Tips please.

[Tyranical]

Never tanked before really and as i said a few days ago the one time i tried i couldn't hold agro at all... I'm lvl 24. So lets assume i'll be grouping at around 28 or so for CoV so i'll be tanking then, with moves up to 28 what kind of order of moves should i use to hold agro? any other tips for holding agro? Cheers

[Beldin_]

<p>Wahh.. i must save that as a text file somewher i think <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Ok .. always precast blessing before you pull .. when you pull, first make sure if you need to body-pull or can pull with a bow .. however .. after pull try to finish a quick HO with you wis-debuff an group-taunt first .. followed by a single-taunt. After that .. if its a group encounter, and there is no danger to pull adds, use your AoE-spells.</p><p>After that .. or on single targets shield bash .. kick .. dot ..  in the end .. use whatever does the most damage <img src="/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Norrsken]

like shalla said, always pull with blessing up, and keep it up at all times. Also, when I pull I generally body pull, use my encounter taunt on the run back, and my splitpaw taunt. When I've positioned the mob I use the shield bash. Works wonders for single mobs. After that I use my debuff attack, cycle every CA and fast casting spell and round up with the snare nuke (One you wont have until 40ies somewhere I believe). Thats me on single mobs. gotta build that aggro fast in the beginning, or they are gonna rip it, and as a sk, you basically wont get aggro back without burning either rescue, HT or DM. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[DwarvesR]

