Hi I have always been a poor tank as a Pally and I am now wanting to go back to basics and learn the class, I have been advised to pull targets with bow shot and put up defensive buffs, this sometimes works ok with solo mobs but not always with adv solo encounters or previous xpac heroic encounters. What combat arts or spells should I be using to follow up with in a straight forward combination to achieve this as I want to start getting confidence in this to be able to go in groups and then ultimately experts and raids. Thanks in advance with any advice Kurghan
If you are having issues in KA advanced solos, the most likely cause is low resolve. Consider running a few PGs, enough to get the armor even without the adorns. This should boost your resolve to the point that you won't have a problem. Once your resolve is propped up, get your epic 2.0 or at least start the questline. The gear from the quest will boost both resolve and potency, and you'll need plenty of both to start running heroics. You have to be able to DPS in this expac in order to tank. Amends will help but even so you need to add threat, and threat comes from DPS at the moment. To DPS you will need enough resolve, and tons of CB and Potency. And your epic 2.0.
If you're having issues with KA Advanced Solo zones, then the issue is likely low potency, but it's hard to tell without more information. If you post a link to your toon from EQ2U, we can give you more detailed advice.
Tanking 101 Preparation To start with, before your group heads into battle, get your buffs from each member. Many classes have helpful buffs that make you more effective as a tank. Ask questions about what folks place on you so YOU know which buffs are helpful, and so you can ask for them later in other groups! Aggro The job of a tank is to HOLD AGGRO. You are not there to deal damage to the foe really, you just have to hold aggro so it doesn't eat the rest of the group while THEY kill it. That being said, pretty much 1 point of hate = 1 point of damage. There's no way a tank is going to dish out the humungeous damage that, say, a wizard nuking can. So you also have other tools in your repertoire to help you get more hate than you can acquire simply beating on the foe. Some tank classes have stances that increase hate towards the tank. Paladins have a spell called Amends that lets you have a percentage of the hate of another member of your group. Some tank classes get hate by being hit. Read through your spells/combat arts, and see what each of them really does. All tanks have some taunts. Some have more taunts than others. When you pull, you start off EARLY on the mob. You want to get it hit once and taunted at least once as you pull. The hit establishes you on the hate table, and the taunting adds to the hate you have directed at you. Another trick is that some classes, such as Swashbucklers, can do a HATE TRANSFER. It's basically a buff that transfers some percentage of the hate they're getting to you instead. Selecting a Place to Fight Another critical item when tanking is that you are the one who keeps the group safe. And it's your responsibility to position the group in a place that you can safely fight without getting adds, so you learn to pick a good place to fight in. Usually the way you've just come is clear of foes - presumably you killed them on your way in - but you kind of keep an eye out for adds or repops that way. Turning the Mob However, the way your group is headed is full of foes, so it's a REALLY good idea to turn the mob after you pull it. This leaves you, the tank, between your group and the foes further in on your path, so that anything that wanders up will hit you first and not the lightly-armored healers or casters. You also need to turn the mob for the safety of your group. Anytime the foe ripostes, or does an AOE attack, if the thing is facing AWAY FROM THE GROUP, only the tank gets hit. Your healers need to focus mainly on healing the tank, so you want for JUST the tank to take damage if possible. And turning the mob is critical to allow your scouts to do the most damage. All the scout classes have flank or back attacks that usually do pretty high damage, so you need to allow them room to get in behind the foe. Finally, turning the mob(s) is a BIG help to you as tank. If you see the mob facing you, YOU have aggro. If you are looking at its hiney, you DON'T have aggro and need to switch to that mob and taunt and whallop until you get aggro back. The Fine Art of Body Pulling A key tool to learn early on is the Fine Art of Body Pulling. At first, not many foes are SOCIAL. The higher in level you go, however, the more social mobs you are going to encounter, so you need to learn this technique early and get it perfected. When I say a mob is "social", that means if you hit it, it can call to its nearby friends for help. Then instead of having one thing to fight, you have the whole room trying to eat your face. To deal with this, the body pull is used. Instead of, say, lobbing an arrow or a taunt at the foe, you edge up until it JUST notices you. then when it does see you, you backpedal and it comes with you. Once you have it far enough away from its friends, you start taunting. Here's some info from a thread on the old forums two iterations back (http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/...d=Newbie&message.id=154977&query.id=0#M154977) that's helpful for all classes, especially tanks. This is the illustrated fine art of body-pulling...
