General "Tank" GuidelinesFollow

You really do think I was talking to you?

Wow, and you think I've been reading your posts on other threads and just waited till now to respond to you?

Sorry GXM for your thread going like this. I promise I am done talking to this guy here.

LOL. Guys just stop lol. Lesson today is:

Don't Tell Jokes.

Avoid Serious People

Don't Knock on Other Classes

Don't Reply to Ppl Who Can't Be Reasoned With

Let it die. You are both right. Shake hands. Get a beer.
Go kill something.

Another note for tanks. I was in a party last night that went through 2 tanks. The first was very good, and with the second, we had more deaths.

We had 3 scouts in the party, myself (predator), a bard and a rogue.

In order for scouts to deal their real potential damage, especially with predator and rogue, the mob really needs to stay in one place.

The second tank we had last night kept repositioning himself. So, Id break combat and sneak to do ambush or shadowblade, and he'd move. Since I'm in sneak, Im crawling along trying to get to the mob. Or I have to break sneak and waste the opportunity. The rogues running around trying to stay flanked on the mob too.

I'd run back a few steps to do a back shot, and by the time I got there, the tank had managed to turn the mob completely around so I have to run to the other end of the mob to do it. But by then, sneak/track were available again, so just a wasted opportunity on the back shot.

From what I've seen, us predators/rogues are the main damage dealers in the game (mages do damage too, but our power doesn't drain nearly as fast). If you really want to get the benefit of having one in the party, please stand still as the tank.

Just gonna chime in here from a caster, with AoE's, viewpoint.

I play a wizard. The best group I have been in to date - that is to say the fastest and most efficient - has been ONE Gaurdian, THREE wizards, ONE ranger, and ONE Templar. The Guardian was able to hold agro so well that we casters could burn linked encounters to pieces with AE's and pepper what he had targeted with single DD's in between. He kept agro so well that we could just about chain our AE's and never get any attention from the mobs. We casters killed them so fast that the Templar seldom got below half power. The old method of CC is no longer truly needed as long as you don't get crazy with pulls. That is NOT to say that an enchanter isn't needed. Because if you get a group of orange cons or too many yellow, and I am talking about 5 to 10, an enchanter will be the difference in life and death. Besides, to say that all an enchanter brings to the table are mez's is just short sighted.

The problem is that most of the enchanters are from the old school and seem unwilling to try other methods. Downtime is no longer a real issue so saving the cleric power to avoid that isn't needed. Mana regen is slowed during combat anyway, so it is an unnecessary tactic. A Gaurdian's damage mitigation is crazy in this game and so many classes have so many ways of debuffing mob strength, that mez's really should be saved for a less than ideal group or emergencies.

Tanks have all these AE taunts and attacks for a REASON people. Learn to think a different way. Try it, I'll bet you'll like it.

This is exactly right. I think those who haven't realized this yet, will eventually, after they get a little more experience playing the game.



Edited, Thu Nov 18 08:40:04 2004 by esamatti

Not hardly! Or atleast I haven't seen any compelling argument based on EQ2 experience that even comes close pwning esamatti.

Esamatti roxors and is extremely l33t, and knows what he is talking about. :P

P.S :P <--- Means I am being lighthearted about the preceding comment.

Its always nice to have an enchanter but so far it seems like most enchanters I group with just want to chain mez and contribute nothing else to the group. This is just dumb. I'd way rather have somebody contributing heals or dmg then somebody sitting there doing nothing and taking up a slot.

Furthermore, whether I tank 3 or 4 mobs it makes no difference to me as a Warrior (soon Gaurdian). I've played with 1 healer or 2 and my armor is such that I don't take a ton of hurt from 1 extra monster bashing on me. It won't make or break a group to have a mezed mob in every fight especially if you could just replace that Enchanter with a scout or sorcerer and bring down one of the mobs much quicker.

I don't find it hard to play with enchanters. I don't use assault anyways so AoE coming from me isn't a problem. My job as a warrior is very simple. I pull with shout, press hold the line, and tank for the rest of the battle. Everybody else should be assisting me. If we have a chanter or not I play the same because I don't trust assualt or AoE anyways because it leads to problems and doesn't mean much in terms of dmg to my warrior. Everybody should be assisting the Main Tank anyways so if we have a chanter it is the same deal (just some of the nukers can't use the AoEs but those aren't that great anyways from what I hear).

Overall I think AoE is over-rated unless you are pulling some super HO that does incredible damage. If you kill all 4 mobs slowly with AoEs you wind up taking much more damage then if you concentrate all fire onto one target at at time. Think about it.

Yeah you are right. I picked up on that after the fact. "Hold the Line" must be a Warrior ability. hehee.

I agree with your above post. I definetly shows that you have been there.