PinkWonder
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- Joined
- Feb 25, 2008
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- 111¢
First I want to give you a brief introduction of who I am. I started Playing EQ in October of 2000, and I've played on and off for over 5 years solid. During that time I started as a Main Cleric and later (about 2 years later) began playing my Warrior Alt/Twink and turned him into my main, currently I box both. While some may read this and see that I've only been playing a warrior for about 3 years, and there are lots of warriors out there that have played them much longer (I know a few myself) I look at it as having over 5 years of experience in not only playing, but keeping a warrior alive. For over 5 years I have been able to make comparisons of not only what weapons may get me more agro, but also see what build types are easier to keep healed.
If you think all it takes to make play a warrior is standing around attacking a mob and pressing the taunt key every couple minutes... well you'd be right. However I'm not going to tell you how to play a warrior, anyone can do that. I'm here to instruct you on what it takes to create and effectively play a Good Warrior. This guide is going to focus on base warrior skills, abilities, and tactics. Later I will delve into higher end problems such as AA's, and Raid concerns and tactics for the warrior, I will not get into what items you need to get to create the best warrior out there, Partially because that is a level I myself have not yet achieved, but mostly because I feel that some aspects of the game are best learned through playing and learning in game... If you disagree with me, well Allakahazam's is a much better tool for finding where you can get the best of the best items in the game.
Now the First lesson you will want to learn to play a warrior is this. YOU WILL DIE, If dieing in this game gets you upset, or causes you to enjoy the game less, stop reading right now go back to your character select screen and pick something other than a Warrior. A warrior's life is a dangerous one. You spend most of your time in game intentionally having the creatures trying to kill you, while having fewer control over your own life than any other class in the game. Your ability to survive is predominately a direct result of the equipment you use, and the ability and attentiveness of your healers. If things are going badly you can't LoH yourself or spam stuns, you can't chain cast life taps or FD, and up until the 50's you don't even have so much as a defensive discipline to give you a temporary decrease in the amount of damage you take. So I say this again, YOU WILL DIE!!! So why would anyone choose to be a warrior instead of a paladin or shadow knight if there is so little they can do to change their own destiny? Simple in the end, when you are going on raids with 30+ of your friends, trying to take down that big bad mob you've dreamed of killing for years it's the Warriors that have the highest damage absorption and mitigation, it's the warriors that are going to stand toe to toe with that mob tanking it, and believe me, the first time you tank a mob like that... you will never forget it!
Character Creation
The first choice of creating any class is what race do you choose. These days races have become much more a choice of personal preference than a requirement to be the best a certain class can become. As a warrior you have a fairly large selection races: Barbarians, Dark Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Half Elf, Halfling, Human, Froglok, Iksar, Ogre, Troll, Wood Elf, Vah Shir, Froglok, and Drakkin. As this is not a race guide, I'm not going to dwell long on all the advantages and disadvantages of each race. The important things to keep in mind are faction problems with your favorite hunting grounds and core abilities. For example you probably won't want to be an Iksar, Ogre, or Troll if your favorite hunting grounds are normaly roamed by high level guards on a good faction. Trolls and Iksars get an innate regen that can be very useful at low levels, Halflings get an EXP bonus which can shorten the grind to level caps/aa gains. Barbarians, and Vah Shir have a minor EXP penalty, Ogres and Trolls a little larger Penalty, and Iksar the worst of any race. Iksar however get the beloved AC boost, but also will run into various types of plate armor that they can not wear. Barbarians, and Humans have no natural night vision making traveling in dark zones like wandering blind folded through a mine field, without the aid of vision spells/gear. Ogres get the innate ability to be unstunable by normal attacks while they are facing the mob, this can be invaluable in lower levels, but is negated by AA's that allow the same thing to all races, and even inprove it to 360 Degree protection. Finally large races (Iksar, Vah Shir, Barbarians, Trolls and Ogres get the Slam ability, which will give these races the ability to stun a mob from level 1 instead of waiting for Kick to do it at level 50, or having to equip a shield. Ultimately though by the time your beloved warrior is level 65+ with a few 100 AA's under his belt you will likely have even the weakest frailest gnome warrior at the same tanking ability as a big fat Ogre wearing the same level of gear and AA's.
