Becoming an efficient tank

Discussion in 'Tanks' started by Randomized, Sep 27, 2021.

  1. Randomized Augur

    So for the sake of conversation here, let’s just say I’m leveling a Paladin, currently 108, Conflagration gear. Have a set of Snowbound gear for him for when he hits 115 (ToV t1 right?). Auto-grant AAs (which I believe run out at EoK, RoS will auto grant with Lublin?).

    So at 115,Snowbound gear, and auto-grant AAs (with a 115 BST and 115 Bard box team), where would start tanking and gaining AAs/Augs? I was running EoK expansion for leveling and got a few augs from there, but have since moved into RoS OT zone for experience only (avoiding namers, BST doesn’t have the AAs to be efficient at pet tanking entirely).

    Would the Paladin be able to handle RoS? Start there? Work on progression (for heroics) and start farming augs while gaining AAs? Or would I have enough with the aforementioned gear/AAs to step into TBL? I honestly don’t like the idea of the latter and would much rather go RoS and straight into ToV assuming I could handle it.

    Thoughts? Tips? The routes you took? Please and thank you :)
  2. Petalonyx Augur

    At 108 with conflag, through 110 with snowbound, and even through 115 with some additional gear upgrades, I'd recommend the 115 Beast pet tank and just have the paladin 2H dps, jumping in as tank with shield only when needed (adds, pet dies, etc).

    Eventually you will be able to hit T1 CoV named for T3 ores, type 5 augs, etc, and that in combo with lots of AAs will allow you to take the lead tanking for your trio.
  3. Randomized Augur

    Right, currently he is just 2H DPS and emergency back up heals/cures. Right now I’m just focusing on exp (AAs for bard and BST), until the Paladin hits 115. Then he’ll be decked out in ToV t1 gear/weapons. But once I hit that point, I’ll need to backtrack a bit for augs. The BST won’t have the AAs to pet tank ToV+ namers, and the Paladin will still be extremely squishy. So where should I backtrack to to start that journey? RoS? Start in T2 zones and go from there until I’m decked out in AC augs and whatever the common augs are?

    Then into ToV once I’m augged up and working on AAs?
  4. aozs Augur

    Snowbound (and other ToV t1 tradeable gear) is equippable at 110. It's good enough tank gear for completing all of ToV even with missing augs/limited AA, based on my experience with 3 different box teams with healing/tank cores of pal/shm/brd, pal/clr/brd, sk/enc/dru.

    When I bring up a new box team I typically stop at 110, throw a suit of snowbound/GMM on the tank and as many boxes as possible, then go through all of the TBL missions and progression. I also grind out some AAs in GMM before heading into ToV, then use ToV progression to level to 115. That means I'll usually hit up Icebound Avatar, the biggest tank check mission in ToV, at 114 with snowbound/GMM, missing augs, and somewhat limited AAs. I found tanking Icebound Avatar to be quite easy with the pal teams and pretty hard with my sk/enc/dru/wiz/wiz/wiz team, so the group comp and support available matters a lot, though a knight tank can handle a LOT by themselves.

    I think you should be able to skip TBL and handle most of ToV starting at 110 with snowbound/GMM - that is, all the quest progression and the 2 t1 missions. The Velk's and Kael missions might be rough since you don't have an main healer or enough burn dps to trivialize them, so those might need to wait until 115. You might have difficulty taking on multiples but I think if you're keeping up your heal amps, spamming pally target-of-target heals, using bard heal amp songs, and taking on singles, the pally should hold up no problem in ToV. The bard should make it pretty easy to ensure that you're only fighting one at a time.

    It might be worth stopping at 110 to grind out some AAs in GMM. The effort vs reward is better than you'll find once you get to 115 - mobs are easy and have relatively low HP compared to potential player power. You can also get a set of solid accessories and weapons from The Darkness Howls mission or farming nameds in GMM, in case ToV tradeables are hard to find or expensive. I don't think you'll need to grind very much here since EoK AAs became autogranted - they used to be a huge AA sink with the synergies and spell foci, so it was a bit more important back when I was leveling the other teams.
  5. Szilent Augur

  6. Randomized Augur

    Hey thanks for taking the time to go through that, I appreciate it. I did run that Darkness Howls mission one time and got a decent EM earring to drop for the Beastlord. But that’s my only experience with GMM and I just followed the group like a lost little puppy and killed what needed killing lol.

