Hi all It might seem strange, but for some reason, some friends and I have decided to move to EQ2, and see what content that game has to offer. The option to start at high level seems nice, as this would enable us to enjoy from start group content, and not be focused on XP and leveling grind. Anyway, with that in mind, i'm looking to build a tank in EQ2. Most information i can find seems dated, so maybe i can find on these boards, some helpfull players who can direct me towards up to date information I'm a former EQ1 player, and my first choice would go towards the monk class as i'm still nostalgic of those days But I've been playing tanks on various MMOs for the last 10 years, and i'm quite sceptical about the monk being a good tank, as relying on avoidance has never been a good strategy for a tank. Are all fighters adequate tanks ? Do tanks find groups easyly ? and raiding spots ? Since i'm not planning to solo, what tank class would be the best choice for group/raid content ? Are all races fine to play tanks ? are there some races with an edge for tanking ? Any answer would be of great help PS : I'm an old time player. The "whatever class/race you like best" is not something i ever believed in I take pleasure in playing a well rounded char in a challenging content. If that means playing a midget in pink underpants dualwielding lolypops i dont care PPS : i know i dont know the game yet. Starting close to max level will be challenging, but since i prefer high end gameplay, and hate level grinding, that's something i'm willing to try. Hope i wont make you guys wipe should you have me as a tank
- All fighters can tank Heroic. Despite the freakout about recent changes to Brawlers ours is still able to MT Raids just fine. - Fighters are normally the ones who start groups. - Fighters are hard to start raiding on, many Tanks keep their spots because they are hard to come by, trust me as a Guardian at heart I have been raiding my Illusionist because well... that's what my guild needs despite my major preference to my Guardian. - As said any tank can do Heroic/Raid content and usually is guild-preference. Currently Crusaders are a good pick due to how HP is working at higher ranks the Paladin's percentage based healing abilities are strong. Zerkers are decent to. PS: I would love to see a dward in a pink speedo dual wielding lollypops and shouting "I represent the Lollypop Guild!"
So would I. =) And everything Estred said is spot on. Well, despite your disbelief in the "play whatever race/class you like best" philosophy, it's something that is really pretty much true currently here, particularly for the tank classes. And race doesn't matter for any class other than the fact it might determine or restrict your alignment & class choices. There are some racial bonuses that favor certain classes over others, for instance theoretically barbarians would be better tanks than say fae. But the reality is that fae are just as good at being tanks as barbarians. The differences between the races are so incredibly minor that they amount to fluff. So pick which fluff you like best or think would be most useful to you. You might want to be able to track, you might really like feather fall or the ability to transport yourself directly to a group member. You might want permanent waterbreathing or a itty bitty life tap proc. Could be a activatable temporary stun resistance is something you'd be interested in or the ability to pickpocket. Maybe disarm chests or have the ability to repair your gear on the fly periodically. There are stat differences, however as I stated before those differences are pretty inconsequential.
I have a 95 monk, I have soloed/moloed/grouped but not raided with him, though when I did raid with another character for a while, the raid used a monk as the backup/second tank and they always did fine. They are a lot of fun to play and in the tough group content I think I stand up just as well if not better than some of the other tanks (as with other games, they are fairly gear dependent compared to most other classes). I never played a monk in EQ1 but always liked the idea of them so I tried in EQ2 and am definitely happy I did, seems like there is a lot more my monk can do (and faster) than my Inquisitor and Coercer, currently my only other 95s, I also chose him to do my first signature quest run through in the new expansion. That said, I haven't leveled any other tank classes in EQ2, but I don't think the avoidance vs plate armor makes any difference, at least in the non-raid environment. I'm not sure if not many others play them as the number of monk tanks I run into in pickup groups with my other characters is much smaller than SK, Paladins and Guardians. I think the tanking role will be familiar to you from other games, so it may not be so hard to get into even starting at level 85. Since you have played one for so long, you probably already know, it takes a certain type of person and attitude to play a tank well in a group. You'll need to learn quickly how to body pull (vs shooting an arrow or throwing something), you will tend to get smaller pulls of linked mobs if you just move slowly into agro range. The rest is pretty much just agro and keeping the mobs pulled on yourself.
Thanks for the answers About pulling : i believe FD split pulling is not an option in EQ2 ? I've seen some mention about body vs arrow pulling, but didnt grasp the mechanics. If i understand clearly, if you body pull, you get smaller packs than if you arrow pull ? Regarding races, i've seen those abilities specific to races, and clearly, some seem much more usefull than others. I remember farming the fishbone earing for weeks to get waterbreathing in EQ1, having such an ability for "free" seems nice no ? must be true for other Regarding class choice, i've always disliked "knights" in every games (paladins, shadow knight etc ...) and the berzerker sounds too much of a dps tank for my tastes. But, from my readings, guardians and monks seems to be complaining about the state of their class : monks regarding their survival skills, and guardians regarding their hate and dps capacities. So, how true are those complains ? On a side note, what would be the best choice for a healer with a monk tank ? and with a guardian ? And group composition wise, what's the set up ? 1 tank 1 heal 1 CC 3 DPS ?
I remember FD Pulling in EQ1 on my monk. the game mechanics of eq2 make the mob Reset and Run Back to its Bind point when everyone on its Hate List goes away.. i.e. when you FD the encounter will brake and you can not tag them on the way back to get only part of the group. I have Solo'ed on a Monk in eq2 fince around the beginning on and off, i starting grouping and raiding about 5 years ago. the way the monks are now we can tank but you will have to get more Defensive to servive then the Guard will... but you should still do ok. We are Single Target Tanks, so you will want to gear and Spec to help cover that shortfall. Also having a few extra pieces of gear when you get 95 with either some more Defensive or some with more AoE auto, comes in very handy. If you do decide to go monk i can help you out with some AA picks to get you started leveling and one to get you started when you get into grouping/raiding at 95... they really are that different.
