Starting a warrior

[Mady]

When was the big warrior stand down in live? 2003 - 2004?

[Dantes]

I've leveled up to 20 so far, and holding aggro is a bitch. On light blue, blue and sometimes white cons it's relatively easy to snap aggro. On yellows or reds, it's impossible. Aside from SKs and Paladins, monks and rogues will take aggro too. And the only decent proc weapon you can get that actually procs at a lower level (Obsidian Shards) cost 200-500pp each and as a Warrior you probably won't have much for plat. Otherwise we have to wait until level 25 for the gnoll hide lariats.

Yendor's suggestion to root works well, in fact I've been in groups with him where we used it. By the time root breaks, the mob will most likely be dead anyway. As the warrior all you have to do is stand right up in the mobs face. Easy mode. Not as reliable at higher levels but by that point you should have been able to buy or obtain decent proc weapons and DEX gear. I'm level 20 and I still have ZERO stat gear, sad but true. I can rarely loot because I'm often pulling, and to top that off as a smaller (DE) warrior I don't really have the ability to carry lots of stuff. But my plan was to get as much DEX gear as possible, and being the race that I am my DEX is already pretty decent. But for now I'm just trying to get to 25 for those lariats to work their magic.

[Healthcare]

Tempted to start up an Ogre Warrior again but reading this thread makes me almost wonder if it's not better to just put all points into DEX rather than the standard all into STA and maybe the remaining 7 into DEX to have an ogre warrior dex of 77.

Any high high high end warriors (or even ogre warriors) that could chime in on this thought?

[Omnimorph]

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

Tempted to start up an Ogre Warrior again but reading this thread makes me almost wonder if it's not better to just put all points into DEX rather than the standard all into STA and maybe the remaining 7 into DEX to have an ogre warrior dex of 77.

Any high high high end warriors (or even ogre warriors) that could chime in on this thought?

High high high end ogre warriors will probably have buffs from shamans so their dex will be at 180+. You can still aim your gear at dex though, ie cloak of shadows as opposed to HBC (lose 45hp, gain 13dex), 5str 5dex rings (or 6agi 6dex rings if needed)

Dex shouldn't be a problem at high end, hp is usually the stat you want to focus on anyway.

[mitic]

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

High high high end ogre warriors will probably have buffs from shamans so their dex will be at 180+. You can still aim your gear at dex though, ie cloak of shadows as opposed to HBC (lose 45hp, gain 13dex), 5str 5dex rings (or 6agi 6dex rings if needed)

Dex shouldn't be a problem at high end, hp is usually the stat you want to focus on anyway.

yep, personaly i would go fully STA myself and try to get my hands on DEX armor like cloak of shadows (+13 dex?).... procs start to hit more often above the 100 mark.

STR can be completely disregarded till the warrior reaches the planes levels. they aint DPS, they are primary here to shield the rest of the group folks!

if you want to do dmg too, go knight.

[Omnimorph]

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

if you want to do dmg too, go knight.

Funny you should say that, i don't recall what it was like on classic (i was never a tank) but on live a few years back i had an 85 pally, and he was the worst dps out of the 3. Warriors were hands down the best due to dual wield, SK's had dots and HT so could do a bit too, but pallies were rubbish for dps.

I imagine once some genuinely nice 1 handed dps weapons come out for warrior, they will be better dps than knights. Knights have their utilities to make them worthwhile.

[Weekapaug]

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

yep, personaly i would go fully STA myself and try to get my hands on DEX armor like cloak of shadows (+13 dex?).... procs start to hit more often above the 100 mark.

STR can be completely disregarded till the warrior reaches the planes levels. they aint DPS, they are primary here to shield the rest of the group folks!

if you want to do dmg too, go knight.

The DEX on the Cloak of Shadows is a wonderful extra for warriors, but for any tank, the real value of the cloak is the 12 AC....Best AC cloak pre-planes in classic EQ, as far as I know.

Warriors prioritize 1 AC (worn) = 6 HPs, so the 2 extra AC on the CoS likely doesn't warrant sacrificing the HPs found on on a HBC or CoF for a warrior (my live accounts arent active or I would go look and tell you for sure), unless he most definately needs that extra DEX for holding aggro. Especially the CoF, being a haste item on top of a great tank cloak AC and Stat wise, allowing the tank to wear a real belt rather than an FBSS. You don't need procs to go off constantly to do DPS as a tank....You just need enough to take and hold aggro. There is a difference.

Hybrid tanks, or bards for that matter, "aint DPS" either. If you want to do DPS, be a DPS class. If you want to be a tank, gear yourself accordingly by maximizing your AC on every slot with a bit of leeway for gear that gives you extra HPS. End of Story. With the exception of warriors, who should have ONLY enough extra DEX as needed to proc enough to reliably take and hold aggro.

And if you, as any tank, find yourself just oozing AC and HPs out the ears in current content so much that your cleric constantly has the extra mana to let you deviate from that, which you probably won't unless they are uber with a manastone and rubi BP, then go with resist gear. With the OP situation of caster mobs here you will find that goes a lot farther to contributing to your role than a miniscule extra amount of DPS that you might generate with extra STR or DEX gear.

[astuce999]

I see all this talk of Pally/SK's being great group tanks because of snap aggro and warriors having problems.... But no one has mentioned bards! Bards are the best group tanks on p99 right now! Yes I'm sure this will stirr up some emotions from 'traditional' plate tanks, but hear me out! As a bard, you'll likely be doig the pulling, so you have the initial aggro bonus, then you can use chains (which imo rivals disease cloud as best snap aggro in game) which will snare and! slow the mob. While the mob is in camp you can twist dots on it (use instrument twisting for greater effect) building even more insurmountable hate, and play a heal song, and a mana song.

Bard mitigation is not as good as other plate tanks you'll say. This is true, however, since the mob is slowed, and a heal song and a manasong is being played, the amount of heals needed to keep the bard up are lowered greatly, and the rate of kills and XP are very high. On top of this, add the Staff of Aggro (writhing) in primary and a PGT in secondary (rune proc) and no one can touch the bard on aggro.

Note: I don't believe bards should be able to tank as well as they do, the aggro code is not done correctly for them, but I can't find the specific date when it was changed that bards could no longer hold aggro... whatsoever.

discuss!

Astuce Subterfuge
Bard of the 44th Song

[pickled_heretic]

Originally Posted by astuce999 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

stuff

In a group, bards are about the only class that will ever turn a mob away from me. I can still out aggro a bard easily but my normal DC+ED once per mob is not always enough to hold it.. I will have to reapply DC 1 or 2 more times to keep the mob focused on me. I could see how bards could hold aggro if there was not a pal/sk in the group. I think if there was a bard and another CC in your group AND you didn't have a pal/sk the bard could fill in as a tank, and probably do a better job with aggro than a warrior, but BEST tank? Nah, not really.

[mitic]

i did actually tank with my bard up to mid 40ies...even royals in solb where np. but i gona bet all my current gear that a warrior/knight would consume less healing mana than a bard