Thread: Shadowknight Info For Noobs (Long)

Okay, so I started making a new AA thread several weeks ago but it ended up growing into a massive guide for everything SK. This thread details: Leveling, AA Specs for Leveling, How to Tank, How to DPS, and max AA specs.

1. LEVELING

If you are a brand new player to the game, the best way to level is to do the solo questlines. You can find them all here: Solo Timelines - EQ2i, the EverQuest 2 Wiki - Quests, guides, mobs, npcs, and more

There is more than enough quests in the game right now to level 1-90 off of quests alone. The solo quests give very solid xp and more importantly AA, which you want to start building up early on. A good rule of thumb is to try to keep your AA level 2x as high as your adventure level, so when you hit level 90 you have at least 180 AA. It becomes easier to get AA at level 70+ so don't sweat it if you're struggling to keep that ratio at lower levels. A good pointer would be that if you notice your quests going green, set the AA slider to 100 until you notice them going blue again. Also, if you are lucky enough to find a low level group, set your slider to 100 for the entire zone so you don't accidently out-level your quests.

You'll want to group as much as you can at lower levels so you can get some actual tanking experience. But to be honest, it is very difficult to find low level groups at this stage of the game because most everyone plays at the level cap.

Personally I would recommend:
1-20: Start in Darklight Woods. Ideal group zone: The Ruins.
20-30: Focus on Butcherblock, the lowest level quests start at the Gfay zoneline, so you might have to use an invis totem to get there. When you run out of quests in BB move to Nek Forest. Ideal heroic zone: Crushbone.
30-35: Focus on Zek, when the quests become too hard swap to Enchanted lands. Ideal heroic zone: Ruins of Varsoon
35-40: Focus on Feerot, when you run out of quests head back to Zek/EL. You can go into Steamfont early too. Ideal heroic zone: Runneye.
40-50: Focus on Steamfont, whenever you run out of quests hit up Everfrost. Ideal heroic zone: Cazic Thule.
50-60: This is the roughest period to level in. You'll want to start in Sinking Sands, and when that goes dry move to Lesser Faydark. If you're still stuck you can go to Mystic Lake/TT as early as 55 if you like. Ideal heroic zone: Clefts of Rujark.
60-65: Do the basket quests in TT, you can also grind in Mystic Lake if you want a break from questing. Ideal heroic zone: Sanctum of Scaleborn.
65-70: Do the solo questlines in Barren Sky and Bonemire, they actually give great exp now and will probaly take you further than level 70. Ideal heroic zone: Palace of the Awakened.
70-75: Hit up Loping Plains first and knock out all the easy quests there, and when you run out move to Kylong Plains. Ideal heroic zone: Any instance in either KoS or EoF.
75-80: Move to Kunzar Jungle and knock out some of the easy quests there. When they start getting hard and require heroics, move to Moors of Ykshena. Ideal heroic zone: Any instance in either KoS or EoF.
80-85: Fully complete the JW questline to get the JW hammer just incase you ever need to go back there in the future. After it's complete, head back to Fens of Nathsar and knock out those, they should be easy since they're green. If Fens quests are all grey to you at this point, finish off the quests in Moors. Ideal heroic zone: Sebilis.
85-90: Head to Sundered Frontier, do those quests and when you run out move to Stoneburnt Highlands. You can also start running group instances but generally its best to wait until 88+ so you can get all the quests for them. Ideal heroic zone: The Contested Hole.

2. AA SPEC FOR LEVELING

The main thing to keep in mind while leveling up is that you want to focus on things that increase your dps. The faster you can kill something, the less you need to heal. The only exception to this rule is the AA ability "Reaver" on the Shadowknight tree. That will make it significantly easier to fight multiple mobs at once and survive.

