I am very new to the game and chose a warrior based on EverQuest 2 and WoW which I played before this. Anyway, I have been reading threads about not Tanking because it is not efficient and things like that so I went to the Sticky about warriors to read a little about what we do. I am a little confused according to these statements it sounds like we tank...
1) Find a suitable group, and flag the henchies/tell party members to stay back while you aggro the enemy.
2) Snag a defensive enchantment or two, depending on the difficulty of the group.
3) Take a few hits to secure their attention.
4) Bring the henchmen/party members back to help kill/support you. AoE spells like Searing Flames {E}
help to kill, but try to space them out over time so monsters don’t panic.
5) Try to ensure you won’t lose aggro
6) Try to snare anything that tries to run (but DO NOT move, or you will break aggro with all the others).
Some other things make holding aggro easier too. Sometimes if the enemy has to come around a corner to engage you in melee, you can stand at the corner, hit them a few times, and force them to fight back, making them ignore more vulnerable party members.
Yet further down I read this important point...
2. Do not tank – While you should hold aggro, don’t try and tank. It’s counter productive most of the time and boring as hell. This also means you shouldn’t take 4 blocking stances because you dying isn’t the end of the world (refer to 1.).
So which is it? Do we try to keep mobs on us and tank or are we just a dps class that pulls to absorb spike damage before the mobs all scatter to everyone? What do the mobs do if they aren't all on a tank, just run to whoever they want while the rest of the party just kills whoever the warrior is targeting? Do pets usually do the tanking in this game?
I admit I have played solo for about an hour so far but am a little reluctant to group as I do not really know the warriors roll in this game entirely.
New to Guild Wars.
Bramwell
Flem
Trust me, you will get bombarded with people telling you not to tank. Never ever forget that this game is completely situational and caters to a large variety of play style. Tanking IS AN OPTION. Throughout the game you will be able to tank effectively if you choose to. Some situations, however, are better suited for you to do spike, condition, pressure, shutdown, etc.
Best way to play this game is flexibility. Adapt to your enviroment and current party. There are a good amount of people on here that will try and pressure you into the same boring mental jailcell that they are locked into, but resist. GW can be played successfully with the same skills that people on this forum deem as "fail"
Everyone here considers their opinion as fact. Take advice, that's a good thing, but dont consider it as the final word. Try stuff out that is suggested or looks interesting, it's the best way to understand the game and the way "builds" work.
Oh, and most of all.....HAVE FUN!
Best way to play this game is flexibility. Adapt to your enviroment and current party. There are a good amount of people on here that will try and pressure you into the same boring mental jailcell that they are locked into, but resist. GW can be played successfully with the same skills that people on this forum deem as "fail"
Everyone here considers their opinion as fact. Take advice, that's a good thing, but dont consider it as the final word. Try stuff out that is suggested or looks interesting, it's the best way to understand the game and the way "builds" work.
Oh, and most of all.....HAVE FUN!
Bramwell
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flem
Trust me, you will get bombarded with people telling you not to tank.
Yes I understand but if we are not absorbing all the damage from the enemies who is taking the hits in a group?
Tyla
Tanking is bad Flem, it's an option but an incredibly bad one.
And there are no 'situations' where you have to spike, pressure ect...your entire time as playing as a Warrior if you want to be good is actually killing stuff.
But Bramwell, your job as a Warrior is just three things: Kill, Kill, KILL!
And there are no 'situations' where you have to spike, pressure ect...your entire time as playing as a Warrior if you want to be good is actually killing stuff.
But Bramwell, your job as a Warrior is just three things: Kill, Kill, KILL!
I Angra I
What it means is don't run skills/a build that entirely revolves around you having all self-defense skills and being a tank and soaking up damage. Warriors have a lot of damage output potential, and should be doing that. However, regardless of this, they still have the highest armor level and are going to be in the frontline. Therefore in PvE it's still beneficial to have a warrior soak up most of the damage from mobs and hold aggro. While holding aggro and tanking damage, you can still be doing damage yourself with the skills that you bring, rather than just sitting there being a tank, and doing nothing else besides taking the damage.
