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Discussion - Maskoi's Boxing Guide to EQ with MQ2 #2 - The Tank (1 Viewer)

Maskoi

Maskoi

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Maskoi's Boxing Guide to EQ with MQ2 #2

I am going to discuss the Tanks in article 2 since I wrote in my last article that your entire group should be built around your tank.
There are 4 tanks in the game. Anyone that says they can tank VoA T4 mobs with their raid geared beastlord or monk etc. we don’t give a crap about. No matter what their gear they pale in comparison to an equally geared tank.

The 4 tanks in the game in order of preference are.

  1. Shadow Knight
  2. Warrior
  3. Paladin
  4. Mercenary Tank
Shadow Knights are ranked #1 because of overall versatility. Warriors as a pure tank are better due to game mechanics but when you in factor in the other abilities the Shadow Knight is the number one choice. I am going to discuss the choices in reverse order.

4. The Mercenary Tank
The mercenary tank now capped at certain levels since the introduction of Free to Play.

  • F2P - Apprentice T3 Tank
  • F2P Silver - Apprentice T5 Tank
  • Gold - Journeyman T1
  • Gold Korscian Progression - Journeyman T5

You can easily level up into the 80’s in my experience with a merc tank. The higher the level the merc the easier it is to keep him alive. DPS is a key factor with merc tanks because lower level tier mercs require a lot of healing. Lots of healing requires lots of medding and down time.

Merc tanks take a little getting used to as they can be unpredictable in their behavior.

  • They like to run up way to soon on pulls.
  • Sometimes they randomly run across the zone and are not there when you get back to camp with your pulls.
  • They like to tank mobs inside walls and other objects making it hard for other melee to position themselves.
The merc tank loses its desirability later in the game when you need more control for missions and named mobs. The T5 merc has a very hard time staying alive on named mobs in current expansion group environments. They require way too much healing. People say they are fine but it’s not true. The extra healing requires sacrificing DPS which will hurt you at higher levels. That is why a merc tank can only take you so far.

3. The Paladin
Knights make great tanks but the pallys fall a little short of shadow knights in the long run. They are nice because of their heals and Brell line of buffs. Like shadow knights they have crazy area of effect agro capabilities at higher levels which can make the difference between surviving and wiping.

They are much more suitable for off tanking which is more of a raid thing. Paladins seem more the guild choice for raid off tanks these days than shadow knights so keep that in mind if you are a raider.

Paladins are hard to kill because of their heals but it comes at the expense of DPS. While they are healing they are not tanking. Heals are a great source of agro but it delays the tanking which why I ranked Paladins #3.

2. The Warrior
Warriors are undoubtedly the best tank in the game. This is how the game is programmed. They have the best AC point conversion and the best mitigation. They can take a beating like no other class but their strongest attribute is also their weakness.

  • They do not have the area of effect agro capabilities of the Knight classes.
  • They offer no group support heals or buffs.
  • They don’t have the healing capabilities of the Knight classes.
If you are a raider and want to tank then the warrior is for you. They will out tank any class in the game and you can easily build a group around them that will take you all the way to end game content.

1. The Shadow Knight
The Shadow Knight is king of group content tanks. Their versatility can’t be matched by any other tank class. You can tank, pull or DPS with an SK. Their life taps augment their survivability while DPSing the mobs. Shadow Knights at higher levels with life tap AA’s heal themselves like crazy with crits and weapon procs. A Shadow Knight will out DPS any other similar geared tank class which makes up for the AC bonus warriors have over them.

The fact they can pull opens up a slot in your group for a pure DPS Class.

Their agro capabilities are the best in the game. Single and Area of effect agro spells at different levels on separate timers, AoE agros AA’s no one can’t out agro a Shadow Knight.

The shadow knight pet considered by many, a walking the speed bump, is extra dps and once again AC is God and DPS is Jesus.

Their versatility makes them a great solo class. If you like raiding you will always be put to work being a knight.

If your a raider, Warriors and Paladins are the preferred classes for Main/Off tanks since every guild seems to have no shortage of shadow knights

I want to hear your opinions and ideas. Please stay on topic.

Other Articles
Maskoi's Boxing Guide to EQ with MQ2 #1
Maskoi's Boxing Guide to EQ with MQ2 #3
 
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yep looks spot on especially about sk, as well as later on the swarming capability that sk get can powerlevel your aa rather quickly as long as you dont outlevel prime spots by going to endgame levels too soon.
Another thing to think about is if you are planning on raiding as a tank class down the line do yourself a favor and make sure not to use a sk because most raid guilds they are a dime a dozen, if offtank on raids is future choise go pally if main tanking is your choice go warrior either way you wont be main tanking for a long time because of gear dependency.
 
You're entirely right...

Except I'd place Paladin over Warrior because they hold agro better and once they get splash cure well... I'd rather a Paladin over a Warrior because then you never have to worry about cures. Splash is like Radiant Cure on steroids. It's AOE, it cures ALL counters (poison, disease, curse, corruption) and 2 detremental dispels (gets rid of shit like Malo)

Also lets not forget some of the best stuns in the game to keep healing to a minimum.
 
Stun are great and ridiculous aggro but once again not DPS. They definitely add to the pally's damage mitigation. Pallys and Sk's can always out aggro a warrior. I still rank warriors over pallys though in tanking because they still out mitigate damage and dps better than a pally.

You have some good points. Warriors are really boring to me as are palllys to play.
 
I have always been able to take agro from a pali on my war...even can gank it from most SKs if I burn one agro disc....its rly more a matter of how you play!
 
I personally loved my Pally as a MT in group settings. Main reason was that i used a merc healer and they don't do well against AOE's and keeping the group alive. I used melee shits to pretty much use group heals a lot (never ran out of mana ) and my group never died because of this. Just seemed a lot more named would have some type of big AoE DD and with my pally he would always crit a group heal healing everyone within seconds.


I also never an into aggro problems, boxing with a wizard who pushed normally 12-15k dps no prob. Even on burns , i never had a problem with aggro.
Just my 2cents.
 
I think this has changed. With the nerf of swarming, SK are not as survivable as they once were. They still make decent tanks, but they are no longer the best because they can no longer handle multiple adds the way a warrior can. I've seen several level 100 SKs wilt and die with just three mobs on them. Then, sometimes the player will say something like "That never happened before."

Things have changed.
 
Depends on the SK I'd say, I am raid geared and can handle 3 or 4 easily without discs so I would think a decent group geared SK should have no trouble with the same if they are paying attention and use Grelleth's and taps.
 
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