1 Handed Shadow Knight and Paladin Weapons

[Issar]

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

Parsed priceless knight and icecone vs epic and primal claidmore... The 2hander parse around 10dps higher on bloodmaw

Good info.

@Cen, - I gotta ask, are you contemplating SK vs. Paladin based on 1hander availability and viability? Both classes have comperable weapons and armor available to them, but they have vastly different skillsets that are completely independant of weapon choice. As you've no doubt seen in your search, DPS on a knight is really a trietary concern when looking at their overall offerings. If you want to sword and board on a knight in Velious era, no one should argue your viability, dps isn't your role.

[Cen]

I am probably going to make a DE Warrior or SK, was curious about knight 1 handers since for SK you lose out on slam.

I wonder how much damage slam really adds anyway.

[nasgul]

I would go with a large race and have the slam ability with no shield. It's incredibly important, but not for dps, rather for interrupting casters. Or be prepared to deal with the hassle of swapping in a shield when you want to bash casters.

[Danth]

Bash doesn't add much damage overall at high level. I feel different than the above poster with respect to bash's value as an interrupt. Bash misses too often to be reliable and fear-snare is a far more trustworthy method of shutting down spellcasts. There are only a handful of areas where fear-snare cannot be used due to insufficient space and where the Shadow Knight isn't also likely going to have additional group members to help with interrupts. It's nicer having bash than not having it, but not so nice that I regard it as super critical. In addition you can bash with the Shadow Knight epic so my Human SK bashes all the time with a 2H on anyhow. Warriors will most usually tolerate having no bash until kick starts to stun at level 55. Don't make a large race just for slam if you really want a Dark Elf because, while nice, it ultimately won't be nice enough to compensate for the character not being what you actually wanted. That Troll or Ogre won't do you any good when it's sitting un-used because you aren't interested in it.

Danth

[Snaggles]

In my opinion it doesn’t matter much. Yes slam and the other perks of the big SK’s are very nice. Same goes with Iksars regen and ability to poop sock a Greenmist. The better your gear and levels the less racial perks matter. Your stats inevitably cap or get closer to capping. Npc hitpoints scale on an insane level. Bash and even spell stuns are a dice toss (aka team effort). Even an extra 20% dps from a 1.0 ratio 2h compared to a .8 ratio 1h won’t matter much when the charmed pet is going 5x your dps. I frequently switch between 1h and 2h depending mostly on how much my own dps matters. Casting between swings is easier with a 2h too.

In the low levels even starting strength can be super frustrating. Slam/bash does a noticeable amount of damage and almost always interrupts. That and quick 1h’s (jade/lam) use the same skill as the knight variant (ebon/noc). You could level to 60 without using a 2h but they do make jousting easier. Damage shields with a slow 2h will do half the damage as even a knight 1h. Also a Reaver from 30+ is easy-mode even without slam on a small race.

In the end it doesn’t really matter. Stats and race mean nothing compared to level and gear. I did solo up a 56 gnome warrior I found very easy. That was mostly due to the 40% spell haste clockwork arms, root nets, and fungi tho. That and not getting stuck on staircases in HK with a noble chasing me down. If a DE warrior was my favorite look I would have gone that path instead. It would have been harder without the extra haste but you can bum buffs easy enough in a high population zone.