<p>I typed this up for a friend (who is one of the rare halfling SK's) back when I was mid-30's.  Was well before AA's, so it's a little dated, but. . . it's still mostly valid:</p><p>************</p><p>First off, it's really basic, but your job as main tank is to get the attention of the mob(s) and keep it on you.  This is done through a variety of taunts, getting that crucial 1st hit in, continual damage and taunts, and casting buffs on yourself that anger the mobs too.  Obviously it's easier to keep aggro with a single mob than to keep a group on you, but it's possible to get the group to stay too.  You also have the responsibility to pick up the adds that may wander by.  That's gonna be a little hard for you as a halfling becuz you are so short that it's hard to see past your group members and the mob(s) you are currently engaging.  It's doable though.  And when you are MT you want to be in your defensive stance, using a sword & shield combo.  Occasionally if you are fighting easier mobs you may want a 2H weapon.</p><p>For myself, the way I try to keep aggro is that I pull with the "Draw Strength" debuff.  It has a longer range than my taunt, and it builds about the same amount of hate, becuz it hurts the mob and marks me as a caster.  My pull macro follows up with my reactive damage shield.  It again marks me as a caster, draws heal spell aggro from all mobs that see me do it (effectively a "poor (wo)man's aoe taunt), and when the mob hits me while it's up, it heals me (gives me aggro) and hurts the mob (more aggro).  Next skill to be used is the AOE taunt.  Yes, it uses more power than the single target taunt, but for an SK it includes a disease debuff -- this is important becuz it adds more aggro on top of the raw hate built by the taunt, and furthermore it makes nearly all your spells and combat arts do more damage, becuz you mostly use disease-based damage arts and spells.</p><p>That's pretty much standard for all encounters -- aoe, or single.  At this point then, you need to use your situational awareness and choose a strategy that's best for how it is.</p><p>Vs a single mob, at this point I will use my single-target taunt.  It (obviously) adds more hate, plus has a disease dot in it.  That dot, couple with the "hate-over-time" effect of the taunt serves to keep aggro steadily going up even between the times you can throw the taunt.  After that, I'll use my kick art, my shield-bash art, then trigger the HO.  Follow with the Painbringer attack, finish the HO with the single-target taunt (yes, it's back up by then).  From there I run through my other lifetaps and damage skills/spells until all are used, and then the HO trigger is available again.  Trigger it, hit the Painbringer, and by now the AOE taunt should be up again too.  Rinse and repeat.</p><p>If going against a heroic mob, I will usually cast my tainted sacrament (limited pet) spell too.  The pet generates its own hate and does quite a bit of damage.  If the mob lasts beyone the 30 second timer on the pet, then all the aggro the pet built up will transfer to you once the pet goes *poof,* so that can be a nice delayed reaction taunt too.  I generally only cast the pet at heroic mobs, or against single ^ mobs if I'm soloing.  I don't like to use my essences up for lesser critters that I really don't need the pet against.</p><p>Vs a group of mobs, after my pull macro finishes, rather than immediately going for the single-target taunt, I will instead use my 2 aoe attacks.  Both are disease damage, so having the disease debuff from the aoe taunt is nice.  This will get a hit in on every mob (whoever gets the 1st hit gets a hate bonus -- you ALWAYS want it to be you) and the one aoe is a DoT, generating hate over its duration, while the other is a straight up "you hit the mob for a decent amount of damage" one.  The thing to be careful of then is that both aoe's are TRUE aoe's, so you can bring in adds with them if you aren't careful.  Of course, if you are aware of your surroundings and know where any potential non-aggro adds are, this isn't really a problem.  This is one reason to "pull to a safe spot," actually. . . if you aren't in aggro range of a wanderer, you also aren't in aoe range.  So anyway. . . add in the 2 aoe's, then do what I mentioned above for the single target.</p><p>Depending on how much aoe the rest of your group does, you may need to further modify this, though.  If they mostly do single-target, then you are probably okay sticking to the one mob until it's dead, then cycling to the next, and so on.  However, if a lot of aoe damage is being done, it's easy to lose the rest of the mobs to the caster.  Most caster know this and a) wait to use aoe until later, so you have a chance to build up some aoe hate, and b) maybe not use aoe at all.  Even so, you can get the whole group on you and to stay on you.  you do this by cycling which mob you are targeting when you taunt (and complete your HO).  *Most* of the time, hitting tab will cycle through just the group you are fighting, so you just need to pay attention to how many mobs there are and hit the tab key the right number of times.</p><p>And that's pretty much it for when you are MT.   </p><p>Now, if you are in a group where someone else is MT, the biggest thing to remember there is not to taunt.  You have a nice mitigation buff you can give to the MT, but it costs you some of your own, so you don't want to get aggro unless there's an add that the MT is just plain to busy to grab himself.  Sometimes ya gotta save the healer or the nuker, after all. . . .   Pretty much as "offtank" your job is to support the main tank, do as much damage as possible, and if you need to peel a mob from a "clothie" then go ahead and do that, but try not to get so much hate that the MT can't get it off you.  Just get enough to keep it off the finger-waggler, then go back to the MT's mob.  As "offtank" you will generally want to be in offensive stance with a 2H weapon in order to maximize your damage done.   </p><p>And there you have it.  All of my tips for being an SK.  Well. . . that and upgrade your equipment and spells, of course. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  The SK actually needs all 5 stats as high as possible.  STR is your power pool and melee damage, WIS is also your power pool.  STA and AGI are important to a fighter for the hit points from STA and AGI bosts avoidance and increases your ability to hit the mob/accuracy.  And finally, INT is important becuz you have spells, and those use INT to boost their damage.  As a plate tank, STR and STA pretty much take care of themselves.  AGI isn't *as* important to a plate tank, so you can neglect it if you like.  WIS increases your power pool, but not as much as STR, so STR should be a consideration 1st.  And INT is pretty important, but your offensive stance is a HUGE INT buff, so you can not worry *too* much about INT either.  So pretty much, focus on STR and STA like any other fighter, adding the other 3 stats as you can.</p><p>***********</p><p>Okay. . . we don't use "essences" anymore so feel free to cast your pet on any and every mov you feel like.  Also, we now gain power off INT, not WIS, so INT is quite a bit more important a stat.  AA's can make your taunts more effective, so look into those for sure.   Higher levels you gain more AE capability but for your level this should pretty much cover it.  I also now will use my "pull macro" before actually pulling in order to get my damage shield up 1st, and it also announces to the group that the mob's coming in a sec.  And there's so much more social aggro now that I usually body-pull, and hit the Draw Strength on the run back, along with my taunts, since they can all be cast on the run.</p><p>Other than that. . . looks like it's not changed all *that* much.  Kewl.</p><p>Granted, I'm just doign a quick scan.  Probably still some errors or things that have changed that I'm not seeing.  It's 2:18 am here after all. . . . </p><p>Okay, I'm editing. . . . I am nearly always in Offense Stance anymore.  Generally will only drop to defensive if we get a group or 2 of adds.  The mitigation difference is only about 4%, but I do about 20% more damage in Offense stance, and therefore hold hate that much better in that stance as well.</p>

[Mrkacos]

