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Question - My Tank Doesn't Suck Anymore, but.... (1 Viewer)

cintile

cintile

Level 2
Joined
Jan 12, 2024
RedCents
1,014¢
First I want to thank everyone for their suggestions yesterday when I posted about not being able to tank with my SK. I appreciate all the feedback! https://www.redguides.com/community/threads/how-to-make-your-tank-not-suck.89833/page-2#post-597216

I decided to give everything with the Sk another chance. I logged on, filled his snowbound armor with augs, and purchased MQ2eskay. Went into ToV where I'm normally dead in about 15 seconds. Pulled a mob, and the SK tanked him like a boss. Had my bard on kissassist and she was slowing, mezzing adds and doing her bard thing. I went on into GD, something, put the tank in pullertank mode and he went to work.

Turns out the issue wasn't my gear or AA's. I'm simply not as good as the automation... the truth hurts.

Here's the question. I'm still needing to add a 3rd, which I'm going to boost to 100. Most people tell me I need to grab a Shaman or Cleric and that makes since, but which one? Additonally. While it's great that the MQ2eskay makes tanking easy, and IT DOES. I almost feel like I'm watching EQ now instead of playing it. I wonder if my 3rd should be a melee dps where I can mash buttons. That was one thing I really loved about my BST. I'm still considering using the 3rd account to make a new 100 SK so I can do that very thing.

anyways, that's the update. The plugins are indeed amazing.
 
cintile said:
First I want to thank everyone for their suggestions yesterday when I posted about not being able to tank with my SK. I appreciate all the feedback! https://www.redguides.com/community/threads/how-to-make-your-tank-not-suck.89833/page-2#post-597216

I decided to give everything with the Sk another chance. I logged on, filled his snowbound armor with augs, and purchased MQ2eskay. Went into ToV where I'm normally dead in about 15 seconds. Pulled a mob, and the SK tanked him like a boss. Had my bard on kissassist and she was slowing, mezzing adds and doing her bard thing. I went on into GD, something, put the tank in pullertank mode and he went to work.

Turns out the issue wasn't my gear or AA's. I'm simply not as good as the automation... the truth hurts.

Here's the question. I'm still needing to add a 3rd, which I'm going to boost to 100. Most people tell me I need to grab a Shaman or Cleric and that makes since, but which one? Additonally. While it's great that the MQ2eskay makes tanking easy, and IT DOES. I almost feel like I'm watching EQ now instead of playing it. I wonder if my 3rd should be a melee dps where I can mash buttons. That was one thing I really loved about my BST. I'm still considering using the 3rd account to make a new 100 SK so I can do that very thing.

anyways, that's the update. The plugins are indeed amazing.
Click to expand...

I was having similar issues and have quite a few of the RG enhancements from CWTN and Sic.. The best part of these systems, as you said, is how it can really show you a great and often different way to play a character you might have been playing for a long time already.
 
Adding a shaman lets you do a lot with 3 toons and 3 mercs. Buffs, better automated healing, puma, dots etc.
Playing the bard manually might fit your playstyle lets you pull more controlled and bards can do good dps themselves. Shaman and SK with the CWTN plugins is powerful and you can fill out your group as you see fit.
 
Hendo513 said:
Adding a shaman lets you do a lot with 3 toons and 3 mercs. Buffs, better automated healing, puma, dots etc.
Playing the bard manually might fit your playstyle lets you pull more controlled and bards can do good dps themselves. Shaman and SK with the CWTN plugins is powerful and you can fill out your group as you see fit.
Click to expand...

I like this idea. Let the Sk / SHM do the hard stuff and i get to pull, mezz and goof around doing Bard stuff. It is one of my oldest characters and I do love the Bard and she fits in any group or situation nicely. Good call.
 
I suggest always learning how to drive the group with the tank. I switched from driving with the bard recently and everything works better imo. This is not financial advice and it’s only my opinion.
 
Glad you got your issue brought under control~

You can hand drive, mess around on any char in your team, i normally do it on the tanks (oh im going to hunter tank into this crowd), but i know people who have a bard or enchanter or a mage to "hands on" while MQ does the actual work.
 
cintile said:
Adding one piece at a time lol. Starting with a 3rd, then maybe a 4th in another month or so.
Click to expand...
It's just as easy to power level a group of six as it is to do one. A Shaman would be my choice for adding another, so the Bard can focus on crowd control and adding group DPS.
 
