How do you play a tank?

[DarthSpike]

Disclaimer: At the time of this posting I have seen a number of posts for deciding which class for PvP, which I am not interested in for this character, but I have not easily found a thread for choosing a class if my goal as PvE grouping only. As I went along I kinda figured out that Templar was what I was really wanting (well I think so but I am not certain), but I realized I just didnt fully understand how to properly play a Tank.

Ok, I play a Sorcerer normally, and enjoy that style of play. I have tried a SM but havnt quite gotten into the whole Pet thing, I am a bit more hands on and want to do things myself. I have been in a number of groups where finding a decent Tank or Puller has been difficult, which supprised me. These Clerics keep thinking they can both pull and tank because they can carry a shield and self heal, and that is not working for dungoens. So I figured for those times when ther are plenty of Priests and Mages, but getting someone properly designed for tanking is hard to find, I would play my Alt to help the cause.

I went to AionArmory and looked at the skill listings of Gladiator and Templar, thinking that would help me clear things up, but it actually confused me more. I have played a Caster exclusively long enough to know what Tank and Puller is and how important they are, but not know exactly how one is played. I am perfectly willing to accept this fact that I do not understand the Wariors very well, so if you have some general guidance in how these particular classes play these roles, please contribute.

Gladiator can use a Bow, and that seems like a great option for a Puller. Gladiator has a AoE attack that would seem to draw agro at lvl 10 hitting everything within a 7m range (although it does not say specifically it increases Emnity), and Glad skills seem to have more damage associated. Does damage provoke Agro as much as a Taunt?

Templars dont have a mass agro/taunt in the listing until lvl 25. However, by lvl 25 the Templar has 10 skills (counting stigma skills and each instance a skills appears like Provoke I and II count as 2 and Chastise 1 & 2 count as 2) while Gladiator only has 4.

So does a Tank just provoke things and take the hits becasue Taunts > Damage or Heals? How do you get the agro off of the Puller when the target is still far away, just wait until the mob gets there? When thre are adds, how do you get all of them to come after you? I mean yeah the Sorc can mass sleep but then agro of the waking is on the caster and we want it on me, the tank.

So seriously, could someone explain how to play a Tank properly. Should a Tank also be Puller or should that role be left to someone else?

-------------------------

Ok, seriously. Everyone has time to add their flames to other threads, but when someone has a REAL question about how to lpay your class, no one has an answer? If you know of a guide that explains how to Tank properly, post the link please. If you are using this post as inspiration to write up your own guide, still write somethin please.

There are a lot of tards out there with no clue how to properly play a Tank, I know cause I've grouped with them. I'm asking the place where people are supposed to know how to play Warriors, how is it supposed to be done properly?

[Rynil]

The tank should be the puller. Temps get some ranged threat generation and sometimes just running up and hitting it works as long as that isn't going to draw aggro from more mobs then the party can handle. If someone besides the tank pulls tnen tank is starting off having to play catch up.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Kulthoen]

An excellent question OP, and unfortunately not one easily answered.

tanking involves a few areas. Threat generation, Damage mitigation, and Crowd control. As a tank you tend to utilize your threat generating skills to control the mobs (Crowd control), while maximizing your damage mitigation to reduce the strain on healing classes. My tips here are going to be general tanking tips - they'll work well in whatever MMO you decide to tank in.

As a tank, you are often in the lead of the party. Not due to any inherent leadership skills a tank has, but more due to game mechanics...it's easier for the tank to lead so they can mark mobs, set up the pulls, etc. Since you are involved in controlling the 'pulls', you often wil dictate the pace of the instance run, so it behooves you to sharpen your communication skills, and your knowledge of the tools available to communicate as well. things such as marking mobs, vent to communicate easier, etc.

the best run groups are ones where the tank can set up pulls, and let everyone know ahead of time what to do when. an example would be marking a group of 3 mobs, and let the group know, "mob 1 is first kill target, 2 is sorcs CC, 3 is hunters sleep, and we kill in order of numbers. wait for me to initiate pull before sleeping and Cc please.". keep it simple and consistent. if you set up #1 as the first kill with the first pull, make sure every pull after that #1 is the first kill. and #2 is sorcs CC, #3 is hunters sleep, etc. this will allow players to get familiar with their roles, and the party will work together far easier as a result.

