Shnyss

First off, I'm a wow refugee, I've only been playing eq2 for about 2 months toying with the different classes. I'm tryin to get a grasp on tanking and aggro as it is different from wow.

Main tanky types in wow had to sacrifice most of their dps in order to increase their hate gain using the defensive stance and high threat skills. Anyone of them that tried to hold aggro with dps quickly found out that its pretty much impossible.

Now I'm playing eq2 and I see extra agression on my defensive stance as a SK and extra % hate gain on the strength tree. Yet, all the posts I'm reading deal with hate-spec (which seems to be dps-spec undercover) as the way to go with tanking.

Does anyone use defense stance and maxed out hate gain on the strength tree to tank? or is it just outdated and max DPS is the way to go?

Lopann

People still use strength for the haste and hate gain, but no one tanks defensively. 1 point of damage is equal to 1 point of hate, so DPS is usually the best way to maintain hate, as taunts dont help your parse.

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Lopann======================Eggshin

Mikesnow

I tank in Defenssive stance all the time, but i can put out close to the same dps in d-stance as I can o-stance. Basically agression is what your taunts work on so, the higher the agression the less resistant your taunts will be. So yes dps helps you hold agro, the more you can maintain the better. I am not aware of the 1dmg = 1hate, tho i'd be more inclined to think 1dmg = 1threat. Obviously theres no way to determine a numerical value on hate since no one really knows how much hate each spell/ability gives, all I can tell you is the AI hates "Death March".

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Mikesnow

I might disagree with ya here as one of our taunts debuffs against all our spells damage type and the other is basically an insta cast small dot.

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Xanoth

Aggression only affects how much your taunts are resisted. It doesn't make you generate more hate.

EQ2 is one of the few MMOs I've played that doesn't offer + hate gain on defensive stance, and with quite long recast on (and a limited number of) taunts compared to many other games.

So unless you're getting hate buffs from other classes (Dirge, Coercer buff hate gain. Assassin, Swashbuckler offer hate transfer. A few other classes have some hate abilities, but those are the main 4), you're often forced to up your DPS to hold agro, as there is no real alternative. Taunts will only generate so much hate, the shortfall needs to be made up via DPS.

That said SK is one of the more offensive classes, DPS is a little less important for Guardians and Paladins.

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Shnyss

Much thanks for the input guys. I had equated agression to a hate modifier for attacks. With that out of the equation, seems like the only good use for defensive stance is when your gear isn't quite up to par for a battle and you need more mitigation...

Its always fun learning the mechanics of new games...

Pitty

Heya welcome to eq2

Yep you summed it up pretty well, the only reason i ever go defensive is to solo or tank, it just protects our HP a bit more, becuase we aret the most defensive class in the game, and some mobs can hit like mac trucks.

Too much hate is never a bad thing, yes i tank in defensive with maxed out hate in str tree, i can probably say yes as well that i'm sacrificing DPS by putting 7 points into hate gain. But as far as SK's go we get our stregnths from being able to tank and dps

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Tyirul

Defensive is great if you got crap for gear, or your lazy and don't feel like recruiting more than one healer. The Hate Mod is worth it. Use HO Taunts, they make the world of difference. Siphon Hate is so-so, let everyone else put their hate buffs on you before you cast it though. If you don't your liable to cancel out some of the hate you might get from the dps in the group. (The current max hate transfer is 50%).

Vinladia

World of Warcraft has the most useless warrior tanks in the MMO world. You sacrifice everything for more STA. The best "meat shields" in the game have what? 200STR, 200AGI and 1400STA? You are nothing more then a "meat shield," to stand there and take damage and hope your holy paladins can heal the damage. You provide no other useful qualities to the game, group or raid. When you parse the lowest on the dps and still hold agro? wtf. Not to mention warriors in WoW are not capable of holding agro on more than one mob at a time. Find a Prot Paladin...at least they can heal you. Everquest 2 requires true tanking. We have to acquire gear that allows us to tank in defensive or offensive stance, dps to keep our agro, use taunts to pull agro off others, as well as dodge/parry/block enough to help keep our asses alive against bosses that hit x2 harder than anything WoW can offer. Sorry just venting a little. But please don't come to a new game, our home, and talk about Warcraft as if it matters.

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Tyirul

WoW is interesting.