ok before i finish reading thel ast 4 pages (i been gone for like a week lol) id like to make the opint that, including myself, most of the peopel saying "jsut gorup wtih better people" are all raiders. being a raider adn trying to "feel" the issues of a gruop tank when all you ever play with are raid tanks or raid-focused pets,...it's irrelevant. sure, things are easier with raid tanks than with merc tanks unless they totally suck or are some very messedu p mechanic like quads for 20k+ AND does aes over 50k for us raiders, but for groupers? things get hairy a lot faster and take a lot more effort to get up to speed. honestly the way teh game is right now id recommend all these group tanks to go back and find ppl to farm t3+ HoT raids as itd be better gear and probably easier, tahn t2 rof, dependingo n teh mob, however, getting t1 rof gear is such cake all i want to do is /facepalm it. a few issues that do have to do with rof's current state (and the impending t3 or maybe 4) is taht it's pretty much unnecessary to use rof t1/2 gear if you were in voa cultural or t4, because t1 gear is thesame or worse in many stats (for tanks, casters/priests of course get better focii) even my bard who ive always severely neglected, cant upgrade many if any slots in t2 rof muchless the pinata of t1 stuff all over, and she's got very little beyond a set of group voa cultural. the gear in rof is subpar vs previous gear available, though with the fact taht its candyland attunables and 5levels lower req..for t1 at least..tahts fine for htose needing to catch up taht didnt get to the endgame of voa, however the ease at acquiring it is a bit overthe top, while the benefit vs risk for many t2 items, is way out of balance. the risk jumps up tremendously in t2, at least on the mobs ive encountered (i dont farm nameds so its hit or miss) but the gear oftentimes yo ucant even tell except by teh req level what tier it's from and often t1 is better , which is sad due to the eaase of getting it. As someone pointed out, the merc/pet strength is probably in part due to the coming higher tiers, whilst tanks get the short end of the stick until then. even as a tank myself, though ill encourage peopel to tmake tanks if thats what they wantot do, i will tell them falt out if you dotn watn to put in them ost work of anyone else at yoru level in teh game, then dont roll a tank, not only will you hate yourselffor it but your peer-tanks will hate you for being an embarassment. imo if yo uput in that work though it shouldtn be such a huge spread. tankingtakesm ore work, fine, but it shoudlnt be to the point that to be useful you have to put in 3x teh work just ot catch up from 2 year old gear, as no one else needs to. Any time im makinga point about getting aas over levels, i use teh example of getting a lvl 100 tanks with 0 aas vs an 85 tanks with 8k, who would you rather? granted SOME is gear..but moreso its augs andaas as well as skill, gear goesu p hugely in hps but it does for all classes, and while i dont wish to see a closing of the gap between group and raid gear , i do think there should be a closing of the gaps in hps from one expac to the next..and an INCREASE to heroics and ac..teh ac on t3/4 voa gear is better htan that in t1/2 rof (nonvisibles at least and often visibles vs cultural) yet the hps go up up up. obviously teh game is intended for more and more hps..so to keep tanks in line with this trend i do agree that tank gear, or their aas, or whatever, need to have a boost to hps. taht doesnt mean retune the game around boosted hp tanks, it means boost tank hps to the point that when tehyre tankinga mob AND get ae'd theyre not dead while the rest of their group is only taking the ae. see, rest of the group shoudlnt be 1shotted by an ae unless theyre way undergeared..it should get close if not in current (1-2 tiers lower) gear, but not 1shot, at the same time because thoseo tehr classes can continue to do their jobs despite such aes the tank shoudl be ableot take those aes ON TOP OF the melee dmg he/she's taking, as they are the only one getting hit with such. anyway im rambling, but my main piont here, and i agree that tanks need a boost, in both raid an group but moreso in group game and mainly in hps not in ac/mitigation etc, the damage spikes are what keeps it itneresting and something ot work for, it shouldnt takem ore hps tahn you can possibly have from the previous tier with the requisite aas and at least the previous expac augs. mobs shouldnt take MORe gear than they drop, to kill. As raiders we need to stop telling these group tanks that they need to group with betterp eople and make better friends..becauseo ur viewpoint is ksewed by the fact taht we play almost exclusively WITH raid toons, and id wager taht we ARE exclusively using raid tanks or tank mercs/pets , not group tanks. I have seen some pretty nsaty fights against some wellgeared and aa'd raid tanks even, in the group game, with raid healers and raid dps. does that meanthe stuff is impossible? no, but i think it means its overtuned when anyone in raid gear less tahn 2 years old cant dependably tank/heal/dps it, and of course the tanks are the msot noticeable unless mob has some mechanic that requires high dps.
Our level 100 warriors in full raid gear are bulldozers in group content. Head and shoulders above a merc in kill rate, exp income, and safety. I'm talking about a real group here, not a warrior plus a healer merc or something. A warrior on their own, or just with a healer merc only, is quite a different story.
