I find I am having some issues tanking in ToFS and Kael in a group setting. My hps bounce quite a bit and I sometimes have to scramble to stabilize. Lvl115 300k hps ac8600 we run 2 healer mercs (I know its a problem right there). I always have up: Sword and Board Courageous Defense Paragon Champion Brace for Impact Just looking for a strategy of some "always on" skills/discs that everyone is using for grouping.
What kind of runes are you cycling as well as melee proc runes? What level Synergy do you have done and are you spamming it out as often as possible?
Honestly not using runes, had rune proc on weapon, but went with +damage Synergy is spammed and greyed out a all times. AAs are maxed except for some fluff
Quoting myself from another thread, adding level-upped names in blue: Stats are good, more are better. You haven't posted a character profile, but keep making numbers get higher as you can. Thing is, they're the sine qua non, but they're not the raison d'être. The way player tanks exceed alternatives (pets, mercs) is by always being somewhat more than the label on the package (that's the AC/hp), through smart (and frequent!) use of abilities. Many more abilities than you've listed, to be pointed: always on: Commanding Voice Field Protector (then Champion) (now Paragon Champion) Brace for Impact Blade Guardian Stout (then Resolute) Defense (except when something better takes its place) (now Courageous Defense) Harmonious (then Concordant) Precision (rarely, Expanse instead) constant rotation, i.e. nearly all of the time these are greyed out or just waiting for their turn: Guardian's Shield, every 5 minutes Pain Doesn't Hurt, every 5 minutes Dichotomic (then Dissident) Shield, every 5 minutes Warrior's Bulwark (then Bastion) (now Warrior's Rampart), every 10 minutes, doesn't stack with Dicho but that's okay Roaring Shield, every 10 minutes, doesn't stack with Warrior's / Dicho, Warrior's will block/overwrite it it Imperator's Charge (now Command), every 3 minutes (rarely, Imperator's Command instead) Resplendent Glory, every 10 minutes [some] Spire of the Warlord, every 7.5 minutes (first is most powerful, but overwrites Brace for Impact which can be a bit wasteful. second has been hopelessly depreciated by lacking upgrades. third works, but doesn't stack with cle spire if you're getting that) always have very handy and don't be shy with: Flash of Anger then when things get serious: Fortitude Discipline Last (then Culminating)(now Ultimate) Stand Discipline Warlord's Tenacity Warlord's Bravery Armor of Experience Monitor your use of he last category. They're long enough cool down that you want to "mean it" when you use them, but if you're typically going long times between use... 25/30 minutes without Last Standing, or an hour without Tenacity/Bravery-ing, that kind of scenario ... then you probably need to be more aggressive in using them - and commensurately more aggressive in the content you tackle.
Try to keep as much stuff on cool down as you can. Engage with flash and start cycling thru everything. Use last stand every 10 minutes. Space it out so your always using something . Even the OoW bp works.
Are these mash one after another or do you space them out a little (meaning from the beginning/first mob)? constant rotation, i.e. nearly all of the time these are greyed out or just waiting for their turn: Guardian's Shield, every 5 minutes Pain Doesn't Hurt, every 5 minutes Dichotomic (then Dissident) Shield, every 5 minutes Warrior's Bulwark (then Bastion) (now Warrior's Rampart), every 10 minutes, doesn't stack with Dicho but that's okay Roaring Shield, every 10 minutes, doesn't stack with Warrior's / Dicho, Warrior's will block/overwrite it it Imperator's Charge (now Command), every 3 minutes (rarely, Imperator's Command instead) Resplendent Glory, every 10 minutes [some] Spire of the Warlord, every 7.5 minutes (first is most powerful, but overwrites Brace for Impact which can be a bit wasteful. second has been hopelessly depreciated by lacking upgrades. third works, but doesn't stack with cle spire if you're getting that)
If you are using two healer mercs, then make sure you and the others in your group including pets have heal over time and promised healing spells blocked so mercs don't try to cast them. This will make them more efficient and you less spikey. Set one on reactive and one on balanced. Another key to surviving as a tank... have good dps. The longer you have to tank something, the chances you die go up.
Already done on all three points. Lvl115 mercs are kinda wonky right now, but me and my monk buddy have duoed pretty much everything since HoT (minus the some of the hard missions), so we are use to the mercs.
Cool, you should be ok then. I am duoing a 113 SK that is under geared and low on AA with a 114 Rogue that is not max AA for that level and I am hanging.
Thanks, I needed this. What's your multibind spam key looking like? I made up my own, but I suspect I am using the wrong things as I was dropping endurance a big faster than I would have expected.
