If not the fabled epic then what?

[Gaith]

<p>       Heya all , I been reading the posts for a few weeks now trying to figure out what i'm doing wrong. lol I'm having a hell of a time holding agro in the new tso content.  RoK stuff is pretty easy to take care of for me, but [Removed for Content] if i can't hold a mob in tso. My dps sucks.. honestly... anywhere from 800-1400. I try to time my ca's, Start off with EW/mar combo for a big hit. taunts are qued, don't even let them refresh fully. I have my fabled, my Myth is an option that eludes me do to my work schedual. soooo...</p><p>   My question is, Is there any other weapons that might be a better choice? </p><p>   I've tried DW with the epic and the Nathsar Shortsword but even then i loose agro to the dps'ers (some do have myth's and others fabled). I have 161 aa's, I have 1/2 t1 and 1/2 t2 gear, plus some other items from instances ie:guk ring with the agro proc, would love to get the belt from NA.</p><p> I noticed the last new post was about the stances, and i never considered O-stance. With a shield my mit is 59% avoidence is 69% in defensive. I can't imagine what would happen if i droped to Offensive. lol</p><p>So yea, i'm casual. but I want to at least be a good casual tank. lol.. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>If you dropped to offensive, your aggro would go up quite a bit. There's little reason to run instance content in Defensive except the toughest of named.</p><p>What's your AA spec like?</p>

[Gaith]

<p>AA's are as follows.</p><p>Warrior:  Str, 4, 4, 8, 8  -  Agi, 4, 4, 4, 8 - Int 4, 4, 6, 8, 1 (yes i didn't take the last on either str or agi)</p><p>Guardian:  maxed Slaughtering line, with sidstep into Enhace:rescue. and complete stalwart line.</p><p>TSO: General: health and mount speed. Fighter: Enhance:rescue 5, Battle Hardening 5, Sneering assault</p><p>         Warrior: agressive nature 5, and absorbing blows 5.</p><p>Which reminds me, Is cry of the warrior usefull? i do hate these spells that only last  less than 10 seconds.</p><p>Next question, because i don't think i've ever seen a post about it.  What adornments are best?</p><p>    Agi for the avoidence benefits or Str for the attack increase? (on those items you can't put parry or the mit stat adorns on)</p>

[RafaelSmith]

<p><cite>Gaith@Najena wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Which reminds me, Is cry of the warrior usefull? i do hate these spells that only last less than 10 seconds.</p><p>Next question, because i don't think i've ever seen a post about it. What adornments are best?</p><p>Agi for the avoidence benefits or Str for the attack increase? (on those items you can't put parry or the mit stat adorns on)</p></blockquote><p>If it actually worked as described Cry of the Warrior would be useful. </p><p>I have it but honestly cannot tell you the last time I used it because its unreliable and gets resists way too much.</p><p>I will be dumping it next time I decide to respec.</p><p>Its appropriatly named because it makes the warrior cry =P</p>

[Terron]

<p><cite>Gaith@Najena wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>   My question is, Is there any other weapons that might be a better choice? </p></blockquote><p>A dirge.</p><p>With a dirge I can hold aggro in TSO, without one I struggle.</p><p>A coercer might do instead, but I haven't tried that.</p>

[Rahatmattata]

<p><cite>Gaith@Najena wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>AA's are as follows.</p><p>Warrior:  Str, 4, 4, 8, 8  -  Agi, 4, 4, 4, 8 - Int 4, 4, 6, 8, 1 (yes i didn't take the last on either str or agi)</p></blockquote><p>Well, there's your problem.</p><p>Try: str 4,4,5   agi 4,4,8   sta 4,4,8   int 4,8,8,2,1</p><p>for instance tanking.... or you could try</p><p>str 4,4,8,5   sta 4,4,8,8   int 4,8,8,2,1 (some variation of int line... personally I max haste for more dps/threat)</p><p>Get your double attack as high as you can. Buy dbl attk potions. A dirge will make your life much easier. Add a coercer and it's even easier. Personally, I don't even like to do anything without a dirge. Obviously you should be fully ad3+</p><p>For guardian tree, I took the double attack line, with 3 in rescue and 5 in reinforcement... stalwarting line with 5 in ToS and Sent Sphere. Remaining points in the debuffing line... whatever it's called. I like cry of the warrior. Sometimes it's resisted but it usually works as advertised for me.</p><p>For the couple slots that only accept stat adornments, I got agi adorn. +100 hp on shoulders and rings, +100 power on helm. 3% riposte/parry on weapon and bracelets. DPS mod on neck/bow and +CA damage on belt. +parry on forearms, +block on shields.</p>

[Gaith]

<p>  Thanks all, i'll check out the aa set-up there. as for the dirge, well we have 2 in guild, 1 is my healers alt, the other i don't get to run with much.</p><p>If all else fails, i'll play my Illu again .... even tho i don't like where soe is going with them (psudo-wiz). Seems every class i play and like, sony has to break them ... watch out defilers <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p><p>/edit  So, why wouldn't i want the 8% hate gain on the end of the str line? I'll drop the last 8 points in the agi line and spread that about.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p><cite>Rahatmattata wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Try: str 4,4,5   agi 4,4,8   sta 4,4,8   int 4,8,8,2,1</p><p>for instance tanking.... or you could try</p><p>str 4,4,8,5   sta 4,4,8,8   int 4,8,8,2,1 (some variation of int line... personally I max haste for more dps/threat)</p></blockquote><p>I'll second these. The first build is great for AoE tanking, the second build is best for singles.</p><p>And I'll second the advice given: Double-attack and Melee Crit are the most important stats you can get for aggro.</p><p>For most instances there's little reason to go heavy defensive gear, especially if you're struggling to hold aggro as it is. Your avoidance and mit might suffer, but it's not doing you much good anyway if you aren't holding aggro.</p>

