To be clear, I am at the pinnacle of group gear. I have all best in slot augs (dex build ) including Soul of the Grandmaster. I have anguish bp, cotf bp, cop4, diplomatic papers, merchants feast/brew, shawl aug, the seven best AC Trophies that exist (over 1000 ac from trib), lifetime supply of Geomantic Power sources, etc etc. The gear allows me to be successful when another tank might crumble. Tanks should put in the time to get the right gear. Besides gear, I have experience tanking every named and mission from RoF to TBM. I also have all achievements giving me MAX heroic AAs. I mention both gear and experience so that you have some insight where I am coming from. As far as the strategy goes, it's simple. Tank everything, kill everything. I won't go play by play disc by disc. Tanks need to find their own path there. But here are some tips. It's much easier to tank 3 mobs rather than 4 in the first wave. Kill one fast (this is why I preach dps all the time). Do not waste pain don't hurt here. Second wave. Use pain don't hurt. Once again 5 mobs hurt less than 6. Its a huge difference in incoming dps when one dies fast. If my wizard friend is with me he burns here (otherwise I box it for drops and 40 slot bag). Now here is the trick. Pull the last remaining mob away from the npcs to allow pain don't hurt to refresh (spoiler). Then go take a leak, grab some chips, and open a beer. Kill the mob when the disc has refreshed. Go kill wave 3. Pain don't hurt...gather them all an kill them all. I feel that this mission was perfectly tuned for my gear. It took us 2 tries on day one because mercs committed suicide on wave 3. I also boxed 3 of the 4 toons. I roll with my wizard friend for progression. Additionally, we have beaten the droga mission on first try. That mission has an AE nuke going off the whole time.
I've spent the last few nights progressing through EoK with a newly returned player. If the player is even remotely competent they'll quickly out pace a merc. The bar is pretty low there.
A single healer, and a single (group/raid - casual raids) geared tank was perfectly fine. We did have a full group of non-boxed people though.
even though this post is supposed to be about the average group geared person/boxer .. granted i dont expect to be able to molo my way through EoK I am a boxer i 3 or 4 box and I am aware i do need to get my aa's up a bit but my bst that i usually play is non heroic and has 9k aa's i know its not max but they are well placed aa's and he has full TBM gear and AC augs all his AC aug slots are filled with 35+ ac up to 45ac i dont expect my bst to tank thats what my pet is for but when my bst has 130k hps and more than half of those come off from 1 hit i think thats a bit overkill. seems to me 95% of these responses are about a Raid geared tank or a tank that has all the high end augs and casual raid gear and max aa's .. im a boxer and there are alot of boxer's out there that are just in group gear NO raid gear I do not do pick up raids cause i play at 2 to 5 am most the time and there is no one on around those times usually . granted once in awhile there might be but for 90% of my play time ive spent hours LFG or trying to put a group together and its just easier to box than to try wasting valuble play time in general chat .. another reason I do not raid is iirc there is only 1 raid guild that raids during those times i play (which i am currently in that guild), however the days and times they raid dont always hit my schedule and I end up missing most the month and if you Raid you know what that means .. I would like to hear if there are any actual group geared tanks with maybe not so max'd out aa's or hybrid's who are able to handle EoK mobs with out getting slaughtered. if there isnt and you need from the getco to have a max'd out aa'd toon with the highest AC augs and partially raid geared from 1 to 2 expansions back then to me thats overkill and targeted for raid peeps more than the average grouper/boxer.. just my opinion and if thats the case then that is fine i have 22 other expansions to play in and get my aa's up .. but i know im not the only person out there who was having a hard time from reading these posts.
well id say you shouldnt think to much.. no autogrant or heroic aa's here all well placed.. and full TBM group gear
EM 18 is NOT "just" a raid focus, it was the group focus introduced in Plane of War & followed up in the group game in Arx Mentis, and I'm fairly certain there was another XVIII from TBM. *** Side Note: You might want to consider hitting that auto-grant button & possibly making yourself more useful/valuable. Do you have a magelo? I'm curious what you define as well geared/aug'd for the group game. EoK is an amusing expansion for Beastlords, that are "fairly" well versed with the class.
To all those having trouble in EoK, let me tell a story that has played out dozens of times but most recently on a named hunt in PoH for a friend prior to the expansion. There were 2 dpsers in the group. Both max level and max AA. I was in group gear and he was in slightly better gear. I sustained 91k dps for the hunt and he sustained 19k dps. He managed to hit a whopping 49k on the one named we finally got. Now imagine this. What if there were 4 of me in one group and 4 of him in another group. Group A would be killing mobs NINETEEN times faster than group B. So ask yourself this. How the heck should devs tune a game when group A exists (and yes it does)? There are so many people in this game that don't even try to learn their class. They have no idea what their discs, spells, or AA even do. They don't read forums, don't ask questions, and don't parse. WTF 19k is auto attack dps...or less. I'm sorry, but if you play like the guy above then you have no business complaining about mob hps. The problem isn't with the expansion. We have been level 105 for 2 years! We have been max AA for a year! The expansion is tuned around this. If you aren't there yet then go get there. Complete TBM progression at the very least. It will be good battle experience.
