Ogani
04-16-2014, 04:04 PM
This is simply the introduction. I am making step by step walk thru's of the newer maps as well.
First off I wanted to create this guide because I have found that there are not near as many tanks that know how to run elites as there should be. This guide is some quick incites I have and some types of players and the roles they should take. This guide is really aimed at the newer maps as well as Shuyal and Nordr (if your struggling with Dead city and under you need to keep practicing and work on your gear...).
The more elites I run the more I find that there really are not that many tanks that know how to run. I am pretty well geared but I have found my best weapon in elite is....Rogues and Mages. They have forgotten the basis of our job. Your job as a tank is to control and move the mobs where you want them and to keep your team alive. The easiest way to control the mob? Agrro baby yea! So what is aggro? Aggro is basically achieved thru skills and attacks that will draw the attention of your enemies to you instead of your team. There are several ways to get this and I will explain below. As a tank you must realize that in the new elites you are not going to be able to go in and crush all mobs in 20 seconds. There is a lot of discussion about tanks and their damage but what I have found is that yea alot of the times we are cannon fodder but we can be the cannon as well :tongue:. I will give you a quick overview of gear, skills and tactics for elites. Also below is an ss of my tank and some of the things I use.
844598446084461
The Party
Undoubtedly one of the most important peices of elite is the team you are with. I have found that my favorite parties are composed of one good tank, one mage and 2 rogues. This is not to say that 2 mages aren't incredible but I have found this to be the fatest and easiest. Alot of time we forget the basis of AL is fun and we lose it in the process. Don't crack jokes in the middle of the rumble but when it's over..have at it. Chat kills will never end well for the group. You must remeber that protecting your rogues and mages are key to your survival as well as theirs.Understanding how they move and utilizing what they give you will always help. When that rogue drops the veil...use it. An easy way is to simply walk into the veil and pop that horn to aggro the mob to follow. If you have jugg or windmill with aggro this will do as well. Positon your enemies where your team can do the most damage.
Skills
So this is my build for elites and what I have found to work for me, please feel free to leave suggestions and any information you have found to help us along the way. It is very important to have no less than one but preferably two skills that provide aggro. I use Chest Splitter (3 Skill points), Skyward Smash ( 4 points, all but mana regen), Vengeful ( 5 Points), Jugg (4 points, you can add the 5th for aggro if you like) and ofc Horn of Renew (5 points). Your horn will provide aggro and protect your team, win win. Now what I have found to be very useful is to switch between jugg and venge. The easiest way is to activate jugg before going into the mob and then activating horn of renew. This will allow you a 2 second window to then switch to venge while shielded. Now by doing this you have added 500 HP points from jugg and close to 400+ HP from venge plus the added dmg and other buffs that come with these skills. You are now a brick wall my friend. The reason Jugg first is because the cool down time is very long. I use a 6 skill set total but only these in elites. If you are not comfortable or good at skill switching please do not attempt it. Best idea is to pratice until your good enought at it. Once you are it really does become a smooth transaction as if you were charging up a skill. There are a lot of people who use windmill and it is a great skill but I prefer the low cool down times and high damage of chest splitter. So once again this is preference.
Gear
Gear is very important but not the only thing that matters in this game. I prefer high damage over DPS because it directly relates to the damage produced by your skills. Lets face it, warriors are not know for the overwhelming crits on their regular attacks. So not everyone has a maul so a great start is an entombed of warfare if you can get one. Now you must find the balance you like. I am full myth which of course helps. A cheap and great item is an ammy of doom and of course the Night Ocean Ripple of Warfare. If you cant afford the Archon of Potency or Blood Ruby this ring is great and will definitely do the task needed. Great armor bonus and decent health. I did some tests to find how much armor points really will reduce the amount of damage. So usually for every 50 armor you will see a reduction of around 45-50 damage points dealt in elites. It may not sound like much but keep in mind you are usually being hit by 8-11 enemies at once so do the math. I really enjoy the new claymores because of the added fire damage dealt with each swing and also the damage from the proc and added strength buff. Assaults are wonderful because of the high damage but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed using the Magmatic Claymore of will. It provided tons of mana as well as decent DPS and the armor bonus is noticeable. Bottom line is to find a mixture of armor and damage because the new elites are no joke and if you don’t like spending plats or large amounts of pots per run then you gotta get geared. All of the weapons I listed can be looted so just keep trying if you don’t have the gold to buy it. The Claymore can be looted in Elite Caves in Tinidrin and The Entombed can be looted in elite Oltgar.