<p>As a SK who is most often the main tank I have a bit of advice..</p><p>Go through all your powers and take all of the ones that create hate and put them together, set up a "hate" chain.</p><p>I have witnessed and heard several people talk about their powers and their attacks as a SK's.  They go on about how they have only two taunts.  nooo, you have several powers that generate significant quantities of hate along with some dmg or Hate over time coupled with Damage over time.  Use Them. </p><p>If survivability is an issue for you and your in the 20's do your armor quests.  Always use blessing, and work on the Reaver line. </p>

[Galn]

<p>...also remember, if you have a spell that does damage and heals you, you generate hate for both the damage and the heal.  That makes the blessing even better, sine every time you get hit you do damage to the mob and heal yourself for a nice hate boost.</p><p>One thing a lkot of people do not do is look at all their skills/spells and really learn what they do. Many of our skills do many different things.</p>

[Kaishod]

<p>one way I like to pull... if the area allows for it, is use my Abominable Wrath (snare, plus pretty decent dmg), I have an imbued mastercrafted bow just for the proc and the extra dmg since I'm not firing several arrows ever, send my pet, sacrilege, insidious promise... normally before they're even in melee range, smite, shield bash... rarely have issues with the snare, arrow, taunt</p><p>For groups its much more fun:  Blessing, grab a large mob by any means available... hammer ground, despoil, deathmarch, aoe, aoe, pestilence, tap veins, loot <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>As an SK tank its always fun to have an FD macro set up for the trigger happy folk around Norrath as well... </p><p>ie.) </p><p>/FD</p><p>/tell %t I just made you eat dirt just because I can... </p><p>or</p><p>/tell %t If the Overlord meant for you to tank, you should've left the pretty dress at home.</p><p>or</p><p>/tell %t Just because Gandolf had a sword in LoTR doesn't mean you can come melee... get back before you hurt yourself.</p><p>Also... quick ways to get aggro back other then rescue and death march... Intercede, Grave Blessing, and Feign Death do cast thru the mobs to whoever decided to take aggro</p>

[Harduc]

<p>Are you sure about Grave  Blessing?</p><p>last time I checked im quite sure it was cast on my self</p>

[Typhonian]

Well, you can cast it on other people - by simply casting it on the mob, and it will be cast on the mobs current target. Not sure if you get the hate this way or not though.

[Xiziz]

Well for whats its worth we suck in the hate department as it is. Most of our hate gain is over time. we get one AOE taunt that doies not use a dot affect. Your gonna need to spec down STR tree if you are tankinng alot. and really you need to explain to your group members you take  a bit to build your aggro thats the bottom line. At lvl 70 I usally dont tank unless we have some type of aggro transfer or a coercer for aggro buff. Ive found no benefit to Debuffing or warding to try and get aggro. Our DPS is shite now so dont count on that helping much. Spec your AA's for STR and INT for crits until you have over 50 AA. Right now i have zero AA in any of tthe hate lines because i am using Aggro gear from Mistmoore. Also if you got the money Get your abilites adept 3 at least . The rest is old wives tales. Aggro is Taunt and DPS dependant. The warding does nothing unless your a healer lol then they will be tanking

[melaine_dvarvensplitter]

<cite>Xiziz wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well for whats its worth we suck in the hate department as it is. Most of our hate gain is over time. we get one AOE taunt that doies not use a dot affect. Your gonna need to spec down STR tree if you are tankinng alot. and really you need to explain to your group members you take  a bit to build your aggro thats the bottom line. At lvl 70 I usally dont tank unless we have some type of aggro transfer or a coercer for aggro buff. Ive found no benefit to Debuffing or warding to try and get aggro. Our DPS is [I cannot control my vocabulary] now so dont count on that helping much. Spec your AA's for STR and INT for crits until you have over 50 AA. Right now i have zero AA in any of tthe hate lines because i am using Aggro gear from Mistmoore. Also if you got the money Get your abilites adept 3 at least . The rest is old wives tales. Aggro is Taunt and DPS dependant. The warding does nothing unless your a healer lol then they will be tanking</blockquote>Xiziz... seems your unhappy with the SK class, my advice is to find another as your advice is nothing but negative feedback to the OP. I have found that using your blessing on the pull, sacrilege, and chaining my hate building spells/attacks hate isn't an issue. Once you get Tap Viens its a whole new world with hate and self healing <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. Also get your stances every level at A3 if you can and work on your taunts as well. Our hate is built from HoT *Hate over Time* and dps, by setting your int at 448 at the least you will notice your job and the class is alot easier and alot more fun. Gear helps but alot of practice and dying to learn the in's and out's of the class comes by trial and error. No matter what you read on the forum's you will need to get alot of hands on. I would aslo advise using hex dolls, I have a STR and an Int doll.  The debuffs they give can be very useful on a fight that can mean win or lose. Just my 2cp.

