How to be a good Tank ?

[mlsevero]

<DIV>Hi friends, It's me again. :smileyvery-happy:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I always play solo with my pally, because i don't know how to be a good tank.:smileysad:</DIV> <DIV>What i need to do to be really useful and help my group? Is tank the major role for pally? </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I want to play in group. I'm so tired to play solo, ever and ever. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>[]'s Marcio</DIV>

[Shipwreck_GPA]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> mlsevero wrote:<BR> <DIV>Hi friends, It's me again. :smileyvery-happy:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I always play solo with my pally, because i don't know how to be a good tank.:smileysad:</DIV> <DIV>What i need to do to be really useful and help my group? Is tank the major role for pally? </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I want to play in group. I'm so tired to play solo, ever and ever. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>[]'s Marcio</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Tank is your primary role. Your job is to keep the bad guys mad at YOU, and therefore hitting YOU, while everyone else hits them. If you do that, groups will love you.

[djhbeek]

well ... that and don't die <span>:smileyvery-happy:</span> in all seriousness ... it's really as simple as he says ... keep taunting over and over.  watch out for mobs that aren't hitting you.  taunt them till they do ... that's the basics of it ... there are other nuances, but as the above poster says ... as long as you keep everything hitting you, groups will love you. <div></div>

[mlsevero]

<P>Hummm,</P> <P>I need to upgrade my taunts and my armors then. I believe that to live been hitting by mobs i need to uppgraded all heals too and use a shield, no?</P> <P>Thanks guys, I'll try this tonight ( if my wife don't hit me :smileyvery-happy: )</P> <P>[]'s Marcio</P><p>Message Edited by mlsevero on <span class=date_text>10-24-2005</span> <span class=time_text>05:19 PM</span>

[Rhianni]

<DIV>Its a different game from solo  to main tank in a group. Here are a few suggestions...<BR>Hate is built either by taunting a specific target, damaging a specific target, or casting a heal.</DIV> <DIV>Obviously use taunts but next best thing is to cast a ward on yourself and a heal or two.  Healing builds hate that affects all targets that you are fighitng.  Damage only to the ones you hurt.  </DIV> <DIV>IMO only use taunts, heals and AoE damage spells.  Dont waste time and power with the single target damage spells.  The hate generated by that only affects the one you hurt.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Use amends (or the lower level spells that takes 1 persons hate and transfers to you) put it on a DPS class. This helps a lot.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>When tanking for a group use a shield.  The shield bash builds hate and is a stun, the two handed weapon move does damage.  As MT you dont do the damage thats other members jobs.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>After you pull cast your ward on yourself.  About the time they reach you is when its cast.  And its a preheal so as they damage you it hits the ward and you gain hate from that.  Healers wont have to heal you and they wont build their own hate.</DIV>

[djhbeek]

<span><blockquote><hr>mlsevero wrote:<div></div> <div></div> <p>Hummm,</p> <p>I need to upgrade my taunts and my armors then. I believe that to live been hitting by mobs i need to uppgraded all heals too and use a shield, no?</p> <p>Thanks guys, I'll try this tonight ( if my wife don't hit me :smileyvery-happy: )</p> <p>[]'s Marcio</p><p>Message Edited by mlsevero on <span class="date_text">10-24-2005</span> <span class="time_text">05:19 PM</span></p><hr></blockquote>heals would be lower priority, since in a group you'll have someone to heal you ... healing yourself while tanking is a nice bonus, but many tank classes get away without it ...</span><div></div>

[Xadius]

I found this out late in life. If you have a choice to upgrade your spells, concentrate on your taunts and hate generators first and foremost. The more hate you can generator, the better you will be at tanking.

