Guardian for Dummies! - Page 4

detras · 07-07-2009, 02:31 AM

might want to update this with the new spell and AA names

Fungie · 07-19-2009, 06:05 PM

I think all the spell names are now updated.

There might be one or two not updated -- I'll check later.

Fungie · 07-20-2009, 12:00 PM

DA / MC Calculations section added.

Atavax · 07-20-2009, 04:26 PM

considering that the target of this thread is for dummies, maybe you should also point out the abundance of DA buffs in parties.... it isnt rare for me to be DA capped in parties, main reason why i focus on mc.

Fungie · 07-21-2009, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atavax

considering that the target of this thread is for dummies, maybe you should also point out the abundance of DA buffs in parties.... it isnt rare for me to be DA capped in parties, main reason why i focus on mc.

What buffs people get in group often varies (e.g. on what classes their friends are, on whether their friends think they should have BC, IA, etc.), so they can decide for themselves where they are at in raid/group and where they need to go from there.

I actually have the opposite problem. I've got a lot more crit than DA.

ahdam · 07-21-2009, 10:43 AM

Raid Tanking.

Raid tanking is not an EZ thing. The Main Tank position is prolly the single most important role within a raid. Many raids and guilds have folded from lack of having a Geared and Capable Main Tank. Raid Tanks take a beating, expect to die alot, ALOT ,, lol .., have eyes watching you like a hawk, mistakes WILL be pointed out, you WILL be multitasking 3/4 things at a time and you must have the response time of a humming bird.

Im writing this to assist in what i think are good qualities for Raid Tanks to posses, and to hopefully give some helpful tips on performing on a raid as a tank.

The 2 TOP priorities of a Raid Main Tank
1) Threat Generation and Control.
2) Damage Mitigation.

If you are having problems with either of these 2 areas, FIX IT! a Raid Tank MUST be in command of both.

Qualities of a good MT:
1) Ability to Know your Raid target. LEARN the encounters! everything u can! dont have to ask every raid,, "uuhhh, whats this guy do?" If u cant remember what a mob does, how can u remeber what you as the tank needs to do?

2) ACT installed and running timers / parses. Epic Mob abilites are often Killers. You MUST know when to cast your stoneskins, death saves or prepare for a damage spike. It is YOUR responsability to know when to do things.

3) Willingness to Die .. ALOT .. Get back up and do it agian!

4) a Supurb understanding of all Melee/Tank game mechanics. how does threat work? how does mit/aviodance really work? how does Crit mit work? ect ect .. LEARN IT ALL!

5) Be a Team Player. altho the MT is prolly the most important sole character in a raid, they rely on the raid as a whole to get things done. Work with your healers, raid leader, DPS about positioning, other tanks about swaps and aggro control. COMMUNICATE!

6) BE A LEADER. Tanks are by default Leadership Roles. Tanks are first contact with Raid Mobs, Positioning, and Pulling. So, the tanks must communicate with the rest of the raid what you are doing.. They follow You, NOT, You follow Them. Tanks take the lead on trash usually and on the pull for nameds. However, do not upstage the Raid Leader. He is very busy with overall organization on Named kills and new mob progression. You are A leader... not THE leader.

7) Customize your UI, iv spent countless items working on CA order, Hotbar placement, Macros, arranging buff windows, ect .. you want ease of use.. have a logical and EZ layout in your mind and what u want your UI to do. I reccommend Profit UI, its awsome with tons of information to easily see.

Guard Specific.

Pre zone:

1. Gear: Do the thugga quest get your band, 77 mastercrafted, and all the rok legendary end quest line gear. If you don't have 5 void shards do ward of elements access quests in Lavastorm and get that +2 parry 32% haste item. This should do ya for CoA and Voes. With decent healing Anathema and Deep Forge. Work on your epic ASAP

2. AA's IF your a guard STR 4488 STA 4485 INT 44771 Works well for me.

3. All spells ADEPT III nothing less huge help

Tanking :

1. Body pull whenever possible. your gear sucks so warn the healer you are pulling. An INC macro works well. /gsay INC 5 SECONDISH
Hit the inc button then cast Fortify and go grab the mob and pull it back to the group.

2. Position: pull the mob back and turn it around never have a mob face the group. EVER! Does it knockback? Not sure put it in a corner or a wedge or your back to a wall. Better safe than getting knocked into 20 mobs.

3. Play dumb. your in a group with ppl who have been there before? Pick there brains. Ask the stupid questions.(ie does it knockback, goes it aoe, which direction now, are there adds, where should i tank it.) Definately helps when you have a lil knowledge of what you need to do. Tanking blind sucks.

4. Aggro Control. Don't waste your rescue on the stupid brigand or warlock that attacks on the pull. Keep the healer and crowd control (coercer, illy) up. the rest can revive and will learn after they die a few times. After you pull the first two things a guard should cast are Decimate and exact strike they will hit more than anything else.
wait till you lose it too a dps class before you cast reinforcement or on the In call for a good burn between AEs.

ahdam · 07-21-2009, 10:46 AM

Diminishing Returns means that when you reach certain level of any skill, (mitigation, slashing, defense, etc...) you will start to get minimal benefits from raising its value.

Now remember these values are vs a SAME LEVEL mob. As the mob levels increase the effects of stats will deminish vs them. 500 parry vs lv 80 mob =/= 500 parry vs lv 85 mob.

