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Discussion - FTP tanking. What are my options? (1 Viewer)

colexian

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Dec 9, 2015
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I have a 6-man team of half-silver half-bronze accounts.
When deciding on the team makeup I knew I wanted three wizards for DPS, a healer, a tank, and someone to CC.
I decided on an enchanter for the CC since bard seem more suited to melee oriented groups, and I knew I wanted a cleric for healing simply because I love clerics (Shaman is amazing as well, but the enchanter can haste/slow so it really loses a lot of the utility)
So then I had to think long and hard about what kind of tank I wanted and very quickly I realized as a FTP player I wouldn't have access to the vast majority of usable AC augs.
So my choices were either A: Shitty warrior or knight with garbage augs, B: A mercenary that will quit on me when I need them most (Dumbest feature of any game i've ever seen. What am I paying you for, you cowardly AI!), or C: A pet that hold its own.
So I decided to try and main tank with a mage (Wood elf beastlord was a close second, but I read that Earth elementals can tank better.) and it is going okay so far at level 55.

So this brings me to my question:
Is a mage pet going to be able to tank most 6-man group content later in the game?
I kind of want to get a heroic Iksar Warrior just for the AC bonus and the free sweet non-prestige heroic AC augs.
Would that be an acceptable tank or would the lack of prestige augs just completely ruin that slot in my group for tanking and dps?
Also, what is the consensus on BL vs mage pet for pet tanking? Which can take you farther?
 
You can tank most group content up to 100 with just a heroic mage who has all AAs up to 85 plus a few more.
This means you can do it with a regular nonheroic mage who has done autogrant to 95 and then reverted to bronze/silver.

There is one issue though: mage pet aggro management, that pet will not be able to aggro extra adds as well as a real tank, your CC has to be spot on.

Your current setup is the most optimal for DPS but if shit hits the fan you'll be in trouble. Pets do tend to die from time to time in newest content.

So, either go 2nd mage instead of wiz losing a bit of dps but gaining extra tanking safety, or get that heroic tank, losing dps but gaining extra safety.

With full heroic augs and group T1 armor tanking is quite feasible for a silver/bronze war.

I've also tanked as a silver SK but wearing full Raid T1 gear(FV) + all non-prestige augs and it was cake too. :)

The new TBM T1 group gear is also looking quite promising mostly surprassing Raid T1 100 gear. Let's not even mention Shield of Dreams...

Razkle should be able to tell you morea bout different class mixes as he experiments with different setups.
 
I currently have two none heroic lvl 100 warriors tanking for farm grps, both have tanked in Cotf t1 zones using a cleric merc and shammy as healers. also have 1 lvl 105 heroic SK who has tanked upto thullisar island so far. not easy but not impossible.
 
I'd recommend a heroic war and farm the non-prestige ac augs and swap 1 wiz for a mage.

the war will level very quickly and max aa and they are pretty solid from a KA set and forget perspective. although likely pal & sk would work just as well if you invest the time

trading a wiz for a mage will get you some significant DS to go on tanks, mod rods for the group, relatively limitless food / drink, pet gear to sell in bazaar,CoTH functions which can be handy, a pet tank that might live long enough if the RNG works against the war and cleric at the same time... and probably some other utilities I'm forgetting
 
Okay, so, a group comp of 2 wiz, mage, cleric, and heroic warrior would be capable of full automation at max level among most group content?
Any comments on mage vs beastlord pet tanking ability? Especially now with the aggro changes.


..relatively limitless food / drink..
Do you or anyone else happen to know of a way to get a mage to provide food to the entire group? before I get a targeted or group version of the summon food/drink spells?
 
Do you or anyone else happen to know of a way to get a mage to provide food to the entire group? before I get a targeted or group version of the summon food/drink spells?

You can get the forage AA at level 51. That should supply enough food and drink. It only costs 3 AA.
 
For me there are 2 questions, are you farming or leveling and questing? If pure farming then 3 wiz, if not then swap a wiz for a mage. The other question is Warrior vs SK, I love my SK and my Warrior and I have 1 of each maxed AA, 105 and FTP! Yes FTP and they hold there own just fine, granted the SK is CTOV Raid FTP full Gelid but still, FTP. I am testing FTP all the way into Arx at the moment and with a good cleric and mezzer he does a fine job. I would change up your mezzer to mez on 2 or more instead of 3 or more.
 
Mage vs Bst:
Don't know about lower end, never ran the 2 together till 80+.
Straight from summon, Mage hand down. It comes geared w/pet armor.
Fully buffed (with = focuses), compairable.
Fully buffed and fully geared (mage pet gear) I think the Bst pet wins...but needs mage summoned pet gear.


Mage = better non-melee dps, mod rods.
Bst = good combat buffs, added Mana buffs, PARAGON AA's, very versatile pet buffs (slow/heal/snare/dd).
If per tanking, Bst probably wont be meleeing so will lose apx 1/3 his DPS (at least in my groups - 1/3 pet, 1/3 spells, 1/3 melee).
Bst has better pet healing plus decent group heals as well.

So looking at you group... If PetTanking go mage, If Real tank might go Bst for melee support/buffs but is debatable.

I love my Bst, wont give him up, but I do know his limits (but Bst + pet can make a good seconday tank if MT goes down and awaiting combat rez).
 
Do BST's greatly out-aggro their pets still? With recent changes, they'd be able to let pet tank while melee'ing, unless their pets don't generate a lot of hate. I'm not familiar with the class though, which is why I'm asking.
 
Do BST's greatly out-aggro their pets still? With recent changes, they'd be able to let pet tank while melee'ing, unless their pets don't generate a lot of hate. I'm not familiar with the class though, which is why I'm asking.

The pets can out aggro the Bst, usually. But will depend on what proc buffs you use on the pet, ad what spells you use on the Bst.
My KA set up my Bst pet bairly beats out mt Bst for aggro (30-40k DPS). If I manually run my Bst, Pet can't hold aggro (55-65k DPS) (non-burns).
But same goes for the Mage as well. But Mage swarm pet can out agro my SK, where Bst pet (swarm or normal) will not.
 
2 more cents..

Mage's are set up to be the top pet owners, and come in just under wizards for spell DPS, depending on set up and whose playing them.

BL's are a mix of melee DPS with shaman utility, with some added bonus. Their pets are 2 grades below mages generally speaking, but BL can do some sweet stuff with pet buffs and other utility spells to make them very useful.

I do not have side-by-side comparison DPS charts (and I am sure other folks have different opinions , heh) but I believe a combined (toon + pet+DS+procs) the mage will be the better DPS, plus there are times a mage pet does better tanking against X named then toon tanks.

How ever at times I have been glade I brought along a utility class to tackle oddball missions/named mechanics. So, like Razkle says... kinda depends on what you are after. You want a straight up farm group, Mage would be my choice. You want something you are going to use/liveplay, I would put some thought into a BL (or some of the other utility classes)
 
With the TBM group gear being non prestige (I live on FV so I can just trade the gear down to the free accounts that dont have tbm) ftp tanks can get pretty good gear
 
Discussion - FTP tanking. What are my options?

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