Guardian Spec that works

[Wastura]

<p>Okay, I've respec'ed about 20 times and changed gear in 20 ways. I have 100 crit chance and DA 20% crit bonus by gear alone, some ability modifier, 60 haste and 60% dps modifier with aa. I have little/no crit mitigation and have no fabled gear. I have 40% aoe strike chance, 15% strikethrough and with full points in the intelligence line buff to haste it's almost always up putting me over 100 haste (not %, just modifier) for almost the entirety of a fight (not including any group buffs)</p><p>I cannot hold agro.</p><p>I've tried four different casting orders.</p><p>My "drag" shadows ability gets overwritten.</p><p>I cannot hold agro.</p><p>I have my mythical that literally makes choosing one of my aa's impossible.</p><p>I cannot hold agro.</p><p>I have placed my aa in nothing but dps or threat related points and did nothing of the ones that increase survivability and I cannot hold agro.</p><p>[Removed for Content] am I doing wrong?</p><p>I have 18.2% agro modifier normally, group moderate, mastered moderate and I cannot hold agro.</p><p>Is it just me? I am pushing 7-10k dps and I hear of some guardians doing 12k normally, how?</p><p>Here's the biggest upsetting factor, the SK I grouped with was holding agro and while he did have his myth, his gear was all comparable or slightly less than my own. I asked about his aa's and he only had 180 while I had 190.</p><p>Is there a change in the works for guardians or am I completely missing something that I should be doing? I left the game for awhile and SK's weren't doing anything then, I was having no problems with single target agro-locking though I was admittedly a bit shaky with encounters. Now every encounter seems to be a group encounter and even that aside I have to use my end aa lines just to temporarily hold agro on a single target. I'm popping rescue in a way that seems to be reminiscient of taunt. And another thing, for those few encounters that are solo, groups aren't taking them that way anymore. The SK seems to thrive on pulling 5-10 encounters, holding agro on every one with solo heals as they heal themselves.</p>

[Feldorm]

<p>I heard a rumour that lvl 90 shadowknights are actually lvl 100 guardians. So just get another 10 lvls and you'll be able to group with the sk without any problems.</p>

[Dreadpatch]

You don't have to give up, just continue to play the best you can and do some reading on your class in eq 2 flames. There are usually some pretty great tips in there by great players. Don't compare yourself to SK's they are way OP at the moment. If they are toned down will remain to be seen, but even if they aren't you can concentrate on being the best you can be.

[Brildean]

<p>Farm the Gem from cella's, the ring from Demetrix and the belt from library and alot of your agro issues will go away.. and even try to farm a charm of the lost out of commonland tso zone.</p><p>You may be positioning mobs wrong to try to stack them all in front of you.. so your ae auto attack hits atleast its max targets aloud. then tab through target encounters and send of green aoe's with blue aoe's.. its pretty easy hold agro off anyone now.</p><p>also remember to use defensive mind before experience insight.. so you can get it down to its minimum reuse.</p>

[Vlahkmaak]

<p>If your 100 and 100 for crit/DA then I am going to have to assume you are interupting your auto attack and thus decreasing your DPS.  You should be doing just fine with minimal loos of aoe aggro even without a hate transfer.  Dual wielding with your myth I prefer off hand to be Claw of Khalen - (Druushk drop) as it adds an encounter aoe proc.  Currently I use the karborite sword off the mark merchant as hit hits very hard on a long delay with the claw as an off hand for the added encounter aoe procs.  There are better bt I am not raiding this x-pc so gear options are limited to heroic content for me atm.</p><p>The Hole is a good place to practice yur AOE pulls - pull rooms in there so you ahve multiple encounters and AOE - time your auto attacks well - you should be able to pull entire rooms in library, research halls, large ecounters in Demkirts, and as you gear up larger grps/ un linked encounters in the harder zones too.  At 100/100 timing your auto attacks you shuld not be havng alot of aggro issues even running with a warlock or 2 as a guardian this x-pac.</p><p>Assuming your HTL is at least master for last tier or ad3 this tier and all other arts are master/ad3, and you are not interupting your combat order.  What classes are you typically running wiht? i find grp composition in most of the zones negligible.  tryto get a dirge/swashy/ or coercer in the grp if your ahving alot of aggro issues to help with the hate.  Also invest in grp moderate if you have not. </p><p>Good luck.</p>

[Shorcon]