    But if the zone itself is a good spot, I may go back there with the box team and just farm gear while getting AAs/exp :)

    And then I’ll go onto:

    That Artisans Prize can suck it lol I despise TS’ing with a passion. Too much time spent farming and making things when I had a hard enough time catching up to the max level lol. But I do appreciate the list! Gives me something to look forward to!
  7. Riou EQResource

    You can get it to 147 AC just by learning recipes you auto learn with the books and etc at least if you can make it to the base 300's
    Velisaris_MS likes this.
  8. Szilent Augur

    The list I cribbed from Riou's website is longer than the 20 slots you have for augs :p
  9. Randomized Augur

    I stopped after getting the 2.0s for the classes that benefit from them lol

    Good thing they can be upgraded and replaced then ;) but seriously, this helps tremendously
  10. Tucoh Augur

    Randomized, I'm answering the same question as you since I'm replacing my boxed cleric with a paladin and am looking to get him ready for CoV when I get it from pre-ordering the next expansion in a couple weeks (presumably).

    Efficient is kind of an unspecific word:
    • Efficiently could mean, "I want to get raid ready in as little player time as possible because I want to fill a raid spot in my buddy's guild next week", in which case the most efficient thing you could do is hire a PL service, who could boost you massively from dragging you through progression.
    • Efficiently could also mean, "I want to have a 99% maxed out character in as little player time as possible while still enjoying the content", in which case you might want to consider doing all of CotF+ progression to get the heroic AAs and achievements, while being as low as possible so it's not as boring.
    • Efficiently could also mean, "Look Tucs, quit litigating my question and just give me some tips on where I should go next, I want to be ready for the next expansion." in which case I think aozs and Szilent's advice is pretty good: Do TBL missions (skip progression if you can, you really just want the Djinn illusion) and hunt valuable augs. Move up to ToV after and use that phat XP to get to 115. For augs, using AC as a guide works fine. I keep augs (and gear) straight on all my chars with a big spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yYPeg4Qq91TeR_qyK5lXp5lL9AZ8eaTA9X9-nl2xlFQ/edit?usp=sharing Check out the 78Aug tab and column Y(Hybrid Score) Z(Pal) for what I'm doing with my paladin. My scoring is pretty rudimentary: I have a few multipliers that combine different stats (hp, heroic stats, atk, regen etc) into a single score and sort it, so when I get a new aug on my boxes I don't need to think about which aug to drop off, I just use my equation to figure it out. I didn't put much thought into the multipliers.
    ImaMedievalman and Randomized like this.
  11. Randomized Augur

    Solid reply as one has come to expect from you Tucoh. But for me, efficient is as simple as being able to perform his role without taking a dirt nap every single time lol.

    I also don’t have CoV. Not sure how that worked out (think I pre-ordered ToV when I thought about coming back and then took an extra 8 months to actually log back in). But I do not raid, and just enjoy group content. So with ToV as a benchmark, being an efficient Paladin would be him being able to tank Namers and missions without dying more often than not. And eventually working into CoV and doing the same.

    BST can pet tank trash, but I’ve only got like 27k AAs and I know I’m missing a few pet priority ones still, so ToV namers are out of the question currently until I either A) get more AAs on the BST or B) Get the Paladin up to speed
    Tucoh likes this.
  12. Ozon Augur

    Slightly different take, I play a SK, and was in a somewhat similar situation a while back.

    Take your crew to (new) Howling Stones, and head for the West wing. Once you get into the actual Wing (past 2 golems, and past the 4 pop room) you will do the first drop down. Move past this until you reach the big drop down, start here and do loops. You should only encounter 1 room with golems, the majority of the other mobs you encounter should be undead, mainly single or doubles, for easy pulls. In particular there is a really nice safe spot near the drop down (around the wall on your left) to drop a campfire if need be. There will be 2 possible named, but in my experience they are very rare, and also tend to pop in a place you can avoid them if you choose.

    I recommend HS for a few reasons, for the Pally, great exp, until about 111ish, then it drops off quite a bit. Mobs have fewer hps, but are also mainly undead, so Pally can slow and do decent DPS. HS in general is mainly open at least on my server. When people are there they usually take 1 of 3 spots, Zone in, the area below zone in, or fighting towards Sathir's Tomb. The type 5 augs drop a fair amount off of everything, not amazing but solid especially f you are in group gear.

    Moving on from HS, I would say start working Tower of Frozen Shadow, the key process is kind of a pain (see 3rd floor, for 4th floor key), but again fairly abandon zone, almost undead, great exp. Also if you decide to do RZ ear, (you should do the RZ ear for all your chars), ToFS will be a huge part.
    ImaMedievalman likes this.
  13. Alnitak Augur

    GMM mission and static nameds drop some nice lvl 110 invisible gear with Luck, also some weapons. You can plan to equip the paladin with Snowbound and GMM invisibles at lvl 110, mix of ToV anf GMM weapons.
    My team stayed in GMM until lvl 113, when I got new warder and EM21 earring (same GMM earring as you have). That was enough tanking to go to EW and start ToV progression and to tank Tier 1 nameds. If 1 healer merc is not enough - pop the second healer. It is definitely enough to heal in ToV Tier 1.