[Xiziz]

well no i just gave what ive found to be true . I gave a great suggestions about AA to increase hate gain. I dont know what content your doing but if your using tap viens in Unrest or Mistmoore your guranteed a wipe. Im not unhappy just stating some conerns that have not been completely fixed , quite contrary the class is functioning way better then it was at second expansion. Just keep it going in the right Direction is all. I am specifcaly speaking of End game problems ive encountered . SK is a great class it solo's like no other but end game it starts to fall apart is all. Great for PVP great for solo . Dead last for MT in any content that counts , Last in HP last in Mit , Last in taunt . we need a strong point

[CHIMPNOODLE.]

<p>Well I hope you're not trying to tank CoV (Crypts of Valdoon) at 28. RoV might be easier for starters  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src=" width="15" height="15" />  </p><p>The lower levels can be tough for cusaders a bit, we come into our own a bit later than some classes. The biggest factor will be the quality of you gear and spells really. As you reach the top tiers, you end up with a set of Hate tools that are more than enough for anything you'll have to face. Spell order does make a big difference, but it seems most above have already covered a lot of the basics.</p><p>General things though...</p><p>Blessing before pulls, and refresh it often if you need. Lead with your highest up-front hate taunts, and fastest cast dammage attacks and DOTs first. Keep your DoTs stacked, and don't follow up a slow cast with a another slow cast unless you have aggro locked down solid already. For example; Death cirlce, Abominable Wrath, Tap, then Blessing etc.....lot of lost casting time where you could have loaded up a slew of DoTs in between. Can't remmber the lower lvl equivalents of them off-hand.</p><p>AAs do help a ton as well for SKs. We have some great lines to choose from.  STR and INT are both useful for extra hate if you need it (but not neccesarry), STA melee crits help a tiny bit as well..nice little throw-in if you're heading for the STA final though.</p><p>The EoF Hate line is incredible for hate, naturally....as is some points in the early Decay line.</p><p>Another biggie is "Know the Zone". Once you have been through a zone a few times, you get to know where everything is.....this lets you unload and control things a lot easier. Like the Unrest and Mistmoore examples given above....the majority of  Unrest  poses no issue whatsoever for unloading all open AOEs without fear. Mistmoore is an AOEers dream imo. You need to know where the mobs are so you can take advantage of all your abilities.....when and where you can and can't use some abilities makes a big world of difference.</p><p>When you hit the higher tiers in levels, upgrades and AAs...controlling aggro is not an issue. The bigger issue is usually how many encounters you can pull at a time that you can handle, given the group that are in <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src=" width="15" height="15" /> </p>

[melaine_dvarvensplitter]

<cite>Xiziz wrote:</cite><blockquote>well no i just gave what ive found to be true . I gave a great suggestions about AA to increase hate gain. I dont know what content your doing but if your using tap viens in Unrest or Mistmoore your guranteed a wipe. Im not unhappy just stating some conerns that have not been completely fixed , quite contrary the class is functioning way better then it was at second expansion. Just keep it going in the right Direction is all. I am specifcaly speaking of End game problems ive encountered . SK is a great class it solo's like no other but end game it starts to fall apart is all. Great for PVP great for solo . Dead last for MT in any content that counts , Last in HP last in Mit , Last in taunt . we need a strong point</blockquote>I have been playing since 2 weeks after launch and lived through all the nerfs, changes and what not and before KoS I had solo'd those levels all but 3 or 4... so during that time 1-50 I had no MT or grouping experience to speak of. However, KoS and on I had tried every AA line and spec to find a balance of dps, and hate control and HP's. I also found me a Raiding SK to get advice from from AA to gear to become a killer group MT for all zones regardless of group set up. I self buff to 8600ish  and have a mix of gear. I have seen Raid tanks aka zerks and guardians with less hp and mit than I have.... and they have the "traditional MT rule" on loot.  I also look at our top raid guilds on AB most of the Elite *cream of the crop meaning* Guards and Zerks have me in HP's by about 2k ... not bad considering that most of them are EoF set gear and Avatar geared. So to say last in HP... I call fluff. Mit I call fluff, and remember Mit has a cap and then its parry, avoidance etc that becomes key. Taunt I call fluff yet again. I have ripped aggro off of Pally's with amends up, Guardians with Moderate, and Zerkers going insane. I use Tap in Unrest and live through it nicely, MMC same story... However, I will admit I haven't done alot of tanking in the top of Mistmore so I do not have an opinion or experience on whether I would wipe or not. One thing through it all is .. ask questions of the upper SK's be it raiding guild ones, or the random guy on the docks. Take there advice sift through it and find what works for you. Just my 2cp.

