WARs, how do you keep Tanking interesting?

[TheFishyOne]

Tanking in EQ does not seem to be terribly interactive in terms of buttons to press. As a raiding CLR, I constantly have to make judgement calls regarding mana conservation vs. letting someone rie (I’m nearly blind irl, so my guild has me on patch heals, rather than be part of the CH chain), which means figuring out the right spell to use on a dynamic basis . Tanks pop disc once at the start of the fight, and kick if they see a spell being cast. Maybe Taunt if they lose aggro. Am I missing anything? Warrs seem like they would be awfully boring after a time. What keeps you guys from getting burnt out?

[Jauna]

Thats pretty much it, outside of a few rootnet or mallet clickies for emergencies you are just auto attacking in that deep dark void of not much to do but still enough to do to not window out for animated pornography.

[Jimjam]

Strafewriggling backwards when under Torpor.

Battlebandaging to maintain RSI.

Asking force to disengage autoattack for enrage, then flipping the mob to catch out AFKers.

Generally being bad.

[trite]

Taunt isn't a thing while tanking raid bosses. There is other stuff to do and not just main tanking after clicking midnight mallet and defensive disc.


Rampage tanking (knowing how to get on ramp correctly)
Keeping junk buffs up through dipels.
Keeping yourself rooted with bark pots if relevant.
Repositioning after being feared.
Calling push and guiding mobs that gate while DPS pushes.
Calling AE's to get casters out of the way.
Keeping mobs positioned correctly so casters can dodge AE or you arne't vulnerable to knock back.
Watching your health with reaper/soulfire/wort pots.
Managing agroe if you are not currently tanking.
Turning off attack for enrage.
Being able to take agroe after heals are landing and the speed bump has bought time in case another tank goes down.
Dodging AE and DPS when you aren't tanking.
knowing which resists and weapons you should be using for each fight
fight specific stuff like self dispel with Crystallized Pumice during nexona fight, or what to do when Dain banishes you


there's lots of stuff good tanks have to do and be aware of...

[Swish2]

Importing from my rogue days, but keep an eye on your crits...what's your highest? Something I liked to keep track on with my backstabs....every few seconds I'd get another chance to beat it.

Not exactly exciting but something I'd passively hope for in a session :p

[MagpieRockyl]

Sonder has a good post. What he missed is the social aspect. Warriors are leaders. You have to make groups constantly. In raiding, you are a vital component to success, and the better you are at communicating, the better. Most raids have one leader who is overwhelmed by all the facets of raid administration. The main tank essentially becomes the Fight Leader. You have to know the mob you're fighting. You have to anticipate how the retard dps horde will behave. You have to speak up and command drug addicted players, or else they will wipe your raid. If you like being a leader, speaking up, and guiding people, you'll be a good warrior. If you just want to be silent and hit autoattack, you'll be a shit warrior and no one will like you.

[MagpieRockyl]

Says the fay gate who runs open wtov raids and fails to manipulate loot system for his personal gain.

That's a backhanded compliment

[TheFishyOne]

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

About the social aspect, my problem is that I’m nearly blind irl. During raids, this is not a problem, as I can use TS for comms, and haveall my heals macroec to show targets, and have other macros to communicate important events, like when I land an MoK. Leveling up, this could be a problem, as it is difficult for me to play and read chat at the same time. With the slower pace of combat in EQ, however, I think it can be managed.

Still in the process of reading all your replies (see: nearly blind irl), but am starting to get an idea of how tanking can be fun. Thanks again for all the feedback!

[Jimjam]

You know there is a command to increase font size in eq? You could viewport onto half the screen and the other half have a giant chat window? Have you tried that? Or is it blind beyond even huge fonts?

[Troxx]

I always found simply being the tank to be interesting enough. If I ever get bored of being the point man or just need something different - that’s what alts are for.

As others have pointed out, being an effective warrior also means situational awareness, knowing what you’re fighting, the strengths/weaknesses of your hunting party, leading from the front, carrying a bag or 2 of tools (and knowing when to use them), positioning mobs (and when to push/whatever), strategically using kick/bash to interrupt, etc.

I find playing my warrior a lot more engaging than my monk for what it’s worth.

[Shinko]

Raid lead

[wagorf]

Only join a group when nobody is capable of taking hits. War is max fun when you know everyone is dependent on you.

[DinoTriz]

I've always wanted to make a Warrior but I don't like responsibility.

I play this Elf Sim because I have to deal with responsibility in the real world.

I don't escape responsibility to find more responsibility.

Miss me with that responsible shit.

[mycoolrausch]

I
OT Hammer - can save your life with a lucky proc (take off your haste items and click off haste buff when using)


I'm a newb, why wouldn't you want haste if you're trying to proc a self port out? Does it not work that way?

[MagpieRockyl]

I'm a newb, why wouldn't you want haste if you're trying to proc a self port out? Does it not work that way?

My good sir. A common misconception. However, procs are based on time and not a raw percentage based on swing, or due to weapon speed, or any of that nonsense. DEX increases proc rate, but that's it.

The base proc rate on weapons is 1 proc per minute (ppm). If the delay of the weapon is such that you swing ten times within a period of one minute, you have 10% chance on proc per swing.

Thus, if you reduce the number of swings you have per minute, the given chance of a proc on any particular swing increases.

So if you swing with that same weapon, but you only swing 5 times, each swing has a 20% proc chance.

Your autoattack is an instant cast attack. The more you stack the odds in your favor, the faster your OT hammers because you will have so few swings per minute, that the percent chance of swinging within the first few rounds of combat can become very high indeed.

The ideal way to proc your OT hammer is to have 255 DEX and the most powerful slow available.

This is also a good way to make a fair chunk of change. Challenge people to hammer duels for 100pp and keep yourself slowed. You'll win most times.

[elwing]

To add to this, I think you can also proc on riposte, so higher proc% per swing means higher number of procs, hance the slow...

Edit:
Also on live, people used to kill the whole plane of fire abusing this, by having bard pull the whole zone to a slowed warrior, an ae weapon and the riposte disc, leading to all the zone dieing in seconds due to the ae procs

[lurk]

You can't proc on a riposte and I think mainhand is closer to 2 ppm with 255 dex

The riposte disc was just to stay alive. Rampage is what killed everything since there was a chance to proc on each mob

[elwing]

Ho, right, thx, so forget about proc on riposte :)