Now, Where to spend those Stat points. This is where my suggestions differ from almost any other warrior/tank guide I have read. All of them seem to recommend capping Stamina and then any remaining points into Strength (or occasionally AGI, or Dex). In my Opinion, I don't think it matters a bit. Even at the lowest levels it is so easy to get a Temp cast on you, and many clerics won't even take donations for Temp, that the few extra HP you would get from those stat points is negligible. Add on that even modest twinking can have your 4 base melee stats capped by level 40 and you quickly realise that those points just aren't such a big deal as they once were. So this is more a question of what do you want at lower leves. Increases in Dexterity will give added Ranged Attack and Weapon Procs, Strength gives Damage, Melee Attack, and Carrying Capacity, Stamina will grant more HP and higher Endurance, Agility will increase AC, Intelligence or Wisdom will increase how quickly you learn tradeskills but will not aid in any abilities as a tank, finally Charisma will provide you nothing more than better prices from vendors and should really be avoided for any purposes other than role play. If you plan on spending a lot of time working tradeskills as a warrior I would recommend picking which ever is the highst base for your race (Int or Wis) and putting as many points into that skill as allowed. You could hang on to an extra set of gear for int/wis bonus to make sure those are capped but really if you're tradeskilling your bank is full enough as it is and you don't want any gear other than what you are wearing anyway. If you're not interested in Tradeskilling with your warrior than pick the stat you want for those lower leves, by the time you're 60+ without twinking (40+ with) you will likely have those 4 main stats capped already.
Skills Now we come to the good stuff, the skills and abilities that make a Warrior, and knowing how to use them that make a great one!
Weapon skills, As a warrior you will have access to every weapon skill in the game, DO NOT Abandon them. Unless you are all set to power level your warrior to end game and have planed out just what weapons he will be using make sure you keep all your weapon skills current, or as close as you can. At early levels some will fall behind, but do not worry soon you will spend enough time at each level to be able to swap out for a different type and get caught up. The only exceptions to this are throwing and archery, with the exception of a few fights that all dps is done at ranged these skills will only be used for pulling. (And if you're a good enough warrior during those ranged DPS fights you will still be the one standing toe to toe taking a beating.) Ranged skills can often be gained while LFG in zones with other people grouping, just ask the group if you can skill up on their mobs 99.9% of the time they won't mind, and 90% of the time if one of their group leaves they will let you join before looking for other people they would have to wait on to arrive. Hand to Hand skill is probably the only melee weapon skill you can safely let fall behind, Simple truth is the Developers think of hand to hand weapons as being the domain of Monks and Beastlords so any Hand to Hand weapons you find that are useably by a warrior will be rare, and most often extremely poor quality. So unless you're fighting off mobs naked on a corpse run (A long since Dead art), or challeging another player to a boxing match, Hand to Hand is typically unused.
Dodge, Parry, Block - These are much like weapon skills in that you want to try and keep all of them at or near max as much as you can, however unlike weapon skills there is nothing you can do to work them up besides tanking. The simple matter is these skills only skill up when mobs are beating on you. The only side note would be that if these start falling behind due to fast leveling or not being the tank in your groups you can use one trick to skill them up faster. It has been observed and verified that tanking multiple creatures (usually 3 or more) greatly increases the rate at which these skills increase, so grab some potions or a healer friend and head out to a zone with light blue mobs (these provide more skillups than green mobs will while not taking the full beating of dark blue and higher mobs) and let them beat on you, in no time at all you will get these skills right back up to where you want them.
TAUNT- Ok, if you've played EQ long enough I'm sure you've heard warriors complain about this skill more than once.. but for as bad as the skill is, it is still needed, and still valuable. When you are starting out you want to hit taunt every time it refreshes. Every mob you fight you need to be taunting it, The skill will not increase if you don't use it, and if it doesn't increase it won't work when you need it, and you won't be able to tank without it. When taunt works, you will know it, not because you get agro, but because you don't see anything, When taunt fails you get a message saying "you have failed to taunt your target". Now, once you get taunt maxed for your level you can start worrying about how taunt works, and not just hitting it every time it pops. I do not know the exact Values, but here are the basics you need to know to play as a warrior. Taunt is a weird little tool. Picture a mobs agro list as a nail you are trying to drive into a piece of wood, and taunt is your hammer. when you hit taunt you swing that hammer and drive that nail further into the wood, if the nail is small (small difference between your agro and the person that has agro currently) when the hammer hits the nail (taunt works) you will drive the nail all the way down and it will be flush with the wood or even recessed in the wood thus placing you at the top of the hate list. Now as long as the nail remains flush with the wood you can swing your hammer all day long but the nail is not going to go much farther than it already is. It's the same with taunt, once you are at the top of the agro list you can hit taunt all day long but it's not going to make much of a difference in your agro. This is why when you are not skilling up taunt you should ONLY press it when you have lost agro. Constantly spaming taunt will not increase your agro by a noticeable ammount and only increases the delay for you to be able to use it should someone else take agro from you.