<p><cite>Brildean wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Farm the Gem from cella's, the ring from Demetrix and the belt from library and alot of your agro issues will go away.. and even try to farm a charm of the lost out of commonland tso zone.</p><p>You may be positioning mobs wrong to try to stack them all in front of you.. so your ae auto attack hits atleast its max targets aloud. then tab through target encounters and send of green aoe's with blue aoe's.. its pretty easy hold agro off anyone now.</p><p>also remember to use defensive mind before experience insight.. so you can get it down to its minimum reuse.</p></blockquote><p>Get off the pregame and into end game. There are many endgame gaurdians on here telling YOU that we are underpowered in comparison to all other tanks. This isn't a skill issue. This is a programing issue. I can hold agro in groups and raids now that I am fully geared in t9 raid. I couldn't before. I can't hold agro against a SK dpsing in raid. I can't hold agro against a pali/zerk in raid. I have tested and parsed this and t3 geared and less tanks of other classes exemption of brawlers parse 15% - 30% higher on single target and multiple mob encounters. This is going all out using snaps/taunts/cooldowns etc. I have tested many different que's also. Nothing can out parse an SK. I have beat pali 1 out of 4 rate with no amends. I have beat zerk 1 out of 3 rate. I have not beat SK ever. They are the 30% more threat and thats being generous to the SK.  </p>

[Comtorro]

<p>i have tanked all zone except cella palace outer vaults (as for vaults just havent been there yet) and Vig 3 havent had any problems so far excpet when there is a monk or bruiser in the group.  the biggest thing is dont try to pull a room at a time just pull the linked targets and group taunt every time it comes up.  as for aa respect to group moderate most scouts will be at the negitive hate cap with just that assassins swachie with hate xter there will be no reason to mod them.  i save mod for brawlers and wiz/warlock only classes i have problems with.  i can keep my aggro meter around 30-55% with just that and i do about 5k dps on one tagert 7-10k on groups of 3 or more. i have no uber gear just good legndery stuff and never leave def stance.</p><p>just wanted to add one thing tell every one in you group that if they dont target thru you you will let them die. noting i hate more than fight 4 mobs and the warlok is off on his own target getting squished by a triple up.  after 2plats worth of repairs they will learn.</p>

[Wasuna]

<p>Couple of things:</p><p>1. You NEED group moderate.</p><p>2. You need extra agro from your AA's/adornments. I'm 30% extra agro solo.</p><p>3. Never moderate a summoner unless that is all you have in group tp moderate.</p><p>4. Don't hesitate to moderate a brawler if in group Nothing else you have works on them.</p><p>5. Never moderate the person transfering hate to you unless that is all you have to moderate. They should be able to deal with their own agro with the transfer. I know assassins and wizards get 2-3 deagro abilities.</p><p>6. Always moderate warlock/wizard/scout or next highest dps in that order.</p><p>7. If you have a high dps scout that is not transfering hate to you then put never surrender on them. If they get agro it's nto so bad.</p><p>8. Run a parse and see who really needs moderate. it could be a dirge hitting 15K DPS that needs it if they are better geared and speces for dps.</p><p>Even with that you still MUST has some for of hate transfer. Transfer effectively removes one DPS you have to worry about and ups your agro. From there you can pick the wizard or something to single target moderate. The rest of the group should be healer, bard enchanter so you should be OK. Since my agro generation is 30% already I personally prefer troubadors.</p><p>If your enchanter is a coercer ask them nicely to link people. I'm not really sure what other buffs they have that help their DPS that take concentration but the really high DPS coercers almost NEVER link people. Link is basically a moderate that can be cast on multiple people that takes a concentration slot. With group moderate you will only need 1-2 people linked.</p><p>That said, any really serious DPSer will wipe you out on agro no matter what. No if ands or buts. You just have to space your snaps out to try and deal with it. I also keep my kick and shiled bash available. Sometimes when they get agro you can just bash it and it does before the stunn is worn off.</p><p>I had group moderate up and single target moderate on a wizard and he still got agro every single fight. Getting the autoattack bar helps agro a bit on the longer fights. It will jump your DPS up a bit and every little bit helps. Depending on how the zone is going agro wise I'll either focus on the meter all night or ignore it and blast through the zone.</p>

[Shorcon]