If you are struggling with advanced solo's you should do days of summer quest set in sundered frontier that gives you a full set of 11 resolve armour and 9 resolve stuff for all other slots should give you more than enough stats t fly throu the solo content with ease
Sig, I really admire the clarity of your powerpoint slides. Nicely done. There are some abilities which can be used to pull even when other mobs are within the call for help line, they vary by class but there is also a tinkered item which does the trick. Useful when a boss is standing in the middle of a bunch of trash you really don't feel like wasting time with. Also, there is more than one right way to pull. Generally I pull experts these days by running around pulsing blue AOEs until I have all the trash and then turning the group. Useful for folks who have implosion. The key point to remember is that if your healers are good they pre-ward. So if you don't HIT the mob they will run straight to the healer.
well .. one thing is you could come to voice chat ... would be easier ^^ have all your perma buffs on, be in defensive stance. have divine favor up (death save). cast amends on the highest dps in the group, get your mitigation and HP as high as u can. and always pull with arrrow or taunt. In most zones you don't need to body pull, but if you body pull .. the mob may go on the healer and one shot him. So u taunt the mobs right from the start. the encounter taunt if encounter (Righteousness) or single taunt if solo mob (clarion). but always use encounter taunt because it lowers the mob's arcane defense. as a paladin you could also use after pull the mobs, holy ground, it can be usefull to build agro .. especially now that people start fight with ascensions. You need to build up agro real fast. sigil of heroism is also nice to siphon hate from your group. but don't cast everything at same time as for defenses, you have divine aura, legionaire's conviction for magic damage, your ward (demonstration of faith), stonewall, devout sacrament if you have the AA spec and faith. you need to rotate them at the right time (but there I cannot help, I don't play paladin to know exactly when to use them the best way). stonewall is nice to cast on pull. you won't be oneshot that way. faith has such a low duration, it's better to use it during fight. And I guess u should always have your self ward up. Also macro it so you always cast it on yourself and last, use all your tools to keep agro. so you have of course your damage spells. paladins have amends, holy ground and sigil of heroism clarion as single taunt (u spam it), righteousness, the group taunt should also be spamed, cavalier's shout is a agro buff, faithfull cry is a long range damage spell that taunts too, heroic dash has a threat component, and vital trigger too (better use it 4 times to max the damage and threat) but holy ground (especially on AoE fight) is your best tool to keep agro. in the end, use your spells smartly, rotate, cast everything, rescue if u need, to keep agro and if you struggle, do with small groups and when you start feeling more secure, get bigger groups. paladins are I guess good on AoE agro. the secret is to group and tank. theory is good but u need practice. u need to know your spells, what they do, when to use them
For huge initial aggro use Divine`s Will after your rune-proc, so you can worry about putting up defensive stuff if you have to run quite a distance.
To add, Please read above, these people are spot on and everything suggested will be great. Assuming no ascension. This set up is NOT 100% of anything. It's just a jack of all trades pull scenario. You must understand that the draw to this game is the variables that each mob offers in a fight. You may or may not need hate. You may need to heal. You may need to increase threat. Each has it's own purpose. There are 6 major damage types: Traume, Arcane, Noxious, Elemental. Physical. and my favorite, Emotional. Cause when you get your butt handed to you, you suffer emotional damage What I listed below is a starting pull scenario and listed what each does. You can see that there are numbers going across, which are the seconds each art lasts, and some basic descriptions. Just use this as a start. Think about your situation: If grouped, then generate hate, protect your healer/dps, and use your 100% no sick rez before healer. If healer is down, use your stoneskins, 100% damage protections, rez your healer/dps. No matter if solo or grouped, you only generate as much hate/heals as needed. Therefore, practice going all out on dps, separate your heals/threat on your hot bar. If it's really hard and a few people are dying, check yourself, because you should be able to keep some people up and protect them. If not, maybe your too low geared/ but don't blame your skills if you know what each art does. This is why Paladins are great. If you can play one, you are highly desired in groups. Plenty of crappy ones out there too My input: It's just to answer some basic questions.
