Hello, I've been a member of the community since the time I first started playing. Back then, since I am original to Brell, we had the brell boards - one for discussion, and then a whole separate rants/flames board. Ah, those were the days. Seems like no board like that exists present day. More to the point: I played hardcore from 2000ish until 2007. After 2007 my time was a bit on and off until 2010, then I played again pretty hardcore during that summer, and then again was on again, off again until 2013, when I again played quite a but during the summer. Since then, I really haven't been on at all. I tried logging in a couple time, but in every case, the knowledge gap since 2013 was just such a huge hurtle to climb given my present time constraints. I kept quitting after 1 week to a month of getting only a day or two a week to play. While warriors used to take more skill (to hold agro) than I think they do now, they were "easier" from the perspective that you didn't have 24 different active AAs, 22 discs, etc. Timers have also changed. Seems like stacking clickies have also changed. It's a lot of new information without any good central source (it seems) to decipher and assemble this information into an arsenal that I can use. I've come back, and planning to be back for good, but my issue is still knowledge. I don't know exactly where to start, or how to get at my end goal. There's apparently no The Steel Warrior forum anymore, so that doesn't help either. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what I am asking for in this post. I don't expect anyone to do some type of crazy write up, and I don't expect anyone to hold my hand. Both would be great, but I can't realistically expect that. That said, any knowledge that people are willing to divulge would be great. Or if you have sources to suggest, that'd be great too. It'd be amazing to know which discs should be used (present day) for which situations. Which AAs are found to be effective now adays. Which discs and AAs warriors use per mob, vs. only for named. Stacking information, etc. What new clickies I should be trying to farm over the coming months. All this type of stuff. I have found that there's some great information on the Freelance website. However, it doesn't help as much as I'd hope that it would. Mostly because I don't have enough knowledge about present day discs or AAs to have reference for the information posted there. Looking forward to seeing some of you that still exist on CT-FR soon if I haven't seen you online already. Sincerely, Oumambuk Riftwalker
We are in the same boat , i too have just returned after a 7 year lay off. Great post! You have asked all the questions that i've been pondering and i'll be watching this post with keen eyes. Just remember to turn on your 'auto enable AA' on your AA screen and zone out , you will be a very happy Tank! Happy tanking my friend.
I am not a warrior but I am a returning player that’s been back for about 2 months now. I was looking for the same thing you are and unfortunately I think it doesn’t really exist. The best advice I can offer is to click the drop down tab on your AA window for “activated” AA, and read them all. Then read them all again, and again. When you are in a group, don’t be afraid to use AAs/discs as you’re grouping. Experiment, get a feel for what does what. Too often I see people in the group game save absolutely everything for named mobs and they are leaving so much potential of their character on the table. There’s lots of amazing abilities/discs all classes get with a very short reuse timer that should be spammed as often as possible. On my Paladin, I basically save my best disc for a bad pull or a named mob, other than that I cycle through all my activated AA/discs as often as possible. Experiment, don’t be afraid to die, and read all your discs/aa’s until you have them more or less memorized.
Thanks for the well wishes, both of you. Right now I am 96, so still have a little bit to go before I hit 110 . I'm still trying to get my UI setup the way that I like it. Part of that, however, is dependent on fully understanding how my class functions. More than anything, I know that I just need more "burn in time." so to speak. I definitely have no problem dying, and love to mess around. One of the pieces of information that is hard to gather simply by messing around is how useful some abilities are. For example, I noticed that I had Gut punch still set up as an ability that I should be using as often as it appears. I was thinking that on the Freelance website, that from the writeup that was on there (several years old now), that this ability is essentially worthless now, and should be foregone in favor of another (that is on the same timer, I think). Without spending a lot of time Parsing, I'm not sure how you'd ever figure this out on your own. Similarly, I'm sure that some abilities (that use endurance) aren't worth it compared to others when taking into account using that same endurance for other abilities. Of course, this could vary depending on if you are the MT in a group or just DPS (which happens with friends, of course). Not trying to sound like a naysayer or shoot down anyone's post, just pointing out some of the nuance associated with discovering this all one's self.
