Is Dark Elf a good race for SKs?

[Tarathiel]

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

What is your reason for casting Engulfing Darkness, ever?

fear kiting? um snare in dungeons? pretty much anything... considering its the best one available to an sk until dooming darkness at 49 i would think an sk would have plenty of reasons to use it. my sk does

[Taffan]

Gnome SK, obv.

[Slave]

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

fear kiting? um snare in dungeons? pretty much anything... considering its the best one available to an sk until dooming darkness at 49 i would think an sk would have plenty of reasons to use it. my sk does

Why? Clinging Darkness does the same thing for 1/3rd the mana.

[Tarathiel]

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

Why? Clinging Darkness does the same thing for 1/3rd the mana.

true, and in dungeons thats probably all you need, but when soloing or fear kiting, you will want the better snare, clinging barely slows mobs down at all before they are low health

[Slave]

Who is soloing and/or fear kiting at level 15 without decent gear? That's their problem, then. lol

[Tarathiel]

the op suggest's that twink gear isnt a problem so i wouldnt see why not, engulfing darkness isnt untill lvl 22 tho, thats when i started fear kiting/soloing on my sk. up till then i was in oasis mostly those croc's are easy even for non-twinks to fear kite

[stormlord]

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

between feign death and circlet of shadow i really dont see how this is all that great.

as for ogre vs DE, DE look way cooler and the str/sta difference can be made up with with gear, but yes stun immunity on a tank is pretty vital...

Circlet of shadow allows the SK to cast Gather Shadows (lvl 30 spell) with a 0.1 casting time. This is different from the spell because the spell has a 5 second cast time. They nerfed the Circlet of Shadows (rightly) in late Velious so that the casting time was higher. If this had been the case early on, Hide (the ability) would have had more value at least until lvl 35 since it has a instant "cast time," assuming it's successful. At level 35, all shadowknights are granted access to the hide skill, though. One thing about Hide that's nice is that it has no duration limit, unlike Gather Shadows which will fade after 20 minutes.

Worth mentioning that the cap for Hide is 75 at level 35 for all SK's. The cap for DE's is 50.

Is the Ultravision DE's have worth anything?

Of course they gave a 15% exp penalty to ogres. There's a SK exp penalty too. The wiki says that Ogre SK's have a 61% penalty and DE SK's have a 40% penalty. Not sure how 15% becomes 21%. If -61% exp translates every 100 exp to 39 then this means that DE SK's will get 53.8% more (raw) experience per kill. If the actual penalty for Ogre SK's is -55% (as I would be led to believe) then if every 100 exp is translated to 45 then this means that DE SK's will get 33.3% more (raw) experience per kill (60/45 = 1.333~).

Is a -40% exp penalty equal to 60 exp out of every 100, or 71.4285?

I'd say that if you want to have a viable invisibility before level 30 and you don't have the money (1000-2000p) for Circlet of Shadows then DE is nice. If you can't wait until level 35 to have hide (for its unlimited duration) then DE gives you it. But other than asthetic and exp penalty, it's hard to pick the DE. In all honesty, the DE is a better choice for other classes. Each race tends to have its sweet spot this way.

I'm not positive, but it does seem that the race selection for classes is kind of wacky. The experience penalty is not a good mechanic for balancing, first off. The ideal method to balance is via skills and stats. Experience penalties are a lazy work ethic. Second, why not add more varied differences for fun? Honestly, there're not a lot of differences between the races; not to my liking. It just isn't as interesting. I realize that there needs to be some in-between so that people aren't stuck with their race choice(s). But just have a look at the damage an ogre does and the damage a halfling does. While the Ogre has quite a bit more strength initially, it really doesn't translate to vastly greater damage in combat. Similarly, the shorter size of hte halfling should grant them much greater evasion in combat and sneaking aside, but you barely notice any difference in-game. Big differences might chase players away, but who knows? Developers are so shy about this. I think the predominant reason is that the financiers of the whole project don't want to take any risks; $$$. Thus, we come to the end of the road and we realize that third parties must get involved to innovate the genre.

[ArumTP]

No, they have nothing good going for them for melee stats. Dark elves make fine casters, but are terrible for melee classes. If you want a "small" option, go human.

[stormlord]

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

No, they have nothing good going for them for melee stats. Dark elves make fine casters, but are terrible for melee classes. If you want a "small" option, go human.

Good point.

Each race has a different class selection available to it. I think that they tried to give the races a wide selection, but they shot themselves in the foot by overstretching and being unable to compensate.

Having said that, don't underestimate the power of the "little things" when a player is making a choice to choose a race/class combination. I myself have picked solely on aesthetic before. To give an example, I think that the halfling is a better ranger than a half elf, but I like how half elves are more.

[Kender]

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

Good point.

Each race has a different class selection available to it. I think that they tried to give the races a wide selection, but they shot themselves in the foot by overstretching and being unable to compensate.

Having said that, don't underestimate the power of the "little things" when a player is making a choice to choose a race/class combination. I myself have picked solely on aesthetic before. To give an example, I think that the halfling is a better ranger than a half elf, but I like how half elves are more.

except halfling rangers were hunted to extinction. you wont fnd any more on this server.