Pets
Once again, not everyone has the gold for mythic and arcane pets. So here are a few that do an amazing job and wont the hurt the gear budget. Valkin, this beautiful little bat adds great crit to your stats and plus 30 strength. Its arcane ability adds 15 points to every party mebers primary skill, it also snares. Snare simply means slows down the enemy in range of the effect. Best of all....its freeeee! You get it by beating elite Inan. Oh just beat elite Inan you say... just ask your guild for help. That is the point of being in one. Do a guildy a favor and get involved with GC and you will soon find your self with friends that will always help. Ribbit is great for warrs. Best part about Ribbit is during the boss fights. It adds a massive crit bonus to your party which can do wonders for your rogues attacks. I know it sounds bad but prance is actually great for tanking. 35 strength and 60 armor bonus...get it? Another great pet is crawly. It basically has an arcane ability that will stun the enmies in place. It also can be gotten thru bards quests which once again are freee!
Tactics
First is what I call the safe approach. As warrior you must gain that initial attention of the mob and protect your team. When approaching a large group deploy your horn’s shield as you initially attack. This will do two things, gain aggro and prevent your team from being one hitted by those darn Shamans and snakes. You can also use your Jugg or Windmill to gain the aggro but alot of time the mobs are so dense that you will not get a chance to use the shield before 1 or 2 party members have already died. Basically look at the mob and determine if you are strong enough to survive possible 8 crits from elite enemies or if your horn is needed up front. I am making a walk thru on the Elite maps as well and have screen shots of good examples of where to use it.
Second is the round up. The most important thing to tanking is to be aware of the mobs movement and your team’s health. You will often notice that one or two of your targets will always begin to go towards the rogues because of the high damage they are dealing. STOP THEM IMMEDIATELY. Get between these enemies and your rogues and mages. You will never lose control of your mob if you keep the agro high. Charge your jug or horn and the group will be refocused and ready to eat some warrior. You must monitor your team’s health. Do not wait till your health is low to use your horn. As soon as 1-2 party members approach that 25% mark in the hp you got to spam your horn. Usually when the tank of the group dies…everyone is close to follow.
Third is parking. Not everyone understands parking or park spots. My later guides will show you how to do this and also spots to do it in. parking is simply running into a group of enemies while your team stays behind. While running into these enemies the goal is to make them all follow you and then move them to a spot out of the way so your team can simply walk by them without fighting. Alot of tanks mess their Kill to Death Ratio up by doing this. A simple trick is to make sure and teleport before the mob kills you when you have parked them in the spot you chose. You do this by accessing the world map and simply pressing go on the map you are already in. This will bring you to the begining of the map. It will not kick you out so dont be sccuuurrreeeddd.
This is going to be a live document so please any information that can be given to the newer players will be appreciated. I do not claim to be an elite master but come run with me and hopefully you will find some stock in what I write. Please leave your comments below and I may all your drops be plentiful!
First off I wanted to create this guide because I have found that there are not near as many tanks that know how to run elites as there should be. This guide is some quick incites I have and some types of players and the roles they should take. This guide is really aimed at the newer maps as well as Shuyal and Nordr (if your struggling with Dead city and under you need to keep practicing and work on your gear...).
The more elites I run the more I find that there really are not that many tanks that know how to run. I am pretty well geared but I have found my best weapon in elite is....Rogues and Mages. They have forgotten the basis of our job. Your job as a tank is to control and move the mobs where you want them and to keep your team alive. The easiest way to control the mob? Agrro baby yea! So what is aggro? Aggro is basically achieved thru skills and attacks that will draw the attention of your enemies to you instead of your team. There are several ways to get this and I will explain below. As a tank you must realize that in the new elites you are not going to be able to go in and crush all mobs in 20 seconds. There is a lot of discussion about tanks and their damage but what I have found is that yea alot of the times we are cannon fodder but we can be the cannon as well :tongue:. I will give you a quick overview of gear, skills and tactics for elites. Also below is an ss of my tank and some of the things I use.
844598446084461
The Party
Undoubtedly one of the most important peices of elite is the team you are with. I have found that my favorite parties are composed of one good tank, one mage and 2 rogues. This is not to say that 2 mages aren't incredible but I have found this to be the fatest and easiest. Alot of time we forget the basis of AL is fun and we lose it in the process. Don't crack jokes in the middle of the rumble but when it's over..have at it. Chat kills will never end well for the group. You must remeber that protecting your rogues and mages are key to your survival as well as theirs.Understanding how they move and utilizing what they give you will always help. When that rogue drops the veil...use it. An easy way is to simply walk into the veil and pop that horn to aggro the mob to follow. If you have jugg or windmill with aggro this will do as well. Positon your enemies where your team can do the most damage.
