Hello all!

[Geria]

<p>Hello EQII fans out there:</p><p>I'm a new person to Everquest II, being that i will officially begin my subscription by this weekend, and i figured this would be a good place to say hello and ask some questions.</p><p>I'm a former WoW addict (Yes, i know) that had his account hacked twice and quit the habit after 5 years of playing. I've been jumping back and forth between MMO's, including the free ones and Second Life, and finally decided to settle down at the heart of all MMO's.</p><p>Some questions i'd like to ask...</p><p>What would be a decent starter race and class to choose? i mean, i've always been using the dirt-basic muscle-bound Warrior / Fighter / Berserker category, but i'd like to change it up a bit.</p><p>Also, what towns or cities would be essential for me to start in? so i don't get lost in a high level place at level 1...</p><p>To note: I bought the complete collection of EQII at Best Buy, so i also have a bunch of items and adventure packs to use, including a painting....</p><p>Do i get a house?! that would be simply awesome.</p><p>Some simple tips would be highly appreciated.</p><p>PS, one other note, if there are any specific servers for Roleplaying or In-character chat, please let me know. I've been a Heavy Roleplayer for years now, and i'd hate to break that habit.</p><p>Thanks!</p><p>-Ianwrym</p>

[Sennyu]

sounds to me as though you might like playing a Shadowknight, they are a dark paladin of sorts. They have good dps, one of the better tanks as far as the current state of end game is conserned but I wouldnt be suprised if they got beat down here soon with the nerf bat or at very least not be as "loved" as the other tank classes when the level cap goes up to 90 here in another month. btw, the race you pick really doesnt matter that much, if you want you can go to the eq2 wiki and check out the racials but they really dont matter much as most of the racial abilities are things like slow fall, tracking, and that sort of thing. I would pick a race based off of what I thought looked cool then if there was a tie between 2 races leave the final decision up to what race has the cooler racial abilities for that class The best start town for gear and progression is easy, it is Gorowyn. The problem with Gorowyn however begins once you actually get to Gorowyn and find that it has the worst city layout of anywhere in game. While it wouldnt be a bad place to start a character, it ultimatly makes for a absolutly awfull home city. Your best option would be to start there then do the citizenship quest for Freeport. You get a free 2 bedroom house in whatever city you choose to start in you just have to find it. It will be the house thats 0 move in cost and 10s a week rent

[MurFalad]

