Troll SK - too much pain to bother?

[Natewest1987]

tough question. Personally, it would depend most on what content we were doing, how dense the mob count is, and I guess my level in relation to that content. ZEM too. Would I group with a hybrid at a static 6 min spawn in a low zem zone? No. Would I think much about it while in a group that’s chain pulling in unrest? Probably not.

I generally do not seek out hybrids, but if I’m desperate for a group, and happen to land in a group that has a hybrid, it’s whatever. However if I get there and there happens to be more than one, then I’m quietly LFG elsewhere. I’d take a good hard in a duo though, and most dungeon crawls or chain pulling groups

[Spock2020]

Personally if there is 1 hybrid and it's a tank I don't mind. If there is more then 1 I will look for another group.

[Smashed]

Some groups won’t want a hybrid. Those groups are usually trash anyway. They hang out near zone lines in case a caster has to zone after overagroing. Slow lands at 50% mob health, etc. Then there’s the enchanter charm pet heavy groups that actually want a tank to hold aggro and those groups like SKs, pals or even rangers. XP in the latter groups is usually much better.

[Widan]

Enchanters definitely do not want a tank or a full group except in rare cases with backstabbing mobs in high ZEM zones, i.e. Osargen.

[Noselacri]

I played a ranger to 20 when green launched and nobody ever so much as mentioned the hybrid penalty, but then it's only 40% for rangers whereas troll SKs have like 68% or something. The general shortage of tanks means people will usually just accept the penalty. It's not that bad as long as the hybrid isn't also several levels above the rest of the group. If everyone's the same level, one hybrid won't make a noticeable difference. Spread across a 6-man group, it's like 8.5% for a rng/pal/brd and 11% for a troll SK, and people are full of shit if they think 10% less XP matters. But if there's two hybrids or one that's 3-4 levels higher than you, it gets kinda bad.

Right now, warriors are absolute garbage so groups should actively look for hybrid tanks. Warriors without proccing weapons are just utterly useless. People like to say "herp derp just keep every mob rooted 100% of the time" as if root doesn't break every five seconds and cost serious mana at lower levels. It's just something people say to feel better about a broken, dysfunctional class. It's nearly impossible to keep a mob rooted for any length of time when a whole group is DPSing it. The sad reality is that hybrids are the only worthwhile tanks at this point in time. A warrior without (at the very least) 2x Obsidian Shard is just not a tank.

[turbosilk]

People want real tanks. Every warrior in my groups so far has meant the mobs attack everyone except the warrior.

[Gatorsmash]

Originally Posted by turbosilk [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

People want real tanks. Every warrior in my groups so far has meant the mobs attack everyone except the warrior.

Lol this^ I could grab agro at will on my SK.

And thanks assholes, seeing all the troll sk's in game and all the sk posts made it impossible to ignore on my nice easy to level shaman. I caved in and resurrected my original first toon from live launch a troll sk.

Pro tip- bought a player crafted 2-hand sword and made lvl 3 in about an hour. Surprisingly better than I thought it would be (the weapon) and was a nice feeling before the pain starts.

[Benanov]

Originally Posted by Noselacri [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

People like to say "herp derp just keep every mob rooted 100% of the time" as if root doesn't break every five seconds and cost serious mana at lower levels.

Pretty much. It's almost like they don't have root on their spell bar. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Root is to me a crowd-control measure rather than a aggro management spell. It's better than mez if you have people who are target-happy or dot-happy.

The funny thing is...some of this stuff isn't classic, but we might be limited by technical limitations here.

I do remember that there was a series of changes to nerf root where DD's broke root more and melee gained a chance to break root. People really feared ghouls back in the day. Ghoulroot was nasty. Root was also really nasty in PvP. Really nasty. If you were a melee and you got rooted...you started bagging your armor.

Divine Aura, now that's aggro management for a cleric. Before guilds figured out how to abuse it against AoW in Velious, mobs would happily beat on a DA'd cleric if they were on top of the hate list. Who needs a CH chain when all of your clerics can just tank for 36 seconds each? And the mob's rooted, so when the timer gets close you just back up. DA dropping you down the hate list is not classic, until Velious.

(SHD's also shouldn't have lifetaps this early in the game, either. Those were given to them as a result of balance changes.)

[Lamil]

As a rogue I love it when a SK tanks in my groups. Hell i had Two SK's and a ranger in my group last night. I guess it depends if people are trying to lvl really fast which I'm not really sure why you want to at this point but oh well everyone plays differently.. Thing is SK/PAlly can hold aggro for me to Backstab stuff where a warrior usually just is dps while the mob runs around. Yes root works but I don't see it used a ton since mana pools and stuff are low.

[apprentice04]

I would like to chime in as a paladin tank at 25. I havnt gotten on any alts yet so I dont really have any other basis of comparison for xp gain per hour as a paladin versus warrior or cleric.

I do know that I have grouped with a few warriors and they were basically a rogue without back stab that couldn't build and hold threat. I joined a group with a warrior in it and purposely was just auto attacking with my two hander and yaulping. I wanted the warrior to have his turn tanking, he was in the group before me so didnt seem fair to spam flash.

But then the rogue started backstabbing and getting pummeled. Then the cleric would drop a fat heal on the rogue and get pummeled. Then the wizard panicked and started nuking from orbit (because its the only way to be sure) and got pummeled before I gave up and started flashing to hold aggro.

I felt bad for the warrior, but even more bad for the group who had obviously been playing this way for a few hours before I joined. That was right before the server rebooted for teal launch and the warrior didnt log back in afterwards.

I know in the 20's I am having a harder and harder time finding tanks to replace me when I need to leave a group. I know when I log on, I am not LFG for very long and often get tells for people starting groups or tells from tanks asking me to replace them.

I have gotten 2 groups gripe at me for my hybrid xp tax, but then thank me for joining so the hybrid taxed xp could continue to flow.

Just wanted to echo the other comments that people know the tax, they feel the tax, they hate the tax, but they have no alternatives right now. I am sure that will change once warriors start getting yaks though.