In my 20s, been grouping since the low teens in PC and been having a lot of issues with aggro, specially if I'm not pulling. I feel like I'm pretty well geared, did the whole Krono thing to get some gear so I'm not decked out in bronze plate. I haven't played EQ in over a decade so I'm not sure if I'm missing anything. I only use taunt when I don't have aggro, never when I already do. On a lot of fights I'm pretty much taunting every CD and the thing dies focused on the DPS. I have actually always liked tanking but don't like the fact that I'm not doing my job and I have no idea why. On a progression server (Mangler) which currently has up to the Luclin expansion. Any hints, tips or advice on how to do my job would be very helpful.
Warrior agro in the early game is super wonky. Early on the discipline Provoke usuable once every 30-s or so is your only way to generate any meaningful hate on a mob without proc weapons. Outside of provoke your only real option to produce threat is via proc weapons, and the hate proc weapons generally are end game (i.e., raid content - warrior epic 1.0, blade of carnage, etc). Group options kind of suck, but your not completely out of luck, a really good early warrior weapon is the Short Sword of Yekesha and/or Silken Whip of Ensnaring are two that I recall using back around that era. Additionally I am unfamiliar with all of what TLPs get as I normally play on live; however, there are augment merchants in most start cities somewhere that self augments one of these augments is going to be the "wulfenite" line of augments and frankly I would purchase 2 of those (they are more iirc, so one for level 10, 20 with 20 in main hand) would be your best bet to generate some aggro early on until you get real aggro weapons. Even doing all of that you are still going to have threat pulled off by dps (mainly wizards, mages, monks, rogues, rangers primarily but anyone spamming everything and going nuts on their damage spell and skills could do it) that do not understand how to DPS under the warrior threshold. If they do take aggro simply let them tank until they learn how to play correctly in the early game. Additionally dexterity and haste are going to be what helps you produce the most procs (haste = more swings thus more chances to proc, and DeX is the primary stat that influences your proc chance). So if you access to those in a group they need to be maintained on you at all times. Hope this helps you out a little bit and seriously work towards getting your epics or any weapons with enraging blow / anger procs as those will be your primary aggro generators early on
Like others said warriors just dont have many tools at low levels. In early EQ people were expected to really closely manage their own agro (dont start attacking until 90%, wizards dont nuke until 70 etc...). Two things that will help are the aforementioned augs - these are available in most home cities I believe. Second make sure you are dual wielding. A lot of people try and tank with a shield - doesnt work for warriors until much much later.
Thanks for the replies. I went to the aug vendor in my starting city and picked up the level 10 and 20 ones and I'll have to go do that again because I got 30 over the weekend. Was in Tower of Frozen Shadow last night and pulls were typically 2-3 mobs per and aggro was just crazy...as in, everywhere but on me. Rogue was thankfully on the same mob as I was, the other two DPS were on the whatever program and even with me switching targets to get some hits in on the other mob(s) to keep aggro, I couldn't keep it. Besides my taunt, is there no other tool that I can use to keep or gain aggro? I mean, how am I supposed to lock down on aggro with just my auto attack while the DPS uses all their skills/spells? Gear wise I think I'm far better geared then any and all DPS I'll be grouped with until I start raiding. So that's not an issue, I just can't seem to do much but auto attack, kick and throw a taunt when it's off CD.
I think Provoke is on TLPs, I went from 20-30 this weekend so haven't been without it for too long. I'm an Iksar though so not sure how to go about getting it. I'll Google around. Thanks for confirming that outside of Provoke I'm doing everything I can.
At low levels like that if people arent assisting you have 0 chance of holding agro on multiple mobs and thats on them not you.
I did play a warrior on RF from 1 to 60ish as an alt. Basically your only active agro skill is provoke on the 30sec cooldown. The rest all comes down to procs and swing agro. Some notes in regards to the previous posts: * Dex will increase your average chance to proc * Haste will NOT increase the chance to proc (that one is normalized in procs per minute and takes haste into account). * Haste will however increase your swing agro and if i am not mistaken you get agro per swing, not necessariy the actual damage you do or don't do (in the case of a miss). * as Warrior it will be pretty impossible to hold agro on multiple mobs for many expansions, particularly if your groupmemebers do not stay on a single mob. That is NOT your fault * Back to swing agro if you do have enough haste, using slower weapons might be better (slow weaon has a higher dmg bonus, the haste you need to even out the amount of attacks so your rounds of attack don't spread out too much) * Anything with a runeproc will generate AE agro provided you are on the hastelist of a mob already, which may not be relevant to you yet, but i thnk LDoN has a rune proc aug that only warriors can use...
Back then (early 2000's) we did not have the provoke ability. It's really hard to get other people to understand that they have to wait to engage so you can build agro. The idea was that people who do not want agro are the ones that could most easily generate it, trying to promote cooperation among the group members. The one thing we did sometimes that has not been mentioned is if you have a rooting class, a rooted mob with you hugging it while others are farther away will do the trick too, but i think the root breaking rules now are such that mobs will not stay rooted for long with nukes and melee swings. Not sure about what is on TLPs for root breaks. Also, if i recall correctly CE (Combat Effects) was the stat that made weapons proc more often, but no idea when that was added to items.
Aye. Some old tricks have been forgotten since Provoke was introduced it seems. Adding to all the good advice in this thread, remember to keep these skills on cool down: kick/slam/bash, disarm, even beg. Each of these abilities adds a bit of hate that you can use after a taunt to build upon. These small gains are more helpful at low levels like the OP is talking about. When fighting casters, eg clerics, reserve slam/bash (later kick) to interrupt dangerous spells like Gate and Complete Heal. Beg skill hate decreases as the skill improves so eventually it can be dropped. Sitting grants a hate bonus and can be used like a taunt. Be prepared to take full damage hits though. Dual wielding is generally better for swing/proc aggro, especially as the skill increases and the offhand swings more. Dual Yaks were the most common weapons. Another popular classic weapon was the Gnoll Hide Lariat (Stun proc). Other pre-Planes weapons with debuffs won’t have the strong hate anymore that they once had, eg Obsidian Shard. Lower delay weapons tend to perform better then slower proc weapons. Always test your weapons and adjust as your combat skills and dexterity improve.
Yes. You get aggro from swings even if you miss or the mob is immune to damage. Actual damage does not matter, just potential damage. ie: Criticals do not give extra hate just extra damage. The first rune proc aug was from sverag if I remember correctly. So a couple expansions into level 70 territory.
Taunt was changed some time ago so it now will only move you to the top of the agro list to varying degrees; it no longer adds to your agro each time you press it At lower lvls you're basically relying on weapons, and weapon augs. Opinion varies between whether heal augs are better than dmg augs for agro. The traditional story was that faster weapons, dual wielded, were better for agro than slower weapons. Tha's why Yaks and such were popular. There is one weapon that drops in the City of Mist, the Kunzar Ku'juch, that procs engulfing darkness. It doesn't proc a lot, maybe once per fight, but when it does you get really good agro and it's snared/dotted. I used to use it in the primary hand until it proc'd then switch to a better weapon. Per fight. Fortunately nowadays we have the weapons Bandolier function which makes it easy. There's also a stun proc weapon (a whip maybe? Can't recall.) which may help with agro.
