New player tanking options

[aegeryen]

I am new to P99 , and while I have fooled around with a cleric and a couple other classes I was seriously thinking about rolling a tank . I understand theres a bit of a shortage.

I am partial to warriors , because , well they are , in my mind , the idea tank , but i have heard that thier threat generation in P99 is not that great . Which may lead me to start a sk , pallies just arent my thing ...

Any advise, or opinions, would be appreciated .

Also how is the grouping situation here , I dont want to have to try to solo on a warrior , thats just too much down time .

[Swish]

Tanks always seem to be in short supply, so you shouldn't spend too long LFG.

SKs are great, best aggro holders in the game at the moment. Level 9 and disease cloud is your friend long time ;)

Racially, play what you want...ogres and trolls have better tanky stats, but they come with racial exp penalties, and despite what people say there is a bit of discrimination about allowing a troll SK into groups sometimes because people don't want to have to share your hybrid/racial penalty. Those people are idiots, but it does happen :(

If you do roll an ogre or troll, have a think about a run to Nektulos/Neriak to start levelling there - grab a sow if you can :)

[sbvera13]

If yo ugo warrior be aware that they rely on procs for their aggro, so you won't be able to hold it reliably until 15 or so when whip of stangulation and obsidian shard, etc, start proccing. Also, it can get monotonous because you have very few buttons. On the other hand, SK's take 40% longer to lvl.

[Xatava]

I am pretty sure race doesn't affect group's xp like class does. Only affects the individual char.

[Slave]

Remember that this is Classic and so some classes that you don't often hear referred to as tanks can do it quite easily here, such as the very fun and powerful Monk class.

[aegeryen]

ya I am really leaning toward warrior , the taunt-kick rotation is just part of tanking , it doesnt really bother me too much , even in later developed games tank rotations are pretty mundane .

I am more concerned with threat generation , or lack of , and if theres a way around it . Obviously a proccing weapon helps

Odds are I would play a smaller race , I realise that ogres and trolls are bad ass . But there's something to say about not going the easy route .

[Flash]

SK's have the advantage in aggro early on, but they have a -40% EXP penalty, while Warriors have a +10% EXP bonus and higher HP/Mitigation. You get Taunt, but until your weapons start proccing, your threat generation will be limited. I believe Warriors can score criticals at some point though, which helps with both damage and threat output.

You also have very little to do other than taunt and smack stuff. You have kick and bash, but unless you use a shield, bash will be useless to you. If you are playing a Barbarian or Ogre, you'll get slam, which is basically a better form of bash that doesn't require a shield, giving you all that stunning/interrupt goodness with a 2h/dual wielding.

Guess I should also point out that a Paladins stuns are HUGE aggro generators, but I hardly see any Paladins on the server, and even fewer that serve as long-term tanks.

[Slave]

I am going to go out on a huge limb here (it's actually quite stable) and say that you would likely be quite unhappy as a warrior. I would say they are the second worst class in all of Classic, up to the end of Kunark. In Velious, in raids, they finally begin to shine, but let's be honest, if you're in here asking what kind of tank you should make... you're not going to be doing that.

Warriors are semi-broken in Kunark, and easily the worst first class choice from an objective wealth-gathering standpoint as well.

[Flash]

So Rangers are better overall?

[aegeryen]

ok well heres my situation in a little more detail . I played , back in the day , mostly a cleric . In fact I played 45 to 60 like 3 times , because I quit for various reasons , usually involving my ex wife ...Only to have the same buddy who sacked me to 45 talk me into coming back ( he was probably was running low on life stones or what ever they were called) , eventually I got a divorce but PoP came out and well , I quit for good .

At one point I played another friends warrior , but he was 60 , and had decent gear when I played him , and it was during velious and luclin .It wasnt too bad .

So I am not totally new to the game , just the server . And honestly its been a while my memory slowly coming back ... just thought i would get some input , and I appreciate everyones thoughts , thanks guys .

[fischsemmel]

Obviously a proccing weapon helps

This seems to be a bit of an understatement to me. It's like saying that backstab "helps" a rogue's DPS, or that lich "helps" a necro's mana regen.

[Aandolaf]

I say make a shadowknight. They are a very fun class to play, and make great tanks. The only thing you wont be doing is playing main tank in a raid.

If you make a warrior, you really need proc weapons to hold aggro. If this is your fist character, you probably won't be able to afford any for quite awhile. You can get by as a SK for quite some time on just stuff you find on merchants. Not to mention you can also solo a bit as a SK.

If you want any tips or anything for starting out (especially as a SK) shoot me a pm :)

[citizen1080]

Any melee is a tough first toon on this server. They are very gear dependent and you won't have the funds to gear them. Warrior is one of the worst. Even with top of the line gear it can be difficult to hold aggro against players who don't know what they are doing. Save yourself the headache and heartache and roll a SK. They will level slower but at least they will level. Or as stated roll a monk, who hold better aggro then a warrior in many situations lol.