Summary: Reaver first, then Avenging Invigoration, then Divine Aura, then Fearless Morale, then Shadowknights Furor+Essence Siphon, then Hateful Respite, then Pools of Blood, then Blood Siphon.
0-20: Go down the STA line in the Crusader tree.
20-40: After you hit 21 AA, respec and move all the points to the Shadowknight tree and pick up Reaver. Make sure to max out Death March ASAP if you have that spell yet. (Otherwise you can wait until you get it) Then go back to putting points into the STA line again.
40-60: Finish STA and go down the STR line, getting the STR endline ASAP.
60-80: Finish STR and start working on WIS.
80-100: Finish WIS and start working on Hateful Respite in the Shadowknight tree.
100-120: Finish Hateful Respite and start working on Pools of Blood
120-140: Finish pools of blood, after you have all 3 endlines put extra points into stuff that increases damage in the Shadowknight tree:
140-160: Respec the shadowknight tree and move 20 points from the Shadowknight tree to the Shadows tree. (You'll want to drop Pools of Blood) You'll want to put all the points you gain in this period into the Crusader row of the Shadows Tree, and get Aura of the Crusader ASAP.
160-180: If you're above level 81 at this point, you'll want to start maxing out your Crusader tree by putting 8 points into the WIS endline enhancement and up to 4 in the recovery speed enhancement. If you're not level 81 yet, you can go back to the Shadowknight tree. As soon as you hit 177 AA, respec your Shadowknight tree again, dropping Hateful Respite this time, and move those points into the Shadows tree so you can get both endlines.
180-200: Fill out your crusader tree first with the AAs mentioned in 160-180, then go back to getting the endlines in the Shadowknight tree.
200-220: Respec your Shadowknight tree (seeing a pattern here?) and move 14 points to the crusader tree to max out the AE autoattack in the AGI line. Then go back to putting points in the shadowknight tree.
220-240: Continue filling back up the shadowknight tree, eventually getting blood siphon.
240-250: See below for AA specs for level cap.

3. HOW TO TANK

The most important part of tanking is pulling. Unfortunately, nobody can really teach you how to pull mobs well, its just something you have to learn from experience. But here are some pointers to get you started.

Targeting

Most of the time when you are going up against named encounters, you want to keep the named mob as your primary target. SKs have fantastic AE aggro control tools compared to other tanks, so holding aggro on adds isn't as big an issue for us. The idea is that you want to utilize your AEs for as long as possible on the encounter so the entire thing gets dead quicker. So the mob with the most HP is always going to be the limiting factor to how quickly you kill the encounter.

The exception to this rule is when you have a bad healer, or you're going up against really difficult content. In those kinds of scenarios it makes sense to burn down the adds one-by-one because the quicker you kill a portion of the encounter, the less your healer will need to heal over the duration of the entire encounter.

Personally I find using the tab key to cycle through targets rather cumbersome because it is located in a rather awkward position. I recommend remapping your targeting by going into EQ2 options -> Controls -> Targeting Keys -> Select Next Hostile PVP, and then remap it to a key that is easier to reach, such as the spacebar. Make sure to remap "Select Previous Hostile PVP" to Shift+Space as well. Although that targeting key doesn't see a whole lot of play it is very useful in the rare situation where you get taunted or force detargeted.

Positioning

Always, always, make sure to turn the mob so it is facing away from the healers and the DPS. This is a good idea for many reasons.

First of all, many mobs in this game have AE attacks that only affect players in a frontal 180 degree arch. This does not start becoming common until you get above level 60, but when you get to level 90 and start doing instances you'll find that almost every mob has a frontal. There is no reason to force your healer to waste mana and cast time healing the rest of the group when you can easily prevent the expenditure.

Second of all, it makes it easy to tell when you lose aggro on an add. Sure, the aggro meter is nice and all, but it can be difficult to pay attention to it when you're focused on staying alive, holding aggro, and dpsing down your target all at the same time. However it becomes VERY obvious when a mob turns around and starts running for a DPS or a healer.

