Hello all: I am looking for some advice as to what i can do better. I had the pleasure of grouping with a shaman that had a 56 tank merc The problem is that i had a devil of a time holding aggro. (It was usually lost and a fight to get it back) What suggestions might you have? I'm duel wielding with a Blade of Carnage (15/20) and a Blood fire (11/24) I grab the mob, hit Bellow or berate as needed. I need to get a handle on what are some basic improvements if i hope to hold aggro in a group on a regular basis ...let alone i join a guild and want to group with them. Thank you all for any positive suggestions you might have Kindly, sulph0r
Use /taunt when you loose aggro and follow immediately with Berate and kick (or bash), disarm, even beg (lower skill generates more hate, not much) to quickly build a lead. Stand closer then anyone else to mob (proximity aggro). Get a higher haste item and buff. More swings generate more hate per unit of time. Higher DEX will help with weapon proc rates. Sitting grants a temp aggro bonus (be prepared for max hits though).
This is more about the "instructions" the tank merc was getting. If the role of MT was allocated to it, it will do everything to get/keep aggro, if it was allocated to you, it recognizes that you are MT, not it, so wont try as hard to get aggro. In addition, as Mokai said, ask the merc owner to set it to assist, not aggressive. Your weapons look fine.
Warriors have a long road of learning to set up their defensives and aggro abilities, but you're on the right track. This thread is the most recent that goes into it: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/warrior-macros-and-disc-aa-rotation.265963/ Don't be disappointed by a level 56 tank merc out tanking you. They are OP until the sixties. Soon you'll be a monster and a tank merc will be a joke
Very hard at that level to out taunt a merc. I had a 60 something SK on FV and it was still a fight to keep mobs away from the merc. Bellow and berate can be stacked if a mob lives long enough. Make sure weapons have Augs - EB (DoN), Anger(LDoN), DD (Classic) depending on which server you are on.
Typically, ANY debuff or DoT that has a debuff to it that reduces the targets armor, strength, or other stat it will create hate toward the caster. It comes down to the knowledge of the caster spamming DoT+debuff spells while they have a Warrior tanking. Timing between loading up a target with DoTs helps keep the aggro on the Warrior so the hate can build back up. Maybe waiting until the target loses about 20-30% health. Paladin and Shadow Knight have much less work to do when fighting for aggro when casters are debuffing the target simply because stuns from a Paladin help lock aggro like the SK using snares, and their own low level DoT+debuff spells to keep aggro. That being mentioned about Paladin stuns and debuffs from the hybrid tanks, helps learn how to keep aggro. A warrior will need fast weapons to tank for starters. Stun augments for each weapon help out immensely (wulfrenite?). Locating weapons with anger procs, stuns, already built into them is key as well. Examples: Short Sword of Ykesha, epic 1.0, Silken whip ensnaring, journeyman's walking stick, and I believe that Bloodfire mentioned helps with aggro. Although, having a DoT-proc weapon as a tank is bad sometimes as you may need to switch targets to an unmezz-able target that is smashing your healer or Enchanter in the face. Adding those wulfrenite augs to those weapons with built in aggro modifiers makes aggro so much better and players in the group or raid still need to learn to not spam spells. Other factors are having pet classes keep taunt off and/or sending a high DPS pet like the Mages water pet in when the target has lost 10-20% health or adjust to how well the tank is keeping aggro (assuming the mage can have the pet attack the targets back to backstab). Set the Warrior in the group to Main Tank when using mercenary tanks to avoid having the tank merc spam taunt. Also, if you have melee DPS in the group like the Monk, Rogue, Ranger for example... if the Monk is pulling and not feigning death when trying to swap aggro they are just being lazy and/or trolling the group. since a lot of hate is still maintained from auto attacks from those melee classes because... they're meant to do damage and damage creates hate from the target. Using Feign Death or having a macro for a Rogue to turn off attack, sneak and hide and/or just turning attack off for a moment to allow the Warrior to regain aggro helps. Rogues continuously using backstab will create too much hate just like the silly Ranger spamming flame lick and snare (dd/debuff spell stuff mentioned at the beginning) right as soon as they see the Warrior hit the target once... without one chance for the weapon to proc a stun/anger/DoT/debuff.
This is a class toolset problem. Your ability to generate sustainable agro as a Warrior is marginal until nearly lvl 100. (96-100 discs are a significant boost)