Shadow Knight Swarming Guide
<Nerfed as of February 2014. Unless you're on a private server or someplace that doesn't have current EQ code, Swarming will no longer work the way it currently does, making this guide completely obsolete>
The introduction here is going to answer by far the most basic and commonly asked question... What is Swarming? How do you Swarm? ... The first question will be answered in this introduction and the second question throughout this entire guide. So let's start, What is Swarming? Well, Swarming is when a Shadow Knight gathers up a large amount of mobs and kills the whole pack little by little. Chances are you now have an additional question that is something like this... How does Swarming work?
Now this is the first good question. The reason Swarming works is because of effects (such as Mortal Coil and SK epic) that grant life with each melee attack. In order to survive a swarm you absolutely must have either the SK Epic up, Mortal Coil or Leechcurse. Failure to have any of these active will result in your almost immediate death. The reason Swarming is possible with something as simple as this is because of Riposte. With all of those mobs in front of you striking you your Riposte will be going off like crazy and the damage done by your Riposte should be enough to heal you through the damage caused to you.
Of course you won't be able to Swarm everywhere. It works a lot like Headshot in the sense that there are 'sweet spots' in certain zones and at certain levels. The mobs will still be Light Blue to you at whatever level you're at but they will be extremely easy to kill and your gear should out date them so greatly that you can handle a giant mass of them at once. As you could imagine, Swarming is extremely gear dependant. You will need a lot of plat to invest in gear as you're leveling up or you won't be able to swarm.
This guide starts at level 80 for Swarming. It may be possible before that but it would be extremely difficult and most likely very unrewarding (I mean of course if you tried doing it at something like 50 - 60. Obviously trying to do it at 79 would be like the same thing as trying at 80 ... Don't be a smart ass)! You will definitely need the following things before you even begin to think about Swarming.
Mortal Coil (The AA)
A high damage slow delay 2h
Double Riposte AA
Theft of Life AA
Touch of the Cursed AA
Combat Agility + Combat Stability
Knowledge of your class
Up to date Discs for 'Oh crap' situations
Your level self buffs for your SK
Top of the line group gear/enough AAs to make up for not top of the line group gear + Augs/raid gear (one of the three is required)
Much more is recommended, infact I would say you can't swarm effectively without the other things I have on the list below. While it may be possible to Swarm without what's below, it would be like swimming upstream with sweat pants on and a jacket.
Shadow Knight 1.5 or Epic 2.0
Visage of Death
Second Spire of the Reaver
AC Augmentations for your gear
Distillate of Alacrity X (or some form of haste)
Swarming on a Shadow Knight - How To
Swarming on a Shadow Knight is extremely easy and basic as seen by how many people are doing it. The hardest part is taking that initial step and learning it. You'll die a lot at first if it's your first time doing it, maybe you'll panic because you've never had so many mobs wailing on you all at once or maybe you'll forget something stupid and it will get you killed, maybe Mortal Coil wears off before it procs again and you don't have the Shadow Knight epic or Leechcurse disc is down. Any of these things can happen.
The key thing is to get right back up and back on the horse and pull more mobs. Keep learning, you'll make mistakes. That's just human.
Really all you need to do/remember for swarming is as follows. Pull a ton of mobs, it doesn't matter how many you pull, if you can swarm at a location you can handle 50 or 5000 mobs. Gather them all up and pull them back to a corner you've previously chosen. Place your back in that corner and pop your Epic. (If you don't have the Epic get it. Seriously. Get it. Otherwise you're stuck procing Mortal Coil before the pull and praying you get another proc after you pull before it expires).
Mobs will start reaching you and you'll start slowly killing them with Riposte. By the time your Epic fades you should have proc'd a Mortal Coil. During this time the SK can literally do absolutely nothing and kill the mobs. I usually do, I usually tab to other characters and spend AAs or read forums while I am killing the entire pack with Riposte. Though, another option is to dot every mob on your extended target window with all available dots. This will kill them faster and give you a better chance of procing Mortal Coil.
Also, if you need a Mortal Coil proc really bad target the mob lowest on your extended target window and attack him, if you don't need a Mortal Coil proc target the mob with the most health and attack them. Your Extended Target window will look something like this during the fight:
If I needed a Mortal Coil I would start attacking the one at 8%, as the 0% one is going to die pretty much before you finished reading die. After that, do 20% then the 31% etc. If i didn't need an MC proc I would focus on the one still at 100% if he was in range, if not then 76% and you get the point. Swarming is a lot more hands on than most other things. Sure there are guides and this guide will help you but once you start doing it you'll learn much more than any guide can teach you.
Below this is a picture of a normal everyday Kaesora Library swarm pull. You can see my SK, barely, in the corner visible by his surname only.
That is really all I can teach you about swarming with just text. Each zone in the part below I will give a detailed strategy of how I pulled the zone and things of that, but otherwise the rest is all on you.
List of Zones to Swarm
Kaesora Library: Raid 95 - 100
Mage Beam Swarming In higher zones: How to - The secrets of
Most Important AAs
Soul Abrasion
This AA gives you increased damage off of the lifetap procs that result from your Self Buffs.
Mortal Coil
This AA gives you a 25% chance to harvest the energy of a monster you kill, allowing you to steal health from them with your Ripostes and normal attacks.
Speed of the Knight
This AA increases your chances of scoring an extra hit with your 2H weapons.
Tactical Mastery
This ability grants an increased chance of bypassing the opponents defenses (block, dodge, parry, riposte).
Theft of Life
This AA increases the chances that your Lifetap's will provide an exceptional amount of Healing.
Touch of the Cursed
This AA gives the Shadow Knight a chance to drain the life of any opponent that he attacks.
Double Riposte
Since Ripostes are most of your damage and also most of your self healing, you can pretty much guess why this is such an amazing AA to get.
Critical Affliction
I only strongly recommend this AA early on and if you're having difficulty swarming because most of the time at later levels I don't even DoT the mobs anymore.
Destructive Fury
Little bit extra damage.
Fury of Magic
This AA will increase the chances of your self buff lifetaps to crit, therefore increasing healing done to you.
Gift of Mana Series
This will save you mana early on if you DoT your pulls a lot.
Flurry
Allows you to hit more, meaning more heals and more damage and a better chance of Mortal Coil procing.
Maxed Harm Touch
The reason this AA makes this list is because I use it as an 'utt ohh' type ability. If Mortal Coil isn't procing by the time my Epic is almost up or by the time Mortal Coil is almost down I like to have a Harm Touch available for a really quick kill to 'roll the dice'.
Harmshield
Some SKs like to use this while pulling to decrease damage taken. I never have used this while Swarming even once though as I have never had an issue with pulling.
Hastened Visage of Death
Visage is ungodly amazing for swarming. Absolutely ungodly unparalleled in usefulness. Get this and Visage of Death every single level possible first thing.
Knight's Advantage
Just like Flurry, get this early on for more attacks.
Knight's Return Strike
This ability allows you a chance to bash your opponent after a successful riposte. Since most of your damage and comes from ripostes, you can imagine that this would be pretty useful.
Unbridled Strike of Fear
This AA is extremely useful because whenever you manage to get a mob behind you (it does happen sometimes) if you manage to target them, you can use this AA and bam, now they're in front of you.
Twinproc
More damage/more heals depending on the proc you have on your weapon.
AA Mounts
This wont be as useful early on, but having a mount while pulling is super useful.