How are Warriors now a days (pre 50 tank wise)?

[VincentVolaju]

So Ive been gone since mid 2011, about a year and a half now. Just recently going through the "I miss EQ again" phase, so a couple days later, here I am. Since its been so long since I last played, I figured Id reroll a new char and start from scratch. Ive got enough money still on the account to get whatever I make some pretty decent gear.

I was thinking of giving warrior a shot this time, and try my hand at tanking rather then healing. Only thing I was wondering though, has anything changed tanking/agro/hate wise when it comes to warriors, in the last 1-1.5yrs ? When I quit, pretty much noone made Warriors because they just couldnt handle/hold/grab aggro unless they got a lucky proc. Was just wondering if its any easier now to grab and hold aggro as a Warrior tank? Or are SKs still preferred 100% over Warriors as tanks?

Thanks!

[Danth]

Bout the same. Good durability, terrible aggro. Some groups prefer them anyway just because they suck up less experience than a Paladin or Shadow Knight.

Danth

[Itap]

Nothing as far as hate/aggro has changed with warriors. They still rely on procs/dps to hold aggro.

That being said, since you have a decent amount of plat to twink your warrior, you should be fine. It's the new players that decide to roll warriors wielding fine steel weapons that seem to have aggro problems.

[VincentVolaju]

Ahh okay, yeah sounds pretty similar to when I last played, which was basically when Kunark had just come out I believe. But yeah the bad aggro was originally what kind of turned me off from Warrior, cause I remember grouping with some before as my Druid, and having mobs on me just waiting for the Warrior to get off but never being able to. Where as whenever I grouped with an SK, it was a single disease cloud and the mob was stuck on him for the whole fight.

Well assuming I do go with Warrior, what are some suggested weapons I grab for him for tanking/holding aggro? I wasnt around for very long after Kunark I dont think, maybe a couple months. Im not really sure what I would be looking for, in regards to aggro rather then dps that is.

[Splorf22]

The problem with warriors is the itemization. Basically your choices are:

horrible aggro: Sarnak Warhammer/Silken Whip (5k)
good aggro: Blade of the Black Dragon Eye/Ringed Mace of the Ykesha (300k)
great aggro: Epic/VP gear

Now this wouldn't be so bad if Rogues were using the Rapier of Orinn and Monks the Tranquil Staff. But rogues have an absolutely trivial epic and Monks a pretty easy one, while the Warrior epic is reasonably contended for. So its going to be very hard to hold aggro off an epic monk dual wielding 9/16+17/28 with 9/20+14/28 with decent but not fantastic aggro procs, especially since you won't have the gear to hit 255 dex anyway. I have noticed a huge, huge difference upgrading to the Howling Cutlass/Veridix combo (10/19+13/23, both with stun+150 dd procs) in my signature, and I really don't have many problems with aggro now.

At lower levels the problem is even worse, because all of the weapons with decent ratios won't proc for you; meanwhile every rogue twink has the epic or at least a Rapier and every monk twink has at least a Peacebringer or Jade Mace/Knuckle duster combo, while you have to suffer with dual lamentations.

TL;DR: At 60 with great gear Warriors are just fantastic if slightly more boring than hybrids: you'll do almost the same damage as a monk's with triple attack and a weapon combo like Feverblade/Shissar (11/18+14/23), hold aggro with ease, tank everything solidly with 1100+ AC unbuffed from cobalt (well unless you picked Iksar), and have the best set of disciplines in the game, especially defensive, evasive, precision, and mighty strike. Without that gear you'll struggle to level up.

[Itap]

pre ykesha procs, I would advise a Staff of battle/poison wind censer with an fbss or other haste item, should hold aggro just fine until decent weapons start procing

[heartbrand]

The problem with warriors is the itemization. Basically your choices are:

horrible aggro: Sarnak Warhammer/Silken Whip (5k)
good aggro: Blade of the Black Dragon Eye/Ringed Mace of the Ykesha (300k)
great aggro: Epic/VP gear

Now this wouldn't be so bad if Rogues were using the Rapier of Orinn and Monks the Tranquil Staff. But rogues have an absolutely trivial epic and Monks a pretty easy one, while the Warrior epic is reasonably contended for. So its going to be very hard to hold aggro off an epic monk dual wielding 9/16+17/28 with 9/20+14/28 with decent but not fantastic aggro procs, especially since you won't have the gear to hit 255 dex anyway. I have noticed a huge, huge difference upgrading to the Howling Cutlass/Veridix combo (10/19+13/23, both with stun+150 dd procs) in my signature, and I really don't have many problems with aggro now.

At lower levels the problem is even worse, because all of the weapons with decent ratios won't proc for you; meanwhile every rogue twink has the epic or at least a Rapier and every monk twink has at least a Peacebringer or Jade Mace/Knuckle duster combo, while you have to suffer with dual lamentations.

TL;DR: At 60 with great gear Warriors are just fantastic if slightly more boring than hybrids: you'll do almost the same damage as a monk's with triple attack and a weapon combo like Feverblade/Shissar (11/18+14/23), hold aggro with ease, tank everything solidly with 1100+ AC unbuffed from cobalt (well unless you picked Iksar), and have the best set of disciplines in the game, especially defensive, evasive, precision, and mighty strike. Without that gear you'll struggle to level up.

do you find cutlass veridix to be better than mixing in the aggro epic with one of them?

[pharmakos]

pre ykesha procs, I would advise a Staff of battle/poison wind censer with an fbss or other haste item, should hold aggro just fine until decent weapons start procing

i used a Poison Wind Censer from level 15 to level 35ish, and then a Staff of Battle from like 35 to the low 40s.... didn't have too much of a problem holding agro.

now that i'm in my 50s i'm using the Sarnak Warhammer/Silken Whip of Ensnaring combo... leaves a little to be desired, but it works well enough most of the time.

using Root for agro control makes more sense a lot of the time anyway.