Another important element of positioning is to stack mobs on top of each other. Many classes have AEs with short radii, so if you tank the adds too far apart from each other those AEs will not hit the adds. This will make your DPS sad!

However this element of positioning isn't quite as important as the other two. Sometimes you will simply not be able stack mobs on top of each other if the mobs are linked and the pathing is bad. The nice thing about being an SK is that this isn't too big of a problem because most of our AEs are 360 degrees.

Pull speed

The most obvious measure of tank quality is how quickly they pull. Ideally you'll want to be charging through zones non-stop, pulling multiple encounters at a time. The key tools for doing this are your abilities that can be cast on the run. For mobs that are far away your key tools are ranged autoattack, Essence Siphon(AA), and of course Despoiling Mists. Siphon Strength has a nice range on it, but it just doesn't generate enough aggro to be a viable pulling tool. For mobs in the mid range your best tools are the single target and AE taunts. For close range, we have three AEs that can be cast on-the-run: Death Cloud, Doom Judgement, and Hammer Ground(AA). And of course we have a couple of CAs that can be used to engage nearby mobs quickly: Swift Strike(AA), Joust(AA), Siphon Strike, Cleave Flesh, Painbringer, Hateful Slam, and Soulrend.

Ideally for each pull you will want to start out with a long range, move to a mid range, and then end with a short range. And then after that, segway into whatever ability rotation you need at the time...typically either a DPS rotation by using your best spells, or a survivability rotation by throwing up the reactive, debuffs, and stuns/knockbacks.

One thing that will set you apart from other tanks is to make certain that you save your long and middle range abilities purely for the purposes of pulling. You don't want to stop for cooldowns, and by engaging the mob at range it saves you time running to the mob.

Body pulling

Another important element of tanking is the art of body pulling. Sure, it is important to pull encounters quickly. But it is also important to pull encounters safely. Generally speaking if you're running into hard content and your group is wiping, you'll want to slow things down by body-pulling mobs instead of engaging at range.

The main advantage to body pulling is that it lets you pull a single group at a time, so you don't have to worry about accidently pulling other encounters. This is because barring a few notable exceptions, mobs in EQ2 do not call for help unless a player directly attacks them with either damage or a debuff.

So in order to body pull, you target the mob and inch towards it until it targets you. Then, you book it back towards your group. Another thing to keep in mind is that mobs "see" you in game from their feet, its a bit difficult to explain but I'll try.

Imagine an imaginary line between your avatar's feet and the mob's feet. If something is blocking it, the mob will not aggro upon proximity. This can actually be useful for pulling mobs that are significantly above or below you on the z-axis; all you have to do is jump high enough to clear the obstruction and then the mob will come.

The primary weakness of body pulling is that it means that you have very little aggro on the mob while its running towards your group. Most often it will head for the healer first if they pre-heal at all. (and most healers do) There's not much you can do about this other than getting the Aura of Leadership AA in the crusader tree which will put a ward on your healer and hopefully reduce the amount of heal aggro they get. Some other tricks you can try are placing Intercede/Devious Evasion/Unholy Blessing on the healer pre-pull, however each one of them has their own limitations.

Gear for tanking

Gear is a pretty big deal for tanks, much moreso than other classes. It is possible to play a Healer or Mage very well with crappy gear as long as you have good spells, but you just can't do that as an SK.

To that end, if you are having survivability issues the key stats that you want to go for are HP and block chance. Those will help you stay alive the most in scenarios where you have a healer. It is also VERY important to keep your mitigation up as well, but if it involves sacrificing HP or block you'll want to think carefully about doing it.

Agility, Parry, and Defense skills are also be important if you're fighting heroics. However something to keep in mind is that those stats won't be very effective against high level mobs or epic level mobs. HP and block are dependable all the time, which is why they are a bit better.

Actually, the best gear for tanking is anything that procs a ward because it essentially boosts your maximum HP when it procs in addition to soaking damage that a healer would otherwise need to heal. Sadly, ward proc gear is very rare and is not an option until you get to higher levels.