If anyone knows of a good guide, for quickly PLing a couple of DSP characters from 1-90, I would love to take a look at it. For the shaman thats going to be a boost, just so i can get him in the group right away and so he will have his spells up to 100. However, for a zerker and rogue as two F2P dps options, I would be willing to PL them if it can be done without too much time and pain.
 
cintile said:
If anyone knows of a good guide, for quickly PLing a couple of DSP characters from 1-90, I would love to take a look at it. For the shaman thats going to be a boost, just so i can get him in the group right away and so he will have his spells up to 100. However, for a zerker and rogue as two F2P dps options, I would be willing to PL them if it can be done without too much time and pain.
Click to expand...
Search tool is your friend: https://www.redguides.com/community/search/1879363/?q=powerlevel&o=relevance
 
one thing to keep in mind if your DPS toons are going to be FTP casters usually make better FTP DPS than melee due to not being as gear and heroic Dex dependent as melee classes.
 
cintile said:
Adding one piece at a time lol. Starting with a 3rd, then maybe a 4th in another month or so.
Click to expand...
Doing them 1 at a time is going to have you doing lower levels for a while. As mention, 6 toons will get you going. At least pwr level them together.

Tank, healer, CC, Dps, Dps, Dps

Have those covered and play with it.
Try to have the dps compliment each other.
Auras, synergies, buffs, etc
 
cintile said:
First I want to thank everyone for their suggestions yesterday when I posted about not being able to tank with my SK. I appreciate all the feedback! https://www.redguides.com/community/threads/how-to-make-your-tank-not-suck.89833/page-2#post-597216

I decided to give everything with the Sk another chance. I logged on, filled his snowbound armor with augs, and purchased MQ2eskay. Went into ToV where I'm normally dead in about 15 seconds. Pulled a mob, and the SK tanked him like a boss. Had my bard on kissassist and she was slowing, mezzing adds and doing her bard thing. I went on into GD, something, put the tank in pullertank mode and he went to work.

Turns out the issue wasn't my gear or AA's. I'm simply not as good as the automation... the truth hurts.

Here's the question. I'm still needing to add a 3rd, which I'm going to boost to 100. Most people tell me I need to grab a Shaman or Cleric and that makes since, but which one? Additonally. While it's great that the MQ2eskay makes tanking easy, and IT DOES. I almost feel like I'm watching EQ now instead of playing it. I wonder if my 3rd should be a melee dps where I can mash buttons. That was one thing I really loved about my BST. I'm still considering using the 3rd account to make a new 100 SK so I can do that very thing.

anyways, that's the update. The plugins are indeed amazing.
Click to expand...
Work your way up to 6...roll 4 accounts and level them up slowly then krono pop them at 110-115ish. Keep everything (except the tank) in non-prestige...it'll make 100% sense as you move along. Tank, Crowd Control, Cleric (no i don't recommend shamans as healers) ... then 3 of whatever you fancy.

With your SK you can lvl everyone at 70+ in 4 hrs...there's a bunch of guides if you search around here how to do it.
 
an_image said:
Work your way up to 6...roll 4 accounts and level them up slowly then krono pop them at 110-115ish. Keep everything (except the tank) in non-prestige...it'll make 100% sense as you move along. Tank, Crowd Control, Cleric (no i don't recommend shamans as healers) ... then 3 of whatever you fancy.

With your SK you can lvl everyone at 70+ in 4 hrs...there's a bunch of guides if you search around here how to do it.
Click to expand...
So you don't think having a Shaman slow being dropped is necessary? Right now Bard slows but its not on the same level as a real slower. Additionally, all those 4 new accounts will eventually need expansion and at least 1 krono, that gets expensive lol.
 
cintile said:
So you don't think having a Shaman slow being dropped is necessary? Right now Bard slows but its not on the same level as a real slower.
Click to expand...
Here's my advice,
  • Prestige Tank (SK is good for group content) - CWTN Plugin
  • 2X Dps...simplest are probably 2 rogues (using poison), ranger/mage or bst/mage - RGMercs
  • Bard - Kissassist
  • Enc - CWTN Plugin
  • Cleric - CWTN Plug
  • Everything but tank above keep in best non-prestige
  • Do not spend money on anything other the 3 plugins above and buy kronos with plat to krono pop everyone at 110-115ish
Enjoy being awesome forever...then play this automatically as your theme on the background with that setup 24/7 365 a year...

 
Same story, different player. I just want to stick with 2, 3, 4, characters. It's so hard to manage more. Etc Etc.

The sooner you just fill out your group, the better off you'll be with your playing experience. FTP characters are far better than in-game mercs all day long. There are enough tools and options here at RG to make playing and moving 6 characters a breeze.

Not slamming you, just stating a fact that most players go through this when they are new.
 
You having the beastlord already makes the shaman a little redundant. Since you have the beastlord..I'd go with cleric. If you didn't have the beastlord, the choice is shaman, and it's an easy choice then, but that's not where you're at. I'd let the plugin play the sk, since it's better than what you can do..bsts are very user intensive to play right..if you want button mashing, that's nearly constant (or it should be). Alternatively, you could just look at what the plugin is doing, on it's output and see if you can learn from it and get back into playing the sk yourself at some point..but really it's an agro spell to "pull", ae agro (typically AAs) when there's more than 1 and chaining lifetaps..mantles and carapices to mitigate damage..then your 2.0 click, visage of death for passive health return increases.

