Raising Defense with Raid Buffs

[MillsFairchild]

My guild is pretty new to raiding.  Since there are some very raid knowledgeable zerkers here, I figured I'd ask for advice. Currently, our main raid tank is a Paladin.  We will likely be switching to our Guardian once he hits 50 shortly.  Both are in full ebon, and the Pally has some fabled stuff (shield and weapon), a bunch of Adept III's, and rare jewelry.  But I still feel like we're missing something in the way of buffs. Generally, our MT group consists of: Two Paladins, Templar, Warden, Mystic, and another varying class for resists.  I'm usually on my Illusionist - so we don't have a zerker. What buffs should be used on the MT?  And I don't mean just zerker buffs... I mean from the entire MT group (and other groups, if any).  What is used to push defense so high?  Do other tanks (Paladins/Zerker/Guardian) generally use their intercept spells to take some of the damage?  Is there a certain combination of buffs/classes that works better than the rest? We've got plenty of healing power... probably a bit more than we <i></i>need.  But it always seems that the MT is taking more damage than they should.  And not from spells damage... we can get some pretty good resists going.  I'm talking about normal crushing/slashing/piercing damage.  Any info/help you can provide on getting our MT as beefed up as possible would be greatly appreciated. <div></div>

[Nosnem]

<DIV>You have the warden mystic combo right but thats about it. Guards or zerekrs currently make best raid tanks..Not so much Pallies due to a multitiude of factors but the thing you need most is high HP and big defense..currently that rests with the guardian. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Your Illutionist is secondary to most starter raids. While they are nice to have they are uneccassaary for starter raids compared to having a nice HP boost from zerker. That can be alleviated by some other classes like a necro has an HP boost but Im not sure if it comes near to the Zerker boost.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Stacking a bunch of healers in MT grp isnt going to help as much as u think it does for whatever reason you do it. I assume your just starting out so grp cures arent an issue yet. U need to look at all the classes and see what there buffs are. Alot of good players will go to the eq2 sites to check on a classes listed buffs to figure out what classes they are looking for.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm too lazy to read so I am playing alot of those characters to get a feeling for what they can be used for. Examine raid tanks that come by u and find out what they have in their activatable slots for defense boosts as well. There are classes (even the sneaky weak ones offer something) and easily attainable objects that will help with your raidining experience when it comes to defense (not a doll or potion either something else... although I hope you are using both in addition to), intervention, and HP. Common and not so common but all easily attainable costing u time but little effort.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>You have the clues now just do whatever you prefer. Play all the classes or go to the sights and look up each class and read throughg their buffs. Hint; every class follows a theme with their class spell upgrades (mostly) so you dont have to read every one of them. It is helpful to read the 1-20 to get a feel then go to 35-50 to see what the skills have evolved into. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>A little bit of work but the old saying goes you give a man some fish and he eats for a day or teach a man to fish and he eats for  a lifetime. Plus now that the combat changes are coming I wouldn't get too set in your ways as everythig is going to shift.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I dont think anyone is going to spell it out for you as it is a right of passage to figure these things out....but there are hints in what I have said here. I ahve probably said too much anyway. So good luck and good fortune</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Nazo]

<P>If you want to maximize defensive stats of the MT GROUP try this setup : Guardian, Berserker, Templar, Shaman, Warden, Troubadour</P> <P>Disclaimer : This setup will be going outta the window after combat revamp :smileyvery-happy:</P>

[Flor]

What he said..if you dont have a trub, use a dirge, they give kinda the same defense buff...but trub is better for the rest of the heals. Dirge gives a mana regen too tho, so is kinda situational. With that setup, your guardian should have 310 defense. Im a zerker and i tank for my guild, with this setup and tokems from bloodline chronicle im always at 323-327 defense with 9600 HP. And let me tell you, i went FULL STR, never sta never hp. With a respec on my traits, i could get as high 11k HP with this group setup.

[Strewth]

<div></div>Depends on the raid, some like the Arch Lich require high poison resists in the MT group, thus a Warlock or a Necro are desireable, others you need high mitigation, can't beat a conji for the mit buffs. But a good combination is what you are currently using, drop the second pallie from the MT group as they will have stacking issues and 2 are doubbly as useless (no offence). Get off your illusionist and onto your Zerker, at present I can't stress enough how valuable a Zerk in the MT group is, we add lots of HP's, nice 30 second 260 odd mitigation with anarchy and not to mention Vehmence (no it's not broken and yes I can prove it) and a host of other goodies. If your Illusionist and Zerker are on the same account, split one of them off and bot the chanter or grab another guildie to play him. Using intercept skills that transfer damage to other tanks are suicidal, don't go there <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> As for how high the defence is, 285 to 300 is fine, if you only have a single Zerker, single chanter and no level 50 guard, might want to start looking for some more guild members. There are a number of well respected Pallie MT's getting around, it's more the support within the group and the level of the kit and spells  they have, I'd suggest using NBG for the items you get to [Removed for Content] your MT and MA quickly, EQ2 is 50% person and 50% equipment. In Allure we have spent a lot of time and still do experimenting with group makeups and moreover strategies, effective communications via teamspeak make raiding a breeze, I cant give away too many secrets as half the fun is figuring this stuff out.. Your on the right track mate, and you have answered most of your own questions <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> PS: In Beta, it's all about mitigation.... <div></div><p>Message Edited by Strewth on <span class=date_text>08-24-2005</span> <span class=time_text>07:52 AM</span>

[-Aonein-]

<P>Lots of excellent suggestions and great strats guys, good reading material too see how other guilds go about there buisness, but always keep one thing in mind, especially to those who are new to raiding. Dont get used to how it is now, cause after the combat changes, its all going to change, entire strats will change, some more then others, some may not even change at all, but none the less, there will be a change, so what works today or tomorrow wont work next month.</P> <P>Not trying to derail anything here just throwing that in there so people keep a open mind, ya never know, something you do know that seems so wrong or out of place in a raid, might become a raid saver in time to come.</P> <P>Its all about the learning curve.</P>

[Nosnem]

<P>I have to say I use the intercept line all the time with my zerker when things get hary and when the HP of the MT goes back up Ill turn it off to make sure it isnt suicidal but I can tell u we have won battles we should have lost because of the precision use of intercept. It will give the helaers a chance to get caught up int he heal rotation because some stun or interupt hit one of the healers at a most inconvenient moment. There are otehr things that happen as well in raids for me to use this like atroub getting caught infront of the Epic and dieing so to make up for defense lost I had to cast the intervene constantly and turn it off when I got to low to be safe and effective at the same time.</P> <P> </P>

[MillsFairchild]

Thanks a ton for all the sugguestions.  There's some great info here that will help us quite a bit.  I sincerely appreciate it. I have a feeling we're going to be kicking it up a notch this weekend.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>

[Strewth]

Best of luck this weekend <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> The trick is to be open to suggestion, all the raiding members of your guild will have some good ideas with strats, give them a try. <div></div>

[MillsFairchild]

I figured you all might be interested in an update. Thanks in part to the suggestions you all gave, we took out Rognog and Drayek tonight for the first time.  We figured out how to get our MT's defense up around 310+ or something silly like that.  Needless to say, Rognog was a pushover and Drayek barely touched him. We even scored a RGF from Rognog.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> There's not much in this game that can match the kind of rush you get the first time you beat something like that.  Awesome!  Now to take a look at the logs and notes and see what we can do better for next time.  Thanks guys! <div></div>