[Xiziz]

<p>Thats nice Ramone. How did you get more HP and mit then Fabled zerks and guards? What AA 's did you take? I maxed my STA line and have full set of legendary class and fabled gear with all my STA jewelry and i just barely crest 7800 HP with respec'd base stats all STA bonus. As for tap viens for taunt i tried it once in side house in unrest and grabbed stuff through walls. I wont even bother in CMM with that trick.  </p><p>I you wouldnt mind could you post your AA's and gear so we can see ? ive seen SK's with 10k hp but they had real nice gear</p>

[melaine_dvarvensplitter]

<cite>Xiziz wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Thats nice Ramone. How did you get more HP and mit then Fabled zerks and guards? What AA 's did you take? I maxed my STA line and have full set of legendary class and fabled gear with all my STA jewelry and i just barely crest 7800 HP with respec'd base stats all STA bonus. As for tap viens for taunt i tried it once in side house in unrest and grabbed stuff through walls. I wont even bother in CMM with that trick.  </p><p>I you wouldnt mind could you post your AA's and gear so we can see ? ive seen SK's with 10k hp but they had real nice gear</p></blockquote>STR 3 STA 44882 INT 848 Reaver line full then assorted AA's in Hate and some timers on BP line... Gear is assorted fabled, with adornments, and the right food. Mit wise they have me but they are at the cap and there avoidance and parry smokes mine into the ground. I have seen other SK's that aren't running as much HP as I do and several pieces better than I do, which makes no sense to me./shrug Helm: Scourge Knight Cloak: Cloak of Flames Shoulders: Dark Malevolent Spaulders Chest: Cuirass of Shadowfire Legs: Legplates of the Bloodhowler Forearms: Vambraces of Impiety Hands: Bloodsoaked Gauntlets Feet: Dark Malevolent Sabatons Neck: Swansong Choker Ears: Ancient bonehoop, Fitzpizzles Earcog(I am kicking myself cuz I didn't take the other) 1 of many mistakes on Claymore Rewards <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Rings: Stained glass ring, Essence Band of Fear Wrist: Dragonscale bracelet,Vampire Slayers Circlet Dolls: STR and INT T7 dolls. Weapon: Adamantine Doomhammer (Trying to get SoD done for that sexy Gladius) Shield: Qeynos Guard Bosprite Muffins, Bosprite Wine ... Both have nice stats for INT,STA and STR. Then I have assorted adornments for everything. From treasured to fabled adornments. I hope this helps .. and this is my all purpose gear set up as at this time not being guilded and not raiding as much as I would like etc etc. Also there is no shame in buying gear ... if it makes your job easier and your group's survivability better then do it. I have bought gear and will do it again if I have to. I do prefer to earn it, but sometimes convenience is handy <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Xiziz]

thats why your gear is much better then mine. giving me lots to think on gear wise though.  Legendary class set is garbage will be doing more raiding to upgrade gear

[melaine_dvarvensplitter]

Yeah.. I agree the EoF legendary gear is garbage ... pretty much zilch with INT on it. Looks like Sony made it for Pally only since they use STR/WIS for there stats. The EoF collections are awesome jewelry, it was nice to have "good" treasured jewelry to replace some stuff I got in KoS from legendary drops IE: Light and Dark Chitin Rings, and dont remember the wrist pieces. I still have almost all the pieces from KoS Legendary that I looted as back up in my boxes for resists or when a Raid goes horridly wrong <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Also I know at this time many guilds host open raids with NBG looting so keep an eye  out for them too. Usually at this point 90% of those you raid with will be in better gear than you so its easy to get geared up be it relic or class only. I also have a conjy that has some back up gear for when soloing goes wrong or grouping goes wrong. Back up gear is a good thing. I have been collecting the gear I have on and in my back up boxes since KoS released and went at one point KoS launch to Early June this year before I got my first foot upgrade. Oh and the tip in this is .. Back up gear... Back up gear and gear for situations that call for it. *resists etc* Heehee