[Oakbr]

For tanking, upgrading your taunts is a very high priority--Adept 1 is an absolute minimum, with Adept 3 prefered.  Immediately behind your taunts come the defensive stances.  The stat boosts help quite a bit.   Armor is also very important--Legendary armor makes a noticiable difference in the amount of damage you take, and the amount of power the healers use to keep you alive.   That said, I would not worry about legendary armor prior to level 30.  You won't spend enough time in tiers 1-3 to make the investment worthwhile. Once you have the taunt and gear upgrades, tanking is mostly about attitude.  You want to be very aggressive, engaging anything that dares to stand in your way or attack one of your groupmates.  Spam those taunt buttons every time they refresh, use your wards, stuns, heals and shield bash.  It's all about aggro.  You want all aggro all the time.  Get up there in the mob's face and hold it's attention.  You're a Palladin, by Karana, and whatever foul beast you're fighting is UNHOLY and must be destroyed. If you're fighting a group encounter with multiple mobs, you may find it necessary to change targets frequently to hold aggro.  If a mob or two goes to another group member, you need to immediately target that mob and taunt.  Sometimes you may need to cast a heal or ward "through" the mob---if you target a mob that has someone else targeted, your helpful spell will land on the mob's target.  In a pinch, you can use LoH this way to snap aggro back where it belongs. If you get adds and evac and/or mezz is not an option, you need to target the adds and taunt immediately.  All mobs belong to the tank!   If you do have a mezzer, you can usually let them handle the adds until you kill the first encounter, AS LONG AS NOBODY IS USING AREA OF EFFECT SPELLS!!!!!  This can't be stressed enough.  AoE breaks mezz, and then the mobs will be busily sodomizing your enchanter buddy.  When working with a mezzer, target a mezzed mob, and taunt it until it targets you back--do this before damaging the mob, so when mezz breaks, the mob will be on you, and the chanter remains chaste.

[Dwergux]

As others have said: - Upgrade armor (less damage taken is always good) - Upgrade taunts and use them when they refresh - Use the target of my taget window (really hanndy to see if you still have aggro or not, when you have aggro the window will be empty, if the mob you have targeted has aggro on somebody else you'll see that target and it's healt so you know you lost aggro and to whom) - Save your rescue for when it's really needed (if you loose aggro to a mob when it's almost dead, look at the health of it's current target, if that target doesn't go down fast, try getting aggro back using regular taunts) - Use Redemption (or it's upgrades). A nice way to discover who generates the most hate is experience. Warn your group in advance that you haven't done the aggro transfer yet and see who generates the most hate (i.e. who will pull the mob of you most of the time when you are taunting). That person should be given amends. Good targets for redemption (or it's improvements) are: <ul> <li>Sorcerer (Wizard / Warlock) </li> <li>Tank pet of necro / conjuror</li> <li>Berserker</li> <li>Scout (but they have an aggro transfer of themselves giving their aggro to somebody else, so address this within your party)</li> <li>Shaman (Mystic / Defiler)</li> </ul> Note at level 52 you can get the spell "Sigil of Heroism". This is a short duration aggro transfer of the whole party towards the paladin. It's currently bugged though (when this spell wears of a previously cast Amends will cancel it's affect although the buff still seems active in your active spells). Sigil of Heroism is on a 5 mins recast timer. <div></div>

[mlsevero]

<P>Wow,</P> <P>My friends you are great. Your post was a real guide to palladin. :smileyvery-happy: </P> <P>I'll compile these informations, print and read it a lot of times. </P> <P>Thanks guys</P> <P>[]'s Marcio</P>

[Boli32]

