Brand new here ( to EQII and this type of game in general) and don't understand much of what I read, but I appreciate what I could understand and have picked up some tips. Thanks!
Like I said, this guide is to be used by a max level paladin who has just opened his eyes to end game or cooperative play. By that time, you'll have a solid grasp on all the terms and ideas within. Leveling up with as little hand holding as possible is hugely useful for actually learning the game. Leave the refining and specifics for when it starts to matter. Revisit the guide at that point and work from there
Maergoth <-- Live Streaming Maercast Archives <-- Old Stuff Bump, and update for proper video links. Also, I totally can't edit the original post. That is incredibly lame. Fixing that would be awesome, and future changes would be possible.
I have 10 in Trample since I like to mass pull heroic content and don't raid with the toon. If it was raid geared + red adorns I'd maybe have an easier time reforging into AE auto and would drop the agility line entirely and switch to wisdom. As it stands though I go down and take Lance in that line and Cavalier's Shout as well. Lance is OK I guess, it's a blue AE and those are always nice to have but if I didn't have it I'm pretty sure I wouldn't notice.
They're both alright, but not better than the other options. The actual damage output from aoe auto is limited, especially with lame gear. Just a matter of preference.
Maergoth left out some really basic tanking info that's actually useful for EVERYONE. 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...
Yeah, there are basics I left people to figure out on their own as they leveled. I can't edit the OP or I would have elaborated like this myself, but I appreciate it.
BUMP! Lots of stuff saved on twitch.tv/maergoth as well. Feel free to contact me in-game (If you've read the thread already) for further questions!
What is the current thinking re: 2H's for paladins? (Been gone awhile)...awhile ago it was nearly heresy to doff sword n board on a crusader...but I seem to remember reading somewhere that they'd fixed the 2H option??
Maybe in Reckless Mode using a 2-Hander may not be a bad idea, but the problem is Crusaders get AA's to improve 1-Hander damage, so it's not as big of a difference as it would be otherwise.
So.. the two-hander issue is intended to be addressed with the next expansion. Two-handers should be itemized to be more powerful, since currently they're so completely niche it's insane. Maybe they were talking theory alone, but they made specific mention of variable delays and damage spreads.. more unique weapons. In doing so, one would assume a situation SHOULD arise in which a specific 2 hander might be viable. Currently, the only class who would USE two-handers, Crusaders, benefit less from them because of their AA choices modifying sword/board. Not to mention, equipping a 2-hander completely kills your avoidance transfer. The only time I put a 2-hander on is when I'm reckless and doing trash. Otherwise, it's pointless. I've been trying to convince Mr. Xelgad that the two-hander and offensive stance should effectively replace Recklessness. With a 2-hander, you forfeit the ability to block, and you should gain damage. Maybe make potency on 2-handers twice as high to simulate the recklessness thing. The idea of 2 handers should be a trade off of great survivability for great damage. Just like recklessness. Currently, that is not the case, and 2 handers have very little place in your bags, let alone your primary weapon slot.
Maergoth, I have a request. I recently returned to eq2 after a several year hiatus, last expansion was KoS. Anyways I recently hit 95 and started tanking coe zones with my guild. Can you please look up my room and give me info on where to improve. I have no white adorns atm and I followed your guide when leveling but just incase anything has changed I have left options open. I usually do good when holding aggro but notice sometimes I will lose it... Even to the guy I've amends.... Its kinda random. Some mobs I can just auto attack and hold aggro. Anyways your insight and anyone else is greatly appreciated. My toon is grisweld holyblade on guk server. Kind regards. Grisweld Holyblade
Hello, I looked up your toon and you need more hate mod. The toon only shows as having 2% even is you have a Dirge and Coercer its pushing it to keep agro off of any good dps class. Raise your hate mode to about 50% solo that would give you 100% is you have the support classes. Amends is great but it can only do so much by its self.
First of all, I wouldn't even recommend going after that much hate mod. Most of the time, if you lose the mob, it's due to a memwipe (almost ALWAYS if it's going to the amends target). No amount of hate mod will prevent you from losing it. 50% is complete overkill. I recommend getting up to 25 or 30% hate mod, so with dirge coercer you're pretty close to cap (100%). Your best bet is to try to notice patterns in the aggro behavior and predict them. NEVER use holy ground for dps on a mob that memwipes. Especially in a group situation, that one position is huge. Don't be scared to use snaps. Holy ground if it's up, sneering assault if it's not. Before using rescue (long cooldown, emergency and powerful ability) see if any of the classes in your group can snap the mob for you. Coercers are good at this, and some mobs can be locked to you with magnetic note or other force target type stuff. As a paladin, snaps are tough. Consider this when building a group. Utilize everything they have to offer. They won't hate you for it. Always bring a coercer over an illy if you can choose. Your life will be much easier White adorns are pretty easy. Use them to get up to the correct amount of crit chance / casting speed / weapon skills / multi attack you need. I had casting speed and HP for the longest time. Now I have a lot of extra weapon skills and HP. HP adorns are good. Just use adorns to fill in the gaps, with reforging being the primary way to min-max the list I provided top to bottom.
Thank you both for taking the time to share your wisdom. Also if you think of anything please feel free to reply some. And I welcome other suggestions from everyone else as well. Have fun and take care all.
typically when i am reforging and adorning, i dont worry about casting speed on adorns, since it is easy to get with reforging. Also Multi Attach is easy to get with reforging, but if you have problems getting to 600 then MA adorns are not bad. I normally adorn for Weapon Skills over hate White, some Hate on Red/Yellow as needed. Also Reuse Red/Yellow Shoulders, Forearms and Red Legs, can help a lot all the way around. Pally's tho (I think) get a lot out of Spell Reuse and it is easy to get, so i am not sure about Reuse for a Pally. Edit: This is advice from a monk's standpoint, not a pally also.
You don't have any options for adorns, unfortunately. Which is why I usually exhaust those options via adorns, since reforging is more versatile.
So what stats do I need?? For like weapon skills. My multi attack is 607 and my dos and haste are around 200... I teforged most of those to achieve multi attack. But slashing, crushing etc what should I aim for?? Also what should I aim or mitigation.. I believe im sitting at 10.8k. Thanks for yalls time.