<p>A former WoW player too here so there are a few things that at least I found were useful to know</p><p>Regarding starter race, there is no uber race out there and since the recent racial traits update the races are split into having abilities that support various class types (e.g. Frogloks have advantages being Warriors or Clerics), three races are jack of all trades.</p><p>In addition races also have a unique ability that while it does not grant power can be very useful, for example Fae can glide (great for jumping massive gaps and apart from saving time it can save lives if you can get away and survive when you need to run).  Frogloks have Hydromotion (underwater running) and underwater breathing, bascially underwater quests are perfect for me <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  and also if there is a patch of water near where I'm fighting I can often use it to escape most enemies if things turn bad in a fight.</p><p><a href="http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Category:Racial_Traditions" target="_blank">You can find out all the racial abilities etc here on the Zam page</a></p><p>Regarding starter cities, I'm not a expert on this since I've only tried the Fae area once and all my other characters started at Qeynos (Frogloks used to be limited to only Qeynos).  I found the Fae area a bit more wide open so more difficult to navigate, but apart from that the newer starter areas all have better loot to find then the original two (which are Freeport and Qeynos) and are supposed to be better.  While small areas I've found Oakmist forest and the Ruins enjoyable questing in if you start at Qeynos (the loot is still poor though <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ).</p><p>As for getting lost, you will sort of feel like that in EQ2 until you figure out how travel works, in the early game (at least in the older areas) there is more zoning, whereas in newer areas they are a lot more seamless.  You won't need to travel huge areas though until you get to the higher levels.  Mounts can in theory be purchased at level 1 although they need money and status (status is earnt doing things).</p><p>As for housing, you don't start with one but don't worry, the simplest house you can get is an Inn room available in more early areas for a mere 5s a week (no problems on payment - they don't kick you out!), the bigger houses are in up market districts of South Qeynos (for the good side) or Maj'dul etc, you'll take a long time filling up the Inn room though (its a double room place).  I've only just moved out of the Inn room in Castleview Hamlet (the original Froglok/highelf starter area), although I should have months ago.</p><p>To pay for houses you either need gold, and or gold and status, the simplest houses just need gold and you will at higher levels be easily able to afford them.  The higher level ones need status, this can be earnt easier at higher levels, and also some in house items reduce the status needed, so it makes sense to get plenty of furnishings before you buy a very expensive house (you get some as quest rewards here and there which is cool since you have a history of your adventuring).</p><p>Regarding servers Antonia Bayle is an RP server, but also the largest EQ2 server around, another server is also for role playing called Lucan D'Lere which you might want to check this one out too (although the population is less, but if its good then that's what counts <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ).</p><p>There is also another special server type in EQ2 which is the station exchange server, these servers (Vox and Bazaar from memory) allow the users to buy and sell in game items for real money, for this reason you cannot transfer to one or transfer off one.  If that interests you its worth checking one out (its on my list of to do things <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ).</p><p>As for tips there are a few things that hit me coming from WoW and just a few things in general.</p><ul><li>Firstly it was the lack of global cooldown, I used to button mash tanking in WoW due to the way the game worked, in EQ2 though once you get used to it the advantage is that with no global cooldown abilities can be queued up meaning there is no lag in between abilities.</li><li>Combat arts, when you gain a new ability you automatically learn the lowest rank of that ability (apprentice), you can upgrade this buy tradeskilling the Journeyman version or the expert version, or buying the adept (better then journeyman) or Master (better then expert) off the broker.  Journeyman/adept are good to aim for while levelling and make a lot of difference.</li><li>Making money, I didn't find this a problem in EQ2, the way to make good money for me was to sell things on the broker, to do this well you need a room at least.  The simplest room has 2 broker slots, place the largest boxes/bags you can into these slots and then fill them with items (a newbie mistake is to just sell 2 items at a time <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />).  Rare harvests (especially level 20+ and certain types), rare shinies (shiny things on the ground you might find), status items (and some like stale water etc are handed in and earn good money on the broker) and some gear can sell well.</li><li>Getting groups, as a newbie to the game I'd just jump into any group advertised on the 1-9 channel, the early dungeons are very simple in general (some quite grindy), later ones are scripted and more complicated in TSO.  There is also a different type of dungeon which is the contested dungeon, basically this dungeon is just a zone so you might have multiple groups roaming around it (like Stormhold).</li><li>AA points, they are like WoW's talent points but earnt after level 10 for doing things, it'll take a while to figure out where you want to spend them so trial and error and some reading up is needed.</li><li>Tradeskills, these are completely seperate professions you level up in a similar way to your adventuring, the basic tradeskilling technique is explained <a href="http://www.eq2daily.com/podcasts/VaddirCrafting.mp3" target="_blank">well here in Vaddir's podcast </a>(although its a little out of date since you no longer need to organise your tradeskill bar, but apart from that its excellent).  Apart from creating things to sell or use you can do writs either basic or rush order ones that earn you status and a city token (you can earn tons of status this way), there are quests every 10 levels from the main tradeskill society too with cool rewards (and very very good quests too) that last upto 65.  Once you get to level 55+ too there are even more quests and things to do in the Moors of Ykesha and especially Mara.</li><li>Tradeskills - they are completely optional, unlike WoW you will not actually gain any stats improvement in your character that you could not buy off the broker.  But saying that making your own food, arrows, combat arts, armour etc all can be worthwhile to save some money (or generate some via the broker).</li><li>If you play a class that has an auto attack eventually you should aim to try and use your combat arts in between auto attacks for the best efficiency.</li><li>A big one, in EQ2 in general all Warriors are tanks, all Clerics are healers and all Scouts/Mages are DPS.  There are some sort of exceptions with Monks often playing as DPS but in general its true so if you want to play a DPS role then a warrior class is probably not the best pick.  As for wanted classes I seem to see Clerics in demand at least for grouping (not sure for raiding), Bards are always welcome in a group, and Shadownights are the current class of the expansion, although that might change February.  So I'd recommend finding a class you like (it can take 20-30 levels to really get a feel, my Ranger really came alive at level 40 for example) and just play them, while some classes are in demand there are no truly bad classes, and good players always make the biggest difference.</li></ul><p>That's enough for now <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </p>