Don’t worry about saving endurance. Endurance management is solely for raiders. All classes that use endurance get an ability that they can click that the second they leave combat will regenerate their endurance to like 30%. I’d say setting up your UI is an important thing. The way I have it set up for my paladin is 1 Hotbar for offensive, 1 for defensive, and one for agro management. I also try to order them from left to right based on cooldowns, thus I know I can click the ones on the left more often. The other thing I strongly suggest you doing is setting up a key bind. my “2” key is key bound to all the important short reuse abilities/aa’s/spells. I just spam my 2 button for the majority of combat and then watch for the longer reuse things and reapply as necesary. This dramatically simplifies what I need to be paying attention to in battle. An example is my “2” button activates all the following: -Force of disruption (short reuse agro generation) -Bash -Spurn (short reuse damage reduction) -3 stun spells with each having about 10-15 second reuse -2 target of target heal spells (which also generate additional agro) both having about 10-15 second reuse time I may be missing an ability or 2, but gives you an idea of how a key binding can look. Once I am in combat and have my once-a-mob spells/abilities applied, all I have to do is spam this 2 key over and over and my character is 90% effective. An example is your comment on gut punch. I do not know if it shares a timer with a better ability, so apologies if it does. But you could just add gut punch to your key binding and it will take you no additional time or thought to activate it, even if the benefit is relatively small.
Thanks for the comments took! I did not know that about endurance. When I last played, warriors had to be mindful of endurance. When every mob was inc (assuming I was not pulling also), I used an agro disc (not sure what that is called now, but "Bazu" was I think the last iteration). That used some % of endurance. Maybe only 2% each time, but since endurance (at that time at least) regenerated so slowly, you had to be cognizant of using too many other endurance-using abilities, because with a fast-pased chain-pulling group, you were sure to get down to 0 endurance at some point. This was a problem if you needed to save endurance for defensive discs for named, for example. You are absolutely right on the key bind. When I last played I could get away with just mashing 2-4 different keys pretty frequently, or paying enough attention to hit them whenever they repopped (for gut punch, for example, which was slower than kick, which I just mashed). However, now adays I definitely think I value much more setting up a key-bind with several abilities on the same key. The freelance post that I keep alluding to mention this with some suggested setups. One of the things (related back to endurance, perhaps) specific to warriors that I think I may spend some time figuring out is all the agro abilities and when the right time is to use them. Years ago, there were few. You had your main agro disc you used each time, you might then have 2-3 other abilities, all of which I think usually had long timers on them, which meant you either saved them for a bad pull, or saved them for a named. Thanks again. Enjoying this discussion!
EQ is one of the more complex games around these days because there are new layers of abilities and mechanisms introduced with each expansion and not much consolidation that has happened. This is further complicated by the fact that when you read information about EQ it might be years since that information was written, and finding information for a specific level set, ex: 96 might be tough and even the people who played when level 100 was the cap might not remember a lot of details. Here's a very similar thread that was made a couple years ago: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/teach-me-how-to-warrior.237655/ But I think is still very relevant to you. There's additionally another good guide that can be added to the list of links I put in that thread. http://pb.gamerlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11328956&gid=518180 But it's more oriented toward raiding warriors. When you're looking to get gear, this thread is pretty good: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/finally-moving-on-from-cotf.237553/
Thank you very much, Tucoh! I definitely agree that information for certain level sets can be difficult. In fact, I am, really interested in only information that pertains to being 110. That might sound wonky, but "I'll be 110 before I know it!" That, coupled with how much information can change from one expension to the next for a particular level supset just makes it too difficult to try to find a guide. As a result, I am 100% satisfied with lv 110 information. Thanks so much for the post. Can't wait to really dive in!
