your gf plays a paladin. sorta.

Discussion in 'Tanks' started by gnomeboss, Jun 26, 2017.

  1. Zinc New Member

    Hey man :), hoping to have time to play more by the end of the week. It'll be fun to work on named camping and starting EoK progression in Lcea. May as well work on hunter achievement at the same time.

    My HH seb armor is arguably as good as EoK T2, so really I need the non-visibles more than anything else. LC is a beast compared to me, so if he is around, I'll just dps :)
  2. Chaosflux Augur

    Drop staunch stance for burst or sorrow depending on frequency of healing needed. The Stance Line Is Only Good To Give you cushion it functionally does little if you cannot be rounded before GCD + heal cast time.

    Then be more proactive with heals, mana permitting.
  3. shiftie Augur

    There are mobs to hunt that are easy and decent aa and you could drop the merc entirely. But you will feel dirty when it is over. Look for the undead in LC you can get a chance at the eok rates doing it also.
  4. Chaosflux Augur

    No shame
    shiftie likes this.
  5. shiftie Augur

    TBH wiz merc/pal healing in group gear is going to require stunning or massive down time due to mana issues from healing. My wiz merc is terrible for dps these days our combined dps when I have to self heal is less than when I use a cleric merc and just focus on dps. Like I said find the undead in LC and make use of the aa helix of the undying. I won't post dps numbers to this forum because people can't interpret parses well enough to not lose their minds but I've spent hours doing it both ways and cleric merc wins hands down.
    Thancra likes this.
  6. Niskin Clockwork Arguer


    It must be the AC augs that make up the difference then. Just want to make sure you have the AC to tank out there, especially the named, which we use two healers for as it is.
  7. Zinc New Member


    I won't focus on the whole wiz merc setup. I had read about it and thought it was a thing, but I'll just focus on dps'ing with a cleric merc when I am not tanking or even when I am just moloing.

    I posted my group dps lineup above. Here is the other line up I was using when I was moloing:
    Burst of Dayspring
    Grief
    Burst of Sunrise
    Splash
    Brilliant Vindication
    Force of the Darkened Sea
    Valiant Deflection
    Crush of Povar
    Crush of the Darkened Sea
    Harmonious
    Preservation of Iceclad
    Staunch Stance

    I can replace staunch stance, but we'll see if I miss the hps and the ac from it. If I replace it, what do you recommend goes in its place? I have seen mixed reviews on Dichotomic Force, and the mana cost is pretty high. I definitely have mana problems as it is.

    My short term focus though will be just aa'ing and filling out my defensives, getting a limb-chopper and whatever the T1 shield is.
  8. Chaosflux Augur

    Wizard mercs dps is garbage.

    You make more headway with Harmo + cleric merc and just nuking your balls off.

    If wizard merc dps had been upgraded in line with cleric merc heal capability and our dps hadn't been upgraded with the other tanks , it would be a different story.

    Otherwise you are going to have mana issues, unless miraculously you can afford to be glyphing, while you solo (probably not). Group gear sucks terribly for efficiency and soloing.

    As far as goals

    2hander is what you should be moloing with.
  9. Brohg Augur


    No AC from Staunch Stance. No damage-taking advantage at all, just max hp boost to keep from being one-shot. If you can be one-shot in group content, that's not an appropriate spot to be exping.

    Your molo linup is significantly shakier than the dps one. Splash is way out of place, Crush/Force should basically never be on the same spell bar, and Burst is awfully questionable. Burst's job is to fast-heal someone other than yourself or the tank (you're both yourself and the tank while moloing :p), like an enchanter doing CC or the cleric who's too busy healing you to take care of themselves. The 3s Quiet effect is not a worthwhile trade off when you can use other spells that don't do Quiet, like Grief/Sorrow for yourself, or like Valiant/Admo/Protective for the tank (who is also you while moloing!). With any of those alternatives, you can cast another whole spell during the seconds that Burst would have Quieted you.

    Dichotomic Force - my approach to it starts from Grief/Sorrow: very fast cast, in Dicho's case instant not .25s, heals you for a ton without having to target. The trade off is real, it is significantly pricier than Grief/Sorrow. In exchange Dicho has 1min cooldown instead of 2.5m, plus heals the whole group. It makes some agro and stuns stunnable mobs, which are features that can save group mates, but maybe more importantly doesn't make a gap in your agro spells while you heal yourself, so it's Valiant in that way.

    If you follow the advice in this thread in attacking some undead to AA-up, then the spell gem presumptively for Dicho (or something else) isn't yet empty. Doctrines of Recession/Abrogation go to the top of your order and you'll need to rebuild the spell bar :)

    T1 shield is pretty skippable. If your team can kill the mob to get it (Burnished Wurmscale Aegis is from Zakija in Scorched Woods, whose big tricks are "having a pile of hp" and "immunity to fire"), then you're almost certainly capable of killing the mob to get the T2 shield (The Bridgekeeper's Memory is from The Bridge Keeper in Chardok, whose big trick is "having a double pile of hp")
  10. Chaosflux Augur

    Actually burst is only good when soloing or raiding IMO.

