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Post by Gatecaller on Apr 11, 2008 6:58:50 GMT -8
Warrior 101
First off most people say "bah tanks are easy" but I am here to tell ya they are not... At first you will run around kill things and feel on par with everyone... after a while you will start to feel beefy and able to tank anything... then you will find one of your biggest delemas (with two brothers as Paladins I know first hand) AGRO MANAGEMENT.
So let me break down the steps to getting a decent level tank with some good agro management and survivability.
Warrior's First Rule!!! Hit points are your friend! Get as many as you can and eventually Statistic scores will come up along the way.
Warrior's Second Rule!! Keep your healer alive! Without healing... you are without experience. You can only solo so long.
Warrior's Third Rule!! If you are the main tank... and there are Secondary tank classes (classes that CAN taunt) your responsability is to stay on the MAIN TARGET... don't try to be the hero... that is actually the job for the Paladin's and SK's (they are better at that... But I didn't say it)
Warrior's Fourth Rule!! BASH!!! This is an extreemly important skill for a warrior!!! And ANY WARRIOR CAN DO IT!! set up and play with the bandolier. I will give an example in a bit. ;D
Warrior's Fifth Rule! Agro Management is Very important... on Allakhazam you will be able to find a Combat Ability List like that of a spell list for casters... Warriors get alot of plusses including getting some combat abilities early in our career... The Bellow Line is our friend.... and here is how it works... The Bellow Line is the warrior's ONLY DOT... but that isnt really right... for us it should be called an AOT... Agro Over Time... this thing has a duration... and builds us agro over that time... when it says that it has worn off all it has done was finish getting us some HUGE agro.
Now some helpful tid bits
First off is the BASH button
you can make hot keys that do MORE than just say snazzy things that tell people we have a mob coming in. The Bash hot key I am about to explain will have to be followed kinda close here, but remember to play with it and see if you can do a one up on me then tell me about it.
Step one - get yourself a blank hot key out of the abilities window... that is the one that has buttons for run/walk and Camp... the blank ones are on the far right tab then click an arrow to get to the empties.
Step two - open up the bandolier and also your combat abilities from the same window you got your blank hot key from
Step three - save two bandolier settings... one with your primary weapons and a second one with a weapon and sheild. Save the one with weapon and sheild as 1 and the other as 2
Step four - in your combat abilites set up a bash key but leave it there... if you have the spot where it has 6 squares and the top two are melee fighting and range then I want you to put in the square below the melee fighting a bash hot key (but leave it there)
Step five - Making the hot key... title the key Bash... give it a distinctive color and lets begin... On first line type in /bandolier activate 1 On the second line type in /doability 7 then on the third line type in /bandolier activate 2
This should give you a hot key that will switch out your weapons bash and switch back to your main weapon list
This is a simple starter up guild IMHO but it is a start.... I can put more info out as I come up with it so enjoy! and Good Luck!!
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Post by Naturezkiss Portalbeauty on Apr 11, 2008 7:55:37 GMT -8
now that was interesting and makes me wanna play my warr more lmao looks like kizz is coming out to play again!!
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Post by perone on Apr 18, 2008 5:26:43 GMT -8
excellent write up Donovin.
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Post by aeriun on Apr 20, 2008 20:36:48 GMT -8
One note for all you casters out there (when I say casters, I mean Mages...lol), do be careful of your agro when you have a perosn tanking and not your pet. I have gotten very close to splat a few times recently because I forget how much agro my pet generates when I solo, so I figure a real tank should be just as good.....not always true. I have followed the same nuke order with a player tank as I do with my pet and ended up with agro on the first or second cast. You really need to allow the tank to generate the agro first. This also happens even when your pet is tanking right along side of the main tank. So....make sure you have pet focus on so you can send it after the mob that agros you and you can run away like the nice silk wearing caster that you are....LOL
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Post by perone on Apr 30, 2008 12:31:20 GMT -8
It’s been a few years since I started my warrior. Let me see what I can drudge up from my memories rather that search the net and post others ideas.
First, if you want to be able to solo after level 30, or want to hit a mob for anything higher than double digits unless it’s a special attack or proc weapon, then go make a wizard or mage. Warriors do not deal damage as well as the wimpiest pet in the game.
