New - want to get the most out of my time

R

Renzen

Dalayan Beginner
Hello all,

My intent is not to open a can of worms with this post. I would like some general info from players regarding tanks. I've read the wiki, I've read the forums (to an extent), and I would like some advice on which tank class to choose.

My situation is: Tank as main, healer box, and maybe a friend or two joining me in the near future.
I love Pallys, EQ2 ruined the SHD concept for me, Warriors look really boring.

I understand that Dru or Clr match differently with each tank.

What concerns me with Paladins: I've seen on the wiki that Paladin is "Master" of AOE aggro. I've seen on the forums that Paladins do 30% of a Warrior's dps, and 50% of a SHD's dps. With such low dps, is the Paladin still viable for an AOE tank? Could I at least get a group to grind AA's?

What concerns me with Warriors: From the skill list, they just appear to stand there and auto attack. I'm not seeing many buttons to push, no saves, nothing really except passives. I've never played an EQ warrior, just SHD and Pally to higher levels. Please inform me, or correct me
when it comes to warriors. :)

What concerns me about ShadowKnights: They are always the go to tank for boxing, twinking, wannabe's. They're over used in most games. That's really the only downside as they are so versatile, and probably the best choice for me. But I typically swim against the current...

With my liking to be outside of trends, can a paladin level up in a box setup without me loosing my hair IRL? Is the dps so slow that I /ragequit? Is the Warrior actually fun? Should I stfu and just play a SK like everyone else?

Thanks for any feedback you can provide :D

*On a side note, the Beginner's Guild has been extremely helpful and friendly. I really like the vibe here. And I hope I don't end up playing a healer Oo
 
You're wrong about Warriors. They do way more than stand and autoattack thanks to a revamp a while back. You have all sorts of skills (see bottom of this post) and stances to use. Of all the tanks I say the warrior would be the most fun to play. They do good DPS at high end, have good sustain, and just tend to wreck shit better than anyone else. They also have the second best AOE aggro.

Paladins are a sore subject right now. They're probably the weakest of all the tanks in a high end setting, so if you plan on sticking around to go through the tiers, a Paladin might struggle a bit more than the others. Don't get me wrong - guilds have progressed very far with Paladin main tanks, it's just not the absolute best option.

Shadowknights are probably the easiest tank to play decently (I'm sure a skillful person would disagree, but for entry level and doing the bare minimum, SK isn't too hard). They do decent DPS, have no issues holding aggro on 2-3 targets, and can box pretty well.

Keep in mind - Tanks are hard to gear up in the raid scene. Most raids only need 2-3 tanks, and usually 1-2 of them will be a twink / high end box. I don't want to discourage you from playing one, I just don't want you to invest a lot of time thinking you'll be super highly ultra waaaay sought after by raids.


Your advantage will be to say "I'll come heal for you if I can bring my tank box" and most people will probably take you up on that offer.

Welcome to the game, it's a lot of fun.


When playing a warrior I constantly used:
Rampage
Whirlwind
Kick
Taunt
Bloodlust
Devastating Blow

I was constantly pressing buttons on those toons. Trust me, you'll keep busy.
 
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Honestly by the time you get to the upper raid tiers, if ever, the current class balance situation will probably be different anyway. Play whichever looks the most fun to you. Every class is perfectly viable despite the impression you may get from these forums.

If you do decide on a pally, you can compensate for their lower-than-other-tank DPS in a 2box scenario by using your healer box to DPS and do most of the healing with the paladin. Also, you can try to focus on areas populated by undead when it comes to leveling and grinding AAs.
 
Thanks so much. I'm stuck at work and won't be able to monitor this thread very well. Excellent information so far. I'm glad to hear this news about warriors.

If anyone else would like to chime in, please do.

Thanks again!
 
Ludovician is right about warriors. Their stances are pretty awesome and greatly improve the fun of the class. Since you're familiar with the old warrior mindset, I'd suggest checking out a thread from Christmas 2011 when warriors on SoD got a lot of changes to the current setup. It'll give you an idea of what the change is about and what is it like.

http://forum.shardsofdalaya.com/showthread.php?t=24904

Note that all the pertinent information to them currently is still at the bottom of the Wiki page on Warriors, this is just a reference to how the changes went down (because Warriors were mega-boring).
 
Yeah like others have said the stance revamp to active skills really upped the fun factor for warriors. I hope 3.0 has some changes that allow these to become actual 'skills' so they don't all share the same cooldown, some with monk kicks and shit:(.
 
Paladin dps is abysmal. You can try to remedy that fact by dpsing with your healer (which begs the questions why are you boxing a healer), but I would more often than seems reasonable encounter aggro issues doing that while leveing. While it has been established that I am an idiot who doesn't understand paladins, tanking, or life in general there have been no such dps/aggro issues leveling the other two tank classes.

Warrior stances are a blast while the versatility and snap aggro of a SK cannot be overstated. Though, if you check guild listing you will see that most of them are looking for or would consider healer apps, but few if any are looking for tanks.

As for healers you cannot throw a stick without hitting three druids and everyone will love you forever and always if you roll a cleric. That said I would still roll a druid if I was starting today but that has a lot to do with disliking running places and preferring HoT mechanics to straight heals. Healer class is personal preference though. Even Shaman are great.
 
Ludovician said:
They all have separate cool downs.
Click to expand...

you are right, I was just thinking of monk abilities and hoping in 3.0 if they turn the warrior stance/ability hybrids into 'real' class abilities that they don't have the same downside of sharing cooldowns:( and if they dont I hope they change monk abilities to no longer share cd!
 
donfolstar3 said:
Paladin dps is abysmal. You can try to remedy that fact by dpsing with your healer (which begs the questions why are you boxing a healer), but I would more often than seems reasonable encounter aggro issues doing that while leveing. While it has been established that I am an idiot who doesn't understand paladins, tanking, or life in general there have been no such dps/aggro issues leveling the other two tank classes.

Warrior stances are a blast while the versatility and snap aggro of a SK cannot be overstated. Though, if you check guild listing you will see that most of them are looking for or would consider healer apps, but few if any are looking for tanks.

As for healers you cannot throw a stick without hitting three druids and everyone will love you forever and always if you roll a cleric. That said I would still roll a druid if I was starting today but that has a lot to do with disliking running places and preferring HoT mechanics to straight heals. Healer class is personal preference though. Even Shaman are great.
Click to expand...

did they ever nerf zealot strike? i think if they did it would ruin any hopes I'd have of leveling a cleric
 
If I had to reroll I'd probably always Reroll as Necro/Paladin.
Gives you solid overall versatility, and insane possibilities of XP'ing off undeads. The only small downside is that you need some patience since neither of those is good for fast DPS/grinding.

On the other hand on SoD you will be able to just do what you prefer to and maybe just roll some real weird combo and still find it a good go.
 
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