I'd take FTP dps over mercs any day of the week. It's not close. fire yourself up some rogues and zerkers along with a cleric imo, and add them to your bst, bard, sk...and just stick to free content until you can do something else. When you have a full group of your own toons..you become less of a "player" and more of a "manager". Once you get used to that transition, you can really go through content pretty well. There's still time to play, but you'll be asking yourself "why would you manually control a toon" when the plugins are usually very adequate.
 
an_image said:
Here's my advice,
  • Prestige Tank (SK is good for group content) - CWTN Plugin
  • 2X Dps...simplest are probably 2 rogues (using poison), ranger/mage or bst/mage - RGMercs
  • Bard - Kissassist
  • Enc - CWTN Plugin
  • Cleric - CWTN Plug
  • Everything but tank above keep in best non-prestige
  • Do not spend money on anything other the 3 plugins above and buy kronos with plat to krono pop everyone at 110-115ish
Enjoy being awesome forever...then play this automatically as your theme on the background with that setup 24/7 365 a year...

Click to expand...

enchanter+bard is redundant imo..get another dps instead of 2 CC toons.
 
Gnome-eater said:
You having the beastlord already makes the shaman a little redundant. Since you have the beastlord..I'd go with cleric. If you didn't have the beastlord, the choice is shaman, and it's an easy choice then, but that's not where you're at. I'd let the plugin play the sk, since it's better than what you can do..bsts are very user intensive to play right..if you want button mashing, that's nearly constant (or it should be). Alternatively, you could just look at what the plugin is doing, on it's output and see if you can learn from it and get back into playing the sk yourself at some point..but really it's an agro spell to "pull", ae agro (typically AAs) when there's more than 1 and chaining lifetaps..mantles and carapices to mitigate damage..then your 2.0 click, visage of death for passive health return increases.

I'd take FTP dps over mercs any day of the week. It's not close. fire yourself up some rogues and zerkers along with a cleric imo, and add them to your bst, bard, sk...and just stick to free content until you can do something else. When you have a full group of your own toons..you become less of a "player" and more of a "manager". Once you get used to that transition, you can really go through content pretty well. There's still time to play, but you'll be asking yourself "why would you manually control a toon" when the plugins are usually very adequate.
Click to expand...

Beastlord is on same account as SK. I don't have access to him since i decided to get going on tank
 
Gnome-eater said:
enchanter+bard is redundant imo..get another dps instead of 2 CC toons.
Click to expand...
@Gnome-eater, you're not wrong. Resiliency and reliability trump all imo...specially when you starting scaling...i'd rather have a team that's a bit slower that hardly ever dies...so i can manage multiple teams...than one team that does really well with dps but can quickly fall apart when you get 5-8 mobs at once. It is a thing of beauty to pull all of TOV GD...and had your bard and enchanter create a beatiful line of future corpses near instantly that you team then spends the next 3-5 minutes chewing through...

Just my two cents.
 
cintile said:
This seems to be the general thought. Will shaman help add some dps too?
Click to expand...
The Shaman is more than sufficient healing for any groupcontent and he adds DPS by its own as well as all the abilities he offers to boost the group.
My own team consists of sk, brd, shm and than either 3 mages or 3 rogues sometimes some other DPS-classes.
Tank, healer, cc would always be my choice if I had to select which classes to choose for a 3-box team.

Mercs still are worse than a boxed ftp-char.
A gold sk for my feeling is more worth than 3 merc-tanks.
A gold healer for my feeling is more worth, than 3 healer-mercs.
Cc assures, that the tank may not be overwhelmed by an unhappy pull.
Of the mercs the rogues are the most useful ones.
Those benefit well from the bards and the shamans abilities.
 
Dragonslayer said:
The Shaman is more than sufficient healing for any groupcontent and he adds DPS by its own as well as all the abilities he offers to boost the group.
My own team consists of sk, brd, shm and than either 3 mages or 3 rogues sometimes some other DPS-classes.
Tank, healer, cc would always be my choice if I had to select which classes to choose for a 3-box team.

Mercs still are worse than a boxed ftp-char.
A gold sk for my feeling is more worth than 3 merc-tanks.
A gold healer for my feeling is more worth, than 3 healer-mercs.
Cc assures, that the tank may not be overwhelmed by an unhappy pull.
Of the mercs the rogues are the most useful ones.
Those benefit well from the bards and the shamans abilities.
Click to expand...

Dragonslayer said it perfectly.
 
Watching the automation is honestly a great way to git gud at playing your tank in group content. You can watch it go and pay attention to what abilities its using, and take your time setting up keybinds/socials for those things.

