Tanking advice for a lowbie SK

T

tooraloom

Dalayan Beginner
Hi all,

I recently started playing an SK in a regular 6-man on SoD. I've never tanked in EQ in any capacity. It seems fairly straightforward, but at level 17, I'm having a great deal of trouble holding aggro during multiple mob pulls, and I'm looking for some advice. Keep in mind that I'm level 17 - I don't have the +hate stance yet, and my spells are fairly limited.

A typical scenario goes like this:

The pull is three blue/even mobs. I open with a snare on the first dps target to generate threat. The remaining 2 mobs charge the bard. Enchanter mezzes those, myself/rogue/bard/shaman get on the dps target. I seem to hold threat pretty well on the first dps target, just dropping snare/str debuff/atk debuff/tap and auto-attacking.

The second and third targets are problems, however. The rest of the fight typically involves the rogue tanking, with the occassional successful taunt (me) or hide (him) giving him another chance to backstab. I try to start up a high threat spell (atk debuff?) and taunt right before it completes casting, but mobs don't stay on me for more than an instant.

I also have a heck of a time peeling aggro off the enchanter after the mez (using the aforementioned cast + taunt method).

Any advice on how to improve my game? I'm doing fine in boss encounters (tanking adepts and the like), it's the group pulls that are giving me the real headache. Essentially I'd like to get better at:

(1) taking aggro of the chanter, and
(2) keeping up with a rogue on 2nd/3rd mobs

Thanks in advance for your advice!
 
Hybrid tanks are a little slow to take off, so your group members need to take that into consideration. You've got a limited number of spells at your level and it sounds like you are making use of them.

You probably need to communicate with your enchanter more to let him know before you break mez if he is getting aggro right after the break. Stand next to your next target and hit your incoming button or make a new hot key just to communicate that you've acquired your next target and are going to break mez. Give your enchanter a chance to mem blur and/or root before you break. You might even wait for hit to give the go ahead before you break mez until you are more confertable with this interaction.

As for the rogue, he may just want to lay off auto attack for 30 seconds or so after he pulls aggro to let you get better control before resuming the attack. A slow weapon with high damage is a better off-hand choice for you rogue as well, because aggro is generated by each hit in addition to that which is generated by the damage that has been done. The bottom line is you can't always max DPS and you need to take your tank's power into consideration in deciding when it's better to back off.

Until you get better aggro spells, you'll want to get the fastest weapon that you can still do good DPS with. You will also obviously be helped by +aggro gear, but there isn't much available at your level. If you post your toon's name someone might be able to make a suggestion about gear for your toon.
 
You can also try having one of the casters root the mob before you engage it. As long as the mob is rooted, it will attack whatever is closest to it. So just make sure you are in the mob's face and the rogue is further away. It's rough about your level, but it will get easier as you start getting your agro spells.
 
First off, you should know that SKs are designed around being able to keep intense aggro in a SINGLE target. This doesn't mean that you CAN'T keep aggro on multiples, but just that it will be more difficult. If stray mobs are killing members of your group or requiring a lot of effort/mana to mezz/groupheal you may want to consider splitting mobs before the pull and only fighting one target at a time.

The other members of your group may be contributing to these aggro woes, make sure that people wait to run in until you've gotten at least a LITTLE bit of hate on each mob, and having your healer wait a couple extra seconds for the first heal can actually make a pretty significant difference, as long as you can take the hits in the meantime. Getting a hot before the pull helps with this.

While the mob is mezzed, have your enchanter use the mem blur line on it before you begin to generate hate (assuming you get one before lvl 17 its been a LONG time since i really grouped down there). The line reduces a mob's memory of any aggro, not just the enchanter's so it's important that you start debuffing, taunting and such AFTER it's done.

edit: stun is not minus aggro lol
 
robopirateninja said:
First off, you should know that SKs are designed around being able to keep intense aggro in a SINGLE target.
Click to expand...

He IS talking about keeping aggro on one mob at a time. ;)

While the mob is mezzed, have your enchanter use the color swirl line on it before you begin to generate hate (assuming you get one before lvl 17 its been a LONG time since i really grouped down there). The line reduces a mob's memory of any aggro, not just the enchanter's so it's important that you start debuffing, taunting and such AFTER it's done.
Click to expand...

You mean the mem-blur line. Color swirl is an AE stun, and generates lots MORE aggro for the enchanter.

Mem blur is a good idea, and I also recommend that you taunt twice before landing hate spells and breaking mez. Taunt here is an all-or-nothing action, not cumulative hate generation. Taunting twice gives you twice the chance of successfully taking aggro from the enchanter. Unfortunately you'll still fail a lot at your level.

As has been said, it's a group effort. If the rogue is pulling aggro, he should stop attacking for a bit, and evade at every possible opportunity (which IS cumulative, but will still fail a lot at your level).
 
tooraloom said:
Hi all,

I recently started playing an SK in a regular 6-man on SoD.
It seems fairly straightforward, but at level 17,


The remaining 2 mobs charge the bard. Enchanter mezzes those, myself/rogue/bard/shaman get on the dps target.



Any advice on how to improve my game? I'm doing fine in boss encounters (tanking adepts and the like), it's the group pulls that are giving me the real headache. Essentially I'd like to get better at:

(1) taking aggro of the chanter, and
(2) keeping up with a rogue on 2nd/3rd mobs

Thanks in advance for your advice!
Click to expand...


1. Enchanters get memury blur at level twelve if its needed cast it before mez is broken. Otherwise you should be taunting your ass off. Not to mention your bard could mez one instead of both of them being on the enchanter, infact he should have that aoe mez for that level range.

2. The rogue needs to hold off until you put your dot and whatnot on it or it seems same and his arse needs to stop attacking and evade every chance if its really that big of a problem. As well he could use /s 5 to reduce it further, if its any use. the rogue already has dualwield and double attack so you may just be in a bad time until you get double attack at 20? and your next hate spells.


you said a 6 man group but unless I missed something what is the 6th class?
 
some things to keep in mind:

Debuff spells only give 'threat' on first application. So chain casting them will not do you much good.

Taunt is notoriously bad here. Expect it to fail 1/5 of the time at 200 skill.

Your basically screwed at that level. Thankfully it doesnt matter too much because all lowbie chars are more or less equal tanks.

My suggestion: Get the fastest delay weapon you can find and level fast to 34 for your first real agro spell. (terrors)
 
Yes. What ponden said. At levels under 25 pretty much all chars can tank for a few. Most mobs wont be summoning you at that level so have somebody casting root on mobs proxy aggro can be a good thing if you manage it well.
 
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