If I were to make a rough estimate of how much each survivability stat was worth at level 90 it would be:

1% Block Chance = 40 HP = 40 STA = 40 mitigation = 5 parry = 5 defense = 40 AGI

That ratio is good for heroic mobs that are yellow con or lower..

Against epic mobs or orange heroics, the ratio would be closer to:

1% block chance = 1% crit mit = 40 HP = 40 STA = 40 mitigation = 15 parry = 15 defense = 100 AGI

Keep in mind those figures assume level 90, obviously at lower levels some numbers in that formula will be lower. It also assumes that you are not deep into caps or diminishing returns, which is about 1200 for STA/AGI, and 500 for parry/defense

Critical mitigation is typically something only necessary for raiding, however some named encounters in instances utilize this mechanic as well. Basically, every 1% critical mitigation reduces the opponent's critical bonus against you by 1%. If you have enough critical mitigation that its bonus is reduced to 0, the mob will not crit against you at all. Crit mit is not on diminishing returns, and has no cap. Contrary to what is suggested via the persona window, mobs can still crit against you even when you have 100% crit mit. Most raid mobs have different critical multipliers for different attacks, so hypothetically speaking it is possible that a mob's autoattack will crit against you 0% of the time, while one of its AEs crits against you say 20% of the time.

Toughness is a PVP only statistic that is like a souped-up version of crit mit. First of all, it reduces damage done to you by a flat amount equal to your toughness value. This aspect of toughness caps at 50% of the initial hit after mitigation, much like the AA battle hardening. So if you're wearing 300 toughness, and someone nukes you for 500 damage, this aspect of toughness reduces the nuke down from 500 damage to 250 damage. The second aspect of toughness is that it reduce's the enemy's critical bonus against you by 1.5x the listed percentage in the persona window. Again, just like crit mit, if your toughness exceeds the opponent's critical multiplier after crit bonus is factored in, then your opponents will not crit against you. Obviously for PvP toughness is *extremely* valuable as a survivability stat, a good ratio would probably be 2 toughness = 1% block chance.

For raid-quality gear, check out this thread: http://www.eq2flames.com/shadowknigh...ar-thread.html

4. HOW TO DPS

Another important thing to consider is that as a tank it is also your responsibility to contribute a fair amount of DPS to the group. It is not enough to simply hold aggro and survive hits. As long as you have a decent healer, many scouts and mages can succeed in those tasks while putting out a tremendous amount of dps to kill the mob more quickly. One big reason why people prefer to use Fighters as tanks is precisely because they can generate solid dps while taking hits like a champ at the same time.

Obviously it is more important “tank” aspect before your “dps” aspect. But it is ultimately average SKs who hold solid aggro and clear instances without a single death. Exceptional SKs will do the same, while at the same time putting out dps that rivals scouts/mages.

Another reason why DPS is important to us is because as an SK, you don't have as many solid aggro tools as other tanks. We only have 3 snaps: Rescue and Sneering Assault(AA), which every fighter gets, and then Grave Sacrament. That's pretty much it. Death March/Harm Touch can generate enough hate to hold aggro at the beginning of a pull, but if the fight has been going on for an extended period of time they are not reliable. Completing your epic weapon will give you a 4th snap, Touch of Death, but obviously that is not an option for everyone.

Because we don't have very many aggro control tools, we must do solid DPS to maintain aggro. Here's a couple key elements to DPS.

Cast order

Perhaps the easiest way to increase your dps is to take a close look at which order you are casting abilities. Contrary to popular belief, you do not want to start off with your biggest hitters. Instead you want start off with most efficient spell.