Bramwell
Quote:
Originally Posted by I Angra I
What it means is don't run skills/a build that entirely revolves around you having all self-defense skills and being a tank and soaking up damage. Warriors have a lot of damage potential, and should be doing that. However, regardless of this, they still have the highest armor level and are going to be in the frontline. Therefore in PvE it's still beneficial to have a warrior soak up most of the damage from mobs and hold aggro. While holding aggro and tanking damage, you can still be doing damage yourself with the skills that you bring, rather than just sitting there being a tank, and doing nothing else besides taking the damage.
This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks 
I Angra I
Also reading the questions at the end of your post, mobs will tend to scatter pretty easily regardless of how well you aggro them initially, unless you have a pretty organized group. Most of the time there's not much you can do about it. It's still good to attempt to aggro them onto you at first though because you'll at least be taking most of the damage, if only for the beginning of an engagement. After they've completely scattered, really there's nothing more you can do besides just output your damage and kill them.
Stormlord Alex
I'd quote Angra for epic truth but I'm feeling lazy.
Have a hug instead *hug*
Take initial aggro, but don't go out of your way to be a 'tank' - it's not worth it.
Have a hug instead *hug*
Take initial aggro, but don't go out of your way to be a 'tank' - it's not worth it.
wetsparks
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bramwell
What do the mobs do if they aren't all on a tank, just run to whoever they want while the rest of the party just kills whoever the warrior is targeting? Do pets usually do the tanking in this game?
Since those two questions didn't really get answered, once the enemies break agro on you they go after the weakest party members or most important, usually monks. Caster classes have 60 AL so they are "soft" targets and the enemy AI has a priority where they attack monks before others since they are critical to your party.
Pets can hold agro on enemies though I am unsure to how well it works. All I know is that sometimes they will gang up on my pet when I'm playing as a ranger but that might be because it is an easy target and pets usually die fairly fast.
Pets can hold agro on enemies though I am unsure to how well it works. All I know is that sometimes they will gang up on my pet when I'm playing as a ranger but that might be because it is an easy target and pets usually die fairly fast.
Richardt
Pets don't hold aggro overly well (in my experience at least).
And as a warrior-use TERRAIN! If you can, hold aggro on walls, near obstacles that sort sort of thing-if they're all balled up on one corner, then noone should be escaping. Otherwise as wetsparks says, they will rush to the back line and hit your spellcasters.
And as a warrior-use TERRAIN! If you can, hold aggro on walls, near obstacles that sort sort of thing-if they're all balled up on one corner, then noone should be escaping. Otherwise as wetsparks says, they will rush to the back line and hit your spellcasters.
h9dlb
yes - there is no answer to your question. Flem is right - and thats the beauty of guild wars - every quest is different and requires a certain approach. Often trial and error is the key (or a quick look at guild wiki)
If your new, Warrior prolly isnt the best class to play though
If your new, Warrior prolly isnt the best class to play though
Marty Silverblade
Quote:
What it means is don't run skills/a build that entirely revolves around you having all self-defense skills and being a tank and soaking up damage. Warriors have a lot of damage output potential, and should be doing that. However, regardless of this, they still have the highest armor level and are going to be in the frontline. Therefore in PvE it's still beneficial to have a warrior soak up most of the damage from mobs and hold aggro. While holding aggro and tanking damage, you can still be doing damage yourself with the skills that you bring, rather than just sitting there being a tank, and doing nothing else besides taking the damage.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by h9dlb
yes - there is no answer to your question. Flem is right - and thats the beauty of guild wars - every quest is different and requires a certain approach. Often trial and error is the key (or a quick look at guild wiki)
If your new, Warrior prolly isnt the best class to play though Flem is right in the fact that you can choose to tank and that it will work, it is an option. It's just slows your team down and is boring as hell. Really, the players that see tanking as a good option are basically just bad players. No area in GW requires tanking.
