New Guardian. Needs assistance:] [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

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Spleak

10-20-2007, 08:37 PM

Hi there,I'm just starting EQ2, and plan on rolling a Guardian. I've tanked in previous games (WoW, EQ, DDO) so I'm planning on playing one here. I'm going to be rolling with a couple friends as well (an assassin and inquisitor) and before I rolled my character I had a few questions. I'm hoping someone could give me a hand. 1.) How do Guardians line up against other tanks? (Are they the best tank all around, or are other classes better at tanking in certain situations? If so, which situations are Guardians best in?)2.) Is race important? I've heard the starting stats don't mean much toward the end of the game, but I noticed Ogres/Dwarves get a 3% to max HP, that seems significant. 3.) I read a quick guide on Str/agi/sta but is there any particular order for which stat is best? I.e. Sta>agi>str? Or should I focus to be well rounded?4.) Are any other stats important besides Strength, agility, and stamina? Like wisdom, for more resists?5.) Any great Tanking FAQ websites?:]Tanks for your help!

Xalmat

10-20-2007, 10:40 PM

1. Guardians are probably the best tanks in the game, as far as survivability goes. However, they are also low on the DPS side of things.2. Race is not important. It's nice to have that extra 3% HP, but you can tank perfectly fine regardless of your race.3. It all depends what your goals are. More STA = more HP, more STR = more damage = more aggro, more AGI = more avoidance = less damage taken. Personally, I would try to maintain a balance, but more than likely your STR and STA will pull way ahead of your AGI. The nice thing is, Mastercrafted armor suits the bill, as it is balanced evenly across STR, STA, and AGI, and is readily available. Not to mention it remains one of the best options for armor until high level.4. Wisdom is useful, but the increased resists you get are extremely minimal. Don't sacrifice any of your STR, STA, or AGI for WIS if that's what you're asking. Intelligence only affects proc damage from your weapons and buffs, and not something you need to invest in at all.5. I'm not aware of any good Tanking FAQ websites, but plenty of information on specific classes.

Spleak

10-20-2007, 10:45 PM

Great post! Thanks, clears up quite a bit for me.Think I'll roll a race that looks more appealing instead of an ogre now <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> (Old EQ Ogres ftw, down with EQ2 ogres ;[)

TuinalOfTheNexus

10-20-2007, 10:48 PM

<cite>Spleak wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hi there,I'm just starting EQ2, and plan on rolling a Guardian. I've tanked in previous games (WoW, EQ, DDO) so I'm planning on playing one here. I'm going to be rolling with a couple friends as well (an assassin and inquisitor) and before I rolled my character I had a few questions. I'm hoping someone could give me a hand. 1.) How do Guardians line up against other tanks? (Are they the best tank all around, or are other classes better at tanking in certain situations? If so, which situations are Guardians best in?)Best raid tank; best heroic tank versus very tough content; average heroic tank versus general content (exp grinding); worst solo tank.2.) Is race important? I've heard the starting stats don't mean much toward the end of the game, but I noticed Ogres/Dwarves get a 3% to max HP, that seems significant. Race isn't important. If you want the absolute best choice it's Ogre, but it's a tiny, tiny difference.3.) I read a quick guide on Str/agi/sta but is there any particular order for which stat is best? I.e. Sta>agi>str? Or should I focus to be well rounded?Well rounded is the best approach, because of diminishing returns. You really can't min/max stats to any extent because most decent tank gear has +str/sta/agi all on it. But if anything, favor str>sta>agi at lower levels (more dps = more exp), sta>str>agi (more hp = more survivability) at higher levels.4.) Are any other stats important besides Strength, agility, and stamina? Like wisdom, for more resists?In general, worry more about getting items that increase your DPS (anything with haste/dps mod/good weapon/masters) than stat gear.5.) Any great Tanking FAQ websites?:]I've never found a site that I thought "wow, that's a great guide" to. For questions eq2flames has a more hardcore but less tolerant forum than here. Allakhazam and Tentonhammer etc. have okayish guides. When I was learning to raid MT, a very good tank said to me "you learn by doing", and the more I learnt the more I realised how true this is. You can't really write a guide that will include all the nuances you need to be a great tank. Part of it is learning all the zones and mobs by heart. Part of it is understanding all the other classes, so you know how they'll heal you and when they're likely to pull aggro. Part of it is getting the pace right for the group or raid and always being ready to pull. Part of it is understanding how to use all your CAs and gear to maximise your hate generation and dps. And part of it is having the confidence to lead 23 people through a zone.Tanks for your help!</blockquote>

Tyrion

10-21-2007, 06:53 AM

<cite>Spleak wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hi there,I'm just starting EQ2, and plan on rolling a Guardian. I've tanked in previous games (WoW, EQ, DDO) so I'm planning on playing one here. I'm going to be rolling with a couple friends as well (an assassin and inquisitor) and before I rolled my character I had a few questions. I'm hoping someone could give me a hand. 1.) How do Guardians line up against other tanks? (Are they the best tank all around, or are other classes better at tanking in certain situations? If so, which situations are Guardians best in?)2.) Is race important? I've heard the starting stats don't mean much toward the end of the game, but I noticed Ogres/Dwarves get a 3% to max HP, that seems significant. 3.) I read a quick guide on Str/agi/sta but is there any particular order for which stat is best? I.e. Sta>agi>str? Or should I focus to be well rounded?4.) Are any other stats important besides Strength, agility, and stamina? Like wisdom, for more resists?5.) Any great Tanking FAQ websites?:]Tanks for your help!</blockquote>Pre-emptive warning; my opinions are mainly based on raiding. I levelled all the way to 70 and was a heroic tank for the longest time, but now raid mainly. If you want advice for heroic content, I can post later for you. 1) Guardians have the best clutch survival skills of any tank. Tower of Stone and Stone Sphere dominate. Our aggro is mid-range, and at later levels, very dependant on your damage outpout.2) That 3% is significant actually. With a casual raid force that has cleared all KoS/EoF instances, but does not do contested, I'm at 10,515 HPs as an Ayr'Dal Guardian (could be 100-200 higher with some jewelery I'm missing), where as a Dwarf/Ogre/Troll/Halfling would be standing closer to 10,700 with that 3%. But really, at that point, HPs is less important than your aggro control. If you really want to min-max, roll an Ogre or a Dwarf. If you don't really care (and you really shouldn't imo, or my Guardian: Thorren would be an ogre), then roll whatever you want.3) Sta > Str > Agi. Stamina, Stamina, Stamina. Avoidance is crap in my opinion, but that's cause I spec completely offense and worry about my aggro much more than survival. Since I don't do Avatars, most instance mobs become jokes after debuffs, so holding aggro from 30K+ zonewide dps is much more important. 4) Wisdom does resists, but the effects are minimal. The majority of your resists will come from gear. Intelligence improves the proc damage on items (I think), but once again, effects are minimal.5) Eq2flames.com, but to be honest, you become better with experience.