Dorf
11-21-2007, 12:37 AM
<p> I have been reading the forums for a while now, but have neglected to post my opinions despite the many flames, even though i feal a paladin is one of the most versatile classes out there. I am a 73 pally, 70 wiz, and 72 coercer, so i have a good idea of how other tanks compare as i have had every other class tank for my casters. I will start out by saying, i have grouped with some terrible paladins, as with any other class, the player is key, and makes the most difference in ability, not the class of the tank. I played eq1 for 5 years as a pally, wiz and coercer also. In my time on eq2 all three of my toons were max lvl with max aa (before kunark came out), and this guide is what you should expect to accomplish at higher levels. My pally is mostly legendary, mixxed with little fabled, and mostly mastered spells, yet people are constantly amazed at how well I can tank the hardest heroic content efficiently.</p><p>Group Tanking: </p><p>I will explain tanking for groups, as I have tanked only some epic mobs, and only a few easier raids, i'll let the hard core raiders have thier say on that. First, put your amends on whoever you think will be the best dps in general, parses help, but if your not running a parse its easy. Start off with amends on your best guess, if somebody else keeps stealling agro, switch amends to them. Let whoever you put amends on, know that they have it on them, tell them to hit hard early in the fight to help solidify agro. If you have agro trouble because of competing dps classes, try your sigil of heroism as needed however i usually save that for an emergency. Even your group heal after an aoe helps alot to gain more agro (I dont think i have seen that mentioned before) but when i loose agro and all of my agro tools are in cool down, I often get agro back with an intercede, followed by a group heal, by that time more taunts are back up. Still, I hardly have to do that, with our tools agro is not that hard to manage for the most part. </p><p>Agro control is the most important thing in a well rounded group in my opinion. Just know weather you need 1 or 2 healers for the zone, 2 decent healers could heal a caster on almost any heroic content, so even if your equipment is not up to par, you still take dmg better than a coercer. Dont concentrate on DPS, think of it as a bonus if you can afford it when you get better gear. Your job in a group is to absorb damage while holding agro, and letting the dps mow the mob down.</p><p>When constantly tanking for groups, I like to spec my AA as follows, stamina 4 4 8 6 2, and either int 4 4 8 8 (yes crit heals are good for tanking, it can help alot if tanking hard content with only 1 healer and with some decent heal proc gear, you may not even need heals through some fights) or str all the way down for the 10 percent reuse timers, if not agi line for the group mob encounter dps is also good for agro, and faster killing. Stam is the most important when you mainly plan on tanking, DA comes in handy for emergencies, if healers are stunned or whatever, after stam, its really up to you, with wis being the least important i think for tanking. On the Eof tree, go all the down wraths and hero. The good AOE dmg from wraths is key to maintainng agro on non linked multiple mobs, and the hero is just good for avoiding hits in general. Any extra points should either go into some healing, or your procs, just depends on what you prefer really. Now if your finding that the zones you normally tank are getting easier and easier, because your getting better equipment, or just more familiar with the zone, dont be afraid to respec a little for more dps, more dps just means better agro control, and quicker zone times, but your primary concern should be for maximum survivabilty with maximum agro control.</p><p>At this point in your career as a pally, you should already know how to pull, I body pull just about everything, wether i see mobs near my target or not. Unless you know a zone extremely well, body pulling is key, and should be used just for good measure, even if the mob targets a healer as soon as you get proximity agro from it, wait till it gets close to the group before throwing on your taunts. If its a single mob encounter, start off by using only your single taunt if you can help it, followed by some of your bigger spells or CA's. Save your group taunt for any adds that may show up. If your pulling a multiple mob encouner, just start with your group taunt, and a few aoe's, save the single taunt for adds, if multiple adds, use sigil of heroism and aoe, and group heal to gain agro, but try not to switch your target very often. Let the dps in the group burn down the mob your on, so there are less mobs to worry about. Usually if you get multiple adds, the dps will step it up and use some of the big stuff to thin the herd. Sigil plus aoe dmg, and group heal, should get any potential adds on you unless some of the dps starts targeting other mobs other than assisting you. Just make it clear if it becomes a problem that your tank style insists that they assist you or they will die. </p><p>Be familiar with the zone. Pay attention to where mobs are, their agro ranges and the like. If its your first time in a zone, dont be affraid to start a group with somebody else as a main tank that is more familiar with a zone, and just watch them. Familiarize yourself with what they are doing, and in what order they take mobs and such. If its a new zone (like in the expansion that just came out) take time to look at your surroundings before you pull. tell the group to take it easy, and if you take your time and look around before killing, wipes can be avoided. Its faster to pull slow and live, than to pull fast and wipe alot. I mostly use my offensive stance, the exra dps from it helps hold agro and kill mobs quicker, I do however switch if sugar turns to crap, or i'm tanking an exceptionally hard mob.