[aegeryen]

Thanks for the input , I'll roll an SK , later this afternoon when I get home , I was thinking about an erudite , but might go troll . I like both of those races though , Tox really sucks as a starting zone.

[falkun]

The worse part about Toxx is trying to get out of it when Erudin hates you.

[aegeryen]

The worse part about Toxx is trying to get out of it when Erudin hates you.

Oh god I forgot about that .... but the troll exp penalty with the sk penalty has to just absolutely suck .

[Extunarian]

Oh god I forgot about that .... but the troll exp penalty with the sk penalty has to just absolutely suck .

DE and Human are also viable choices with better starting areas.

DE gets racial hide, which can be pretty handy.

Human can use flayed skin armor which you'll be able to get for free if you wait in EC for awhile. Plus human sks are cool.

[Extunarian]

I am pretty sure race doesn't affect group's xp like class does. Only affects the individual char.

I don't see how this could be true. It all affects your XP total, which is what dictates how big of a share of the group's xp you take.

A level 20 DE SK would have less xp than a level 20 troll SK, and therefore the DE would take a smaller share of group xp than the troll would, even though they are both the same level and class.

[falkun]

Honestly...racial choice on a server with classic models and Velious as end-game, the real racial choice is this one:

http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29595

In that regard, Human Velious plate is awesome, as is DE. Erudite's not bad, and Ogre and Troll are improvements over classic, but I wouldn't say their on the same tier as human/DE.

[Gmal]

As a top 5 warrior on the server I can honestly tell you that Warrior threat is not broken what so ever. I can pull off with 2 taunt hits a slowing shaman. So its working well.

SK and pally have an advantage of being able to snap agro fast. Warriors can also do the same but we require items to do. (wont give away the tools of the trade) =-)

As far as growing up in levels, as with any class its going to take time for your skills to come into full swing. This holds true with any class.

It all depends on your play style and what you want to do. If you want to be MT for raids and tank dragons and gods. Go with a warrior. If you want to pull off great pulls and do some off tanking go with SK. If you want to be a backup healer and emergency resser and off tank go with pally.

Also keep in mind. A tank is only as good as healer that keeps him up. They go hand in hand. =-)

[aegeryen]

As a top 5 warrior on the server I can honestly tell you that Warrior threat is not broken what so ever. I can pull off with 2 taunt hits a slowing shaman. So its working well.

SK and pally have an advantage of being able to snap agro fast. Warriors can also do the same but we require items to do. (wont give away the tools of the trade) =-)

As far as growing up in levels, as with any class its going to take time for your skills to come into full swing. This holds true with any class.

It all depends on your play style and what you want to do. If you want to be MT for raids and tank dragons and gods. Go with a warrior. If you want to pull off great pulls and do some off tanking go with SK. If you want to be a backup healer and emergency resser and off tank go with pally.

Also keep in mind. A tank is only as good as healer that keeps him up. They go hand in hand. =-)

Thanks for the input man , I accually rolled a warrior yesterday , and someone gave me a executioners axe for doing them a favor , I realise this is not the idea weapon for a warrior , but I could probably sell it and get a decent proccing 1 hander to get me started , right now the warriors lvl 5 , so hard to say .I went wood elf with the race so i would have some natural dex think thats the stat that determines proccing ....

As far as the healers go , I been there , and was pretty good on my cleric back in the day , I generally play tanks or healers in mmos .

At this point in time, doing as much as I can to make sure I am going to be happy with the toon I choose for the long term .So I am doing the research early . I really appreciate all the feedback .

[Flash]

Get yourself a suit of banded armor and an obsidian shard.

[Gmal]

Get yourself a suit of banded armor and an obsidian shard.

bah forget that get with me later today when you see Sabbath on and we see if we can get you into a full suite of bronze armor maybe some other goodies. I dont want to twink you to much as it would ruin your experience leveling up but a bit of AC and some toys that will assist you with we can start working on for you.

[aegeryen]

bah forget that get with me later today when you see Sabbath on and we see if we can get you into a full suite of bronze armor maybe some other goodies. I dont want to twink you to much as it would ruin your experience leveling up but a bit of AC and some toys that will assist you with we can start working on for you.

Cool thanks man , Silph is my warriors name

[Messianic]

I am pretty sure race doesn't affect group's xp like class does. Only affects the individual char.

They do at this stage in progression.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/editorial/011401_EQ_Producers_letter.html

3. Penalties, in any form, should not be shared with the group. Players know that no one class is immensely more powerful/valuable than another, and as such it is not fair to ask them to share a burden. If classes with penalties were really more powerful or valuable than the other classes, then it might be right, but that isn't the case here. Furthermore, sharing of penalties causes people to reject potential group members on the basis of them "sucking" too much experience.

In context, that is the producers letter stating the radical changes they were making to everquest. Before the subsequent patch on 1/17/01, racial penalties were shared.