how to tank as a paladin ?

[random1102]

Are paladins really extremely gear dependent ?

gear -> all rift ( non-set ) with a lvl50 pink spear
armor : 118

ao3:victory lap -> keeper portal
the big room just before keeper's room

i run in start spamming spells , drawing the whole room's agro
my hp just shoots down and i had to spam hp pots just to stay alive.
*somehow i had the impression that paladins should be able to stay alive with heal + blessing of vitality + drain , which wasn't the case . . . .

the only ones i've seen tank the room's initial spike
are bears and full-rift paladins

so... back to my original question
or rather , let me rephrase it

Do mages need full rift to tank ao3 ?

[KingFu]

Well first, full rift won't save you there. That's with 2 or 3 mini bosses, and after that. 2 or 3 more. With barrels and all. It won't save ypu. But it will make it a LOT easier. IMO, pally without full rift is a fail. Yes, with full rift pally you can tank very well, but it's not as easy as wearing destiny pinks and running in with a battle cry and spamming spells

[DawnInfinity]

Yeah, full rift is certainly very helpful. The set bonus adds a lot to survivability. I don't find myself having to spam pots like that, only when I'm with a bad team. I don't feel like pallies necessarily NEED full rift to tank, but it sure makes things a lot easier.

[Lesrider]

Full rift adds armor (scimmy alone is +7, before bonus) and much more ms. I played around with stats of other weapons since the scimmy doesn't really hit much. But it makes the most sense in the end. As a pally, you're not relying much on your weapon anyway -- it's all in your skills. The only reason I use my weapon is if I want to stay close to an enemy.

[Retributionzx]

Yeh but armor helps a lot but so does buff skills I find them very helpful more then damage skills.

[KingFu]

Full rift adds armor (scimmy alone is +7, before bonus) and much more ms. I played around with stats of other weapons since the scimmy doesn't really hit much. But it makes the most sense in the end. As a pally, you're not relying much on your weapon anyway -- it's all in your skills. The only reason I use my weapon is if I want to stay close to an enemy.

Along with the +50 health. It's a life saver

[Luchta]

Noob question, what bonus? Is there a cosmos bonus as well?

[KingFu]

Noob question, what bonus? Is there a cosmos bonus as well?

Yes. All classes have different gear set with different bonuses. Cosmos is mirage staff. Ol cosmos helm. And mirage cosmos robes. Rift is rift scimitar. Screaming skull shield. Ol rift helm. And power armor. Void is Jacob void. Mega blaster. And wriaith armor. Id pull the number but idk where exactly to find it. If someone else did. I'd really appreciate it

[Facehumper]

Set Bonuses can be found HERE under "Sets & Stat Bonuses"

[Kujen]

No offense to the pallys out there, it's a great build for survival, but I'm beginning to think they're overrated as group tanks. My bird gets a lot of aggro, and since nobody plays their bears anymore, nobody can taunt the mobs to gain aggro. Paladins can't taunt like the bears. So I often end up tanking when I don't want to, due to my DPS.

I really just wish they would do something to make bears desired in groups again! Give them their jobs back lol

[Barbamitsos]

I can survive U cant. The diference is order of spells and ure usage. U do bad usage i gues I do good. Im getin in victory lap with 10 pots hp-mp and get out with 20

[omnipresence]

I'd rather be a pure int mage with a huge mana pool for my mana shield than try tanking with inadequate armor any day.

[FluffNStuff]

I would rather be a pure mage and kill the mobs in half the time then be a paladin.

[omnipresence]

I would rather be a pure mage and kill the mobs in half the time then be a paladin.

If you have good mana regen armor, you shouldn't run out of mana casting AOE spells. I'm almost always full mana even spamming buff, debuff, AOE, and heal skills.

[Vaelma]

I'm loving my pally and don't feel the need to tank. I still kind of hang back, especially with new groups where I don't know how they play. I have full rift but rarely get close enough to use my weapon. I'm much more effective in groups now because I survive and buff and debuff and heal like crazy. I rarely die with Gurg and OL now and am usually running around reving other group members without using rings even. Awesome.

In that room before Keeper first thing I do is run in (with group) and go for sniper and cast nightmare, drain health then weakness. Then I spam heals and if it's a good group that doesn't need healing and reving as much I am able to cast nightmare and lightning to try to get combos. And of course always keeping up group buffs. I sometimes have to use mana pots but rarely health pots....spamming heals and drain life works great. The few times I've died was because my health was down and someone blew up a barrel. Lol.

[random1102]

ok, starting to get the hang of this pally thing

1) pop a tanking pot( for the harder hitting maps)
2) lead run into mob packs
weakness -> lightning -> frost storm -> firestorm -> heal -> drain

lightning before frost storm lets them move closer to you first
before the frost storm locks them in place

firestorm hits harder on mobs nearer to you
so you want them to be as close as possible


*side note
why all the hate on pallies ?
i respeced from pure-int to int-str just to see whats all the hype is about.
on my pure-int mage , the only classes that could hold agro were pallies and str-birds
and i had to hold back on my DPS so much ,
to the point that my regen was keeping my mana max almost all time in boss fights

on mob packs , sure mages do shine.
but on bosses ?
unload a couple cycles(all offensive spells&combos)
agro flips on me
turn on mana-shield
and proceed to spam hp pots till tank grabs agro back

maybe they should do something about bear's agro holding capabilities
-after browsing through some threads
think i'am gona attribute this to me not meeting a good bear yet :x

[omnipresence]

...maybe they should do something about bear's agro holding capabilities...

The mages ability to do huge amounts of AOE damange has to be balanced with taking aggro from bears; otherwise you could have one bear and all casters and clear everything out in no time. I think the bears ability to take aggro is fairly balanced as it is. Like you, I also rarely drop much in mana due to good m/s gear (and that includes debuff, buff, heal, and spamming AOE). For bosses I toggle auto-attack when I get aggro; if you have a good bird or bear with you, you shouldn't have aggro very long and can resume the auto-attack.

I'm not a pally hater but I personally feel you cripple the benefits of mana shield by not having the biggest mana pool possible. The most critical role of an enchanter, though infrequently needed, is reviving fallen members. In a worst case scenario (everyone dies but you), I like to know I have the mana to cast a mana shield, revive, heal, and buff fellow players while also taking hits from mobs or a boss to keep our group alive and going. The good m/s gear gives me that mana back quickly so I'm ready to do it again, if needed.

[Luchta]

It's just yesterday that I learned about that elixir on VL. I got booted for now potting.

[Kujen]

Bears ability to hold aggro relies almost completely on the taunt skill. But they have to spam it for it to work, it has a short cool down..you have to press it constantly. Unfortunately a lot of bears don't seem to use it..and I'm talking about str bears. It's like they don't want to get the aggro even though they are the ones who can handle it best.

[Luchta]

No wonder even with two bears I still end up tanking keepers with my poor full int mage. I die when lag spikes or I survive when 3G is good. I guess it's good to remind them once in a while. It's really a waste of h/m pots.