EQ2 - Kunark Instances (Shadowknight as MT)

[shizzlemanizzle]

Hey Guys

Quick question:

Currently I have a 79 SK, Rillissian Armor and Legendary Jewellery and all Ad3 CA's.

I tried Karnor Castle the other day with this group:

76 Warden / 72 Wizzie / 72 Warlock

Basically my SK went down quickly from one of those linked mobs at the start and I was wondering..how would KC be possible..do I need stronger AA Build / Better Armor or should i just roll a Guardian?

I have a 72 Dirge I am betraying to Troubador on another account and a Illusionist I am power levelling at the moment...so hopefully they may help my existence in Karnors..i hope.

I Do love my SK...but will roll a Guardian should that be the only option :*(

[Frosty]

I don't have info, but I'm interested in an answer too.
I just rolled a new team of 6 with a Shadowknight for the MT and am having a blast with it.

[Noxxy]

Sk's are an incredible powerful class - you will miss the DPS greatly if you roll a guardian

On your first trip to Karnors - you will be 'greeted' by the two linked mobs at the other end of the bridge - Karnors is your first taste of high level mobs being linked - as opposed to what you are used to with single pulls

Therefore, you have two options:

Fight
Run for your life

Strategy 0ne - fight - you must prepare;
- all target the dbl^ - your priority is to burn it down fast
- pre-hot / ward the tank
- get the warden to toss a tree on inc
- at no time can the sk afford to lose aggro as you have 2 x cloth and 1 x leather which = ultra squishy team mates - therefore, throw an aoe to get their attn at the start and during the fight
- burn fast and stack the HoTs

If that doesn't work 1/ - the wizard has a single target mez - it stifles / mezs the wiz but at least that's an option - make sure the wiz targets the triple^ - after you finish the dbl^ - PAUSE - the wizard has the full attn of the triple^ - throw an intercept and a few taunts THEN hit the triple^ to break mez

If that doesn't work 2/ - the tank needs better ac - I recommend doing all the KP, Fens and JW quests you can - lot of good stuff - maximise your +def / sta and agi - a good shield which you can buy off the ah is the royal argent ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Royal_Argent_Aegis') - nice STA and AGI - drop a splint ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Smoldering_Reinforced_Splint') on it - it is level 80 though - shield + adorns will probably cost you about 8pp (2pp+6pp) - there are way better choices once your 80 and farming shards but that's a nice shield to start

Once you have gotten into karnors - I recommend camping 'A Drolvarg Watchman' - there is only one is the entire place - bout 50 min respawn timer - he drops the bloodied chitin AC - your sk will enjoy the helm ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Bloodied_Chitin_Helm'). The bloodied chitin boots ('http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Bloodied_Chitin_Boots')drop off Xalgoz but it will take a while to get to his level of combat (scripted) - both can be bought off the ah - boots are a rare drop so good luck with that one

Strategy two - run
Doesn't sound 'glorius' - but it is a common strategy in the karnors entrance

Ok - looking straight ahead - you have the two links at the end of the bridge - you have another 2? on either side - 2 on the little tier things and possibly 1-2 roamers - past those you have another 2 x singles on either side of the next bridge (end)

You need to ask yourself several questions:

Does the tank have enough AC to sustain the attn of possibly 6 mobs (dbl^ & trip^) for approx. 20-25sec?
Can your team run fast enough?
Do you have enough pre-wards / HoTs to sustain you for the 20-25s? You will not be casting while running
Most importantly, can your warden take a few hits? I ask as you will have spores on, plus the HoTs - the mobs will hit the SK once then straight onto the warden guaranteed

If you answer yes - put your team on /follow - arrange them as best you can to be running down the centre of the bridge - pre-ward / HoT - don't think, run - STAY IN THE CENTRE of the bridge - the CENTRE of the floor area past the bridge - climb the CENTRE stairs - then HUG THE LEFT OF THE SECOND BRIDGE - DO NOT GO CENTRE OR RIGHT - LEFT LEFT LEFT

It really is important you hug left - at the end of the second bridge are the 2 x singles - if you go centre you pull both - if you go right - good luck with that as right has a lot of nice friendly mobs waiting - go left - drag the mob - then go at 45% to your current path (about 10/11 oc'lockish) to the far left corner past the rhinos - the rhinos are non-aggro - by this time all the mobs have left to go back to where they came from EXCEPT the last mob you past - tank and spank in corner

Now - tbth - when you have the AC - karnors is honestly a cakewalk - but - I can totally understand that given your levels and ac, that karnors is a nightmare at present - all I can say is persist - with each new piece of ac you'll start to do like the rest of us and say 'I remember when...blahblahblah'


I had a long winded spiel about group composition here but wiped it out - so will just put a few statements and you can make what you like of them:

SK(AOE), LOCK(AOE), Illi(CC)
1 healer for 5 chars

[Frosty]

Awesome info as always Noxxy!

I added it to the wiki under a new section, hope you don't mind!

[shizzlemanizzle]

Marvelous! Thanks Noxxy! That helps a great deal and eases my concerns!

I have a 77 Bruiser…which I decided to take into Karnors JUST to see how he would fair….

Amazing! He absolutely owns….at that level they barely touch him and when they do, it is no trouble to whack a heal from the Warden…whereas with my SK, I was like a Rat on Speed spamming everything just to keep above 50%!