Now you ask what about the times when taunt works, but you don't get agro... Well Unless you're Mr Miagi, or the Karate Kid, most people will hit a nail several times before it's driven in. The same with taunt, taunt is not a magical button that takes you from last to first on the agro list every time. instead it has a max amount that it can give, so even when taunt works (you don't get the message saying it failed) you won't necessarily get agro, because the person with agro was higher than what the max for taunt could give you. So how do you keep agro from say an over nuking wizard, or magician.. Truth be told, as a warrior most classes will be capable of taking agro from you, but you will always have options to fight and get it back, and as you gain AA's and Combat Abilities that add agro it will get harder for them to take agro and easier for you to get it back. There is one more thing to remember about taunt. At low levels Taunt is like a small carpenters hammer. Any mob that is higher level than you, well they're not normal nails.. they are Railroad spikes... and not matter how hard you swing that hammer you're not going to drive that railroad spike. Thats right, Taunt does not work on Yellow or Red mobs, at least not until level 50, at level 50 warriors and warriors only, are able to taunt yellow and red con mobs.
Kick, Bash, Slam- These three skills i'm grouping because they all serve the same basic purpose and use the same reuse timer. Basically these skills will slightly increase your dps, agro, and can cause a stun effect interrupting spells being cast. Slam/Bash interrupt spells from level 1, Kick However does not until you reach level 50, this is another bonus that only warriors receive. These skills I recommend using every time you can, except when fighting mobs that cast particularly harmful spells, (heals, Large DD's, or Gate) during those fights wait to use the ability in an attempt to interrupt the mob so it can't cast.
Disarm- This nearly useless skill is one that most people ignore, I however recommend do not. Disarm was placed in the game as an ability to allow a player to take an opponents weapon away and thus decreasing it's DPS. When used during PVE this ability will only work on NON-MAGICAL weapons.. So lower level zones, and rare mob types in higher level ones. (such as the Wereorcs in Loping Planes using fine steel weapons.) But since most mobs in the game either use no weapons at all or magical ones, Disarm has devolved into a skill only used in PVP where you will remove an opponents weapon and it is placed in their inventory. However Disarm, even if it does not work, or is used against an npc that can't be disarmed does generate a small amount of hate. It is for this reason I keep it on a hot botton right next to my taunt and kick/slam/bash to use every chance i get.
Agro- It's time to go over agro in general. for most mobs agro is a simple thing... the more you hurt it, the more it hates you. Luckily for warriors we have ways to make mobs especially hate us without having to hurt them (like Taunt). There are however a few other nuances to keep in mind with Agro. Most normal mobs in EQ all use a standard agro setting. Perhaps you have noticed that when a ranger pulls a mob to you it is much harder to get and keep agro than when you pull the mob yourself. This is because the first person to agro a mob gets a bonus to that agro. Monks pulling can avoid this by feigning death BEFORE the warrior tags the mob, Even if the mob does not completely clear agro the next person to hit it will get that agro bonus and at least be on par with the monk for agro. If the mob is hit before the monk feigns that agro bonus is not added and is not added when the monk FD's after the hit. Range, this can be the biggest benefit and the worst downfall of a warriors agro. A mob will prefer to stay and attack something close to it than spend time chasing across a room to get at something further away. This is a boost to a warrior because it is standing toe to toe and the squishies are normally further away tossing their nukes or heals from a safer distance. The downside to this is once one of them gets agro they will not only have the agro that it took to cause the mob to chase around the room after them, but will also be closer to the mob causeing it to be harder to get agro back again. This factor is demonstrated easily by getting agro on a mob but as soon as you try to move back rather than follow you the mob will merely turn to the next person close to it rather than chase after you, or vise versa, a melee who stole agro from you can often just take a step back and the mob will revert back to attacking you. This very aspect of agro is another reason why I recommend tanks use Disarm. Disarm has a very small radius to work, so if you are close enough to disarm a mob you are close enough to ensure you are taking full advantage of range agro. Also on the topic of range agro, most undead mobs in EQ have a stronger than normal range agro. basically this means undead in general would rather just beat on what's closer than move to a further target not matter what. Weapon agro- weapons have been adjusted so that the choice of dual wield or 2handed weapons for the purposes of agro has become a gray area without the inclusion of procs. In general though 2 weapons will still build more agro than a 2handed weapon. A basic weapon without procs will give agro based on it's Base Dmg (or damage without the damage bonus applied)
HP/AC
Now the long debated "Do I want HP or do I want AC?" question. When you're in the bazaar looking for the next upgrade for your warrior twink (Or on the rarer occassion you're just starting Everquest and are looking for something to spend your few hard earned plat pieces on. THINK AC!!!! I know there are thousands of people out there that only want to ask "HP?" when looking for a tank. But those people either don't understand the fundamentals of tanking, healing, or just Everquest in general. A low level tank with low AC and High HP is going to be nothing but a great big mana sponge for any healers they group with. Yes you have 10k HP at level 10 but your cleric only has a 50hp heal and those monsters are beating you for 30dmg a tick... that cleric is gonna run out of mana quickly even chilling out with a Clarity. With AC yes you may not be able to take a hit from an anguish raid mob and live to tell about it, but you're not gonna be in anguish either. You WILL however only be taking 5-10 dmg per tick and your group will have to take fewer med breaks if any at all. Even when solo the AC will enhance the effectiveness of any healing potions you are using because you are not loosing as many hp. The only time I would recommend HP over AC would be when you are going to be powerleveled by a Druid, having the lower AC will allow mobs to hit you more often taking full advantage of the damage shield while the druid will have plenty of heals to keep you alive and the extra hp will allow you to have large numbers of mobs all at once.