Winterclaw
Warriors have one of the best DPSs in the game so you'd kind of be putting that potential to waste if you try to tank too much. There are smart things that you can do (like holding agro) but that doesn't mean tank... that means wail on the other guy, kill him, and move on.
Flem
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade
Flem is right in the fact that you can choose to tank and that it will work, it is an option. It's just slows your team down and is boring as hell. Really, the players that see tanking as a good option are basically just bad players. No area in GW requires tanking. I don't find it slows down you team at all. "Boring as hell" is your opinion. Some people find sex boring, but does that make them right (or wrong for that matter)? Everyone chooses to play the game differently. You telling someone they are a bad player is egotistical, asinine, and arrogant. The things you like and don't like have NO WEIGHT AT ALL on what is true or false. Welcome to freewill. No areas in GW really require anything...but, tanking can be viable in almost every part as an option. Bramwell
Great! Thanks for the info everyone. I am sure I will eventually try out both methods of playing the Warrior. I am having a lot of fun so far and am pleasantly surprised by how willing to help people have been.
Torqual
Here are the things you will be told if you read this forum:
1) You must use an axe 2) You must play W/E with Shock! 3) You must use Frenzy - if you die, it's the monk's fault 4) You must use Eviscerate 5) You must use Executioner's Strike! 6) You must never 'tank'! Unfortunately most of the above advice is totally irrelevant to you if you are a new warrior starting out in, say, Prophecies. Most of the advice above is PvP centric and/or designed for people that have access to all campaigns, and have unlocked all skills and heroes. Eviscerate, for example, can't be capped unless you leap straight into Eye of the North or until you get to the final mission of Prophecies. The only advice I would give you is don't try to be l33t straight away, try out all new skills as you get them, and develop your own style of play. Don't run too far from Monks but at the same time don't expect too much of them if you are a new player. It's fine for you to try out some defensive skills. It's only when you're playing the game at a higher level that it gets more specialised into roles. If you're a new player, try playing a balanced role where you give out decent damage, can look after your own health, and actively shield the physically weaker (caster) players by offering yourself as a target. You can't expect to play as a specialised damage-giver if there are not specialised healer/protector/party buffer characters and/or heroes; these won't be in evidence in the early stages of Prophecies as the other players lack the skills/elite skills/experience to do this - just like you do. Prophecies is a lovely way to learn the game. It takes you for ever to reach level 20 and you are slowly drip-fed skills and can try each one out and form your own opinion. There's really no desperate need to short-cut this and try to do what highly-experienced players do, as it's no substitute for learning to play the game yourself and developing your own style. Final piece of advice.... ignore the people that predictably flame this post. Tyla
Torqual, nobody said any of the above.
P.S: Body Blow > Executioners Strike.
Bobby2
There's a big difference in mindset between a tank and my strapping Warrior
- a Tank will hold aggro just so the squishies on his team won't be raped - my Warrior will hold aggro so NO ONE ESCAPES HIS MIGHTY WRATH yum
Quote:
Originally Posted by I Angra I
Also reading the questions at the end of your post, mobs will tend to scatter pretty easily regardless of how well you aggro them initially, unless you have a pretty organized group. Most of the time there's not much you can do about it. It's still good to attempt to aggro them onto you at first though because you'll at least be taking most of the damage, if only for the beginning of an engagement. After they've completely scattered, really there's nothing more you can do besides just output your damage and kill them.
I believe the op thinks more about the build than the actual gameplay.
In your team you should always have a monk, so tank = get the damage concentrating on as fewer targets as possible since its easier to prot. You hold the aggro, and your monk prots you. There is no need for any defensive skills on your bar. Why warrior is good for this? Coz they have higher AL and by so, their monks would have easier time to prot them than squishy. -------- The majority of epic tankers think otherwise. They want to hold aggro AND prot themselves. See the difference? GW is a team game. Bramwell
Prior to Wednesday I was playing Everquest 2 since 2004. In that game when you "Tank" it simply means you are the person in the group that takes all the damage. You didn't really have to worry about taking only 8 skills with you. You get about 27 skills to use all the time and they have a variety of uses. There were offensive and defensive style tanks but they were still "Tanking" either way.