[Crickett]

<p>WoW! Now ^ that's a good informative post!</p><p>The only thing I'd add is that with the Complete Collection your /claim will give you a pet that'll become your Mount at Level 20</p><p>Get EQ2Map Updater <a href="http://maps.eq2interface.com/index.php?action=download">http://maps.eq2interface.com/index....action=download</a></p><p>The best starting cities (fullest content) are Neriak (evil), Timmorous Deep (neutral), and Kelethin (good).</p><p>The Housing starts at around 2 silver a week + or - and upgrade housing costs more.</p><p>Have fun</p>

[Finora]

<p>Very good post there Murfalad =)</p><p>Welcome to the game Ianwrym.</p><p>You can get a 2 room appartment soon as you go into town. There's usually a housing merchant standing near the newbie rooms that will give you a quest "Buy a house" or some such lol that rewards you with a couple of items. First weeks rent is free so all you have to do is click on the door, zone into your house and take your freebie items and place them in your new home.</p><p>Starting places:</p><p>None of them have a real danger of you wandering into high level areas at low levels unless you wander really really far afield. Newer newbie zones like Timorous Deep, Neriak and Kelethin have better quality quest rewards (particularly Timorous Deep), but I personally still prefer the older cities Qeynos and Freeport and almost always start my new characters there. They all have their good points and failings though.</p><p>Race/class:</p><p>The racial bonuses give some races a very slight boost if they are certain classes but it is really mostly negligible unless you are really into min maxing (though some races do get tracking which is nice for nonscout classes to get. I'm rather enjoying it on my paladin and warlock.) I suggest to people to play a race that they don't think they'll mind looking at for 80 levels. You can get illusion items and there's a race change potion you can buy for real cash but best to pick one you like to begin with.</p><p>All races can be all classes (though some do have to betray cities to do so), so your race choice doesn't keep you from being a certain class if you are willing to do a bit more work. Since you are wanting to break your typical mold, I suggest playing around for a few levels with several of the classes and see which ones you think you might enjoy. I always played a ranger type character but when I came here I ended up playing healers mostly after trying out different things.</p><p>Good luck and happy adventuring!</p>

[Dareena]

<p><cite>Sennyu wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>The best start town for gear and progression is easy, it is Gorowyn. The problem with Gorowyn however begins once you actually get to Gorowyn and find that it has the worst city layout of anywhere in game. While it wouldnt be a bad place to start a character, it ultimatly makes for a absolutly awfull home city. Your best option would be to start there then do the citizenship quest for Freeport. </blockquote><p>As others have stated, the Timorous Deep island chain is the best place to level up a new character.  It is the newest starting zone.  This means that it has the best low level quest rewards around.  Also it was designed with a strong sense of progression, which means that the quests will direct you around through the island chains in a coherent and easy to follow fashion.  (To be honest, it'll spoil you.  Although Butcherblock Mountains is a "newer" low level zone, there's a night and day difference between the BB and TD layouts.  And don't even get me started on the original low level zone layouts.)</p><p>However I've quoted the poster above for a reason.  Timorous Deep is designed with a one stop shop mentality.  All of the crafting, banking, brokering (auctioning), vendoring, repairing, mailing, and housing is all found in a single location.  This makes Gorowyn an amazing city.  The "issue" is that it's a multi-leveled city in vertical layers and some of the tram cart systems are poorly designed.  If you ignore some of the pre-established paths and move around the city in a 3-D circle, then navigation is easy.  But if you can't wrap your head around that, then the city is hellish.  (Also before the teleport pads were added, getting from the bottom to the top could be annoying.  But that drawback doesn't exist any more.)</p><p>You'll either love or hate Gorowyn.  In part, I guess that it depends which starting city you're already familiar with.  For most people, Gorowyn could burn into a pile of ash for being a worthless city.  (All hail Freeport!)  Yet at the same time, I have the exact same reaction about Freeport.  I will never start a character in that worthless heap of a city.  (So have to constantly zone just to find all of my Gorowyn benefits?  Is having to run around x3 city zones that are 2-D that much better then a "simple" x1 zone 3-D city?  In my opinion, no.)</p>