At later levels AC continues to trump HP, by a factor of 10 to 1 for warriors. This means for every 10 HP a piece of armor has it equals 1AC. So if you are wearing a piece of armor with 50 AC, 300 HP, and a Piece drops with 40 AC and 350 HP you are gaining 50 HP but loosing 10 AC, which would equate to a loss of 5 AC (or 50 HP) total, and would actually be a downgrade rather than an upgrade.
Weapons
In General as a Warrior you will be dual wielding, this typically provides you with the largest amount of agro and often the best DPS of the weapons you have available. The biggest question most people have when dual weilding is which weapon should be used primary and which secondary. This gets especially more difficult when you start taking into consideration procs for dmg or hate. When comparing weapons with similiar proc abilities (for dps or agro) you can stop worrying about those and focus on just the dmg, dmg bonus, and delay of the weapons. The best way to choose which weapon to use primary and which to use secondary is to compare the effective ratios you would have from both weapons in each slot. For example, how to equip the Notched Blade of Bloodletting from anguish, and the Warrior 2.0. The NBOB is 37 dmg, 24 del, 1 magic dmg, 17 dmg bon. 2.0 is 46 dmg, 29 del, 17 dmg bon. You simply add the dmg portion of each weapon (including the bonus to the primary hand weapon), divide by their delays, then add those two and get your total. Then redo the caculations swapping which weapon will be primary, The combination with the larger result is the one you should use. So with NBoB and 2.0 (primary) would be (37+1)/24 = 3.75 + (46+17)/29 = 3.75 Swap those, NBoB (primary) and 2.0 (37+1+17)/24 + 46/29 = 3.88 So the NBoB primary yields the higher total (3.88 compared to 3.75). So for straight dmg, (and agro not including procs) the NBoB and 2.0 should be weilded with the NBoB Primary (even with procs NBoB has a stun proc and 1 aug slot, the 2.0 has no agro based procs but 2 aug slots, so with both weapons auged with agro augs, the NBoB will still produce equal or higher agro and should be used Primary). Here is one of the few times I will actually make an item recommendation. If you are twinking your character and are capable of either camping them yourself or buying them from the bazaar (if any are being sold) the Journeyman's Walking Stick is probably one of the best low level agro weapons you will find. not only is it moderate ratio, but you also have the added bonus of Procing Tashania (a very good hate generating spell) from level 1, and it is not Lore allowing you to dual wield them. There are better DPS or Hate weapons out there, Swift Blade of Zek, or Blade of Carnage for example. but those are considerably more expensive, or harder to farm, or do not proc until mid 40s in most cases. Once you gain the ablity to Dual Wield I recommend remaining with either dual wield or 2 handed weapons all through your mid levels, for Warriors Sheilds really only become viable choices in high end raid encounters where you are practically forced to use them merely to remain alive.
Mez
At lower levels having an enchanter around to mesmerize mobs is often a rare option. However when it does happen it is important to know how to handle it as a tank. The concepts are very simple when you are dealing with creatures that are not to high for taunt to work simply make sure everyone in the group knows not to hit the mob until you do, and you don't hit the mob until you get a successfull taunt (one that does not give a fail message) It is extremely rare that mezing will cause more agro than a taunt will give, but if you have trouble with taunting and still not having agro when mes is broken feel free to get 2 successful taunts before you break. Better to slow the exp a little than to have to stop all together because your crowd control is dead and having to med back all their mana. In the event that you are not level 50 yet and are fighting yellow or red con mobs you have two options, either have the enchanter memblur all the mobs before mes is broken, or have someone root/snare the mob prior to mes being broken so you have time to build agro. With the later method you must be careful, Druid and Ranger roots also have DD components and can land the DD to break the mez only to have the root wear off nearly instantly.
Pulling
There are many classes that can perform the job of puller better than Warriors, but it is always inevitable that you will run into groups who can't find one of those classes, or that class is just not skilled at it yet, so you will occasionally find yourself as the puller as well. The rules for pulling are simple bring mobs to your group to fight, while trying to avoid bringing more than they can handle. How many you can pull to the group will vary greatly by the classes in the group, their experience at playing that class, and often the biggest difference can be the relative level of gear you and your group members are wearing. When pulling in places that are difficult to get to it is normally best if you get more mobs than you think the group can handle to just stop before you reach the group and die yourself so that the rest of the group may live and res you back. If the camp is easy to get to you may want to ask the group what their preferences are, to fight and possibly die by questionable pulls or to not risk it and res you back.