<p><cite>Feldorm wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I heard a rumour that lvl 90 shadowknights are actually lvl 100 guardians. So just get another 10 lvls and you'll be able to group with the sk without any problems.</p></blockquote><p>Haha. Good one. I hear this to. I think a group full of sk's with a Templar could own Nagafen. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[dirtymeat80]

<p><cite>Shorcon wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Feldorm wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I heard a rumour that lvl 90 shadowknights are actually lvl 100 guardians. So just get another 10 lvls and you'll be able to group with the sk without any problems.</p></blockquote><p>Haha. Good one. I hear this to. I think a group full of sk's with a Templar could own Nagafen. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>to be honest, I bet the SK would still hold aggro better lol.  Likely going Zerker myself after new epic quest finished</p>

[Yimway]

<p>I'd need to see your AA spec to offer targeted advice.</p><p>However that being said, your CB is low and I didn't see mention of your potency.</p><p>My only issues holding aggro is holding it off of other fighters since their aggro potential is grossly higher than ours.</p>

[Gaffitis]

<p>Can we get some of the Guards who are doing well in Instances and Raids to post their AA specs? Def be interested in seeing Vlahk's set ups!</p><p>For an easy AA tree site:</p><p><a href="http://www.beetny.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.beetny.com/</a></p>

[Brildean]

<p>Normal group and easy raid mobs..</p><p><a href="http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?902o144a@14a@245a@5aa21@28@18212m@3535355555@23@1 343@1555@11@111@15555121o@15@15@552@231@1555@4555@ 1511" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?902o14...@1555@4555@1511</a></p>

[Wastura]

<p>This is what I've got thus far.</p><p><a href="http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?901q144a@14a@641@2aa2112a335545@15554@33@233@1554 11@11@25@15@1121a@255@541@251@355@11@15@3511" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?901q14...@355@11@15@3511</a></p><p>I can see a few minor upgrades to my dps with a few more aa, but not x2-x5 my current DPS.</p>

[steelbadger]

<p>Hrm, you've wasted a few points in that spec:</p><p>Got Your Back is a waste of time, how many times have you been in the same group as another fighter that needs more help to survive an aoe?</p><p>Enhance Moderate is pointless if you have Improved Moderate (You'll be hitting the dehate cap on whomsoever you apply it with or without Enhance)</p><p>Absorbing Blows is bleh, not enough incurable stuns to warrant it in my view, get rallying cry is my suggestion, or veterans shielding if you want more mit.</p><p>Cry of the Warrior is also bleh, I haven't bothered with it till I felt I had points to burn.  It's a bit useless.</p><p>The wisdom line is not as good as the stamina line for holding aggro, I'd suggest you swap those points to Stamina.</p><p>You probably want to take your points out of Enhance Moderate and Got Your Back and put them into Lay Waste and one to finish up Tower of Stone.</p><p>You probably want to drop that 1 point in rescue in your shadows tree and either put it into Overpower or go for the off-stance bonus.</p><p>Drop Absorbing Blows and get Rallying Cry instead.  I probably wouldn't bother with Cry of the Warrior at the moment and would instead put the free point into DA in the Warrior tree.</p><p>Personally I don't use the Strength line, preferring instead to get plenty of points into DA but it seems popular with other people so I can live with you having it.</p><p>In terms of purely holding aggro I'd probably drop Fight Through Death for Rally to Combat, and really if we're about grouping here I don't see much use in Last Man Standing.</p><p>And really work on getting those extra 30 or so AAs so you can get Experienced Insight, I find it more useful than Reinforcement in many situations.</p><p>Those are just my thoughts when I look at your spec.</p>

[Wastura]

<p>No, I appreciate the thoughts. I'm trying anything/everything at this particular juncture.</p>

[Humayon]

