Tedahmeister's Guide to Tanking (1 of 4)

[tedahmeister5]

*** NOTE ***
Used to raid here and was chatting with Gaggrol cross server he requested that I post my four guides here for general knowledge on tanking. Much of the content that I have extracted comes from previous posts, mainly citing the extensive research that Hrendra did on damage mitigation. The following 4 guides are brought up to date and provide a good baseline for any warrior wanting to take on end game content in EQ.
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I’ve decided to go with 4 posts and stage the information so that I can cover it in an overview and then get in more depth with formulaic explanations about how damage mitigation works.

Overview:
In order to understand the specifics you need to understand - what are the components of being a true tank class in EQ. This includes the following:

a) Getting agro – understand all ways that agro can be generated – what disciplines are used, what are their timers, how do proc’ing weapons enter into the process.
b) Keeping agro, how does taunt work with the agro system
c) Taking a lot of damage – what’s the best path to accomplish this goal
d) Using disciplines to mitigate damage
e) Adding more DPS during fights by proper use of disciplines
f) Knowing your place in the tank order at all times
g) Having a full knowledge of the event you are in, what mobs are involved, and what your assignment is, if you don’t know --- ask
h) Knowing when to and when not to use aoe taunt, weapons , or damage
i) Knowing and understanding Armor Class (AC) and how it works with shielding and non shielding bandolier sets.
j) Knowing the relationship of AC – HP… there is a correlation.
k) How do heroic stats affect my overall effectiveness as a tank?
l) How does using 1h weapon vs 2h weapon affect how much Riposte damage I tank from mobs?
m) When is it more appropriate to use the Evasive Disciple vs the Defen/FS disc?
n) What is an AC Hard cap? What is an AC soft cap?
o) What is proximity agro? How does it work? Does it affect how I maintain agro?
p) What is the best process on using AAXP to build and enhance my warrior functionality?
q) What is “snap” agro. How is it used effectively?


This leaves us with some baseline of what to consider when tanking:

1)The basic formula for a tank is… don’t get hit… aka DODGE, AVOIDANCE, BLOCK, PARRY
2) and if you are gonna get hit… do what it takes to build your character to as much as possible to mitigate the damage you are taking. DAMAGE MITIGATION
3) Communicate with your group/raid/warrior channel on what tools are available to you. What buffs do you have/don’t have. … what’s the refresh timer on Divine Intervention?

Conclusion:

Let’s say that we have TANK X about to tank a mob in Y zone. What’s the first thing that he/she should consider before tanking anything?
1) What the damage output of the mob
2) What’s his AC relative to the level of the mob , and how much does his/her AC mitigate the damage.
3) What is the healing required to safely keep this warrior alive in the zone/raid event?

In the next guide (2 of 4) I will go further into these areas in more detail and start to provide more mathematical examples of how the tank class interacts with the damage output of mobs in relation to their damage, your AC and what is the most efficient way to tank each encounter.

(This is a work in progress and suggestions are appreciated in case I have left anything out)

Best regards,

Tedahmeister

[Xslia]

Thanks Tedah for the information!!!