Need help with my Skullknight Build

Discussion in 'ArcheAge' started by Captain Murasa, Sep 24, 2014.

Need help with my Skullknight Build

Discussion in 'ArcheAge' started by Captain Murasa, Sep 24, 2014.

  1. Captain Murasa

    Captain Murasa brb buying a rubber duck

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    Yeah, there's a bit of theorycrafting here because I'm still below level 20. (Where's my guild invite? Every time I whisper Phaedo, he's not on. :<)

    Now, I love tanks. I also love to do damage too. I realize that if I dedicate myself to the tanky aspect of the Skullnight, I'll hit like a wet noodle. I don't like doing that. I want to jump in and scare the shit out of people and have them go "Oh fuck, what's hitting us?" I know that usually comes in the form of CCs but I still want to do some damage too, especially through Occultism. I realize that I'll sacrifice some of my tankiness but at least people will realize that I'm also a threat and should not be ignored.

    My previous experience in GW2 as a tank in pvp was that I would run around in circles and hope that one of the DPS guys will come to my rescue and get rid of him. (Bunker builds.... My tankcat is pretty close to doing that.) It's boring though. :x I was actually quite happy with my Guardian build where I can actually hit the crap out of people and still be able to live long enough for someone to save my hide.

    So here's my planned level 50 build (no 55 builds, please... I have a feeling that patch will come at the speed of new stuff coming in for Maple Story NA from Maple Sea):

    http://arche-base.com/builds/generator#3.5.4/87x1C0b7msU1

    I'll take more time to explain my reasoning in a bit, but please do put your opinions in. Generally teleport in -> implosion -> Hell spear - > Crows -> Move.

    From there, if I'm still living, move towards the nearest squishy and put up my defense buffs and shield combo the shit ouf of them (wat... There's no shiel rush. :< I'm not Captain America!) while you guys rain hell on the poor sucker. I'm hoping to use a scepter + shield and I'm still wondering if I should mix both cloth and plate or use stone cloth once I get enough stuff for you guys to make it.

    (I'm using Mana stars to level right now :X)

    Anyway, help is much appreicated! Thanks!
     
  2. Mysticdrew

    Mysticdrew .

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    I think any guild member can invite
     
    ThaneKrios likes this.
  3. ThaneKrios

    ThaneKrios idk

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    Think you shouldn't just take a build as gospel, look at the build and understand why they make those choices. Then see if you agree/ what you change.

    Also, this is for everyone. PICK A ROLE. This game gives you the option to have a lot of different abilities, that doesn't mean they go well together. You can have classes that make you a sorcerer archer tank, but that doesn't mean that it works well, in fact more often then not when you try to do both you just do both really badly rather than one really well.
     
  4. Phaedo

    Phaedo The Weeaboo Hunter

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    Okay so You have a build and like thane said it shouldn't be taken as law. You need to fully analyze each skill and understand the synergies and the combos. And then maximize your rotation for effectiveness.

    Looking at what you have here you have a very very traditional tank build. Which is good. Sticking to what's familiar is always good. The only way to test it though is to tank a run. If it preforms well then stick to it, if you think it's lacking try to figure out where and adjust.


    As for specifics I should always be around. If I'm not at school i'm online. If i'm not online I'm at school, and I can't help that.

    But yes, any one in guild can invite
     
  5. Sixten

    Sixten .

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    You're in luck. I leveled to 50 as a dps Skullknight. Next time you're in Archeage holler at me and we can discuss it.

    http://arche-base.com/builds/generator#5.3.4/JUAjZaa1vCU1

    Here's the build I worked with as I leveled. This build is geared around higher DPS and survivability through more damage output. You want to go with cloth armor and a 2hand staff until you get 50 and can get your hands on a good scepter and shield. It's going to be far easier to keep a good 2hand staff than it is to keep a good scepter and shield. If you're lucky you'll find a lute/flute with INT on it, and a bow with INT on it. Once you get 50 you can also start collecting INT plate gear if that's the route you want to go. Until then cloth gear is going to be your best way to stack INT.

    The occultism tree is all about crits. Stack your INT. Your damage is going to increase tremendously by receiving damage. You want things to hit you.

    Defense has a lot of abilities that do physical damage, which is increased through Strength. Since you'll be stacking INT, that's why I skipped most Defense abilities. If you want to go plate and physical damage early on you may just want to switch out Occultism for Battlerage.