Another key is to know your taunting skills and their effects. Some are close range, some are long, some affect multiple mobs, some only 1. most tanking classes have skills that generate additional threat above what the simple damage would do. this is to balance out the lower damage output that tank classes usually have. These skills are the ones to use when you need some faster up front threat, and you want to cycle them in regularly.

Aion seems to be very threat sensetive, and that taunt skills that temps have aren't as EZ mode as other MMO's i've tanked in, so you want to be very familiar with exactly what they do. As an example, the provoke skill doesn't place you at the top of the threat list like many think...it simply adds a set amount of 'threat' to the mob.

So if a sorc suddenly unloads on the mob you were fighting, and it turns to the sorc (who still may be casting), you need to remember that your Provoke may not pull it back on its own...if done fast enough, it may turn towards you, but you need to follow up immediately with something else high-threat to keep the mob off the poor squishy (who hopefully figured it out and stopped casting.) So knowing your skills is critical but most of them are plain about their function, and if your need more info, ask in the temp forums (or search...im sure it's been asked before!)

Aside from threat generation and pull's, it's good to know what the other classes are capable of. healing, as an example, generates a huge amount of aggro, so it may be good initially to allow CC classes to cc extra mobs so you don't have too many banging on you. If the healer has to pump out a huge amount of healing early on, its highly possible they may end up tanking instead of you (which sounds like you've experinced that already as a sorc hehe).

Most healers don't want to tank, but if we have a tank who suddenly pulls 3-4 mobs, and tanks them all, and his health drops to 30% in seconds, were scrambling to throw out huge heals. this generates threat on ALL the mobs, not just the one your tanking. so if you pull more then 1 mob, better be smacking them both to build aggro, or one will peel off to your healer, guaranteed. And unless your familiar with tab-targetting, it's gonna be tough to generate threat on more then 1 target.

I'll explain tab-targeting in a bit. But this is just one example of something thats good to know about healers. You'll want to know as much as you can about all the classes you play with. Such as assasins...with their skill to dash in and deal out intense damage in a short time, you may want to make sure they're holding back until you get a few hits in. know what classes can CC, and how they do it...this will help you set up pulls to be the most effective. And don't be afraid to ask if you don't know. "hay Mr. hunter, how does your CC thingy work? does it break on damage? of is it like a fear?" the more you know, the smoother you can execute the pulls. Here's a few more tips:

Tab targeting. You may have done it as a sorc, but as a tank it's a little different. you'r goal is to use tab-argeting to cycle through the mobs that you need to generate threat on, and hit each one of them in turn with something to build threat. This is to help out the healers, and the oddball glads who forget to take their AoE's off the hotbar healers generate battle-wide aggro, so any mob that your team is engaged with will get threat from a heal, even if it's only on 1 person. AoE heals genterate a buttload of aggro :P so get used to hitting one mob, tab-target to the next, shield bash, tab to the next, a few quick strike, and then back to the first to continue on him. after a bit you can cycle through again, just to make sure your keeping up with the AoE threat from healing and AoE attacks.

LoS pull - called a Line of Sight pull. I dont' see this used often enough, and it's a great benefit. basically you aggro the gorup of mobs, and then run around a corner. this helps if there are ranged mobs in the group that you cant CC...they will have to run around the corner to attack you, putting them right into melee range. This work better in some games then others, but also a good skill to get used to.

Hmm...think i've rambled lone enough. Hope this info helps, if you have any other question holler. My temp isn't too high, but i've tanked in just about every MMO i've played. ask this in the temp forum too, you'll get plenty of responses there.