I was talking Body-vs-Arrow pulling on another thread. The difference is one is a shot, which can cause any enemies in the Social Aggression Range to become aggro to you. This means than when you want to pull two enemies, you can end up pulling eight. Body-Pulling on the other hand aggro's the enemy passively and unless they are locked to an encounter or also are withing Body-Range of you, they won't aggro. Someone had a graph somewhere but if your tanking, you quickly will get the knack of it. If your wanting Waterbreathing look towards Iksar and Froglocks. Though I would recommend Iksar... I like lizards. Each race has two attributes they boost as a Tank you would at least want one with a Stamina Increases such as Iksar and Sarnak (totally not showing my bias here ) http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Character_Attributes_by_Race These values are almost meaningless but it does have a handy link to all races and shows abilities. The game also hints at which races make better of what class on the creation menu. Alright well if Crusader's aren't your cup here is a quicky on the remaining classes. - Monk/Brawler is the typical "Defensive/Offensive" split though they both can tank the Bruiser is more Damage Focused while the Monk has better Temporary Survival abilities to keep him alive in a pinch. They took a Survival hit recently but it did not impair them from tanking, a boss many felt could not be tanked after the ToV Launch is still able to be done by a Brawlers. This boss was Gen'Ra and the Warcouncil located in Siren's Grotto: Dissension, a 95 Raid Zone. - Berserkers are very good at physical damage reduction, magic is a weakness. They do have good self-healing though an pair well with Heal-over-time healers like the Druid classes. - Guardians... yeah this is a sore subject for me since I have mained one for 5 years and raided one for 3 of those years. Anyway, yes we have low DPS potential unless you really know how to build one. Focused Offensive helps but only if you get a LOT of AE-Auto Attack to convert and even then your forced into being a Single-Target Tank. We have amazing Survival tools and even great Hate Tools to assist both ourselves and other tanks. The low-DPS keeps Guardians not very desired unless they are played very well. Just like Silzin, if you pick the Guardian I will help you figure out your AA set up.
Group content is more about pulling big packs of mobs and aoeing everything ? or small numbers, CC and single target dps ?
Its more about how Fast or Slow you as the tank want to pull. If you can pull more and survive to bern them all down, then it will go faster, but if you can not then single Pulling and Ccing then 1 at a time also work. CC Works some times in newer content.
Hi again Seems like my "team" wants to go for a low level start ... So, i've tried various tanks, and settled with a berserker, as i really liked their aoe capacity. We went to crushbone at level 20, and i tanked ... and got trashed ... We had an inquisitor and later a shadowknight with us. Both seemed to be taking hits much better than myself. Even the Inquisitor seemed to be "tanking" much better than me (in tanking stance of course) and i believe i'm doing something wrong. The healer could keep the SK up easyly, but to keep me alive it was impossible when we had like 2 heroic 3 mobs (of our level). Am i doing something wrong ? We're 25, and against huge packs of mobs i feel i'm a killer, but against hard hitting mobs, i'm getting trashed. Any help would be appreciated
Not sure why no one has mentioned them, but SK's are by far the easiest class to tank with. You get like half a dozen aoe spells which makes maintaining agro super easy, plus you get several lifetaps that can heal you to full hp in a giff. Since you're new you should try one out, just realize since they are so easy to play almost everyone has one and thus finding a spot in a raid would be very difficult...if that's what you want to do, but you really dont need to raid to have fun in this game. Nonetheless they are lots if fun to play and you should at least roll one to try out
What is this blasphemy? There are no people who realize that the game is about more than raiding. Are you sure your quite sane sir?
I am new to EQ2 myself and like to tank. I've tanked instances and raids for about 8yrs in other mmo's. I enjoyed your discussion about which what tank is viable and how they play. I have started a guardian not knowing the game too much. You say that the guardian is weak with damage but has great survival. Can it excel at endgame? Is high dps the main component to good threat or are there decent modifiers? Seeing how you say that SKs have great AoE damage is that what is needed for endgame raiding? Not to say that single target isn't important but they will always make every viable tank able to single target. Also, I need help with AA set up. I am new to this system and want to maximize so that I can help my healers and hold threat. I am sure there are tanks out there that have worked through the system and understand good builds for the different class tanks. If any could point me in the direction where I can understand what priorities I need to consider for spending my points and what I should be working towards so that I can tank endgame I would appreciate.
The reason why people will tell you to "play what you enjoy" is because class balance, especially in terms of tanks, changes with the weather in this game. I've played a monk since launch, and we have been so bad as to be nearly unplayable (TSO-era), or so awesome that other tanks seemed redundant (CoE-era). Currently, we're no longer overpowered, but rather just plain good. So I don't suggest you "play what you enjoy" for some high-brow philosophical reason, but simply because if you always want to play the "best" fighter class, you'll be re-rolling every 6 months.
Guardians got actually beefed up pretty hard with ToV expansion. They are the best tank ingame, have the most utily to protect or keep their group allies alive and have the best aggro management. On top of that their single target dps with their new offensive dps stance is quite nice alltho they have almost no AoE dps. I'd stay with guardian, because when played right, its one of the most powerfull class.
