[TLP] Can Rangers tank group content?

Wondering if rangers can tank group content in velious and on, including namers and everything else group content offers. And by group content stuff that can be 6-manned.

If yes, what would it take?

Absolutely. Slow is beneficial - but not necessary if healing is on the ball. (I've taken to slacking on using my ENC to slow now that the wife is epic'ed and just let Earthcaller slow when it procs personally)

Kunark, yes. Velious, I don't know.

How would they be compared to knights? Much subpar or still holding their own?

A little sub par compared to knights, less AC from their chain gear compared to knight's plate. They will require more healing.

All ranger jokes aside, they can tank ok, with decent gear. Slow helps, a cleric's heals help, but both isn't essential.

I'm not sure about Velious, as I said, and part of that uncertainty is that the gap in gear AC increases between plate and chain in that era, and the mobs do get harder. But I should think it's doable.

rangers are perfectly adequate group tanks from classic up until at least TSS. the gap widens between them and wars/kinghts as expansions pass, but they are never unable to do the job.

the only reason rangers have a bad rep is cause for some reason they didn't get increased defensive skill caps in kunark originally. this has long since been fixed.

Would i be (un)realistic to think a ranger could tank Lodizal for example?

Pre MOTM Lodizal was soloable by shamans IIRC.

As to what Lodi is gonna look like with MOTM, the jury is out on that one. I know that on Test, Velketor went from a 1 groupable mob to hitting for like 1.1k

If using a Ranger as a tank, then gear becomes quite important. Hp/AC gear all the way. Having tanked stuff in the past on a Ranger, you *will* be a sponge on some hard-hitting mobs, but will have absolutely no problem holding aggro (Earthcaller, Call of Fire, Ensnare, Flame Lick, etc.).

If you have a slower in your group and a dedicated healer, you'll be fine. Earthcaller's slow is fantastic, and the aggro that comes with it is also very handy, but unless you're at 200+ dex, it's unreliable, so I wouldn't entirely depend on procs.

My ranger was able to tank better than my SK and my SK was better geared as well. My healers used up more mana healing the sk compared to my ranger. Only thing that really sucks about rangers is not being able to maximize their dps on raid targets because their dots and nukes gets resisted a lot of the time. Any target that can be slowed can be tanked well by all classes that can taunt.

Ranger tanking should work fine for most any 60 content. It goes to at 65; POP mobs are hard hitters and the lack of CH efficiency and lower mitigation will truly sting. LDONs may be the one exception but you'll need to be thoroughly geared with time loot to not be a drain on hard mission runs. In GOD you can't really do much of anything relevant; no ranger is going to tank an ikkinz trial, and barring weaponshielding a named you aren't tanking stuff like tipt and vxed, or kodtax aug grinds, etc. On the flip side though you get your archery AAs and are a passable ranged DPS class at last!

Come level 70 though I believe it gets better for tanking. I remember a berserker tanking for some DSK grinds and imagine ranger is comparable. You'll be shut out of the hardest content at each step (eg riftseekers) but I believe at each expansion you'll have useful and relevant stuff to tank. 75, meanwhile, I think it goes right back to garbage - ashengate and frostcrypt aren't forgiving on tanks and solteris keying I remember thinking was punishing too.

Yerm sums it up nicely.

With new defence caps Rangers have much better avoidance and mitigation than classic on TLP.

Basically up until POP tier 2 if you have decent group gear you can tank any groupable mobs with slow.
Post raid gear your AC really shoots up and you can tank anything groupable without slow.

In Kunark with new defence caps and some raid gear you can Tank Juggs just fine at 60 without slow.
In Velious nothing changes, though there are some "surprise" non-classic group mobs which can hit up to 300. If you are ready for these they can be burned down without much fuss.

Warriors, SKs and Pally's absolutely trivialise tanking group mobs once they have any decent AC.

Much appreciated chaps. I'll stay with the paladin. Would have been awesome to get the ATK buff though. Guess i'll have to cut something for a BST in luclin

I tanked group content (raid geared) until the mid 90's on my ranger no problem (on Fippy). Anecdotal evidence and opinions are anecdotal, though. It's been pretty well summed up already.

Hardest mob I've seen a ranger tank in Velious on RF is named Kobolds in upper kobolds...they hit for like 2-300 and he did pretty decently...Paladin did better once he came along, but the ranger only required maybe 1 more heal over the course of the fight. Whats 400 mana among friends?

I used duo with a cleric the golems/gargs past Kobolds in velks. Bledrek and Kerdelb would take a good bit of mana if slow didn't land early, but wasn't too bad most of the time. With a dedicated slower it was trivial.

I saw many times on phinny rangers get the aggro from another tank. So you shouldn't have too much problem tanking assuming you have decent gear.

Horseshit

I'm with Pictarous on this...in no way is a less-geared ranger tanking better than a SK. It just isn't possible.
Either you're straight up lying, you have too small a sample size of fights, you were fighting different mobs, or your SK is way lower in level and/or skills.

I do agree that just about any target that can be slowed can be adequately tanked by any taunting class of the appropriate level.

yea, only thing rangers get is weaponshield, outside of that there is no way a ranger should outtank a knight of similar gear quality.