Nah, i love my SK, im playing him as an alt right now with given gear, prophet still my main right now. Just trying to make him more of a DD than a tank right now without killing his solo abilities, which is why i am using him. I am using FP and an SLS which is loaned to me for now so i am pretty much looking for bgrade and up and tattoos.
I did Plated Leather, +8 SLS Focus and +5 Str -5 Con until I got to B-Grade, then swapped to +5 Damascus Focus and BW Heavy... (58 SE as buffer all the time)
Had some fun as Raid-Tank with -9 Str +4 Dex +5 Con and Doom Heavy (sux soloing this way, really) and am now with +4 Str -4 Con in NM Heavy Set with a +5 DLE Health, but am mostly using a +3 Tallum Glaive with Wide Blow for XPing (Solo with OOP-SE and little AoE-Party with WL + SE + PP)...
I came across this post while trying searcg for tattoo suggestions for my SK. I see couple here suggestion +str -con. Doesnt that hurt a SK considering our con bites to begin with? HPs Im not as much worried about with the ability to siphon life and all... but being making myself even more of a stun magnet kinda worries me...
Mob stun lands alot anyways, regardless of con. All you got to do is find hunting grounds without stunners. I never successfully hunted stunners with my high con Warlord, and I dont plan on hunting stunners with my lower con TH. There are plenty of spots where that DD build on a SK works perfectly well.
Does this hold true when comes to PvP? My fear is people gonna say "oh look a low con DE <STUN>" If this gonna happen no matter what my con is, will relieve some worry :)
If that is the case, should all my tats revolve around just upping my str or a mix? Id love to hear how some the experienced SKs chose to go with thier 3 tats.
BTW, incase never said it.. thanx bunches from all ya that take time to hand down knowledge to us jr. players. Lot time ingame I feel ignored cause my level (though can understand moment a hi level hears one us ask for help or info they expect it to lead to ~ adena plz;) its nice to come here and find people always willing to help out with thier knowledge :) :)
Well, you need to level before you can PvP. You can always change your build around later - but remember, a stun spent on a tank is a stun not spent on the healers or DDs, meaning that you're doing your job and soaking damage.
carry bsps for drains. not a lot of SKs do this, but it helps you solo a lot better. +int/-wit may also help, without taking from your m def/mp regen. -8 CON shouldnt concern you much if you fight x1 mobs and have a focus weapon.
+INT/-WIT is lossy business for an SK - let me pull up some numbers.
All of the following use an SLS+3, at level 48:
INT 25, WIT 12 (no tats): Cast speed: 226, MAtk: 133
INT 29, WIT 10* (+INT/-WIT): Cast speed: 193 (-15%), MAtk: 155 (+17% MAtk)
INT 21, WIT 16 (+WIT/-INT): Cast speed: 273 (+21%), MAtk: 113 (-15% MAtk)
This looks like an even trade, until you realise its implications in terms of damage. On an imaginary target with say, 250 MDef, using the damaging leech, the damage without shots would be:
No tats: 257
INT tat: 276 (+7% damage, -15% cast speed)
WIT tat: 236 (-8% damage, +21% cast speed)
Personally, I'll be carrying a SoWD Magic Power when my SK hits 40 as a secondary weapon for PvE, to hex and leech - the SA is a godsent to any fighter trying to do damage with dark magic. With -INT/+WIT, the leech from the SoWD would do 333 (+30% over SLS with no tats) damage for a measly 15% extra MP. :)
And of course, SoWD looks pretty darn kick-[censored], too. :)
* The actual modifier for 8 WIT isn't listed on L2p, so this number may be a whee bit off.
Yay, I got -9 Con atm...
Mostly doing some poleing in catacombs or giants cave.
I have let a Kranrot there (the stunning bears) try to stun me 100 times in a row (having a healer helps big times ;) ) with +4 Con and Doom Heavy Armor (+7 Con total).
Result was I got stunned 64 times, then I switched to -9 Con and Tallum Heavy (-11 Con total, -18 compared to before) and was stunned 59 times, without any tats or +Con (Avadon Heavy) I was stunned 71 times.
So it's basically all about luck.
The one point why you should avoid stunning mobs (when you solo) is that they sometimes can hold you in a kind of "stun lock" that can easily kill you or use up a lot of GHP (I used about 7 GHP on 1 Kranrot because my SE crashed).
Don't touch Int or Wit. I wouldn't recommend it until you get a really good overenchanted mage wepon with +MAtk SA, then you should, as Maline said, use ++Wit tat.
As we take a look at high level PvP you have to decide about your role there, going for damage? (who expects a S-Grade tank to crit for 1.5k+ ? ) Or is the Meat-Shield more your kind of thing? Versatility? there's so many ways to play a SK, just get your style and build your equip around this :)
/agree, SoWD does look good. and of course you would want a high m attack weapon to switch to, in addition to a focus sword or focus duals.
however, your damage output was based on not using bsps, which was what i mentioned first. and if you just to leech, and skip hex, its the only way you can keep your mp from bottoming out in 2 seconds, and hex doesnt seem to land too well, the land rate used to be influenced by INT, not sure if it still is. also pretty sure land rate on lightning strike is based on INT, id rather have it land than cast it fast with no effect. of course in parties you're not going to be using leech for anything since you have some other source of healing, and it would take forever to cast. i assumed the OP was looking for a good solo DD setup, but on reading it again i realized it was not specified what sort fo parties he/she is typically in.