Tank for my Cleric

M

Malavier

Dalayan Beginner
I'm returning to SoD after a a long absence. I have a 29 Cleric. My friend has a BL and Druid which are both 33. I was wondering what tank class would be the best for this group? I've played a war before and found them to be boring, maybe better at end game idk. I was thinking about a paladin, but alot of the buffs are going to be wasted. Which leads me to playing a Sk.
If I play a SK, which race? I really like the exp bonus of the human and the starting area is great. Does the exp bonus really make that much of a difference? I do have a L10 barb shaman that I can duo with the sk to get him to 30.

Thanks for the help
 
paladin is the best group tank at all levels, the exp bonus on humans means nothing and is not worth being blind. Be whatever race you want but the best races for shadowknight are iksar/erudite and then gnome maybe
 
I played a paladin/cleric with pretty good success. With that group it won't matter what tank you choose, thoguh the SK has the benefit of FD for splitting pulls (though with DS and 2 healers, the paladin can AE tank).

You'll want some DS in the form of potions or a buff before heading out though if you intend to duo. If you fight undead that duo is pretty good actually. Cleric with Yaulp and summoned hammer puts out decent melee damage as far as healers go and their undead nukes are pretty sweet.

I have a 55 dwarf warrior, 65 human paladin, 57 human SK. I preferred the paladin myself, but really any of the tanks will compliment your current group setup nicely.
 
Thanks for the feedback! Is Charisma really that important for the Paladin & SK?
Also, is having a low starting str like High elf, erud, gnome a big set back? Would really like to get to get this group to the high end game.
 
Cha is pretty important for paladins, but not as much for SK's, speaking high end of course. If you roll a pally i'd really recomend going erudite, and if you roll a SK i'd reallllllly recomend going iksar.

That said, i'd highly recomend going SK over pally if you plan to Duo a lot, but pally over SK if you plan to group all the time instead.
 
Low starting physical stats shouldn't be too bad as you have a BL and druid for stat buffs. You'll notice the biggest issues when starting out with a low strength/stamina race though. As you level up the hp disparity becomes pretty big. There's also the issue of stamina draining stances running out quicker when you have 90 stamina on a tank. You can overcome that with gear and buffs, but it's something to consider if you don't have a bunch of plat to sink into gear.

I wouldn't get comfortable to the non-stat racial bonuses and penalties in the long run. I've heard that they may be rebalancing them.
 
Magina said:
Cha is pretty important for paladins, but not as much for SK's, speaking high end of course. If you roll a pally i'd really recomend going erudite, and if you roll a SK i'd reallllllly recomend going iksar.
Click to expand...

?Why Erudite as pally over halfling, human or High elf? The High elf has a higher cha & wis. the others have better str and stam. Human seems to have the best all around stats. I like the dwarf paladin but that really low cha kinda turns me off, but I could dump alot of starting points into cha.
Also, If I play an Iksar Sk, am I limited on what armor I can use like in Live?
I Just dont want to invest the time to get to a high level only to find out that I screwed myself over on the race.
Thanks for all of the info. Still trying to learn all of the differences from live to SoD.
 
Last edited:
Iksars arn't limited in their armor selection. They do take a little more xp to level, but it's well worth it if you're thinking end game for the AC bonus.

For paladins, I say erudite because of the spec bonus. It's a close call, but if you're thinking end game I think it's the best way to go, as stats can be capped end game pretty easily. Also, if you're thinking end game i'd toss your starting stats into CHA; it will make it slightly harder while leveling, but CHA is a bitch to max as a pally.
 
If you don't mind being busy switching up targets and clicking aggro non stop, then an SK can AE tank ... it just takes a ton of work and some corporation from the rest of the group to give you a few seconds to get aggro before they go in and dps. That said, Paladin is a far better AE tank. So if you don't want to put as much effort into tanking in groups, Pally is the way to go. Raid situations, SK's are great for single target aggro and allows the raid to dps more heavily than a warrior or Paladin, however.. not gonna be easy to get any tank into main tanking for a guild.

As for stats, I'd maybe go agility/dex just because in the long run Str/Stamina seem to get maxed first anyway. Charisma is well.. not that big of a deal for an SK. Your aggro spells are unresistable. Most other spells have a negative resistance modifier.. it's nice to have for some spells I guess but for the most part things seem to land find for me.

Anyway, I love my SK, a ton of fun. I think if you go that route you won't be disappointed.

Kak
 
For best exp gain with your setup I would go for a paladin tank, for best ability to kill named-mobs for loot I'd go with the shadowknight tank. It is quite possible to ae tank as a sk, but you are much more limited in doing so than on a paladin, and it requires a lot less fuckups from your group. Basically on the sk tanking 1-5 mobs if youre prepared for the mobs in advance isnt a problem. The problems arise when a groupmember assists on the wrong mob, and overagro's. because if you tank 5 mobs, lose agro to a caster on one mob, taking that agro back without losing agro on the mob that that guy was supposed to be assisting on and which the rest of the group are building agro on is a bitch. With a paladin tank, whoever got agro can just run to you and do stuff to lower agro while your ae spells regains agro, this without forcing you to move, slightly losing agro on all other mobs, or switch targets losing agro on the mob the rest of the group is focusing on.

