50's SK Gear Advice

[Ennewi]

Always raiding at the bleeding edge, it would be easy to conclude that shawl 7 isn't worth the effort, especially if other aspects of the game seem tedious like questing and trade skilling. Stat-wise, 8 isn't even that good by those min/max raid tank standards though.

The effect is what makes hybrid players rank shawl 7 highly, myself included. Anything that constantly helps reduce solo/group downtime—sitting, feign deathed, or standing—is significant, especially when it doesn't cost a thunder of dragons in terms of DKP. And, unlike virtually every other item, shawl has decent enough potential to maybe one day receive an upgrade since the Ring 10 treatment was originally intended for it, only to be postponed due to time constraints. What would a custom content shawl 10 look like? If it's anything along the lines of...

AC: 10 STA: +10 CHA: +10 WIS: +10 INT: +10 HP: +100 MANA: +100
SV FIRE: +10 SV DISEASE: +10 SV COLD: +10 SV MAGIC: +10 SV POISON: +10
Effect: Flowing Thought IV

...than 7 seems worth the time investment for many classes.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Always raiding at the bleeding edge, it would be easy to conclude that shawl 7 isn't worth the effort.

Even when I was raiding at the bleeding edge, the secret is simple: Most really good BiS gear is highly contested and takes a long time to acquire. This is what Samoht is living in a dream land about. The reality is you need to build your character up the best way you can with what you have available. Even with 2000+ DKP in Aftermath I had the choice between getting like 3 BiS pieces, or filling most of my slots with raid gear. Doing the latter has overall increased my stats more than those 3 BiS pieces would.

Samoht would take the first route, and his character would still be way far behind in terms of capability. It is not a bad dream to want all BiS, but only the most dedicated of players can accomplish this. For everyone else, second to fourth BiS is still amazing, and if you get that in all slots your character will be well above average for all content on P99.

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

The effect is what makes hybrid players rank shawl 7 highly, myself included. Anything that constantly helps reduce solo/group downtime—sitting, feign deathed, or standing—is significant, especially when it doesn't cost a thunder of dragons in terms of DKP.

Exactly. The mana regen effect does more for players than a bit of extra stats. It reduces downtime more than the stats would. That is why it is better than most other items in the same slot.

[Keebz]

Ding 60.

At 58, I did Hole elementals on the balcony in the castle, which was super fast. For 59, I mainly did the frontier giants and Velks. I also solo'd a bit in the hole--rats, elementals, fallen erudites, but there were issues with all those camps that made doing them for extended periods of time less than ideal.

The FM giants are around 3% and hour and mindless. Velks is a little better, but spicier. Head up to the fake wall and pull to there. You can fear kite a little, but be careful to keep your mob from going towards the dogs. Your spider will warp down there and aggro everything. The other option that I would be ideal for 59 is PoM, but getting there is kind of a pita, and I was too lazy to try to find a COTH or a DA.

I didn't get any new gear acquisitions since last time. So basically I had decent dropable Velious gear, Fungi Tunic, Blood Ember Greaves, and a NToV weapon as the notable pieces.

As for other lofty gear options that might have improved my leveling speed, the main one's are Soul Defiler and Crown of Narandi for mana, Eyepatch of Plunder for DPS, and possibly epic for sustained life tapping, which may have opened up some face-tank camps.

The vast majority of my fighting was via fear kiting, except for the tar goos at 56, which I could easily face tank.

EDIT: An invigorate BP also probably would have been useful for face tanking.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Ding 60.

At 58, I did Hole elementals on the balcony in the castle, which was super fast. For 59, I mainly did the frontier giants and Velks. I also solo'd a bit in the hole--rats, elementals, fallen erudites, but there were issues with all those camps that made doing them for extended periods of time less than ideal.

The FM giants are around 3% and hour and mindless. Velks is a little better, but spicier. Head up to the fake wall and pull to there. You can fear kite a little, but be careful to keep your mob from going towards the dogs. Your spider will warp down there and aggro everything. The other option that I would be ideal for 59 is PoM, but getting there is kind of a pita, and I was too lazy to try to find a COTH or a DA.

I didn't get any new gear acquisitions since last time. So basically I had decent dropable Velious gear, Fungi Tunic, Blood Ember Greaves, and a NToV weapon as the notable pieces.

As for other lofty gear options that might have improved my leveling speed, the main one's are Soul Defiler and Crown of Narandi for mana, Eyepatch of Plunder for DPS, and possibly epic for sustained life tapping, which may have opened up some face-tank camps.

The vast majority of my fighting was via fear kiting, except for the tar goos at 56, which I could easily face tank.

EDIT: An invigorate BP also probably would have been useful for face tanking.

Thanks for the update, and for sharing where you went! Yes, having an invigorate BP is very helpful, I use a Thurg BP on my SK for that purpose. It heals 2x faster than Fungi, which makes it very nice for quick recovery.

[Keebz]

I kinda forgot about it because I mainly fear kited, but it may have made a few camps where fear kiting was sketchy more tolerable. Namely, fallen erudites, ratmen and to a lesser extent Velk's spiders.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Procs per minute are capped, making the DEX soft cap about 144.

Not sure who told you that you needed more than that.

Maybe we should blame them instead of you?

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about.

Not sure where you are getting that information.

https://wiki.project1999.com/Weapon_Procs

This says 170 is the sweet spot, but you are still getting returns after 170, but at a 50% penalty. A slight increase in PPM is still better than Max HP when you are never close to death, which is the normal case for any skilled player or decent group comp.