[StormQueen]

<p>You also mention Roleplaying. While you can do this on any server (I do on occasion), the most RP oriented PvE servers are Antonia Bayle and Lucan d'Lere.  There are roleplay-only guilds on those servers.</p>

[Geria]

<p>Thank you all so much for these posts, they were all substantially helpful.</p><p>Hopefully i'll get to see some of you in-game. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Geria]

<p>So as an update, i made a character on both RP servers, but i've begun to like my Dwarf Guardian that i made on Antonia Bayle.</p><p>So...</p><p>I guess i'll make a story for him when i start getting some good levels going. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Saev]

<p><cite>Ianwrym wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>So as an update, i made a character on both RP servers, but i've begun to like my Dwarf Guardian that i made on Antonia Bayle.</p><p>So...</p><p>I guess i'll make a story for him when i start getting some good levels going. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Hmm, instant story for a Dwarf Guardian ... people kept hitting him so he made a career out of it. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Saihung23]

<p><cite>Ianwrym wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Hello EQII fans out there:</p><p>I'm a new person to Everquest II, being that i will officially begin my subscription by this weekend, and i figured this would be a good place to say hello and ask some questions.</p><p>I'm a former WoW addict (Yes, i know) that had his account hacked twice and quit the habit after 5 years of playing. I've been jumping back and forth between MMO's, including the free ones and Second Life, and finally decided to settle down at the heart of all MMO's.</p><p>Some questions i'd like to ask...</p><p>What would be a decent starter race and class to choose? i mean, i've always been using the dirt-basic muscle-bound Warrior / Fighter / Berserker category, but i'd like to change it up a bit.</p><p>Also, what towns or cities would be essential for me to start in? so i don't get lost in a high level place at level 1...</p><p>To note: I bought the complete collection of EQII at Best Buy, so i also have a bunch of items and adventure packs to use, including a painting....</p><p>Do i get a house?! that would be simply awesome.</p><p>Some simple tips would be highly appreciated.</p><p>PS, one other note, if there are any specific servers for Roleplaying or In-character chat, please let me know. I've been a Heavy Roleplayer for years now, and i'd hate to break that habit.</p><p>Thanks!</p><p>-Ianwrym</p></blockquote><p>I am late to the party so...any answers I give you would be redundant.</p><p>I just wanted to say, you have a great and enthusiastic personality.  Glad to have you among the playerbase:)</p><p>Its contagious...so breathe and sneeze on everyone:P</p>

[Geria]

<p>Thank you Roboto. And yes, i'm really enjoying the way things are going with my Dwarf. He's level 24 now, after about a day or so of playing.</p><p>I found a rediculously helpful guild to join, who helped me get started on what i needed in the game: housing, rent, gear, the works. And they're really a fun sight to see and talk to.</p><p>So...if anyone wants to chat with me on the weekends when i'm online, i'm on Antonia Bayle. The name's Geriard.</p>

[Aanwiel]

