The Spirit Realm

My main is a shaman, 80, 1500-some AA's, geared pretty well. I thought a sk/zerker combo would work well for a 3 box setup. The zerker turned out fine. He's like OJ Simpson with an axe. The SK... not so much. Right now with tribute running, power source, challenge for power, ect. he's at 3500ish ac. Lvl 75, got about 120 defensive aa's. I would think he'd be able to tank reasonably. Certainly not Crystallos or anything, but I took him to the Mech Guardian earlier today expecting he could handle it. My shaman can even tank those monsters. The SK... down in seconds. So I took him to BB even. Blackburrow. GOT to be easy, right? We had to get another tank because the cleric was going oom spamming quick heals on me because I was getting molested by the trash mobs. I don't get it. I'm not sure I even care to get it anymore. I've spent countless hours PLing him, camping ac augs for him, ect. and he's still useless. I'm just fed up with babysitting him. It feels like a chore to box him, and most of the time I end up root rotting anyway.

So, barring some deep insight into why he sucks (though I suspect the reason is because he needs 700+ AA's to be effective, and I'm not willing to put that much into an alt before they can carry their own weight), I'm looking for another box combo. I've always liked mages, and I have a spire servant focus in the bank. But the problem is, I can't use the zerker anymore either since pets can't hold aggro with a melee in range. I'm not THAT attached to the zerker, but then, what do I add on the sham/mage combo? Or is it even worth it?

What set up were you using to tank with?

120 AA which ones? Shielding/Avoid? Parry/Dodge

There is this perception that around 3K+ ac tanks become gods. and we just run over things, not true. All the tanks are very gear dependant. The SKs you see soloing in the Guardian or Fortress, or 2 boxing in SHIP/SF or even Crys are sitting at 4k+ ac unbuffed (guesstimation). They also are max Shield/Avoid, and likely have Touch of the Cursed, Soul Abrasion maxxed.

Sorry but going to take a bit more before your SK is fire and forget. For refrence my Sk is 4500ac/21k unbuffed and I still can get ripped in BB/Guardian/Ruins of Illslain if I take to many or slows don't hit in time, or some mobs gets a lucky round.

In my experience, SK / Shammy is one of the best 2-box combo's, and your problems does not sound familiar to what I have seen. Taking into account though, the obvious lack of AA; the other key point is of course the fact that he is only level 75. Those 5 levels alone, makes a world of difference as to the mobs' DPS on you compared to him. So; get him to 80 as a first priority, focus on defensive AA's after - it's not 700+ - don't go for any offensive AA's really, as you have a shammy beefed up Zerker to handle that department - so just get anything defensive you can get your hands on. As mentioned as well, Avoidance/Parry/Shielding/dodge is also pretty essential - and of course, you being a shammy I assume you know the value of the shield AC; so make sure you tank with a shield preferably 100+AC with a greasy 30AC aug in it or so - unlike underequipped warriors, the SK can actually keep aggro while using shield

I play a Ranger/Shammy box and often group with a friend that plays the SK/Shammy combo.... and the pulls I have pulled in BB for him to tank is simply astonishing.... granted, he's more than decent geared/AA'ed; but then again, you are not planning to pull 6-8 gnolls at a time I'd say, don't give up on the SK just now - the utility he brings to your setup is better than most other combo's I can think of. The pulling being one, but the AE taunt is the killer-app here IMO when boxing.

I have 601 aa's on my 75 SK and I only need 1 heal per ROI mob and BB is easy. I think the big thing you are missing which is a huge piece of being an SK is the lifetap self buffs and AA's. I would say get soul abrasion and crit healing/crit spells maxed before any more shielding. You will notice a huge difference in the abilities of your SK once he starts life taping for 1600 to 6k.

Hmm. I mostly gave the explanation to say why I didn't want the usual Shm/SK box, but that looks like some good advice. I never thought about the lifetap AA's as a survival method. I'll try that. Thanks a bunch.

They are a survival tool in that at max TotC/SA you can/will proc a 1400ish lifetap (unresitable?) with any weapon you have (from Rusty Short sword to Crys 1h). This proc can double crit (don't plan on it) to about 6k heal, and will stack with any/all other procs you have. Also you should use Umbral Skin on you char at all times, some people are agaisnt it, I love it because a Rune is dmg I don't take. A rune proc weapon with Rune aug helps out with nasty mobs (yarnhilted sword + jade of the ether) both easy if annoying camps.

And to addres your concern about the *usual* SK/Shammy box set up, well frankly its the usual because it works really really well. I am open to new ideas, but for me it has to be a improvement over the current and so far I haven't found one.