I hope this has provided you with a good basic understanding of not only what a warrior is capable of doing and what to do in order play one well, but also an understanding of how all these skills and tactics work. Knowing what to do can guide you through most situations you encounter, but it is knowing HOW all your abilities and skills work that will let you adapt what you know to any situation you encounter and makes the difference between a good tank and a great one.
Futher Installments of Mid/High end tactics are coming, as well as further refinements to this basic guide.
If you think all it takes to make play a warrior is standing around attacking a mob and pressing the taunt key every couple minutes... well you'd be right. However I'm not going to tell you how to play a warrior, anyone can do that. I'm here to instruct you on what it takes to create and effectively play a Good Warrior. This guide is going to focus on base warrior skills, abilities, and tactics. Later I will delve into higher end problems such as AA's, and Raid concerns and tactics for the warrior, I will not get into what items you need to get to create the best warrior out there, Partially because that is a level I myself have not yet achieved, but mostly because I feel that some aspects of the game are best learned through playing and learning in game... If you disagree with me, well Allakahazam's is a much better tool for finding where you can get the best of the best items in the game.
Now the First lesson you will want to learn to play a warrior is this. YOU WILL DIE, If dieing in this game gets you upset, or causes you to enjoy the game less, stop reading right now go back to your character select screen and pick something other than a Warrior. A warrior's life is a dangerous one. You spend most of your time in game intentionally having the creatures trying to kill you, while having fewer control over your own life than any other class in the game. Your ability to survive is predominately a direct result of the equipment you use, and the ability and attentiveness of your healers. If things are going badly you can't LoH yourself or spam stuns, you can't chain cast life taps or FD, and up until the 50's you don't even have so much as a defensive discipline to give you a temporary decrease in the amount of damage you take. So I say this again, YOU WILL DIE!!! So why would anyone choose to be a warrior instead of a paladin or shadow knight if there is so little they can do to change their own destiny? Simple in the end, when you are going on raids with 30+ of your friends, trying to take down that big bad mob you've dreamed of killing for years it's the Warriors that have the highest damage absorption and mitigation, it's the warriors that are going to stand toe to toe with that mob tanking it, and believe me, the first time you tank a mob like that... you will never forget it!
Character Creation
The first choice of creating any class is what race do you choose. These days races have become much more a choice of personal preference than a requirement to be the best a certain class can become. As a warrior you have a fairly large selection races: Barbarians, Dark Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Half Elf, Halfling, Human, Froglok, Iksar, Ogre, Troll, Wood Elf, Vah Shir, Froglok, and Drakkin. As this is not a race guide, I'm not going to dwell long on all the advantages and disadvantages of each race. The important things to keep in mind are faction problems with your favorite hunting grounds and core abilities. For example you probably won't want to be an Iksar, Ogre, or Troll if your favorite hunting grounds are normaly roamed by high level guards on a good faction. Trolls and Iksars get an innate regen that can be very useful at low levels, Halflings get an EXP bonus which can shorten the grind to level caps/aa gains. Barbarians, and Vah Shir have a minor EXP penalty, Ogres and Trolls a little larger Penalty, and Iksar the worst of any race. Iksar however get the beloved AC boost, but also will run into various types of plate armor that they can not wear. Barbarians, and Humans have no natural night vision making traveling in dark zones like wandering blind folded through a mine field, without the aid of vision spells/gear. Ogres get the innate ability to be unstunable by normal attacks while they are facing the mob, this can be invaluable in lower levels, but is negated by AA's that allow the same thing to all races, and even inprove it to 360 Degree protection. Finally large races (Iksar, Vah Shir, Barbarians, Trolls and Ogres get the Slam ability, which will give these races the ability to stun a mob from level 1 instead of waiting for Kick to do it at level 50, or having to equip a shield. Ultimately though by the time your beloved warrior is level 65+ with a few 100 AA's under his belt you will likely have even the weakest frailest gnome warrior at the same tanking ability as a big fat Ogre wearing the same level of gear and AA's.
Now, Where to spend those Stat points. This is where my suggestions differ from almost any other warrior/tank guide I have read. All of them seem to recommend capping Stamina and then any remaining points into Strength (or occasionally AGI, or Dex). In my Opinion, I don't think it matters a bit. Even at the lowest levels it is so easy to get a Temp cast on you, and many clerics won't even take donations for Temp, that the few extra HP you would get from those stat points is negligible. Add on that even modest twinking can have your 4 base melee stats capped by level 40 and you quickly realise that those points just aren't such a big deal as they once were. So this is more a question of what do you want at lower leves. Increases in Dexterity will give added Ranged Attack and Weapon Procs, Strength gives Damage, Melee Attack, and Carrying Capacity, Stamina will grant more HP and higher Endurance, Agility will increase AC, Intelligence or Wisdom will increase how quickly you learn tradeskills but will not aid in any abilities as a tank, finally Charisma will provide you nothing more than better prices from vendors and should really be avoided for any purposes other than role play. If you plan on spending a lot of time working tradeskills as a warrior I would recommend picking which ever is the highst base for your race (Int or Wis) and putting as many points into that skill as allowed. You could hang on to an extra set of gear for int/wis bonus to make sure those are capped but really if you're tradeskilling your bank is full enough as it is and you don't want any gear other than what you are wearing anyway. If you're not interested in Tradeskilling with your warrior than pick the stat you want for those lower leves, by the time you're 60+ without twinking (40+ with) you will likely have those 4 main stats capped already.