<p>Here is my setup these days full time gp/raids. Some points are off since im doing this from memory. With the current gear i have i can hit 15k in gps given a nice setup and over 20k in raids again depending on setup. I know some former guardians who had hit 45k in raids but that again comes from being completely dependant on group setup and what other buff classes are set as in their AAs, gear ofcourse helps and since maxing out crits/da is fairly easy these days, hitting such high numbers is not a surprise.</p><p>In groups i rarely lose aggro to another class but that is not to say i don't occasionally get an over zealous warlock in a pug who thinks its ok to nuke from the word go. What others have said, drop that intercede and wisdom line which is completely pointless.</p><p>Your casting order is also important. Don't bother chasing sk/pally/zerks in parses because you cannot get there, if you lose aggro to them in raids then just carry on and hope one day someone will heed our call and fix the voids left by inconsiderate developers.</p><p>Run with dirge/coercer in groups. Don't waste points in STR hate gain because it is just rubbish. Also as you gather more crit gear liberate some points from STR crit and spend elsewhere. Im at 130% crit and just over 100% DA self buffed and if i get round to playing the game again these days i will probably ditch some points in that STR line as well.</p><p><a href="http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?902s14a@24a6@14a@64a81@2788212i@3545554555@555355 5@11@11@1555@2121o@35@15@255@351@15@15@111@155@155 1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?902s14...15@111@155@1551</a></p>

[Yimway]

<p>This is my current spec.  I've been lazy and set up this one for both group and raid play.  There are perhaps tweaks I would make to setup a dedicated raid vs a dedicated group setup, but this one works for me just fine in either build:</p><p><a href="http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?902s145a@14a@248a@5aa21@28@18212a@3555@1555553@35 55@255@11@11@355@1121w@35@25@45@151@15@15251@15555 511" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?902s14...@15251@15555511</a></p><p>I am considering a few changes.  I may move points from Veteran's Shielding or Absorbing Blows over to Aggressive Entry.</p><p>As much as dps wants to go full out while I'm still working on getting mobs to the tank spot, the additional initial hate on Aggressive Entry is something I'm considering.</p><p>What might stick out on this build is I'm not dumping excessive points into Crit, DA, Defense, and Parry.</p><p>Defense and Parry are just not parsing to be very effective in SF, and I'm getting over buffed in Crit and DA with SF gear regularly.  Depending on where my gear goes, I may move more points out of str and stam as gear compensates more for crit and da.</p><p>For your own builds, just beef up these two lines appropriately that you are group buffed to ~100 crt/da.  Wasting AA in overbuffing vs getting something more useful is a waste IMO.</p>

[Wastura]

<p>I was only in the STR line for the hate % modifier, I'm way over cap on the crit. As for DA, I'm at cap with a dirge or illy or anything else that gives those minor little bonuses so I didn't think, for agro at least, that the middle line was worth it compared to DPS.</p>

[Brildean]

<p>I switched out enhanced reversal aa, with the mit/accuracy aa. Liking it alot better. Came to the conclussion in a group setting i'm never wearing a shield. and in a raid setting the shield is just there to hit TOS on red messages and if and when you need to shield up the 6 procs in a 2 minute encounter from it isn't worth it.</p>

[MJDevos]

<p>Here is what I run with ... <a href="http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?902s14aa@14a@24a3@58a41@388212i@3534@15@15@1555@1 55533135@1111@15@1553121o@35@15@25@25@15145@15@151 @15@3511" target="_blank">here</a></p><p>Still put points in Crit Chance for gear usually with Crit Bonus / Potency does not have Crit Chance.</p><p>Wearing the DPS plate I am sitting at 100-105 percent CC and DA, 67 CB, and 53 Potency self buffed.</p><p>Defensive Plate I have so much Crit Chance that it is coming out of my ears.</p>

[RafaelSmith]

<p>My current spec is alitte oddball compared to most.  I only play my Guardian in duo-boxedx2 group where I duo box Guardian/Assassin and girlfriend boxes Fury/Coercer.   I have tried to make the Guardian as AFK tankable as possible since the DPS and Aggro I can control with the Assassin and the Fury/Coercer are not a problem aggro-wise.</p><p>This spec seems to be working pretty good for me but as I said.....i don't group with the Guardian in normal groups.</p><p>Wanted to boost survivability as much as possible and give myself as many ways to block or avoid damage as possible...which is why I took Dragoon Reflexes and the AAs to boost Def stance.   Extra duration for Reinforcements works nice when burning hard with the Assassin.  Probably a few misc points I could put to better use but for the most part this is working well for me.</p><p><a href="http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?902s145@24a8148a@5aa21@28@18212m@3535@155555@4255 3555@11@11@155552121k@355@35@12@251@15@15@151@1555 @21" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?902s14...@15@151@1555@21</a></p>

[Harbringer Doom]

<p><cite>Brildean wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Farm the Gem from cella's, the ring from Demetrix and the belt from library</p></blockquote><p>What are the full names of these items?  Anyone?</p><p>nm, found them</p>