New to Raid Tanking

[Destria]

<p>Well, there are always some really good posters here, and I look forward to hearing from you, so here's my thing---</p><p>I just recently changed guilds a couple weeks ago, and went with another friends guild, and I've started being a raid tank.</p><p>I have Full T2 shard armor, forearms-Armguards of the Elite Yah-Lei Shocktroops>legendary rare drop-chelsith<, myth, and all my jewelry is focused around str/sta/agi +parry/+defense.</p><p>For OH I have the fingerbone guard rapier from befallen, and choice of Living Wall or Magmatic Bronze Blocker for shields.</p><p>AA setup is 4448str, 41 agi, 448 sta, 48481 int, 2 left and far right lines in zerk tree, and in TSO....well, I'm not looking at it right now, but I have the first 2 endline taunts, and adrenaline AA, currently 3 short of the final endline taunt/title.  </p><p>My biggest question is this: recommendation on changes, if any to AA??  Recommendations on jewelry/charms??  And any general tips/suggestions??</p><p>Again, look forward to hearing from everyone, and thank you for the assist ;D </p>

[LygerT]

<p>drop the agility line and dump the rest of the points into your stamina end lines, the end ability does help with power consumption which is a huge issue in TSO if your chanters are even half slack offs. the TSO tree is pretty self expanatory in what abilities you should be picking up with the exception of maybe cry of the warrior, many of us have found this skill to be a joke and almost not worth trying to rely on when needed.</p><p>get the savage wall from tomb of the mad crusader, it drops off the first named iirc or perhaps it was a trash drop, at any rate it is the best avoidance based shield you can get.</p><p>next thing to focus on in TSO raid tanking is crit mit, the MT should be getting the drops first so you should have some sort of contingency plan for drops that go to your tanks first otherwise progression will be slow as you get one shot to large crits. pay attention to your crit mit % in your persona window and get it up as high as you can without sacrificing defense and health too much.</p><p>if you can kill trak be sure to get the shield, the buff still is active even without the shield equipped and still offers more hate than even simply stacking the main tank group since you siphon hate from everyone in the group regardless of hate caps.</p>

[Haze]

<p>Here's my AA spec.. its pretty fluid, since one minute, I'm the off-tank, the next minute, I'm the main tank <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p><img src="http://www.amgdigitalstudios.com/images/stuff/warrior_Tree.jpg" width="650" height="605" /></p><p><img src="http://www.amgdigitalstudios.com/images/stuff/Zerker_Tree.jpg" width="650" height="606" /></p><p><img src="http://www.amgdigitalstudios.com/images/stuff/Shadow_Tree.jpg" width="651" height="616" /></p><hr />

[Hardain]

<p><cite>Hazerk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Here's my AA spec.. its pretty fluid, since one minute, I'm the off-tank, the next minute, I'm the main tank <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><hr /></blockquote><p>No offense, but that is pretty crap spec, unless you are on PvP server.</p>

[skew]

<p><cite>Hardain@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Hazerk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Here's my AA spec.. its pretty fluid, since one minute, I'm the off-tank, the next minute, I'm the main tank <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><hr /></blockquote><p>No offense, but that is pretty crap spec, unless you are on PvP server.</p></blockquote><p>why dont you explain why this is a crap spec?</p>

[Rahatmattata]

<p>Because he took the widom line instead of maxing the int line and taking +block in sta tree? Also, the stance mastery in TSO tree is pretty much garbage. The usefulness of +dstance mit (gives me +1% mit) and stun resist can be argued; personally I spent my points elsewhere, but I'm also a guardian and ignore stuns if myth procs. I don't know about the EoF tree or TSO zerker tree to comment, but the main thing was the god awful KoS wisdom line and not taking the int line which is probably the only "must have" line.</p>

[skew]

<p>thank you. sometimes especially dealing with newer players it helps to go into detail so they understand why we run our specs a certain way. or why that perticular spec wont necesserily work for what they want to accomplish. i have personally run the str., sta.,int. on my main which works very well when i solo or when i duo with my fury partner. i also have a zerk that i run my own spec with agi. sta. and str. but doesnt see nearly the damage dealing that the other spec see's.  its still fun to run but i dont see the same amount. run what you want use what you like and have fun <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> even if you dont see the major damage if you like what the spec does run with it.  </p>

[Haze]

<p>Guardians use shields.. zerkers dual wield (unless your healers suck). It can be argued about the Stance Mastery, but I'd rather have it than regret not having it. Aggro? Don't need it. I have problems taking aggro as is if I'm OT'ing.</p><p>That being said, I hardly ever taunt anyways, I'm hardly ever in defensive unless its a pull we're not familiar with; and as far as the no increases in the threat abilities, see above. Multiple snap aggros are good for insta-aggro'ing adds or in a non-hate xfer pug.</p><p>I would like to go down the Int line and put 8 into parry, but eh, no need for it. If your a newer zerker, and are having problems main tanking with mobs getting peeled, put some points into the hate gain abilties. Once you get your mythical, mastered, etc.. you won't need it. Better to spend it increasing your DPS.</p>

[Zanshen]