Starting a first post with AA. Turn on weapon stance and bold attack AA. They need to be on enabled mode. AA priority should be good survival and aggro AA. Best survival AA : Weapon Stance, Combat Agility, Combat Stability, Physical Enhancement, Shield Block, Natural Durability, Sturdiness, General Sturdiness, Armor of Wisdom, Brace for Impact Best aggro AA : Infused by Rage, Bold Attack, Phalanx of Fury, Hastened Scowl, Bazu, Gut Punch and Blast of Anger AA (don't recall name as magelo don't show this tab section, I can add exact names when I have access to my char in game), Blast of Anger, Gut Punch, Ageless Enmity, Area Taunt, Hastened Taunt. Utility AA : Howl of the Warlord. To be continued.
I recommend learning all the SpA that encompass warrior abilities. List all abilities by this SpA so you get an understanding of what stacks and what doesn't stack. Once you do that, start including details - percentages, cooldowns, etc. Once you get that, it'll be much clearer on how to use abilities in regards to when, where, how, and why. It will make stacking that much easier and prevent the least drop-off when you aren't using optimal discs/AAs.
Ok hastened AA are Hastened Bazu Roar and Hastened Scowl. Hastened Flash of Anger is also the 3rd best one in your focus AA tab. When hastened Bazu and Hastened Scowl appeared, it made a big difference on aggro power of wars when these were current. Regarding aggro discs / AA, we have short duration ones, and longer ones (1 min +). Using lvl 110 names Short duration ones : Slander, Kluzen Roar, Gut Punch Longer duration : Burning Shout, Blast of Anger, Phantom Agressor, Projection of Fury. Try to make an aggro spam hotkey with your short ones. I use a macro (can make a multibind too if u want) that has slander, gut punch, kluzen, burning shout (yeah this one longer duration but added it here). I keep Blast of Anger, Phantom and Projection to click on their own. For example, first mob in camp, i click my aggro spam + Blast. Second mob, my aggro spam + Phantom. Then Blast is back for next mob. I have another hotkey that I spam, made of Shield Break, taunt, knee strike, throat jab, call of challenge. Taunt is spammed because it trigger a passive AA, Sneering Grin with passive hate. Always click Harmonious Precision too. And /autoskill bash AE aggro, our tools are Dragonstrike Blade, Wade Into Battle, Roar of Challenge, Area Taunt, Harmonious Expanse. If you are going to tank multiple adds, use Expanse instead of Precision. To grab mobs, Dragonstrike or Area Taunt. Once on you, you can add Wade Into Battle and Roar of Challenge. Mitigation disc / AA. Always run Resolute Defiance in your disc window. Also make a hotkey with Commanding Voice (lvl 68 disc, get it if you don't) + Field Champion. And click it back when it fades. There are extended duration AA that can make them last same duration so they refresh same time (less priority than some other AA I listed). Champion's Aura can be clicked too. Always click Brace for impact and refresh it when down We have a few 5 min refresh tools that can allow you to keep a kinda constant mitigation boost. Chain them one by one, the first one should be back up. Dichotomic Shield, Guardian Bravery (from Anguish raid BP), Diplomatic Immunity (from Diplomatic Paper), Pain Doesn't Hurt. Also, other nice tools are of course Culminating Stand Discipline, Warrior's Bastion, RoS BP click (Roaring shield is name of raid version), Resplendant Glory, Warlord Tenacity, Warlord's Bravery. Imperator Command 1 min refresh every 3 min. For spell dmg protection, you have Mark of the Mage hunter. Lesser impactful abilities : Blade Guardian, Warlord Resurgence, Third spire. Invul disc. Flash of Anger, or Fortitude if you want a longer invul time duration. Clicking an invul disc can be nice at the start of a pull when you have many mobs, the time the healer heals you. Can also be used at critical moments when you feel a heal not coming and you could be saved by it. With experience you will understand this point. Endurance refresh tools : Breather, Imperator Charge (share timer with Imperator Command), Miniature Horn of Unity. DPS. (In cases you aren't the tank of your group) Always click Battle Leap. Use a 2hander. A good sustained DPS order (not including glyph or 7th) 1) Brutal Onslaught + Vehement Rage + rage of Rallos Zek + 2nd spire of the walord + Rampage 2) Mighty Strike 3) When MS fade, click War Sheol Heroic Blade + Offensive Disc. In case you need to fade aggro on you, run far away stop and click Howl of the warlord