Skills Now we come to the good stuff, the skills and abilities that make a Warrior, and knowing how to use them that make a great one!
Weapon skills, As a warrior you will have access to every weapon skill in the game, DO NOT Abandon them. Unless you are all set to power level your warrior to end game and have planed out just what weapons he will be using make sure you keep all your weapon skills current, or as close as you can. At early levels some will fall behind, but do not worry soon you will spend enough time at each level to be able to swap out for a different type and get caught up. The only exceptions to this are throwing and archery, with the exception of a few fights that all dps is done at ranged these skills will only be used for pulling. (And if you're a good enough warrior during those ranged DPS fights you will still be the one standing toe to toe taking a beating.) Ranged skills can often be gained while LFG in zones with other people grouping, just ask the group if you can skill up on their mobs 99.9% of the time they won't mind, and 90% of the time if one of their group leaves they will let you join before looking for other people they would have to wait on to arrive. Hand to Hand skill is probably the only melee weapon skill you can safely let fall behind, Simple truth is the Developers think of hand to hand weapons as being the domain of Monks and Beastlords so any Hand to Hand weapons you find that are useably by a warrior will be rare, and most often extremely poor quality. So unless you're fighting off mobs naked on a corpse run (A long since Dead art), or challeging another player to a boxing match, Hand to Hand is typically unused.
Dodge, Parry, Block - These are much like weapon skills in that you want to try and keep all of them at or near max as much as you can, however unlike weapon skills there is nothing you can do to work them up besides tanking. The simple matter is these skills only skill up when mobs are beating on you. The only side note would be that if these start falling behind due to fast leveling or not being the tank in your groups you can use one trick to skill them up faster. It has been observed and verified that tanking multiple creatures (usually 3 or more) greatly increases the rate at which these skills increase, so grab some potions or a healer friend and head out to a zone with light blue mobs (these provide more skillups than green mobs will while not taking the full beating of dark blue and higher mobs) and let them beat on you, in no time at all you will get these skills right back up to where you want them.
TAUNT- Ok, if you've played EQ long enough I'm sure you've heard warriors complain about this skill more than once.. but for as bad as the skill is, it is still needed, and still valuable. When you are starting out you want to hit taunt every time it refreshes. Every mob you fight you need to be taunting it, The skill will not increase if you don't use it, and if it doesn't increase it won't work when you need it, and you won't be able to tank without it. When taunt works, you will know it, not because you get agro, but because you don't see anything, When taunt fails you get a message saying "you have failed to taunt your target". Now, once you get taunt maxed for your level you can start worrying about how taunt works, and not just hitting it every time it pops. I do not know the exact Values, but here are the basics you need to know to play as a warrior. Taunt is a weird little tool. Picture a mobs agro list as a nail you are trying to drive into a piece of wood, and taunt is your hammer. when you hit taunt you swing that hammer and drive that nail further into the wood, if the nail is small (small difference between your agro and the person that has agro currently) when the hammer hits the nail (taunt works) you will drive the nail all the way down and it will be flush with the wood or even recessed in the wood thus placing you at the top of the hate list. Now as long as the nail remains flush with the wood you can swing your hammer all day long but the nail is not going to go much farther than it already is. It's the same with taunt, once you are at the top of the agro list you can hit taunt all day long but it's not going to make much of a difference in your agro. This is why when you are not skilling up taunt you should ONLY press it when you have lost agro. Constantly spaming taunt will not increase your agro by a noticeable ammount and only increases the delay for you to be able to use it should someone else take agro from you.
Now you ask what about the times when taunt works, but you don't get agro... Well Unless you're Mr Miagi, or the Karate Kid, most people will hit a nail several times before it's driven in. The same with taunt, taunt is not a magical button that takes you from last to first on the agro list every time. instead it has a max amount that it can give, so even when taunt works (you don't get the message saying it failed) you won't necessarily get agro, because the person with agro was higher than what the max for taunt could give you. So how do you keep agro from say an over nuking wizard, or magician.. Truth be told, as a warrior most classes will be capable of taking agro from you, but you will always have options to fight and get it back, and as you gain AA's and Combat Abilities that add agro it will get harder for them to take agro and easier for you to get it back. There is one more thing to remember about taunt. At low levels Taunt is like a small carpenters hammer. Any mob that is higher level than you, well they're not normal nails.. they are Railroad spikes... and not matter how hard you swing that hammer you're not going to drive that railroad spike. Thats right, Taunt does not work on Yellow or Red mobs, at least not until level 50, at level 50 warriors and warriors only, are able to taunt yellow and red con mobs.