Ok, the copy and paste sucks. Not sure the best way to capture excel here. Make of this what you will. For a prebuff, try Resolute Faith on your group healer or DPS. Try reforging Cast Speed, Recovery, and Reuse at 85%. Then when in a group, if needed, use a "Forerunner's Cognizance" (4 HR Duration)" use the "O" button keyboard and make a macro for AMENDS. Hate transfer to highest dps, or sometimes fasters. The macro is for mid fight if you or they die, you need to be able to get it back on them quick. Or... use a good UI Make sure you have a Jack and Coke. Set it on the opposite side of your desktop/laptop. Plenty of ice. This is just a jack of all trades type set up. Good for all aggro, protection, group management. (BUFF) HOLY WARDING 10.9 SECONDS, IF ELEM/ARC/NOX IS EXPECTED, OR SAVE FOR MOB'S EMOTES IF NEEDED. (PRE-HEAL/WARD) PRAYER OF HEALING (NEW FAST CAST .25 SEC) USE AS GROUP WARD, 15 SECONDS, 6% OF MAX HEALTH. RANGED RANGED IS QUICK, GET'S MOBS ATTENTION, MOST AREAS IS OK. USES PROC. MOST ARE 35M RANGE DEMONSTRATION OF FAITH 26.2 SECONDS, SLOW 0.75 CAST, LANDS ON WHOEVER MOB IS TARGETING, SO IF IT STICKS TO DPS, NOT A BAD THING. USUALLY ENDS UP ON YOU. GOOD WARD. ARCANE DEBUFF ON MOB, 10 SECONDS. GREAT BUFF! SIGIL OF HEROISM 8.4 SECONDS, 0.5 CAST, AGGRESSION, 20% ARMOR INCREASE, 54% THREAT TRANSFER TO YOU, DAMAGE REDUCTION TO GROUP 32%. MOB AT 15M CLARION 6 SEC. 0.13 CAST, FAST THREAT, 15M RANGE NOTE: CLARION CAN BE RECAST EVERY 4 SECONDS IF NEEDED, GENERATES THREAT EVERY 2 SECONDS. GOOD TO KEEP ACTIVE. MOB AT 10-15M FAITHFUL CRY 20 SECONDS, 0.25 CAST, MAJOR THREAT, DAMAGE, AND HEAL INCREASE EVERY 4 SECONDS, EXCELLENT RECAST AT 22.5 SECONDS. THIS SHOULD ALWAYS BE CAST WHEN UP! 50M ALTERNATIVE TO RANGED DECREE NOTE: DECREE IS A LONG CAST, BUT IS 25M AND A GREAT TOOL WHILE PULLING MOB. IF TIMED RIGHT, WILL INTERRUPT TARGET. ALSO WDB INCREASE OF 7.5. CRUSHING DAMAGE. MOB AT 0-5M ANCIENT WRATH 2.5 SECONDS, 0.25 CAST, BUT RECAST IS 15 SECONDS, CAST BEFORE RIGHTEOUSNESS, STUNS TARGET, AOE CRUSHING, ALWAYS LANDS. RIGHTEOUSNESS 20 SECONDS DURATION, 0.13 CAST, AOE THREAT INCREASE, DAMAGE, MAJOR ARCANE DEBUFF FOR YOUR DIVINE DAMAGE. QUICK RECAST AT 10 SECONDS. ALWAYS CAST WITH ANCIENT WRATH MOB AT YOUR FEET. AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS, CAST DIVINE DAMAGE SPELLS/CA'S. PLENTY OF CHOICES, ALL BASED ON MOB. YOUR PICK OF DIVINE DAMAGE SPELLS BASED ON ENCOUNTER. Start VITAL TRIGGER casting order. This is netting a ton of dps for me, even faster than some low level ascension spells. Get your epic 2.0, Divine Will is your pet and it's amazing. LEARN TO USE VITAL TRIGGER, HIGHEST DPS (if no epic, no