I have learned in this game the term "Tank" means the Warrior used basically all 8 skill slots for mostly defense and not really much offense. This is where I was confused. In my mind when I started reading this forum and learning about skills I figured a Warrior who used 8 Offensive OR Defensive skills is still considered to be "Tanking" for the group simply because he is taking all the damage. Now I understand the term "Tank" is used in Guild Wars to mean someone going full defensive and not really doing much offense.
Flem
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bramwell
Prior to Wednesday I was playing Everquest 2 since 2004. In that game when you "Tank" it simply means you are the person in the group that takes all the damage. You didn't really have to worry about taking only 8 skills with you. You get about 27 skills to use all the time and they have a variety of uses. There were offensive and defensive style tanks but they were still "Tanking" either way.
I have learned in this game the term "Tank" means the Warrior used basically all 8 skill slots for mostly defense and not really much offense. This is where I was confused. In my mind when I started reading this forum and learning about skills I figured a Warrior who used 8 Offensive OR Defensive skills is still considered to be "Tanking" for the group simply because he is taking all the damage. Now I understand the term "Tank" is used in Guild Wars to mean someone going full defensive and not really doing much offense. Not only does warrior not have to be the tank (several other classes can do it also with certain builds), but according to the skills the "tank", the skills monks brings, and what enemies you are fighting.... a tank can bring more offensive skills then def. However, the harder the enemy the more likely the tank will bring more def skills so the rest of the part can do their jobs better.
Div
Keep flame wars, trolling, or derailing out of this thread, or be prepared for a ban. I'm sick of warrior threads always turning to crap.
The OP asked a good question, he got some good responses. No need to push the line and start something new.
Bobby2
If you have decent Monk back up there's no reason any frontliner won't be able to go offense AND keep aggro in check.
^ this post is perfectly fine. It shows alternative ways of playing the warrior profession. I was mostly referring to the posts Inde already deleted.
Yichi
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torqual
Eviscerate, for example, can't be capped unless you leap straight into Eye of the North or until you get to the final mission of Prophecies.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Tanzit_Razorstone
oh hi der. I'm not in Eye of the North nor am I anywhere near the end of the game...
Jam Jar
From my limited experience in PvP and PvE. It's probably not a good idea to tank unless certain situations apply. In fact I don't think its a good idea to tank at all unless you have a Mo/* or */Mo, unless of course if you have some farming build you got from others (make sure it works).
Warrior is not your Buffed up armor that is x10 than your other characters. Some attacks can ignore your armor. While others are just so repetetive you can't heal straight. You should not tank unless you have a monk with you that can heal you. The reason is because you can't heal yourself right unless you have extreme anti caster or anti melee spells casted on you. Healing signet is totally out of the question unless you have a blocking stance. The signet basically DOUBLES your damage. And when you're being attacked like hell, that's alot of damage. There are other self heals, but just don't tank. However, now you say that since you can't tank, you should be able to do dps right? Don't dervishes and assassins have better dps too? Well, from what I've learned, warrior has the stablest dps out of the three. The other two are spikers... but I'm not too sure, because I don't have nightfall and I haven't read a lot about Dervishes. Anyway... bottom line is, Warrior is more suited for attacking, but if the situation calls, then the warrior can sure hold their ground when needed.
Crom The Pale
In some of the earlier stages of the game, say fighting foes under lvl 15, tanking may be the most effective or at least the simplest way for a new war to play.
With the right skills a war can become almost unkillable in the very early areas allowing him to solo and lvl up fast as well as tank for a party effectively. You may also notice foes hold onto agro much more in the earlier stages, pre-searing has no aoe scatter effect. That being said in the later parts of the game things shift a great deal as foes start to deal much more damage and require more advanced tactics to kill. When foes start to use self healing or travel in balanced parties then tanking just is not a viable option.
Luminarus
Tank by all means... using your monk to let you do so.