<p>Crit Mit should be a primary concern as MT if you plan on taking on the tougher content.  That said however, here are some recomendations about your AAs.</p><p><span >Your Fighter AA <strong>"setup is 4448str, 41 agi, 448 sta, 48481 int" </strong>are a little off for MTing IMO.  I'd recommend:  Str 4485 Sta 4488 Int 46481.  That is untill you get to the Parry cap.  Then you won't need the def skills as much, you and your raid will have more set pieces and do more dps, so maybe go more:  Str 4488 Sta 4485 Int 46841 for more DPS / hate gain. </span></p><p><span >*Putting more than 6 points into Accel Strike is a waste.  It only increases duration/haste at that point.*</span></p><p><span >Berserker AA <strong>"2 left and far right lines in zerk tree"</strong> I assume means you picked up Perserverance, Cyclones and the clickie Berserk.  I'd reccomend instead Cyclones  (everything except Open Wounds - since youhave your mythical that's jus a click haste buff and hence entirely worthless) While on the left side get Destructive Rage and Unyiedling Will.  Then Gut Roar - you can pick any attacks to upgrade but obviously sticking to the ones that work on raid mobs is a good idea.  </span>Finally you want the click Berserk so that you can precast Adren or save yourself from death with UW procs etc.</p><p><span >*Alot of people feel there are too many wasted points just to get Gut Roar.  I, however, find it invaluable as the MT for my Guild.*</span></p><p>TSO AA obviously in <strong>General:</strong>  5 in HP, 5 in Mana.  As MT you'll want to spec differently than most other Zerkers.  <strong>Fighter:</strong>  5 in Enhanced Rescue, 5 in Battle Hardening and Sneering Assualt.  <strong>Warrior:</strong>  4 in Saving Grace, 5 in Absorbing Blows (untill you get your Stout Band of Tyranny then go for Rallying Cry), 5 in Veteran's Shielding and Cry of the Warrior. <strong>Berserker:</strong>  5 in Insolence, 5 in Hasened Reuse, 5 in Adrenaline, 5 in Gladiator's Rage (untill you go reach Parry cap then go for Unstoppable Will), Wall of Force and Jeering Onslaught.</p><p><strong><span >"Recommendations on jewelry/charms??"</span></strong><span >  Focus more so on jewelry that has +Defense than +Parry.  It's much easier for us to cap +Parry than +Defense.  Also, make sure you have as many Uncontested avoidance items as possible in the beginning especially.  Such as:  RE2 cloak, Danak Neck, Spaulders of the Wraithbringer, Fabled Parry adorns, Fabled Ripo weapon adorn, etc etc.  For Charm slot I'd say go for:  Dangling Skull Bone Chip and Bonecharmers Etched Femur - altho Coffin Candle is also very nice for those tougher mobs where ya want more hp / +Def and it's got a proc as well.</span></p>

[Haze]

<p>As a new raid MT, I'd agree with Zanshen.. at least until your raid force gets geared up (and more importantly, you), and used to working together. IMHO, your spec will be determined by the raid. Thats why I'm more or less a half breed of tank.</p><p>Since I do just fine with aggro and never fall below 75% health depending (there's a reason why I have enhance UW <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  ), I can afford to drop defense a bit and hate gains and go for a bit more DPS.</p><p>I will stress though the importance of the snap aggro end lines in TSO, they are invaluable.</p>

[Rahatmattata]

<p>You may have already tried it, but I highly recommend to try putting those points you have in wis line into the int line instead. The haste mod, and recast/recovery/casting speed at the end are huge. All of your abilities have their recast time reduced. Even your call home.</p><p>If you never use a shield then yea, sta4 is pretty useless for you. If you never lose aggro then I wouldn't bother with str4 either. For zerkers that do use a shield when tanking something hard however, the +shield effectiveness is nice. While it doesn't raise your avoid % stat by a whole lot, it does raise your block% quite a bit. If you have a shield with 1,600 protection, that's another 192 protection I think (just doing math in my head 1,600 + 12%) which would give you a shield with 1,792 protection... call it 1,800... and that's a pretty beast shield and will give you a couple % extra block.</p><p>Yea, I'm a guardian, and I do duel wield almost always in heroic content, and often when tanking raid trash I'll ditch the board and swap in a slasher, but when I'm spiking it's nice to drop into a stout tower shield and block some of those 12k hits.</p><p>But hey, if that spec works for you then right on.</p>

[Artalis the Elder]

<p>The int line end ability is the only one in the KOS tree that I would call a "must have" the reuse is so key since as tanks we next to no ways to get any recast reduction on our key abilities.</p><p>As a raid tank you have to plan for those OH CRAP moments which means you need to have as many tools at your fingertips as much of the time as possible reuse> all.</p><p>I found the stance mastery to be meh and a debatable use of points. When raid buffed for dps and anything other than tanking seriously badass mobs you'll be in offense</p><p>STR 4,4,8 (you can add points into hate or not depending on the availability of coercers and dirges in your raid)</p><p>STA 4,4,8,8 or thereabouts I find the endline to be not really noticable. I'm a power hungry tank and all my chanters know it so they watch me.</p><p>INT line 4,6,4,8,2 or thereabouts. I don't remember what I did. I usually end up with well over 200 haste so its not terribly important to me.</p><p>Gut Roar is a key mt spike management tool It's only one hit but one hit is the difference between a wipe and a kill many, many times. I like the cyclones line personally for the resistability reduction on our taunts (it makes cry of the warrior ALMOST useful)</p><p>Like others have said TSO is pretty self explanatory.</p>