    Now at 108 you have the question to answer - should you start ToV progression now or wait for later ?
    If you start now (do Mercenary and Partisan quests yourself, your lvl 115 BST is enough for that) and perhaps just buy 4 Heroic TA's (these days it's 400K or less for all 4) your paladin will end up at lvl 114 + some. you can grind up from there or use Overseer experience. Considering the incoming 50% experience bonus you may even get your paladin to 115 without stepping a foot in RoS and TBL (including GMM).

    Or, you can decide to grind in GMM (or some other zone) to 110 first, then grind for more AA's and stand tall and proud and do ToV progression all by yourself. Very cool and noble. Though it will take much longer time than going straight to ToV and buying TA's.

    For your information: experience in ToV comes from 3 main sources:
    Mob kill experience - can be directed to AA's or level, affected by lesson and exp potions.
    Individual quest rewards - can be directed to AA's or level, not affected by lesson or potions.
    Achievement rewards - only assigned as level exp, not AA's. Not affected by lesson (except GD Hero)

    All 3 sources get affected by overall bonus experience events.
    Zone Hero achievements grant about 26 % of lvl 115, same for Paragon/Champion.
    Zone Partisan Achievement grant about 15% of lvl 115
    Zone Mercenary Achievements grant about 6% of lvl 115.
    Experience given is fixed, regardless of you current level. For example, EW Hero TA may give you entire level or so at 108.
    If you start grinding though ToV progressin at 108 (say, start killing trash for EW Mercenary) you can earn decent exp per kill for your pally.

    N.B. Petalonyx is absolutely correct - at 108 your pally should go 2H dps with emergency offtanking with 1H+shield. Bard in your group will boost nicely your group dps.
  14. Randomized Augur

    Currently that's what I'm doing :) I'm just looking for advice for once I hit 115, but thank you!

    And when is this if you don't mind me asking?
  15. Alnitak Augur

    Finally, on Tuesday, October 12, 2021 at 12:00 a.m. PDT and lasting until Monday, October 25, 2021 at 11:00 p.m. PDT, you'll get to soak up 150% experience gains
    https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/fall-fun-returns.277437/

    And once you reach 115 you can equip "required lvl 115" gear, which basically meant - CoV T3 ts gear, it is simply superior to other group gear. If you come across - buy Ice Encrusted Tower Shield - it's the best AC shield.

    You should make 3 type 7 augs 'of Adroitness", "of Security", "of Vigor" from TBL, ToV and CoV. That's 9 augs out of 18. Jetsam and Flotsam augs from GMM gives you 2 more. You have missed Heritage season, and that would be 2 more Geode augs and Black Pearl aug for charm slot. 3 augs drop in EW Hero mission, start farming that for coins and AA's (some more below about that). CoV Tier 1 augs can be farmed in WW and CS, iirc 4 drop in there. Temporarily you can make 3 of 4 Conflagrant type 7 augs. Those above all have AC and Atck and +Heal stats.
    Temporarily, for AC you can farm TBM augs, 3 random (Avarice , Hypocricy and Voracity, all AC 40) and 1 from Crypt of Sul named ghoul (AC 60).

    Most of augs in CoTF , TDS, EoK, RoS may have 1 of the wanted stat (AC, Atk, HP, Mana etc) but not all at once. The augs I've listed all mostly have those stats.

    EW mission can be fought by DPS burn, need 2 mil group DPS for 30 secs to win in 1 round. Your beastlord should burn for 1 mil+, Bard usually does 350K+, together those boost dps melee mercs to well above 250K dps. So, PAL+BST+BRD+healer+dps+dps should give you 1850K+PAL group dps. After a few tries you should be able to burn Grilkor and escape the adds. So every 6 hours you can get 2 ores + some aug chance. And collect coins for +70 HDex augs.
  16. Filter Augur

    Randomized.... Oct 12th.
  17. Tucoh Augur

  18. Alnitak Augur

    In my personal experience, all previous bonus events have boosted ToV achievements' rewards, so I totally expect this one will do too.
    Randomized and Tucoh like this.
  19. Randomized Augur

    Is it randomized or is it October 12th??? You’re not making any sense man!!


    ;)
    Thanks for the list. I found someone who was able to make me a full set of Conflagration augs and I’ve gotten a few Seb ones from EoK (haven’t gotten an RoS one to drop yet). So I’m slowly getting there :)


    Hopefully this will help me get to 99.99% of 115 and I’ll actually be able to play in the current expansion for once haha (I’ve always lagged 1-2 expansions behind everyone). And maybe I can get some AAs outta the way too! Here’s to hoping my friends. And thanks for all the help everyone!
    Stymie likes this.