Troll SK STarting StatS

[Videri]

So here's my question, though. Suppose you go all-int on your SK and all-wis on your paladin. You pull and/or tank until you're out of mana. Then what?

Doesn't mana regen matter more than mana pool (for a hybrid)?

[Quizlop]

Is the Hybrid Mana penalty going to be in place in early Green?

If it is, INT might be the way to go.

[elwing]

That's definitely true... Also, for a sk your agro spell is a 10 mana spell... You can go on really long using just this. The mana pool as a bigger impact on your solo or splitting capabilities. With a regen race it's less an issue but as a fungyless human, to solo effectively I have to end the fight with 90% hp or more, the mana pool directly relate to how many fear+darkness or hp tap I can use at most. Int is not that important, I would clearly place sta first, then str and finally int/dex as seen fit. On live, ogres had to put some point in int otherwise they wouldn't have had enough mana to summon a pet at 9,it's not ab issue on p99. Pretty much all sk gear as some +str, sta dex and int is also frequent but less systematic. Also buff wise, str is easy you can get a str buff+fos for a huge total, meaning it's really trivial to cap str, dex is a bit harder through shaman can dex +fos assuming they stack dex first. There's little int buffs but when you get mind buffs the regen ones(potg and c) the mana is not a major issue... Sta on the other hand has only 1buff. That's the main reason for people saying all sta.

And points in str are wasted but for the first levels.

[Ennewi]

Paladins have the luxury of being able to consistantly med during server ticks when they joust solo, making them less dependent on mana regen than Shadow Knights who don't really have that option if they want to stay in melee range of their feared target. Although, technically SKs could ghetto joust using snare/pet outdoors and root-joust undead using gravebinder and wooly nets. Paladins have efficient heals, especially now in Velious, and free heals since Kunark's release; Shadow Knights have inefficient lifetaps that can be resisted and better, but unreliable lifetap procs. Paladins can Lay on Hands when OOM worry-free; SKs gamble with Harm Touch, knowing it can be resisted. Divine Aura costs virtually no mana with no noticeable delay and it cannot fail once it's channeled; Feign Death requires just enough mana and time to cast for problems to occur more often than not, repeat fizzles and interruptions, not to mention failures which all but require mana to lifetap while waiting to recast another Feign Death (in dungeons where running to buy time will usually mean taking more damage from additional targets). This is what makes Blood Ember Greaves so good; no mana cost or recast time does away with the problem above, in that you can train away until out of LoS and right-click Greaves until successful. You lose the solo kill, but avoid needing a corpse run/rez.

Even so, emergency reserves for mana always felt more important on a Shadow Knight. Late game, it's easy enough to compensate for low starting INT (even excluding Velious) just by attending sky raids; most of the resulting pieces have a ton of INT on them. As others have mentioned, HP Regen is crucial at times for SKs. Lying on the ground, waiting for mobs to path away, it helps having an innate counter to the DOTs that are eating into your last bubble of health (again, another area where Paladins are not opened to a great potential risk, having cure spells from very early on).

TL;DR...
HP/MANA first and STA/INT later, ideally without sacrificing those initial raw stat inreases. Starting points won't make or break your character, but do help towards min/max if you're into that sort of thing.

Ok I'll shut up about knights now.

[Danth]

Have fun trying to play a Dark Elf Shadow Knight on "green" with no points added to Strength and a STR of 70. I've repeatedly said it over the years, but when P99 first started out I watched numerous small-race tanks go for a Velious-style stamina allocation only to quit in disgust by level 30 when they found they couldn't even carry their own gear around without being encumbered. Conditions on a mature Velious-era server like P1999-blue with its vast amount of cheap stat gear are vastly different than conditions on a fresh pre-expansion world. Build a character for the conditions it'll face.

However strength isn't really a problem on a Troll. Neither is stamina. I like adding points to intelligence on a Troll since their other scores are decent by default. On the weaker races like Dark Elf or Human I usually favor adding points to strength for quality of life purposes except when stat gear is available from the start (like it is now on Blue), at which point stamina becomes attractive.

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I'd like to compare equipment Elwing (PM is fine if desired). My Shadow Knight is a Human just like yours (name's Andoric), and I've been maximum level for a very long time. I spend a great deal of time duo with a Shaman since the wife plays one, and like you I have no high-end equipment as I'm uninterested in raiding. For the conditions I face I favor AC first and foremost.


Danth

[Danth]

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

Doesn't mana regen matter more than mana pool (for a hybrid)?

Different issue, so different post:

Yes, mana regeneration matters FAR more on the hybrid tank types. Particularly in the case of the Shadow Knight (who uses Necromancer spells that have mana costs based on the assumption of having Lich, which the SK doesn't have) I regard limited mana regeneration as the class's primary weakness. In particular it's hard to use the effective damage spells very often unless Clarity is available.

I like to have a decent-size mana pool on my Paladins or Shadow Knights, but that's mainly so they can run the distance in emergency situations or other specific scenarios. I do not focus on that stat excessively. In the course of normal gameplay if nothing goes wrong it's not uncommon for me to stay over 2/3 mana. Shadow Knights (and Paladins to a lesser extent) who solo a lot will generally place more emphasis on the mana bar since solo can frequently strain it.

Danth

[Jimjam]

I'd also be interested in doing a gear check. I'm on lunch at work atm, but will try to set up a magelo for my sk after i get home.

[Sonderbeast]

Charisma cuz u ugly

[Jimjam]

I checked out my very first toon and made a wiki magelo!

Some pretty reasonable gear, a couple of pieces still leaving something to be desired (please send suggestions!).

http://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Blue:Nareik

Turns out I had put my starting stats in to all STR. Even with Focus of Spirit and Riotous health I do not cap strength and stamina.

I can confirm only 20 starting points for Troll SK, so 20 str 5 sta is not possible.

[Jimjam]

(just upgraded my shoulders to make sure I am at max str with FOS [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.])