Teshub

Hi all, this is my first post on this forum and i'm in need of some help, i have been playing eq2 for a bit over 3 years,been in a great guild for 2yrs. My problem is that ever since RoK came out and SoE saw fit to upgrade every single class but guards i'm finding it extremely hard to hold agro both in a group and in a raid, i'm even hereing pally re-specing them selves so they can get and hold agro better than a guard and i'm thinking to my self WTF is SoE thinking of. Know i have re-spect my guard upgrade alot of stuff and i am still having trouble, so i thouhgt i'd come here and see what i'm doing wrong in my set up.

I will give a list of the way my aa's are set up.plus the gear i wear and what i have available to swap out in my inventory, it's pretty bad when a monk or a pally can steal agro and keep it no matter what i do, any way here we go on my set up.

Stats: HP=10,647, power=5,211, str=627-917(can change with different equipment), agi=342, sta=574, int=123, wis=122, health reg.,=441, power reg.,=213. run spd.=5%, mit.,=4,710, avoidance=7,487, dps mod=30, melee crit.,=15%, melee dam.,=12%, haste mod.,=21%, hate mod.,=10%.

AA lines-str 8,6,4,8,1. wis-4,4,7,8,1.intel-4,4,8

Guardian AA-infraction 5,overmatch 5, mar 5, lay waste 5, double att.,1 cripple 1, exact strike 5,gut kick 5, seperate 5, deciamte 5.

Currently wearing= barbute of raveged onslaught,cloak of valor,doomrage breast plate(adorn +6str,sta,agi,wis,int) doomrage spaulders(adorn 100 hp) gussests of waste hunter(adorn +27 vs slash,crush,pierce)raidant luclin ore gauntlets(adorn 16 agil) belt of scropikis lord(adorn att sp increase 3.0) doomrage grieves(adorn 14 str) strongbears steelskin feet(adorn14agi) neck-torque of the nathsar(adorn att sp increase 12.00 ears-droag talon plugs,symbol of sheckt. rings-imbuded tynnonium band of agi(adorn 100hp, nathsarian ring of mighty(adorn 70 hp) wrist-shackle of copper(adorn 16str) dark knights wristwrap(adorn 16 str) other-ruined imbued dragon's breath hex doll 14sta, battle worn canteen18str. weapon-nathsar shortsword, shield-shield of wurms( i realy like tower shields).

Avaliable for swapping-strongbears steelskin skull(adorn 100 pow), polished deklium chestplate(adorn +6 str,sta,agi,wis,int.) strongbearssteelskin chestplate, gussets of sanctification, mithiran gussets of the veteran, spiked shoulder blades of cazic(adorn 100hp), danak crested pauldrons(adorn 16str), mithrian greaves of the veteran, shined sel'nok helm(adorn 100 pow).

Belts-doomslayer belt, belt of debasement, belt of kunzar, broken toe elt of blasting, yha-lei trackers belt(adorn att sp increase 2.0).

Rings-imbued tynnonium band of str(adorn 100hp) wyvern scale band, band of guerilla outriders(adorn 100hp), threaded steel ring, ring of durus(adorn 100hp), leechskin ring, dust walker's ring(adorn 100pow).

Wrist-spiny nettle band(adorn 16str)skeleross band of glory(adorn 16str), shackle of bronze, jungle root wrist band.

Neck-yha-lei trophy-laden necklace, broken toe trophy necklace, strengthend twin necklace, mark of the awakened instinct(adorn att sp 12.0), torque of the nathsar(adorn att., sp 12.0)

Ears-earingof painsmith, sarnshak earring of jade, yah-lei bone shoops.

Shields-bulwark of the veteran, crested shield of teren rysis.

Weapons-imbued incardine falchion, imbued incardine longsword, snake-eyes raptor claw axe.

2hd- painsmith.

Taunt spells & attack spells-impede-m2, guard-m1,slanderous assult-ad3,infraction-ad3, rescue-ad2, reinforcement-ad3, hold the aggression-ad3. All other att., are ad3 with a few m1 on the rest.

Ok there it is were/what am i doing wrong, and what can i do to improve my aggression, i spam my taunts as soon as the timers on them let me, i can do up to and over 3k damage, but when something like a pally steals agro and none of my taunts or rescue will work to get the agro back then something is very wrong.