Kick, Bash, Slam- These three skills i'm grouping because they all serve the same basic purpose and use the same reuse timer. Basically these skills will slightly increase your dps, agro, and can cause a stun effect interrupting spells being cast. Slam/Bash interrupt spells from level 1, Kick However does not until you reach level 50, this is another bonus that only warriors receive. These skills I recommend using every time you can, except when fighting mobs that cast particularly harmful spells, (heals, Large DD's, or Gate) during those fights wait to use the ability in an attempt to interrupt the mob so it can't cast.
Disarm- This nearly useless skill is one that most people ignore, I however recommend do not. Disarm was placed in the game as an ability to allow a player to take an opponents weapon away and thus decreasing it's DPS. When used during PVE this ability will only work on NON-MAGICAL weapons.. So lower level zones, and rare mob types in higher level ones. (such as the Wereorcs in Loping Planes using fine steel weapons.) But since most mobs in the game either use no weapons at all or magical ones, Disarm has devolved into a skill only used in PVP where you will remove an opponents weapon and it is placed in their inventory. However Disarm, even if it does not work, or is used against an npc that can't be disarmed does generate a small amount of hate. It is for this reason I keep it on a hot botton right next to my taunt and kick/slam/bash to use every chance i get.
Agro- It's time to go over agro in general. for most mobs agro is a simple thing... the more you hurt it, the more it hates you. Luckily for warriors we have ways to make mobs especially hate us without having to hurt them (like Taunt). There are however a few other nuances to keep in mind with Agro. Most normal mobs in EQ all use a standard agro setting. Perhaps you have noticed that when a ranger pulls a mob to you it is much harder to get and keep agro than when you pull the mob yourself. This is because the first person to agro a mob gets a bonus to that agro. Monks pulling can avoid this by feigning death BEFORE the warrior tags the mob, Even if the mob does not completely clear agro the next person to hit it will get that agro bonus and at least be on par with the monk for agro. If the mob is hit before the monk feigns that agro bonus is not added and is not added when the monk FD's after the hit. Range, this can be the biggest benefit and the worst downfall of a warriors agro. A mob will prefer to stay and attack something close to it than spend time chasing across a room to get at something further away. This is a boost to a warrior because it is standing toe to toe and the squishies are normally further away tossing their nukes or heals from a safer distance. The downside to this is once one of them gets agro they will not only have the agro that it took to cause the mob to chase around the room after them, but will also be closer to the mob causeing it to be harder to get agro back again. This factor is demonstrated easily by getting agro on a mob but as soon as you try to move back rather than follow you the mob will merely turn to the next person close to it rather than chase after you, or vise versa, a melee who stole agro from you can often just take a step back and the mob will revert back to attacking you. This very aspect of agro is another reason why I recommend tanks use Disarm. Disarm has a very small radius to work, so if you are close enough to disarm a mob you are close enough to ensure you are taking full advantage of range agro. Also on the topic of range agro, most undead mobs in EQ have a stronger than normal range agro. basically this means undead in general would rather just beat on what's closer than move to a further target not matter what. Weapon agro- weapons have been adjusted so that the choice of dual wield or 2handed weapons for the purposes of agro has become a gray area without the inclusion of procs. In general though 2 weapons will still build more agro than a 2handed weapon. A basic weapon without procs will give agro based on it's Base Dmg (or damage without the damage bonus applied)
HP/AC
Now the long debated "Do I want HP or do I want AC?" question. When you're in the bazaar looking for the next upgrade for your warrior twink (Or on the rarer occassion you're just starting Everquest and are looking for something to spend your few hard earned plat pieces on. THINK AC!!!! I know there are thousands of people out there that only want to ask "HP?" when looking for a tank. But those people either don't understand the fundamentals of tanking, healing, or just Everquest in general. A low level tank with low AC and High HP is going to be nothing but a great big mana sponge for any healers they group with. Yes you have 10k HP at level 10 but your cleric only has a 50hp heal and those monsters are beating you for 30dmg a tick... that cleric is gonna run out of mana quickly even chilling out with a Clarity. With AC yes you may not be able to take a hit from an anguish raid mob and live to tell about it, but you're not gonna be in anguish either. You WILL however only be taking 5-10 dmg per tick and your group will have to take fewer med breaks if any at all. Even when solo the AC will enhance the effectiveness of any healing potions you are using because you are not loosing as many hp. The only time I would recommend HP over AC would be when you are going to be powerleveled by a Druid, having the lower AC will allow mobs to hit you more often taking full advantage of the damage shield while the druid will have plenty of heals to keep you alive and the extra hp will allow you to have large numbers of mobs all at once.
