Worthless?

[Zhadowsee]

<p>I may be crying a little bit, or whining, or just complaining.</p><p>I'm a casual player.  That is, I don't spend 14 hours a day playing.  Maybe 24 hours a week total on average.  When I do game, I don't dedicate myself to completing all the quest.  I log in, and then I harvest, chat, maybe do some questing.  Very casual.  In other words, the last year + that I've been playing, I'm not level 80.  In fact, I just dinged level 77. </p><p>Lately I've been asking people to join their groups (T8 groups, not the ones where I can mentor).  I figure it may help me increase XP a bit and take the edge off the boredom I'm finding soloing in the Fens, Moors, etc.  What I'm finding is, I'm being told "No."  The only way I get to group is if people just can't fill the slots. </p><p>A friend of mine--very good friend--plays a Warden.  She has no problem grouping.  Even at level 60+ she was getting invited to Raids.  Me?  "No."</p><p>So I give the ol' "[Removed for Content]?" routine and ask around. </p><p>She, and friends tell me, "Healers are more precious."  Okay--this is logic I can't and won't argue with.  I just wanna group or maybe raid a little.</p><p>But...some people are still saying, "Dude, unless you have 140aa with either Void or Mythical armor, don't count on joining any groups or raids at level 80 as an SK either."  At this I roll my eyes and think, "Riiiight."  I'm telling my friend this.  </p><p>She says, "Why do you think I don't play my SK anymore?"</p><p>Part of me still thinks that everyone I'm talking to probably has a Crack habit.</p><p>But is this true?  Are Shadowknights really worthless?  Did I just waste over a year of game time?</p>

[Uggli]

<p>The problem is there are so many BAD tanks out there.   The way pick up groups mitigate that with an unknown tank is by imposing limits. You must be level 80 for most groups to want you.  This was true even in RoK instances.</p><p>Tanks have it the hardest of ALL the arch types.   You HAVE to be leveled up, you HAVE to be geard up, you HAVE to have a large amount of AA's and speced properly.  Every other arch type can get by only giving half the effort of the tanks.  Add to it that SK's have never been "easy mode" for grouping.   But a well played SK is one of the best tanks in game imo.</p><p>For raiding guilds, they only need 2-3 slots for tanks at most.  To even be considered for that you MUST be at the top of your game and well geared.  You are expected to grab adds and tank as needed, and if you are poorly equipped don't even think about it.  You are not a DPS class compared to the other raiding DPSers</p><p>For groups, they only need 1 tank.  A 2nd or 3rd just slows down or our right kills the group depending on the content.</p><p>My advice is to stick to older and easier RoK content.   YOU lead the group and form it.  KC would be a good place to start.   Mentor down and do some easier TSO isntances for shards so you can gear up once you hit 80.  It only takes 38 shards to get a full T1 set.</p><p>If you want an easy to get a group arch type,  tank is NOT it.  Reroll as a healer or something</p>

[Dannyl]

<p>I have the opposite problem, well not with raids, but I don't raid as much as I should anyways.  But I usually have to tell people no, sorry, already in a group when they come asking.  Of course I have my fabled, working on getting last few pieces of t2 shard armor and I have 180 aas.  As well I am usually the one that ends up tanking.</p><p>My advice, first thing rely on your guild.  If you don't know how to tank, or aren't really good at it watch others and ask questions.  Find a tank in ur guild ask if u can follow them around and learn from them.  Also learn specs, I suggest eq2flames.com for info, a properly built SK can solo a ton of crap. Learn to tank in small guild grps first, as you get better and ur guild fills spots with pugs, the pugs will learn your name.  If your good you become popular.  Their are a lot of fighter classes out there, and the most important thing is to have a name that people recognize, with fighter name is everything.</p><p>I myself play SK and Guardian, however I play my SK more then anything and I am in absolute love with the class, there are things they could do better for SK, but w/e</p><p>Int in SK is your lifeline I can (by myself) bolster my int over 1100, this creates a ton of DPS to help hold agro and helps greatly lifetaps IMO.  Stam and Str are also your friends.  AAs are your life line, even though onbly at 180 I have both end TSO titles, and they work wonders.</p><p>If your guild won't help you or grp with you get a new one, small guilds may better for starting off as they will rely more on the upper lvl players.  As well mentoring isn't bad as when u go back and kill nameds while mentored you get a ton of AA xp.</p>

[LygerT]

<p>once you hit 80 you will find alot of that sort of talk disappears, people look at your level being 77 and they see you as inexperienced because you haven't been playing at the end for long doing the zones.</p><p>and healers aren't precious, they can be just as poor at playing as the tank, but when a healer doesn't do their job it's still the tanks fault.</p>

[Aule]

The quality of the tank will often make or break the group success. If there's one char that is going to be higher level than the others in the group it should be the tank. Conversely, the character that hurts the group the most by being underlevel is the tank. Healers can potentially get by even 7 or 8 levels below the rest of the group. Tanks get one shotted when that's the case. Like Uggliey said, the gear a tank is wearing matters more than the gear that anybody else is wearing. The field at level 80 includes both ROK and TSO, you may very well find that you need to stick to a lot of the ROK zones, we all geared up there last expansion. You've got a little catching up to do. You could probably get by some of the easier TSO zones, depends on how well you've geared up along the way. If, however, you're wearing 72 mastercrafted armor with the odd mid-60's piece of jewelry you may find that you get hit for 40-70% of your health each hit on named mob fights.