[melaine_dvarvensplitter]

<cite>melaine_dvarvensplitter wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Xiziz wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Thats nice Ramone. How did you get more HP and mit then Fabled zerks and guards? What AA 's did you take? I maxed my STA line and have full set of legendary class and fabled gear with all my STA jewelry and i just barely crest 7800 HP with respec'd base stats all STA bonus. As for tap viens for taunt i tried it once in side house in unrest and grabbed stuff through walls. I wont even bother in CMM with that trick.  </p><p>I you wouldnt mind could you post your AA's and gear so we can see ? ive seen SK's with 10k hp but they had real nice gear</p></blockquote>STR 3 STA 44882 INT 848 Reaver line full then assorted AA's in Hate and some timers on BP line... Gear is assorted fabled, with adornments, and the right food. Mit wise they have me but they are at the cap and there avoidance and parry smokes mine into the ground. I have seen other SK's that aren't running as much HP as I do and several pieces better than I do, which makes no sense to me./shrug Helm: Scourge Knight Cloak: Cloak of Flames Shoulders: Dark Malevolent Spaulders Chest: Cuirass of Shadowfire Legs: Legplates of the Bloodhowler Forearms: Vambraces of Impiety Hands: Bloodsoaked Gauntlets Feet: Dark Malevolent Sabatons ***** EDIT******* Forgot secondary slot!!!! Secondary slot: Mist Imbued Symbol Neck: Swansong Choker Ears: Ancient bonehoop, Fitzpizzles Earcog(I am kicking myself cuz I didn't take the other) 1 of many mistakes on Claymore Rewards <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" /> Rings: Stained glass ring, Essence Band of Fear Wrist: Dragonscale bracelet,Vampire Slayers Circlet Dolls: STR and INT T7 dolls. Weapon: Adamantine Doomhammer (Trying to get SoD done for that sexy Gladius) Shield: Qeynos Guard Bosprite Muffins, Bosprite Wine ... Both have nice stats for INT,STA and STR. Then I have assorted adornments for everything. From treasured to fabled adornments. I hope this helps .. and this is my all purpose gear set up as at this time not being guilded and not raiding as much as I would like etc etc. Also there is no shame in buying gear ... if it makes your job easier and your group's survivability better then do it. I have bought gear and will do it again if I have to. I do prefer to earn it, but sometimes convenience is handy <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" /> </blockquote>

[CHIMPNOODLE.]

<p>The legendary set gear is fine for most things, not bad resists etc. but ya, they won't push you as high as ya can get. Still decent though, if you aren't into raiding. Some of the Nizara, Unrest and Nek 3 non-set pieces are quite good as well for various slots (like the Jagged Band of the Cursed etc.)</p><p>Even if you stick with the legendary for a bit, or for longer, until/if you get upgrades....adornments help a lot. There are several slots that can get Mitigation adorns and + Parry. There are STA adorns, +100 health (shoulder) and +100 power ones (Head), +70HP for both ring slots (or power ones if ya like), +AGI, +INT.  Most of the straight up + Stat ones are relatively cheap as well.</p><p>The difference with fully adorned vs non adorned toons can be alot if you are still not on the steeper part of the diminishing returns curve (and even if you are, small improvements are better than no improvemnts).</p>

[melaine_dvarvensplitter]

<cite>CHIMPNOODLE. wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>The legendary set gear is fine for most things, not bad resists etc. but ya, they won't push you as high as ya can get. Still decent though, if you aren't into raiding. Some of the Nizara, Unrest and Nek 3 non-set pieces are quite good as well for various slots (like the Jagged Band of the Cursed etc.)</p><p>Even if you stick with the legendary for a bit, or for longer, until/if you get upgrades....adornments help a lot. There are several slots that can get Mitigation adorns and + Parry. There are STA adorns, +100 health (shoulder) and +100 power ones (Head), +70HP for both ring slots (or power ones if ya like), +AGI, +INT.  Most of the straight up + Stat ones are relatively cheap as well.</p><p>The difference with fully adorned vs non adorned toons can be alot if you are still not on the steeper part of the diminishing returns curve (and even if you are, small improvements are better than no improvemnts).</p></blockquote>QFE!