Dread Knight Stats and You!

[XeroKill]

The issue with hate versus mitigation is that hate is finite, once you have agro you can't really get more of it. In EQ1 Shadow Knights and Paladins had agro coming out of their ears. A hybrid that was paying half attention was untouchable in the agro department. They lacked the HP and mitigation to do anything with that agro beyond group tanking and offtanking.

So if our agro tools in Vanguard are sufficient, then having more hate versus more mitigation becomes counter productive, especially in terms of stat allocation. The big difference between hate and mitigation is that you can ALWAYS use more mitigation, it never stops giving rewards. Hate on the other hand, well you can only have so much of it. If the mob is hitting you, then having more hate really isn't doing anything. If you are balancing on the line between the two, and losing agro a lot then I agree that more hate is more better, but if everything is as it should be, then mitigation should be the primary focus. Primarily because there are ways to generate hate that shouldn't require having to divert stats to fill the gap.

So if I had to choose between them I would have to look at how I am currently holding agro, and if I have any abilities coming up soon that can remedy a lack of agro. Just doing more damage may be self defeating if you have an ability that is 2 levels away that will make keeping agro easy.

Ultimately I will always choose mitigation, evasion, and HP over damage simply because there are always ways to get more agro without having to increase damage. At least from my experience. Any one that can remember the effectiveness of darkness, fear, and disease cloud when it came to agro in EQ1 will tell you what I mean. I am sure that in conjunction with our agro skills, and our other abilities that don't directly taunt the mobs we will be able to find some nice skills for keeping their attention. If I do need to use damage to make up for my lack of agro, I will be doing it through the INT stat because I understand there are far better returns on INT for our spells than there is for STR and our melee.

[Eclipse]

The only question for me is this:

What is better?

4% Dodge, 4% Parry, 10% *block*, % evasion, % crit

or

1 incoming hit's worth of HP + 14 Resists

Something tells me if there was one stat I would want to spend max on EVERY time...it would be Dex. But once I hit those 4/4/10 numbers...anything more would be wasted.

-Eclipse

[velzevul]

If I understand things right, INT also indirectly effects your avoidance, by letting you know what your opponent is doing. Perception is the new idea in this game ppls, dont forget about emphasizing it. Out of all tanks DK get the best return on INT/WIS stats, because we have most spell dmg out of all tanks, I dont see why someone would ignore those stats.

I plan on going max DEXT, max INT, bare minimum STR and rest into Wisdom. See how that pans out )))

[XeroKill]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't the whole perception / counter strike form of combat out of the design mold all together. As far as I understand right now, the only thing that you will gain from WIS/INT is not seeing ??? under your target's target and actually seeing the names of the spells they are casting. Seeing the target instead of ??? is nice, and knowing what spell is incoming is also nice, but there is little that you can do about it. Under the old system it would have been awesome, but they took that out and went with the typical cooldown auto-combat method of WOW and EQ2.

Are there plans to implement the old combat system in the future, that would make those stats worth more than seeing the target's target?

A nice update for the DEX stat is they un-hosed the crit %. It isn't as high as it was before the patch that screwed it up, but it can get above 5% again, so pumping DEX is a good idea still.

[Eclipse]

Yes, the 10% max block is still HUGE too.
Coupled with our Shield of Fear/Dark Bastion series...and epic/legend shields...that's 50%+ chance to block at lvl 50. (although I think it works differently, so it would come down to about 41 or 42%)

-Eclipse

[TeamSKKeris]

Ok after some testing:

DEX = most important tanking ability. Not only does it improve crit chance (which improves taunting ability), but improves tactics recognition and avoidance abilities.

STR = important, but maybe not so much. It seemed that while having a higher strength did raid some melee damage that overall it was not as significant as I expected. However, since mostly we are melee damaged base I would rate this as the #2 stat.

INT = important. Raising this raises combat recognition and spell damage. Someone pointed out that increasing INT raises Harrow damage (?). If it does then it is a very important solo/duo/raid skill. I was having Harrow crit for 1300 pt heals last night and doing 800 dmg standard. I know it was increasing my Word damage almost two fold.

WIS = semi-important. Raises energy (mana) and spell crit percentages. Also has an effect on combat recognition. Taunts, abilities that raise DC, Word spells, and life taps are based off of energy.

CON = semi-important. Raises hitpoints and resists. At this time I am not sure the raise is significant enough to apply tons of points into it.

VIT = least-important. Raises in combat energy and hitpoint regeneration and slightly raises runspeed. Supposedly improves healing ability but I am not sure if that means you get healed for higher or just helps the healing classes with their heals. I wouldn't put a lot of points here, but some for the energy regen. Devour Strength gives a good bit.

[Pacc]

With the key stats for a DK in mind I am between a few different races. I'll eventually raid so my stats are probably even more important. Since I'm sorta stuck between a few races I'm just curious what ppl feel is the best DK race. Grouping..raiding..tanking..soloing which ever you plan to do. Just curious what your opinion is and why.

[TeamSKKeris]

I am going Human personally. I do not think you get as much flexibility out of the other races for DRK as human. DRK has one primary stat (DEX), two secondary (STR/INT), and a tertiary (WIS) that all require some love.

Maybe Vulmane.

[Eclipse]

TeamSK

Wisdom does not raise spell damage for any of our spells, or anyone else's. It raises our mana pool, crit% for spells, and then obviously perception.

Intellect raises the same perception, but raises our spell damage by at LEAST +2dmg / pt of INT.

Doom Words get +3dmg/pt of INT

All of our base taunting abilities and every ability that adds hate is increased by INT.

Provoke goes up 1 point of hate for every 2 Int. Every ability that has hate as a factor goes up by 1 pt for every 1-2 pts of Int.

I will never put any points into Wisdom. It will never be enough to greatly enhance my spell crit, and I seriously don't need more energy.

*shrug* that's just my opinion though, in no way should that be c/p by every other DK. CON will be raised by my race inherently, and I will never pop an extra point into it.

For levels 10-40, I will be putting 4 into Dex, 4 into Str and 2 into Int. After that, depending on whether strength tapers off or not...I may change it to: 4,3,3.

If anyone were to ask me for advice, it would be this - with a disclaimer that every DK should play what is most comfortable for them.

It is very viable to choose Vit instead of Int, because it would increase the effects of Lifetaps, and give insane HP regen. It's just not my style.

Pacc - Human, Orc and Lesser Giant (in my opinion only) are the front-runners. I am Orc, and I would never go back.

-Eclipse

[TeamSKKeris]

Never said wisdom raised spell damage. Wisdom as of tonight became a MUCH bigger factor for us as they nerfed the **** out of our mana pool. I was OOM after casting Torture and like 1-2 other things.