To calculate a spell's efficiency it is pretty simple. You just take: (damage) / (cast speed + recovery speed) for each individual spell. Then you compare each individual spell against each other to find out which spells to cast first. The easiest way to go about doing this is making a spreadsheet, if you're not inclined to make your own then you can use mine here: http://www.eq2flames.com/shadowknigh...cy-charts.html

Timing Autoattacks

One thing that is important for every melee class in this game is to time your abilities between autoattacks. If you are in the middle of casting an ability and the autoattack timer fills up completely, you will have to wait until your ability completes before the autoattack triggers.

For this reason, it is always a good idea to have a long delay weapon. It will make it much easier to squeeze your abilities in between autoattacks, as well as giving you extra dps/aggro on the rip. Another nice thing about a long delay is that if you get stunned/dazed/knockback, if it occurs in the middle of your autoattack timer you will effectively not lose any DPS from autoattack.

Unfortunately there is no easy way to see your autoattack timer using the default UI. Thankfully, there is an add-in you can download to see your autoattack bar:
http://www.eq2interface.com/download...AttackBar.html

However there are several UIs that have better autoattack timers, as well as other features. Setting up and getting used to a new UI takes a fair amount of time, but the investment is definitely worth it. For an SK, I would recommend one of the following:

Extreme: http://www.eq2interface.com/download...emeUI2010.html
Fetish: http://www.eq2interface.com/download...fallv11.3.html
Prophet: http://www.eq2interface.com/download...UIUpdater.html

Gear for DPS

As an SK, your primary weapon is not as important as it is for other fighters. We get the majority of our DPS from spells and procs. That being said, autoattack still makes a pretty large portion of our DPS so it is still important to have a good weapon.

If you have the AA Knights Stance in the Shadows tree, there is basically no reason to ever use a two-hander. That AA essentially turns any one handed weapon into doing two handed dps, as long as you are using a shield. If you don't have that AA yet though it would be a good idea to grab a 2H. Especially if you solo alot, because you typically do not need a shield then.

It is difficult to put an exact value on the value of a good weapon because its effectiveness depends heavily upon the level/type of mob you are facing, as well as the kinds of buffs you receive. Needless to say, once you hit level 90 your top priority needs to be completing your fabled epic quest, and actually you can start it as early as level 80. With the new quest Epic Repurcussions in SF, there is no longer any need to complete the Mythical Epic.

Generally speaking, as an SK you should be doing 20-30% of your damage from autoattack, 40-60% of your damage from spells+CAs, and 20-30% from procs.

Most of that proc damage will actually come from buffs, because while there are a couple good procs on items out there, they are pretty rare. So if you are in a group that doesn't have very good buffs, then that ratio can be distorted. Another thing to consider is that you raid you can get *alot* of really good procs gear. So if you raid high end content chances are procs will make up an even larger proportion of your dps.

All that being said, there's a TON of other stats out there that will increase your DPS. To figure out what exactly each statistic does, I would *HIGHLY* recommend reading the following thread: Compiled Explanations for various Sentinel's Fate Mechanics Changes

Its difficult to put a value on a proc relative to other stats because every proc is different. Proc mechanics are too complex to explain in a thread of this nature, but suffice it to say proc gear is great for us because we are a fast-casting class. I wouldn't sacrifice more than 1% crit bonus for a 1000 point damage, 2.0 proc per minute item though...unless the proc crits, is an AE, or actually procs more often than double the amount stated on its tooltip. Ideally you should handle each proc on an individual basis.

For all the other stats, if I were to estimate a ratio at level 90 with the epic weapon it would be:

1 crit chance = 1 crit bonus = 1.5 potency = 2% Ability Casting Speed = 2% Ability Recast Speed = 3% Spell Reuse Speed = 50 ability mod = 60 STR = 6 atk speed = 6 haste = 6 double attack = 6 DPS mod = 20 weapon skill

That ratio assumes that you are not deep into diminishing returns on any given stat.

Crit chance has diminishing returns past 100, and essentially has a hard cap at 112.

Crit bonus does not have diminishing returns and does not have a hard cap.