Soft Cap: referred to as the Break Even Point, is not an actual cap, but the value at which you start seeing less return from adding more points to a given stat.

Hard Cap: The definite value at which you will no longer see a benefit from adding more points to a stat.

Stats (str/agi/sta/int/wis)
Hard Cap : [ 15 * level + 20 ] = 1220 at level 80.
Soft Cap: approx 800

Mitigation (same as resists)
Hard Cap: [ Level * 150 ] = 12000 at level 80 or 75%.
Soft Cap: approx 4400

Skills (slash/peirce/def/parry/focus/ministration and so on)
Hard Cap : [ 6.5 * Level ] = 520
Soft Cap: unknown

Hate
Hard Cap: -50% to +50% each (no soft cap)

+Spell Damage / +Combat Art Damage / +Heals
Hard Cap: 50% of damage/heal of the skill

Critical Mitigation
This has a base % dependent on your AGI.
Hard Cap: 100%.
Critical Mitigation applies to only TSO mobs.
100% Crit Mit will absorb all additional damage done from the mob criting an attack.

Armor/Shields
The level of your armor and shield compared to you makes a difference in how much mitigation% and block% you recieve from your items.
For example when you are level 80 and you wear a level 80 item with 100 mitigation, it will give you more absorbing% then a level 10 item with 100 mitigation. Same goes with the protection on shield, a level 80 shield with 1000 protection will give more block% then a lvl 20 shield with 1000.

Weapons
Double Attack and Crits Hard Cap = 100% (no soft cap)

Weapon Crit Calculation: [ Crit% * 1.09 [ max - min ] + max + min ] / delay
Use /weaponstats to get the real numbers depending on your gear/current buffs.

Haste/DPS mod Hard Cap: 200 points. The 200 points equates to 125%.
Haste/DPS mod Soft Cap: approx 80% display = 80% haste

Generally speaking, 40% of the hard cap is roughly the break even point on most the diminishing returns graphs for resists, stats, and skills on a 1:1 basis.

Contested vs Uncontested (for skills/stats... not mobs)

Contested means that your level is compared to the mobs level to calculate the outcome of the action.

Uncontested means that it doesn't matter what your level is compared to the mobs level. The action will take place the same % of times regardless of level.

There are only a few things that are Uncontested. These are a few that I know of.

Block% (+% Shield Effectivness works as a addition to Block% depending on the base protection of your shield)
Riposte% on items or AA
Parry% on items or AA (NOT +parry)

Generally if your item or AA has plus to a percentage of something then it is considered uncontested.
For example: A chestpeice with +1% parry is MUCH better then a chestpeice with +10 parry.

Pretty much everything else is contested against the mobs level. Thats why an orange mob is more dangerous then a yellow mob.

ahdam · 07-21-2009, 10:49 AM

Stance Dancing and Aggressive/Defensive balance.

Stance danceing is the term used when a fighter uses 2 or 3 different stances as a fight progresses. Most fighters use 3 stances: Max Defensive Stance, Lowest Defensive Stance, and Max Aggressive Stance. As stances become more aggresive, the tanks To-Hit increases, therefore increasing Aggro generation. Personally i use Low Defensive Master1 (ALL Defensive stances still give +15% mitigation increase, but this is only -5 to s/p/c skills) on killing, swapping to Aggressive stance if Gear and heals incoming permit. Named fights are usually Max Defensive for max survivability.

Learning to balance Stances with Gear, Heals and Mobs is the sign of a good tank IMO.

Macros that all Warriors should have. Keep announcement macros short and to the point as to not clutter chats.

Weapon Macros.
equipt Main weapon + Sheild
equipt Main Weapon and Secondary Weapon. dual weild
Equipt a Power Proc weapon with power adorn on it + Sheild. its a power engine
Equipt Longarm (bow 50m range for pulls) and swap back to main HP/Defensive range item.

Prepull Macro w/10s count down.
personally i have:
/r >> %T << Incoming ...Prebuffs and Heals!
/g >> %T << Incoming .. Prebuffs and Heals!

Announce any ability which is important to use: Recapture, Rescue, Insolence, Reinforcement, ect... . Any Deathsaves: ToS, Adenaline, Sentenal Sphere, Ect...

/cancel_spell will cancel the spell casing to any ability. Attach this infront of savedeaths to cast the save IMMEDIATLY when the button is pressed.

Need a CURSE macro to announce Curse on you if u get it.

Intercede can be attached to your single target taunt. it allows for a auto-intercede when u loose aggro. Saves a death and builds aggro.

Equiptment Change Macro. Offensive and defensive gear. Sword/board and dual weild.

Have utility items on hand. Especially +power proc items you can swap in if u need them. Grab good resist items if you can, they will often come in handy.

Guard Specific: ToS Macro with 3 or 4 sheilds lined up on it. when 1 wears out just delete that sheild from the line up. mouseovers also show sheild %s.

ahdam · 07-21-2009, 10:49 AM

The Way i DOOO EEETTT!! YYAAyy yuuhh! GO GO Guards!

Ixer · 07-21-2009, 11:40 AM

Couple things I found to help, Level up tinkering, several items from that that are useful like the lifestones, manastones, each one has 2 different times. Also another death prevent from those. The FD can always come in handy also.