[Hilai]

<p>I go as offensive as the quality of my healer allows me. If I have an awesome healer, I'll dw in off with all offensive gear. If the healer is not so good I'll throw on the shield and maybe some defensive jewelry. Rarely do I have to go full defensive. Without a dirge though, agro is still problematic, with or without the myth.</p><p>You said you have taunts que'd up. Remember, 1 point of dps = 1 point of hate (supposedly) so if you look at your taunt values you'll see they are pretty weak compared to some other things you can do. Try leading off with Decimate, then EW and Mar. Some dispute this order but it seems to work best for me. Mar doesn't seem to get resisted as much. Alternatively, I also arrow pull if possible, with a taunt as I'm moving to turn him. Mobs seems to stick better to the first toon that smacks em.</p>

[Arch]

<p><cite>Hilai@Butcherblock wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I go as offensive as the quality of my healer allows me. If I have an awesome healer, I'll dw in off with all offensive gear. If the healer is not so good I'll throw on the shield and maybe some defensive jewelry. Rarely do I have to go full defensive. Without a dirge though, agro is still problematic, with or without the myth.</p><p>You said you have taunts que'd up. Remember, 1 point of dps = 1 point of hate (supposedly) so if you look at your taunt values you'll see they are pretty weak compared to some other things you can do. Try leading off with Decimate, then EW and Mar. Some dispute this order but it seems to work best for me. Mar doesn't seem to get resisted as much. Alternatively, I also arrow pull if possible, with a taunt as I'm moving to turn him. Mobs seems to stick better to the first toon that smacks em.</p></blockquote><p>I agree with the above. Taunts seem to work better after you've done damage to them first. What I think is first person to att a mob gains a hate position. Taunts don't seem to do the threat increase on pull just the first person to att gains hate position. Body pulling gives you a hate position but with no actualy hate/threat easily lose that position. Damage from an arrow pull gives you the hate position+hate, Taunt pull gives you hate position+threat. Hate works better than threat or just you gain more hate off an arrow pull than threat from a taunt.</p><p>It is confusing I know. Can't explain my theory better sry <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Anfauglith]

<p><cite>Arch@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Hilai@Butcherblock wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I go as offensive as the quality of my healer allows me. If I have an awesome healer, I'll dw in off with all offensive gear. If the healer is not so good I'll throw on the shield and maybe some defensive jewelry. Rarely do I have to go full defensive. Without a dirge though, agro is still problematic, with or without the myth.</p><p>You said you have taunts que'd up. Remember, 1 point of dps = 1 point of hate (supposedly) so if you look at your taunt values you'll see they are pretty weak compared to some other things you can do. Try leading off with Decimate, then EW and Mar. Some dispute this order but it seems to work best for me. Mar doesn't seem to get resisted as much. Alternatively, I also arrow pull if possible, with a taunt as I'm moving to turn him. Mobs seems to stick better to the first toon that smacks em.</p></blockquote><p>I agree with the above. Taunts seem to work better after you've done damage to them first. What I think is first person to att a mob gains a hate position. Taunts don't seem to do the threat increase on pull just the first person to att gains hate position. Body pulling gives you a hate position but with no actualy hate/threat easily lose that position. Damage from an arrow pull gives you the hate position+hate, Taunt pull gives you hate position+threat. Hate works better than threat or just you gain more hate off an arrow pull than threat from a taunt.</p><p>It is confusing I know. Can't explain my theory better sry <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>1 dmg is not equal to 1 threat at all anymore...2 dmg = 1 threat. Taunts are still weak but not nearly as much as they seam.</p>

[Yimway]

<p><cite>Rahatmattata wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>for instance tanking.... or you could try</p><p>str 4,4,8,5   sta 4,4,8,8   int 4,8,8,2,1 (some variation of int line... personally I max haste for more dps/threat)</p></blockquote><p>I use a variant of this  but its a good start.  You might think about re-arranging the int line some, and I drop the 5 from the end of str and pick up agi 4/1.</p><p>The extra AoE if you don't have a racial aoe is too handy for reinforcement chains for aoe aggro.  In my opinion is more worth while than the passive hate gain from str4.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Indeed, the extra AoE certainly doesn't hurt to have.</p>

[Yimway]

<p>Next look at your gear.  Is your DA over 70, your MC over 50?  Your slashing is 520-550 with group buffs in o-stance?</p><p>Parse 3k and your aggro problems will deminish somewhat.</p>

[Rahatmattata]

<p><cite>Atan@Unrest wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Rahatmattata wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>for instance tanking.... or you could try</p><p>str 4,4,8,5   sta 4,4,8,8   int 4,8,8,2,1 (some variation of int line... personally I max haste for more dps/threat)</p></blockquote><p>I use a variant of this  but its a good start.  You might think about re-arranging the int line some, and I drop the 5 from the end of str and pick up agi 4/1.</p><p>The extra AoE if you don't have a racial aoe is too handy for reinforcement chains for aoe aggro.  In my opinion is more worth while than the passive hate gain from str4.</p></blockquote><p>That's my single target/raid spec. I used to have 4,1 agi but I dropped it in GU50 and don't miss it. I've been all over the place in the int line and I'm happy with how it is now with max haste.</p><p>I have an aoe spec if I need to handle more than 1 mob. Thanks though.</p>