SK seems incredibly strong to me:
- Clinging Darkness + Disease Cloud + Shadow Vortex means that when you want to tank, you can. Enchanters and Shaman and twink Rogues everywhere thank you. Meanwhile on a Warrior you are spending half the time watching the fungi/tstaff monk tank and talk to the group about amazing monk mitigation.
- SKs now get full defensive skills, which means they are nearly as durable as a warrior when they use a shield and better than said Monk regardless (at least until the Monk gets a full set of Dozekar loot).
- SKs can 'Dark and Park' split XP content easily, or use Stalking Probes/Skeleton pets and Steelskin for tough rooms. So you are at least as good at pulling as a Monk.
- SKs can lifetap back hitpoints when they are in trouble. Add in a pet and the occasional DoT and a cheap high-ratio Knight weapon and you shouldn't be THAT bad on the DPS meter.
- The SK utility toolkit is pretty good: invis, ivu, damage shield, levitate, see invis, snare, fear, cancel magic, ATK/AC tap, resist cold and disease.
It feels to me like SK should be stronger (and more fun) than both Warriors and Monks until the pure melee hit their stride with raid gear and key clickies. I guess the biggest problem an SK would have is mana regeneration, and if I had one I would be trying to make a long friend list of half-decent enchanters. Something like SK/MAG/CLR/ENC seems like it would fly through levels.
But I haven't actually played one, so who knows.