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 - nice STA and AGI - drop a 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. The bloodied chitin bootsdrop 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- 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.