Ability casting speed is on a diminishing returns curve, even though it doesn't display as such in the persona window. 100% cast speed means that your spell casting speed is divided in half. The equation above assumes you are below 50%.

Ability recast speed is on a diminishing returns curve identical to ability casting speed. The equation above assumes you are below 50%.

Spell recast speed is identical to ability recast speed, however it only affects abilities classified as spells. It stacks with ability recast speed. The equation above assumes you are below 50%.

Potency does not have diminishing returns and has a hard cap of 100%.

Ability mod is the next easiest to cap after crit chance, as several of our CAs cap at low as as 300 ability mod. However, the cap on most of our spells is higher, above 1000 ability mod. The cap depends heavily upon the quality of the ability, as well as your current STR and potency. So you'll just have to play around with it to see whether or not you are in diminishing returns.

STR has diminishing returns that set in very early on, however it no longer has a hard cap. Instead, benefits from STR become linear past 1200. The ratio above assumes that you are above 1200 STR.

Haste is actually the same thing as Atk Speed, its just another label for the same thing. It can be a bit confusing, but a good rule of thumb to remember is that you can only use one item that has “haste” on it. The haste you get from items stacks with atk speed as well as any haste you get from buffs, but it doesn't stack with itself. If you have multiple items with “haste” only the most powerful one takes effect. The ratio above assumes you are below 100 Haste/Atk speed.

DPS mod has a diminishing returns curve similar to haste, where past 100 its benefit begins to drop off significantly.

Double attack is one of the few abilities that is not on a diminishing returns curve at all. 50% double attack means you will always double attack 50% of the time, and the same goes for 100%. Something to keep in mind though is that you can technically double attack and have the first attack hit but the second one miss, so hit rate is very important. The figure given in the ratio assumes you have a 100% hit rate on autoattack, against yellows/oranges/raid mobs the hit rate can drop as low as 65% which greatly impacts the desirability of this stat.

Weapon Skill has diminishing returns past 500. Much like Defense and Parry, it is contested by an opposing roll made by the mob you are fighting.

For raid-quality gear, check out this thread: http://www.eq2flames.com/shadowknigh...ar-thread.html


5. AA SPEC FOR CAP

Unfortunately for SKs there isn't much variety in the way you should spec. The Shadowknight and Shadow trees have very obvious choices.

Shadowknight tree
Top row: 4-5-5
Second row: 3-0-5-4
Third row: 3-0-3
Fourth row: 0-5-5-0
Fifth row: 5-5-5-5-5-0
EoF Endline row: 1-1-1
SF Endline row: 5-5-0-0-0-5-1

Shadows tree
General row: 0-0-0-5-0-5-0-0 (but generally this row is personal preference)
Fighter row: 0-5-0-0-0-5-1 (if you have problems with hate move 5 points from Swinging Strike to Rescue)
Crusader row: 0-5-5-5-0-5-1 (if you have problems with hate move 5 from Valor in Battle to Gallantry)
Shadowknight row: 0-5-5-4-0-5-1-1

The only variety SKs have when it comes to specs is the Crusader tree.

There is no doubt that you want to get the STR endline first, because it has such a huge impact on everything we do. Aggro, DPS, survivability.

The second endline you choose is more debatable. Personally, I think the WIS line is a must-have now that we can jack up the potency provided by the WIS endline. Some people prefer the STA endline instead for the substantial boost in survivability, which is a viable alternative as well.

As a SK, it is very important that you keep your crit chance at 100% or above self buffed at all times. If you don't have the gear to reach that mark then you will definitely want to spec STA over WIS.

Once you have 2 endlines the next thing you want in this tree is to max out the AE autoattack because it will help a ton in AE fights.

After you reach that point, you need to decide which you want more. Better survivability, or better aggro control. I've listed both potential specs below, as well as a spec with Conviction for high end raiding. Personally I would recommend taking both aggro and survivability, keeping the other one in an AA mirror so you can swap if need be.

