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Is anyone planning on going tank with their main?  We just got Tebonas in the guild, and he is going shaman.  If none of the fast levellers decide to go tank then I guess I will roll..... AGAIN.   Heh.  I do not mind playing whatever is needed, but after last nights raid fun we are definitely hurting on the tankage front.

If it's even a side thought to roll a new char or an alt do it NOW and let the char sit. Rolling early and starting with 100% vitality is a huge bonus vs rolling an alt and starting right away with 0% vitality.

Just an FYI, tanks are next to useless without healing, which we are also light on. 

Depends which type. Berserker and the monk classes can solo fairly well and reasonably pass as a group tank. Guardians, Pally's & SK's can't solo for crap later on (guards earlier than later), but those 3 also make the best in group tanks.

My alt is a fighter. I'm not really a fast leveller so much as focused on my wizard. As Dan alludes, tanks are more group-friendly than I. I was also thinking of a druid and swashbuckler as alts, but I haven't really played much in the way of alts in any mmo.

Druid = grouped past 30. I can still solo with my 37 Warden but it takes so long to kill anything it's pointless. I get about 250% more exp in a decent group.

Swashbucklers on the other hand are solo machines. My 58 earns exp faster solo than with an average group. It takes a competent, well put together, and focused group to earn exp faster.

Does anyone know how or if the 20+ game changes much due to those in the 1-19 arena? Like, if you know what a Warden or Pally or whatever can do at 37, will the fact that they get their abilities beginning at level 1 change what they've got at 37? I haven't really dug much into it beyond the teens.

Really rolling a tank is more of a greed issue with me.  Now I will have a Swashy (28), a Shaman (25), and the tank.  Which means I can cover most gaps when we group up, which makes me happy since we will be playing together.  Teehee.

I'm strongly considering it, but I usually have alts of each archetype anyways.  After playing a Templar and an Illusionist, it'd be nice to play a class where people could actually tell I was adding value.  Using reactive heals, which is so awesome... you don't get that "you saved my ass!" big-mega-heal pop, cause no one needs to be healed if they're done right.  Illusionist's group stun is the shit, though.

My main is a tank, but I'm only level 10.  And evil.  And a slow leveller.

...

Well keep me in the loop big guy.  I do enjoy my shaman, but after last night we really really really need someone to last more then 1.2 seconds when taking damage.  I can only cast so fast!!!

I have no issues with mentoring and help you get some levels ASAP. 


edit.  Additional

I have a level 16 barbarian warrior, good side. I'll switch over to that character. I'm not a super fast leveller, so any mentoring/groupage would be awesome.

I would prefer to go with Berserker over Guardian.  That should be enough tankage for most situations.

My play times are not totally consistent. I just got engaged, and I'm trying to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle (aka no poopsocking). Still, I'll focus on my tank and hopefully have some fun with youse guys.

I'm in the same boat lately. I just log in and watch the /20-29 and /30-39 channels for the first available group slot then log in that char. Makes it really painless to find a group for an hour or two of play time. I haven't been able to get into the tanking thing though. I tried a guardian but he's been retired at 23 for a long time now. On a side note though my conjuror's pet at adept 3 w/ adept 3 defensive stance can tank VERY well for a small group. He actually out-tanks any tank in the group more than 3 levels below me.

Quick note:  Stick with your mains!!! If everyone goes tank then we will be short something else... it is nice seeing the group dynamics in action though.   :-D

I think my tank is my main. I actually have pretty decent gear on him that I don't remember getting last time around.

No worries, I still enjoy my wizard quite a bit.

Played a warden, Pally, and SK past 30.  Here are my observations:

Warden: Good utility class and secondary healer.  Can't heal enough damage with Master II level HoT's and 2 single target heals (refresh too slow) to keep up as a primary healer.  Think of them as a helper/buffer to a templar/inquisitor in group.

Tanks: Need a guardian or Berserker in group.  These two classes are the most effective taunters while being able to still take some punishment.  Unfortunately, both are also dull as rocks to play unless you like being beat on while spamming your taunt keys. 

I've actually started playing an inquisitor on another server with an old friend because our warden/berserker duo was running into things that we would have to wait to green out to try.

Thanks for the incidental class rebalancing update.  Nothing has changed since release it seems :)

For some reason I liked this enough in EQ1 to stick with it until I got some Indicolite, and there's no way it's more boring, right?

I've had no problem being the main healer in a group with my 37 Warden. I've been main healing in RE since level 34. I can handle healing in any situation where a triple-up mob is 5 levels higher or less than the main tank. IE... I was just barely able to keep a 37 tank alive while he killed the overlord (43^^^) when I was level 35.

Then again I do have my HoT at Adept 3 and the other 2 heals are master level. My 2 group heals are also at adept 1 for when things go straight to hell and everyone starts taking damage (AE groups).

I think I am going to stick to my shaman.  I got my tank to level 8, but am just not feeling it.  Sauced if you decide to work on a tank as your main lemme know, I crafted some stuff for my tank and will gladly give it to you.  What final class are you going for?