100% agree with everyone telling you to go sham for your 3rd. Tank/bard/sham is always a reliable 3-box.
 
I am llvling up a group filled with beastlords so I can fill my other groups with one. Even if most of their buffs overlap with shaman, they’re still very useful in their own right.

You may as well jump into a full group now. Eventually, you’ll end up with a raid and you’ll wonder why you wasted all that time lvling up one char at a time.
 
cintile said:
If anyone knows of a good guide, for quickly PLing a couple of DSP characters from 1-90, I would love to take a look at it. For the shaman thats going to be a boost, just so i can get him in the group right away and so he will have his spells up to 100. However, for a zerker and rogue as two F2P dps options, I would be willing to PL them if it can be done without too much time and pain.
Click to expand...
SK Power Leveling 101
  1. Equip the Shadow Knight (SK) with a non-weapon item, such as the Fire Beetle Eye, to prevent riposte.
  2. Load a spell set that includes four or five area-of-effect (AE) aggro spells, four or five single-target aggro spells (for pulling), a couple of lifetaps, and both skin and damage shield spells.
  3. Remove all spells from your SK that provide any form of damage shielding.
  4. When pulling, use the SK's single-target and AE jolt line of spells. Remember, Alternate Advancements (AAs) have a cap on how many mobs they can hit, but spells do not have this limitation.
  5. Pull a group of mobs and, after a few rounds, use an AE spell to increase the SK's aggro.
  6. On the characters you are power leveling, cast AE damage spells. I always create a bard for this purpose to twist the level 2 song "Chords of Dissonance."
  7. Once some damage has been inflicted, cast your skin and damage shield spells, turn your back to the mobs, and keep sitting until they are dead.
  8. Repeat the process or move to a higher-level zone.
This (https://www.redguides.com/community/threads/skyes-powerleveling-guide.69658/) is a good guide on where to go or just follow the hot zones.
 
Shaman. But yeah, this last expansion for me now that MQdruid came out it feels like I am watching EQ and not playing. If I interfere with the plugins chances are I only make things worse unless things are going to shit then I jump in and do a few things the auomation won't. It kinda has me bummed a little bit.
 
njk70 said:
Shaman. But yeah, this last expansion for me now that MQdruid came out it feels like I am watching EQ and not playing. If I interfere with the plugins chances are I only make things worse unless things are going to shit then I jump in and do a few things the auomation won't. It kinda has me bummed a little bit.
Click to expand...
:-(
 
From my understanding, if you planned on buying the MQ2class plugin's over time, figure out which classes you want to play and use RGMercs to make fancy mercenaries out of them> That way they level as you do. Or, just drag them along and level them with them hiding in the corner. To me, DPS mercs aren't much better then hiding 3 toons to get them leveled as you go along.
 
Yeah shaman for sure to go with the bard and SK. As for the plugins, Sic and crew really highlighted how slow and old I've become, it's just sad when I try to take over, I can feel my toons judging me! 😜
 
I may sound like a dumb rambling Goblin, but this is my two cents regarding the cleric vs Shaman thing, based on what I've been told and learned (and it also heavily depends on what content and level range you plan to play on):

Shaman only truly shines at higher levels for healing (around or past level 105 I think?) and becomes a pretty competitive healer vs the Cleric. While the Cleric is pretty much the safest choice in general as a core healer class. It has a much higher healing rate per mana cost, with great defensive buffs and auras for your tank, along with having group healing and more "oshit oh fuck" abilities if shit hits the fan during battle. Therefore the latter is the safest bet from level 1 to level cap for both group and raid contents in general from a purely defensive and core healing standpoint. Although, with an SK's lifetaps and self-healing spells kit, it can compensate a lot for the lack of healing power of your Shaman at lower levels, which should be enough for simple group content.

However I think having both the CLR and SHM can be great in a melee group for the sake of having the best of both worlds; great healing and defensive kits, and amazing buffs for a melee team, slows, cures and some magical DPS. Some people prefer to replace the shaman with a Beastlord, but I personally find it kinda pointless because its spells kit is much weaker than a Shaman's, just like it is for an SK with a Necro. Therefore (from what I personally believe), having better melee buffs can somewhat compensate for the lack of one less melee DPS in the team with higher overall damage output as a result.

I'm not claiming to be an EQ expert, I'm just sharing what I've learned so far from lurking around this community.
 
I hear ya on the feels like you're watching, instead of playing; however, that is what manual mode or the other tank modes are for. For me, I drive from my bard so doesn't bother me much whatever mode I'm using on the tank, because I have no desire to know how to play one in the first place :P So my advice would be to pick a main where you spend the majority of your screen time and either do not automate that character, or...watch the automation play to figure out what you were doing wrong on the SK, then ween yourself off of it when you're driving it.
 
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