Also in situations where you suddenly get 4 surprise adds, the paladin is superior in quickly controlling them (one or two adds isnt a big issue, but the more the worse the situation becomes). In groups, simply put, the paladin can hold a much safer and better control over a larger amount of mobs, spending a lot less effort. This means more exp, with less work.

For duoing, if you know the place youre at, you can easily tank 15-40 mobs on the sk and keep agro on them if you know what youre doing and play agro safely on your box. In this scenario you also have the advantage of a higher dmg shield than the paladin can get, ie higher free dmg (if the mobs arent undead in which case the pally wins again, if he has a decent enough manapool atleast).

Ohh, most of what's been said by me above and by previous posters, mainly goes for lvl 65's. Pre-60 the sk is a lot more fun and resourceful than the paladin for your groupsetup, in the long run the paladin would be the easiest choice to get good exp with.

When it comes to charisma, its definitely the way to go on the paladin. On the Sk, it isnt at all as important. However, dont make the mistake of thinking it completely unimportant. I put some points into charisma on my sk and consequently my charisma is decent for my tier. Ive heard other sk's having problems landing lifetaps, debuffs and dd's where I have no issues at all, so the charisma does matter, just not as much as it would for the paladin. You might also want to consider putting points in agility though. It's quite important for your tanking and a lot harder to come by than stamina. It will take a LONG time in gear, before youre done overcapped in agility on either paladin or sk.
 
Glamrin said:
For duoing, if you know the place youre at, you can easily tank 15-40 mobs on the sk and keep agro on them if you know what youre doing and play agro safely on your box.
Click to expand...

Good post with good information.

But I kinda LoL'd a little bit thinking about some dudes new to the game, who will be in tmap - TS gear at best for a bit, trying to tank 15-40 mobs!
 
Renshu said:
Good post with good information.

But I kinda LoL'd a little bit thinking about some dudes new to the game, who will be in tmap - TS gear at best for a bit, trying to tank 15-40 mobs!
Click to expand...

uhm yeah... unless farming greens for pp / queststuff I suppose 4-5 mobs max isnt a big issue at those stages.
 
Thanks everyone for all of the Excellent info!!
I have decided to play a paladin. What are some good recommendations for race and how to allocate the stats points? I'm keeping in mind that charisma is more important than in live, but balancing that that fact with having a good str & stam.

Also, What is it that makes Paladins such great AoE tanks? I saw some spells that are pt blank AoE, but there are some pt blank AoE spells for sk too.

Any additional info would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Paladins now somewhere in the 30's get a PBAoE blind, but in the 60's get Wave of Light and Word of the Crusader - which are pbaoe blind/stun in that order. For undead mobs, you also get Sanctify at 61, and Consecrate at 65 (which hits up to 18 mobs unlike the other 3) making you by far the best AoE tank.

As per starting stats, i'd roll ALL cha. It is VERY important here in terms of having yoru spells land, and in the raid game you're going to max str/sta/agi/dex long before you max cha. I continue my recomendation of erudites.

Something you're going to want to look into are the Adepts on this server (check the SoD wiki for a list) as they have some nice drops while you're leveling up. Also, Treasure Maps yield some decent loot trough the levels as well.

Incase you don't know, your main aggro spells are your blinds and stuns, which start as single target - and you can patch yourself with low mana cost self heals.
 
shadowknights only get two pbae's one strength debuff at 30, and one pbae dd at lvl 49. This one does 103 base dmg (past lvl 32 when sk's get it). Neither of the spells generate a lot of agro, the debuff generates most but it is quite insignificant, especially when you get to lvl 65.

The pbae blind's and stun's that paladins get builds a lot more agro, the undead pbae as previously mentioned hits up to 18 targets and it has a base dmg for 1875 (which ends up as more dmg than pretty much any other class in the game can generate when adding effect from aa's, gear and tomes... its huge).
 
Last edited:
Consecrate is a fun spell and great on ground floor of High Keep

Nowhere near as useful on top floor and in Catacombs on tougher mobs especially as it has a relatively long recast time and uses a goodly chunk of mana.

Personally, I would put as many points as you possibly can into charisma, it's trivial to get strength, stamina, agility up but charisma is a bitch.
 
Last edited:
Glamrin said:
shadowknights only get two pbae's one strength debuff at 30, and one pbae dd at lvl 49. This one does 103 base dmg (past lvl 32 when sk's get it). Neither of the spells generate a lot of agro, the debuff generates most but it is quite insignificant, especially when you get to lvl 65.

The pbae blind's and stun's that paladins get builds a lot more agro, the undead pbae as previously mentioned hits up to 18 targets and it has a base dmg for 1875 (which ends up as more dmg than pretty much any other class in the game can generate when adding effect from aa's, gear and tomes... its huge).
Click to expand...

Consecrate has no limit on targets fun fact.
 
maybe ur shit's weak?

srsly tho, I've noticed my rog PBAE seems to not hit all the mobs it should, dunno if there really is a limit, or if it's a server lag vs mob position thing or what...usually when i'm hitting a LOT of mobs it's every single living mob in fearstone, and i give them plenty of time to catch up....then it's gnoll dominoes and happy thoughts
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom