Shadowknight endgame DPS potential

[Noselacri]

Can shadowknights put out respectable DPS? I've heard conflicting reports, but some who sound like they know what they're talking about say that with the final pet spell and high-level haste on it, plus Clarity on you and all that shit, SK DPS is actually okay. Is this true? Does anyone have any data or experience with it? I realize it won't rival the top DPS classes, but how does it stand in comparison?

[Baler]

shadowknight is not a dps class
If your goal is DPS do not roll sk roll a class that does dps. Don't lie to yourself.

At the very end of velious, with a near best in slot weapon. You'll be doing a little less damage than a warrior with similar weaponry.
SK will NEVER be in the top dps.

How sk makes up for their weak dps is their necro spells. snap agro spells, Feign death, pet, Damage absorb, etc
They're good trash mob tanks and good taggers.

When people talk about SK dps, you have to put it in a certain frame of thinking.
They're not dps comparable to rogues, monks, wizards, warriors, rangers, mage in terms of late game velious.

[Danth]

They're lower-midrange, sustained. Burst--using spells, stacking up DOTS, etc--they can compete (while mana holds out, which usually means minutes at most) with the lower end of the damage dealers. For a fundamentally defense-oriented class that's okay, but nobody's ever going to confuse it for a true damage dealer. Raids, and especially raid bosses, make it look worse than it is because in such situations the Shadow Knight won't usually be doing much more than auto-attacking.

Danth

[elwing]

You want to top dps? Tank something that hits a lot and get decent ds stack... No way even rogues and monk can follow... Other than that? You're pretty much stuck in the 50dps... Which is far from negligible but will always be behind dps class normally...

[Jimjam]

Technically anyone can use puppet strings!

[Ennewi]

Considering the mana cost/duration of their heavier dots and factoring those in with what self-only mana regen/theft options exist for the class...

8 (Soul Defiler) 2 (Crown of Narandi) 1 (Coldain Shawl) = 11 mana per tick.
Swapping in an Essence Blade would add 80 mana per proc...altogether enough blue stuff replenished for one, possibly two of the medium/heavy dots to be cast consistently and Shroud of Death would more or less offset Soul Defiler's negative recourse effect.

Mind buffs would be comparable to that gear...
2 (GoB) 6 (PotG) 11 (C2) = 19 mana per tick...and even better with a Bard present.

Assuming all of those buff window decorations stack, just to put things into perspective.

[Swish]

Actually SKs aren't terrible dps for what their role is, and the end of the Velious timeline is probably one of the best times to enjoy one in that respect.

If you're asking for green server though, not so good for vanilla...though you can fear kite once you get a respectable weapon if you're short on time or don't want to group ^^

[Troxx]

Both paladins and shadow knights can (now that the most recent patch hit) put out very respectable numbers with good 2handers.

Their damage isn’t bad but high end raid targets with high ac still have them falling disproportionately behind other melee thanks to lower skill caps.

[Chardy]

An endgame equipped SK (Primal, Epic, Ntov) could probably dole out an impressive amount of DPS in a dungeon setting, especially with undead mobs present.

Would be interesting to distill down the approximate damage per second of the various aspects of an SK (Lifetap proc, damage shield, level 58 pet unarmed or with proc'ing weapons), then add the DoT based DPS factor, then factor in weapon swings vs time spent casting, etc.

Full DoTs, + Epic proc, + Spear of fate proc (undead) = Just over 60 damage per second. Granted, it would be a lot of continuous weapon swapping, but it seems like a nerdworthy challenge, regardless.

[Baler]

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

Spear of fate proc

Um.. Wat