As I await to be able to reopen my account of old, I browse through the threads here to find that apparently there is no good input for Caster Dreadknights. I am again building in that direction on a new dreadknight, Devilskarma (the forum name I have chosen here), currently only on the Isle of Dawn... In order to build a Caster Dreadknight, and properly do so, here is the information as I can remember it from a good 4 years or more ago, having achieved a level 41 Caster Dreadknight... 1. Skill-types Setup...Even if you are stupid, curious, crazy enough to attempt to go true Caster Dreadknight, you must know how to setup your skills above all else. Your first priority as still being a Tank class by design, is AGGRO skills. You must think of any and all AGGRO skills in the same way a true caster thinks of their own spells with respect to maximizing damage... except you will be maximizing AGGRO instead of damage. Well, as a Caster Dreadknight, you will of course want to actually use your Spells secondary only to your Aggro skills, and only while playing Tank in a group... otherwise, your Spells are your primary source of damage output... This should also be coupled in thought, as to how to setup your spells, with such skills as that teleporting step and lifetapping backstab... All other skills can be setup to whatever your liking... 2. Stats...Well now, we are looking to build a Caster Dreadknight... and as any casters know, there are certain stats you want to build for maximizing spell damage output... 1. INT, first and foremost on your character stats. After that, stats depend on what race you chose with respect to building up (and not necessarily in stated order) : WIS, VIT, CON. You will likely fall short in stats in order to perform as a Caster Dreadknight in the way that I already know they can in fact perform... And this brings us to gears... 3. Gears...In order to get the most out of a Caster Dreadknight, you will need particular gears to have particular stats, as you will not likely be able to achieve full satisfaction through just your character's stats alone. Heavy Cleric gears for the most part (Heavy gear having specifically WIS and VIT or CON), will allow you that final touch to perform well as a Caster Dreadknight and not need to fret about running low on mana...Endnote... IF you do decide to go the way of the Caster Dreadknight, it is not an easy road, and even quite frustrating at times. It is most certainly a fun path to go though, depending on your own preferences in playstyle. The Caster Dreadknight can quite well act as any other caster class, although really limited in spells till higher levels... AND it can most certainly act as a Tank in groups when needed if you know your skills as a Tank... Although many will likely frown upon those that choose this path to walk, the path of a Caster Dreadknight, I say to tell those people "roll your own Dreadknight then (while word of dooming their sorry pixels)"
How did this work out for you? It sounds like the Inquisitor class that got canned, and, although I like the idea, I wouldn't go for it mostly because a Dread Knight does not have very many spells to cast. That's aside from what would appear to be all the technical problems from having low strength which is where most of the aggro would come from, spell hate is a flat number on fixed cooldowns, and if it's the case that defensive stance increases hate for melee attacks, sounds like a huge disadvantage to try to make spells compensate for that. What can you do, spam Cull every time it comes up? While putting points into Vitality to replace the built-in energy repleneshing attack? If this character has actually been built up for a few months, I'd like to see it in action.
There's still a significant difference in lvl up a caster DK or endgame caster DK. Would never ever consider spec any Vit into it. Barely see any fight i ran OOM on my DK. Con must be your primary attribute still. But as Amnath pointed out, me too really would like see your Build DK in action
Sounds like a fun thing to do while leveling up. However, later in the game there are two priorities for a tank - Aggro and Survivability. While you would not compete with a well played caster end game in terms of DPS; a "conventional" strength build on a DK will allow you to do more DPS than a DK caster build. Hope you have fun doing this.
I haven't been playing long, but I would have my doubts just like dzirlion. I would actually out of curiosity love to see it in action. Especially at higher levels ... post 40ish. I think it's cool though that people try different things though.
I have my doubts cause i specced mine not the "conventional" strength build. But hey, there always more then one way
I have a level 55 DK end geared tank who has tanked every end game raid mob in game. WRT to aggro and survivability not guessing - its a requirement. WRT to amount of damage/aggro from an int Vs strength build. Take the DPS that you can generate from a strength build (with Con maxed) then max int only - although you should really put points in wisdom as well - and parse again with the reduction in strength (Int, Con, Str). Calculate how much equivalent dps you would need to increase AWoD and Bane etc by. Look at the returns of spell damage by increasing int. The refresh time on Bane and AWoD even with high Int mean they do not contribute a significant amount to DPS compared to a high Strength build. Yes you can get some high damage values but you have to average that over the refresh time. My DK has not a single attribute point invested in int or wis and can hold aggro on Zodifin warriors or any other raid mob. The strength gives him extra block and he is maxed on Con. The hate portion of abilities were set to be "significant" when melee damage was a lot lower. I can hold aggro with my build just using Vexing Strike and Soul Wrack/Ruin chain. I find this still the same for my warrior where the hate generated from my DPS out weighs the hate from "hate" abilities. I am not saying the int build is wrong - sounds like a fun way to play the class. Just that a strength/Con build will have significantly greater survivability end game. Edit And with a high int build if Bane/AWoD misses.......