What a warrior is is the backbone of a group. You can take massive amounts of damage through mitigation and avoidance. It’s inherent in your bloodstream. Take a warrior with 10k hit points and say a wizard with 10k hit points. Let a mob smack a wizard three times and he is loading please wait. As a tank with only bazaar bought gear, you can stand there taking abuse for several minutes. That’s damage mitigation. A warrior has invisible skills that let him dodge, feint, and avoid a large percentage of in coming damage. Your job is to keep the mob more upset with you than anyone else in the group and take his hits. Not kill it. That’s the casters job.
Now, a decision must be made before you ever enter the tutorial with a new warrior. In the event, that you are the warrior in the group and the group is faced with total wipe out. Do you have what it takes, the sacrifice for others in your heart, to stand and stay the fight so that your casters can gate out and others run for the zone while you hold agro and die for the good of the group? You will be losing more xp on most days than you gain being the warrior. But, that’s how it should be. You stand and die so that others may live, regroup rez and buff you and start all over again. If you can’t do this, if you think you are gonna run when it really hits the fan, make a pet class, pets give you a little more time to make the zone.
If you’ve discovered you have a heart of honor and sacrifice, hit create character and let’s get started.
When you create a warrior there are a few things you want to keep in mind. Being stunned is one of these. Your races vary and I have seen excellent warriors of every race. But, ogres almost never get stunned and barbarians run a close second. Dark elves get stunned a lot. You might say who cares, and that’s great too. But keep in mind, if you are spinning in a circle, unable to hit your target and the shammy placed a nasty dot on the mob, well, he is gonna have agro when you come to your senses and you may not be able to retain top spot on the hate list. Another thing is this; strength and stamina equate to hit points and endurance which are extremely paramount to a good tank. A high score in these in the beginning will go far to your abilities. Later, gear takes over and you can bump up any stat you wish, but start early with these two.
The taunt ability. Make a taunt hot key the day you make your tank. And for your first 30 levels or so, mash the crud out of it constantly. You have to get that skill up ASAP. This practice is going to cause some issues later in life but for now, mash it mash it mash it. Later, when your skill is high in taunt you will only want to mash it when absolutely necessary. Taunt works like this: it does not add agro or hate every time you hit it. Taunt takes you to the top of the mobs hate list plus one. This does not include the agro you have built up yourself; it’s the top of the hate list plus one to the next group member on the list. So for easy understanding I’ll make up round numbers so you’ll understand what I mean. You and your cleric buddy are out hunting. You pulled the mob so you get a little agro bonus there, you smack the mob for a while before the cleric does anything at all, little more agro for you, your weapon proc'd some hate points, doing great so far, you have 500 hate points with this mob, your buddy has none, then he heals you, gets a little agro for that, he slides in behind the mob for a little hammer practice, adds a little more agro to his list, he is up to 300 points. In this situation you have 200 more hate points than does your buddy, so you are holding agro well, good job. Now you mash your taunt button. Your agro goes to 300 (your buddies score) plus one. You actually dropped your agro 200 hard earned points. You may be thinking so what; I still have 1 more point and therefore still have the agro. For a second you do, but your buddies next hit, his weapon procs a 150 non melee hit on the mob, the mob turns on him, starts smacking him hard but he can’t mitigate or avoid and takes full hits, while you frantically try and get agro back and your taunt button is down for a few. You have to make up 149 points of agro and fast, or you are gonna be out some heals and all of norrath will hear you suck as a main tank. Lol. It’s a little more involved and complicated than that, but I hope the picture is drawn for you. Your taunt button takes a while to refresh, and when it is a maxed skill later in life, only use it, when you lose agro to get the mob turned back on you, and hope you can keep pace with the dots on the mob or you will lose it again. Disciplines and weapons that proc agro will help with this later but we will talk about that later.
That’s my lunch break so I’ll write more later. Happy hunting.
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Post by aeriun on Apr 30, 2008 19:12:05 GMT -8
Love the whole Heroic warrior bit Perone, but my goal is to kill the baddie b4 my tank dies! Lets get some group time in old friend!
