Shadow Knight Viability

[Tanhawk]

Never played an SK in EQ1 before. Is it a viable tank class for end game or is Warrior the only way to go?

[Legidias]

What is your definition of end game? If you mean doing Seb / planes / sub-20 man raids, SK is fine. They're great pullers and have a lot of utility.

Tanking big giants and dragons will usually fall onto warriors though.

[Tanhawk]

Sorry. Should have been more specific. Can they handle 6 man content all the way through Velious. And have any chance of getting in to raid content, even as an Off Tank.

[Tenlaar]

That is 100% where SKs shine. They are fantastic group tanks, both full and small, they're great offtanks for raids, and they can tank the majority of raid content pre-Velious.

[Seungkyu]

I've raided on Sk/Pal from Classic->Velious. They can definitely handle 6 man content, even better than the warriors.

SK's can pull if they are just plain better players than the monk, but why didn't I just roll a monk?
Paladin's can heal group members when they get hit by AOE's, but why didn't I just roll a cleric?

If you really want to tank on raids, roll a warrior.

Edit: Just noticed Tenlaar's post above me. He might be right, I just never seen or heard of SK/Pal tanking on raids unless they were extremely overgeared.

[Cen]

I've raided on Sk/Pal from Classic->Velious. They can definitely handle 6 man content, even better than the warriors.

SK's can pull if they are just plain better players than the monk, but why didn't I just roll a monk?
Paladin's can heal group members when they get hit by AOE's, but why didn't I just roll a cleric?

If you really want to tank on raids, roll a warrior.

Edit: Just noticed Tenlaar's post above me. He might be right, I just never seen or heard of SK/Pal tanking on raids unless they were extremely overgeared.

Outside of the age old specialist composition fallacy, a person who wants to tank, but have the ability to heal, because they like a little bit of both, should probably play a Paladin.

A person who enjoys tanking, but also using magic, and having really fun utilities and tools for aggro management and feign death, should probably play a Shadowknight.

If a person wants to tank only the biggest baddest monsters in the whole game, but never be able to heal outside of bandaging people minorly, and having some interesting clickies but not much else, should play a warrior.

Consider the whole package, because Knights have really, amazingly fun and useful packages. Mostly trying to do more with less people, since when you have an infinite capacitance of player participation, you will win the day with all specialist classes, but if your cramming only up to 6 people into something, a hybrid can be and even often is a perfectly fitting piece.

[Cen]

I don't know why I added that quote and it makes it seem like I wasn't agreeing with you when in fact I am.

[sacman08]

P99 is before the mitigation nerf that was funded by Red Warriors. SK’s are great tanks for this era.

[Danth]

Sorry. Should have been more specific. Can they handle 6 man content all the way through Velious. And have any chance of getting in to raid content, even as an Off Tank.

Shadow Knights (and Paladins) are fine for all group content in the game at any level, 1 through 60. They're also fine as tanks in lower-end raids. They will not generally be used as the primary tank against high-end raid bosses, although they can be used as off-tanks in many situations. Whether they ARE is dependent on the culture of various guilds and the need to integrate oneself into a given guild's "tank corps."

Long story short, if you want to mainly do group content and maybe lower-end raids, the Knight classes will give excellent service. If you have dreams of main-tanking high-end raid bosses, make a Warrior.

Danth

[Neverwinter27]

Describe the low end raid vs a high end raid

[Teppler]

I'd prefer the level 60 warrior over others. There's enough snap aggro items out there now. Get on buying those forlorn totems of rolfron zek.

[Veleria]

As an SK main I can say warrior does pretty much everything better. I solo alot though and I need to afk alot so having FD allows me to play the game. SK have an xp penalty on green for a while so keep that in mind as it causes some issues with elitist players.

[elwing]

I strongly disagree on that part. Warrior are definitely the main tank for most raid mobs, past kunark dragons as disc is huge... But sk do pretty much better in agro generation, pulling, splitting and soloing than a warrior will ever do, and that's without burning lots on clickies.
Warrior are definitely better hard target tanks, and are higher dps for sure, but these two are not automatically the most important point for a single group MT.

Edit:. Missed that it was for endgame... Then yes, warrior...
Non disc tanks are pretty much limited to hot, kunark dragons, lesser velious targets...

[Crede]

SKs are a blast. They can pull like a monk(arguably better because you have access to 3 different FDs in velious), do decent dps after the final patch, and get access to some cool ass spells including snap aggro. Right now on blue is the most ideal time to roll a SK.

If you feel compelled to tank big raid mobs, then go warrior. Otherwise, just enjoy the journey being a superior leveling tank(SK) with a ridiculous amount of utility.

[Troxx]

My main is a warrior but if I’m honest I’d rather see a well geared knight MT in places like halls of testing where rubbish hits plenty hard but snap aggro reigns supreme. Warriors are super durable but threat generation isn’t what it used to be before the proc nerf patch. Prior to patch it was clenching my ass cheeks waiting for my first infestation or WESS proc but knowing with certainty I wouldn’t lose aggro once the first landed unless someone was doing something REALLY stupid. That’s not the case anymore.

My warrior is more durable but my knight is more enjoyable to play in situations like that. Mobs die faster and less total mana is spent on healing despite him having close to a thousand fewer hit points.

SKs and Paladins are extremely viable at every level of play other than standing in front of content that needs defensive. They are more than tanky enough for all other content and have snap aggro to boot. Following the two-hand change they even put up respectable numbers with shiney endgame 2handers. We had a tunare 2h paladin (Cassimir) hovering in the mid 80s for sustained dps on velious content a few nights ago. While below warrior dps potential that patch elevated the dps-potential bar for tanks by a lot.

[aaezil]

I've raided on Sk/Pal from Classic->Velious. They can definitely handle 6 man content, even better than the warriors.

SK's can pull if they are just plain better players than the monk, but why didn't I just roll a monk?
Paladin's can heal group members when they get hit by AOE's, but why didn't I just roll a cleric?

If you really want to tank on raids, roll a warrior.

Edit: Just noticed Tenlaar's post above me. He might be right, I just never seen or heard of SK/Pal tanking on raids unless they were extremely overgeared.

Sks have much better toolkit for pulling than monks lol

[Benanov]

Sks have much better toolkit for pulling than monks lol

Agreed. Shadowknights are much more versatile pullers. With patience they don't even need a tagger. However, for constant, endless chain pulls, monks can be better - they don't need to med.

Shadowknights are absolutely viable. They're inefficient soloers, though.

[Crede]

Agreed. Shadowknights are much more versatile pullers. With patience they don't even need a tagger. However, for constant, endless chain pulls, monks can be better - they don't need to med.

Shadowknights are absolutely viable. They're inefficient soloers, though.

https://wiki.project1999.com/Blood_Ember_Greaves

https://wiki.project1999.com/Blood_Ember_Gauntlets

Non-iksar SKs can pull all day.