Warrior aggro

[Stonewallx39]

I’m trying to make sure I’m maximizing my aggro and aggro retention and have a few questions about how I should think about progressing my gear to maximize this.

I’m lvl 55 right now and using a frostbringer in my main hand and WESS in my offhand. My dex is only around 115 and I have 22% haste.

What should I focus on the improve my aggro? Should I push for more Dex gear? I’m wearing a couple -dex crusty pieces but I’ve been saving money for gems when I can get velours armor turn ins. Dox a 5% increase in dex equate to a 5% increase in procs or how should I think about this relationship?

I could also try for a better weapon like the infestation (not a huge upgrade) but it would improve my totally white damage moving the FB to offhand.

Frankly my main concern is grinding out some levels, but want to set my priorities the right direction as I continue getting upgrades.

Oh and I’m and ogre so Max Str/Sta when buffed pretty easy.

[Snaggles]

Procs are normalized. Sarnak Warhammer would be functionally better than the WESS. Infestation is a slight upgrade but id probably pass on that sockquest and keep grinding. Not a bad route tho if you have someone to help get it from DN.

Haste is going to be your next big aggro bump. This is from the Haste Guide:

Haste Caps
Level Max total haste permitted
1-30 50%
31-53. 74%
51-54. 84%
55-59. 94%
60 100%

At current you need WR to get close to capping. 34% worn will do at 60.

[wagorf]

you are fine now for leveling

i say upgrade haste is your next goal

[Soothsayer]

No such thing as "aggro" when playing as a warrior - EQ devs didn't realize that holding aggro was an important part of tanking until... Luclin I believe, which is when warriors got the Provoke skill.

In all seriousness, Infestation + Frostbringer is a solid setup and you could upgrade your haste without too much effort, which will translate into a big aggro bump. Ideally, you want Willsapper at some point, but that's hilariously difficult to get without coordinated assistance from a raiding guild that's willing to spend the time and energy to get it for you.

You can probably find a crew that's willing to get Infestation for you for a reasonable price. It's really not that hard to get.

[Snaggles]

Warrior aggro is a thing and always was. Dps learned to ease in or wait for assist calls. People on P99 are impatient as hell. If a dps dies it’s on them, never the tank.

Strategize your gear and know what procs meet the hate threshold. Learn to play and communicate. All the bad warriors miss step 1 and 2.

[kaizersoze]

have your CC root the mob. Easiest way for warriors to keep agro, unless your DPS are dumb and stand closer to the mob than you, in which case don't bother rezzing them ;)

[Naethyn]

Haste is everything.

[Jimjam]

No such thing as "aggro" when playing as a warrior - EQ devs didn't realize that holding aggro was an important part of tanking until... Luclin I believe, which is when warriors got the Provoke skill.

During the Dragons of Norrath expansion, it came to light that shield bash stun was meant to produce similar aggro to spell stun, but the feature had been broke since release. The devs had just assumed for years that the players were munchkins prioritising looking cool dual wielding over the ‘more effective’ sword and board. Ofc they didn’t fix the underlying broken mechanic as ‘the meta had settled’, and instead added some new furious bash shields and shield block aas.

Luckily for warriors, they have decent melee skill caps so can produce fair swing aggro, which lets them get by coupled with root.

[Arvan]

Step 1: if someone other than you gets aggro its because they are bad - be sure to tell them that.

Step 2: if you die its your healer(s) fault. Make sure to tell them they are bad when applicable.

Now you’re well on your way to being a great p99 tank!

[jolanar]

During the Dragons of Norrath expansion, it came to light that shield bash stun was meant to produce similar aggro to spell stun, but the feature had been broke since release. The devs had just assumed for years that the players were munchkins prioritising looking cool dual wielding over the ‘more effective’ sword and board. Ofc they didn’t fix the underlying broken mechanic as ‘the meta had settled’, and instead added some new furious bash shields and shield block aas.

Luckily for warriors, they have decent melee skill caps so can produce fair swing aggro, which lets them get by coupled with root.

That explains why warriors have a shield in their class icon I guess.

[kittydurgans]

That explains why warriors have a shield in their class icon I guess.
During the Dragons of Norrath expansion, it came to light that shield bash stun was meant to produce similar aggro to spell stun, but the feature had been broke since release. The devs had just assumed for years that the players were munchkins prioritising looking cool dual wielding over the ‘more effective’ sword and board. Ofc they didn’t fix the underlying broken mechanic as ‘the meta had settled’, and instead added some new furious bash shields and shield block aas.cookie clicker (https://cookie-clicker.online)

Luckily slope unblocked (https://slope-unblocked.online)
for warriors, they have decent melee skill caps so can produce fair swing aggro, which lets them get by coupled with root.

This article has great reference value, thank you very much for sharing, I would like to reproduced your article, so that more people would see it.

[Malykor]

Reminds me of WoW actually... a good tank always had a shield... and it even makes sense.


EDIT: Plus the added stats and AC from on of these shields would make a tank more efficient at taking blows.

[kaizersoze]

shield ac is not affected by hard cap either iirc.

[magnetaress]

Root is amazing. Warriors should get a root sword.

[Gustoo]

There is the snare whip.

Man wrapped entropy serpent spine was such a dream weapon on rallos zek.

As a totally pathetic full banded only ranger in the item loot days, I was sitting at the wizard spires in relative peace and harmony. Keep in mind that on rallos zek you had a reasonable expectation of not getting immediately PK attacked wherever you go because people cared about their reputation as scum / not scum.