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Post by Brawlgin Skulforge on May 1, 2008 0:52:47 GMT -8
I also like his post i only differ on early stats for non twinks.. i say agil.. hardest skill to get with gear and hardest skill to buff even shaman side.. potions help but key reason to my theory is agil = ac ac = mitigation and if u must take abuse hit for 200's instead of 600's is win win agro all day with aa and high ac / agil you ready. As for his beautiful speech on takin one for group.. you sound so dwarven.. sad u wear a skirt ,lol teasin bud ty for post.. as aspiring warr myself.."along with all other classes" i like all the help i can get =)
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Post by perone on May 1, 2008 10:27:48 GMT -8
hmm, you are correct on agility. i've never stopped to think about it because it wasn't the route i took. but great idea. agility is hard to get, as well as ac in any type aug or on gear. hp str is easy to find on gear but stamina not so much. so maybe max agi and sta? hmmmm that's a decent idea.
edit: yep aeriun, been waaaay to long bud. we should hook up.
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Post by aeriun on May 1, 2008 22:27:02 GMT -8
im on m-f same time...too bad you arent feeling well and might have to call in sick on tuesday!
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Post by perone on May 7, 2008 12:39:19 GMT -8
just something i remembered today that was an issue at one time.
as a warrior, your choice of weapon is endless. Piercing, 1Hslash, 1Hblunt, 2Hslash, 2Hblunt.etc. very cool indeed. but, lemme tell you a little story.
I had a couple of really cool one hand slashers early on. so I used them and only them. my first fableds experience yeilded a pretty awesome 2hslash. well, i had zero skill in it and sucked with it for a long time. that isn't good when you are the main tank in a group. you can't keep agro for nothin.
so, i suggest this. grab a decent weapon of each type. if you are the main tank, use a slash and a blunt most of the time. that way those skills just keep going up everytime you fight. get a dex buff that helps too. but for those times when you are in a group with a pally or sk. ask if they mind tanking for a bit so that you can work 2hblunt or 2hslash. most groups don't mind if heal mana isn't being strained to bad. then, later on down the road, when you win a roll on an awesome raid drop, you can use it right away, no matter what skill ya need.
just make sure that you advise your group when you are wielding a weapon for skill ups. this advises them that agro will be easier to lose and the healer will adjust his casts to accomodate, the shammy will haste differently etc..... a well informed group is a happy group.
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Post by aeriun on May 7, 2008 23:32:46 GMT -8
/agree I did the same thing with my SK, forgot to work other weapons, then had to kill greens to get skill ups....
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Post by Brawlgin Skulforge on May 11, 2008 0:11:30 GMT -8
I since i started playin always work all weapons ..thalgin told me when i first started never know when a drop will come on skill u dont have.. work um all and work um well. still follow them words.. fableds is just one of many times cool drops come.. peace
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Post by tobus on Jun 8, 2008 12:37:20 GMT -8
I have grouped an extreme amount with perone and he is an awesome tank. I wouldn't trade a tank other than him for nothing and that has nothing to do with being family. He is correct a tanks main job is to keep mobs from hitting casters. I wanted to say one thing about this post that i listed in shaman tips. I also found this out on my 57 warr and use it now. When you tanking tell your group if they get agro not to run away walk towards the main tank and sit mob on his head if you have to it is the worse thing you can do is run from the mob you will die faster than just taking the damage and walking mob to the tank. And in the end you may die but the rest of your group can live just because you did not split up the mobs. The mob that killed you will not just run back to tank it will hit the nearest group member to it. Even the best tanks can't just run around the whole zone getting agro from all mobs. So if you made the mistake as a caster of getting to much agro just suck it up and walk that mob to the tank lol it is called taking one for the team. That is all except the cleric lol run cleric run muhahah just kidding.
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Post by perone on Jun 9, 2008 6:44:49 GMT -8
it's fun to not get agro for a minute when they walk them back up to you too. little warrior humor. but then again, i play with tobus alot and know how many hits he can take before i HAVE to get the agro off him.
oh crap did i type that outloud?
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Post by darkraider on Aug 22, 2008 12:38:20 GMT -8
Thanks for all the info on War's haven't played mine for a while but he can get aa's now so think I will try to work him some more
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