Skills
So this is my build for elites and what I have found to work for me, please feel free to leave suggestions and any information you have found to help us along the way. It is very important to have no less than one but preferably two skills that provide aggro. I use Chest Splitter (3 Skill points), Skyward Smash ( 4 points, all but mana regen), Vengeful ( 5 Points), Jugg (4 points, you can add the 5th for aggro if you like) and ofc Horn of Renew (5 points). Your horn will provide aggro and protect your team, win win. Now what I have found to be very useful is to switch between jugg and venge. The easiest way is to activate jugg before going into the mob and then activating horn of renew. This will allow you a 2 second window to then switch to venge while shielded. Now by doing this you have added 500 HP points from jugg and close to 400+ HP from venge plus the added dmg and other buffs that come with these skills. You are now a brick wall my friend. The reason Jugg first is because the cool down time is very long. I use a 6 skill set total but only these in elites. If you are not comfortable or good at skill switching please do not attempt it. Best idea is to pratice until your good enought at it. Once you are it really does become a smooth transaction as if you were charging up a skill. There are a lot of people who use windmill and it is a great skill but I prefer the low cool down times and high damage of chest splitter. So once again this is preference.
Gear
Gear is very important but not the only thing that matters in this game. I prefer high damage over DPS because it directly relates to the damage produced by your skills. Lets face it, warriors are not know for the overwhelming crits on their regular attacks. So not everyone has a maul so a great start is an entombed of warfare if you can get one. Now you must find the balance you like. I am full myth which of course helps. A cheap and great item is an ammy of doom and of course the Night Ocean Ripple of Warfare. If you cant afford the Archon of Potency or Blood Ruby this ring is great and will definitely do the task needed. Great armor bonus and decent health. I did some tests to find how much armor points really will reduce the amount of damage. So usually for every 50 armor you will see a reduction of around 45-50 damage points dealt in elites. It may not sound like much but keep in mind you are usually being hit by 8-11 enemies at once so do the math. I really enjoy the new claymores because of the added fire damage dealt with each swing and also the damage from the proc and added strength buff. Assaults are wonderful because of the high damage but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed using the Magmatic Claymore of will. It provided tons of mana as well as decent DPS and the armor bonus is noticeable. Bottom line is to find a mixture of armor and damage because the new elites are no joke and if you don’t like spending plats or large amounts of pots per run then you gotta get geared. All of the weapons I listed can be looted so just keep trying if you don’t have the gold to buy it. The Claymore can be looted in Elite Caves in Tinidrin and The Entombed can be looted in elite Oltgar.
Pets
Once again, not everyone has the gold for mythic and arcane pets. So here are a few that do an amazing job and wont the hurt the gear budget. Valkin, this beautiful little bat adds great crit to your stats and plus 30 strength. Its arcane ability adds 15 points to every party mebers primary skill, it also snares. Snare simply means slows down the enemy in range of the effect. Best of all....its freeeee! You get it by beating elite Inan. Oh just beat elite Inan you say... just ask your guild for help. That is the point of being in one. Do a guildy a favor and get involved with GC and you will soon find your self with friends that will always help. Ribbit is great for warrs. Best part about Ribbit is during the boss fights. It adds a massive crit bonus to your party which can do wonders for your rogues attacks. I know it sounds bad but prance is actually great for tanking. 35 strength and 60 armor bonus...get it? Another great pet is crawly. It basically has an arcane ability that will stun the enmies in place. It also can be gotten thru bards quests which once again are freee!
Tactics
First is what I call the safe approach. As warrior you must gain that initial attention of the mob and protect your team. When approaching a large group deploy your horn’s shield as you initially attack. This will do two things, gain aggro and prevent your team from being one hitted by those darn Shamans and snakes. You can also use your Jugg or Windmill to gain the aggro but alot of time the mobs are so dense that you will not get a chance to use the shield before 1 or 2 party members have already died. Basically look at the mob and determine if you are strong enough to survive possible 8 crits from elite enemies or if your horn is needed up front. I am making a walk thru on the Elite maps as well and have screen shots of good examples of where to use it.
Second is the round up. The most important thing to tanking is to be aware of the mobs movement and your team’s health. You will often notice that one or two of your targets will always begin to go towards the rogues because of the high damage they are dealing. STOP THEM IMMEDIATELY. Get between these enemies and your rogues and mages. You will never lose control of your mob if you keep the agro high. Charge your jug or horn and the group will be refocused and ready to eat some warrior. You must monitor your team’s health. Do not wait till your health is low to use your horn. As soon as 1-2 party members approach that 25% mark in the hp you got to spam your horn. Usually when the tank of the group dies…everyone is close to follow.
Third is parking. Not everyone understands parking or park spots. My later guides will show you how to do this and also spots to do it in. parking is simply running into a group of enemies while your team stays behind. While running into these enemies the goal is to make them all follow you and then move them to a spot out of the way so your team can simply walk by them without fighting. Alot of tanks mess their Kill to Death Ratio up by doing this. A simple trick is to make sure and teleport before the mob kills you when you have parked them in the spot you chose. You do this by accessing the world map and simply pressing go on the map you are already in. This will bring you to the begining of the map. It will not kick you out so dont be sccuuurrreeeddd.
This is going to be a live document so please any information that can be given to the newer players will be appreciated. I do not claim to be an elite master but come run with me and hopefully you will find some stock in what I write. Please leave your comments below and I may all your drops be plentiful!