f13.net

Previously played this game to 29 as a Templar - may return for awhile - lots of nice improvements.

Tanks...

Monk or Guardian?

Monk.  Feign death could be very useful on pulling and helping party recover from a wipe by rezzing (feathers).  Great combat animations.  But not a boss tank but good 5 man?

Guardian.  Great tank - nuff said - for bosses - but options for strategy limited.

Any opinions on relative demand or practicality?

The two avoidance tanks, monk and bruiser, are great for single groups. However, you have to convince players of that and sometimes that's not the easiest thing. I think most people reckon that the Freeport flavor, Bruiser is superior to the monk.

Guardian has one purpose: tank the highest of high end encounters as main tank. If you want to do anything but that, I'd suggest a berserker (disclosure: I play one). A berserker will tank just as well as a guardian for normal encounters, but will do better damage in offensive mode and has a bit more utility.

Overall I would go Monk or Berserker. Guardians are only really needed for end game mobs and in those situations you only need a single Guard for an entier 24 man raid. Honestly you can only take one Guard for an entire 24 man raid since they are gimp dps if they aren't needed to tank.

We have a monk as our off-tank in raids and they are also my personal favorite for exp grind tanks. 1 monk/bruiser, 1 healer and 4 dps is the best grind group you will put together. We have another Pally that steps into off-tank role when he's around and the monk will switch to dps. A Berserker can also fill that role in a pinch but usually we like to keep them in a DPS group.

Of any of the tanks we're most likely to carry an extra Berserker or two into a raid since they usually can parse in low tier 1 or top tier 2 dps in a lot of raid situations.

I had longer post but the board ate it.
Guardian unless you have access to abundant amount of healers, which I suspect the previous 2 respondants have.
My 32 guardian is lucky to get one healer( who will still probably ditch me when his guild calls) and I am glad to have every bit of armor and aggro skills to make maximum use of what healing I do get.

Berserker is the most fun tank by far, at least for me as I have played nothing else! I love the AE damage of a zerk. Easy to solo and can tank any raid with appropriate equipment. Worth noting that the best AE stuff is 50+, though I had fun all the way up to my current level of 57. Rampage is just stupefyingling awesome.

Taking off my berserker hat and putting on my mystic hat, you don't need two healers for any normal 6 person xp group. I can heal a zerker, monk, or bruiser just as well as I can a guardian.

The big difference between zerker and guardian in normal groups is aggro not mitigation.

Very disappointing to hear.  Sounds like from a tank's perspective it's the same all or none model from EQ.  In WoW - as most of you know - many encounters require many tanks to pull off.  I thought EQ2 had gone the same direction - I guess not.

More aggro skills can mean more mana for the healer if they don't have to heal the squeeshies.  Also given the scarsity of healers, my one healer is going to at least 4 but more like 6 level lower than me.  So there healing powers are strenched when we go after +2 ^^^ (since thats where xp is) and being a guardian squeaze out every hp.

 

I was thinking about starting up a tank-type alt.  Right now I just have my necro-soon-to-be-conjuror-in-98-more-gnolls-and-Dancoed and a charming little halfling mystic who's gonna be my chef-bitch eventually.

I like what I've been hearing about the zerkers...what would be the optimal race?  Or does it just not really matter anymore?  Dark Elf just matched the necro flavor, cliche as it is.  My halfling mystic is that way because he is designed to be a craftsman type and that race-class seemed the best choice.  Since there is no "commoner" class :P

But anyway...suggestions much appreciated.

Well, you certainly won't have problems getting groups as a guardian. Tanks are always in demand. And if you're in a group with a bruiser or zerker, you'll be tanking, not doing something secondary. It's just that with the avoidance tanks and to a lesser extent the zerker you have more options. And there's plenty to do in a group if you're not tanking, particularly for the alternative warrior classes.


YMMV but as a healer, guardians have an advantage (and berserkers do over paladins and paladins and zerkers do over mitigation tanks), but I don't have a problem with keeping any of the tanks up.

There are definately encounters that require multiple tanks but usually those encounters still only have one mob that will require a guardian to tank. The rest can be off tanked by any non-guardian tank except maybe a bruiser. For some reason they seem to be a little more squishy than a monk but it could just be that our monk is better geared for tanking than our bruiser since he's gone mostly defensive and the bruiser has focused on offensive gear.

I can only think of a single encounter that requires 3 full tank groups with a plate tank (Guard, Zerker, Pally, SK) in each group.

I have a 52 warden, I have see the otherside also.  I don't disagree, but I am pointing out the less than ideal situations which is where I think being a guardian helps. 

But I am not a raider. And if jpark wants to be a raider, I can't offer any offer any advice other than it is long road to 70 especially for tanks.

Guardian > Monk in a raid.

Monk > Guardian when solo.

Both are perfectly adequate in a group.

Monk players are better looking and way cooler.

Anyone who tries to suggest there is anything more complicated to consider in this decision is both a cad and a bounder.

Kinetics and theme yes.  But considering how much gear sucks in this game - I was leaning towards platemail since it is the only high level gear I have seen so far that does not look like newbie gear.

Is there neat looking "armor" for monks at higher levels?

If guardian sounds a bit dull and you want to wear plate, the berserker should be your choice. Better dps than guardians, pallies and SK. Better tanking than pallies and SKs. Monks probably beat zerks in dps on single mob encounters, but zerks have the highest AE dps of any of the melee classes (including scouts) once they get to the mid-50s.

We had a level 70 guardian help on the carpet quest the other night.  Shield with mitigation of 1263.  The plate mail so strong I don't think anything could touch him.  He didn't take a hit the entire encounter while us mere mid-50's folks were rez'd a few times in battle.  I don't have a guardian, but this one was apparently a juggernaut in his plate mail.

How are Guardians to solo, though? Is it just a bit low on the DPS so slow to kill mobs thus making it a "fire-and-forget" autoattack fest? Any information on playing them would be most appreciated. And Berserkers get plate? I thought the highest they could wear was scale or chain or summat? [edit]My mistake. I was thinking of the listing in the original manual of Vanguard armor. I think only Paladins and Guardians were listed as being allowed to wear Vanguard armor. Whatever that might be... but it sounds cool.[/edit]

Zerks, guards, pallies and SKs all get vanguard armor, the "tank" armor.

Templars, inquistors get plate.

Assassins, rangers, brigands, swashbucklers get chain. Dirges and troubs might get chain too.

Shamen and defilers?

Monks, bruisers, furies, wardens get leather.

Wizards, warlocks, necros, conjurors get cloth.

Ah... 'twas not so at release. Thank you for the updated information. :)

You didn't read the sentence you quoted closely enough.