<p>Helloes <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Im a player who played some WoW aswell. About the global cooldown, I have found it 10x better in EQ2 that it dont play this way. In WoW every casters spells are instant or almost anyways, so it was pretty silly gameplay for me atlast(lvl70priest).</p><p>If you didnt want a dirty warrior type, try rolling an enchanter. They got these pretty spells and wear cloth.</p><p>Goodluck with your character.</p>

[MurFalad]

<p><cite>Aanwiel wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Helloes <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Im a player who played some WoW aswell. About the global cooldown, I have found it 10x better in EQ2 that it dont play this way. In WoW every casters spells are instant or almost anyways, so it was pretty silly gameplay for me atlast(lvl70priest).</p></blockquote><p>And one other thing I noticed after a while was that every class with a lot of instant abilities was very good at PVP since you could not interrupt, still off topic a bit.</p><p>It definitely is a unlearning experience to get over it, now I'm thinking when I'm casting abilities more of what they do, its a slight difference but as a Guardian if I'm being hammered hard by something I would go for combat arts that debuff'd the mob in some ways as a priority etc.</p>

[MurFalad]

<p>Thanks all, I do try (sometimes <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ), I didn't realise though that the Dire Bear pet was included in the complete collection edition Crickett - I'll have to keep that in mind when suggesting versions to buy (at least until next months expansion!).</p><p><cite>Geriard@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Thank you Roboto. And yes, i'm really enjoying the way things are going with my Dwarf. He's level 24 now, after about a day or so of playing.</p><p>I found a rediculously helpful guild to join, who helped me get started on what i needed in the game: housing, rent, gear, the works. And they're really a fun sight to see and talk to.</p></blockquote><p>One last thing to mention is the research assistant, they are a fairly new addition to the game and they can take a crafted combat art and raise it by one level, this means you can turn</p><p>Journeyman  -> Adept</p><p>Expert          -> Master</p><p>Or you can just buy the adept/master combat arts off the broker (or get lucky and find them).  Researching can take many weeks for the best combat arts though.</p><p>The one tip I can give is when you get to later levels some of your combat arts never get upgraded beyond that, one very useful example is for an ability called tower of stone (it allows you to absorb a few hits but damages your shield), since there are no higher level versions of it its nice to get an expert level when you can and upgrade it since it'll be just as useful at the level cap.</p><p>I found the guardian class was a good choice as a first character, Wizards and other squishies are more powerful in damage dealing (not that you can miss anything you've never experienced), but unforgiving when you make a mistake and get cornered by several mobs, whereas a Guardian can often escape to safety.</p><p>Learning to tank instances over again in EQ2 is fun but can be a challenge, if you never experienced it pre-WotLK then it will feel more difficult since aggro is quite hard to work for, and the first lesson you will probably learn is to start body pulling, especially in some older dungeons which are cram packed with mobs!  Just experiencing some of the easier/medium Kunark dungeons now myself in quite poor gear, they definitely are fun and get harder, the early dungeons though tend to be a lot simpler (although pulling is an art).</p>

[Sennyu]

lol mur, there are FEW spots that body pulling is required pre late game EoF, you would be suprised at the number of tanks I have run across in there mid 60s low 70s that have only ever arrow pulled and dont even know what to watch for when body pulling. Tanks are fun though

[Seidhkona]