    Occultism has some great abilities that combo off of Distressed. Only 2 trees in the game offer that debuff; Defense and Shadowplay. For that reason alone Defense tree is huge in this build even if only for a few skills.

    Occultism Tree:

    Mana Stars - One of two abilities in the entire game that you can just hold the button down and spam it like crazy. It slows your target and stacks to 20, increasing the slow as it stacks. It's great for kiting. It uses very little mana and if you only kite using this ability and this build you will never run out of mana.

    Crippling Mire - This ability hits pretty hard and slows the target. It combos with Distressed! Distressed targets will be stunned. Distressed debuff comes from Boastful Roar in the Defense tree.

    Hell Spear - Great for CC. Great because it's an AOE. Great because it provides a great AOE combo with Summon Crows.

    Absorb Lifeforce - This ability is amazing. This is where a lot of your survivability will come from. You transfer 100% damage as health. The combo is crazy good. It combos off of Distressed from Boastful Roar to do an additional 50% health conversion.

    Summon Crows - Combos off of Hell Spear to induce poison. The ability by itself reduces physical accuracy of targets. Pop Hell Spear to Impale your targets the immediately pop Crows. They go from being impaled to not being able to hit you well and being poisoned.

    Retribution - Reflects physical damage back to attackers. You don't have to pick this up but I did while leveling because practically every mob is going to melee you. It's going to be less viable for PVP because most people are either casters or archers it seems.

    Passives:

    Enhanced Mana Recover & Caster's Enrichment - These two passives combined will give you enough mana regen that you can completely skip Meditate from the Auramancy tree. Yes it's two points into Occultism instead of one in Auramancy for mana regen, but you need those points so you can pick up passives further down in the tree. Plus it's passive. You don't have to worry about using an ability to regen mana. I almost never worried about mana unless I was doing some seriously heavy fighting for several fights.

    Reprisal, Macabre, Overpowered Spell Locust, Intensified Harm - This is where things get good. The more damage you take, the more damage you do. Overpowered Spell Locust effect cancels if you move. That's OK because some of your harder hitting spells are channeled. Not to mention Absorb Lifeforce. Mobs and people are going to be damaging you. All the while your crit chance and crit damage is going through the rough while you're steadily stealing their health. You can take a crap load of damage and watch your health bar sit still if not increase.

    Death's Beckoning - Decreases cooldown of Occultism skills by 20%. All of your spells are either insta cast or channeled. They all have fairly lengthy cooldowns though so this is going to help a lot. I would say you can even pick up Urgency instead of Retribution if you would like to further decrease your CD timers.

    Defense: This is where your "oh shit what just hit me" attacks are going to come from. This is tree combos well with Occultism.

    Refreshment - Nice health boost. Most importantly it stacks Mettle.

    Toughen - Nice health regen buff. Most importantly it stacks Mettle. With Refreshment and Toughen you are going to gain more Mettle than you know what to do with - as long as you are being attacked.

    Boastful Roar - This ability is hands down amazing! You do damage equal to your stacked Mettle. It stacks to 3000. It decreases enemy movement speed and skill damage. It causes distress. Hello Occultism combos.

    Revitalizing Cheer - Restores health plus 50% of stacked Mettle. Like I said you're going to stack Mettle faster than you know what to do with. This ability is great for survivability and for a second Mettle dump.

    These 4 abilities are practically a must if you even think about picking up Defense.

    Invincibility - You don't have to grab this but 12 seconds of complete invincibility is pretty awesome.

    I grabbed no shield attacks or passives because you're not going to use a shield in this build until later. If you want to change it around a little and use a shield by all means. This is just what I went with. Take it with a grain of sand. Use what I'm telling you from what I did and why and adjust it accordingly.

    Auramancy:

    Teleport - Mobility is always nice. Grab something else if you want, I just did this for utility and because the other things didn't really appeal to me.

    Shrug It Off - This ability is absolutely amazing because of the combo it sets up. The ability by itself is nice but it combos with Boastful Roar and Revitalizing Cheer. +60% damage to Boastful Roar. You want to hit like a semi truck? Here it is. A full stack of Mettle, pop Shrug It Off, Boastful Roar and you are going to take at LEAST half of someone's health in one shot. I've crit 9K+ with this combo. Revitalizing Cheer gets a 50% increase off of it.

    Leech - Easily replaced. I just picked it up for another CC. Interrupts casting, sleeps and has a high chance to steal an enemy buff.

    Passive:

    Absorb Damage - Pretty nice. 7% of ALL damage is converted to health.
     
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2014