Help with Paladin life!

Discussion in 'Tanks' started by Volas, May 27, 2022.

  1. Kleitus_Xegony Augur

    My apologies, this is long but I'm working on something similar for some returning paladins in our guild....

    Your new video shows a huge improvement. A couple of things you brought up in it - definitely pull Divine Stun or any Lesson of XXXX stuns out of that multibind. You want to use those abilities for repositioning mobs (ex. a mob that warps behind you for some reason, sneaky pulling tricks, or pushing things where they need to be in a raid). Divine Stun is on the same timer as Disruptive Persecution and Force of Disruption which are both better spells to have in the multibind than Divine Stun. You could use a normal stun in place of the Lesson of XXXX stun with the knockback effect.

    This is all just a set of suggestings so let's sort things out so the hotbuttons are grouped up for the most common tasks. Might make it easier to keep everything straight. I'm going to assume you won't always be solo. (for the pedantic ones in the audience - this isn't 100% perfect but it's obvious he's going for usability, enjoyability and simplicity over pure effectiveness at this point - we will get him hooked and he'll add more as he needs to later)


    Add one more hotbar and try sorting them out as follows (Note: I used the abilities I have at 120):

    [IMG]

    The top bar (red) is offensive abilities. Followed by (grey) defensive abilities, aggro and (blue) emergency healing abilities and (green) utility abilities.

    Going through the bars in order. Autoattack is followed by Vanquish the Fallen (Undead Nuke) and Disruptive Persecution. You want to cast Disruptive Persecution as much as possible since it is our best nuke.

    For the Burn Macro, I have the following:
    Line1 = /pause 1, /disc Pureforge Discipline Rk. III
    Line2 = /pause 1, /alt activate 920
    Line3 = /pause 1, /disc Righteous Censure Rk. II
    Line4 = /pause 1, /alt activate 6492
    Line5 = /alt activate 1017

    I usually click on Spire of Chivalry right afterwards. The /pause 1 is simply to make sure that the abilities all get to fire instead of having to click a multibind multiple times. You might need to change it from 1 to 2 if you have a laggy conneciton. The abilities will refresh at different times, which is why I have them listed in a row like that. You can click on them as they come back up if needed. It also lets me see if something didn't get fired off due to lag and I can then click on it separately. (note AA 920 is Valorous Rage & 6492 is Inquisitor's Judgement). They are candidates to be removed / replaced from the hotbar if you only want the burn key instead of the individual abilities.

    For the defensives, I have them in my preferred order (although I use them out of order all the time depending on the circumstances)... Shield Flash and Deflection should probably be setup as macros just to make sure you are using a 1hander and shield. Here's my deflection macro:

    Line1 = /stopdisc
    Line2 = /band Activate 1HB
    Line3 = /timer 12000, /disc Deflection
    Line4 = /alt act 10392
    Line5 = /alt act 3216

    We can have a debate about line 1 - it's dangerous and you will blow your deflection if you double click the button, so don't do that. "1HB" is just my bandolier for using a 1handed weapon & shield - change it to whatever you have in your bandolier. I usually want to make sure I have aggro when I have to fire off deflection (in a group / raid) so AA 10392 is Ageless Enmity and 3216 is Projection of Piety. Projection is also questionable in this case, but it's what I do. I should probably replace it with Divine Call (AA 660) but whatever.

    Otherwise, if I am tanking for a long time I simply go down the line on that bar. Mantle + Armor of the Inquisitor are clicked together for the mitigation and improvement to heals. Followed by Armor of the Inquisitor when Mantle drops. Then Armor of the Forthright and Group Armor of the Inquisitor if my self-only Armor has ended. Following that is Revered Guardian Discipline and Armor of Experience if it's up (20 hour refresh). At the end, I use Breastplate, Epic and Blood Drinker's clicks. Epic + Blood Drinker's will make you feel like an SK for a little bit - it's nice. I also use those two with other defensives at times but trying to keep this simple.

    For the Aggro stuff, you need to learn when to use Taunt, Ageless Enmity, Unending Affirmation and Projection of Piety. Beacon is your AE aggro dot and Hallowed Loadstar is your at range AE aggro dot - they both have a stun component to them but the aggro dot is the important part. Divine Call allows you to tether a mob to you for a short time and drag it plus it's a big blast of aggro. Heroic Leap flings you to the mob you have targeted and does an AE aggro blast. That hot bar also has the AA heals on it Gift of Life, Hand of Piety, Lay on Hands and the healing mod AA Hand of Tunare (consideration can be made if you would prefer having Reflexive Redemption there instead but you use the combat abilities window as well).

    The utility stuff (green) is as follows. Force of Disruption / Divine Stun which are on the same timer as Disruptive Persecution. Force of Disruption is an at range Aggro spell. Divine Stun is / should be used for positioning mobs or if they are immovable as part of a stun tanking rotation (more on this later). Then Divine Aura (self only preservation) and Bestow Divine Aura (targetable preservation ability). Res, a Hide Corpse macro, and IVU. Marr's Salvation is what you use to lower the aggro generated by the people in your group (for raids it can be cast on a different group than yours). You want to remove the buff from yourself after you cast it. It makes it easier to control aggro in a group / raid setting. Then Leap of Faith for crossing areas or jumping past things like auras, mobs, etc... A gate clicky (strongly recommend Drunkard's Stein) followed by Balefire Burst (Fade) and Shackles of Tunare (Root). It might seem odd that the last two are side by side, but there's a reason. You can split mobs using the two together. For example, you want to pull a named out from 4 other adds - hit deflection, aggro the named and root the 4 adds - then back away from the adds, hit Balefire Burst to fade their aggro and then you have the named by itself.


