the sky items give, then tell me what you think
Verant thought SKs needed wis in their pants and warriors cha in their helms, soiunnoboutthat.

[Weekapaug]

Trolls couldn't cast the first pet spell at the level it was received without points into INT at the start. IIRC it was Lvl9 and it would take like Lvl11 to cast it, what you are thinking of.

Yep, that was it. Knew it was something like that.

[fadetree]

Lune is correct.

[Hitpoint]

I play a troll sk. Put nothing into STR, it's very easily capped. In Kunark it's very hard to cap on stamina because SK gear usually doesn't have any (like all our sky gear). So putting as much as you can into stamina is 1 option. At 60 that extra 20 sta will turn out to be like 100 hp and it's far less at lower levels, so it's not a big deal.

Your main agro abilities cost 10 and 20 mana. In groups you won't come even close to running out of mana if you have a chanter or a bard. Or even if you have someone else pulling for you and no mana regen, you still wont run out of mana. You can definitely run out of mana if you're pulling and tanking and have no mana regen. But that will happen regardless of an extra 20 int. Imo putting points into int is pretty much a waste.

The better option is dex I think, vamp embrace and weapon procs, plus it's the hardest to cap in velious. It's not a great option but it's better than the others imo. I'm not sure how much AC or avoidence you would get from putting points into agility but that might be an option too. I'd look into it at least.

[Yinikren]

As you all can't seem to agree on much, the general consensus is he needs to decide what his playstyle is going to be. Since there is no right way to go, you can shoot down any idea in favor of your own. Kind of how I shoot down 20 sta because it's only 76 HP at level 60.

I solo a lot, so more mana is better for me. Hell, put the points into CHA so you can sell your phat loot for more.

[webrunner5]

As you all can't seem to agree on much, the general consensus is he needs to decide what his playstyle is going to be. Since there is no right way to go, you can shoot down any idea in favor of your own. Kind of how I shoot down 20 sta because it's only 76 HP at level 60.

I solo a lot, so more mana is better for me. Hell, put the points into CHA so you can sell your phat loot for more.

I thought Cha was broken on here for selling?? I know you are kidding but I think Dex and Sta way to go.

[thugcruncher]

if you're hard, and you're plannin on playin the slowest leveling class/race in the game, so you should be hard, you'd put the points into the least useful stat (wis) and go rock hard all the way to the top, you don't need no BONUS points, (to go even harder go iksar)