I take my job as mt in group and as a raid tank very seriously, now i know some of the peeps i group with do try and not draw agro and if they do they stop there dps so i can get it back, but there are others that i guess they think there better than me or just plain don't know what there doing in a group or raid even though they have been asked to slow down on there dps they simpley will not.

The only thing i can do is to try and get myself better so i can keep agro.

Please help............

Treggar

Those weapons are pretty horrible, see if you can get your hands on a nathsar short sword (from COA, it's not that good but it's better than what you have) and use a lower tier defensive stance if you miss alot, unless you can get a warden or a dirge in your groups.

Or even better, work on your epic since that only takes a couple days now that the full walkthrough is probably up somewhere.

Shinzul

For one thing, with your AA's, drop the wisdom line - it's utter crap. Second, only go through the strength line as follows: 4 4 8. Either spend your points in the agility line if you absolutely love wearing a tower shield, and spec agility like this: 4 6 8 4 1. If you can live without a tower shield and you wouldn't mind trying out a more DPS-oriented spec, instead of the agility line, try out the stamina line with: 4 4 8 8 1 and wear a buckler. Finally, get the intelligence line as follows: 4 7 8 3 1. The final point of the int line will boost your DPS by a good amount. Also having acceleration strike up all the time is important. This should net you about 50 more haste at all times, as long as acceleration strike doesn't miss.

Try that out and see how it fares.

So my two spec suggestions are as follows:

Tower shield (5 points left over to spend however you want):
Str 4 4 8
Agi 4 6 8 4 1
Int 4 7 8 3 1

Buckler shield (3 points left over to spend however you want):
Str 4 4 8
Stam 4 4 8 8 1
Int 4 7 8 3 1

Teshub

Treggar i am using the nathsar short sword, i have been using it for about 3 weeks now, depending on how i gear myself which for groups is fast,high dps,lots of taunting, i still lose agro, there's got too be something else i'm missing

Teshub

Thanks for that advice Shinzul, will try that aa lines and see what happens, yes i realy do like tower shield, but will try the buckler aa lines to.........

zabom

I would say follow the above advice, and if you still have trouble, then let them take the agro and die. My main is a wizard, and there is not a tank on the server that can hold agro if i want to take it. That goes for many of the dps classes and even more for the hybrid tanks that have taunts. holding agro is not just the tanks job. Agro management is everyones job. If they are above lvl 50, they should have learned by now that if they are steeling agro, then they should do something diferent. that diference could be changing casting order, spamming deagros or just backing off. Either way most people only have to die 2 or 3 times before that message sinks in.

nigh

You should be able to find legendary gear that's going to be upgrades from the t7 stuff. Most of it is quested, along with some legendary and fabled (tho it's rare) from instances. Keep in mind that debuffs are a huge reason why classes like brigands and swashies can gank whenever they feel like it. So use your debuff CAs liberally. Don't be afraid of using your short term buffs either, they will generate extra hate for you.

Also, assassins are particularly bad with aggro right now, so don't feel bad if you lose aggro to one.

nigh

/hijack

I don't entirely agree with this. If people in my group are consistently getting aggro, it is MY problem, not theirs, unless they are acting so stupidly that I wouldn't be grouping with them in the first place. I play several DPS classes as well (including a warlock), if the tank I'm with can't hold aggro with me going very close to all out, *they* are slacking. It is the job of DPS classes to do as much DPS as possible, it is not their fault if their gear, spells, etc, are upgraded and the tank's is not. That is one of the reasons tanks carry somewhat of a heavier burden than other classes do... the entire group depends on our gear and spell upgrades.

My only real solid exception to this is if the DPS runs away from me if they do get aggro. If they do that, they fucking die every fight, I don't care and I'm not running after them.

salle

I'd say get out of the T7 raid gear and jump into T8 legendary ... a little decrease in mitigation but much more +crit +DA +CA damage on them. if you get 3 pieces of the ravaged onslaught set you gain +75 in CA damage no need to wear more than that.

The veeshan's feast quest line gives a good charm reward. (Scale of the Leviathan)
The damned dwarf quest line in JW gives awsome boots. (Boots of the Waste Hunter)
In KP there's the a fist full of metal quest series. (Band of Thuuga)

__________________

"The ultimate lack of self-preservation is probably to call the tank a chicken." - Ravengash

Javabean

I would absolutely go with the stamina line if you haven't tried it yet. What's your MT group setup? Do you have an assassin/swash, dirge and coercer?