    Something you're not doing yet - Spell Sets. You can use your spell book to save sets of spells. My 1st spells never change - Harmonious/Concordant/Confluent Blessing and Preservation Line. Then I start using sets of spells:

    For example Buffs: (Brells, Blessed Aura, Valor of Marr and Stance). Those are the only spells in that set. If you save the spell set with all of the the other spells as empty slots, it will only swap out those spells. I do this so that I am not completely dead in the water if I go to rebuff and something happens where I want other spells up.

    I also have my normal set of spells (at 120 so yours will be slightly different versions)
    1. Confluent Blessing (self buff that heals group and aggros target when single target heals land on you)
    2. Preservation of the Basilica (self buff aggro increaser and random heal proc)
    3. Soothing Touch (slow but mana efficient heal)
    4. Burst of Wakening (big, fast heal with a 3s silence to self)
    5. Wave of Bereavement (group heal)
    6. Parlay for Honor (aggro dot)
    7. Splash of Repentence (AE heal and cure)
    8. Crush of the Twilight Sea (high aggro but low damage nuke)
    9. Crush of Restless Ice (med aggro but med damage nuke)
    10. Brilliant Acquittal (nuke with healing twincast)
    11. Upbraid (nuke heal of target's target with bonus damage for undead)
    12. Remonstrate (nuke heal of target's target with bonus damage for undead)
    13. Hymnal (general purpose nuke with bonus damage for undead)
    That gives me a fairly well balanced set of spells to handle most things in a raid / group situation. I then have sets that swap out groups of spells or I swap them out individually. I essentially build off of that set of spells

    I have a multibind that casts 8 through 13. I also have a macro that casts Divine Persecution followed by spells 10 through 13 without any pauses. The macro just allows me to use a subset of the first and it could be a 2nd multi-bind (I just set it up as a macro years ago and never bothered to change it).

    For example, stun tanking (where you rotate through stuns to prevent a mob from ever attacking) my spell set would just replace spells 10 through 13 with stuns. I use the 1st multibind to cast the two crushes for aggro and then switch to the macro to rotate slowly through the stuns. Since I am stun tanking, I don't necessarily need the crushes to be cast anymore.

    If I don't want the heals, then I replace them with a set that does something else like the reverse damage shield, the 2nd aggro dot that is also a debuff, etc... The point is, you can build these spell sets and if you think about them a bit you can design them to match your multibind(s).

    As an example, I have my normal lineup above and if I were fighting undead, I have a spell set that swaps 8-13 with undead nukes - something like:

    8. Brilliant Acquittal (nuke with healing twincast)
    9. Upbraid (nuke heal of target's target with bonus damage for undead)
    10. Doctrine of Annulment (pure undead nuke)
    11. Doctrine of Abolishment (pure undead nuke)
    12. Hymnal (general purpose nuke with bonus damage for undead)
    13. Requiem (general purpose nuke with bonus damage for undead)

    I just use the multibind nonstop and use Force of Disruption if I need extra aggro - otherwise I tap that macro every now and then to cast Disruptive Persecution (don't forget to hit Vanquish the Fallen too).

    Anyways, my spell sets replace things in chunks if that makes sense. Kind of like mission packs for the spells. It's also quicker since it only swaps the spells I want to change and leaves the rest alone.
    Wulfhere likes this.
  2. p2aa Augur

    No Valiant Defense line of spells used ?
  3. Droctrebor Journeyman

    Kudos to Kleitus for even taking the time to try and continue helping....Well done, Kleitus !
  4. Chaosflux Augur

    If you are tanking a group with a setup like his, you basically just upbraid > remonstrate > honor line in an endless loop if aggro is a non issue the nuke heals have more value and you need to keep honor refreshed about every few seconds anyway.

    Bit dicey doing that with big trash packs because of the negative aggro component, but on 1 to 3 its fine.

    I have almost same setup, tho I swap touch for valiant
  5. Volas Lorekeeper

    Happened to see this absolutely monster reply.. and wanted to take a moment to say a big THANK YOU!

    That was easy to read, understand, and I have it screenshotted and saved onto my comp. Im grinding away the last push to 120 as I type this.. and I plan to use this to maximum effect.

    I'd love to send you a krono just for typing that all up and just generally being fantastic.

    Message me a character name and a server, I'd be happy to donate a month of EQ for your assistance not just to myself, but to any other Paladins that happen to see it.. Honestly, someone should sticky that dang post right to the top of this forum.
  6. Kleitus_Xegony Augur

    My apologies, I've been really busy with work, daughter about to go away to college, etc.... So I've barely even been making our guild's raids the last month or two. Anyways....

    1.) Keep the krono - if you found anything of use in what I posted then that's great. If you really want to send someone a krono for helping out, then look for someone like Goodurden, Riou, Sancus, Biemeth, Fanra, etc.... Those guys do great things for you, me, all of us - they deserve it more than some rando like myself. There are still a bunch of those types of people around.

    2.) With a username like "Kleitus_Xegony", I would hope it was easy to figure out the character / server if you needed to shoot me a question or something. I'm not exactly hiding my EQ identity from anyone.

    3.) Valiant line seems to cause me more problems than it's worth these days. In a group - sure, send it all my way if I'm tanking. Otherwise, I just use the aggro from crushes and focus on the nuke-heals. We also have 3 AE aggro tools (Beacon, Lodestar, and Heroic Leap) that you can cycle through to help with aggro on multiple mobs.

    4.) I love the "on a scale of 1 - 3, it's fine" comment. I find remarks like that to be extremely funny. Thanks for looking beyond the wait, what - you don't have <insert spell name> in your lineup.