<p><cite>Sennyu wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>lol mur, there are FEW spots that body pulling is required pre late game EoF, you would be suprised at the number of tanks I have run across in there mid 60s low 70s that have only ever arrow pulled and dont even know what to watch for when body pulling. Tanks are fun though</blockquote><p><span ><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: large;">TANKING 101</span></span></strong></span></p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Preparation</span> </strong>To start with, before your group heads into battle, get your buffs from each member. Many classes have helpful buffs that make you more effective as a tank. Ask questions about what folks place on you so YOU know which buffs are helpful, and so you can ask for them later in other groups!</p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Aggro </span></strong>The job of a tank is to HOLD AGGRO. You are not there to deal damage to the foe really, you just have to hold aggro so it doesn't eat the rest of the group while THEY kill it.</p> <p>That being said, pretty much 1 point of hate = 1 point of damage. There's no way a tank is going to dish out the humungeous damage that, say, a wizard nuking can. So you also have other tools in your repertoire to help you get more hate than you can acquire simply beating on the foe.</p> <p>Some tank classes have stances that increase hate towards the tank. Paladins have a spell callled Amends that lets you have a percentage of the hate of another member of your group. Some tank classes get hate by being hit. Read through your spells/combat arts, and see what each of them really does.</p> <p>All tanks have some taunts. Some have more taunts than others. When you pull, you start off EARLY on the mob. You want to get it hit once and taunted at least once as you pull. The hit establishes you on the hate table, and the taunting adds to the hate you have directed at you.</p> <p>Another trick is that some classes, such as Swashbucklers, can do a HATE TRANSFER. It's basically a buff that transfers some percentage of the hate they're getting to you instead.</p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Selecting a Place to Fight</span></strong> Another critical item when tanking is that you are the one who keeps the group safe. And it's your responsibility to position the group in a place that you can safely fight without getting adds, so you learn to pick a good place to fight in.</p> <p>Usually the way you've just come is clear of foes - presumably you killed them on your way in - but you kind of keep an eye out for adds or repops that way.</p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Turning the Mob</span> </strong>However, the way your group is headed is full of foes, so it's a REALLY good idea to turn the mob after you pull it. This leaves you, the tank, between your group and the foes further in on your path, so that anything that wanders up will hit you first and not the lightly-armored healers or casters.</p> <p>You also need to turn the mob for the safety of your group. Anytime the foe ripostes, or does an AOE attack, if the thing is facing AWAY FROM THE GROUP, only the tank gets hit. Your healers need to focus mainly on healing the tank, so you want for JUST the tank to take damage if possible.</p> <p>And turning the mob is critical to allow your scouts to do the most damage. All the scout classes have flank or back attacks that usually do pretty high damage, so you need to allow them room to get in behind the foe.</p> <p>Finally, turning the mob(s) is a BIG help to youa s tank. If you see the mob facing you, YOU have aggro. If you are looking at its hiney, you DON'T have aggro and need to switch to that mob and taunt and whallop until you get aggro back.</p><p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Art of Body Pulling </span></strong>A key tool to learn early on is the Fine Art of Body Pulling. At first, not many foes are SOCIAL. The higher in level you go, however, the more social mobs you are going to encounter, so you need to learn this technique early and get it perfected.</p><p>When I say a mob is "social", that means if you hit it, it can call to its nearby friends for help. Then instead of having one thing to fight, you have the whole room trying to eat your face. To deal with this, the body pull is used.</p> <p>Instead of, say, lobbing an arrow or a taunt at the foe, you edge up until it JUST notices you. then when it does see you, you backpedal and it comes with you.</p> <p>Once you have it far enough away from its friends, you start taunting.</p> <p>Here's some info from a thread on the old forums (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=Newbie&message.id=154977&query.id=0#M154977" target="_blank">http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/...ry.id=0#M154977</a>) that's helpful for all classes, especially tanks. This is the illustrated fine art of body-pulling... <strong><img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_1.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /> <img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_2.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /> <img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_3.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /> <img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_4.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /> <img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_5.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /></strong></p>

[Geria]

