Best SK Race for Questing

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

I've done 4 different SK builds(someday I might finish off with DE & Erudite).

The Greenmist was a somewhat enjoyable quest if you're into that, but I ended up quitting due to Iksar animations. Both the bash spin animation & the 2hs(even after the user fix) are still bad. Iksars only good animations IMO are the 2hb & 2h pierce.

I would agree at how useful the Blood Ember clickies are, which paired with epic are even better. The blood ember clickies are really incredible that I would not recommend anyone going iksar, the gloves/pants are free splits all day long. The boots are a good tool to use in conjunction with undead fears to balance mana. My troll SK would usually cycle in epic usually when the mob fleed and I would back the pet off as well. I had around 170 dex so I had pretty good rng with procs. Between blood ember, crown of narandi, fungi, and epic, I could go for a long time without running oom. The epic procs allow you to do some tanking as well to save mana. To just fear kite 24/7 is silly, it is really a balancing act of managing hp/mana. SKs can out xp any other melee if you know where to go. It's an amazing class that unfortunately aren't utilized much in raids but that shouldn't stop anyone from playing one.

Agreed!

[Keebz]

Oh yea there's the cool bertox stuff in qeynos as well. I think you can do all those quests as a erudite, but not sure. Assuming erud can do both, that's a nod over human/bertox.

[flobee]

Thanks all for the feedback!

[Sweeper41]

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

Ebon Mace, Reaver, Shard of Night, and Argent
Greenmist really isn't very good sadly, even taking into account the proc. Having a Reaver + Blood Ember Gloves is going to be better than Greenmist.

The reason why Greenmist is a worse weapon compared to the ones I mentioned above is because you lose access to Blood Ember clickies. Those are going to help you way more than the proc from Greenmist. Shadowknights are constrained by their mana, so having a free snare clickie is huge. The ratios on all the weapons mentioned above (besides Ebon Mace) are also better than Greenmist. Ebon Mace isn't far off, its a 0.79 ratio compared to Greenmist's 0.82.

Disagree. You do not need any blood ember to solo to 60. Greenmist proc is worth cause it can stack with other weapon procs, so you just switch out when you get one. Greenmist is easy to obtain if you put in the work and buy 1 MQ for around 4k.

Also a casual doesn't have the 30k+ to drop on pants they would only use to save themselves 60 mana. Also having to switch pants just to click during some kinda near death encounter will just get you killed. Blood Ember is overrated. Fun to have but you already have all the tools you need in your spell book.

[Sweeper41]

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

I've done 4 different SK builds(someday I might finish off with DE & Erudite).

The Greenmist was a somewhat enjoyable quest if you're into that, but I ended up quitting due to Iksar animations. Both the bash spin animation & the 2hs(even after the user fix) are still bad. Iksars only good animations IMO are the 2hb & 2h pierce.

I would agree at how useful the Blood Ember clickies are, which paired with epic are even better. The blood ember clickies are really incredible that I would not recommend anyone going iksar, the gloves/pants are free splits all day long. The boots are a good tool to use in conjunction with undead fears to balance mana. My troll SK would usually cycle in epic usually when the mob fleed and I would back the pet off as well. I had around 170 dex so I had pretty good rng with procs. Between blood ember, crown of narandi, fungi, and epic, I could go for a long time without running oom. The epic procs allow you to do some tanking as well to save mana. To just fear kite 24/7 is silly, it is really a balancing act of managing hp/mana. SKs can out xp any other melee if you know where to go. It's an amazing class that unfortunately aren't utilized much in raids but that shouldn't stop anyone from playing one.

You talk like players can't survive without it. Please. Fun to have but you do not need any of that armor. Also switching pants everytime you want to FD is annoying. Money is better spend on a pre nerf CoS or Crown then any Blood Ember. I never had mana issues even before I got a crown.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Sweeper41 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Disagree. You do not need any blood ember to solo to 60. Greenmist proc is worth cause it can stack with other weapon procs, so you just switch out when you get one. Greenmist is easy to obtain if you put in the work and buy 1 MQ for around 4k.

Also a casual doesn't have the 30k+ to drop on pants they would only use to save themselves 60 mana. Also having to switch pants just to click during some kinda near death encounter will just get you killed. Blood Ember is overrated. Fun to have but you already have all the tools you need in your spell book.