Note: While there are some good things about the INT line, in general it is not as powerful as the other lines. On some fights the INT endline can push out some pretty incredible numbers if you purposely tank through fail conditions, otherwise its returns are fairly weak. And for heroic and low end raiding, divine aura is a superior survivability tool.

Crusader tree (Aggro spec)
Top row: 10-10-0-4-0
Second row: 10-10-0-8-0
Third row: 2-2-0-10-0
KoS Endline row: 1-1-0-1-0
SF row: 4-8-0-8-0-2

Crusader tree (Survivability/Lack-of-crit-chance spec)
Top row: 10-4-4-4-0
Second row: 10-10-8-8-0
Third row: 2-0-10-10-0
KoS Endline row: 1-0-1-1-0
SF row: 3-0-0-8-0-0

Crusader tree (High end raiding spec)
Top row: 10-4-0-4-4
Second row: 10-10-0-8-8
Third row: 2-0-0-10-10
KoS Endline row: 1-0-0-1-1
SF row: 3-0-0-8-0-0

Originally Posted by boli

Crit chance is no longer based on level nor is it deminishing returns, 100% crit chance is (or should) be 100% chance to crit all the time not including debuffs against your personal crit chance.

I don't know why there is a sudden surge of people who think crit chance is no longer contested versus mob level, just a week or two ago I tested it with 108% self buffed crit chance vs. level 98 mobs and I had an actual crit rate of 98-99% on several of my spells.

It is possible that this was not intended this to happen, as per Timetravellings post:

Do high-level mobs naturally reduce the chance for players to crit or double attack? What about to-hit?

• to-hit - yes, and a lot
• crit and DA - no, not at all. However, it is possible for them to have buffs/hidden effects that reduce these values (this is not widely used)

But in practice the mechanic is still there. The mobs I used for the study were the orange spider pets in Erudin research halls btw.

Of course, I am open to being proved wrong =) Feel free to post your own study which shows 100 crit = 100% crit versus orange con mobs. I've yet to see any here on flames that was within the margin of error.

Originally Posted by lostforever

Unholy Absorption - 15% more healing across the board.

I know the above talent is useless for raiding but how will people rate it for an instance tank?
Assume you have to give either Essence Siphoning or Dreadful Nightmare to get it.

For an instance tank...maybe, but probably not. If the ability affected heal procs and all AAs I might consider it a viable alternative, however last I checked it only affected professional spells and reaver.

To you an example from an instance I ran the other night, it was Vigiliant: Rescue with a non-shaman solo healer so my lifetaps were more useful there than normal. My heal parse looked like this:

Total HPS: 807. In comparison, our healer had 1.4k outgoing HPS.
Stonewill: 30% (240)
Aura of Leadership: 16% (128)
Reaver's Mania: 13% (101)
Fatal Lifetap: 9% (76)
Voracious Soul: 8%(62)
Crusaders Faith: 6%(48)
Bloodletter: 5%(43)
Grim Strike: 4%(32)
Devour Vitae: 4%(31)
Tap: 3%(21)
Blood Siphon: 1%(7)
Reforming Soul: 1%(6)
Unholy Strike: 1%(5)
Life Draw: 1%(5)

The numbers in bold are the effects that Unholy Absorption affects, although to be honest I haven't checked since the beta.

As you can see, unholy absorbtion would have affected only 37.5% of my heal parse. So for me the actual gain from the AA would have been 15*0.375= 5.6% actual increase in my heal parse. That would mean going from 807 HPS to 852 HPS. Not worth it imo, as the extra damage on dreadful wrath is more beneficial for establishing aggro at range, and the siphon strength enhancement essentially adds 4-5% actual dps. In that same instance, I did 10.8k dps while only doing 0.8k hps.

And of course, another thing to keep in mind is that it will be even less worth it in raids as my professional spells typically are cut in 1/2 while Aura of Leadership is boosted.