There was a naked ogre SK or warrior nearby, holding an axe that I could safely assume was a weighted axe. I was sitting. He attacked me and missed, I stood up and attacked with the WESS. He immediately starts sending me tells that he was just goofing jk lol jk jk jk. If his attack would have landed when I was sitting I would have probably been like half HP my guy was pretty weak.

Fortunately for me the wess procced on my first attack and continued to proc for the rest of the battle, which consisted of him running away through the woods blind and continuing to send me tells that he couldn't spell check or typo check groveling for his evil ogre life. I felt like a true ranger stomping out evil in the great forest of faydark. When he died he was full naked, but with an FBSS and the weighted axe and a few back packs. So I got an FBSS that day. Thanks Ogre Pal.

[Zipity]

There is the snare whip.

Man wrapped entropy serpent spine was such a dream weapon on rallos zek.

As a totally pathetic full banded only ranger in the item loot days, I was sitting at the wizard spires in relative peace and harmony. Keep in mind that on rallos zek you had a reasonable expectation of not getting immediately PK attacked wherever you go because people cared about their reputation as scum / not scum.

There was a naked ogre SK or warrior nearby, holding an axe that I could safely assume was a weighted axe. I was sitting. He attacked me and missed, I stood up and attacked with the WESS. He immediately starts sending me tells that he was just goofing jk lol jk jk jk. If his attack would have landed when I was sitting I would have probably been like half HP my guy was pretty weak.

Fortunately for me the wess procced on my first attack and continued to proc for the rest of the battle, which consisted of him running away through the woods blind and continuing to send me tells that he couldn't spell check or typo check groveling for his evil ogre life. I felt like a true ranger stomping out evil in the great forest of faydark. When he died he was full naked, but with an FBSS and the weighted axe and a few back packs. So I got an FBSS that day. Thanks Ogre Pal.

Got eem!!

[Jimjam]

That is a story for the generations, Gustoo!

[OuterChimp]

The thing that scares me about PvP is I regularly get killed by light blue mobs....I'm sure I'd get ganked by players on a regular basis and lose all my sh1t.

[Gustoo]

The thing that scares me about PvP is I regularly get killed by light blue mobs....I'm sure I'd get ganked by players on a regular basis and lose all my sh1t.

When you are EXP grinding you wear gear you don't mind losing. My ranger wore full banded with random junk thrown in that I got for free equivalent to zero value.

If a naked PK killed me, I would come back and kill him because he would be recovering mana (always a wizard) and I was a ranger and could track him to his medding / gate spot.

If a geared at all PK killed me I would try to stalk him and kill him myself or with a pal, or even have a pal bait him by getting low HP to a mob or sit around low HP to see if the guy will come in for the kill at which point I could step in to try to kill the killer and hope to get some loot which had a good chance of being better than the banded boots he took from me.

I could ramble on, but the point is that you will stop what you are doing and hunt down a twink PK because they are certainly worth killing more than the next ghoul in unrest.

On red99 when there was players, all twink PK's did was grief infinitely, they seemed to treat it like a day job to just come through and wipe zones of EXP groups and then log an alt for a while till it settled back down. It was probably just a coin pharming operation for these guys. Very unclassic. No one ever really bothered to try to kill em just left for a while also then came back and tried to get some leveling done.

Thats why a server needs to be item loot, or have no PVP level limit which would allow any high level to kill any low level which would totally negate the point of a twink PK.

[jolanar]

The thing that scares me about PvP is I regularly get killed by light blue mobs....I'm sure I'd get ganked by players on a regular basis and lose all my sh1t.

Not sure how it works on Red, but on live players couldn't loot anything in your bags so if you knew you were going to die you started bagging any expensive tradeable gear. People also wore a lot of no drop items that weren't as good but couldn't be looted.

[elwing]

Yep, no drop gear and bagging was the norm...

[Vizax_Xaziv]

shield ac is not affected by hard cap either iirc.

Always thought that shields in EQ should grant a raw block-% against all melee attacks. Would make them way more impactful

[Vizax_Xaziv]

When you are EXP grinding you wear gear you don't mind losing. My ranger wore full banded with random junk thrown in that I got for free equivalent to zero value.

If a naked PK killed me, I would come back and kill him because he would be recovering mana (always a wizard) and I was a ranger and could track him to his medding / gate spot.

If a geared at all PK killed me I would try to stalk him and kill him myself or with a pal, or even have a pal bait him by getting low HP to a mob or sit around low HP to see if the guy will come in for the kill at which point I could step in to try to kill the killer and hope to get some loot which had a good chance of being better than the banded boots he took from me.

I could ramble on, but the point is that you will stop what you are doing and hunt down a twink PK because they are certainly worth killing more than the next ghoul in unrest.

On red99 when there was players, all twink PK's did was grief infinitely, they seemed to treat it like a day job to just come through and wipe zones of EXP groups and then log an alt for a while till it settled back down. It was probably just a coin pharming operation for these guys. Very unclassic. No one ever really bothered to try to kill em just left for a while also then came back and tried to get some leveling done.

Thats why a server needs to be item loot, or have no PVP level limit which would allow any high level to kill any low level which would totally negate the point of a twink PK.

I tried Red and quit in high-30s. Nothing like deleveled to 30 twinks wearing multiple pieces of NTOV gear and a fungi killing lowbies with zero recourse.

[Gustoo]

Yeah. There should be level requirements for dragon loot on PVP servers, no questions especially ones that are so dead that lowbies get this stuff.

But then also, if I saw a low level twink right now I would be happy, cuz they're hard to come by. I haven't seen one since holocaust was still a guild