Newbie SK

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

ohhhh you have no friends, got it
carry on

Lol you really got me there. Wow.

[Duik]

Dunno much about SK's but imma side with the 58 Troll dude. Saying you solo cuz no friends is a no argument, argument. Clickies are cool. We are taking this shit waay to seriously. Seriously.

[reebz]

It's cool we are playing different games

[Bisonboy1969]

Join the Ancient Blood clan and they can assist with surviving and often have lotteries for unused weapons and gear that can accelerate your lvling up.

[Duik]

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

It's cool we are playing different games

By Jove I think old man face has it worked out!

[oldschoolguy]

Well if you going to play Iksar, their starting zone is easy, get to about 9 then go into Kurns tower. Collect the armor set you can make early on in the city, there is a starting guide getting curscale armor, easy quest and first armor set is not hard to get.

I played Iksar SK back in the kunark days, they are just too inferior compared to a large race SK.
First you miss out on all the good clickies you get from Kunark, and those are huge convenience. Feign Death Clicky, snare clicky. There is no velious equivalent AFAIK.
Then worst part is you don't get Slam, so you can't bash wearing a 2h weapon, at least not until your epic. Which means if you are up vs casters you have to swap to 1h to interrupt their casts. Your stats are very far behind, by a lot. You'll never really catch up in stats unless you play like permanently unemployed in Veeshans peak. That's what I remember at least from playing an Iksar SK. They do look cool though with Greenmist.

I'd really recommend you pick ogre or troll for SK.

[walfreyydo]

All in all, I would say BE gaunts and the Polished Obsidian Great Axe are must-have items if you intend to solo as they will vastly increase your mana efficiency (perhaps double or even three fold). The largest mana cost while soloing is usually the cost for your darkness spell, so BE gaunts allows you to save that mana completely. BE Boots are also good, but with the extremely low mana cost of low level fear, I feel its less of a priority, but still nice to have. I haven't been able to obtain BE leggings, and I am sure they are incredibly useful.

POGA + Blood Ember Gauntlets makes soloing far far more efficient, especially in outdoors. I highly recommend getting both items at level 46. POGA is pretty much only usable outdoors where you have the room to keep a mob perma-feared, which it does very well. Indoors I have only been able to use it in a select number of areas, mainly Felwithe guards on the upper wall in my early 50s.

I have also found a number of places where you can fear kite with BE gauntlets and low level fear within dungeons. Having that free mana cost snare + low duration fear (which almost costs nothing) makes fear kiting extremely mana efficient, although you need more space. Finding spots in dungeons to do this allows you to maximize that ZEM bonus. I have found some great spots within KC, hole, velks, HS north, kaesora temple and other spots that I can fearkite with only engulfing + low level fear (regular or undead). One way you can limit your space needed to do this is to face tank the mob until approx 50% (making use of the low health increased snare on mobs), allowing you to then darkness (BE gaunts) + fear for even more confined fear kiting. Saving mana on the snare allows you to use that mana for lifetaps in between swings during the first 50% of facetanking, if needed. Having a fungi makes this even more efficient (more on that later).

Getting a Fungi also helps immensly as it will allow you to regen health at roughly the same rate as mana, so you can save mana by tanking and eating up some HP (hopefully to where the mob gets to 50% or lower health) before clicking BE gaunts and fearing, especially when fearkiting within a dungeon. Added benefit is the mob will get that additional snare as mentioned. I always try to keep my HP and Mana roughly balanced by the end of the fight because of this. A fungi also opens up a lot of options for you to FD your way deep into dungeons (like the hole) and regen that HP while you are FD so you can continue on through.

When kiting with POGA, I usually open with BE gaunts + low level fear and then usually can get a proc from the POGA once feared initially. After that its pretty much perma feared-unless you get unlucky with a proc-and all you need to do is to remember to keep clicking your BE gaunts to re-snare.

I think its appropriate to mention that Greenmist has one of the highest aggro procs available to SK's - its probably the best SK tanking weapon in the game.

Downsides of Human or Erudite are the constant need to keep Deadeye up, unless you can get an item that has ultra or infravision/deadeye as an effect (BE helm). For the record I have a human SK, but back on live 20 years ago I had an Iksar SK with Greenmist.

[Duckwalk]

Recently leveled an erudite sk to 60.

I wouldn’t go ogre or troll. Being giant is a pita for early game str / stam quality of life. With set of SS/“pre-raid” equipment your basically able to cap stam with standard buffs.

BE gloves seem nice but the boots were far less efficient than just casting fear when the long cast time/high chance to take dmg and regen it up or be forced to lifetap it back is taken into account.

SKs don’t have a ton of ways to regen hp. Lifetaps are horrible until 55+ and vampiric embrace will only minimally offset hp loss. Either way you’re going to find yourself sitting regening hp/mana. In my experience hp was the limiting factor.

Get a good 2hnder and switch to it at 30. I recommend reaver, the number of mobs you can’t hit is countable on one hand and most likely stuff you won’t be fighting 3O+ anyways. The damage increase is noticeable and far outweighed meager tanking bonuses. But keep a shield around to swap in for bash. Slam abs FSI are overrated. I didn’t miss them once.

If I was to re-roll I’d probably go iksar. Racial regen, ac bonus, robe fashion, greenmist accessibility (mainly for the proc), normal size far out weight slam, FSI, and early game stat bonuses.