As a 50 zerk, I strongly disagree with the "spamming your taunt keys" comment. When I tank exp groups, I pull with the group taunt and then rarely have to taunt again due to my AEs and the taunt stance - hate increase for every hit I land. The only time I have trouble keeping aggro is when I am significantly outlevelled by a DPS class in the group or fighting orange or higher con (to me) mobs.

I should have clarified better.  For most even or lower encounters a berserker is an outstanding main tank.  Solid damage and able to maintain aggro.  You're right for correcting me and I apologize for my generalization.

Note: I"ve also discovered that I seem to enjoy playing healer/rogue classes the best.  I enjoy my brigand, but am finding that a new inquisitor that I'm playing now is also quite a bit of fun. 


As for the warden, I'm not sure how you do it.  My warden has their HoT at Master II, my single target heal Master 1, and my other single target heal at Adept 1.  Against a group of 3-4 ^^^ mobs of even con or blue I will go oop or just not be able to keep up with the damage the main tank is taking.  I typicall cycle the HoT for efficiency and hit the 2 single target heals as needed due to their power inefficiency.  Perhaps my group is just pushing things a bit too hard, but a templar seems to be able to handle these situations just fine by comparison.

Basically, at 23-20 I'm a little farther ahead of VL than I want to be, so if I want to smash stuff instead of craft, I need an alt anyways.  I got a ranger to 12 just before we had a scout explosion, so I'm thinking Beserker?  I can level faster in Qeynos, so it needs to be good side.  I need to do a little more research.

Where you start matters not.  I can come to Antonica anytime.

Hmmm... might be fighting in different areas. RE doesn't have any groups of 3-4 ^^^ mobs. Usually with a bad pull you'll get at most two triple-ups and with a careful puller you should only get one triple at a time. Groups of mobs in RE consist of one the following: 2 double-ups, 3 single ups, 4 no arrows, or up to 8 if a combination of no arrow and down arrow mobs. The hardest healing is the groups of 8 that come in because someone else always managed to grab aggro on those and then I end up either dumping power on a caster or have to spam my group heals.

Group make-up could also be an issue. I usually try to make sure the main tank is either equal level or higher level than I am if we going to fight mobs 2-3 levels higher than us. I wouldn't want to try and heal a 32 tank fighting a 38 tripple up as that would definately be too much damage.

Oh I also have the spores spell (reactive heal 8% chance to trigger) at master level and the mitigation buff at master level which probably helps.

Midden is a monk, that's a tank, right?  However, I am sort of cowardly so it's probably wise not to expect too much. 

3-4 ^^^s will challenge two healers, let alone a single warden. That is a massive overpull clusterfuck that can only be saved by mezz or evac.

UD_Delt: I'm playing a healer now and will likely play it to 40 just to see how it seems as a healer compared to my warden.  I enjoy my warden, but sometimes feel like I should be able to keep up better.  The single-target heals seem really inefficient and cycle way too slow when I'm in a duo with my friend on his berserker.  I'm wondering if an Inquisitor/Templar may be better able to deal with damage, particularly as a duo. 

On that note, my healer is level 18 now and I'm having to decide whether to go Inquisitor or Templar.  I see about 1/5th the number of inquisitors on my server.  Are inquisitors that bad or do people just prefer starting in Qeynos?

Qeynos factor, I bet. I haven't noticed Inquisitors being any less effective than other healers and debuffs are always nice. A plus would be that there will be a lot of low priced spell upgrades.

I don't think you get to choose between templar/inquisitor, it's based on which city you are aligned with.  Inquisitors are Freeport which is why there are so few.

I can't really say on the difference in Cleric types. There are definately more Templars but I aggree that it's the Qeynos factor more than anything else.

I just though of one other thing that I'm unsure about. Does wisdom affect amount healed the same as int affects damage? That may be an additional difference. I think my wisdom self buffed is around 190 at level 38.

Yes on wis affecting heals. Did you know the following mechanic of EQ2?

level 40 templar with 150wis cast heal: 80-100 +10% wis bonus

DING!

level 41 templar with 150wis casts same heal: 80-100 +9% wis bonus


The stat bonus is a scaled number relative to whatever the stat cap for your level is. Every level the stat cap increases. So, if you don't raise your wis every level, your heals will become weaker not just relative to your tank's HP pool as he levels but in absolute terms.

This works the same for mages and INT and melees and STR for damage against even con mobs.

The devs have acknowledges this mechanic and asserted a need to fix it, but no timeframe given.

Guys, seriously. Don't forget about my warrior. Level 17.5 now. I also have a betrayed Troll warrior on a different server that i can transfer over that is level 18 or so.

I rolled up a good barbarian guardian on Steamfont (Neboo) with the hope of making a solid group someday.  Knowing the fickle gaming nature of you guys, I'm sure this is a waste of time.  I just enjoy the pain. 

You've got my near-29 monk now too. I suck with her, having not done most of the heavy lifting, but she's there for the cause.

Hit 20 with my pally last night, so there's that also. 

My barbarian guardian is level 12 now.