I use the 5 minute things in a rotation with the other 5 minute things. Their respective durations add up to full coverage of that 5 minutes. They're different effects so can be stacked to make you super tanky for a short duration, but that leaves you a low-hp earth elemental once they're all down. The 10 minute things I use whenever they're not blocked by they 5 minute things. This applies in particular to the valuable SPA451 protections Dissident/Rampart/Roaring. Rampart I just mashbutton, also it has the lowest absorb cap so it frequently clears fast. Roaring is a powerful fill between Dissidents. If you're under something hecka dangerous (like Daman in the ToFS raid if curers & the temp buffers aren't on the ball), then Glyph of Dragonscales is in this category as well. Would run that like Dissident-Roaring-fill-Dissident-Glyph-Dissident-(get a swap while complaining that the event hasn't ended yet) This also applies to Guardian's Bravery (whoops called that shield in the quote). It's arguably the most individually powerful tanking SPA we have, so don't ram the matching Warlord's Bravery AA into it, or vice versa. The flip side, negative version of this effect is what makes the aforementioned Daman so dangerous, and the bard/SK Dirge/Vyl debuffs. tl;dr - respect stacking so's to not waste things, but always have something running
I've one social that does the things that leave debuffs on the mob, to keep them corralled against unthinking use during raids: Knee Strike, Gut Punch, Roar of Challenge, Oppressing Shout, Call of Challenge. Most are mostly fine versus most targets during most raids, but shouldn't be throw out there totally without consideration for the debuff slots they potentially take up. CoC in particular is total junk vs raid targets - I manually edit a junk character into its activation line when I join raids. The rest could very likely just be mash-keyed without horrible consequence, though the value of some particulars is questionable. The buttons I mash without such consideration are those that don't leave debuffs behind them - Warrior's Rampart, Shield Sunder, Precision Strike, my epic2.0 click. Notably to some, I don't have a mash key with the purer agro abilities. All of... Warlord's Fury Blast of Anger Aggravate Kragek's Roar Tempest Blades Taunt Phantom Aggressor Projection of Fury Unyielding Attention ...have their own buttons Gut Punch & Warrior's Rampart & Oppressing Shout & Roar of Challenge mentioned above all also have varyingly substantial +agro on them, but that's not all they do so I don't want to forget using them even when I'm not expressly seeking to build hate.
To be honest, things in kael just hit hard. Not crazy hard, and not like, usually, but I've died there plenty boxing with 2 healer mercs, and I'm running 10k mitigation ac with almost all ToV raid gear. Not with 1 mob, but I can go from "just fine" to suddenly dead for seemingly no reason. Never seen the same thing even in velks and tofs. So if playing with merc heals, just something that may happen time to time.
Try using defensive disc every 10 min, and space out other tanking stuff for the remaining 7 min 30. In the 5 min stuff, you can add Diplomatic Immunity clicky from Diplomatic Papers, it last in theory 24 sec (often less, even in group content), so can fill the small void between reuse of other 5 min abilities, Because 3 min of PDH + 1 min of Dissident + 48 sec of Guardian Bravery = 4 min 48 Also, these 3 abilities aren"t equal in term of mitigation power. Your mitigation during PDH will be lesser than Dissident or Bravery, especially as you will have Brace for Impact which will account as SPA 162 ability still while Dissident and Bravery are running. So I would suggest you to use Roaring Shield while under PDH instead of Bravery for example. I usually try to time Imperator Command using with Bravery or PDH, and not Dissident, as I have yet a HP boost with Dissident, and Dissident is the best of the 3 tools in mitigation. Regarding mash keys, I have 3 macro keys. When tanking, I use the 2 following macro keys My aggro one, made of Aggravate, Gut Punch, Kraggek Roar, Oppressing Shout, Call of Challenge My spam one, made of Shield Sunder, Taunt, Gut Punch, Throat Jab, Knee Strike The difference between the 2 is in the cases I have enough aggro built, I will only click the Spam one, so gut punch will always be running. When DPSing, I have another spam macro key, made of Shield Sunder, Gut Punch, Throat Jab, Knee Strike and Call of Challenge, i of course don't use the aggro one then. Oppressing Shout is also on its own button, so can click it again then every 2 min when i don"t use my aggro key. I click Blast of Anger and Phantom aggressor on their own button (not set in a macro). I click all other buttons manually, all mitigation disc stuff / AE aggro / etc.
Other posters covered the warriors abilities perfectly, but one thing I'll reinforce is that being a great tank involves becoming an expert in defensive buff stacking so you can have the optimal set of defensive buffs active for prolonged periods. Second thing, who else is in your group? Warriors are extremely reliant on other players and in 2020 almost every class has healing, debuffing or buffing tools that can help
I couldn't find anything (spell, CA, AA, or item) with this name, but did you mean Guardian's Bravery? I found that on the OoW raid BP for warriors that has a 5 min recast. One thing, though, is what does it mean by "Skill Damage taken (-15%)"? I notice that Warlord's Bravery says the same thing, so is that just a flat reduction to melee damage? There are so many ways to mitigate damage and they use different phrasing for a lot of them, so it is not obvious how they all compare or interact with each other a lot of the time.
yes that was already corrected in this thread, on Apr 3 here's how I summarized them in another thread:
I see that now. Thanks for the summary! [Bah, did it again and posted with a different account. Balthozzar = Olav. Hello from EMarr! You miss it any? ]