    Low cost potent heal to use when you need a heal now and Valiant/Grief/sorrow are down. Yes dicho could be used for the same job, but that will impact your kill rate, if heals are necessary with reasonable frequency (they shouldn't be unless you are using a wiz merc).

    Also when soloing the quiet effect isn't that bad, because admonish and ostra if poorly timed (which they will be if used in a spam rot) incur a loss to dps. That 3s of no cast is less likely to kill you if you are planning your rotation around it, it also isn't going to bounce.

    It's also pretty nice for swarming (not what he's doing bit whatever) because the majority of your dps comes from ripostes so the lost cast opportunity is negligible.

    Though generally I agree I almost never mem burst.

    Doctrines replace crush if moloing undead and the lowest undead nuke which will seldom if ever get cast if you are weaving the right spells in the right order.
  11. Zinc New Member

    Thanks for the analysis Brohg. I meant to edit my last post to say that spell bar was actually more apropos for being a tank for a group since, as you pointed out, there is no need for splash or bursts when moloing. I think it was the first spell lineup I came up with. So obviously I need more work in that regard. I'll peruse through my spells tonight and try and come up with a good lineup for group tanking to maximize agro with some oh crap heals and stuff.

    I know the group I am around can take Zakija, but don't think any of us have really set foot into T2 zones yet. I can't wait to see what kind of Slays I get with Skyreach though.

    I also have to organize all my activated AAs. I dropped 2nd and 3rd spire off my hotbars but have not set up any multibinds like were posted in this thread on the first page. Rome wasn't built in a day, so I imagine it will take some time before I am a competent paladin. In the meantime, I can still look badass with my flaming sword.
  12. shiftie Augur

    I normally go with this set up when moloing LC

    Brilliant
    doctrine
    doctrine
    consecration
    burst
    harmonious
    devout (only to make my roots last longer)
    dicho
    sorrow
    protective (because I don't want my heal to bounce with admonish line)
    admonish
    ward (or steely if i'm not really paying attention to the screen)

    i hardly need anything but the dps spells but that is play style dependent I certainly don't go as aggressively as I used to but I can make a reasonable amount of aa fairly distracted.

    half the time I use the instant stun on dicho to help split up my pulls as i'm root parking
  13. p2aa Augur

    Force of the Darkened Sea and Crush of the Darkened Sea are on the same timer, use only one of them in your set up, else you waste one spell slot.
  14. Chaosflux Augur

    Group tanking is pretty simple

    Crush
    Crush
    VD
    BV
    Consecration
    Laudation
    Dicho
    grief
    Sorrow
    Harmonious
    Admonish
    Preservation

    Swapping the least used or useful spell out for something more situationally necessary.
  15. fransisco Augur

    Lol, thats a great description :)
  16. Zinc New Member

    I had some fun this afternoon taking out undead in LC and didn't feel dirty at all. I swapped out to the lineup you suggested and had no real issue moloing them. Eventually I'll try to solo them and see how that goes. DPS as measured by Gamparse was really improved mainly because of some unreal slay undead damage. As it stands, this will be my go to spot for some aa farming when no guildmates are on.

    Does anyone do Chapterhouse anymore or is it not worth it?
  17. Chaosflux Augur

    Chapter house isn't worth it at all.
  18. Phrovo1 Augur

    would crypt of decay be feasible if you have someone do the last partisan of sul for the aura blocker?
  19. Chaosflux Augur

    Crypt of Decay and Sul were decent in TBM. The Lcea spot Shiftie mentioned can't be beat currently though, especially if dude has a Skyreach.

    Once he gets a solid dps/tank disc rotation to maximize uptime, and a good pull route that will be the best SOLO (no merc) spot that can currently be had. There's enough undead there that it's doubtful he will run out on his lonesome.

    I spent a bunch of time at the 2 AC aug camps in Crypt of Sul during TBM, completely solo if he still needs those. Won't be as good XP wise, but it's passable.

    I didn't even have the aura blocker when I did it, so if he does, he should be set.
  20. Zinc New Member

    I started making a list of the augs I should get, focusing on AC and HDex. Im working on knocking out the easier ones first. I need about 1200 marks of valor from gribbles to get 2 40ac augs + 16dmg 2h aug. Got the dmg aug last night and I'll get the first ac aug tonight. There are a few I saw to camp in TBM, and plenty in EOK.

    Maxed out CS and nearly maxed out on CA. And then I'll focus on Natural Durability, Physical Enhancement and Armor of Wisdom I think.

    Is the epic 2.0 still pretty useful? I can start that in downtime for sure. I've only done 1.0 so far just for the ornament.

    And I have not set foot in Crypt of Sul so I do not have the blockers for it, but I should work progression on that sometime too for the dichotomic benefits and the passive aa rewards. I'm still moloing though, I don't think my defensives and rotations are quite ready for soloing, but I'll give it a shot soon.