<p><cite>Sigrdrifa@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Sennyu wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>lol mur, there are FEW spots that body pulling is required pre late game EoF, you would be suprised at the number of tanks I have run across in there mid 60s low 70s that have only ever arrow pulled and dont even know what to watch for when body pulling. Tanks are fun though</blockquote><p><span><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: large;">TANKING 101</span></span></strong></span></p><p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Preparation</span> </strong>To start with, before your group heads into battle, get your buffs from each member. Many classes have helpful buffs that make you more effective as a tank. Ask questions about what folks place on you so YOU know which buffs are helpful, and so you can ask for them later in other groups!</p><p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Aggro </span></strong>The job of a tank is to HOLD AGGRO. You are not there to deal damage to the foe really, you just have to hold aggro so it doesn't eat the rest of the group while THEY kill it.</p><p>That being said, pretty much 1 point of hate = 1 point of damage. There's no way a tank is going to dish out the humungeous damage that, say, a wizard nuking can. So you also have other tools in your repertoire to help you get more hate than you can acquire simply beating on the foe.</p><p>Some tank classes have stances that increase hate towards the tank. Paladins have a spell callled Amends that lets you have a percentage of the hate of another member of your group. Some tank classes get hate by being hit. Read through your spells/combat arts, and see what each of them really does.</p><p>All tanks have some taunts. Some have more taunts than others. When you pull, you start off EARLY on the mob. You want to get it hit once and taunted at least once as you pull. The hit establishes you on the hate table, and the taunting adds to the hate you have directed at you.</p><p>Another trick is that some classes, such as Swashbucklers, can do a HATE TRANSFER. It's basically a buff that transfers some percentage of the hate they're getting to you instead.</p><p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Selecting a Place to Fight</span></strong> Another critical item when tanking is that you are the one who keeps the group safe. And it's your responsibility to position the group in a place that you can safely fight without getting adds, so you learn to pick a good place to fight in.</p><p>Usually the way you've just come is clear of foes - presumably you killed them on your way in - but you kind of keep an eye out for adds or repops that way.</p><p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Turning the Mob</span> </strong>However, the way your group is headed is full of foes, so it's a REALLY good idea to turn the mob after you pull it. This leaves you, the tank, between your group and the foes further in on your path, so that anything that wanders up will hit you first and not the lightly-armored healers or casters.</p><p>You also need to turn the mob for the safety of your group. Anytime the foe ripostes, or does an AOE attack, if the thing is facing AWAY FROM THE GROUP, only the tank gets hit. Your healers need to focus mainly on healing the tank, so you want for JUST the tank to take damage if possible.</p><p>And turning the mob is critical to allow your scouts to do the most damage. All the scout classes have flank or back attacks that usually do pretty high damage, so you need to allow them room to get in behind the foe.</p><p>Finally, turning the mob(s) is a BIG help to youa s tank. If you see the mob facing you, YOU have aggro. If you are looking at its hiney, you DON'T have aggro and need to switch to that mob and taunt and whallop until you get aggro back.</p><p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Fine Art of Body Pulling </span></strong>A key tool to learn early on is the Fine Art of Body Pulling. At first, not many foes are SOCIAL. The higher in level you go, however, the more social mobs you are going to encounter, so you need to learn this technique early and get it perfected.</p><p>When I say a mob is "social", that means if you hit it, it can call to its nearby friends for help. Then instead of having one thing to fight, you have the whole room trying to eat your face. To deal with this, the body pull is used.</p><p>Instead of, say, lobbing an arrow or a taunt at the foe, you edge up until it JUST notices you. then when it does see you, you backpedal and it comes with you.</p><p>Once you have it far enough away from its friends, you start taunting.</p><p>Here's some info from a thread on the old forums (<a rel="nofollow" href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=Newbie&message.id=154977&query.id=0#M154977" target="_blank">http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/...ry.id=0#M154977</a>) that's helpful for all classes, especially tanks. This is the illustrated fine art of body-pulling... <strong><img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_1.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /> <img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_2.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /> <img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_3.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /> <img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_4.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /> <img src="http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/souls/bodypulldiagram_5.jpg" border="0" width="420" height="280" /></strong></p></blockquote><p>Well, thank you for the info, but i've already experienced my fair share of tanking in the game as i've leveled, because my guild took me into some dungeons. They mentored me, of course, with a healer, me, and two damage dealers, and i seemed to go pretty well versus 1-2 mob pulls.</p><p>I do know how to tank, having done it both WotLK and Pre-wrath on WoW as a Night Elf Warrior. And i do know my skills for both hate and damage (A good portion of my hate-inducing abilities being at either Adept or Grandmaster from leveling.)</p><p>But again, thank you for the heads-up.</p>