Long Time Noob Trying to Boost His Skeletal Knight

[Galencroch]

Hey, first time poster, long time player. Family fun game for us since like '11. We've had the same team of 2 sorcs and a wizard for forever playing off and on over the years. Never grinding anything, kinda just playing around in the world and doing stuff we think is fun and cool. Just hit 30 together this week. No past lives.

Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun diving through the wiki and statting out some okay builds using the online tools to give us places to grind for items we think are cool. Now that we can't level anymore, figured some goal would help. I play a drow elf Pale Master and am doing my darndest to make my Skeletal Knight more useful in Epic Elite. Up to this point I have gotten every ability augment possible for the guy. Both feats, the Epic Destiny under Magus of the Eclipse, and every point I can spend in the enhancement tree. We've been through a lot together (had him back when he was a blackbone/frostmarrow) and I'm trying my best to make him work. Any tips/things that I'm missing? I read on the wiki page for the pale master enhancements that some of the SLA's there affect the Knight in some way, but I can't find any mention of that anywhere in the game, so I don't know if it was left behind in an update long forgotten or what.


Necrotic Touch: Spell Like Ability: Necrotic Touch
Cost: 6/4/2 SP, 12/8/4 seconds. Accepts Metamagics. Scales with full Spell Power.

For 12 seconds after casting this, your Skeletal Knight reduces its incoming damage by 50%.

If anyone has tips on boosting the Skeletal Knight or knows more information about what the PM SLA's do for the Knight, I'd love to hear it.
If there aren't any, that's okay. I'd rather play sub-optimal with my skeletal friend than a min-maxed DC caster without a companion. I'd miss him.

(Also getting the Necklace of Mystic Eidolons for the little shadow friend too, cause it's neat. Even if it's fleeting. Spooky Shadow Minion).

Thanks in advance, and let me know any etiquette stuff I messed up in the post.

[C-Dog]

...Family fun game for us since like '11. ... Never grinding anything, kinda just playing around in the world and doing stuff we think is fun and cool. Just hit 30 together this week. No past lives.
That's awesome, grats to all! "Fun" is where you find it. :cool:

(Curious - you going to ER/TR, or hang at cap for a while?)


Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun diving through the wiki and statting out some okay builds using the online tools ...
Erm... it's really easy to fake a build together that seems fine on paper but will fail utterly. And that level of "fail" is not "fun" by (almost) any metric.

Do yourself a favor - once you have your build finalized, post it here on the forums, let the vets tell you if it's going to work or not. Better to find out now than a couple years down the road when you're Level 10 again. :cool:


I play a drow elf Pale Master and am doing my darndest to make my Skeletal Knight more useful in Epic Elite... Any tips/things that I'm missing?...
Um... don't try?

Seriously - understand that "more useful" is a very relative goal, he'll never be a standup tank for your PM. If he can take a couple shots that would have been aimed at you, he's doing great.


But I'm sure someone will have a trick or two up their pale sleeve to make him "better", if still not anything to write home about. ;)

[Enoach]

One of the disadvantages with "improving" the skeleton knight is that equipment is not an option (Artificer dog/Druid wolf)

That being said...

There needs to be some reasonable expectations set. The knight is not going to be High DPS.

Tips:
(these you are likely already doing)
Anything you can use for enhancements to Pet/Summon/Hire grab (if reasonable, don't sacrifice your main focus too much)
Feats like Augment Summon and Improved Augment Summon.
Epic Destiny abilities Like Magus of the Eclipse
Past Lives Druid


Don't neglect buffing your knight. Defensive spells such as protections/resists/blur make them more resilient, GH and Good Hope will improve his chance to hit (again not High DPS, but something)
The skeletal knight can also benefit from Weapon buffs like elemental weapons
Haste can improve their attack speed

Also, summon other creatures, like kobolds pets and summons are more dangerous the more there are.

[Enderoc]

Viagra might work....
Okay jokes aside... without taking a feat, finding and slotting a summoning augment in a caster stick you make for level 15 or 20 to start epic or iconic past lives is a start to strengthen your Boney Trojan.
Schools of magic really need to also affect more things outside combat imo... would add a lot more flavor to the game.
Anybody ever take a transmutation feat?
Yeah me neither.

[Seph1roth5]

Even though skeleton doesn't get armor/weapons like puppies, he's still the best. Like other people said, his dps is never going to be awesome though. That's more a problem with the AI. They waste too much time maneuvering. Still, skeleton makes a good (non)meat shield. Send him to open doors or to attack monsters first and get aggro, then you can jump in.

We need some kind of share spells option that lets you cast personal buffs and split the duration between you and them.