SK Race Choice

[greatdane]

Iksar is mostly fine in Velious since the Velious armors don't have race restrictions. You do miss out on some useful clickies from Blood Ember pieces, but it isn't something you can't live without. For dungeon crawling in particular, you won't be doing a whole lot of fear-kiting, so lacking access to the free darkness and fear clickies doesn't matter that much. They're definitely good when soloing outdoors, but there are very few places in dungeons where fear-kiting is feasible, so if dungeon crawling is what you have in mind, it's no biggie. The legs are great for pulling but not a significant mana saver, it's more of a plan B for when FD fails or you need to do it repeatedly. You don't generally FD so often that being able to do it for free will have a meaningful impact on your mana sustain. The breastplate clicky is just a nice buff.

The bigger concern is stats. I get the impression that you're not a hardcore high-end raider, and this means that you definitely won't have maxed strength/stamina unbuffed on an iksar. I'd say this matters more than the AC and regen that lizards get. An ogre has 52 more stamina and 60 more strength than an iksar. That has a pretty significant impact on solo performance. The FSI is quite handy as well, though not as much as it was before the changes to bash. If you're keen on regen, trolls have 39 more stamina and 38 more strength than an iksar, which is also quite a bit. That's more stats than an entire set of Velious quest armor gives, even the Skyshrine one.

Personally, I think intelligence is irrelevant unless you're trying to truly push the limits of what an SK can solo and are actually spending an entire mana pool in one fight. For any ordinary kind of soloing, it almost never matters how big your mana pool is because you're either never at full mana or you never spend it all in one go. It's like getting a 10% bigger gas tank for your car when you never drive more than ten miles in a day. The only time the size of your gas tank ever matters is if you need to drive as far as you possibly can without ever stopping to refill. I can't even think of anything an SK can do solo where that would be relevant, it's not like you're gonna be soloing cliff golems and shit. The hardest thing I've ever heard of an SK soloing is one of the WW dragons, and in the video the guy posted of it, he didn't even spend all his mana. And that was a troll. Besides, the difference in mana pool between the dumbest race and the smartest is the equivalent of like one or two lifetaps, so it's not like it has any serious impact on what you'll be able to do. People who say it's important are just trying to sound like they know more than everyone else.

[Crede]

Lack of BE clickies is significant. You’re saving at minimum 120 mana a split. I fear kited like crazy in dungeons. Slam goes a long way in addition to short term fear in close quarters. DSM has provided multiple videos of zones like hs and seb where you can fear kite.

Go troll with all into INT for a solo crawler. If you’re gonna go BIS, then maybe erudite/DE for best mana pool but by the sounds of it troll is the winner for you.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Lack of BE clickies is significant. You’re saving at minimum 120 mana a split. I fear kited like crazy in dungeons. Slam goes a long way in addition to short term fear in close quarters. DSM has provided multiple videos of zones like hs and seb where you can fear kite.

Go troll with all into INT for a solo crawler. If you’re gonna go BIS, then maybe erudite/DE for best mana pool but by the sounds of it troll is the winner for you.

Agreed. People underestimate Gloves/Pants for pulling. Saving 120 mana is no joke when you are trying to minimize meditation times. You're saving 6 minutes of med time every 10 splits.

For those curious, here are the videos Crede is referring to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUYKBvYpPyM - Seb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmDvk3udrhI - HS

The trick to fear kiting in dungeons is learning spawn locations and pathing tendencies for fleeing mobs. You need to find areas with enough runway for your lowest level fear, and find the point at which they will reliably run in the direction that you want. As Crede said, Bash/Slam help with shortening the runway because the mob will stop moving for a second or two when stunned.

Having slam also improves your fear kiting (which is another plus for trolls), because 2h weapons are better for chasing fleeing mobs. You have less chance of missing a swing compared to 1h weapons due to not following the mob correctly at all times (being out of auto attack range).

[Keebz]

If you're interested in soloing at 60, go watch a real SK solo vid by Keerarae and note how many times they click BE items. That should give you an idea of how make or break they are.

[Crede]

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

If you're interested in soloing at 60, go watch a real SK solo vid by Keerarae and note how many times they click BE items. That should give you an idea of how make or break they are.

Not sure what you’re getting at here but I’ve talked to keer. He uses his be greaves all the time. Says it’s particularly helpful to time Vs casters and also said they’re usually permanently equipped. You can see him use it in the brogg video.

Not saying iksars aren’t capable of doing solo stuff but you’re just giving yourself a big mana handicap for no reason on a class that already struggles with mana and health. Troll just makes so much more sense unless you’re gearing for bis, then I’d probably go erudite for the best mana pool as sta will be capped eventually but even then regen is huge on a class that can’t heal for shit.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Not sure what you’re getting at here but I’ve talked to keer. He uses his be greaves all the time. Says it’s particularly helpful to time Vs casters and also said they’re usually permanently equipped. You can see him use it in the brogg video.

Not saying iksars aren’t capable of doing solo stuff but you’re just giving yourself a big mana handicap for no reason on a class that already struggles with mana and health. Troll just makes so much more sense unless you’re gearing for bis, then I’d probably go erudite for the best mana pool as sta will be capped eventually but even then regen is huge on a class that can’t heal for shit.

I can second that about the greaves and casters. Sometimes you are splitting multiple clasters, and need to FD multiple times due to them starting to cast offensive spells when you fall down. Any offensive spell that hits you will break FD. Greaves make it easier for you to stand up and start FDing again while the mob finishes their cast.

I also have mine permanentally equipped. The extra stats from a better piece are not going to help you as much as the clickie.

[Pint]

Too much napkin math itt and still talking around this OPs questions. End game sk iksar solid choice, not worse then other races for crawling, arguably better. BE clickies will not save you significant mana bc you probably aren't fear kiting frogloks at the end game.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Too much napkin math itt and still talking around this OPs questions. End game sk iksar solid choice, not worse then other races for crawling, arguably better. BE clickies will not save you significant mana bc you probably aren't fear kiting frogloks at the end game.

You could submit some videos of you face tanking stuff with your Paladin so we can get more parses. Right now the evidence is against you. Simply calling things "napkin math" that go against your argument is not a proper argument, especially when you don't have any evidence.

Blood Ember > Iksar AC Bonus for crawling. Troll is going to be better than an Iksar. You can indeed fear kite in Sebilis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUYKBvYpPyM

Nobody has said Iksars can't crawl. OP specifically asked if armor clickies are a good source of mana saving, and the answer is yes. Any SK race can crawl, some will simply be slower than others.

[Ennewi]

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

Too much napkin math itt and still talking around this OPs questions. End game sk iksar solid choice, not worse then other races for crawling, arguably better. BE clickies will not save you significant mana bc you probably aren't fear kiting frogloks at the end game.

From another thread but more detailed than the original post...

https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...61#post3617161

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

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have a question I was hoping to have answered. I don't mean to defile OP's post with a change of topic, but the information and discussion in this thread seem quite good.
I am returning to p99 after quite the break (never raided). The only two classes I am considering are SK or Pally - I am almost exclusively a solo player - I may get into casual raiding to finish epics etc but nothing super hardcore.
Not targeting specific solo artist kills but what class do you think solo crawls dungeons better (including some lesser names), think Seb, HS, Chardok etc.

So their end-game goal is not full bis, but the lower hanging fruit.

[Pint]

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

From another thread but more detailed than the original post...

https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...61#post3617161



So their end-game goal is not full bis, but the lower hanging fruit.

Then I submit, he definitely wants to crutch on the clicks.