[Phelon_Skellhound]

<p>There is a huge difference in tanking with you get to 80...  AA's matter finish those RoK-TSO 70+ quests...  Get ad3 or better spells...  upgrade taunts first, dps second, then the rest of the spells....  Highly recomend every peice of gear you have better be T8 legendary or better... Know your class and the ones that increase and or transfer hate to you if that is an issue...  get your fabled epic til you raid to get a better one or until if ever you get a myth...  Read EQFlames.com forums...  Find an SK willing to mentor you, well if you can... These are the basics and should be your goals</p><p>Start with RoK- CoA or Voes then Chelsith...  Maidens Chamber is a bit hard if you just starting out but it will help increase your skills Veksar invasion as well  RE2 will hone your skills...  TSO cake walks are Deep Forge, Scion of Ice... the rest is your hands...  Try this as a guide of what zones to hit in order</p><p>SK's are the leaders of supreme hate if played properly...  We can tank anything, DPS if we spec right, get a OT in your group in case u think you fail and learn the zone with them...</p>

[Nuhus]

<p>Most people these days are running shard instances which are a bit tougher than RoK zones. I wouldn't expect to find a spot in there below level 80 (even though some scale). If that was my situation I would try to do CoA, VoES and Sebelis. If you are lucky you will get some decent gear drops along the way (If your unlucky like me they won't drop until you have t2 void armor haha).</p><p>People will still do some of the old RoK zones for either xp or their epic updates, however if it's a hard epic update they may be looking for a level 80 tank. Theres some level 77 MC gear you can get that will help until you get beter. (off the broker)</p><p><a href="http://eq2.allakhazam.com/db/itemlist.html?name=&type=--+Not+Set+--&rarity=Mastercrafted&class=0&crafter=--+Not+Set+--&skill=--+Not+Set+--&weapontype=--+Not+Set+--&levelmin=77&levelmax=77&mindmg=&maxdmg=&mindelay=&maxdelay=&mingldlvl=&maxgldlvl=&stat1_stat=--+Not+Set+--&stat1_value=&stat2_stat=--+Not+Set+--&stat2_value=&stat3_stat=--+Not+Set+--&stat3_value=&stat4_stat=--+Not+Set+--&stat4_value=&stat5_stat=--+Not+Set+--&stat5_value=&obsolete_ex=on&sort1_stat=--+Not+Set+--&sort1_wt=1&sort2_stat=--+Not+Set+--&sort2_wt=1&sort3_stat=--+Not+Set+--&sort3_wt=1&sort4_stat=--+Not+Set+--&sort4_wt=1&sort5_stat=--+Not+Set+--&sort5_wt=1&slots=Charm&slots=Chest&slots=Cloak&slots=Ears&slots=Feet&slots=Finger&slots=Forearms&slots=Hands&slots=Head&slots=Legs&slots=Neck&slots=Primary&slots=Ranged&slots=Secondary&slots=Shoulders&slots=Waist&slots=Wrist&dosearch=1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://eq2.allakhazam.com/db/itemli...&dosearch=1</a></p><p>These days at level 80 I'm still running RoK zones to get everyone their epics in my guild. (mains/alts)</p>

[Zhadowsee]

<p>Here's a very recent example.  I want to do some quests to get shards so I can have some of this armor made.  I found a guy spamming he's looking for a group to head into the instance...</p><p>I send him a tell.  Two minutes later he responds, "Sorry, mate, just got a full group.  Good luck."</p><p>A minute later, he spams again.  I had sent a polite tell and I'm pretty sure I don't have a bad rep.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  I didn't ask him why he spammed when he just told me he had a full group.  Maybe his healer just left--could be anything.  Still, I can't help but wonder.</p><p>I'm still leaning on the Crack theory.  But then again, I'm also a server transfer, so people may also see my name and think, "Who?"</p><p>I dunno.  I'm just frustrated.  <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I appreciate the advice y'all gave me too, by the way. </p>

[Nimbrithil]

<p>I get tells everytime I log on asking me what I am planning to do,,,do I want to tank a zone,,,PVP,,,yada yada....gets annoying sometimes.</p><p>Of course I have to play my defiler for raids</p>

[LygerT]