Force the hero, or monk to put prot spirit and soa/shielding hands/guardian/spirit bond on you, then get the aggro. Once you have it, start killing, and get youre team to come in and say hi to the baddies, followed by a big can of whoopass. Works really well if you can do it right. If you cant quit life (jks). But seriously, blocking their attacks isnt that useful, especially as the foes get harder and hit harder 2. Prot spirit can save more damage then 4 stances, and only requires 1 skill slot (on monk, so you can still do lotsa damage)
King of Clubs
I've read through this entire thread, and I would say this. Learn the game. Learn the different skills. Learn what skills work good together and what don't. Use Henchie(s)--hero(s) to your advantage. Even just bringing one or 2 can be a big difference. It just takes time to learn what skills help out other skills.
The biggest thing I can think about for a warrior is this. It's always pretty easy to find a group to go on missions with. Your big DPS helps them out big time, while the casters are shutting down the enemy. A party with a couple of Rangers, Mesmer, Monk can be a fun team. Mix in a Minion Master and your job becomes just chasing down the enemy and destroying them. The later Missions are difficult indeed, and it takes a stroke of genius to succesfully tank anything. Too many conditions taking you out. Just my opinion though.
Alex the Great
you want to keep agro, becuase you can take the most damage, not because of tanking skills. just run in there and beat some stuff up lol!!!
Yichi
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torqual
What nonsense. To reach Sorrow's Furnace you either have to get run (cheat) or complete 19/25 missions. Not anywhere near the end of the game? It's just.... a total lie.
You can't even cap skills until you've got to LA, in which case you may as well go into Eye of the North and Bjora Marches if Eviscerate was all you wanted (although it's a weird, back-to-front way to play the game). Sorry, but if you imply a noob warrior just out of pre-sear can pop down to Sorrow's Furnace (an elite area) and grab Eviscerate, then go back to killing Level 8 Charr; it's possibly the most ridiculous thing I have ever read on guru. To the OP. Ignore the above. You can get Dismember from Piken Square early on, which will do you fine until such elites as Eviscerate become available late in the game. LRN2READ plz. Go re-read what I quoted you and you will see why I replied the way I did. And also, where did I say a warrior fresh out of pre was able to go straight to Sorrow's Furnace? oh, thats right, I DIDN'T!!! I said that Eviscerate (provided you don't have nightfall where it is easier to get too) can be capped in areas other than the final mission of the game as you said you had to get to in order to capture this skill.
Sha Noran
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torqual
What nonsense. To reach Sorrow's Furnace you either have to get run (cheat)
... and then your opinion stopped mattering, because running/getting runs is not cheating, and ANet stated so back in the day when running Droks still mattered.
LightningHell
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torqual
Here are the things you will be told if you read this forum:
1) You must use an axe 2) You must play W/E with Shock! 3) You must use Frenzy - if you die, it's the monk's fault 4) You must use Eviscerate 5) You must use Executioner's Strike! 6) You must never 'tank'! Unfortunately most of the above advice is totally irrelevant to you if you are a new warrior starting out in, say, Prophecies. Most of the advice above is PvP centric and/or designed for people that have access to all campaigns, and have unlocked all skills and heroes. Eviscerate, for example, can't be capped unless you leap straight into Eye of the North or until you get to the final mission of Prophecies. Ironic thing is probably the only staple PvP Warrior build that can function properly without any other campaigns than Prophecies is none other than the Shock Axe, but nobody was talking about that anyway.
Trvth Jvstice
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bramwell
So which is it? Do we try to keep mobs on us and tank or are we just a dps class that pulls to absorb spike damage before the mobs all scatter to everyone?
There is no reliable way to keep aggro as a Warrior. As a Warrior, the most important things you can do in a group are as follows: always take first aggro, always use the skill [wiki]Save Yourselves![/wiki] as often as possible, do as much damage as you possibly can, try to avoid aggroing additional mobs until the rest of the group is prepared to face said mob.
There may be special circumstances where you may be expected to do something different(?), but for general PVE the above is what the vast majority of groups will expect of you. If a group asks you to go all defense and be only a tank, say, "nvm, gotta go," then abruptly leave. |
