Input from SKs needed!
 

Until the class experience penalties are removed (come Velious), the journey to 60 is a long, slow, sometimes painful process. That being said, I was curious if any 50+ Shadow Knights soloed most of their levels, or even during downtime, and the best spots to go by level.

There are several Paladin solo threads, let's see if we can get a list of levels and zones where Shadow Knights, who have taken the solo route, have gone.

I will update the OP once input is posted

lguk bw skyfire all ez solos
eq so ez

So far I've been soloing my ERU SHD (most of the time) and am at level 35 so far.

Levels 1 to 8: No spells yet, solo somewhere you can bum buffs to ease the pain (East Commons).

Levels 9 to 14: You have spells, the lifetap is better than nothing. Still stay near East Commons, so try to hunt in NRO/WC and come back once an hour for buff refresh.

Levels 15 to 21: You can now fear kite, however I enjoy the shralok orcs in kithicor forest as they are relatively stationary (and tankable) - collect and save all the orc scalps and turn in at HHK to go from 21 to 22 or 23 (they are pretty amazing XP).

Levels 22 to 28: The worst! Terrible life tap, no feign death or gather shadows. Fear kite in LOIO near water.

Level 29 to 35: I enjoy uncamped areas so like soloing kerra isle, there are a few dark blues at 29 that are tankable (and drop fun items) - there is one named above tiger pit on the south island with 2 dark/light blue assistants, as well as the Shazda turban guy (FD to clear his spawn, beat him down toe to toe).

For gear I find the slower the weapon (2h) the better, as this allows you to swing, start a lifetap, swing, repeat...

30+ (no damage cap) you can also try snare kiting with:
http://wiki.project1999.com/Weighted_Axe

Instead of fearing, just snare. Run through the mob, activate auto attack when you get into melee range, keep running to get out of its range, turn around and repeat. You're doing massive amounts of damage each round and only taking 1 round of hits from the mob.

Another strategy is to equip the weighted axe for the first round (since you always swing immediately) then switch to a lower delay/better ratio weapon and face tank/fear kite.

Also, just a note: Race penalties always exist. But without the Class penalty it becomes hardly noticable (20% is tiny compared to 68%).

Oh damn troll sk? I was lucky and had a druid friend with a lumy staff so I just sat around while he quadded spirocs 46-51 so far....stupid crazy xp

What level were you while he did that?

I fear kited a lot in DL from 49-54, solo, along the east wall of KC. After I hit 54, the double hell became too much to solo though, though I do remember ravishing drolvargs being dark blue until 56-57 if you want to continue.

BW sucked because of adds at the giant fort and skyfire sucked for me because the assist range on those mobs was huge (so the pulls were long and I ended up zoning some of my pulls because of chromadrac adds).

After 54, it was Chardok for me because it was my only real option due to my playtime. Had there been an outdoor zone I could easily solo in, I would have done that instead most likely.

The Shadowknight power curve is immense after 50, where you start getting useful spells every single level. The 52 pet basically doubles your DPS when you are fear kiting mobs in DL, if you summon a higher one and give him weapons. The 58 even more so.

aoe group?

My guess is either:
1) Become non-kos and get in line with the other 7 pullers waiting for that one guy to finish his 18+ hour turn. If the group allows 68% penalty proxies

2) Farm money and pay for it if the group allows 68% penalty proxies.

Personally on my necro I didn't have much problem with adds at BW Fort once I figured out where they pathed to/from. You just need to make sure you periodically let them path back into the crater a bit before reapplying fear. Probably less efficient as an SK since you'd be meleeing them down though.

Yes, I pulled, and yes, if I was next in line for pulling (I woke up early, got in line, gave someone I trusted my phone number, and went back to sleep) the group dealt with me and I them. Groups in chardok are worried about volume of pulls, not penalties, and the fact that an SK can reliably and easily bring 140-mob pulls is a plus in their books. I've also never had to wait for some guy to finish an 18 hour shift, but I have heard times have changed. If anyone was to play that long in any of my groups, they'd have been replaced long beforehand so their tired ass doesn't wipe us.

You wait in line for chardok - You are next in line to pull, you pull, it does not matter what class/race you are as long as you are a reliable puller.

As for BW, because an SK has to melee a mob down, it means we are not medding during kills - it's pretty hard for us to fear/CC more than one mob at a time for any sort of long duration, because Invoke Fear costs a decent chunk of mana that we have no opportunity to med back.