ascension). USE LIKE THIS: PREBUFF YOURSELF AS BEST YOU CAN, AND THEN: VITAL TRIGGER FIRST INCREMENT HEROIC OPPORTUNITY, (FREE DAMAGE) FAITH STRIKE DAMAGE VITAL TRIGGER SECOND INCREMENT REFUSAL OF ATONEMENT DAMAGE JUDGEMENT/CLARION THREAT INCREASE! VITAL TRIGGER THIRD INCREMENT ZEALOUS SMITE CURES JUST IN CASE VITAL TRIGGER FINAL BLOW DIVINE TERRITORYYOU SHOULD BE AT 60 INCREMENTS, SO USE IT. THIS CAST ORDER WILL NET YOU FAST GOOD DAMAGE ALSO HEALS 8% AT 4 INCREMENTS TO GROUP SOME CURES: CASTIGATE, AURA OF THE CRUSADER, ZEALOUS SMITE, HOLY AVENGER (SMALL CHANCE), HEALS AND HEALTH! LAY OF HANDS, FAST GOOD HEAL. IF NEEDED, DEVOUT SACRAMENT (50% HEAL!) USE DECREE/ DIVINE VENGEANCE/ JUDGEMENT/ ROA FOR A CHANCE TO CLEAR LAY OF HANDS. HOLY AID (CHANCE TO CLEAR DEV. SAC.) PRAYER OF HEALING, HOLY CIRCLE, (GROUP HEALS) CLARION, RIGHTEOUSNESS (SLIGHT HEALTH INCREASES) CRUSADERS FAITH (CONVERTS DAMAGE TO HEAL) DRACONIC SHOUT, DIAMOND FLESH, FAITH, DIVINE AURA, STONEWALL, LEGIONAIRE'S CONVICTION, (AND A FEW OTHERS, ALL ARE LIFE SAVING OPTIONS) FAITH STRIKE (3.1% HEAL) ARCH HEAL (14% if AA) HOLY AVENGER (SUMMON PET HEAL) A few notes on some other stuff. DECREE, HEROIC DASH, HAMMER GROUND, PENITENT KICK, All either knockback, stun, interrupt, blur vision. Most AOE except Penitent Kick. JOUST, USE TO RECAPTURE A MOB, TRY A MACRO WITH JOUST, SNEARING ASSAULT AND IF NEEDED, RESCUE TO GET IT BACK. This didn't come out the way I wanted to, my apologies, but hopefully you get some casting order help from this. The excel verison of this has what to do at each second. I'll work on hosting it somehow.
Sorry, one more note, I noticed it says "sometimes fasters" above. This was meant to say, sometimes, it's better to put Amends for hate transfer on those that build hate fast. Also, maybe one dps is better at managing aggro, you can Amends the other DPS. Also, for the Vital Trigger cast order. IF you are in an encounter, (2 or more mobs), substitute the red icon spells/arts for blue/greens. (Blue is all mobs up to whatever number, and green is just that encounter.) Vital Trigger does hit multiple times often, so consider this your best non ascension dps tool.
If I have checked correctly, your toon has less than 70% hate gain. You wast around 1 third of your hate gain. This stat has to be always 100 (not more, 100 is hardcap). Reforge your amor or use adornments for that. This is maybe the most important stat for tanking and it gives you agro without doing anything. Make also sure that everybody in your group has close to hardcap -50% hate gain. You will see life of a tank becomes much, much easier than. I dont know why, but many people forget hategain.
