Guardian rantFollow

Apologies for the rant (not really).

OKay, correct me if I am wrong, but the Guardian is supposed to guard, right? Great defense capabilities, main tank, holder of the aggro, blah, blah, blah...

It seems that this epic Defender should be all about supporting the group through defense, at least in my view.

Why does the level 20 Guardian Quest yield a 2-handed weapon?? I mean, I have been using a Tower Shield all this time. Shield Bash is an indespensible aid to controlling mobs as a tank! Am I supposed to give up 200 pts of defense to wield a slow weapon with stupid graphics? What is SOE thinking? Why doesn't the guardian get an uber shield, or armor piece instead of a lame Halberd?

Someone elighten me, please!

I can certainly see the benefit a few more points of damage will do to annoy mobs, but a few counterpoints:

1) I routinely use all my taunts throughout a group battle to maintain aggro
2) I do not care about the damage I deal, only the damage I take
3) After dinging 20 I went out and fought 2 groups of 4 green Gnolls (1 caster, 3 fighters), once with Halberd and once with axe/tower shield combo. There was no differnce to the amount of power I used in both fights, but with the Halberd of Defense I had about 10% life left after the battle. With the axe/shield, I had about 95% left. Seems pretty clear which is better.

And, yes, they were the exact same mob combos in the same exact place and there were no significant differences in hit/miss ratios.

omg people stop whining about the guardian rewad its not that bad its pretty cool i mean wtf buy a shield if your gonna cry so much
you can still tank without a shield
its just lvl 20 your a noob lol
go die about it

I'm not suggesting that a two-hander increases your DPS. In fact, in some cases, it simply maintains your DPS (you hit slower, but for a larger amount). I'm suggesting that a two-hander generates more *pure aggro* than a single-hander.

Again, to my knowledge there are no formal stats on this in EQ2. But there *are* back in EQ1, and the reason the MT typically went with a two-hander was to maintain aggro, not to increase DPS.

Now the fact is that in EQ2 we have *many* more tools to accomplish aggro management than merely weapon selection and mashing the "taunt" key every time it refreshes :) So, the overall effect is probably a minimal one. Many things in EQ2 seem, so far, to simply come down to a matter of personal style. I can pick up a two-handed sword and be just as effective as when I use my usual two-handed hammer. That is quite impossible in EQ1 unless you've been maintaining those skills.

At the lower levels it's all about AC and staying alive so a shield and 1H works for me. Took a bit of getting used to after years of duel wield in EQ1 though.

I was disappointed in the 2H weapon as well.

All the Warriors i know used 2 fast, 1 hand procing weapons to hold aggro.

RussoEQ keeps stating how in EQ1 the MTs used 2-handers to keep aggro. Umm did you even play EQ1? I can't remember the last time I saw a warrior with a 2-handed weapon. Warriors dual wield and that's the way they liked it. Pals/SKs may have used 2handers but that was only because they were not afforded the luxury of dual wield.

5 year Veteran of EQ1,
Havana

/sigh

Look Mr. "5 year Veteran of EQ1".... I'm not going to argue with you over something academic. Rather than spin my wheels, here's a link to a web site that *just maybe* you ought to think about checking out if you want some *real* information about an EQ1 warrior.



The thread I just linked is *the definitive* Steel Warrior "aggro weapon" thread.

I'll keep checking back in eager anticipation of you admitting you were a dumbass.

The subject is practically at a level of a holy war, but nevertheless, the general concensus is that 2H weapons generate a helluva lot more aggro. You know...kinda like I've been saying?



Edited, Fri Jan 7 19:26:24 2005 by RussoEQ

Interesting, the guardian rant has turned into flaming about EQlive warriors aggro. Lemmie just throw my two-cents in from my experience as the main tank from an elemental guild. I tanked every elemental raid mob in PoP, and more than once.

Two handed weapons became fashionable for warriors when pop first came out because of the problem that mobs in PoP had a very mean riposte. SOE nerfed this and dual weild became popular again for warriors. Alot of it had to do with the fact that all of the hate producing weapons were 1-handed. BoC, Bloodfrenzy, etc. PoP introduced the BoWar, SEWS, etc. 2handers that produced good hate. The problem with these were they were difficult to obtain. My guild killed RZtW about 15 times and only had 1 BoW drop ever, I know thats not a typical drop rate we just got screwed. Oddly the best warrior weapon from PoP was the one hander Dark Blade of the Warlord from Time.

I can say that in my experience all of the top warriors on the server were dual weild. 2 handers were fun because you could get really good dps with them, the ratio on some of them became rediculous, of course that paled in comparison with the dps of other classes. Umm any warrior over 55 should be using a 2 hander? I think I'll hold aggro better with my BoC and another procing weapon of some sort. Believe me, I could tell the difference in aggro when I tanked mobs like Magmaton for the first time using 2 weapons instead of 1. Instead of losing a rogue here or there, or a SK using his sews, the results became a flawless victory. I'm just speaking from personal experience.

As for the guardian class, well I haven't been able to figure out all the nuances of it yet, but again it's a new game and level 20 is still very low. I would think the guardian becomes much more relevant at 30 and up.

..umm i said have not only use

well i think i will. i have 3 freinds in eq1 (2 of them in eq2) but they all agread they were disapointed with the weapon the qeynos gaurdians get. most of them dont use a 2hd weapon as the ability to hold agro decreese with it. this was same in eq1 i played and pally and on ever raid i was on if the warrior used a 2h weapon the agro would shift around and usaly end up on me or a healer. i am curently in a guild called "paradox warriors" we arnt all that big but we have 2 gaurdians in the group. 1 of them uses a 2h weapon and every one in the guild doesent want to group with him if he wil lbe mt. mostly becasue he cant hold the agro very well useing a 2h weapon. so if your a bezerker or A gaurdian dual weild or use a sheild. just my 2cp

No, you misunderstood. I said from in my experience that is what I had seen on my server. Personally I could care less what the steel warrior boards have to say. I rarely went there and I know a majority of the top warriors on my server ignored them as well, they actually joked about the steel warrior. The site was good for interesting little stats, but strategies were something you had to figure out for yourself, there were just too many differing opinions about them to be useful. It was like trying to wade through miles of crap to find something useful in that sense. The only reason I made a reply is because I saw something I felt was in error, simple enough. Not a flame, not a rant, just an honest resonse.

Again though, who cares really. This about the guardian in eq2, a new game and a new but similar class. I didn't mind the weapon as a reward, it worked out well when I got it and still is pretty decent. Personally I would've liked a BP or something, with plenty of stats to keep it desireble through the higher 20's. I didn't design the game so no biggie. Any reward was nice IMO.