At later levels AC continues to trump HP, by a factor of 10 to 1 for warriors. This means for every 10 HP a piece of armor has it equals 1AC. So if you are wearing a piece of armor with 50 AC, 300 HP, and a Piece drops with 40 AC and 350 HP you are gaining 50 HP but loosing 10 AC, which would equate to a loss of 5 AC (or 50 HP) total, and would actually be a downgrade rather than an upgrade.
Weapons
In General as a Warrior you will be dual wielding, this typically provides you with the largest amount of agro and often the best DPS of the weapons you have available. The biggest question most people have when dual weilding is which weapon should be used primary and which secondary. This gets especially more difficult when you start taking into consideration procs for dmg or hate. When comparing weapons with similiar proc abilities (for dps or agro) you can stop worrying about those and focus on just the dmg, dmg bonus, and delay of the weapons. The best way to choose which weapon to use primary and which to use secondary is to compare the effective ratios you would have from both weapons in each slot. For example, how to equip the Notched Blade of Bloodletting from anguish, and the Warrior 2.0. The NBOB is 37 dmg, 24 del, 1 magic dmg, 17 dmg bon. 2.0 is 46 dmg, 29 del, 17 dmg bon. You simply add the dmg portion of each weapon (including the bonus to the primary hand weapon), divide by their delays, then add those two and get your total. Then redo the caculations swapping which weapon will be primary, The combination with the larger result is the one you should use. So with NBoB and 2.0 (primary) would be (37+1)/24 = 3.75 + (46+17)/29 = 3.75 Swap those, NBoB (primary) and 2.0 (37+1+17)/24 + 46/29 = 3.88 So the NBoB primary yields the higher total (3.88 compared to 3.75). So for straight dmg, (and agro not including procs) the NBoB and 2.0 should be weilded with the NBoB Primary (even with procs NBoB has a stun proc and 1 aug slot, the 2.0 has no agro based procs but 2 aug slots, so with both weapons auged with agro augs, the NBoB will still produce equal or higher agro and should be used Primary). Here is one of the few times I will actually make an item recommendation. If you are twinking your character and are capable of either camping them yourself or buying them from the bazaar (if any are being sold) the Journeyman's Walking Stick is probably one of the best low level agro weapons you will find. not only is it moderate ratio, but you also have the added bonus of Procing Tashania (a very good hate generating spell) from level 1, and it is not Lore allowing you to dual wield them. There are better DPS or Hate weapons out there, Swift Blade of Zek, or Blade of Carnage for example. but those are considerably more expensive, or harder to farm, or do not proc until mid 40s in most cases. Once you gain the ablity to Dual Wield I recommend remaining with either dual wield or 2 handed weapons all through your mid levels, for Warriors Sheilds really only become viable choices in high end raid encounters where you are practically forced to use them merely to remain alive.
Mez
At lower levels having an enchanter around to mesmerize mobs is often a rare option. However when it does happen it is important to know how to handle it as a tank. The concepts are very simple when you are dealing with creatures that are not to high for taunt to work simply make sure everyone in the group knows not to hit the mob until you do, and you don't hit the mob until you get a successfull taunt (one that does not give a fail message) It is extremely rare that mezing will cause more agro than a taunt will give, but if you have trouble with taunting and still not having agro when mes is broken feel free to get 2 successful taunts before you break. Better to slow the exp a little than to have to stop all together because your crowd control is dead and having to med back all their mana. In the event that you are not level 50 yet and are fighting yellow or red con mobs you have two options, either have the enchanter memblur all the mobs before mes is broken, or have someone root/snare the mob prior to mes being broken so you have time to build agro. With the later method you must be careful, Druid and Ranger roots also have DD components and can land the DD to break the mez only to have the root wear off nearly instantly.
Pulling
There are many classes that can perform the job of puller better than Warriors, but it is always inevitable that you will run into groups who can't find one of those classes, or that class is just not skilled at it yet, so you will occasionally find yourself as the puller as well. The rules for pulling are simple bring mobs to your group to fight, while trying to avoid bringing more than they can handle. How many you can pull to the group will vary greatly by the classes in the group, their experience at playing that class, and often the biggest difference can be the relative level of gear you and your group members are wearing. When pulling in places that are difficult to get to it is normally best if you get more mobs than you think the group can handle to just stop before you reach the group and die yourself so that the rest of the group may live and res you back. If the camp is easy to get to you may want to ask the group what their preferences are, to fight and possibly die by questionable pulls or to not risk it and res you back.
I hope this has provided you with a good basic understanding of not only what a warrior is capable of doing and what to do in order play one well, but also an understanding of how all these skills and tactics work. Knowing what to do can guide you through most situations you encounter, but it is knowing HOW all your abilities and skills work that will let you adapt what you know to any situation you encounter and makes the difference between a good tank and a great one.
Futher Installments of Mid/High end tactics are coming, as well as further refinements to this basic guide.
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