[Kanojo]

You try to die as fast as possible while the healer tries to stop you from dying.

[Magatok]

I'm playing a tank in groups, using a greatsword for sologrinding/soloquesting. I use +crit manastones in all my gear, except for the 1Hweapon + Shield for tanking, where I use Shield Block. I'm level 35 now and have tanked everything I've come across, including the 3 instances in the bottom of the abyss and Fire Temple (and Nochsana and elite areas before that). My gear has been sufficient, mostly relying on crafted gear, although my boots are still level 23 green ones. I've had no problems whatsoever (besides the three keys thingy where you can aggro mobs through walls and whatnot).

Most pulls you will be doing are 2, tops 3 +whatever add you didn't notice/patrols into you/gets pulled by an idiot. In a 2 mob pull I assign one as CC-target (pref. sleep, very rarely fear, only use fear if the mobs stay stationary, i.e. rock-rods in FT). Start pulling by taunting the sleeptarget. Inescapable Judgement is your best friend while tanking. Use IJ on the kill target and let people let loose.
The taunt works differently in this game than from my former tanking experiences, it gives you a set ammount of threat, hence you use it on every cooldown. I use it to taunt the Sleeping-target to make sure it comes running to me when it wakes up.
In 3-pulls I do the same, keep Taunting the sleeped mob, keep shifting between the 2 mobs you're tanking and you should be able to keep the aggro of them both (most attacks on the kil-target ofc, since it'll get more attention)

The kill-time for mobs in a normal group seem to be ~30 seconds, which means you can IJ the new killtarget and get some headstart on it.

Now I'm going to read the long-*** post above me

[zagan]

The 2 warriors are for different things.

The Gladiator is for attacking/killing, to me they have 2 main uses

1- is they start the attack and keep the mobs on them, and do a few hits to kill quick.

2- if you have a Templar in the group, the temp can start the attack and they keep the mobs on them while the Glad helps to wipe out the mobs or pull left mobs away from the healers etc.

The AoEs are quite handy in that depending on the weapon you have you can get up to 4 crit hits on all the mobs around the glad.

So far I've never used mana for anything, none of my skills don't have any need for it but may change around lvl 25?

The Templar is the hold the line tank.

they aren't really meant to run around getting all the mobs they are really meant to simply hold them, taking the hits allowing everyone else to get hits on the mobs without having the worry of a mob chasing them, to help them to stay alive that bit longer they have a heal skill that they can use on themselves, glads will never have this.

They will have the better armor and shield stats over a Glad.

If you didn't know the Glad and Temp skills can be learned by both (not all of them), but the other's skills will cost you a lot more kinah for you to learn.

Currently though a lot of groups want a Templar for their groups as they will live longer.

[Kulthoen]

Hehe...sry bout that megatonk i tend to ramble...my posts are alwasy far too long :O

yeah, glads tend to do much of their threat through damage (plus a few taunt skills.) Glads are really meant to be an Offtank first, and backup tank second (when it comes to tanking...they are a DPS class first and foremost). I've played a ton of offtanks in my MMo experience, and you do tend to be far more mobile as an OT, btu thats so you can pick up strays, and aggro's off the healers, etc.

When I played LotRO, the champion was the OT/AoE class, and i spent allot of time peeling mobs off of healers and DPS classes (champs actually have a skill to transfer threat from them to another class, a.k.a the tank...nice skill). Glads don't have something like that, but the idea is the same...if a mob peels off the temp and heads to the healer, provoke, slam it a few times with your polearm, and drag it back towards the temp. If he can't/doesn't' pull it off you, its not too much effort to keep it on you with your AoE's while you help burn down the primary target (just make sure you don't break any CC's in the process...most groups will think you the newb glad if you do that :P glads don't need any more negative rep then they already have hehe)

Check out this link in the temp forums too:

Hate, Threat, and Aggro

Really good discussion on hate mechanics for tanking. Worth the read if your planning on tanking.