Blood Ember is still useful at 60, and it isn't difficult to get a better ratio weapon or Epic by the time you hit 60.

Greenmist is more overrated than Blood Ember. Mana is the bottleneck on an SK, not generally HP. Blood Ember saves you a lot of mana, where Greenmist doesn't.

If you are fighting a mob that cannot be feared (where Blood Ember is useless), you are generally doing solo challenge stuff, and at that point you are probably raid geared, which probably means you have your Epic. Casual players aren't going to be soloing Cliff Golems.

I do agree if you are specifically making an SK with the purpose of never reaching level 60, Greenmist can be fun to get. But you will feel the loss of Blood Ember at lower levels too, so it isn't a clean win.

[Toxigen]

Originally Posted by Sweeper41 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Disagree. You do not need any blood ember to solo to 60. Greenmist proc is worth cause it can stack with other weapon procs, so you just switch out when you get one. Greenmist is easy to obtain if you put in the work and buy 1 MQ for around 4k.

Also a casual doesn't have the 30k+ to drop on pants they would only use to save themselves 60 mana. Also having to switch pants just to click during some kinda near death encounter will just get you killed. Blood Ember is overrated. Fun to have but you already have all the tools you need in your spell book.

FD has a 15 second recast time and it can fail, making blood ember good.

Sorry you don't got 30k hope this helped.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

FD has a 15 second recast time and it can fail, making blood ember good.

Sorry you don't got 30k hope this helped.

Exactly. You save mana on FD too by using the pants. It adds up if you are pulling a lot, or getting unlucky.

[Danth]

Blood Ember legs are a near-miraculous lifesaver through 59 for that reason, and even at 60 during Kunark. Once you're 60 in a Velious setting, Death Peace has a 4 second recast, reducing Blood Ember to the status of mana-saver during the splitting phase of a camp.

On the other hand I'm not overly impressed with my insta-click circlet that I've had for the past decade-plus, either. I wouldn't sell it, but if I log on the wife's 55 SK alt which does NOT have one, neither do I miss the thing overmuch. No single one of these types of items could be called necessary. Blood ember is nice because it can stack with other pieces or other mana saving items; the cumulative effect of saving 60 mana here, 60 there, maybe some worn regen, can add up to a fair reduction in time spent meditating.

(edit) To be sure, the effect that saving meditate time has on a player depends on what he's doing. At 60, more or less timing named, who cares about an extra couple minutes spent sitting? So, no, it doesn't necessarily matter in all cases, just access to those click effects is an option the iksar uniquely lacks in return for what I might call a nice but not world-shattering pseudo-epic.

Danth

[Toxigen]

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

Blood Ember legs are a near-miraculous lifesaver through 59 for that reason, and even at 60 during Kunark. Once you're 60 in a Velious setting, Death Peace has a 4 second recast, reducing Blood Ember to the status of mana-saver during the splitting phase of a camp.

On the other hand I'm not overly impressed with my insta-click circlet that I've had for the past decade-plus, either. I wouldn't sell it, but if I log on the wife's 55 SK alt which does NOT have one, neither do I miss the thing overmuch. No single one of these types of items could be called necessary. Blood ember is nice because it can stack with other pieces or other mana saving items; the cumulative effect of saving 60 mana here, 60 there, maybe some worn regen, can add up to a fair reduction in time spent meditating.

(edit) To be sure, the effect that saving meditate time has on a player depends on what he's doing. At 60, more or less timing named, who cares about an extra couple minutes spent sitting? So, no, it doesn't necessarily matter in all cases, just access to those click effects is an option the iksar uniquely lacks in return for what I might call a nice but not world-shattering pseudo-epic.

Danth

Agreed, especially with pre nerf CoS.

I leveled my necro a while back with one...sure it was nice but I was never in a single scenario where it saved me an immense amount.

Maybe I'm just a better player...but I did do a ton of undead charming where the regular invis wasn't going to help anyway. It wound up being a luxury / travel item that freed up a spell slot.

Your situational awareness / "plan of attack"...positioning, awareness of mob pathing routes, respawns, etc...is going to be far more valuable than any one single item (except maybe stuff like fungi, Z heart, and narandi crown).

Play more efficiently.