I know tanks are the most gear/AA dependent classes. But what I'm curious about is when I need to stop leveling and start farming gear/augs/AAs? I'm not sure what level the auto-grant AAs stop, and what level range mobs will start eating a tank alive if he hadn't properly equipped himself. Like would I be able to level to 95-100 with crafted/dropped (current content level) gear. And then at that 95/100 checkpoint, stay there and farm gear/augs and then start pushing forward?
I would keep lvling till 105 and just gather gear for above lvls as you go. I know on Xegony, people sell and give out t1/2 loot that is rotting.
If you're taking advantage of Auto Grant, first of all good on you. Equip the best gear and augs you can find all along the way. Slow down and do content from older expansions if you find that you're not holding up as well as you or your group would like. You'll just get a feel for exactly when that is. To answer your question, yes, you can definitely level to 95-100 with gear that is easy or cheap to obtain. You may be interested in heroic adventures; use the currency to upgrade any augs that don't quite meet your standard, whatever that may be. For example, by level 85 you probably want 30 AC augs in each slot.
The only issue I have with that, is that I don't want to hit 105, and be vastly under geared with like only 12k AAs (I remember my old SK had like 9k by 85). And then be expected to tank for groups. Can't really get in a group as a DPS to try to gear up lol Any idea what level auto Grant stops working? Just for examples sake, let's say it stops at 100. I could level to 100, get my AAs, and get some really good gear that's top tier (minus raid) from the xpac that topped out at 100. Farm my augs and bank some AAs, push for 105 while getting the necessities of AAs. At 105, get whatever EoK gear I can (baz, rots, friendly giveaways, etc). The i should be able to go back and farm like TBM gear/augs. Having some early/easy EoK gear will make the catch up at 105 a bit easier I'm presuming. Sounds good on paper yeah? Lol
Which can be done by doing the quests in Feerott and House of Thule lower flowers. For warriors they give a 30AC augment for every slot. Which is great if you are leveling and grinding AA real fast because it takes a long time to get better augments in all slots. Its a bit tedious but I think its the fastest way to fill those augments.
I'm pretty sure you'll get auto grant at least till 100. While augs from TBM are good, EOK gear REALLY REALLY outclasses it for a tank. Especially visible slots the AC increases are huge.
Its by expansion, not level. So the AA available in EoK for level 100s isn't autogranted but the CotF AAs for level 100s is. Right now autogrant is through the CotF expansion. Although I think I still got some AA as I dinged higher which may just mean some recently revamped AA lines aren't tagged for the right expansions.
That's what I'm saying. A fresh 105 (as I would be) wouldn't really stand a chance in EoK. I wouldn't have the gear/AAs unless I stayed back and farmed them, compared to someone who had played through TBM and had time to farm the gear/AAs at max level waiting for EoK to drop. Thus me getting the easy EoK gear I can get, and farming top tier TBM gear until I'm within range to actually push into EoK
True. Comes down to your social network really. A quality live healer would keep up a lvl 100 tank in EoK. A merc ... is a merc. I've grouped with new/returning tanks on my healer and kept them up relatively easily in EoK. Whether you decide to farm TBM or EoK, I recommend getting to 105 either way. The upgraded spells/discs alone will make a significant difference in tanking.
I would say best get to 105, get all your autogrants. If you put 10-20% xp towards AA, that should not slow down your leveling much, and should net you quite a few AA by 105. Buy a krono, sell it for pp (not sure about your server, on Xegony they are about 2.5 mil. That should let you get some decent stuff of bazaar. I recently got a full fear touched set (lvl 92+) for less than 200k. And latent ether stuff (100+) is even cheaper cause more people do the content. You should definitely have no prob tanking 2-3 expansion old content with that should grant you decent augs.
I just recently (during the promotion) started a sk, and did the heroic thing with em, he runs in a box group with a shaman and mage, I decided to just get em to 105 and into t-1 eok gear currently he's at about 12k aa's all the autogrant stuff then I did all ca, cs, everything else I could find that would raise his current ac directly. then did all the aa's for double and triple attacks, flurry, and attack caps. now I'm working on his planar power aa's he's at 105, and full eok gear except one visible one non visible and charm, and he has 2 yes 2 ac augs, (both eok) he's got all tbm heroic stat augs, and full set of the 30 purity augs he's beginning to get pretty crunchy, he takes damage pretty similar to tank merc, maybe not quite that good but getting close, and he has a lot of open aug slots and a lot aa that will help unearned and that's swinging a 2 hander without a shield, he can fairly easily tank a single trash mob, and has survived agro from several named, I would suggest like some of the others have said, get into eok gear if you can and enjoy the rest of the build, once in gear with a few more aa tanking a t-1 named isn't to tough and ive found the toon very enjoyable, (ive mainly only played casters with the exception of a bard)
It is by Expansion, but it stops at Rain of Fear. You do not get Call of the Forsaken AAs for free, even though they are all 100 or below. A couple months after the next expansion is released, they will most likely bump up the auto grant to include CotF as well.