I do not have a magelo .. its interesting that you are posting as a new member .. do you have a magelo what does your gear look like .. I am a very compitent Bst been playing the class since 2003 and game since 99 .. and im sure i do not know everything and i am more than willing to learn new things if i can .. last time i raided was in VoA .. and i seriously doubt that auto-granting AA's would in anyway give me any necessary/needed AA's that would increase my advantage to the degree that would be required. but i will use autogrant and see how many more aa's it gives and in what area's .. prolly will give me max innate or Mastery of the past
and there are alot of us who cant/dont play for 10+ hours a day 7 days a week anymore .. i stopped doing that many many years ago now with R/L a job and family im lucky to be able to play 2 hours at a time maybe if im lucky 2 days a week possibly 3 on a holiday.. and as i stated in a previous post my play times are after 1 or 2 am PST.. and if there was 4 of you doing 91k dmg (if you could keep that sustained) and 4 of him at 19k dmg 91k x4 = 364k sustained dps 19k x4 = 76k sustained dps that works out to 4.79 times more dps not NINETEEN just saying
EM18 is grp focus from TBM, from Shade's Phase earring. EM23 is the raid focus. I don't think 9k AAs is enough to handle EoK stuff. Id say you are like 4-5k AAs short. Here are some bare minimums I made up off the top of my head that I think you should have before you are going to have a good time in EoK. 13k AAs (will vary for every class but closer to max the better) TDS or preferably TBM group gear 35-45+ac augs To take on named mobs you are going to have to use activated AAs and skills/spells to counter the dmg or abilities. If you do not use some kind of defensive skill you will most likely die. If you need to get caught up on gear, here are 4 extremely easy TBM missions that reward over 1k remments each time you complete them, and give gear in chest each time, + can spawn boss that drops armor. In Defense of Health We Make Our Own Rewards Fate Rewards the Bold Lxavnom Labors
thank you kthehammy for your positive input .. atm i only have EM 16 focus i'll have to work on getting the EM 18 .. and more AA's I already have Full TBM group gear purchased with Remnants with 99% of my augs being 35 to 45 Ac. I do not have any Augs from TBM expansion only TDS and below.. does the group gear that is dropped or in chest better than the gear you purchase ? if so i might need to update my GG from dropped stuff rather than purchased gear..
the gear from the chests is slighty better than the vendor purchased stuff but if you already have a set of vendor stuff it is probably not worth the time for the minor upgrade it will provide. The named mobs in the static TBM zones are pretty easy to camp, and easy to kill. Almost all of them drop a nice high ac aug. You can use this link to see the augs and where to get them. TBM TYPE 7/8 AUGS I think for you, your biggest upgrade will be in getting more AAs.
ok i just realized something.. my pet i dont think was focused .. my EM 16 focus is in my bag and i think i forgot to equip it when i cast my pet doh could be a reason my pet was having a dificult time ..
I worded it wrong. I meant to say 19 players to equal 4 players. 19,000 (dps)*19 (players)=361,000 91,000 (dps)*4(players)=364,000 What does play time have to do with anything when both are maxed? The example was not about non-maxed characters. Or do people max thier characters first and then if time permits, learn how to play? Like its hard to hit key #2 to activate 2 minute buff, 3 key to assist, the "K" key until the mob is dead.
Actually that's not true at all pertaining to needing a fully geared raid tank / healers. There are options inside the mission to produce a win and not make it difficult. No hax or cheats required, use the resources provided. If people took a minute and looked at what is there in the mission with them they would probably figure it out fairly quick. Literally resources are all around you in that mission to produce a win.
It's quite the conundrum, and really has nothing to do with gear. TBM introduced itemization for all classes that could place a casual, group geared player, far closer to a raid geared toon than ever before (especially for melee!) so long as you spent a bit of time researching what was best for your class. The gear is ridiculously easy to get. So then it's a skill thing, like it always has been. Casters especially are separated not by their gear, but by knowledge of their class. A raid geared XYZ can get absolutely destroyed vs a group geared XYZ if the latter simply knows what they're doing. We see this all the time and, while I understand how it can happen, it still sorta boggles me when one forum search on these boards can give someone an "optimal" disc/spell weave to bring them up to par. It's cool though, different strokes for different folks. I play frequently with both players from either end of the spectrum, and the representatives from group B are progressing through EOK using groups of actual players rather than boxes. Going to reiterate here that EOK is meant to be harder than TBM. It's the third xpac @ 105 and if you're trucking in with 1k AA over auto-grant you should probably expect to get facerolled and/or have to take your time, pick your spots, and wait for cooldown discs/aa's. As an example, 9k AA on a Beastlord... isn't even enough to have all your companion AA's or burns @_@. TBM max for your class was 16k, you're a good 4k AA short of being "up-to-par" for this expansion. EVEN SO, with a group and some class knowledge you'd do fine. To wrap up this ramble, y'all just need to strateegerize a bit more and maybe get some AA. Read up on how to XYZ as an ABC - even the absolute top tier representatives from each class share notes and chat with each other because the game is constantly changing. Even at 4am there are people playing on all servers. Make friends, be proactive about forming your groups, and go forth to kick- and chew bubblegum. As an aside... this Lceanium mission we're all referring to was a lot harder in early beta, and still doable by group geared characters. GL