</p><p> Duo or small group tanking:</p><p>All of the above pretty much goes for the same here, however my aa build would be a little different for a good duo. A pallies better duo partners are pretty much any dps type class, or enchanters. I wont go into the other classes to much, but when duo with 1 dps, or even a small group without a healer your AA should be similar to this. Stam 4 4 8 6 2, Int 4 4 8 8, and then remaining points in whatever. Eof tree should be healing 5 single heal, 5 ward, 5 LoH, 5 sacrament, 1 extra aa heal (forget name), and either wraths for extra dps, or hero line for shield effectiveness, I have used both, and both work well depending how much dps your duo partner puts out. Now you can put amends on your partner, and with 1 or 2 taunts keep agro the entire fight. If your fighting easeir mobs, you may not have to heal yourself, and can burn through the mobs quickly using your aoe's and such. For the harder named or boss type heroic mobs, start off by warding yourself, wait till it refreshes, pull, use both taunts, then stay alive while the dps mows down the mob. Maybe cast consecrate for some dps while your busy chain healing yourself if the mob is that tuff, use LoH and or Devine Aura as needed, and chain through single heal, group heal, ward and your aa heal if needed. Look at the post asking about duoing with a wizzy for that specific strat. But mostly rely on your partner killing the mob while you hold agro and keep yourself alive for the harder stuff. If it is a boss type mob, your partner should also have emergencies he saved to use for the big fight, and can burn down the mob before you run out of power. To speed things up through heroic content, use power regen totems, and maybe some various potions to suppliment. Keep lots of invis totems as well, most other dps classes can invis on thier own, and that can speed things up if you have a single objective at the end of the zone and arent worried about exp or trash drops. It is more important in a small or duo group to not have adds, so be familiar with the zone, and take your time with good pulls, I like duo groups for the challenge, not the speed at which you can accomplish a zone, if you want to go through a zone quickly and easily, get a full group. This AA spec will work also for group tanking, but is more geared towards being the MT and healer at the same time. With a good partner, and being familiar with a zone, you can move through almost as fast as a full group. Use Offensive stance until you come up on the harder content or mobs.</p><p>Solo: </p><p>I find solo, the best spec is agi stam int 4 4 8, dont worry about taking out higher end heroic mobs with a pally, if you want to do that, make a wizard or something. EOF tree should be wraths, with max dps, and hero line. I say you shouldnt put the points into healing, because if while soloing you have to heal yourself alot, your not doing dps, therefore the mob doesnt die. I often pull 3-10 mobs and aoe the hell out of them till they are dead. This works great for solo questing, as well as farming some treasured gear or items to sell or transmute or whatever, you can make decent money doing this. This works great for solo questing as well. It helps ALOT to have some healing proc gear, the best i have found is the ring that drops off the boss in OOB, proc heal + damage, and fighting alot of mobs, it heals ALOT and deals a good bit of damage too. Should always use offensive stance while soloing for the most part, or even no stance at all.</p><p>Gear:</p><p>I always carry two sets of gear, one for tanking, and one for DPS. DPS gear is simple, str and int as high as possible, +spell dmg or now +CA damage is great, dont worry about weather its cloth or plate, if your in a dps role that shouldnt matter. Dmg proc gear is also nice, like bone clasped girdle or similar. For tanking gear, mit is the last thing i worry about, as long as it is higher end plate, its better than chain or less. Stam, Hps, agi, and other avoidance bonuses are key. I usually take something with 20 agi, +5 defense 400 mit, over something with 460 mit, 20 str 20 int 20 wis for pure tanking. If you can, tank in Offensive stance, for the harder mobs tank in defensive if needed. I mix my dps gear with my tanking gear when I am tanking easier content. But I try to stay prepared for one extreme dps, or exreme tanking if necesarry.</p><p>Dps Pally:</p><p>I have been dedicated dps in the past, and amaze everybody I raided with. Like I said, i never had top end fabled gear of any sort, and in a group without a dirge or troub, I still manage to post parses of around 1k on single mob, and if 3 mobs or more, hardly ever less than 2k, and up near 3k alot of the time. AA spec should be agi stam int 4 4 8, full wraths, every point into anything that can do damage, and left over points in either your group taunt debuff (this can be bad to use in a dps role because you will already have trouble stealing agro from alot of tanks, the added taunt with the debuff almost guarentees it), or raid armament, its a good bonus to getting a dps pally in a raid. during a fight, weather its single mob or multiple, once assist is called for, i lead off with smite evil, its not a large amount of damage to any single mob, so i usually dont get agro if I lead with it right away with a decent tank. But that should be your first spell because alot of the time you can use it again towards the end of a fight, and that is where most of our damage comes from. If its a single mob, i still use some of my aoe's, but only the ones with quicker casting timers. On multiple mobs I use all of my aoe. Start off kinda slow on multiple mob encoutners, feal out the raid tank and see how well he is keeping agro. Master any damage aoe you can, your aoe spells and CA's are what do more damage than anything else percentage wise. Use smite evil whenever its up, and consecrate on any multiple encoutners when it is up. In my experience people generally dont look for pallies on a raid, they just settle for them more often than not. So if you impress people, you will get invited back again. Dont be afraid to spot heal, and spot rez when needed, even if you dont make it towards the top of the parse every fight, people will notice when the pally is in the top 3 of the parse consistantly, and that makes them remember you. A good 2h weapon with high max damage is good, you will be relying on your crit hits with the agi spec on multiple mob encoutners. Being a dedicated dps pally can be rough for getting groups, because people dont believe you will be well suited to fill a dps role. Once you get people to know your capabilities in this area, you wont have problems. However usually it is a good idea to spec pure dps only if your a non tanking raid pally.</p><p>I hope this helps some of the newer paladins get an idea of where they are headed, these are NOT the only strategies that work, but they work great for me. It is rare i get a group of people I tank for that dont know me, not to compliment me on how well I tanked compared to countless other tanks they have grouped with. I'm sure there are some points I havnt covered, but I am pretty sleepy now, and getting tired of writing. If you have any questions on how to tank better, or solo better, or duo better, i have pretty much done it all successfully, so feal free to PM me in game, Everfrost server, Dorphius (pally), Domeius (coercer), Dorffeus (wiz). I never mind somebody asking me questions about how they can do better, atleast that means you wish to learn, and you dont just really suck. The classes that suck the most, are people that play them wrong, and dont ask questions.</p>