The Power of Bone Knights!! (With Data!!)

[Ivory]

Originally Posted by Natewest1987 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Ivory do you have any comments for efficiency through the leveling process? Obviously it works fine with your current end game setup, but how did this fare before you had access to these toys?

Sand giants is still dark blue at 50.

But the efficiency of bone knight has always been top notch. The power really became obvious when I went to unrest and was non-stop killin the entire yard of even and some yellow and blue cons.

Then I went to permafrost, and the same thing... was able to kill a heck of a lot. Though I was duoing a lot there (with a monk, or a wizard, or sometimes a shaman)

And then cazic thule I soloed the maze and was slayin a bunch too.... and then as I got higher, I was able to take down the pyramid with all the harm touching mobs pretty easily (still very level appropriate).

Then it was guk and slayin everything.

Though as I leveled up higher, i definitely felt the inherent fragility more. Before mid 40's I was outtanking my pet easily. But after mid 40's I had to start letting my pet tank a little more and back up when I was hurt to heal off damage.

The thing is, while I was leveling up in groups... I'd always be tanking in groups (most of the times groups would think I was joking about wanting to tank, until I did it and they saw me tank....lol).

Before 40 I could easily outtank real tanks (since the lifetap dots made up a lot for things). Then after 40 I was still tanking in groups a LOT....especially in situations where the healer was getting low on mana and needed a rest, that was my chance to step in and tank for a while, exhausting my mana to heal myself for a while.... and by the time I needed to rest, the healer had mana again and I could stop using my mana much (so then i could take turns recovering).

I remember one group where the paladin was getting angry that I kept trying to tank, but he was just draining SOOO much mana from the healers and it was slowing everything down. Eventually I got him to stop trying to taunt-battle me... and he realized just how bonkers my tanking was. Since if I stay in lich form, I can melee non stop...and always have my lifetap dot up... and now and then throw out an extra lifetap, without dropping my mana that low (the video you can see some of my pace, I don't really use much mana to fight, especially in a group where the fights are shorter and there are little rests between).

And now that I'm 50. Mobs hit hard and can get a few good rounds off, and I don't have a giant hitpoint pool.... so I gotta take a step back and wait a few ticks for the healing to take effect, or use a lifetap and get back in. Which makes it harder to main tank without backing up and without needing any other patch healing. But at 53 (i think?) necros get a REALLY fast lifetap that will be amazing for staying in the fight and not needing to back up.

I also die fast if I get overwhelmed. I can't be like a warrior and shoulder 3 or 4 mobs for a while... it drops me too fast.

But with FD and situational awareness....and using pet to intercept multiples... it's not too hard to handle a lot of mobs in less brute force ways (when I was leveling, I'd often fight 2 or 3 at the same time, my pet fighting one thing...and me fighting something else, and keeping a 3rd mezzed).

Were you able to tank sand giants when it was level appropriate and you had level appropriate gear?

Also I wasn't that twinked when I was leveling. The only other character I had was Pockete...and a level 20 rogue can only twink so much. Just some weapons and some things like the sleeves or hat. I didn't even have HP rings until 30 or 40.

I met another bone knight recently who was completely outfitting themselves at just level 12!! farming orc belts and funding everything they needed. So with some effort, anyone can do this type of thing. It isn't like a fungi rogue or something super expensive in order to do.