A few other things: Don't bother with your hard hitting spells/nukes at all whe you are tanking it is all about power conservation; the more power we have the longer we can stay alive.<b> I'ts not our job to kill stuff its our job to make sure stuff doesn't kill our friends.</b> <u>1. Quick SOLO HOs <font color="#cccccc"> </font></u><font color="#cccccc">HO icon, Interupt nuke/Attack with small heal, taunt. it can all be over in 2s (or something)</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">I like to use the Heal Attack in mine and whenever it ungreys I fire off a quick HO as te hate gernated is significant:</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">- Hate from taunt</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">- Hate from debuff (if you used the AoE taunt)</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">- Hate from DPS on Attack</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">- Hate from Heal</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">- Hate from DPS / Buff on HO completion</font> <u>2. Interupts </u><font color="#cccccc">Shield Bash, Vengence, Interupt Nuke</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">If the enemy is on the floor he can't hurt you. Try and keep either shield bash or vengence ungreyed when you are fighting spell casters healers as soon as you see the animation that means they are about to cast a spell... click it fast.</font> <u> 3. Attack Spamming </u><font color="#cccccc">Simple: Don't do it. keep an eye on health, taunt quick HOs and low power interupting spells are the way to go. Sometimes when I'm bored I fire off my large Nuke but the power used woudl be much betetr spent on hate generators. Unless this is a small group or little DPS you can;t contribute much to the DPS total as it is and in the end you may need that power if an ADD turns up.</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font> <u>4. ADDS & Group possition </u>ADDS are every groups worse nightmare... the ideal situation is every mob you are fighting is in front of you and looking right at you with the group behind (see below)             <b><font color="#ff0000">0</font></b>        <b>X</b>         <b> <font color="#ffff00">X</font></b> <b><font color="#ff0000">0</font><font color="#6666ff">X</font></b>    <b> XX</b>             <b><font color="#ff0000">0</font></b>        <b>X</b> <font color="#ffff00"><b>X</b></font> = Tank <font color="#6666ff"><b>X</b></font> = Scout/Other Tanks <b>X</b> = Priest/Mage <font color="#ff0000"><b>0</b></font> = Mob <font color="#cccccc">Allways try to maneoure the mob / group into this situation but be very careful of attracting other mobs, especially if the group is spread out. Not only does this gaurd against many of the AoE spells it also allows the people behind the mobs to hit easier (no parry/shiled bonses) but thye are immune to the "riposite" effect where the enemy can occasionaly gain an additional attack against their attacker.</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">Also keep SOME didtance bwteen the casters and the melee group... if one of the mob peels off to atatck them you will not only see it turn and start to run towards them but you'll even have some time to act before it reaches them... if your fast enough the mob won;t even reach them.</font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">and Finally in dealing with multiple groups - use your AoE attacks... all the time. With such an encounter keeping the agro under control is worth far more than keeping your power under control.</font> <u>In conclusion </u><font color="#cccccc"> </font><font color="#cccccc">You';ll fugure 90% out of this within 10min of tanking. the rest is just experiance when to ward when to hate when to run that quick HO. Tanking is a given for fighters... it is what we were designed to do; For Pallies we have good hate building abilities and our job is a lot easier than it once was - it is by no means certain. Good Luck </font> <div></div>

[mlsevero]

<P>Thanks friends,</P> <P>It works <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>After read your posts i upgrade my skills, group last night with two wizards and try to do exactly what i'm learn here. Everything was very good <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. My pally was able in mantain the aggro. I only lose the mobs 4 or 5 times but before they hit the wizards i pulled again. I die only twice and the rest of my group remain alive. I'll try again tomorrow.:smileytongue:</P> <P>Thanks a lot teachers. </P> <P>[]'s Marcio</P>

[Majorminor]

<P></P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> mlsevero wrote:<BR> <P>Thanks friends,</P> <P>It works <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>After read your posts i upgrade my skills, group last night with two wizards and try to do exactly what i'm learn here. Everything was very good <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. My pally was able in mantain the aggro. I only lose the mobs 4 or 5 times but before they hit the wizards i pulled again. I die only twice and the rest of my group remain alive. I'll try again tomorrow.:smileytongue:</P> <P>Thanks a lot teachers.</P> <P>[]'s Marcio</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <P>We'll that sounds like a good day in my book <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[g0thiC_iCe_cReaM]

<P><BR> </P> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> mlsevero wrote:<BR> <P>I die only twice and the rest of my group remain alive.Thanks a lot teachers. </P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>that's yer job...lol...i die a lot (mostly b/c i get over ambitious or a baaaaaaaaaaad set of mobs adds to the melee), but most of the time my group gets away...</P> <P>if things go bad tell people to run and stand yer ground if you don't think you'll make it...you can always get a rez later :smileywink:</P> <P>you get the chance to take master 2's of some of yer taunts later...i highly reccomend them over the other choices...</P>