Question - How difficult is it to AFK tank on a SK with kissassist?

[uncbadboy]

Was starting a 6 man team to level 1-105/110 and was wondering which would be better, SK or Warrior, to have as an AFK tank, while pulling with bard.

My comp is

Tank (SK/War)
Cleric
Bard
Mage
Wiz
DPS (2nd Mage/Wiz or 1 Beserker)

Any thoughts, and any suggestions on comp wouldn't hurt my feeling either

 

[eqtrader74]

KA will play an SK slightly better, but can handle either. There are a lot of threads comparing those two tank choices if you're up for searching the forums. SK's taunt options are a little easier to run, but warrior is better for large pulls/named. It seems about 50/50 on people's preferences. I've run a similar 6-man group from 85-105 with bard pulling and the SK "AFK" auto-tanking. The SK rarely has issues unless I really, really over pull.

DPS-wise to 105, Berserker is king and Wiz is 2nd. However since you're caster heavy with a bard, I'd go with another Wiz. That way you can stick with caster focus twisting on the bard. A couple wizards let you bounce around to your favorite camps via "teleport to bind."

 

[uncbadboy]

appreciate the quick response, so you'd go
SK
Cleric
Bard
Mage
Wiz
Wiz?

Also on the SK would you use 2h or Sword and Board and any suggestions on twink weapons/shield for doing such

 

[eqtrader74]

Yes, that is a good setup. If you want to raise your DPS, you could drop the mage and go 3x Wiz to use the alliance spells, but those are pretty hefty on mana usage. Even with a bard you may run into more downtime than it is worth. I personally like a mage in group just for the CoH utility.

 

[uncbadboy]

great thanks and yeah thats why mage was in there + the second tank if SK dies

 

[eqtrader74]

Early game, if you get some twink gear like "Defiant" sets via Bazaar, then you can use whatever weapon is the best dps which often is a Defiant anyways. Defiant is like raid-level gear at those levels. Once you hit 70-75 or so, then you'll want to switch to sword and board for mitigation/AC. You eventually get the AA that gives you extra mitigation if you have a shield equip'd, once you have that you almost always use a shield.

Not sure about the best twink weapons, but I bought Defiant gear until 70's, then moved onto Bazaar/named/reward vendors. From a "Heroic" upgrade guide I wrote awhile back:

Non-vis slots and weapons tend to be every 5 levels, but there are a bunch available at level 92 specifically. So I'd Bazaar shop deals at 90/92/95/100/105 and then figure out where you need to go for the missing items. If you are named farming, that is straight forward. Otherwise fill those slots from ETWK vendors via CotF Heroic missions(75-100 with some lvl 100 gear being non-prestige), TDS Vendors (100-104 with Tempest Thule vendor selling non-prestige) or TBM vendors (75-105 with nearly all non-prestige.)
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[Yrkoon]

TBH, my mage with maxxed pet AA can step in and tank when things go bad and my enchanter gets things locked down. Everything to EoK T2. Sucks that my SK has to eat so many shitty pulls.

 

[surfdog21]

Hehe....pulling multiples never seems to be a problem with a bard or enchanter in the group. They usually lock everything nicely.

Back to the OP though, I just broke up a group where I had an SK that I leveled and moved him into his own group with just a bard and monk, 2 wiz mercs and 1 cleric merc. Sk pulls, gets 2 sometimes even 3 and the bard ini locks them down np. I left that little group pull away and they never died once. Im pretty stoked! They are all in T2 selrach's with rares in most slots. Bard and monk are max aa while the sk doesnt have much yet.

 

[runcade]

With an SK tank for AFK killing I recommend an enc for the improved mezzing over a bard. I run SK/Cle/Enc/Mag/Beast/Wiz so it is a pet heavy group with 4 of them with mage toys. Mage for CoH and dps. It can get really annoying running a whole group around so using the mage to CoH is a life saver. Beast is great for dps and mana regen. Ench is obviously for mezzing but adds ADPS for the casters. SK can FD and that utility can be pretty helpful.

 

[tecteacher]

I forgot to turn Kiss on my Cleric last night. It happens when I box and one takes a lot longer to log in then the rest. I had Kiss running on my bard, mage, mage, wizy, and SK, so NO other heals other than SK. I had KS tanking on SK while I chain pulled with bard yellows. When I finally died I thought "wow that is odd, I have not died in this spot ever pulling singles". I then looked and sure enough, Kiss was not running on my cleric. He had just been standing there for two hours. My point is that Kiss kept my SK tapping enough to be topped out on health for over two hours fighting yellow cons with no heals. Kiss makes SK a god in this game.

- - - Updated - - -

Plus SK can duel mage, flop to new spot, pop merc for rez and then CoH rest of group to new area, works great in dungeons.

 

[eqgeek]

I have a warrior and an SK. The War is better for brute strength - put gear and buffs on him, get his defensive AA and he's pretty good to go. The SK has a lot more utility. You don't need to "flop" to corpses, you can just summon them if you campfire back. (See my post for creating an holy for doing this for your puller). The SK can heal himself if the healer goes down, and of course lots of taps that do great dps. I think they are more spell/aa/gear dependent, but it's been worth it.

 

[tecteacher]

The reason I flop / drag my mage is that I am under the impression that it can be detected if we 'target' a group member from across the zone. Is this not the case?

 

[MaxD]

Without mq2 anyone can target group members within the same zone. Otherwise how would mages target for coth.

 

[tecteacher]

I don't always claim to be the sharpest tool in the shed. I was under the impression we had to be grouped to target across the zone or else we could / would get flagged for that. Thought this for years!