Unfortunately the DPS was lacking since I had my Bruiser in Defensive stance. But I imagine once I get my Wizard and Warlock to 76+ the DPS will greatly increase. Also have a 54 Illusionist at the moment which I will bring to T8 so I be this will get much easier!

I do have a 72 Dirge I was betraying to Troubador which is on same account as the Illusionist – but I think the group will fare better from an illusionist..especially with these linked mobs!

Thanks for the information, for now I will retire the SK and use the Bruiser for my plans of being RICH! To date I still have not looted a T8 Master /cry

That ‘run’ part of your information will help heaps though!! I always wondered why I saw these people scooting past me like that lol.

[Noxxy]

In regards to T8 masters in karnors - just cast a lazy eye over the named mobs in lootdb ('http://www.lootdb.com/eq2/zone/Karnor%27s+Castle')- if you are a member [free], the site gives out percentages - a rough idea of the drops is around 70% for the set legendary items ('bout 4 per name - steel chest) and about 4ish% for the lvl 71-75ish masters (exquisite chest) - good thing about the exquisite chests is that they appear to be 'guaranteed' masters as I can't see any fabled items listed for karnors at all - remaining percentag is trash loot in the old wooden boxes

So given the percentages for master drops - it is definately worth 'speed' grinding the names to basically increase your chances of walking out of there with a master in your hot hands - the bruiser definately sounds like a winner with that in mind

There actually are two racetracks in karnors which I tend to use if I go there - I'll draw a picture or something and tack it on the end of this thread for you - definately not the 'only' way to do karnors, but I seem to find it fast enough

The 'running' trick would work very well with the bruiser and feign - might even get out of killing the end mob in the rhino corner too making it a little faster to get inside

SKs are well know as the better DPS tanks - but they probably, imho, are the least likely to sustain multi-mob damage of all the heavy [plate] tanks - hence why I hinted towards getting a 2nd healer to keep the sk upright (e.g., defiler's ward allowing your wardens HoTs to do their job topping up the SK, etc)

[Frosty]

SKs are well know as the better DPS tanks - but they probably, imho, are the least likely to sustain multi-mob damage of all the heavy [plate] tanks - hence why I hinted towards getting a 2nd healer to keep the sk upright (e.g., defiler's ward allowing your wardens HoTs to do their job topping up the SK, etc) Ugh, I was hoping the SK's would be like the AoE Paladin tanks in WoW. I guess I'll swap back to the Guardian for tanking then. :S
I haven't had any problems yet with things getting killed so quickly, but only have him at 17, so I know that won't be a good bench-test for what he can do later.
I really liked my SK though so far.

[Noxxy]

Honestly - if you like the SK - stick with it - it's just I noticed both yourself and Shizzle thinking about going from an SK to a guard - imho, they are on the total opposite ends of the spectrum - and if you've done 70-odd levels on one end (dps) you may be disappointed if you swap to the other end (survivability) - you have to remem too, you're both probably in starter end-game AC, non-class weapon and with only the very rare master (prob the racial/trait only) so once that changes, SK tanking (in the end game) should become a lot easier

To further explain this, I place the tanks in the following ranking for DPS (if your interested, there is a post on flames on this topic and we both happen to rank the heavy tanks in the same order):
- sk, zerk, pally, guard

Survivability is the reverse of the above

This is the reason I made the comment to Shizzle re 'you'll miss the dps if you swap to a guard'

Sks shine in dps/aoe - but let's be honest now - an average AC'd SK with an average ADP'd healer - both only being around the mid 70s in level - will find it hard to survive in karnors given that the mobs are probably white/yellow/oj? - sure, the average pair will shine with green/blue cons but above that...and karnors is a brutal wakeup given that before this time you really don't need to worry about ac, etc.

[Noxxy]

Just as an additional comment to put it out there for you both - Both tanks 'survive' in different ways

- Guards survive by being able to take more hits as the fights last longer due to poorer DPS (wear the mob down slowly)

- SKs survive by putting out more DPS so the fights are shorter therefore they don't have to take as many hits (burn the mob down fast)

Totally different playstyles

[Frosty]

Thanks again Noxxy.

I'm not going for the best group makeup, as long as it can do "something" I don't have to be the best. :P

My current group is SK, Fury, Inquisitor, Necromancer, Troubador and Warlock...until I make more alts at least.

[Noxxy]

Hey tell me honestly Frosty - what's your thoughts on the necro?

I ask as I don't have a necro and was just wondering whether it is worth throwing one in for the look-see

Things I'd be looking at are cast times, utility to the rest of the group and nice to-have things it brings

I've always been of the opinion that necros are 'solo-chars' but that's only because of my many years in daoc

[Frosty]

I've always loved pet classes in EQ1, EQ2 and WoW, so I just "have" to have at least 1.
I started with a Summoner, but it was easier to do a Necro with this group. Keep in mind I'm still pretty low level.

I don't know how great the Necro is minus the pet, but I like that I can buff the pet with the rest of the group, and it can off tank (right now).
Or at least hold agro long enough to take something else out. It's free crowd control in a way.

Right now I'm killing things too fast to tell who's doing what. :P

I'd type more, but my kids are crawling all over me right now!

[Frosty]

I'm going to do a little more checking on this tonight.

But it looks like the SK and Warlock both beneift from the Necro + pet.

[Frosty]

I got my SK up to the same level as my guardian (sk has slightly better gear) was when he took on a heroic mob..and ouch.
I like the SK, but I don't think it's going to fit my playstyle. :S