<p><cite>Zhadowsee@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Here's a very recent example.  I want to do some quests to get shards so I can have some of this armor made.  I found a guy spamming he's looking for a group to head into the instance...</p><p>I send him a tell.  Two minutes later he responds, "Sorry, mate, just got a full group.  Good luck."</p><p>A minute later, he spams again.  I had sent a polite tell and I'm pretty sure I don't have a bad rep.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />  I didn't ask him why he spammed when he just told me he had a full group.  Maybe his healer just left--could be anything.  Still, I can't help but wonder.</p><p>I'm still leaning on the Crack theory.  But then again, I'm also a server transfer, so people may also see my name and think, "Who?"</p><p>I dunno.  I'm just frustrated.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I appreciate the advice y'all gave me too, by the way. </p></blockquote><p>once again, groups are going to avoid you like the plague for TSO zones because you are not 80 yet, that includes lying and making up excuses to not group with you over a level 80 tank.</p><p>in my personal experience i would rather have a semi geared scout or brawler tank than a level 77 mastercrafted tank who won't be able to take hits or dish out DPS very well. take the advice of sticking to RoK instances and levelling up to 80 BEFORE worrying about TSO zones, shards and TSO gear. you are trying to jump ahead a step and the group leaders who are forming up know it too, it's nothing personal against you but you have to understand the "why".</p><p>you've ignored what many people have already said to give your example, to me that sais you feel you are ready to tank in TSO, which maybe you are but a pickup group is not going to choose you, they are going to wait on a level 80 for a loong time over allowing a up and coming tank attempt it. the only way you are going to do TSO before 80 is in finding a guild that groups alot and is in need of tanks.</p>

[Nuhus]

<p><cite>Zhadowsee@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Here's a very recent example.  I want to do some quests to get shards so I can have some of this armor made.  I found a guy spamming he's looking for a group to head into the instance...</p><p>I send him a tell.  Two minutes later he responds, "Sorry, mate, just got a full group.  Good luck."</p><p>A minute later, he spams again.  I had sent a polite tell and I'm pretty sure I don't have a bad rep.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />  I didn't ask him why he spammed when he just told me he had a full group.  Maybe his healer just left--could be anything.  Still, I can't help but wonder.</p><p>I'm still leaning on the Crack theory.  But then again, I'm also a server transfer, so people may also see my name and think, "Who?"</p><p>I dunno.  I'm just frustrated.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I appreciate the advice y'all gave me too, by the way. </p></blockquote><p>Some people are honest, some are not. But regardless your server transfer has nothing to do with it. Out of all the people on AB there are only 2 really that people refuse to group with. You are not one of them.... yet <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Seriously level 80 does have a lot to do with it. You are the one that's going to get beaten up on and those levels do make a difference for a tank. I see groups LF tank all the time, it's really easy to get into pugs with a tank once you're 80. You can quest to 80, but the reason I recommend running some of the RoK zones the gear drops will help too. Gear makes a pretty good difference in the DPS and tanking you can do.</p><p>The "who?" comment. No one I've pugged with would have ever heard of my name until I grouped with them. I don't LFG in level channels and didn't join PUGS until 80. So, I doubt it is that.</p>

[Grimm79]

<p>Can't get groups? my best advise would be, make your own!</p><p>take intiative, that above all is required of being a tank. if you dont know your way around, or are afraid to lead a group you are playing the wrong class. Granted you wont know a zone the first or even second time you enter it, thats no problem but you cannot rely on people inviting you. Like everything else in life, you wont get it given to you, you have to go out and take it.</p><p>This isn't to bring you down but it is to show you, people rely on a tank more than anything else. You are the first line of defense & offense, every other class comes second. You are the first to take a punch and the first to deal  a punch. You are moving teh group across the zone. Later on when people will get to know you you will be invited more easily, heck it will be a lot more easy when you hit 80. But don't wait untill then to take matters into your own hands. Start now, build groups, learn the isntances and I guarantee you, you will never be bored and LFG.</p><p>Best of luck and enjoy yourself!</p><p>Kind regards,</p><p>Grimmus (old timer SK on Splitpaw)</p>

[Lord Hackenslash]

<p>Most of what i have to say is written above but one thing to keep in mind as a tank is you have 1 job.</p><p>1: Absorb Damage for the other players.</p><p>Two things prevent you from doing this when you are below level cap.</p><p>1: You will be unlikely to hold aggro from a level capped dps. Each level a mob is above you reduces your chance to hit it and reduces your damage against it. if you go to a zone with level 80 mobs you loose about 5% per level difference roughly in both areas. Also the mobs have a bonus to resist your spells. most Rok zones start at 81+ so you will have great difficulty holding aggro against players who do not have this handicap.</p><p>2:When you take damage you will get hit harder. when you are hit by a mob higher level than yourself it will have a bonus to hit you and do additional damage when it hits you, again about 5% per level difference. Additionally your armor acts similarly and provides less protection the higher the level difference between you and the mob. At level 77 you cannot be wearing any higher level armor so your group will have to make up the difference in healing. </p><p>This is why it can be hard as a tank to get a group when not capped. I hope this helps you understand a bit of why they may nto feel comforatable relying on a unknown tank in your situation.</p>

[TimUK]

<p>Healers are important to, what i've realised lately is that theres so many people capped level and getting to 70 is so easy nowadays theres a lot of players who dont know how to, or understand how to play the game in a group, meaning you have some very, very slack players out there, including healers, you could be the best SK in the world and still die easily if your healer sucks, conversely the same could be said about being the best healer in the world. Still, i'd rather be a crusader then a warrior in that case.</p>